In the News & My Life 18 Apr 2008 05:26 am

A Quake! A Quake!

office furniture in Bulgariaeally? Yeah, no fake.

Works better than an alarm clock, but 5:37 am is too early.

Rants 04 Mar 2008 10:41 pm

24/7 Ain’t What it Used to Be

VitaCost advertises “24/7 Customer Service 1-800-381-0759″ right on the front page of their website. What they meant to say, is that outside of regular business hours, you can only place an order–they can’t actually do any customer service.

At least they make the phone number easy to find–that should be worth something.

Computing : Mac 24 Jan 2008 06:02 am

Fruux vs Plaxo

After looking at the concepts in Fruux, I was left with one question:

How does this different in principle from Plaxo?

At the current time, the only answer I have is that Plaxo exists.

On the Web 10 Jan 2008 07:41 pm

Q-Tips are an Abused Drug

Apparantley, WebSense considers Q-Tips to be an abused drug. I’m still not sure why.

Well Said 09 Jan 2008 06:46 am

That Makes WebSense

As a part of our new internet filter at work, all .edu sites are being blocked because “the university environment, by its open nature, is a haven for hackers and malicious code abuse.”

Yep, that is some awesome logic.

Computing : General 08 Jan 2008 06:28 am

Microsoft Excel AutoRecover Errors

In the process of upgrading my PC at work to XP, I changed the base directory that the the Microsoft Excel AutoRecover data was stored in. Actually I had forgotten that the AutoRecover data was stored there, but was reminded of this when I tried to change tabs in the “Options…” dialog:

AutoRecover Error

This might seem innocuous, but the only direct way to change the directory is through the “Options…” dialog, and this error is shown instead of switching tabs in the dialog. This would not likely be an issue if any of the following were true of the design:

  • There was a way to change the directory from the error dialog.
  • A default directory was used in the case that the custom directory could not be used.
  • The “Options…” dialog could be opened without a document open.
  • The dialog switched tabs even though the error occurred.
  • The error could just be ignored.

Well, the last is partially true. The error is just ignored silently when starting up Excel. There is no warning that AutoRecover data is not being saved. This is probably why I missed is when I changed the directory name previously. Luckily, I’ve only been running this way a couple of weeks.

(Of note, I don’t have it pointing to a standard location like C:\Temp because one of the likely recovery scenarios is a power failure and there is a script that runs on login that deletes the temporary files. The logic of this can be debated separately.)

On the Web 29 Dec 2007 07:55 am

Plaid Cow Pants

Yikes. Its Plaid Cow Pants.

Well Said 28 Dec 2007 07:15 am

Where Requirements Come From

When the rationale for one of your system requirements ends with “(Idea dreamed up at a workshop.)”, you know that it’s got to be a good one.

On the Web 28 Dec 2007 07:09 am

AT&T Wireless Customer Support

If you need to call AT&T Wireless Customer Service (i.e., who you would get calling 611 from your wireless phone), you can also reach them by calling 800-331-0500. This works from any other wireless phone or landline. This is available on their website, but I couldn’t find it without resorting to Google.

My Life 27 Dec 2007 09:49 am

A Retro Occam’s Razor

If 10 songs into the play list you’re still questioning why it seems all of the songs are out of the eighties–perhaps you are listening to the playlist of “Eighties Music”. (Instead of the playlist “Everything”, you thought you were listening to.)

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