The inspiration for this blog was the successful resolution of a problem with getting my kid's Webcam working with Yahoo Messenger.
Of course, even though we've had the camera (not really a webcam, but supposed to work as one) since Christmas, she never cared until last night when I was madly finishing a document I was editing and needed to send off that night. Suddenly she needed it hooked up and working in 45 minutes so she could video chat with her BFF in California. Good luck with that - but I did try.
First I had to install the drivers for the camera - a Mustek DV316L that is about the most inexpensive digital video camera out there. Drivers installed ok although the instructions were dicey at best. But clicking "My Webcam" in Yahoo messenger only brought up an error message window in Internet Explorer.
First I worried that the camera was just too cheap and wouldn't work as promised. Of course, there's nothing useful about this particular camera on the web, so I turned to Yahoo help which wasn't much better. But, following the instructions in this link allowed me to determine that the camera SHOULD be compatible with Messenger. Then I tried this test and found something interesting, it wasn't automatically finding the camera, and the camera wasn't listed.
So I rebooted just for good measure. Tried the test again, set the camera source to the right camera, and I got video. So I went into Messenger and set the camera source to the correct camera (it's in Preferences or something like that), and tried "My Webcams" again. This time I got the error message that the application failed because it couldn't find kdu_V32R.dll. Which, oddly enough when I searched for it, was in the Program Files/Yahoo Messenger directory where theoretically it is supposed to be.
Searched a little more online and found all sorts of suggestions (seems this is a common problem) - from reinstalling Messenger to reinstalling camera drivers - neither of which sounded appealing at the moment. But one suggestion was just to copy kdu_V32R.dll into my /Windows/system directory, which I did (actually into the /system32 directory).
Tried "My Webcams" again and I was back to the small IE window with the error message. GRRR.
BUT, in my trolling of Yahoo's help files during all of this, I'd noticed this page, which says that if you are under age 13 (according to the birthday on file with Yahoo) you can't use the service. Period. So, wondering if this might be the problem, I logged into Messenger with my own Yahoo ID (I'm seriously older than 13), clicked on My Webcam, and lo and behold, there was my ugly face staring out at the world! Turned that off FAST, but problem solved.
What pisses me off about this whole process is that all Yahoo had to do was give us a specific error message when we tried to use the Webcam that my kid was too young according to their records. But NO, I had to jump through a dozen hoops to finally figure it out (and maybe there were some fixes along the way that helped the camera work with Messenger). And if she wants to set up a new Yahoo ID with a fake birthday so she can video chat with her few friends that have the same capability (all of whom I know), that's fine with me, at least for now.
Anyway, if you're having similar troubles, look in the unlikeliest places and try anything...
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Fruit Fly Infestations
I wanted this first solution to be the one about Yahoo Messenger and getting a Webcam working with it (which I managed to do tonight), but when I started writing it up realized OK, this one was complicated and after setting up this blog and etc., and wanting to give credit to sites that helped, it has to wait until tomorrow.
In the meantime, here's a simple solution if you have a fruit fly infestation (which I seem to have again, and so does a neighbour). I can't remember where I found this as it was a year or more ago, but THANK YOU to whoever posted it. It has worked for me more than once AND for the neighbour I recently relayed it to.
Find some glass jars with straight sides (I use canning jelly jars), or anything really that will hold liquid (but I haven't tested that). Put 1/4 cup or so of apple cider vinegar in them, and add ONE drop of dishwashing liquid. Other vinegars might work but they seem to like apple cider.
The vinegar attracts them and the dish soap cuts the surface tension of the vinegar so they actually drown if they fall in/investigate.
Place a few of these jars around where the infestation is worst - I find that a clear glass jar over a white surface (like my kitchen stove) seems to be most effective. They will crawl in and drown by the tens/hundreds/whatever.
If your infestation is severe you should change the jars/vinegar mixture every couple of days, as something seems to make the mixture less effective after a day or two.
Also look to see what may be causing the outbreak - compost buckets, worm bins, bananas, and other food sources are key culprits. The best remedy for any of these is cold (below freezing if possible) but worm bins won't manage that so stop feeding them bananas and hope for the best.
Fly strips (fly paper, whatever you call it) will also catch them if you have a really bad infestation, but ultimately you need to find the food that is causing the problem and get rid of it. Once you do that, and kill the survivors with the cider vinegar and/or fly strips, you should be fruit fly free!
In the meantime, here's a simple solution if you have a fruit fly infestation (which I seem to have again, and so does a neighbour). I can't remember where I found this as it was a year or more ago, but THANK YOU to whoever posted it. It has worked for me more than once AND for the neighbour I recently relayed it to.
Find some glass jars with straight sides (I use canning jelly jars), or anything really that will hold liquid (but I haven't tested that). Put 1/4 cup or so of apple cider vinegar in them, and add ONE drop of dishwashing liquid. Other vinegars might work but they seem to like apple cider.
The vinegar attracts them and the dish soap cuts the surface tension of the vinegar so they actually drown if they fall in/investigate.
Place a few of these jars around where the infestation is worst - I find that a clear glass jar over a white surface (like my kitchen stove) seems to be most effective. They will crawl in and drown by the tens/hundreds/whatever.
If your infestation is severe you should change the jars/vinegar mixture every couple of days, as something seems to make the mixture less effective after a day or two.
Also look to see what may be causing the outbreak - compost buckets, worm bins, bananas, and other food sources are key culprits. The best remedy for any of these is cold (below freezing if possible) but worm bins won't manage that so stop feeding them bananas and hope for the best.
Fly strips (fly paper, whatever you call it) will also catch them if you have a really bad infestation, but ultimately you need to find the food that is causing the problem and get rid of it. Once you do that, and kill the survivors with the cider vinegar and/or fly strips, you should be fruit fly free!
What I'm doing here
I've been thinking about this for a while now, but today's incident (coupled with a conveniently enabled blogger account from other recent activity) convinced me it was worth doing.
I'm a single mom, pushing 50, living in a VERY rural area. I've always been a "hands-on" person, so I try hard to fix things that go wrong (from computers to appliances to whatever) before calling in "the guys" or tech support or whatever the next option happens to be.
In the past few years the Internet has become a great source for solutions, or at least hints at them. But often they are incomplete, require registering or logging in to some site or another, or never say whether the suggested solution fixed the problem or not. Sometimes you have to put several ideas together to get the "ahah!" that makes it all work.
So here I am just going to post problems I have had (with as many specifics as possible and links to sites that helped), and what worked to solve them. They will be as random as the problems I am having at the moment (or that someone else I know had and I was able to fix), which means they won't be neatly categorized into computer, appliance, insect, etc. problems. Hopefully all those great search engines out there will bring you to the right place in your time of need.
If they work for you, great, if they don't, keep looking. You can ask questions but I'm unlikely to have additional answers.
But if a solution here DOES work for you, I'd love to hear about it.
Here's hoping this is a worthwhile endeavour...
dunstergirl
I'm a single mom, pushing 50, living in a VERY rural area. I've always been a "hands-on" person, so I try hard to fix things that go wrong (from computers to appliances to whatever) before calling in "the guys" or tech support or whatever the next option happens to be.
In the past few years the Internet has become a great source for solutions, or at least hints at them. But often they are incomplete, require registering or logging in to some site or another, or never say whether the suggested solution fixed the problem or not. Sometimes you have to put several ideas together to get the "ahah!" that makes it all work.
So here I am just going to post problems I have had (with as many specifics as possible and links to sites that helped), and what worked to solve them. They will be as random as the problems I am having at the moment (or that someone else I know had and I was able to fix), which means they won't be neatly categorized into computer, appliance, insect, etc. problems. Hopefully all those great search engines out there will bring you to the right place in your time of need.
If they work for you, great, if they don't, keep looking. You can ask questions but I'm unlikely to have additional answers.
But if a solution here DOES work for you, I'd love to hear about it.
Here's hoping this is a worthwhile endeavour...
dunstergirl
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