Yakko Warner

Unfortunately, the lock screen fades to black very quickly (even when the phone is plugged in, and the timeout is unrelated to the user-adjustable "Screen times out after" setting), so you don't get to see this "rockin'" screen for long...

Apr 17, 2012 at 6:49 AM, IRB wrote

You could just but a chatpad for your xbox and use the keyboard to type in your password

Or just plug in a USB keyboard.  

Is anyone else reading the description to this video in [Sesame Street's] Grover's voice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZhEcRrMA-M

Theoretically, one could create a .reg file that creates those registry entries, and a .bat file that creates the directory structure and copies a "special" image file there (perhaps something featuring Disney Princesses -- sufficiently embarrassing for most male coworkers but not likely to get anyone fired).  

In theory, the owner of the computer wouldn't suspect a thing until the next time their computer locks or logs off.

But that's just a theory. 

10 hours ago, jamiet wrote

Duncan, providing a personal podcast feed elevates this to awesome. Thank you.

This, a thousand times this.

Based on your advice, I created a script called "Secure reboot.bat" that I have on my desktop to reboot and walk away:

rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkstation
shutdown /r

It locks the workstation, and 30 seconds later, it starts the reboot process behind the lock screen. I also have a shortcut to shutdown.exe /a — in case I double-click the reboot icon by accident, I can log back in and hit that shortcut within the 30 second delay. Works a treat.

I have the whole collection of Animaniacs DVDs (everything that's been released so far, anyway), and my kids have been earning an appreciation for it, too.

Did Laura suggest Paul should be "nice" for Halloween?  I thought Paul was the nice one...

I found one caveat to using pointer trails.  Apparently, they don't play well with DirectX.

When I was in the Age of Empires Online beta, I filed a report about the mouse cursor being completely invisible in the game.  Then I happened to turn off pointer trails (I don't remember exactly what prompted me to do that), and the mouse cursor was fine.  When I added that to my report, I got a reply back that it was a "known issue" with pointer trails and DirectX.

I've found pointer trails to be less necessary with modern LCD screens (I found it to be a necessity on older notebook screens with their lower refresh rates), so I just keep it off now.

I'm hoping Paul wins the Twitter follower contest, if only so that maybe, just maybe, Laura will stop sniping at him for just one episode.  (Seriously, if I had to get picked at the way she does Paul, I'd probably be in a bad mood, too, like he was in 111.)

@hellokeith: I was going to bring up the spelling bee.  Watching that is how I learned "I before E except after C".  Good times. 

But I digress; the spelling bee announcer also spoke in "mute trumpet".