Adventures in stupid technology

  • Pool vac stuck on drain

    My pool came with an older Hayward Pool Vac Ultra type cleaner. It works great at keeping my pool clean as long as it doesn’t get stuck on the main pool drain. I know there are tons of experts that say if your pool vac gets stuck on the main drain, you haven’t adjusted your…

  • Banish Skype to the notification area

    If you’ve got the latest version of Skype, you may have noticed that it doesn’t disappear from your task bar when you close the program. This is extremely annoying to me. I understand that the program is still running, but why can’t it do that in the notification area (which is the designated area for…

  • Delete a windows service

    The more applications you install, the more services are created on your Windows computer. Services in Windows are akin to daemons on a Mac or Linux system. They run in the background and perform various tasks. Sometimes when you uninstall an application from Windows, its service(s) are left behind by the uninstaller. These left behind…

  • Links in Outlook 2010 won’t work

    Some pictures part of HTML email messages do not render in the message preview pane in Microsoft Outlook 2010. Also, when clicking links in Outlook 2010, the following message is observed: This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator. The problem is most likely not…

  • Delegate settings not saved correctly

    In Microsoft Outlook, when working with Exchange server, you can permit another user to view your calendar, tasks and email items. You can even allow other users to schedule meetings, write emails and create contacts on your behalf.

  • Reset your Plantronics CS55 Headset

    The Plantronics CS55 headset has been saving my neck since 2008. It’s the workhorse of many a call center and generally functions as expected. Every once in a while though it can get into a funk where you hear people but they cannot hear you. Here’s what to do to reset your CS55 headset back…

  • Printkey 2000 – An Oldie but a Goodie

    Printkey 2000 is really just another screen printing tool. It’s a bit dated in its design and I’ve had it crash on me a couple of times over the years, but it has some great features that are hard to find in other screenshot apps. Here are some of the reasons people may still use PrintKey…

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