Syncing two computers (especially Outlook)

Posted on July 8, 2010 - Filed Under Business, Contracting, Family | 2 Comments

Dropbox.com allowed me to sync Outlook on my 2 computers, simply by dropping the pst file in a folder. Worked with Quicken, too. Magic. You just have to be careful not to have Outlook open on both computers at the same time.

When you install Dropbox, it adds a folder, My Dropbox, to your My Documents folder. Then, you just move your pst file to the Dropbox folder. When you restart Outlook, you will be prompted for the new location. After you’ve done that on one computer, add Dropbox to your 2nd computer. Wait a few minutes, and the pst file will appear. Then rename your pst file for the 2nd computer and start Outlook up. It will also ask for the location, and after you point it to My Dropbox, you’re in businees.

Dropbox takes care of syncing things automatically from that point on. I was dubious at first, but it works great.

The logic table

Posted on May 13, 2010 - Filed Under Business, Contracting, Mainframe | Leave a Comment

I’m big on documentation. And I’m a programmer, believe it or not. I’m a flowchartin’ fool, and I love to add logic tables to my work. What’s a logic table? I’m not sure why it’s not more common than it is, because it sure beats a lot of the excuse for documentation I’ve seen. And it’s so readable that you can even show it to the users and after a little guidance, they’re able to figure it out. It’s a great tool, and is very under utilized.

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This flowcharting tool will surprise you

Posted on January 12, 2010 - Filed Under Business, Mainframe | Leave a Comment

In the mainframe world, flowcharting is one of those things you hate to do, but is so necessary to give a user friendly view of a system. And I’ve tried them all–Word, Visio, PowerPoint, Dabbleboard, etc. They mostly achieve their aim–to put together a flow chart, but they all make it way too difficult to modify the chart after initial creation.

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GTD, My way. The bare bones solution.

Posted on September 28, 2009 - Filed Under Business | Leave a Comment

GTD (Getting Things Done) is a methodology on tracking and accomplishing tasks, both at home, and at the office. It was invented by David Allen, who wrote a book about it, and has created a worldwide following. You can find hundreds of articles about GTD on the internet. Implementing the scheme is the trick.

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Great hotkey program–Autohotkey

Posted on August 3, 2009 - Filed Under Business, Family, Mainframe | Leave a Comment

I found this through PC Mag about a year ago, and have been using it ever since. Autohotkey is free, and does several great things, which I illustrate here:

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The ultimate blog software–WordPress

Posted on April 30, 2009 - Filed Under Business | Leave a Comment

I have struggled for years to put up a decent looking web site. What I usually ended up with, although functional, was a patchwork of different pages, all with different functions. Then, I started reading about WordPress.

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