What will you need?

• A text processor so you can write your notes, tables and time sheets. That way you will have a written thing ready to use. A printer would be nice too, but you can do it without it.
• Two rooms will provide enough space for studying and for resting. Its important not to do the same thing in the same space. If you can’t spare another room go out!
• A watch to guard your time while you study, rest and do what ever you need.
• A few colored pens and office work.

Get started

First plan your day, don’t forget to include a weekends because you will be studying then too. If you miss a day you have to start again. Thats the game, and no cheating!  Plan your days well, once you print them there is no going back. And remember we are doing this the day 0. no the that 1. ok? Be sure to include times and descriptions. Don’t write deferent tasks here, you just create placeholders (timeholders) for the tasks you define a week infront. Don’t forget to plan regulars breaks and free time.

Next plan your week. You can find a nice week table in the end of this post. You can choose to write the tasks here or later when you print it out. The sheet is divided in 5 rows: first row is what test, etc. you have that day; second row is what you need to study that day, or for the next day; third row is a to do row, here you write all you need to do for that day, e.g. answer that email; fourth row is an addition to that day, if you have something that needs more work you can replace a placeholder form your first plan that we made; and last fifth row is just a counter till the end of 15 days.

All printed our? Then place the papers somewhere you will see them all day. Set your alarm clock to wake up time for the next day and hit the sack (don’t do it if it is noon :p). Good luck.

Additional things that will help

Do a diary. Every day for next 15 days. I know I will and you can follow it right here. Or come back here for the new links. See you tomorrow.

One of the best features in the Mac app is the ability to choose on what networks will the VPN activate, so that you can set up that on your network the VPN hour usage won’t be spent in vain.

The nice feature with the desktop version is the global shortcut key combination that you can set in your settings so that you can activate and deactivate the VPN on the fly.

If 2 hours are not enough for you there are more monthly plans to choose from; 8$ will give you unlimited time and 20 GB of data transfer and 15$ one with unlimited time and 50 GB of data.

Your data will reset every 31 days so you start with fresh new time and data bandwidth. The only down side is that you will notice a small speed decreasement but that’s a small price to pay.

Sharing the app using the link on their website (and having two friends register) will gain you one free month with the 15$ plan. So go ahead and protect yourself online.

P.S. My sharing link Thank you!

Instalation of Ubuntu Server 12.04 and Minecraft server is easy. You will be done in just a couple of minutes. You will need a semi powerful PC to run the Minecraft server without problems. The speed of your server will vary if you use internet to connect to it (or if you are connecting via a local network) and depending on the speed of your spare computer.

Follow steps in the video to get started. Once you finish the video you will have to install java on your server so you can run the Minecraft. To this by entering the following:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre
sudo apt-get install icedtea6-plugin

Once you installed the java you can run the server using this command (be sure to change 1024M in the memory size you want e.g. 512M, but note that 1024 is the minimum for running the server without any problems in speed).

java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui

From here you can now install Bukkitcraft (tutorial coming soon) or you can set up dynDNS so you can play with your friends (tutorial coming soon).

Windows users: Use PutySSH for connecting to your server.

Links:

Ubuntu Server - http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server
Minecraft Server - http://www.minecraft.net/download

So yesterday I applied for Google Drive on Google Drive website and got my account just now. I rushed to the my drive to see the UI and whats in there. I found all my Google Docs waiting for me there, ready to be synced. So I downloaded the app for OSX (67 MB) and found that it looks alot like Dropbox (also a free service) except that it features 5 GB free! I copied a few documents to the Google Drive and it synced fast and showed up on the website as is. I tired with .doc, .pdf and .jpg and found that it runs smoothly. Next what I found was an Android app witch seamed just a tad slower than Dropbox one. The documents showed nice there too. If you on the other hand have your Google Documents in the Drive they will not take the space for usage and if you click on them on your computer they will open in your browser in Google Documents.

So, in the space and speed way, its a good idea to try out Google Drive since it provides a much better and cleaner feeling while using. Its of course understandable that  the service isn’t quite done yet, but it is still very usable. There are space upgrades too, so for $2,49 per month you can have 25 GB of storage for your stuff, perfect if you ask me. There are more upgrades to see here. So overall a nice thing from Google bringing down iCloud and maybe Dropbox.

Some screenshoots: (click on the photos enlarge them)

1. Download the Automator Script that I made here. Unzip it where you will keep it, since this is what locks the screen. If you want to check the code just open it with Automator.

2. You will need a semi-free application called Keyboard Maestro found here. Its free to use but you can buy it if you would like to. After you download it – install it.

3. Time to add a shortcut. Fire up the program and before you do anything fiddle with the settings so its just as you want it (without the icon in the top bar, auto start at login, etc.).

Firstly you will need to add a new shortcut by pressing a “+” button in the bottom.

Next you will need to define a shortcut by pressing “New trigger” and then selecting “Hot key trigger”, click in the box to define one. (I used cmd + F3)

Press “New action” and in the list select Execute and then Execute an Automator workflow. Click on the three dots to find your script that you downloaded.

4. Time to test the shortcut. Press your key combination and a small windows should pop up asking you if you are sure that you want to lock your mac.

Thats it! Repeat this procedure for all your scripts, and other stuff!