Category Archives: Rants

Me rambling about how dreadful and mind-bogglingly dull everything is

Reinstalling a used iMac (20-inch, Early 2008)

So, during spring cleaning, a used iMac was discovered at work. I figured it could be used for something, so I set it up on a table. It only booted to recovery mode, so I had to reinstall it. Simple, right? No, of course not! This is an Apple product. Apple ID needed So, booting […]

Upgrading the Vostro 1700 to beyond maximum specs

WARNING: This post is very specific to an old laptop, probably only interesting to anyone looking to upgrade such a machine. I warned you. I have an unhealthy obsession with “maxing out” machines, especially older ones. It was time for the chunky old Vostro 1700 that now runs Windows 7 instead of the version of […]

Using MERGE to insert/update in SQL Server

After finding various useless references on how to use the MERGE statement in SQL Server 2008, I found this one that I could use, so I copied it here for personal reference: MERGE tablename AS target USING (VALUES (‘new value’, ‘different value’)) AS source (field1, field2) ON target.idfield = 7 WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET […]

How difficult is it to misuse the code you write?

I found these “misuse levels” over at technovelty, which they originally ripped from Rusty Russel’s Bleeding Edge Page, which is a page you should definitely check out if you haven’t. Anyway, I found these “misuse levels” both hilarious to read and at the same time somewhat concerning, as I started thinking “Where does my code […]

Vista file transfer estimates: WTF?

In Windows XP, it seemed like the estimated transfer time of files in a folder, when copying that folder from one place to another, was estimated purely based on the sum of the file sizes and the current transfer speed. It also seemed to have a preference for transferring the larger files first.

Motorized Madness

I rarely post just a link, but this casemod is just too awesome: http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showpost.php?p=172860&postcount=377

Screen size calculator

Today I found out I want to replace one of my 20″ 4:3 LCD screens with a widescreen, to watch movies on a bigger surface. However, I didn’t want to reduce my vertical screen space. What I mean is that a 20″ widescreen is, necessarily, shorter vertically than my 4:3 screen, meaning I get to […]