When launching the game Diablo under Windows 7, almost all users experience problems with color. Alot of “fixes” out there require a batch script that kills explorer.exe and restarts it after you exit diablo.exe. That method works, but is NOT ideal.

This method is a very simple fix which works for a majority of users, it involves opening the screen on Windows 7 that allows you to change your resolution. Why this works is currently unknown at this time. It should also work for other legacy Blizzard games such as the Starcraft series.

NOT MEANT TO BE ENTERTAINING!

Hacked this together as a quick learning experience… Got it powered and running without any issue from the PC. Just documenting the success.

Also my first iPhone upload straight to YouTube.

Alright…

Long story short.

I’ve got an original MacBook (white) with a broken CD/DVD drive, and I want to install Snow Leopard on Friday when it comes out.

I plan on buying a copy, but first I want to make sure I can upgrade somehow.

A co-worker of mine has a new uni-body MacBook, so I decided I should try putting my HDD into his MacBook and booting it today, just to make sure it goes without a hitch, and that way I could use his DVD drive to install the upgrade to Snow Leopard…

Well, here’s what happened when we tried booting.

Also note, there’s no Apple logo when it boots with this HDD?!?

The first time we tried it, it was stuck at “waiting for root device” and a reboot fixed it though, and it did the following.

Shutdown is weird too, also shown in the video.

I cannot get photos off my iphone anymore, this just recently started happening, and only happens on my computer, I can get them on my work PC just fine. This is Windows Vista Ultimate 64, and at work I have Windows Vista Ultimate 32

The script automates 4 tasks that our server has. Restarting out PostgreSQL database, restarting apache, vacuuming the database, and running our custom import scripts, which has to be done as a specific user each day, and NOT as root… which has caused issues in the past, but now if you run them with the script I wrote, there’s no issue at all.

When launched, the script displays a menu for you, on which you make your choices.

You can then make your choice, via number, and it will complete the task and prompt you to continue.
When a wrong choice is made it tells you that you need to select a number from the list. The help command gives you an idea of what each other command does, and exit obviously exits the script.

So here’s a video to demonstrate how the menu system works.

Its a simple shell script, but it works, and it works well for what it does.
And of course I’d want to share the actual script with you, and document it in my blog,
so here it is, Frank’s maintenance script!

#######################################################
#  _______        _            _                      #
# |__   __|      | |          | |                     #
#    | | ___  ___| |__        | | __ ___      ____ _  #
#    | |/ _ \/ __|  _ \   _   | |/ _` \ \ /\ / / _` | #
#    | |  __/ (__| | | | | |__| | (_| |\ V  V / (_| | #
#    |_|\___|\___|_| |_|  \____/ \__,_| \_/\_/ \__,_| #
#                                                     #
#           www.techjawa.com/category/code            #
#             www.corey.degrandchamp.com              #
#                                                     #
#######################################################
#                                                     #
# Written  By: Corey DeGrandchamp                     #
# Written  On: June 18, 2009                          #
# Written For: Michigan Drill Corporation             #
# Description: This shell script will automate all of #
#              the maintenance tasks on Frank.        #
#                                                     #
#######################################################
#                                                     #
# Edit   Date: June 24, 2009                          #
# Edit     By: Corey DeGrandchamp                     #
# About  Edit: Fixed script so the heading/title will #
#              show every time now, also made it      #
#              pause and wait for the ENTER key to    #
#              be pressed before it continues.        #
#                                                     #
#######################################################

#!/bin/bash

# Display the title.
clear
echo '
     __  __    __    ____  _  _  ____  ____  _  _    __    _  _  ___  ____
    (  \/  )  /__\  (_  _)( \( )(_  _)( ___)( \( )  /__\  ( \( )/ __)( ___)
     )    (  /(__)\  _)(_  )  (   )(   )__)  )  (  /(__)\  )  (( (__  )__)
    (_/\/\_)(__)(__)(____)(_)\_) (__) (____)(_)\_)(__)(__)(_)\_)\___)(____)

	'
# Display possible choices.
CHOICES="RESTART_POSTGRESQL RESTART_APACHE VACUUM_DATABASE RUN_IMPORTS HELP EXIT"
# Define commands for choices.
select choice in $CHOICES; do
	if [ "$choice" = "RESTART_POSTGRESQL" ]; then
		/etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql restart
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo "Finished restarting PostgreSQL."
		echo ""
		echo "Press ENTER to continue."
		read
		clear
	elif [ "$choice" = "RESTART_APACHE" ]; then
		service httpsd restart
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo "Finished restarting Apache."
		echo ""
		echo "Press ENTER to continue."
		read
		clear
	elif [ "$choice" = "VACUUM_DATABASE" ]; then
		su ********-c "/usr/bin/vacuumdb -* *******"
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo "Finished vacuuming the database."
		echo ""
		echo "Press ENTER to continue."
		read
		clear
	elif [ "$choice" = "RUN_IMPORTS" ]; then
		su ********-c "/home/********/********/********/IMPORT"
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo "Finished running the imports."
		echo ""
		echo "Press ENTER to continue."
		read
		clear
	elif [ "$choice" = "HELP" ]; then
		clear
		echo "RESTART_POSTGRES"
		echo "     - Useful for when SOEFIE giving errors, or functioning slowly."
		echo ""
		echo "RESTART_APACHE"
		echo "     - When changes are made to websites, or websites are not working."
		echo ""
		echo "VACUUM_DATABASE"
		echo "     - This will vacuum the veritime database, clearing our all of the junk."
		echo ""
		echo "RUN_IMPORTS"
		echo "     - Runs the imports from the AS/400 to SOEFIEs database."
		echo ""
		echo "HELP"
		echo "     - Displays this menu"
		echo ""
		echo "EXIT"
		echo "     - Exits the program."
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo "Press ENTER to continue."
		read
		clear
	elif [ "$choice" = "EXIT" ]; then
		clear
		exit
	else
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo ""
		echo "Please choose a number from the list."
		echo ""
		echo "Press ENTER to continue."
		read
		clear
	fi
# Display the title after each choice again.
	echo '
     __  __    __    ____  _  _  ____  ____  _  _    __    _  _  ___  ____
    (  \/  )  /__\  (_  _)( \( )(_  _)( ___)( \( )  /__\  ( \( )/ __)( ___)
     )    (  /(__)\  _)(_  )  (   )(   )__)  )  (  /(__)\  )  (( (__  )__)
    (_/\/\_)(__)(__)(____)(_)\_) (__) (____)(_)\_)(__)(__)(_)\_)\___)(____)

	'
done

Some parts taken out to protect our security….

I know there are other ways to do what I achived here, but as I said before, this is my VERY FIRST shell script.

I JUST picked this up today… Is this seriously how it’s SUPPOSED to act?

So here’s me, creating my Sim. Enjoy.

So, my first thoughts? Why is it, that when you switch from female to male, it STILL LOOKS LIKE A GIRL? An extremely butch/lesbian girl, but still. It threw me off there for a moment… you can tell, as I switched to female again, and back to male to see if it would make a difference.

Other than that, I found the create a Sim to be EXTREMELY detailed. I like how you can have a different hair style for each outfit. You can really get down into the fine grain and customize things like shirts and pants. I made my Sim have a near identical shirt to one that my girlfriend Angela bought me, which happens to be one of my favorites.

I really like the traits aspect as well. You’re limited to five, which is kind of strange… but I understand that fully. I picked some traits that I personally think that I have now, and all of my life goals seemed to match, with the exception of becoming a chess legend… WTF? I don’t even play chess in real life. I can be a computer whiz and I can have aspirations, but that doesn’t mean I like to play chess…

Expect (or not, if you know me and my blogging habits) a full review after I play some more, if that ever even happens, because I know Ang will be playing this non-stop for the next few months. Well heck, at least it will break her WoW addiction?

Testing /dev/zero with dd to blow a HDD away.

Listen carefully…

EDIT: Haha! Right as we spun the drive up, it died and failed!!!

A weird boxee bug I’m experiencing.