Windows 7 minimized applications going blank

While Windows 7 seems to work better than I expected, this is the worst new feature ever imagined. They went to all this trouble to make minimized applications show up as active miniature images on the task bar, but then ones that haven't been used recently go inactive, basically they're pushed out of the cache, and their miniature images are no longer useful and it takes ages to wake the applications up again. Now I want my XP task bar back! Wahhhhh!

So far, I haven't found a solution to this. In fact, there seems to be only one complaint about it on the M$ forums. This one guy, Mike89, back in 2009, put up completely clear explanations of the problem. Nobody responded, or those that did were morons who didn't bother to read what he had written before firing off answers that didn't have anything to do with the problem. Amusingly, he now seems to be banned. Here's the thread:

http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-support/27872-taskbar-explorer-windows-going-blank.html

Oh wait, here's a clue: This makes the taskbar more XP-like!

http://www.techguideforum.com/how-do-i-minimize-windows-on-windows-7-like-i-used-to-do-on-vista/

Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http:// Operation aborted.

It's the perfect storm of stupidity. First off, it serves me right for using an antique web browser. Secondly, who's doing this shitty HTML coding? Thirdly, why is there an option for turning on such horrible response behavior in IE and why must it be so mislabeled? I get this problem due to bad javascripting in the page, then the page blanks out and is replaced by this message. The workaround is to turn off the option for blanking the page off, by going to advanced options and unchecking "Show friendly HTTP error messages" box. The actual solution is to go and download the lastest overbloated copy of IE and reinstall it, introducing God knows what new problems. The complete write up is uncharacteristically on M$'s website here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927917

using pdftk to apply a watermark

Sadly, it looks like PrimoPDF can't apply a watermark to conversions. A forum post indicated that there's a paid version that does watermarks, but the prices listed at the given links were boggling. Naturally, I thought of the power-packed pdftk, and yes it has that feature.

http://forums.primopdf.com/showthread.php?t=1788

However, the really interesting thing that I stumbled upon was the following post about problems with pdftk for this feature, and how this guy completely figured out what the bug was an how to work around it:

http://rhodesmill.org/brandon/2009/pdf-watermarks-upside-down/

The skinny on Maryland asbestos siding tile removal laws

This is the top-level EHSO page that describes what to do about shingles and indicates that homeowner removal is legal:

http://www.ehso.com/ehshome/asbestoshomeshingles.php

This PDF helpfully describes the removal procedure complete with pictures, for Montanna!

www.deq.mt.gov/Asbestos/Homeowner/DEQsidinghowtomanual.pdf

Here is the EPA's take on it (Kinda vauge):

http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/ashome.html

So the question becomes, does Maryland have regulations above and beyond the federal that would prohibit me as the homeowner from doing the removal as described above? I did a lot of searching, and I found information on how to package the tiles up for drop off (carboard box at least, steel drum preferred, lots of contractor bags), and that in Howard Count I have to figure out what landfills take it and what special locations and times to drop it off, all of which is validated in the upper two links and in talking to the inspector at MD DOE.

This Howard County demolition permit pdf just refers back to the Maryland State Dept of the Environment office (informational only)

http://www.howardcountymd.gov/DILP/DOCS/demolitiondisconnectrvs1.pdf

Here is a Md. asbestos removal license form. No mention of applicability to homeowner removal. At the end it lists the particular applicable section of the Code Of Maryland Rules (COMR) and refers, to the same MD DOE office:

http://mde.maryland.gov/programs/Air/Asbestos/AsbestosForms/Documents/www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/Asbestos_License_Application_MDE240.pdf

When I called that office, my question got referred to an inspector (O'Hare) who was very helpful in leaving messages when we kept missing each other. He confirmed that I can do the removal and no special permit is required for me to do it, and to remember to check with the county landfill.

The software you are installing has not passed Windows Logo, will not be installed

Okay, what the hell, I'm the administrator on this machine. Bad on Altera for not freaking signing their drivers, but I know they work, let me install them! It turns out that this problem is easilly remedied. When this account was set up, the option for driver signing was set up to Block, and even as an admin, I have to dig up the property and set it to warn (or ignore, although that's not a great idea). A simple matter of right clicking on My Conmputer, selecting Properties, going to the Harware tab, hitting the Driver Signing button, and changing the option.

Reference here:

http://www.technipages.com/disable-has-not-passed-windows-logo-testing-message.html

Using local drives with Remote Desktop

Victor knew how to set up the remote desktop to allow access on the remote machine to the drives on the local machine (very handy for transferring files back and forth. Undoubtably insecure). It is not obvious how to set this up though. It's hidden in the startup prompt for connecting to the remote host; you have to hit "options" and then under the "Local Resources" tab hit "More". This article explained it with crystal clarity, and for my new OS no less:

http://www.howtogeek.com/wiki/Using_Local_Drives_In_Remote_Desktop_Connections

Accessing a shared calendar using Outlook Web Access

They set up a lovely shared calendar for our group to use on my project, but the invite request was cryptic, and the calendar didn't seem to appear on my own OWA login. Eventually I figured out that things are ten times harder with OWA rather than using Outlook directly, and there was an additional problem in that the owner of the calendar had to access it first through OWA to fix a stupid M$ software problem.

Here is something about the invite (to fix this it prescribes steps which involve Outlook directly, no help for me).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912265

This one seems to describe a version of OWA that I don't use, and talks about sharing a calendar of my own:

http://www.ehow.com/how_6509738_share-calendar-microsoft-outlook-access.html

It turns out that the answer is to use a fancy URL to access the calendar, so that I do it as me but access the other calendar (the calendar has its own email address!)

http://exchangeshare.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/how-to-open-shared-calendar-in-owa/

All of which didn't make sense until I read the following page:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb936726(EXCHG.80).aspx

So, I started to play around with putting in other email addresses. I tried my own, I tried my friends'. For my own, it got in, for others I was blocked as expected. It seemed to be a permissions issue to access the group calendar.

This page seemed to hint that there has to be a sysadmin involved:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998830(EXCHG.80).aspx

But my boss came back and said that he'd set it up, and sure enough the screen that came up from the direct URL was different now. Now it said "To view this content, you must first use Outlook Web Access to select the language to display it in." with a single link. When I clicked the link, it came to a very OWA-ish page that demanded that I select a language and a time zone. However, when I did that, I got a different access denied message. Finally I found the below link, which indicated that the solution is for the *owner* to go through the same series of links, set the time zone, and boom it would work for me. And that's exactly what happened to get it all finally working.

http://forums.msexchange.org/m_1800468925/tm.htm

Also, my collegues who view the shared calendar with firefox don't get the buttons that allow you to switch between hourly, weekly, and monthly views.