“There aren’t any secrets, only information you don’t already have.”
I fix computers. No Job too big or too small. HIRE ME! Call (631) 925-6100
“There aren’t any secrets, only information you don’t already have.”
I fix computers. No Job too big or too small. HIRE ME! Call (631) 925-6100
You’ve compiled a big, complicated spreadsheet full of numbers and you want the important ones to stand out. Give conditional formatting a try - it’s a neat Excel technique that changes cell appearance based on rules you set up, like “Turn the cell green if its value is less than 100.”
The Productivity Portfolio blog’s got a walkthrough with screenshots and examples:
[Conditional formatting] allows Excel to apply a defined format to cells that meet specific criteria. You can use a different background color, font color or border. The goal is to make important cells stand out so you can find them easier. Excel already does some of this for you. As example when you format cells with numbers, there are options on how to display negative numbers in red.
Via none other than Gina Trapani @ Lifehacker
I was reminded by our Saturday evening gathering of friends that this Bloglines post is well worth the read if you missed the first post. Once I looked at Bloglines I never browsed the internet the old way ever again. If the website I’m visiting doesn’t have an RSS Feed, I won’t bother with it! I’m sure if you try it you will feel the same way. Bloglines is also on the Hiddenpcmaster Utilities that I can’t live without list.This one’s for you Glen …..
OK,
It’s time to take your relationship with the Internet to the next level, and I’m here to tell you how to do it in 23 short, easy steps (see below) with as little jargon as possible.
Those who already use “feed” technology should just move on along, as there’s nothing new for you here.
The rest of you, who may have heard of “feeds” but been put off by those geeky letters people throw around when talking about it and felt confused about where and how to start,
Welcome.
I was like you about a month ago. Then finally after overcoming my reluctance, confusion and dread, I opened a free Bloglines account.
What is a “feed”?
It’s a Web product that allows you easily to see (and read, if you wish) what’s new on the Web sites and Web logs you visit most often.
Why can’t I just visit these sites myself, one by one?
You can. This way is easier. Your Bloglines home page will tell you at a glance when there’s nothing new to you on a site. It’s a very systematic way of keeping up and keeping track.
Is Bloglines the only such service or the best such service?
No and I don’t know. It works well for me and it’s free.
How do I get started?
Follow these 23 simple steps:
1. Go to http://bloglines.com/
2. Point your mouse to the “sign up now, It’s free!” line in the middle of the page and click on that.
3. At the registration screen, give them one of your e-mail addresses. It must be a working one that you have access to right now.
4. Invent a password.
5. Click on “register”
6. Sign in to the e-mail account of the address you listed in registration and wait.
7. Within three minutes, you will receive a confirmation e-mail to the address you gave Bloglines. Open that e-mail.
8. In the text will be a “confirmation link.” That will be an Internet address that looks something like http:www.bloglines.com/val?key=wl8JANRH-TO. In some e-mail programs, that Internet address will be underlined and appear in blue type. Simply click on it.
9. Your browser will then take you to a welcome page for Bloglines.
10. Just to get started and get a feel for how this all works, I recommend going into the “Today’s most popular subscriptions” area and click-checking the box next to “Boing Boing.” It’s a popular, newsy site and it updates often enough that it will allow you quickly to get a feel for how Bloglines works and if you’d like to continue using it.
11. Click “subscribe to my selections.” You will be taken to a page that contains two frames. On the left will be what are called your “feeds.” Those will be Bloglines News (a default subscription that you can get rid of if you choose to) and Boing Boing. Both will be followed by a number in parentheses. That number –probably somewhere between 1 and 20 — tells you the number of recent postings to that site that you have not yet looked at using your Bloglines reader. On the right will be a larger frame that contains added directions that you can look at later. For now, though….
12. Click on the words “Boing Boing” in the left window. In your right window will appear the Boing Boing feed. The menu line will say something like “40,500 subscribers / related feeds / mark all new / unsubscribe / edit subscription.” Ignore that for now, but remember that you can use these options later to change the name of the subscription, fiddle with some of the options, dump Boing Boing, etc.
13. Scrolling down this right-hand frame will show you, in reverse order,the last 12 hours or so of posts to the Boing Boing Web log.
14. Choose one that interests you in particular (or that you can pretend to be interested in for the purposes of demonstration) and left click (Mac users, just click) on the blue, underlined title at the top of that post. Your browser will open a new window that contains that post from that blog.
15. Scroll down to the end of the screen in the right-hand frame (or don’t, if you’re not interested). If you look in the left-hand frame you will see that the little number next to “Boing Boing” has disappeared, meaning that you have zero unread posts in Boing Boing.
16. To add more blogs and favorite sites, here’s the easy way: Under the “Extras” menu in your left—hand window click on the “Easy subscribe bookmarklet” line.
17. In your right window will be very easy instructions on how to add a “Sub with bloglines” button to your browser toolbar (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Mozilla/Netscape are supported; I don’t think AOL is). It’s a click-and-drag install…very easy and the instructions are clear.
18. Then go to a favorite blog (http://www.hiddenpcmaster.com for instance).
19. While at that site, click on the “Sub with bloglines” button now in your browser’s toolbar.
20. A window will open up showing you the available feeds. If there are none, you are out of luck regarding this particular blog/site. If there is only one feed listed, proceed down the screen. Under options, to start, I recommend choosing these in the drop down menus: FOLDER: Top Level; UPDATED ITEMS: Display as New. DISPLAY PREFERENCES: Complete Entries” ACCESS: Private. Just leave those other boxes checked. Click “Subscribe”
21. If there is more than one feed listed, Bloglines will invite you to preview the available feeds by clicking on them in succession until you find one you like. How do you know which to choose? I tend to pick the most popular one, figuring there must be a reason why it’s the most popular one (I know, I know…) The way to tell how many subscribers a feed has is to look at the dark blue bar near the top of the “preview” page that says, for example “80 subscribers.”
22. If you don’t want to or can’t use the “Sub with bloglines” button feature, go to the left window on your Bloglines home page and click on the word “add” at the top of your list of feeds. The instructions on the “add” page are very clear. Just type or paste in the internet address of the blog or news site you’d like to add and click “subscribe.” Bloglines will search for the available feeds and take you through the process described above.
23. Create a bookmark in your browser for http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs Your computer should store your password and log-on info so that bloglines will open automatically when you click on that bookmark. The page automatically refreshes itself every few minutes to let you know how many unread postings are in your list of feeds.
Yes, to answer a question you may have, this what all those letters like RSS and XML are referring to.
From this point forward, you need not even wonder what they stand for. 
This was on the front page of Digg yesterday.
I frequent many forums on photography but this is the first time I’ve seen a photography tutorial presented in such a concise and yet a very explanatory tone. Freelance photographer Jodie Coston offers this free online course in photography, covering everything from aperture to zoom.
The course is divided into 10 lessons, each presented with loads of sample photos and assignments at the end. Coston employs a friendly, personal style and provides plain-English descriptions of complicated subjects.
We are back to square 1! The human race has lost touch with reality.
Is this real? and if so, this proves the human race has lost touch with reality. (Ok, maybe not the entire human race, but the folks in this video for sure!) That is unless they are testing a new way to eject Al Qaida detainees from Guantanamo. Tee hee!
Recuva (pronounced “recover”) is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!
This couldn’t be much easier to use. Choose a drive to scan, wait a few seconds while Recuva looks for recoverable files (those that haven’t been overwritten on your hard drive), then review the results. Select the files you want and click Recover. Presto: The lost files return.
Today I turned 44 years of age. Of course being even, it just seems like such an odd number for an age. The 30’s were numbers I understood. 44 just seems, well, odd.
On this date in History:
1899 - Opel Motors opens for business.
1908 - New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor.
1911 - The first Monte Carlo Rally.
1954 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, then the First Lady of the United States.
1968 - Simon & Garfunkel release the Original Soundtrack to The Graduate, which quickly goes to #1 on the pop charts and which will bring Simon a Grammy for Best Original Score.
2004 - NASA’s MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies with Flash Memory management and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6th.
I share my birthday with :
1905 - Karl Wallenda, German acrobat (d. 1978)
1922 - Telly Savalas, American actor (d. 1994)
1924 - Benny Hill, British actor, comedian, and singer (d. 1992)
1938 - Wolfman Jack, disk jockey and actor (d. 1995)
1940 - Jack Nicklaus, American golfer
1953 - Paul Allen, American entrepreneur
1956 - Geena Davis, American actress
2004 - Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway
Oh well, Happy Birthday to me.
Inserting “Umlauts” in my text docs just got a whole lot easier.
http://www.starr.net/is/type/altnum.htm
Thanks to the Über Squirrel master Lonnie!
WFMU has posted an MP3 of this fantastic 1972 record titled “Play It Safe! Vol. 4.” It’s 47 minutes of conversation between a couple that’s meant to be played when you’re away from home to make thieves think your place is occupied.
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