It’s scary. You may have heard the news about the giant tornado that hit near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. That is only a few hours drive from where I am typing this. My oldest son lives about 20 minutes from where it hit.

I have friends and relatives who live in the path of this recent tornado. One friend’s house was hit. It wiped out half the house. They say the other half of the house didn’t have anything out of place. Weird.

Last week the tornadoes were about an hour southwest and west of us.

Having tornadoes and hail this time of year is normal for this area. Where I live most of the bad weather goes just north or just south of us. Or both. We often miss the brunt of the heavy storms.

Why do I bring this up? My wife wanted to talk about our emergency plan. She had located some emergency planning documents and we were talking about them.

Ours needs are pretty simple even though there are a lot of us in the family. I work out of the house and we homeschool, and we live in a small town, so that limits how scattered we are much of the time.

Your emergency plan would include identifying information, important and emergency contact information, where to meet, and other information like that.

These are the papers my wife found. You can print them out and get started if this is something you would want to do. These papers are free and make a good starting point:

http://pinchalittlesavealot.blogspot.com/2012/03/free-family-emergency-planning-kit.html

Back to tornadoes. I found myself smack dab in the middle of one back in May of 2000. There was a local newscast showing that tornado live on TV. Their camera is mounted on top of the 40 story glass building I was in. In the video they switch back to radar. The tornado hit my building shortly after that taking out the camera and destroying thousands of pieces of the glass exterior. No one in the building was injured. Here is the 2 minute long video:

http://youtu.be/SjbVp6HSWR8

So stay safe out there and have a plan in place so you can make the best of a difficult situation should you find yourself in one.

If you have tips or experiences with weather or emergency planning please share them below so we can create a resource for people who are seeking information.

It’s frustrating. You try to get customer service so you open the chat window and wait while you use the clunky process of chat to communicate your issue. Once I was using chat and suspected it was an answer robot on the end. Even asked if I was speaking with human or a robot. He called me shortly after. We resolved the issue.

Sometimes you call in and sit on hold for ever.

Maybe you email and hope they understand your question or issue.

I have run into all of these in the past. Enter a super useful free product called Jing. You can find Jing here:

http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

It is free. I was going to make a video for you but the Jing folks have already done that for you. Just check at the link above.

So when I have an issue – like a website misbehaving. I use Jing to create a video of the issue as it happens. Jing automatically uploads the video then puts a link to it on my clipboard. I open an email to tech support and include the link to the video. If the answer from tech support doesn’t address the issue I simply send the original email and say “obviously you didn’t watch the video I sent so please watch that first and answer the actual question.” It rarely takes more than two tries.

The use I have for Jing is when friend, family, or clients write and ask me how to do some task on their computer. I will usually just record myself doing it and send them the link to the video.

Overall Jing is easy to use and I find lots of uses for it. TechSmith, the makers of Jing, have some more powerful tools for making screen captures and movies. These products, Snagit and Camtasia, are very powerful and I use them too. Anytime you see a picture of a computer screen or a video here on TNPC you can sure I have used those tools to make those.

This article is an example of a short movie I generated on using screen rulers:

http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2012/06/07/cool-tool-screen-rulers/

This article has a screenshot I annotated with Snagit:

http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2013/04/12/fixing-google-cant-be-reached-errors/

So give Jing a try and see if it helps you. If you have used Jing or another screen capture software tell us about it below.

Dan

It’s wacky. All the end of the world talk and the date is still in the future. Thankfully it isn’t as hyped as Y2K was. Nevertheless I posted this at 12:12 on 12/12/12. I’m sure I’m not the only one but this is most likely the last chance I will have to do something with all the times/dates in synch.

The last 2 little tricks were well received. If you read the comments you will see I had a disagreement with one use over the use of “@example.com”. I still think you should only use “@example.com” when entering a random address. You never know who you may have to deal with the email otherwise.

Click here if you missed those tips

Here are a couple of more quick tips for getting information under control.

When I sign up for automated email lists I never use my real name. My current favorite is Sponge Bob. When I see mail addressed to Sponge I know it isn’t personal and can wait till later to read it or just hit delete. It amuses my children too. I used to use Jed Clampitt until a customer of mine was really named Jed Clampitt! I thought the emails from him were tests I had sent.

Having said that please keep your real name with me. As you know I do answer personally and do remember conversations with you over time. I appreciate it.

Here is another idea. When you are fill in a form that requires an address put this in the second address line:

do *not* send unsolicited mail

Any mail the company sends you will have that line in the address. Even if the company sells your address the line is usually still there and you can easily sort the mail. Any mail I receive with that in the address gets immediately trashed.

If the form wants your phone number I always try BR549. That rarely works but amuses me. Failing that I use a free Google Voice number that is set to go directly to Voicemail. The exception to this is when ordering something. Then I use the Google Voice number in case the company has a question.

If you wonder why BR549 then count yourself younger than me!

Using some of these easy techniques can really help you cut into the information overload and give you back control of your time and attention.

Leave a comment below and let me know if you use these or have another idea.

It’s frustrating. You find a website with some information you really want but they want your email address first. You already receive lots of email and do not really know. A client asked me about this recently. Here are a few ideas I shared.

First, when a web site asks for your email don’t just enter a random address. You you may be signing someone else up to receive the email. Instead try using an Internet test address.

Any email addressed to @example.com will never be delivered. So you can try entering a@example.com into the box. Depending on the email provider behind the box this sometimes works. You can put anything you want in front of the @. I choose “a” to save typing. Some providers notice the example.com address and ask you for a valid address.

Another option if you are using Gmail is Plus Addressing. Lets say your email is bdekolta@gmail.com. With plus addressing you just add a “+” followed by anything you like. So when you signed up for TNPC you could be bdekolta+tnpc@gmail.com. The mail still comes to your inbox. Later you can easily set a filter on the email coming to that address. You can have as many “+” addresses as you like.

I know the Plus Addressing works with Gmail. Not sure how other providers handle it. I know some use a “-” addressing. Just check with your email provider. This is much easier than changing addresses and providers. This is a low tech, low hassle way to take quick control of your email.

Do you know how this works with other email providers or have other ideas please comment below.

It’s frustrating. You receive an email on your smartphone and want to respond immediately. Then the tiny keyboard gets in the way and you end up sending a response that is not up to your usual standard. Do not let this happen to you.

On the TNPC website are a couple of articles on maximizing your email signature. In a nutshell you can put more than just a signature there. Why not setup your basic email template as your signature. Now when you reply on your smartphone you get a nicely formatted email with all the information you include in your normal emails. No more typing apologies for replying from your phone.

You can find my original article here:

http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2009/05/24/how-is-your-signature/

That link will take you to some examples of what I am talking about.

Here is something specific to setting this up on a phone. When you are setting up the template I suggest you type it up on your computer then email it to yourself. Open the email on your phone and cut and paste your new template to your signature file. This will have you up and running in just a few minutes. Now every email and reply you send can look like you spent the time on it you deserve.

One other thing I do is create a folder in my email called “Signatures”. File the different templates you create in that folder. Makes switching between templates quick and easy.

Do you have a tip for working email on your phone? Post it in the comments below

CardCow.com is a cool site to look at old postcards. They sell the postcards, but keep the pictures online. We were able to find some  old photos of Fort Worth and other places of interest to us. After you spend a little time figuring out the search engine it is a lot of fun.

I found CardCow while searching for pictures of the old Kon Tiki motel in California. Why the Kon Tiki? We lived there for a few months when I was in 2nd grade.

Find CardCow here:

http://www.CardCow.com/

Let me know what you think.