I've been using Excel for years but I never knew about this one little formula that can save so much work. My predecessor has been using the ISERROR() function nested inside an IF() function to fill cells that return an error code as blank. This means if you have two columns of data that may not necessarily be filled, you can have a blank cell instead of #DIV/0, etc. A little tweak like this can improve readability quickly so you can quickly spot empty cells or not have to wade through errors if
Quite a bit has happened since November...
First off my Kubuntu install fell apart after most of my games library was locked out regardless of WINE. The titles that did work with WINE were too big a pain to get working again and I just wanted my incredible gaming rig back! Since my Windows 7 CD Key was coming up invalid, I found myself forced to install Windows 8 and after an initial "I hate Metro" period it proved to be quite a usable OS...if you throw Metro out the window. Still miss the Ku
I've always had a soft spot for KDE, so when switching to Ubuntu on my primary home machine it was a no brainer to pick Kubuntu 12.10 over it's Unity-packing parent distro. So far the system has set itself up extremely quickly and given virtually no problems at all beyond a mouse cursor that refuses to stick to the style I tell it to, irritating but hardly a deal breaker. Given the last time I installed Ubuntu I was left seekign network drivers and spending hours getting a laptop to even start t
As a browser nomad, I find it hard to keep up-to-date with extensions and remembering to install even the basics when I jump from one browser to another. In the case of my work computer I have no say in the matter, but at home I have used no less then four different browsers since installing my OS. One extension I have routinely forgotten about is AdBlock, as you can probably tell from previous hilarious failures in targeted advertising.
Unfortunately the landscape of advertising has changed
It has taken time for me to post this because I wanted to make sure everything was bedded down, calm and not influenced by the various emotional rollercoasters I have been on over the past week.
Currently I am a data assistant. At the end of the month I will be a data manager in a new school with a £5k pay rise, a scale going even higher and plenty of responsibility. And my own office. I don't care how small it is, I have my own office.
Of course, it comes at a cost! I will miss my yearly
There has been some awful news coverage today of the privacy policy updates being carried out by Google. Many people are being misled by the reduction of the 70 seperate policies currently being agreed to down to 1 policy for 1 unified platform. It makes business sense and whilst there are always some concerns when changes are made to any organisation's policy, the storm in a teacup is being made worse by the media again.
This morning on BBC News, the story broke about Google's changes to the
Recycling bins filling up, spam folders overflowing. Yes it's that time of year again when you come into work with a bag full of leaflets and find half of them make their way into the bin. BETT 2012 is finished and the dust is settling in the Olympia Exhibition Hall for the last time with BETT 2013 scheduled for the ExCeL Centre instead.
Click here for pciturs on Google+.
This year saw the return of the Edugeek stand to provide tech staff with an amusing diversion in the form of a comfy so
I will be at BETT 2012 and can't wait for it to come. Partly for "professional development," partly to see you Edugeekers again and partly to restock my desk with a bagful of freebie office supplies.
My freebie-fu was weak last year. With any luck it has since improved!
When you output dates in SIMS with the Reporting tool, the results will come out as text and cannot be converted into a proper date with the number format window. This is a fix used in the SIMS Standard Portrait template to prevent Excel from throwing a fit and entering the data incorrectly. You can modify the template and remove the fix but that is best left to advanced users, there is a simpler option.
Let's take a date in the format "1 March 2012" in cell C2. You can use the DATEVALUE form
This has to be the most obnoxious printer I have used lately (with the exception of our new Ricoh at work but that's a photocopier and sits top of the evil hardware food chain automatically).
I can't think of any printer that will jam it's print jobs, make you so frustrated that you turn it off....then print what you wanted to when you turn it back on a week later. And it still refuses to print what you want to print even if you power cycle it.
This printer isn't just failing, it is spitti
For the past few years we have had some terrible snowfalls. For the most part it is further north this year with the south being mostly unaffected. Forecasts show a brief minor risk of snow flanked either side with rain and rather mild temperatures nearer Christmas.
So where is this snow? Seems to be plenty of gimmicks being punted by the advertisers.
I know people who have gone out buying snow shoe grips, snow chains, all sorts of stuff that you should use abroad in the Alps (who ironical
The home phone rings right before a nice cup of coffee and interrupting a typical British chat about the weather.
"Hello, I'm calling from Scottish power. Is Mrs X in?"
"Uhh..no this is a relative, she isn't here. Is this a sales call?"
"No, a sales call would be if I was offering the beast deal for your electricity or gas."
What a weird thing to say. Maybe this is a genuine call for said relative. I decide to press further.
"Oh right, she isn't here right now. What is the call ab
Just had this rubbish through the door in postcard format:
UPDATE: I should correct this as surprise surprise, the ShowerSaint actually DID turn up. Aplogies to the parent company but really, try a better and more informative marketing campagin next time. Unsolicited items really raise suspicions as to wrong doing taking place, especially if you haven't even got a presence or website set up yet.
And yes, it was marked Return to Sender and dumped back in the psotbox.
Well, no, I am not fired but this poor Apple employee was for making comments about his employer on Facebook.
It shows that you need to be careful what you say these days. All too often I see comments on Twitter or Facebook about people hating their job and often they don't realise, if I can see the comment so can their boss. What makes this case more chilling is the post in question had privacy settings applied so the poster thought it was safe, but a colleague on the access list clearly had
My Saturday was spent attending the Eurogamer Expo at Earl's Court, London. This trade show was a chance for members of the public and video games industry to show off their future releases and next-gen technology. And it is brimming with technology.
One of the most popular stands was the OnLive service. Recently launched in the UK, the service jumps aboard the cloud bandwagon and tries to offer gamers the chance to stream titles online using a PC or a micro-console. This small box was availa
Another year has been and gone for the EduGeek Conference. Set every year near Preston in the Summer Half-Term, education professionals from around the country came to mingle, share ideas and listen to the talks put on by suppliers and fellow professionals. Here is a quick recap:
(Please note these are personal opinions of the talks!)
Data Protection: Dos_Box's brother, known on here as Drummer Boy, gave a good talk about the data protection act regarding the myths and the musts of this co
With the recent spotlight on malware and computer security I want to share some of the tricks I have discovered whilst reading up on it. And yes, some of these can affect multiple platforms (Windows/OSX/etc).
Google Image Poisoning: The act of using Google Image Search to trick users into visiting infected pages. Images related to popular topics on Twitter or the news are pushed high up the ranks of searches relating to that topic. Victims search for said topic in their droves, click the imag
After acquiring a new HTC Wildfire S and trying to sign up (still unsuccesfully) to the My Orange site, I was greeted with this Captcha:
Not even Google knows what a tooder is, why they are massive or why there are more then one so I guess you will need to use your own imagination.
As much as I hate Dell's hardware, PSU's in particular, I can't fault their peripherals. My monitor is still soldiering on after nearly 5-6 years of service and the keyboard has taken such a battering that the WASD keys are faded to the point of blankness. That's what gaming does to keyboards, punishes them. WASD in particular.
So what awaits me when I pop the keys off one by one to see what half a decade of non-cleaning will reveal?
What is this, do I have a hamster living under my ke
A program called Breaking In is being launched in America and it is the IT world's equivalent of CSI. the show follows a fictional IT team breaking into museums, nicking cars and doing other things that real security researchers likely don't do as part of their day to day affairs. The producers even created a Flash game for people to play around in and supposedly "hack" by guessing a password.
Unfortunately for the show's marketing team, one user responded to the Naked Security blog post abou
Mobile devices are gradually becoming more popular targets for scammers and are crossing over into the realm of traditional Internet scams. Social engineering plays a big part in scamming mobile phones, with a popular tactic being to ring a number, hang up immediately and leave an entry in the missed calls list that will redirect a curious owner to a premium rate number and a hold jingle. They rely on the "Hmm who just rang me?" effect to trick consumers into dialling the number and don't even r
Facebook profiles have become a bit of a commodity these days for crooks looking to cash in on unsuspecting members of the public. From spam messages to social engineering scams, the holy grail for any attacker is open access to a person's profile. From here, they can capture details about a person's private life along with their family, friends, business contacts and everything they require to pull the perfect scam.
On the same note I paid a visit to the Apple Store in London today and the l
It happens to everyone sooner or later. You get to work with the nagging feeling that you are missing something. Something important, all the way until you pull in to the car park at work.
And realise you have forgotten your wallet.
I have a supply of coffee at my desk, no problem. But lunch may be a problem unless...
15 minutes later after heading off on my break, I have a pound coin in my hand scavenged from my car ashtray. Will it be enough? Where can I get something decent for only
