By DanB | May 29, 2009
A few days ago I sent you a strategy for leveraging your signature file. Do that and you will save time with every email you reply to. If you missed that email I’ve put it on the blog here:
http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2009/05/24/how-is-your-signature/
A few people wrote and asked if this only worked with Outlook. Every email program I’m familiar with will let you edit your signature file. I have edited the signature inside Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, Pine, Gmail, Kmail, Eudora and several others I’m sure. Those are just the ones I have experience with.
Some email programs let you use multiple signatures with is very nice. Set one for replies and one for new mails. Then make a nice one to use with your friends. If your program does not let you use multiple signatures there is still a solution. I’ll tell you about that in the near future.
Finally here’s a tip that helps me reply to emails quickly. As soon as I see an email that I plan to reply to I hit reply. I mean before even reading it. Then I’ll read and reply at the same time. Before I started doing this I would see a longer email and think “I want to reply to this” but because it was long it would get put off. Now I just hit reply and answer that email as I go.
If you have tips or comments please leave them below.
Topics: Communication, Email, Productivity, Technology, Time Management | No Comments »
How is Your Signature?
By DanB | May 24, 2009
night. It was an interesting experience for me since Outlook isn’t
installed on any of my machines currently. Fortunately my memory
held up and we got the task accomplished. Oh I was working over the
phone too.
After the fact I spent a few minutes talking about signatures. We
all know the standard signature - your name and other information
you would like others to know. Some people like a cute saying in
there. Others may reference a product they sell. But you can really
do a lot more with your signature and save yourself some time in
the process.
Here is a quick example. Say your email signature is this:
SpongeBob SquarePants
Eat at the Krusty Krab
goes. Every email he creates already has the signature in place.
How can you expand this and get more use from your signature? Here
is a good start. What if you made your signature like this:
Hi,
Thank you for writing.
Sincerely,SpongeBob SquarePants
Eat at the Krusty Krab
to her to use the following for the base signature:
Hi,
Thank you for writing.
You asked ” ?”
Did that help? Let me know.
Sincerely,
SpongeBob SquarePants
Eat at the Krusty Krab
My friend was typing this anyway. Now she simply copies their
question, hits reply, pastes the question inside the ” ?”. Now she
is off and running.
Expanding your signature file may seem like a small thing that only
saves you a few seconds. That is true. But those few seconds spread
over all the email you reply to day after day add up.
Topics: Communication, Customer Service, Email, Productivity, Time Management | 1 Comment »
Two Quick Things
By DanB | May 19, 2009
Hi {!firstname_fix} ~
It’s a hit! Two quick things. A reminder about the Internet Archive
and an easy fix to a perplexing Firefox issue.
Yesterday I told you about the Internet Archive. Based on the
emails that are coming in it is quite popular.
If you visited the Archive or used the WayBack Machine why not
share what you found by commenting below.
The second item involves the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the
AVG anti-virus product. Three people who call me for help were
having problems launching Firefox. They would launch Firefox and it
would promptly crash without starting.
After talking to all three it turned out they had all installed AVG
recently. After the install of AVG Firefox no longer launched.
It turns out that AVG is using some called it calls “AVG Safe
Search”. Basically AVG adds a button to your Internet search
results telling you if the site is safe or not. I noticed this Safe
Search while trying to fix my Dad’s machine. We looked in the AVG
preferences, turned of the Safe Search feature and Firefox started
right up like it always did.
If you are having a problem launching Firefox and you use AVG try
disabling the Safe Search. It was the solution for all three of the
people calling me for help.
Have you run into this issue? Leave a comment below and let us
know your experience.
Topics: Technology, privacy/security | 7 Comments »
Here is one of my favorite tools…
By DanB | May 19, 2009
Thought I’d share a website that I find super useful. It is easy
for me to assume that you already know about all the cool useful
sites but as I talk to other people I find out that just isn’t the
case.
This week Archive.org came up as a solution to several challenges
we encountered. Any way you look at the site is just plain
interesting. Movies, pictures, audio, text, software, and more. All
of it free and all of it legal. You can spend a lot of time just
getting acclimated to the place. You will find the site here:
The last time I visited the site it was highlighting the
commercials for the family computer - the Commodore 64 and video of
Carnival at the 1941 Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Those topics may
not be of immediate interest to you. They are an example of the
variety of content you will find at the Archive.
Maybe the coolest section of Archive.org is the WayBack Machine.
Here is what T.J. Lee wrote in TNPC about the WayBack Machine back
in 2001
“Sherman, set the WayBack Machine to Version 1.0 and hang on! Gee,Mr. Peabody, look at that old Web page! Okay, the Rocky andBullwinkle references may be lost on a lot of you but by gollythis is just something you don’t see everyday, Chauncy.
The WayBack Machine page by the Internet Archive. This page relies inpart on Alexa Internet to serve up pages from the past. Type in afamiliar URL and you can look at what was displayed at this addressin days of yore. I tried it with The Naked PC site and cracked upto see some of the old formats we used as we tried to come upwith a look we liked that was easily maintained. Or take a lookat Microsoft’s home page circa 1996. Fun stuff.”
One of my favorite uses for the WayBack Machine is to locate lost
web pages/sites. You know how it is. You are clicking through a
site and start coming across “File Not Found pages. Next time that
happens to you head over to the WayBack Machine. Most of the time
you will find exactly what you are looking for.
You can find the Internet Archive at:
You will see the WayBack machine near the top of the page.
What do you find useful at the Archive? Share your finds below.
Topics: Technology, Tools and Techniques | No Comments »
Free Pancake Day…
By DanB | February 24, 2009
I just found out it is free pancake day at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP). If you have an IHOP near why not stop in. The pancakes are free and they are taking donations for the Children’s Miracle Network. More information here:
If you are in Texas and see a guy feeding 10 hungry kids it may be me. Be sure and say howdy!
Topics: Misc | No Comments »
Inspiring Things…
By DanB | February 19, 2009
This morning a friend called to talk about how much bad news is out there and how little good news we usually hear. Neither my friend or I normally watch the news. You really don’t miss much and the day goes much nicer.
After our conversation I went to the office. Someone had sent me some good news. In this case a link to an incredible and inspiring video. It’s interesting how often “coincidences” like that happen. The video is only 2:39 seconds long so give it a look.
Seeing this brought to mind a question one of my mentors would ask me. He would ask
“What are you going to do today that will make a big difference in how your life turns out?”
What are you going to do?
The good news is the answer to that question often involves small kindnesses, small gestures, small actions, over time that add up to something big.
So be inspired by this man’s achievement. Then ask yourself the question and see what you can do today.
What do yo think about this man’s achievment? Share your comments below.
Topics: Inspiration, Life, Time Management | 8 Comments »
How to Reset your Voicemail password with AT&T
By DanB | February 18, 2009
My wife has an iPhone. We had to get it replaced under warranty. Only problem was she couldn’t access her voicemail. I did a quick search and found the helpful instructions at Steve Cooley presents. The instructions are for iPhone but it will work with any AT&T cellular account. You can find that post here:
http://somejunkwelike.com/wordpress/2007/12/05/password-for-iphone-voicemail/
Topics: Communication, Technology | No Comments »
Dreamweaver 8.02 on Windows Vista 64-Bit
By DanB | February 12, 2009
I’ve been setting up Dreamweaver 8 on my Windows Vista 64-Bit laptop. So far I’m happy with 64-Bit Vista. It runs well and seems stable.
The Dreamweaver 8.02 upgrade on the other hand just won’t run. I was searching for a solution and found this blog post:
http://www.sabbie.co.uk/2007/12/dreamweaver-802-update-on-vista-64-bit.html
Many thanks to the author of the sabbietage blog for posting those instructions.
Topics: Vista, Web Editing | No Comments »
Dreamweaver 8 on 64-bit Windows Vista
By DanB | February 7, 2009
I’ve been trying to install and run Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 on my Windows Vista 64-bit laptop. The install would go fine. I could launch the program. It would show in my running processes but never display. Perplexing to say the least.
After fiddling with this for the better part of the morning I found a solution here:
http://www.vistax64.com/software/146706-photoshop-cs3-dreamweaver-cs3-work-vista-x64-sp1.html
The solution in a nutshell is:
Before installing in Vista Ultimate X64
Click Start in bottom left
Search for cmd
Right click and run as administrator
type or copy and paste
cd C:\Windows\SysWow64
then copy and paste
regsvr32 jscript.dll
then copy and paste
regsvr32 vbscript.dll
now you can install Photoshop CS3 by double clicking on setup
Those instructions say Photoshop but it worked fine with my Dreamweaver 8.
More details at the link above.
Topics: Vista, Web Business, Web Editing | No Comments »
Don’t let this happen to you…
By DanB | January 24, 2009
It’s scary. Here you are just looking for information on the Internet and the next thing you know your computer is infected with something nasty. Even worse maybe your computer has become a Zombie on a Botnet. You install programs to combat this and they slow you down even more. What can you do?
First take the obvious steps:
* Keep your virus scanner and operating system up to date.
* Run a firewall.
* Don’t open email attachments unless you were expecting them.
* Scan all email attachments for viruses before you open them.
This week I ran across a couple of people infected with a recent Internet worm called Win32/Conficker. It was surprising because the group we are in is technically savvy. They had the worm and were having trouble getting rid of it. This particular worm targets Microsoft Windows. Microsoft has a good page on how to deal with the worm and what to look for if you think you have it.
The most visible and obvious symptom of the worm is your web browser will not take you to the website you think it should. More specifically you won’t be able to access secure sites like anti-virus updates. You will type in the right address but find yourself somewhere else.
Here is a link to the Microsoft page about the worm. It has links to the software updates you need to protect yourself or someone you know.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Entry.aspx? Name=Win32/Conficker
If you’ve had experience with this worm or other bad stuff then click this link now and post your comments on the blog:
http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/
Stay safe out there!
Topics: Technology, privacy/security | 2 Comments »