How to Add Fonts to the Console in MS Windows

In the settings for the console in Windows, you have the option of changing the font. But the selection is fairly limited. There are usually only 2 fonts! But if there are dozens of fonts installed on the system, why are there only 2 for the console? Well, if this bothers you, there is a way to add to the list of available fonts for the command prompt on Windows.

How to set up a .rc file for the cmd shell on windows

In the Unix world, all command shells allow you to set up your command line environment by adding commands to 'rc' files, .bashrc, .profile, .tcshrc, .cshrc, etc... The cmd.exe shell on Windows does not have a '.cmdrc' file, so you are left with a default setup every time you start a new shell. Luckily, there is a way to source a batch file when cmd.exe starts.

Easy way to get glibc's "free(): invalid pointer" message

I agonized over this error for a while, because there was no obvious problem:

*** glibc detected *** ./test: free(): invalid pointer: 0x0921964c ***
... [memory dump]

Perl: File::Path::mkpath results in error: "No such file or directory"

I was running a Perl script that came with ACE to generate doxygen documentation. When trying to run it on Windows via Cygwin, I got the following mysterious error:

... : No such file or directory at line …

How to Changing Your Reviewer Color in MS Word 2003

When you have 'track changes' enabled in MS Word 2003 (and earlier), it automatically assigns colors to each reviewer in sequence. I, for one, can't stand to have all of my changes to a document showing in bright, stark RED! It just gets hard to look at if I have a lot of updates to make. Well, if I am the first reviewer of a document, then that's what I'll get.

But you can trick MS Word into giving you a different color.

Using POST to Send Form Data to a Servlet

Ajax is a great way to make your pages more dynamic. When using ajax, it's common to send data to your servlet in url-encoded form using a GET request. But there can actually be issues with sending information in GET requests. It's generally better practice to send data as a POST request, but there's one subtle detail required to make it work.

How to Get Thumbnails to Show Up for More File Types in Gnome's File Explorer (Nautilus)

Gnome's file explorer was showing thumbnail images for some file types, but not others. It does so for video files by using the default installation of Totem to get the preview image. So, for example I was getting preview images for .flv files, but not for .mpg files.

How to Swap Control and Caps Lock on Windows

A lot of programmers like to swap caps lock and control. This is especially big with Emacs users, so they can avoid "emacs pinky" from constantly holding down the control key at the bottom corner of the keyboard. The caps lock location is much easier to reach and can make a huge difference if you use a lot of control key combinations. Swapping these keys is pretty easy on Linux, but on Windows, you have to hack the registry.

Making Fonts Look Good on Linux

Fonts on Linux have always been a sore subject for me. I love Linux, and I like almost everything about it more than Windows. But why can't the fonts look as good as they do on Windows???

msxml3.dll: The system cannot locate the resource specified

I recently started getting this error in my Ajax application:

msxml3.dll: The system cannot locate the resource specified