Internet Explorer 6 hacks, fixes etc

If you are unfortunate enough to have to support Internet Exploder (euphemistically known as Internet Explorer), that piece of garbage that MS inflicted on the world, here are some useful links that will help you.

IE7.js, IE8.js and IE9.js are JavaScript libraries to make Microsoft Internet Explorer5/6 behave like a standards-compliant browser. They fix many HTML and CSS issues and make transparent PNG work correctly under IE5 and IE6.

http://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/

Visit this site for some interesting reading on the above scripts and the (then) imminent release of Internet Exploder 7

Monitor your Website’s Uptime with Google Docs

Here is a great GDocs script that will email you when your site goes down/up.

http://www.labnol.org/internet/website-uptime-monitor/21060/

Follow the instructions in the author's page and you will end up with your own copy of the script.
If you want to email multiple recipients instead of just the one, here are the changes I made to support that:

from line 47 onwards:

ScriptProperties.setProperty("status", code);

var recipients = email.split(";");
for (r in recipients) {
if (recipients[r] != "") {
MailApp.sendEmail(recipients[r], msg, error);
}
}
// end of code changes
Many thanks to the author +Amit Agarwal

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

NeoniQ/Geniatech/Asiapads ATV1000 firmware updates etc

I bought one of the above Android-based media players and had a hard time getting it to play movies properly. The interface wasn't exactly the easiest to live with.

I have since found a newer version of the firmware (09Sep2011) *and* a version of the Android Market!!!

Download the above and then do the following:

1) copy the new firmware onto an SD card (not a USB disk!!!),

2) rename it to update.zip

3) On the media player, press F2 to go to the home screen, the F1 to bring up the options at the bottom of the screen. Select Settings, Privacy, Update firmware. It will reboot and install the new firmare.

Repeat this process for the market zip too.

Note: There have been a few updates since the above was written.

The first one is update_eng_0916 and the second one is update_Australia_0927

Update_eng_0916 is very similar to the original 09Sep2011 one, with a few more apps in it, as well as Flash player v10.2

The 'australian' one comes with Flash player v10.3

I am using the 'eng' version and, apart for the extra junk apps, it works very well.

The above updates do not include the HDMI switcher that came with the original firmware.

To get it back, do the following:

• press and hold left mouse button
• when the menu pops up, select Shortcuts, Settings, Display settings.
• Done!

Enjoy!

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

FileZilla connection issues - MSLD

It looks like somebody cocked up at FileZilla.
The latest version (v3.5.1) refuses to connect to my RedHat server, even though all previous versions of FileZilla did.

Reading some of the threads around the web, the developers decided to use the MLSD command (to get a directory listing) and it seems to cause no end of problems.
They seem to insist that MLSD is a standard command and the people should change their FTP servers instead.
Perhaps those devs should extract their cranium from their anus, instead of telling people to change their (perfectly good FTP servers. We use ProFTPD)

That rant aside, the way to overcome this problem is to not use passive mode.

Use the File/SiteManager menu to find the entry you want to connect to and, under TransferSettings, set the Transfer mode to Active.

Enjoy!

Why Your JavaScript Developed in Firefox Might Fail in IE

Mitchell Pronschinske has a great article explaining js differences between Firefox and Internet Exploder.

Some of those issues can be bypassed by using jQuery but it still is a great read for all js developers.

Samsung Galaxy S2 secret codes

An extensive list of the secret codes for the S2 can be found here
Many thanks to the XDA guys!

how to fix - Excel won't show charts any more!

One day my VBA code in Excel was happily generating charts and the next it wasn't.


It would create the new worksheets, raise no errors whatsoever, but show nothing!

Nothing was changed in the spreadsheet. I even retrieved a copy from my backups.


There is no explanation I can think of for this but here is how I fixed it.

I opened the print preview dialog, went to page settings, changed the paper backwards and forwards, toggled a few other settings, left everything the way it was, closed the dialog and       voila! it now works!

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!