a)  you need a Wii obviously, but you also need wireless Lan and have connected the Wii to your wireless Lan to get internet access. 

b)  On the Wii menu, click on Shop Channel.  I had to go through lots of menus as there were new terms and conditions to agree to and I had to do a long system update.  It sounds complicated but I took my time, read what it said on the screen and followed the instructions.

c) Once all that is done you will get into the Shop Channel.  BBC iPlayer is new at the time of writing so was on the front screen so you may need to search for it.  Follow the instructions to add it as a new channel and have some patience as it take a few minutes to download.

d) Once completed, return to the wii main menu and you should be able to see the BBC iPlayer as one of the options.  Click on this and you will get access to all the programmes available on iPlayer.

One thing to watch out for, this may encourage you to watch more on iPlayer which will rapidly use up your broadband bandwidth.  If you have a cheaper broadband service you may be limited to the amount you can download in a month.   As a rule of thump a 30 minute programme will be about 300 Mbyte, so if you have a 2 Gbyte limit you would only be able to watch 5 or 6 programmes during a month before you were close to your allowance.

How to divert Skype to another telephone number:

In Skype, click on Tools then Options.  Click on the Calls icon and you should see that the menu expands and one of the options is Call Forwarding.  Click on the Call Forwarding icon and then click on ”Call forwarding options” that appears in the main window.  If you are using Skype for business I am assuming you have some credit on your Skype account and can make outbound calls, in which case you should be able to tick the “Forward calls when I’m not on Skype” and then enter a phone number.  If Skype is not running on your computer (or your computer is off) then the call will be forwarded to the number you have entered.  You will be charged by Skype for this forwarded call, which is why you need to have some credit on your Skype account.

You can also set it so it diverts even if Skype is running on your computer.  Enter a time in the “Forward calls if I do not answer within” section.   15 seconds is a good choice as it gives you time to answer if you are there, but does n’t keep the caller hanging on too long if you are not there.

To test this out you could divert it to your home telephone number and then call your Skype number from your mobile and the call should end up ringing your home line.

Good luck
Ian

If Range(”A1″) = True Then
    Range(”A2″) = True
    Beep
Endif

In this example, if cell A1 is set to True then cell A2 will also be set to true and a beep sound will be made.

If you want to play different types of beep depending on the condition have a look at the following

http://www.vbaexpress.com/kb/getarticle.php?kb_id=771

You can also play WAV files within a VBA macro but that looked a little more complex.  Search on “Excel VBA play wav file” and you will find several examples.

Good luck
Ian

Virtual Office

Telephone Answering Service

It does n’t look like a normal link but type  g.ho.st into your browser and you will come a cool service called Ghost, which stands for Global Hosted Operating System.   There has been a lot of talk about Cloud computing and this is a real service that shows the power of the Cloud.  When you register you effectively get your own computer which you can access from any web browser and even from you mobile. 

You get email, office look-alike applications, and a generous 15 Gigabyte of storage.  If  you work from a number of different locations this could be a very good service for you.   If you can get access to any old pc connected to the internet you can access your “own” pc, so no need to keep lugging your laptop around with you.

At Office Answers we provide virtual office  services to a wide range of customers and I can see that this would be useful to many of them.  Particularly with up to 15 Gigabyte of storage as you can transfer files from your normal pc (there is even a sync feature) so wherever you are you can access all your important files.

Alternatives to G.Ho.ST

The G.Ho.ST service was withdrawn in March 2010.   There appear to be some alternatives available such as icloud which offers a standard service with 3GB storage for free, or a paid for version with 100 GbB storage.  I have not used the icloud service but if anybody tries it please feel free to add a comment to this page.

What I do for users is:

1)  I set up their account details in Outlook Express and check it works.

2)  In the Accounts section of Outlook Express there is an export feature so use that to create a file of the settings.

3)  Get this file to the user, if they have an alternative email address email it to them that way, or let them download it in some way.

4)  The user saves the file in “My Documents”.

5)  The user opens Outlook Express.  In Accounts, choose Import and select the file.

6)  Once Outlook Express is running it can be closed.

7) Open Outlook.  Under File, choose Export & Import.  Select “Import Internet Mail Account” settings.

8)  Outlook should detect the account settings and allow the user to step through the settings.  The only thing they should need to do is set the password which is not done automatically for security reasons.

9)  Hey presto, Outlook is configured.

The aim of setting up this blog is to capture these thoughts in a way that others may stumble across them.  As the number of articles grow I hope there is something you find useful and please feel free to add comments to any of the blog pages.

Ian