Sync Toy Discovery
I was trying to craft a back-up system over my office network while using a free file sync application such as Microsoft’s Sync Toy. Of course I’m aware that Sync Toy reportly will not sync .pst files.
Turns out it has to do with its location and not the file type. Move your .pst file to your My Documents and have your Outlook look there for the file, then sync! Damn thing worked. I’m thrilled and I hope this knowledge helps someone.
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Novel Progress – Lack Thereof
It’s been a little disappointing that I haven’t been able to throw myself back into my novel. Never mind the fact that I told my fanfic friends that I would complete a few of my fanfictions that have been left in-process on Deviantart.
My only consolation is that I should have some time in the near future to put a dent in Chapter 3 of my book and finish those fanfics come March.
The novel has been a project of mine for at least 2 years now. The world building has been slow, especially because of the amount of science. Though I would not call it a hardcore Sci-Fi novel, it does employ enough scientific elements to be considered a Sci-Fi and I have been particular about the theories involved. I wanted real probable devices, creations, and vehicles. That has taken quite a bit of research and a lot of courage. Courage because it takes guts to pick an idea and stay with it knowing that there are people out there who might read the book and toss it because they don’t agree with the science.
All those who know me are welcome to apply to be beta readers. I only have one formally at the moment. Drafts of the novel will eventually make it onto the website as pages that only registered users can view.
Until that time I’ll keep on updating all of you from here.
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The Price of Technology
While I am still trying to hash out my networking project, I can’t help but be impressed by the price of technology these days. Oh yeah, a tablet can run you some big money, but look what you can get in a laptop for the same price these days…
I’m checking out an HP Pavilion for a new portable work station for my day job. I have a pretty tight budget, but I seem to be able to get a 17.3″ screen, 4gb memory, quality AMD CPU, 640 gb hard drive, with awesome screen technology and a very decent graphics card for under $500.00. My very first laptop didn’t cost as much and it had about one tenth the power.
Though I would like to have more memory in the unit, it is expandable up to 8GB, which I might take care of as time goes on. However, the real question is how long will this package last?
Technology seems to keep moving faster every day. Before you know it, graphics applications and websites are using up more and more of your computer’s CPU and memory, the files you’re working on are getting bigger, and you need more communication between your system and the web to run applications that make your world go round.
So how long would this affordable laptop be able to keep me going? I’d like to hope for at least 4 years – including the ram upgrade. Does anyone else have another guess?
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Sharing Across the Web
I’m on the hunt for a way to share files and folders across the internet in a secure manner.
I’ll admit that I am not great network administrator who has set up massive complex network structures, but I have been able to accomplish every little great feat that I’ve set my mind to finishing.
First thing is to brush up on my networking vocab…
A virtual private network (VPN) is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users access to a central organizational network.
VPNs typically require remote users of the network to be authenticated, and often secure data with encryption technologies to prevent disclosure of private information to unauthorized parties.
VPNs may serve any network functionality that is found on any network, such as sharing of data and access to network resources, printers, databases, websites, etc. A VPN user typically experiences the central network in a manner that is identical to being connected directly to the central network.
Thank you, Wikipedia… I think I’ve found the solution I was looking for. Now let’s talk application.
Thankfully, it seems Windows 7 comes with it’s own VPN Setup Application (simply go to the Start button and type “VPN), but I need to find out how to connect to the network at my office. I’m familiar with the IP address we all have when visiting the web, but there has to be more to this in order to keep random hackers from establishing a VPN into our network. That IP address might not even be what I need, but I’m going to sort this out.
It’s possible that the IP I have would work provided I make a ‘log-in’ through the security features running at my office.
Unfortunately, it’s quite possible that the network in the office is not as stable as it should be since we currently support a vareity of Windows 7 and Windows XP machines. All seem to have issues seeing and accessing one another. This whole project might be folly unless I can make that network more secure as well.
Oh yeah, speaking of which, I have a individual PC back up solution that I have yet to implement. *Sigh* Life never slows down.
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Box.com – MS Word Plugin
I have tried tons of online storage applications, ‘webtops’, and other means of editing documents on the go from any computer.
Google Docs is one of the best out there, it even out performs the latest incarnation of Microsoft’s Skydrive (and I’m a BIG Windows user). But my latest discovery with Box.com takes the cake when it comes to my particular situation.
Box.com has come up with a very handy plugin for Microsoft Word that allows you to open, access, edit, and save back to your Box.com account. You might only get 5GB for free, but that’s plenty of space for relatively small Word documents.
This is what the plugin looks like on my 2007 MS Word application.
Cute, huh?
Now that I have this cute little plugin installed on my computer, I can edit any document I have on Box.com with MS Word as my editor. Should I download this plugin onto my work computer, I can edit the same document and save it back to my ‘Box’. The process is simple and efficient. In this situation, I do not need to use any other third party editor, BUT I could.
Box.com also offers a way for you to edit the same document on their website using a version of Google Docs editor, which thankfully has been great at keeping the same formatting when it comes to MS Word Docs.
What I love the most is the seamlessness of the plugin. I have yet to see it work improperly or act broken. You log-in to your Box.com account and you can see all other Word documents present. If you have MS Excel files there as well, you will not see those.
One hiccup I did notice was that if you already have a Google Docs account and you’re signed in to Google at the moment, the online Google Docs editor employed by Box.com will start to have issues. You need to make sure you are logged out of Google first before using that tool.
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