As it happened, it was pretty straightforward…  I always keep my data and OS on separate partitions, and get quite anal about backups, so I had nothing to lose and everything to gain;  I’d already installed Win 7 on a virtual machine and was quite impressed – but how would it fare on the Dell?

All in all, it’s been a reasonably pain-free process.  OK, so the email backup corrupted (Recuva saved the day) but that was nothing.  No, by far the biggest headache was getting the Sigmatel Audio driver working…  The original driver disc only had a 32-bit version, so a bit of Googling was in order.  I duly downloaded the suggested driver package (R153910), which appeared to solve the problem.

Until I tried using Skype.  Volume dropouts, auto-levels all over the place, then nothing.  I uninstalled and deleted the driver, rebooted and tried again.  Nope – still problematic.

Further Googling revealed that several people are experiencing the same trouble.  So, I tried a different driver (R171786; direct from the Dell FTP site) and again, things started working.

Until I tried Skype again – same problems.

I had a cup of tea, which helps in *all* problem-solving activities, and then it struck me – Windows 7 Compatibility modes!  Yes – instead of running the  driver .exe file straight from the browser, try this:

1. Save the R171786.exe file to your hard drive.
2. Right-click the file and choose Properties.
3. Click the Compatibility tab and tick the Compatibility Mode checkbox.
4. Select an appropriate version of Windows from the list.  I picked Vista SP2, as the audio was one thing that I never had problems with before.
5. Click OK to close the dialog.
6. Run the .exe file to install the driver.

Hey Presto!  Working audio in Skype (version 4.1.0.179)

It’s not much, but I hope that it helps someone out there…

I only really tend to use two (rossedwards and rosspix) but both of those are obviously derived from my real name; as is the domain for this site.

Why can’t I come up with anything… good?  I seem to get some kind of “bloggers’ block” that somewhow prevents me from choosing something different, yet memorable.  Many of my friends have splendid aliases (you know who you are earthman, mudshark and spaghetti) and, quite honestly, I’m a tad envious of their ability to come up with these “alter egos”, seemingly on a whim.

Some might say that I’m getting a bit long in the tooth to be worried about nicknames; or that I may have something to hide if I want to use an alias online.  But actually, no – it’s part of a greater longing, to be seen as a creative, imaginative individual rather than one that just follows the herd.

I haven’t had that many nicknames in the past (and even those weren’t exactly original), so what am I to do?  Is there a successful formula for developing one’s own avatar?

(At this point, I’d like to apologise if I’m sounding a bit out of sorts – regular bouts of listening and reading Stephen Fry can do that to a man.)

Maybe I should have a competition?  Those that know me (and those that don’t) can suggest a few alternatives in the comments below.  I look forward to your contributions.

R.

Follow my trains of thought at http://twitter.com/rossedwards

I’ve just come to the end of my last 18-month contract with Orange and have realised that, for the last year and a half, I’ve been paying for an unnecessary extra ‘bundle’ of text messages.  More fool me, you say, and you’d be right.

I originally started with Orange in 2005; in those days monthly contracts consisted of two ‘bundles’ – one air/call time and one for texts.  As I’m not a big texter, I opted for the Text60 plan.

Fast-forward 18 months to 2007 and my upgrade. By this time, Orange had brought out their ‘animal’ plans and I was advised that ‘Raccoon’ or ‘Amoeba’ or whatever was the best match – 225 mins, 100 texts. “Fine,” I said. “Sign me up”.

You may see where this is going…  At no point did the operative tell me that my existing Text60 bundle would carry forward – and I only realised last night that I’ve been paying out all this time for something I didn’t need.

So, one quick call to Orange Custard Services and a rant later, I’m now being credited back a large portion of my unnecessary expenditure and have successfully removed the offending item.

Thanks, Orange – but, due to your poor advice, I’ll be jumping ship at the earliest opportunity…

…did someone say “iPhone” just then? No? I must have imagined it…

1. A Harley Benton GA5 baby valve amp
2. A THD Hotplate (8 ohm, please)
3. A Boss RC20XL Loop Station
4. A Digitech Vocalist Live 2 (the Live 4 is all very nice, but I don’t want to be too cheeky)

That’s it – not very much at all.

TIA,

Ross.

Mediaman was one possibility, but didn’t have the webcam/barcode scanning feature. Then I found Libra – I haven’t tried it as yet, but it certainly looks impressive.

And the price – nil, zip, nada, gratis, and free[1]

[1] I’m not anti- paying for software, but I am anti-ripoff and even more so when the software I want isn’t available for my platform (WinXP or Ubuntu Linux). Yes, I’m looking at you, Adobe.

I initially thought about combining lookups with IF statements but it got *really* messy. A little digging revealed a pretty handy solution, which I thought I’d share with you all…

The answer lay in combining the MATCH and INDEX functions* – the former (used twice) to locate both the Role and Rating in the appropriate arrays, then the latter to locate the corresponding intersection:

MATCH(A18,$A$2:$A$8,0) searches the range A2:A8 for the role held in A18
MATCH(B18,$B$1:$F$1,0) searches the range B1:F1 for the rating held in B18
INDEX($A$1:$F$8,(MATCH(A18,$A$2:$A$8,0)+1),(MATCH(B18,$B$1:$F$1,0)+1)) locates the intersection. Note the “+1″ that deals with the header rows/columns in the INDEX array (A1:F8).

This works, but will return a #N/A! error if the referring cells are empty. Some people don’t mind this, but I prefer to clean things up a bit by using an additional IF statement and the ISNA function; effectively stating “If the index/match formula returns a #N/A! error, display a blank. Else, display the formula results”.

Now, this formula is a little unwieldy, so you can download the sample Excel file here.

Hope you find it useful!

*http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214142

Thanks to Nick for the heads-up on the great Subtle theme. I’m still trying to work out how to embed my flickr badge in the sidebar but none of the widgets seem to work for me at the moment…

…if anyone spots one that might, please let me know!

Calculators are allowed, and show your working.