Category Archives: Random

Create Things tasks from within outlook

I use FastScripts to run this, and it creates a Things task for each message you’ve selected in Outlook.

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tell application "Microsoft Outlook"
	using terms from application "Microsoft Outlook"
		-- get the currently selected message or messages
		set selectedMessages to current messages
 
		-- if there are no messages selected, warn the user and then quit
		if selectedMessages is {} then
			display dialog "Please select a message first and then run this script." with icon 1
			return
		end if
 
		repeat with theMessage in selectedMessages
			set theSubject to subject of theMessage
			set theContent to plain text content of theMessage
 
			tell application "Things"
				set newToDo to make new to do with properties {name:theSubject}
				set tag names of newToDo to "email"
				set notes of newToDo to theContent
			end tell
		end repeat
	end using terms from
end tell

Alfred ssh plugin

I use Alfred (http://www.alfredapp.com/) to speed things up on my mac and it is a brilliant bit of software. I pay for the powerpack and have written a little bit of applescript to allow me to ssh to a server from the launcher.

I have it set up to so that “ssh server username” will connect to server as username. If you don’t put it a username it will default to “default”.

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on alfred_script(q)
	set tmp to splitString(q, " ")
 
	set server to item 1 of tmp
 
	if length of tmp is 2 then set login to item 2 of tmp
	if length of tmp is 1 then set login to "default"
 
	set command to "ssh " & server & " -l " & login
 
	tell application "Terminal"
		do script command
	end tell
end alfred_script
 
to splitString(aString, delimiter)
	set retVal to {}
	set prevDelimiter to AppleScript's text item delimiters
	log delimiter
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {delimiter}
	set retVal to every text item of aString
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to prevDelimiter
	return retVal
end splitString

Management Monkey

As a developer of long experience, and a manager more recently: this joke appealed to me

A tourist walked into a pet shop and was looking at the animals on display. While he was there,another customer walked in and said to the shopkeeper, “I’ll have a C monkey please.” The shopkeeper nodded, went over to a cage at the side of the shop and took out a monkey. He fitted a collar and leash, handed to the customer,saying, “That’ll be $5,000.”

The customer paid and walked out with his monkey. Startled,the tourist went over to the shopkeeper and said,”That was a very expensive monkey. Most of them are only a few hundred pounds. Why did it cost so much? “The shopkeeper answered, “Ah,that monkey can program in C – very fast,tight code,no bugs,well worth the money.”

The tourist looked at a monkey in another cage. “Hey,that one’s even more expensive! $10,000! What does it do?”

“Oh,that one’s a C++ monkey; it can manage object-oriented programming,Visual C++, even some Java All the really useful stuff,” said the shopkeeper.

The tourist looked around for a little longer and saw a third monkey in a cage of its own. The price tag around its neck read $50,000.The tourist gasped to the shopkeeper, “That one costs more than all the others put together! What on earth does it do?”

The shopkeeper replied, “Well, I haven’t actually seen it do anything, but it says it’s a project manager”.

 

Happy Birthday to me

So another year gone and I have reached the ripe old age of 36. I guess I will have to accept that I am now middle aged. The chances of me playing centre-half for City or becoming a rock god are probably now on the remote side, so what I am going to do for the second half of my life?

The first half has been pretty eventful. I’ve been married for the best part of 14 years to the girl I met at university, and despite what I may say, I don’t regret any of it.

I have two lovely boys who drive me insane but who I wouldn’t be without.

I’ve been pretty successful at work, despite some interesting career choices. I’ve even ended up managing a team of 30, which I am sure will amuse a number of my former colleagues. I’ve worked in Belgium for a year, worked for the UK’s biggest bank, the largest IT company in the world and even the Guernsey Government. I’ve worked with some brilliant people and written some pretty code.

It’s not all been fun. Number 1 son was born four 3 months early, weighing 1lb 9oz. I wouldn’t want to repeat the night he was born, stressful doesn’t begin to cover it. I can only guess how much the NHS spent looking after him, but I am eternally grateful to everybody who did. I find it amazing that he shows absolutely no signs of what he want through.

So the last 35 years have been pretty good on the whole. What to do now?