NOISES FROM THE BASEMENT

1) Timely Tips - "Conditionally Yours"
2) File Find! - "Belarc Advisor"
3) Sites-Seeing - "GeoMaestro\Radio Diaries"
4) Email Funny - "Games Galore!"
5) They Said It - quotes to give one pause
6) Hodgepodge - that what fits no where else

Welcome to the new place! Yep, The Basement made the transition to a new home, and I still have some hair left... but not much! The changeover was made with little noticeable annoyances on your part (I hope), though the subscription form was down for several hours. NFTB went from a UNIX host to a Windows host, which has required some page scripting changes... most noticeably the demise of the Photocard option. I will be looking at repairing that in the near future.

I'm planning more additions to The Basement too, as I experiment with upgraded capabilities afforded by our new web host. These are exciting times, and in direct defiance of the old Chinese curse - I'm glad to be living in them!

Thanks for taking the time to come along for the ride--and as always, feel free to drop me a comment on what you liked, disliked, or would like to see in the future!

 - Dave
 

You can have Excel automatically add emphasis to key cells in your worksheets when you use conditional formatting. When you apply this special formatting, Excel evaluates the contents of a cell, then formats the cell differently depending on your pre-determined conditions. For example, you might want any cell within the range to appear green and bold when a certain numerical goal is reached - 100 boxes cookies sold in this example. Any cells that don't match your condition remain formatted as the default.
Here are the step to performing a simple conditional format: 1) Select the range you wish to format, G2-G5 in the example. 2) Select Format > Conditional Formatting... and the dialogue box shown below will open. 3) From the first dropdown box, select whether you want Excel to evaluate the cell value or the formula; a second dropdown box with comparison criteria to select will appear if you choose Cell Value. Select the comparison operator you want. 4) The final entry will be the value you are comparing the formatted cells to. We're not done yet!

Now, select the format for the cells that match your condition:

5) Click the Format... button. For conditional formatting, you can select Font Style, Underline, Color, Strikethrough, Cell Borders, and Cell Patterns (colors). Format your heart away!
6) Click OK twice, and now you're finished!

Next time we'll take a look at adding multiple conditions!

Return to top

2) File Find! - "Belarc Advisor"

Thanks to reader Holly S., who wrote in response to "Start Me Up" to recommend this week's File Find! - The Belarc Advisor. The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

When loaded, The Advisor will evaluate your system and and provide you with a nicely formatted HTML that displays info about your: Operating System, System Model, Processor, Main Circuit Board, Drives, Memory Modules, Network Drives, Controllers, Printers, Display, Bus Adapters, Multimedia, Communications, Other Devices, Software Licenses, and version info on all installed software! There's also a link to each installed application's location on your drive(s).

Note that the license associated with this product allows for free personal use only. Use on multiple PCs in a corporate, educational, military or government installation is not allowed.

Click here to download The Belarc Advisor!

Return to top

Hmmm. How about this? Take an Excel scatter chart and put it to music. Take the results of a Spirograph and make a midi. Gather some things that look like snowflakes and others like the rigging on a model ship--and somehow, and the details are far beyond me, become strangely melodic works of art. GeoMaestro - give it both a look and a listen!

NPR's All Things Considered will move you, leave you breathless, bring you to tears and refresh your soul with "Radio Diaries, People Documenting their lives on National Public Radio." Short audio snippets of everyday people's lives, where you can: peak into a day in the life of a 21-year old girl with cystic fibrosis; hear the prison system, from the very viewpoints of inmates, officers, and judges; or experience what it's like to be 17-years old and find out your father has been a fugitive for more than 15 years...plus many, many more. A winner!

Return to top

No download this week, instead the newest addition to The Basement Value Pack!!!

Some of the best times I had as a kid were spent in my buddy Mike's basement, where there was a real, 100% gen-ewe-ine pinball machine. The coin slot was rigged so a quarter would pass right through after crediting your games (3 games!), and I spent countless hours as a pre-teen sharpening my skills as a junior pinball wizard.

My second home during teenage years was the pinball arcade, where you'd find me testing my reflexes against the finest electronic monsters out there. So you can understand why I take such great pleasure in throwing open the doors of a new addition to The Basement - The Games Room!

The new Basement Games Room offers 65 challenging Flash games in the categories of Sports, Shooting, Puzzles, Action and Fun Stuff. New games will be added every 2 weeks... and I guarantee you're going to find something that tickles your fancy. Prepare to waste valuable time in the pursuit of frivolous entertainment! Can you get past Acno's 10tj level:LYPXW7EDRCU? How many of those happy little smiley faces can you splat with a paintball gun? How long can you get away with this before the boss comes in?

Click to visit the Basement Game Room! - (and be sure to come back!)

Return to top

"Dream like you'll live forever...Love like you've never been hurt...Work like you don't need the money...and Dance like nobody is watching!" - Satchel Paige

Return to top

< * > What does terrorism, ordering pizza and paying by credit card have to do with those hated "customer loyalty cards" I called Spyware in your Wallet? Check this - "The saga began with a misguided fit of patriotism mere weeks after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, when a corporate employee handed over the records—almost literally, the grocery lists—to federal investigators from three agencies that had never even requested them." < * > Amazing acts of avian artifice - photos of the villains caught in the act! < * > Privacilla.org - "Your Source for Privacy Policy from a Free-market, Pro-technology Perspective" - Privacy Fundamentals, Privacy and Business, Privacy and Government < * > 9 miners buried somewhere more than a football field's length below the ground - one man got to pick where to drill. < * > "...And everyone who reads, writes, sings, does research, or teaches should be up in arms. The real question is why so few people are complaining..." < * >  Meet Mark Llama, Gerbil Farmer - "It's a Dirigiberbil!" < * >

G'nite, and thanks for reading!

Dave Gretz

Return to top

 Dave Gretz,
Editor

 - - - - - - - - - 

Basement Links

Subscribe!

Basement Home
Past Issues
File Finds
Email Funnies
Site Reviews
E-Mail Dave

 - - - - - - - - - 

Photo Funny

 
CLICK ABOVE!
Send A Photo Funny Card!

 - - - - - - - - - 

Search
 The Basement

 - - - - - - - - - 

Noises From
 The Basement

is a BTB Management Services publication e-published every other Wednesday and delivered directly to your e-porch, rain or shine!

- - - - - - - - - 

Details, Details!

You have received this e-mail because I know you, or your e-mail address was formed by a pattern of sunspots during a recent solar eruption...

HOWEVER, if this does not describe you, your address was submitted through one of the many marketing venues I use, and your request is on record.

Subscriptions

If you want to unsubscribe from this newsletter, please see your personalized message at the very bottom of this issue.

Switch to Text

If you are a CURRENT HTML subscriber and would like to switch to TEXT, send a blank email here:

I PREFER TEXT

Change Your Email Address?

If you wish to change your email address reply to this message with "Change of Address" in the subject line and include both your old and new address in the body of the email.

- - - - - - - - - 

Recommend
Noises 

- - - - - - - - - 

Sources & Resources
places to go,
people to read

FREETECHMAILORG

Dave Pell's
NEXT DRAFT

Steve Gibson's
GRC

Fred Langa's
LANGALIST

Tara Calishaine's
RESEARCHBUZZ

Randy Cassingham's
THIS IS TRUE
and
HEROIC STORIES

Declan McCullagh's
POLITECH

Roger D. Hodge's
HARPER'S WEEKLY

Barbara Mikkelson's
URBAN LEGENDS

Jerry Lerman's
Bonehead of the Day Award

Chris Pirillo's
LOCKERGNOME

- - - - - - - - - 

So, How'd I Do? 

Let me know what you liked or disliked in this issue of
 Noises From The Basement! 

E-Mail Dave

- - - - - - - - - 

Want To Be A
 Basement Benefactor?

Only because I've been asked for it; donations will be used to reduce website and newsletter related expenses.

NFTB remains free
 for all readers!

Thanks!
Dave Gretz
"BTB Management Services"