Outlook 2007, Vista, Firefox, and General Failure
Should we salute General Failure?
For some reason, over the past few days, many Firefox users have encountered the General Failure error message when clicking links in Outlook. I haven’t yet tracked down the why in each case (one why occurs when you install the beta of Firefox 3, then remove it and revert to a still-installed Firefox 2.x), but several solutions seem to be floating around:
- Remove and reinstall Firefox;
- Change the default browser to Internet Explorer, then change it back to Firefox;
- Delete the (Default) REG_SZ registry value found at:HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxURL\shell\open\ddeexec
i.e., replace what’s stored for (Default) with nothing; double-click (Default), select and delete what’s stored for Value data.
Caveat: editing the registry incorrectly can result in your computer not working anymore. It also is a major cause of global warming. Edit the registry at your own risk.
Shortcut for copying DRM files to my SmartPhone
I made an interesting discovery about my Samsung SCH-I760 today. I download books from my local library. For the most part, they are DRMed. So, I can’t just copy them to my SCH-I760’s MicroSD. Well, I can. Remove the MicroSD card from the phone, plug it directly into my computer, and it shows up as another drive, and just drag the files over—very simple. But, when I do that, they aren’t played because the license hasn’t been properly transferred.
So, the only way to play them on the I760 is if I transfer them using WMP or Overdrive Media Console, while the I760 is tethered. There are two problems with that, however. First, it takes a long time. A file that takes only a second to copy to the MicroSD takes over a minute while tethered. This brings up the second problem: the I760 is very rude, and turns its back in the middle of a conversation. That’s right. It simply disconnects. That means I have to keep tapping the screen periodically during a transfer, or it times out with an ugly error message: 0×80072746.
But, I discovered a solution. If I transfer just the first part of book (there usually are anywhere from 5 to 30 distinct parts) using WMP or Overdrive, that’s sufficient to transfer the license. Once that’s done, I can then remove the MicroSD from the phone and copy the remaining parts much more expeditiously, and they play just fine.
I suspect that this will work with other DRM devices as well… but I don’t have any, so I can’t check it out. I prefer my Sansa C140’s behavior, since it’s not DRMed. Once I put a book onto it, it doesn’t expire. But, that then means taking along two devices. That’s okay sometimes, but other times, I really would prefer the seamless way that, when a phone call comes in, the I760 just stops, I push a button, complete the call, and the I760 resumes automatically. That’s much easier than having to grapple with the C140 to pause it, then grapple with the phone. All in all, having it integrated is much nicer.