Friday, June 17, 2005

Knowledge base

Things I have learned recently:

- LCD monitors work best at the optimum refresh rate. They do not work best at a higher refresh rate. Yes, it is counterintuitive to take the refresh rate down to 60, but it helps.

- If you are using InterActual DVD player and you can't access the DVD-ROM specific material on the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD, click on the Extra Credit link on the bottom.

- In Sims 2, if you want to do the move_objects on and then delete a character thing, don't panic when the character's icon disappears. Simply exit to the neighbourhood (saving your game on the way) and re-enter the house. The character will reappear with their mood levels all up.

- If you have WebWasher, ZoneAlarm, Norton Internet Security and Windows XP firewall and pop-up blocker, the easiest thing to do is disable the pop-up blocking/ad blocking/privacy capacities of all the software except WebWasher, then edit the WebWasher filterlist as needed to allow access to sites you want to access and block things you want to be blocked. It's also easier to disable the Windows XP firewall and let ZoneAlarm take care of that with Norton as a backup. Anything more (or different combinations) gets far too overprotective.

- You can't stash .exe files in your gmail account. Zipping them doesn't trick the gmail filter.

- If your OS is Windows XP and your ISP is Sympatico, there may be two little network connection icons in your tray. Do not try to close one of these network connections, bad things will happen! (When I did this it inadvertently deleted my network card). You can convince the non-sympatico icon to not show itself, but don't try actually closing it.

- In Windows XP, if you set your taskbar to auto-hide and then maximize a Trillian window, the Trillian window will cover up the taskbar and you have to annoyingly switch to another window or resize Trillian before you can access the taskbar. Instead of maximizing Trillian with the icon in the top right of the window, just drag the window edges until you reach the required size.

- Furniture on casters that is frequently rolled around can damage the finish of hardwood floors.

- Hiking up your pants by casually sticking your hands in your pockets and then casually shrugging your shoulders is not a good idea, because it puts pressure on seams that the designers never intended.

- If your bra straps have metal buckles and adjusty-things, and you have a zit right under where one of the metal pieces needs to be, wear a different bra. Even if it ruins your line. The resulting skin irritation is extremely aggravating.

- If your vegetarian meal comes with an item that wasn't part of the meal description on the menu, find out what that item is before eating it.

1 comment:

NickLuft said...

Re the comment about putting .exe files on gmail or that matter any mail system. Rename them filename.txt and send or save via the e-mail account.

When you want to use them, call up the file, save it and rename it to filename.exe. Most e-mail scaners do not look deeper than the TLA (three letter abbreviation).