Palm 755p reboots every time I access memos

I've had this one before, and last time I just re-installed the VZ updater for the Palm 755p.

But the Updater is a major process that requires a cable. Palm has not seen fit to release drivers that allow us to connect our 755p's to Vista 64bit using a USB cable.

So, what other options do we have, Scotty?

I dialed the Palm System Error Log number #*#377# and found that MemoMain.c was at fault, but I didn't know if the Memo database was corrupt or if the Memopad program was hosed.

I considered doing a hard reset, but instead I used the advice in this post: Treo 755p - suddenly resets when I try to open Memo, which was to delete "MemosDB-PMem" from the Internal memory space using the free FileZ Palm app.

It worked. Memos accessible, no rebooting. Vista 64bit to 755p connection problem workaround.

But it was late, and I skipped a step, which made a mess for me. I didn't set the Hotsync conduit for Memos to "Desktop overwrites handheld".

I lost all of my Memo categories and all my hundreds of Memos got dumped into one big pile on the 755p and the Desktop. Oh sheet! What a mess.

Now, I am not certain that if I had set the Hotsync to "Desktop overwrites handheld" that it wouldn't still have messed everything up, but it seems like it woulda helped.

Windows updates disable my Wifi

I have an Intel WiFi Link 5300 AGN wireless card in my Laptop.

I just downloaded a big batch of Windows updates and when my computer rebooted I couldn't connect to the network. My Wifi card was disabled in the Device Manager.

What the heck is up with that? This is exactly why I hate applying Windows updates to my computers. They very frequently cause problems. But you need to get them to help protect your computer from security threats.

Luckily, and by pure chance, I had downloaded fresh drivers from the Intel site recently. So I ran the setup and my wireless came back.

One time I ran Windows update and it ruined Office. Which in turn ruined IE and Outlook. One of the Office files had gotten corrupted....ahh...this is one of those things I should have blogged about right after it happened.

I couldn't find my stupid office CD's to re-install. (Move several times, change computers, put your software in various boxes in storage, this is what happens) None of my friends or contacts had the same version of Office; I needed retail, they had business. So in order to get my computer back I ended up going to the torrent sites.

Computers suck. How is your avg person supposed to be able to deal with this kind of problem without paying for hours of tech support, or getting another retail copy?

sufficiently advanced stupidity

While doing research on Google Apps for domains, I came across this repartee in a comment thread:

Evil?

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity" ... or something equally non-evil.
Steve McLeod
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
@Steve McLeod

True, but sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
Giles
Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Gave me a chuckle.

Original post: Joel on Software: Don't ever use Google Apps for anything important

Best Spam Comment Evar

I got this comment the other day:

Hey! I think about these things all the time for example if you bought land do you own it all the way to the core of the Earth? If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is it naked or homeless? Why is bread square but most sandvich meat round? I liked your site it gave me some more things to think about!

The commenter linked to some haxxor site in Russia...but, I give points for the use of actual funny, even if it was recycled.

Wordpress Flickr Manager Broken? Possible fix for you

Hey, I am remembering to write this one down right after I solved the problem. Aren't you proud of me?

So, open source software is great. All those free apps, and free doodads you can run on your website! Shopping carts, project management sites, wordpress plugins...Yay!

Except when they break and the developer has stopped working on them.

Wordpress is a great piece of open source software, but I have seen two of the plugins I rely upon for clients go unsupported in the past year.

The latest one is the Wordpress Flickr Manager(WFM), which makes it easy for people to post their own pictures on their sites without having to ftp them and figure out what the URL is for the image. (Note: Wordpress has a native image uploader now, but the Wordpress Flickr Manager still has some advantages. One, it has a built in Lightbox javascript pop-up image display; Two: if the site owner will add tags and a link to the proper blog page in the image descr. on flickr, it becomes another source of traffic for the blog/site.)

WFM hasn't been updated for the latest versions of Wordpress, so the built in Lightbox function isn't working anymore. You can still insert Flickr pictures, but the Lightbox effect doesn't work, and you can't upload pictures via the plugin.

However there are fixes!

First of all, you need to edit some files in the plugin's folder. I don't have to tell you to use a text editor like Window's Notepad, or Notepad++ (Free Code Editor), do I?

In order to fix the Lightbox not working issue, edit wfm-lightbox.php and wfm-hs.php and remove the @ characters from the file. (2 in each file). Those php files are in the /js folder inside the plugin's folder. This solution was found here: Plugin Broken With WP2.8.

In order to fix the upload issue, comment out line 139 in FlickrCore.php like this

Change this:
echo 'Content-Type: ' . mime_content_type($filename) . "\r\n";

Into this:
// echo 'Content-Type: ' . mime_content_type($filename) . "\r\n";

This 'solution' was found here: Uploads don't work local. I have no way of knowing what commenting out that line really does, so use at your own risk.

 

Replacing RAM in Inspiron 2600/2650

My Girlfriend's computer died.

It was sad.

We cried.

Then I started troubleshooting. It would sort of boot up....ahhh, I can't remember. I need to write these darn blog posts right after the incident.

Anyhow, I thought maybe bad RAM. I used the <God Voice>Ultimate Boot CD</God Voice> to do a memtest and yeah, bad RAM.

("BAD RAM! Get back under the trailer!" )

Luckily I just happened to have a spare module hanging around. I got my jewelers screwdrivers and started taking plastic bits off the bottom of the laptop. And Lo! There was only one RAM stick accessible by this route. WTF? And, it wasn't the RAM that I needed to replace. ARGH! Where the heck did they put the other RAM, and what kind of muttonhead engineer would put it in a place where you can't easily get to it?

I unscrewed all the rest of the screws on the bottom of the laptop, and then, when the bottom didn't come off easily, I paused.

1. This was not going to be easy to take apart. Laptops can be a real pain to get apart, and back together again. Like, 4 layers and little plastic snap tabs, and tiny hidden screws pain.
2. Upgradeable parts are usually easy to get to.

Even though it is against the Man Code to read directions, I have learned through painful experience that it is usually faster to follow directions than to try to strike off into the wilderness of little plastic snap tabs.

So, I found this site: How to disassemble a Dell Inspiron 2650. This guy is SOO awesome for going to the trouble to post all the pics of the Inspiron 2650 disassembly procedure. I just wanna click all over his Google ads. But he doesn't have any

Turns out that the RAM module was pretty easy to get to. I just had to lift out the keyboard which was actually fewer screws than those that hold the bottom plate on.

The new RAM is playing nicely with the old RAM and the old computer is humming along nicely on its mission of email and web browsing.

Palm 755p Error Log

Dial #*#377# to see the Palm 755p Error Log. Helps with troubleshooting spontaneous restarting of the palm device. My palm started rebooting when I accessed a certain item in the Memos. Then this problem got worse, and it started rebooting when I accessed ANY Memos. I see on teh intarwebs that people experience this sort of problem with restarting from corrupted txt messages, corrupt downloads like ringtones, or email attachments.

I am trying to update the vzw software using the desktop updater that verizon provides for the Treo 755p.

Update: the updater, and restore via hotsync worked. Now I just need to get the phone reprogrammed or see if I can get *228 to work.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset verdict: 1.92 million?!?

Heh heh, like they will ever see that money. It's ridiculous. If I were in her position I would just laugh. What are they going to do? They can't take her car, they can't keep her from renting a house. They can garnish 25% of her wages. They will never see more than a few thousand dollars of this award and the obvious overkill in the award just makes them look horrible in the public eye. I wish the entire music industry would fail, big bank style, and publish zero new albums next year. This would be of great benefit to our society, as then people would go listen to live music, or, land sakes, make their own music at home.