- All Programs > Administrator Tools > Performance
- Click on New Counter Set
- Right click on the counter screen and click on Add Counters…
- Select the following counter below

- You will see the counter increase/decrease as agents log in and out.

~dmacias

While I was only able to accomplish this 6 times, I have burned over 100,000 calories so far and lost about 10 pounds.  I will continue working towards 10,000 a month in 2012.  So, now I have a year of data and I’ve been looking to play around with Google’s Chart Tools and figure this would be the combination.  Here’s my first stab at visualizing the data I’ve collected so far.

~david

That being said, there are different levels based on how many points you’ve been awarded.  Just recently I reached the gold start level by surpassing 750 points.  While I still have a long way to go to catch some of the top contributors who are in the 10s of thousands of points, it does feel nice to hit a small milestone.

~dmacias

• Download the Demo Adapter 3.01.  This includes the Salesforce.com Adapter 3.01.
• Run through setup and install it in a different directory.  Ensure you install the Firefox extension.  Cisco’s in C:\Program Files\Cisco\CRM Connector\Salesforce.com Adapter\ and Salesforce in C:\Program Files\Salesforce.com\Demo Adapter 3.01.
• Go to the Demo Adapter 3.01 folder and register the SFDCFirefoxConnector.dll and SFDCFirefoxConnectorPS.dll.
• You can register them by double clicking on the file and opening them with C:\Windows\System32\regsvr32.exe
• Restart Firefox.

Firefox should now be working with your Salesforce.com instance.  Please note that you now have two adapters and you must be running Cisco’s version 3.00 in order for this to work.  I’m assuming someone at Cisco didn’t package the right DLL and or the right Firefox extension (which is included in the Demo Adapter 3.01 folder sfdcffextension.xpi).

~dmacias

The event picked was the Findley Lake Triathlon, consisting of an easy 400 meter swim, followed by a brisk 14.3 mile bike ride, and topped off with a swift 5k trail run.  I own a pair of Speedos, a bike, and some shoes, I was set.

Race Day

It is customary to be nervous on the day of a big event and I’m one to just need some quiet before an event to really harness my inner D.  However, for this event there was no inner D, the night before I had slept about 2 hours.  As I tossed and turned pondering what would happen if I drowned, I made a decision; the only way I was going to get out of that lake was either hauled out by a life guard or via the finish line.  Prayers were requested.

There were a total of 74 participants (this number is crucial) for this event, with probably 50 men and 30 women.  The swim was to start at 8 AM with the men and around 5-10 minutes later with the women.  It was an in-water start, which I enjoyed, with all of us lined up ready to start about 20 yards from the lake shore.  As the gun goes off, I hold on to the starting line and wait for the stronger swimmers to go out.  My strategy being that I would try to make a not too shallow parabola around the half way point, this would cause me to swim a bit more, but would also allow me the most flexibility if I were to stray too far or too close from the course.

I began my swim feeling pretty good and confident this would be over sooner than expected.  I began with a good steady free style stroke just to try and get as far along the course as possible while I was still fresh.  In my mind I’m sure I’m a quarter of the way there and it’s time to take a bit of a break.  I look up and notice I’m barely 10 meters in… yes, in what felt like ages and a great stroke, I advanced a mere 10 meters.  I switch it up a bit and go with a breast stroke to get some good breaths.  I look back and about 5 meters behind me there’s another male doing, what seemed to be, the doggie paddle.  I looked over a few more times and he seemed to be dedicated to this stroke and seemed intend on going the whole way using this stroke, I was not going to be passed by the doggie paddler.

I get to the half way point and the doggie paddler has made a wide turn around the bend, but is pretty much neck and neck with me.  At this time the first two women swimmers catch up and even stopped for a second to figure out which way to go around me.  They were the strong swimmers and I was the flounderer, they were going to need to go around me and did.  At this point I look to my left and see the doggie paddler getting ahead of me and realized this was going worst than expected.  However, hope was not lost.  I had made it to the half way point and knew that if there was a current it should take me to the shore.  I also knew that if there was a current in a lake, it would take days for me to wash up, so it was up to me to get to the finish line before the day’s end.  I begin a combination of doggie paddle and back strokes to ensure I keep my head above water as much as possible.  I’m sucking wind like it’s going out of style and my chest feels like it weights a thousand pounds.  I try to ignore the multitude of women passing me by and try to focus on what’s ahead, solid ground.

I take a break to try and get my bearings and realize that I’m about 15 meters away, this is it.  I will not be hauled away by a life guard.  I began a mad back stroke dash.  I bumped the finish line with my head and try to reach for the bottom of the lake.  I’m about chest deep in water and I begin to walk my way out of the water.  The smart thing to have done is to swim until you’re only tight deep in water and run the rest of the way, but I was so exhausted and so eager to use my legs that I didn’t care about one more stroke.  At this point I don’t notice anyone else in the water ahead of me and don’t dare look behind me to see if I’m last.  My objective was ahead and that’s all that mattered.

I get out of the water and get hosed down to clean up some of the grime from the lake.  Put on some shorts over my speedos and slide on some shoes and walk out of the transition 1 area with the bike next to me.  At this point I’m thinking I will make up some of the lost ground on the bike and on the run.  As I get on the open road I spot the first other person ahead of me.  I can tell it’s a female biker and she doesn’t seem to be going too fast.  In my mind I think, “first victim, here we go.”  I never caught up to her.  Actually, I was passed by 3 other people and lost sight of my first “victim”.  About half way through the bike ride I catch up to a 13 year old boy on a non-road bike; given it his all.  I told him good job as I passed him and thought to myself that kid will beat me in a year or two.

I finish the bike portion and switch shoes and get to running.  Here’s my bread and butter.  I had hoped for a decently flat course and wasn’t sure what to expect on this trail run.  I should have known better.  The trail run consisted of muddy areas, some very steep valleys and climbs and a lot of roots.  It was slow moving, painful descents due to bad knees, and a couple of twisted ankles.  I saw two other runners and was pretty sure I would cross the finish line and everyone would be gone.

Results

Yes, that’s second to the last place in the swim, with a staggering pace of 71 minutes per mile.  I improved to 61st place in the bike stage and 33rd place in the run with an overall place of 59th.

Aftermath

I will do another triathlon.  I will do another one and not be second to the last in the swim.  I will also get a swim coach to improve my atrocious so-called-stroke.  It was an absolutely great experience.  It’s amazing the level of athleticism a lot of these participants display and while I might never get there competing along side makes me feel good.  It’s incredible how fit these people are, specially when you compare them to marathon runners.  It’s a whole different breed of people.

~dmacias

Two quotes that stood out were:

I started to wonder if James was really James or if James was really Jesus answering me with James’ face.  Then I wondered if that’s all God ever is – somebody who loves you enough to come back from the dead to visit every now and again.  Or if that’s all other people ever are – different faces of God walking around.

“Grudges are bad things, Ninah",” she said at last.  “There’s only so much room in one heart.  You can fill it up with love or you can fill it with resentment.  But every bit of resentment you hold takes space away from the love.  And the resentment don’t do no good noway, but look what love can do.”

~david

The very first thing is to go through the tutorials that Google has put together, they will give you a very quick understanding on how Android is put together and what all the pieces do in order to construct an application.

Next, appearance is everything, so you need to get familiar with layouts and DroidDraw is the best tool available for understanding how things align.  Use the DroidDraw generated code as a template and play around accordingly.

Finally, play around.

The first application I wanted to create was a gym schedule for my local gym and I will be updating the world as I move along.  The first thing I’ve created is the layout and basic functionality of the application.  This will consist of a couple of rows with the pertinent information as well as a clickable text area which will provide more information about the class.  Notice that all data is static as this is just a framework for what I hope the final application to look like.

Here’s the final product as of this point:

The breakdown of the code is as follows:

colors.xml

   1: <;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

   2: <;resources>

   3:         <;color name="grey">#C0C0C0</color>

   4:         <;color name="black">#000000</color>

   5:         <;color name="light_grey">#A8A8A8</color>

   6: <;/resources>

main.xml

   1: <;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

   2: <;TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

   3:     android:layout_width="fill_parent"

   4:     android:layout_height="fill_parent"

   5:     android:stretchColumns="*">;

   6:     <TableRow android:background="@color/grey" >

   7:         <;TextView

   8:             android:textStyle="bold"

   9:             android:text="Monday"

  10:             android:padding="3dip" 

  11:             android:textColor="@color/black"

  12:             android:textSize="18sp"

  13:             />;

  14:     </TableRow>

  15:     <;TableRow android:background="@color/light_grey">

  16:         <;TextView android:text="Time" android:padding="3dip" 

  17:             android:textColor="@color/black" android:textStyle="bold" />;

  18:         <TextView android:text="Class" android:padding="3dip" 

  19:             android:textColor="@color/black" android:textStyle="bold" />;

  20:         <TextView android:text="Studio" android:padding="3dip" 

  21:             android:textColor="@color/black" android:textStyle="bold" />;

  22:         <TextView android:text="Instructor" android:padding="3dip" 

  23:             android:textColor="@color/black" android:textStyle="bold"/>;

  24:     </TableRow>    

  25:     <;TableRow android:background="@color/grey">

  26:         <;TextView android:id="@+id/Time" android:text="6:00 AM" android:padding="3dip" 

  27:             android:textColor="@color/black" />;

  28:         <TextView android:id="@+id/Class" android:text="Cycle" android:padding="3dip" 

  29:             android:textColor="@color/black" />;

  30:         <TextView android:id="@+id/Studio" android:text="C" android:padding="3dip" 

  31:             android:textColor="@color/black" />;

  32:         <TextView android:id="@+id/Instructor" android:text="Jamie" android:padding="3dip" 

  33:             android:textColor="@color/black"/>;

  34:     </TableRow>

  35:     <;TableRow android:background="@color/light_grey" >

  36:         <;TextView />

  37:         <;TextView />

  38:         <;TextView />

  39:         <;TextView android:id="@+id/MoreInfo" android:text="More Info >" android:padding="3dip"

  40:         android:textColor="@color/black" android:onClick="onClick" android:clickable="true"/>; 

  41:     </TableRow>

  42:         <;TableRow android:background="@color/grey">

  43:         <;TextView android:id="@+id/Time" android:text="7:00 PM" android:padding="3dip" 

  44:             android:textColor="@color/black" />;

  45:         <TextView android:id="@+id/Class" android:text="Fundamentals of Yoga" android:padding="3dip" 

  46:             android:textColor="@color/black" />;

  47:         <TextView android:id="@+id/Studio" android:text="GF" android:padding="3dip" 

  48:             android:textColor="@color/black" />;

  49:         <TextView android:id="@+id/Instructor" android:text="Eleanor" android:padding="3dip" 

  50:             android:textColor="@color/black"/>;

  51:     </TableRow>

  52:     <;TableRow android:background="@color/light_grey" >

  53:         <;TextView />

  54:         <;TextView />

  55:         <;TextView />

  56:         <;TextView android:id="@+id/MoreInfo" android:text="More Info >" android:padding="3dip"

  57:         android:textColor="@color/black" android:onClick="onClick" android:clickable="true"/>; 

  58:     </TableRow>

  59: </TableLayout>

.java file:

   1: package com.example.RelativeLayout;

   2: 

   3: import android.app.Activity;

   4: import android.os.Bundle;

   5: import android.view.View;

   6: import android.widget.Toast;

   7: 

   8: public class RelativeLayout extends Activity {

   9:     /** Called when the activity is first created. */

  10:     @Override

  11:     public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

  12:         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

  13:         setContentView(R.layout.main);

  14:     }

  15:     public void onClick(View v){

  16:         Toast toast = Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), 

  17: "Cycle/Spinning – Stationary bike cardio workout in a 

  18: group setting. Water bottles and a towel required 

  19: for attendance.", Toast.LENGTH_LONG);

  20:         toast.show();

  21:     }

  22: }

  23:  

~david

First, you need to authenticate using OAuth as simple authentication has been disabled by Twitter.  I will not repeat what has already been done, so this is the best way to do it.  If you have no problems with that example, then at the end you will have a simple python script which allows you to update your status via the command line.  However, the most important piece is the authentication:

   1:  #!/usr/bin/env python

   2:   

   3:  import sys

   4:  import tweepy

   5:   

   6:  CONSUMER_KEY = 'Your stuff'

   7:  CONSUMER_SECRET = 'Your stuff'

   8:  ACCESS_KEY = 'Your stuff'

   9:  ACCESS_SECRET = 'Your stuff'

  10:   

  11:  auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET)

  12:  auth.set_access_token(ACCESS_KEY, ACCESS_SECRET)

  13:  api = tweepy.API(auth)

This will allow you to authenticate against Twitter and be able to work with the API.  Now you can add to your python script the code below.

How about printing your status updates?

   1:  statuses = tweepy.Cursor(api.user_timeline).items()

   2:   

   3:  for status in statuses:

   4:          print " "

   5:          print status.text

How about printing your mentions?

   1:  mymentions= tweepy.Cursor(api.mentions).items()

   2:   

   3:  for status in mymentions:

   4:          print " "

   5:          print status.text

The Tweepy API reference has a ton of great information.  As well as the Twitter API wiki.

~david

What I ended up having to do is remove AnyConnect and then disable FIPS encryption following this link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811770.

Works like a charm now.  More than likely you don’t have to remove AnyConnect, however I don’t use it that much and rather just remove it all together.

~david

PS: The mRemote project is dead at version 1.5, there’s a fork out there called mRemoteNG which I’m trying out check it out here http://www.mremoteng.org/.

The problem I was facing is that I wanted to create an Excel dashboard which linked worksheets in the file.  I wanted to do this dynamically using VBA in order to be able to get a snapshot of the whole workbook without having to go sheet by sheet.

The final code looks like this:

   1:  LinkToSheet = "'" & Sheets(i).Name & "'!A1"

   2:  NewSheet.Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=NewSheet.Cells(10 + c, 6), Address:="", 

   3:  SubAddress:=LinkToSheet, ScreenTip:="", TextToDisplay:=""

Now to break it down a bit for those of us who need a little help with VB.  This part of the code dictates the worksheet where the hyperlink will go, in this case I have a variable called NewSheet:

   1:  NewSheet.Hyperlinks.Add

The Anchor property is the location of where to put the hyperlink.  In my case it’s dynamic, but for most people it might be a static location (e.g. F2) like this:

   1:  NewSheet.Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=F2

The Address property needs to be blank if you’re linking to other worksheets, you use this if you’re linking to other files or URLs.  The LinkToSheet variable is used because some of the worksheet names I use have spaces, so I need to be able to format my worksheet as ‘WorkSheet Name’!A1.  Finally, the last two properties are more adornments than anything else in case you have to have a hover tip or display different text than the name of the worksheet.

~david