Suddenly, there was no space left on my hard drive...

Got me a new laptop at work. Its hard drive is bigger than my old work laptop, so I'm storing my big files on it. The drive should have had well over 100 Gb remaining as of today. Imagine my surprise when the drive was almost full.

SpaceSniffer initially told me there was about 100 Gb of inaccessible files. Solution? Run it as administrator.

After that, I discovered the large files were one file. It was related to Windows Indexing, AKA Microsoft Search. SuperUser.com had an oldarticle on my exact issue. (It's on Vista; I'm running 8.1, but the problem is identical.) The upshot? Indexing went crazy, indexing everything I had and everything I linked to. For example, I have my old laptop hard drive mapped as a network drive on my new laptop. It indexed my old laptop drive as if it was relevant to the new laptop. That sort of nonsense.

Here's what worked, as per SuperUser.com:

1. Open services.msc
2. Stop "Windows Search"
3. Rename C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb
4. Start "Windows Search"
5. The directory rebuilds Windows.edb
6. Open Control Panel/Indexing Options
7. Click Modify
8. Uncheck Users or whatever else you don't want indexed
9. Click OK

Windows.edb is now < 74 Mb, down from 100 Gb .

Another approach, if you're not afraid of the administrator command prompt:

1. net stop "Windows Search"
2. del %PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb
3. net start "Windows Search"

One more option (easiest, and least risk): Control Panel > Indexing Options. Turn things off.

Why does everything have to smell?

What in Jeebus' name is "Unstopable" you might ask, other than an utterly moronic product name? Well, it's an utterly moronic product named by people who can't spell.

It's a "scent booster". For real. It makes your clothes smell like chemical warfare - for longer! That's right, it extends the smell of your fabric softener so you can sicken people for a whole week up to TWELVE WEEKS at a time.

I'm so thankful I don't have scent allergies. But it should be clear to everyone, except for those who seem to lack empathy, that more and more people have allergies. Finding more ways to increase the quantity of unnecessary chemical exposure seems to be a full-time job for all these companies who can't find a new product with value. So instead, they take an existing product and make it smell.

The most bizarre one is laundry detergents that are meant to be hypoallergenic - but then they add scents. Y'know, your customer is buying your product because they DON'T want unnecessary artificial additives. Why not just sell an optional little packet of lavender (at a high margin) that those who want things to smell can add in, and those who can't/don't want things to smell don't have to worry.

When you're making a product, aim for the widest base. Specialization shouldn't be in the base product, increasing the number of SKUs. Increase the number of post-purchase add-ons, and gain your economies of scale in the manufacture of the base product. Will it work for all products? No, of course not. But it lets every customer get exactly what they want, without compromise. Instead of being forced to buy things you can't or don't want in your life, buy what you want, and accessorize your way to happiness.

But for the love of humanity, don't wear that scent anywhere outside the house.

Rogers Customer Disservice

Found this incomplete draft from late 2009, almost a full six years later. I bet absolutely nothing has changed.
------------------
Every time I think I couldn't hate Rogers more, they find a way to be more
effing annoying. Apparently we have to give 30 days notice of cable
cancellation -- which is buried in the fine print on the back of our
invoices -- so even though we *are* getting a credit on the next bill, we
have to pay this one in full now. (Or we could say, screw you and swallow
the late fee they'll inevitably impose. I almost want to, just so they don't
get the use of that extra money.)

Questions I posed to the person I spoke with today:

Why can't the bill just be adjusted now instead of putting a credit on the
next bill?

"Because that's not how the system is." (pretty much my favourite answer of
all time. Not)

Why didn't the CSR let me know that there was this 30-day thing when I
originally called to cancel?

"Because we're not required to do that."

BZZZZZZZZZZT!!!!!! WRONG answers! Why are these companies so effing slow to
learn?

Control Panel Display Settings from the command line

To get right to Windows -> Control Panel -> Display Settings
C:\WINDOWS\system32\control.exe desk.cpl,@3,3

Command Line Shortcuts

I love the command line. I love making shortcuts out of the command line when getting to the command line is impractical or just unappealing. My more common ones end up going in the Quick Launch bar. This category contains a few things I've learned along the way.