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Improve your digital photos by adding proper tags and GPS coordinates

08 Sep

Context

The number of photos being taken and stored is increasing substantially due to all technological advancements like digital cameras, smartphones and social networks. As a result of the increase of the number of photos being taken, it is also getting harder to manage and find photos. What is also very important to realize, is that people often are most interested in seeing photos they are actually in.

Digital photos provide benefits over old photos because you can add information about the photo and filter/search based on it. This can be anything you want. You could by example add information about:

  • The year, month, day the photo was taken.
  • The location the photo was taken using the name and/or GPS coordinates (some cameras and smartphones already add this information automatically).
  • The event the photo was taken.
  • The persons in the photo.
  • Objects in the photo like by example car, plane, slide, ball, hat, etc.

It is important to realize that this information you’ve added will be saved to your photo so that other applications or online photo services (by example Flickr) can use it. These tags will also help find photos when you search in Windows even though the file name does not contain the keyword you used in the search.

From my experience however, most people simply copy the files to a folder that contains the date, location and event. By example they use a folder called “2012-09-07 Vacation Paris”. This is often because they don’t know that they can use tags and even if they do, they don’t know how to do it.

In this blog post I will try and explain how to add information to photos using Picasa, because it is free and relatively easy to use.

How to add tags to your digital photos using Picasa

To add tags to your digital photos using Picasa, basically you need to perform the following steps:

  1. Download Picasa : http://picasa.google.com/
  2. Install Picasa.
  3. Run Picasa.
  4. Import photos into Picasa.
  5. Select the picture(s) you want to tag (use CTRL + left mouse click to select multiple photos simultaneously or CTRL + A to select all photos).
  6. Enable the views to add tags by either:
    -Going to the top of the screen and choosing “View” and then
    -Going to the bottom right and choosing the icon for “show/hide places panel” or “show/hide tags panel”
  7. Add tags / places (optionally configure quick tags to have easy access to often used tags).

In the video below I’m demonstrating this in a couple of minutes to give you a better idea of how it works:

Google also provides information about this in their own help pages:
Add geotags in Picasa
Tagging photos

Closing thoughts

I hope this was useful to you and hope it will help you enjoy your photos even more. Should you still have any questions, please let me know.

 
6 Comments

Posted by on September 8, 2012 in Entertainment, Learning, Tutorials

 

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Easily rename downloaded movies using powershell

07 Sep

Context

As most people, I often complain about not having sufficient time. It also doesn’t help that I have a lot of hobbies and interests. Because of this I decided to combine my hobbies and interests in such a way it would eventually save me time.

Basically I decided to learn powershell scripting by automating the task of renaming downloaded movies. These need to be in a specific format for reliable use with the movie jukebox called Yet Another Movie Jukebox (YAMJ). As a result this will save me a lot of time in the future.

Concept for the script

The file names of most movies I download are mostly in the following format:
The.Devils.Advocate.1997.UNRATED.DC.720p.BluRay.X264-AMIABLE.mkv
<movie.name>.<movie release year>.<metadata>.<metadata>…..<last.metadata>.<file extension>

What is important for YAMJ to work correctly is basically the movie name and the year (just in case there are movies with the same name, but released in a different year). So basically my preferred output would be:
The Devils Advocate 1997.mkv

To realise this, conceptually the following will be done for all files in a specific folder:

  1. Determine the current file extension and save it to a variable.
  2. Remove all dots “.” from the file name.
  3. Determine if there is a year notation in the file name (by example 1997).
  4. If there is no year notation found, don’t do anything else (file does not meet the expected format).
  5. If the year notation is found, remove everything from the file name after the year notation and re-add the file extension.

The script itself

The script itself can be found on my sharepoint list :
http://bjornhouben-web.sharepoint.com/Lists/Scripts/

Closing thoughts

I hope this will help home users to see the advantages of scripts, use them and benefit from it. For ICT professionals I also hope that it will help them get a better understanding of Powershell. Because in my opinion Powershell is getting increasingly important both for Microsoft and non Microsoft products (by example VMware).

I’d love to get feedback about this post and hope to receive some replies.

 
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Posted by on September 7, 2012 in Entertainment, ICT, Learning, Microsoft, Movies, Powershell, Windows

 

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Provide anonymous access to sharepoint lists on Office 365 (Sharepoint online)

06 Sep

Office 365 introduction

Office 365 basically provides you with collaboration services consisting of the following components:

  • E-mail (Exchange online)
  • Instant messaging (Lync online)
  • Internal and external websites (Sharepoint online)
  • Office (either locally installed or through web apps).

I really like this service offering because of the following reasons:

  • All services (and servers) are hosted by Microsoft. This means you don’t have to invest in servers, software. You also don’t have to do the initial setup nor do you have to maintain the servers, operating system and software. This all helps you to be able to focus on your core business.
  • You pay monthly fees, which are predictable.
  • Since you are using a cloud based service, the functionality is continuously being improved and newer versions are being provided at no additional cost. Currently Office 2013 Preview is available for testing only on Office 365, but when it is released it will probably also find its way to the current Office 365 users.

But don’t take my word for it, just try it for yourself and see if and how you can benefit from it.

Configuring anonymous access to sharepoint lists on Office 365 (Sharepoint online) 

Even though I like Office 365, it is far from perfect. For example, one of the reasons for me to get and Office 365 subscription was because (I thought) it would let me easily share website links, applications, scripts using sharepoints lists to the internet.

In reality however, the public facing sharepoint site was very limited and did not provide an easy way to do this. Another option was to create these lists on my “internal” sharepoint site and then provide access to people by inviting them by e-mail. This would however limit my audience / knowledge sharing potential.

After searching for people with similar issues, I came across a workaround that would help me accomplish my goals: http://anonymous365.codeplex.com

Steps to configure a sharepoint list on my public facing sharepoint site that is accessible for anonymous users:

  1. Download the anonymous365 sharepoint solution from http://anonymous365.codeplex.com
  2. Go to the “Site Settings” of your public facing site using by example :
    http://bjornhouben-web.sharepoint.com/_layouts/settings.aspx
  3. Go to the “Galleries” section and go to “Solutions“.
  4. Click under the “Name” colume and in the ribbon interface under the “Solutions” tab choose “Upload Solution“.
  5. Browse to the previously downloaded anonymous365 sharepoint solution : “Wsp365.Anonymous.wsp” and press “OK“.
  6. Check the checkbox of the uploaded “Wsp365.Anonymous.wsp” and in the ribbon interface under the “Solutions” tab choose “Activate“.
  7. The go to the “All Site Content” of your public facing site using by example:
    http://bjornhouben-web.sharepoint.com/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx
  8. Press “Create“
  9. Choose the list type you want, enter a name and press “Create“.
  10. Then in the ribbon interface under “List Tools” and “List” press the button “Anonymous Access“
  11. Choose what access you want to give anonymous users for this specific list and press “OK”.

PS: You can also use a list to share files using the attachments.

Closing thoughts

I hope this explanation was helpful and I love to get feedback. Because the groundwork is done now, I can focus on the actual knowledge sharing by populating the lists with content. So you can expect some major updates soon on both my blog posts and the lists below:

 
29 Comments

Posted by on September 6, 2012 in Cloud, ICT, Learning, Microsoft, Office 365, Public Cloud, Sharepoint Online, Tutorials

 

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The Hunger Games (books and movie)

03 Sep

Some months ago I heard about the movie The Hunger Games (2012). The concept reminded me of Battle Royale (2000) that I liked very much as well.

When it was available in the movie theatres, many people I know told me they really liked the movie. This made me want to see it even more. I found out however that this movie was based on a book series and that this was only the first part of the trilogy. This was a bit disappointing since I personally do not like having to wait a long time to know the complete story.

So instead of watching the movie, I started reading the books and ended up reading all  three books in less than a week. I really loved it because it provided a lot more depth than I initially expected and I was also able to really connect with the characters and feel for them.

Because I really loved the books, I could not help but watch the first movie, even if it meant having to wait a long time for the next one. I liked the movie, but in my opinion it lacked depth/background and should have been a lot darker, threatening/menacing. I hope this will be the case for the remaining movies:

 
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Posted by on September 3, 2012 in Books, Entertainment, Movies

 

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Windows 8 – GUI (Graphical User Interface) help

14 Aug

For those people unwilling to read the entire post, here’s a direct link to my own list of operations and a description of how to perform them using specific input methods.

Context

In the past the Windows user interface has been changed. In hindsight I would classify these changes as evolutionary (Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista, Windows 7). I did however notice that a lot of people still had and many still have trouble working with it. Most people however are currently able to perform those things they want to be able to do. With Windows 8 however, a lot has changed and people need to re-learn how they can do what they want to do. I think this will be intimidating for many people and will probably also prevent people from upgrading for some time. This video should give new users an idea of what the new interface looks like. You can also check other links on this page. Also check this video to get an even better feeling of how to use the new user interface. If you are willing to spend some more time on getting used to Windows 8, you can also check the videos from Lynda.com Windows 8 Consumer Preview First Look. With this blog post I hope I can:

  • Help people understand what has changed without going in too much detail.
  • Provide insight in what options there are to fully leverage potential/productivity.
  • Provide practical tips and tricks to help people enjoy using Windows 8.

Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on August 14, 2012 in ICT, Microsoft, Windows, Windows 8

 

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Windows 8 – Installing Windows 8 apps (formerly known as Metro apps)

14 Aug

Context

With Windows 8, the Windows store has been introduced. Using the store you can search, browse and install published Windows 8 apps. Apps in the store can either be free or paid and incldues trial options. Apps also need to allow you to install them on a minimum of five Windows 8 enabled devices without additional payment/fees.

These apps are tied to your account and can be installed on multiple devices you own provided you use the same account. This may come in handy when you by example:

Showing apps tied to your account and installing them

  1. Go to the Windows store
  2. Toggle the AppBar by right clicking, pressing windows key + Z or swiping down from the top of the screen.
  3. Select “Your Apps” 
  4. Choose from the dropdown box: “Apps not installed on this PC”
  5. Select the apps you want to install and select the “Install” button.
 
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Posted by on August 14, 2012 in ICT, Microsoft, Windows, Windows 8

 

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Windows 8 – Sideloading application example (Wordfeud)

13 Aug

Context

One of the negative aspects of working with new technologies is that sometimes you miss some stuff that what available with older versions.

As an example, the Pinball FX2 game/app was in the store of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, but was not available in the Windows 8 Release Preview. Another example is Wordfeud which was available in the store of the Windows 8 Release Preview, but is not (yet) in the store of the Windows 8 RTM.

[EDIT]

Apparently you can also:

  1. Go to the Windows store
  2. Toggle the AppBar by right clicking, pressing windows key + Z or swiping down from the top of the screen.
  3. Select “Your Apps” 
  4. Choose from the dropdown box: “Apps not installed on this PC”
  5. Select the apps you want to install and press the “Install” button.

[EDIT]

During my time with Wordfeud in the Windows 8 Release Preview I did however see that the developer provided the files to sideload the application. Sideloading means that you can install apps directly without going through the Windows store. More information about sideloading can be found here.

For sideloading Wordfeud, perform the following actions

  1. Run Windows Powershell as administrator
  2. Enable powershell script execution using: set-executionpolicy remotesigned
  3. Download the latest Wordfeud build from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13365029/WordfeudMetro/index.html
  4. Extract the files to a folder by example : C:\WordfeudMetro_1.0.0.9_AnyCPU_Debug
  5. From within Windows Powershell go to the folder using: cd C:\WordfeudMetro_1.0.0.9_AnyCPU_Debug
  6. Execute the Powershell script by typing: .\Add-AppDevPackage.ps1

For removing the sideloaded Wordfeud, perform the following actions

  1. Run Windows Powershell as administrator
  2. From within Windows Powershell remove the application using: Get-AppxPackage | where PublisherId -eq csykjp4qexh44 | Remove-AppxPackage
 
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Posted by on August 13, 2012 in ICT, Microsoft, Windows, Windows 8

 

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Microsoft information flood (including Server 2012)

20 Jun

Business

Offshoring

VMware

Generic Microsoft learning resources

Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on June 20, 2012 in Uncategorized

 

Installing Server 2003 (R2) x64 on a Dell PowerEdge with a Perc5i controller including pitfalls and how to avoid them

24 Apr

When installing Windows 2003 x64 on a Dell with Perc5/6 controller using DRAC virtual media you may encounter the following issues:

  1. The default windows installation media does not contain the drivers for the raid controller. As a result disks will not be visible during setup and you will not be able to install Windows.
  2. The Windows 2003 install does not contain the drivers for the raid controller. As a result disks will not be visible during setup and you will not be able to install Windows.
  3. By putting the standard Dell Perc5/6 Windows 2003 x64 drivers on a (virtual) floppy and pressing F6 during Windows setup the drivers will not be detected, the raid controller and disk will still not be visible and you will not be able to install Windows. PS: For creating a virtual floppy an easy to use program is winimage.
  4. Even though you integrate the standard Dell Perc5/6 Windows 2003 x64 drivers into the installation media using nLite, the raid controller and disk will still not be visible and you will not be able to install Windows.
  5. When installing by using DRAC virtual media, the first setup part (text-mode) will complete. After the first reboot however, you will get an error stating something like the files or cdrom cannot be found or please insert the cd-rom containing the files.

The solution lies in the following actions:

Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on April 24, 2012 in Uncategorized

 

Microsoft Skydrive improved, but freely available space decreased from 25GB to 7GB for new users. Existing users need to perform manual action to keep 25GB.

24 Apr

Microsoft SkyDrive is decreasing the storage available to users from 25GB to 7GB. Existing users however can keep the 25GB but manual action is required: http://ludwigkeck.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/get-your-free-25-gb-of-skydrive-storage/

Also keep in mind that Microsoft Skydrive will become more and more integrated with Windows 8 and that they have also released an application (like dropbox) that also works for previous Windows versions. For more information check:

UPDATE:

Google drive has also launched and also dropbox is making improvements to its service. Before deciding to use any service however, compare their terms of use: http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/24/2972228/cloud-storage-terms-of-service-comparison-avoid-google-drive

 
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Posted by on April 24, 2012 in Cloud, ICT, Microsoft, Public Cloud

 

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