Over the last few weeks the company that I work for have been migrating from Google Apps over to Microsoft 365 for mail/calendar/contacts and unified messaging etc. This has not been without it’s challenges. Some have which have been fairly bizarre. This week I was approached by a member of our department who had somehow managed to end up with 10,000+ appointments of the same title in his calendar. We set about trying to remove them on mass using the Outlook GUI, but soon realised this would take a very long time. Which is when I put together the following snippet of VBA:
NB: This code ‘takes no prisoners, and straight deletes the appointments matching the criteria you pass it. This wouldn’t be easy to undue if you ran with incorrect parameters. I’d advise adding a break point and testing a few before letting it hit your entire calendar folder.
Dim myNameSpace As NameSpace
Dim myCalendar As Folder
Dim myAppts As Items
Dim myAppt As AppointmentItem
Dim i As Integer
Sub purge_cal()
Set myNameSpace = Outlook.Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set myCalendar = myNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderCalendar)
Set myAppts = myCalendar.Items
i = 0
For Each myAppt In myAppts
If myAppt.Subject = "<SUBJECT>" Then
i = i + 1
Debug.Print "Deleting " & myAppt.Subject
myAppt.Delete
End If
Next
Debug.Print i & " calendar items deleted"
End Sub
For as long as I can remember, I (much like many others) have suffered at the hands of a dead battery in my tech. More so now since smartphones have been such a large part of my life.
I’m no way going to blame manufacturers for the capacity or drain of device batteries… I’m a heavy user… In that I doubt 10 minutes go by when I’m not using it! Unless I’m asleep of course!
This has obviously created a gap in the market. When that has steadily filled up with all manor of devices, in all shapes and sizes. Each device is not without it’s pitfalls, equally each device suits a certain type of user more.
I think over the last 4 years I’ve pretty much tried every type on the market; from AA battery powered key rings to solar panels. I’ve also endured my fair share of smartphone case batteries… Non of these devices has proved successful in truly giving me that extra charge I need when I’m out and about..
That was until this year (2013) … When in the excited build up the the yearly Gadget Show at the NEC, I can across a manufacturers name on the programme. Energenie… It’s one I’d never heard of, and never seen any products from before. So I made my way over to their website, and was amazed by the variety and the spec of some of the devices!
This is when I spotted the Energenie ChargeGenie 50, a 5,000 MaH external battery pack.. My school boy maths suggested I should get at least 2 full charges of my iPhone 4S from this, and what’s more it would even give my iPad (thanks to FreeVirtualServers) a boost. So I got in touch with Energenie, and excitedly asked them to reserve me a fully charged ChargeGenie 50 at the Gadget Show.
Once I’d made my way around the show, battery now flagging at 20% I headed over to their stand, and collected what was soon to become my phones new best friend! I carefully opened the packaging and plugged in my phone.. Slowly but surely my device made its way back up to 100%
But wait… It didn’t stop there!! As I was taking many pictures at the show, my device was soon back at 10%.. So of it went again, and charged straight back up to 100!!! Perfect! Just what I needed…
Now, I know external batteries arnt to everyone’s taste, and some people prefer cases.. But until someone comes up with a case that can pack the punch of the Energenie 50 whilst adding little to no bulk I’m happy!
Nearly a full month on since purchasing it, and it still travels faithfully in my laptop bag.. In its own compartment no less, and I can rest in the knowledge that this little unit has got my back!
So…. Thanks Energenie, for your fantastic ChargeGenie 50! Here’s looking forward to the future, when my Energenie ChargeGenie ?100? Drops through the letterbox!
Today I have mostly been fighting with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and our Office 365 setup, as we are still in the early stages of deployment we have not yet implemented our ADFS servers. Which means we have are experiencing some pretty frustrating issues with Office and authentication.
One machine in particular decided to really test my patience and blankly refused to authenticate, presenting the user with a constant reoccurrence of the “Welcome back to Outlook.Office365″ login box.
As it happened the machine had seemed to avoid the installation of several service packs, including Office 2007 Service Pack 3, and also what turned out to be some pretty important KB hot fixes. Leaving me scratching my head for what seemed like a lifetime… That was until today! When I finally managed to find the relevant KB hot fixes and install them manually..
You can find a list of the required KB fixes over here on this Wiki.
The journey to 365 has been a long and winding one… This particular highlights the importance of ensuring all machines connecting to 365 are bang up to date with Windows and Office updates and service packs… Lesson learnt.
Just when you thought that the word of mother and baby was happily geek and gadget free, along comes the transforming buggy. Or is it a bike? Well, in a mere twenty seconds of transforming time, it is both. Whether you want to win the war on baby one-up-man-ship at a mother and baby group or do something to work off the pregnancy weight, with your baby tagging along this could be just what you have been looking for.
The Taga Three Wheeler
In just 20 seconds your state of the art pushchair transforms into a state of the art baby carrying cycle. It is being promoted as being the must have accessory for the ultimate ‘yummy mummy’. It has been designed to carry an infant aged up to six years of age. It makes a breeze of taking the little one to the park or to the shops as once you arrive, you can quickly convert the whole thing back into a regular pushchair and stroll away through the crowds of happy shoppers. Think about it, no fuel charges, no desperately trying to find parking space in the centre of town and no car parking fees.
When the equipment is in cycle form, the child is carried in a forward facing seat so then can see exactly where they are going. The seat is nestled between the cycle’s handlebars and your little one will be safely secured within a five point harness. The seat also has a head cushion for extra comfort and parents need not be concerned about any clothing or body parts being able to get ensnared in the chain housing of the cycle as it is all fully sealed, denying access to even the smallest of fingers. It is also made to be much stronger than your usual bicycle, another safety feature.
Ease of Use
You are not going to have to find much storage space to put it away when you are not using it either as it is disassembled quite easily. There are also a range of accessories that you can buy to make it more useful to you in your daily life, such as a shopping basket or a rain hood for the child seat. The Taga comes in a range of colours and is the product of four years research and development. It is aimed mainly at parents that live in the city that have busy lives and want to be both environmentally friendly and spend time with their children.
Anyone with children who lives in a large town or city knows just how difficult it can be to get anywhere without facing challenges and spending a huge amount of unnecessary time sitting in traffic. With the Taga, both parent and child are travelling in an intimate and eco friendly environment, making going out and about together more of an adventure. Unlike travelling in the family car, where the child is usually strapped into the back seat, the Taga ensures that the child is up in front and really part of what is going on.
This post was written by Frank Smith; he works for Hippo Blue which is an online retailer of personalized baby gifts. During his time off from work, he enjoys writing on a variety of topics that interest him.
Technology has definitely helped many of us over the last decade, but the realms of mobile technology remain vast and somewhat unexplored. There’s just about an app for every conceivable business or pleasure requirement, but many of the latest additions are a definite must have for those of you who wish to produce the dream garden, but unfortunately lack the know-how or skills. What follows are some of the better gardening apps and technology aimed at both beginner and advanced gardeners:
This is a free Android app and specifically focuses on how to grow, cultivate and care for certain garden plants. In fact, there are full instructions and beautiful photographs that will help you produce up to 75 of the most stunning herbs, flowers and vegetables.
Now this is an app that most avid gardeners would kill for. Koubachi is a Wi-Fi sensor that will monitor some of the most important aspects of plant care. Not only will this app oversee certain information such as soil moisture, correct lighting and temperature of plant care, it will also send notifications to your smartphone informing you of the type of care (and when) that is required.
This guide is specifically aimed at those of you who enjoy producing a vegetable garden. It will provide a wide variety of tips and techniques on planting and growing vegetables. You will also be informed of other resources available to you to ensure that you produce some of the most mouth-watering and sought after vegetables ever.
Just as with the Garden Guide app, Fruit Garden is all about growing and cultivating the perfect fruits. It is available as an Android and iOS app and is once again aimed at both beginners and expert gardeners. You will be informed about how to prepare your soil, the best varieties of fruit, how to harvest, as well as a whole host of other great tips.
Well with the introduction on numerous “Smart” gadgets, welcome to the smart gardener. Click & Grow allows you to grow and fertilise your plants without the need for personal care or even water. This is actually a flowerpot (of sorts) that includes a pump, batteries, sensors, a water reservoir, seeds and plant cartridges and certain software. Basically you can grow some of the most beautiful plants by simply adding batteries and filling the water tank once right after purchase.
Unfortunately, we aren’t all born with the knowledge and expertise on how to grow a beautiful garden. However, the garden can often be used for many different things. Some may choose to grow their own fruits and vegetables, whereas others look to entertain during the warmer months of the year by either firing up the barbeque or simply holding a garden party. If you happen to fall into any of these categories it’s likely you’ll want your garden to look as welcoming and beautiful as possible… and modern technology has made this even easier for you!
This post was contributed by Gavin Smith from deckitoutdecks.com.au. Gavin loves growing flowering plants and his company makes decks and pergolas in Melbourne area.
