Juixe Techknow

when you have to share documents between two different Windows machine, you can either use an FTP site, email documents around, or use a shared folder. I hate all of the above options, especially when I am the administrator to both machines and I am currently logged into both computers. In the case where you are administrator to both machines, you can just open Windows Explorer and type the following to get access to the whole C:\ drive.

\\REMOTE-COMPUTER\c$\

Just replace REMOTE-COMPUTER with the actual name of the remote computer you are trying to connect.

I was surprised that a senior developer didn’t know this so I thought I share it with other folks.

My Favorite feature on iOS devices is the ability of sharing data, images, files, notes via email that’s built into many apps. I have a specific email account that I email myself tweets from Twitterrific, images from the Photos, links from Safari, sketches from SketchBook, etc. I treat this email account as my to do task manager, at any point in time I have a few emails waiting for me for to research, look into, read later, or do. Email is the best way for me to share data between all my electronic devices, between work desktop, personal laptop, iPhone, and iPad. The email share feature is built into many iOS applications so i don’t need anything else other than a dedicated email account. I have accounts with services such as box.net and Evernote but these services are not built in into every application I use, email share feature is.

Twitterrific Share Tweet via Email

Everybody hates pop ups with annoying ads to services you don’t need. But how to you block pop ups that are bundled as part of your computer? Recently I got this ominous looking warning that popped up from the task manager stating that one important issue with my computer had been discovered.

Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox Pop Up

When I clicked on the warning message the Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox came up with a system health warning message about enhanced backup and restore.

Enhanced Backup and Restore Message

Following through with anther click the ThinkVantage Toolbox warned that my system had not been backed up in over 30 days. Looking at this pieced of software that interrupted my work and productivity, I thought what would a typical user do? I red the warming message in red and all the other information that looked too technical for an average user and I clicked both buttons available. I clicked the Purchase Backup Drive button and this launched my web browser to a page at anrdoezrs.net which my spyware system blocked accordingly.

Purchase Backup Drive

From my user experience, it is evident that Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox is used to up sale users on products and services that they may most likely not need though an affiliate program. To me this software is no better than those fake anti-virus software programs that infect your computer and pop up have you think that your computer is infected with a virus that they can remove if they get your credit card number. This is software that spoofs a utility only to up sale you on products that most users don’t need.

Sometimes large hardware makers make the worst software…

What is the job function of a printer driver? When you hit the print button what do you want to happen? Apparently if you are HP, you want users of your printers to get attractive offers on some of their other products. Apparently, HP is using their printer drivers to send system configuration of your home or work environment back to home base to up sale you supplies, warranties, support from your print manager.

For years, Microsoft Windows has had the feature to send a crash dump to Microsoft when an application failed after prompting the user for permission. The crash dump information helps Microsoft understand the conditions that lead to the application crashing. Firefox also has a similar feature where anonymous user statistics so that they can learn from their users and improve their product. But now HP has hit a new low when they designed a phone home feature that shares statistics and usage information from your printer back with HP HQ to up sale you on supplies, warranties, and support. Effectively, HP has turned their HP printer driver to a their sales force embedded in your office.

This is a bad user experience for many reasons, including the fact that all I want is a document not a popup with HP ads, I am not the one responsible for purchasing office supplies, I dislike the accumulation of background processes that send statistics about my computer use to third-parties. It is clear to me that this is a feature that a marketing manager dreamed up and not a engineer driving solution to a problem. Since it doesn’t solve any of my problems, but their, I disabled it.

Below is the portion of the text from the HP Printer Driver dialog.

This HP Printer Driver can provide valuable information about your HP device for things like supplies, warranty, and support, as well as attractive offers. This information will not affect your normal interaction with your computer or printer, nor will it result in your receiving any additional emails from HP.

To take advantage of this feature we need your permission to transmit your printing and imaging system configuration to HP over the Internet. All information will be handled in accordance with the HP Privacy Statement.

HP Printer Driver Dialog

I use Apple’s Mobile Me service. I got the first year subscription as a gift a little over a year ago and I recently renewed the service for another year. I don’t use the email or calendar service in Mobile Me much but one feature that is worth its price is the Find My iPhone locator feature. This feature lets you track the location of your iOS device, it lets you put an alert message on your iPhone or iPad, and it lets you ring the iPhone (even if it’s on vibrate or silence mode). I’ve used it once when I lost my phone under the couch and I couldn’t find it. It also lets you lock down or even wipe your missing iOS device of all personal and identifying data.

Apple's Mobile Me

All mobile devices, from phones, tablets, and to laptops should have a built it self destruct feature that when activated would destroy all data on a compromised device. It is my belief that a phone is a very intimate and personal device, there is so much personal data in my phone from private contact lists, to confidential business emails, to other dubious activities that I may or may not be involved in.

In addition to having the ability to destroy incriminating data from a mobile device, such as an iPhone or iPad, I want the ability to program rules into the phone. Such as if the phone has not been unlocked in over 24 hours, or if the attempted to unlocked more than three times, if it activated with a given specific code, if it is located in a known police or government building, etc.

Find My iPhone

A family member has over 20,000 unopened emails in her inbox. I get just as many emails and I average somewhere between 5-10, depending on the day/time of the week. I don’t claim to subscribe to the Inbox Zero movement but I try to keep my inbox clean and manageable. I have a complicated email system that I have setup for myself. I use Google Apps for Domain to host the email address for my websites. I commonly use in about 5 email addresses, most of these are tied to one inbox in GMail so that I can send and receive email from all these accounts by logging in once. I also use folders, priority mail, and star important email to try to manage all incoming messages. I am quick to remove myself from mailing lists that I am no longer interested in, I am quick to spam unsolicited emails, and I am quick to delete emails. In addition to all these technology tools and tricks, I’ve started following the Three Sentences discipline.

Three Sentences devotees claim to threat email responses like text messages, so instead of long verbose letters each email response is simply three sentences. I think of it like Twitter for email. There is also a Four Sentence and Five Sentence variation of this, the key is to stick to a disciple of writing short concise emails that get to the point at hand.