Technology Insights

Title OSX Keyboard Shortcut For Insert Date And Time, Insert Date/Time In TextMate

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I use TextMate on Mac OSX Mountain Lion to write notes. One thing I find myself needing a bunch is to insert the current date and time so I can track specific events. For instance if I am writing an article for Question-Defense.com and I am doing the initial formatting in TextMate, which is a typical scenario for me, I might take ten screenshots and I like to note the current date/time in case I get pulled away from the article writing for something else. So having a keyboard shortcut that outputs the current date/time is really valuable so I don’t have to type it out by hand. Below I describe how to install a OSX Service that will provide various date/time outputs via Keyboard Shortcuts. The OSX Service called WordService also provides a bunch of extra awesome services which I briefly touch on below as well.

Technology Insights

How To Convert .WRF Files To .WMV, AVI, MP4, XVID, or MPEG

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Someone sent me a WebEx webcast they wanted me to view this afternoon. The file had a .WRF file ending which stands for WebEx Recording Format which is one of the two file formats that WebEx webcasts are saved as. The other format that WebEx files are saved as is the ARF or WebEx Advanced Recording Format. Typically you could simply download the WebEx Player available by clicking here however you may want to convert this video, which requires the WebEx Recording Editor, to provide to others in a format they can view without having to install an application. It took me awhile to figure out how to convert this file properly since I only seemed to be able to find the older WebEx Editor versions. I finally signed up for a trial account and was able to download version 3 of the WebEx Recording Editor which allowed me to convert to WMV format and from that I was able to convert to any other video format including AVI, MP4, XVID, and MPEG. Follow the directions below to first convert the .WRF to .WMV and then the second set of directions if you want to convert to another video format.

Technology Errors

WebEx: Windows Media Player 9.0 Or Higher Is Required To Convert The File To .WMV Format

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Earlier I received a webcast that a colleague of mine wanted me to review to see if a certain service would be a fit for our network. The file he sent over had a .WRF file ending which after some research I found out was a WebEx file meaning WebEx Recording Format. To play this type of file you need the WebEx .WRF Player which can be downloaded here or the files can be converted to WMV (Windows Media Format) to play in the Windows Media Player. To convert the file you have to use the WebEx Editor which allows you to open a .WRF file and export to WMV format. When I attempted to export to WMV I received an error which I describe below along with how I was able to resolve the error.

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List Of Changed Files Between WordPress 2.8.5 and WordPress 2.8.6

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I have multiple sites I manage that run WordPress so I try to stay up to date on all of them. If you stay on op of upgrading WordPress then most of the updates are fairly easy and don’t require changing that many files. Instead of uploading the entire set of files again it is easiest to simply upload the modified files. This will allow you to not have to make all of your custom modifications again if you have made customizations to any core WordPress files. Customizing core WordPress files is something I try to stay away from but there are definitely situations where I have modified core files to accomplish various goals. Anyhow since I haven’t found a site that keeps a consistant list of changed WordPress files I am going to try to start providing a list for each upgrade on Question Defense from now on.