making your laptop shine

I just received a new travel laptop from work... the amazing Compaq nx6325. Alright, so she's not the youngest gal at the ball anymore, but a old, functional laptop is better than no laptop at all. The problem with this laptop has nothing to do with memory or speed; the problem is the screen brightness.

While this laptop screen isn't too dark to use, it's definitely not up there with lcd monitor quality. Futhermore, the brightness function keys are already at 100%. What to do? I'm using Compaq's ATI Radeon video driver, which doesn't seem to have much in the way of configurability.

The answer is ATI Catalyst Control Centre. This baby allows me to adjust all aspects of my screen, including brightness and gamma. If you are using an ATI Radeon driver, you need to get this application. Period.

firefox won't delete cookies

This morning I could not log into my Gmail account. I would type my username, password, and be returned to the very same page with NO error message. Soon, I discovered that I couldn't log into anything Google - blogger, docs, groups, calendar, picasa, reader... you get the point. After doing some quasi-research I was frustrated that I couldn't fix the Google error. Fortunately, I could access my Gmail account using IE. I started to wonder if perhaps it was a Firefox error...

Turns out that there was a cookie problem with Firefox. I tried to wipe clean all my cookies from the Delete Private Data option, but they re-appeared again on restart. I manually deleted all the cookies from the Tools > Options > Privacy menu, but those sneaky little guys appeared yet again on restart. I've had some cookie problems in Firefox in the past, but I'm using the latest version (3.0.8), and I thought this wouldn't be an issue anymore. It's always surprising, but it turns out I was wrong.

The solution? Get rid of cookies.sqlite:

1. Start > Run
2. Type "%APPDATA%"
3. Open Mozilla > Firefox > Profiles > (your profile)
4. Delete cookies.sqlite.
5. ** Note that this will permanently delete ALL your hard-earned cookies! **

Ah, basking in sweet success...

automatically BCC in Outlook 2007

Have you ever wanted to automatically bcc all your outbound mail to a specific email address? I wanted to send a copy of ALL sent mail from Outlook at work to my Gmail address. You could try to do this via Outlook's Rules and Alerts, but there's no option to bcc...only cc. I'd prefer that all my work contacts not know my personal Gmail address, and it's not very professional. I also don't want to manually enter my Gmail address in the bcc field of every outgoing message... the solution? Visual Basic Scripting.

The steps (MS Outlook 2007):

1. Open MS Outlook 2007
2. Under the Tools menu, select Macro > Visual Basic Editor (or Alt+F11)
3. In the left menu bar, expand Project1, Microsoft Outlook Session, and open ThisOutlookSession
4. Enter copy & paste this code, making sure to substitute youremailaddress@domain.com with your real email address:

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, _
Cancel As Boolean)
Dim objRecip As Recipient
Dim strMsg As String
Dim res As Integer
Dim strBcc As String
On Error Resume Next

' #### USER OPTIONS ####
' address for Bcc -- must be SMTP address or resolvable
' to a name in the address book
strBcc = "youremailaddress@domain.com"

Set objRecip = Item.Recipients.Add(strBcc)
objRecip.Type = olBCC
If Not objRecip.Resolve Then
strMsg = "Could not resolve the Bcc recipient. " & _
"Do you want still to send the message?"
res = MsgBox(strMsg, vbYesNo + vbDefaultButton1, _
"Could Not Resolve Bcc Recipient")
If res = vbNo Then
Cancel = True
End If
End If

Set objRecip = Nothing
End Sub

Save the session, close the Visual Basic Editor, restart Outlook, and you're good to go! (make sure that you've allowed Outlook to run macros) You can verify that your emails are being cc'd by (1) checking your alternate email address or (2) looking at the bcc field of one of your messages in the Sent Items folder.

Outlook: archive it!

I'm a huge fan of gmail. Although it takes some getting used to, I'm sure everyone who uses gmail loves it after some time, and would have a hard time going back to other clients. My problem is that I must use MS Outlook at work...it's inescapable. One feature I've grown quite fond of in gmail is the ability to Archive messages instantly. This allows you to get more work done by leaving only the action items in your inbox (which is what an "inbox" really is, isn't it?).

Here's how you can accomplish this in Outlook (2007):

1. Open MS Outlook 2007
2. Create a new sub-folder inside the Inbox named Pre Archive
3. Under the Tools menu, select Macro > Visual Basic Editor (or Alt+F11)
4. In the left menu bar, expand Project1, Microsoft Outlook Session, and open ThisOutlookSession
5. Enter the following code:

Option Explicit
Public Sub ArchiveSelectedItems()
MoveSelectedItemsToFolder "Pre Archive"
End Sub
Private Sub MoveSelectedItemsToFolder(FolderName As String)
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
Dim Namespace As Outlook.Namespace
Set Namespace = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Dim Inbox As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Set Inbox = Namespace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
Dim Folder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Set Folder = Inbox.Folders(FolderName)
If Folder Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "The '" & FolderName & "' folder doesn't exist!", _
vbOKOnly + vbExclamation, "Invalid Folder"
End If
Dim Item As Object
For Each Item In Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection
If Item.UnRead Then Item.UnRead = False
Item.Move Folder
Next
Exit Sub
ErrorHandler:
MsgBox Error(Err)
End Sub

Now:

1. Save the code and exit the Visual Basic Editor
2. Under View > Toolbars > Customize, select the Commands tab
3. Click on Macros
4. Drag Project1.ArchiveSelected command to any toolbar above
5. Rename your button to Archive by right-clicking
6. From the right-click, you can also Change Button Image
7. Click Close

Optional:

1. Open any message in the Inbox folder
2. Click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button on the title bar
3. Select More Commands
4. Add the Project1.ArchiveSelected command and configure the same way as above
5. Make sure you have allowed Outlook to run macros.

Done! You now have an Archive button that archives unwanted messages from your inbox. I also recommend modifying your AutoArchive settings to no longer archive anything from your Inbox. Instead try archiving your Pre Archive folder every couple of days.

(click to enlarge)