John’s Technical Blog

I am using JMeter for regression testing, and needed a way to use the current (today’s) date in mm/dd/yyyy format in a form post. Here is the solution I came up with using the JavaScript function:

Looks like date formatting in JavaScript is a perpetual problem, so I hope this is helpful.

I had been using Microsoft Word for years, when suddenly I had a strange problem where if I copied text to the clipboard, then opened Word, and then attempted to paste that nothing would happen . I have searched on the Web serveral times, but have not found a solution until now. Turns out I needed to disable a COM addin.

Thanks to Dopyiii (http://howtotroubleshoot.blogspot.com/#113035503245630446) for getting me on the right track.

His instructions for viewing COM addins:

1. Open Word and go to Tools > Customize > Commands tab
2. In the Categories section on the left, choose Tools
3. In the Commands column on the right, you’ll see “COM Addins”
4. Grab this COM Addins button and drag it up and drop it off on your toolbar somewhere.
   • It doesn’t matter where - you’ll delete it in a minute anyway.
   • The quick way to delete this button (or to customize the toolbar) is to hold down Alt and click and drag the button into the document. When you let go, it’ll disappear!
5. Close the Customize dialog
6. Now, click the new COM Addins button on your toolbar.
   • Like the Templates and Addins dialog, you can enable or disable whatever you see here
   • Remove the button if you like, or keep it there for nostalgic purposes.

I found that when I disabled Natural Voice Reader, I was able to paste after opening. Most people won’t have NVR installed, of course, but this might also get you on the right track if it is a COM addin that is causing the problem. Let me know if this helps you!

I enjoy adding toolbars to Internet Explorer (currently have nine). I do not keep them all active all the time, of course. I only keep the Google toolbar open all the time and open others as needed. However, I have noticed a problem where when I right click on the toolbar area to open or close a toolbar, the names do not always correspond to the correct toolbar. For example, clicking on Yahoo! may open or close Google. Sometimes this can get very confusing when, say, four toolbars have switched names .

Anyone else seen this? I have not seen it documented on the Web, and I have not figured out a solution yet.

I have not found this problem/bug documented elsewhere, but I have seen it on five different PCs. I have installed the Yahoo! Toolbar in Internet Explorer 6. When I click on a link that opens a popup window, the parent window is forced into some kind of “background” state where, once a window is moved over it, the parent window can no longer be brought to the front when it receives focus.

I found the problem was specifically related to the Yahoo! Toolbar by trial and error. So, I will need to leave the Yahoo! Toolbar off unless I am specifically using a tool like Anti-spyware. So much for easy access to Yahoo! Shopping .

As a side benefit, I found that the Yahoo! Toolbar was also blocking the search term carry-over from the Google Toolbar. When using the Google Toolbar to search, the terms appear to the right of the Highlight button, and when a new window is popped up from the search results, those highlighted terms are carried to the Google Toolbar in the new window. The Yahoo! Toolbar effectively breaks that functionality . So again, unfortunately, I will need to leave it turned off. I use the Google Toolbar much more than the Yahoo! Toolbar.

Has anyone else seen these problems?