Tip: Don't Want Outlook Notification About EVERY email?

Annoying Outlook Popup

Consider this scenario: You get a lot of emails that aren't quite spam, but you don't want to be notified about them.

(Maybe they come from the office pest or a mailing list you only occasionally read)

So you created a rule in outlook that moves them into your inbox and marks the item as 'read'.

While the rule works fine -- you still get that annoying popup about every single message!

a rule that moves it and marks it as read is not good enough

My boss found the solution this morning and shared it with us:

What you have to do is create TWO rules:

  1. The first rule marks it as read.
  2. the second rule moves it to the folder

Make sure the two rules are executed in that order!

Now the email will still come in, but the popup won't be displayed.

(This is written up in a KB article at microsoft... i don't have the number for it right now... here's a google groups message about it)

 

Hanseldotted

spike in traffic due to hanselminutes

TimeSnapper got hanseldotted last week -- on Scott Hanselman's excellent new podcast: Hanselminutes, developed in conjunction with Carl Franklin. The graph at right shows the effect it had on timeSnapper's traffic.

And an interesting fact is that if you flip this image horizontally, it has the same shape as a running tally of Mike Gunderloy's offspring.

number of children at casa gunderloy>Mike Gunderloy
>19 January 2006
>Another week, another doctor appointment. Not much longer till there's another baby to go with it.

(from Daily Grind 801)

They don't watch tv out on the Palouse.

Hanselminutes number 2 is out now, by the way.

 

rescued by timeSnapper

working query almost lost, but for timesnapper

Timesnapper just saved me a lot of work!

I forgot to save a little "working query" I was using yesterday -- but found it with timesnapper and had it retyped in just a minute.

This has happened twice so far this week.

So there's another use for timeSnapper --> retrieving work that is otherwise lost for good.

I'm not recommending timeSnapper as an alternative to saving your work :-). But it's a handy fallback.

working query almost lost, but for timesnapper

[entity names removed for confidentiality reasons]

 

Copy, Copy, Copy, Paste: PowerToy Needed.

Append To Clipboard, PowerToy required

I have a little request. What I'd like is a keystroke that appends the selected text to the current item in the clipboard.

Rather than doing this:

  • Copy, switch document, paste, switch back again.
  • Copy, switch document, paste, switch back again.
  • Copy, switch document, paste, switch... etc...

You could just go:

  • Copy, copy, copy, switch document. Paste.

[continues....]

For example, imagine we have this text:

And we want to extract just the bit dickens wrote: "it was the best of times, and it was the worst of times."

We highlight the first part of the quote:

and hit Ctrl-C, to copy this text to the clipboard

Next we highlight the second part of the quote:

and hit Start-C, to append this to the item currently in the clipboard

Switch to another document and hit Ctrl-V. The result is:

Better yet, consider a case where the items we're copying are spread over multiple pages, or multiple documents.

This feature could be useful for coders, editors, data entry people, composers, refactorers, thinkers and plagiarists.

First person to implement it gets a tip of the hat in gratitude.

 

Where's my damn robot?

all the robots are missing

It's 2006. by now my first personal robot should be obsolete and rusty. but do i have a personal robot? no, damn it. i don't even have programmable shoelaces, or hair that needs a reboot.

[off topic rant begins here]

Just now i had to get up and fetch myself a spoon for eating my yoghurt. What a waste! Any house robot worth his price in scrap metal could have done that task for me. And all this 'picking things up and putting them away' work that i keep having to do. What a waste of effort! No sooner have i put everything away than it's all scattered everywhere again.

But get me a slave robot and all i'd have to do is stick tiny RFID chips on all my possesions, choose a good location for each possession, and then Snap! At a click of the fingers, my digital jeeves could have everything packed away. and if i need him to fetch me a spoon, or retrieve for me my copy of 'the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy', i'd only have to choose it from the ajaxian application on his display-stomach.

okay -- i've done the hard part. now it's up to you, lazy web. build me a "picking things up and putting them away" robot. and be quick about it.

all the robots are missing

Maybe it's good that i have to do my own cleaning up. You can't outsource physical exercise, so you might as well make it practical.

While thinking robots, i need to point something out: smaller robots are better.

A robot that's half as big is better than a full-size robot.

At half the height, he's half the width and half the depth -- therefore he's one eighth the weight, and hence needs either one eighth the battery, or better yet, he can have have up to eight times the battery life. He's better for the environment, using less fuel, and less raw materials in his construction.

Also, he is now twice as strong. While his weight is one-eighth of what it was, the cross-sectional area of his arms is only a quarter of what it used to be, so he is now twice as powerful as he used to be (in comparison to his size that is).

Plus, he only takes up one quarter of the floor space, so it doesn't cost you much in rent.

a domesticon

That's why, given the choice between two robots, i choose the little guy.

And for all the same reasons, that's why i propose the following solution to the world's overpopulation problems: let's get smaller.

If people were all halflings we'd be able to fit more of them on the planet (8 times more people!)(On the downside, that's only 1 eighth the soylent green) and we'd all be so much stronger and more agile.

So why don't we invest more of our time and intelligence in researching the genetics of being little.

We could sacrific some of that extra energy to allow for larger brains with which we could devise ways to make ourselves even smaller. Or better yet -- what if we could compress the size of our brains, so that the same number of neural pathways fitted into a smaller volume.

We'd get the same incredible benefits here. The brain would respond much faster, meaning not only that we were far more intelligent, but that we learn more quickly. Our brains would need far less energy and would be able to support thier own weight far more easily. I'm not volunteering my own brain for use in this research, unless i'm dead of course, in which case i'm not the one writing this, so i wouldn't take my word for it.

I think i'll ponder this over lunch and see if i can't solve it on the bus ride home.

 

the SecretMaker

secretMaker... i dont know what it does

I don't know what a "SecretMaker" is -- but i just found one on 'Download.com' (see image on far right) and i like the name.

Another groovy piece of software just released, the treeGx [image at near right] from Dev Components. check it out.[found at the daily grind]

TreeGX from Dev Components

We listed timeSnapper at Download.com yesterday, but apparently a 'free listing' takes about a fortnight to show up. So don't hold your breath. Meanwhile if *you* are a user of timeSnapper, why not blog about it and try and help it find it's audience.

[continues..]

Regarding timeSnapper, if you have any features requests (or bug reports) drop by the timeSnapper google group and share your ideas. Many new capabilities being added, and the output of the Icelandic Development Team (Atli!) is, as always, astonishing.

One more thing I've been reading about lately: Doug Engelbart, inventor of the mouse and pioneer of graphical user interfaces, the 'open hyper document system', online journals, online collaboration... a pretty amazing fella all round. Read Doug Engelbart's papers or Listen to the interview on nerdtv. Also, check out his original 1968 demo of the mouse (and other breakthroughs).

 

It's raining B&B's

hailstone from brisbane, accompanied by beverage

Huge monsoonal storms in Brisbane at the moment (it's summer in this hemisphere remember?) and on Friday we had a fearsome hailstorm.

Here's a photo of a B&B (Benedictine and Brandy) made by my brother (Farmer JEB) using one of the bigger-than-a-golfball-sized-hailstones that Allison (JEB's wife) bravely retrieved from the back yard...

If you drank five of these, then got in your car and had an accident, could you claim for hail damage?

[continues for larger image]

BnB with Hailstone
 

Suspicious Mail

It seems that my blog doesn't please everyone. I recently received a threatening package in the mail, as a blatant attempt to stop me from publicising my frank and open opinions. Sorry Scoble, but it looks like blogging isn't all good.

[I have documented the ensuing investigation here]

Exhibit 1: The Suspect Package, supposedly originating from 'The Looneys.Com World Headquarters.'

Exhibit 2: Suspect Contents of the Suspect Package

Exhibit 3: White Pearlescent Inner Package

Exhibit 3a: Ominous Green Message On White Inner Package. Handwriting experts chilling transliteration: "Thank you! Jason Looney." (believed to be the Jason Looney). Handwriting analysis indicates dangerous psychopathic ruminations.

Exhibit 3b: Curious Numbering: "9". Referred to as 'The Looney Code', this curious message has not yet been unraveled.

Exhibit 4: Brown Cylinder located inside white wrapping

Exhibit 4a: Isometric view of the brown cylnder. Note irregular sides, and some apparent 'melting' of brown material.

Exhibit 5: Introduction of expert tools for performing dissection and materials analysis. Accompanied by 'beverage-like' analysis tool.

Exhibit 6: Investigator notes that at this moment, the suspicious material begins to dissappear

Exhibit 7: Within moments, the suspicious material has completely vanished. Investigation concludes.

Background reading: Jason Looney has caused widespread fear and panic already using his notorious 'snackcakes for links' terror campaign, in which he punished online-publishers for mentioning his website, by sending them threatening snack-cake packages through the mail. It is believed that the incident described above, is the most recent examples of his villainous techniques.

Editor's note: I for one will not be silenced by Jason Looney's predictable scare tactics. I will continue to mention his name, and to send links to his website, without fear of further retributions. I won't back down, even if he instigates a 'box of Krispy Kreme donuts for links' program. His methods must be exposed. Such threats will only make me stronger in my resolve for complete and incorruptible journalistic integrity.

 

Unposted thoughts and SkunkWorks

Last blog entry for the year i reckon. list of things i haven't released:

  • quicklaunch and tasktray sharing meme
  • cubicle back care, ten tips
  • w3scg to be completed and 'launched'
  • owner draw combo -- the full gamut
  • asp.net hosted shell applciation
  • 'kingShark' -- the ajax command line language
  • forgiveness -- the pre-xsl parser language
  • tixInBoxes -- the ajaxian wiki form engine
  • skunkWorks -- overview
  • exercise/social
  • human versus computer
  • modified online Game Of Life for two players

Summary of Year

  • Changed job.

    Old job went bad. New job goes great. Kept friends at old job, didn't burn bridges: best of both worlds.

  • Almost no holidays

    (still, did get to: Fraser Island, Hervey Bay, Bunya Mountains, Stanthorpe, Peregian Beach, Gold Coast, Melbourne et al.)

  • favourite code:

    a software license validation webservice, and a reflection-based optimistic concurrency clash resolver

  • unexpected wins:

    inclusion in best of software writing and winning larkware comp with timeSnapper