Categories
Mozilla

Move Thunderbird Signature for Identity

One difficulty in current versions of Thunderbird is that even if you have set the preference to move the signature line related to the quote, it will not be saved correctly.

Luckily there is a way to move this manually. The only problem is that it is a bit of a pain to do so, and if it reverts, you have to make the change manually again. Fortunately it is not hard, just a nuisance.

Categories
Technology

VC8 Library was not Installed Correctly

Another week, another software problem. But this one isn’t coming from Microsoft. No, this time it is Logitech who is causing issues.

Though I waffle between keyboards from time to time, my mouse is almost always Logitech, because they are just so comfortable. These days it is really difficult for me to use anything else. And that means that I am almost always using – or installing – their SetPoint software.

Categories
Movable Type

Cannot Redeclare Class 'MT' in mt.php

While the dynamic publishing model of Movable Type is not heavily used, it is actually a very useful feature. Probably not as a complete CMS – mostly because it is not full-featured – but certainly to provide some nice functionality on the side as it were.

Unfortunately the dynamic publishing functions are not documented much, if at all, so when you run into some issues, it can be difficult to troubleshoot. One of the more common problems you may find is an error message such as this one – when you cannot redeclare the ‘MT’ class, it will prevent the entire dynamic publishing subsystem from starting up, and you will be dead in the water!

Categories
Microsoft

Windows Update Error 0x8ddd0018

Another less-than-friendly hex error from our friends at Windows Update.

Why is it that they cannot write things out and just tell you what the problem is, or even better, how to fix it? That I do not know.

But like last time, the problem here is not hard to fix. In fact, this time around, it might be even easier.

Categories
Movable Type

Hash Line Over-Indented

Have you run into this error while trying to update your plugins from the legacy-style Perl format to a brand-spanking-new YAML layout, only to find that you can’t seem to figure out just what the problem is? Spending hour after hour troubleshooting and still getting that annoying message and it just won’t go away?

Look no further, because this one is easy. Well, sort of. You do have to look a little bit, but you actually are not missing a semicolon or a brace or anything along those lines. In fact, it might be a little hard for you to find, you just have to know where to look.

Categories
Code Talking

How Would You Like to Share Today?

With the incredible explosion of social media, there are social media sites everywhere. Any time you turn around, it seems there is another one. I’m not just talking about the big boys, like Facebook and Twitter, either. Mister Wong, anyone?(Sadly, Mister Wong is no longer with us.)

Cool name aside, there is only so much one person can do. So how do you decide which of these services to use? While I get that you might want to provide each and every one of them on your site so that you gain maximum exposure, there is a limit, right? How can you possibly expect to keep up? Enter even more services, which aim to help you do so. Now how do you decide among them?

Categories
Technology

There Are No TiVo DVRs Available on the Network

While TiVoToGo (TTG) is not the most reliable piece of software out there, and often just being able to transfer shows from one TiVo to another is much more useful, there are times when being able to save shows to a computer for later retrieval is a nice feature.

Unfortunately it seems that more and more often, this error message comes up and getting it to go away is a royal pain. So what do you do when you get the message “there are no tivo dvrs available on the network”? Other than panic, I mean?

Categories
Mozilla

An Error Occurred While Trying to Find Updates

Much like the Windows Update Errors I mentioned previously, it seems that Firefox has similar problems. Unlike those from Windows Update, however, these at least return a somewhat-friendly message, which helps a bit.

So instead of getting a cryptic hex number, you are given a message that reads something like “an error occurred while trying to find updates”. Unfortunately, there isn’t much help in resolving this error – and because many updates come from individual users, rather than a central repository – you may be stuck.

Categories
Microsoft

Windows Update Errors

There is no doubt that Windows Update is one of those things that has made life both easier and more complex for everyone. The process of receiving updates is now nearly transparent and can generally be painless – unless something goes wrong, in which case you get errors that give you messages that mean next to nothing.

So it was the other day when I received messages telling me that I had errors 0x80072ee2 and 0x8024d00e. Those don’t even look like numbers (they are actually hex representations), that presumably mean something to someone, hidden in Redmond. Or maybe the computer is trying to speak to me directly.

Categories
Movable Type

Can't Call Method 'entry_based' on an Undefined Value

Generally you will see this as a longer error message, typically coming from the ContextHandlers.pm module, with a particular line number, something like this:

Can't call method "entry_based" on an undefined value at lib/MT/Template/ContextHandlers.pm line...

The message may seem obscure when you receive the message, but in actuality, it just means that you are using a template tag that the publishing process cannot handle. You just need to remove it (or replace it with a tag that will function properly).