Tutorial on how to count names

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1043792.html

Based on zip code example

So do I or do I not get sun exposure...vitamin d...man

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/health/27brod.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Bob's custom monitor calibration steps

Dell monitor - set right for printing:
- Set brightness to 45
- Then do monitor calibration
- Then adjust brightness to match print output

Stupid shower washer...

1/2"- 14 NPT

Musical instrument ranges for subwoofer analysis

Acoustic ranges
Nice interactive chart
Vague but nice chart
Simple but precise chart
Crazy chart that captures obscure instruments

Probably want +/- 3db at 27Hz

The best time to buy things and save money

Vanguard

Man, now we have to worry about lithium ion battery ingestion

Man...

Found fix for Excel row auto-fit

Using the Format menu in the Ribbon. So annoying when double click doesn't work.
http://www.uwec.edu/help/Excel07/ws-rowcol.htm

Solution to "this is not a valid copy of windows" and VMWare Fusion

Here's what happened to me. Was happily running VMWare 3.0.2 on Macbook Pro. Had Win7 Enterprise installed as a bootcamp partition and would open that up on the Mac using Fusion - basically allowed me to use Win7 for Outlook and MS Project while doing everything else on the Mac.

Saw an enticing notice that Fusion 3.1 was now available. Downloaded, installed and updated VMWare tools on the bootcamp partition. All of a sudden Win7 started telling me that the activation was no longer valid and that I needed to reactivate. Tried everything under the sun in order to try and get it activated to no avail (restarts, going to microsoft.com/genuine, using slmgr.vbs, grabbing the key using Produkey, etc.). The weird/good thing was that whenever I booted natively into Win7 it was fine. It was whenever I booted into Win7 using fusion on the Mac side that it wasn't valid.

Finally had to call in the IT guy at work and he figured it out (go Mike!). Basically two combined fixes:

a) VMWare networking sometimes gets confused (tell me about it). He ran the following in the terminal to reset it:
sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/boot.sh --restart

b) This was probably the key - he changed the perferences in VMWare such that before the Fusion image loaded that it was set to use Bridged networking from the beginning. I had it set to NAT and then tried switching it to Bridged after launch, but that probably wasn't good enough. Once he did that the Fusion Win7 instance was able to find the KMS server inside the firewall and all was well.

Glad that only burned a whole day from my life...arg...

Produkey to the rescue

Good tool to find Product Keys from an existing legit installs (for when I'm about to format a machine and the user doesn't have their original disks/serials anymore). Produkey from here:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/productkeysactivation/tp/topkeyfinder.htm

Shopping robots to check out

"Shopping robots, such as PriceGrabber.com and Shopping.com, are good places to comparison shop and may be particularly useful before visiting any liquidation sale, says Dworsky. One of his favorite sites, PriceSpider.com, posts historical prices; the range of prices should help you determine whether the price is likely to hold or continue to drop."

Great article showing the upcoming pain for Europe

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/world/europe/23europe.html?hp

The best way to diff Excels

Florencesoft DiffEngineX
one of the few pieces of shareware type software that I was happy to pay for (or rather my company did...:)).

Interesting stats based on culture vs. wealth

By David Brooks

Lifehacker tip on how to get the date in the Mac menu bar

Here

Fantastic article by NY Times on exercise and weight loss

Really helps explain a lot.

Gabriela Montero pianist

Gotta go see Gabriela Montero sometime. She improvises her encores. Very cool.

Interesting article on spending money to by experiences instead of stuff

From Vanguard

How to reference a cell in another tab in Excel

=Sheet2!B2

Uses the value in cell B2 on Sheet2

How Christian were America's founders?

Ny Times article. Mostly focuses on Texas Education board.

Problem with CDM+

First step was to find serial number in old install. Then I had to clear out an old registry entry for OpenBase which had been uninstalled. Next had to create a new Firewall exception for the 3 OpenBase applications instead of relying on the port exceptions.

Santa Clara County property tax estimator

Here

Interesting article on poverty in foreign countries

David Brooks

Interesting psychological studies on buying behavior

Nice quick blurbs that ring true...from Vanguard

Extension tube calculator

Here

The Mystery of Life's Origins

Reassessing current theories from a bio-chemical point of view. Sections here.

Online recipe sites

To check out later

How to make the Adobe Reader "content preparation progress" thing stop

Stop with the accessibility scan...hopefully.

Port forward reference info

For the Linksys WRT54G:
- interesting test app
- instructions

Basecamp alternatives

TeamWorkPM.com
CentralDesktop.com
DeskAway.com
GoPlanApp.com
ZOHO.com (Projects)

Christian perspective on radiometric dating

Christian perspective on radiometric dating

Generics not always the same

Not all generic drugs exactly as good as the original ones. NY Times Mostly for heart patients or folks taking drugs to avoid seizures.

Great LR trick for compare to original

\ key, didn't even know about it.
Here

Discussion on the differences between the two main Hebrew texts of the OT

Here

We don't need to be super flexible after all

Looks like being a little "tight" in the hamstring can even make you a more efficient runner. NY Times.

Trying to get rid of Windows 7 freezing every few seconds after it goes to sleep and then wakes up.

Best theories I can find on the Net all correctly point out that if the computer never goes to sleep no problem. So clearly something is being turned off in a weird way that's causing problems. Two main options for me to pursue:

a) Just tried going to the adapter settings and turning off the computer's ability to power off the cards to see if indeed it's a PCI-E bus power down issue.

b) If that doesn't work, did just note that my LAN drivers are from Microsoft and not from the install disc I used so I'd try doing different drivers if this keeps up.

----
Found out the problem - it's my external tuner card. It gets into some weird state. If I pull the mini-usb card out then the hang goes away...hoping the latest driver update from Windows update fixes the issue.

Stargate SG1 explanation

That I'm even putting this down is so sad...

Link to my first Mt. View Voice photo

Here. page 6.

Interesting quote on the nature of being Jewish

From the British supreme court case:
NY Times.

Nice post on converting Windows 7 .wtv to .mpg for PS3

Here

Guidance on heart rate to lose weight

And that people don't burn more fat once they stop working out. NY Times.

Holy cow, shallow breathing technique for asmtha sufferers

Seems to actually be based in a scientific theory and it actually works. NY Times.

Arg...Windows 7 card reader working slowly...

The only thing that doesn't seems to be working on my new Windows 7 clean install seems to be:

- A flash card reader I have installed on my desktop machine and plugged into a chipset USB connection is running at USB 1.1 speeds, instead of 2.0 speeds. What's up? If I connect an external USB card reader to an externally connected USB hub I get 2.0 speeds.

- Upon waking from sleep my computer seems to pause every few seconds...For now I'm just not letting it go to S3 for now.

Final install

Prep/backup:
- Deactivate Adobe software
- Uninstall SuperSync in case I need to free up the serial number
- Make sure iTunes is up to date
- Consolidate iTunes library (File->Library -> Consolidate Library)
- Deauthorize iTunes (Store->Deauthorize)
- Export Browser favorites

Backup
- Browser favorites (including Yuki's)
- Backup desktop
- Backup Lego data files
- Backup Battlefield 2142 My Documents folder
- Backup data drive
- Including Outlook data file (D:Outlook)
- Make sure photo stuff is backed up

- Check out RAID block size
* 64KB
+ Make sure that Acronis 11 works on the computer
+ Make sure that I have a RAID disk for Windows install

Install phase 1:
X Unplug USB media drive
+ Install Windows
+ Install video driver
+ Install Ethernet driver
+ Install updates
+ Get RAID/DVD/CD driver installed

Hardware
+ Microsoft Security Essentials
+ EVGA E-LEET utility
+ Realtek
+ X-Fi
+ X-FI updates
+ Monitor

+Image

External hardware
+ Huey Pro
+ Epson R1800
+ Epson glossy ICC profiles
+ HP PCL 1220
+ EPSON Scan
+ Bamboo tablet

Image
+ Firefox
+ Adobe Reader
+ TV Tuner
+ Adobe Flash

Image
Software
+ Covenant Eyes
+ Office
+ Office updates
+ Outlook

Image
+ iTunes/QT

Image
+ LR
+ Design Premium (rename c:\Users\Public\Public Documents to c:\Users\Public\Documents
+ Adobe Updates

Image
+ Restore browser favorites
+ FileZilla
+ PlayOn
+ Fix channel line up

----
Didn't install
- SuperSync installer
- VPN
- Battlefield 2142
- Lego star wars
- Lego Indiana Jones
- Logitech game controller vista driver

Windows 7 install problems and workarounds

Here are some problems I encountered installing Win7 and the workarounds I found for them:

- Couldn't recognize by DVD/CD rom drive after the installer launched from the DVD (hello? you just loaded from the DVD player dumb installer?). Turns out it needed the RAID driver for the EVGA chipset. The appropriate driver was on the chipset CD that came with the motherboard, but it was under a folder titled AMD (weird.).

- iTunes 9 didn't install correctly. It stalled out during the step labeled "Status". Fix was to exit out of the installer (at which point it said it succeeded, weird), and then I ran the Apple Updater. It installed 9.0.2 again and this time no errors. Weird.

- The trick to getting Outlook to point to the right non-C drive folder was to go to Mail control panel (so messed up that this isn't controlled in the Outlook 2003 preferences).

- CS4 installation had errors where it couldn't install the English language packs. Arg!!! The solution was found here. Basically rename the C:\Users\Public\Public Documents folder to C:\Users\Public\Documents and it works fine. Man...

Will this fix my Win7 install?

Here

Link of H1N1 mortality and obesity

Here.

Paul T. to the rescue

For instructions on those of us that have legit copies of Vista and want to save money by buying the upgrade version of Windows 7, but want the ability to later do a clean install if things start breaking.

Key articles to getting a blue screen XP install going

Some key sites and insights I learned after spending a full day and a half resurrecting a good friend's computer:

- You will only get the "repair in place" option from the Windows XP install disc if you have an exact match between the type of XPs (i.e., Windows install is Home Edition and the install disc is Home Edition). I tried using a WinXP Pro disc to do a repair install of a Home Edition install and it wouldn't give me the option to do so.

- PC World article on how to create a bootable CD (Linux) that will recognize a USB hard drive (key to getting off data from an unbootable computer).

- Good instructions on how to do a Windows XP Repair Install. It helped me figure out the first point on needing to match XP disc to actual install.

- Key instructions on how to restart a stuck MSI installer instance on XP.

- And finally, the mother of all articles on how to do a manual fix of an unbootable XP install. This was the key to resurrecting the install without having to reinstall the applications.

Important Note: there are two sets of important typos on the above link.
a) The first two lines on the first code section should read:
md c:\windows\tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

b) In the third code snippets the software, sam, security and default files are all under
c:\windows\repair\
not
c:\windows\repair\system\

Hope that helps someone out there!

Stupid status.msi... HP!!!!

I've never found HP software to be any good, but this error just takes the cake:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistahardware/thread/fc920e97-956f-411e-98d2-e79a4602cacf

Man, hoping the fix from Swwillia does the trick...trying now...

This did the trick. Nice!!!!!!!!!

So for those getting the "you need to point to status.msi" error message and don't have your original HP install disks on hand this is your ticket to relief.

NYTimes article on amount of exercise and falling ill.

NYTimes article on amount of exercise and falling ill.

Toyota wiper blade replacement numbers

Irks me to no end that the only place I can buy replacement rubber for my windshield wipers is at the dealer. They also kept giving me the wrong driver side part.

Driver side: G600, 85214 YZZD5 TM
Passenger side: G475, 85214 YZZE4

I hope I never have to do this...

But if I'm in charge of a tech conference, good little article on common wi-fi problems:
here.

Most helpful core i7-920 overclocking guides

1 - here on Hot Hardware
2 - on X-bit labs

Stats before changes according to EVGA E-LEET

CPU
Core voltage - 1.235
core i7 920@2.67 GHz

Core speed 2786.0 MHz
Multiplier x21.0
Bus speed 132.7
QPI link 2388.1 MHz

Memory
6144 MBytes
NB Frequency 22122.6 MHz

DRAM frequency 520.7 MHz
FSB:DRAM 2:8
CAS# Latency (CL) 8.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 8 clocks
RAS# precharge (tRP) 8 lcocks
Cycle time (tRAS) 19 clocks
Refresh Cmd Delay (tRFC) 59 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 1T

Voltages
+3.3V 3.31V
CPU VCORE 1.23 V
DRAM 1.54V
CPU VTT 1.21 V
NB CORE 1.09V
+5V 5.05V
+12V 12.11 V
VSB3V 3.26V
VBAT 3.18V

Temps under load
CPU 54.0
VREG 68.0
Systems 35.0
CPU Core #1 68.0
CPU Core #2 64
CPU Core #3 64
CPU Core #4 64

Temps not under load
CPU 32.0
VREG 58.0
Systems 34.0
CPU Core #1 48.0
CPU Core #2 43
CPU Core #3 46
CPU Core #4 43

Fans
CPU 1435 RPM
NB 4615 RPM

Overclocking
CPU 2793.0
QPI 133.0
RAM 532.0
PCIE 99.2
PCI 33.3

Core1 x 22
Core2 x 21
Core3 x 21
Core4 x 21
Turbo mode on
Enable "Brink O/C" off

Voltages
0
1.5
1.1
1.8
1.1
1.1
1.5
1.05

Stability testing for overclocking

Good article on stability testing for overclocking.

To halloween or not...

Article on FamilyLife about Halloween observance from a biblical perspective.

To convert Pinnacle TV HD to PS3 compatible format

Used Adobe Media Encoder and used the following export settings:
- MPEG2
- HDTV 1080p 23.976 HQ

Here goes everything....

Going to try setting up my Pinnacle PCTV 80e usb tv tuner for vista media center and clear QAM...I hope this restore file really is going to work...

Helpful links:
- Vista problems with Clear QAM
- Hack to get it working on Vista
- Great PC World article on the update required to make this work

To find the right registry key I had to search the registry for PCTV 80e. Did that and it popped up in the folder: USB28xxBGA

Cheap travel sites

Turns out that Priceline.com has gotten much better. I also was recommended to try Travelocity.

A thought that came to me...

Think about letting your super enthusiast users be your own entrepreneurs. Let them innovate on great ways to use your platform and then really build on their ideas; or just let your platform become it's own business. It'll be interesting to see if that's how Facebook evolves.

Long term care article on NY Times

here

Article on unconditional love and parenting. Author seems to be a bit biased himself.

How to overclock Core i7 920

How to overclock Core i7 920
article 1
article 2

Polarizers for use as variable ND filter

Creating a variable ND filter using Polarizers. Didn't work so hot for me, too much blue shift.
Article 1
Article 2

Hoping getting fit in 6 min is possible

NY Times article on getting fit in short periods of time.

I should probably turn on this Lr option for zoom.

Orchid care

Turns out I have a Phalaenopsis orchid in my office. Best tips on care I found to be here. Video showing how to cut off a branch here.

Next time I want to really pick up my clarinet again, 56 Rue Lepic reeds are supposed to the way to go, esp. strength 3.5+. Unfortunately, the local music store, West Valley Music, doesn't keep them in stock.

Hadn't thought about different color spaces when editing in Ps compared to Lr. Maybe I'll do this.

How to manually force an update of the Outlook address book when using cached mode. See Q6.

Not a good idea to pop ibuprofen before exercising.

Future photography book choices.

New Mountain View e-waste recycling program

Wow, only $79,000 per month revenue from customers...ouch

And this held up as a sign of success.

For later testing

Virtual Makeover

New Tennis Elbow therapy that appears to be much more effective than the old ways.

Whoa...in 1963 top marginal tax rate was 91%!?!

For perspective on tax brackets historically

Wondering if it's time to upgrade the home network

Home network fixes including 802.11N

Confusing article about knees and running

NY Times...

Got insert key working in VMWare

Thank goodness for the keyboard mapping preference. Went in there and assigned Function-Return to be the insert key. Nice!

Ankle sprain care from Ny Times

Give it more time

New crimereports.com too for Mt View

crimereports.com

Need to visit this bakery

Sugar Butter Flour
669 S. Bernardo Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA

Good explanation of California's budget woes

SJ Mercury

Another article on DVD archival media

here

PlayOn on the Wii...

Probably won't use, but might try it just for kicks...
here

If only I had $800 lying around...

Awesome Flex Calendar component

The famous Feynman lectures online

I guess I have to thank Mr. Gates for this one. Silverlight...ug...
Here

Very interesting wiki on fiction writing...

Throw a couple of these together and you have a TV episode, novel...

Drive recovery people in bay area

Everyone swears by these guys, and they're pretty close to the SF office:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/lazarus-data-recovery-san-francisco

There was a good thread on SF Ads a couple weeks ago with suggestions about data recovery tools and stuff.

You might want to search the archives for disk recover. There was a ton of good information.

Anyways, you can try this adapter which is recommended by an Adobe employee's blog called "Newer Technology USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter"
http://terrywhite.com/techblog/archives/2190

Key remote team take aways

For better collaboration:

- Figure out that culture's metaphors for teams
- Remind people they're on the same team, make team salient
- Treat people in "normative ways" to show part of a team in collectivist cultures
- Video game competitions across seas
- Localization of meeting notes
- Change status reporting to "team showing off events"

Aetna health self-assessment

Ok, gotta start exercising...but how...oy....

Maps around Shoreline Park in Mt. View

Best one
Palo Alto Baylands Park

Those at the white house dealing with work/family balance

Here

Best burger info from NY Times

Here

11 health myths, a few new to me...

NY Times

Exercise in 6 min a week? Please please please be true...

Ny times

Bullying prevention strategies

NYTimes article. Not easy, but addressable.

Lowest frequencies of orchestra instruments

Listed here. Double bass info here.