Entis Cursors Summary

I've been thinking about cursors I've made a few years ago. So I decided to make a short summary about the life of these cursors.

We've got:
- original version for Windows/X11
- original mini-version for Windows/X11
- original left-handed version for Windows
- unofficial un-titled version here
- version for CursorXP/CursorFX here

Official web-site of cursors is at entis-design.com. The X11 version can be downloaded and discussed at kde-look.

According to Google, the Entis cursors are discussed/mentioned also on some other sites, some of them are in foreign language, for example:
- http://www.dl4all.com/desktop_enhancements/cursors/14589-19-windows-mouse-cursor-sets-new.html
- http://themes.5d6d.com/archiver/tid-2768.html
- http://bbs.cnplayer.net/read.php?tid-57423-uid-270.html
- http://www.creativosonline.org/blog/entis-cursors-cursores-para-windows.html
- http://sites.google.com/site/jyc860923/
- http://bbs.syue.com/redirect.php?tid=20959&goto=lastpost
- http://www.dl4w.com/desktop-enhancement/cursors/137-entis-cursors.html#comment
- http://www.instantfundas.com/2007/12/21-most-beautiful-mouse-cursors-for.html
- http://www.uushare.com/user/cemily/file/1799749
- http://www.ghacks.net/2007/12/20/use-custom-cursors-in-windows/
- http://thesiliconjungle.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/windows-xp-revamp-part-1-visuals/
- http://usefulcomputerhelp.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-mouse-pointer.html
- http://blog.tbits.ie/2009/09/mouse-cursors-ahoy/

There is also a small Windows XP bug which appears when dragging these cursors which is mentioned here.

So, I've computed the download stats altogether and it seems, that these Cursors have been downloaded 100533 times. At minimum. I'm quite happy for this project.

Left handed cursors

Somebody asked me for left handed version of Entis cursors, so I've created one and placed it on entis cursors website. I hope that this guy is not the only person who will ever download it :).

And just a small update to my favourite software list - I've been using Unreal Commander for a few months, but since last version it suffered from several awkward bugs (besides some other were fixed). The release cycle of this piece of software started to be to slow to my needs, so I've switched to FreeCommander, which has less bugs (to be precise - less bugs in functions I use) and after a few minutes of configuration looks and behaves the same way as Unreal Commander or Total Commander. The main difference (that I've spotted) is, that it's not binary compatible with Total Commander plugins and add-ons (Unreal Commander was compatible), but it does not hurt me anymore.

Laptop universal adapter frustration

My DELL D400 power adapter went off. Of course in the moment I needed him most. No green light, no power, just some silent beeping. So I decided to buy a new one. But since it takes quite a long time to get original Dell adapter, I instantly bought Trust Universal Power Adapter PW-2120. I have also verified, that this adapter is suitable for my laptop.

What a surprise - after setting the appropriate voltage and turning the notebook on - the adapter was working, but the battery was not charging. I did some googling and found out, that it is not a bug, it's a feature. It seems, that DELL is using some special chip inside of his adapters to ensure, that only original accessories is used. I've tried it on my second laptop (HP Compaq 6710b) and everything worked fine.

So I've understood that resistance is futile and ordered another one brand new DELL PA-10 Power adapter.

IIS 7 Integrated Pipeline Mode Problem

Our ASP.NET apps started to behave weirdly when running on IIS 7. We found out, that switching the IIS mode from Integrated Pipeline to Classic worked well. Lately I've done some debuging and found out, that after calling Response.End() in some click event, the IIS continued to process other events and methods, which included further successful (?!?) writing to the Response object (in our PreRender and Render event). Closing the socket using Response.Close() prevented this :))).

I have thought for all my life, that after Response.End, somebody tries to stop processing the page :).

We've experienced two weird issues using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista. Both are connected to developing web applications using ASP.NET and the Web Server which comes integrated into the IDE.

First thing is, that the localhost is not any more localhost. Due to the IPv6 mapping
in file c:/windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts which looks like this

::1             localhost

it seems, that request from http://localhost:1111 (number varies) never hit the WebDev.exe. Commenting this line out using

#::1             localhost

overcomes this problem (unless you need IPv6 it probably won't be a problem).

Second issue was the already mentioned port number. When you hit the Start debugging button, Visual Studio launched Web server and automatically opened your favorite browser on that page. But in our case, the URL in browser contained different port number that the Web server has been running on. After some digging I have found this solution.

Compiling Dia under Windows

This week I was forced to compile Dia (opensource diagram drawing program) from sources under Windows XP. I have found recently updated How To (see this). But soon I have ran into troubles.

First of all, they suppose you have Microsoft(r) Visual C++ 6.0. I haven't any. And although it's quite obsolete version, I was unable to find some free download location. But I had success with similar - Microsoft(r) Windows Server(r) 2003 R2 Platform SDK (here). Simply downloaded, installed and started commandline using newly created SetEnv.bat in Program Files / Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2.

Later I had some source code related issues (additional blank line in MakeFile causing troubles), which disappeared after few days from repository, so they are ok right now.

Another problem was compile error saying something about missing cast from gunichar2 to W32::LPCWSTR. I manually edited the source adding forced cast and recompilation was ok.

Currently I'm still unable to compile some plugins, namely gnomeprint (since I couldn't find any build of libgnomeprint for Windows) and autocomplete (don't know it's purpose, so far working without it), so I removed them from the MakeFile.

At this point, I was able to build the dia (= run the whole make without any significant error), but Dia was unable to start. First errors where caused by missing DLLs, so I copied some of them from the GTK dir. Later errors were connected to the MSVCR80.DLL and the dia-app.dll, solved this by copying some files from the dia\app source dir. I think this had to be done by the make, but from some reason wasn't (saying no errors even in DEBUG mode).

Finally, dia started (only with some warning about problems with homedir, but after quick look into the sources, it seems no to be anything fatal). I'm not sure, whether these are general issues, or only some troubles caused by different compiler. If you have similar problems, feel free to share them in the comments.

PS: I have forgotten to mention, that there is also one plugin still preventing Dia to start - it's called custom (probably some custom shapes). I have simply deleted it.

DELL P791 as D(ismantle h)ELL

Son of my brother once played with the power button of this very old (but great) CRT and since that, the monitor started to suddenly turn on and off. I decided to fix this problem, as I thought - it's just a button, it can't be too complicated.

Well, it wasn't. I mean, the part with the button wasn't. The part "how to get to that damn little power switch" was much worse.

First, I tried the brute force naive/intuitive way. Nothing special. Then I tried to google something. Only something saying that there are no screws (see this). I had some, so I threw this solution away. My fault.

So, finally, this worked for me:
1. Put away the monitor stand (flip the monitor and simply push the only lock on the bottom, then take it away)
2. Put away the two (and only) screws on the bottom
3. Remove the back cover
3a. Simply push together two weird looking flaps on one side of monitor, now you can press the whole lock (containing these flaps) down (in the direction of the monitor). Once it is down, it can be pushed outwards and the back side can be lifted.
3b. Now, repeat the step 3a for the second side
3c. On the top of the monitor insert something (with small rectangular profile) into the wholes (you will hear a little pop when it's enough)
3d. The back cover can be now given away
4. Only two visible screws hold the big metal shield
5. The whole electronics part can be simply given away, if you bend out the locks (which can be seen at any time on the bottom of monitor behind the front buttons).
6. If you need to remove the ray tube, just unbolt the 4 remaining screws (each in one corner).

To assembly the monitor back, simple go backwards. Just take care, if your electronics part fits well. For the first time I didn't checked this and the contrast lowering button was permanently pushed down (disallowing me to use the menu).

Once again, usual warning: Do this only on your own risk!