next hard drive capacity limitation to watch out

once drives larger than 2.2TB rolls out, we will start to have problem seeing 100% of the capacity

Below is direct quote from here:
While it is true that the ATA/ATAPI-6 standard defines a method to provide a total capacity for a device of 144 petabytes, the next limit will be imposed not by the ATA devices but by many of the popular operating systems in use today. This limit will be at 2.2 terabytes (2,200 gigabytes). This barrier exists because many of today's operating systems are based on 32-bit addressing. These operating systems include many flavors of Linux, Mac OS 9.x, and Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, 2000, and XP (Windows XP/64-bit also has the limit because of leveraged 32-bit code).

AutoHotkey

AutoHotkey (ahk) is a very powerful scripting utility

only down side is the learning curve to start coding

below code is taken from here. it remap you external keyboard's numberpad so that, regardless of numlock on/off, the numberpad is always number

=======quote========
NumpadIns::Numpad0
NumpadEnd::Numpad1
NumpadDown::Numpad2
NumpadPgDn::Numpad3
NumpadLeft::Numpad4
NumpadClear::Numpad5
NumpadRight::Numpad6
NumpadHome::Numpad7
NumpadUp::Numpad8
NumpadPgUp::Numpad9
NumpadDel::NumpadDot
======unquote=======

and to start using ahk, you would have these added
=======quote========
#z::Run "D:\profile\chris\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Google Chrome.lnk"

^!n::
IfWinExist Untitled - Notepad
WinActivate
else
Run notepad
return

^!c::
IfWinExist Calculator
WinActivate
else
Run calc
return

#c::Run cmd
======unquote=======

with the above implemented, we are yet to learn the scripting language and already we are off the mark with some big boost

seagate barracuda 7200.12

7200.12 is 500GB per platter, so it's deemed to be faster than 7200.11's 375GB

only problem, as of 10 april 2009, is that it only goes up to 1TB. 1.5TB is still not available yet. i wonder if they are going to release 2TB version (i would guess so)

need to buy a new hard drive at end of april. hope the new 1.5TB would be out by then

i actually want to buy external hard drive (the seagate free agent desk drives), and this makes it difficult to know if the external drive contains a 11 or 12 generation drive inside...

here is a review that i pulled off the net.

======

yeah i am aware of the firmware bug issue, but i only realised after i posted above that how serious the bugs are (also it is affecting almost all of the hard drives), and what actions seagate is taking to sort it out

any one can make mistake. the key is not to make no mistake (unless you are inhuman...) but how you look at it, what action you take to resolve it and what you learn from it

i got to say, i am very disappointed. busy checking what options i have with WD and hitachi...

===

going for western digital's 1.5TB drive (2TB is way too expensive)

2TB review here

the last major recall by wester digital seems to be 1999/2000 (searched on google with keyword "western digital recall", it comes up with 1999 recall also). looks like western digital is a much safer bet

outlook setting files location information

for backing up outlook, simply backing up the PST is not quite enough. you also need to back up the settings

the chances of corrupting outlook 2003's setting files seem to be much higher than the PST (i have crashed setting a few times already but yet to damage my PST. fingers crossed on that one...) . when the setting files are damaged you could loose your toolbar settings, your favorite folders setting etc. i found it really annoying

the files storing outlook settings are located here. back them up now!

just an idea, perhaps i should write a batch file, before opening up outlook, the batch file should copy all the settings first...

ok just had the batch file made and tested
cd D:\profile\chris\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
xcopy *.* D:\document\email\Outlook /W /H /Y
pause
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE" /recycle

i wanted to change the batch file's icon to outlook's and noticed that you can't... you can't change batch file's icon directly (how stupid... perhaps for security reason?). however there are 2 ways to overcome this:

• covert the batch file into an exe. you can use "batch to exe converter". this is freeware and is available here
• if that's too much trouble, you could create a shortcut and change the shortcut's icon

by the way, you may noticed the switch /recycle. this is to open outlook again using existing instance. here is full list of all switches for outlook.exe (nothing looks that great to use)

a bit off topic, for backup i use acronis true image home to back up open files (i think this is called shadow copy) - that's right you do not need to close your excel and outlook and you can back up the open files. you can even back up your OS while you are running it. however i found backing up OS and window profiles often hangs acronis. best is to back up standard open files

outlook - individual column/field settings for each folder

i use outlook 2003 extensively and have quite a few folder (who doesn't...). most of the folders are used just for data filtering, but some are used for tracking and other purposes which requires different appearance (different appearance as having different columns/fields, and having each column/field with different width etc)

if you tried to adjust your inbox folder, say, having both "from" and "to" field while keeping your "customer" folder just have the "from" field (no "to" field), this may, under certain circumstances, not be possible. one instance i found that could screw up the setting is seaching all folders. anyway if you have tried it you'd know what i mean, if you never tried to do this you probably won't know what i am talking about ;)

the fix to above is here. you need to Win+R execute outlook.exe /cleanviews. by the way this won't work in command prompt because outlook.exe is not on one of the default path

once you cleared all the views, you are good to go to create new views :)

can't help wonder why, for something as simple as this, microsoft has to make it this complicate to get it done...