Archive: Weird computer problems and fixes
I got weird computer problems from time to time. Fortunately, most often I could fix them after searching on the Internet for a while. The least thing I want to happen is forgetting these solutions when I encounter the same problem again. These "wired" problems tend to be rare, but it can be indeed nerve-racking when they do show up.
1. Excel crashes with an error message "SYLK: File format is not valid" -- Excel cannot open a text or CSV file when the first two characters of the file are the letters ID (uppercase). See the link for more explanations. [06/24/2008]
2. Excel 2004 (Mac) crashed every time I opened it, as it kept opening a corrupted "recovered" file and then quitting automatically. I couldn't solve the problem even after removing and reinstalling Excel. The problem was finally fixed after I deleted "com.microsoft.office.prefs.plist" under "Users/~/Library/Preferences." Later I got to learn that it is a common solution when MS Office crashes. [06/24/2008]
3. Vmware Fusion: Windows XP failed to find shared folders. The fix is simple: go "Start" -->" Run" --> "\\.host" and press enter. [06/24/2008]
4. Excel: Long lines of text that have been “wrapped” was displayed as ################## in cells. My temporary solution is to format the cells as “Special” such as “zip code.”
5. A problem with LaTeX citation: When an organization name is used as author, BibTeX mistakenly read it as a personal name and treat the first word as last name. The solution: How can I make an organization name display correctly?
6. Another LaTeX citation problem: While compiling the bibliography with some BibTeX style file such as “apsr.bst,” LaTeX may get confused if the BibTeX file includes special symbols such as “#,” “$,” “_,” “&,” and “%,” etc. One solution is to find these un-recognized characters and replace with appropriate LaTeX commands. See “correct errors ... after compiling the bibliography file.” Alternatively, you may use a BibTeX style file (for instance, “plainnat.bst”) that is smart enough to automatically handle these characters.
7. Displaying hyperlinks in my blog: sometimes the links are underlined, sometimes they aren’t The solution is to use “search & replace” function in the MovableType system and replace all “text-decoration: none” (mindful of the space before “underline”) to “text-decoration: none”.
8. Converting MP3 to audiobook format in Itunes: Find your file in iTunes, right-clcik, select “Create AAC version”; once converted, delete the MP3 version; right-click the new AAC file, and take “Show in finder”; drag it to the desktop, and then rename the extension from .m4a to .m4b; drag it back into iTunes and it will show in the Audiobook folder.