Yesterday my Windows 7 x64 didn't boot with the following error message. Probably after reactivating hybernation:

The Windows boot configuration data (BCD) store file
contains some invalid information.
Object guide: {some long string unique for your system}
Status: 0XC0000034
The configuration for an element within the object is invalid in the
Boot Configuration Data Store. The associated windows boot leader
entry may not be available for selection until the problem is rectified.

After that I was stuck. Windows Startup Repair didn't work and all of the methods in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article neither.
Luckily I found a forum post which had the solution:

• Start from a Windows 7 DVD
• Go to the Repair Options
• Open the Command Prompt
• Enter bcdboot <your system driveletter>:\Windows, in my case it was this:
  bcdboot D:\Windows

And voilà, everything works fine again :)

Batch Render Script

A new update of Sergey Pogosyan's Batch Camera Render Script has been released. It's a very nice replacement for 3ds Max's Batch Render, offering increased functionality. It allows you to assign lights to your cameras, so it's no longer necessary to use Scene States to switch lighting setups for a camera in batch render. This frees up Scene States for more important tasks like globally switching geometry, layers, etc., independent from the Batch Render.

Nov 21st 2011: There is a new version called BatchCam2, which allows to assign multiple settings to a single camera. More info on the Beta here:
http://www.sergepogosyan.com/scripts/BatchCameraRender2/
Download BatchCam2 beta script. The license is here.

The stable version of the script is here:
http://www.sergepogosyan.com/scripts/BatchCameraRender/
Download Batch Camera Render original script. The license is here.

Installation

• Go to MAXScript -> Run Script and execute the script from any folder on your disk
• Customize -> Customize User Interface -> Toolbars Tab
• Browse to the category 'Sergo Pogosyan' and drag the 'Render scene cameras...' button onto any toolbar (create a new one before if you like)
  

More info over at Scriptspot.

Export forms documents to PDF with OpenOffice

The task:
I want to create a PDF with form fields the user can fill in, then print it out.
I want to keep the file editable, so creating the document in Word and putting in the form fields with Adobe Acrobat afterwards was not a viable option.

With OpenOffice it's possible to create form documents, save them as PDFs and the user can fill in the fields. With MS Office you can create forms as well, but they won't get exported into a PDF, so your customers can't fill them in.
Initially I used OpenOffice 3.3.0, but due to a bug in that version the text in the form fields was cut off:

That's why I resorted to OpenOffice portable 3.2.0. In my document I created a layout table with all the nice fields in it, then continued to work on it the next day.

Problem:
It said it was write protected! So I looked for a solution online and there were plenty, but nothing worked for me. And then I found the obviously simple solution:
The Draft Mode button in the forms toolbar. Switch it on and you can continue working :)

Igallery Hacks

Ignite Gallery is a really nice commercial gallery component for Joomla 1.5 (native). Some of the hacks I used to adapt it to my needs on hellmachine.net might be useful for you aswell.

Close popup image when clicking on it

I wanted the popup image to close when clicking on it, not only when clicking on the close button (X).

1. Go to [yourJoomlaDirectory]components/com_igallery/javascript/
2. Open gallery.js
3. Search for
   

   $(this.options.closeImage).addEvent('click', function(e)

4. Replace the line with this:
   

   $(this.lboxGalleryObject.options.largeImage).addEvent('click', function(e)

5. If you want to have the closing functionality on the image and the close button just duplicate the code block. The block ends at

   }.bind(this));

Move slideshow controls and close button to the top

When you enlarge an image on hellmachine.net you'll see that the slideshow controls and the close button (X) are moved to the top of the popup.

1. Go to [yourJoomlaDirectory]/components/com_igallery/views/gallery/tmpl/default.php
2. Rename default.php to default.phpbak so you have a backup!
3. Replace default.php with the one in this .zip file.
   

The slideshow controls can be centered with CSS code in gallery.css:

1. Go to [yourJoomlaDirectory]/components/com_igallery/css
2. Rename gallery.css to gallery.cssbak for backup
3. Replace gallery.css with this one.

TinyBrowser Directories

In the most recent Joomla Update to 1.5.12 the new TinyMCE has been integrated. One of the new features is the fantastic TinyBrowser. No more image uploading via FTP, just use TinyBrowser directly when editing an article.

Sometimes, however, the TinyBrowser doesn't point where you want. Time to edit the default directory paths:

1. Start your FTP client and browse to /plugins/editors/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/tinybrowser
2. Open your config_tinybrowser.php
   Either download my config_tinybrowser.php or follow the steps below to make the adjustments yourself.
3. Around line 50 you will find something like this. Comment it in.
   

   // File upload paths (set to absolute by default)
   //$tinybrowser['path']['image'] = '/useruploads/images/';
   //$tinybrowser['path']['media'] = '/useruploads/media/';
   //$tinybrowser['path']['file']  = '/useruploads/files/';

4. Right afterwards there is this block, which you need to comment out.
   

   $tinybrowser['path']['image'] = str_replace($tinybrowser['docroot'],'', preg_replace('[\\\]', '/', realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../../../../../../../images/stories'))) . '/';
   $tinybrowser['path']['media'] = str_replace($tinybrowser['docroot'],'', preg_replace('[\\\]', '/', realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../../../../../../../images/stories'))) . '/';
   $tinybrowser['path']['file']  = str_replace($tinybrowser['docroot'],'', preg_replace('[\\\]', '/', realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../../../../../../../images/stories'))) . '/';
   

5. Customize the paths so that they fit your preferences. Mine look like this:
   

   $tinybrowser['path']['image'] = '/images/';
   $tinybrowser['path']['media'] = '/media/';
   $tinybrowser['path']['file']  = '/files/';

That's it, your TinyBrowser should now point to the correct default Joomla directories.