David Vielmetter

Adventures in stupid technology

  • Stop Windows XP from automatically rebooting

    So here’s the problem. You’re busy working away on something really important and you get interrupted. Maybe the phone rings and you talk. Then maybe you talk some more and when you come back – BOOM! Your system automatically rebooted and your work is gone! Turns out that your computer found some updates from Microsoft…

  • 10 things I hate about you…Word

    In this article I’ll show you how to fix the 10 things I hate most about Microsoft Word. I’ve spent hours over the years getting Word to behave, so this article serves both as a reminder to myself and a guide for you.

  • Selecting text block wise

    Another great way of quickly grabbing vertical sections of tables, lists or log files is the select block wise feature in Microsoft Word and some other editors. Basically selecting text block wise allows you to highlight columns of text vertically. It’s great for modifying log files and reformatting sections of code where more or less…

  • Transposing cells in Microsoft Excel

    I work with lots of Log files and lists. I’ve had many situations in which I’ve had to change a list in order to quickly compare, add, or remove entries. The transpose feature in Microsoft Excel was made just for this purpose.

  • Build your own HD TiVo with Automatic Commercial Skip

    Since my last post on how to make your own DVR, I’ve gotten lots of emails asking about a HOWTO on building a HDTV capable DVR. So I decided to build one…and of course I documented my progress with all the screen-shots and pictures that made my first post so popular. Thanks everyone for your…

  • Build your own DVR with commercial skip

    This guide will walk you through the steps needed to build a TiVo like Digital Video Recorder (DVR) or Home Theater PC (HTPC) that can record your favorite shows and skip commercials automatically. What’s so cool about automatic commercial skip?  It means the ads in your show will be skipped during playback without user intervention. So…

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