Here is a small utility to more easily email photos with Microsoft Outlook. Basically, it allows you to embed images in the body of the email message so that it is easier for the recipient to view the files.
Download the file using the link below. Once downloaded, install it by double-clicking it. To use the program, simply highlight the photos you wish to send, then right-click one of the highlighted images and select "Send-To" then "Image Mailer for Outlook". Image Mailer will resize the images to an appropriate size for e-mailing if necessary and then automatically create the e-mail for you with the images embedded in the body of the message. (Click the small image to the right for a better idea...)
If you wish to change settings, like how large the image is when it's in the body of the message, you can use the settings editor included. Simply click on Start, All Programs, Deciacco.com, Image Mailer, and finally Settings.
There are three basic settings to choose from. The best settings for most people will be selected by default, but you may choose something to better fit your needs. Try experimenting with the different settings to see what suits you best.
Please note that while we have made are best efforts to insure its function you use this program at your own risk. In other words, you can use this program, but we don't want to get sued.
Please check back here for version updates and if you find a bug or would like an enhancement, feel free to leave a comment on this post or contact me directly via the e-mail on my contact page.
Click here to download the Windows 98 and up installer (2.1Mb)
I've been using XChat often recently, mostly to get some help on some new projects I've been working on. After starring at a screen all day I welcome any little tip that makes things easier on my eyes. One little enhancement that I think would help is to have alternating color for each row in the chat window. After a quick search on "the Google" and a quick question on the XChat IRC, I found that there is no way to do this. I did, however, come up with something that helps...
XChat allows an image as the background for the chat Window. Luckily, if that image is small, XChat repeats it left to right and top to bottom. This makes it perfect for creating a multi-row background. All I had to do was create a square image (seen to the right) with the top section painted different color from the bottom. It's not perfect, but I think it helps. If you want to do the same thing you can simply right-click on the image above and save it to your computer. Use the XChat Preferences screen to change the chat background image and your finished.
This image keeps me coming back to it over and over. I really enjoy looking at all the different people captured in this one moment. I find it interesting to wonder where the people are trying to go, to see what they are holding in their hands and to look at their facial expressions.
Click the image for a larger view
If you have
seriously played with Ubuntu lately, you might have seen the real fancy 3D desktop effect you can do. Here is a piece of software that does the same thing on Windows:
DeskSpace And here is a free alternative:
YODM.
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After a few hours of frustration trying to get the Dell Wireless 3300 Print Server to hop onto my wireless network, I finally figured out the problem. I was using WPA-PSK in AES mode on my wireless router. Apparently, this little gem (if you have a compatible printer) only likes TKIP. After I made this change it connected without a problem.
This print server works very well, but you have to have a compatible printer. In fact, if you have one of the printers this was intended for, I would recommend using this to anything else. I know for a fact it works great on a Dell 1710 and a 962 (Photo All-in-One).
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For this blog I like to use a plugin called WP-DBManager. It's a great tool for easily maintaining your blog's database right from the administration console. Unfortunately, being on a Windows host, sometimes plugins don't work as intended, so you have to make some adjustments.
For this plugin I kept getting this error whenever I tried to run the backup script:
Warning: filesize(): Stat failed for (blah, blah)
Warning: unlink(blah, blah) no such file or directory
To fix it I had to do a few things:
1. The actual command to create the backup needs to be fixed, so it can run properly on the command prompt. Find the file named database-backup.php in the plugin's directory. Place double quotes around the path part of the command and remove all others. Lines 47 and 51.
$backup['command'] =
'"' .
$backup['mysqldumppath'].
'" --host='.DB_HOST.
' --user='.DB_USER.
' --password='.DB_PASSWORD.
' --add-drop-table --skip-lock-tables '.DB_NAME.
' | gzip > '.
$backup['filepath'];
$backup['command'] = '"' . $backup['mysqldumppath'] . '" --host='.DB_HOST.' --user='.DB_USER.' --password='.DB_PASSWORD.' --add-drop-table --skip-lock-tables '.DB_NAME.' > '.$backup['filepath'];
2. The function that runs the command is called execute_packup(). This function is located in a file named wp-dbmanager.php in the plugin's directory. Find this function (line 205) and remove the if statement and leave only the passthru() command. Similar to this:
function execute_backup
($command) {
$backup_options = get_option
('dbmanager_options');
check_backup_files
();
/*if(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3) == 'WIN') {
$writable_dir = $backup_options['path'];
$tmpnam = $writable_dir.'/wp-dbmanager.bat';
$fp = fopen($tmpnam, 'w');
fwrite($fp, $command);
fclose($fp);
system($tmpnam.' > NUL', $error);
unlink($tmpnam);
} else {*/
passthru($command,
$error);
//}
return $error;
}
3. If you want to have the gzip functionality you will need to download and place gzip.exe in the system32 folder of the server. You can download gzip from here.
NOTES:
- Make sure the the Internet Guest Account has write permissions to the backup-db directory.
- There is probably a better way to do this, perhaps using the exec() command in the if statement, but this one seems to work just fine.
- Not necessary - On my server I had to put @ symbols in front of the filesize() and unlink() functions in the database-backup.php file, so that the they would not throw the php warning message and continue through to show the actual error message on the plugin page.
RegToy is a free program for tweaking settings in Windows. It will pretty much let you change any setting there is to change. It works very well and the install is very straight forward and simple. I've only tested it on Windows XP, but it should also work with Vista and Windows Server 2003. It also comes with a bunch of other utilities like SecureDelete, MemoryCleaner, and FileEncryptor to name a few. (For a complete list click here.)
Download Link
Last week we went down to Florida for a little R&R. On the last day there, we got a good storm. This panoramic photo was taken a few hours before we left and was taken looking east over the Atlantic ocean. The clouds were moving over the beach from the west going east (top of image moving down) and the rain appeared to be coming from the south going north (right of image going left towards us).
Click on the image below to see a larger view.
Cloud Cover On Amelia Island
Took a day of vacation yesterday to spend some time outdoors, so my brother-in-law and I went canoeing. Since we've had quite a rainy seasons this spring the water level of the river was great. One of the coolest places to stop along this particular river trip is Pattison Forge, otherwise known as the Montgomery Bell Tunnel...
Click on the image below to see a larger view. The larger view may take some time to download as the files are about 2MB each.
Tunnel Panorama
Tunnel Top View Panorama
The "Holy Grail" of wireless flash triggers are the Pocket Wizards - they are fast, reliable, and have an amazing range. This of course comes a quite a heafty price and many new photographers simply can't afford them. For this reason many people use the Cactus V2's from Gadget Infinity, otherwise known as the "Ebay" triggers.
There are many features that the PW have that the V2's don't have, but as far as cheap wireless triggers go, the V2's are quite good. The main problem of the V2's is in their range, but with a small modification this can be remedied fairly easily. Basically, by adding an external antenna the signal is "louder and clearer" for the receivers to pick up.
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Download the file using the link below. Once downloaded, install it by double-clicking it. To use the program, simply highlight the photos you wish to send, then right-click one of the highlighted images and select "Send-To" then "Image Mailer for Outlook". Image Mailer will resize the images to an appropriate size for e-mailing if necessary and then automatically create the e-mail for you with the images embedded in the body of the message. (Click the small image to the right for a better idea...)
