Memory for Acer Aspire One

Needed to upgrade the Acer Aspire One netbook, it only has 2G in it and was running quite slowly after some Windows updates. I did some research and was briefly alarmed that this model might have a 2G memory limit. However, it turns out that the model that I have, the AO756, can go up to 8G (these are apparently processor limits?). This Wikipedia page was very helpful in placing my netbook model number among the entire series of Acer Aspire One's, which is vast:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_Aspire_One

Here are the detailed instructions on how to do the replacement. This model is well designed; it is super easy to open the case and access the SIMM slots.

http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19264/~/how-do-i-replace-the-ram-on-my-acer-aspire-one-756%3F

A couple of different sites advised that I get memory of type 204p PC3-10600 DDR3-1333 SODIMM.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/677565-need-upgrade-my-new-acer-aspireone-ao756.html

I ordered a 4G SIMM from this vendor:

http://www.memorystock.com/memory/AcerAspireOne756.html

When the memory arrived and I opened the case of the netbook, I found that it had two SIMM slots, and only one was populated (obviously a 2G SIMM). I added the new SIMM to the other slot and when I booted the netbook, it registered all 10G.

command line SVN in Windows

I have a system with TortoiseSVN installed, and a windows program that is running python that can make DOS system calls. I needed a way to do an SVN checkout from our repository from a python script.

TortoiseSVN has a command line interface, but it turns out that what this interface actually does is control the Tortoise GUI, not directly issue SVN commands. What I needed was to perform checkouts of specific files from a list of repository locations and revision levels. It turns out that using the Tortoise command line interface it is possible to check out folders, but not individual files. Also, the GUI pops up and you have to his OK or CANCEL, etc.

In the end, I installed a different SVN client. I recall that there weren't all that many options; I chose "Slik Subversion" despite it's lack of documentation.

https://www.sliksvn.com/en/support/using-subversion/basic-subversion-usage

I had a ton of problems getting the command line for performing the SlikSvn export to work, I was getting a message 'C:\Program' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.' As one forum thread I consulted noted, this is obviously because "Program Files" has a space. By now, I am not sure exactly why this was a problem now and not with any of the other GNU routines that I am command-line calling from other parts of my python code. However, I did use the "shortened" version of Program Files in the final code. The final code also had a bunch of nice neatening and trimming of the SVN location pointer from each line of the configuration file. Here is the result:

svn_command = "C:/Progra~1/SlikSvn/bin/svn.exe export --force -r %s %s %s" % (svn_level, checkout_url, buildDir)
status = 0
try:

status = os.system('"C:/Progra~1/SlikSvn/bin/svn.exe" export --force -r %s %s %s' % (svn_level, checkout_url, buildDir) )

except:

print "Svn checkout command %s failed. Exiting." % svn_command
manifest_file.close()
return

if (status != 0):

print "Svn checkout command %s failed. Exiting." % svn_command
manifest_file.close()
return

Here is a forum thread about using alternatives to os.system to get status back from system calls. Again, I am not sure why I was over on this page, since os.system ended up verifiably returning status very nicely in my final code.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3503879/assign-output-of-os-system-to-a-variable-and-prevent-it-from-being-displayed-on

Here is the Wikipedia page listing all the SVN clients available. There's plenty of Windows ones here even after the Linux clients are ruled out. Not sure why I picked SlikSVN except that somebody must have mentioned it favorably in a forum thread somewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Subversion_clients

Here's the "money link" where it states that there is no way to do a single file checkout from the TortoiseSVN command line controller

http://subversion.1072662.n5.nabble.com/Ask-question-gt-Can-checkout-only-single-file-td138991.html

Links to the TortoiseSVN Command Line controller documentation:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1625406/using-tortoisesvn-via-the-command-line

http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/TortoiseSVN_en/tsvn-automation.html

Note: I checked out using Export instead of Checkout, but that GUI control for this command is even less helpful:

http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/nightly/TortoiseSVN_en/tsvn-dug-export.html

However, knowing that single-file checkouts just don't happen in SVN (from the below link) was the knowledge that enabled me to format my SlikSubversion command as an Export:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/122107/checkout-one-file-from-subversion

When I was thrashing about with the "C:\Program is not recognized as an internal or external command" error, I found a few links about something called the Command Processor AutoRun setting. This turned out to not have anything to do with my problem, but was interesting anyways:

http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=33462.0;prev_next=prev

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/11/21/6447771.aspx

http://www.herongyang.com/Windows-Security/PWS-Command-Processor-AutoRun-Registry-Value.html

bypassing ssh keys

I have a system that has ssh keys setup, but there's something wrong with them. It tries to use the keys, fails, and doesn't allow a regular login.

The way to get around this is to use the -o option with special keywords to tell it not to use the ssh keys.

ssh -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no user@host

The page where I got this hint from is this one:

http://linuxcommando.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-disable-ssh-host-key-checking.html

Update 11/17/2018: Looking into this a few months later, I got some oddly different suggestions. These are interesting but strangely they didn't solve my problem at the time. Here they are anyhow in hopes that I was just missing something and they are still useful.

Mainly, I found this suggestion compelling:

ssh -o PreferredAuthentications=password -o PubkeyAuthentication=no example.com

From here:https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/15138/how-to-force-ssh-client-to-use-only-password-auth

From the same page, this suggestion is fascinating, also didn't work in my case. Username, colon, no password:

ssh user:@example.com

Here is a slight variation on the above:

ssh -o PreferredAuthentications=keyboard-interactive,password -o PubkeyAuthentication=no host.example.org

From here:https://serverfault.com/questions/130346/ssh-use-only-my-password-ignore-my-ssh-key-dont-prompt-me-for-a-passphrase

How to remove a watermark in a Word document

This info is pretty helpful in generally understanding where to find the watermark controls in Word 2010:

https://support.office.com/en-US/Article/Remove-a-watermark-636cc588-489d-46c4-a03f-07f3f4820029?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

How to add a check mark to a box in a Word document

It turns out that this is really easy and fun to do, because there are Wingdings that are checked boxes! Here's the info:

http://www.wikihow.com/Add-a-Check-Mark-to-a-Word-Document

Where to find coal in the minecraft demo world

T and I have been playing the Minecraft demo over and over. One of our biggest problems is not being able to make torches. I entered the above query in Google and didn't really get useful results, but a couple of the links that I got back were fun reads. They were:

Yahoo Answers: I have downloaded the demo of minecraft and I don't know how to play?

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110612070505AAJoxNv

How To: Get Started in Minecraft

http://features.en.softonic.com/how-to-get-started-in-minecraft

Eventually I learned that the quick method is to harvest a bunch of wood, make a crafting table, make a pickaxe, harvest a bunch of cobblestone, make a furnace, cook a block of wood into charcoal, and make the torch out of that. The second link was the one that taught me that I had to use a pickaxe to get cobblestone, coal, and minerals to drop blocks.

I have been asking other similar questions about the minecraft demo; given the number of times that it has been played you'd think that some wise guy would have published a map of it or something, but I haven't found anything like that online. The minecraft wiki has a list of really major landmarks in the world:

http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Demo_mode

Here is another, less detailed batch of information about the demo world:

http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/seeds/320613-demo-world-seed-now-with-co-ordinates?page=2

EpilogueThe eventual answer to my coal dilemma was obvious in retrospect; it's terribly easy once you have made a pickaxe to mine cobblestone, make a furnace, and reduce some wood down to charcoal which can also be used to make a torch. Duh!

Vygis' Cars

Info on Vygis' cars that I have to dispose of:

Hyundai:
VIN: KMHLF21J5HU226386
Make/Model: 1987 HYUNDAI EXCEL GL
Link to a carfax report on the Hyundai:

https://secure.carfax.com/creditCard.cfx?partner=CAR_5&year=1987&make=HYUNDAI&model=EXCEL+GL&recordCheckType=vin&numberOfRecords=4&partnerCode=CAR&partnerSiteLocation=5&checkReport=HCR&checkReportVersion=01&suggest=N&fid=&affiliateId=0&bannerName=&subId=&vin=KMHLF21J5HU226386

Honda:
VIN: 1HGAD5423FA022063
Make/Model: 1985 HONDA ACCORD 1800
Link to a carfax report on the Hyundai:

https://secure.carfax.com/creditCard.cfx?partner=CAR_5&year=1985&make=HONDA&model=ACCORD+1800&recordCheckType=vin&numberOfRecords=11&partnerCode=CAR&partnerSiteLocation=5&checkReport=HCR&checkReportVersion=01&suggest=N&affiliateId=0&vin=1HGAD5423FA022063

Here is a non-government page about general rules for title transfers in Maryland:

http://www.dmv.org/md-maryland/title-transfers.php#Inheriting-a-Vehicle-in-Maryland

Trying to find the title number for the Hyundai:

This indicates that title number is not a private record: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.autos.misc/qhd69H53nV8

This confirms it and has the link to the request for record form: http://www.mva.maryland.gov/drivers/driving-record-information/driving-record-privacy.htm

vehiclehistory.com didn't return a title number on the VIN:https://www.vehiclehistory.com/vehicle/land.php

vehiclehistory.com gets their data from something called the NMVTIS. Interestingly, this government service comes from vehiclehistory.gov. A review of their faq does not seem to promise that they ever provide a title number: https://www.vehiclehistory.gov/nmvtis_faq.html

I had been wondering for a while if a (horrifically expensive) CARFAX report included title number, and this image seems to indicate that it does! http://autocheckvscarfax.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/carfax-free-report-example-5.jpg

This seems to be the root source for that image and others samles: https://www.carfax.com/company/sample-carfax-report

Online bookmarks

Looking for a way to drag all my bookmarks, mostly diversions, across many machines into some kind of central location that can be archived. Has to be able to work with IE, would be nice if I could save my Safari bookmarks from the iPhone, but an alternative would be to have some kind of online service that I could simply access via Safari. Needless to day, this concept is terribly unreasonable and I probably won't find what I am looking for, if for no other reason than because manufacturers of different browsers hate interoperability.

Here is a weak-ass article that describes how cloud storage for bookmarks works for chrome and firefox separately, nothing about IE (because there probably is nothing):

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2045685/seamlessly-sync-your-data-across-devices.html

According to this, there is a way to synch stuff using Windows 8 and a "Microsoft account," none of which I want to have.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/sync-settings-pcs

This article gives the following options: Use Windows 8, manually shuffle favorites folders around with SkyDrive or another cloud options, or use Xmarks which seems promising. The cloud storage idea is presented with a kinda nice trick; apparently IE lets you define a location other than the default location for the favorites folder, so if you define it as being in a folder that is automatically synched with the cloud, then this option becomes much less manual.

http://www.howtogeek.com/131249/how-to-synchronize-your-internet-explorer-favorites/?showcomments=1#comments

Here is another example of doing the cloud storage option by redefining the location of the favorites folder:

http://desktopdeploy.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/sync-internet-explorer-favorites-with-skydrive/

Here's an article about how agonizingly hard it is to synchronize bookmarks between Firefox and IE:

http://www.pclicious.com/sync-your-bookmarks-synchronize-bookmarks-between-ie-internet-explorer-and-mozilla-firefox/

Some cloud bookmarking services exist as something called "social bookmarking" which is intended on being like tumblr or pinterest or something but just with links. This is clearly not what I want, but there might be one of these that offers sufficient privacy for my purposes. The main thing is that none of these are really oriented towards downloading the links back into Favorites or local bookmarks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking

One of these Social Bookmarking services, Delicious, is sufficiently hated that there are several articles about alternatives to it:

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/03/16/8-better-ways-than-delicious-to-bookmark-content/

Here's another article about online synch services. Xmarks comes up several times, but one commenter points out that Xmarks reserves the right to publish and otherwise mine the information. Another commenter mentions something called BookmarkSync and has a link to a different Wikipedia article comparing online sync tools.

http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/3317/bookmark-sync-tool-between-internet-explorer-firefox-chrome-safari-and-opera

The Wikipedia article in question:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_browser_synchronizers

Here's an unsorted pile of ways to synch bookmarks, from IE to Chrome, from Firefox to IE, and some online services:

http://mashable.com/2007/09/20/sync-bookmarks/

Installing Lucky Block mod for Minecraft 1.8

Notes while I go from no-f'in-idea to hopefully a successful install.

Some nice generic links to installing mods:

The Minemum guide. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to cover my current version (1.8) which I guess has a new launcher. I did find the .minecraft directory and made a backup copy as she described. However I attempted to install Mine Forge and I didn't get a new profile, probably because it doesn't work that way now or something:

http://minemum.com/installing-mods

The minemum guide does have a link to the official Forge download page, here. I actually found this page directly via Google hunts also:

http://files.minecraftforge.net/

Actually, I got my copy of the installer from here, which seems to better indicate compatibility with Minecraft 1.8:

http://files.minecraftforge.net/fml/1.8/

I downloaded the installer and ran it, and it complained that it couldn't find the minecraft folder. I eventually figured out that this was because I have my system set up with a user privs user and an admin privs user. I was installing as my user user, and it was asking me for the admin password to run the installer, then the installer was looking in the admin's user AppData folder instead of my user's AppData folder. I could manually redirect it to my user folder and everything worked.

Some guides, like the following, just give directions on installing both the Forge "client" and "server" but I haven't seen an explanation as to what either of these are. I installed both, and the server installation involved another download and took longer. Then I noticed that the minemum guide only prescribed installing the client.

http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Minecraft-Forge

When I went to get the Minecraft Forge installer, it directed me to adf.ly which seemed to require me to download Open Download Manager with a piece of malware called Search Protect. I eventually figured out that I could directly get the download by clicking "Skip Ad" in the upper right corner, the whole Open Download Manager thing was just a Trojan horse ad. I later realized that this is covered in the minemum guide at step 1 for downloading Forge, but my impatient reading comprehension had skipped that sentence.

Here is what seems to be the definitive guide for installing mods. It has a bunch of stuff at the top for one kind of installation and then a separate section for doing the installation for version 1.8. The instructions for the second section seemed to more closely match the file structure that I found for my installation of minecraft, so I did all the steps listed, including renaming everything to _Modded. I played the renamed installation and it worked. Then I installed Minecraft Forge and it didn't complain and the game still worked, but I didn't see a "forge" profile in the launcher options as described by minemum.

http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Mods/Installing_mods

So, what I have done since is attempt to install the client again. The installer complained that I needed to run version 1.8 at least once, so something somewhere still thinks that I'm using version 1.8 instead of version 1.8_Modded. I took the path of least resistance and renamed all my _Modded folders back to 1.8 and the client installed. Now I have a profile option of "FML" which s a funny joke the first 1/2 times. When I play the game and hit esc, there is now a "mod options" button! Still no sign of the lucky block installation, which I had attempted to do on the _Modded directory, so I'm now trying to install it again.

So, while looking for the lucky block mod I kept running into sites that attempted to get me to download other software. I eventually settled on this one which seemed the most clear as to what to click:

http://www.5minecraft.net/lucky-block-mod/

This directed me to the following site which offered just a .jar file:

http://www.dl3.5minecraft.net/download.php?file=7e2819ee5ae679adf64b19afba91acfb

Both the minemum page and a different Lucky Block page (at the link below) say just to put the .jar file in the mods folder which the Minecraft Forge installer created in my .minecraft folder (and I did verify that one has been created). But I don't see Lucky Block as one of the mods when I click the Mod Options button. Also, supposedly in Creative Mode the inventory is supposed to get three lucky blocks and I don't see them either. So, I know I'm getting good instructions from the below site because the author seems to be monitoring comments. So close...

http://www.planetminecraft.com/mod/lucky-block/

Here's an alternative source that seems slightly less scammy:

http://www.minecraftmods.com/lucky-block-mod/

Eventually, googling howls of pain led me to set up the launcher to stay visible and look at the logs, where I found this message:

[14:19:53] [Client thread/INFO] [FML]: FML has found a non-mod file [1-7-10]_Lucky_Block_v5-1-0.jar in your mods directory. It will now be injected into your classpath. This could severe stability issues, it should be removed if possible.

That doesn't sound good. It found the file in the .mod directory, but it distains it as being a non-mod file.

So, despite the fact that a lot of sites seem to indicate that the Lucky Block mod is compatible with 1.8, the .jar files all seem to say 1.7.2 or 1.7.10, so it might be that I have no other option but to play an older version of minecraft. Here is one link which describes this dilemma:

http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/164341/how-exactly-do-i-install-minecraft-mods-and-what-is-forge

Here is one of the sites claiming that this mod works on 1.8 (as well as 1.7.10, 1.7.2, and even 1.6.4)

http://www.minecraftexe.com/lucky-block-mod/

End of story, quickly: I set up a version 1.7.10 profile, installed 1.7.10 Forge, put the 1.7.10 .jar in the mods folder and it all works great. The 1.8 copy of Lucky Block just must not exist yet.