Hints » foyleman

unmute me

Jan 272008

As many of you know, I love playing Battlefield 2142. I often play it while talking with my buddies on Skype. However, one very annoying problem with the game is that when you start playing, it will mute the microphone volume so that I can’t hear myself talking. This causes me to yell because I can’t hear myself (the wife doesn’t care for that).

The steps to un-mute the microphone meant that I had to:

load the game
go into the audio configuration to trigger the mute
exit to the main screen
Alt+Tab out of the program
open my sound devices
un-mute the mic
try to get back into the game which sometimes doesn’t work

It would be so nice if there were only a way to create a keyboard shortcut to perform this operation automatically. Oh wait… there is! Yes, I found such a program to make it all happen and here is what you need:

Download NirCmd. Unzip the contents someplace permanent such as in it’s own folder somewhere on your hard drive.
In this same folder, create a .bat file (text file renamed to something like unmute.bat).
In this text file, paste the following command as outlined on this page.
.NirCmd.exe mutesysvolume 2 microphone
Create a desktop shortcut to that .bat file.
Right click the shortcut and select Properties.
Create a Shortcut Key such as M which will be created as Ctrl+Alt+M
Save and play.

Now, when you press Ctrl+Alt+M, your microphone volume will either mute or un-mute. Tada.

*Update: This doesn’t seem to work within the game. The shortcut works outside of the game, but apparently the binding system of the game overwrites the shortcuts for the desktop. I need to find a way to bind a key I guess?

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all your ie belong…

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Jan 072008

I came across yet another instance in which I needed to review a website using older versions of Internet Explorer. The problem is that once you upgrade this browser, it overwrites the previous installation. I found a great solution for XP. TredoSoft has a free program that will install IS version 3 through 6 and allow you to access them all individually. Perfect for testing those websites to ensure the javascript and other coding is compliant.

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soups on

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Nov 232007

I finally redeemed myself in regards to my soup making skills.

I like to host Thanksgiving for the family. When my Grandmother moved out of state, there wasn’t anyone willing to go through the effort of creating a big meal and getting everyone together to enjoy it. So I decided to step up to the task.

Aside from Thanksgiving dinners, I enjoy making soups. Chicken, crab, vegetable, bisque, etc… they are all fun and taste great.

Last year I decided to add soup to the Thanksgiving repertoire. I came up with a great Fall soup called Butternut Squash Crab Bisque. The downfall was that last year I put a little bit too much cayenne pepper into the mix and it came out feeling like fire on the throat. You could put it in your mouth and taste it and it tasted great. But you couldn’t swallow or you would really feel the wrath of God.

Over the past year I ran some experiments on the soup to find the right blend of spices. This year at Thanksgiving I revealed the new and improved soup and it was perfect.

In case you’re interested in the recipe, I’ve pasted in the next page for you. Continue reading »

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google calendar + thunderbird + smartphone

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Sep 302007

I keep appointments for work, life… pretty much everything. Otherwise I could end up forgetting something important. I have a smart phone with a great calendar (Windows Mobile 5). I also like using Google Calendar because it’s easily available when online (plus it’s sharable). But until now, I could sync the two calendar programs together without A LOT of work. Well, that’s changing.

What you need:

A smart phone
Google Calendar
Thunderbird (link) with
- Lightning Calendar Addon (link)
- Birdie Sync (link) (search this blog for details)
Google Calendar Provider Addon (link)
Two additional files to fix syncronization as described in this Birdie Sync forum post (link)

One problem, however, is that recurring appointments in google are not yet properly supported. Only the first in the series will display. Hopefully that will be patched somewhere down the line.

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copyfornotes 1.7 firefox addon

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Jul 182007

I do a lot of note taking for MODSonair, a podcast for MODSonline. I also use FireFox as my primary web browser. This means I have the ability to use add-ons (aka extensions) to add features to the browser to make life easier.

In taking notes for MODSonair, I regularly copy come text from a web page that has an interesting topic for discussion during our show. I copy this text along with the link of that page. I copy it in plain text format so that it doesn’t take on the color or size attributes of what I am copying. Then I paste it into my notes. Here’s an example of what I do about 25 times a week for the last 84 weeks:

- site update – harumph

http://www.foyleman.com/archives/107

Well, I decided to try and make things a little easier for myself by creating an add-on that would do this for me. Basically, the add-on will copy any selected text as the title of the notes and also copy the URL of the current page. The content will be formatted as you see above. All that’s left for me to do is paste it into the actual show notes and perhaps hyper-link (so it goes to the link when you click it). I am calling this new add-on ‘Copy for Notes’ since that’s the whole purpose.

* Update version 1.7 allows you to select any text on the page. Then right click the page not on any link on the page and ‘Copy for Notes’ to copy the text with the current page URL. OR right click the page on a link found on the page and ‘Copy for Notes’ to copy the selected text with the right clicked URL instead of the current page URL.

Note that Ctrl+Shift+M is the shortcut associate with this add-on.

You’re welcome to play with my new add-on. You can grab version ~~1.2~~ ~~1.5~~ 1.7 right here:

Copy for Notes 1.7

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webserver install notes

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Jun 292007

I’m installing linux again. Read the previous post if you wondering why. But, besides the reasons, I needed to take some notes on installation and what better place then to make these notes public for later reference. Yeah… that’s all that I have going on in this post so if you don’t care… then move along… nothing to see here.

First, to get the webserver up and running properly, I like to follow some of the instruction found at Staton-Finley. Good stuff and if you know what you’re doing, this makes good reference for lines in the httpd.conf.

Maybe more later. I am getting frustrated.

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HL2 Coding

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Apr 202007

I’ve been having trouble remembering the installation and setup sequence to modify Half-Life 2. If you are interested in making code changes to the game, here is the installation methods for the tools needed (as of this date). This assumes you have done the mod creation setup in Steam. Continue reading »

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Temporary Domain Mapping in Windows

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Jan 102007

Too many times have I forgotten where to find the file in my Windows XP system folders where I can specify domain mapping. With the following information, you don’t have to wait for a domain name to resolve to your server’s IP address. Instead, you can tell your Windows OS exactly which IP address to go to when you browse a specific domain name. It’s sort of like your own little DNS system.

NOTE: This only works on your computer. This doesn’t work for anyone else on the internet, only you. Also, you may want to remove these changes once your domain name has properly resolved.

Head over to this folder on your hard drive: C:WINDOWSsystem32driversetc
Open the file ‘hosts’ in a plain text editor for editing.
At the bottom of this page, enter your new entry. Let’s say you want to go to example.com which is located on 111.2.33.444 but when you type example.com, it goes to some other IP address. Enter the following new line of text:
111.2.33.444 example.com

NOTE: While a space in the middle will work, use a tab instead.
Save the file and browse to example.com. Your browser will now go to the specified IP address.

Another note for testing purposes: Before making this change, open a DOS window and ping the domain name. This is done by entering ‘ping example.com’ at the command prompt and pressing enter. You will see the IP address that is assigned to this domain name. Once the changes listed above are complete, ping the domain name again to confirm the changes were made.

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