updating flash, nauseating details version

FIRST, log out of any account on your computer, then log in AS ADMINISTRATOR. Then:
A) Go to this link in firefox (select the link address below, press Ctrl-C to copy it, then open firefox, put the cursor in the address bar, delete its contents, then press Ctl-V to paste the address)
http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
If it says your version is not the same version as the recommended, latest version, continue. Otherwise, you are ok and can stop now.

B) Click this link in firefox:
http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player.exe

C) A dialog box will come up that says what do you want to do with this file. Click "Save File."

D) Now you want to run the file. The easiest way to do this is through the Firefox downloads window. To get to it, press Ctrl-J on your keyboard, or go to the Tools Menu | Downloads.

E) A new window should appear, with a list of downloaded files, perhaps just one. The top one should say "install_flash_player.exe" or "install_flash_player(2).exe" or some other number. Right-click on this and select "Open."

F) If the Windows warning/authentication dialog box appears, select OK or enter your admin password to the computer and press OK.

G) Now a new flash window should appear with a red background and a white lowercase, styled "f". Don't do anything yet.

H) We need to close the firefox windows before flash can be installed. You might want to print out these instructions now so as not to lose them if you have these instructions open in firefox. There are at least two firefox windows open now, the regular browsing window and the firefox downloads window. Use Alt-Tab or move the flash window around to get to both firefox windows and close them.

I) Back on the Flash Installer window, check the box, "I have read and agree..."

J) Click the INSTALL button on the Flash installer window. If you can't it's probably because the checkbox above is not checked.

K) A blue bar should go from left to right, indicating your progress. When it says "Installation complete," click the DONE button.

L) Now we are half-way there, we need to install the Internet Explorer Flash version. Open up Firefox again.

M) Go to this link in Firefox:
http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax.exe

N) click "save file."

O) Again, go to the Firefox Downloads Window. Ctrl-J or Tools Menu | Downloads.

P) In the Firefox Downloads window, the file listed should be install_flash_player_ax.exe, or install_flash_player_ax(2).exe or some other number.

Q) Right-click on this file and select "Open"

R) A new Flash Installation Window will appear. This time, you do NOT need to quit firefox, as only Internet Explorer uses this version of Flash. If you have Internet Explorer or AOL open, close them.

S) In the new Flash Installation Window, check the "I have read and agree..." checkbox.

T) Press Install.

U) A blue bar should go from left to right, indicating your progress. When it says "Installation complete," click the DONE button.

V) Let's test to make sure it worked. Open up Firefox and go to this link:
http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
Make sure it says you have the latest version.

W) Open up Internet Explorer to this link:
http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
Make sure it says you have the latest version.

If either doesn't have the latest version, try again. If that doesn't work, you'll need to try uninstalling the old version of flash first:
See step #1 of:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/191/tn_19166.html#main_ManualInstaller

CONGRATS, you are all done.

updating plugins. Sigh.

Firefox, Flash, and Java have been updated lately. Those should be updated on your computer too, if you haven't done that in the last two days:

For each install, you have to download the file, then find the file on your computer (right-click on the file in the Firefox downloads window and select open containing folder) and double-click the file to run and install it.

Check flash: http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
Install Flash: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/191/tn_19166.html#main_ManualInstaller
(this is the manual installer, a much simpler install, and you don't have to uninstall old versions unless they are really old - you do have to install flash twice, once for IE, once for all other browsers).

Check/install Java: http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp?detect=jre&try=1
(be sure to UNCHECK the Yahoo Toolbar in the installation process!)

Install Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Thanks for doing this as this helps prevent malware on your computer, and thus all the other computers!

Firefox has a "plugin check" which is also really useful:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/

I know, I know, I know... this takes time, but not as much as recovering from a virus trashing your machine and your data.

My hill to work

I ride up a pretty steep hill when I bike to work. Now I know how steep:

132 feet elevation gain in about a half mile.

Here's where to find the site that told me.

Waking up at ridiculous hours

What is it about waking up in the middle of the night to watch sports on the other side of the world? I love doing this, though I admit it's crazy. Quite often, you have to watch alone. There's no party atmosphere, no beer. Does tea just make sports more enjoyable? I don't think so.

I was pulling for Andy Murray today in the Australian Open 2010 Final, and though he lost in straight sets, I'm glad I got up at 4am to watch it. I even woke up before my alarm went off, fearing I'd wake my 19-month old and have a distraction to consider as I tried to watch. I had to tiptoe around the kitchen not to wake anyone up making tea, and watched some good tennis, enjoying chatting with folks similarly obsessed on a blog.

When you wake up in the middle of the night to watch a sporting event, you are doing it because you love the event. There's no "I'm just hanging out with friends for the party of it" like you have at other events. No one proposes playing Scrabble during a break in the action, much less during the action (this has happened during Super Bowls I've watched, and the board game actually materialized for those bored with the game).

I have many memories of waking up early - often the World Cup and sometimes the Australian Open. Glad to add another one today. It's especially good when you have to bike or walk through an eerily quiet town to watch the match, but today is too snowy for that.

I enjoyed the banter on a Craig Hickman's excellent tennis blog with other people crazy enough to wake up so early to watch this match.

Yes you can use Regular Expressions in MS-Access

I've heard it was not possible, but it is:

Private Function testRE()
  Dim re As Object, strText as String
  strText = ""the short brown fox, jumped over " _
    & "the Foxy lad of foxtown in Fox-ville."
  Set re = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
    Dim colMatches
    With re
        .Pattern = "\bfox\b"
        .IgnoreCase = True
        .Global = True
    End With
    'Debug.Assert False
    Dim myNum
    Set colMatches = re.Execute(strText)
    Debug.Print colMatches.Count & " matched"
    Dim inttemp As Integer
    For inttemp = 0 To colMatches.Count - 1
      Debug.Print ">" & colMatches(inttemp)
    Next inttemp
    
    Debug.Print re.Replace(strText, "Dog")
    
End Function

The results:

results:
2 matched
>fox
>Fox
the short brown Dog, jumped over the Foxy lad of Newtown foxtown in Dog-ville.

Hurricans are the bane to NJ Devils

For the fourth time this decade, the Carolina Hurricanes have made the playoffs. Every single time they've been there, they've played the New Jersey Devils.

Back in 2001, the Hurricanes lost to the Devils in the first round 4-2, including two shutouts by the Devils, but Carolina won the only game going to overtime.

Since then, it's been all Hurricanes:
2002: the Hurricanes won 4-2, where all four games won by Carolina were won by one goal, including both overtime games in the series.

2006: After the league took a break for a year and the Hurricanes took a break from the playoffs for a while, they once again encounter New Jersey, this time in the second round, and this time only needed 5 games to beat New Jersey, again winning the only game in overtime.

2009: Again, New Jersey in the first round, and this time New Jersey won an overtime game for the first time against Carolina in the playoffs this decade, game 3. But Carolina won in seven, winning one game in overtime and two games with a goal in the last minute. Game 4's goal came with 0.2 seconds left to win 4-3. Game 7's goal came less than a minute after the tying goal, with ~30 seconds left. Which is more dramatic? Gotta go with Game 7.

Beating Windows Update's IE Quicklaunch

Whenever I update my computer, it seems, Windows insists on adding Internet Explorer to the QuickLaunch area. Hmmm, let's see, if I deleted it, I probably don't want it there. So why does MS add it when there's a security update? No idea, except it probably has to do with pushing the use of their browser.

There are a few problems with this. 1) I didn't give it permission to add something to the QuickLaunch area. 2) I have no way of opting out of this. 3) Except, I could skip updates, which would be a bad idea. 4) I can no longer see the icons I have there, because now now all icons can be shown, and the little double arrow is needed to click twice to the icon I want and IE.

I've found the solution, though. It's simple and I'll never have to remove it again. I added a batch file (yes, those still exist) to my startup that removes IE from the QuickLaunch area. It's simple.

1) Go the the start menu and find the "Startup" folder. Right-click on it and select "open" (not "open all users"). This will take you to some place like:
C:\Users\(yourUserName)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup on Vista and something similar on Windows XP.

2) Add a new text file to that folder by right-clicking and selecting "New Text File." Rename the file "RemoveIEQuickLaunch.bat" and say OK to the warning about changing the file extension.

3) Open the file with notepad and insert the following:
del "C:\Users\(yourUserName)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Launch Internet Explorer Browser.lnk"
If MS creates it with a different name, you could be more aggressive with:
del "C:\Users\(yourUserName)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\*Internet Explorer*.lnk"
4) Save the file and close it.

For Windows XP, you'd need to know the path of the QuickLaunch area, which is similar, just right click on the QuickLaunch area (not an icon), select "open folder", and it will open a window to QuickLaunch, which will tell you the path.

Now whenever I log in, the internet explorer icon is removed if it ever got added!