Now, how to perform a remote shutdown/restart on a Windows box:

1. Open Computer Management (Local)
   In the console tree, right-click Computer Management (Local), and then click Connect to another computer.
2. In the Select Computer dialog box, click Another computer, type the name of the computer that you want to restart or shut down, and then click OK. You can also click Browse to search for the name of the computer.
3. In the console tree, right-click Computer Management (Remote computer name), and then click Properties.
4. On the Advanced tab, click Startup and Recovery.
5. Click Shut Down to open the Shut Down dialog box.
6. Under Action, select the actions you want to perform on the computer to which you are connected.
7. Under Force Apps Closed, select the circumstances under which you want to force applications to close when you shut down or restart the computer, and then click OK.

Note

• To open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.
• You must be recognized as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group on your computer and on the computer you are managing to perform this task.

Via Microsoft

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Here are five examples of common workplace activities that Google Wave can support.

1. Conferences and Professional Development

This one probably seems obvious. Departments can set up Google Waves to discuss what’s happening at a particular event. A company with limited funds could send one person to a conference and use Google Wave as a reporting mechanism. Or if several people attend, they can divide/conquer the event and post their ideas and comments in one place.

For example Chris Hoyt, author of the blog The Recruiter Guy, set up a Wave for the human resources and recruiting community during last year’s Social Recruiting Summit. Both attendees and those of us who were interested but couldn’t make it in person were able to join the Wave. It was an opportunity to gain exposure to the content and learn more about the event so people could budget to attend the following year.

One thing I could see emerging from conference Waves are “back channel” discussions. Conference organizers in particular will want to pay particular attention to this and not necessarily view it as a bad thing. If managed properly, it could bring some opportunities for improvement to light during the event.

2. Decision Making and Problem Solving

Using Google Wave to discuss a company challenge could be very beneficial — especially when all of the players aren’t located in the same place. That’s exactly why Troy Peterson, CEO of Nibi Software, used Wave to get the company’s development plan finalized.  He brought everyone together in a Wave and let the conversation flow. “The real-time document functionality allowed us to have ‘arguments’ and solve problems together that might otherwise have resulted in ‘back and forth’ threads that went on forever.”

Peterson did mention that adoption was an initial challenge. “Although several of my contacts immediately had Wave accounts, they weren’t necessarily the people I was collaborating with on projects.  It required some arm wrestling to get people on board.” But the results were worth it. “In the end, we have a succinct document that we have all agreed on and that we can compare short-term objectives against.”

3. Project Management

The same decision making philosophy applies when you have a project and need to collaborate not only with internal stakeholders, but an external supplier. Google Wave provides an opportunity for collaboration. Hopefully, consultants and/or contractors are able to tap into that dialogue by sharing their Wave account info with client companies.

Rachel Levy, Founder/CEO of the startup website WebinarListings, is using Google Wave with her developer. “We have the list of open items in the Wave, so we can discuss each one. I add an open item, and he can ask me a question about it, or mark it as done.” The main advantage to using this application was being able to track conversations.

This could also be a valuable way to manage the dreaded “scope creep.” You can lay out the entire project in a single Wave once the parameters are agreed upon. Then, you can work through each facet with each side tracking progress and those pesky project deviations. And everything gets documented along the way. New project requirements can even be moved to a new Wave for later consideration.

4. Brainstorming and Idea Cultivation

Brendan Gill, with the firm Staircase3, said he and his partners use Google Wave as a medium to organize and facilitate conversations and feedback. “We are a team of entrepreneurs who like to have an idea and make it happen quickly. We use Google Wave to brainstorm our ideas for new business projects.  It’s a great tool for collecting a series of conversations, and we use a different Wave for each different idea.”

Gill explained they would have traditionally used group e-mails for this purpose, but found Wave has numerous advantages, including serving as a centralized repository, and the ability to use add-on features for enhanced productivity. This was especially useful since their management team is located around the globe. “The Ribbit conferencing feature is great for staging an ad hoc conference call. Furthermore, the simple voting widget is a useful way to end each of our Waves where we can stage a vote for a given idea — whether or not we want to put the idea in motion, or just cut it loose.”

5. Virtual Meetings and Reduced Travel

Let’s face it. Bringing groups of people together can be expensive. Depending on the project, Google Wave could help foster dialogue without a lot of travel, phone calls, etc. Gill mentioned using Wave to make edits and adjustments on business proposals without having people travel to a central location. “Using Wave definitely reduces the need for thousand-dollar transatlantic flights and many tons of carbon emissions. Obviously without Wave, we would still use e-mails and teleconferencing, but using a better communications platform has definitely cut a number of flights out of our schedule,” he said.

Gill added that, “Collaboration can be done in real-time, if required, which is useful if you’re trying to rush out a project that has to happen quickly or not at all. Or for longer-term projects, you can take your time to think about an idea and come back to the plan at any time you like.”

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a way to streamline communications on your next project, Peterson suggests that you “Sign up and use the tool. It may not revolutionize your company’s communications, but it is useful and worth the effort involved in figuring out how it works for your organization.”

Remember the success of a Wave is contingent upon the active participation of the individuals involved. Waves need engagement, attention and clarity. You can’t just ask a question and walk away for a couple days. According to Levy, “The bigger the Wave gets, the slower it gets.” Managing activity and open items becomes essential for productivity.

Via Mashable

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Check the original post at anabubula.com

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This kind of clunky, time-consuming interaction is common on the Web. Mashups help in some cases but they are static, require Web development skills, and are largely site-centric rather than user-centric.

It’s even worse on mobile devices, where limited capability and fidelity makes this onerous or nearly impossible.

Most people do not have an easy way to manage the vast resources of the Web to simplify their task at hand. For the most part they are left trundling between web sites, performing common tasks resulting in frustration and wasted time.
Enter Ubiquity
Today we’re announcing the launch of Ubiquity, a Mozilla Labs experiment into connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.

The overall goals of Ubiquity are to explore how best to:

• Empower users to control the web browser with language-based instructions. (With search, users type what they want to find. With Ubiquity, they type what they want to do.)
• Enable on-demand, user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs. (In other words, allowing everyone–not just Web developers–to remix the Web so it fits their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing.)
  
• Use Trust networks and social constructs to balance security with ease of extensibility.
  
• Extend the browser functionality easily.

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Get It Now at http://labs.mozilla.com/projects/ubiquity/

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10. Doable to-do lists
As our founding editor so aptly puts it, every worker of any stripe has two different hats they wear, and can switch between them often: the Boss hat, when tasks are thought up, broken into steps that can be done, and a deadline set; and the Personal Assistant hat, when work is cranked out and reported on. Gina’s breakdowns of the art of the doable to-do list and practicing a simplified Getting Things Done method are great places to start out on the path toward getting better at setting up your tasks and knocking them down. Knowing how most information workers are inundated these days, she also warns us to separate email from to-dos, and shows how to shuttle material between the two.

9. Ninja-like search skillz
A newly-licensed lawyer doesn’t know everything about every law out there, but they know where and how to find out more about them. Similarly, building up your abilities to find obscure stuff on the web, and in your email, makes you more prepared and ready to roll with whatever you have to learn more about next. Start with 10 obscure Google search tricks to make finding cached pages and specific files an instinct, and learn how phrases like “better than” and “reminds me of” can harness the power of crowds. Get the same kind of thought-to-search-result powers in Gmail with advanced filters and persistent searches, or do much of the same in Outlook with categories and search folders. Look into any search engine’s options or help menus, and you’re bound to find out a whole lot of tricks you had no idea you could pull off.

8. Remind your future self (a.k.a. tickler files)
Tickler files, in the journalism world, are date-labeled folders that reporters check every day and put documents or story ideas into that aren’t needed now, but could be vital down the line. A lot of folks have probably switched over to calendars they can access online, but the principles and usefulness remain the same. Gina traded her month-and-date-labeled paper folder system for a Yahoo Calendar tickler, but her system certainly works in Outlook, on Google Calendars, and many other places. Once you’ve got a system to jump in front of your Future Self every morning and scream “Today’s the day to start working on that project due this October!”, you’ll want to fine-tune how, exactly, you talk to Future Self. We’ve covered one specific, concise idea: write as if you were delegating to somebody taking over your jobs for the day.

7. Ubiquitous capture
Your mind doesn’t follow your schedule when it comes to great ideas. Holiday gift ideas can pop up in July, project breakthroughs come Saturday afternoons at the mall, and design inspirations show up when you’re hundreds of miles from your house. If you’re always ready to jot down or photograph an idea and, more importantly, are in the habit of doing so efficiently, you can pull your long-forgotten ideas from your secondary brain when you need them. Evernote is an increasingly popular platform that runs on Windows, Macs, most smartphones, and even on most regular phones via email; we call it a tool to expand your brain. The Hipster PDA costs about 1/8 of a Starbucks drink and gets the job done for those inclined to write rather than type. There are lots of tools available for grabbing your thoughts when you need one, and how you use them should depend on your trade, and mindset. Geek rock God Jonathan Coulton, for instance, uses a voice recorder app on his iPhone to quickly hum or sing song ideas as they come to him, as explained in our interview—he just pretends he’s calling somebody when he does it in public. Photo by Marcin Wichary.

6. Timers and working in dashes
“Crunch these expense report figures for 10 minutes.” That’s way more appealing and understandable than “Have a briefing on your trip ready by Friday.” That second command is what your boss says; the first, a little challenge you give your mind. Set up a timer on your desk or on your computer, pick just a small part of a bigger task you need to do, then hit the clock and go. Give yourself a little break, maybe 2 or 4 minutes every 10, then crank on another work dash. At day’s end, you’ve turned out way more than if you’d pretended to work “all day,” and your to-dos are swept away as you run toward the weekend. Here’s 43Folders’ original post on dashes.

5. Quick searches (web)
Here’s a little not-quite-secret disclosure: Editors at this site do dozens of Google site:lifehacker.com searches every day, tracking down old articles and (mostly) ensuring that topics and software already covered don’t get posted again. We don’t head to Google.com to do them, or even use the default Google search bar in our browsers. Most of us have instead turned those specific Google instructions into a “quick search” in Firefox, and use that to quickly find items from the address bar (this editor, for example, would hit Alt+D, then type lh productivity basics to find this article). It’s not only Google searches that can be made quicker; in Firefox, right-clicking on any search box lets you create a quick search. We’ve previous demonstrated and linked 15 quick searches, shown the easier system for Firefox 3, demonstrated that Google’s Quick Search has similar powers, and fallen for experimental Firefox extension Ubiquity as an even faster, smarter quick search commander.

4. Quick searches (local)
Your computer knows where everything is inside it. You don’t need, therefore, a cluttered Start menu, Dock, or shortcut-stuffed desktop to get to your files and applications, but a way to tell your computer what you want to do next. An app like Quicksilver on the Mac, Launchy on Windows (or just the Windows keyboard button itself on Vista), or Gnome-Do on Linux connects the first few letters of what you’re thinking about to exactly that thing. With practice, you’ll search out files you can’t even name, perform multi-step actions, and search the web from the same launcher, and never want to return to double-clicking that “Work documents” folder five times a day.

3. Inbox Zero
Email can’t overwhelm you if it isn’t there. So practicing the art and craft of Inbox Zero is kind of like clearing off a desk—you act on the items you can quickly dismiss, assign the stuff that’s actually somebody else’s job at the moment to them, and put the rest somewhere to be acted on at a specific date. The idea is just to clear it out and not let it pile up, so you can put your full brain into all that stuff you used to do before email came into your life.

2. Keyboard shortcuts
The more you pull your hand away from a relaxed position on the keyboard to move the mouse, the more strain you put on your hands, wrists, and arms. You’re also more likely to get distracted if you pull away from an alert, in-control posture. Learning and internalizing the keyboard shortcuts of your operating system and most-used applications keeps you moving in them. Over time, those muscle memories provide an effortless control that leaves you free to spend your working day’s energy on actual thought, not File, Save As, Browse, etc. Here’s a list of Windows 7 shortcuts, Microsoft’s shortcuts list for XP/Vista, and Apple’s official list; the individual programs, you’ll have to learn for yourself.

1. Text expansion
You write some blocks of text over and over. “My address is …” for example, or addresses you enter frequently into mapping web sites, or a list of email addresses. Text expansion tools instantly write those blocks for you when you write a trigger word, and are smart enough to auto-insert dates, text you’ve just copied, and then move the cursor to where you’ll be. On Windows computers, your Lifehacker editors use Texter, while the Mac writers run TextExpander (your sole Linux stalwart is tinkering with AutoKey at the moment). Save yourself a few words at a time, and soon you’ll have freed yourself from hours of mechanical typing.

Via lifehacker.com

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Why the Heck Should This Work?

By making even the most modest bit of progress on your hated task, you’ve done what once seemed impossible: you got started. When you realize how much of the anxiety you’d experienced was created in your head, you’ll experience huge relief and give yourself the jolt needed to get back on track.

You can do a dash any time and for virtually any kind of project. The task has not been conceived that cannot be made smaller and more dash-able.

Three kinds of dashes

Plan your dash based on whatever works best for both your project and the particular block that’s hanging you up. The key is to pick a goal that’s laughably modest. Seriously, this is not the place for extravagant predictions and overly ambitious goals (that’s probably what helped land you here, right?).

• Time-based dash – Most jobs lend themselves to a time-based dash, so pick up a kitchen timer at your local drugstore. Choose an amount of time that gives you enough room to do something but that’s brief enough to seem completely unintimidating. For some reason, eight minutes seems to work well for most of my own dashes.
• Unit-based dash – Alternatively, depending on the tasks you’ve been avoiding, you could go with a unit-based dash, during which you agree to plow through an arbitrary number of pieces associated with your project (such as pages to read, words to write, glasses to wash, etc.).
• Combination dash – In many cases, the best solution is a combination dash, in which you get to stop the hated work whenever you reach either the time or unit goal first.

Above all, remember that this is all about doing something, so pick a goal at which you can’t possibly fail.

Some Sample Dashes

Here are a few ideas to get you started, although dashes can work for virtually any project you’ve procrastinated—no matter how monolithic.

• Messy garage – Goal: 10 minutes or 1 full garbage bag. Spend 10 minutes working in one area of the garage. Take out old papers, break down some boxes, or move the Christmas ornaments to the top shelf. When the timer buzzes at you, stop.
• College application – Goal: 5 minutes or 1 page. Start by filling in the easy boxes. If you reach the bottom of the page before time is up, stop.
• Overdue report – Goal: 10 minutes or 100 words. Just start writing, even if it’s complete crap. Just keep scribbling for 10 minutes or until you have a paragraph or two. When time’s up, stop.
• Holiday cards and family correspondence – Goal: 5 minutes or 2 notes. Grab a pen and start making with the nice. Tell them about Tyler’s big day at Computer Camp. Brag about Ashley-Marie’s jazz and tap recital. When you’ve hit two finished cards, stop.

Feel Like Working More? Well, do ya, punk?

Once you’ve made any progress on something you’ve been procrastinating—even the ridiculously minor amounts of progress you make in your dash—you might find it irresistible to keep working at it. That’s okay. Seriously, go nuts.

Although you must begin your dash with the confidence that your life preserver is never more than a few minutes or units away, there’s nothing to stop you from paddling forward if you’re making happy progress. That’s the trick, and, believe it or not, it totally works. Give it 8 minutes, and find out for yourself.

Source:

http://www.43folders.com/2005/09/08/kick-procrastinations-ass-run-a-dash

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But in other organizations, and for a lot of freelancers, there’s more time than work. In other words, slack time.

Assume for a moment you don’t have money to develop and launch something new. So, what are you going to do with the slack?

What can you build over the next year that will take time now and pay off later? How can you invest the slack to build a marketing asset that you’ll own forever?

May I offer two suggestions:

1. Learn something. Become an expert. For free, using nothing but time, you can become a master of CSS or HTML or learn Python. You can hit the library and read the entire works of important authors, or you can borrow some books from a friend and master Analytics or discover case studies and corporate histories that will be invaluable in a year. You could learn to become fluent in Spanish…

If you’re a glass blower without a job, you can’t do much glass blowing. But if you’re a digital marketer between gigs, you can do a lot of digital marketing… build a tribe for your favorite non-profit and make it a case-study for an entire industry.

2. Earn a following and reputation. Use social networking tools to connect to people for no good reason. Post tons of useful answers on discussion boards where your expertise is valued. Build a permission asset in the form of an email newsletter or a fascinating blog that people want to read. Do resume makeovers for 100 friends. Start a neighborhood or industry book group. Don’t go to conventions, earn the right to speak at them.

If you were as serious about these two endeavors as you are about doing your job (eight hours a day on a slow day), imagine how much more powerful and in demand you’ll be a year from now.

Beats the alternative, by far.

Source:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/slack.html

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This is the video for Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero talk, presented in July of 2007 at Google. I’ve been using this method for a while now and I have to say, it works great for me!

I used to have tons of folders to organize my mail, but having too many folders simply doesn’t work. My mail was accumulating on Inbox because I was losing too much time deciding where I should put each mail. Now I have just a couple folders and Google desktop search to help me find my mail. My Inbox is always clean!

Source:

http://www.43folders.com/2007/07/25/merlins-inbox-zero-talk

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