Archive for September 2004

The free iPod offer is legitimate, but it is heck to make it happen. First, you MUST use Internet Explorer. Not any enhanced version of IE or using its engine including MyIE2.

One of the original offers was sign up with a new eBay account and bid on an auction. Well, one of my contacts signed up AND won her auction! She didn’t get credit for it even though she completed the offer BEFORE freeIpods took it away.

It didn’t approve my mom as a valid user. Why? She lives in a different city and has her own email account with a different domain. I don’t think this is acceptable. However, I still need two more offers to complete this mess. Why am I still trying despite all these barriers? Because I want to use the iPod to practice listening. Anyone willing to complete this beyond signing up (about five people signed up, but never completed the offer), here’s the place to go. Not all offers require spending money. See The Original Free iPod Guide for excellent information about the site and its offers.

K-pod is a utility for syncing your inbox with your iPod.

I get, “The system has recovered from a serious error” message from time to time (see the screen shot) with two buttons: “Send Error Report” and “Don’t Send” regarding sending the report to Microsoft. The error message appears when an application runs into a problem it can’t handle. When this happens, XP stops the app and the error report prompt appears so you can send the error report to Microsoft if you’re connected to the Internet.

In the case of hardware or a driver (software managing hardware) attempts something that could cause problems, XP puts up that annoying BSOD (blue screen of death) and the computer is either restarted or you have to turn it off and back on. System error reports go to the Microsoft Online Crash Analysis Web site, aka MOCA. Go figure – the Web site drops the ‘M’ in the URL.

When one of them error report windows pops up and you decide to let it send a report to Microsoft, be sure you’re connected to the Internet before hitting the “Send Error Report” button. Behind the scenes, XP creates a short message describing the error and provides additional information such as operating system version, failure type, language, cause of the problem, etc. to help Microsoft resolve the problem. The message is encrypted.

In the error report window, there is a link “click here” for seeing what the data report contains. After you send the report, you’ll get a message from MOCA with the steps on how to solve the problem and other information depending on the problem. Such information could be links to downloading updated drivers and how to prevent the problem from happening again.

What about when getting errors from a non-Microsoft application or hardware? MOCA reports these errors to the company behind the application or device, so it can be helpful to send these forward. So those of you who never send non-Microsoft-related errors might want to reconsider.

You can also use MOCA to track errors when you get BSODed. This Microsoft Knowledgebase article shows how to use error reporting.

Many people don’t use the reporting at all because of privacy concerns. We’ve heard plenty of jokes about how Microsoft knows everything about everyone who has a computer. You can read Microsoft’s error privacy information to get exact details on what Microsoft learns about your computer when getting such reports.

Error reporting is not just for Microsoft, but pays off for you since it can help reduce the problems with your computer when you get the error resolution messages back from MOCA. You can turn off error reporting, but I don’t recommend it.

Shopping for a laptop is overwhelming because of the numerous choices. No one can tell you what you need or don’t need, except maybe your spouse, parent, kid, local geek, or know-it-all who knows you. But it’s still good to know a few things about buying a laptop. An educated customer is a happy customer, right?

Most important question when starting this research: do you need a laptop? If you need a combo desktop / laptop, you can get a laptop with a docking station.

A common question is whether or not to get one with wireless. The question to you — are you going to use it? Will you have places to wirelessly connect with? Remember, when you have a wireless laptop, it has to connect to a hub or Wi-Fi (like Starbucks or a cell phone). Some hotels are starting to set up wireless and others requiring plugging in. If you buy a laptop without wireless and change your mind, you can add it later with a card. Only difference is it won’t be built-in. Not a big deal. Mine is not built-in.

FYI: Most laptops come with a 10/100 Ethernet NIC built-in.

For me, I have a cheap dial-up account with a national service. Good thing because I used it in the hospital. Not every place has wireless or free wireless (Starbucks isn’t free, or at least, not all locations from what I understand). So before I travel, I look up the service’s local numbers of where I am going so I’ll have them.

As for what model — you’ll get different answers from everyone. People love and hate Dells. Love and hate IBMs. What makes Dell different is that you can pick and choose what items you want on your laptop. IBM has a good reputation. Of course, Macs are nice, if you want to go the Apple way. Buying a refurbished laptop is cool. We have two of them in our house and we’re happy with ‘em. Saved a bit of money, too.

Screen. Picking the right screen is based on graphical need. I got a nice wide one, but my laptop be heavy, dude. I don’t travel much, so weight isn’t an issue. When I do travel, the weight of the laptop isn’t a big deal because I benefit from the video memory more than the weight.

The video card is built into the motherboard, just like a lot of desktops. What you have to watch with a laptop is make sure you get the video you want. If you are going to use graphic intensive programs, then go for more video memory. In the past laptops were not geared toward graphic intense applications. Then the DVD came along and changed that.

A screen is not as replaceable to interchangeable like a harddrive, a wireless card, or a DVD drive. I invest more in the screen so it lasts longer since everything else can be upgraded or replaced.

How often do you plan to lug it around? Believe me. No matter how light the laptop feels, it’s a bag of bricks when you’ve walked with it all day at a conference. That’s why I have a backpack case for my laptop. Much easier for long treks with the laptop. So weight didn’t get a priority with me.

A laptop is useless without an operating system and software. Before we get into details. There is a snag. If you are buying from a major reseller (IBM, Dell, HP, Compaq, etc.) It is going to come with an operating system, whether you like it or not. This is due to their licencing agreements with Microsoft. If this is not an issue, here are the considerations.

Do you want it to come with it or do you have licensed software you can load on it? When buying a computer with the operating system and bonus software, remember you don’t get books or separate CDs loaded with the applications. Some companies provide CDs for using when you have to reformat a computer and these programs will load back up. Some people don’t like this and prefer to buy the applications separately.

This is a suggested process for shopping for a laptop:

* Decide what you must have and write those down.
* Search for products that have these things.
* Search for and read reviews on the finalists.
* Narrow down the list as much as possible (one to three items) to the ones you will be happy with buying.
* Comparison shop for the best offer.

Advice posted on meryl.net articles on how to Buy a Laptop.

Review of MS Word add-on: WordToys.

The name is exactly what WordToys is, toys for MS Word. As soon as I start playing with it, I am hooked. The program puts colorful and high quality icons around Word for easy identification and accessing. It also enhances some of the existing Word features and you know which ones because the icons have been replaced with a colorful one.

The numbering and bullets icons are two examples of enhanced features. Before WordToys, when clicking on these icons, a window pops up and you modify them to your liking. After a WordToys makeover, clicking on the icon brings a fly-out menu and you can select what you want from there. This means fewer clicks or keyboard shortcuts because there are no windows to open and close. As soon as you select what you want, Word puts it there and the menu closes.

Symbols and special characters are awkward to add. Many don’t use these often enough to remember the shortcuts, but when it comes time to use it, it is wieldy. WordToys has an icon for each. For symbols, a handful of common symbols appears in the menu. If you use a couple of others often, configure the menu to add those symbols. After that, you can click the symbols icon and then your symbol.

The special characters icon is a time saver. When you type words like resumé or cliché, you need the accented é. Lots of work for one letter. Click on the characters icon, select ‘e’, and then select the accented é. All the other e’s are available in the same menu.

For some of the icons, you can add your favorites for quicker accessing. For instance, the default font icon has arial, courier, and Times New Roman. I add verdana and georgia to the list. It’s nice not having to deal with the long list of fonts even though I use the shortcuts to get there. The WordToys font icon is easier to use than shortcuts.

The icons on the left are color-coded and sorted by groups. The first set of icons are blue. These are related to document and file management. Red is formatting (font sizes, type, copy / paste, bullets). Orange is content like thesaurus, bookmarks, and special characters. Green is environment where you can zoom in and out, arrange the windows, and other things beyond the Word application.

No catch. The personal edition is free and has no sneaky things built-in it to make you mad. Romke (the developer) hopes you will like it so much that you’d upgrade to the paid professional edition to get more features. View a comparison of features between personal and professional editions.

The best part about new toys is playing with them and discovering what they can do. So I’ll leave it to you to find its other cool features. Have fun with WordToys.

Free. v1.0.3. 1.6M download.
Works with Word XP and 2003. Word 2000 edition available now (download). WordScripting must be enabled. If you haven’t messed with WordScripting, then you should be fine.

So many people have written about today and I could not offer anything new or poetic. So I’ll point you to what I wrote about that day missing pieces (scroll down to “Richardson, TX. Telecom office.”)

One thing I will ask – why aren’t we more respectful of one another’s differences after all this time?

The results from the Eyetrack III study have been released. This is an important study for designers to understand because it tells you where users tend to look first, second, last when on a Web page. The article provides self-explanatory graphics so you know where the higher priorty zones are located. From the looks of it, put the important stuff in the upper-left corner and work your way diagonally to the lower right-hand corner with the middle getting some priority.

If you want readers to read and not scan, amazingly using smaller type encourages this action. When writing headlines or blurbs, put keywords at or near the beginning of the phrase. Navigation at the top performed best. [ Guides
">Read more... ]

If you copy something from a Web site or elsewhere… or you reuse a document and the formatting is making you crazy with its weirdness, then stop the insanity. The first option to make the document behave loses some of the formatting. You can always undo the changes if you don’t like it by pressing CTRL+Z. To dump some of the formatting, press CTRL+A to select all and then select “Normal” from the style drop-down box in the left corner next to the AA as shown in the picture. This changes some of the formatting. If it’s too much, remember CTRL+Z is there. If it’s not enough, try option two.

If the document has HTML formatting or has serious formatting problems, you can get rid of all of the formatting including bullets, paragraphs, bolds, and font sizes. Press CTRL+A to select all and then select “Clear Formatting” instead of “Normal.” This converts the content to plain text using the default text font and size.

In some cases, it’s the paragraphs causing the commotion. Option three is to once again CTLR+A, select Format > Paragraph and under Spacing > Before change the number. 0 means no spacing. The higher the number, the bigger the space before the paragraph. You can see how it will look in the preview. Auto automatically inserts a 14 point space. Or you can put both Before and After at 0 and select one of the options under Line Spacing.

When specific formatting items are misbehaving, then do the following. Let’s say you don’t want tables. Select the table and select Table > Convert > Text to Table. Don’t like italics? Select all, then click on the ‘i’ twice (it will turn everything on and then off). These are simple examples.

When a sentence, paragraph, or block of text isn’t behaving, just select those items rather than selecting all.

Are there any common problems you run into? Email me at merylk at gmail dot net and I’ll address them.

Since I am recovering after two hospital visits in less than two weeks, I’m spending most of my time in bed with my laptop. However, my desktop has most of my emails and other things on it that aren’t reachable even when file sharing. The solution. Using Windows XP’s built-in Remote Desktop.

Now I am using my desktop as if I am in front of it, only from the comfort of my bed with laptop on my lap. The desktop is still where it is… out there in the family room. Remote Desktop opens a window and you see your desktop (or rermote computer) exactly as if you’re in front of it. At the top is a light-colored border with the name of the desktop to remind you that you’re on that computer. I can’t provide a screenshot since it’s invisible no matter what I use in taking the picture.

This screenshot (click to see a larger image) shows how the screen looks if you have the Remote Desktop window not taking up the entire screen. When it takes up the entire screen, it looks no different than when you’re working on your computer except for the bar on top.

Remote Desktop in Windows XP shows how to it up step-by-step with pictures. Once you’ve done that, connect to it from another computer (instructions in tutorial under “Instaling client software”) by going to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Communications > Remote Desktop Connection. Enter the name of the desktop and the password. If you don’t have a password on the desktop, you need to assign one otherwise it won’t work.

If I go to my desktop and login, it will disconnect my laptop and vice versa. So if you’re working on the remote desktop and get disconnected, you know what that means… someone logged in on the other end.

If you have Windows 2000, I believe it does not come with Remote Desktop, but you can download it from Microsoft. There is also PCAnywhere. For older products, you may have to use Terminal Server, PCAnywhere, GoToMyPC, or some other third party product.