Android Camera Phone to Picasa Web to Computer

I have been experimenting with Picasa Desktop and Picasa Web trying to figure out the best way to manage photos taken from my Android camera phone. 

Thanks to the Google+ app for Android it can automatically send photos you take on your phone to your Google+ account and then they are viewable in your Picasa Web account.  But the linkages are one-way and not bi-directional.

In the video below I demonstrate the various ways to get the photos from your phone to the computer as well as deleting them.

You may prefer to watch directly on YouTube

As a side note, this was also my first attempt at making a screen-capture video, so it's a little unpolished.

SSL not working on Windows Server 2003

We have a customer that physically moved their server from one location to another. This was a server that had not been rebooted in over 6 months.


After we moved it and brought it back up I began to realize the SSL on the web server was not working.  I first thought I had made a mistake in the firewall rules since it was a new firewall at a new site on a different ISP.  But later began to realize that it was the server itself.  


If you tried to connect to the page with http port 80 it worked, but if you go https port 443 you get absolutely nothing, no errors just does not display.  There were also no errors in the Windows Error Logs.  I did iisreset until I was blue in the face, but no change.  


Then I decided to replace the certificate with a self-signed certificate:

• In IIS, right-click on website (Default Web Site in my case) and choose Properties
• Go to the Directory Security tab and choose the Server Certificates button
• Choose the option to Replace the current certificate
• Then I choose my self-signed certificate

Then magically the website began to show the SSL page, albeit with a security warning because it is a self-signed certificate.  Then I replaced it again with the valid certificate issued by the Trusted Certificate Authority (GeoTrust in this case).  But then I was back to my original symptom of no page displayed at all.

Then I decided to delete the certificate altogether and re-import it (thankfully I had saved it in a folder when we first installed it), but that too didn't work.  Then it occurred to me, that if I deleted the public certificate, I may have also deleted or broke the private key chain.

After Googling I found this very helpful article:

http://blogs.iis.net/lprete/archive/2007/11/25/assign-a-private-key-to-a-new-certificate-after-you-use-the-certificates-snap-in-to-delete-the-original-certificate-in-internet-information-services.aspx

I followed the instructions, but the magical command line that made it work was rather unclear in their article since they did not give an example.

So let me clarify it here.  If you delete a certificate and then re-import it, you will need to repair the private key store to re-link it.

When you look at the certificate's Serial Number you will see it has spaces in it.  You have to include the spaces in your command line. 

Example: 

certutil -repairstore my "02 85 03"

Over the years I have dealt with SSL, I've had lots of errors and mistakes, but this was the first time I've encountered a situation that there was no errors, no clues, it just didn't work.  Hoping this might help someone else.

Windows 7 Accessing Mapped Network Drives

Today I ran into a situation on a Windows 7 install that I previously fought several months ago, but this time I vowed to document it so I can find the fix more quickly in the future.

Problem:  You have a Windows 7 PC connected to a domain.  The login scripts will map network drives for you.  Once logged in the user can see their mapped drive, H:\ for example.  But when you run a cmd prompt as an Administrator you cannot see drive H:\ or any drive that is mapped.

The reverse might also be true.  If the drive is mapped while under the context of Administrator, then the local user cannot see it.

Solution: Microsoft says this is by design, and maybe so, but it is still a pain-point.  The current user and the "run as local administrator" are considered two different contexts and each have a separate security token.  A workaround is to modify a registry key to allow both contexts to share the tokens.

• Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
• And if it does not exist create a new Key (DWord value) called EnableLinkedConnections with a value of 1
• Then reboot

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937624

Using Plantronics Bluetooth Headset as a Dictation Microphone

Unbelievable. I have just made something happen that I never thought was actually possible.  I am dictating this blog post via a Plantronics Bluetooth headset; the kind you would normally use to connect to your cell phone.  I'm so excited I just had to share this.

For years I used a feature phone and really had no need for a Bluetooth headset. In fact many of the phones I've had over the years did not support Bluetooth.  Now that I have a Sprint Evo 4G Android device it's almost impossible to cradle in your neck without dropping it.  I've been using the speakerphone a lot but occasionally I'm in a noisy environment and that's just not acceptable.

Today I purchased a Plantronics Voyager Pro+ Bluetooth headset, and I'm extremely happy with it.  One of the features of this headset is that it can connect up to two phones or devices.  This has come in very handy for me as I can dictate on the computer with the headset but when a phone call comes in I can press the button on the headset and be immediately connected to the caller.  And when we hang up, I'm immediately connected back to the computer to continue with my dictation.

I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the dictation software.  I Googled around trying to see if I could find a particular Bluetooth headset that was known to work with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and although I found some Bluetooth devices that were specifically meant to connect to a computer I did not see one that was primarily meant to connect with a cell phone that can also be used to connect to the computer.

I wanted to post the ingredients that I used in case someone else was curious if this can be done.

The ingredients:

• Windows 7 64-bit
• Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium
• Plantronics Voyager Pro+ Bluetooth headset
• Rocketfish micro Bluetooth adapter

In reading the reviews on the Best Buy website for the Rocketfish micro Bluetooth adapter I was concerned whether this would work at all because many consumers have purchased this device and could not make it work successfully on Windows 7 64-bit.  But because it was the only Bluetooth adapter that Best Buy carried in their store I thought I'd give it a try.  I had no trouble installing the drivers and getting the PC to recognize the device.  In fact it paired up with my headset right away.  But trying to get Windows 7 to understand I wanted to use this headset as a microphone did take a little bit finagling.

Ulmately, I went to Windows Control Panel and chose the Sound applet and on the Playback tab I selected my computer speakers at the default playback device that way I can still listen to sounds and music through my computer speakers.  Then on the Recording tab I selected my Bluetooth headset microphone as my default recording device.

Then using Dragon NaturallySpeaking's DragonBar I selected the Audio menu and used the Check Microphone option.  From there I was able to pick the Bluetooth headset as my recording device and follow the wizard to adjust the audio levels.

This all just happened and I've only had a short time to play with it but I've already had one phone call come in so I know it works.

Man, I love technology!  Especially when it works.

The specified printer driver is currently in use

I worked on a printing problem today for a user.  This is Windows XP.  For any network printer that was an HP LaserJet P2015 in her list she could not print to it.  If you right-clicked on the printer in the list and chose properties you would get the following message "The specified printer driver is currently in use."

If you opened the Print Server Properties page and tried to uninstall the printer driver you could also get an error message saying he could not uninstall because it was in use.

To resolve this I first deleted any network printer that was an HP LaserJet P2015 from her list of printers.  I then stopped the print spooler service.  Then used regedit and went to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers
and deleted the reference to the HP LaserJet P2015.

Then restarted the Printer Spooler service.  Went to the Print Server Properties page (click START, Printers and Faxes, then in the menus click on File, and then Server Properties).  Click on the drivers tab and choose to add a new printer driver.  Once the driver was installed I reattached the network printers and had no further errors.

Thanks to the following website for help locating the registry key above:
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/FAQPrinting.htm

Copy an SSL Certificate from one Server to Another

I have customer that received a new web server from a vendor.  We needed to transfer the SSL certificate from the old web server to the new one.  I have many times created and/or renewed SSL certificates for websites, but this was the first time I needed to transfer it from one to another.


I found this great resource that stepped me through the process:

How to Move or Copy an SSL Certificate from one Server to Another

Turns out it was super easy.  The important things to remember are:

• The name must be exactly the same (such as mysite.myplace.com)
• The original certificate issued by the SSL provider must have the private key marked as exportable

It also helped that the old and new Windows servers used the same version of IIS.

QR Codes

I have a new Android phone and kept seeing these funny looking barcodes so I decided to learn more. Here is a quick reference for my friends and colleagues.

They are called QR Codes (Quick Response Codes).

Found a great video on CNET that gives a great general overview of how you can use this day to day:

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Use-QR-Codes-268834323

Wikipedia gives you a more detailed and technical description:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code

On this website you can use their tool to create your own QR Codes:

http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/

For my Android phone I'm using an app called Barcode Scanner. I have a Sprint EVO 4G with an 8 megapixel camera and this Barcode Scanner app does amazingly well for several types of one and two dimensional barcodes.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.zxing.client.android&feature=search_result

The QR Code below will take you to my website: