Making Better Use Of The Social Web

Turns out some people think the run command has disappeared from Vista – it hasn’t. 

The new search bar (in the start panel) will not only search your computer, it will also run any command you type.

However, if you miss seeing the old Run command in your start panel, try this:

Right click on your taskbar; select Properties

Click on the start menu; select customize

Scroll through to the Run Command check box; check it!

Voila

Somehow, for whatever reason, Windows decided to display files using the last modified date & time as the sorting order for the common open and save as dialogs.

Why?

Good question.

 I have been using Windows since the bad old days of Windows 2.0 (circa 1987) and for the life of me have never had this happen before knowingly or otherwise.  For a period of over a month this really really really annoyed me.

I tried searching but just couldn’t get the right results which showed a solution within the top 4 (yes I am lazy).

Anyways, recently I tried again and found the solution.

If the Ctrl key is pressed when an Explorer window is closed, Windows will save the sort order being used within the closing window and use this to sort the files when the open and save as dialogs are shown.

Thanks to Susan Daffron’s Windows Explorer Weirdness article for the solution.

I have since found other articles and threads which have the solution (why is it that when you need something you can’t find it, but when you don’t …), but this was the first one I found and used to solve my frustration.

Speaking of old versions of Windows, I have actually seen, and used for all of 2.5 minutes, a PC running Windows 1.0, and this was in a Pharmacy in Australia, which had a stack of 10 or so PCs for sale in the middle of the store.  Windows 1.0 did not allow for overlapping Windows.  I still can’t believe believe it to this day.

Over the past few days, I’ve received over one dozen e-mails from friends and family, asking me to add my name to a list of people fighting against the miscarriage of justice in the Jamie Bulger case of 1993. 

The e-mail is entitled “Remember February 1993”

What blows me away is that within the e-mail it clearly states:

“The Love-Bug virus took less than 72 hours to reach the world, I hope this one does as well”

Do any of the people who sign their name to this know what the Love-Bug virus was, or what it did?

Please, do not send me e-mails to sign or forward on, or send me chain letters where something horrible will happen to me or my family if I choose not to reply. 

And if you do, please do not be offended when I delete them without replying.

Yes, the Jamie Bulger case is horrid, yes I feel for his parents (I am a parent – how could I not?).

And this is the point:

The BEST way to spread a virus (interestingly, the method is similar to link baiting) is to make it so emotive, that people are compelled to respond.

Here’s a shocker - viruses, worms, bugs, and all sorts of ugly critters are sent to you more often than not by friends.  Not intentionally, just without consideration or knowledge.

If it is a chain letter, request to sign a petition, an offer of money for a service—like Billy Gates offering $10 for each referral you give him—it is more than likely something that will cause you grief for a long time.

Don’t do it.