HOWTO: Move every other row to column with any spreadsheet (Google Sheets or MS Excel)

Basic 

1. Copy all data from second row to last

2. Paste data to second column starting on the first row

3. In third column or new column, alternate 0 and 1

4. Sort by new column

5. Delete all rows not needed

Alternative

3a. Use row count

4a. Use if even/odd to filter the rows

More Rows

1. Use formula to extract data from next row to column

1a. Second column equals second row

1b. Third column equals third row

1c. Repeat until last data in set

2. Copy all the new columns

3. Paste as value in new columns

4. Delete formulated columns

5. Use new row to count (use either method from Basic or Alternative except expand to needed column count)

6. Sort or filter (use either method from Basic or Alternative to delete unneeded rows)

My struggles with overeating

For those who is reading my blog for the first time, I do exercise quite regularly but still cannot lose weight or yo-yo when I lose significant amount. I am not fond of sharing my personal health experiences, but I do wish to help others and I found it helpful to know that other people have struggled and overcame their struggles.

I say that I exercise regularly, but I do go in slumps. In the big picture, I typically do the worst when I am at a new job because I overwork, eat poorly, eat more frequently, don't exercise, and sleep less. I get too tunnel-visioned in learning as much as I can in as short period of time. I do this rather successfully at the expense of my health.

I also do very, very well when I do not work. I lost 30 pounds in a summer when I was volunteering. I lose a lot of weight when I am between jobs. Basically, I do well when I just focus my attention at one particular lifestyle.

Lately, I have been doing better at balancing these two. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of bad habits. Eat a lot and frequently. I know it, but it is still hard to avoid it. No matter how much I tell myself... I could be telling myself the entire day that I should stop late night eating, I will still waver hard and indulge..... even when I wasn't even hungry.

I do not know why. But once it is late, I just want to eat. By this point, I have already eaten the usual 3 meals. I am even worse when I actually feel hungry. This has a multi-part problem. First, I don't cook frequently so I cook an entire week's worth of food over the weekend. Second, I do not like to waste food (in a broader view, I do not like wasting in general). Third, when I do something I go all the way. Fourth through to infinite, I am pretty bad to almost all bad eating habits except for sweets. 

I have never been much for candy, cakes, ice cream... unless they are the only available edible foods which I practice eat them more like a meal than a snack. I also do not have a problem with snacking, but I like snack foods. So if I am hungry, I can down a bag of potato chips. In between meals, I have no problems avoiding it. Once I am hungry and I eat one chip... the bag will basically be consumed within minutes.

So if there is food around, I will want to "finish" it even if I am full. I don't like leftovers, so I will eat it all. Even if I am stuffed, I will finish off the food. Because I don't buy candy or snacks, I am at least able to avoid very unhealthy foods. When I host parties and have leftover snacks... sadly I will eat them. To avoid this, I have been giving them away as guests leave or bring them to the office.

But easily my one biggest issue is late night eating...

I eat an extra late night meal. This is so hard and no amount of logic can explain why I still want to eat... except out of habit. I will look into every nook and cranny for some resemblance of food that needs to be consumed and make-up some excuse that it needs to be done before it expires. Even to this day, I am staring at the food and practically yelling at myself (or the food) that I should not eat... I will not eat it.... over and over.

I do not know what triggered the change, but in the last week, I have actually been able to put the food back into the fridge and just not eat it. And like that, I have been able to lose 1-2 pounds a day. It does not even matter if I ate unhealthy (fried chicken, fries, etc.). I am not saying that I should be eating it, but this just shows how unhealthy late night eating has been for me. I am already down 8 pounds in the last week. (Just for some reference to those who is trying to lose weight, I should weigh around 170 and currently 250 at the start of losing... so don't be thinking you'll lose a pound if you are already at average weight.)

Even now as I write this post, I still have the urge. It has become literally to the point of my left arm pulling my right arm away. So, I really hope anyone who is trying to lose weight that you are not alone in your struggle. It is hard... and sometimes there really is no good explanation except purely will-power to make a change in one's life. So, keep fighting even if you fail. 

Human Decency - Mr. Rogers - Senate Subcommittee (1969)

Still relevant today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKy7ljRr0AA
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fredrogerssenatetestimonypbs.htm


Senator Pastore: Alright Rogers, you've got the floor.
Mr. Rogers: Senator Pastore, this is a philosophical statement and would take about ten minutes to read, so I'll not do that. One of the first things that a child learns in a healthy family is trust, and I trust what you have said that you will read this. It's very important to me. I care deeply about children.
Senator Pastore: Will it make you happy if you read it?
Mr. Rogers: I'd just like to talk about it, if it's alright. My first children's program was on WQED fifteen years ago, and its budget was $30. Now, with the help of the Sears-Roebuck Foundation and National Educational Television, as well as all of the affiliated stations -- each station pays to show our program. It's a unique kind of funding in educational television. With this help, now our program has a budget of $6000. It may sound like quite a difference, but $6000 pays for less than two minutes of cartoons. Two minutes of animated, what I sometimes say, bombardment. I'm very much concerned, as I know you are, about what's being delivered to our children in this country. And I've worked in the field of child development for six years now, trying to understand the inner needs of children. We deal with such things as -- as the inner drama of childhood. We don't have to bop somebody over the head to...make drama on the screen. We deal with such things as getting a haircut, or the feelings about brothers and sisters, and the kind of anger that arises in simple family situations. And we speak to it constructively.
Senator Pastore: How long of a program is it?
Mr. Rogers: It's a half hour every day. Most channels schedule it in the noontime as well as in the evening. WETA here has scheduled it in the late afternoon.
Senator Pastore: Could we get a copy of this so that we can see it? Maybe not today, but I'd like to see the program.
Mr. Rogers: I'd like very much for you to see it.
Senator Pastore: I'd like to see the program itself, or any one of them.
Mr. Rogers: We made a hundred programs for EEN, the Eastern Educational Network, and then when the money ran out, people in Boston and Pittsburgh and Chicago all came to the fore and said we've got to have more of this neighborhood expression of care. And this is what -- This is what I give. I give an expression of care every day to each child, to help him realize that he is unique. I end the program by saying, "You've made this day a special day, by just your being you. There's no person in the whole world like you, and I like you, just the way you are." And I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health. I think that it's much more dramatic that two men could be working out their feelings of anger -- much more dramatic than showing something of gunfire. I'm constantly concerned about what our children are seeing, and for 15 years I have tried in this country and Canada, to present what I feel is a meaningful expression of care.
Senator Pastore: Do you narrate it?
Mr. Rogers: I'm the host, yes. And I do all the puppets and I write all the music, and I write all the scripts --
Senator Pastore: Well, I'm supposed to be a pretty tough guy, and this is the first time I've had goose bumps for the last two days.
Mr. Rogers: Well, I'm grateful, not only for your goose bumps, but for your interest in -- in our kind of communication. Could I tell you the words of one of the songs, which I feel is very important?
Senator Pastore: Yes.
Mr. Rogers: This has to do with that good feeling of control which I feel that children need to know is there. And it starts out, "What do you do with the mad that you feel?" And that first line came straight from a child. I work with children doing puppets in -- in very personal communication with small groups:

What do you do with the mad that you feel? When you feel so mad you could bite. When the whole wide world seems oh so wrong, and nothing you do seems very right. What do you do? Do you punch a bag? Do you pound some clay or some dough? Do you round up friends for a game of tag or see how fast you go? It's great to be able to stop when you've planned the thing that's wrong. And be able to do something else instead -- and think this song --

'I can stop when I want to. Can stop when I wish. Can stop, stop, stop anytime....And what a good feeling to feel like this! And know that the feeling is really mine. Know that there's something deep inside that helps us become what we can. For a girl can be someday a lady, and a boy can be someday a man.'

Senator Pastore: I think it's wonderful. I think it's wonderful. Looks like you just earned the 20 million dollars.

How to determine a thesis topic for your master's degree (possibly other theses)

Even though I have had many great ideas for a master's thesis, almost all of them are not feasible within the time period to complete a master's thesis (typically a year, possibly two). For doctoral thesis, this can span many years so I assume one could be more picky about their thesis.

The simplest suggestion I can provide is to just skim through a few theses that you are interested in. All theses have some problems or issues. These will become great sources for your thesis topics. Do not worry too much about sticking to a specific topic but try to keep it as concise as possible. As you do more research, you will be modifying your thesis depending on the sources you are able to find. That's about all there is to finding your thesis topic.

The reason for this method is that most of the ideas you think are innovative, you will find that it is far from innovative. You will also find that the topic will be much more precise than what you initially thought or else your paper will become really long.

But have no fear, although most of your ideas are not new, most of the papers you read will become sources for your thesis. All the sources within those sources will be other sources for your use. I do recommend that you track all the key topics though. I spent a lot of time looking for specific arguments in sources. The temptation to think that I could remember, I did not anticipate the large number of sources that I ended up using (easily used more than 20, read more than 50).

Doing your own research with a survey or test also makes a great source and makes the thesis topic a little more genuine. Before doing this, you should be pretty confident that your thesis will not change (or not change significantly) or else you risk that the research to be just a waste of time. This may be normal for a doctoral thesis, but time is quite the enemy for a master's thesis.

Hopefully this will help someone out there... or perhaps for my future self if I ever decide to get a PhD. GOOD LUCK!

Other Fun Links

- PhDComics.com - http://phdcomics.com/

Life: 6 Fruits You're Eating Wrong (kiwi, pomegranate, watermelon, orange, mango, strawberry)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_wDZnypJTA

This video shows how to cut Kiwi, Pomegranate, Watermelon, Orange, Mango, and Strawberry.

I knew pomegranate (half then hit) and strawberry (with straw), I learned a little more for the others which was pretty neat as I have eaten them several times.

Work: SQL Server - Allow Table Recreation

Solution

For SQL Server 2008:
Tools > Options > Designers > Table and Database Designers > Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation



Useful for development work, but worth re-enabling for production database to prevent someone from recreating a table especially for databases that hold data for reporting or contains a lot of data. Although recoverable, the server may be down for a long extended period of time. If recreation fails, the server will also be down until recovery is completed.

Error Message

Saving Changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and recreated. You have either made changes to a table that can't be re-created or enabled the option Prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created.

HOWTO: Enable New Folder for a List in SharePoint 2010

"Could not save the content type changes to the server. Content type [SharePoint List Location] is sealed."

When navigating to the List > Items, the New Folder icon is greyed out or disabled.

I thought this should have been intuitive but perhaps this is just the beginning signs of me aging. I am trying to create an archiving workflow in SharePoint and found this process to be more complex than it needs to be. In this attempt, I am trying to create a folder and move old items to the folder. Unfortunately, I got stuck with the above problems.

To enable New Folder, I had to navigate to List Settings > Advanced settings. Search for Folders or Make "New Folder" command available? in the list, enable by selecting Yes then click OK.

HOWTO: Google Chrome Remote Desktop - Change Pin/Password, Forgot Pin

This took me a while to figure out and could not find a satisfactory solution. I was testing at first and just used a test pin since I didn't have a 6 digit pin readily thought through, so forgot what PIN that was.

1. Open Google Chrome
2. Go to Settings
3. Click Extensions
4. Find Chrome Remote Desktop > Click Visit website
5. Click Launch App
6. At the bottom of the page, there is a link at the bottom of the page "Change PIN"


This is on Google Chrome on Windows 7.

Reference

If the above does not work, try the links below in Google Chrome, but I'm not sure if these will work. It works on my pc but unsure if keys are specific to my install
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desktop/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp

You may have to copy/paste this manually:
chrome-extension://gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp/main.html

Key Search Terms

Forgot Chrome Remote PIN, Forgot Chrome Remote Desktop PIN
Change PIN for Remote Desktop

Update (4/25/2021)

Please note this post was created in 2014. Many of this information is probably obsolete. I may have used Google Remote Desktop another month after this post, so I cannot share what the new process is. If someone would like to provide a link to a modern process, I will post this here.

HOWTO: Count Unique Values in a Column using Excel

I thought this would be an easy function to find, but of course, Microsoft proves me wrong again.

= SUM(1/COUNTIF([select data],[select data]))
Then make sure to use CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.

This does not address blank cells.

Reference

http://www.excel-easy.com/examples/count-unique-values.html

HOWTO: Add google anaytics to blogger

I'm a little disappointed in myself in taking a while to figure this out which turns out was a rather simple process since I've worked with Google Analytics before. The step I just didn't consider editing the template to add the script files needed for Google Analytics. I thought there would have been an easier way through either Blogger or Analytics. Somehow my brain just didn't get past those options.

Below is the link I used to get that one step. Google Analytics has changed a bit since the article was written so not all the steps are exactly the same. I just needed steps #9-13.

Reference:
http://www.wikihow.com/Add-Google-Analytics-to-Blogger (10/29/2013)

Interview: My Take on Answering Oddball and Riddle Questions in the Interview Process

My Take on Answering Oddball and Riddle Questions in the Interview Process

Recently there has been a rise in the use of out-of-the-box thinking questions which I used to only find at larger corporate interviews a decade ago. Now there is even an article on the top questions.

The trick to answer these types of questions is very similar to the other questions in the interview that are not technical in nature. Although it may sound technical (a question that has a right answer), your answer should be based on what the interviewer is looking for.

I do not mean give the answer that will get you hired, but to understand the real question beneath the interview question. Is the interviewer looking for someone that is more forward-thinking, detail-oriented, or imaginative? How you answer the question should sell your views in what type of person they are seeking.

For interviewers, I find they use these questions because they are simple but have an infinite number of answers. Interviewers who are using the question to understand how you think will ask questions to either in attempts to focus your answer or challenge your thought process. Others who use the question as a warm-up question, as an ice-break, or to lighten the mood will be less attentive or allow you to answer in full. Once I recognize the latter, I will try to wrap up my answer as it would save us both time but more importantly the interviewer wants to move on with the interview process.

Before I start to answer, I like to ask questions but limit the number of questions. This means avoid asking for details if the interviewer knew that detail could answer the question themselves, do not be redundant with your questions, and stop asking a specific question if the interviewer has declined to respond. Stay positive and ask only questions that will greatly enhance your answer. Think out loud.

The only exception to this is if the interviewer is extremely detail oriented. They are usually very easy to identify because they are very meticulous in the order of questions, organized binders/folders/pens/resume, and very formal. In this case, you have the option to try to be also detail oriented.

If you are truly stumped by the question, all questions and problems can be broken into smaller manageable parts. For example, "how many windows in NYC" can be broken down to number of windows in a block then broken down to number of windows per building. Then build back up, take the number of windows per building multiply by number of buildings per block.

For extra bonus, prepare some short riddles of your own to ask. More likely than not, the interviewer also enjoys these types of questions. Be sure to be able to answer them though. I have withheld the answers for a day or two to let them think on them. That way they are forced to remember who I was so they can ask for the answer.

Unlike my reasons whether these types of questions should be asked, these types of questions are great opportunities to outperform the interview process for those who know how to answer but are weaker on the technical questions.