Hard disk failure imminent!

A couple of weeks Windows 7 informed me that my hard disk is failing, and that I should back up immediately. Skeptical of Windows messages about things like this, I decided to run Spinrite on the disk. After making a backup with Carbonite.

Apparently I should have not done that. The better course of action would have been to copy the whole hard disk to a new one, and then run Spinrite on the old disk.

By doing this, I apparently pushed the disk just enough so it ran out of spare sectors for relocating bad tracks. I found this out after I got a new 1TB disk, placed it in the same computer, and tried to copy the old disk to the new disk.

Macro for Pivot table dates

I have a small Excel workbook with two Pivot tables, linking each to their own Analysis Services cube. The purpose of these two pivot tables is to daily compare the bookings and shipments data. This involves making a change to the date filter, making sure that both pivot tables use the same date, and formatting the tables to the content.

I finally broke down, and dove into the macro editor in Excel. Since I had no idea how the macro editor works, I decided to record the actions. When I pulled the editor, this is what I saw:

iOS6 podcast problems and solution

I installed iOS6 this morning on my iPhone 4.

I'm not sure why.

There are now separate apps for all the stuff that used to be integrated in Music: Podcasts, iTunes U, and I'm sure there is more. Not that that's a bad thing, but I wish the new apps had at least the functionality of the old Music app. And they don't.

I learned that the hard way this afternoon when I started working in the yard. To have some entertainment, I always listen to podcasts or audiobooks while working in the yard, exercising, shopping or driving to and from work. So I got out the lawnmower, plugged in my headphones, and tried to listen to my podcasts.

The Internet - a source of unbridled information sharing

Years ago, I posted an article about "Kunt U Mij De Weg Naar Hamelen Vertellen, Mijnheer?" (Can You Tell Me The Way To Hamelin, Sir?), a Dutch Children's TV show from the 1970s. In 2003, the story was converted to a musical.

One very nice person has posted the first hour of the slightly over 2 hours of the musical. However, there were problems uploading episode 7, leaving the viewers hanging. Fortunately, someone else posted the completed musical.

Google I/O 2012 kicks off June 27th

In a little less than 24 hours, Google I/O 2012 will start with a keynote, most likely hosted by Vic Gundotra. The rumor mill is in full speed, and here's what we expect to be announced at I/O 2012:

• A Google Tablet Built by Asus, the price (around 200 dollars) and form factor (7") seem to put it more in competition with the Kindle Fire than with the Apple iPad. Plus point: a reference tablet for Android.
• Android 4.1 Code named Jelly Bean, it is rumored to have a new search bar, and a Siri-like  voice activated assistant (Google Assistant, or should we nick name her Gia?).