You know how florists sell cacti in closed pots so that you’ll eventually overwater them ?

Next time also ask them how often you should water them, and they’ll tell you to throw in double the amount than what a cactus needs.

Then again there are accidents where you and your siblings think that the plant is underwatered and you end up choking it with love.

Now now, if you just overdid it, there is a fix. Just take some kitchen paper, roll it and stick it to one side of your pot. In the photo below I have 4 sheets of paper, left in for 24 hours.

Repeat until humidity returns to normal.

Generally speaking, for cacti, if a piece of paper can suck out water, then that water has to go.

I hear many complaints about people using Office 2007 for the first time. I agree in that the new ribbon bar can be confusing. I don't agree though in that it takes more space. I used much more valuable space with the floating toolbars in Office 03.

So anyway, I'll show you a way to move out of the way all the visual elements that you don't need. And move your writing experience from the screenshot on the left, to the screenshot on the right.

Notice the difference ? See what's missing ? So bear with me for a moment.

First off you have to choose what tools you're using the most. That's easy. Just go trough all the ribbons on the top, and when you see a familiar icon right click on it and select "Add to quick access toolbar". If there's a bunch of thins in one of the grey palletes, click on it's bottom and do the same.

You can also see a full list and choose the ones you like, rearrange them etc by going to: Office logo menu > Word Options > Customize.

Now as you have noticed, the tool icons are being added to the top of the window. This means you will have to traverse 5-10 more pixels each time you use one. To bring them down go to the downward arrow on the right edge of the toolbar and click "Show below the Ribbon".

Then to collapse the ribbon, double click on the titles. Eg double click on the "Home" tab. To show a tab you can just click on it. When you have then clicked on the command of your choice, the tab will dissappear again.

Oh and a final tip. To switch from the default blue theme to the black one I'm using go to: Office logo menu > Word Options > Popular > Color Scheme > Black.

The end result when going fullscreen is a very straightforward writing, with just the tools that you dear reader use. Kinda like the darkroom approach (Windows, Mac) only much better.

Few people know that the Windows shell is not completely useless. Like most other OSes out there it provides some goodies.

So suppose you need to work on two windows at once, but like me you are anal and you need them to be equispaced and not wasting a single pixel of your screen. Like say in the following setting where I'm preparing a blog post in Live Writer and am researching using Firefox on the right side.

Step A: On the windows taskbar, while holding the control button on the keyboard, click on the applications that you will be seeing side by side

Step B: Right click on either one of them and choose a layout that you want to work with. For wide aspect screens you want them side by side.

Side by side	Stacked

Thats it.

1. Microsoft SQL Server only offers user instances and lax security conveniences in the free Express Edition. In any other case it's a big fucking truck driving towards you. Managing the security features alone is a science of itself.
2. SQL Server requires that I eat with a knife and a fork and that I don't rest my elbows on the table. I have to take small bites and chew with grace. Otherwise it will lock me out of my database.
3. SQL Server is a mean matron when you piss it off. It enjoys dominating the lives of men and making them subservient and docile pets.
4. Don't even think of knocking on SQL Server's door when you've attached your useland databases to the server. You will have to wait until it's gone asleep (shut down the service) in order to reclaim the rights on them.
5. SQL Server doesn't care if you're the Administrator. It looks at your credentials, spits on the ground and then shuts the door at your face. After all can you play the 'get the file rights' game faster than the machine ? No you can't.

And heed my advice, cause it's worth gold: If you own an SQL Server with Analytics (Standard or greater) don't you dare miss out on the Excel analysis toolkit. It's by far the best way to deal with BI stuff.