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

So you are using Google Chrome and it won’t let you load anything from Google. The errors that show range from “webpage may be down” to “app is unavailable” to “Error 15 (net::ERR_SOCKET_NOT_CONNECTED): Unknown error.” If you are seeing any of these here is a fix that worked for me.

First open a new tab in Chrome then do the following:

1. In URL field type: chrome://net-internals/#sockets
2. If the Sockets tab didn’t open click Sockets on the left
3. Click the Flush Socket Pools button.

That should fix it. If you are still having problems try clicking the Close idle sockets button.

Here is what this looks like on my screen:

Let me know if that helps and if you have run into the problem yourself.

Dan

]]> http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2013/04/12/fixing-google-cant-be-reached-errors/feed/ 5 http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2012/12/13/about-those-links/ http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2012/12/13/about-those-links/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:30:04 +0000 DanB http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/?p=267

Several people write asking about the links in my emails. The email shows one thing but the actual link points to “clicks.aweber”. What is that about? This is nothing to worry about and quite normal.

Aweber is my email service provider. They take care of sending the emails, bounces, and all sorts of other things. They also count the number of times the links in the emails are clicked. I do not get a list of who clicked what just a total number of clicks on each link. That is it.

If your click being counted is troubling to you all you need to do is copy the visible link and paste it into your web browser.

Here is an example of what I am talking about. To visit the blog and read the quick tips we sent out this week you can go here:

http://www.TNPCnewsletter.com/blog/

If you hold your mouse over the link it should popup and show you the link underneath which is a “clicks.aweber” link. Clicking the link will take you to “clicks.aweber”, count your click, then send you on to the blog. Pretty simple really.

I have used Aweber for more than 10 years and knew the people who started it for years before that. If you need to send email to a group, or updates I can recommend the service without reservation:

Aweber Email Services

If you want to read more about how to know if a link is harmful or not read this:

http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2007/06/21/i-almost-fell-for-it…/

Hope that explains what we are doing a bit. Share your opinion in the comments below.

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.

I recently installed a program in my web browsers to help stop all of the behind the scenes tracking of my online activities. So far it has worked well and I am recommending it to you as well. This software is free and is called Do Not Track Plus. You can find it at this URL:

http://www.abine.com/dntdetail.php

I made this little movie so you can see how it works in action.

If privacy on the Internet is a concern to you give this program a try. After you use it a bit let me know your experience in the comments below.

It’s pervasive. Everywhere you look companies and websites are trying to gather more and more data on you. I want to discuss this issue and I’ll point you to a tool to help.

I recently read an article about some of the new Facebook attempts at data gathering.
The article talked about attempts to match offline purchases from online ad displays.

From a technical standpoint these attempts are interesting. But from a privacy point of view not so interesting. Even a bit worrisome. One of the real issues is you never know what is being gathered. Even if you do know you have no way of knowing what dots are being connected behind the scenes. Then there is the question of what dots will be connected down the road.

Over at the blog I tell you about a tool you can install on your web browser to minimize the tracking Facebook and other companies use to monitor your movements. It is a free tool and in my tests has worked quite well. If you are not interested in some technical talk just click the link and get the tool. If you want some more technical talk keep reading after the link.

Click here to find out about the free software

For several years a big portion of my job was to analyze the data generated by visits to websites. In particular we were interested in minimizing the guesswork that visitors had to go through to find what they were looking for. This was pre-Google and a private website.  The website had around 22,000 pages and on average received 9,000,000 requests for pages each month. That was a lot of data to crunch. And this was before there were tools to crunch it for you. I wrote a few of my own just to save some time. Today the tools can show you all sort information about your online activity.

How does this cross tracking work exactly? Let us assume you have a Facebook account. When you visit Facebook puts some cookies on your computer. Now anytime you visit a site that is tied in to Facebook that cookie is noted and updated. Even if the site you are visiting is not part of Facebook. Most of the time that you see the Facebook logo on a page and when you see Facebook being used for comments that tracking is taking place. Is someone linking to a picture on Facebook? That can do it too. The data gathering is pervasive.

The big question is this. Are companies using your data and habits to track you specifically? At a certain level yes. But on a bigger scale they are looking for overall trends they can use across broad groups to sell more products or influence opinions.

On an individual level the data will be used to display advertisements closer to your interests. I’m not opposed to this so much in concept. It really is no different than a sales clerk paying attention to your likes and dislikes then suggesting items you may like. It saves you time and can be enjoyable. It can also be expensive at times! But to have it automated makes me uneasy.

How do you feel about all this? Let us know in the comments below.

Hope you find the software useful. I have. Now if I can the same thing for my phone it will really be nice.

It has been a short while but things have been very busy.
More about that soon. Today I want to share a concern and a
fix for that concern. The email looks long but if you are in
a hurry you will only need to read the first few paragraphs.
You can come back for the rest later. Thanks for reading – I
really appreciate it.

It’s pervasive. Everywhere you look companies and websites
are trying to gather more and more data on you. I want to
discuss this issue and I’ll point you to a tool to help.

I recently read an article about some of the new Facebook
attempts at data gathering. The article talked about
attempts to match offline purchases from online ad displays.

From a technical standpoint these attempys are interesting.
But from a privacy point of view not so interesting. Even a
bit worrisome. One of the real issues is you never know what
is being gathered. Even if you do know you have no way of
knowing what dots are being connected behind the scenes.
Then there is the question of what dots will be connected
down the road.

Over at the blog I tell you about a tool you can install on
your web browser to minimize the tracking Facebook and other
companies use to monitor your movements. It is a free tool
and in my tests has worked quite well. If you are not
interested in some technical talk just click the link and
get the tool. If you want some more technical talk keep
reading after the link.

Click here to got to the blog and checkout the free software

For several years a big portion of my job was to analyze the
data generated by visits to websites. In particular we were
interested in minimizing the guesswork that visitors had to
go through to find what they were looking for. This was pre-
Google and a private website.  The website had around 22,000
pages and on average received 9,000,000 requests for pages
each month. That was a lot of data to crunch. And this was
before there were tools to crunch it for you. I wrote a few
of my own just to save some time. Today the tools can show
you all sort information about your online activity.

How does this cross tracking work exactly? Let us assume you
have a Facebook account. When you visit Facebook puts some
cookies on your computer. Now anytime you visit a site that
is tied in to Facebook that cookie is noted and updated.
Even if the site you are visiting is not part of Facebook.
Most of the time that you see the Facebook logo on a page
and when you see Facebook being used for comments that
tracking is taking place. Is someone linking to a picture on
Facebook? That can do it too. The data gathering is
pervasive.

The big question is this. Are companies using your data and
habits to track you specifically? At a certain level yes.
But on a bigger scale they are looking for overall trends
they can use across broad groups to sell more products or
influence opinions.

On an individual level the data will be used to display
advertisements closer to your interests. I’m not opposed to
this so much in concept. It really is no different than a
sales clerk paying attention to your likes and dislikes then
suggesting items you may like. It saves you time and can be
enjoyable. It can also be expensive at times! But to have it
automated makes me uneasy.

How do you feel about all this? Click over to the blog and
let us all know:

http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/

While you are there check out the software I link to help
reduce the amount of tracking when you surf the Internet.

In the interest of full disclosure I should also point out
that I am using tracking in this newsletter and on the
website. The links in these emails go through our service
provider. They keep a running count of how many times each
link is clicked. That is all.

At the website we collect statistics on various things but
primarily of traffic patterns and visitor behavior. What
visitors looked at, when was it looked at, what did they
look at next, how long was it looked it, etc. This isn’t an
exact science and again we look for trends. It does not
identify you personally it just tells me the number of times
a particular item was viewed.

Hope you find the software useful. I have. Now if I can the
same thing for my phone it will really be nice.