At Work: January 2008 Archives

2008 Jan 23

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

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Jeedo
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I'm not sure if a lot of people who dabble on their keyboard almost 8 hours everyday know this but if they don't watch out they may eventually experience carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). This is a condition where a nerve is compressed around the wrist usually the part where its almost always pressed like the underneath of the hand holding the mouse.

I'm usually in front of the computer almost 12 hours everyday, except on weekends (I do have a life you know). In order to combat Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I use an ergonomic keyboard and mouse. You can find some good stuff about office ergonomics at ergoware.com. To combat CTS, I use my left hand to operate the mouse even though I'm right handed. I only use my right hand when I play games (he he he).

The best thing to do though to prevent CTS is to always take a break in between work specially if you just sit in front of the computer the whole day. Remember, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

2008 Jan 11

Merging Adjacent Cells in Excel

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tildemark
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The merge and Center button in Excel only centers the top left text and deletes the rest. What if the two columns of First names and last names are to be merged into the format: Last name, First name it would then become a problem.

Using the Ampersand ( & ) operator, it allows us to merge cells in an excel worksheet. you can create a formula to merge cells in excel or just insert it right away on the cell formula bar.

Problem:
And you wish to merge the two cells at A1 and A2 to the cell at A3

Given:
Cell A1 has the text "Lastname"
Cell A2 has the text "Firstname"

Solution:
* First position your active cell on A3.
* On the formula bar input the following: =A1&A2 [ENTER]

It should display LastnameFirstname on cell A3

To add a space and a comma, use the following:
=A1&", "&A2
it will output: Lastname, Firstname

alternatively you can also use the concatenate function, like this:
=CONCATENATE(A1,", ",A2)

2008 Jan 8

Disable autorun on cdrom or usb drives

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tildemark
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By default autorun is enabled on windows xp, this puts your pc into potential malaware risk or even virus infection. Mostly, viruses and worms are spread using the windows autorun feature. We should disable autorun on your computers to prevent it from being infected with any virus, malaware or worms. Here are several ways to disable the autorun function:

Disable Autorun with TweakUI.
The most convenient way is to install TweakUI a PowerToy from Microsoft we can download for free . Download TwealUI and install it. This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.

1. Run TweakUI
2. Navigate to My Computer -> AutoPlay -> Drives
3. Uncheck the drive you wish to disable the AutoPlay function.
4. Navigate to My Computer -> AutoPlay -> Types
5. Uncheck Enable Autoplay for CD and DVD drives
6. Uncheck Enable Autoplay for removable drives
7. Click Apply button
8. Click OK button

Disable Autorun with Group Policy Editor
If you are a geek type and want to do it the hard way we could use the GPEDIT.MSC tool to disable Autorun. GPEDIT.MSC does not work on Windows Home Edition, only on Windows XP.
1. Navigate to Start -> Run
2. type GPEDIT.MSC
3. Click OK
4. Navigate to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Template -> System
5. Double click Turn Off Autoplay
6. Select Enabled from the radio buttons
7. On the Turn off autoplay dropdown box select All drives
8. Click OK button, Close Group Policy Editor

Disable Autorun with the Registry Editor
If you are using Windows Home, you can disable autorun using the registry editor.

1. Navigate to Start -> Run
2. type REGEDIT, click OK button
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> CDROM
4. Double Click on Autorun
5. Change from 1 to 0. The default value 1 means autorun is enabled on CDROM
6. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Policies -> Explorer
7. Double click on NoDriveTypeAutoRun
8. Change the current valut to B5 in Hex. This disables CDROMs and USB drives

To disable other devices refer to the table below.
Value Meaning
0x1 Disables Autoplay on drives of unknown type.
0x4 Disables Autoplay on removable drives.
0x8 Disables Autoplay on fixed drives.
0x10 Disables Autoplay on network drives.
0x20 Disables Autoplay on CD-ROM drives.
0x40 Disables Autoplay on RAM disks.
0x80 Disables Autoplay on drives of unknown type.
0xFF Disables Autoplay on all types of drives.

By default, Autoplay is disabled on removable drives, such as the floppy disk drive (but not the CD-ROM drive), and on network drives. The default value 0x95 (149) is the sum of 0x1, 0x80 (unknown types), 0x4 (floppy drives), and 0x10 (network drives). 0xB5 is the sum of 0x1, 0x4, 0x10, 0x20 and 0x80. B5 in Hex or 181 in Decimal.
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This page is a archive of entries in the At Work category from January 2008.

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