Opening of EPS file

To open an *.EPS file (Encapsulated PostScript) directly, you would need either of the following software installed onto your PC:-

Adobe Illustrator Abobe PageMaker Adobe Photoshop CorelDRAW

However, there is still a work-around solution to open it using the normal Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint.

The steps are:-
- Launch Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint
- Click "Insert" menu then Picture, and select the From File (to point to the *.EPS file).

VMware Converter

VMware has a very good utility called VMware Converter.

It can be used to convert Microsoft Windows based physical machines (local and remote physical machines) and third party image formats (such as Microsoft Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual Server) to VMware virtual machines.

There are two available editions of VMware Converter:-

1. VMware Converter Starter -- is a free download available to everyone. It is an easy to use product for single conversions.

2. VMware Converter Enterprise -- is a robust, enterprise-class product for managing and automating large scale conversions

For details, u may refer to:-http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

Virtual PC and Virtual Server

The following article describes the differences between Virtual PC & Virtual Server:- http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/techinfo/vsvsvpc.mspx

In summary…

1. Virtual PC is a virtual machine software for running on desktop operating system whereas Virtual Server is a virtual machine software for running on server operating system.

2. Virtual PC is NOT free, but Virtual Server is free.

3. For Virtual PC, both the host operating system (the one on which you install Virtual PC) and the guest operating systems (the ones running inside virtual machines) must be desktop operating systems. For Virtual Server, supported host and guest operating systems are all server operating systems, except for Windows XP Professional, which is supported as a host operating system.

How can your use Virtual PC/Virtual Server?
There are a number of other ways you might want to use Virtual PC. For example, you may use Virtual PC at home so that your family can use it to surf the Internet. This can then eliminate worries about applications or files your family might download—those downloaded materials will not affect the host operating system. If the virtual machine becomes corrupted or infected with a virus, you can simply delete the virtual machine and start it over.

Save file into PDF format

Someone asked me how to convert a Microsoft Project file into a PDF file within the MS Project application (Actually the source file can be in the format of WORD, EXECL or POWERPOINT).

Here is the answer:-
- Download the CutePDF Writer (freeware) from http://www.cutepdf.com and install it onto the PC required.
- Open the Project file and click File > Print. In the printer name, select CutePDF writer, the system will then prompt you to save the file into a PDF format.

EXCEL file can’t be open

上海外滩钟楼 >

I had encountered a problem with a user’s pc where the EXCEL file can’t be open when double-click on the .xls file itself. The system promoted the messages of “Windows cannot find "filename". Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again”.

However, the file can be open if I first launch the Excel program and then go to File menu to open the .xls file. The problem can’t be resolved even reinstalling the MS Office.

After much research, I finally got a solution for it from the Internet.

These are the steps for the resolution: -

1. In Microsoft Office Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Excel Options.

2. Click Advanced, and then click to clear the Ignore other applications check box in the General area.

3. Click OK.

For the earlier version of Excel (Microsoft Office 2003 or below):-

1. Go to the Tools menu of Excel, click Options.

2. Click the General tab.

3. Click to clear the Ignore other applications check box, and then click OK.



See also my article-- Cannot open attachment in Lotus Notes:- http://sc-network.blogspot.com/2008/08/cannot-open-attachment-in-lotus-notes.html

Lotus Domino 8

I just attended the Lotus Collaboration Summit for the launching of Lotus Domino 8 yesterday.

It is very great that IBM has now come out such a cool & new user interface.

There are 2 features which I would like to highlight here.

First, the “Mail recall”, it allows the retrieval of messages sent in error or to the wrong person.

Next, with the “Conversation mode”, it can gather and review e-mail threads easily—it is a very good feature especially for those users who receive a lot of mails.

To what I know, there are a lot of positive responses for this version 8.

For example, Infoworld reported that “Notes 8 has a clean new look, logical menus, and customizable layouts; for me, this design makes the client easier to use compared to Microsoft Outlook. Still, current Notes users should feel comfortable with the mail client, since it works much as before”.

Lotus Domino 8, well done!

Viewing Blackberry’s attachment

Recently, I happen to find a software called BeamView which can be used by blackberry device to view attachment very nicely… and it is still free of charge.

It is a product developed by Beamberry Solutions.

How Beamberry works? When you open an email document attachment via BeamView on your BlackBerry a request is sent to the BlackBerry server to forward the corresponding e-mail with an attachment to their BeamBerry server. After receiving the e-mail with the requested attachment it is processed in a fashion that depends on the document format, converted to a series of images, compressed and streamed to the BlackBerry device for viewing. The whole process takes mere seconds.

The formats which are supported by BeamView are PDF, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, RTF & ZIP archive.

It can be downloaded from http://beamberry.com/download.

See also my article-- RepliGo - Viewing Blackberry’s attachment:-
http://sc-network.blogspot.com/2008/05/repligo-viewing-blackberrys-attachment.html

Domino Web Access (DWA) performance tip

1. There is a way to speed up the DWA performance by turning the "Reuse child windows". To do it, just go to the Preferences -> Other after logging into DWA.

With this setting turned on, the DWA caches and reuses parts of mail and calendar forms that don't change. The performance time can then be improved for the most frequently used actions.

2. If you are running R6.x Domino server to host DWA, there is a global setting can be added to the server's Notes.ini (as below). In other words, you don't need to set individually for users.

inotes_WA_ReuseChildWindows=1

Shares Trading

Just get to know that there is a popular blog on shares trading for Singapore Stock Market:-

http://www.growmoney.blogspot.com/

Maybe can learn something from there.

Money Saving

Always pay all credit card balances in full amount every month.

Any outstanding balance on a credit card account will leave you susceptible to a high APR (annual percentage rate).

Get Paid To Read Emails

During a conversation, my lovely niece informed me that there is a EmailCashPro web site pays people to read Email.

Upon checking the info on the web site, now, I have an idea how it works.

Firstly, you need to join EmailCashPro site as a member (free-of-charge) and select the kind of emails you are interested in receiving. From here onwards, you will receive Paid Emails from them that match your profile and interest.

Once you click on the Paid Link and visit the advertiser's website for 30 sec, your account will be credited with 1 point.

So, to earn extra money, this may be a choice for you.

If you are interested, you may use the referral link below to register for the free account. It is to help me to build up my network and it wouldn’t cause you to earn less.

http://www.emailcashpro.com/?r=sclam

Notes: each paid email earns you between 0.5 cents to 1 cent depending on revenue sharing.

Firefox Whips Internet Explorer

During a tea break, a colleague of mine happened to mention that Internet Explorer is much better than the Firefox because of it has less vulnerabilities.

Actually this is NOT true... I corrected him as he didn’t aware of the other’s part of story behind.

The fact is that... in the earlier Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec counted only vendor-confirmed bugs when comparing the two browsers. However, it is not accurate as in open source, more vulnerabilities will be acknowledged because of the transparency in development.

In the newest report, which Symantec issued, they had then split the counts into two categories: vendor-confirmed and a combination of vendor- and non-vendor-confirmed flaws. In term of counting vulnerability, this way should be more appropriate & accurate as it includes those made public but not necessarily confirmed by the vendor.

From the report shown this time, the Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer.

Reference:- http://www.informationweek.com/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181501752&pgno=1&queryText=

EXCEL file can’t be open

上海外滩钟楼 >

I had encountered a problem with a user’s pc where the EXCEL file can’t be open when double-click on the .xls file itself. The system promoted the messages of “Windows cannot find "filename". Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again”.

However, the file can be open if I first launch the Excel program and then go to File menu to open the .xls file. The problem can’t be resolved even reinstalling the MS Office.

After much research, I finally got a solution for it from the Internet.

These are the steps for the resolution: -

1. In Microsoft Office Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Excel Options.

2. Click Advanced, and then click to clear the Ignore other applications check box in the General area.

3. Click OK.

For the earlier version of Excel (Microsoft Office 2003 or below):-

1. Go to the Tools menu of Excel, click Options.

2. Click the General tab.

3. Click to clear the Ignore other applications check box, and then click OK.



See also my article-- Cannot open attachment in Lotus Notes:- http://sc-network.blogspot.com/2008/08/cannot-open-attachment-in-lotus-notes.html

职场名言

曾经在某个网站看过这段职场名言...

一、应答上司交代的工作:“我立即去办”!　　
二、传递坏消息时:“我们似乎碰到一些情况……”　　
三、体现团队精神:“××的主意真不错!”　　
四、如果被问到你所不知道,或不懂的业务上的某些问题:“让我再认真地想一想,两点前答复你好吗?”
五、请同事帮忙:“这个企划没有你真不行啊!”　　
六、男同事讲有味笑话令你尴尬:“这种话好像不适合在办公室讲啊!”　　
七、工作太繁重,向上司请求减轻工作量:“我知道这件事很重要,我们不妨先排一排手头上的工作,按重要性列出先后顺序去做,好吗?”　　
八、承认过失:“是我一时疏忽,不过幸好……”　　
九、找不到话题,又要打破冷场:“我很想知道你对这件事的看法……”　　
十、面对批评:“谢谢你告诉我,我会仔细考虑你的建议。”

这一些话都是一具有成熟的EQ人该会说的话。 　　

Copy contacts from MS Outlook onto Lotus Notes

In the forum, I have seen people asking for solution about how to copy contacts from Microsoft Outlook to Lotus Notes address book.

I have tried the suggestion before and find that the method is not very straight forward. Basically, those steps involve exporting data to a text files; importing into Excel/Lotus 123 files etc.

Actually, there is a tool Called MSOTool (in NSF file’s format) that can do the job much easy which I downloaded from:

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/sandbox.nsf/0/e422584f6953308685256c5c00483421

FTP server on WINXP Home PC

<-- 东方明珠塔 (上海) I have a client who needs me to set up a FTP server on his office PC which is running Windows XP Home Edition.

As WINXP Home PC doesn’t come with IIS component, I have done some research on how to go about it.

At last, I found that instead of setting up the IIS onto the WinXP Home PC, it is much easy to install a 3rd party’s FTP software to address the issue.

Personally, I feel that GuildFTPd FTP Server is quite easy to use & configure which I got it from http://www.guildftpd.com/.

About hibernate & standby

When you put the notebook/pc into hibernate, it saves everything in memory on disk, turns off your monitor and also hard disk, and then turns off your computer. So, there is no electricity consumption at all. And, there is no vibration issue when you bring the notebook to move around (because everything is OFF).

In contrast, while on standby, your entire computer switches to a low-power state where devices, such as the monitor and hard disks, turn off and your computer uses less power. Standby is particularly useful for conserving battery power in portable computers. Because Standby does not save your desktop state to disk, a power failure while on Standby can cause you to lose unsaved information.

Hope that I have answered your concerns.

Hibernate feature in Windows XP

<-- Yuiyuan (豫园 in Shanghai)

Do you get frustrated while you wait around for the slow WinXP computer to startup? To speed up the process, you should considering using hibernate.

When you put the computer to hibernate when powering off the system, the hibernate feature saves everything in memory on disk and then turns off your computer. When you restart your computer the next time, your desktop is restored exactly as you last left it. In other words, you can save some times in reopening the programs again when startup the computer.

To enable the Hibernate feature, go to Control Panel, double-click Power Options, and then click the Hibernate tab. Click to select the Enable Hibernate check box.

To put the computer to hibernate when shutting down, you just need to press ALT + CTRL + DEL key and it will give you the option to hibernate.

How to set default ACL on mail file when registering user on Domino

For the Lotus Domino, lately, I found out a way to set the default ACL for the user mail file when registering the new user.

1. In the Domino Administrator client, select the "Template only option” in the "Show me" combo box.

2. Find the mail template used to create mail files, say iNotes6.ntf. Right click on the template, and then select Access Control -> Manage.

3. Click the Add button.
- From name lookup select the administrator's group.
- Select that Administrator's group in the ACL, and click Rename.
- Add brackets to the group name. For example, if the group name is "AdminGroup", rename it to "[AdminGroup]".
- Click OK.
- Assign the group manager access.

4. Now when mail files which are created is based on the modified template-- the administrator's group will automatically appear in the ACL with manager access.

Proofpoint anti-SPAM

I have just tested an anti-SPAM product called Proofpoint for the E-mail system lately for a couple of months.

Before that, I have tried the Symantec, Trend Micro & Barracuda and it is the best among these few. Till now, there is not a single false-positive detected for mails.

According to my research, it is the third generation product which uses MLX technology for mail scanning. It is really GOOD!
Reference:- http://www.dominopower.com/issuesprint/issue200408/00001340.html

SUSE Linux -- good alternation to Microsoft

I attended a seminar about Novell Work Group Tour yesterday.

After seeing all those demo, I feel that SUSE Linux can be considered as a very good alternation to the Microsoft product. It is worth to explore further…

As for their OpenOffice which is the equivalent of MSOffice, it also looks impressive.

To try it out, go to the http://download.novell.com

水至清则无鱼

“水至清则无鱼，人至察则无友” 意思： 水太清澈就没有鱼，人过分精明就没有朋友 做人不能太较真，这正是有人活得潇洒，有人活得太累的原因所在。

How to save Flash (SWF) file from web page onto your PC

Someone ever asked me a question on how to download the animation or cartoon game was created using Flash from the Web page onto his own hard drive.

The answer is that... it can be done regardless whether you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox as a browser even though the technique is not straight forward (because there is no option to save the flash file when you right-clicking the item).

Here is the method to save flash in IE browser...
- At IE, click Tools - Internet Options
- In the General Tab, click the "Settings" button available in the Temporary Internet Files group.
- Click "View Files" to open your Temporary Internet Files folder.
- Once you find the right flash file, right-click & choose Copy. Then paste the swf file in any other directory... Now, you are done.
- After that, you may go to that directory to do off-line viewing.

As for Firefox browser, these are the steps…
- Click Tools - Page Info.
- Click "Media" Tab and scroll down the list to locate the SWF file.
- Click the "Save As" button to save the file onto a directory on your hard disk.

Happiness

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on you.

Error about installing ‘Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage’

I attended a user’s problem today where the PC popped out an error about installing ‘Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage’ when he surfed the Internet using Internet Explorer.

It kept nagging the user even though he tried clicking the Cancel button to ignore the error.

To resolve the issue, I used the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility (ie windows uninstaller) to remove any references to the failed update package installation.

For details, u may refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301