A recent post on DBT made me think about my own ‘disaster recovery plans’. I wanted to do this from a long time and had this running at the back of my mind but never took it seriously, partly because I couldn’t find any good synching utilities. Till today I take backup of computer storage in my Ipod Classic 80GB (at irregular intervals) manually and a monthly back up of my websites files and database in my machine.
Now that there was someone to remind me, I started my search on the Big G and came across this utility – Microsoft Synch Toy.
It can help you in saving a lot of time synching between different external hard disks and your machine’s hard disk drive. The external hard disk could also be a hard disk enabled Ipod classic. Earlier when I didn’t have such utility I would first delete the old backup folder from Ipod and then transfer the required folder from my machine. This used to consume a lot of time since my folder ranges around 35 GB.
Now with Microsoft Synch Toy, you need not to do the mundane deletion-transfer task. You just need to select the folders to be synched in the machine and disk drive. While synching the first time, it will consume some time but next time onwards it would happen in a jiffy (unless you make some big changes).
Before synching make sure to click on ‘Preview All’ button to check which files Synch toy has recognized for synching. In case you want to exclude a particular file you can simply uncheck it from preview window.
I sometimes wonder, is there any area of software world that Microsoft has left untouched?
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Learning Content Development System (LCDS) is an e-learning tool from Microsoft Corporation which provides users with a form based environment to create high quality, interactive, online courses. With the LCDS people can create content such as interactive content, quizzes, games etc. LCDS is a free to use product for the Microsoft Learning Community which comprises of Microsoft Certified Trainers(MCTs), Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions(CPLS), Microsoft Certified Professionals(MCPs) etc.
LCDS allows users to create courses for e-learning by making use of an instructional design model which has been used extensively in developing e-courses by Microsoft. The product includes a preview feature built within it. Such a feature is exclusive to Microsoft LCDS and it can be used by an instructor to experience the course content from the learner’s perspective. This feature also makes it possible for instructors to incorporate changes, such as a change in the course structure or a change in the content of the course, at any point and time.
LCDS provides a template format for easy usage of the system which implies that the instructor need not go through complex steps for designing the course. He can just refer to any of the existing templates and make use of one which suits his needs.
LCDS also provides users with a SCORM tracking system which can be used to keep track of the progress made by the learner or to track assignment performances. The SCORM system can also be used for creating mock tests with multiple choice questions or essay type questions depending on the course and the model of instruction as designed by the instructor. Once the tests are attended to, the instructor can then use the tool to evaluate the performance and share the results of the same in real time.
Another objective of the LCDS is to showcase the prowess of the Microsoft Silverlight technology which can be used to create interactive content for games, animations, simulations etc by making use of simple form filling method.
One major advantage of the LCDS is that the tool is supported by a large online community. Therefore, a user can simply log into one of the online support forums to obtain solutions for his problems.
Some useful links:
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