Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with 2008

What did I lose when I upgraded to Win7?

Drasher — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:32:13 -0800

[Various Filters] I am stuck. I am using MS Visual Studio 2008 to create a software package. I saved all the source code and what (I thought) I needed so I could format the machine and install the Win7 Update as a fresh OS. After reinstalling the VS2008 compilers, now the project will not compile. The project is a VB.NET front-end GUI and a VC++ DLL back-end which talks to a PIC24FJ256GB110 micro over USB.
The compiler starts spewing error messages as the except.h header file is drawn in. (This file is created by Microsoft and included by some other file, I do not know what file actually includes it.)
The first specific error is: "C2065 '_In_': undeclared identifier."
I suspect that the problem is some kind of compiler setting or directive that is not carried over in the project file. I tried creating a new project from scratch and working the source files into the new project, but the error persists.
I have posted questions on the MS news servers and on stackoverflow.com and have not received helpful answers.

Maybe he's in some sort of tax shelter?

Spyder's Game — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:04:15 -0800

Help me find out what happened to my accountant!! A little sleuthing help, please.... Early April of 2008, I called my tax guy to get everything set up for my '07 taxes. A week went by and I hadn't heard from him, but I figured he was up to his eyeballs in last minute tax prep for people like me. I called back a few days before the 15th to see if we were going to file an extension, and his answering machine was maxed out, and unable to take new messages. Needless to say, I went ahead and filed the extension myself.

It's been a year and a half. I haven't heard from him. His number was disconnected. His website is still up, but hasn't been updated since 2005. This guy was very nice and friendly and has done my taxes since 1995. I have a new tax guy now, but I'd really like to find out what happened to him. His first name was Robert, and if it's really necessary, I'll put his last name up as well, but would rather withhold it for the time being out of respect for his privacy.

My question is - how do I find him? I've done numerous searches. Brings up his website (with no working phone number to use) and a LinkedIn profile. I'm not a detective, but if something happened to him, I'd like to know. How do I go about getting that information?

Best albums of 2008

Who_Am_I — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:26:35 -0800

What were the best albums of 2008? I just realized that I've only got about a dozen albums from last year. I generally enjoy Metafilter's taste in music, so what were the standouts for you? Any genre, new artists or just new releases.

I've already got (and recommend) Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes, Girl Talk: Feed the Animals, Muse: HAARP, and God is an Astronaut: God is an Astronaut.

Will SQL 2000 work in 2008 domain?

Man_in_staysis — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:33:57 -0800

Nerdlinger/Microsoft Server Filter: Can SQL 2000 exist in a Windows 2008 Domain when installed on a Windows 2000 member server ? Before anyone says it, yes, yes I know it's old, outdated, unsupported, we should be using SQL 2005 or looking at SQL 2008 and that it can't be installed on a Windows 2008 server. BUT... does anyone know if SQL 2000 will work when installed on a Windows 2000 server that is a member of a Windows 2008 domain? I know that Windows 2000 servers can be members of a 2008 domain but Exchange 2000 won't work. Will SQL 2000?

Mac Word 2008 TOC Issues

miss tea — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:33:50 -0800

How can I get Mac Word 2008 to display additional heading levels (below 3) in my table of contents? I recently upgraded to Mac Word 2008, and there are many nice features, particularly the fact that it crashes much less frequently. But the way the TOC system works is making me crazy. I need the TOC to pull Heading levels 4 & 5 automatically and can't figure out how to do that. Of course everything online is targeted to older Word versions. Help is much appreciated.

2008 election stats, stat!

wsg — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:20:17 -0800

I'm googling without success for 2008 US National election results broken down by race, gender, education, income. etc. Any ideas?

America, it's time for our desktops to CHANGE.

bookish — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:58:59 -0800

Please help me find a good desktop background image, with which to celebrate the election of Barack Obama as 44th president of the USA. Right now I've got this one up, but Barack's head is all down in the corner and it's hard to appreciate.

Americans Abroad?

Doublewhiskeycokenoice — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:50:15 -0800

Where can my sister watch the election returns in Dublin? She's doing a year abroad over there and would love to watch the results trickle in. Is there any sort of place that's doing this? No cover would be preferable I am told.

Looking for bars near Grant Park

wfrgms — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:35:20 -0800

Chicago-Obama-Filter: Can you recommend a bar with good TV viewing of the election coverage near Grant Park? Partially building on this AskMe.

I've reserved my ticket, but like everyone else I have all sorts of questions.

Mainly though I'd like to find a quite, non-tourist bar near Grant Park where I can drink and watch the news without much of a hassle before going over to get in line. Something inside the Loop and divey would be great.

I just received the following from the DNC: "Ticket holders should walk towards Grant Park on Congress Parkway, then walk south on Columbus Drive to the site." So, somewhere near that would be good.

Also, any advice on when I should get in line? Or if ticket holders will be ushered in?

I'll be checking this thread between now and late Tuesday and updating it with details as I find them. Thanks for any and all advice.

Bonus points if any Chicago Me-Fi's want to join.

Go big or go home?

clearly — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:34:17 -0800

The Dow Jones average on November 5th: Is it going up or down, help me decide. The problem: You can wager between 1 and 100 points on whether the Dow Jones average is going to go up or down on November 5th, the day after the general election. The amount by which the market goes up or down is the multiplier by which the amount wagered is multiplied.

Lets say that I predict the Dow goes up, and wager 10 points. If the Dow gains 250 points that day, I wind up with a positive score of 2,500 points for the problem. If the Dow drops by 250 points and I chose that it would go up, I lose 2,500 points.

The Dow Jones following recent contested Presidential elections:

November 3rd, the day following Bush/Kerry 2004: Dow Jones gains/loses 0 points.
November 8th, the day following Bush/Gore 2000: Dow Jones loses 47 points.
November 6th, the day following Dole/Clinton 1996: Dow Jones gains 97 points.
November 4th, the day following Bush/Clinton 1992: Dow Jones loses 29 points.

There are many variables to this question, especially framed within the context of the day after the election. How would you approach this problem to achieve the best possible outcome against numerous other participants?

Thank you for your insights.

I am not putting money on this event, this is an exercise posed to an economics of gaming class.

stop the madness

captainawesome — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:49:22 -0800

Like most people I know, I'm pretty sick of the presidential election - to the point where I'm going to try something interesting this year. On Election Day, I'm taking the day off. I'll go vote at the beginning of the day, but after that I plan on actively avoiding the whole thing, best I can, until Wednesday morning. How can I best pull this off? Basically, I just don't want to deal with it this year. I want to avoid all the last minute election craziness, and I really, truly, especially want to avoid the endless Tuesday night talking-head madness, where everybody endlessly watches the news while the anchors speculate breathlessly about who's going to get Ohio. For once, I think it'd be fun to find out who our next president is going to be from the morning paper, like people used to.

My question is: any ideas how I can best pull this off? I've got roommates who most certainly *will* be watching the madness unfold, so staying home the whole night isn't going to work. But what kinds of places can I go that will be "safe"? Do I have to avoid the public altogether? Where would I do that? Do I have to find a cabin in the woods or something?

Anyway, no idea if this'll work but I intend to try... helpful ideas are appreciated. :-)

Is it bad that I said that? It isn't good.

cashman — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:08:24 -0800

How to handle the varieties of coming-out-of-the-closet bigotry that is resulting from the current U.S. presidential election? The increasing likelihood of having a nonwhite president seems to have brought out some people's worst selves. Even guessing it was coming, I still was unprepared when recently someone close to me made it clear that they had issues with, to put it vaguely, the progress that has been made with civil rights in the U.S. Others around Mefi are having similar issues with friends, neighbors and coworkers revealing their bigoted feelings.

Any general tips on how to handle people in this situation? I suspect the tips would be different depending on the race of the person who says something bigoted and what race you consider yourself to be, but in general what would you advise?

Though I'm somewhat informed about these matters I still felt disarmed when the person did it because they are otherwise wonderful. It was and is hard to think through the feelings of betrayal and sadness and come up with any kind of meaningful way of handling it. Right now, in my case, I want to talk to the person. But I'm wary about what I might hear next that will, to put it simply, result in (job) drama. Or perhaps confrontation is counterproductive and these people should just be left alone in hopes that they'll revert to their typical behavior and perhaps admit they were scared and wrong?

I'm asking now because I doubt I'll be lucky enough to have it only be this one person that does this. I don't know whether to confront them with facts and information, have some historically relevant excerpt to call on, just ignore it (while clearly not condoning it) and let them grapple with themselves, or what. And even then, if someone who is really close to me reveals themselves as a bigot, I don't know if I can look past the anger and hurt to process how best to handle things. Should I try to cut off any emotion, remove myself from the situation mentally and proceed as if I am talking to a stranger?

If you had this happen to you recently, how have you handled it?

I assume that black licorice babies would be in bad taste.

rokusan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:13:49 -0800

Food suggestions for tonight's debate party? Having friends over for a debate party-slash-dinner-slash-salon, and probably next time too, so I need theme food suggestions for (a) tonight's VP debate and (b) the next two Presidential debates, both of the dinner and snack variety.

Mooseburgers seems like a slam dunk winner tonight, but I'm not sure I can find a butcher shop in Manhattan with moose meat. Help?

Other than that all I can think of are waffles.

Help me, hive mind!

Who should I vote for?

birdlips — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:57:16 -0800

Canadian living in the US trying to educate himself on Canada’s October Federal election. Who should I vote for? I have been living in the states for about 8 years but maintain a Canadian residence. I pride myself in being as informed about American politics as possible. I regularly discuss and read about the candidates and other government policies. I cannot vote in the US but I do my best to convince others who can to get out and vote (hopefully for the candidate I like).

However, through living here and focusing on the American election I have totally lost touch with Canadian politics and therefore have no idea who I should be voting for.

So I am asking for Canadians (and informed Americans) to help me understand. What are the items that make each candidate an attractive/unattractive choice? I am mainly interested in Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion and Jack Layton, however, any info on any candidate is welcomed.

As a side note my electoral district is Nanaimo -- Cowichan

Thanks!

Will there be TV stations in 5 years?

mad_little_monkey — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:11:12 -0800

So, what will really happen to the mainstream media? For the last six years I have worked at a TV station, owned by a newspaper company. I started out as a researcher & six years later and after the whole "hey, you know computers, right?" thing I run the web department and oversee a staff of 10, where we run six websites...you know, the whole "innovator" thing...

Aside from all of the hostile/arrogant behavior of people as they fear the "web takeover" I really like what I do and where I work, but I feel like a) I am good at working where I am, but not sure how adaptable I will be if I have to work somewhere else and b) maybe as a last-rated TV station in the market and owned by a newspaper company (Gannett) we won't be there much longer so I should start honing my skills...

Anyone care to prognosticate as to where the mainstream media will be - if it even exists - in five years? I'd really like to hear from you smart, real people, as I am tired of all the industry bullcrap that's ending up in front of my eyeballs for the last few years...

My server just wont ... let ... go

bhance — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:00:05 -0800

Why won't my shiny new Windows 2008 server let its TCP connections go? I have a new Windows 2008 server (64bit, running on a big Dell rack) that acts as a file server for about 70 people - standard windows SMB, people hit it at \\servername on their XP desktops via login scripts.

Twice now, the thing has randomly 'frozen' and caused mass panic - all connected user machines freeze up when attempting to access their various shared drives on \\servername. Also, all their applications that rely on files on \\servername\mount also die/freeze/kill themselves/crash etc.

The thing is:

- All eventlogs on this box are clean. Zero. Nothing bad, no errors, application, system or otherwise.
- The network itself is fine. No high-bandwidth intruders, no heavy loads, no disconnects, no bad pings, nothing like that. Bandwidth is normal.
- Server processes are normal, nothing's eating up the local system's network or processor or HD load. No antivirus has kicked in, no special timed thing is happening, processor shows 99% idle, network is 1%usage, and so forth.

The *only* symptom:

.. a netstat shows many, many, many CLOSE_WAIT connections being held by all connected users. So desktop 'UserGuy' might have the following entries when the thing is 'frozen':



(a dozen similar CLOSE_WAITS ...)

TCP    192.168.1.201:445      UserGuy:1300      CLOSE_WAIT      4

 TCP    192.168.1.201:445      UserGuy:1302      CLOSE_WAIT      4

 TCP    192.168.1.201:445      UserGuy:1304      CLOSE_WAIT      4

 TCP    192.168.1.201:445      UserGuy:1306      CLOSE_WAIT      4

 TCP    192.168.1.201:445      UserGuy:1308      CLOSE_WAIT      4

 TCP    192.168.1.201:445      UserGuy:1310      ESTABLISHED     4

... and that sort of CLOSE_WAIT repeat occurs for all 70+ connected users. We reboot, log back in, and when it's fine and behaving we don't have this long litany of CLOSE_WAITs.

My initial hunch is that there's a similar open-tcp-connections limit of some sort that is being met, which then freezes out further TCP connections. XP users used to up this kind of internal Windows limit when torrenting and so on.

My hours of Googling shows you can up this number with registry hacking, but to me that's treating a symptom - not the cause.

So what's holding the connections open in the first place? Why won't they die? What am I missing here?

Can't stop the talkin'?

oxford blue — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:30:08 -0800

Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies and Gentleman, and so forth. Or, how to avoid the commentators. Is there anyway I can hear/watch the olympics without the commentators a commentin'? Specifically, the medal ceremonies and maybe the Opening Ceremony?

I really like listening to the french, english and then mandarin (?) announcements and so forth (you know, the things that are announced within the actual venue over the speakers), however 9 times out of 10 a commentator is talking blithely over the top of them. I also like hearing the roar of the crowd, the various national chants and so on. Obviously when Johhny Pasthisprime and Sally Tragicaccident are talking I can't hear any of this delightful ambient noise.

How do I enable simple file sharing on Server 2008 and stop my network from crashing?

Magnakai — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:15:12 -0800

How do I transparently share files from a Windows Server 2008 box to several XP computers? I want it to stop asking for a username and password when people try to access files. Also, can anyone point me in the right direction to solving this weird network issue I've been having? I've been assigned to run the IT stuff for the small business that I part-time for. They have four machines running Windows XP. One of them used to host all the office documents in a shared folder, enabling it to be accessed from across the network. They're connected via brand-new Cat 6 cables going into a wireless router, which is connected via another brand-new cable to a rather ancient 4-port ADSL modem.

They now have need of a dedicated server, and because of some incoming (in the next year) custom written software, it needs to be Windows Server 2008. I built them a low-cost machine with stable components and it seems to run fine.

I hooked it up to the network, connected to current share and transferred all the office files over. I then shared that directory. I created accounts that have the same username and passwords as the default accounts on the XP machines. I gave access to the office file directory to Everyone. At the top of that screen, it specified that if you selected Everyone, it wouldn't ask for a username or password. But it does!

When they were shared from the previous workstation, you could happily access them without entering a password. Is there any way to revert to this level of behaviour?

My second question follows from this - I tried accessing the folder from one of the comptuers on the workgroup, and I then entered Administrator and the password for the server into the request box that popped up. It connects absolutely fine. But once it's connected, at regular but random intervals, it seems to hang the workstation for a period of time and kill the network connection for the server. Other computers were able to access the network and connect to the internet fine. I can reproduce this problem Can anyone give me pointers to trying to diagnose this error, as obviously it makes the whole endeavour rather useless!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and thank you for reading this long question.

English listing of artists from promotional video of Chinese 2008 Olympics?

Quarter Pincher — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:53:12 -0800

Is there an English listing of all of the artists found in the China 2008 Olympics promotional video/theme? Specifically, I'd like to know the artists from 2:59, 3:24, and 4:00.. but I'm sure a listing of everyone would be helpful to more than just myself ^_^

There are Olympics geeks, yes?

exceptinsects — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:08:24 -0800

I would like to read some blogs about the Olympics. Can you recommend any? I am interested in things like:

The uniforms of different countries.

Olympic Village accommodations.

Backstagey stuff about the opening/closing ceremonies. (And THEN five thousand goats, carrying third grade jump-rope champions in glow-in-the-dark ballerina dresses, come out from behind the proscenium...)

Discussions of arcane track and field scoring.

What sports should SO TOTALLY be official now, or are and SHOULD NOT BE OMG.

Why the commentators are wrong, wrong wrong.

and other nerdery.

I'm not so much interested in the political aspects.

Mac Office 2008 install Hell

mosk — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:18:11 -0800

How can I install the Mac Office 2008 Volume License (VLA) version over Mac Office 2008 Peronal License version without losing any user data? Long story short: I have an Intel iMac that has Office 2008 installed with a personal use license. It's on a local network with another, older iMac that also has Office 2008 installed with the same personal use license. Both computers are running Leopard.

Due to the restrictions of the personal license, only one machine can run Office at a time. I now have a volume license, and need to convert at least one of these machines to a volume license installation. I DO NOT want to lose the Microsoft user data on either machine!

I tried the obvious and deleted the Office 2008 folder on the Intel iMac, containing all the personally licensed Office apps, and installed the volume license versions, but this does not seem to change the licensing info: Office apps show the old, personally licensed product ID number on their splash screens, and behave as personally licensed apps (i.e., the older iMac running Office 2008 concurrently with a personal license prevents Office 2008 from launching on the Intel iMac).

What do I need to do to install or convert to the volume license version without losing my existing user data? Neither Microsoft's KB nor Google is giving me the nugget of info I'm looking for.

underwater point-and-shoots summer 2008

johannahdeschanel — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:50:38 -0800

Anyone know of a good, cheap (< 300$) digital point and shoot with above average underwater shooting capabilities?

Windows Vista is laughing at me...

cgomez — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:37:02 -0800

Server/network/IT-Filter? Windows Vista keeps, or more specifically explorer.exe drops my network transfers, how can I fix this or what is the best Explorer replacement? Also, how can I make Windows Server 2008 more useful on the small scale (more inside of course) ... I previously asked about a storage array for my personal network and ended getting another computer and converting the old one into a RAID-5 Windows Server box.

Here's what's on the network:

Computer 1: Windows Server 2008, RAID-5 Disk Array (2.3TB usable).
Computer 2: Windows Vista Ultimate (used as a media center/personal computer)
Computer 3: MacBook Pro

All of this is linked up through 802.11n/gigabit ethernet.

Question 1: Windows Vista randomly drops network transfers to the server (explorer.exe). This usually happens when I'm moving 5GB or more of data which is often. Essentially it stops transferring and when I press 'cancel', it locks up and I can't kill explorer.exe from the task manager. The only way to recover is restart.

This is, however, not a problem with Windows Networking. I've tried a different file manager called "Directory Opus" which is great and solves my issue. Network transfers never fail. The issue is the program costs $85 US and I'm not going to steal it :-\. So, does anyone have ideas on how to solve explorer.exe or is there a more affordable file manager/Explorer replacement? Also, I've tried this with and without SP1.

Question 2: I'm using Windows Server 2008 as a storage and print server. I've toyed a bit with the virtualization features but I'm looking to see if there are features that might be useful outside a true-server environment for my setup.

(all software licenses are legitimate, piracy is bad, m'kay)

Best strategy for buying Red Sox tickets mid-April

ldenneau — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:04:33 -0800

Wife, kid and I are going to Boston in mid-April for the Marathon, and we'd like to take in a Red Sox game since kid is a huge fan. We are not regular MLB ticket purchasers though. Should we buy tickets now at 2X list price from a broker, or wait until closer to game day and hope the price drops? Are weekdays less likely to sell out? (teams on the schedule are Rangers and Angels, and it's Marathon weekend).

StupidExcelQuestionFilter: Adding x and y axis labels

peacheater — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:59:36 -0800

How do I add x and y axis labels to a chart in Excel 2008 for Macs? I've been trying to do this for about an hour and am just about ready to tear my hair out. The whole thing should be ridiculously simple but I'm just not seeing it. So I have two columns of data which I want to plot against each other. So I did that. Now I want to add an x axis label and a y axis label (e.g. 'Voltage' and 'Time'). I just can't figure out how to do it. No matter where I click on the chart the box for adding these labels doesn't open up. There doesn't seem to be any way to do this from the menus on top either. I'm sure I'm just missing something obvious, so would really appreciate it if you could help me out.