Technically speaking…

I know that this may seem rather basic, but sometimes the basics are the best way to reinforce a task.

In this post I am going to look at sorting a mess of data in Microsoft Excel which is a very useful trick.  Suppose you are creating a sheet that will store information about wedding anniversaries for family members.

You might use fields that denote his first name, his last name, her first name, her maiden name, his birthday, her birthday, wedding date, relation to you, and a few other things, this way you could use one spreadsheet to keep track of anniversaries and birthdays and other important events.

With the sheet created you will need to select the content that you wish to sort.  Since I am going to sort the entire sheet clicking on the item in the very top left corner above the row numbers and to the left of the column numbers.

This will select all of the data on the sheet.  Then you can sort the selected info by any cell’s data.

With data selected select Data

Note: In Excel 2003 choose the data menu in the menu bar, if you are using Excel 2007 click the data tab on the Office Ribbon

From there select Sort.  This will open the sort dialog box allowing you to sort by a column in the sheet.

Office 2003 Sort

You will then select the column you wish to sort by, if more than one column is needed you can choose columns in additional dropdown menus on the dialog.  After selecting the column to sort on, choose Ascending or Descending for sort and click OK.

Office 2007 Sort

In Office 2007 the dialog looks a bit different.  The rules are the same, choose the cells to sort by in the first dropdown and them choose to sort of values, which will sort on the data in the cell, then select how to sort, (oldest to newest, A-Z, etc) and click OK.

Note: To add additional sort criteria in Excel 2007, click the Add Level button at the top of the dialog

Once you click OK on the sort dialog, the selected cells will be sorted according to the rules you have specified.

After you have sorted a few spreadsheets, this will be old hat, but it never hurts to have a quick reference for sorting a spreadsheet’s data.

Now through March 18 of 2009 Microsoft is providing free Windows Vista SP1 support to customers around the world.

Visit this link: http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx?rdpath=1&prid=11274&gprid=500921

for more details on how to get free support for Windows Vista SP1.

Since the late 1990’s it has been quite the advancement in computer technology to allow users to store data on CD Rom media or even make identical copies of existing CD Rom discs.

When the technology to create CDs was first introduced, the computer needed to have CD writing software from Nero or Adaptec or some other vendor coupled with a CD Rom drive that was capable of writing data to CD media.

With the popularity of CD burning PC manufacturers have been including CD Rom drives that can write CDs in the majority of computers sold and Microsoft licensed CD burning technology from Adaptec to include in Windows.

The remainder of this post is going to walk through the process of creating a CD Rom directly with Windows XP using no other applications.

To create a CD Rom using Windows, complete the following steps:

1. Create a new folder on your desktop called Write to CD

Note: I am using a new folder here to create an easy location to place the files you will write to a CD. However, any folder location will work.

2. Copy the files you wish to write to CD into the new folder

3. Open the CD Rom folder for the CD Writeable drive in your computer (usually drive D or E) by clicking on Start and then My Computer and then double clicking the letter of the CD writeable drive.

4. Drag the contents of the Write to CD folder into the open Window for the writeable CD drive.

5. In the left portion of the CD rom window you should see a section for CD Writing Tasks, if there are no options showing, click the double down arrow to expand it.

6. Click the link labeled Write these files to CD

7. The CD writing wizard will appear, click Next past the welcome screen

8. Enter a label for the CD Rom, this will default to the current date.

Note: You can only enter 11 characters into the label field

9. Click Next to begin writing the CD

10. After the first disc has completed, the final window of the wizard will appear displaying a check box to create another copy of the same CD, if you wish to do this check the box and click Finish, if you are done creating CD Roms, click Finish to close the Wizard.

There you have it… the simple, but useful process of creating CD Roms.

One final note, if your computer has Nero installed on it, you may have difficulty using the Windows XP CD writing utility and should use Nero instead.

Assigning delegate access to your mailbox or parts of your mailbox can be a great way to make sure your email is watched or meetings managed while you are out of the office.  It can also be useful to those with assistants and very busy schedules allowing the assistant to manage incoming mail and meeting requests.

It is important to note that while delegation within Outlook is useful in many situations, the access should not be taken lightly.  Sending email on behalf of another user can be a very powerful thing, use it very carefully and be sure that you are considering both your own and the other user’s best interests.

How do I delegate access?

To delegate access to your mailbox to other users complete the following steps:

1.   In Outlook select Options from the Tools menu

2.   In the Options Dialog box click the Delegates tab (shown below)

Figure A

Adding delegates

3.   Click the Add button to select the users who will receive access to your mailbox

4.   Enter the name(s) or select users from the list

a.   Ctrl+Click will select multiple users

5.   Click the Add ->button to include the selected users

Once all of the accounts have been added, click the OK button on the add users dialog box

This will display the Delegate Permissions dialog for your mailbox.  On this dialog you can specify access for the user or group of users you selected previously.

Note: When selecting multiple users to provide delegate access, all of the users you select at once will receive the same access rights to your mailbox.  To assign different access to users you will need to complete the steps presented here for each user or group of users.

6.    On the Delegate Permissions dialog (shown in figure B below) you can specify the degree of access the selected user(s) will have for each section of your mailbox.  The access types are available:

• Editor - users with this permission can read, create, and modify items in the selected mailbox folder
• Reviewer - users with this permission can read items in the selected mailbox folder
• Author - users with this permission can read and create items in the selected mailbox folder

Each folder listed on the delegate permissions dialog can have different permission and these are configured separately by choosing a permission level for each in the dialog box for the folder.

Figure B

Configure delegate permissions by choosing the access level for each folder listed

For the calendar folder, you can also check a box to send meeting requests to your delegate as well as to yourself.  This will speed up the response process by delegates because a copy of the item will arrive in their mailbox as well.

For the delegate user or group as a whole, you can select one or both of the following checkboxes at the bottom of the permissions dialog:

• Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions - emails the delegates you selected to let them know that they have been assigned access to your mailbox. The email will summarize the level of access the user(s) have as well.
• Delegate can see my private items - this allows delegates to view calendar and other items marked as private

7.   Click OK on the Delegate Permissions dialog box to save the permissions

8.   Click OK on the Options dialog box to alert the chosen delegates of their access rights

Note: Some folders may not appear as soon as access is assigned for the delegates, there may be a need for them to logon again to see these items.  Also it may be a requirement to have the delegates open calendar items as a shared resource if they do not appear.  This should not affect their delegate access.

Assigning delegates is a great way for managers and supervisors or departments with multiple staff members to get help managing their email and meetings.  It can also help keep things flowing during periods of extended time away from the office.

Managing outlook delegation effectively can make everyone’s day a bit easier and remove some of the burden from your organizations IT staff when others need access to your resources.

For those of you who are fans of the Mozilla Firefox web browser, the next release will be made available on Tuesday June 17th 2008.

Version 3 has many enhancements in speed and ease of use over the current version and will integrate the functionality of many popular plug-ins directly into the browser.

Some of the features include:

• One click bookmarking
• Improved Security
• Lightning fast performance
• Built in Spell Check
• Zoom
• Phishing and Malware protection
• 5,000 Add ons and counting

That is not all however, Mozilla is aiming to set a Guinness World Record for most downloads in a 24 hour period.  On the 17th of June, you can participate in Download Day by simply downloading the latest full release (no upgrades will be counted).  To see more about the world record attempt click here.

As we have seen in previous posts Remember the Milk has reinvented task management. In previous posts I have gone through an overview of the service and taken an in depth look at a few of the features available. In this post I want to visit the topic of task notes used with RTM.

When a task is added to Remember the Milk, the user is able to specify a location, a due date, repetition, and tags associated with the task. Sometimes a task may need some more information. This is where notes come into play.

Each task entered into Remember the Milk can have its own notes. The number of notes is unlimited, however I recommend keeping this to a manageable level, three notes is the most I have found useful. An example of a task where notes could be very useful is a task such as get groceries. If a task is added for get groceries, a note (or multiple notes) can be added to provide a list of the items that are needed… milk, cereal, and other things.

Rather than adding a single task for each item that is needed at the store a note showing these items might work a little better and keep the task list clear for the items that fit best there.

Let’s get started on going through the notes process with Remember the Milk.  To add notes to a task in RTM, you must first create a (or select an existing) task to which you can add notes. Task Creation is covered in this post. To select an existing task, simply check the box next to that task in the list of avaialble tasks in RTM.

Once you have your noteworthy tasks checked and are all ready to go, look up the page at the top right of the screen, where the task details are listed.

Figure 2

With the task selected, click the Notes tab also shown above. You can add as many notes as you need to a particular task. Simply click the add notes link on the notes tab to add a new note.

Once you click the Add note link, another box will appear for you to enter the text of your note and click OK to save the note you entered. The note count is then incremented to keep track of all of the notes you have added.

To edit a note that you have entered already, click the edit link listed next to the note title on the notes tab. The Note add and Note edit dialogs look similar, below is the edit view for an existing note.

The image above shows the note text box and the edit link. The note editing text box will be the same for adding and editing notes.

Once you have finished entering the information for a particular note, click save to append the note to a task.

That is all there is to the creation of task notes in Remember the Milk. The process is very simple and could help creates fewer, more useful tasks.

Remember the Milk allows users to share tasks with other users. To get this working, you will need to add contacts within RTM. If these individuals are not Remember the Milk users, you can invite them to sign up when adding them as a contact by entering their email address.

To get started with contacts, click the contacts link at the top of the page.

On the contacts page, you will see a list of the contacts you have added to your RTM account.  If there aren’t any yet, don’t worry you can add them by following the steps below:

1. Click the Add Contact link at the top right of the page
2. Enter the RTM user name of the person you wish to add or their e-mail address if they aren’t an RTM user yet.
3. Tab off of the entry field

This will add the individual if they are already a Remember the Milk user.  If not, you will be asked if you would like to add them at the top of the page.  The message looks similar to the one shown below:

Clicking the lined would you like to invite then? will display the invite tab (which can also be clicked from the Contacts page).

To invite a new user/contact to Remember the Milk simply complete the form displayed on the Invite tab and click send.  This will email the person you entered and provide them an easy way to join Remember the Milk.  Once they do, they will be added as a contact and you can begin sharing tasks with them.

You probably noticed that the above image displays a groups tab as well.  This is for organizing your contacts, making it easier to share a task with multiple contacts.

To create a group select the groups tab from the contacts page and click the add group link and enter a name for your group.

Now that you have created a group, you will need to add contacts to the group to make it useful.  Select the Contacts tab to see the list of available contacts.  Once you have selected all of the contacts you wish to add to a group click the More Actions drop down and select Add to “Group Name” group.

Removing contacts from a group uses a similar method, selecting the contacts to be removed and choosing Remove from “Group name” Group.

To share a task with a contact or group, complete the following:

1. select the tasks link at the top of the page to return to your task list.

2. Select the list containing the task you wish to share

3. Select the task to share by checking the box to the left of the task (you can select multiple tasks)

4. Click the More Actions drop down box

5. Select Share with…

Once you select Share with, you will be taken to your contacts list.  At the top of the page a message will be displayed asking you to confirm sharing of the task.

The share button on the message will appear dim until you check one or more contacts or groups to select them.  Once this is done, the button will become clickable and turn blue.  Click the share button to share the task with the selected contacts or groups.

Contacts provide an easy way to share tasks with single users or groups of users.  Sharing tasks can ensure that all parties involved can see the same information about the task.  This also saves time when entering a task because it only needs to be entered once.

After a task is shared, the options tab for the task will display the users or groups that the selected task is shared with.

Hopefully you will invite friends and co-workers to give Remember the Milk a try.

Next up a quick look back at task notes.

Microsoft has supported a combination of the Domain Name Service (DNS) and the Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) for quite a long time. Beginning in Windows Server 2000, the primary naming service was DNS and the Microsoft WINS efforts were becoming lesser needed.

In Windows Server 2008 the need for WINS has been essentially eliminated, although it remains supported for backward compatibility. In place of WINS, for the latest server version of Windows Microsoft has introduced Link Local Multicast Resolution (LLMR). This tip will discuss LLMR and the benefits this new naming method brings to the table.

The Windows Internet Naming Service was a good method for allowing Windows client and server computers to communicate using NetBIOS names. This technology works well within local networks that use only IPv4 addresses.

LLMR provides peer to peer address resolution, supports both IPv4 and IPv6 addressing, and can function without a WINS or DNS server being present. Because it operates only on a local level LLMR does not replace the functionality of DNS.

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista support LLMR which is designed to resolve computer names when there is not another service available to do so, such as in the following scenarios:

• Ad Hoc networks
• Small Office or Home networks
• Corporate environments where DNS is not available

It is in these instances where LLMR can really improve name resolution and allow client and server computers to function more efficiently. LLMR is enabled on any systems running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 and when used, the name resolution works as follows:

A host computer requests information from its preferred local DNS server, if this request fails it attempts the request against the configured alternate DNS server. If this attempt fails, the request fails over to LLMR.

The host computer sends a multicast request for an IP address for the computer name being looked up over UDP.

Note: The request is only sent to computers on the same subnet.

Computers that support LLMR, those running Vista and Windows Server 2008, receive the LLMR request and compare the computer name to their own host name. If the computer name does not match the host name of a recipient host, the request is discarded. On the other hand, if the host name being looked up matches one of the local computers a unicast response is returned containing the matching computers IP address.

There are no configuration steps needed to use this new technology, since it is enabled by default in Windows Vista and later, however it can be disabled in the registry. The LMMR also supports reverse lookups; it handles these lookups by sending a unicast query to an IP address requesting the host name.

Note: LLMR requires computer names to be unique on the local subnet.

Link Local Multicast Resolution is a much better application for name resolution than WINS because it supports the up and coming IPv6 technology as well as existing IP technologies.

Last time I posted about Remember the Milk and some of the features the online task machine has to offer. Today I want to look a little further into some of the other things that RTM can do, properties of a task and maybe some of the services that Remember the Milk can interact with.

Location Location Location

Sometimes a task needs to happen at a specific location, other times the location might be used to denote tasks in your home town but not at home. You can create locations for tasks in Remember the Milk using Google Maps functionality that is built into the application.

Note: Locations must be created before they can be assigned to tasks

To create a location Click the locations link at the top of the page (shown below)

Once the locations view is displayed a Google Map is displayed. If locations have been added, the map will be centered around those locations. To add a new location complete the following steps:

Simply enter the address into the text field above the map and click Go

This will place the desired location on the map and center it in the view.

Click on the flag displayed on the map. This will pop up a save location box. In the box enter the name of the location and click Save. You will then be able to assign this location to the tasks you create.

To assign the location to a task select the check box next to the task you wish to edit. This will pull up the properties for the task on the right of the page:

In the selected tasks properties pane, click the globe next to the heading Location. Then you can begin typing the name of the location you want to assign to this task. Locations you have stored in RTM will be available for assignment. Also, when a task with a location is selected, the user can click on the link for the location to pull up a map showing the selected location.

Next up - Contacts.

The Domain Controller has been a cornerstone of Windows networking as far back as Windows NT. While the functionality of the Domain Controller has evolved from a primary and backup configuration in NT to the flexible single master of operations model used with Active Directory, the Domain Controller remains the central concept in Windows Server 2008.

In Windows Server 2008 however there have been enhancements made to the Domain Controller concept to allow read only Domain Controllers. These are Domain Controllers that contain a copy of Active Directory information but do not allow the information to be changed by the read only DC.

For example, suppose a company has a large corporate office where the network consists of three Domain Controllers, two member servers, and 100 client PCs and users. The company then decides to open a smaller office about thirty miles away where they will move a few staff members to expand the operation of the company. Because of the small size of the branch office, the company elects to place a read only Domain Controller (RODC) in the branch office to allow most of the AD information to be stored in the branch office without allowing changes made in the branch office to propagate back to the other DCs on the network.

Note: Password information cannot be stored on a RODC, which will increase security. When this information is needed for authentication it is requested from a writeable Domain Controller.

To configure a read only Domain Controller, simply check the read-only Domain Controller box displayed during the Domain Controller installation wizard.

Note: Updates to the directory partition received by an RODC must be pulled from a Domain Controller running Windows Server 2008 in the same domain. The domain and forest must be at least at the Windows Server 2003 functional level.

To configure a read only Domain Controller to also handle DNS for the remote site, you will also need to run the adprep /rodc command once per forest to allow DNS permissions to be updated across all DNS partitions in the forest.

When using DNS on a read only Domain Controller, be aware that this server cannot register name server resource records for any Integrated DNS zones which it hosts. In the event that a resource registration is requested a referral to another DNS server is returned, allowing the client to request this registration through a writeable Domain Controller.

Note: A read only Domain Controller cannot function as a Global Catalog server because the GC requires a writeable Domain Controller.

There are several restrictions that come into play when deploying Read Only Domain Controllers; however they can be deployed with little worry in offices which may not be as physically secure as needed for a completely writeable copy of Active Directory.