Guess Who's Celebrating
An Anniversary? -
-=+ NOISES FROM THE BASEMENT +=-
Vol. 2, Issue 1 March 21,
2001 ISSN 1531-5258
1) Windows Tips - "Change Your Associates"
2) File Find! - "PickaTag"
3) Sites-Seeing - "Rainbow Maker\Unfortunate Cards"
4) Email Funny - "Sand"
5) MOUS Tips - "Timestamp Your Excel Printouts"
6) They Said It - quotes to give one pause
7) Hodgepodge - "An Anniversary Announcement"
~ ~ ~
A great big hello and a bigger smile for all readers this
week - Welcome to the start of our second year of Noises!
Thanks so very much for welcoming me into your mailboxes,
your work, and your homes every week!
It's been an honor
and a pleasure to present you with this little electronic rag
for the past 52 weeks, and I look forward to spending time
with y'all over the coming year!
Enjoy this issue, and be sure to look for my anniversary gift
to you in this week's Hodgepodge section!
~and~
as always, AOL users - see the newsletter end for your links!
_____________________________________________________
1) Windows Tip -
"Change Your Associates"
Have you ever attempted to open a file by double-clicking
its icon, and found that rather than the program you expected,
is something completely different is running and loading the
file? This happens frequently with video
and sound players,
and with graphics applications.
The usual culprit is installing, then uninstalling an application
that it has changed file associations for the type (extension)
you are trying to run. To re-associate
the file with the correct
application:
I)
Select the file. Then, hold down the shift key and right-click
on the file.
II)
"Open with" should be an available option. Select it.
III) The dialogue box will open
containing all of Window's
registered programs. Select from the listed ones, or
if you don't see the one you want
to use, click the
"Other" button and
browse to its location.
IV) If you want to use this program each
time you open
this type of file, select the
"Always use this program
to open this file" check
box. Click OK.
You should see your original target icon take on the default
shape of the assigned program, and it will now run and load
as expected.
-=++=- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ + ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
-=++=-
2) File Find! -
"PickaTag" [183 Kb/EXE]
Some of you may remember the long-ago days when the "World
Wide Web" was confined to government and academia. Computer
savvy civilians relied instead on BBS's - Bulletin Board Systems.
What could we do on a BBS? Play games,
chat, exchange files,
send text messages, and make new friends - all the things we do
now on the Web. The interface was almost
always text-based,
and what you said was more important than the way it looked.
Most of the messaging software we used on BBS's had the
capability to add random "taglines" to your messages. The
contents of your tagline file could be used to emphasize
a point, or perhaps to convey a bit of your personality, and
sometimes were just plain just goofy. I
always felt they
added a dash of flavor to routine correspondence .
Today's mail programs have the "signature", which, when it
is used, is usually a pretty boring thing. This week's
File Find brings the random Tagline back. This simple little
utility does nothing more than select a tagline from a text file
and adds it to your standard signature file. It works with
every mail program that uses a standard text file for a
signature file.
Start with the supplied tagline file, then add on to build
your own unique list of finishing statements.
Note: The download will unpack in a new folder under
C:\Program Files. No online help, but
the README file does
a good job of explaining what you'll need to know:
http://basementnoises.com/free4u/dl80.htm
-=++=- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ + ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
-=++=-
3) Sites-Seeing -
"Rainbow Maker\Unfortunate Cards"
There's something absolutely wonderful about a person who
spends his time making rainbows. Site
one is the home of the
Rainbow Maker, Fred Stern. Stern is an
artist who uses large-
scale pumps and the sun's light to create natural rainbows as
large as 2000 feet across. He is committed to creating rainbows
only for organizations and events in support of Global Unity.
Visit his site, check out photos of beautiful rainbows from
around the world, find out how you can make rainbows, learn
why rainbows occur in nature:
http://www.zianet.com/rainbow
~ ~ ~
Passing this one on a few weeks early, just so you'll have
plenty of time to use these for your own Easter mailings -
"The Gallery of Unfortunate Easter Greetings." Actual Easter
cards from the past are accompanied by droll commentary from
"Cap'n Wacky":
http://www.capnwacky.com/easter/eastercard1.html
-=++=- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ + ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
-=++=-
4) Email Funny -
"Sand" [111 Kb/EXE]
The Japanese have known the pleasurable and calming
influence that manipulating sand can provide.
Experience
similar intriguing feelings with this week's Email Funny.
Sand tumbles from a reservoir at the top of the program's
window; use your left mouse button to create "dams" and
your right button to breach them. Change
the "weight" of
the red and blue sands to affect the turbulence and flow.
Absorbing!
http://basementnoises.com/free4u/dl81.htm
* * *A Modest Request * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
How about taking 30 seconds and rating
Noises at the Cumuli Ezine Finder:
http://www.cumuli.com/ezines/ra20473.rate
It really does help! Thanks!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
5) MOUS Tips -
"Timestamp Your Excel Printouts"
Add a quick timestamp to your Excel worksheets with the
=TODAY() [for date only] and =NOW() [date and time] functions.
Enter either function into any cell, format as desired. Excel
will update the function each time it recalculates.
~ ~ ~
An alternate method is to have Excel print a timestamp
automatically in the header or footer -
I)
File | Page Setup | Header/Footer
Tab.
II)
Select either the Custom Header or Custom Footer button.
III) Click in the left, center or right
pane to select where the
timestamp will be horizontally
positioned.
IV) Click the center button (looks like
a desk calendar with
a "7") to add a date;
click the clock button to add the
time (exact time of printing),
then click OK.
V)
If desired use the "A" button to format your timestamp,
then OK.
-=++=- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ + ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
-=++=-
6) They Said It
"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think
I have ended up where I intended to be." - Douglas Adams
-=++=- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ + ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
-=++=-
7) Hodgepodge
Like getting things for free, especially on the Internet?
Do you find newsletters like Noises add a value to your
computing experience? I expect the
answer to both
questions is yes - or you wouldn't have read this far.
If so, I urge you to take a moment to visit the following link.
Lockergnome's Chris Pirillo has given voice to many email
publishers' concerns in the Libera Manifesto.
If you'd like to
know a bit about what drives people like us to provide free
content to our readers, please take a look:
http://www.lockergnome.com/manifesto.html
~ ~ ~
For those of you hardy souls that make it this far each week,
I have the Noises From The Basement birthday gift for
your reward! Beginning this week, you
can share the Photo
Funny with your friends and acquaintances with
Virtual Photo Funny Cards!
Now, if you're particularly moved by the featured Photo Funny
of the week, you can zap it off to a friend - complete with
optional message and sound! Browse on
over to the Basement
to check out it's newest feature! (don't
forget to check out this
week's Bizarro story, too!)
http://www.BasementNoises.com
G'nite - and thanks, as
always, for reading!
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=====================================================
My standard "Your Mileage May Vary" Caveat:
NFTB does not assume responsibility for your use of
information given. Tips are tested on a
machine with
Windows 98 and Office 2000 Professional installed.
As I am firmly convinced that all systems are unique little
creatures in and of themselves, any given tip or suggestion
might just not be available to you. Why?
Murphy Rules!
All advice should be weighed against your own abilities
and circumstances and applied accordingly.
It is up
to you, the reader, to determine if advice is safe and
suitable for your current situation.
Any product or brand names mentioned in this ezine
and associated website are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners.
NOISES FROM THE BASEMENT is a BTB Management Services
publication e-published every Wednesday and always
delivered directly to your e-porch, rain or shine!
Noises From The Basement
ISSN: 1531-5258 - Library Of Congress, Washington D.C., USA
Copyright (c) 2001, Dave Gretz
All Rights Reserved.
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