For humans: ÿ-L

For computers: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

So cool.

Command line source: Shutting Down Computers and Logging Off Users: TechNet

A great post by Gabriel: Valuing the Undervalued Solution Model

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml;jsessionid=R13ZGBCSYGIIUAKRGWDSELQBKE0YIISW?id=R0806D&referral=2341

Eric mentions an interesting document he co-authored about SharePoint as a social networking platform.

Here is a direct link to the Word doc.

Admittedly, I haven't read to far into this site, but I'm link blogging it because, hey, even Squirrels need a little SharePoint now and then:

SharePoint for Squirrels

Often an engineering team is asked to predict the future amidst uncertainty.

One way to efficiently drive estimation meetings in this environment is to use the Program, Evaluation, and Review Technique (PERT).

Here is the official article that describes this: Use a PERT analysis to estimate task durations

You can expose the PERT Analysis Toolbar by right-clicking anywhere in the toolbar and enabling "Pert Analysis":

You can then click on the PERT Table button and you get the resultant table:

This is also available through the Tables menus: 

Note: The PERT Table is using the fields Duration1, Duration2, and Duration3 and renaming them.  If you are also using these, your values will show up here, and changing the values in this table will change them wherever else you are using Duration1,2,3.

You can now quickly go through the meeting asking questions like: "How long do you think this is likely to take?" (expected)  and "If that obstacle or constraint is removed, then how long would it take?" (optimistic) and "If that assumption doesn't play out, then how long would it take?" (pessimistic).

When you are done with the session, click the Calculate PERT button and using the default weights (1:4:1) Project will update the Duration field with a calculated duration.

I recommend having the notes field open and documenting the pivot points of the conversation for each task. Split the Window, the show the Notes pane:

1. Window:Split
   
2. Right-click in the entry pane, and select Notes
   

See also:

• More on advanced PERT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERT
• Article that shows alternative PERT visualizations: http://www.mindtools.com/critpath.html
• Interesting article on approaches to estimating: http://tynerblain.com/blog/2006/04/28/where-did-you-get-that-estimate/ 

I was asked recently about summary tasks showing sums of work columns that were too large.

This is caused by summary tasks that have carried their resource assignments from when they were non-summary tasks.

Steps to Reproduce

Here is how it occurs.

1. Create tasks and assign resources
   
2. Insert a new task amidst the others and assign a resource
   
3. Indent the new task using the button
    
   In the above shot, notice that the summary task is now larger than the sum of its children

Resolution

Even in the web 2.0 world, often times the most cost effective way to set up a collaboration mechanism is an email distribution group.  How often do you see:

It's our old friend MailTo.

If nothing else make the email addresses hot.  Such as <a href="mailto:thisappsup">THISAPPSUP</A>

But wait, for not that much more effort, how about this.  They click on the link, and instead of just firing up an email, it gives it a little more structure:

Maybe not web 2.0, but at least web 1.1:

Here is the mailto code: 

<a href="mailto:thisappsup?Subject=Support Request for This App&amp;Body=This App Support Team, I need help with This App">THISAPPSUP</a>

This way you can help give a little structure to the mail request. Even though the sender can still change things, it will still help speed things up and structure it more.  It will also help differentiate sources of the mail if mail groups are used for multiple purposes.  For example, you could include a reference to the page from which the mail is being sent, or a version number.

Note: The email addresses in this post are purely fictitious. The links will initiate an email message, but don't expect that the example recipients will actually work. :)

See also: MailTo Protocol

In an earlier post, xCalendar, I echoed a need for a XML calendar syndication standard (that isn't based on RSS).

I found an xCal schema:

XSD xCal XSD Schema

In my last post Search Your Internal Site From Internet Explorer I talked about how to expose a search to your site so that it will light up the Internet Explorer Search Box.  I referred to OpenSearch.  The site refers to an XML schema spec, but does not provide a schema.

XML is one of my weekend hobbies, and XML schemas are one of the best intersections between linguistics and programming.

XSD OpenSearch XSD Schema

For those of you using XML editors and want to validate that your Search Provider file is using the correct schema, or want intellisense, I put together the above XSD schema.