As I reported on the Google TiddlyWiki group…

Problem: Version 2.5.2 fails to save backup on a network drive in a

<br /> Windows domain environment with IE7.


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I've got two empty TiddlyWikis.  One is v2.5.0 and the other is
v2.5.2.  I have saved each in the same folder on a network folder
(i.e. \\servername\sharename\foldername).  I have defined
txtBackupFolder to be "backups".  When I click Save Changes, 2.5.0
saves the file and saves a backup in backups; 2.5.2 fails.

No plugins.
Windows XP SP3
On a Windows network, using Windows domain security.
­Fails when browser is IE7.
It works with Firefox 2.5.1.

Work-around:
I used a text editor on the file, and inside the definition of
copyFile, I changed ­

    copyFile: function(dest,source) {
        drivers.activeX.createPath(dest);

    copyFile: function(dest,source) {
        var browser=navigator.appName;
        if (browser=="Microsoft Internet Explorer")
            ieCreatePath(dest);
        drivers.activeX.createPath(dest);

With the work-around, it saves the file and it saves the backup file.

I’m revisiting the eternal question of what-goes-where. I’ve made some recent changes, and I want to get them documented, to remind me of my textual data management plan.

• Tasks (to-do, Next Actions, etc.) go in my Outlook "Tasks" folder.
• GTD Projects go in Outlook in a folder (of content-type Task) named "Projects".
• The body of the project task-item contains actions that are not GTD Next Actions.
  
• Input Jam web site gets how-to technical pointers of possible interest to others.
  
• Evernote gets big-picture goals, miscellaneous strategy notes, how-did-I-do-this items that don't go to Input Jam.

For my Tasks, I have set up Outlook "Search Folders" for:

• All Tasks
• Completed Tasks
• @Agenda
• @Errand
• @Everywhere (includes all contexts and no-context-filled-in tasks)
• @Home
• @Nowhere (tasks that don't have a context entered yet)
• @Office

Setting up a Search Folder for non-email items can’t be done via the user interface in Outlook 2003, so I’ve written VBA (an Outlook macro) to create the Search Folders.

My basic view in Outlook is the Shortcuts view (accessible via control-7), so that I can look at my Search Folders, my Inbox, my Tasks and my Projects folders, without other folders distracting me.

I use some important keyboard shortcuts:

• I use Slickrun, with control-space to bring-up Slickrun.  Some of the Slickrun commands I use are:
  
• do <text> -- create a Task in Outlook with <text>
• dop <text> -- just like 'do', except that it creates an item in my Projects Outlook folder.
  
• Winkey-N - Starts Evernote
  

I was running into a problem where Microsoft Office programs, such as Excel, Word, and PowerPoint were taking "too long" to start and show an empty document. 

After I determined that there was plenty of memory and CPU available, and defragmented my drive, they were still slow to start.

It turns out they were attempting to connect to a printer that wasn’t there.  I have a laptop, and (surprise, surprise) I use it in different locations.  When the Windows default printer isn’t attached, Office programs try to do something to it on start-up, and they have to wait until it times out.

The solution: Set the Windows default printer to a PDF virtual printer.  It is always available.

• Painful learning 6,251 -- When you make a change to your database schema, and it doesn't show up in your testing with cucumber after you run "rake db:migrate", you should first run "rake features" and then "rake db:migrate" and then run "rake features" again.
  
• ouch
  

There is a Windows utility, QT Tabbar, that gives Windows Explorer a tabbed interface.

It mostly works, but I was seeing more Explorer flakiness than usual when I was using QT Tabbar, so I decided to remove it. 

"Remove it."  Such a simple concept.  So easy in theory (run the uninstaller); so hard in practice (no uninstaller).

I had to resort to searching for files in C:\Windows (and below) containing "QT Tabbar" and searching the registry for "QT Tabbar" to remove it.

Outlook 2003 Tasks Versus Evernote 3 (Windows Desktop edition)

Advantage Outlook:

1. You can set a reminder on a task in Outlook.
2. I've set up nifty Search Folders to give me the following views of Tasks:
• All Tasks
• Completed Tasks
• @errand
• @everywhere
• @home
• @nowhere
• @office
­
3. Outlook offers more columns (i.e. attributes), where Evernote just has Tags.  This gives me more options for sorting and filtering.
   
4. Outlook provides easy drag-and-drop email to create a Task.
5. Evernote just does a poor job of formatting.  Really poor.
   

­Advantage Evernote:

1. Synchronization across web, Windows, OS X (and yes, I use all 3).
2. iPhone synch (for when I buy an iPhone).
3. Evernote is a better reposiitory for other (non-task) information, that I'll be using even if I put my Tasks in Outlook.
   

Other Notes:

• July 23, 2009 - I'm going with Outlook because of the reminders (mostly) and the extra attributes (to a lesser degree).
  

I ran across an odd behavior in RocketDock recently.  When minimize-to-dock was enabled, and I minimized an application, nothing happened for 10 seconds, and then the window minimized.  Not "about 10 seconds."  "Exactly 10 seconds, every time."

At first I thought that my graphics card was too slow, but then I tried a fresh install, and minimize-to-dock was very fast.

It turns out that having an icon on the dock, that points to a network folder or file, causes this 10-second pause — when I’m not connected to the network.

Apparently, RocketDock is attempting to follow the icon pointers on a minimize, and it has to wait for something to time-out before it continues.  The work-around is not to put shortcuts to network folders/files directly on the dock.  You can put them in a stacks docklet.  Just don’t put them on the dock (or always be connected to your LAN).

UPDATE:

Here’s a work-around.  Instead of making the icon on the dock be a shortcut to the LAN folder, make it a shortcut to a VBScript or a .CMD file that opens the LAN folder, and put the script on a local drive.

Another Note:
The Nvidia Desktop Manager seems to grab control-alt-shift-leftClick of the minimize button (for minimize to a title bar, a.k.a. roll-up), so RocketDock’s control-alt-shift-leftClick of the minimize button doesn’t prevent minimize-to-dock.  There are two work-arounds:
1. Temporarily disable Nview Manager.
2. Edit the RocketDock settings.ini file and add the application to the WindowsFilter list.  e.g.
  [Software\RocketDock\WindowFilters]
  0-Filter=notepad.exe?Notepad
  count=1

You can use a pseudo-SQL called "DASL" to search Outlook items in VBA (vbscript/Visual Basic for Applications).  I never can quite remember the syntax.  To interactively discover the syntax:

1. Select View/Arrange By/Current View/Customize Current View
2. Press the Filter button
3. Use the Advanced tab to build your query.
4. Use the SQL tab to see the DASL.

One thing I haven’t figured out yet is how to select items that do not have "waiting" as one of the categories.  If you build a query using "doesn’t contain" and "waiting", the DASL it builds is "<> ‘waiting’" and that fails if the item has multiple categories.

Google Desktop was sometimes locking up on find-as-you-type, taking the CPU to 99%, and requiring me to kill and restart GoogleDesktop.exe to fix things.

I ran TCPView, both with WinInet proxy on and off, and found that GoogleDesktop was connecting to my proxy or to gx-in-f101.google.co, when it starts find-as-you-type.  For whatever reason (perhaps the  firewall is blocking gx-in-f101.google.com), connections don’t succeed, and GoogleDesktop apparently spins in a tight loop, waiting for the connection.

If proxy was enabled, GoogleDesktop was connecting to the proxy, EVEN IF don’t-use-proxy-for-local was checked, and gx-in-f101.google.com was entered in the list of local addresses.

Hello, Google?  Not everyone has 100% reliable connectivity to gx-in-f101.google.com, and it looks like you are only using part of the Wininet proxy config info.

The solution is to use a PAC file and to direct gx-in-f101.google.com to ""PROXY localhost:1", to make the connection cleanly fail.  Prevents the lock-up on find-as-you-type.

UPDATE: GDS does a query to suggestqueries.google.com,  and this query returns status 200.  Blocking it doesn’t prevent the lock-up.