Nick Schneble http://www.nschneble.com I eat burgers, watch movies and travel the world. Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:27:25 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 How to Avoid Divide by Zero Errors in Spreadsheets http://www.nschneble.com/how-to-avoid-divide-by-zero-errors-in-spreadsheets/ http://www.nschneble.com/how-to-avoid-divide-by-zero-errors-in-spreadsheets/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:27:07 +0000 Nick Schneble http://localhost:8888/?p=2024 Continue reading →]]> I recently learned about the magic of the IF statement. No, not as a conditional in a programming language, but as a formula in a spreadsheet.

You know those stupid #DIV/0! errors you get after you’ve masterfully crafted a beautiful spreadsheet that doesn’t have any data in it yet?

This fixes that.

Here’s the syntax1:

=IF(CONDITIONAL, THEN, ELSE)

For example, if you want to display the results of A1 / A2 in A3, you’d use the following formula in A3:

=IF(A2=0, "n/a", A1/A2)

The second parameter (“n/a” above) can be anything you want, and is only displayed if the conditional is true.

  1. At least in Google Docs. ↩
]]> http://www.nschneble.com/how-to-avoid-divide-by-zero-errors-in-spreadsheets/feed/ 0 How to Fix Internet Sharing on Snow Leopard http://www.nschneble.com/how-to-fix-internet-sharing-on-snow-leopard/ http://www.nschneble.com/how-to-fix-internet-sharing-on-snow-leopard/#comments Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:08:19 +0000 Nick Schneble http://localhost:8888/?p=1380 Continue reading →]]> I have a BearExtender n3 that I use to access weak (or far away) wifi networks. When I’m using it I usually share my Internet connection through Airport.

Except this stopped working after I upgraded to Snow Leopard.

After Googling for eons, I finally came across a fix. Though it was advertised for connecting a Squeezebox or Xbox 360, it works just as well for MacBooks and iPhones.

Start Internet Sharing
This will create a file called “bootpd.plist” in /etc. Copy this file to your desktop.1

Stop Internet Sharing
Open “bootpd.plist” in a text editor. Look for a key called “reply_threshold_seconds” near the bottom of the file. It should have an integer value of 4. Change this value to 0 and copy the file back to /etc.

When you restart Internet Sharing everything should work again.2

  1. To get to /etc, open a new Finder window, type command-shift-g and enter “/etc” in the text field. ↩
  2. If it still doesn’t work, check “bootpd.plist” in /etc and make sure “reply_threshold_seconds” is still set to 0. ↩
]]> http://www.nschneble.com/how-to-fix-internet-sharing-on-snow-leopard/feed/ 0 Quotables http://www.nschneble.com/quotables-sir-francis-bacon/ http://www.nschneble.com/quotables-sir-francis-bacon/#comments Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:51:06 +0000 Nick Schneble http://localhost:8888/?p=1241 Continue reading →]]>

Sir Francis Bacon

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.

Featured Image is provided courtesy of Flickr user minnetonkafelix.

]]> http://www.nschneble.com/quotables-sir-francis-bacon/feed/ 0