Here are some useful Excel keyboard shortcuts to save you reaching for the mouse.

F2 – Edit the current cell without clearing out its contents.
shift-space – Select the current row
ctrl-space – Select the current column
ctrl-minus/hyphen – Deletes current selection
ctrl-shift-plus – Inserts new row/column/cell (depending on selection)
alt-enter – New line within cell

Some useful combinations:
ctrl-space, ctrl-shift-plus – Insert new column.
shift-space, ctrl-shift-plus – Insert new row.
shift-space, ctrl-shift-minus/hyphen – Insert new row.

There is a serious bug that stops certain phones from sending email messages using a custom SMTP server – at least that was what was happening to my Treo 750 mobile phone.

The error that comes up is:

       The message(s) could not be sent. Check 
       that you have network coverage and that your account 
       information is correct. The try sending again.

Microsoft has released a bugfix for the issue. You can download it here

When trying to set up my CodeIgniter project on an Abyss Web Server, for some reason, accessing /index.php/controller1 only ever produces the default module as configured in the routes.php file.

After some fiddling around, here’s how I fixed it.

1. Open the Abyss Web Server Console http://127.0.0.1:9999/
2. Select Configure on the host you wish to configure
3. Select Scripting Parameters
4. Under Interpreters, click on the pencil icon to edit the line that refers to the PHP interpreter.
5. Set Type to Standard rather than PHP Style.

Restart the server and things should work properly now.

Here’s how to get on to the Google Talk or Google Chat service on your custom Google Apps domain using Pidgin.

Assuming your username is john.doe and your custom Google Apps domain is example.com.

1. In Pidgin, Accounts -> Manage Accounts -> Add
2. Under the Basics tab
   Protocol: XMPP
   Username: john.doe
   Domain: example.com
   Resource: <blank>
   Password: <your password>
3. Under the Advanced tab
   Require SSL / TLS: Check
   Connect server: talk.google.com
   (Leave everything else to default settings)
4. Click on Add, and connect away!

For a guide complete with screenshots, go here.

Having recently gained access to some souped up 24in iMac’s at uni, I’ve been wanting to do some web development work on them, but they are severely locked down and restricted, which means there’s no way I can install any additional software.

In comes Abyss Web Server which allows you to run a webserver + php off a USB stick (with minimal configuration and zero installation). They’ve also got some good instructions on how to add server-side scripting functionality like PHP, Perl, Ruby on Rails and even ASP without ever touching the System Files (which are usually locked down in a public terminal).

(Note: I haven’t figured out how to get mysql working just yet, but stay tuned. I’ll have something ready soon.)