How do I view Google form responses?

I want to see what others have submitted to a Google form.

When creating a form in Google Docs or Google Drive, the creator has the option of allowing people to view the results or keep them private. You'll see this after you've completed the form, there may be an option to "See results"

But... what if you want to see the results without filling out the form? Maybe you don't really have a strong opinion, or you've already filled out the form and come back later and want to see the results. It appears to be a pretty simple trick to change the URL or querystring.

If your survey link looks like this:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1138eieio8675309oicu812a113_ 4815162342/viewform?c=0&w=1

just change viewform to viewanalytics, like this:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1138eieio8675309oicu812a113_ 4815162342/viewanalytics

I tried using Google to find the answer to this, but had no luck, so here's a quick post, in case it helps anyone else out. If this doesn't work for you (and you know the results of the survey are public), please let me know.

How-to: Light up your @NewRelic Apdex

the super-bright blink(1) mk2

Earlier this month I wrote about my new toy, my blink(1) mk2 from thingm. (There's no financial stake here for me, I just think it's really cool.)

My problem was that I didn't have, well, a really practical use. I already had methods for learning about new mail and I really didn't care to constantly be informed of new Facebook updates, it's not like I'm using Facebook at work anyhow.

But I realized yesterday I did have a good use for it - passive/ambient real-time information about the health of our systems at work.

Several of the members of my team handle On-Call responsibilities. We use NewRelic, KeyNote, WebMetrics integrated with Zapier, PagerDuty, StatusPage.io, Atlassian, etc. for our work.  But for the most part, unless it's a "hard down," an incident must be happening for a period of time before notifications start going off. If we're in the tools, we might see an alert sooner, but otherwise, we're all busy working. No one's sitting around watching monitors.  (We have a desire for more of an NOC but right now it's pretty reactive.)

It occurred to me that since NewRelic offered an API I could use my hacky AppleScript skills (ok, more like awesome Googling skills) and translate NewRelic's red/yellow/green lights for our systems into, literally, red/yellow/green lights that I could see as I worked, even if I wasn't in NewRelic.  Since we have that requirement of sustained impairment before notification, sometimes we hear about something in a drive-by before alarms are ringing. That's embarrassing.

I figured if I could have a closer to real-time look into the system but without spending time in the system that we could have a little bit more of a warning if something was starting to go wibbly-wobbly.

And so with a little work I cobbled together a script that pings the NewRelic API, gets the apdex_score of five sites, displaying a red/yellow/green status.  It shows each one for 5 seconds and then shows a blue light (to help you know the cycle is restarting) and then goes again. It can poll all five systems in about 30 seconds and in the AppleScript log window I have a running history of the apdex_scores.

It's also been a great conversation-starter the past two days, carrying my laptop to meetings and then leaving it sitting there with the laptop mostly closed, the little light quietly pulsing, only stopping to open the laptop and look if something starts to trend down. It's building up credibility for our group as having, literally, our finger on the pulse of the system and it was fun to code it. I'm a little dismayed at a few of the shortcuts I took, but my main job isn't programming, so I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it.

So here's the code, it should be pretty clear where you swap in your api key and your transaction or application IDs. Click the photo of the blink(1) to go and buy one for yourself. (Again, I have no financial interest here, I just think it's cool.)

How To: Make Your Mac React to Your Presence

the totally awesome blink(1) mk2

I love technology, but all too often it's just on a screen - there's no real world impact. I am really excited about the potential for real world impact and automation, stuff that happens automatically. Like the fact that I can set my washing machine to start at a certain time. That's kinda cool. It's a bit basic, sure, but it's cool. Or that my wife can get a text message when I leave the office.  Proximity is probably an easy cool thing - maybe it's a warning if I drive away from the house with my garage door open or if my autistic son gets out of the house.

On a smaller scale, I've set up some proximity automation on my computer that's pretty fun. When I walk away from my computer, it turns on the screensaver. If Skype is running, it sets me to invisible. It HipChat is running, it shuts down. And if my blink(1) is attached, it turns yellow to signify that I'm away. (It's on a USB extension cable so I can mount it higher where people can see it.)

If you haven't seen blink(1), it's very cool - double-sided LED USB key. Can set to any color you want on each side, blink in patterns, etc. Connects to IFTTT and email programs and you can also address it from Terminal or AppleScript. (You have to check the "Enable API Server" - most people miss that and think that they can't run Blink1Control and issue cURL commands at the same time.)

And then when I walk back up to my computer, it kills the screensaver. If Skype is running, it sets me to available. If it's between 8 and 5 on a weekday, HipChat starts. Microsoft Office syncs (first checking to see if it's in offline or online mode). And if my blink(1) is attached, it turns it back to green.

Oh, and my screensaver (Soundstream) is noise activated so that the patterns change depending on the amount of noise nearly in our open air office. That's kind of fun.

So how do I accomplish all this? A few neat tricks.  First a program called Proximity. You introduce your Bluetooth phone to Proximity and then every so often it pings to see if your phone is around. If it senses a change, it runs the Applescript you've identified. Future places I should probably go are ignoring mouse and keyboard inputs and muting the entire computer.

Here are my scripts:

SCREENSAVER-START

try 

do shell script "curl 'http://localhost:8934/blink1/fadeToRGB?rgb=%23FFFF00'" 

tell application id "com.apple.ScreenSaver.Engine" to launch 

if application "Skype" is running then 

tell application "Skype" to send command "SET USERSTATUS invisible" script name "invisible" 

end if 

if application "HipChat" is running then tell application "HipChat" to quit 

end try

SCREENSAVER-STOP

try 

do shell script "curl 'http://localhost:8934/blink1/fadeToRGB?rgb=%2300FF00'" 

tell application id "com.apple.ScreenSaver.Engine" to quit 

tell application "Microsoft Outlook" 

if working offline is true then 

set working offline to false 

sync 

set working offline to true 

else 

tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to sync 

end if 

end tell 

if application "Skype" is running then 

tell application "Skype" to send command "SET USERSTATUS online" script name "online" 

end if 

set x to weekday of (current date) as integer 

set y to hours of (current date) as integer 

if x > 1 and x < 7 then 

if y > 8 and y < 17 then 

try 

tell application "HipChat" to activate 

end try 

end if 

end if 

end try

The reason that Microsoft Outlook has to check to see if it's online or not is because I have another script that is running that takes it in and out of offline mode automatically. That allows my outgoing messages to temporarily be held and it prevents new messages from being pulled in too frequently. (Otherwise Exchange delivers them immediately and it's distracting. Email doesn't need to be that quick. Yes, I have my notifications turned off, but I actually spend a lot of time in email. It's easier if it's not filling up as I empty it. It's also nice to have some forced delay before my messages go out, in case I change my mind about a message or to avoid email pingpong.)

OUTLOOK

repeat 100 times 

log "Sync at - " & (current date) 

tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to set working offline to false 

tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to sync 

delay 5 

tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to set working offline to true 

delay 600 

end repeat 

log "** Final at - " & (current date) 

tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to set working offline to false 

tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to sync

How To: Delayed Sending for Outlook 2011 for Mac

All of the "Getting Things Done" time management experts will tell you to stop checking your email. (They'll also tell you to turn off the little alarm and any other popups or indicators that you've got new mail.)

This is all well and good... unless you work in a place with lots of email.  I would constantly find myself working through some email, and then new email would come in and I'd pop over and read and handle that and then get back to the rest of my email.  I've worked on some other tricks to help me prioritize (like using categories or moving email out of my inbox and handling it in a different folder) but still, new email would come in.  Another trick I'd use was to compose my message and save it as a draft to send later.  That would prevent someone from replying immediately like a hot potato, but it did nothing to stop the flood of new incoming email and worse yet, sometimes I'd forget to send the outbound email.

We recently transitioned to Outlook and with its connection to Exchange, mail delivery is near instantaneous, regardless of what the schedule says, new mail is pushed right away.

Delaying outbound email had several benefits - I could make changes to an email after I'd hit send and sometimes I'd rethink the entire email and delete it altogether.

I researched but could find no method for delaying email in Outlook 2011 for the Mac until I stumbled upon some AppleScripts.  With a little research, I stumbled upon a method that's worked really well for me.  I created a small script that sets Outlook into Online mode, syncs with the server, waits 5 seconds, flips into Offline mode, waits 600 seconds (10 minutes) and repeats the pattern.

This is a bit of a cheat - it means I could send an email and have it delivered seconds later if I sent it right before the sync. But it's good enough - new emails don't go out right away, new emails aren't pouring in constantly.

I just plugged this into the AppleScript editor and hit Run. I haven't done anything fancy with it, but it gets the job done.

repeat 100 times

     log "Sync at - " & (current date)

     tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to set working offline to false

     tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to sync

     delay 5

     tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to set working offline to true

     delay 600

end repeat

Caveat: If you're trying to schedule a meeting with someone or book a conference room, you'll need to flip back into Online mode first to see availability.

If this works for you, or if you have other suggestions, please leave me a comment!

How to: Replace the heating element in your oven

Our trusty stove recently stopped stoving and transformed into another pantry. While we really could use the space, but really, we needed it to pre-heat, heat, bake, broil and all that kind of good stuff. As near as we could tell, it was new when we moved in.

Well, it was heating, but only a little bit and Lori had what looked like a fire or a sparkler. Yep, look at that, the heating element had failed. So, time to Google. The heating element is metal tube that contains insulation and a wire. Electricity is applied to the wire, encounters resistance and heats up.

Eventually the insulation may wear out and the internal wire will touch the outer tube and cause a short. There may be a brief flare-up that often looks like a sparkler.

Sure enough, there it is. (Click on any photo to enlarge.)

A little more research and found a video on how to do the repair.   (Why do a blog post if there are videos out there? Two reasons - first, they didn't show close-ups. Second, those guys were pros. I'm not. If I can do it, you can do it.)

They also offered to sell the part. Unfortunately, they wanted $40 + s/h.  So...

How to change the Hot Water Valve Inlet Assembly on an LG-WM2277HW

The other night there was a break in the rain and I was in the laundry room and heard a drip-drip-drip. The laundry room has been the nexus for water issues in the past from our master bathroom so I was a bit worried. But I listened and I couldn't quite figure it out. I called Lori down and we listened and I realized - it was coming from inside the washing machine. I sighed and figured "Of course."What's one more financial bill, right? I figured Lori could call the plumber the next day.

But then I got curious, took the top of the machine off and immediately saw water. So I dried everything, waited and watched to see where water re-appeared. It seemed like a small part near the top of the machine.

I went online, searched for a parts list, found the part and there was even a video - in less than four minutes, this guy had swapped out the part. That looked super easy.

Unfortunately, the price and shipping weren't economical, so I ordered it from Amazon and had it in two days and tonight, removed the top of the machine, turned off the hot water, removed interior hose over a towel, removed the exterior hose over a bucket, unscrewed the part, put plumber's tape on the new part, secured it to the machine and reattached the hoses. Then I ran a load with the top off, checked afterwards and no water anywhere.

No pictures this time because, honestly, it's a really quick job.  Comments on Amazon say that this particular part will eventually wear out and I guess it's been nearly eight years so I'm glad they made it easy to replace and the parts inexpensive.

Much easier than when I had to fix the "TE Error" it was throwing a few years ago.

Kudos to AppliancePartsPros for their awesome videos. I feel bad for not buying from them, but it's hard to order anywhere else when you've got Amazon Prime.

Indexing

I've been plagued recently with the "Indexing" problem on my Ford Sync. That's the one where no matter what you do, the screen says it's indexing and won't talk to you. Well, you can talk to her but all she says is "Indexing" like she's channeling Eve from WALL-E.

I thought there must be a way around it. I tried the MASTER RESET. I tried the FACTORY DEFAULT RESET. Neither worked. Why do they even have that reset? (Why do they have two resets?)

I thought "This is a Microsoft Product. There must be some super-secret key-combination like VOLUME-BAND-REPEAT to restart the computer." Couldn't find one.

Pulled the fuse. (Siri was also no help.) Didn't help.

Tried another iPod. Oddly enough, the iPod was five years older than the car but as soon as I plugged it in, a Ford logo appeared on the screen. Cute trick. No luck. I thought about making a USB key with only a single song on it but that was a level of effort I didn't want to make.

Finally, I gave in. Finally I did what everyone else said you had to do. I disconnected the black lead from the battery for the entire car and waited a minute or so. Then reconnected, bolted it back in place, got back in the car and viola, problem solved.

So now I know. Like everyone else on the internet already figured out, the only way to successfully solve the Indexing problem with a Ford Sync is to disconnect the battery. Sad.

True story.

I Rock Laundry (Part 2)

<<< Continued from part 1 (yesterday)


Step 5: Washer to Dryer

A silly step, to be sure.  Another step I regularly enlist my young autistic son in helping me with.  Where a front loader is great.  We pull it out of one machine into one of the "clean" baskets and then slide it over and load it into the dryer.

We have five laundry baskets.  The first two are the "dirty" baskets that are upstairs to collect the laundry.  The other three are "clean" baskets that are used in various situations.

All the sweaters get laid flat to dry on the rack next to the bins.

I Rock Laundry (Part 1)

There was a time when we didn't do much laundry.  We had no children and a wonderful woman named Leticia came once every two weeks to clean our house and she did a lot of the laundry. These days, we generate a lot of dirty laundry and no one to come and do it for us.

My friend mentioned that laundry is her nemesis and linked to a Lifehacker article that I felt was quite disappointing, I thought I should write one myself.  So welcome to part 1.  I guess it's only fitting, considering the two posts where I take the washing machine apart to fix a design flaw are the most read posts on my blog.

So here's my take on rocking the laundry.  But first, to answer the question I get asked a lot: "James, you do the laundry?" That's an easy one.  It's easy, it gets me out of some other unpleasant chores, and it frees Lori up to do other chores.  I do have caveat, though - that when my daughter starts wearing the kind of underwear I wish my wife would wear, that when I officially hand over the reins. I remember Bill Engval mentioning in one of his comedy routines about show her a pair of underwear and making a leering face and making suggestive comments and congratulating his wife on her new underwear only to be told it was his daughter's underwear.  So, yeah...

Because I love wringing efficiency out of a process, I feel like I've got it down to almost a science and I had read that same article a few weeks ago and thought "boy, they missed a bunch of stuff."

This is important: Chunk Up the Process

Laundry has multiple steps.  Taken together, it's one massive chore.  Broken into individual steps, it's not as daunting, it feels more productive when you complete, and you can recruit other family members for individual steps.

How To: Save Best Buy (@BestBuy)

Before Christmas, my boss' boss suggested that by now, Best Buy would be announcing massive closures.   By most accounts, between the economy, showrooming and changing consumer tastes, Best Buy faces a daunting future.  There was also the expansion into - and quick retreat out of - the international space and the rumors that a recent leader was considering buying the company and taking it private.  And on top of that, the revelations that the company had been operating a shadow website in its store that showed higher prices on BestBuy.com than if you were to visit BestBuy.com from outside the store.  Oh, and a scandal involving a recent CEO.

Since I'm in the process of reading "Start with Why," it seems easy to suggest that Best Buy lost its why.  Originally founded as a music store, eventually expending into electronic and musical instruments and lately toying with electric motorbikes, it may be time for its next bold move.  Here are five themes to consider.

Help People with the Paradox of Choice

Offering so many different choices, Best Buy actually drove people to the internet for research. Mobile allowed them to do it while they were in the stores.  It was only a matter of time before it was only logical to move from researching to buying online.

Reduce the number of choices in order to help customers more quickly find what they need.  It will help employees to be more informed about the products being sold.

Embrace the internet.  If people are going to showroom and then buy online, might as well make sure they buy on BestBuy.com.  Promote in-store pickup as well as same-day delivery using the Geek Squad and some of the space freed up by reducing the number of distinct items sold in-store.  Install kiosks all over the store to offer an expanded product line and to allow customers to do more research.

How To: End the Gun Control Debate

Since my post "How to Save the Postal Service" was such a huge hit earlier this week, I thought it was time I came back and solved another thorny issue.

Gun Control.  It's been a hot topic for years, but no one with the power to do anything has wanted to do anything.

Tired of sitting on the fence not feeling represented by either party, I decided it was time to put forth a proposal that maybe, just maybe, is one reasonable people can get behind.

Ready?  Deep breath.

How To: Save the Postal Service (@USPS)

It's been in the news of late that the U.S. Postal service is facing a sort of Fiscal Cliff of its own, having missed several large payments due its pension plan.  I've had a soft spot for the Postal Office Department, a branch of the Federal Government ever since it declared that man, Kris Kringle, to be the one and only Santa Claus.

So it's only fitting that I, the unpaid consultant to the world, would offer up some practical solutions about how the U.S. Postal Service might change its business to save some money.

1. Super-Saver Shipping - during the Christmas season as I was buying gifts on Amazon.com, several times they offered me $1 credits if I absolutely, positively didn't need the order rushed.  That is, they paid me to choose a slower delivery.  The USPS could offer less expensive stamps on stuff that doesn't need to get there in any hurry.

2. Reduced Residential Delivery - in the olden days (or so I'm told), it was downright romantic to receive a letter.  Or gosh, when the Wells Fargo Wagon rolled into town, they were in the streets singing.  If once a week is good enough for garbage pickup, why not deliver postal mail less frequently to homes?  We've all heard about how the volume has really decreased.  If it's all credit card bills and junk mail anyhow, deliver it less often.  That's fewer wasted trip to the mailbox just to be disappointed, and it means fewer postal officers required to make the rounds.  Bulk mail can pay extra for non-standard delivery.

3. Eliminate Commercial Friday/Saturday Service - for big businesses, the finance department probably doesn't work weekends and for small businesses that are open on weekends, they're probably pretty busy, especially in the service industry.  Dealing with delivered mail is just one more thing to deal with.  Make the 17-year-old assistant manager handling the lunch run happier by not trying to hand her a stack of mail while she's trying to help with a manager override on the cash register.

4. Discounts for Multi-Year Post Office Box Renewals - P.O. Box rentals are usually 6- or 12-month terms.  I think you can renew for longer, but there's no incentive.  Give a discount on 2-, 5- and 10-year rentals.  That will allow more revenue to be collected today.  Tomorrow can take care of itself.

5. Discounts for P.O. Box Substitution - allow me to cancel home delivery in favor of a post office box.  That is, any mail that comes to 5551212 Fake St. to automatically be diverted to my post office box.  No more mail comes to my house, no more mail gets stolen

How To: Fix a "TE Error" on an LG-WM2277HW (part 2 of 2)

<<< Back to part 1 of 2 (introduction and step 1)

Step 2 - After they're off, you can slide the entire top of the unit backwards and then lift off.

Step 3 - Remove the soap drawer.  (The basket is on top because I'm still not sure if the ceiling's going to cave in and if it does, I don't want it to fall into the machine.  Crazy, I know.)

Step 4 - I realized there was probably water still in the machine, so I drained it at this point.  You'd probably do it earlier in the process just to be done with it since it takes some time for the water to drain.  This shows the door removed, but that's actually not necessary.  There may have been a screw or two in here that helps hold the front in place.

Step 5 - Back up top, there are a few screws that hold the control panel in place.

Step 6 - With the control panel resting on top -- it's still connected by the wires in the middle -- you have access to a few screws that hold the front panel on.  You have unplugged the machine, right?

Step 7 - Remove the tension ring.  Be careful not to damage the gasket that seals the door.  

Another shot of the ring.  The machine has a metal lip on the front panel and the gasket fits around that and then the ring holds it tightly.

The ring contains a really powerful spring.  I actually needed my wife's help getting the ring back in place afterwards, the coordination of holding it in place while applying pressure (while being careful of the gasket) really benefited from two sets of hands.   The machine occasionally dribbled a little bit before the repair, but now it doesn't.  Hooray.

A shot of the metal rim and gasket.

Step 8 - Disconnect the door sensor from the right side of the machine.  (If your door opens to the right, it might be on the left.)  I can't tell if this picture is oriented correctly.  After this point, turning on the machine will get you the "dE error" (door) instead.

Now, we can see the problem.  The curve at the top of the photo is the southeast corner of the opening.  Here two blue wires go into a plug and that plug plugs in.

Yep, look at that.  Wire's broken.  

Step 9 - You could probably replace the entire plug, or just strip the wire, reattach to the plug and then secure with electrical tape as I did.

Step 10 - Reassemble everything.  I recommend testing as soon as the door sensor plug is reattached, just to be safe.  But here it is - up and running.   And has been running perfectly since then.  (Including no longer occasionally dribbling out the front while running.)

Did you find this helpful? Help me - the next time you want to buy something on Amazon.com, click here - that will give me an affiliate/finder's fee. You get the same great prices, but you help me buy more coffee.

How To: Fix a "TE Error" on an LG-WM2277HW (part 1 of 2)

Last November, we noticed that the drywall ceiling in our laundry room was bowing, as if there was water pushing down on it. The sky was literally falling. Or at least literally about to fall. As if that wasn't enough, the very next day, the washing machine threw a "tE error."  (So this is about the error, not the stupid ceiling.)

LG-WM2277HW
Washing Machine

The LG-WM2277HW is a rather nice front-loading electric washing machine from LG, but it's a fancy computerized deal, so things like this can be kinda scary. When we first got it, it would often throw some other error, but it turned out that it was because I was spinning the drum after emptying a load. When I'd do that, the machine would turn on. Thought that was pretty cool. Well, it wasn't.

So, yeah, turning the thing now would get me a "tE" flashing on the screen. Now, this was a rather expensive washing machine no longer under warranty and we had laundry to do and we didn't know how long until the ceiling was going to collapse. (By that evening we were pretty sure there wasn't several gallons of water up there, but the ceiling was obviously waterlogged.)

I have manuals for all of our appliances saved on the computer, so I went upstairs to look up the error. It said that there was a problem with the thermistor. To this day, I've never bothered to find out what a thermistor is. But, the more I looked on Google, the more cases I came across where someone got the tE error simply by moving the washing machine or by running a really heavy lopsided load. The thermistor wasn't failing, a wire was being knocked loose. Sounds to me like a manufacturing defect.

My wife, who has incredible faith in me -- or hadn't seen the instructions that I'd seen (copied below) encouraged me into trying to repair the thing itself.

The instructions I found:

To be more specific, unplug unit. Behind the machine are two plastic kick plates, remove to slide off the top. Once off, two top self tap metal screws and one screw behind panel wall, remove. Remove two detergent screws. Lift electrical panel and set on top of machine. Remove four top screws. Bottom drain has one screw in front, take out plastic cover and one screw in back. Take off rubber by opening door. With a screw driver, prey and lift up the brass spring ring and remove. Then the front panel should slide up and out. Be careful because electric wire is still connected, move to the side of unit. You will then be able to find the thermostat. Unplug and replace, you will need to use the same rubber bushing. Took me an hour, I’m not an appliance repair guy.

Good enough?  I was able to get the job done, but it left a lot to be desired.   So, I decided to document the job myself, in case that helped.  And due to my own stupidity, I did part of the job twice -- I wanted a photo of the error itself but had forgotten to take one.  I thought I had an easy way to get to the error, but I actually rebroke the broken part.   Also, I didn't take photos until I was reassembling, so I had to rearrange them all.  I think I have them all in order and I captured all of the relevant parts.  And yes, this is the kind of thing that voids warranties, but maybe it will save someone the cost of having some guy come out for what's a pretty dumb little engineering defect.

The dreaded "tE Error"

The tools I used: standard screwdriver, flashlight, utility knife, electrical tape, pliers, small screwdriver

Word of caution: Not only does this void your warranty, the metal edges are very sharp.  I got one tiny cut and I think I was very lucky that this was the only injury I received.  They wear safety gloves, vests, pants and eye protection when assembling these things.

Step 1 - Ok, here we go.  The lid is attached by two plastic "kick plates" on the back.  Each plate has two screws.

Continue on to part 2 of 2 (steps 2-10, with photos) >>>

How To: Stay on a Diet Over Thanksgiving

Go to a remote rental property deep in the woods.

Forget to bring any candy or snack food of any kind now.

So stinking starving.