Good Old-Fashioned Mud-Slinging

It seems that every presidential election year, we hear (from both sides) that campaigns are getting uglier and meaner. Today's site
proves that to be incorrect. They've always been a good opportunity for mudslinging.

The Living Room Candidate has presidential campaign commercials from 1952 to the present. There are almost four hours of video to watch.

Move Tabular Data From Word to Excel

If the columns in the Word document are in a table, click in the table
-- from the menu, choose Table -> Select -> Table
-- press Ctrl+C to copy to the clipboard,
-- switch to Excel
-- press Ctrl+V

If items in the columns in Word are separated by single tabs
-- Ctrl+C to copy the lines representing the table to the clipboard,
-- switch to Excel
-- to paste the lines into Excel.

If the columns in the Word document are aligned using spaces
-- highlight the columnar data in Word
-- Ctrl+C to copy it to the clipboard
-- switch to Excel
-- click in cell A1 of a blank worksheet in Excel
-- Ctrl+V to <>paste the data—you'll find that it all winds up in column A.
-- with the data highlighted in Excel, <>choose Text to Columns .
-- on the first page, select Delimited
-- click on Next
-- on the second page, check only Space in the set of available delimiters
-- make sure the Treat consecutive delimiters as one box is checked.
-- click on the Finish button

Why Computers (and Software) Don't Always Perform As Expected

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT CYCLE

Software doesn't just appear on the shelves by magic. That program shrink-wrapped inside the box along with the indecipherable manual and twelve-paragraph disclaimer notice actually came to you by way of an elaborate path through the most rigid quality control methods on the planet. Here, shared for the first time with the general public, are the inside details of the program development cycle.

1. Programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.
2. Product is tested. Twenty bugs are found.
3. Programmer fixes ten of the bugs and explains to the testing. department that the other ten aren't really bugs.
4. Testing department finds that five of the fixes didn't work and discovers fifteen new bugs.
5. See 3.
6. See 4.
7. See 5.
8. See 6.
9. See 7.
10. See 8.
11. Due to marketing pressure and extremely pre-mature product announcement based on over-optimistic programming schedule, the product is released.
12. Users find 137 new bugs.
13. Original programmer, having cashed his royalty check, is nowhere to be found.
14. Newly-assembled programming team fixes almost all of the 137 bugs, but introduces 456 new ones.
15. Original programmer sends underpaid testing department a postcard from Fiji. Entire testing department quits.
16. Company is bought in hostile takeover by competitor using profits from their latest release, which had 783 bugs.
17. New CEO is brought in by board of directors. He hires programmer to redo program from scratch.
18. Programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.
Copyright © 1996 by David Lubar

This One Had Me Laughing Out Loud

This guy produces very elaborate, highly public, practical jokes. And he documents them with photos and text. Warning: each of these jokes takes several minutes to view and savor.

Not for folks who think too literally. These pranks are subtle - and it often took weeks for him to get "caught", even when a prank was executed in a very visible, high-traffic location.

What's your risk?

Due to lifestyle and genetics, some of us are more prone to get cancer,
heart disease and other illnesses.

Your Disease Risk has self-evaluations to help determine your risk of
the following diseases--cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis
and stroke. These tests can't take the place of a doctor but it may
alert you to see one.

In addition to the self-evaluations, there are risk factors and data
sheets with more information.

Tip For Windows System Administrators

Receive an e-mail notification when a service goes down.

Sooner or later, whether you're troubleshooting a server or just managing one, knowing when a particular service goes down can be a real lifesaver. Early notification can help you recognize that a problem has occurred so you can get to work on the problem as soon as possible to minimize disruption to users and/or customers.

A service's properties provide a handful of recovery options. To view these properties, open the Services console, double-click a service, and select the Recovery tab.

The Recovery tab sports three drop-down lists that let you specify which action Windows should take, if any, when the service fails the first, second, and subsequent times.

For example, you can configure Windows to send you an e-mail notification if the service goes down. To do so, create the following script using Notepad:

set objArgs = Wscript.Arguments
Set objEmail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
objEmail.From = adminaddress@yourdomain.tld
objEmail.To = youraddress@yourdomain.tld
objEmail.Subject = objArgs(0) & " service is down"
objEmail.Textbody = "The service " & objArgs(0) & " has failed."
objEmail.Send
set objArgs = nothing
set objEmail = nothing

Save the script as Mail.vbs, and open the properties for the service from the Services console. In one of the three drop-down lists, choose the Run A File option. Click Browse to navigate to the Mail.vbs script you just created. In the Command Line Parameters field, enter the service name (without spaces) that you want passed to the script, and click OK.
[ TechRepublic ]

Literacy Connections For Teachers

Literacy Connections provides a wealth of information on reading, teaching and tutoring techniques, ESL literacy, and adult literacy. There are recommended resources that are useful for teachers, volunteers, and directors of literacy programs. Topics include the language experience approach, phonics, word study, and the best in children's literature.