Email address unavailable in Windows 8.1 Mail app...

Had trouble with the native Mail app on Windows 8.1 recently.  It would not connect to my Outlook.com email address.  Rebooting, toggling the sync options, attempting to update Windows and apps and even a system refresh (due to failed Windows Update installs) did not resolve the problem.

Finally the solution was to remove the Mail app by right-clicking the Mail tile and selecting uninstall.  This also removed Calendar and People.  Rebooted and then reinstalled.  Mail is now syncing as expected!

Hello, 2015!

So the new year begins.  Much as things ended the year before.  Only something may be slightly different this time!  A motivation, a desire, a need to push beyond constraints.  To eliminate that which must be destroyed and to create that which must be made anew!

What does all of this mean?  Well, lets see if it turns into some regular blog posts this year.  I'd like to bring back some of my helpful posts, expound on some that were half-baked and bring on some new ideas and content.

Feels like it just needs to start with one of these kind of posts every year...

Quickly install common internet freeware apps on new systems with Ninite

The question occasionally comes up, where do I get X software from?  For these situations I find Ninite.com invaluable.

Preventing sleep on Mac

Since upgrading to OSX 10.8 my Mac goes into a sleep state whenever it is idle for more than 15 to 30 minutes.  This disconnects all network sessions, causing chat clients, which are used for presence and quick communication, to have to reconnect frequently.  Also, can show presence as offline, when I need it to be online all the time.

Recently I discovered a command that, when run in a terminal window, will prevent this idle state.  The command?

pmset noidle.

^C will break out of it, so I just leave the Terminal window open all day.

Adobe FrameMaker 11 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0

Spent the last few days troubleshooting an issue with Adobe FrameMaker 11 on several clients.  The packaged was deployed through SCCM.  Several tech writers launched the application and selected "Structured" to begin working on their documents.  Upon launching into Structured Framemaker they received an error:

Internal Error 11014, 14348612, 17092405.  FrameMaker has detected a serious problem and must quit.

After spending a couple of hours between Google searches and looking at the clients, determined that some piece of software was missing.  To solve this issue, install the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0.

May this blog post help someone out there on the web one day!

iPhoto 11 (9.4.2) Photo Stream issue - Resolved!

Fighting an issue with iPhoto 11's photostream.  Launching iPhoto and then clicking Photo Stream showed a sticky note like back and noted that Photo Stream needed to have photos added.  There are photos there from the iPhone, but nothing was showing on the Mac.

After many attempts to resolve, it looks like the final solution was to export the photos in the library, delete the library, force iPhoto to create a new library.  Finally, toggling the Photo Stream off and back on again has brought photos down from iCloud!

Very frustrating.  Now time to see about getting everything synced up properly to the other iDevices...

Oracle Jinitiator client issues on Windows 7 x64

Ran across a strange issue with Oracle access that requires a certain version of the Jinitiator be installed, then a special version of jvm.dll has to be copied into the correct folder on Windows 7 x64 clients.

Oracle or the Jinitiator control panel applet would hang, and not properly update when changes were made.  These were the troubleshooting steps performed:

1. Perform Jinitiator fix by copying jvm.dll to the appropriate Jinitiator directory.
2. Perform Internet Explorer settings reset
1. Delete cache and other data
2. Verify no proxy is configured
3. Reset SSL
4. Reset Zone/site settings to default
5. Restart IE
3. Remove Java and Jinitiator, reinstall by logging back in to Oracle.  Perform jvm.dll fix by copying once again to the appropriate directory.
4. Add the following to the Jinitiator settings in the control panel applet
1. -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true

Finally, after locating this post on the Wichita Computer Guy blog which referenced Direct Draw in Windows 7, the Intel 3000 graphics driver was about 12 months out of date.  This issue was resolved by updating the video drivers to the latest available from the manufacturer website.