Thinkbox

How to avoid Paypal currency conversion / foreign exchange fees on eBay for international purchases

Curtis — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 06:15:10 +0000

By default, Paypal really wants to do the foreign exchange for you because they make a few percent off your purchase like most other banks and credit cards. Below I explain the steps required to avoid these fees. In summary, it involves you signing up for a credit card [...]

How to fly and store your motorcycle overseas for touring, without using a shipping company, cheaply

Curtis — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 05:30:58 +0000

In this blog post I will explain the steps required to ship your motorcycle overseas yourself, registration and insurance and all that kind of stuff, step by step, it’s not difficult. Using specialized shipping companies is usually not worth it – they usually don’t clear customs for you, and they don’t prep your bike, so [...]

Fast copy an Array (or text files) directly to a range of cells in Excel, VBA macro code.

Curtis — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:58:41 +0000

In Excel it is much faster to write large sets of data to a spreadsheet all at once instead of using a loop, by copying an array variable to a range of cells directly. This can speed up an Excel macro significantly, especially in large complex workbooks. It’s especially handy if you want to read [...]

Speed up Excel VBA macros by turning calculations off and on

Curtis — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:23:37 +0000

In large Excel workbooks when you are executing VB macros that change cells in sheets, you can speed up the process significantly by turning workbook calculations off at the begining of your subroutine, and then back on again at the end. Here are some subs that can do this. Simply call the “Calc_Off” sub at [...]

Excel, VBA macro functions to convert column number to letter, or letter to column number

Curtis — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:13:03 +0000

I’ve tested these in Excel 2010 in sheets with over 16,000 columns and the functions work even for large numbers of columns. Function ColumnLetterToNumber(ColumnLetters As String) As Long ColumnLetterToNumber = Range(ColumnLetters & "1").Column End Function Function ColumnNumberToLetters(ColumnNumber As Integer) As String Dim strLetters As String strLetters = Cells(1, ColumnNumber).Address(1, 0) ColumnNumberToLetters = Left(strLetters, InStr(1, strLetters, [...]

How to copy an Excel Worksheet with Forms to another workbook without external references

Curtis — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 18:53:46 +0000

The trick is to replace all of your “Form Controls” with “ActiveX Controls”.
In the Developer toolbar in Excel they appear below the Form Controls.
The differences I have found:
When copying a sheet with the buttons or list boxes to another workbook, there are no longer [...]

Defining global variables, and arrays of unknown variable length in Excel macro, VBA

Curtis — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:59:52 +0000

It’s not usually recommended to use global variables because they make it more difficult for debugging or reading other people’s code. However, they are handy sometimes when you’re in a rush to get your code done. At the top of a Module for example, simply type something like these below. I’ve defined three Pipe Specification [...]

Switching between HTML and Visual editor in WordPress, without messing up your custom HTML code

Curtis — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:48:19 +0000

Preserved HTML Editor Markup is your solution, it is a plugin that preserves your custom HTML code. By default WordPress’s TinyMCE will often mess up special HTML tags you use when you switch to the Visual editor even just for a second. Preserved HTML Editor Markup stops this from happening. It is particularly useful [...]

Free Batch Renaming application, for Windows

Curtis — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 00:15:12 +0000

Batch rename files in a directory you specify in Windows, for free!

I programmed this little application. Just specify the directory path location of interest and this application will allow you to search and replace text in all file names in that folder at the same time. It only [...]

White blood cell chasing bacteria

Curtis — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 18:33:26 +0000

The human body is amazing – it’s as if each cell has a mind of its own. This video from BioChemWeb.org shows a white blood cell (Neutrophil) crawling amung red blood cells, chasing after a bacterium (Staphylococcus aureus). [See post to watch Flash video]