San Francisco Bay Area Cajun Zydeco Dance Calendars

Looking for live Cajun and zydeco music in the San Francisco Bay Area? Check out the SFBAYou.com Calendars. The calendars are updated several times a week and are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. If you are unable to open the calendar files, then install the Adobe Acrobat Reader for free.

Logging into Windows 10 with a black screen and a white arrow cursor

I've been using Open Broadcaster Software's OBS Studio to capture the display output, audio output, and audio input on my Windows 10 computer. While experimenting with it, I changed the resolution of my display. After doing that and using my computer for while, I shut down my computer. When I came back to turn on the computer again, I saw a black screen with a white arrow cursor that moved when I moved my mouse. What to do? Fortunately I found this article on Microsoft's site. Just in case this article disappears for some reason, I'll quote the important part here:

At the black screen, press the Ctrl key once on an attached physical keyboard. (You won’t see any visible change, but pressing the Ctrl key will place the cursor in the password box that you’re currently not able to see.) Now type the password of the user that just signed out and press Enter.This will sign you back into Windows and the desktop will appear. If you failed to sign in because you mistyped the password, press Enter once more. Then retype the password and press Enter.

Thankfully the advice above worked for me.

Automated compacting and copying of Microsoft Outlook PST files

Here's a way to automatically compact and backup all of your Microsoft Outlook PST data files on your Windows PC using only free software, AutoIT and PowerShell. AutoIT is freeware, and PowerShell is included in Microsoft Windows. Compacting your PST files before you back them up can reduce the amount of disk space required both at the source and destination locations of your backup.

So, to get started:

1. Get the free AutoIT Full Installation and AutoIT Script Editor from the AutoIT Downloads page.
2. Ensure PowerShell scripts that you create can run on your computer.
3. Create an AutoIT script that, when the Mail control panel is open, will compact all PST files and then close the Mail control panel.
4. Create a Powershell script that opens the Mail control panel and then executes the AutoIT script.

Here below are the AutoIT and Powershell scripts that I am running on my Windows 8.1 PC with Outlook 2013. I have a Windows Shortcut to my PowerShell script so that every time I log into my PC, my Outlook PST data files are compacted and backed up before Outlook is opened. I use the PowerShell script to also open other applications so that I may work on them while the Outlook PST data files are being backed up. Please feel free to copy the scripts below and modify them to work for you.

I am using Synology's Cloud Station to keep most of the data files on my laptop in sync with a Synology NAS, but Cloud Station doesn't work well with Outlook PST data files, which is why Cloud Station is configured by default to exclude the synchronization of files with a PST extension.

AutoIT script

	;//Compact all PST files.au3
	;//Rick Upton, November 1, 2015
	;//http://www.rickupton.com | http://gb.rickupton.com
	;//
	;//This AutoIT script is a slightly modified version of code posted here: http://superuser.com/questions/836758/bulk-compaction-of-700gb-of-pst-files
	;//The purpose of this code is to automatically compact all Outlook PST files on a Windows PC.
	;//
	;//Using a PowerShell script, open the Mail control panel and then run this script using the following two commands:
	;//Show-ControlPanelItem Mail*
	;//Start-Process "C:\Compact all PST files.au3" -Wait
	;//
	#include <GUIListView.au3>
	SplashTextOn("Automated compaction of Outlook files in process", "DO NOT TOUCH THE COMPUTER WHILE THIS IS RUNNING.", 400, 80)
	Opt("WinTitleMatchMode", 4)
	WinWait("Mail Setup - Outlook", "Setup e-mail accounts and dire")
	ControlClick("Mail Setup - Outlook", "Setup e-mail accounts and dire", "Button2")
	WinWait("Account Settings", "AcctMgr Tab")
	;//Gets list of Data files listed
	$sTitle = "Account Settings"
	$hWnd = WinGetHandle($sTitle)
	If @error Then
	MsgBox(0, "Error", "Unable to find window")
	EndIf
	WinActivate($hWnd)
	$hlist = ControlGetHandle($hWnd, "", "[CLASS:SysListView32; INSTANCE:2]")
	If @error Then Exit
	$arraycount = _GUICtrlListView_GetItemCount($hlist)
	Local $ltext[$arraycount]
	$i = 0
	Do
	$ltext[$i] = _GUICtrlListView_GetItemText($hlist, $i)
	$i = $i + 1
	Until $i = $arraycount
	;//Goes into each listed Data file and compacts them
	$b = 0
	Do
	_GUICtrlListView_ClickItem($hlist, $b, "left", False, 2)
	Sleep(1000)
	WinWaitActive("Outlook Data File")
	ControlClick("Outlook Data File", "", "[CLASS:Button; INSTANCE:2]") ; click Compact Now
	Sleep(1200)
	If WinExists("Compact Now") Then WinWaitClose("Compact Now")
	WinClose("Outlook Data File")
	$b = $b + 1
	Until $b = $arraycount
	WinClose("Outlook Data Files")
	WinClose("Account Settings")
	WinClose("Mail Setup - Outlook")
	SplashOff()
	Exit

view raw Compact all PST files.au3 hosted with ❤ by GitHub

PowerShell script

	# Rick Startup.ps1
	# Rick Upton, November 1, 2015
	# http://www.rickupton.com | http://gb.rickupton.com
	#
	# This script:
	# 1) Compacts Microsoft Outlook personal storage table (PST) data files.
	# 2) Backs up PST data files into a date and time stamped folder.
	# 3) Launches multiple applications.
	#
	# To set this script up to launch every time you log into Windows:
	# 1) Create a Windows shortcut for this script with a target like the following (not including the # sign):
	# powershell.exe -command "& 'C:\Users\Rick\Documents\CloudStation\Rick Startup.ps1'
	# 2) In "Run", type "shell:startup" to open the startup folder with shortcuts for apps which should open after logging into Windows.
	# 3) Put the newly created shortcut for this script into the startup folder.
	# 4) Are there any other shortcuts in the startup folder? Consider deleting the other shortcuts and having this script open those
	# application instead to avoid a situation where the launch of other apps could interfere with the execution of the AutoIT3 (au3)
	# script. To do this, copy the target for each shortcut in the startup folder and paste it into this script preceded by a & character
	# so that this script executes the shortcut, then delete the shortcut from the startup folder.
	#
	# Potential future enhancements for this Powershell script:
	# 1) I should rarely need to monitor disk space usage on the destination drive since I am backing up files to a Synology NAS that has
	# a huge amount of free disk space. However, if disk space usage becomes a problem, then I could enhance this script to do one of the
	# following:
	# a) Delete backup files older than X days.
	# b) Delete files with a certain day of the month in the backup name so that a sampling of old and new backup files are retained.
	# c) Do one of the above only when disk space is less than X GB available.
	# 2) If I get into a situation where I am away from home with my laptop for multiple days, then I could enhance the script to back up
	# files to a USB drive when the NAS drive isn't detected.
	# Open Mail control panel.
	Show-ControlPanelItem Mail*
	# Call AutoIT script to compact all Outlook PST files, waiting for the script to complete before moving on to the next step
	# in this PowerShell script. The code for the AutoIT script is here: https://gist.github.com/rickupton/16f9a7b445a668c70c61
	Start-Process "C:\Users\Rick\Documents\CloudStation\Compact all PST files.au3" -Wait
	# Launch multiple applications.
	# * AFTER au3 script runs so that AutoIT3 (au3) script doesn't run into problems due to other apps being open.
	# * BEFORE the lengthy copying of Outlook PST files begins so that other apps may be used during the PST file copy process.
	# Open Chrome with multiple tabs using instructions here: http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/open-multiple-tabs-on-start-up-with-chrome
	# I open Google Calendar, Weather.com's hourly forecast for San Jose, and my web mail's Spam folder so I can check these while waiting
	# for Outlook to open (my Spam folder contents don't get downloaded to Outlook so I need to check it on the web).
	& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"
	# Open other apps.
	& "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\ONENOTEM.EXE" /tsr
	& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Synology\CloudStation\bin\launcher.exe"
	# Check to see if the computer is connected to the F: drive thanks to modified version of this script:
	# http://pshscripts.blogspot.com/2010/07/get-driveinfops1.html
	# If the F: drive is ready, then backup the Outlook PST files. If the F: drive is not ready, then that's OK, because
	# it probably means I'm not at home attached to the NAS.
	$d = New-Object -typename System.IO.DriveInfo -argumentlist "F:"
	"Drive {0}" -f $d.Name
	" File type: {0}" -f $d.DriveType
	if ($d.IsReady) {
	" Volume label: {0}" -f $d.VolumeLabel
	" File system: {0}" -f $d.DriveFormat
	$fs = $d.AvailableFreeSpace/1gb
	$tfs = $d.TotalFreeSpace/1gb
	$TS = $d.TotalSize/1gb
	" Available space to current user:{0, 15:n2} gb" -f $fs
	" Total available space: {0, 15:n2} gb" -f $tfs
	" Total size of drive: {0, 15:n3} gb" -f $ts
	$Now = Get-Date -uformat "%Y-%m-%d %Hh%M"
	$Source = "C:\Users\Rick\Documents\Rick Outlook Files\"
	$Destination = "F:\Rick Outlook Files Backups\"
	# Create folder with date as the folder name inside the destination folder
	New-Item -ItemType directory -Path "$Destination$Now"
	# Copy Outlook PST data files
	$Files = Get-Childitem $Source -Recurse
	foreach ($File in $Files) {
	if ($File -ne $NULL) {
	write-host "Copying $File" -ForegroundColor "Green"
	write-host "from $Source" -ForegroundColor "Green"
	write-host "to $Destination$Now" -ForegroundColor "Green"
	write-host "-----"
	Copy-Item $File.FullName -destination $Destination$Now -force | out-null
	}
	else
	{
	Write-Host "No more files in $Source to copy." -foregroundcolor "DarkRed"
	}
	}
	}
	# Launch Microsoft Outlook
	& "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\OUTLOOK.EXE"

view raw Rick Startup.ps1 hosted with ❤ by GitHub

School and Study Tips, LinkedIn Tips, Sony, SCU, SJSU, and Del Mar Posts Have Moved

Are you looking for content on this site and got the error "Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist."? If so, then these links may help:

• For school and study tips: The content that was on this site was updated and moved to a new Study and School Tips site.

• For LinkedIn tips: The content that was on this site was either deleted because it was obsolete or updated and moved to the LinkedIn Notes blog.

• For Santa Clara University MBA students and alumni: Information about online social networks was updated and moved to the Santa Clara University MBA Notes blog.

• For San Jose State University students and alumni: Information about online social networks was updated and moved to the San Jose State University Notes blog.

• For Del Mar High School students and alumni: Information about connecting with classmates was updated and moved to the Del Mar High School Connection blog.

• For downtown San Jose residents and visitors: The content that was on this site was deleted because it was obsolete.

• For former and current Sony employees and contractors: Information about online social networks was updated and moved to the Unofficial Sony Alumni Social Networking Sites blog.

For techies: Yes, I know I could have used 301 redirects to make the transition of content from one place to another as seamless as possible for machines doing search engine optimization (SEO) as well as humans. But there are a lot of reasons I didn't do that. To start, I saved some money by moving my web site content with low traffic to Blogger sites. I might further elaborate on the reasons I didn't use 301 redirects in a future post.

Updated Personal Blog, Added Picture in Title

I started this blog in 2005, so 10 years later it seemed like a good time to update it to take advantage of features that Blogger makes easy to add to a site. Most of the features were probably available in 2005 with WordPress plugins, but I wasn't that serious of blogger. I just wanted a decent looking place where I could occasionally share information that I think might be useful to others. The same holds true today, but I thought it might be fun to take advantage of features that are now easy to implement in Blogger.

So during this upgrade of this personal blog, I figured out one thing that might be useful to you if you're using Blogger: How to put a picture next to the title.

You can see in the upper left corner of this page that my picture is next to the title "Rick Upton". It took a little experimentation to figure out how to do this.

Taking Video from DVD+RW Discs to an MPG file to YouTube

I recorded video to a DVD+RW disc. When I open the disc on my computer, I see a number of files, including files with the extension VOB. Each VOB file is a segment of the complete video that I want to be able to play on my computer and upload to YouTube.

To combine five VOB files on my DVD+RW disc into one file called newfile.mpg on my computer's hard drive, I executed the following command: