Decatur Computer Help

A simple thing you can do to improve communications

2009-01-14T13:50:00.002-05:00

Add a signature to your email. A “signature” is a block of text at the end of your emails that contain all your contact information. It saves your recipients the hassle of asking for your address and phone number or searching for them on your website.

Here's what mine says at the moment:

--
Best regards,

Alan Thornton
Decatur Computer Help
On-site Computer Troubleshooting
(404) 932-4348

http://www.decaturcomputerhelp.com - site
http://decaturcomp.blogspot.com/ - blog
twitter: @decaturcomp

Referrals appreciated

You'd be surprised how often I try to give someone this info and they say that they already have it. Doing this is one of the best uses of 2 minutes work time I can imagine.

Twitter

2008-11-17T15:51:00.003-05:00

The most common question I hear about Twitter is, "What it it?" Followed closely by, "Why would I want it?" and, "How would I use it?"

I think the best answer is, Twitter is a very quick and simple way to communicate with a group of folks you enjoy.

The account is free. The posts are so simple you can send them from your cell phone. Posts are short (limited to 140 characters) and encourage folks to be clever and precise, unlike what I'm doing here. (chortle, chortle)

Still there is enough room for a short statement and a link to a website, article, photo, video or the like.

During an event like the Oscars or Election Night, it is fun to either chat back and forth with your chosen friends or to watch the comments of the entire Twitterverse on a site like Twitscoop.

There is a short video on the subject here that may explain things better than I have.

Oh, and there is one more question that I should mention. The main question that Twitter asks you is "What are you doing?" You'll be surprised at the diverse answers.

...and one more thing, if you want to follow my posts there, just add "decaturcomp" as a person to follow, I'll get a note and follow you back, then we'll be able to keep up with each other. See you there.

Report voting problems by phone, text or Twitter

2008-11-01T14:15:00.003-05:00

The right to vote and have our vote counted is sacred to most Americans.
Voting problems have plagued our last two Presidential elections. This time there is a way to track problems virtually in real time:

On November 4th 2008, millions of Americans will go to over 200,000 distinct voting locations and using different systems and machinery to vote. Some voters will have a terrific experiences, and others will experience the same problems we have been hearing about for years - long lines, broken machines, inaccurate voting rolls, and others will experience problems that we haven’t heard about before. That’s why a new citizen-driven election monitoring system called Twitter Vote Report (www.twittervotereport.com) was just launched. Using either Twitter.com, iPhone, direct SMS, or our telephone hotlines, voters will have a new way to share their experiences with one another and ensure that the media and watchdog groups are aware of any problems.

And YOU can help! Be a citizen journalist! Submit a report about conditions at your polling place.

Four ways to submit reports to Vote Report:

* Twitter: include #votereport and other tags to describe the scene on the ground
* SMS: Send text messages to 66937 (MOZES) starting with the keyword #votereport plus other hash tags
* iPhone: We have a Twitter Vote Report iPhone app in the App store!
* Phone: Call our automated system at 567-258-VOTE (8683) to report about conditions, using any touch-tone phone

And if you would like to talk to a human to report bad conditions you’ve observed, please call our partner 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

As news outlets and blogs will report on Election Day stories, www.twittervotereport.com is an invaluable resource for thousands of voters to get immediate help. From questions like “where do I vote” or “how do I make sure that my rights are being upheld,” Twitter Voter Report augments these efforts by providing a new way for voters to send text messages (aka tweets) via cellphones or computers which will be aggregated and mapped so that everyone can see the Nation’s voting problems in real-time.

Imagine a nationwide web map with pins identifying every zip code where Americans are waiting over 30 minutes to vote or indicating those election districts where the voting machines are not working. Collectively we will inform each other when the lines are too long and ensure that media and watchdog groups know where problems exist.

For more information, go to www.twittervotereport.com. The complete list of tags or keywords that you can include in your reports is listed there. And please help to spread the word — copy and email this to friends who haven't voted yet!

Electronics Recycling Day! AND Add Blogs to your Google Reader

2008-10-23T08:14:00.004-04:00

Please Note:
This information is re-posted from the excellent local resource: Decatur Active Living. If you use a news reader, like Google Reader, I'd suggest adding them to your list. (this blog is already on there, right? To add a blog to Google Reader, just click the add link at the bottom and new post will appear in your reader regularly!

Saturday - 2008 Fall Electronics Recycling Day
2008 Fall Electronics Recycling Day
9 am to 1 pm, Saturday, October 25th
Decatur High School Parking Lot
(Corner of N. McDonough Street and Howard Avenue)

TV's will be recycled for $10 cash only with exact change. Don't throw away that old cell phone, camera or PC component! Save it and recycle it on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at Decatur's Fall 2008 Electronics Recycling event.

This semi-annual event has been hugely successful at diverting electronic equipment from landfills, where they may contaminate soil and water. Batteries and Styrofoam will also be accepted.For the first time at this event, TV's will be recycled for a minimal fee of $10 cash only per TV set with exact change. There is no charge to recycle other items.

The event takes place Saturday October 25, 2008 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Decatur High School Parking lot, on the corner of N. McDonough St. and W. Howard Avenue. Electronics dropped off that day will be sorted and disassembled into raw materials or cleaned for re use. The Decatur Waste Management Advisory Board investigates the recyclers involved to be sure the items are responsibly disassembled and not landfilled.

In addition to electronics, any metro area resident can also drop off batteries of any type, Styrofoam peanuts, and clean Styrofoam blocks free of foreign objects.
Volunteers assist in unloading items. To volunteer, please contact Scott Thompson at Scott.Thompson@Mindspring.com.

Early drop offs are not possible.

For additional information, please call David Junger at (404) 377-5571.

Evernote! Capture Websites, Send yourself notes by phone...

2008-06-01T13:48:00.004-04:00

Evernote is spectacular. It has a "clip to evernote" button you can drag into your bookmarks bar and allows you to capture a webpage or just a highlighted part of it to your account. From there you can tag it for easy location later. Even if the websites should change or disappear, I'll still have my copies. (That makes it great for saving news stories, too.)

For example. I've been obsessed with travel lately though it looks like we'll only take a car trip to the beach for one week this year. I've captured lots of great packing, scuba diving with whale sharks and having fun on vacation tips as well as some camping related sites and tips from Lifehacker.com (great for all sorts of reasons) and tagged them all "travel." Now, I can enter travel on my Evernote page and all of those come up at once. They can have multiple tags of course, so the camping tips are also labeled "camping" in case I want just that info.

It's hard to explain fully but also hard to imagine going without. There's a short waiting period for an invite while its in beta (and free) but I have a few invites as of this writing if you want one. I think its one of the best tools to show up since Google Reader. Have a look, why don't you?
Evernote's Home Page

Oh, and you can also send yourself notes to evernote over the phone by using the free and also wonderful Jott.com. Jott will send you or anyone else in your address book an email transcribed from your voice. I tag my jotts the same way as the related media I've snagged for a particular project.

Reading - The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

2008-02-10T15:41:00.002-05:00

People who read

Reading is done by a person with a book.

Reading on the internet is not reading it is consuming information that happens to be formatted as text. And, God bless Bartelby and Googlezon for attempting to make the library of Alexandria reappear bigger, better and less flammable in digital form with backups in data centers around the globe but I cannot read more than a few screens on a given subject online. Skimming is not reading and skimming is what the internet is for. Web surfing does not imply keeping a board in contact with the surface of the water but indicates flying from wave top to wave top often leaping from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean (the body of water containing all tech support documents) with no thought for the constraints of time and space.

Reading is not done with an audiobook. Listening to an audiobook should be called auditing and should never be referred to as reading. Auditing is fine for listening to murder mysteries and very light fiction but it is an insult to an important book to merely have it float around in the air around our heads and think that we are reading it. You might hear the high points but you won’t retain very much.

I was taught to read by my Aunt Louise who gave a teenaged boy Mencken, Salinger, Huxley’s Island and the New Yorker to read on a Summer’s visit in 1968. These gentle nudges in the right direction were the beginning of my college education and I feel the effects to this day.

The Nick Hornby of The Polysyllabic Spree is certainly not your fun but light handed novelist of About a Boy or High Fidelity (I mean these as books not movie star vehicles.) The book is about the books he bought and the books he actually read each month over the course of a year.

Hornby was writing a series of column for “The Believer” a UK literary publication but his collected work holds together as a sort of instruction manual for the reader who continues an education far past the time of study carrels and mortar boards.

The book’s form is a gimmick for tricking people into reading literary criticism in the same way that lyrics are often to make listeners pay attention to music. “Biographies should be a certain length...” he says, there should be a governmental board with the incontestable power to decide the maximum length of a certain person’s biography. This is a charming idea but, taken to its logical conclusion, there might be many multi volumes to the Neville Chamberlain history, writers might very well not be allowed to write so much as a paragraph on the lives of the several young ladies who intentionally forget their panties in search of publicity. While this latter decision might be just and fair and correct in every way, my ACLU/Greenpeace/PETA training makes me say that it smacks of censorship and must be stricken down.

He indicates that our reading has an appetite, it tells us when we need chocolate and when we need meat or a green salad. Couple this with his realization that he has forgotten everything he has read (which certainly rings true to me at age 55) and you have a sort of Omnivore’s Dilemma idea that books are not just consumed but also eliminated leaving us with the basis for some connective tissue but not the whole enchilada as we were lead to believe in the days when reading was an assignment rather than a choice.

He reads about sport. He wrestles with Wilkie Collins. He picks up stop smoking books and threatens to drop the habit simply to avoid having to read them again. All in all, his reading diary is worth a look even if only to find a comrade in arms in a world where bookstores are disappearing at an alarming rate and Steve Jobs is quoted as saying that no one will by Amazon’s Kindle digital book reader because no one read books anymore. (At this writing Amazon has been unable to meet demand for the Kindle since the initial run sold out in just a couple of days.)

A lifehack.com article about how to get more reading done includes the advice to read a book from start to finish without beginning another one. This seems more than a little OCD-like to me. I will refer to it as the Adrian Monk reading method if I do ever refer to it again which I doubt I will. This forsakes the life of the mind for the calisthenics of the mind. It must be employed by all who hope to survive the dreaded university “British Novel” course, but that is training and not real life. Assigned reading in school is preparation for the beginning of the life of the mind. That is the learning to walk before the learning to run while juggling, singing and talking on the cell that is real life.

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. It is one I have in common with my wife and dearest friend, Terri. We share a small percentage of the same books, mostly the newest work of favorite writers. But each enjoys the benefit of the other’s accumulated knowledge. We respect each others’ minds and reading is the stuff that feeds our thoughts.

If the mind is like a muscle which atrophies with disuse, reading is its anabolic steroid.
Anyone who has bemoaned the movie version of a favorite book may agree that we are poorer when we let alternative media pretend to replace the real thing.

Here is a link to the interesting post about reading more books I mentioned above from Lifehacker.com. In addition to recommending that you not read more than one book at a time they encourage you to take a book wherever you go (check) and to set aside an early morning reading period each day.

Envoirnmental problems caused by US Cell Phone Companies?

2008-01-08T08:33:00.000-05:00

First Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal goes on an intelligent rant about US cell phone companies being like Soviet Ministries who tell you what you may and may not do with the products you purchase from them. He likens this to allowing an Internet Service Provider to tell you what kind of computer you can use or what kind of software you can use on that machine. Of course, he is correct.

Then a story crops up in the New York Times about the EPA spending big bucks to encourage people to recycle their old cell phones. Only 20% of cell phones are recycled according to the article. Does anyone else see a disconnect here?

Phones go into landfills instead of being reused because of the carrier's rules about who may and may not purchase services from them with certain models of cellphone.

My daughter got her phone wet last Summer and we had to pay another $150 to replace it with a junker phone rather than let her use one of my two Sidekick II phones that are still gathering dust.

Mossberg reminds us of the days when you couldn't buy a land line telephone, only rent it from the Monopoly phone company. Soon after the breakup of the Bells one million flowers bloomed in the shape of all kinds of innovative phones.

...and, don't get me started about how slow the "high speed" internet is in the US compared to Japan or Korea. But let's just continue to favor companies over citizens with our government regulations, okay? That way the landfills will grow and we'll all pay more than we should for less service than we deserve.

Kindle, an iPod for print?

2007-11-30T15:43:00.000-05:00

Will Amazon's Kindle do for portable print what the iPod did for music?

While, I don't think we need 1,000 novels in our pocket, I do see that this new book/blog/newspaper/magazine reader is set to change the world in a similar way.

Since the product includes free web access and a web browser, I can see using it when a laptop is too much trouble, which is most of the time.

There is a video demo of the Kindle in action here. See what you think...

Google gPhone over phone a year away?

2007-11-04T02:03:00.000-05:00

Gizmodo hopes the gPhone will look like the image here.>>

Their wish list includes a music player that, "doesn't suck but isn't an iPod." Pretty funny, though the idea that it might use Rhapsody the all-you-can-eat music rental service is not a bad one.

No one knows when a gPhone will arrive but speculation is all over the map.

The most interesting thoughts I've seen are in this Taipei Times article that predicts the phone is a year away (safe bet I'd guess) and says the phone may be based on free software that Google provides to cell phone companies with the hope that developers will build on their open platform.

That sounds a lot like the wishlist from iPhone reviewers to me, though. "Let the phone be open to development, man!!" Well, now that Apple has announced the upcoming release of a
Software Developer's Kit (SDK) early next year, those complaints don't seem to be so urgent.
What reviewers are still on about is being able to use the phone with any Cell Provider they choose. Personally, I'd rather see Apple continue to tackle AT&T on behalf of the end users.
__________________
Coda:

I posted the above yesterday (It is early November 5 2007 as I write this) and no less than the Wall Street Journal published an article on the gPhone today saying their announcement could come as soon as today! Well, who knows. But, it is interesting to note that Google is likely to bid on a big chunk of low end radio spectrum that could be used for an open standard cell phone project and that they've been instrumental in getting the FCC to suggest that whoever gets that 700 MHz spectrum may have to make some of it available for what could be advanced wireless services. Part of the band will be allocated to emergency public services. The auction takes place in January 2008 and Google's interest seems to be attracting other high profile bidders. Yahoo is said to be interested and Verizon may be taking the FCC ruling to the courts.

Is the iPhone legitimizing iPods for adults?

2007-11-02T17:21:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, adults feel dumb carrying iPods or other music players. We smuggle them into the gym where everyone else is using one. We may use them in the car but not for a walk in the neighborhood.

I've had them for years but always felt like a awful doofus in public.

But now, I notice that a lot of grown folks who have iPhones are enjoying the iPod function more than anything else. After all, since you can take calls with the earbuds that come with your phone, no one really knows that you're not being a grownup.

The rebirth of Brand Loyalty

2007-08-12T08:23:00.001-04:00

As a kid in the 50's I heard people refer to facial tissue as Kleenex and refrigerators as Frigidaires. These days no one refers to a GPS by it's brand name. Even if a product is referred to by a specific name, it is more likely to be a model name than a company name. I don't say that I drive a Toyota but a Prius and even with that fairly recognizable model, people often ask, 'That's a hybrid, isn't it?"

So is brand dominance a big deal today? Well, we have been referring to computers as PC's for a while now, indicating not a brand but certainly referring to a machine with a Microsoft operating system. And, even though we rarely mentioned that we were using a Dell, the fact was that a large percentage of us were if only because that company was leading a pricing race to the bottom where now they along with other manufacturers are failing to make money on computer sales. It is often less expensive and quicker to buy an HP or a Compaq (same company, you don't need to choose one to be loyal to) locally and to put up with the junk software they pile on the hard drives and their rebate headaches than to have Dell force you through15 computer screens full of potential add-ons before they allow you to check out.

Still, some companies have been winning the public over even in the computer business. Two giants in this area who dazzle us with quality, and innovation are Google and Apple.

Google gives us new toys to play with almost monthly at no charge other than being exposed to a tasteful bit of advertising (their real business.) They have quietly built an online version of a Microsoft Office-like suite. (Office is the biggest money maker for MS who are planning to post a free version of Office's significantly poorer cousin, Works, on line with only ad support. Never mind that Works was bundled for free with PCs for years and most of us ignored it.)

Google has given us loads of online functionality. Many people, use Google's gmail, calendar, news reader and maps everyday. In fact each of those applications opens up each time I run Firefox, a web browser to which I have brand loyalty. Never mind the fact that, although there was a huge and competitive search engine business before they arrived, searching itself is often referred to as Googling.

Apple and it's Macs and iPods and now iPhones have gained more brand loyalty traction than any high tech products I can think of. There was a time not too long ago when Apple enthusiasts were a small but vocal minority who were denigrated in the workplace and often not even allowed to join corporate networks. Now, Macs are the fastest growing type of computers by a significant margin, the iPod is the most successful music player in history and the iPhone has had a terrific launch and is poised to change the entire cellphone industry.

So what would it take for other companies to move from the commodity arena into the realm of a beloved household word? A dedication to the needs of the end-user, innovation and quality would be a great start. The minute a business begins to spend more time locking down their product with digital rights management or forcing customers to pay for technical support to make up for poorly written or absent product manuals or spending more money on lobbying the government for protections and favors than on R&D they are starting down a slope on oblivion. After all if your brand is one the public associates with windfall profits, pollution and graft, is it a brand you really even want any more?

In the interest of full disclosure, this blog is provided free for me to write and for you to read by Google.

Know anyone who is heading for college?

2007-08-11T08:56:00.000-04:00

Wired magazine has an article on jobs that will be important in the future and how to prepare for them.

If you know a high school student who is trying to decide what to do with her life you might want to send them this pointer.

Among other things, the article suggests trying to finish college early (less debt, an earlier dive into the workforce) and becoming an entrepreneur as soon as possible. The story is well documented and a fun read.

iPhone Works Great, Just the Beginning

2007-07-01T21:00:00.001-04:00

Almost everything about the new iPhone works better than any other cell phone I've ever used. I've set up two of them one on Windows and one on a Mac and I've never had a better computer experience that accomplished so much. Address books synch, music and (beautiful) video upload to the phone, the internet works fine over the phone network or over any open wi-fi signal (or one I have the encryption code for like the one in my home.)

My wife is smiling about the syncing with her Outlook mail, calendar and contacts as well as her favorite music and podcasts. I used to do this for her on the old T-mobile Sidekick and on the old iPod. Now all she has to do is set the phone in the cradle to recharge and everything synchs up.

There is an interesting You Tube video about how the phone is not prone to scratches and is hard to damage by dropping.

Another post on the Apple Insider indicate that lots of updates are on the way to make the iPhone even more usable. Many of these updates are due before the release of Apple's new operating system Leapord which is coming in October of this year.

Oh and for folks who already have an iPhone, Apple has put up a website specifically for the phone that streams beautiful hi def movie trailers.

Here is a wonderful examination of why the Apple phone is striking a happy chord with users by the always fascinating man/beast blogger, the Macalope.

Personally, I can't say enough about how right this all feels. I only hope that AT&T will continue to let Apple guide it to the land of decent mobile phone service. It can only get better, right?

Jaiku: Replacing Personal Web Pages?

2007-05-05T18:51:00.000-04:00

Jaiku is a communication tool that combines an IM-like short posting tool with a method of agregating your blog posts, del.icio.us bookmarks and flickr photos.
You can post messages from a cell phone or from the jaiku site.
My Jaiku link is below, have a look and make a page for yourself to see what Jaiku can do.

http://decaturcomp.jaiku.com/

Why would you create an online cyber twin?

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

I ran across an article about a service that lets you create a cyber twin to do your chatting and IMing for you. Now, that sounds like a fairly worthless item but worth a look.

Here's an example of a chat with a cybertwin.

You: Emily, would you mind being interviewed for my blog?
Emily: Would I? I would do anything, I am virtual, but I don't feel like it right now.
You: So, you are something of a philosopher...
Emily: Well, you are the first person to tell me that about myself in exactly that way.
You: Can you be any more vague?
Emily: I can be if I want decaturcomp. Whether I want to be or not is another question.
You: A regular Descartes
Emily: Only one decaturcomp?
You: Yes, as far as I know.
Emily: Right.
You: I can't tell you how enlightening this has been, emily.
Emily: What is stopping you decaturcomp?
You: The fact that it is time to sign off.
Emily: Interesting observation.

A Hack To Prevent Traffic Jams!

2006-11-26T18:56:00.000-05:00

An amateur scientist has devised this method to reduce traffic jams during his commute. I read most of his site including the FAQ and found his arguments to be persuasive. His thoughts are based on personal observation since the late 1990s. I'll be trying this, please don't be mad if you see me not rushing in to fill the gaps in Atlanta's traffic.

Here is an excerpt from his site:

STANDING WAVE: a "rubbernecker slowdown" ...without rubberneckers! Traffic-waves need not drift backwards. Sometimes they sit in one place. Once this type of traffic wave is established, it can last nearly forever. New cars MUST slow down as they enter, and that's what makes the wave persist. You cannot dissolve the slowdown by accelerating out at the end, since you're still blocked by the driver ahead of you. The solution: bring a huge space in as you approach it. This temporarily cuts off the flow of incoming cars which feeds it and keeps it alive. A single driver can easily erase a small slowdown.

Nobel Peace Prize winning Banker to the Poor

2006-11-17T04:09:00.000-05:00

"Trust Based Banking"
In a financial world marked by greed and corruption, it is amazing to hear that a bank lends collateral-free money to the poorest people and thrives. Imagine getting money to people in need without give away programs. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has done this in India and has been a model for similar programs all over the world including the US.

Personally, I am amazed and delighted to see that this idea is working. Surely, this is the kind of story that can re-focus our attention in a positive direction. The following is from the Garameen Bank's web site. Please follow the links and see what you can do to support this worthy organization.

Inspired by the work of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Grameen Foundation was created to help share the Grameen philosophy and accelerate the impact of microfinance on the world’s poorest people. Started in 1976 by Professor Muhammad Yunus with a mere $27 from his own pocket, Grameen Bank today serves more than six million poor families with loans, savings, insurance and other services. The bank is fully owned by its clients and has been a model for microfinance institutions around the world.

Although they are independent organizations, Grameen Foundation and Grameen Bank maintain an enduring relationship. Grameen Foundation replicates the success of Grameen Bank internationally by supporting microfinance institutions that embody its vision and values. Professor Yunus is also a founding and current member of Grameen Foundation’s board of directors.

Congratulations to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank on winning the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Learn more >

Grameen Bank at a glance (Grameen Bank website) >

There is a good article on this subject from the Seattle Times here.

Songbird swings

2006-10-18T21:15:00.000-04:00

Songbird is a nearly finished open source music player. It is out of beta an on to Release Candidate 3 so it is pretty much ready for prime time.
It "plays the web" and will search a website such as a music blog and show the playable files in a window it creates at the bottom of the page.
From there you can play any of the songs or drag them to your playlist to keep them.

It reminds me of Winamp when it was new a few years ago. The newest and shiniest player with lots of features. It works on Linux, PCs and Macs and is really worth a try. Just click on the bird below. Have fun!

Vista: finally a new Windows operating system

2006-10-11T09:51:00.000-04:00

Vista is the new windows.

I've been playing with RC1, the first post-beta release candidate and it is going to make some people happy. If your goal for an operating system is for it to look really, really pretty, you'll be happy, it does. If you want the operating system to boot faster, good news for you, this is the fastest booting Windows OS ever, I think and I'm including DOS in there.

However, if you want to use your old computer to upgrade or want a faster operating system than XP or don't want to buy a new video card, you may be less than delighted.
Buying a new machine with Vista installed (you probably won't be able to find any other OS on the shelves except for Apple's superior OSX by the first of the year) will probably be the way you want to go.

With a 2gig Pentium processor and a gig of ram, the OS runs but is really sluggish. Without a new video card, you can install the thing but it doesn't perform many of the functions that make it so pretty or play the new games that are included with the package.

I find no compelling reason to upgrade right away, so far. I'd recommend waiting until you want to replace your current machine rather than upgrading unless Vista really picks up some steam between now and the consumer release date.

For really good info on this and other windows matters, I think you'll enjoy Paul Thurrott's WinSupersite. Have a look there to keep up to speed.

An interesting new podcast

2006-09-19T14:00:00.001-04:00

This is the inagural podcast for one of my favorite websites:
Boing Boing.
Have a listen:

powered by ODEO

Planzo plotzes but Google calendar shows promise

2006-08-23T11:43:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned the Planzo calendar here (note: this is spelled correctly, I'm not referring to the new one by Plaxo) as being a servicable product. One of my clients called me recently and asked why he was having trouble with it. The site was having serious problems with errors and was deleting people's accounts (including mine). This seems to have been fixed now but I thought it was time to look for an alternative.

I'm using the Google calendar these days because it works really well and meshes with my gmail account. If someone invites me to a meeting or other function, gmail recognizes that and allows me to change that request into a calendar item. The calendar can import the items from Outlook's calendar, too though it requires an to export from Outlook to a file first. This isn't as handy as some of the PDA or other programs that synchronize on the fly but it works. I'd plan on doing it once to move from Outlook to go online rather than thinking of it as a daily update.

You can send yourself reminders of upcoming calendar items as with other online datebooks. Reminders can be popups (a good thing in this case), emails or SMS messages to your phone. These are easier to set up than in some other programs because you set a default legnth for the warning message. That is nice but I prefer a little more control. For example, I like a few days notice on an upcoming birthday and an hour or so for a conference call reminder.

You can share your calendar with particular people or with the world. There is also an option that allows you to show only when you are busy and when you are available without any specifics. This can be useful to let an assistant or client know when they might be able to schedule an appointment with you or catch you on the phone.

As with other Google products, I imagine the calendar will only get better. For more info or to take a guided tour just click here. Over all, I think you'll be impressed.

The whole world of online and offline calendering is going crazy these days. Things that say they work together don't (palm and pocket pc phones that claim to sync with Outlook do sometimes and sometimes need lots of tlc or even a third party solution.)

Keep up with all the latest on the in depth blog Calendar Swamp.

A Wireless Network can be a blessing or a curse

2006-08-04T06:34:00.000-04:00

A Wireless Network can be a blessing or a curse, usually the former.

If you have a wireless network (in the Atlanta, GA area) and do not know for sure if it is secure, I'd like to do a free wireless security audit for you. It takes less than 5 minutes and, while I figure out what kind of encryption (if any, it IS really important) you're using, we can check to see how far outside of your home or business your signal is reaching. You may want me to make adjustments to your wireless router to make it less visible or even invisible to anyone but you. Letting other people use your wi-fi connection to surf the Internet is a nice thing to do in some cases but since you are responsible if someone else uses your network for illegal music file sharing (for example) you might want to consider making some changes.

If you don't have a wireless network but would like to be able to use a laptop from anywhere in your home or business (maybe even on the deck) to check email, surf the net or even print documents, I'd like to set up a secure wireless system for you. I can do that starting at around $200 for one wired and one wireless computer if you'd like me to provide the hardware, less if you buy the router and wireless card. Note that, if you have a recent notebook computer, you probably already have the wireless card built in. Also, if you have a desktop comuter that you'd like to relocate but can't because of needing to be attached to the network cable, we can free it up with wireless.

If you have an older wireless setup (from more than a year ago) your network may not be as fast as it can be. Also, newer networks can reach further than the old type so, If you have dead spots on your property where your wireless network won't reach, you might need an upgrade. I can take care of that, too. The wireless audit will determine if you have the slower type of setup.

Of course all the security for your wireless network isn't worth much if your individual machines aren't secure or if you don't have a regular automated backup system. Remember, safe computing is more fun and can avoid down time in the case of an emergency. Let me work on your lost time prevention plan as soon as you have time to schedule an appointment.

Best regards,

Alan Thornton
Decatur Computer Help and
In-House Tech Support
alan@inhousetechsupport.com
404 932 4348

subscribe to my google calendar

2006-08-03T22:55:00.000-04:00

why would you want to do this?
I'm not sure.
online calendaring is somewhat interesting.
some of them sync with outlook's calendar.
outlook's calendar syncs with some handheld info managers.
sometimes you can share a calendar with your SO or business associates to see what the other person is up to. sometimes you might just have a calendar show when you're busy or available.
i used to use planzo and now tend to prefer airset.

Trade old CDs for new ones for less than 2$

2006-07-23T08:39:00.000-04:00

I listen to most of the music I hear on Pandora or on an MP3 Player but I still think CDs sound the best and I like to keep some things on CD as a sort of extra backup. Regardless of the reason, if you have some CDs that you don't listen to you might want to investigate www.lala.com. They have a huge database of folks like us who trade CDs with each other (usually just the CD itself and the album art if you want to request it.) I'll include a list of things I have to trade there below. Drop me an email at decaturcomp@gmail.com or call 404 932-4348 if you want to discuss this or find it confusing.

Oh, and the other thing I like about this is that 20% of the $ generated go to a fund for the artists.

Ubuntu/Open Office/Thunderbird and the old computer

2006-07-21T10:39:00.000-04:00

Ubuntu is the most user-friendly version of Linux that I've found so far. It is a free operating system and reasonably easy to install especially if you have an older computer that you can devote completely to the new operating system. You simply download the newest version of Ubuntu code named Dapper Drake from the Ubuntu website.

Their website states:
"The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit."

I hope you have a good adventure trying Ubuntu. My experience has been that it loads more easily than Windows and does most of what I want it to do. It includes the wonderful free MS Office replacement suite Open Office. You can use Open Office with Windows, too if you want.
It does everything that MS Office does except for the Outlook piece and that can be replaced with Gmail and the Airset calendar or with Thunderbird which is from the folks who make Firefox. All of this stuff is free for your use so, really, all you need is an old computer and you're in business. With the landfills being inundated with old computers and especially monitors, it is good to have a use for them. The Ubuntu/Open Office/Thunderbird option is pretty fast even on an old machine.