Bowling Scores

So I looked around on the interwebs for something that would let me record my bowling scores. I found a few things that let you type stuff in and get your average but nothing that just let you record games by typing in your scores for each frame and it worked out the actual score like the machine does at the alley. So I wrote a spreadsheet to do it.

WinRAR License Policy ROCKS!

I've been using WinRAR for about 5 years now and upgraded from version to version for free after having paid my one license fee way back in 2002. I recently got a laptop and wanted to get another license. I didn't want to pay the full price for a license but wanted to convert my single use license into a multi-use license and use it on my laptop, so I contacted rarlabs (sales@win-rar.com) and asked them how to go about doing it. This was their reply:

Normally we do require one license to be purchased for
each computer. But we make an exception for home users.
Home users may use their single computer  usage license
on all computers which are in property of the license owner.

Best Regards,
Dimitar Tropchev
 Sales Manager

I now have WinRAR on my main PC, my laptop and both of the other machines in my house.

Blogger in Draft

Just found out about the Blogger in draft blog from Google where you can "read the latest news and post comments about drafted features" that Google is working on for. It also shows you what they have recently published to the live blogger.com as well.

Export favourites/bookmarks from IE/Firefox

I only just learned that IE can do this as well as Firefox and they both use the same format: DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1 although with subtle differences you can export from one and import to the other.

In Firefox

• Bookmarks
• Organise Bookmarks
• File Export
• choose a path and filename (default is bookmarks.html)

In IE

• File
• Import and Export... -> Next
• Export Favourites -> Next
• Choose a folder/sub-folder of favourtites -> Next
• Export to a file or Address (default is C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\bookmark.htm) -> Next
• Finish

How to restore XP activation status information after a reformat

Having just had to go through the indignity of reinstalling Windows XP Home Edition from scratch when one of my machines blew it's main hard disk and then having to phone Microsoft to be able to activate it 'cause I got a message that I'd activated this particular version more times than Microsoft thought I should have, I thought I'd remind myself how to backup the activation status files so hopefully I wont have to do it again (unless I change a component of course).

1. Double-click My Computer, then double-click on the "C" drive.
2. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32 folder.
3. Locate the files named "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" and copy them to a safe location such as a USB key or CD.
4. Reformat your disk and reinstall Windows XP on your reformatted hard drive, click "No" when asked if you want to activate Windows.
5. Reboot your computer into SafeMode (press F8 as Windows is booting up to see the Windows Advanced Options menu and select SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Minimal)
6. Double-click My Computer, then double-click on the "C" drive again.
7. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32 folder again.
8. Locate the files named "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" (if it exists) and rename them to "wpadbl.new" and "wpabak.new"
9. Copy your original "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" files from your USB key, CD or DVD or other location into the C:\Windows\System32 folder
10. Restart your system.