The Critical Analysis

OpenDNS Dynamic Updater is very anoying!

2008-11-20T13:06:00.002-05:00

I use VPN connections fairly often, each time, I get this very persistent balloon. No amount of clicking or closing will shut it up.
Ya I get it, but go away!

Excel Shortcut keys from Joy E. Daniels

2008-11-19T15:48:00.001-05:00

Absolute/relative/mixed reference	F4
AutoSum	Alt =
Bold	Ctrl-B
Border lines off	Ctrl-Shift _
Border lines on	Ctrl-Shift &
Calculate active sheet	Shift-F9
Calculate all worksheets	F9
Close	Ctrl-W
Collapse selection to active cell	Shift-Backspace
Comment insert/edit	Shift-F2
Copy	Ctrl-C
Copy formula from cell above	Ctrl '
Copy value from cell above	Ctrl-Shift "
Cut	Ctrl-X
Date	Ctrl ;
Delete range	Ctrl -
Delete to end of line	Ctrl-Del
Show values/formulas	Ctrl `
Edit cell	F2
Enter formula as array	Ctrl-Shift-Enter
Fill down	Ctrl-D
Fill right	Ctrl-R
Find	Ctrl-F
Format commas (2 decimal places)	Ctrl-Shift !
Format currency (2 decimal places)	Ctrl-Shift $
Format date (day, month, year)	Ctrl-Shift #
Format exponential number (2 decimal places)	Ctrl-Shift ^
Format general number	Ctrl-Shift ~
Format percentage (0 decimal places)	Ctrl-Shift %
Format time (hour and minute)	Ctrl-Shift @
Formula	=
Function Wizard	Shift-F3
GoTo	Ctrl-G
Group row/column	Alt-Shift-Right
Hard Return in cell	Alt-Enter
Hide selected column(s)	Ctrl-0 (zero)
Hide selected row(s)	Ctrl-9
Insert chart sheet	F11
Insert Function components	Ctrl-Shift-A
Insert range	Ctrl-Shift-Plus
Insert worksheet	Shift-F11
Italics	Ctrl-I
Menu bar	F10
Move between noncontiguous selections	Ctrl-Alt-Left/Right
Move left/right one screen	Alt-PgUp/PgDn
Move to beginning of worksheet	Ctrl-Home
Move to edge of region	Ctrl-Arrow
Move to end of row	End, Enter
Move to end of worksheet	Ctrl-End
Move to next corner of selection	Ctrl .
Move up through a selection	Shift-Enter
Name a range (Insert/Name/Create)	Ctrl-Shift-F3
Name a range (Insert/Name/Define)	Ctrl-F3
New	Ctrl-N
Next window	Ctrl-F6
Next worksheet	Ctrl-PgUp
Open	Ctrl-O
Outline symbols display/hide	Ctrl-8
Paste	Ctrl-V
Paste named range (Insert/Name/Paste)	F3
Previous window	Ctrl-Shift-F6
Previous worksheet	Ctrl-PgDn
Print	Ctrl-P
Repeat Find	Shift-F4
Repeat/Redo	Ctrl-Y
Replace	Ctrl-H
Save	Ctrl-S
Save As	F12
Scroll to display active cell	Ctrl-Backspace
Select array to which active cell belongs	Ctrl /
Select cells directly referred to by selected formula	Ctrl [
Select cells referred to by selected formula	Ctrl-Shift {
Select cells with comments	Ctrl-Shift ?
Select column	Ctrl-spacebar
Select current region	Ctrl-Shift *
Select formulas that directly refer to active cell	Ctrl ]
Select formulas that refer to active cell	Ctrl-Shift }
Select objects on worksheet	Ctrl-Shift-spacebar
Select row	Shift-spacebar
Select to beginning of row	Shift-Home
Select to beginning of worksheet	Ctrl-Shift-Home
Select to edge of region	Ctrl-Shift-(Arrow)
Select to end of row	End, Shift-Enter
Select to end of worksheet	Ctrl-Shift-End
Select visible cells in selection	Alt ;
Select worksheet	Ctrl-A
Shortcut menu	Shift-F10
Spelling and Grammar check	F7
Strikethrough on/off	Ctrl-5
Style box	Alt '
Tab inserted	Ctrl-Alt-Tab
Time	Ctrl-Shift-Colon
Underline	Ctrl-U
Undo	Ctrl-Z
Ungroup row/column	Alt-Shift-Left
Unhide column(s)	Ctrl-Shift )
Unhide row(s)	Ctrl-Shift (

Facinating blog post from Matt Mazur about a failed project

2008-11-18T20:52:00.003-05:00

Snip

You’re told to be persistent and not to give up, but you suspect that you’re racing towards a dead end. What do you do?
Five or six weeks in this occurred to me. I started to think I had overestimated the market and that I might be headed for trouble. I had a choice: press forward and see what happens or abandon what I had done and move on to something new. I decided to give it a few more weeks and see it through to the end.
It’s not easy to admit that you’ve made a mistake, but it also doesn’t get any easier as time goes on. The closer I got to completing it the more I realized I had a problem, but I couldn’t stop because I was so close. It’s a bad spot to be in. Do yourself a favor and if you strongly suspect bad weather ahead, take a different route

Spoolsv.exe high CPU

2008-11-09T00:00:00.001-05:00

Snip from Tim's Journal

I came into lab to find the printer printing strange ASCII characters, one line per page, and a basically inoperably slow PC. Checking Task Manager, I found the culprit - one spoolsv.exe at 99% cpu which I killed. About 30 seconds later, the cpu was once again clogged by a revived app. Here's the fix. First, get some breathing room - go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services and stop the Print Spooler. Turn off the printer. Now go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS and delete the files there. I found '00020.SHD' and '00020.SPL'. Now turn your printer back on and restart the service. Check task manager, spoolsv.exe should be at 00%. Whew!

Semi-update
I'm glad that this post has been of use to you. It drove me crazy too. In my particular case the problems started occuring again after a couple days. This happend because the 'bad' spooler files were coming from another computer on the network. Once that person gave up printing that file, the madness stopped. If you are on your own, chances are it is just a corrupt print file that needs to be cleared out.

Conditinal dBase expression with else iif and contains expressions

2008-11-03T23:25:00.004-05:00

Took a while to hammer out...
IIF("YES" $ upper(contact1->key1),32768, IIF("NO" $ upper(contact1->key1),255,33023))

used in Goldmine field coloring customizations.

Virus outbreak and the big guys are sleeping

2008-10-24T15:10:00.003-05:00

see here

more to follow

As a reminder to all my clients......:)

2008-10-23T21:59:00.005-05:00

CAPS LOCK
Not necessary all the time

Bookmark:Delete IE7 History From the Command Line

2008-10-10T12:24:00.001-05:00

@ECHO OFF
ECHO Deleting current user's Temporary Files, Cookies, History, Form Data and Stored Passwords
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 1
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 2
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 16
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 32
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 255
ECHO Done!
PAUSE
CLS

Terminal Server Client Shortcut Key Combinations

2008-08-26T19:33:00.002-05:00

Task-switching hotkeys operate on the local computer level and are not passed through to the Terminal Server. However, some alternative hotkeys have been provided in the RDP Client:

CTRL+ALT+END starts the Windows NT Security dialog box. Similar to Windows NT/2000 CTRL+ALT+DEL.

ALT+PAGE UP switches between programs from left to right. Similar to Windows ALT+TAB.

ALT+PAGE DOWN switches between programs from right to left. Similar to Windows SHIFT+ALT+TAB.

ALT+INSERT cycles through the programs in most recently used order. Similar to Windows ALT+ESC.

ALT+HOME displays the Start menu. Similar to Windows CTRL+ESC.

CTRL+ALT+BREAK switches the Client between a window and a full screen.

ALT+DELETE Displays the Windows menu.

CTRL+ALT+MINUS (Minus as in the - symbol on the numeric keypad) Places a snapshot of the active window, within the client, on the Terminal server clipboard (provides the same functionality as pressing ALT+PrintScrn on a local computer.)

CTRL+ALT+PLUS (Plus as in the + symbol on the numeric keypad) Places a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard (provides the same functionality as pressing PrintScrn on a local computer.)

HP Credit Card payment date sort order needs help

2008-08-11T09:24:00.000-05:00

This confused me for a bit.

Incoming Remote desktop on a vista machine when a user is logged on locally

2008-08-07T10:34:00.004-05:00

I always wondered what the local user sees when I log on via RDP from a remote location.
Well today I finally saw it.

Administrator wants to connect to this machine.

Click OK to disconnect your session immediately or click cancel to stay connected.

Otherwise, you will be disconnected in 30 seconds.

There is no countdown to 0 from 30.

If you are not expecting this message, you have a problem!

"No Parking loading zone" for one company on public roads

2008-07-29T19:59:00.003-05:00

Is this allowed?

Yes / No.........OK / Cancel.......Take your pick on this blank

2008-07-10T16:15:00.002-05:00

Blank

Windows Media player memory out of control, sneaky too.

2008-06-17T15:07:00.004-05:00

A whopping 1gb in memory for media player. That's way too much. Oddly few seconds later it dropped to 24mg, yet the graph still showed the memory in use. Restarting Media Player starts at about 14mg and the performance graph back to normal.

Find Search and Compare all Microsoft DLL's and EXE's

2008-05-09T13:26:00.002-05:00

Very useful site here, that allows you to get detailed info about any Microsoft DLL or EXE.

Remotely retrieve service tag from dell machines

2008-05-08T17:58:00.002-05:00

Copy and paste this script to a .vbs file

strComputer = inputbox("Type the name of the computer with out \\ or an IP address to find out the service tag")

if strComputer = "" then wscript.quit

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colSMBIOS = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_SystemEnclosure")
For Each objSMBIOS in colSMBIOS
Wscript.Echo "Service tag (serial number): " & objSMBIOS.SerialNumber
Next

Thanks to Thewhip

Bookmark: Convert office 2007 to office 2003

2008-04-14T11:51:00.001-05:00

By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able to open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats. For more information about the Compatibility Pack, see Knowledge Base article 924074.

The invisible display......

2008-04-04T14:30:00.001-05:00

eOpen and MVLS is back up and running

2008-04-03T11:41:00.002-05:00

However some software is still unavailable for download.
I just need XP pro for now, so I am happy.
Later I will need Vista, hopefully that will be available then.

A company with a sense of humor......not just April 1st. Thats refreshing

2008-04-01T07:56:00.004-05:00

I placed an order for a bunch of CD's from CD Baby
Besides for the clean layout and slick checkout, I get this in my shipment confirmation email...

Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make
sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, March 31st.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby.  We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year."  We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh...

--
Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little store with the best new independent music
http://cdbaby.com cdbaby@cdbaby.com (503)595-3000

Call it cheesy, classy, or just weird, I liked it!
More so because it shows that I purchased my CD's from a human. That matters.

Microsoft Volume Licensing unavailable.......again

2008-03-28T08:53:00.005-05:00

Microsoft eOpen Volume Licensing

System status notification
service temporarily unavailable

Update-03/31/08: Apparently this is caused by the merger of eOpen and MVLS into one.
The outage is not affecting all users, only those that have Vista or Server 2008 in any one agreement. Other products may also cause the issue.

ETA: Unknown........

Update-04/01/08: New status message posted, this is encouraging, but still down.

Site Alert: eOpen will be unavailable on Tuesday,1st April 2008 from 5:30 PM PT till 06:00 PM PT due to scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Update:04/02/08: Got this via Email....

This is in response to your email regarding downloading from the eOpen website.

Thank you for your emial. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. We understand the importance in downloading your program. We have been given an ETA of 4/5/08. Please contact us back next week for further assistance if the issues persists as the site is currently being updated.

Missing Task Manger on XP

2008-03-27T09:42:00.002-05:00

This is the strangest Task Manger that I have ever seen. When this happens just reboot and move on.
This machine is still acting very odd though......hmm

Newegg.com Open Box Penalty

2008-03-25T20:44:00.002-05:00

In a bizarre twist a new router is cheaper (after rebate) and includes free shipping.
The open box is more expensive!

Bookmark: Moveuser.exe and Win32_UserProfile WMI

2008-03-20T09:57:00.000-05:00

SUMMARY

The Windows Resource Kit tool Moveuser.exe is incompatible with Windows Vista. In earlier versions of Windows, Moveuser.exe is used to map an existing local user account profile to a new domain profile when a computer in a workgroup is joined to a domain. Alternatively the tool can also used to map an existing domain account profile to another new domain account profile. However, you cannot use the Moveuser.exe tool to perform these tasks on a Windows Vista-based computer.

Update2: Trend 4.995.00 Patch wrecking havoc across networks

2008-02-18T12:13:00.006-05:00

Trend is now acknowledging the issue. Also as posted in one of the comments below there is a partial solution. However the official solution is to update 3.6 to 3.6 Patch 1 (direct Link)

First find the NTRtScan.exe file
in C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\Security Server\PCCSRV\Pccnt

Right Click on it to check the version.

If you have 7.6.0.1095 then you need the patch (not sure about other versions, call Trend)

after the patch you will be at 7.6.0.1161

After applying you may need to reboot.
Use TMTouch.exe to force clients to update to 7.6.0.1161