UPS Humor

Not sure if this is actually true but funny either way.

Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS ' pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers. By the way, UPS is the only major airline that has never, ever, had an accident.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit
S: Something tightened in cockpit

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud..
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what friction locks are for.

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search

P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!)
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last:

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

Problem with Debian "apt-get upgrade"

Recently when attempting to upgrade a server that was being neglected we ran across an issue with Debian stating.

trying to overwrite `/usr/sbin/add-shell’, which is also in package passwd

The solution was simple and was required on a few similar errors where the overwrite and package names changed. Again we had really neglected this server and had not run the apt-get upgrade in a long time.

The fix?
dpkg -r --force all passwd
apt-get -f install

To explain briefly the "dpkg -r --force" forces the removal of the package "passwd". The "all" switch turns on(or off) all force options. An important note taken directly from the dpkg man page.
Warning: These options are mostly intended to be used by experts only. Using them without fully understanding their effects may break your whole system.

If you are worried and do not understand the possible risks DO NOT run the above dpkg command. The "apt-get -f install" is less risky but again, research before you apply.

How to Prevent Gmail Spam Filtering

As discussed in last night's post, Google Apps Outlook 2000 How To, we were migrating a client from their existing email hosting to Google Apps Standard. Although Google does a good job with Postini of filtering spam it still was too much for them and they wanted to disable all spam filtering.

Fortunately a blog post, Bypass Gmail's Spam Filter, covers it however it appears there is not a way to disable it for all accounts in the Google Apps Administrative interface.

Google Apps Outlook 2000 How To

We were doing a migration for a client today that was moving from a local hosting company to using Google Apps Standard for email hosting. Most of their workstations were using Outlook 2003 and 2007 however we found one that was running Windows 2000 and Office 2000. Although Google provides some good tutorials for configuring email clients it did not cover our version. it turns out that the Outlook 2002 setup was close enough to get everything configured.

Outlook 2002 Setup for Google Apps
Outlook 2003 Setup for Google Apps
Outlook 2007 Setup for Google Apps

An interesting note is that Google apparently moved from using SSL for outbound to TLS in Outlook 2007. So make sure to read the correct tutorial for your version of Outlook.

How to Lock Windows XP from Command Line

Start > Run type cmd

C:\> rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

Free and Easy Way to Merge PDF Documents

Recently when downloading a free, multi-part pdf copy of The Foxfire Book on Scribd it reminded me that there was a way in cygwin to merge those multiple copies into a single pdf, enter pdftk. It is extremely simple to merge with a single command.

Visio Shape Protection - How Can I Resize a Shape?

If you have worked with Visio long and especially on Visio diagrams generated by other business analysts you might have encountered the following dialog when attempting to Ungroup or perform some shape changes.


The solution is easy once you have done it...aren't they all? Select the object and select the following menu item Window > Show ShapeSheet. In the dialog that appears look in the Protection section for the LockGroup attribute, change it to 0 and the object should be editable now.