Word video: Change your default printer
By · CommentsDo you have a favorite printer that you like to use? Is Word not choosing it for you automatically?
This weeks Word of the week video shows you how to change your default printer in Windows 7.
– Ron Owens
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Two recent papers written by Luke Chung of FMS, Inc. about SQL Azure and Access have created a lot of interest on his blog, as well as a few linked forum discussions. In response, Luke has written a follow-up paper about deploying an Access database once it’s linked to SQL Azure. He has also revised his original paper about linking to SQL Azure to clarify that you only need to install the SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Services program (SSMS) and not SQL Server itself.
Thanks again, Luke!
Luke Chung, President and Founder of FMS, Inc., has written and presented a wide range of topics related to Access over the years. In addition to their many Access related products, FMS offers a wealth of great Access papers, tips, and video on their site.
Two recent papers written by Luke Chung of FMS, Inc. about SQL Azure and Access have created a lot of interest on his blog, as well as a few linked forum discussions. In response, Luke has written a follow-up paper about deploying an Access database once it’s linked to SQL Azure. He has also revised his original paper about linking to SQL Azure to clarify that you only need to install the SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Services program (SSMS) and not SQL Server itself.
Thanks again, Luke!
Luke Chung, President and Founder of FMS, Inc., has written and presented a wide range of topics related to Access over the years. In addition to their many Access related products, FMS offers a wealth of great Access papers, tips, and video on their site.
Twitter Spam and the OAuthcalypse
By · CommentsTwitter discontinued support for basic user authentication in third-party applications yesterday morning.
Good. It’s always best to never share your password with a third-party. Even if you trust them, their database could be compromised, and your password along with it. The discontinuation of basic user authentication also removes the vector of brute force password attacks via Twiter’s API.
All third-party applications must now use Twitter’s OAuth.
So, that being the case… we have a feature request.
The other day, we came across some Twitter spam using a bit.ly link that pointed to an application called “Lady Gaga photos”.
If you “Allow” the application, two things will happen: the account tweets spam and follows two new accounts (emoboyxx3 and BoyGeorge).
We don’t suspect Boy George is behind this…
Okay, so it’s a spam application. Time to visit Settings/Connections and revoke its access.
And here’s our feature request, we want a “Revoke Access and report as a spam application” as well as the “Revoke Access” option.
Cheers!
On 01/09/10 At 03:36 PM
Revolutions + Pointless comments =
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[ Note to readers: I originally published this comic on my old blog on MSDN, but people seem to like it, so I'm reposting it here so new readers don't miss out. -- David ]
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When do 258 tweets equal nearly half a million dollars?
By · CommentsWikipedia’s affiliate marketing entry includes the following sentence: “Although many affiliate programs have terms of service that contain rules against spam, this marketing method has historically proven to attract abuse from spammers.”
This is very true — affiliate marketing methods definitely attract abuse from spammers.
Our recent posts on Facebook and YouTube spam linked to cost per action (CPA) affiliate networks. We’ve come across affiliates from several CPA incentive networks while investing social networking spam, and one of the more interesting companies that we frequently see abused is CPAlead.com.
CPAlead claims to be to be one of the largest affiliate networks with nearly 11 thousand members in its Facebook Group. They also have an interesting Twitter profile that lists their daily top earners.
They’ve tweeted 258 times since June 18th and the total amount of daily top earnings is $485,188.34.
There were 281+ thousand leads (completed surveys) and 3.7+ million clicks. That’s a 7.5% conversion rate for the top earners.
With numbers such as that… there’s little wonder why spammers are attracted.
On 31/08/10 At 09:44 PM
Suffering from inbox overload? In Outlook, you don’t have to prioritize and sort your email the hard way. Outlook 2010 has three new features that do more for my sanity than six weeks of therapy: the Ignore feature (my and Crabby’s favorite), Conversation view, and the Conversation Clean-up tool.
Plagued by endless nattering email threads full of silly posturing or irrelevant details? (Not that that ever happens.) Right click the subject of any of the emails and then click Ignore. Then click the Ignore Conversation button to move all those emails (including ones you haven’t gotten yet) to your deleted items folder, and savor your moment of zen.
More interested in what it’s about than who sent it? Use Conversation View to group all your emails by conversation as they arrive.
Want to get rid of redundant messages? Use Conversation Clean-Up.
Together these three features make managing your inbox a whole lot easier in Outlook 2010.
If you’re wrestling with your inbox in Outlook 2007, watch this “Break me out of mail jail” video and break free.
–Holly Thomas
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=VLOOKUP (uhh…now what?)
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Today’s post is brought to you by Anneliese Wirth, a writer on Office.com.
On Office.com, the term “VLOOKUP” frequently bubbles up in our list of high-volume search queries. My job is to figure out why this is and what specific information people are actually looking for when they type “VLOOKUP” into the search box in Help or on our web site.
The “VLOOKUP” query appears to represent a bunch of different questions. Certainly, one of the main ones has to do with the function arguments—a.k.a., “the stuff between the parentheses.” The bottom line is this: If you don’t use VLOOKUP regularly, it’s hard to remember off the top of your head what the different arguments mean, or how to use them correctly.
From personal experience, I can really relate. I use VLOOKUP infrequently, usually when I need to run a particular type of report for my writing team. The report requires me to pull data from my content management system, and then match topic ID numbers in one worksheet to corresponding titles in another worksheet. To make things work, I invariably end up in Help, poring over our VLOOKUP topic.
In particular, as an occasional user of VLOOKUP, I wonder about the following:
· What pieces of the formula do I need, and in what order?
· What’s the secret handshake for referencing lookup tables on other sheets?
· Is TRUE the right argument for exact matches? Or is it FALSE? Which one is the default? Which is the one that requires me to sort the first column in the lookup table in A to Z order?
· When counting columns, do I start at 0 or at 1?
· Why am I seeing the wrong results when I copy the formula?
To help address questions like these, I created a dedicated VLOOKUP Refresher. Feel free to print a copy of this card or save it for later, whenever you need it.
Of course, anyone who uses VLOOKUP will eventually want to know THIS, too:
· Why am I getting #N/A errors?
That last bullet is a whole ‘nuther ball of wax. I’m currently working on a card of troubleshooting tips and techniques for circumventing #N/A, but in the meantime, check out Greg Truby’s recent post, Solutions to three common problems when using VLOOKUP().
If you have comments about the VLOOKUP Refresher card, tips or resources of your own, or suggestions for future posts, please leave a comment.
=VLOOKUP (uhh…now what?)
By · Comments
Today’s post is brought to you by Anneliese Wirth, a writer on Office.com.
On Office.com, the term “VLOOKUP” frequently bubbles up in our list of high-volume search queries. My job is to figure out why this is and what specific information people are actually looking for when they type “VLOOKUP” into the search box in Help or on our web site.
The “VLOOKUP” query appears to represent a bunch of different questions. Certainly, one of the main ones has to do with the function arguments—a.k.a., “the stuff between the parentheses.” The bottom line is this: If you don’t use VLOOKUP regularly, it’s hard to remember off the top of your head what the different arguments mean, or how to use them correctly.
From personal experience, I can really relate. I use VLOOKUP infrequently, usually when I need to run a particular type of report for my writing team. The report requires me to pull data from my content management system, and then match topic ID numbers in one worksheet to corresponding titles in another worksheet. To make things work, I invariably end up in Help, poring over our VLOOKUP topic.
In particular, as an occasional user of VLOOKUP, I wonder about the following:
· What pieces of the formula do I need, and in what order?
· What’s the secret handshake for referencing lookup tables on other sheets?
· Is TRUE the right argument for exact matches? Or is it FALSE? Which one is the default? Which is the one that requires me to sort the first column in the lookup table in A to Z order?
· When counting columns, do I start at 0 or at 1?
· Why am I seeing the wrong results when I copy the formula?
To help address questions like these, I created a dedicated VLOOKUP Refresher. Feel free to print a copy of this card or save it for later, whenever you need it.
Of course, anyone who uses VLOOKUP will eventually want to know THIS, too:
· Why am I getting #N/A errors?
That last bullet is a whole ‘nuther ball of wax. I’m currently working on a card of troubleshooting tips and techniques for circumventing #N/A, but in the meantime, check out Greg Truby’s recent post, Solutions to three common problems when using VLOOKUP().
If you have comments about the VLOOKUP Refresher card, tips or resources of your own, or suggestions for future posts, please leave a comment.
Use this: Say it, don’t spray it (using the Bcc line)!
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Today’s “Use this!” tip is a bit of a lecture. I’m begging you, once again, to refrain from sending out rumors, jokes, links to adorable kitten videos, and hoaxes (even those that you don’t yet know are hoaxes but most definitely are) without hiding the names of the 137 recipients who simply MUST know about whatever it is you’re sending.
And what do I mean when I talk about hiding the addresses of all your recipients from one another? Am I telling you this to encourage you to be sneaky? Not really. What I’m doing is saving your email receivers from possible spam and computer viruses and worms (and other nasty stuff).
I recently became a beneficiary of a certain type of virus sent to me by some creepy spammer who got my email address from a certain acquaintance of mine who shall remain nameless because I like to have friends.
So! Let’s talk about making use of the lonely, underused Bcc line.
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