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TinyApps.Org

TinyApps.Org


WaKan - A great boon for Japanese and Chinese language studentsDecember 30 2008
"WaKan is a versatile tool for students of Japanese or Chinese. It features a character dictionary, a word dictionary, a text editor, a vocabulary management utility, many printing options (character flashcards, vocabulary lists, text including furigana), and a text translation tool."

If you are typing a new Japanese document, furigana and translations appear automatically; when pasting, select text and press Ctrl+T to add them.





Descriptive book titles that obviate the need to read the bookDecember 28 2008
Epictetus, business coachDecember 27 2008

On leaving the "workforce"

Men shut up tame lions in a cage, and bring them up, and feed them, and some take them around with them. And yet who will call such a lion free? Is it not true that the more softly the lion lives the more slavishly he lives? And what lion, were he to get sense and reason, would care to be one of these lions? Why, yes, and the birds yonder, when they are caught and brought up in cages, what do they suffer in their efforts to escape? And some of them starve to death rather than endure such a life, while even such as live, barely do so, and suffer and pine away, and if ever they find any opening, make their escape. Such is their desire for physical freedom, and a life of independence and freedom from restraint. And what is wrong with you here in your cage? "What a question! My nature is to fly where I please, to live in the open air, to sing when I please. You rob me of all this, and then ask, 'What is wrong with you?'"

On advertising

Does a philosopher invite people to a lecture? Is it not rather the case that, as the sun draws its own sustenance to itself, so he also draws to himself those to whom he is to do good?

On how to proceed

First, decide who you would be. Then, do what you must do.

From Epictetus' Discourses Book IV, Chapter 1; Book III, Chapter 23; and Book III, Chapter 23, respectively. The first two quot
Run cmd.exe as Local System in Safe ModeDecember 14 2008
When running Windows XP in Normal Mode, you can easily run cmd.exe as the LocalSystem Account (LSA) via:

at 14:02 /interactive cmd.exe

However, in Safe Mode, it returns:

This service cannot be started in Safe Mode

Microsoft points out that:

"The Task Scheduler service cannot be used while the computer is running in safe mode."

Creating a custom service with this neat hack from Adi Oltean also returns

This service cannot be started in Safe Mode

However, combining the hack with these instructions from Don Jones to add a service to the "safe" list did the trick. Here are the combined steps (which assume you are booted into Safe Mode):
  1. Add a key to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal named lscmd or what have you.
  2. sc create lscmd binpath= "cmd /K start" type= own type= interact
  3. sc start lscmd
  4. A new cmd.exe window will open with LocalSystem privileges. When you are finished, close the window, delete the registry key you made, and delete the service: sc delete lscmd .
In retrospect, it may very well have been possible simply to add Task Scheduler to the list of safe se
CO2Stats - Making websites greenDecember 2 2008
"CO2Stats makes your site carbon neutral and shows visitors you're environmentally friendly.... [The service] automatically meters your website's total energy consumption, helps to make it more energy efficient, and then purchases audited renewable energy from wind and solar farms to neutralize its carbon footprint - all for a flat, affordable monthly fee."

I plugged TinyApps.Org into their calculator (which sadly returned the wrong plan based on our number of monthly page views - about 300,000) and within a few hours, Alex (one of the co-founders) had taken the trouble of looking me up and sending a very nice message. Over the course of several emails, I became convinced that these guys are destined for success based on their integrity, kindness, speed, and (perhaps not least of all) phenomenal flattery skills. They have already signed some big names like IBM, Harvard, and Segway, and I trust the service will continue to grow apace.

UPDATE: Treehugger has covered some green web hosting options as well.