Linux - use find along with cp to copy specific files by date

The reason this came up is because someone I work with was trying to copy specific files from one folder to another, but only if they were created today. He tried using grep and didn't have any luck. I'm not saying you can't use grep, but I figured it out using find instead because it seemed to allow you to use more parameters. The trick is using the find command as your first argument in the cp command. Here's the example:

cp `find filename*.txt -mtime -1` /home/common/files

This will take any files from the current directory that are like filename.txt (e.g filename99.txt, filename130fff.txt, etc), AND that have been modified in the last 24 hours ( number x 24 hours. e.g. use 2 for 48 hrs, 3 for 72 hrs, etc.), and copy them to the directory /home/common/files. You could change mtime argument to mmin instead, and then the number following would be the number of minutes in the past the file would've been modified, which in this case would be 1 minute. In the find command, you can use a full file path as well so you don't have to start the command from within a particular folder. Hopefully that has enough information to at least get you started. To find more parameters for commands, use the man pages in Linux ("man find" or "man cp") to list them. You can always search Google too, which is what I usually do, and you may find some helpful examples. Here is the link to the page that pointed me in the right direction in regards to using find with date/time parameters: http://www.linux.ie/newusers/beginners-linux-guide/find.php

Load pantone colors in Adobe Creative Suites 3

I haven't tried this, but was asked about it today and found this in the Adobe Forum

1. Inside CS3, go to Windows, then Swatches
2. Click on the options at top right of Swatches
3. Open Swatch library
4. Color books

Original post taken from the Adobe Forums

Hope it helps!

Motorola Good Mobile Messaging (Goodlink) debug mode reprovision

This is only for Palm Treo 650's and 750's. The 650's are a little dated, but there may still be others using them since I have a few users still. If you run into problems using Good Mobile Messaging on the devices, you can reprovision your device to try to fix the synchronization problem. To do this, do the following:

Open the GoodLauncher. It is the standard Good icon that will give you the menu of the Good applications you have installed on the phone.

Once GoodLauncher has started

a) If you're on a Treo 650, on your keypad, type "debug"
b) On the Treo 750, you have to type "000debug" where the first three are zeros

This should put you into the Good debugger. In order to reprovision your device, type "reprov" and press Enter. Enter is the return key, and has the symbol that looks like an arrow going down and to the left.

You will then be prompted and asked if you wish to delete all data. Here you'll want to type "y" and press Enter. I know this sounds scary, but by "all data", it really only means all Good data. Any other files on your phone will stay as is. It just needs to delete all the Good application data before reloading it

Your phone will probably restart, and then reprovision your device with the Good server. Once it's done, your email, contacts, calendar, etc will resynchronize and you'll be back to work within Good. I've used this multiple times and the nice thing is that you don't have to request a new PIN from your Good administrator. If you're looking for instructions for other mobile devices, sorry, I don't have them. However, if you check out Good's support site you may be able to track some down for your particular device.

Black box printing instead of image in Word

If you're trying to print a Microsoft Word document that has images in it, but those images are printing out as black boxes instead, it could be caused by a couple of things. The first to check would be to make sure you're allowing drawing objects to be printer. To do this, go to Tools->Options, then select Print and see if Draft mode is checked. If it is, uncheck that box. Also make sure "Drawing Objects" is checked.

Another possibility could be outdated printer drivers. Most printer manufacturers release new drivers on a regular basis, so anytime you're having printer problems, that's a good place to start. Go to your printer manufacturers webpage and search for your printer model. Usually the driver downloads are located within the manufacturers support pages. Find the driver compatible with your printer and whatever system you're using, download, install, and then try printing again.

Default location of Microsoft Outlook pst files

If you're an Microsoft Outlook user, but aren't using a Microsoft Exchange server, then you know how important pst files are. However, you may not know where they are on your machine. This is important for backup reasons, and also in case you ever need to move them to a new computer. They are stored in different locations, depending on which version of Windows you're using. They're also hidden from view, unless you explicitly select to show hidden files.

First off, you need to show hidden files. You can do this by going to My Computer->Tools->Folder Options, and then go to View and select Show hidden files and folders. Now, the location depends on your OS.

If you're running Windows XP, the default pst file location is:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
where username needs to be replaced with your username on the computer.

If you're a Windows Vista user, then you can find the pst file(s) at
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

You can always select a different location for the pst when you first create it, but if you don't remember where you put it then it's most likely in the default location. For information regarding nk2 files, which are responsible for saving your auto-fill lists, refer to my earlier post. Those locations are also the default locations for ost files that are used when you have an Microsoft Exchange account setup. You don't have to worry about those though because as long as your email resides on the Exchange server, you'll have a backup of it there.

Send or transfer large files - for FREE

If you've ever run up against problems with email limits when trying to send files to someone, or you don't have any idea what FTP is, then this will probably help you. There are many services out there that allow you to upload files to their system, then send an email with a link to those files so someone else can download them. This helps you avoid having to attach the files to an email, and really is no different to the end user than downloading something from a webpage. There are two such services that I'll mention here; the first being SendSpace, and the second is YouSendIt. Personally, I've only used each once, but I recommend SendSpace. You can transfer up to 300MB in a single session, and there is no account creation necessary. It has worked fine when I've used it too. YouSendIt works as well, but you're limited to transfers of 100MB or less. Either way will work, and will provide a better alternative than trying to email large files to someone, especially if that someone is really a large group of people.

Windows Vista error during install, must be system administrator

For any of you who run across this problem and don't understand it because you know you're the computer's administrator, don't worry. It's one of the Vista security features. You are the administrator, however, unless you explicitly select to run the program as the administrator, you only have standard permissions. This keeps malicious programs from running under your user admin account because technically they don't have the permissions to do so. If you have the file downloaded already and are having problems when you double-click on it to run it, instead of double-clicking the install file, right-click and go to Run As Administrator (should be second thing from the top). That should help. If you're installing from a CD, you should be able to do the same thing to the CD icon. Otherwise you may have to right-click, choose Explore, then find the installer program on the CD and run that as administrator. Hopefully this helps.

Compress and resize images - for FREE!

If you're looking to send images in an email, or just upload to some sites, you may run into a problem because of the size of the files. This is because most digital cameras now come with enough megapixels to create a high-res image, and that's what they default to. When you put the images on your computer, it's not surprising to see sizes of 2 or more MB. Resizing the images isn't always the easiest, and trying to make the file size smaller isn't much fun either. When I say compress, I don't mean add it to a zip file either. I mean to change the picture's resolution so the quality is a little lower, which will in turn drive the over all file size down.

Axiom's PicSizer application is a free tool that will do just that for you. At the time of this post, the Axiom website appears to be unavailable, so an alternative download link can be found at MajorGeeks.com. This freebie will allow you to resize/compress a single image, or it will also process an entire folder of images. I've used it and recommended it in the past to multiple people, and it's worked great every time. It's as simple as loading the image, then selecting save, reducing the quality slider, and clicking OK.

Automatically create Outlook signature using Active Directory info

I can't take credit for this, but I've used it and it works pretty slick. It is a VB script file (VBS) that can be modified to your needs, and it will create a signature for Outlook 2003 or 2007 by using information it gets from Active Directory. You do need to have an understanding of HTML and probably a little coding (primarily VB) experience, but it's really not that difficult. All the hard stuff has been taken care of and you can focus on customizing the actual signature.

Here's the first post that contains the actual script: http://bradmarsh.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/ad-based-outlook-email-signature-for-2003-and-2007/

And here's the second post with more information on how to implement it: http://bradmarsh.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/ad-based-outlook-email-signature-for-2003-and-2007-continued/

The easiest way, if you don't know what you're doing, is to run the script and see what it does initially. Be aware that this script erases all signatures you already have each time it is run, primarily because it's meant as more of an administrative tool to force a specific signature upon users. I'm sure you can change that feature, but I didn't bother doing it myself because I didn't care. Once you see the output, then you can find where the information is being compiled within the script and reconfigure it to output what you want it to. Good luck!

Outlook email address auto-fill storage file (nk2) location

I've noticed a few people landing on my blog using search terms that involved finding the nk2 file for Outlook, so I thought I'd post the answer for you. First off, it's hidden, so you need to start by showing hidden files and folders on your computer. You can accomplish this the same way in both XP and Vista:

Open up My Computer, then go to Tools->Folder Options (you may need to press the Alt button in Vista to get the Tools menu to show up). Then go to the View tab, then under Hidden Files and Folders, select "Show hidden files and folders".

Now you can go to the nk2 file, which is in different locations in each OS (Vista and XP)

For XP, you can find it at C:\Documents and Settings\"username"\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\

In Vista, it's at C:\Users\"username"\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

If you have multiple nk2 files, it's because you have multiple Outlook profiles. The nk2 for each profile will be named the same as the profile. If you're moving the nk2 file to a different machine, make sure that after you copy it to the new location, you rename the copied nk2 file so it is named the same as the new profile as Outlook relies on that naming convention in order to open and use the nk2 file with a certain profile. The default profile name is Outlook. For the Microsoft instructions, check out this page.