Sorry, Dave. I can't open that.

So, I burned a PowerPoint presentation to a DVD-R disc. It's the master disc of a large system of presentation files, and everything fit neatly and runs perfectly on my hard drive. Once burned to the DVD-R, however, I only get this lovely message.

That's right. It simply "can't read" the file. It even apologized. However, by "can't read," it doesn't mean the file isn't readible. No, if I open PowerPoint itself and do a file/open, the file opens JUST FINE. It simply refuses to open it from the desktop.

Why? Simple. "Show help" reveals:

The presentation cannot be opened. Your antivirus program may prevent you from opening the presentation. To fix this problem, make sure your antivirus program is current and working correctly. If the problem persists and the presentation is from someone that you trust, turn off your antivirus program, and then try to open the presentation again. If you do this, make sure you turn on your antivirus program again after you open the presentation.

So there you have it. It's my anti-virus programs fault! Why? How do I disable it? Do I even HAVE an anti-virus program running? No, I DO NOT. One lovely fellow has this as a solution, however:

"Just to let you all know, I reinstalled Windows from CD and I am now able to open PowerPoint files without any problems. Thanks for all your help."

That's right. The solution to one file randomly not wanting to open is to REINSTALL YOUR ENTIRE OPERATING SYSTEM. Yes, seriously.

OK, I'm done yak-shaving for the day.

Skype stuck while signing in on Android

Yeah, the title pretty much says it all. I tried logging into Skype, which has been sitting dormant on my phone for pretty much a year or two, and somehow it just sits and spins on that stupid "signing in" screen. After watching the dots circle around for half an hour, I give up and try again. And again. Then I reboot the phone and try again. And then I reinstall Skype and try again. Nothing I do will make it sign it.

Then I reluctantly go to Google, where other people have had this exact problem with absolutely no solution from anyone. I won't link to any of these sites, but if you Google "Skype stuck on signing in Android," you'll find plenty of them, all with two-year old posts on how "This is happening to me, too! Has anyone found a solution?!" Nope. No solution.

Oh wait I got it to work now.

Want to know how? OK, I don't know exactly why, but my phone started working again after I did a couple things. Not sure if these will work for you, but give it a try.

1. I sign up for a new damn account. Don't panic, I was still able to log back into my old one, but out of sheer frustration, I created a new Skype account with my Skype app. Guess what? It logged in fine and started bugging me to verify my phone number and add contacts. That was all I needed to make sure the app could actually get past the sign in screen.
2. I signed out of this new account, and then signed in on the web to my account and found I had some "inactive credits" for some reason. I reactivated them.

After doing these two things, I logged back into my old account, and it seemed to work fine. Not sure if that was just a coincidence, but maybe it'll work for you.

There, Internet, was that so freaking hard?