“WHY SO SERIOUS ??”

I don’t watch commercials! and Tivo doesn’t advertise this but it does have a 30 second skip feature!

The feature is buried within the programming of the TiVo device and can be brought to the surface using an Easter Egg. After enabling the 30 second skip feature, The skip-to-hash button becomes a 30 second skip button. Once you begin using this feature, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

So how do I do this? It’s easy.

1. Grab your TiVo remote.
2. Bring up any recorded program. (I believe you have to be watching a recorded program rather than “Live TV” in order to enable the feature.)
3. On your TiVo remote, key in the following sequence:

select play select 3 0 select
SELECT PLAY SELECT 3 0 SELECT
4. If you’ve successfully entered the code, you should hear three “bings” in succession to let you know that you’ve successfully enabled the 30 second skip feature.
5. The skip-to-hash button on your remote will now skip forward 30 seconds during playback.
6. The previous function of the skip to hash button (that is, jumping to the next “hash” mark on the playback progress bar at the bottom of the screen) can still be accessed by first pressing fast forward or reverse. Press the fast forward button and then press skip-to-hash and the playback will advance to the next hashmark (or the end of the program if you’re close to the end of playback.) Press the rewind button and then the skip-to-hash and you jump back to the previous hash mark, or the beginning of the program depending on your place in the playback. Skipping past the end of the program takes you back to the start of playback.

Note that you’ll have to re-enable this feature any time your TiVo is rebooted (such as after a power outage or a software update.)

Should you not like the 30 second skip, you can disable it by re-entering the Easter Egg exactly as you did to enable it.

DISCLAIMER: No guarantees that these features will work on your TiVo, nor that it will continue to work in the future. Furthermore, if your TiVo catches fire or explodes or anything else goes wrong, it’s not my fault. Use these Easter Eggs at your own risk.

KeyScrambler, a web browser plugin, encrypts your keystrokes to protect your important personal information from keyloggers KeyScrambler is a web browser plugin that will encrypt your keystrokes for protecting your personal data from keyloggers

When you type on your keyboard, the keys travel along a path within the operating system before it arrives at your browser. Keyloggers plant themselves along this path and observe and record your keystrokes. The collected information is then sent to the criminals who will use it to steal from you
KeyScrambler defeats keyloggers by encrypting your keystrokes at the keyboard driver level, deep within the operating system. When the encrypted keystrokes reach your browser, KeyScrambler then decrypts them so you see exactly the keys you’ve typed. Keyloggers can only record the encrypted keys, which are completely indecipherable
Unlike anti-virus and anti-spyware programs that depend on recognition to remove keyloggers that they know about, KeyScrambler will protect you from both known and unknown keyloggers

Great for use on Laptops too!

http://www.qfxsoftware.com/Download.htm

Who would have thought such talent lurked beneath the mask of my co-worker and friend Bob Hennessy.

Check out his YouTube Video’s:

http://www.youtube.com/user/radialarts

Check out his Harmonica Website:

http://www.radialarts.com/harp.html

and Photography too!

http://www.radialarts.com

Windows Home Server users (you know who you are!) Don’t need to read this article

Some weeks ago I read the first article about the new virus/worm Conficker C which apparently has managed to infect millions of computers but hasn’t done anything yet. Recently CNN ran an article that speculates that April Fools Day (next Wednesday, April 1) is the trigger date. and there’s lots of drama !

It all seems very exciting, and, much like the run up to Y2K (remember that?), some experts think that it will be no big deal, while other predict the end of the world as we know it.

There are many, many people far more qualified than I to assess the real risk of the situation, but I do have a suggestion for all readers of the Hiddenpcmaster Headquarters community — why don’t you make a backup of all your computer files (if you haven’t done so recently) before April 1 just in case? Even if you’re a Mac user and not worried about Conficker, if you haven’t made a back up recently, why not use this occasion to do so? After all, there are still floods, fires and storms of locusts that crop up from time to time and don’t care about Mac vs PC.

Lots of people follow the advice to change the battery in the smoke detector every fall on the night when we turn the clocks back to standard time from daylight savings. Even if Conficker C turns out to be No Big Deal (or has a different doomsday date) if you backup your files now, you’ll have a recent backup no matter what comes to pass.

It goes without saying that before you run a back up you should use an anti-virus program to ensure your data is clean.

Of course, if the world ends, you won’t need the back up, but if lots of computers are affected, you might be really glad you did.

Regards,

Hiddenpcmaster

Yes you heard correctly. I’m back. Internet Explorer 7 is more compatible, faster, and more widely accepted in business.

I’ll always leave my options open, but for now it’s back to the dark side.

Hiddenpcmaster

Wow! I never realized how easy it is to adjust font size on your browser

A quick way to adjust this is to hold down your Ctrl key and scroll up or down with your scroll wheel on your mouse. Another (if you don’t have a scroll wheel)short cut is to hold down the Ctrl key and press the ” + ” or ” - ” key and adjust accordingly. Good luck!

Cleaning up spreadsheets might not be in your job description, but it’s an all too common task for me. I recently encountered a problem and needed to quickly get something out before the close of business on Friday. Thanks to my old friend Louis Alleva, he instructed me on the use Excel’s handy “concatenate function” designed to tidy up databases by joining character strings in destination cells.

I frequently find myself manipulating simple Microsoft Excel databases. Often, the databases have been pulled from varied sources and need some cleaning up before they can be of any use. Many times that cleanup calls for tedious manual manipulation of the data.

Excel’s concatenate function may help in cases in which you need to join character strings from several cells together in another destination cell. For example, you might have a database of U.S. addresses with the first five digits of the ZIP code in one field and the other four digits in another. If you need those digits strung together with a dash between them in one field, the concatenate function can make that a simple task. These step-by-step instructions will show you how.

Step one: Create or choose a destination cell
For the purpose of this demonstration, I created a database with the ZIP code problem described above. I’ll use the concatenate function to join the two fields. The first step in joining the strings is to create or choose a destination cell for the joined character string. I inserted a column after the two ZIP fields and named it ZIP+4, as shown in Figure A.

Step two: Type the concatenate formula
The destination cell for the first joined character string will be G2, so the next step is to type the formula =CONCATENATE(E2,”-”,F2) into the formula bar, as illustrated in Figure B. Everything after the function should be enclosed in parentheses, and commas should be used to separate the cells. Any text to be included should be enclosed in quotation marks, like the dash (-) in our example.

You may also use the ampersand (&) symbol instead of the word “concatenate” to accomplish this task. If you chose to use the ampersand, the formula would be =E2&”-”&F2. Notice that the commas and parentheses are no longer necessary, and that ampersands indicate each joint where cells and/or text will meet.

After you’ve entered the formula, press the [Enter] key. You should see the joined string in the destination cell. In our example, the destination cell G4 now contains the first five digits followed by a dash and the last four digits (see Figure B).

Step three: Use the fill handle
If you need to join data in multiple cells, you may use the fill handle to copy the formula to adjacent cells. In this example, I used the fill handle to copy the formula down the inserted row.

The fill handle is the small black square located in the lower right corner of any highlighted cell. When you point to the fill handle, the pointer arrow changes to a black cross, as shown in Figure C.

Click, hold, and drag the fill handle down the row of cells. Excel’s relative referencing feature will ensure that the cell names are properly replaced in the copied formulas. When you release the fill handle, you should see that the destination cells now contain the joined character string.

Warning: Destination cells contain formulas only
You may now be tempted to delete the cells containing the original information you have joined in the destination cells. In this example, that would be rows E and F, as shown in Figure B. However, you must remember that the destination cells only contain formulas, which pull information from the original cells. If you delete the cells that the formula is pulling its information from, the cell will display an error message, “#REF!,” as shown in Figure D.

To avoid this error, you’ll need to paste the formula’s results as actual values into your destination cells. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Highlight all of the cells with the concatenate formulas.
2. From the Edit menu, select Copy.
3. From the Edit menu, select Paste Special.
4. When the Paste Special dialog box appears, select the Values radio button in the top section, as shown in Figure E.
5. Click OK.

Your destination cells will now contain the actual values, or character strings. You can see this by clicking on any of the cells and looking in the formula bar. Instead of a formula, you’ll see the actual character string.

The “Concatenate function” has many uses.

The concatenate function can join up to 30 single-cell references containing text or numbers. You can also use it in conjunction with Excel’s Text function when joining text and values, such as numbers or dates.

Once again I would like to thank Louis Alleva for his timely lesson on how to use this function. If you need any Accounting Solutions for your business here is a link to his new website.

http://acctbooks.org

For a summation of formulas/functions available in Excel, Visit this link for a list by category.

2008 sucked in many ways, and definitely left us all with bad memories, lost revenue, and a complete sense of frustration.
But in spite of all that baggage it’s 2009… a new year, a fresh start, another chance to get it right.

Maybe… just maybe… all we need is a change of attitude. Here’s an idea!

This dude above looks kind of happy, maybe he’s even discovered the secret!

Of course your “smileage” may vary, depending on your spouse/boss/kid/etc.