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Linking WordPress to Facebook – My non-ideal solution

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Warning: This is one of those technical posts that won’t make much sense to many people, but will be a goldmine to those who have exactly the same problem I was just working on. OK, now that that’s out of the way, let’s begin:

A few weeks ago, I became both a Blogger and a Facebook user. One of my first tasks on Facebook was to find a way to link my blog posts to my Facebook Wall & News Feed, so that my Facebook friends could read my posts without me needing to cross-post them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: Blogging about Blogs, Tech Talk | 4 Comments »

The ad Palm wishes it could run

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Hi, I'm an iPhone . . . and I'm a Palm Pre

Categories: Tech Talk | 2 Comments »

Unfortunate Icons

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

The Calendar view in Microsoft Outlook 2007 uses a clever set of icons to give the user key information about his/her meetings without opening each one. Recurring meetings, for instance, show up with curved arrows in the lower-right corner. If you modify a single instance of a recurring meeting, it puts a diagonal line through the arrows, which gives the unfortunate impression of a script “x”. Hence, you get meeting descriptions like this:

I assure you that opening the appointment is not nearly as exciting as the message above implies.

Categories: Random Acts of Blogging, Tech Talk | Comments Off on Unfortunate Icons

ISBS Review: Facebook

Monday, June 1st, 2009

As some of my readers are aware, I have been resisting joining the two newest social networking trends – Facebook and Twitter – for quite some time now. Twitter has been easier to avoid (only a couple of my friends use it, and given that SEC regulations prohibit me from using it in the office, I wouldn’t be much of a “tweeter” for most of the day anyway). Facebook, on the other hand, has been hounding me. It started with the “Hey – you’ve got to join” e-mails, and then moved on to the “click <Facebook link> to see this great picture of my kids” and the “that reminds me of that awesome story I read on Joe’s Facebook page” messages.

Categories: Tech Talk | 4 Comments »

Expert Systems

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

When I was in college, I took a CompSci course on what was then called “Expert Systems.” The idea was to build computer software that took a complex question with a large number of possible solutions (e.g., What is wrong with the patient?) and then ask a series of questions that would divide the possible solutions into two or more groups (e.g., Does the patient have a fever?). Based on the answer to the first question, one group of answers would remain possibilities, and the others would be declared wrong. Then, further questions could be asked to cull the list down even further. So, to carry on with the above example, if the patient had a fever, you could probably rule out things like gunshot or broken bone, and ask a question like “Does the patient have a rash?” If he/she did not have a fever, you might proceed with something like “Is the patient bleeding?” In the ideal world, you eventually get down to one possible solution, having ruled out all the others, and you have your answer.

The appeal of such systems at the time was that they could combine the knowledge of many experts into one repository, producing a system that was “smarter” than any one of the experts on his/her own. In other words, a given expert (a doctor, in the above example) would look at the question list, and add a question at a certain point in the “tree” that would further sub-divide the list of possible ailments vs. incorrect diagnoses. This led to discussions about artificial intelligence, which can basically be boiled down to “knowing a lot of facts doesn’t give you qualities like instinct, experimentation, or even common sense,” but I digress…

Today, systems like this aren’t necessarily curing patients’ ills, but they are quite prevalent in things like customer service centers. When you call that dreaded 800 number and finally get a human being (in India), and the person sounds like he/she is reading from a “script,” it is likely to be a system like this, hoping to get you to your answer in the minimum number of questions.

Anyway, I bring it up because someone recently pointed me to a neat little website called identifont.com. The site assumes you’re looking at a particular typeface and want to know what font it is. It asks you a series of questions, each designed to eliminate a bunch of fonts in it’s database. When it’s done asking questions, it “guesses” at the font you’re looking at (the one in the “remains possible” list with the highest calculated chance of success) and then gives you other alternatives to try if it guessed wrong (the remainder of the “remains possible” list).

In our web-filled world, I thought this was an excellent use of the Expert System approach. I’d also recommend they talk to my friend Jeff who has this freakish ability to distinguish between seemingly identical fonts using nothing but his own brain…

Categories: Tech Talk | 1 Comment »

Best Error Message Ever…

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Trying to open an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet at work, and got this error message:

Non-technical user’s interpretation: There’s been an error. The error is so complicated, that merely explaining it to you would take too long. Seriously, trust me, you don’t want to know.

Actual explanation: The file’s name was very long, and it was downloaded from the web into a folder that was many layers deep in it’s hierarchical tree. The resulting file name (including the full path) exceeded the maximum filename length, causing a DDE error. ALSO, the error message describing the DDE error is designed to include the file name, and the resulting error message exceeded the maximum error message length, hence the above message.

On the upside, the error message’s advice (rename the file or put it in a different folder) is good advice, and actually did solve the problem.

On the downside, DAMN, what an awful error message. If Hodgman and Long ever saw this, it’d be a Mac ad in no time…

Categories: Tech Talk | 4 Comments »

After the Beep, Please Send E-mail

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

The New York Times ran an interesting article last week about the impending obsolescence of voice mail. Some quotes:

Over 30 percent of voice messages linger unheard for three days or longer and that more than 20 percent of people with messages in their mailboxes

Categories: Tech Talk | 1 Comment »

Page Not Found – Ver 1.0

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

This made me laugh:

I’m a geek.

(via)

Categories: Random Acts of Blogging, Tech Talk | Comments Off on Page Not Found – Ver 1.0

Excel 2007 Problem: Solved!

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

I’ve been using MSOffice 2007 for a few weeks now, and while I’m generally pleased with the enhancements it brings, there was one bug in MSExcel that was driving me crazy.

When I opened an Excel file (.xls, .xlsx, .xlsm), Excel would launch, but the file wouldn’t appear. Instead, I’d see just an empty MDI frame (the Excel title bar and menus, but without any spreadsheet on the screen). I quickly discovered, through trial and error, that I could get the spreadsheet to open by choosing “Open” from the Office icon menu, and then clicking “Cancel” when the Open dialog box came up. This was, however, equal parts weird and annoying, and could not be the best answer to the problem.

Today, I got around to Googling it. As I suspected, others have had the same problem, and have suggested several possible solutions. One was to disable one or more suspicious add-ins, but I had none of the supposed culprits on my machine. The idea did get me thinking, though – the add-ins I did have (both of which were self-made), were in Excel 2003 format (.xla). Excel 2007 creates add-in files with a .xlam extension. Also, I’ve had several minor problems with Excel 2007/Excel 2003 compatibility issues in the past. Maybe the .xla format is the problem?

That solution turned out to be the right one. It also explains why others may find that disabling a certain add-in made the problem go away. Therefore, I’m pretty sure I’ve identified the problem.

So, to make the problem go away, you need to convert your .xla add-ins to .xlam. Here are the detailed instructions:

  • Open Excel 2007 by running the app (not by opening an Excel file)
  • On the Developer ribbon, chose “Visual Basic.” If the Developer ribbon isn’t displayed, you can add it by clicking the Office icon in the upper left corner of the screen, choosing “Excel Options” and checking the “Show Developer tab in the Ribbon” check box. Or, if you want to avoid the whole mess, you can use the old Excel 2003 keyboard shortcut (Alt-F11) to open the Visual Basic editor immediately
  • Expand the add-in in question, and double click on the associated Module to bring up the code
  • Click inside the code, and then press Ctrl-A to select all of it. Then press Ctrl-C to copy it
  • Right click on the new Excel that opened with Excel (usually called Book1) and choose Insert…Module
  • When the empty Module comes up, click inside of it and press Ctrl-V to paste in the code
  • Click the office icon and choose “Save”
  • Save the file as an Excel Add-In (.xlam) with the same name (other than the extension) and in the same folder as your existing add-in
  • Repeat allof the steps above (starting with a brand new Excel file each time) for each .xla add-in you have
  • Close the Visual Basic Editor
  • From Excel, click the Office icon and choose Excel Options
  • Click on the Add-Ins menu item on the left side of the dialog box. At the bottom, select Manage Excel Add-ins and click “Go.”
  • When the Add-Ins box appears, click “Browse.”
  • Choose the new (.xlam) add-in and click OK. You will be prompted that another add-in with the same name exists. Click OK at this prompt
  • Repeat the above step for each newly created add-in

There you go – problem solved (hopefully). If you have any questions, comments, updates, or corrections, feel free to post them in the comments below.

Categories: Tech Talk | Comments Off on Excel 2007 Problem: Solved!

eBay Fails to Please

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

While I usually try to stay current on all things techie, I must admit that until the other day, I had never tried to buy anything on eBay. Now that I’ve been through it once, I don’t think I’ll ever try again.

I’ve gotten in the habit of watching DVDs on my commute to/from work. The trip is about an hour, so I’ve been watching TV episodes rather than movies (without commercials, I can comfortably watch two sitcom episodes or a single hour-long drama on one trip). One of my favorite series is The West Wing, so I set out to purchase the complete series, figuring 154 episodes could keep me busy for upwards of six months. The retail sites are asking roughly $200 for the set, which strikes me as a little steep, but then a Google search turned up an eBay auction with an $87 “BuyNow” option.

Now, I’m not one to dole out my credit card number to any random website, just because they claim to have a good deal going. But this is eBay. Plus, the seller (“rachel25671”) had a very high rating (I forget the number, but it was over 200, including a 99%+ satisfaction rating, and many positive reviews). Also, the auction claimed she had sold five sets, and still had five more in stock, suggesting that others had successfully purchased it from her in the past. So, I took the plunge.

The first thing I was hit with was a requirement to join PayPal. eBay uses PayPal to manage their credit card transactions. I’ve avoided PayPal in the past because I get so much spam claiming to be from them, and I didn’t want to be in a situation where I’d have to look at each one to see what was real and what wasn’t. I’m sure PayPal executives will hate to read that, but it’s true. Anyway, I had come this far, so I relented and joined PayPal. I gave them my credit card number, but

Categories: Random Acts of Blogging, Tech Talk | 5 Comments »

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