Evernote cookie

I'm on a new laptop at a client's site. Firefox works as a charm, thanks to Firefox Sync. Now I also need Evernote, since I don't have OneNote here. (Two OneNotes is not practical anyway, as the name of the tool implies...)

But the webclipper of Evernote doesn't work. Installation is fine, try to clip, it keeps asking for my password.

After some more minor annoyances about the clipper and the Windows client, I looked around and came across SpringPad. A subject for another blog. However, the bookmarklet for SpringPad did not work either, same symptom. In SpringPad you can link your Google account and then log in with that, also in the clipper bookmarklet. So I tried that. And Google was the first to be so clever to tell me that I should enable cookies.

It turns out that you need to have third-party cookies enabled, at least until you shutdown the browser.

Would that have been the cure for the Evernote clipper as well? Click... o, yeah!

So: If you want to use the Evernote clipper, enable 'cookies from other websites'.

By the way: if you think about it, it's logical. You're on myrecipe.com, want to clip it, and for that you need a cookie from Evernote.com, which is in this case 'another website'.

VirtualBox networking for second domain

My laptop is configured to be part of the Furore domain, where I work. However, I frequently work at a customers' location. With my current customer, your machine has to be on the domain, say 'ABC', otherwise al kinds of services are unavailable.

Since my laptop cannot be configured for two domains, I set up a virtual Windows XP with VirtualBox. For the network I used the default NAT setting connected to my physical ethernet connection. Worked fine, for a while.

Today a network monitoring tool apparently saw a local IP address on the network, the one from the VirtualBox Host. Therefore they automatically shut down my network connection. Problem...

This can be prevented by using the Bridged setting (according to the documentation). So I tried. Didn't work. I suppose because the Hosts' MAC address is unknown to the domain controller, and therefore does not get an IP address from the DHCP server. I could try to contact the servicedesk to register this MAC address. But instead I will ask for a separate laptop from ABC. I'm done with administering things I cannot fully control myself.

Outlook Express can compact messages...

Interesting message I get the past few days after each startup. Funny thing is that I do not even use Outlook Express, I only use Outlook. So there is exactly 1 message in there, the default welcome message. Makes sense to compact that ;-)

However, I found the solution, accidentally on an Outlook forum. The crucial part:

It is related to desktop search - right-click the magnifying glass icon in the toolbar menu and choose Windows Desktop Search Options from the menu. If Microsoft Outlook Express is listed under 'Included Locations' then left-click on it and click on the 'Modify' button'. You should see an Indexed Locations popup where you can 'uncheck' the Microsoft Outlook Express: Main Identity entry and you will no longer receive the message.

Edit: Next startup the message reappeared! So I just gave in and pressed OK. It will probably be silent for some time now. In short:

Resistance is futile. We are Microsoft

Windows 7 needs memory on VirtualBox

Today finally time to install Windows 7 on a virtual machine. Only it ended fairly quickly with a "failed to start" message. Without any clue as to what might be wrong. Searching on the internet did not reveal the answer directly, but someone had made a description of his own installation, mentioning the amount of memory allocated. That rang a bell. VirtualBox's default is 192 MB. That's not enough. I raised it to 1024 MB and now Windows is installing happily.

Outlook knows what's good for you

Well, sure it does. But if I want to receive an Access database file (.mdb), I do not want to be held back by it. Luckily, Microsoft provided a solution. You just have to edit the registry and reboot your machine. Apparently this cannot be done easier...

For the solution, see the Microsoft Knowledgebase, article 829982.

Clone a virtual machine in VirtualBox

I have a 'standard' virtual machine with XPsp3 running under Sun's VirtualBox. Now I want to test Mule ESB, so I need a clone of this virtual machine to build Mule ESB on. I have the virtual hard disk file in .VHD format to keep it compatible with the company's standard (but less good) VirtualPC.

I started simple by copying the WinXPtest.vhd to WinXPMule.vhd. Then into VirtualBox, New Virtual Machine, use existing harddisk, add the WinXPMule.vhd to the device list, BANG! ERROR! Problem turns out to be that both have the same id.

Luckily some guy Stuart explained on his blog how to do this by way of the vBoxManage.exe. He suggested the use of the clonevdi command, but checking the commandline help of vBoxManage I found the clonehd command. So I entered (include the double quotes):
"c:\program files\sun\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" clonehd WinXPtest.vhd WinXPMule.vhd --format:VHD --variant:Standard --type:normal.
I actually don't know the meaning of the --variant and --type parameters, but Standard and normal sounded quite right. It took some time (copying a file of nearly 4GB always takes some time), but then the command returned with "Clone hard disk created in format 'VHD'. UUID: (some not very interesting GUID)"

Back to the VirtualBox program, New Virtual Machine, use existing harddisk, add the newly created WinXPMule.vhd to the device list - no error this time - and you're done.

Contact from Nokia to Windows Mobile HTC

My wife has bougt a HTC phone on Windows Mobile. Now she would like her contacts from her old Nokia imported. Could you do that?

Well, it can indeed be done, without the use of Outlook (I was afraid of messing up my own contacts that are in sync with Outlook). Here's how.
Mind you that the PIM backup tool will ask you to map the incoming columns (from your csv) to the internal contact fields. So make sure you tidy up your data prior to restoring, using Excel or OpenOffice Calc. And keep a copy of the data open on your computer while doing the restore, so you can see which columns to map where.
Be aware that whereas Nokia calculates the displayname from the first- and lastname, WM6 does not. So while tidying up, also add a column "displayname" in which you combine first-, middle-, last- and companyname as you see fit.
Fortunately, if you make a mistake, you can easily try again by selecting the restore-option to delete all Outlook-contacts on the phone prior to restoring. It won't touch the SIM contacts, if at all present.

In my case there were contacts on the SIM, and they should be hidden. Microsoft has decided that that should be very difficult (why???) and be done through the registry. Here's how. In case you need a registry editor first (it's not included in WM6), see here for PHM Registry Editor. Choose a version for installation on the device (a .cab file, not through ActiveSync). For both our HTC's (Touch Cruise & Touch Cruise II) I use "Pocket PC 2002,2003 (ARM/PXA)". Copy the downloaded .cab to your phone and doubleclick it there. It will install itself.