Category Archives: Productivity

Lighthouse – Performance statistics for Web Sites

Posted on 21st December 2018 by Mark

As part of the general move towards the web I continue to investigate and learn about web development. An important aspect for any developer considering how to serve programs to clients and colleagues with as little resistance as possible – … Continue reading →

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AHK – Useful AutoHotKeyScripts for Outlook specifically

Posted on 17th March 2018 by Mark

Another set of very useful scripts mainly dealing with creating hotkeys for common Outlook tasks. Note that if you are on a laptop you may have pre-mappings for the function keys in which case you will need to quite possibly … Continue reading →

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AHK – Useful AutoHotKeyScripts

Posted on 17th March 2018 by Mark

F2:: ; Close all windows (open/minimized, browsers) but not pwr off WinGet, id, list,,, Program Manager Loop, %id% { this_id := id%A_Index% WinActivate, ahk_id %this_id% WinGetClass, this_class, ahk_id %this_id% WinGetTitle, this_title, ahk_id %this_id% If(This_class != “Shell_traywnd”) && (This_class != “Button”) … Continue reading →

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SQL Azure to MS Access – Using VBA to Dump Azure Tables into MS Access Tables

Posted on 16th July 2017 by Mark

The first thing you need to get sorted when moving to SQL Azure is having the ability to get your information out and safe if needs be. When experimenting with MS Azure and for applications that don’t have sensitive information … Continue reading →

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Linking to SQL Server / Oracle – don’t skip the set key field on linking

Posted on 8th April 2017 by Mark

After writing Update queries with multiple joins on linked Oracle Databases I was receiving an error on running particular update queries on linked tables that had no Primary Key identified. On linking the tables I had been asked to identify … Continue reading →

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MS Access VBA Function – Automated Multiple Query Object Creation from previously created table of SQL

Posted on 26th March 2017 by Mark

This completes the task of taking automatically generated SQL previously placed in a table and writes the SQL therein to Query Objects naming them automatically. This has several advantages to cut and paste – 1) Its Lightning Quick 2) Completely … Continue reading →

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AutoHotKey : Navigation between Satellite Applications to improve Work Flow

Posted on 10th April 2015 by Mark

A while back I wrote a post about how allowing parameters to be passed to URLs is a big benefit in increasing the speed with which you can navigate to individual records in apparently non-connected web applications. But what do … Continue reading →

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Appropriate User Interfaces

Posted on 22nd March 2015 by Mark

I have three guitars 10 windsurfers and 4 bikes (5 if you count a static exercise bike) I have three regularly used computers (tablet , desktop and laptop) – four if you count my phone. My bikes are not duplicates … Continue reading →

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Guidelines for E-mails

Posted on 6th December 2014 by Mark

Not the most exciting of subjects but everyone is involved in communication whether its sorting out lunch with a friend through to organising massive engineering projects. Confusion and misinformation is always an ongoing risk resulting from bad communication which results … Continue reading →

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Comparative Advantage

Posted on 15th November 2014 by Mark

My opinion on fixing things is that if someone has to sit around and watch you fix something the cost of the job is not just your time in fixing it but it’s also the cost of the time of … Continue reading →

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Developer Operations and Empowering Users My Opinion

Posted on 8th November 2014 by Mark

Recently I was listening to a Channel 9 Microsoft podcast talking about how their products could be used in developer operator environments. Interestingly the podcast talked about Developer Operations being a subdivision of the central IT department and how once … Continue reading →

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Internal Development Good or Bad

Posted on 12th July 2014 by Mark

Elite Dangerous from Frontier Developments an example of a game built on internally developed game engine – and they are seriously kicking ass as a result. It is tempting having been burnt with IT projects to say right that’s it … Continue reading →

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Why you and your Organisation should make Web Bespoke part of your operations.

Posted on 10th May 2014 by Mark

Don’t get me wrong as a platform for communication I consider things like facebook and Linkedin as necessary evils for what is essentially cloud service market places but my preferences are always… No adverts No demands to have login prior … Continue reading →

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Configuration vs Programming

Posted on 26th April 2014 by Mark

I used to find configuration kind of frustrating – highly repetitive unintuitive and often changing as software versions change. I now consider it a simple exercise in rote learning for which there is no solution except perseverance, patience and determination and … Continue reading →

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VBA Function to allow alteration of Key Mapping for Multi-lingual support

Posted on 20th April 2014 by Mark

Important Proviso : bear in mind that different Windows operating system versions have different support for languages – with Windows 7 you require ultimate version of the OS and then you have to ensure that the required language pack is … Continue reading →

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Wax on Wax off

Posted on 19th April 2014 by Mark

One of the most useful and easy improvements I ever made to working was simply learning how to touch type. Its never been particularly necessary for programming as I find anytime I’m programming I write relatively little and the combination … Continue reading →

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