A game of catch

Throwing and catching game.

Especially good for young people looking to improve close range throwing and catching.

Requires
Tennis ball
Teams of 2 - good idea to have some one mature enough to judge the rules.

Rules
Team A member throws the ball to team B, if the throw is judged poor the thrower misses a go and the thrower folds their arms.
A throw is poor if:
It is too high
Does not reach the person
It is too wide

If Team B member does not catch the ball, they miss 2 goes and fold their arms, the other member of team B takes over throwing the ball.

How to win
The win takes place when both team members, from one team have there arms folded.

Additional information

The ball can be thrown to any member of the opposite team.

If the ball is thrown between both members of the opposite team and it is not judged poor and the opposite team do not catch it, the throw is retaken.


How to make the game harder

As the team members get better at throwing and or catching you can increase the number of missed goes for poor throws and dropped catches.

You can increase throwing difficult by moving the teams further apart.

You can increase the catching difficulty by using one hand.

You can have more than 2 teams

Removing the argument at the end of the day

We have 2 wonderful and challenging children who both have tablets, and when we want them to put them down at the end of an evening - we either got an argument or it's nearly finished..

I wanted a way of restricting and switching off the internet at set times to specific devices, unfortunately my TalkTalk router did not offer me many solutions.

How to change the default search engine in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft edge is the new Web browser installed with Microsoft Windows 10 (and seen by Microsoft as a replacement for Internet Explorer.)

I do like Edge but was having a problem changing the default search engine from Bing.


Microsoft has produced notes on how to change but I must learn to read the first item on the list..- Remember to access your search providers website in Edge before trying to change the default search provider.

1. Enter the search engine’s website and browse to it. (i.e. open www.google.com in Microsoft Edge) 
2. Select More actions (…) > Settings , then scroll down to select View advanced settings. In the list under Search in the address bar with, choose Change
3. From the Choose one list select Google Search (discovered) and then click Set as Default.

It's important to remember that adding a new search provider to Microsoft Edge doesn't change the search options within Internet Explorer, which has its own plugin-based method of choosing search engines. Nor does it change the behaviour of the search function within the taskbar – that's provided courtesy of Cortana, and as such will always be powered by Bing.

TalkTalk - how not to fix a problem

I am starting the blog post as a record of the fun and games I am having with TalkTalk who are my phone and broadband supplier.

Note - Phone is working fine... broadband less so.

TalkTalk - support phone number 08700 878777

Transfer Windows 8 License to another computer

I did these steps to transfer the license to my new desktop PC.

First on my old laptop which was connected to internet I deactivated the genuine copy by doing these steps :

• Open an elevated command prompt,
• In the elevated command prompt enter slmgr.vbs /upk

You will get a pop up windows saying " Uninstalled product key successfully"


I then go to my new PC and open an elevated command prompt,

enter Win + R -> slui 4.

Choose country,

Phone the number provided,

Answer Windows is installed only on 1 PC

Follow instructions and it worked!

Add a NAS folder to a Music Library - Windows 8

 

To add a network folder that isn't indexed to a library

Windows 8 includes the Xbox Music app that can utilise the Music library. If you use a separate NAS (Network Attached Storage device.) you can not link a Music share on the NAS to the Music library as the share can not be indexed.

 

The easiest way to do this is to make the folder available offline first. Then add the offline folder to a library by following the steps earlier in this topic. You're done. (This may require a great deal of local storage.) 

 

If you don't want to make the folder available offline because you don't want to keep the folder contents on your PC, follow these steps to add the folder to a library. Note that doing this will make searching, sorting, and filtering in the whole library slow. For best results, it is recommend creating a new library for the network folder alone.

1. Tap or click to open Computer.
2. Create a folder on your hard drive for your network folders, for example c:\share.
3. Create another folder within that folder, for example c:\share\music.
4. Select the subfolder you just created, tap or click the Home tab, tap or click Easy access, choose Include in library, and then select the library to which you want to add the folder.
5. Delete the folder.
6. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, then tap Search.
   (If you're using a mouse, point to the top-right corner of the screen, then click Search.).
7. Enter cmd in the search box, and then tap or click Apps.
8. Press and hold or right-click Command Prompt in the search results, and then tap or click Run as administrator.
9. Enter mklink /d, and then enter the path of the folder you just deleted and the path of the network folder. For example, mklink /d c:\share\music \\server\music. This creates what is called a symbolic link.
10. Start Media Player and ensure the Music Library contains the list of music files on the NAS.

3rd party application Win7 Library Tool that gets over the problem off remote location  thatcan’t be indexed.

Using PowerShell to manage Office 365 security groups

To display a list of groups available in Office 365 

In PowerShell type - Get-MSOLGroup 

This will display a list of groups and the group type i.e. Security or Distribution 

Add individual users to a security group 

$studentsGroup = Get-MsolGroup | where-object { $_.DisplayName -eq "students-security"} 

$user = Get-MsolUser | where-object { $_.DisplayName -eq "Jane Mcburney" } 

Add-MsolGroupMember -GroupObjectId $studentsGroup.ObjectId -GroupMemberObjectId $user.ObjectId -GroupMemberType "User" 

Add CSV user list to a security group 

1. Export a list of UPN names using PowerShell to csv. 

Get-MSOLUser | Select UserPrincipalName|Export-Csv c:\tools\user.csv 

2. Edit the user.csv so that it contains only accounts you want to add to the security group. 
3. Import the users.csv containing the UPN and export a new csv user2.csv with the users objectId. 

$sub = Import-Csv C:\tools\users.csv 

$sub | Foreach {Get-Msoluser -UserPrincipalName $_.Userprincipalname | select Objectid } | Export-csv C:\tools\Users2.csv 

4. Display  the security group objectid 

Get-MSOLGroup 

5. Copy the 32 digit objectid code of the security group you want to add users to. 
6. Modify the following script to add the copied security group objectid. The following script will import the users2.csv containing the users objectid and add to the security group. 

$sub2 = Import-Csv C:\tools\users2.csv 

$sub2 | Foreach {Add-MsolGroupMember -groupObjectid ‘xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx’ -GroupMemberObjectId $_.ObjectId -GroupMemberType User} 

List members of a security group 

1. Display  the security group objectid 

Get-MSOLGroup 

2. Copy the 32 digit objectid code of the security group you want to check members. 
3. Modify the following script to add the copied security group objectid. The following script will export members of a security group members to csv. 

Get-MsolGroupMember -groupObjectid 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx' | Select DisplayName,EmailAddress,GroupMemberType | Export-csv C:\tools\security-group-members.csv