Java Installation: Internal Error 2753. regutils.dll

I was recently installing/uninstalling a ton of programs and at the end, ran CCleaner. Well that turned out to be a mistake (also because I didn't back up the registry) and ended up with a botched Java Runtime Environment (JRE) install. I only found that out when the newest update to Java came up and returned with an error box stating "Internal Error 2753. regutils.dll". Wow, such a specific message. I did some searching around and found that you can use the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility to get rid of all your old Java installations and then install the newest version. That's what worked for me, I hope it works for you too.

Spiceworks Help Desk Customization Plugin

I use the Spiceworks helpdesk function every day for work to keep track of the things I need to do. I think that it is a great built in function that lets me use one piece of software to handle many different functions. I really love the helpdesk feature but still find it a little lacking compared to some of the more full featured helpdesks such as OTRS. With the invention of plugins with the 3.6 (maybe it was 3.5) line of Spiceworks, there are a whole bunch of new posibilities out there. Cat, a Spiceworks UI Developer, created a neat little plugin that let you customize a few options in the helpdesk.

• ticket status in the toolbar
• increased ticket window height
• colors for past due tickets and private messages
• information on devices in the Related To field

Well, that wasn't enough for me so I delved into the world of plugin making. I added:

• custom color codes
• enabling/disabling ticket window height
• custom ticket window height
• more refreshes in the ticket status toolbar

It's still not perfect and I have to rely on the API provided, but I think it is a good start.

If you have Spiceworks, you can install the plugin here. If not, what's wrong with you?

The following is the source code for the plugin. Feel free to borrow from it or use it as a tutorial to start programming plugins for Spiceworks.

// ==SPICEWORKS-PLUGIN==
// @name          Help Desk Customizations Clone
// @description   Adds minor enhancements to your Help Desk, including ticket status in the toolbar, increased ticket window height, colors for past due tickets and private messages, and information on devices in the Related To field.  From Kat's plugin, I made the expanding height optional and put a refresh of the status bar on ticket close.
// @version       0.3
// ==/SPICEWORKS-PLUGIN==

plugin.configure({
settingDefinitions: [
{name: 'past_due_color', label: 'Past Due Highlight Color', type: 'string', defaultValue: '#ffdede', example: 'Default: #ffdede'},
{name: 'private_note_color', label: 'Private Note Color', type: 'string', defaultValue: '#e3eaf2', example: 'Default: #e3eaf2'},
{name: 'expanded_height_enabled', label:'Enable Increased Window Height', type:'checkbox', defaultValue: false},
{name: 'expanded_height', label: 'Ticket Window Height (in px)', type: 'string', defaultValue: '500', example: 'Default: 500'}
]
});

function refreshToolbarTicketInfo(){
// display ticket stats
var numOpenTickets = SPICEWORKS.data.Ticket.find('all', {filter:'open'}).length;
var numPastDue = SPICEWORKS.data.Ticket.find('all', {filter:'past_due'}).length;

var toolbarTicketInfo = $('toolbar').down('span.advanced_controls span.toolbar_ticket_info');

if (toolbarTicketInfo){
toolbarTicketInfo.remove();
}
$('toolbar').down('span.advanced_controls').insert('<span class="toolbar_ticket_info" style="  float: right; background: #e8e8e8; padding: 3px 5px; border: #888 1px solid;"><strong>Open Tickets:</strong> ' + numOpenTickets + '   <strong>Past Due:</strong> ' + numPastDue + '</span>');
}

SPICEWORKS.app.helpdesk.ready(function(){
// increase window size
if(plugin.settings.expanded_height_enabled){
SPICEWORKS.utils.addStyle("body.tickets #active_overview {height: " + plugin.settings.expanded_height + "px !important;}");
}

// mark past due ticket rows
$$('td.past_due').each(function(item){
item.up().setStyle({backgroundColor: plugin.settings.past_due_color});
});

refreshToolbarTicketInfo();

});

SPICEWORKS.app.helpdesk.ticket.closed(function(){
refreshToolbarTicketInfo();
});

SPICEWORKS.app.helpdesk.ticket.ready(function(){
// color private messages
$$('li.private').each(function(item){
item.setStyle({backgroundColor: plugin.settings.private_note_color})
});

// add device summary
var deviceLink = $('ticket_review_summary_view').down('p.related_to a');
if(deviceLink) {
var deviceURL = deviceLink.readAttribute('href');
var startIndex = deviceURL.indexOf('id-');
if(startIndex != -1) {
var substring = deviceURL.substring(startIndex);
var deviceID = substring.gsub(/[^\d]/, '');
var device = SPICEWORKS.data.Device.find(deviceID);
if(device) {
var displayInfo = '<div id="related_to_summary" style="display: none; clear: both; border:1px solid #ccc; padding: 10px; margin: 5px 0; overflow: hidden;"><ul style="margin: 0; padding: 0;">'
var listStyle = '<li style="float: left; width: 200px;">'
if(device.ip_address && !device.ip_address.empty()) {
displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>IP:</strong> ' + device.ip_address + '</li>';
}
if(device.mac_address && !device.mac_address.empty()) {
displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>MAC:</strong> ' + device.mac_address + '</li>';
}
if(device.manufacturer && !device.manufacturer.empty()) {
displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Vendor:</strong> ' + device.manufacturer + '</li>';
}
if(device.current_user && !device.current_user.empty()) {
displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Last Login:</strong> ' + device.current_user + '</li>';
}
if(device.primary_owner_name && !device.primary_owner_name.empty()) {
displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Owner:</strong> ' + device.primary_owner_name + '</li>';
}
if(device.asset_tag && !device.asset_tag.empty()) {
displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Asset Tag:</strong> ' + device.asset_tag + '</li>';
}
if(device.operating_system && !device.operating_system.empty()) {
displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>OS:</strong> ' + device.operating_system + '</li>';
}
if(device.serial_number && !device.serial_number.empty()) {
displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Serial No:</strong> ' + device.serial_number + '</li>';
}
displayInfo += '</ul><p style="float: right;"><a href="#" onclick="new Effect.BlindUp(\'related_to_summary\', {duration:0.20}); return false;">hide</a></p></div>';
$('ticket_purchase_container').insert({after: displayInfo});
deviceLink.insert({after: '  (<a href="#" onclick="new Effect.BlindDown(\'related_to_summary\', {duration:0.20}); return false;">info</a>)'})
}
}
}
});

Mmm....Pepsi

I found this over at Business Pundit and couldn't help but repost it.

Free Success Manifesto

While browsing the good old Google reader, I came across a post from Seth Godin with an abstract title 'Making a living online.' Seth usually posts some pretty interesting things so I decided to go check it out. It turns out that there was a free guide to overnight success posted by Chris Guillebeau. From a first glance, it is an interesting and quick read.
On another note, his site looks pretty awesome.

Congratulations Hawaii...not the worst Pork spenders

According to the new report released by the Citizens Against Government Waste (or CAGW for short,) Hawaii ranks as the second worst per capita pork spenders in the Nation. The good news is that we aren't the worst.

According to the CAGW site,

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is a private, non-partisan, non-profit organization representing more than one million members and supporters nationwide. CAGW's mission is to eliminate waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency in the federal government. Founded in 1984 by the late industrialist J. Peter Grace and syndicated columnist Jack Anderson, CAGW is the legacy of the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, also known as the Grace Commission.

This story makes me wonder, does CAGW also stand for Citizens Against Global Warming?

First they came...

Very good poem written by Pastor Martin Niemöller that will probably apply to every era.

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant

Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up

Scheduling a Weekly Defrag in Windows

Just a tip if you want to have your computer defragment itself every week. I found an article titled Windows XP: Schedule a weekly defragmentation that gives nice pictures and makes it easy for the most basic computer user.

If it seems like your computer has gotten slower since you bought it, it probably has. One of the biggest factors that slows down your computer’s performance is fragmentation, a situation that occurs over time, in which files on your hard drive become divided into small pieces. Your computer must read a file to open, save, or close it. So when it reads each piece of a fragmented file separately, the effect is that the file can seem “slow” when you’re working with it.

Defragmenting your hard drive is the process of putting all the scattered pieces of files back together. Microsoft Windows XP includes a tool that will defragment your hard drive for you. To keep your system performing well, it’s a good idea to have Windows XP automatically defragment your hard drive every week.

Just a note, there are some helpful command line options for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003:

Usage:
defrag <volume> [-a] [-f] [-v] [-?]
volume drive letter or mount point (d: or d:\vol\mountpoint)
-a Analyze only
-f Force defragmentation even if free space is low
-v Verbose output
-? Display this help text

On Vista and Server 2008, there seem to be a few more options according to this article:

The list of supported command line parameters for "defrag.exe" is the following:

• drive letter - this parameter specifies the drive letter or the mount point path of the volume that will be analyzed or defragmented. (e.g. "defrag c:" or "defrag e:\volume\mountpoint");


• -c - using this parameters forces "defrag.exe" to defragment all volumes on your computer. (e.g. "defrag -c");


• -a - performs only fragmentation analysis and it doesn't defragment the specified drive. (e.g. "defrag d: -a");


• -r - performs a partial defragmentation which consolidates only the fragments which are smaller than 64 MB. This is the default setting. This means that "defrag v:" and "defrag v: -r" are equivalent and the Disk Defragmenter will perform the same type of defragmentation;


• -w - when you use this switch, "defrag.exe" will perform a full defragmentation, regardless of the fragments size. (e.g. "defrag c: -w");


• -f - forces the defragmentation even if the free space is lower than 15%. (e.g. "defrag c: -f");


• -v - verbose mode. In this mode, "defrag.exe" will show a detailed analysis and defragmentation output. (e.g. "defrag d: -v");


• -? - displays help information about how to use "defrag.exe". (e.g. "defrag -?").

Bothering me: Outrageous Salaries for CEOs

In a new post, Seth's Blog: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing), Seth Godin speaks about how CEOs are getting too much money. This is something that has bothered me recently. I mean, really, how many people are worth $50 million. If you look at all the lower positions where people are fighting for lower paying jobs, there are a ton of qualified individuals. When was it that MBAs became so rare?
Maybe now with it being an "employers-market" we can get away with paying CEOs only $5 million instead of 50.

ed. Here are some great ideas from BusinessPundit on the issue.

Reprint: Speed Safely by Tracy Arakaki

I just wanted to reprint this article from around hawaii. It was written by my friend Tracy Arakaki who has experienced first hand the effects of speeding. If you want to see more of the work he does, you can see his site at punishum.com.

2001 was a year to forget in regards to tragedy caused due to illegal street racing. Young Logan Fujimoto lost his life after he flew off the freeway and landed in a service station parking lot near Kahala Mall. A month later school teacher Elizabeth Kekoa was killed just a few miles from where young Logan lost his life. The driver Nicolas Tudisco is sitting in a prison cell serving 10 years for his poor decision.

Since January 1st of this year there has been 15 fatal crashes resulting in 17 deaths. 60% or 9 of these fatal accidents were due to excessive speeding. In 2008 Honolulu Police gave out over 58,800 citations for speeding. On a recent Friday evening I was listening to a police frequency for a single district and within 30 minutes there were 6 calls to officers on the beat of racing or speeding vehicles.

In 2001 with the help of import drag racer Shaun Carlson PunishUM Motorsports produced a 30 second Public Service Announcement with the help of a well known marketing firm. This PSA had gotten air time on all the network stations during the 2001 holiday season.

This year with the help of Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona PunishUM Motorsports is producing 3 Public Service Announcements and a half hour television special addressing illegal "Street Racing" or just plain "SPEEDING" and its consequences. Featured on the show is Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, Representative Glenn Wakai and others inform viewers that Speeding can lead to jail time or worse, Death.

Just a few days ago 3 young adults were killed again due to excessive speeding. A tragic loss due to really, there is no other word for it but being plain "STUPID".

The only place is a racetrack and "NOT" the streets.

If you would like more information in regards to this "Speed Safely" campaign you can log onto punishum.com.

Obama: Out of Touch, but Popular

I watched the last half of the Obama interview on the Tonight Show last night. People that say he's not suave guy is just fooling themselves. He is a very personable, easy-going, smooth-talking character. Just darn likable, if you take the politics out of it. But because he is likable doesn't make him a great (or even a good) president. He has calmed down his out of control spending ever so slightly and has settled on left-wing in talk but still pushes his (Pelosi's?) extreme agenda through his actions.

That is what makes me think that he is just out of touch. I don't know what they learn in Chicago, but it doesn't seem to be about thinking things through (No, not a ding against Chicago-ans, just of the political bunch.) The economy is doing bad and that is something we all know about. So why keep pushing frivolous spending such as $2.4B USD for electric vehicles, continuing subisidies for corn based ethanol, and multi-billion dollars to many other programs. It is just ludicrous. Not only that, but the Federal Reserve is going to create $1 trillion out of thin air.

It is just so frustrating to see everything skewed so far to the political left. Personally I am more of a moderate and didn't exactly like the previous administration either. But take a step back and look at what you are doing before you rush in to frivolous off the cuff spending. Politicians need to look back at history and see what hurts and what helps. The can even look at the lives of the common citizen for help. When we (the common man) are in trouble financially, we save and spend money on the things that have a good ROI. That is what our politicians need to see.

Sorry about my little rant. Now back to working with FoxPro.