Managing Windows Environments – 3/31/2008

Just the freakin’ final.

Pro/Server – 3/31/2008

Just the finals.

Nathan F. took two more finals!  What a machine!

Freebie of the Day!

Two great freebies, actually.

The first one is essential if you use ink jet printers.  Getting new cartridges is just nasty expensive, and getting your old ones refilled is, while less expensive, still not cheap.

Walgreens is running a special on Wednesday, April 2 (and ONLY Wednesday, April 2) which will allow you to get your ink jet cartridges filled for free!  Here’s the link with all of the details.

Next up, Swingline, the company that makes the cool staplers, is thinking about making a toolkit designed for people to keep in their offices at work.  They’re not quite sure what items would be good, so they’re asking you, the American public what *you* would want in an office toolkit offered by Swingline.  In return, they’re giving you a free Swingline Optima Desk Stapler, which they say is worth twenty bucks.  Basically, take the survey (which took me a whopping 2 minutes on my cell phone!) and get a free stapler.  Click here to take the survey.

Enjoy!

Useful Sites for Geeks – Part One?

Now that the winter quarter is over, and you have a few days to veg out before starting the spring quarter, it’s a great time to check out some incredibly cool, but geeky (isn’t that the same thing?) sites — most of these aren’t directly related to IT tasks, but instead serve to assist IT geeks (and normal people too, I guess) in their day-to-day lives.

The paragraph you’re reading right now is the one of the last ones I’ve typed for this post — it ended up being lots larger than I had originally intended.  Read this and let me know if you’d like to hear more!

Jott.com
Jott is an automated voice transcription service.  What makes that so cool?  Well, when you initally sign up for an account, you let Jott import your contacts list.  Then, if you’re not in front of your computer and you have to contact someone (and you want a permanent record that a simple phone call can’t provide), simply call Jott’s toll-free number and dictate.  Jott takes care of the rest, transposing what you’ve said and e-mailing it to the intended recepient(s).  If you have several different requests of different people and you’re, say, driving, this makes for super-convenience — nay, safety — since you make just one phone call and (provided you have a bluetooth headset) keep your hands on the steering wheel while you bark those orders.

Cool, huh?  The best part in my opinion is that you can jott yourself.  Take a second and let that settle for a second.

If you’re in any one of my classes, you know that I don’t have a very linear style of thinking — I’m all over the place!  So, an idea about a teaching example, or a book I should read, or whatever could come to me at any given point.  For example, last week I was driving through Franklin, KY and remembered that a student of mine lived there and I hadn’t seen him in a while.  Instead of thinking “Oh, yeah, _____ lives here, I should e-mail him when I get to a computer in eight hours”, I could jott myself and leave myself this message: “E-mail _____ to check up on him and make sure everything is ok”.  Afterwards, I simply hang up and continue driving and enjoying talking with my little girl.  I don’t even have to remember since I have a reminder in my Inbox waiting for me the next day when I check it.  Since it’s a message now instead of a random thought, I can actually do stuff with it, like put it on my NextAction list, so I can e-mail him once I got to work on Monday.  Would I have remembered to do that using my old way of “Oh, I’ll remember.”  There’s no way.

Getting Things Done (GTD)
This isn’t a site per se, but instead an interesting Internet phenomenon that’s been spreading like wildfire over the past few years.  Basically, this is a no-nonsense uber-organization tool designed to take all of the tiny things (Allen calls them open loops) that you have to do and give them a place.  The effect of this is that you have a “mind like water”, able to accomplish any task like some kind of crazy ninja.

I’m not going to get into the ins and outs of the system here, but if you’re interested, check out the book and/or google “Getting Things Done” or “GTD” and you’ll find a MOUNTAIN of information.  I’ve implemented a lot of his ideas and have found that I have gotten a lot more effective.  (If I could only find something to help me stay caught up on grading.)

Paperbackswap.com
If you’re a big reader like I am, you’ll love this site.  Browse through, find a book you like, click Order and it comes to you for free.  Yes, free.  F.R.E.E.

Well, sort of.

To join the site, you post up your paperback books you’ve finished and every time someone “orders” one of your books, you get a credit.  For each credit you have, you can request a book from someone else.  In effect, you are “swapping” your paperbacks.

What really makes this site cool is that you can print the wrapper to ship your book with the recepient’s address and, if you so choose, postage included too!

Within hours of setting up our account, my wife and already had two requests, and received yet another a couple days later.  Assuming you put the books you receive back up on the site after you’ve finished it, you could theoretically have an endless supply of books for the price of postage (two of the books cost me $1.98 to ship, and the other one was $2.13).  Sweet.

Google
Aside from the obvious benefits of the most widely-used search engine on the Internet, this company offers a LOT of useful goodies, especially if you haven’t been paying attention for the last couple of years.  Specifically, they have a 6GB mail service, a calendar service (that syncs with Outlook and Blackberrys!), a highly underrated RSS reader and an online Office suite.

Lifehacker.com
I have to be honest.  Most of the cool finds I find come from this site.  I’d highly recommend subscribing to their RSS feed (via Google Reader, above) and bathing in the coolness that eminates off of this site.  The site has a slight Mac bent, but there are all kinds of useful tips/apps for Windows and Linux as well, not to mention day-to-day “life hacks”.

Ok, there’s a good first installment!  Comment and let me know if you’d like to hear about more cool, useful stuff I’ve discovered over the last few months!  I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Perot Systems

Thank you to everyone who came by today to hear the presentation on Perot Systems by Courtney Hunt and Lynda Gera.  The expansion that Perot Systems plans to offer will greatly benefit this area in terms of IT support, and I was extremely happy they came to talk with you today.  Please follow up with them and make them feel welcome in Bowling Green, and make sure you schedule an interview time with them.

Principles of Management – 3/25/2008

fin.

A+ Hardware/Software – 3/25/2008

Final exam.

…

And

that’s

all.

Managing Windows Environment – 3/24/2008

Checkpoint Exam 2 was the only thing for tonight.

Homework:

• Study for the final, if you need to take it.

Pro/Server – 3/24/2008

It’s the end of the Pro/Server class!  All we have left is the final!

Notsofast though…  we did cover some stuff today.  Namely, the last two chapters of the book, covering disks and drivers (and bears, oh my!).

Homework:

• No homework, but study for the final if you have to take it!!!

Freebie of the Day

Anyone want a free 512MB USB drive?  IBM is giving them away here.  Act fast, I have a feeling this offer won’t be around long!