How to open an Open Office file(.ods) in Excel?

One of the easiest way is to transfer the file to google drive (convertor: ON) and have it converted there. But if it is possible, it is best to do it in Open Office.

Another method is to enable Microsoft Office XP, 2003, or 2007 to open the Open Office files.  This can be done by downloading and installing the converter from http://odf-converter.sourceforge.net/ . Just like any other file converters, it is not perfect and the converted file may have some issues.

SSHIPUP - Command Line program to read WAN IP Address

This is a useful command line program created by Scott Botterud. It can be used to determined the WAN IP address and export it to a text file.


3/17/2003

SSHIPUP by Scott Botterud scott@info-techs.com
The latest version can be downloaded from: http://www.info-techs.com/download.shtml

• What is SSHIPIP?
• Insallation Instructions
  1. Unpack Files
  2. Upload Files
  3. Modify Files
  4. Set up Email Notification
  5. Automate the Process
• Troubleshooting
• Bugs
• Freeware
• Revision History
• Program command line switches
  • PuTTY.EXEGRABURL.EXE
  • FC.EXE
  • DATETIME.COM

What is SSHIPUP?
SSHIPUP (Secure SHell IP UPloader) is a freeware command line utility that tracks your Cable Modem or DSL WAN IP address (also known as the external IP address). If your broadband connection gets issued a new IP addres SSLIPUP detects the new IP and uploads an HTML file via SSH to your web site and optionally sends an email with the new IP address. Runs on Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.

SSHIPUP will perform the following functions:

1) Determine your WAN (Wide Area Network)IP address. If you are running a router (such as Linksys) which performs NAT (Network Address Translation) you are most likely assigned a CLASS C IP address via the routers DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) server, typically someting like 192.168.1.105. The IP of your Cable Modem or DSL is "someting" different. WANIPUP determines your WAN (or external) IP address. Knowing this address is useful for games, internet telephones, NetMeeting, pcAnywhere, running a Web or FTP server in house, and a whole lot more.

2) Post your IP address to a web page via SSH (Secure SHell) along with what may be other valuable information. With ever increasing Interent security concerns, more and more system administrators are turning off their FTP servers and opting instead to use SSH. Programs such as:

• WinSCP - SSH File transfer program http://winscp.vse.cz/eng/
• PuTTY - SSH Telnet program http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

are excellent choices for safely and securly while working the Internet.

In the past we used to use programs such as:

• IP Poster for Linksys Router (http://www.omconsults.com/ipposter.htm)
• Keep Me Posted (http://www.elegantlogic.com/KeepMePosted/Default.htm)

Ultimately we found these programs unacceptable for our needs. IP Poster for Linksys Router is no longer supported, and would not work with newer version of Linksys Firmware. Keep Me Posted was great, except it does not support SSH. Both send unencrypted passwords ofer the Internet. Not a good idea. We also looked into programs such as TZO which brought up security concerns.

3) Keep track of your IP address history. This is useful for knowing what your ISP (Internet Sevie Provider) is doing for (or to) you. It is also useful for pcAnywhere users, as you know the range of IP address to search when attempting to connect remotely.

4) Optionally send you (and/or anyone else) an email notification that your IP address has changed and what the new IP is.

5) SSLIPUP can be manually initiated, run on startup, or, the recommended method, automated to periodically check your IP address and update the web site file along witt optionally sending an email notification of the new IP address.




INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:
Getting SSHIPUP working takes 5 steps:

1. Unpack the archive files from SSHIPUP???.ZIP
2. Upload YOURIP.SHTML to your web server.
3. Modify files to meet your configuration needs.
4. Set up Email notification.
5. Automate the SSHIPUP process (optional).

1) UNPACK FILES:
1) Create a folder and copy all the files from SSHIPUP???.ZIP into that folder. This can be on a local or network drive. For this document we are going to set up the program in a directory called SSHIPUP on the C: drive, so copy all files into the C:\SSHIPUP directory.

There is a possible security issue that needs to be consider. The SSHIPUP.BAT file contains the plain test username and password to your web site. Placing this on a server or a shared location poses a possible security issue. The username and password are encrypted before being sent across the interent.

2) UPLOAD YOURIP.SHTML TO YOUR WEB SERVER:
All program required to get SSHIPUP working are included in this distribution. A possible stumbling block is your web server must have SSI (Server Side Includes) enabled. To see if your server has SSI enabled, upload the file called VARIABLES.SHTML (which is included in this distribution) to your web server and bring it up on a browser. VARIABLES.SHTML is a list of all available environment variables. Some servers depending on what version of LINUX, UNIX, or (God help you) Windows will honor or not honor certain variables. To see a sample output from my server goto:

• http://www.info-techs.com/variables.shtml

If your server has SSI enabled you will see a variety of output in the right column. If SSI is not enabled the right column will be blank. If you do not have SSI, request your system administrator to enable it. Instructions for enabling SSI can be found at:

• http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/howto/ssi.html

In the event your system administrator is unwilling (or unable) to allow SSI on your server, and there is no other way for you to get YOURIP.SHTML going, you can use our server (please don't abuse this):

http://www.info-techs.com/yourip.shtml

The YOURIP.SHTML file looks like:

 <!--#echo var="remote_addr" -->

An SSI enabled web server will process the variable and report back your WAN IP address. Please note that the page must have an .SHTML extension (not .HTML or .HTM) for the SSI to be processed. The only exception to this rule is if your system administrator is using the XBitHack directive, which is not recommended due to performance issues it creates.

3) MODIFY FILES:
Three files need modification: SSHIPUP.BAT, 1.HTML and 3.HTML

SSHIPUP.BAT - This file is heavily commented so it will not be covered here.

1.HTML - This is the first of four parts that constitute the final MYIP.SHTML file that SSHIPUP creates.

 <HTML>
 <HEAD>
 <TITLE>WAN IP Address</TITLE>  <--- What shows up in the browsers Title bar
 </HEAD>
 <BODY>
 <CENTER>
 <HR>
 My Cable Modem/DSL IP address is: <--- The first line displayed before your WAN IP address
 <BR>

3.HTML - This is the third of four parts that constitute the final MYIP.SHTML file that SSHIPUP creates.

 <BR>
 <HR>
 Your IP address is:
 <BR>
 <!--#echo var="remote_addr" -->
 <HR>
 <A HREF="http://www.yourwebsite.com">yourwebsite.com</A> IP address is:<BR><!--#echo var="SERVER_ADDR" -->
 <BR>
 <HR>
 <!--#config timefmt="%A %B %e, %Y at %R" -->IP Address Last Updated on: <!--#echo var="LAST_MODIFIED"-->
 <BR>
 <BR>
 </CENTER>
 IP Address History:<BR>

You need to modify http://www.yourwebsite.com and yourwebsite.com to reflect your web site name.

4) SET UP EMAIL NOTIFICATION (Optional): As an option, Email can be generated to notify of a new IP address. If you don't need this, simply REM out the POSTIE.EXE line in SSHIPUP.BAT. If you want this feature, download POSTIE from:

• http://info-techs.com/download.shtml An older Freeware version of POSTIE for Windows.
• http://www.infradig.com/download.shtml POSTIE Personal Edition WIN32 (500Kb) (Shareware).

After modifying the files, the next step is to test your setup. From a command prompt type SSHIPUP and hit ENTER.

5) AUTOMATING THE PROCESS:
Once you are convinced the SSHIPUP process is working correctly there are two (possibly more) ways to automate process:

1. Place a shortcut to SSHIPUP.BAT to your startup folder so every time the computer starts SSHIPUP runs. To create a shortcut open Windows Explorer, navigate to the SSHIPUP.BAT file and right click on the file. Select "Create Shortcut". Copy the newly created "Shortcut to sshipup.lnk" to your startup folder.
2. Run WinCRON in the background so SSHIPUP runs periodically. This is the recommended method. WinCRON is a Freeware program that is not included in this distrubution. It can be downloaded from: info-techs.com/download.shtml. Windows includes the AT command but we have found this to be unreliable.

TROUBLESHOOTING:
The first time SSHIPUP runs, it needs to create some files for future use. These files are dynamically created:

 newip.txt - Created by GRABURL.EXE - contains your WAN IP address
 history.txt - The history file of your IP address
 myip.shtml - The file to be uploaded 
 temphist.txt - A temporary history file necessary for processing
 tmp.txt - A temporary history.txt file necessary for processing
 oldip.txt - the old IP file used by FC.EXE to compare to NEWIP.TXT

Check that these files exist and verify the contents.

Since batch files are designed to run and terminate, they can be frustrating to troubleshoot. Putting some well located PAUSE statments in SSHIPUP.BAT can allow you to see what is going on. Another method is to capture the program output to a file and then review it. To do this use:

• SSHIPUP.BAT>output.txt

This will create a file called output.txt that contains all the output that would normally goto the screen.


BUGS:
If you believe you have found a bug, have a suggestion, or an enhancment please email me!

• scott@info-techs.com

The latest version can be downloaded from my web site:

• http://www.info-techs.com/download

COST:
This program is distributed as Freeware. All the programs used in this program are availalbe as Freeware.


REVISION HISTORY:

5/30/2003: Release version 1.06

• Distribution 1.05 did not include the DATETIME.COM program. Sorry about that!
• Include latest version of DATETIME version 5.0. Many thanks to Elmar Hanlhofer.

4/01/2003: Release 1.05: Fix mistake in SSHIPUP.BAT:

• LINE 77: Changed
  COPY /B datetime.txt+2.html+break.html history.txt
  to
  COPY /B datetime.txt+newip.txt+break.html history.txt
• LINE 84: Changed
  COPY /B 1.html+2.html+3.html+history.txt+4.html myip.shtml
  to
  COPY /B 1.html+newip.txt+3.html+history.txt+4.html myip.shtml
• Stripped out all the HTML code of YOURIP.SHTML to make just the IP address be downloaded instead of all the HTML code:
  

3/17/2003: Initial non-beta release of version 1.04.




PROGRAM COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS AND SWITCHES:

COMMAND LINE SWITCHES FOR PuTTY:

PuTTY Secure Copy client
Release 0.53b
Usage: pscp [options] [user@]host:source target
       pscp [options] source [source...] [user@]host:target
       pscp [options] -ls user@host:filespec
Options:
  -p        preserve file attributes
  -q        quiet, don't show statistics
  -r        copy directories recursively
  -v        show verbose messages
  -load sessname  Load settings from saved session
  -P port   connect to specified port
  -l user   connect with specified username
  -pw passw login with specified password
  -1 -2     force use of particular SSH protocol version
  -C        enable compression
  -i key    private key file for authentication
  -batch    disable all interactive prompts
  -unsafe   allow server-side wildcards (DANGEROUS)


COMMAND LINE SWITHCES FOR GRABURL:

graburl 1.05
Copyright (C) 1996-1998 Kiraly Enterprises
All Rights Reserved.

Usage: graburl [-h] [-a] [-9] URL [URL [...]]

Supports URLs of the form:

        [http://]site[:port][/path]

        -h      retrieve HTTP headers only
        -a      transfer in ASCII mode
        -9      use HTTP/0.9 protocol

Examples:

        graburl http://www.sun.com
        graburl -h www.sun.com
        graburl www.sun.com:80/index.html


COMMAND LINE SWITCHES FOR FC.EXE:

usage: fc [/a] [/b] [/c] [/l] [/lbNN] [/w] [/t] [/n] [/NNNN] file1 file2

/A   Abbreviates the output of an ASCII comparison. Instead of displaying all
 the lines that are different, FC displays only the first and last line
 for each set of differences.

/C   Ignores the case of letters.

/L   Compares the files in ASCII mode. FC compares the two files line by line
 and attempts to resynchronize the files after finding a mismatch. This
 is the default mode for comparing files that do not have extensions of
 .EXE, .COM, .SYS, .OBJ, .LIB, or .BIN.

/LBn Sets the number of lines for the internal line buffer. The default
 length of the line buffer is 100 lines. If the files being compared have
 more than this number of consecutive differing lines, FC cancels the 
 comparison.

/N Displays the line numbers during an ASCII comparison.

/T Does not expand tabs to spaces. The default behavior is to treat tabs as
 spaces, with stops at each eighth character position.

/W Compresses white space (tabs and spaces) during the comparison. If a
 line contains many consecutive spaces or tabs, the /W switch treats
 these characters as a single space. When used with the /W switch, FC
 ignores (and does not compare) white space at the beginning and end of a
 line.

/nnnn   Specifies the number of consecutive lines that must match before FC
 considers the files to be resynchronized. If the number of matching
 lines in the files is less than this number, FC displays the matching
 lines as differences. The default value is 2.

/B Compares the files in binary mode. FC compares the two files byte by
 byte and does not attempt to resynchronize the files after finding a
 mismatch. This is the default mode for comparing files that have
 extensions of .EXE, .COM, .SYS, .OBJ, .LIB, or .BIN.


COMMAND LINE SWITCHES FOR DATETIME.COM:

datetime
PLOP DateTime v5.0 Coded by Elmar Hanlhofer   http://plop.at
datetime [string]

 output of date and time + string

 !d   day number                    !D   Weekday
 !m   month number                  !y   year 2digits
 !Y   year 4digits
 !b   month name (Jan, Feb,...)
 !B   full month name (January, February,...)

 !H   hour                          !M   minute
 !S   second                        !h   hundrets of second

 !r   return                        !n   new line
      for windows style use  !r!n for return
      for unix style use !n only

Examples:  datetime Today is !D !d/!m/!y  Time:  !H:!M
 output is: Today is Sun 27/10/02  Time:  16:00
 write into a file:  datetime !d/!m/!y > date.txt

EOF

By Scott Botterud scott@info-techs.com
 

Food Poisoning

Poliklinik's medicine for stomach upset and diarrhea didn't help much during the first day and my condition become worst on the morning of the third day. Fortunately, my dad came with the activated charcoal pills from a local pharmacy, to reduce the toxic in my stomach. He also gave me the Loperamide Hydrochloride 2mg to control the diarrhea. It works within a few hours. Otherwise, I'll be dehydrated due to the loss of body fluid and electrolytes (sodium). I'd really want to thank my dad and wish him a wonderful and happy birthday today, though our celebration for him will be on tomorrow, Saturday :)

LogMeIn – Enabled but Offline

Recently I had an issue adding a HP ProLiant ML110 G7 server. After installing LogMeIn on the Windows Server 2003, it started fine but showed the error “LogMeIn – Enabled but Offline” After going into Options and Connections and Events in LogMeIn I found by the following error

“Failed to connect to web gateway: The data is invalid. (13) 77.242.193.141:80/websvr – SSL Cert Error …………….. Connecting to the web gateway control.app104.logmein.com:80…”  

Solution: The time and date was wrong and this means that LogMeIn client could not authentication via SSL with the LogMeIn Server. I changed the Data and Time and this resolved the issues

"Say.exe" - A simple command line text to speech program for Windows

This is a useful tools that I'd like to share. The followings are written by Martin.



I remember back to the old days of my Commodore 64 . Way back in the early eighties, I had a command line program to be able to have the computer say what you type on the command line. I was very surprised that nothing like this is freely available on the net for windows. Microsoft provides both the "MS Agent" COM api as well as the SAPI api, but no easy way to utilize either.

This is a real simple program that simple uses the MS SAPI api. Simple run "Say.exe Hello world!" and have your computer say hello to the world.

Here is a link to a statically linked EXE: SayStatic.exe

Here is a link to a dyncamically linked EXE (MSVCRT.dll version 8 / Visual Studio 2008 (9) ): SayDynamic.exe

Here is a link to the source code.

Put it up on a publically accessible network share and use System Internal's psexec.exe (now owned by Microsoft) and have fun freaking folks out.

by martin

File sort order reversed or wrong in File Open or File Save dialog box

For those who face the same problem as I when using the file "open" or "save" dialog box, where the sort order of the files are always default in the undesirable order.

Here is the fix:

- Right click "My Computer", choose "Explore".
- Click on the C: drive in the left pane.
- Click on the "View", then choose "List".
- Right click anywhere in the right pane where the files get listed.
- Choose "Arrange Icons By".
- Pick "Name".
- Ensure files are sorted as desire. If not, repeat.
- Press and hold the CRTL key, then click on the "X" to close the explorer.

After that, you can change file sorting order in windows explorer without affecting the default saved in "open" or "save" dialog box.

The catch here is the "List" view and holding CTRL while closing the windows explorer. Only by doing so, you can save a default file sorting view.

Windows Genuine Advantage

Official Ways to Disable or Manually Uninstall the Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications from Microsoft

Microsoft has released step-by-step removal instructions to disable or manually uninstall pilot or pre-release version of Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications (KB905474) which is versions that range from 1.5.0527.0 to 1.5.0532.2, although the instructions can also be used to uninstall the updated release and general release of the anti-piracy tool, but it will not be supported. Instead, Microsoft recommends to install general release of WGA Notifications (1.5.0540.0) to replace and uninstall the pre-release version during the pilot program.

If you uninstall or WGA Notifications component in your Windows computer which is part of the Windows Genuine Advantage program, Microsoft will offer the general release version of WGA Notifications at a later date (actually is immediately if you check for updates via Windows Update) through the Microsoft Automatic Update service or Windows / Microsoft Update service. So you must unselect the updates or reject the EULA when asked to install again. Microsoft instructions can be found here, or listed below.

Disable WGA Notifications

   1. Log on to the computer by using an account that has administrative permissions.
   2. Make sure that the WGA Notifications version that exists on the computer is a pilot version listed above. The version format for the pilot version is 1.5.0532.x. In this case, you can uninstall versions 527-532 only (Note: the steps should disable other version of WGA Notifications too). To find the WGA Notifications version, follow these steps:
         1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
         2. Double-click Add or uninstall Programs, locate and then click Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications, and then click Click here for support information.
         3. In the Support Info dialog box, verify the version number, and then click Close.
   3. Rename the following files by changing the extension to .old:

      Rename %Windir%\system32\WgaLogon.dll to %Windir%\system32\WgaLogon.old
      Rename %Windir%\system32\WgaTray.exe to %Windir%\system32\WgaTray.old
   4. Restart the computer.

Uninstall WGA Notifications Manually

   1. Log on to the computer by using an account that has administrative permissions.
   2. Make sure that the WGA Notifications version that exists on the computer is a pilot version that range from 1.5.0527.0 to 1.5.0532.2 (Note: other versions should works too). To find the WGA Notifications version, follow these steps:
         1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
         2. Double-click Add or uninstall Programs, locate and then click Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications, and then click Click here for support information.
         3. In the Support Info dialog box, verify the version number, and then click Close.
   3. Rename the following files by changing the extension to .old:

      Rename %Windir%\system32\WgaLogon.dll to %Windir%\system32\WgaLogon.old
      Rename %Windir%\system32\WgaTray.exe to %Windir%\system32\WgaTray.old
   4. Restart the computer.
   5. Unregister LegitCheckControl.dll by using Regsvr32 with these steps:
         1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
         2. At the command prompt, type the following, and then press ENTER:

            Regsvr32 %Windir%\system32\LegitCheckControl.dll /u
   6. Restart the computer.
   7. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
   8. At the command prompt, delete the following files by typing the Del command and follow by pressing ENTER after you type each command.

      Del %Windir%\system32\wgalogon.dll
      Del %Windir%\system32\WgaTray.exe
      Del %Windir%\system32\LegitCheckControl.dll
   9. At the command prompt, type regedit.
  10. Locate and then right-click the following registry subkeys. Click Delete after you locate each subkey.
          * HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\ CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\WgaLogon
          * HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\ CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\WgaLogon
          * HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\removeremove\WgaNotify
  11. Restart the computer.