Apologies if you recently visited and noticed a few broken things (in particular the theming of the blog) This had to do with my CDN and host running out of sync, which now – fortunately – has been resolved.
Apologies once more! And I’ll try to post shortly :-)
As you might notice, the site now shows a green check-mark next to every external link. This is a feature of a plugin from F-Secure.
What it basically does is, it validates every external URL to ensure that the link is safe – as shown by the green check-mark next to it. It will also show the green check-mark next to an image that has a link, so no funky business going there ;)
That is all – and yes I am aware I haven’t posted again in months (woops)
One of the things that I really enjoy every once in a while, is using the prompt – DOS, Bash, Terminal – whichever name it carries. A while ago I came across an application (well actually a script) that is free, helps you create to-do lists, runs in a prompt (command-line goodness!) and saves everything in TXT.
You may have heard of it, you may not – it’s called todo.txt – and is available on http://todotxt.com/ or http://lifehacker.com/5155450/todotxt-cli-manages-your-tasks-from-the-command-line
Recently, an Android client got released which made it the perfect tool for me. Especially since it’s working with Dropbox on Android. What I wanted to achieve was it to run on my machine as well – and it using the same todo.txt from my Dropbox. Effectively my to-do list would then be in the cloud, and updated where-ever I work with it :)
To set this up on your machine as well, download the release from http://todotxt.com.
Now, here comes the tricky part – how do you open/run the .SH file which is what todo.txt really is? This is where it gets tricky – you need CygWin. A bash command-line on Windows (I know, it’s more – but for the ease of reference I opted for this explanation) Yet another free tool available on http://cygwin.com/
Click on Install Cygwin and then on Setup.exe. Please save the file on your computer and then run it. During the installation, simply do not change any options at all. Just keep hitting that Next button ;-) When it asks to select a Download site try to find one that looks as if it could be close by (so if you are in Germany, look for servers with the .DE domain, if you are in France – for .FR etc.)
Then it will ask you to select the packages to install – simply hit Next again. The installer will now download and install the necessary packages on your computer – so have a cup of tea/coffee.
Once it’s done, click on Finish to close the setup.
Start Cygwin (from either your desktop or from the Start-menu) and once it’s ready – type in “exit” so it closes.
Now, back to the ZIP-file you downloaded from http://todotxt.com – extract the 2 files. Place todo.cfg and todo.sh in the the following folder:
C:\Cygwin\Home\JohnDoe
Replace JohnDoe with the username you use to login into Windows.
Open todo.cfg with Notepad (in case Windows asks what program to use to edit/open it with, select Notepad) and replace the Todo_dir line so that it reads:
export TODO_DIR=”/cygdrive/c/users/JohnDoe/dropbox/todo
Replace /users/JohnDoe/Dropbox/todo with the location of your Dropbox folder with the Todo.txt – in the example shown this is on a Windows 7 machine, with a default installation of Dropbox. Be sure to append/change where needed.
Save the file and open Cygwin and type:
./todo.sh
From that point on – please refer to the http://todotxt.com documentation on how to run or operate it.
Enjoy!
Well – as above. During the above time-frame there will be planned maintenance on the website, so it might be slow, down or unreachable for a while. If all thing goes correctly it all should be back by 0700 CET on the 22nd of October.
Just thought I’d pass on this handy page on The Springboard Blog – source; http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2010/09/10/springboard-windows-7-deployment-learning-portal.aspx
The Springboard Deployment Learning Portal is an online assessment and learning tool, designed to help IT Pros identify their knowledge strengths and information gaps around Windows 7 deployment. Based on interactive assessment responses, the participant is provided targeted learning to help them gain critical deployment know-how, keeping them at the top of their game.
I tried it myself and I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of the tests, and the tips it gives to learn more about it.
So if you are deploying Windows, Office within your environment – whether it is via MDOP, WDS, RIS or SCCM – take a quick dab at the tests and see where you can learn more.