IT Technology: 10 Must-Have Productive Apps

It's no surprise to anyone that our daily demands appear to be multiplying as quickly as, and often much quicker than, the rate at which we accomplish them. And yet, some people seem capable of doing a whole lot more than their peers. How is this possible?

Given that we all have the same number of hours each day, surely there are some productivity hacks in action.

In addition to the excellent tips shared throughout this week’s pullout, here is a look at ten apps to boost your productivity in both your personal and professional lives:

1. Start your day with Any.do
Productive people start their day with a list of to-do’s written down. Scientifically speaking, there’s a neurological process that wires us to strive to a certain objective when it’s written down – and a major delight to strike it off the list once done.

Any.do taps into that. With its clear and simple user interface, it’s a pleasantly nice app to start your day. Be mindful of the to-do list though, realistically you should be focusing on three major task “wins” in a day.


2. Automate tasks with IFTTT
In this era of the “Internet of Things”, you just can’t escape it anymore. No, it’s not robots taking over the world - just those mundane tasks you wish someone can do for you.

Having a tough time remembering birthdays? The app If This Than That (IFTTT) can automatically post for you on Facebook or email. You can even auto switch off your WiFi on your mobile outside work or home to save precious battery.


3. Book your calendar with Cal
Synchronise all your calendars with Cal, which also works directly with the Any.do app. Is your next appointment somewhere you’re unfamiliar with? Google Maps is integrated into it so there is no need to open several apps when one can do the job faster.


4. Prioritise task with Gneo
This is urgent. That is important. Sounds familiar? Gneo helps you to identify actual urgent/important tasks and prioritise them accordingly.


5. Take notes with Evernote
Usually, pen and paper note taking will do. And it’s perfectly fine until you need to share the info with some unfortunate soul who might end up struggling to decipher your handwriting.

Save the trouble and leverage on tech- Evernote is easy to use and really useful to collect and gather information. It has good indexing capabilities with proper tagging, making information flow much more fluid.


6. Map out ideas with Mindly
So you have ideas. Lots of ideas! You jot them down, then lose the piece of paper. Why not keep ideas flowing in a nice universe map instead? With Mindly, you can give structure to your ideas and visualise them clearly.


7. Keep track of your expenses using Expensify
Ah! Receipts and expense claims. If only they could magically sort themselves into a spreadsheet so claims can be processed. The world would be a better place.

Well, it’s not magic, but it’s the same result. On Expensify, snap a photo of your receipt, tag it by category and voila – an automated report. The job will be done in just a few minutes. No more missing submission deadlines or accumulating shoeboxes of receipts at the end of the year.


8. Organise and assign tasks using Trello
Find yourself putting the cart before the horse? Organise projects big and small with Trello, a helpful app which allows you to assign and keep track of tasks.


9. Eliminate distraction with SelfControl
Spending too much time on too many social media sites for unproductive purposes? Why not give it a break once in a while and focus on the task at hand.

SelfControl, as the name suggests, controls your browsing activities. Set the time limit and specify the sites to block, and you’ll be locked out. No distraction at all; full attention on your work.


10. Track your activity with RescueTime
Time is an important resource in our lives. Sometimes without noticing, hours just fly by and you ask yourself what tasks have you actually completed?

RescueTime helps you to track and audit your activities on your browser – serious work or otherwise, every second and minute. Yes, all that adds up, and you might be in for a surprise once you find out your true habits in front of the screen.


Reference:
10 Must-Have Productive Apps
http://mystarjob.com/articles/story.aspx?file=/2014/5/17/mystarjob_careerguide/14777882&sec=mystarjob_careerguide

Apple: Get Disk IO From Your Mac With UNIX Command

The UNIX command below allows you to get the disk IO from your MacBook.

#!/bin/bash
io=$(iostat -c 5 -w 10 disk1 | awk ' {if (NR>3) {sum += $3; count +=1;} } END {print sum/count} ')
echo "0:$io:OK"

You may get the disk identifier "disk1" using Disk Utility. The function of AWK is to skip the first three lines (if NR>3), it then increments two counters - one for the sum of $3, the other as a simple counter to keep track of how many entries we have. At the END (i.e., after the last line of input) it simply calculates the average.

* Note: The output from the script can be read by Paessler PRTG.


Reference:
Using the shell to monitor disk activity - read/write rates
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2779418

Google: Android Phone Hang / Freeze

If the phone is not working correctly ( hanging or freezing ), you may need to master reset it and also clear the cache partition. These two resets clear different parts of the phone storage. Unlike a master reset, wiping the cache partition does not delete your personal data.

<< Wipe cache partition >>
To wipe the cache partition, follow these steps:
1.  Turn off the device.
2.  Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time:

Volume Up key
Home key
Power key

3.  When the phone vibrates, let go of the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
4.  When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
5.  Press the Volume Down key to highlight 'wipe cache partition'.
6.  Press the Power key to select and wipe the cache.
7.  With 'reboot system now' highlighted, press the Power key to restart the device.


<< Master reset with hardware keys >>
A master reset restores the original factory settings and may delete your personal data on the internal storage, such as downloaded content, ringtones, images, apps, and contacts. It does not delete data stored on the SIM card or SD card.

If the device menus are frozen or unresponsive, you can master reset using hardware keys. To perform a master reset, follow these steps:
1.  Back up all data on the internal memory.
2.  Turn off the device.
3.  Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time:

Volume Up key
Home key
Power key

4.  When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
5.  When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
6.  Press the Volume down key to highlight 'wipe data / factory reset.'
7.  Press Power button to select.
8.  Press the Volume down key to highlight 'delete all user data.'
9.  Press Power button to select and start the master reset. When the master reset is complete, 'Reboot system now' is highlighted.
10.  Press the Power key to turn the restart the device.


Reference:
Help with my Galaxy S3 - Freezes 12 times a day.
http://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13216

Microsoft: Enable WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation)

<< Enable remote WMI requests >>
This settings are usually all that need to be configured to get WMI working. (Steps 2 and 3 are typically not needed, but they might be in some circumstances)

1. On the target server, go to Administrative Tools -> Computer Management

2. Expand 'Services and Applications'

3. Right click for Properties on 'WMI Control'

4. Select the Security tab

5. Press the Security button

6. Add the monitoring user (if needed), and then be sure to check Remote Enable for the user/group that will be requesting WMI data

<< Allow WMI through Windows Firewall >>
All users (including non-administrators) are able to query/read WMI data on the local computer. For reading WMI data on a remote server, a connection needs to be made from your management computer (where our monitoring software is installed) to the server that you're monitoring (the target server). If the target server is running Windows Firewall (aka Internet Connection Firewall), then you need to tell it to let remote WMI requests through. This can only be done at the command prompt. Run the following on the target computer if it is running a Windows firewall:

netsh firewall set service RemoteAdmin enable

Reference:
Enable WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation)
http://www.poweradmin.com/help/enablewmi.aspx

Apple: Get Hard Disk Icon on The Desktop

Here are the steps to get the hard disk icon on to your desktop:
1.  Click on Finder
2.  Click on Preferences
3.  Check on Hard disks

Microsoft: Save a Link to The Desktop

You may save a link to your desktop by following the steps below:
1.  Go to the webpage that you want to bookmark
2.  Click on the site icon in your bookmark lists
3.  Drag the icon to your desktop

Apple: Screen Sharing

If you know the IP address or the DNS name of the Mac you want to share, you can connect to it by choosing Go > “Connect to Server” in the Finder, and then entering vnc://[IPAddress] or vnc://[Name.Domain] in the Server Address field.

Apple: Copy Files from One Folder to Another Folder Allowing User to Input Folder Name with AppleScript

The AppleScript below will allow you to copy the files from one folder to another folder which allows the user to input the folder name:

display dialog "What's your folder name?" default answer ""
set answer to text returned of result
set deskfolder to path to desktop folder as string
set desktopfolder to alias (deskfolder & "Test_FilesToBeCopiedFrom")
tell application "Finder"
copy every file of desktopfolder to folder answer of desktop
end tell

Microsoft: Remote Desktop Connection with Windows Command

The command below allows you create a remote desktop connection to the respective IP address or computer name:

mstsc /v:<ip address or computer name>

Apple: Copy Files from One Folder to Another Folder with AppleScript

The AppleScript below will allow you to copy the files from one folder to another folder:

set deskfolder to path to desktop folder as string
set desktopfolder to alias (deskfolder & "Test_FilesToBeCopiedFrom")
tell application "Finder"
copy every file of desktopfolder to folder "Test_FilesToBeCopiedTo" of desktop
end tell

Microsoft: DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model)

DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) is a set of Microsoft concepts and program interfaces in which client program object s can request services from server program objects on other computers in a network. DCOM is based on the Component Object Model (COM), which provides a set of interfaces allowing clients and servers to communicate within the same computer (that is running Windows 95 or a later version).

For example, you can create a page for a Web site that contains a script or program that can be processed (before being sent to a requesting user) not on the Web site server but on another, more specialized server in the network. Using DCOM interfaces, the Web server site program (now acting as a client object ) can forward a Remote Procedure Call ( RPC ) to the specialized server object, which provides the necessary processing and returns the result to the Web server site. It passes the result on to the Web page viewer.

DCOM can also work on a network within an enterprise or on other networks besides the public Internet. It uses TCP/IP and Hypertext Transfer Protocol . DCOM comes as part of the Windows operating systems. DCOM is or soon will be available on all major UNIX platforms and on IBM's large server products. DCOM replaces OLE Remote Automation.

DCOM is generally equivalent to the Common Object Request Broker Architecture ( CORBA ) in terms of providing a set of distributed services. DCOM is Microsoft's approach to a network-wide environment for program and data objects. CORBA is sponsored by the rest of the information technology industry under the auspices of the Object Management Group ( OMG ).


Reference:
DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model)
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/DCOM-Distributed-Component-Object-Model