Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/08/03
If an Alt-combination does not work, try the Command-Alt-combination or through the menu.
For instance:
- Alt-Tab: works
- Alt-F: fails
- Command-Alt-F: works (starts the file menu
- Alt-Space: fails
- Command-Alt-Space: fails
- Via the menu: works
–jeroen
via: Making Keystrokes with Macintosh Keyboards – Citrix eDocs.
Posted in Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/07/28
This is yet another post of some information I wish I had known years ago.
AllPinouts: a site that lists pin layouts of common and not so common hardware.
When writing this, the site had Statistics indicating over 3500 pages and close to 1000 pin layouts.
Layouts include cables and connectors for audio, video, computing and much much more.
These were the pin layouts I needed:
I found the 3 and 4 pin layouts also on this page: Desktop Boards — 3-wire and 4-wire fan connectors.
Another site with lots of Power Connectors is Toms Hardware. A good starting page is Additional Power Connectors: Peripheral, Floppy, And SATA – Power Supply 101: A Reference Of Specifications.
The reason I needed it was to add a front case fan to a couple of HP XW6600 workstations in order to improve cooling.
Both 80mm and 92mm fans will fit.
A couple of links:
–jeroen
Posted in Hardware, HP XW6600, Power User, Virtualization | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/07/25
I’ve succesfully woken up these machines:
- HP XW6600 running ESXi 5.1
- ThinkPad W701U running Windows 7
I still need to try to wake up a Mac Mini Server running OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
MacBook Air on 10.7 (Lion) and Retina on 10.8 (Mountain Lion) won’t work as they are WiFi only, and WOL does not work over WiFi.
On 10.7 and up it might not work on a Mac Mini Server either, as Apple Introduced Dark Wake.
I used these tools to send WOL packets: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in *nix, Apple, ESXi5.1, Ethernet, Hardware, HP XW6600, Linux, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Network-and-equipment, openSuSE, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Power User, SuSE Linux, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, Wake-on-LAN (WoL), Windows, Windows 7 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/06/24
While Watching the CodeRage Mobile conference last week, I noticed Bruno Fierens showing his iPad on a PC.
I also thought about the other way around: show your PC or Mac on your iPad or using your iPad as a second (third?) monitor to your regular machine.
So here are some links to tools I want to look into further:
- Reflector – AirPlay mirror your iPhone or iPad to any Mac or PC, wirelessly..
- AirParrot – AirPlay your Mac or PC’s screen to Apple TV.
- MaxiVista: iPad as a monitor.
- MaxiVista: Laptop as a Second Monitor.
- MaxiVista: Mac as a Second Monitor.
- using iPad as second screen: DisplayPad for iPhone for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.
- iDisplay: Turn your iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini or Android into external monitor for your Mac or Windows PC.
- (ScreenSlider is defunct now)
- Air Display: iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac or Windows PC as an external monitor. (there is a free ad supported version)
- extending your desktop workspace using displays of network connected computers or portable devices: ZoneOS ZoneScreen.
- Use your other computer (Mac or PC) as an additional display for your Mac: ScreenRecycler.
- mirrors your iPhone/iPad screen on your desktop: Plutinosoft | iDemo.
- Wireless Monitor Apps: iPad/iPhone Apps AppGuide.
- Splashtop XDisplay – Support.
- Mini Display for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad on the iTunes App Store.
I’ve not done comparisons yet. These sites have compared some of the products though:
–jeroen
Posted in Apple, Hardware, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, MacBook Retina, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/06/13
I always wonder how people can remember the character combinations to type special characters from a regular US international keyboard on a Mac with OS X, or Windows computer.
When having to type a lot of international text, I often use the United States-International keyboard layout in Windows 7, in Windows Vista, and in Windows XP.
When not, I often use Character Map. Too bad there is no shortcut for it.
Choosing the U.S International – PC on a Mac OS X (as it behaves exactly like the PC counterpart on Windows) however introduces problems when using Remote Desktop Connection or virtualization software like VMware Fusion or Parallels.
So I sometimes revert to “Special Charters” (option-command-T) under the Edit menu (also called Character Viewer), but usually take advantage that ApplePressAndHoldEnabled by default is enabled: that allows the press-and-hold feature for vowel keys, and then either use the digit keys or arrows to select the target accented character.
On both systems, there are other ways to type special characters using keyboard shortcuts that I find very hard to remember. For people with a good memory, you can try these:
–jeroen
via: Macintosh OSX Keyboards (Penn State).
Posted in Apple, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, MacBook Retina, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/05/26
Boy, wish I had known these two Word keyboard shortcuts a long time ago:
- Ctrl + Up: Go To the start of the previous paragraph
- Ctrl + Down: Go To the start of the next paragraph
–jeroen
via: Move Around – Microsoft Word.
Posted in Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Office, Office 2003, Office 2007, Office 2010, Office 2013, Power User, Word | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/05/07
Thanks Christian S. – Moers for the fix for KB2686509 repeatedly failing and the answer below.
I’ve used it as the Microsof FixIt offered at You may receive a “0x8007F0F4” error code when you try to install updates from the Windows Update Web site or from the Microsoft Update Web site did not work on several systems. The fix by Christian did work on all those systems.
Note: it is possible you get the same error for KB2676562: MS12-034: Description of the security update for Windows kernel-mode drivers: May 8, 2012, as it is related to KB2686509: MS12-034: Description of the security update for CVE-2012-0181 in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003: May 8, 2012.
One of the symptoms is that your system contains the file %windor%\faultykeyboard.log containing a list of missing keyboard layout DLL files or KBD files (one of my machines had these missing: kbdjpn.dll and kbdkor.dll).
The cause is that KB2686509 can have problems with registry keys stored here:
- HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout
- HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts
Christian wrote a batch file to fix it (named BatchFixKB2686509.cmd) which works splendid on the systems I had this error.
The batch file uses regedit /e to export parts of the registry, then writes a small .reg file to clear the keys and imports them with regedit /S, waits for you so you can install the update, then writes back the saved registry data.
So basically, it automatically performs the manual steps described at KB2686509 – Failure Due to Upgrade from Windows ME or 98 to Windows XP – TechNet Articles – United States (English) – TechNet Wiki.
His answer: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/04/21
Somehow my Fonera insisted that WiFi channel 2 was a good choice.
It isn’t so I forced it to be on one of the good 1/6/11 channel choices.
This links describes where those settings are: Fonera Simpl Wireless Settings : Fon Support.
–jeroen
Posted in Fonera FON2100A, Network-and-equipment, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/04/18
Boy, I wish I had found this far earlier:
- in Windows Explorer this is called cut & paste:
Ctrl+X & Ctrl+V
- in Mac OS X Finder this is called copy & move items here:
Command+C & Command+Option+V
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Apple, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Power User | 3 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/04/11
I know that Apple likes “design”, but boy their desing resulted into Mac OS X having lots of Fn/Option/Ctrl/Shift keyboard shortcuts.
Being a keyboard person (before the DOS era), I love to learn new keyboard shortcuts to make my life easier, while vendors are step by step hiding information about them.
I will update this table over time to reflect even better the ones I use most regularly.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Apple, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Power User, SpotLight | Leave a Comment »