David Vielmetter

Adventures in stupid technology

  • Use Microsoft Office in a browser

    Microsoft has finally released their online versions of Excel and PowerPoint Word and OneNote on SkyDrive. While the “cloud” versions of these programs don’t have all the features found the installable Office product, they offer enough power to be considered a reasonable alternative to Google’s suite of cloud applications called Apps. Now, if you don’t…

  • Select from three Windows7 power plans

    A while ago I voiced my frustration about Microsoft’s choice to display only two of the three standard power plan choices when clicking the battery icon in the notification area. In that initial article I suggested a shareware program called Power Plan Assistant which I actually uninstalled a week later due to some annoying shareware…

  • Cleaning the MAF sensor on a Corolla

    According to some Toyota forums, cleaning Mass Air Flow (MAF) Sensor can fix low idling. At about 85,000 miles my Corolla’s idle speed decreased from 700 to about 500rpm and felt like it was going to stall sometimes after the AC compressor kicked off. Cleaning the MAF sensor seemed to have done the trick and…

  • Add “Edit with VIM” to the OSX Context Menu

    I’ve been using Vim for making quick changes to files in Unix and Windows for years. As a result I am used to right-clicking files with any extension and editing it with Vim from the context menu (or is it contextual menu? I forget). Often times before making changes to a file, I’ll make a…

  • Fixing stubborn DNS errors on SBS 2003

    Windows 2003 Small Business Server (SBS) has wizards for configuring all sorts of settings during the initial server setup. Unfortunately changing those settings without the wizard later can be a hassle. This is the story of an SBS server which was originally setup as a gateway router with two network interfaces (WAN/LAN) only later to…

  • Keep Buzz out of your Gmail inbox

    Google’s Buzz is a great new social feature, but as all of my friends are giving it a whirl my Inbox has become swamped with useless notifications I wish would just buzz the heck off! After fiddling with filters for a minute here’s a temporary way to automatically archive Buzz to its label and keep…

  • Repurpose shipping foam as a cable manager

    Today like clockwork my notebooks power cord fell into that void between my desk and the dresser the moment I unplugged it. Swearing like a sea-captain and scraping my arm whilst surely looking like a crazy person performing contortions to get that darned cable back I thought to myself: There must be a better way.…

  • Replace Corolla OEM front rotors when replacing brake pads

    When my ’04 Corolla’s odometer hit 70,000 miles it was time to get new front brake pads, so I ventured over to brake masters and had them replaced. $50 dollars later I was back on the road driving to and fro various consulting gigs. A few thousand miles later though, I noticed some vibration when…

  • Five ways to better organize & use your Gmail

    I rely on Gmail for all my email needs because it has great spam filters and an uncluttered functional interface. Last week I had some time to organize my Gmail and now finding, noticing and keeping track of email messages is even easier. I use labels as pseudo email folders, filters to automatically categorize messages,…

  • Sorting Folders before files in Finder

    I know that the mac works differently (so everyone keeps telling me!) but I’m sorry, that’s not a valid solution to a host of real annoyances. It’s true that I’m a Windows user and that I’ve got Windows habits (think delete key), but listing folders sorted separately from files in a window just seems something…