Recent Posts

176

General Software Discussion / Re: Let's try to create our own suite for internet security.

« Last post by AndyM on January 12, 2011, 02:26 PM »

> on-demand scanning
this is one part of the picture I don't get.  I assume that my AV program will catch a bad file or email either when it appears on my system or when I go to open it.  I can see wanting to be able to double-check something suspiscious before opening it, but why wouldn't this be pretty much unnecessary, belt & suspenders?

-AndyM (January 12, 2011, 11:48 AM)

With all due respect, I don't see why anyone would argue against this.  It's not uncommon for something to get past your initial defenses.  So, yes, it would be nice if you could double-check or just check something that you feel is suspicious.  I don't see why someone wouldn't want to have that ability.  Is it the extra software installation that you don't like?  The space it takes up?  The memory it uses?  I don't understand why you wouldn't want this.  it doesn't hurt anything, it only helps.

-superboyac (January 12, 2011, 11:56 AM)

Oh I wouldn't *not* want it, I'm just wondering if it would be a factor of primary or secondary importance.  I actually am a belt & suspenders guy, but I don't normally use the context menu selection to scan a file or email (if I have any doubt I'm more likely to just delete it).  I suppose the automatic checking could break, but if the av software scanned the file when it appeared and didn't find anything, why would it find it the second time through?

Do you manually scan many files?

177

General Software Discussion / Re: Let's try to create our own suite for internet security.

« Last post by AndyM on January 12, 2011, 11:48 AM »

> on-demand scanning

this is one part of the picture I don't get.  I assume that my AV program will catch a bad file or email either when it appears on my system or when I go to open it.  I can see wanting to be able to double-check something suspiscious before opening it, but why wouldn't this be pretty much unnecessary, belt & suspenders?

178

Living Room / Re: Can we stop with the diagonal screen length thing?

« Last post by AndyM on January 11, 2011, 09:13 AM »

I can't argue with any of this, but I don't have to like it!

179

Living Room / Re: Can we stop with the diagonal screen length thing?

« Last post by AndyM on January 11, 2011, 08:11 AM »

> save around 10% on production costs

That makes sense.  I guess the part I don't understand is the market not insisting on the vertical height.  The 1920 x 1200 display is absolutely the best for me, but if I couldn't use it, my old 1600 x 1200 would be my next choice, not 1920 x 1080.

But my Control key is still to the left of the "a" key, my Alt key is at the lower left, and almost every tv show I like get's canceled quickly.  So it shouldn't surprise me that what works for me probably won't be indicative of market preferences.

180

Finished Programs / Re: Utility: Convert Multiple Columns in Excel to a Single Column

« Last post by AndyM on January 10, 2011, 09:26 PM »

 

For anyone that has spent an hour trying to explain over the phone how to open a file... and failed...

stop, please.  I need to go to sleep and I can't if I'm laughing this hard.

181

Finished Programs / Re: Utility: Convert Multiple Columns in Excel to a Single Column

« Last post by AndyM on January 10, 2011, 09:04 PM »

<rant>
Actually this sort of thing really burns me.  I have more than a few colleagues like that (I had someone doing important calculations ask me what the numbers in red were...) and even though they work with Excel all day every day they can't or won't take the time to learn some basics that will make their (working) lives easier
</rant>

-Target (January 10, 2011, 05:28 PM)

Oh yeah, spot on!  

But I'm either getting older and wiser, or just older and wore out.  I was going to chime in with Concatenation Formula! or VBA! (and the code could go in personal.xls to always be available).  But even before Renegade posted his explanation I got to thinking, "if his people are like my people, this really is a simpler solution and will most likely work better because they can't break it".

182

Living Room / Re: Can we stop with the diagonal screen length thing?

« Last post by AndyM on January 10, 2011, 07:07 PM »

I am still using using two 1280x1024 screens for my computing, but I have to say that those 1920x1080 screens look very interesting.

-Shades (January 10, 2011, 05:24 PM)

And you would find a 1920 x 1200 11% more interesting  

183

Living Room / Re: Can we stop with the diagonal screen length thing?

« Last post by AndyM on January 10, 2011, 08:12 AM »

it looks like 1920 x 1200 is dying fast.

I don't understand this at all!

184

Living Room / Re: Can we stop with the diagonal screen length thing?

« Last post by AndyM on January 10, 2011, 07:49 AM »

It does appear to be that 16:10 is becoming increasingly rare, which is another real annoyance.

-nudone (January 10, 2011, 02:40 AM)

Is this the same as saying that finding a 1920 x 1200 monitor is becoming increasingly rare?

185

Living Room / Re: Fast/Responsive programs: An official SuperboyAC list

« Last post by AndyM on January 08, 2011, 09:32 PM »

Enter AMP Calendar from AMPSoft. A simple portable app that does one thing extremely well. It puts a one-year pop-up calendar in your system tray.

-40hz (January 08, 2011, 06:29 AM)

This is much better than what I had.  Thanks for the tip!!!

186

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your preferred server OS for home use? And Why?

« Last post by AndyM on January 04, 2011, 12:45 PM »

... what does a server OS do that a regular OS doesn't do (like Windows 7, XP)? ...

-superboyac (February 06, 1974, 03:50 PM)

The difference between a workstation and a server is the allocation of resources. ...

-Josh (January 04, 2011, 10:35 AM)

Is this a function of the hardware or the OS?

187

General Software Discussion / Re: NoClose - and how to change hotkeys to alt & something

« Last post by AndyM on January 02, 2011, 04:36 PM »

What's really nice about AutoHotkey is that other people's code is right there so you can make small modifications to suit yourself.

188

General Software Discussion / Re: NoClose - and how to change hotkeys to alt & something

« Last post by AndyM on January 02, 2011, 09:56 AM »

Next time I'll check before I post.

Right click on the NoClose tray icon.  Click "Settings"  and the dialog box to set the hotkeys appears.

189

General Software Discussion / Re: NoClose - and how to change hotkeys to alt & something

« Last post by AndyM on January 02, 2011, 09:54 AM »

I might be jumping the gun on this since I haven't doublechecked, but it appears that the hotkeys are in the noclose.ini file. 

I don't use the hotkeys, so I assume these two lines from noclose.ini are the default hotkeys:

[Select]

swap=^!Numpad4
add=^!Numpad6

this is an AutoHotkey script, so these are AutoHotkey key notations.  Check AutoHotkey help for the key notations for the keys you want to use.  Then edit noclose.ini with a text editor like Notepad.

190

Living Room / Re: Dreamy Monitor...

« Last post by AndyM on January 01, 2011, 09:17 PM »

I think I remember seeing that and thinking "hey, that's the gunsight I saw in Popular Science when I was a kid!"

And then Blue Thunder became a tv show.  But it got beat out by Airwolf, which wasn't a better show but they had a cooler looking helicopter and a better name for the hero.

TV in the '80's was deep....

191

Living Room / Re: Dreamy Monitor...

« Last post by AndyM on December 31, 2010, 08:18 PM »

I remember being wowed sometime back in the 60s or 70s reading about a prototype aiming system for helicopter guns using some kind of helmet mounted sensors that tracked the pilot's eyeball.  The guns (or maybe rockets) were aimed where the pilot looked, and fired when the pilot blinked in a certain overstated way.

The helmet was pretty big, but that was a long time ago.  So the technology exists (?) to register which monitor the user is looking at.

192

General Software Discussion / Re: search and replace in excel file

« Last post by AndyM on December 28, 2010, 08:24 PM »

If you want to run through the entire table automatically,you will have to use a macro.

If not a macro, you could use an "if" formula temporarily in a "helper" column (copied down to each row) to check column C and return 70 if C=150 and 0 (zero) if it doesn't.  Then add the entire helper column to column D (a choice in the Paste Special dialog box - make a backup first).  That takes care of Column D if C is 150 (add 70 if it is, add nothing if it's not).

Then do a temporary helper column to check if C=0.  If it is, return 150, if it's not, return the value in C.  Then copy that column over C (paste values, not the If formulas, again using Paste Special), replacing the zeros with 150 and leaving other values unchanged.

This takes longer to explain than to do (one formula copied down and the column added, a second formula copied down and the column copied, then delete two columns).  I'm sure there's a more elegant way, but if I'm only doing something once or twice it takes more time to think of the elegant way than it does to just plow ahead.  I typed this as if I were plowing ahead, and I'm not even going to check to see if I got it right.  You can check, and if I got the right idea and you need help with the If formulas, let me know.

For a macro approach, you do a loop stepping thru each row.  In each loop you check C and either change C or D accordingly.

193

Living Room / Re: Not backing up will cost you!

« Last post by AndyM on December 24, 2010, 09:03 PM »

...Now, I felt pretty secure with the data on the 4big given it was RAID5. ...

-JavaJones (December 24, 2010, 05:34 PM)

But what about a house fire or burglary?

194

Living Room / Re: USB Daisy-Chaining gone haywire

« Last post by AndyM on December 21, 2010, 08:30 PM »

I think this thread's in decline…

yeah, I'm bacon you guys to stop!

195

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by AndyM on December 18, 2010, 09:57 PM »

...Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson.

Not quite like anything else I've ever read.  A lot of pages.  Wish there were more...

196

Living Room / Re: I wish I'd had this when I was learning physics

« Last post by AndyM on December 15, 2010, 10:09 AM »

Khan academy video series for anything math related

-superboyac (December 15, 2010, 09:57 AM)

And more than just math.  Just did a little biochemistry refreshing, much easier than I thought it would be.

Another set of top notch, astounding, I can't even use enough adjectives here...

197

Living Room / Re: Where do you get your news from?

« Last post by AndyM on December 12, 2010, 05:19 PM »

two things which really grate:

-timns (December 12, 2010, 03:22 PM)

If these are your only beefs, you'd have to give these guys a solid "A" ! 

198

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Show App CPU/MEMORY Usage on taskbar button

« Last post by AndyM on December 10, 2010, 11:34 PM »

Cool idea!

199

Living Room / Re: Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality

« Last post by AndyM on December 10, 2010, 02:24 PM »

I just don't like it.

Me neither, it's such a waste. 
Just think of all the useful information that could be communicated.

200

Living Room / Re: Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality

« Last post by AndyM on December 10, 2010, 12:24 PM »

Back to the advertising issue, it's unrealistic to expect any more or less honesty than what the advertiser believes will sell product.  The system selects for profit, which successful advertising will enhance. 

Unless all or most advertisers agreed to be more honest and accurate, the one's who were would be less successful than the ones who weren't.  It would be unrealistic to expect many advertisers to accept an unnecessary competive disadvantage.

That's not to say that there aren't plenty of principled business people out there who advertise and deal honestly and accurately.  They tend to be smaller and more local.  When I need something I usually buy it from someone like that if I can.

The "best" advertising persuades people to buy things they don't need (that way you sell more product, both to the people that need it and those who don't).  I am fortunately almost immune since I have to work for the money to buy things, and I don't like to work enough to buy things I don't need.