Installing Ubuntu on VirtualBox

I have a Windows 8 machine on which I will be installing Ubuntu 14.04 inside Oracle VM VirtualBox. First download VirtualBox and install it. For this example I am using 4.3.12. Download the image file for Ubuntu.

Once you have installed VirtualBox open it and click on "New" on the toolbar to begin the process of creating a new virtual machine.

Give a name to your virtual machine and select which OS you would be installing in it and click on "Next".

Remove passwords from PDF files

A very simple trick to remove passwords from your password protected PDF files so that you can forward them.

Open your password protected PDF file in Google Chrome. Now hit Ctrl + P and save password protected PDF file as, well, again a PDF file. This would save a copy without the password.

Enable "Developer options" on your HTC One X

Recently I noticed that the Developer options on my HTC One X was gone. I remembered before updating it to 4.2.2 it had the Developer options. Then I remembered that from Android 4.2 and higher the Developer options are hidden by default.

To get back Developer options go to "Settings > About > Software information > More". Once there tap on "Build number" seven times to enable it.

Remove Skype from taskbar in Windows when you close it

Skype has an annoying bug feature; when you close it, it does not disappear from the taskbar unlike other programs. To make Skype behave like other programs, in menu go to "Tools > Options". Under "Advanced > Advanced settings" uncheck "Keep Skype in taskbar while I'm signed in".

So now when you close Skype it disappears from taskbar but it is still running and you can see it in notification area of taskbar.

Using ‘html’ option in SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog

I was trying to use SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog with html option using the below code:

var options = {
    title: "Title",
    width: 400,
    height: 600,
    html: "Content of dialog"
};
SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog(options);

But I was running into this weird error:

Sharing folders between Windows (host) and Ubuntu (guest) in VirtualBox

I have Windows 8 installed with Ubuntu 12.04 in Oracle VM VirtualBox and quite a few times I want to share files between them. For that, first you need to install VirtualBox Guest Additions for Linux. Guest additions consist of device drivers and system applications that optimize the guest operating system for better performance and usability.

To install Guest Additions go to Ubuntu Launcher and you would see VBOXADDITIONS_X.X.X_XXXX mounted.

Create Facebook cover photo from your HTC phone

HTC provides a nifty option to crop the photos in dimension specified for Facebook cover photos i.e. 851×315.

1. Open the picture that needs to be cropped from your Gallery.
2. Tap on “Edit” and then tap on “Transform”.
3. Select “Crop” option.
4. Now tap on the overflow icon (three vertical dots) and select “Facebook cover”.
5. The cropping tool will now resize in proportionate to the dimensions specified for Facebook cover photo.

This option is present on my HTC One X running on Android 4.2.2 with Sense 5 and I am guessing here that it should be present in other HTC phones with Sense 5. If it doesn't then let me know in comments.

Find and delete large attachments from your Calendar in Outlook 2010

Over time your Outlook gets filled with quite a few Calendar entries and some of those entries have attachments in them which were take up unnecessary space. To find those Calendar entries in Outlook 2010 follow these steps:

1. Open your Calendar in Outlook 2010.

2. Go to “View” tab. Go to “Change View” and select “List”. You will get a list of all your Calendar appointments.

3. Click on “Add columns” in “View” tab.

4. From dialog select “All Appointment fields” and add “Size” from available columns.

5. You can now see the size column in your list which you can sort to identify the entries which have large attachments in them.

Authorization problem for Facebook in HTC One X

I recently started receiving error of "Authorization problem" on my HTC One X with my Facebook app. It seemed that HTC Sense was not able to access my Facebook account and this error message continually popped up in my notification.

Zoom in and out with single hand on Google Chrome for Android

Some time back I ran into this article which detailed about a nifty feature which enables you to zoom in and out of Google Maps by just one finger. To perform a one-hand zoom simply double tap and, after the second tap, leave your finger pressed. You can then move your finger up and down to zoom in an out.

And after the recent update to Google Chrome on Android (version 32) I found that this feature has been also been added there. So now you can zoom in and out using just one finger.

New features in HTC One X with Sense 5 and Jelly Bean 4.2.2

Around 2-3 months back I upgraded my HTC One X to 4.19.720.1 which came with Sense 5 and Android (Jelly bean) 4.2.2. Its a bit of disappointment that this would be the last update for this phone.

The above screenshot lists down some major changes in software, but there are many more tweaks. Sense 5 is major upgrade over Sense 4 with lot of UI changes with almost every icon updated (read that as flattened).