Grapefruit

TheWordIsPiquedNotPeekedOrPeakedWhenYouAreReferringToWhatSomethingDidToYourInterest.com

Maybe I'll register that domain as a single-serving site, like http://www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com.

Also maybe ShouldHAVENotShouldOfMaybeYouShouldHaveReadMore.com

Convert KML files to Shapefiles

After a lot of looking around, my pal Chris finally found this python script that successfully converts a KML (Google Earth) file to an ESRI shapefile:

http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=15603

I started with a KMZ, saved it as a KML from Google Earth, and proceeded from there.

(Hi, me, one year from now, when I am googling for this same thing again....)

ArcToolbox tools are all blank white windows

The programs run (ArcMap and ArcCatalog) but ArcToolbox is totally broken. That is, ArcToolbox shows up and looks pretty, but if you launch a tool, it is a blank, white window with nothing at all inside. True for all tools.

ESRI Support said to rename the ESRI folder in the Registry like this:

• Make sure all ArcGIS programs are closed
• Open Regedit (Start > Run > "regedit")
• Expand the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder
• Expand the Software folder within HKEY_CURRENT_USER
• Rename the ESRI folder to ESRI_OLD

Close Regedit and reopen ArcToolbox. The tools should be available. They were. Ate up half a day, but I'm used to it by now.

Blog Address Moved

No idea what this will do to RSS feeds, but this blog has moved from zipcon.com/~beckyd/grapefruit to charleskiblinger.com/grapefruit/.

Let me know if anything is broken.

ArcGIS: Table too Large to Register with Personal Geodatabase

My co-workers ran into this problem with a particularly large table in a personal geodatabase (.mdb). They wanted to change a couple of field types from text to double, and then register the table with the geodatabase, but received errors with both tasks. MS Access will tell you to change your max locks registry entry, but that will get you only so far.

Their solution:

Open MS Access and create a copy of the table, retaining the table structure only, so you have an empty table. Make any changes to field types in the design of the empty table. Register this table with the geodatabase in ArcCatalog.

In MS Access, create an append query that writes all the records from the large table into the new, blank, registered table. If you're changing field types, you'll have to have your append query perform calculations to change text to numeric values or vice versa, but it works.

Stealing Focus

Dear Adobe PDF Converter Print Driver:

When I print to PDF, and then move to another app while you churn away on the print job, you later jump in front of everything else I am working on and cause me to type something into the Save dialog so I name the file some random string of words I was in the middle of typing somewhere else. Because see, I was working in some other app that I had intentionally brought to the foreground, and I had planned to stay working in it until I damn-well decided I wanted to get back to you and pay attention to you. But you couldn't have that.

It's like if I were sitting at dinner and just putting my fork in my mouth, and you called me on the phone, only instead of letting me eat and just leaving a message, you drove over to my house and barged in the door and pushed the mouthpiece of the phone into my mouth.

It's called "stealing focus" and I sincerely hate you for it.