A Consuming Experience

Thunderbird - public holidays won't display?

2012-05-15T09:22:00.000+01:00

In my Thunderbird email app (with Lightning for calendaring), I'd subscribed to Google's public holidays calendar for the UK. but lately, holidays no longer show up. They used to display fine, but that's stopped working. What finally sorted the problem for me, after many unsuccessful troubleshooting attempts to try to get the Google calendar to display, was a workaround rather than solution or fix, but it's good enough for me! So here's my tip to get round this issue, step by step: download...

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Windows Live Writer won't start or open?

2012-05-07T10:00:00.000+01:00

If Windows Live Writer won't launch, it can be a heart-sinking experience if you depend on it as much as I do - it's the best free blogging tool I know. For me, trying to "repair" Windows Live Essentials via the Control Panel Programs and Features didn't work to get WLW to open again. Nada, not even an error message. Here's how to fix it when Windows Live Writer stops working, or at least some steps to try: Open up Windows Explorer or Computer. In the address bar at the top, type or paste...

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How to convert Word documents to clean HTML

2012-05-01T10:00:00.000+01:00

While you can "Save as" a DOC or DOCX document in Microsoft Word as "Web Page, Filtered", the resulting HTML includes all the MsoNormal etc classes. Which is bit messy for my taste - I often want clean HTML. To convert the Word document to pure, simple HTML, rather than trying to email the document to yourself in Gmail (which no longer works the same way anymore, anyway) I've discovered a quicker, cleaner way. Download and install Windows Live Writer (which I use anyway for...

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Word footnotes - how to update cross-references to footnotes

2012-04-27T14:14:00.000+01:00

In Microsoft Word, if you insert cross-references to footnote numbers and later add or delete any footnotes, the footnote numbering as shown in the cross-references can be wrong. You can click the cross-reference and be taken to the right footnote, but the footnote numbers that display and print will be the 'old' ones. Here's a tip on how to fix that problem - it took me ages to find the solution. You need to: click inside the footnotes area first press Ctrl a (hold down the Ctrl key then...

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Internet password security madness?

2012-04-16T22:36:00.001+01:00

tweetmeme_style = 'compact'; tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.consumingexperience.com/2012/04/internet-password-security-madness.html'; We all know that password choice, although notoriously tricky, is vital for online or offline computer security. Longer passwords, indeed whole phrases not just words, are better against brute force attacks. Using varied types of characters should help make passwords stronger, ie mixing letters, numbers and symbols. There are tools like passphrase generators...

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How to network Windows 7 and Vista computers to share files, folders & printers from the Windows 7 PC

2012-01-16T10:09:00.000Z

If you've had trouble networking Windows 7 and Vista computers, and even when you've turned password protection off it keeps asking for a username and password when trying to access files remotely from the Windows 7 PC but won't let you login and says "Network logon failure unknown user name or bad password" or similar, this post suggests some possible solutions. Note that I've only looked at sharing specific folders on a Windows 7 PC to a Vista PC (and not vice versa). To fix this problem,...

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Outlook 2010 unread messages – how to set font size and colour

2012-01-12T08:16:00.000Z

I'd previously blogged about how to make Outlook 2010 more readable and accessible by increasing font size ie enlarging and emboldening fonts in the different panes, etc The problem with making the row font bold is that you can't distinguish between read and unread messages easily (unless you kept in the Read column, which I haven't for space reasons). This is because Outlook makes bold the text in Read rows, so if even unread text is bold, you can't tell the difference. The secret is to set...

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Windows Live Writer ribbon and menu disappearing?

2012-01-03T11:06:00.000Z

When I recently moved to Windows 7, even though WLW came pre-installed on my new computer, I found that the ribbon and menus were not there whenever I opened WLW – see the pic above! How to solve this problem? What worked for me was just click the restore or full size icon at the top right of the window (between the – and the X icons), and then click it again to get back your previous window size, and voila - the ribbon returns! The fix is straightforward, but this is an annoyance as I have...

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Can't find Microsoft Office programs inside Program Files?

2012-01-02T17:07:00.003Z

If you've installed Microsoft Office in Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, and you can't find Office's Winword.exe for Microsoft Word, or other EXE files in the Program Files folder for Excel etc, here's how to find them. They're not actually missing, so you can stop tearing your hair out. The solution to the problem is this: you may have installed 32-bit Microsoft Office, but the 64 bit Windows system creates two Program Files folders in your C drive - "Program Files", and "Program Files (x86)"....

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Word 2010, Word 2007 – how to paste plain text without formatting

2011-12-28T10:55:00.002Z

This blog post shows how to change the default settings in Word 2010 or Word 2007 so that whenever you use Ctrl v to paste text into Word from a Webpage, PDF file or other source, it automatically pastes it without the original formatting as unformatted text, getting rid of all the font styles, bold etc formatting from the original source. Paste Special is what I've always used when pasting text into a Word document. But in Word 2003, it took too many steps to go to menu, Edit, Paste Special,...

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Internet Explorer cookie contents - the new format analysed

2011-09-07T22:07:00.004+01:00

Microsoft changed the way that Internet Explorer cookie files work and randomised cookie filenames, for security reasons; the cookie text files now have random names which don't indicate the name of the website that saved the cookie, and you have to open up each cookie file individually to check what that is. However, you can still view the contents of all your IE cookies, unmangled, by exporting your cookies to a single cookies.txt file. Then if you open up that cookies.txt file, you can see...

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Internet Explorer cookie names change

2011-09-07T11:10:00.006+01:00

Worried that your cookie filenames have changed to incomprehensible random strings of letters and numbers? No need. Microsoft has, for security reasons, changed the way IE cookies are named. This is to improve security and reduce "cookiejacking", addressing one way in which attackers might be able to access your cookies (which could include your login information etc). Side effects: some apps depending on the old cookies names system broke, eg CCleaner and WinPatrol. Also, it's now harder for...

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How to batch crop JPEG photos, scans, images

2011-09-04T19:47:00.009+01:00

Here's how to crop a bunch of JPEGs with the free JPEGCrops (Windows), which I used where I needed to chop half an inch (of printer-ink-wasting-black) off the top edge of one set of scanned music score pages, and half an inch off the bottom edge of another set (where I'd turned the book upside down to scan those pages). I couldn't find a proper howto, so here's my step by step. Cropping multiple files in a batch saves having to open, crop and save each JPEG individually. You just set the edges...

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LinkedIn privacy - change your settings with fewer clicks

2011-08-14T20:14:00.008+01:00

If you're a member of business networking site LinkedIn and don't want your name or profile photo used for "social advertising" to endorse products or services on LinkedIn, you have to opt out. Here's a "howto". How to opt out of social advertising on LinkedIn The quickest way to opt out is: click this link login to LinkedIn with your username/password (if you aren't already logged in) in the "Manage Social Advertising" box that pops up, UNtick the box against "LinkedIn may use my name,...

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Freedom of information requests by Twitter!

2011-08-12T10:15:00.000+01:00

You can tweet a freedom of information request to public authorities, the Information Commissioner has said. Even referring to the authority's name in an @mention may be effective. However, for a FOIA request to be valid, you have to: give your real name, or at least link to it (eg in your Twitter profile) - a pseudonym isn't considered good enough, and provide an "address for correspondence". The Information Commissioner asked, but didn't directly answer, the question: does "address for...

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Outlook 2010 - how to change fonts etc for readability and accessibility

2011-07-29T20:57:00.006+01:00

This post is about how to change fonts and other settings to make the Outlook 2010 email window easier to read, if you have poor eyesight like me. In terms of accessibility, I consider it a step down down from Outlook 2003, but there y'go. If you want Outlook 2010 to be easier to view and read, and want as much information as possible to be visible to you without having to scroll, the steps I had to take to set up Outlook 2010, below, may be of use to you. (For anyone interested - I had to...

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How to remove Nuance PDF reader from Firefox (& short review)

2011-06-08T09:53:00.000+01:00

If like some people you install the free Nuance PDF reader, then uninstall it but it's still taking over PDFs in Firefox, here is how I got rid of it. It worked for me, but your mileage may vary. Try these steps (screenshots are from Firefox 4): In Firefox find your Plugins - in Firefox go to menu Tools, Add-ons (or in the address bar type about:addons and hit Enter), then on the left click Plugins In the Plugins list, look for all PDF plugins that are NOT "Adobe Acrobat" - in my case the...

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Convert files free, online - PDF to Word DOC, etc - review of tool

2011-06-04T17:14:00.003+01:00

ConvertFiles.com, which I've just discovered, is a very useful online tool, especially to convert Adobe Acrobat PDFs to editable word processing documents eg Microsoft Word DOC format. You just give the website the URL of a file (starting with http, https, ftp), or you can upload a local file, and it will automatically recognise the file type and offer you a choice of suitable formats into which it can be converted. Tip: sometimes it won't recognise PDF files where the URL doesn't end in...

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Travel more cheaply on London public transport - online tool

2011-05-28T10:04:00.011+01:00

Update: this blog post has been mentioned on the BBC site, thanks @TomSEdwards!This online tool calculates the cheapest Transport for London ticket or Travel card for travel in Zones 1 and 2 by bus, Tube or DLR (Docklands Light Railway). I created it based on data from the graph by University College researcher Neal Lathia (@neal_lathia). Neal Lathia's blog post summarises the 2011 research paper from which the data was derived, by N. Lathia, L. Capra on Mining Mobility Data to Minimise...

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How to install 1-Wire drivers for iButton / OneWireViewer

2011-05-02T13:37:00.004+01:00

If you want to use the Maxim 1-Wire and iButton and have had problems with your computer not properly installing the device drivers for the Maxim DS9490R# USB adapter via WinUSB, you might try the solution outlined below, particularly if you've had these error messages (shown in the screenshots above): "Windows encountered a problem installing the driver software for your device Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it. USB Host...

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Western Digital WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB - review and practical tips

2011-03-15T13:25:00.001Z

This is a review of the WDTV LiveHub media centre / media server, which the folks at WD and Chilifish PR kindly lent me. Overview As with most media servers you can: hook it up to your TV store media files on it (1 TB means a lot of files!) play those files on your TV, or a networked computer or smartphone - including music and photos as well as video - all at the same time If you connect it to your router, you can even play or show, on you TV, stuff over the internet from YouTube,...

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Domestic reviews - Gilberts' gourmet chopping boards

2011-03-11T09:19:00.000Z

I cook a lot. And I absolutely love Gilberts' cutting boards (which I think are the "Epicurean" range). When I was looking for new chopping boards, I wanted ones that were dishwasher-safe and light, and so I avoided considering wooden ones, which in my experience are usually huge and high-maintenance. But then, fortunately for me, I came across the Gilberts Epicurean boards, and they're just fantastic. The description says they're used by many professional chefs, and I'm not at all...

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How to connect PC to TV to watch online videos, movies etc

2011-03-05T15:01:00.007Z

This is a basic introductory tutorial guide for non-technical beginners on how to connect your computer to your TV and watch shows from the internet on your TV - eg BBC iPlayer, 4od (4 on demand) and other TV programme episodes and films - whether you stream them in real time over the internet (which means you have to maintain your internet connection to watch it), or you download the file to your PC and later play back your downloaded video (which means you can watch the downloaded video while...

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How does the internet see you? - Personas

2011-02-07T10:13:00.000Z

A MIT Media Lab Personas project tries to "create a data portrait of your online identity", ie shows how the internet sees or profiles you, in order to critique data mining. It's not new, but still interesting - if you've not come across it yet, give it a go, or try it again if you first tried it in 2009, to see what's changed! You just need to enter your full name in the box. It seemed terrifyingly accurate (mostly!) in my case. Improbulus being a rather unusual name, I just put that in. ...

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Gmail: how to view all unread Inbox email easily

2011-01-31T09:28:00.002Z

Here's how to see all your unread emails in at once in Gmail. I cover 2 alternative ways. The first builds on Gmail's Priority Inbox feature. How to set up Gmail to show priority emails and unread emailsThis assumes you've already turned on the Priority Inbox feature. In Gmail, go to Settings. Click the Priority Inbox tab (1). In the Priority Inbox sections bit, item no. 3 probably reads "Empty" (2, above). Click on "Add section" (or the down arrow against that) for item no. 3,...

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