GoRedwings19's Computer Help Hotline

Hot DAMN, this is sweet. Addonics Portable Dual Drive enclosure lets you RAID on the go - Engadget $100 Works with SSD

I have this kick-ass excel macro that is basically capable of cutting down a multi-hour job into a couple of minutes. However, I'm at a loss in the end. The last stage of the macro runs a mail merge through excel as it calls the next client, changes address, adds other personal info, prints the job, and saves it as an individual file. My problem is that I can get the individual files to save under, say, date and client's name as an excel spreadsheet, but I'd really like to save as a pdf file. I am aware of various programs that act as a printer and basically let you save through the print dialog. The issue is, they always prompt for a name and location. Anyone…

I had been using a CSS for ad blocking, but the one I've been using kills non-advertisement as well on occasions (like smileys on this site) so I stopped using it. Any other options for good ad blocking on Safari, or should I just suck it up and hope the new Safari will do a better job of it?

Curious if there is a SATA and IDE BlacX-like device? I see adapters like this, but nothing in the more convenient form factor. Anyone know of one?

So I re-imaged my PC a week ago with a custom XP image with SP3 and everything works beautifully, but my usb ports are acting funny. So far, only one of the usb ports in the back seem to see my iriver H140 and H320 as well as my wife's ipod nano without any errors and run full speed 2.0. If I plug them into any other port (4 total in the back, 2 in the front) XP will come up with a message that the device is unknown (ie. I need to install a device driver) or that it could run faster if I upgraded my ports to USB 2.0 high speed (in the latter case I can access my mp3 players, but I ain't waiting 60+ mins to transfer what full speed does in 9 minutes). I installed w…

only $10 a minute yo. (not sure where this number will go if dialed, so um... don't dial. )

Our AVID at work every so often keeps crashing. This is the message that comes up when it restarts... Windows XP HP Ethernet Boot Agent v8.3.9 Copyright

There's a lot of conflicting and simply fuzzy information out there on using the exFAT file system in a variety of situations and drive types. Being able to use on Mac and PCs would be desirable and general specs looks good, so anyone have any advice about when to use or avoid using exFAT? Considering for a music backup drive.

Through the generous kindness of Nate and all his wonderful Nateness, I was able to receive a nice linksys wr54g (I think, its the one that cannot take the DD-WRT firmware) as I was having router issues. It has worked pretty well, but the one thing I notice is that when multiple things are accessing the router at the same time, it tends to drop out. For example, I had my ipad, and two laptops were exchanging music through itunes as my work tablet will be returned, and it would suddenly drop out of connection, and wouldn't connect back to the router until a couple of minutes. I upgraded to the recent firmware but nothing really. Also, some of you may know that the ipad…

dell lcd was purchased ~5 years ago. as you can see in the pictures, theres a darkish horizontal area that curves up a little to the right side of the panel. visible on white backgrounds but very very obvious on greys. its actually worse in person than it seems in the pictures. any thoughts? suggestions? my thinkpad backlight just died 20 minutes after i installed a replacement harddrive (the deathstar finally kicked the bucket). the laptop has been with my for the better part of 4 years now. just hate all this stuff happening to machines i have gotten very used to.

Doing online research for a cpu that will meet my htpc needs, I came across this: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/05/tongue-and-bum-controller I wonder what Valve is up to... hmmm...

So I've been using the new Screen Time feature in iOS12 to lock the kids' iPads and phones overnight to remove temptation and alleviate bedtime arguments. Was working well. Until I notice today that a couple of notable apps (Clash of Clans, Netflix) are no longer blocked on Alec's devices even when Screen Time is active. Hmm, that seems ... mysteriously convenient. I reset everything (including the master passcode) on his stuff and on my phone, which is the main controller. No change. So I then manually add these apps to the "Always Allowed" list, then manually delete them. No change. Try this with a couple of other apps and it works just as you'd expect -- add them…

So I've been tasked at work to put together a spec sheet for a mobile workstation (think gaming laptop, without games) and I'm looking for some advice/assistance. The general requirements are that it needs to be able to run damn near any software that we throw at it (CADD, REVIT, Solidworks, Photoshop, etc.), store a bunch of data, but not be so obnoxious that it can't be used in a conference room for presentations (i.e. loud or stupid looking). It only needs to be transportable so battery life isn't really a concern or heft/size. Budget is TBD and quite robust, for once. So far the likely candidates that I've come up with: 1. MSI GT80 Titan 2. Origin EON17-SL…

Not cheap, but looks quite nice as a pure storage solution. I have a couple of their single external enclosures and they've been very reliable. I wonder if they'd sell it unbundled if one asked very, very politely?

For those interested... Free exhibits-only pass for Macworld SF 2009 - dealmac.com

Hi everyone- Simple question before I cram this drive in my Drobo: can I put a drive in there that already has stuff on it, or should I only insert blank drives? I tried and tried to google this info up but no dice. Just want to make sure before I proceed. By my calculation there should be plenty of space left for protection after I insert the drive.

With spotlight used to access files, I rarely have to launch finder nowadays. This way, I can have all my stuff on the desktop cluttered as can be, but will always be invisible till I need to find stuff. The rest of the time- Clean & Pretty & unclickable desktop!

Hi there, H-C. Yesterday, while I was on a photo shoot, my beloved Blackberry grew legs and took off (FML). I've been in damage control mode for the last 20 or so hours (shutting off the phone, changing a fuck-ton of passwords.) Now I'm moving on to regaining ground so to speak. I have a Google Voice number, and had the GV app for my BB. I also have a Vonage box left over from when I was a customer of theirs. My understanding is that the Vonage only works with their service. It might be hackable, but that's really not my forte. What I'd like is similar box, something with an ethernet (or USB) jack and an RJ11 jack. Failing that, a hardware phone with a USB port…

Well my good fortune with anything electrical has continued unabated with my office computer choosing to sleep with the fishes on Wednesday morning. I am pretty sure it was the motherboard that died and not the hard drives (fingers crossed). There are a couple of important files I had not gotten to backing up yet on the old computer which I need access to at some point in the next few weeks. I pulled both the hard drives out of the dead computer and was preparing to download all the files today using my Thermaltake sata docking station when I discovered to my horror that the HDs are not sata but most probably ide HDs and the Thermaltake model I have only supports sata.…

anyone have a Magic mouse and windows 7 pc/lappy (not a dual boot mac) that can test if the Magic mouse works and if you can scroll with windows? need a mouse and it would match my Apple Keyboard nicely..

I bought an external hard drive with an eSATA port and am thinking about getting an eSATA pci card. I've skimmed infformation about eSATA and I keep reading about how you need a motherboard that supports it. Are they just talking about integrated eSATA on the motherboard or will I not be able to even use a PCI card on a noncompatable motherboard?

On Friday, 7/24, MS switched my Hotmail account, where I send anything that may generate spam, over to Outlook Mail (Preview). Since then no email, spam or otherwise, has soon in the browser, nor mobile app. Web search for others problems shows nothing specific about Friday, but some down today, which is possibly par from most days. Anyone else have problems? EDIT: It could be a lower max mailbox size limitation implemented on the automatic user switch. That would be very MS.

I'm waiting on one of these at present. Runs GoogleWave, GoogleVoice, and Skype. Flash enabled browser. Full OPEN implementation of Debian/Linux. 32GB native, easily expandable to 64GB. 3.5mm Headphone Jack, the specs go on for days. [url=http://maemo.nokia.com/]Maemo software | Nokia

Horrible as their sometimes use may be, after reading this pretty critical article I kinda want to try out "Second Brain" apps/services. Anyone try and have an opinion of Notion, Obsidian, Mem, or other? I'll likely dive in all three, but thought I'd use the collective first. I've gone years using some older software like DEVONthink, The Brain, and even Yojimbo, but generally they've been slow to move to the cloud, so I've dropped all along the way for more primitive organization.

In case any Mac+Last.FM users are interested... SweetFM now an open source project