NeoOffice / OpenOffice "Error saving the document " -- Can't save file!

You've been working on your document, maybe go away for a while, come back and realize you haven't saved it.  But when you try to save,
an error dialog comes up saying "Write Error", with no additional information...

You try changing the file name, saving to a different directory, checking disk space..  everything looks fine, but it won't save.  What to do?  Quit it, and have faith that the 'Recover files' dialog will bring it back?
Copy your document, or at least the changes (f you can), into textedit or another program?

To encounter this situation is disconcerting, to say the least.

After a little searching,
NeoOffice bug #
http://bugzilla.neooffice.org/bug.php?op=show&amp;bugid=3293<br>

Easy solution:
from the existing document,
select all and copy
cmd-N (or on windows: ctrl-N) to make a new window.
paste -- you now have a copy of your document.
Save this new one.

For me, these errors happened after starting NeoOffice a few days ago (12) and then deciding to save some 'untitled' documents I had created and entered minor amounts of data/text into. &nbsp;They hadn't been saved previously, and had been opened for several days. &nbsp;The bug says this:

"The key thing to do to avoid this bug is to not keep and .od* document
open for more than a day or two. If you periodically save a file, close
it, and reopen it, you can avoid this bug."

Another note is "Update: in this instance, with Writer giving the error, I was able to Save As in ANY format EXCEPT .sxw, .stw, .odt, and .ott."

Another link mentions something about tmp files, which on the mac seem to be somewhere under a path like&nbsp;
$ set | grep /var/folder
TMPDIR=/var/folders/GX/GXRi3TKjExSdAlvXgP45k++++TI/-Tmp-/
some OS cleanup process could be removing files from here. &nbsp;
I've not tried tracing the process&nbsp;(ptrace/strace)&nbsp;since I have a workaround, but it seems plausible enough.

apparently this has been going onsince 2006:
http://openoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=69993<br>

Selling your old electronics

Image via CrunchBaseThis is something I really never consider, while I have some friends that do it regularly, always upgrading / buying new devices.

My reasons not to:

• lazy
• seems like too much trouble
• it works now, why bother?
• it's too much trouble to change
• I guess I am content "enough" -- I don't have device lust, and seem to care less and less about new things coming out.
• not spending money == good.
  

Sounds like good reasons to me. On the other hand, if you've "gotten your money's worth" (for some value of worth), and the device still has market value.

But enough about me.

I came across this (old) random article "Where to Sell Your iPhone 3G: ", which had like to a number of sites. Check out my iPhone 3G, now over 3 years old...

parameters: near perfect condition, no scratches, all accessories +

• http://www.selliphoneforcash.com/ - $103
• http://www.buybackworld.com/ - $104
• http://cexchange.com/online/home/index.rails - $97 or $115 if I call it excellent..
• http://takemymac.com/ -- too many questions.. ok, should get email in 48hours
• http://www.techtwurl.com/ - $110
• http://www.yourenew.com/ - 85$

Note that all of these (except for the first?) deal with other devices besides just iPhones.

For those that think trading in your old thing for something newer is green, or trading in your land boat for a Prius or other hybrid -- it's not. It takes a huge amount of energy to create those new devices. You won't get to the break-even point until you drive 100000 miles or so.

Of course, re-use is better than re-cycle, is better than throwing away,
but how do we get closer to understanding the true cost/value of a thing ?

.. testing zemanta..

Cygwin: Update your packages / Install a new one in less than 5 minutes

[what is cygwin? like unix for windows. a better shell and command line.]
Actually, it's the same way you _install cygwin_ ..
Just faster because you don't have to download as much.

If you're installing cygwin for the first time, installing a single missing package,
or updating your install to the latest version, it's the same.

1. Run cygwin's setup.exe -- the same one you used to install cygwin.
   This took me 2 minutes, because I couldn't remember where I put it.
   Better: just go to cygwin.com and click the Install or update Cygwin now! link and you'll have the latest installer.
2. click, click, click, just click through, all your previous settings were saved.
   List of mirrors is downloaded
   ..hang?
   Pick a new mirror if you want. I used to think http: servers provided better downloads, but now I think they just hang more often. Use http: only if ftp: doesn't work for you (e.g. problems with ftp because you're behind a firewall).
   
3. The list of packages is downloaded. This should be pretty quick; if you don't see any activity within 15 seconds or so, cancel and go back to 1.
   
4. Select / search for the package(s) you want. Just type in the search area (e.g., cygrun) to find the package and select for install.
   (? if you don't know the package name.. where is a search for files ?)
   old ones are updated automatically ?
   
5. Click next to install. All the package(s) are downloaded and installed.
   If it hangs, cancel and go back to 1. Maybe try a new mirror?
   
6. "Can't install , file is in use" -- this can happen if
   
   1. you are running the .exe; for example, bash.exe and you have a bash.exe window open
   2. you are updating a .dll which is in use by your exe or service
      
   3. service is running, such as sshd. Do this:
   • open a cmd window
   • find the service(s) with the following command:
     net start | findstr /i cyg
     the service(s) names are printed
     
   • stop the service with
     net stop "CYGWIN sshd"
     replace with the name you have. (? other services besides CYGWIN ?)
   • click Retry on the dialog warning box
   • It should continue now. When you get to the end, remember to restart with
     net start "CYGWIN sshd"
     This is a generally useful way to stop/start services easily from the command line or from a script. If you prefer the slow way of clicking, you can run services.msc
7. Finished!
   after updating my 1.5.x to 1.7.x, I get this for the cygrund package:
   Postinstall script errors
   Package: No package
   passwd-grp.sh exit code 1
   I got something like this when I first updated, but I haven't noticed any problem.
   

Actually, it could take more than 5 minutes, if there are slow downloads.
Once you get the hand of it though, it will probably only take two minutes to grab a missing package.

Because updating/adding a package is so easy, the first time you should click through and accept the defaults, then later adding missing features. I used to spend a lot of time going through all the packages, trying to decide if someday it might be useful. This just takes up more space, and more time later when upgrading.

OSX: Constant disk activity after attaching a disk to Mac

Mac
(windows and linux, keep reading)

What it probably is: spotlight indexing.
If you're just hooking up a drive to copy some data or look for something, then this can be a hindrance to your work.

Verify that it is this process with:
sudo fs_usage

this will show all I/O activity, which will be a lot because it will include every line of text coming out to the terminal as well. Filter it with something like

sudo fs_usage | egrep -v 'screen|grep|head' | head -20

If you see mdworker, that's spotlight indexing going on.
If you see backupd, that's Time Machine (but you may have noticed the spinning icon in the menu bar).

Turn off indexing with:
mdutil -i off /Volumes/mountname

It may take 30 seconds or so (depending how busy it is) before you see
Indexing disabled.

You can turn it back on later by specifying 'on' instead of 'off'.

There are many other usages; you can use fs_usage to find what configuration or plist file(s) a program is using, where your data is going to on disk, etc.

Here's a MacWorld article: Watch file system activity in real time

Windows
On windows, get fsmon; it's one of the sysinternals tools.
regmon will do the same thing for registry accesses.

I've used fsmon to discover trojan processes before.
Windows == virus.

Linux
atop is supposed to come with ubuntu.
I don't think it gives specific paths in output, but once you have the pid you can connect with strace and just look at the IO syscalls, or use lsof to find which files are currently in use.



any other tools of note?

Websphere portal server and Lotus Web Content Management performance tuning tips

Image via WikipediaIf you have had the pleasure to install and set up a WebSphere Portal environment, you know that sometimes it can be a big, fat bloated piece of something you'd expect from Redmond.

You will probably see the biggest increase from the Base portal tuning recommendations.
Give it as much memory as you can spare and increase the thread pool size -- you should see performance increase just from this. (If on Windows, you can't go above 1.5G, but for a server Windows should always be your last choice.)

After the base portal tuning, try again, then start to do some performance monitoring.
If you're a big WCM user, check the caches here and make them bigger.


Links:

• a starting point is IBM doc#swg27007059,
  IBM WebSphere Portal Performance Troubleshooting Guide,
  it contains basic generic troubleshooting methodology. You may want a methodology like this for your manager or client.. Also a step-by-step guide to the PMI / Tivoli Performance Viewer -- these are definitely worth checking to get basic measurements of your server.

• WebSphere Portal and Lotus Web Content Management 6.1.x Performance Tuning Guide
  Broken out into portal, WCM, database, web, etc components. Has specific parameters to change, but you need to know what you're doing.
  This document is also somewhere on the IBM side, but the lotus wiki versions allow for updates.
  (I have even corrected some of their documents.. if only they would conform to the formatting conventions)
  
• This looks good, but I only found it later, after I did my tuning..:
  WebSphere tuning for the impatient: How to get 80% of the performance improvement with 20% of the effort

Patches (aka fixpacks) sometimes fix performance issues. I haven't encountered one specifically, but it has been known to happen.

...
Also testing Zemanta with this post.. the included image is totally unrelated.
Actually, I said 'pool' -- I think that's where it came from, and you have to admit it looks cooler than a 'websphere'.