Tech and productivity blog.

VONAGE IS A FRAUD

2008-11-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

Just an FYI, don't expect to get back a rebate from the purchase of a Vonage device in a Best Buy Store. Vonage will defraud you. I received a card in the mail saying that my rebate was declined because "Purchase was made outside of the qualifying period." even though it was made weeks after the start date and months prior to the end date.

I tried to call the customer service number on the rebate card, but the number was disconnected. How shady is that?!?!

How To Fix Vista Hard Drive That Runs Constantly

2008-11-06T16:23:00.000-08:00

If you're one of the large numbers of people who have noticed that Windows Vista often makes your poor harddrive crank on relentlessly, I may have a solution for you. While there are potentially numerous reasons as to why one system or another my be churning things out in the background, for me it came down to one service.

Of course, you should check first in Windows Task Manager to see if you have any processes chewing up resources that would make your Vista machine's hard drive run non-stop (P2P, virus scan, autostart components, etc.). If you do find a resource hog that you can identify as being a non-essential Windows component, I'd start there.

As for me, I had trimmed my machine of most other fat, but my hard drive indicator light was still a constant blue. I suspected that possibly there was some network activity to it and I decided to dig into Windows Services a little bit. I popped open Vista's task manager, clicked on the Services tab and sorted by status to view the running services. Immediately I noticed one service that both looked non-essential and as thought it would run constantly in the background.

That service was the WebClient service. The description is that it "Enables Windows-based programs to create, access, and modify Internet-based files." Basically I think this boils down to a service that enables features in certain web development suites like the Sharepoint Designer or Frontpage. It might also be used to access a web development or storage directory from certain ISPs. I don't think it's a large number of people to whom this applies, but please don't try it unless you know exactly what you're doing and are proficient with Windows Vista.

To disable the WebClient service:

1. Open the Vista computer managment console (right click My Computer, select Manage)

2. Under Services and Applications, select Services

3. Scroll through the services list until you find "WebClient".

4. Right-click on the WebClient service and select Properties.

5. Under Service Status, if it says "Running", click "Stop".

6. Change the Startup type to "Manual".

7. Click OK.

It could be some strange and massive coincidence, but as soon as I stopped the WebClient service, the hard drive indicator light on my Vista machine went dark. Again, please don't try this unless you're very proficient with Windows. If you do try this and it works for you, I'd love to hear from you.

Trouble embedding YouTube videos in Wordpress blogs

2008-06-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

Embedding YouTube videos in Wordpress blogs can be somewhat problematic at times. Often times the video will break page alignment and structure, or the video simply won't appear.

This is typically caused by the way the Wordpress WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor manages the object tag in the code that YouTube provides to you. To circumvent this:

1. Write your entire post. Get it exactly as you wish, edited, spell checked, tweaked and polished.

2. Click on the "code" tab of the post which you are currently creating or editing.

3. Paste the YouTube code in the section of the post where you would like it to appear.

4. Publish the post without switching back to the "visual" tab. This will not give the WYSIWYG functionality a chance to mess up the YouTube code.

5. If you need to edit the post at any point, you will have to re-enter the YouTube code again and post in the same fashion, or the video will not work.

There you have it. More of a process work around, but I've had lots of success with it.

Open browser links in a new tab with a scroll wheel

2008-02-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned continually that I'm a huge fan of tabbed web browsing, usually using 5-7 tabs at a time. If I'm reading a content and link-rich page, I simply open interesting links in a new tab and continue reading.

The normal manner in which I do this is to right-click on the link of interests and select "Open Link in New Tab" (Firefox) or "Open in New Tab" (IE7). However, there is a quicker way using the scroll wheel on a standard Windows two-button scroll mouse.

To open a new tab using the scroll wheel, simply click the scroll wheel on the link you wish to open, and the target will appear in a new browsing tab.

A very easy power-user move to speed up your tabbed browsing. This works in both Firefox and IE7+. You can also close tabs with the scroll wheel, as well.

Use your mouse scroll wheel to close browser tabs

2008-02-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

I typically have a half-dozen browser tabs open during any given browsing sessions, frequently opening and closing new ones. When I have even more open the tab size shrinks and I often end up fat-clicking the x button on a tab, thereby switching tabs rather than closing one.

Well a quick and easy way to close a tab (without misclicking) is to use the scroll wheel on a standard mouse. Simply mouse over the tab you wish to close in the browser tab row and click the scroll wheel. It works in both Firefox and IE7, the two most popular tabbed browsers.

It may not be a huge time saver, but it's a cool little power user trick and nice complement to the scroll wheel's ability to open new tabs.

Gmail adding storage space

2007-11-06T23:17:00.000-08:00

I make no hesitation about making it known that I love Google. One more reason to love Google is that their email system, Gmail, is increasing the amount of space available to users.

Gmail is known for it's ticker-style display on the login page which tells you how much storage you have available. Of late, it's taken rather large jumps rather than trickling steps. My personal space is now at 4.7 gigabytes, where it was less than 3 gigabytes of email storage within the past two months.

Yahoo! has claimed unlimited email storage, but there are practical limits to that. I'd much prefer to know exactly where I stand and not hit an imaginary wall at an inopportune time. Either way, I doubt I'll ever come close to using 4.7 gigabytes.

"No to all" keyboard shortcut

2007-06-27T03:27:00.000-07:00

When you copy, move or delete a group of files you often receive prompts that ask if you're sure you want to take a specific action; Are you sure you want to move that read only file? This folder already contains a file named 'abc'. Would you like to replace the existing file? If you notice in the dialogue prompt that Windows shows, there is an option for 'Yes to All', but not an option for 'No to All'. However, although Windows does not display this option, it still exists in quasi-keyboard shortcut form. When a Yes to All/No prompt appears,

holding the Shift key and clicking no has the same effect as 'No to All'.

This means that across the board Windows will not overwrite, copy or delete any file in that particular operation for which you have opted 'No to All'. Windows will prompt you for each type of operation, once for move a read only, once for overwrite confirmation, but only once for that particular action. It behaves the same as the 'Yes to All' option presented in the standard Windows dialog with a 'no' instead of a 'yes.'

Tips to speed up Windows, Eliminate Startup menu programs

2007-06-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest drains on Windows resources is due to programs which automatically start and run in the background whenever you boot up.

There are several methods programmers use to run programs when Windows starts up, but this post will cover how to eliminate programs triggered by placement in the Startup menu group. However, make absolutely sure you know what you're eliminating from startup before you delete it.

You can view which program shortcuts are queued to launch on startup by going to go to Start > Programs > Startup.

Any program shortcuts listed in the Startup menu group automatically run each time you boot up. Some common, unnecessary culprits are AOL Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Adobe Speedlauncher, P2P programs, Microsoft Office quick launch and the OpenOffice.org speed launch.

To prevent those programs from launching on Windows startup, right-click on the appropriate shortcut in the Startup menu and select delete. Conversely, if you wish to cause a program to run on startup, drag and drop a shortcut into the Startup folder and it will run the next time you boot Windows.

Also check out ways to speed up Windows by changing some UI settings.

SanDisk U3 Launchpad Installer

2007-06-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

A few months back I posted an entry about a U3 Launchpad removal tool which removes the portable application platform from certain USB storage devices. I had a drive which I wanted to use purely for storage and did not want the Launchpad software popping up every time I inserted the drive. Since then I've had a change of heart regarding the whole U3 portable application model and began testing out implementations some products upon the introduction of a few more computers into my life.

At the time I noted that there was no re-installer if you later changed your mind and wanted U3 functionality. However, SanDisk now offers a web-based ActiveX control which will install the U3 functionality on a U3 capable drive, which is an option U3 should have come up with themselves long ago. I think this is an oversight on the part of U3 for several reasons.

Since the U3 software only works on explicitly U3 capable USB devices, there should be no licensing issues associated with redistributing an installer. Further more, allowing people to delete their product without a method of restoration seems prohibitive. If someone decided to visit another blog I surely wouldn't block them from ever returning.

Another reason why U3 should spearhead an effort like this is that the SanDisk solution has reportedly met with mixed results. The people over at Everything USB note that "they warned that there have been instances where the installer did not successfully re-install the launcher. Sometimes, the user is left with a normal non-U3 flash drive. Other times, they are left with a ruined flash drive."

So, some basic considerations before trying the SanDisk U3 reinstaller:

1. Make sure your device is a U3 capable device. It should be marked as such on the casing.
2. I don't know if this works with drives other than SanDisk U3 USB drives.
3. This currently does not work with Windows Vista.
4. Be prepared that this may ruin your drive if you try it.

Let me know your results if you try this installer, I'd love to hear how this works.

SanDisk Download Page: http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1411

Keyboard shortcut to send an email

2007-05-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

Several major email clients, including Outlook and Thunderbird have a cool little shortcut that lets you send an email you're working on without taking your hands off the keyboard.

Pressing Ctrl + Enter will send an in-process email that has at least one recipient.

This little keycut saves a few moments of mousing and is especially helpful in the midst of heavy emailing.

Keyboard Shortcuts For Firefox Link Behavior

2007-05-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

There are a few keyboard shortcuts in Firefox that affect link behaviors. These keyboard shortcuts combine keys and mouse clicks and affect how the browser treats hyperlinks. This functionality is relatively analogous to right click menu options.

These shortcuts and their behaviors are:

Alt + Click : Save link target.
Ctrl + Click : Open link in a new browser tab
Shift + Click : Open link in a new browser window

Tips to speed up Windows, UI Settings

2007-05-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

People commonly ask how they can "speed up" their (Windows) computer. Generally adding better hardware components (especially RAM) is the way to really speed up the computer itself, but there are some simple adjustments which will speed up the operating system.

Most of these adjustments simply make sure Windows is using its resources efficiently so that the operating system isn't chewing up the memory or processing power you want applied to your applications. To start off I'd like to focus on a few simple user interface (UI) settings that, while relatively inconspicuous, do soak up some computing resources. These settings include things like animating application windows when you maximize or minimize them and whether or not you use the Windows XP style buttons and graphics.

To access these settings right click on My Computer and select Properties. Next, click the Advanced tab in the System Properties window that appears. Click Settings under the Performance section.

The default is "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer" and all of the options are selected. Apparently Windows thinks everything is necessary.

Interestingly enough the "Adjust for best appearance" option is no different than the Windows knows best choice. Apparently Windows thinks appearance is most important.

Next we come to the Adjust for best performance option with which NO check boxes are selected. This is the option from which I start and build. Some of these options you may not even be aware are typical Windows behaviors.

The options I select for purposes of basic readability are:
- Smooth edges of screen fonts
- Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop

The other option I use on certain computers is the last in the list, Use visual styles on windows and buttons. This applies the more colorful start button, rounded window headers and different color pallets to application windows. If you're truly looking for just performance, just shut them all off.

These adjustments are the start to customizing your installation of Windows to your visual and performance preferences.

Google Calendar SMS wakes you at 4:50 AM

2007-05-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

Google Calendar has a great feature that sends SMS text messages to your mobile phone to remind you of an event. It is a great way to signal an imminent appointment while away from your computer. You can set up reminders in 5 minute increments up to 45 minutes, 1 hour increments up to three hours and 1 day, 2 day and 1 week advance notices... with one caveat.

SMS reminders for all day events scheduled in Google Calendar are sent at 4:50 A.M.

Perusing Google Calendar settings I was unable to find a way to set at what time all day event reminders were sent out. I don't normally wake up ten minutes before five in the morning, or even ten minutes before six for that matter so I find this little quirk incredibly annoying.

The system was probably designed with thoughts of less-invasive email reminders so time was not deemed important. However, like many people these days, my mobile phone is my only phone so I don't shut it off at night. It perches next to my bed at night ready to shatter my precious sleep to make sure I pay my Amex bill that day.

My suggestion to Google is to create a "day begins at" user setting for the time at which you start your day.

For now as a work-around, I've either removed the all day denotation for those reminders for which I want SMS updates or simply shut off the text message reminder option.

Increase Blogger page views with label navigation

2007-05-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

I recently made a change to the right-hand column of this blog to include label-based navigation. I had always used the default, date-based navigation which shows the titles of the current week's posts and collapsed links to previous posts. And while the default navigation is fine for posts which are chronologically ordered, blogs such as my own whose articles are related more by content than by date, the label-based navigation allows readers to more easily follow threads of related topics.

I came to this realization when a friend requested a link to one of my posts.

However, I had trouble finding one of my own articles when navigating by date. It just didn't seem user friendly to me.

I started looking through the other sidebar options available through blogger and decided to give the label display a shot. Once this was implemented I had a much better grasp not only on how to more quickly find content, but also what kind of content I was actually creating and where I needed to add more posts.

The collateral effect to switching to label-based navigation was a roughly 45% increase in page views per visitor.

I was astonished at the increase but understood how powerful the change was. People who find my blog usually do so for a very specific topic, how to use Firefox tabs or how to remove a U3 partition. Their intent in reading my blog is to find specific information, it doesn't matter when I wrote it. Based on the increase in page views I think it's safe to assume that label-based navigation better suits topical surfer than casual readers.

To add the labels to your Blogger blog, click the Template tab at the top of the screen to display your page layout. Click Add Page Element in the page section to which you would like to add labels. The Choose a New Page Element screen will pop up, click Add To Blog in the Labels section.

You'll then have the option to select if you'd like your labels sorted alphabetically or by number of posts. I prefer alpha because it's easier to find a specific topic. Click Save Changes, adjust the location in the template if desired, and your Blogger blog will now show label navigation.

Google Maps has a sense of humor

2007-04-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

Along with being incredibly functional and useful, Google has a sense of humor as well. If you enter a U.S. address into Google Maps you'll get a detailed map of virtually any location. An additional click of your mouse gives you the option for satellite or hybrid overlays.

At the top of the screen click Get Directions for turn by turn driving instruction. Nothing humorous there. Now, enter a destination. Let's say London, England. You might think the bit of water between here and there might throw a kink in the plans, but not for Google. You'll get your directions.

Those direction happen to include a 3,462 mile swim across the Atlantic, but they are directions none the less. This works for just about any U.S. to European directions request, but not for other continents.

I told you, Google has a sense of humor.

Froogle is now Google Product Search

2007-04-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

With little more fanfare than an entry in the official Google blog, the Froogle shopping engine has been rebranded as Google Product Search.

The re-brand of the four year old shopping search service was intended to clarify what the site actually did. The consensus at Google was that consumers were confused by the name and that Froogle never developed sufficient enough brand strength to stand on its own.

Accordingly, the service is being folded under the Google name as "Product Search". I personally thought the name Froogle was clever, but without the clear direct association with a powerhouse like Google it wasn't treading water with the brand mature likes of Yahoo! shopping, MSN Shopping or Pricegrabber.

In addition to the name change, Product Search features a simplified user interface and a slimmed down grid view that displays twenty product results compared to the standard ten results shown in the list view.

Switch Firefox Tabs with Ctrl +Number

2007-04-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

Firefox has a bunch of great keyboard shortcuts and usability features to help you leverage the multi tasking power of tabbed browsing. Similar to the Ctrl + Tab shortcut which cycles through browser tabs in progressive order,

the Ctrl + num shortcut switches focus directly to any open Firefox browser tab.

For example, if you're viewing the first of five open browser tabs and you want to view the third, press Ctrl + 3 and focus will switch to the third tab. Ctrl + 5 will view the fifth, etc. etc. The index number associated with a tab starts with the one farthest to the left as 1 and increment to the right.

Business Card Personality Notes

2007-04-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

Often times at meetings, planned or impromptu, people exchange business cards at the outset. When meeting people with whom you are unfamiliar,

taking "personality notes" on the back a person's business card is an effective way to later match a face with a name.

A personality note is a short description of a person's most memorable personality or physical attributes.

For example, during a recent meeting with several external vendor representatives I had difficulty remembering their names. When names were next mentioned during the course of conversation, I arranged their business cards in order of their seating arrangement. That helped me address them by name during the meeting, but I would need to remember who was who after the meeting. To do this I jotted notes, simple descriptives on each of their corresponding cards.

Rep #1's card: aggressive, driver

This gentleman had an aggressive, almost angry demeanor. He seemed to drive the other company's side of the conversation.

Rep #2's card: nervous, jacket sleeves

This rep seemed very nervous about participating in conversation. He also had a jacket that did not fit well and caused his coat sleeves to ride most of the way up his forearms whenever he reached for a sheet of paper. For another rep I noted pink shirt, etc., etc. Although I never met any of these people before I still maintain a clear mental association with each of them with a quick glance at their business cards.

Keep notes short and if your remarks about a person are less than complimentary, make sure your notes are not visible to others. Use another memorable trait like a bright shirt color or distinct hair style if there is even a slight chance they might see your descriptions.

Keyboard Shortcut: Win + D

2007-04-23T18:59:00.000-07:00

To quickly minimize all application windows and show the Windows desktop, use the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + D.

It's a great way to return to your desktop if you've got a slew of open apps or quickly hide sensitive content from onlookers. Repeating this keycut will restore windows to their original state.

Bandwidth Speed Tests

2007-04-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

If you're curious how fast your broadband connection really is, check out the following sites that will put you connection to the test. These tests calculate your bandwidth speeds by timing the uploads and downloads of temporary files of a specific size.

These numbers may vary quite a bit based on factors such as server traffic, ISP congestion or computer speed, but they are a good general indicator of your connection speed. I suggest taking a few different tests over the course of several days, some weekend, some mid-week and at different times of day. Average them for the most accurate picture of how broad your band is.

CNET Bandwidth Test: http://reviews.cnet.com/7004-7254_7-0.html

Speedtest: http://www.speedtest.net/

Speakeasy: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

Bandwidth Place: http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

U3 Launchpad Removal from USB Drive

2007-04-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

At the CES show last year I got a free USB thumb drive for visiting the Yahoo! house of tomorrow, or whatever it was called. Back at my hotel when inserted it in my laptop, the annoying U3 software automatically launched. I figured I would simply erase the software and use the blank drive, but the thumb drive has a CDFS (compact disk file system) partition which wouldn't let me erase anything. No go there, so I just tossed the drive in my bag and forgot about it.

This morning I found the purple Yahoo! drive while searching for some keys and figured I'd look at it again. I tried deleting some software in the storage section of the drive, but it just reappeared the next time I inserted the drive. The Launchpad software itself offered no uninstallation options, so I Googled it.

Apparently there are others who also wanted the Launchpad gone. In addition to bulletin boards full of people asking how to ditch the software, there was a page from the software company U3 with instructions on how to get rid of the thumb drive software.

There is a 2.5 megabyte free download which will remove the U3 Launchpad from your USB storage device and make it a plain old USB drive. I was surprised to find that they don't offer the reverse option, to download and install the Launchpad software for use if I were to change my mind in the future.

For those of you who haven't encountered a U3 drive, it allows a user to execute programs from a USB drive on any computer with the same set of preferences and without leaving behind any personal data, i.e. browsing history, chat logs, cookies or temp files. It is a cool concept which might be even cooler if the software were a little less intrusive and pervasive computing were more of a reality, with abundant computing resources and need for little else than a drive on your keychain to save all your preferences and private data.

Download: U3 Launchpad removal tool

The State of Search - 4/13/07, Imus, Idol and Anna Nicole

2007-04-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

The State of Search (SoS)

Don Imus' infamous and idiotic comments about the Rutger's Womens Basketball team have made him the topic of controversy and a hot search item this week, the number one searched subject over at Technorati. In the midst of his stupidity, CBS has canceled his show and have left millions of people asking if anyone really listened to Imus anyway.

American Idol keeps rolling. Antonella Barba just won't go away. She's down to number 39 on the Lycos50, but still strong at #6 on AOL hot searches and #5 on Ask.com's top news searches. Sanjaya and his po-hawk are #1 at AOL hot searches, 7 on Technorati.

Previous contestants are giving all things Idol a bump in the search game. Clay Aitken came out of nowhere for a #16 spot on the Lycos50, mostly because of his announcement that he no longer watches 'Idol', while Kelly Pickler CMA came in at 7 on AOL hot searches.

The show itself, American Idol claims the number 3 spot on Ask.com's news searches, the 8th place at Technorati and number 40 on the Lycos50.

Anna Nicole Smith continues to capture the curiosity of just about . It was announced this week that Larry Birkhead is officially the father of Anna Nicole's baby, Dannielynn. She's number one on Ask.com's news searches and 21 on the Lycos50 (BEFORE the results were announced!) Willa Ford, the ex-Playboy model who will play the role of ANS in an upcoming movie has also started to crop up in many of the search engines.

Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts

2007-04-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

The Gmail help center has a list of keyboard shortcuts which help shave a few milliseconds off of your emailing time and put you up there with other Gmail gurus.

These keycuts are case sensitive and you must first enable them in your settings in order to use them. To do so, go to Settings > (General) Keyboard Shortcuts and select Keyboard shortcuts on.

Among the most broadly applicable are:

c -compose new message. Shift + c composes a message in a new window.
f -forward a message
n -advance to the next message
o -opens a message
r -reply to a message
ctrl + s -save a draft of a message you're writing

To see the whole official list (there are some unpublished uber-geek shortcuts out there) visit the Gmail help center @ http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6594

Gmail, labels, archiving and (lack of) folders

2007-04-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest complaints that I've heard regarding Gmail is the inability to create folders, a feature found in just about every email system ever. At first glance it seems as though a major piece of traditional functionality has been usurped by the new concept of "labels", leaving you without the ability to move items from your inbox. What many people aren't aware of is that there is another step after labeling a message required to fully leverage the Gmail equivalent of folders.

Similar to how folders are used to arrange messages, a label is a user-created, topical name which describes the content of associated emails. The clear advantage to labels is the ability to organize a single message based on multiple criteria. For example, if my wife emails me and asks me to order flea and tick medication for the dog and to bring the car in for an oil change, it could be categorized as 'pet' or 'car' or 'wife'. Using folders I could only choose one topic, with labels I can use all three.

However, with a folder you can simply drag and drop a message from your inbox to an appropriate folder and you're done, your inbox is clean. While when you label a message in Gmail, it just sits there and your inbox grows. This inability to reduce the size of your inbox folder is what seems to be painfully lacking at first glance with Gmail.

However, the missing link is use of the Gmail archive function. The archive function is what removes an item from the inbox.

The button is plainly displayed at the top of the page, but the term archive seems somewhat ambiguous and confusing, especially when considered in the way that Microsoft Outlook uses the word. It's lack of self explanation is what causes many not to experiment with the button in fear of losing mail. Selecting a message and clicking archive, the message is removed from your inbox. The next question is obviously, how do I access that message in the future? There are a several ways to do so.

First, if you have applied a label to the message, you may access the list of messages with a particular label by clicking the appropriate link in the labels section on the left side of the page.

Second, by clicking the All Mail folder (5 lines below Inbox) every message, regardless of label will be displayed.

Third, by using the search functionality on which Google prides itself, you can enter in a phrase or email to find the appropriate message.

Although it takes a little getting used to, Gmail's use of labels in place of traditional folders is a step forward in the evolution of email.

Domain Name Purchase Scam, Part 1

2007-04-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

There's a new scam going around dealing with offers to buy domain names, and the rub isn't quite where you'd expect. In the past a lot of Internet-based fraud has dealt with eliciting account numbers or making a payment via fraudulent check or reversible method (i.e. like making a payment with PayPal and then filing for a refund.) I've personally been approached by a scammer and will share excepts of the email exchange.

This latest scam begins when a person claiming to be a computer consultant emails the owner of a domain stating that he is interested in buying it. For the purpose of this story we'll call him Norton.

(Norton)
Hello,

What is the price you can accept for your domain?

Our company develops software in Oracle and Delphi. We work as contractors.

If you offer more domains for sale with good reselling potential please email us your list.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Seems innocent enough, although a little out of left field. I wrote back to Norton asking him to make an offer, which he did. I then made a counter offer. At this point I'm still waiting for them to ask for my bank account number or some other clearly fraudulent red flag.

Instead, what happens next is that he writes back and accepts my counter offer. In this email, Norton agrees to a price, and in the course of conversation asks if I have an appraisal certificate for the domain, which I don't.

(Norton)
Do you have an appraisal certificate for your domain name?

Domain name is an investment for me. In other words I'm going to sell your name later and make a profit. If I overpay I won't be able to make a profit in the future. It's very important for you and me to know the current market value of your domain.

Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging a reputable appraisal
company. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate appraisals.
I will only accept appraisals from independent sources I trust. To avoid
mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies in a
forum http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/296814.htm

If you're wondering about the link, it is to a forum in which Norton asks the seemingly naive question about reputable domain appraisers. He's using the post as a 'third party' to validate specific services.

Again, this sounds relatively reasonable, any consumer would want to know the value of their purchase. But wouldn't you think that Norton here would have done this step on his own before he ever contacted me, or certainly at least before agreeing to a price? So I wrote back to Norton:

(Me)
I do not have an appraisal certificate for the domain. If you would like to have an appraisal done, please feel free to do so at your own expense.

My asking price stands regardless of the appraisal value as selling the domain name alone would make the website content and its community of users useless.

I did not expect to hear back from him after my response, or at least to have him shy away from the 'deal'. However, he persisted.

(Norton)
I need a proof that our price is fair. I hope you understand the importance of this question.

Usually, people who are selling names or web sites, provide buyers with appraisals. This is a common practice and I'm not going to change this rule because it's the best way to protect an investment.

I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate appraisals. So I cannot accept appraisal from each and every site. I will only accept appraisals from independent appraisal companies I know and trust.

Nort seems really intent on getting this appraisal done. He makes it sound as if my failure to get an appraisal will cause the deal to collapse. He states that people selling websites provide the buyers with an appraisal, something that I have failed to do. It's a reasonable assertion, but he contacted me to sell, so the value proposition of making my domain sound like a great buy is irrelevant.

I agreed to let him get an appraisal at his own expense, which he ignored. So tell me this, if you're prepared to pay $10,000 for a domain name, don't you think that a $65 appraisal would be a worthwhile investment? Me too.

He apparently doesn't trust the big name guys like GoDaddy, Sedo or Afternic, but the forum in which he posts Securenamesale.com and Greatdomains.com are consistently listed as trustworthy. However, greatdomains.com no longer offers appraisals which leaves only securenamesale.com at $69. (It's $15 on GoDaddy). So it looks as though Nort is trying awfully hard to get me to spend $69 at some place I've never heard of. Oh, Nort! You don't work for securenamesale.com do you?

I dug into securenamesale.com and here's what I found. The WHOIS entry lists domainsbyproxy as the registrar. (Domainsbyproxy is a service which masks the registrar's name.) No big deal there, but most large companies list their corporate names. I Googled the domain, and the first result is allfordomains.com, a mirror site. Again, nothing major. However, every other result was a link to posts about people either asking if this was valid or claiming very similar fraudulent experiences.

Long story short, Norton, who also goes by several other aliases according to certain forums, just works for this domain place and it trying to trick people into paying $69 to get your domain appraised at some fake appraisal site.

I decided to write back to Norton again.

(Me)
I understand the importance of this question and I hope that you
understand my point of view... If you are willing to legitimately pay
$10,000 for a domain then you should have absolutely no problem paying
$60 - $65 for an appraisal. GoDaddy does have a personal service for
$15, but what service do you suggest?

I'm still awating a response, which I will post upon receipt.

Cute Coyote in a Quiznos Cooler

2007-04-04T03:59:00.000-07:00

This story is the perfect example of the Internet as a news medium; we instantly have pictures and video of a small incident in a distant place shortly after it occurs. While I could have picked a more topical or current subject, the coyote is much cuter than any presidential candidate and cheerier than tsunami updates.

Yesterday an 18 month old Coyote walked through the propped-open door of a Quiznos sub shop in downtown Chicago. He first tried to go behind the counter, then decided to sit down in the drink cooler for a while. If you've seen any of the pictures, he just relaxes for a while next to the bottled water and looks at the camera as if to say "please, just let me sleep"!

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that animal control was called and the cute little guy was removed without incident.

The Importance of Email Subjects

2007-04-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

The idea of email as a filing system is becoming increasingly common. Especially in the work place, people often store mission critical data in their email without ever formalizing it outside of their inbox. In order to make sure you, and those with whom you communicate, aren't encumbered with the increasingly bloated, spam-filled proposition of email, a moment's worth of attention to your message subject can make all the difference.

Truly think of email as a filing system with its own nomeclature. Think of the subject as an 'index' by which emails are sorted and referenced. Subjects with topics and sub-topics \not only convey messages clearly, but are recalled more easily in the future.

Here are a few guidelines and considerations for effectively crafting a subject line.

1. Reason as a subject.
Have a reason for writing, and use it as your subject. This sounds obvious, but many people ramble without conveying information. Keep a clear focus on what you want to achieve from the email and use it as the subject line to keep you on track.

2. Keep Rules in Mind
A categorized and consistent subject in your email will help users more effectively leverage message rules or filters within their email clients. Consistent use of specific terms allows recipients to topically sort your messages with a filter, i.e. move messages with "firewall log" into the "network" folder.

For example, the subject "report" gives little information about the message content. Instead, something like "sales report: March" not only lets the recipient know it's a sales report (versus "Site Traffic Report: Janary"), but is subcategorized by date.
It's also important to maintain consistency in your terms, otherwise filters will not be effective.

3. Spam Filters
Keep in mind that if your subject is particularly ambiguous or contains terms common among spam, your message may not even make it to the recipient. Give it a once over to make sure you don't have any words or parts of words that look like p!lls or m0rtg@ge.

4. Require Action
If your email has an action item, say so. i.e. "Action Required: Activate Account"

5. Be specific, it gets your message read.
"St. Patricks Day"...hmmm... might be some stupid forward. "St. Patricks Day Party Invitation", okay, you know what that one is.

6. #End
If your entire message is short enough to fit within the subject line, put #End at the end of the line so the recipient knows they have read the message in its entirety and doesn't have to open the message.

Random Wikipedia Articles Shortcut

2007-04-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

If you're like me you can get lost in the depths of Wikipedia, starting on a topic like Microsoft Windows and ending some time later on a seemingly incongruous article about current weather conditions in Montréal.

If you also enjoy the random bits of trivia for which Wikipedia is a treasure trove, try the Random Article keyboard shortcut. On any Wikipedia page, hit Alt+Shift+X and an article on a randomly selected topic will be displayed.

Google Language Tools

2007-04-02T05:08:00.000-07:00

Google Language Tools is a multi-function translation tool that can search for pages written in a language and pages from a specific country in addition to deciphering foreign text. The most powerful aspect of this tool is the ability to translate web pages from one language to another as well as user-entered words and sentences.

This tool is very similar to Babel Fish Translation on Altavista, the same thing practically, but cool none the less. I have not done extensive translations with either, so I don't know how one translation engine stacks up to the other. If you have experience with either or both, please post a comment and let me know.

The State of Search - 3/30/07, MySpace, Space Debris, Antonella & Anna Nicole

2007-03-30T06:25:00.000-07:00

The State of Search (SoS)

Antonella Barba is still going strong at number 3 on the list of AOL's top searches, and doesn't really show signs of disappearing anytime soon. I get it already, she's attractive and has naughty pictures (and supposedly she can sing...I don't watch 'Idol'), but she's turned into an incredible net fascination. If she's smart she'll leverage that with online merchandising sales.

Social networking site MySpace tops the charts over at Ask.com, which I find truly intriguing. With more than 100,000,000 accounts as of August,'06, there aren't many people left who haven't already signed up or lost a loved one to the addictive online community. I would think that MySpace already has enough exposure that it would not consistently remain as a hot button topic. I'm venturing a guess that a lot of the search traffic is coming from parents trying to figure out what the big deal is and how to reclaim their consumed children. Either that or people are trying to figure out how to make their profile pages even more cluttered.

Anna Nicole Smith is still ranking at number 6 on the Yahoo! Buzz index and number 1 on the Ask.com news searches. Nobody seems to want to let her go.

Oh yeah, and a jetliner was nearly struck by flaming space debris near Auckland, New Zealand. This little tidbit was at number 17 on AOL's Hot Searches. Officials aren't completely sure if it was the remnants of a Russian satellite re-entering Earth's atmosphere or meteors. I'm not sure it really matters when you're within 20 seconds of being struck by said large, flaming object.

Yahoo! Mail "unlimited" storage, brilliant or bogus?

2007-03-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! Mail is currently the leading free, web-based email service and it's got big plans to keep it that way. Yahoo! has more competition these days, not just from it's main rival, Microsoft's Hotmail offering, but also from the Google upstart, GMail.

A few years back Yahoo! mail offered a sparse 4 megabytes of storage, and as we all know, the forward of cats and dogs sleeping in funny positions uses half that. However, GMail upped the ante with 2 gigabytes a few years back. Anyone who was a hardcore emailer realized that there was just no comparison and people began to migrate to other services. Yahoo! fired back with an increase to 100 megabytes in '04, and then a full gigabyte in '05, but it still didn't have the ever-increasing multiple-gig offerings that GMail displays on its front page.

Now, according to Informationweek, Yahoo! is planning on offering unlimited storage to it's users to keep up with the Joneses and Smiths (Google @ 2.8+ gigs and Microsoft @ 1 gig). This sounds amazing, but I can't help but wonder what "unlimited" really means. Informationweek wondered the same thing and points out that there are "anti-abuse limits" in place. Which sounds reasonable, but I can't help but wonder if these contraints might make "unlimited" nothing more than a somewhat hollow marketing ploy. It may be that they're throwing out a vast term like "unlimited" and hedging their bets that they can stay ahead of the usage curve for a couple of reasons.

1. Who needs unlimited storage? I'm guessing that anyone who might truly have the need or ability to leverage the possibility of unlimited free storage would fall squarely within their "anti-abuse" limits. With the ever decreasing cost of storage and consumer desktops now shipping with 1 terabyte (1,000 gigabyte) drives, those who might need "unlimited" would most-likey be business or profit based a possibly exempt under the anti-abuse limits. Again, just my guess.

2. The last mile problem. The last mile problem refers to the limiting factors in delivering data to your desktop. I.e., how fast your Internet connection is. The Internet may be blazing fast among servers across the globe, but if you have a slow dialup connection, then your phone line, the "last mile" to your house, is the limiting factor in getting data to your computer. How does this pertain to Yahoo! and unlimited mail? Well, Yahoo! is probably leveraging this last mile problem as a shield. Sure they'll give you unlimited storage, it just takes forever and a day to utilize it. The average cable connection claims about 3 megabits (not megabytes) per second download speed. With network overhead, it would take about an hour and a half to download 1 gigabyte of data. Upload speeds are significantly slower, which means even getting your data to your Yahoo! account would be a chore.

So, is unlimited storage really a competitive advantage or just marketing smoke? We'll find out after Yahoo!'s announcement, expected April 1. That's right, April fools day.

Google Patent Search

2007-03-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

Balancing precariously on the thin line between entertainment and productivity is Google's Patent Search. So whether you've got some time to kill or a killer idea, Google Patent Search (beta) has indexed information on U.S. patents issued between 1790 and mid-2006.

The data is public-domain information from the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) on the more than 7 million U.S. patents. There's always some interesting patent info on the main page, like diagrams of a nose hair trimmer or pocket protector.

From Google Patent Search About Page:
Using the same technology that powers Google Book Search, Google has converted the entire image database of U.S. patents into a format that’s easy to search. You can search the full text of U.S. patents from the Google Patent Search homepage, or visit the Advanced Patent Search page to search by criteria like patent number, inventor, and filing date.

Speed Up Windows XP Menus

2007-03-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

If you get as frustrated as I do waiting for Windows Start menus to expand, here's a quick tip that will eliminate the default half-second (400 milliseconds, actually) delay between when you mouse over a menu and when it opens.

Go to Start > (Settings) > Control Panel > System.

Click the Advanced tab, and then the Settings button under the Performance section of the page to access the Performance Options screen.

Uncheck the box next to Fade or slide menus into view and click OK.

This eliminates the default pause that Windows interjects for the purpose of looking cool. Deselecting the Fade or slide ToolTips into view and the Fade out menu items after clicking boxes will also provide increases in menu speed and performance.

The State of Search - March 22, 2007

2007-03-22T06:58:00.000-07:00

I recently came across a few sites which show the popularity of search terms in some of the major directories and engines. From time to time I'll comment on popular terms for several search tools and the trends across the board.

This being my first week doing the State of Search, I'm rather interesed in the erudite topics which apparently enthrall the general surfing populous. Here are just a few in no particular order:

1. Antonella Barba. Yes, the American Idol contestant who gained note due to racy photos published on the Internet by an ex-boyfriend, has pushed into the top ten most popular searches on AOL, Ask and Lycos. Amidst an unfathomable amount of content on the Internet, Antonella is what appears to be most captivating at the moment.

2. Anna Nicole Smith, is still a significant blip on the radar on Ask, Lycos and Yahoo!.

3. WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) came in at number 3 on Yahoo!, number 15 on the Lycos 50 summary and number 1 on AOL Sports.

Forecastfox Firefox Add-on

2007-03-22T05:58:00.000-07:00

Hands down one of my favorite Firefox add-ons is Forecast fox. This handy little app displays current and forecasted weather conditions in your Firefox (v1.5+) status bar with easy to read numbers and icons. It displays temperature, conditions (rain, wind, snow, etc.) and severe weather alert, which displays severe weather watches and warnings issued for your zip code.

One particularly cool feature of this add-on is the radar-mouse over. When you place your pointer over the icon, reminiscent of something you'd see in an air traffic control tower, you'll see recent satellite data of your region of the country.

It's easy to configure and unobtrusive, so if you spend all day at a desk and want to know what the world outside is like, it's worth a download. You can get Forecastfox from Mozilla at https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/398/

Alaskan Tech Deletes Info on $38 billion Account

2007-03-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

Think you had a bad day? Well a computer tech working at the Alaska Department of Revenue deleted a hard drive, it's back up drive and later found out that backup tapes were unreadable. What was on that drive? Just all the info related to disbursements of a $38 billion oil fund for the residents of Alaska.

The only recourse the department had was to rescan 300 boxes worth of applicant data which had been lost in the snafu. They were lucky they had any way of getting back lost data, however the six-week recovery effort cost more than $200,000.

So the next time you think you've had a terrible day at work, just consider the computer tech in Alaska who will forever be known as the guy who deleted a $38 billion account. You can read the full story on Yahoo!.

The Internet, YouTube and '08 Presidential Campaigns

2007-03-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Chances are you know who Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are. If you've been living under or struck by a rock, they're a few of the top candidates for the 2008 presidential election. Not too familiar with one them or their policies? Well you've got everything you ever wanted to know about them, including stuff they don't want you to know, at your fingertips. That's the beauty of the Internet.

A few years back TV was the primary method of political advertising and information dissemination. Those days are quickly drawing to a close as the majority of presidential candidates are leveraging Internet technologies to get their messages out. In addition to the formulated approaches to web campaigning by each of the candidates, the massive amount of news, analysis and opinion not spewed from each candidate's camp will play a huge role in how people learn about political contenders.

The folks over at Opinions Daily have a quick blurb on this phenomenon and a link to a video which uses the Apple "1984" avertisement with current footage for a political advertisement for Obama v Clinton. This is not a political endorsement of any candidate on my part, I just find it interesting that the face of political communication is evolving. This ad is evidence that "us, the common rabble" as Opinions calls it, stand to gain more influence in light of this shift to Internet-based, blog-centric communication.

The Current Time is....

2007-03-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

If you want to make sure your clocks are set to the proper time, you need to check out the atomic clock time at Time.gov.

The website uses a java plugin to display the current time in your browser for all U.S. time zones, and has a world timezone map so you can adjust for time outside the U.S. There is, of course, a disclaimer that the time shown on the website is not to be considered the exact atomic time, which is fine with me considering that Microsoft Windows clock only goes to seconds, not the nano-seconds of precision of which atomic clocks are capable. There are also applications you can download (right side of page) to sync your computer with atomic time with relative accuracy. If that isn't good enough for you, phone the NIST Time-of-day service (ave. latency of 30 miliseconds land line, 100ms mobile) at (303) 499-7111.

Interestingly (or not) enough, there is a specific definition to the unit of time we know as the second. According to the Wikipedia article on the Atomic Clock, the second is "the duration of 9 192 631 770 cycles of the radiation which corresponds to the transition between two energy levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom".

From Time.gov:
This public service is cooperatively provided by the two time agencies of the United States: a Department of Commerce agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and its military counterpart, the U. S. Naval Observatory (USNO). Readings from the clocks of these agencies contribute to world time, called Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time maintained by both agencies should never differ by more than 0.000 0001 seconds from UTC.

Firefox Download Target Folder Settings

2007-03-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

I've gotten quite a few inquiries from people who have been unable to find files they have downloaded using Firefox. Often this occurs because Firefox does not show the destination folder for automatic downloads (those not started by right-clicking). You can take control of this by setting the default folder to save downloaded files, or have Firefox prompt you for every download.

To change this setting select Tools from the Firefox menu and click Options... to display the Options dialog screen. The Main tab (selected by default) has a section called Downloads. To set a default folder where downloads should be saved, click the radio box (circle) next to Save files to and click the Browse button to find your desired folder.

If you wish to have Firefox prompt you for a destination folder for every download, click the radio box next to Always ask me where to save files. Click OK and your settings will be applied.

Switch Browser Tabs with Ctrl+Tab

2007-03-18T12:10:00.000-07:00

Similar to the Alt-tab keyboard shortcut for switching among open Windows applications, there is a key combo for quickly switching from one web browser tab to another, Ctrl+Tab.

To use, press and hold the Ctrl button and each successive tap of the Tab key cycles forward (left to right) to the next open browser Window. Adding the shift key (Ctrl+ShiftTab) cycles through tabs in reverse (right to left).

This key-cut works for both Firefox and Internet Explorer 7.

Song and Station Names with RDS

2007-03-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

In the midst of changing my car's clock to reflect daylight savings time, I discovered that I had the option of using RDS to set the time. Having forgotten what the acronym RDS stands for, I looked for a refresher in Wikipedia.

RDS stands for Radio Data System and is the technology that displays radio station names and song titles on many newer car radios. In many implementations it is known as RBDS, Radio Data Broadcast System, but it is essentially the same thing.

This technology works by transmitting small amounts of digital information over the airwaves with an FM broadcast which include station, content, time and category (i.e. Jazz, Rap or News). Many of you may have experienced this technology with a home stereo or in your car, but not payed much attention to how or when this technology came in to use.

Wikipedia has a more in-depth article about this relatively common technology.

Better Firefox Preferences with Tabbrowser

2007-03-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

A short while back I made a post regarding IE7's tabbed browsing preferences and that they were more customizable than those in Firefox. Well now there is a remedy to the shortcomings in Firefox's tab settings in the form of a browser add-on.

The Tabbrowser add-on gives you the freedom to set tab, link and new window preferences previously unavailable in firefox. Thus, the power of open-source flexes its muscles and keeps this upstart browser in contention (and in many minds, the lead) with the IE franchise. The add on does not allow the choice of whether or not new tabs should be opened in an adjacent tab or at the end of the tab row, but it does add some more functionality that Firefox, especially less-than-2.0 versions, noticeably lack.

Developer Comments:

This extension is an enhancement for the basic tab controls provided in Firefox 1.0. It replaces the existing user interface with a new, more visible user interface, and also includes UI for other hidden features that are part of the browser, as well as features provided explicitly by the extension.

Loggr Web-based timesheet

2007-03-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

For any of you who telecommute, consult or have to provide itemized time sheets for work, there's an awesome web-based timesheet app(lication) called Loggr that you will find useful. Timesheets are a necessary evil that can be a pain to keep, but they're tied directly to your dollars so you want to make sure you're billing every minute you possibly can.

Loggr, the "dead simple AJAX timesheet app" consists of a slick, single-page interface in which you can enter itemized work events and notes. Each item is time stamped and the duration of each task is time stamped and summed (i.e., 10:01 pm, 47 minutes). Enter in a start item and click "working?" checkbox to start the clock. Uncheck the "working?" box and enter another item to stop the clock.

It's straight forward, free and performs its function well without overcrowding the app without extraneous features.

Find the lowest gas prices with MapQuest

2007-03-10T14:32:00.000-08:00

Whether you're that person who drives ten miles to save $.02 per gallon or a casual consumer looking to get the most mileage out of your money, you'll love MapQuest Gas Prices. It's a handy new service from MapQuest that plots out gas stations over a map of a given location.

Type in your address or city and MapQuest Gas Prices displays a map of the area and its gas stations sorted by price, distance or name. The next time a fill up is in order just check out gasprices.mapquest.com before you get in the car and you may be able to save some coin and some hassle by finding lower prices or a station closer to your normal routes.

This is a great application for anyone going on a trip trying to decide if they should gas up before they leave or risk being gouged once they're on the road. In general, it's a great tool for being an informed consumer.

Use SlickFillers.net for free Amazon shipping

2007-03-08T13:09:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com's Super Saver Shipping provides buyers with free shipping on orders of $25 or more. Awesome deal, but what if your item is $21 with $6 shipping? You'd be better off buying a filler item to meet the $25 dollar free shipping threshold.

That sounds simple enough, but you can't search by price on Amazon. That's where SlickFillers.net comes in. From the same people as SlickDeals.net (actually just a different part of the site), SlickFillers gives you the ability to search for items under a given dollar value for the purpose of getting (free) Super Saver Shipping.

For example, you bought a $21 book and need to spend $25 to qualify for free shipping. Enter $4 as the "amount until free shipping", enter search terms, select the categories in which you would like to search and voila. You've now got a list of items you can add to your cart to get free Amazon shipping. Click a link and you're taken to Amazon so you can easily add the item to your cart, save money and hopefully find something useful in the process.

SlickFillers is a great idea. It serves a purpose and serves it very well.

From SlickFillers.net:
This site has been created to help people who need to find an inexpensive item (filler) sold by Amazon.com to tip their order total over $25 and get free shipping, instead of having to subscribe to Amazon Prime.

MapMyRun.com

2007-03-05T07:35:00.000-08:00

For those of you who tell tales of ten mile morning runs or a four mile jaunt with your dog every afternoon, you may want to check out MapMyRun.com to find out how much of a big fish story your pedestrian enterprises really are.

MapMyRun is a pretty slick Google Earth mashup (website that uses content or technology from another website or service) that allows you to plot out your walk, jog or run over satellite imagery. Type in your starting address and the map adjusts accordingly. Plot points along your route and the measuring function gives you surprisingly accurate distances, eliminating guess work from judging distance by eye. The bird's eye view is also very handy at helping pick alternate routes to mix up your daily routine.

Even more, provide the Workout Calculator with your age, height, gender and the duration of your trek and you'll get back the number of calories burned and average speed. It's definitely worth a look whether you're a marathon runner, dog walker or casual exerciser.

Track Your Federal Tax Refund

2007-02-27T05:41:00.000-08:00

When you've got money coming to you, it never comes quick enough. The same holds true with a tax refund. It's that incredible feeling of pennies from heaven, you just don't know when they'll actually start falling.

Well, buried in the IRS.gov website is a tool that will at least take the anxiety of waiting. The Refund Status page gives you an update on your return and an estimated arrival date. You'll need three pieces of information to access your information; your social security number, filing status (married, single, etc.) and the exact whole dollar amount on your return.

There's also links to some general info on how long it takes to get a return, paper versus electronic filing, automatic deposit and splitting refunds over multiple accounts.

Fix Windows DST with EZ Time Zone

2007-02-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 is a provision passed by Congress that effectively extends daylight savings time by four weeks. Beginning this year daylight savings time will start three weeks earlier on March 11 and end one week later on November 4.

More daylight sounds great, however Windows uses the old daylight savings time dates, which could effectively cause unadjusted Windows clocks to be an hour off. This could potentially create problems with time-sensitive applications and cause time stamping functions to be incorrect.

There's an incredibly useful app out called EZ Time Zone Updater which provides a no-fuss way to quickly update the time zone information in Microsoft Windows environments. All you have to do is click a button and your computer is updated! Better yet, this little gem can also update other machines on your network. This is incredibly useful for network administrators and IT guys everywhere who can simply type the name of the computer they wish to update instead of physically sitting at each computer to update the time zone information, as is the case using the Microsoft prescribed tzedit tool.

The download is free, but consider a donation if it you find it useful.

Google Apps Announced

2007-02-22T19:04:00.000-08:00

Wired News posted a story about the newly announced Google Apps, an online suite of office applications which are a direct opponent to the Microsoft Office Suite. One of the key differentiators of the Google offering is use of the software as a service paradigm (pay for software functionality as you use it) versus the traditional purchase, perish, replace method (buying a disc and license that you own, buying a new copy to upgrade).

While many people like owning something, you may be over paying with a traditional schema when it comes to quickly obsolescent productivity applications such as Office. The payment structure for Google Apps is $50 per year, per user, compared to roughly $500 for Microsoft Office Professional 2007. Broken down, the expense of ten years of the Google service is the equivalent of a copy of office 2007. Keep in mind, at the end of the ten years, Google Apps will have been upgraded many times as opposed to a owning a copy of office 2007 while Office 2017 is out.

The Wired News article does a good job at pointing out the pros and cons of this pricing structure and the use of web-based applications in the enterprise.

Google Scholar

2007-02-21T07:14:00.000-08:00

One of the beta offerings from the back pages of Google shows particular promise in legitimizing publicly available search engines as a vehicle for scholarly research. Previously cataloged mostly in limited access sytems, Google Scholar searches through academic articles, journals and publications targeted at scholarly organizations.

From Google Scholar:
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research.

URL: http://scholar.google.com

IE7 'Quick Menu' Keyboard Shortcut

2007-02-20T10:47:00.000-08:00

If you need temporary use of the traditional menu options which are hidden by default in Internet Explorer 7(File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools and Help), the quick menu feature displays these menus once, and they disappear after being used.

To use this feature, just press the Alt key and the traditional menus will appear. As soon as you click on a link or anywhere else on a page, the menus disappear. You can also hide the menu by pressing the Alt key again.

If you would like to set this menus to be visible by default, check out this post on how to do so.

Blogger RSS Feed Address

2007-02-20T06:24:00.000-08:00

The new Blogger integrates RSS and ATOM feeds into all its posts. The RSS feed URL is found by adding /feeds/posts/default?alt=rss to the end of the blog URL. For example, the feed address for this blog is http://fezzie.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss.

The URL for ATOM feeds is essentially the same as the RSS, /feeds/posts/default. Just get rid of the ?alt=rss part and you have the ATOM URL. For example, the ATOM feed for this page is http://fezzie.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Help! My power button won't shut down my computer!

2007-02-20T05:54:00.000-08:00

I've gotten a few calls from people who at one point or another are seemingly unable to turn off their computer with their power button. This usually happens when Windows has frozen and the person is unable to shut down their PC via the Start > Shutdown method, so they resort to the power button.

One push, nothing. Another push, still nothing. One last push and a smack with the butt of the fist, call the I.T. guy.

To remedy, simply press and hold the power button for 5 seconds and the machine will power down. While it may seem to be broken, this behavior is by design and part of the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). This is the same interface that causes a single press of the power button to cause a computer to hybernate. Most power buttons on computers aren't true physical on/off buttons, they simply trigger an even that software or firmware (operating system or BIOS) recognizes and deals with accordingly.

You should always shut down your operating system properly, but if all else fails, press and hold the power button for five seconds and it will

Productivity: Startup Reminders

2007-02-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a little tip on how to automatically display important reminders when you log in to Windows. I'm a big fan of to-do lists, so that's how I use this little trick if there's something particularly pressing that I need to remember. I set this up the night before important meetings and come morning, I have a list of the things I need prep for that meeting.

First, create a text file with some key "to do's", file taxes, attend meeting, whatever. Then, save the document with an easily identifiable name like "Reminders". Next, drag and drop the file icon into the startup folder on the Windows start menu, Start > Programs >Startup. The next time you log in, that file will automatically open and display your list of action items.

Just make sure that you don't move the file from the location in which you saved it, otherwise Windows will display an error on startup saying that it can't find the file. If you want to use this on a daily basis, save the text file someplace safe, like My Documents, and just edit the document on a daily basis so fresh reminders will pop up on login.

If you're done with the file and no longer want it to open on startup, right click on the shortcut in the Startup folder and select delete. This deletes the shortcut only, the file still exists which you must delete separately.

This extends beyond simple text documents to things like launching your favorite website on startup or firing up your calendar program.

Keyboard Shortcut: Win+L

2007-02-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

A speedy alternative to pressing ctrl+alt+del and clicking Lock Computer is to use the Windows Key + L.

Locking your computer is basically a way of preventing others from using your computer while away from your desk. The advantage to locking versus logging off is that you don't have to close any of your programs in order to lock. When you return, press ctrl+alt+del to bring up the login prompt, enter your login and password and your desktop will be restored to its previous state.

Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Arrow

2007-02-14T18:18:00.000-08:00

When scrolling through text using the arrow keys (i.e. composing an email, word processing, etc.), pressing the Ctrl key while pressing the arrow key will cause the cursor scroll one word at a time instead of one character at a time.

1-800-Free-411

2007-02-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

If you're like me, the idea of paying $1.50 for 411 service is rediculous, especially when you can simply use Google SMS to achieve the same ends. Well, if you're not using a cell or don't want to mess with SMS, there is a solution, 1-800-Free-411.

Dial 1800-Free-411 and you will be guided through automated prompts to find the appropriate listing. If the computer is unable to help, you will be connected with a live operator who will complete your request. After the appropriate listing is found, you have to listen to a short commercial before hearing the actual number, and that's it.

The ad sponsorship pays for the service and it's free to you. You can check them out on the web at http://www.free411.com.

From Free411.com:
The name says it all. 1-800-FREE411 is free nationwide directory assistance. And it’s free from any phone. Cell. Home. Work. Wherever. Of course, you may get charged minutes on your cell phone (like most calls), but we won’t charge you a penny. Here’s how we do it. Our sponsors cover the service cost by playing short advertising messages (about 15 seconds) – ads usually based on your search request. Say you’re looking for a local pizza place. We might play you a special offer from Dominos. And we’ll even connect you for free. Of course, you can always just get the original number you requested. Best part is, a typical call to us lasts about the same amount of time as a paid 411 call.

IE7 Quick Tabs

2007-02-12T06:26:00.000-08:00

Quick Tabs is a brilliant feature introduced in IE 7 to simplify tabbed browsing, especially for those of us compulsive surfers who typically have 10 tabs open at a time. Quick Tabs displays a page with mini-screen shots of all the open tabs. The screen shots are clickable, which takes you directly to the selected tab. This is particularly useful because as more tabs open, the amount of descriptive header text used to identify each tab decreases.

You can access Quick Tabs by clicking the icon/tab (four squares in a mini tab) to the left of the tab row or with the Ctrl+Q keyboard shortcut. The icon is only visible when two or more tabs are open.

IE7 Tabbed Browsing Settings

2007-02-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest improvements in IE7 is the addition of tabbed browsing; the ability to open multiple websites within a single browser window and quickly switch between them. (If you haven't tried tabbed browsing yet, right click on any link in IE7 and select "Open in New Tab". Voila! Tabbed browsing.) While the concept of tabbed browsing is pretty straight forward, there are a few subtle settings within Internet Explorer 7 which can make a difference in your multi-tab browsing. Nothing that's too complicated, but it makes a difference if you're a picky power user. In order to access these options, go to Tools > Internet Options and click the Settings button in the Tabs section.

This screen allows you to set an array of preferences that you probably wouldn't have even considered had you not been presented with them. Two primary options are whether or not pop-ups should be assigned a tab or a new browser window, and if links opened from other programs (i.e. email links) should be in a. a new window, b. a new tab or c. the currently viewed tab. Aside from these, one setting that I found particularly useful was the "Open new tabs next to current tab" option, a setting not present in tabbed browser competitor, Firefox.

I had become accustomed to Firefox's method of handling a new tab, which was to throw it at the end of the tab row of your browser. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but for example if you have ten open tabs and open a link from one of those pages in a new tab you may have to scroll through your tab bar to find it. Again, not a huge deal, but it wastes time and is often difficult to return to the originating tab. IE7 graciously allows you the option of whether or not any new tabs are added next to the currently open tab, or tacked on at the end, Firefox style.

This all comes down to personal preference, so play around with the settings and choose which one best suits you.

Hard to Find 800 Numbers

2007-02-09T10:49:00.000-08:00

Large companies don't want you to talk to you. In fact, they want to hide from you. Sure they thrive on your business and exist on your hard earned dollars, they just don't want to have to interact with you. So they bury their contact info deep within websites built to dissuade you from initiating human contact with any of their employees. You may be able to find an email address somewhere in there, but it will most likely just spit back an automated response or take a few days for a customer service rep. to send you a canned script.

Now you have recourse in the form of hardtofind800numbers.com. This site lists obfuscated toll free numbers from some of the biggest names around so you can actually talk to a human being. You can also contribute to the list if you're clever enough to come across one of highly guarded numbers. The front page lists numbers for Amazon, Ebay, Paypal, Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Email Long Links with TinyURL

2007-02-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

Email clients are notorious for chopping up long website addresses. Someone sends you a link to Mapquest directions or a story on the back pages of MSN, but when you click on it, you get the main page or 'page not found'. Or maybe you've gotten a reply from someone complaining that the link you emailed didn't work. It's usually neither the sender's nor receiver's fault, just how certain email clients handle links.

The solution is TinyUrl, and it's brilliantly simple. Simply copy and paste a long URL into the text box on TinyURL.com and you'll be presented with a 'tiny' version of the url which directs people to the same place as the original link. For example, if I wanted to send someone a link to the Mapquest map for Boston, the link would be 207 characters long. Instead I copied and pasted that URL into the TinyURL.com text box and the result is an easily manageable 24 character TinyURL.

From TinyUrl.com:
Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? Then you've come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.

Why do I get so many SPAM with pictures?

2007-02-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

A primary method that today's Spam filters use to determine if mail is junk or not is by searching the text of the message for certain keywords. Sounds like a good idea. But what if there is no text in the email, just pictures of text? Well, then there is nothing to search and "image Spam" gets through.

The same reason that spam filters don't catch image spam is the same reason why certain websites ask you to type in a bunch of squiggly letters for verification when signing up for things: there is not currently an automated, quick and inexpensive way to have a computer determine what kind of text, if any, is in an image and perform a function based on its findings.

Quick and inexpensive are the key words here. Sure there is OCR (optical character recognition) software out there, it's the technology that lets you scan a paper document and have an editable electronic copy, but it's not fast enough. Sure it works, but it is computationally intensive. There are billions of spam emails floating around out there and to apply the resources to attack this method is huge at this point in time.

I'm sure they'll find a way to filter out spam images versus legitimate images, at which point the spammers will find some new loophole and move on to a new technique.

Keyboard Shortcut: Bypass the Trash Bin

2007-02-07T07:01:00.000-08:00

If you don't like having to hit the delete key and then re-delete items from the Windows recycle bin here's a little trick how to combine the two steps into one.

Hold the Shift key while pressing Delete and the file will be deleted from its folder and will not be placed in the Recycle Bin. You will receive a confirmation dialog as you normally do, but the icon is a red warning over a shredded file rather than the normal recycle bin icon.

Use with caution as you're eliminating the safety net that is the Recycle Bin.

Hello, I'm a Mac. And I'm a mammoth.

2007-02-06T06:41:00.000-08:00

Wal-mart, the same company that probably sold the "I'm a Mac" guy his hoodie at unbelievably low prices, has declared its intent to get a piece of the multimedia action known as iTunes.

Today Wal-mart introduced their video download service offering episodes of TV shows for $1.96 and movies for anywhere up to $19.88 for new releases. The service is officially in beta, but has some real estate on the front page of Walmart.com. The download page breaks in Firefox, so you'll have to use IE if you want to use it.

According to Reuters there are currently about 3,000 movies and individual TV episodes available for download. Oh, and by the way the videos do not play on Macs nor on the Ipod. It does offer a portable format, which is right up the alley of the Microsoft's Zune portable player. So Wal-mart provides the service, Microsoft provides the platform and some major studios are providing the content for a juggernaut in the making. One can only wonder if 'The Mart' will be able to squeeze the movie studios with the pressure it so famously applies to other members of its supply chain to ensure they are cost competitive.

Although Wal-mart does not have the sleek marketing aura of Apple, it is a business force to be reckoned with. It is a distribution channel in and of itself, has unmatched purchasing power and harnesses one of the most highly metrics-driven and technology integrated business processes of anyone, anywhere. A fun fact, Wal-mart has the world's largest database at more than 1/2 petabyte. (That's more than 500,000 gigabytes.)

MySpace Junkies Go Cold Turkey

2007-02-05T05:48:00.000-08:00

I was perusing the Computers and Internet section of Yahoo! Answers over the weekend and was alerted to apparently one of the most disturbing events in the modern world: MySpace was down (intermittently) and the MySpace junkies are getting the cyber shakes.

The boards were filled with frantic interrogations as to what apocalyptic event could possibly be heralded by an event as earth shattering as the temporary inability to log in to My Space. Let me just say that MySpace users are money in the pockets of News Corp. so believe me, they're doing everything in their power to get things running smoothly and the dollars flowing.

Google Zeitgeist

2007-02-04T18:28:00.000-08:00

Google handles a staggering 100,000,000 searches a day for topics ranging from apples to zebras and everything in between. Google Zeitgeist gives you more info about that everything in between part by assembling search trends and patterns for the billions of monthly queries handled by the search giant.

Can my computer run Vista?

2007-02-02T19:57:00.000-08:00

If you're adventurous and want to know if your current XP computer can run Windows Vista, try the Vista Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft before you buy. It will tell you if your computer has what it takes to run the new O.S.

From Microsoft.com:
"This small software tool will scan your computer and create an easy-to-understand report of all known system, device, and program compatibility issues, and recommend ways to resolve them. Upgrade Advisor can also help you to choose the edition of Windows Vista that best fits the way you want to use your computer."

Spyware Solutions

2007-02-02T19:21:00.000-08:00

I get lots of questions regarding spyware / malware / grayware etc. The basic toolkit I use to wipe clean a machine includes three main items, Housecall Online Virus and Spyware Checker, Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy, all of which are available free online.

While they perform certain overlapping functions, each will find threats that the others wont.

1. HouseCall by TrendMicro is a great tool because it covers viruses as well as spyware threats. Available at http://housecall.trendmicro.com

2. Adaware SE Personal (4.5/5 star user rating) by Lavasoft is under 3 megabytes and available at download.com.

3. Spybot Search and Destroy (4.5/5 star user rating) is just under 5 megabytes and also available at download.com.

Determine your version of Windows

2007-02-01T13:54:00.000-08:00

To figure out exactly which version of Windows you're running, including service pack information: 1. click the Windows Start button and select 'Run. 2. In the Run window, type 'winver' (without quotes) and click ok. The "About Windows" dialog box will appear with all the pertinent info.

How To Import / Export Firefox Bookmarks

2007-02-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

To export your Firefox bookmarks click Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks... to open the Bookmarks Manager.

From the Bookmarks Manager, select File > Export... and you will be prompted to select the location to where your bookmarks will be located.

To import bookmarks, follow the same steps and select Import instead of Export from the Bookmarks Manager.

Type URLs Faster

2007-02-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

If you don't want the hassle of typing "http://www" every time you type in a web address, simply type the domain name in your address bar and use one of the following shortcuts to automatically add "http://www", ".com", ".net" or ".org".

CTRL + Enter : adds "http://www" + ".com" (I.E. and Firefox)
Shift + Enter : adds "http://www." + ".net" (Firefox)
CTRL + Shift + Enter : adds "http://www" + ".org" (Firefox)

For example, if I want to go to http://www.blogger.com, I would type "blogger" in my address bar and press CTRL + Enter to add on the http://www. and .com. part of the address and load the page. If you're using Firefox, add the ALT key to any of those combos and it will open the address in a new tab.

Software: Firefox 2

2007-02-01T09:06:00.000-08:00

I frequently mention the web browser Firefox in many of my posts, so I thought I should say where to download this free little gem.Just go to www.getfirefox.com. It's about a 6 MB download.

In the name of equity, the newest version of Internet Explorer is available for free download from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/.

Right-click to Reopen Closed Firefox Tabs

2007-01-31T07:38:00.000-08:00

The Firefox browser has some really cool right-click functionality that reopens previously closed browsing tabs. Right-click the tab row of the browser and select Undo Close Tab to reopen closed pages.

View Standard Menus In Internet Explorer 7

2007-01-31T07:24:00.000-08:00

Many were confused when they first downloaded IE7 because the new interface hides standard menu options by default. To get back your old menu options (i.e., File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools, Help), right-click your mouse in the gray area of your tool bar and select Menu Bar from the list of options. Your old menu options will reappear. To hide again, right-click and de-select the Menu Bar option.

Attack of the Crazy Laser Mouse!

2007-01-30T12:41:00.000-08:00

Does your (optical/laser) mouse seem to have a mind of its own? You move it left and it shoots back to the right? There may be a simple remedy that doesn't involve buying a new mouse, rather only a new mouse pad.

Because optical mice use light to sense movement, they are prone to interruption via reflection. Shiny desktops and mouse pads with a plastic sheen across the top may be the culprit of your mouse problems. The sensor in the mouse may pick up ambient light and register it as movement, causing your mouse pointer to behave strangely.

As a quick test to see if that's the cause, flip your mouse pad over and try navigating on the rubber backing. If that doesn't solve it, first make sure your mouse's behavior isn't caused by lifting the mouse from the surface during use, and second try cleaning the movement pads on the bottom of the mouse. Just use a moist rag on the rubber pads to remove any build up and make sure it glides smoothly.

Right-click to Save Groups of Firefox Tabs

2007-01-29T18:49:00.000-08:00

Firefox has a function that quickly bookmarks a series of open website tabs. To use, right-click on the tab-bar and select "Bookmark All Tabs..."

A dialogue will appear asking you to name this group of tabs and where in the browser you will access these sites.

The default is "Bookmarks", meaning that a subfolder containing these sites will be created in the main bookmark folder. Another option is Bookmark Toolbars, which will add a drop-down folder to the toolbar directly above the Firefox tabs.

A Strong Password You Can Remember

2007-01-27T08:21:00.000-08:00

According to security experts, it's not difficult to create a strong password. Simply string together fifteen or more random characters including upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols arranged in no particular order and don't write it down. Sound like a little much?

These passwords are difficult to remember which leads to the unsafe practice of writing them down. Most people use a significant name or date as their password, which is easy to remember but also easy for hackers to guess. So how can you make and remember a strong password?

My personal method is what I like to call as password sentence and here's how to create your own.

Come up with an easy to remember subject. For example, if you currently use your cat Fluffy as your password, use “Fluffy” as your subject.
Use the subject in a sentence. For example, “Fluffy plays with yarn”.
Replace some of the letters with analogies, symbols and numbers that look or sound like letters from the sentence. I.e. “Fluffy pl@y$ with y@r^”. Some common analogies to letters are:

When you're done, use the Microsoft Password Checker, a web-based tool, to test your password strength.

Use A Power Strip to Cut Down on Idle Current

2007-01-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

There are tons of articles out there regarding "idle current", the electricity used by electronics which have been switched off. Key offenders mentioned are usually cell phone chargers and home entertainment electronics.

In order to eliminate a draw of idle current to electronics, you must kill the power to the plug. This can be done in one of two ways, 1. unplug it from the wall 2. kill the current with an intermediary, i.e. power strip. The power strip can either be switched off or unplugged, whichever you fancy, but it saves the hassle of plugging and unplugging multiple items with a switch or single plug.

Group electronics together by use patterns so you're not switching on a whole bunch of unnecessaries to power a single item. For example, plug your DVD player, tuner and subwoofer into one strip and you cell charger, computer and wireless router into another. The folks over at treehugger found "smart" power strips that dynamically by monitoring attached electronics while still plugged in. These smart strips run from $30 - $90.

Notes and Links:
:: treehugger (link)
:: Pittsburgh Post Gazette article on idle current (link)

Better Windows Multitasking with Alt+Tab

2007-01-26T05:33:00.000-08:00

Windows has a cool feature known informally as Task Switcher. It is simply a method of using your keyboard to quickly switching between running programs. This combination of keys displays a window with the program icons and titles of all your open applications. It's a very easy way to speed up your multitasking and quickly hide that game of Solitaire when your boss walks enters the room.

To access this shortcut, press and hold the Alt key (usually with your left thumb) and tap the Tab key (usually with your left middle finger). PressingTab once will bring up the list of running programs. Each successive time you press the tab key you will cycle through the list of programs. When you let go of the Alt key, the last icon highlighted will be selected and the Task Switcher window disappears.

This has been available in pretty much the same form since Windows 3.1 However, Windows Vista has taken it one step further by making it mouse-clickable and displaying a mini-"screen shot" of the application instead of just an icon.

Microsoft offers a "PowerToy Alt-Tab Replacement" download for Windows XP which upgrades XP Task Switcher to more Vista-like functionality.

Help! Windows doesn't recognize my USB (thumb) Drive

2007-01-25T07:42:00.000-08:00

I've gotten lots of questions regarding USB thumb drives and why they often don't appear to work with Windows. Typically this concerns the letters that Windows tries to assign to a removable drive to uniquely identify it.

For example, most people know “C” as their main hard drive, and your compact disc drive may be labeled “D”. The problem occurs when Windows assigns a conflicting drive letter to your USB drive, one that is already in use by some other resource, typically a mapped network drive.

To fix this problem:

1. Open “My Computer” and take note of all the drive letters that appear. Select a letter which is NOT being used by one of the displayed drives. (i.e. You have C,D,E,F drives, pick anything other than those letters.

2. From the Windows desktop,right-click on my computer and click “Manage.” The Computer Management console will open.

3. In the console, open the “Storage” tree in the left window pane and select “Disk Management.”

4. In the right window pane find your removable drive, it will be labeled Disk '#', Removable. Right click on that drive and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths”

5. The “Change Drive Letter and Paths” window will appear.

6. Click the “Change” button.

7. From the drop-down list on the right, select the new letter to represent your USB drive as selected in step one.

8. Click OK and close out of the Computer Management windows.

You should now be able to access your USB drive through My Computer or Windows Explorer.

Find Great Offers at SlickDeals

2007-01-24T18:38:00.000-08:00

If you're searching the web for great deals, make SlickDeals.net your first stop. This site features reader-submitted finds of the best sales, promotions, coupons and deals from stores all over the net.

You'll find everything from freebies to secret coupon codes on items ranging from makeup to USB hard drives. The site is continuously updated so check back often to check out the latest deals.

Description from slickdeals.net:
"The most frequently updated and complete deal site on the web! We provide you with the day's hottest deals every day. We also have over 800 coupons for all your favorite online stores. Browse around and you're bound to save more than a few bucks!"

Software :: HomeInventory

2007-01-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

The Insurance Information Institute (III) offers free and aptly named HomeInventory software which, you guessed it, helps you create your own home inventory. “Why do I need a home inventory?” you may ask. Well, if your home is burglarized or damaged in a fire or natural disaster, the inventory is an excellent way to make sure you are properly compensated for the loss of your property.

If you think you could easily remember info on all of your valuables, I beg to differ. Quick, what's the serial number on your TV? What is the total dollar value of all the software installed on your computer? I thought so. Even if you cover the major ticket items, I guarantee you will miss enough of the small ticket items to add up to an appreciable dollar amount. Everything from blankets and throw pillows to picture frames and candle sticks add up quickly. Every last bit of information you can provide to your home insurance company will help you get what is rightfully yours.

The software lets you add items by the room in which they are located in your house. With each item you add, you can enter a description, category, make, model, serial number, purchase place/date/price, as well as digital photos of each item and photos of receipts. Not only can you store your insurance policy info in HomeInventory, the running total on the home screen can help you assess if your policy is even adequate enough to cover all that would want replaced.

I've personally gone through the process of creating a home inventory and I'm surprised to find out how much stuff I own. The most surprising aspect of the process was how many things, thousands of dollars worth of things, that I look at every day that I wouldn't have thought to mention to my insurance company. You tend to gravitate to the more expensive items in a room, so start in one corner and go right around the room without skipping anything. A great way to start is to just take 360 degree photos of each room so that even if you do miss something, you have a basic reference to work from should something happen before you finish your list.

Make sure to store a copy of your inventory in a safe location (burn to CD and put in a safety deposit box, email a copy to a family member, etc.) because if your computer is stolen or damaged in this undetermined catastrophic event, your inventory will be gone right along with your flat screen and family antiques.

To download this free software, visit knowyourstuff.org.

Right-click to Alphabetize Windows Programs Menu

2007-01-24T05:46:00.000-08:00

Does it take you forever to find a particular program through your Windows start button? It may be because your Programs menu is a mess.

Windows simply adds new programs to the end of the program list in the order in which they were installed. That list typically grows over time, so unless you remember when you installed a program, you may have to search for a particular app(lication).

There is a cool little feature in Windows that lets you quickly alphabetize the items in your Programs menu. Simply right-click over a list of menu items and select Sort by Name. This will alphabetize your programs so they're easily found.

OpenOffice.org Offers a True Alternative

2007-01-23T10:31:00.000-08:00

For quite a while MS Office has been the undisputed king of basic office productivity software. It's a pretty solid offering with word processing, spread sheets, presentations and data base functionality. Most won't dispute that is probably the most pervasive suite of productivity software. However, one thing that people might argue is that $399 is a steep price to create a basic document or for your kids to do their homework.

Now there's a financial and functional alternative to spending wads of cash on basic productivity. It's free, yes free, and is compatible with Microsoft Office. That alternative is OpenOffice.org from Sun Microsystems. That's both the name of the desktop product and the website where you can downlaod it for free. (Did I mention it was free?)

From their website, “OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.” You can open MS Office documents with OpenOffice, and conversely save OpenOffice documents in MS Office format so you may share documents with others who don't also use OpenOffice.

OpenOffice.org offers a full suite of software programs which are an analogy to Microsoft counterparts. Writer is a Word equivalent, while Calc and Impress are replacements for Excel and Powerpoint respectively. Partner the majority of Office functionality with superior PDF support and a nice shiny price tag of $0 and I think it's an incredible combination.

Notes and Links:

:: OpenOffice.org (link)

Recycle old electronics for free.

2007-01-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

Now that you can recycle old computers and monitors FOR FREE, there's no excuse not to dispose of electronics in an Earth-friendly manner. Several existing programs aid with proper disposal of old computer equipment... and even pay for the shipping! You can't beat that.

Even better, if the goods you're tossing aren't ancient artifacts you may even get a few bucks or a tax deduction. Programs include those offered through Dell, TigerDirect and HP. They'll even send you a pre-paid shipping label which is a heck of a deal considering proper disposal of an old CRT monitor will usually run you at least $30.

Be sure to read the facts about out each one as there are subtle differences in program details.

Notes:
:: CRT - Cathode Ray Tube, used in non-flat panel monitors
:: Lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium are common in consumer elctronics.

Google Text Message (SMS) Search

2007-01-22T05:41:00.000-08:00

Google's text message search is one of the coolest informational tools I've seen in a while. It provides easy access to information, is accessible to the masses and requires neither subscriptions nor proprietary gadgets.

Google SMS empowers the cell phone you (probably) already own with powerful search capabilities. The best part is, you don't have to sign up for mobile Internet access to use it and you don't have to download anything. All you need is a text messaging-capable phone and you have access to an array of very useful information on the go.

It covers categories from weather and phone listings to stock quotes and driving directions. One simple application of Google SMS that I love is that finding a phone number with a text query it saves the $1.49 it costs to use 411 from my cell.

To use, send a text message to 46645 ('GOOGL') and you'll receive your results within a few moments via text. For example, "weather 01201" will get you the weather in Pittsfield and "pizza 10001" will return pizza joints in Manhattan. Check out the Google SMS page for info on how to properly format queries, or just message 'tips' to 46645 to receive a list of sample queries.

The Google end of the service is free, but standard text messaging fees from your mobile carrier may apply.

Notes and Links:

:: SMS: Short Messaging Service, a.k.a "text messaging"

:: Google SMS Homepage (link)

:: Google SMS Help Center (link)

:: Google SMS works in the US, Canada, Germany, Japan & Spain