Learn Something New Every Day

Every day, people learn something new that adds some kind of value to their lives. I am going to try to post at least one thing that I learn every day. I’m in law school, do some IT work, and just generally get around (who doesn’t?) so this shouldn’t be too difficult to do, right? We’ll see…

Getting "[2002] No such file or directory (trying to connect via unix:///tmp/mysql.sock)" After Upgrading to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on a MacBook

At first I thought I had to reinstall MySQL per this post.  BUT, it seems that the upgrade to 10.6 removes your php.ini file.  Once I followed these instructions and then these instructions, it worked again.  My mysql.sock file was still in /usr/mysql, not /tmp like Roger’s post said it would be.

BUT, before you do anything, do a

mysqldump —all-databases > [filename].sql

to ensure that you have all your databases should anything happen (I lost all of mine after I tried to update MySQL).

Enter Test Mode for Motorola Krzr k1m

Enable Test mode…
#073887*
for security code enter 000000
press OK.
arrow down to test mode…
press right soft menu key to select.
Highlight Enabled and press select.

http://mark.cdmaforums.com/DisableEVDO-V3C.htm

[Update 10-21-09: Be very careful once in test mode.  I turned my Krzr into a mess of a phone by playing with one of the options in test mode.]

Printer Not Normally Supported in OS X? Get Printer Drivers for OS X

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/MacOSX

I have a Samsung ML-1740 hooked up to a U.S. Robotics router/print server.  I used the Samsung GDI package with the Ghostscript and Foomatic package with — worked like a charm!

Run a Wired Keyboard and Mouse On An External Monitor with Your Macbook Closed

  1. Have your Macbook open and running without any peripherals plugged in.
  2. Plug in your keyboard and mouse (or usb hub with mouse and keyboard attached to the hub).
  3. Plug in your external monitor.
  4. Close the Macbook so that it goes to sleep.
  5. Use the keyboard to awaken the Macbook.
Both external keyboard and mouse should work now!

Infringing a Design Patent

To infringe a design patent, the alleged infringing design must only have the “sameness of appearance…or effect upon the eyes” as the patented design.  Egyptian Goddess v. Swisa (Fed. Cir. 2008).  Slight variations in configuration will not destroy the substantial identity.  Id.

Align Shapes in Visio

  1. Select the shapes to align
  2. “Shape” menu —> “Align Shapes”

Stick with OmniGraffle when at all possible.

Copy/Paste Date Between Two Excel Workbooks

[W]hen I copy and paste dates, they end up one day/four years wrong.

One workbook is using 1904 calendar, the other one 1900 (in the first example, years are not displayed, but definitely present). Go menu Tools>Options, Calculation and make them equal, preferably also correct if you know what the dates was supposed to be.

via http://www.contextures.com/xlfaqDat.html#Date1904

Track Flight Prices By Email

Yapta.com

Yapta will email you when your flight is cheaper than the last time you viewed the flight.  And, if you booked a flight at a price higher than its current price, it tries to get you a discount to the current cheapest price.  Pretty cool and very useful.

Compare the Text of Two PDFs

In Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional (possibly other versions):

  1. Go to “Documents” in the top toolbar.
  2. Select “Compare Documents…”
  3. Select the two documents to compare and the two of comparison you would like to see.

It’s that easy.

I don’t think Standard has this feature; Acrobat 8 Standard doesn’t at least.