theRenamer: Review

theRenamer is a good tool to cut down the amount of time spent repeating yourself. Excuse the pun. Simple, customizable and free.

This smart little tool will go and retrieve the appropriate information relating to your movies and tv shows via IMDB.com and the like.

Lets start by setting up your filters:

Depending the way everything is already setup you will be able to match it to your requirements, the beauty is that it will actually show you the end result.

Lets begin, drag and drop the files you want renamed:

Next up you will note where the information is getting fetched from:

Lets it do its job:

At this point it will have fetched the correct information or not, either way; you will have the option of what is to be renamed. Click on Proceed.

Voila, your files will now have the correct file names. theRenamer will also work on whole directories too.

Replacing/Upgrading rear shocks on Suzuki Escudo/Geo Tracker 1.6, 2Door

Being in New Zealand, we have a fair amount of Holden’s on the road. Worldwide you will more commonly recognize the manufacturer as Vauxhall.

After a bit of reading I found out that the VL Commodore shocks are longer and provide more down travel and softer ride.

The total cost:
Shocks – $1 on Trademe (online auction).
Delivery – $15
Nuts and bolts – $10 Local shop

Objective:  13cm more drop.

Let’s begin; jack her up:

Note I used two jacks to maintain the height of the diff.

The two pictures below only show the new shock installed but the principle is to remove the nut and bolt at the bottom, and up top the two nuts/or one lock nut.
Check out the drop 🙂

Mission complete. Now we are left with two new issues:

  1. Brake hoses – too short.
  2. Springs too short.

Stay tuned, I will soon document cheaper replacement springs and brake hoses extensions.

Replacing/upgrading rear springs on Suzuki Escudo/Geo Tracker 1.6, 2Door, 96 with 4Door, v6, 2.0

If you have read the first post on changing the front springs you will probably have a giggle at this one. Simple. If you have 20 minutes up your sleeve consider the rear done.

Cost:
$50

In this situation, I took the springs from the 4 door model and installed them into the two door. The target goal was 1″ of lift.

Due to this change not being too high you will not need to replace the shocks or worry about the change in ride.
Begin by jacking the rear up:

Next up remove the brake hose by removing the two bolts visible:

It will look a little like this:

The spring will now drop:

Note for me the spring did not need any convincing to be removed.

Go ahead and remove it:

Here we go, the before and after; one inch closer to fitting your target tires:

Before (excuse the picture quality):

And after:

VBS/VB ODBC Creation Script

How to create a basic SQL AD authentication ODBC connection (2003/2003 64)

This could easily be adapted to scripted deployments and will work on server 2003 / 2003 64.

Before starting, the easiest way to know exactly what you need to add is to export
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREODBCODBC.INI%odbc folder% and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREODBCODBC.INIODBC Data Sources%data source name%
These exports will give you the keys needing to be added.

Below is what has worked for me, however additional keys/changes can be added to suit:

On Error Resume Next

Dim Registry
Set Registry = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)
Set objShell = WScript.CreatedObject (“WScript.Shell”)

‘Setup ODBC
DataSourceName = “******”
Server = “******
DriverName = “******
DatabaseName = “******
WindowsAuthentication = True
DriverPath = “C:WindowsSystemSQLSRV32.dll”
REG_KEY_PATH = “HKLMSOFTWAREODBCODBC.INI” & DataSourceName

‘Create the DSN only if it doesn’t already exist.
Result = Registry.RegRead (REG_KEY_PATH & “Server”)
If Result = “” Then
Registry.RegWrite REG_KEY_PATH & “DataBase”,DatabaseName,”REG_SZ”
Registry.RegWrite REG_KEY_PATH & “LastUser”,LastUser,”REG_SZ”
Registry.RegWrite REG_KEY_PATH & “Server”,Server,”REG_SZ”
Registry.RegWrite REG_KEY_PATH & “Driver”,DriverPath,”REG_SZ”
If WindowsAuthentication = True Then
Registry.RegWrite REG_KEY_PATH & “Trusted_Connection”,”Yes”,”REG_SZ”
End If
‘ This key is required for the DSN to appear in the ODBC Control Panel
REG_KEY_PATH = “HKLMSOFTWAREODBCODBC.INIODBC Data Sources” & DataSourceName
Registry.RegWrite REG_KEY_PATH,DriverName,”REG_SZ”
End If
Set Registry = Nothing