"File Not Found or No Read Permission" Zipping Problem

I love that in Windows XP you can right click on any file and Send To> Compressed (zipped) Folder. For most users, that functionality freed us from having use to use shareware programs like WinZip that clogged our registries to no end. In fact, it's still my preferred method of working on zip files, only resorting to using the freeware program 7-Zip when I specifically need to archive to or extract non-zip files.

However, early this morning as I was preparing to deliver some HD Quicktimes to a client, I ran into a problem using Windows' zipper: it seems it can't handle files larger than, say, 2 gigabytes (and half of my files were over 3). It was throwing me the error message

File not found or no read permission

I tried a workaround of creating an empty zip file first (Right Click>New>Compressed Archive), and then dragging the large file in. No luck, it still threw up the error. A quick look on google showed lots of other people having the same problem, and no solution.

Well, as much as I'd love to tell you of an awesome registry tweak or hack for this, I can't. It really seems that Windows has an uncrossable barrier when it comes to zipping files larger than around 2 gigs. However, I did notice that I could use 7-zip to archive the file, and it worked like a charm. It involves a few more steps than using Windows itself, so I still would recommend using Windows' zip for small files, but with impossibly large ones, use 7-zip.

p.s. - For ways to edit your "Send To" right click entries, check out this earlier post.

Windows XP SP3 Finally Released via Automatic Update

I wouldn't know since I'd had Service Pack 3 installed for a week or so now, but apparently Microsoft has finally officially released Windows XP Service Pack 3 via Automatic Update. It was originally scheduled to be released April 29th (a week ago), but there had been incompatibilities with a small niche of business customers. But starting today, if you have Automatic Update activated, it should be waiting for you to let it do its thing.







I've been heartily recommending SP3 for a long time, if not for the potential performance gains, but definitely for the increased stability and security. Long live XP!



(Via Tip and Trick)

Search Your Favorite Sites In the Address Bar (Firefox)

Firefox plugin Searchwords lets you easily and painlessly create what are called "search keywords." If you don't know what they are yet, prepare to be blown away.

Search keywords allow you to use a specific site's search engine (anyone from Google, to Google Maps, to GreasyPC's own search engine, to Lifehacker's, to YouTube), and assign a keyword to each of those search engines. For example, I've attached the keyword "LH" to Lifehacker.

Then, using Searchwords, all I have to do is go to the Firefox Address Bar (keyboard shortcut: CTRL-L), and enter LH Firefox and it'll search Lifehacker's site for anything Firefox-related.

Which means that you can search for YouTube videos or Wikipedia entries without having to go to youtube.com or wikipedia.org first!

Installing and configuring Searchwords is easy. Like all Firefox extensions, just go to the extension's home page and install. If you want to save some extra time installing your Firefox extensions, check out this article on how to remove the 3 second install buffer. You'll then be prompted to restart.

Once Searchwords is installed, you can go to any site you want that has a search engine, and right click on the search form. You'll get an option called "Add a Keyword for this Search..." Click on it, and you'll get a window that's basically like creating a bookmark for your search. Put it in the Quick Search folder, and assign it a short, memorable keyword.

I personally prefer using one or two letter keywords, so I'm not wasting time typing the keyboard in. Remember, we're doing this so we can streamline Firefox not having to use a separate search bar.

Once you fill out the necessary info, you're done! Just go to the address bar, type your keyword, then space, then the thing you're searching for.

The sites I use searchwords to search for are: Google, Youtube, IMDB, The Weather Channel, LA Citysearch (for restaurants), Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, and Urban Dictionary. What are yours?

Stop Waiting 3 Seconds to Install your Firefox Extensions!

This is one of those tweaks that I'd always wanted to get over with and fix on my configuration of Firefox already but was too lazy to look up. That is, until today, when I saw Lifehacker post the solution from an article on the blog Daily Gyan.

The problem, of course, regards having to wait three seconds whenever you try to install firefox extensions, before you can actually click the Install button. Since you ARE installing software on your machine, I suppose it's good for novices to have that extra safeguard on there, but if you're more of a power user, you'd rather save those precious seconds.

Simply, enter about:config into your address bar, find the entry called security.dialog_enable_delay and change its value to 0 (from the default of 2000). Here's a screenshot of my configuration:




Schedule Future Blog Posts Now Available For Everyone!

First I asked if there was a way for bloggers to schedule their posts to publish at a specified future time. Then I blogged about Blogger-in-Draft, Blogger's beta testing iteration where you can try out not-ready-for-primetime features, one of which was Future Blog Posting.

Now, it seems normal users not using Blogger-in-Draft can take advantage of future posting, as they've finally rolled it out of beta status.


To use the feature, click down and expand the Post Options section and change the Post Date and Time to some time in the future. When you return to your message list, it will reveal its status as "Scheduled."

Personally I've had no problems using Blogger-in-Draft this entire time, so I'd still recommend using it over the normal version, but if you're a little skittish, now you know there's nothing to worry about.

(note: this article was published the day after it was written)

Add Digg Links to Your Blogger Blog

In another attempt to reach out and grab more readers from the interweb, I've finally bitten the bullet and joined Digg. Never really having used Digg before, either as a user or webmaster (but knowing how it works), I went a-googlin' to see how one goes about adding that "Digg this!" link to all of my posts.

Luckily, Tips-For-New-Bloggers had the answer. Click the link above for more info. Thanks guys!

Split and Merge PDF's With Gios PDF!

A while ago I covered a way to split and merge TIFF files, and a week or so ago I covered how to create multi-page PDFs in Photoshop. Now I'll feature a program that accomplishes probably even more basic than both of those, which is splitting and merging PDF's (without Adobe Acrobat, of course).

Gios PDF Splitter and Merger is a free and open source application created by Paolo Gios, and it handles just splitting and merging, and it does it perfectly. In fact, it's so simple and intuitive the program doesn't even come with (or need) a readme or help file. Peep the screenshot below and I'm sure you can figure out how the whole thing works:







The entire program is just 76 kilobytes and runs straight off the executable. That's right, another awesome program that doesn't need installation. As such, it would be a great addition to your Thumb Drive apps to take wherever you go.



One thing that IS a bit of a pain with these non-install apps is that to keep them organized, you'd have to put them in the Program Files directory yourself and make a shortcut to put in your Start menu if you want it within easy reach. Oh, how I can never be satisfied.