Visio and Fractions in Text boxes

I only use one Dynamips / Dynagen lab configuration for all my testing. It's extensive enough to allow me to add features or techniques in isolated network areas without reinventing the whole network. After doing so, I also have the ability to see how the changes may affect the overall design very easily.

Unfortunately, if I don't maintain some documentation on the network, it becomes counter productive to depend on it to test specific features and conditions.

So Visio is an obvious solution, but one thing bugged me. When I dropped a text field on the diagram to hold some basic interface info, like:

R1
F0/0 = 10.101.10.51 / 24
S1/0 = 192.168.1.1 / 30
S½ = 192.168.1.13/30

the IP interfaces with port numbers that can be considered a common fraction (i.e. 1/2 above) get converted to tiny little depictions of fractions. This isn't the worst thing in the world, but does get distracting on a large scale.



Visio does this by default (at least my Visio 2003 version). If you navigate to Tools | AutoCorrect Options and then to the AutoFormat As You Type tab, you'll find a check mark to convert fractions to fraction characters.

Uncheck and you're done.

Volume Control in Windows XP

After plugging headphones into my T61 for the first time and wishing I had more control over the sound than via the proprietary keyboard buttons, I found Windows' volume control missing.

1. You can try to display it in the SysTray via the Control Panel.

You can try Control Panel | Sound and Audio Devices and click Place Volume Icon in the Task Bar. You should have the tiny speaker icon down in the bottom right corner of your screen.

2. If you find "the Volume Control program has not been installed", you can restore it from your XP installation media (or possibly from the i386 folder on your hard drive). Find the i386 folder, navigate to it via command line and type:

expand -r sndvol32.ex_ %systemroot%\system32

You can then use the Control Panel method to restore it to the SysTray.