Word Document Opening Problems

Someone asked me if there was anything that they could do if they created a Word document, sent it to someone else who edited it, that other person then sent it back, and then the creator couldn't open the document.

Unfortunately this is quite a common situation when using MS Word as Word is notorious for having poor backwards compatibility. This problem is only made worse when a user attempts to use third party application to view, and edit, the Word document since MS does not publish the Word document specifications openly.

Often, if MS Word is unable to open a word document written with an alternate version of Word, OpenOffice may be able to open the Word document. However, the real solution is to take all reasonable steps to avoid storing documents as Word documents in the first place. It is good policy to strive to store your documents in a file format which is open and free. If you have a need to provide the document to someone who requires that the document be in the closed format then it is best to merely create a copy of the document in the closed format but maintain the original document, in the open format, as the master copy.

Good luck converting your MS Word documents, if you have any comments please let me know and if you have any other questions which you'd like me to answer for free please send them to Ben Dash at ben.dash@gmail.com

Audio SSH forwarding

Someone asked if it is possible to forward audio through SSH in the same way that SSH allows you to forward X sessions.

The answer is yes and the means to make it happen is called the Enlightened Sound Daemon, or eSounD. Just google for "eSounD" for more information about forwarding audio over SSH and if you want to forward audio to your Windows machine then google for "eSounD cygwin".

I hope that this helps your multimedia experience while using SSH, if you have any comments please let me know and if you have any other questions which you'd like me to answer for free please send them to Ben Dash at ben.dash@gmail.com

Open Source UML

Someone asked how I draw UML diagrams, since I use Free Open Source Software I use a FOSS UML diagramming tool.

I've tried many many UML tools over the years including Rational Rose, ArgoUML, Poseidon, MS Word Paint, Kivio and finally Dia. The reason why I settled on Dia is because it's a Gnome application, and I prefer Gnome over KDE, and also because of Dia2code, which does a good job of auto generating source code templates from your UML diagrams. There's also a tool called AutoDia which can generate UML diagrams from source code, however, I prefer to use Doxygen to create UML from already written code.

Once I've drawn my UML diagram in Dia I like to import it into GIMP and make it look nice, see before:





and after:






There are some great books on how to use GIMP, in case you're interested, available here from amazon.

Have you found UML diagrams to be useful for designing your programs?

What UML tools do you use?

Have fun drawing your UML diagrams, if you have any comments please let me know and if you have any other questions which you'd like me to answer for free please send them to Ben Dash at ben.dash@gmail.com

nCurses Applications

Someone asked where they could find a good list of curses applications. Being a fan of gentoo I thought I'd have a search in the Gentoo Portage tree for "curses" and found the following:

http://packages.gentoo.org/search/?sstring=curses

This isn't an exhausive list of all console based application that you could use from your Zipit Wireless device, it doesn't include mutt, but it's a start.

If you have any additional lists of console based interface applications or any additional comments please let me know and if you have any other questions which you'd like me to answer for free please send them to Ben Dash at ben.dash@gmail.com

Zipit Wireless IM problems

Someone asked, on the Zipit Wireless Yahoo Group, why their Zipit was having problems connecting to Yahoo Imstant Messenger. The zipit is an 802.11b instant messaging device available from Amazon.

The problem is that the Zipit comes preinstalled as a multi-protocol IM client in a world where IM servers are continually changing their IM protocols. The IM servers continually change the protocols in order to prevent third party, unofficial, IM clients from connecting to them. This means that if a third party IM client is to connect to an IM server then they need to be locked into a continious upgrade cycle fixing their IM protocol as fast as the servers intentionally break it.

A solution to the continual upgrade of the firmware on the Zipit device is to use an IM protocol which remains constant. Jabber is such a protocol and, conveniently, also acts as a bridge to other IM protocols including Yahoo. Consequently, you need only connect your Zipit to Jabber in order to access Yahoo, MSN, and AIM IM buddies. The problem with this simple solution is that the software which comes on the Zipit does not support the Jabber protocol, yet.

There is, however, a way to allow the zipit access to Jabber. To do so you will need an intermediate PC to act as a bridge. After installing Linux on the Zipit you ssh into your PC and run the ncurses IM application CenterICQ which then connects to Jabber and subsequently your other IM servers.

Note that the use of Jabber as an IM protocol bridge does not eliminate the problem of the continual upgrade cycle to fix intentionally broken IM protocols, it merely allows the upgrades to be centralised onto a Jabber server and allows you to keep the firmware on your Zipit static.

Have fun modifying your Zipit, if you have any comments please let me know and if you have any other questions which you'd like me to answer for free please send them to Ben Dash at ben.dash@gmail.com

Poison Toads

Someone asked me if toads are poisonous. Although all toads have glands in their skin which secrete toxins some are more toxic than others. The most dangerous is the Marine, Giant, or Cane Toad whose toxin is powerful enough to kill small dogs and cats.

Have you ever had any problems with toads?

It's probably a good rule of thumb to not to touch toads in general, but if you have any comments please let me know and if you have any other questions which you'd like me to answer for free please send them to Ben Dash at ben.dash@gmail.com

Rat Repellent

Someone asked me if I knew a good way that they could get rid of the rats, and other vermin, in their attic. I've had rats myself and found that it is really not a big problem, certainly not generally worth paying a professional for.

As with any problem there are two aspects of the solution; prevention and cure. The cure for an ongoing rat problem is to get the rats out of your house. The prevention is to stop the rats from returning at some point in the future.

I've tried numerous cures, sonic, traps, and poison. The sonic device had no effect and the rats seemed quite able to ignore it. The traps caught a rat once, however, I didn't find the rat until it had become infested with maggots and then we had a fly problem for a week or so. The best cure, in my opinion, is to use poison.

The effect of most rat poisons is that the rats eat the poison and subsequently die later while they are outside your house. I have never, that I know of, had a rat die in my house as a result of my putting out poison. The poison which I tend to use is dcon, it's avalable in most hardware stores and it's both cheap and effective.

Once the cure has been administered you need to decide if you want to attempt to prevent rats from returning. Rats may or may not return to your house at some point in the future, so deciding to take preventative measures is going to depend upon your personal situation. A preventative measure which holds promise, although I have never used it myself, is the use of the scent of rats' predators in and around your house. If you don't already have cats and/or dogs in close proximity to your house you may want to try a dehydrated urine pellet repellent like "Shake Away". I've seen it for sale in numerous places including amazon.com.

Do you have a rat problem?

Good luck with any rat problems that you may have, if you have any comments please let me know and if you have any other questions which you'd like me to answer for free please send them to Ben Dash at ben.dash@gmail.com