Month May 2018

How to find compatible parts for Lenovo PCs

Solution 1: Use Lenovo SmartFind website You can use Lenovo SmartFind to find compatible accessories easily. All you need to know is the machine “type number“. For example, a ThinkPad T580 may have a machine type of 20L9 or 20LA. You can find the type number by running the command: wmic baseboard get product and note the first four letters/numbers. Solution 2: Use lenovo.com website You can also use the link below and replace XXXXXXXXXX with the model number e.g 20J6003GMX. This will take you directly to all compatible parts for that particular type of computer you have. If that doesn’t work, you can go to https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/search and search for any PC. Solution 3: Use the OCM spreadsheet Although this method might not always be up to date, you can use a spreadsheet called “Accessories and Options Compatibility Matrix (OCM)” from Lenovo. It is basically a huge spreadsheet document that contains a matrix of all compatible products. It is not very user friendly, but this table includes detailed info and comments from Lenovo. Great for IT employees that need to know specifications, FRU, and so on… Understanding Lenovo model numbers and letters It can be a little tricky to navigate the jungle of Lenovo products if you do not know your way around. Here is an infographic on how to understand how Lenovo PC names. Yeah… I am not sure about that last one, MX, but I believe it has something to do with which region in which the product is distributed or produced.

Print list of files and folders in Windows

Here are a few ways you can get a list of files and folders on a computer. I won’t get into specifics on how to use them. I just wanted to give you the options. 😇 The DIR command (Simple way to list files and folders) Documentation: Microsoft Docs Articles: How-To Geek, SS64, Computer Hope, windows-commandline Advantages: Good if you just need list of files, types, sizes etc… Disadvantages: Not good if you need a visual representation of the file hierarchy. GUI Alternative: JR Directory Printer does pretty much the same with a GUI. Karen’s Directory Printer offers a little more options, but it is not portable. There is also DirLister that can export to Excel and other formats, but it is buggy and adds annoying text after each file/folder. TREE command (Make a directory structure tree) Documentation: Microsoft Docs Articles: SS64, Computer Hope Advantages: Very simple and limited. Good if you just need a tree of the directory structure Disadvantages: Not good if you just need a list of files, advanced filtering or if you need something more visually pleasing. Snap2HTML (Software to make dynamic HTML) Documentation: GitHub Download: Snap2HTML Advantages: A beautiful and eloquent way to share complex directory structures with other non-technical people. Also, the software is portable, free and allows you to export to CSV or JSON. Disadvantages: Requires HTML and a web browser. The template looks a bit outdated, but you can change it if you know HTML.

Enable version control in Bvckup 2

What is Bvckup 2? Bvckup 2 is a lightweight and versatile Windows premium backup software. I have used it for some years now and it really is superb. The only feature I am missing is “version control”. Especially when you are editing the same file over and over. You really need to be able to go back in time sometimes. What is version control? File control, file versioning, file history, version control – are all different names for what is commonly known as “Versioning file system”. Let’s say you do not have version control. Without “version control” (a.k.a file history) you would backup a file, and every time the original file is changed, the backup gets overwritten by the latest change. So, for example, if you are working on a document and you realize you have accidentally deleted 10 pages in the document. You check your backup… and HEY! You have a backup file, great! 😃👍 But hold on… That backup is also missing 10 pages, because the backup was made recently. Noooooooooooo! 😲😖 That is exactly why you need version control (not backup)! With backup you will only have the most recent backup. With version control you will have multiple backup versions. Mac users are probably laughing right now because they have Time Machine for years. Let’s hope Microsoft is catching up soon. And I don’t mean the horrible implementation of file history, because it cant be trusted at all. How to enable version control Bvckup 2 actually has a “hidden” feature in Bvckup 2 called archive\_modified which enables file versioning. 😲🙀 This feature allows you to keep all versions of a backed-up file. Every time the file is backed up, the older version of the file is moved to a folder called $Archive (Bvckup 2). Make a new […]

underscores.me markup explained

Underscores is a great framework for building WordPress themes. Since the HTML markup can be a little confusing at start, I have made a simple go-to explanation for future projects. The markup might change in the future, but the basic markup has stayed the same for the last years. This markup is from April 2018. Here is a visual illustration of the markup: Here is the same markup in code: So what is going on here? Let’s break it down a little… The body contains the #page DIV which acts as a container for the whole shebang. Inside the #page the site is divided into three parts: .site-header, .site-content and .site-footer. .site-content is basically everything that goes between the header and the footer. In other words; the content. Inside the .site-content DIV we have #primary and #secondary, which are basically just a way of separating the widgets section from the main content. Inside #primary we have another div called #main. I am not completely sure why we have this div yet, but it might function as a way to add padding, margin or max-width to a centered content. Inside #main we get the single post/artigle/page, the post-navigation (previous/next post) and the comments area each in their respectiv divs.