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Download Missing Templates for OpenOffice1
Joe M posted in Howto, products on May 30th, 2008

OpenOffice.org is a fantastic Office Suite.

One of the biggest complaints from users is the lack of templates.

The templates have been produced, but you have to download them separately, as of right now.

You can find them here. Download them and extract them from the archive.

The next thing you have to do is find the path to the templates, that is where you extracted them, and set them up inside your options.

To do that:

Go to Tools and Options.

Under OpenOffice.org in the left pane, choose Paths. Highlight Templates in the right pane. Click Edit.

Click Add.

Remember where you extracted the template archive? Now we find it and add it here. I saved mine to /tmp/template.

After I locate it, I click OK, then click OK again to close the Options dialog.

Now, when I choose File, New, Templates and Documents, I have many more options from which to choose.

My guess is that somewhere along the line, Sun will begin including the templates in the installation.

Until that time, I still won’t complain.

I love the function that OpenOffice provides. The issue of missing templates does not bother me.  It’s not a monotonous ordeal to add these in.

Which Celebrity Do You Look Like?0
Joe M posted in Musing, products on May 29th, 2008

Today, during my play time, I came across myheritage.com.

Myheritage is mainly a genealogy site, with some very interesting features.

You can submit a photo and it will run it through a facial recognition algorithm.

When it’s finished, it will show you several celebrities that you look like.

I have always been a Chevy Chase fan. I am flattered.

The fascinating part of this is the algorithm that does the recognition.

I have done some simple programs regarding scripts, text and databases.

How do you begin to design an algorithm such as this?

Photos From Taliesin West0
Joe M posted in art, opinion on May 28th, 2008

As I said in a post the other day, I have been greatly impressed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He was out-of-the-box before anyone knew there was a box. Taliesin West is an architectural school, and the students go to Wisconsin this time of year. The tradition, started by FLW, moves the students and had them return just before the fall of the year, to avoid the hot months in the AZ desert.

The Basics of msconfig on Windows XP1
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on May 27th, 2008

When you install programs in Windows, many software vendors are notorious for placing icons and programs in the system tray.

One or two usually does not impede your system very much.

If you install camera software, media players, plugins, etc., it all adds up after a while and can slow your machine down to a crawl.

To get rid of those unwanted programs, you can use msconfig, a utility that comes with Windows XP.

To run msconfig, go to Start, Run.

Type msconfig and press enter or click OK.

The System Configuration Utility comes up.

Click on the last tab, Startup.

Simply uncheck any programs that you don’t want to run.  For the most part, with some exceptions*, you can uncheck just about everything, except for the virus scanner.  If you are not sure what a listing is or does here, use google to find out exactly what it is.  Printer software, media players, camera software and other resident icons can be disabled here without damaging or disabling your system.

The best rule of thumb is, if you don’t know what it does, don’t uncheck it.

*On laptops, you will find icons for touchpads, bluetooth utilities, wireless network and several other utilities that need to run in the system tray to make the devices function.  Make sure you do your research!

Once you finish your configuration here, click Apply, then Close. (OK will change to Close when you click Apply.)

If your system is running at a crawl, you may want to go ahead and Restart it now.

If you are simply making tweaks and your system is running acceptably, you can click Exit Without Restart.

It does not hurt to run msconfig on occasion to examine the Startup tab and programs that run on a regular basis, so you can become familiar with what should and should not be in your Startup tab.

When Music Met Internet0
Joe M posted in music on May 25th, 2008

Sometimes, when I am at home and I slow down, I find different ways to relax.

For a long time, one of my favorite things to do is to sit and listen to music.  Sometimes I listen to old stuff, sometimes I listen to new stuff.

It may be just about any type… hard, soft, fast, jazz or blues.

I like being able to listen to stuff before I buy it.  Today, that market is different from when I was in high school.  You have a few more options for getting an idea of what you are buying.

Jango and Pandora fit the bill perfectly.

On each, you can enter songs or artists that you enjoy.  The more information you provide on your favorites, the better the selection of songs matching your entries within your stream.

Pandora is part of the Music Genome Project.  Since 2000, artists and technologists have been working to classify and group different aspects of the industry.  This has helped them work toward a model that ultimately will offer “If you like that, you will like this” relationships between songs and artists to a prospective consumer.

Jango is geared toward the social aspect of music and bookmarking.

Ultimately, I think the services and the benefits are similar for the users and the artists and the industry.

I have discovered several new artists listening to Pandora.

I have a PC connected to my DLP TV that also has a wireless card for internet access.  I log into it via VNC and control it remotely.  I log into Pandora for something a little different over the sound system.

In my opinion, it’s services like iTunes and Pandora that continue to change the way in which we select music for purchase.

Back in the 70’s and 80’s, you had to buy an entire album to listen to all of it.  Sometimes you were lucky enough to hear it through a friend, hanging out in a record store or sometimes on the King Biscuit Flower Hour.

With iTunes, you can select which songs you want now.  No more buying a whole CD or album in the $15 to $25 range to get one good song.

Since you can select the songs individually, it creates a more competitive atmosphere for the songs and content being produced.

In the end, this competition makes it much better for the consumer.

If you don’t like a song, you don’t buy it.

The 2nd Gen XOXO, G1G1, XO 1.5 and Ebay0
Joe M posted in products on May 24th, 2008

From OLPC News…

A few days ago, plans were revealed for another XO laptop.  The XOXO or the XO-2 will have many of the features of the XO, but will consume less power than the XO.

It looks as if it will also feature a touch screen, much like a Nintendo DS.

The laptop will be available in 2010 and the foundation estimates it will cost $75!

The XO laptop may be available again this fall, in the Give One, Get one program.

There may also be a 1.5 version of the XO in the interim, scheduled for the release in the Spring of 2009.

And…

It looks as if Ebay is now allowing people to sell XO’s.  There were reports back in November(2007), they were not allowing listings for the XO to stay up for very long without taking them down.

I did a search and found about 8 listings.

Falling Water0
Joe M posted in art on May 24th, 2008

Not too long ago, I got a chance to take a tour of Taliesin West. It was one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s homes. I will write more posts on this, but I was moved in several ways. FLW was a person who thought outside of the box, before everyone else even knew ‘there was a box.’

The shocking part is – Falling Water is 70 years old!!

Resume Writing Review0
Joe M posted in Howto, homelife on May 21st, 2008

How To Write a Resume – Click here for more free videos

Some of this is common sense, but if you are stressed about finding a new position, it is easy to forget.

Inspecting and Troubleshooting Using Netstat0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on May 20th, 2008

When you use different applications on your machine over a TCP/IP network, it becomes important sometimes to look at the applications and the ports they use.

If I know which applications are using which ports, it becomes easier to open ports in my router to allow the application to do what it is designed to do.

If I run netstat on my Windows box, here is the output:

C:\netstat -b

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State PID
TCP myxpbox:1050 by2msg2104808.phx.gbl:1863 ESTABLISHED 1332
[pidgin.exe]

TCP myxpbox:1086 62.146.66.179:http ESTABLISHED 1732
[update.exe]

TCP myxpbox:1092 a96-6-127-97.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com:http ESTABLISHED 580
[jusched.exe]

TCP myxpbox:1084 localhost:1085 ESTABLISHED 2840
[firefox.exe]

TCP myxpbox:1085 localhost:1084 ESTABLISHED 2840
[firefox.exe]

TCP myxpbox:1082 dyna-addons.nllb02.nl.mozilla.com:https TIME_WAIT 0
TCP myxpbox:1083 dyna-addons.nllb02.nl.mozilla.com:https TIME_WAIT 0
TCP myxpbox:1091 72.5.124.55:http TIME_WAIT 0
TCP myxpbox:1079 localhost:1078 TIME_WAIT 0

Looking at the output, I can see that an application, pidgin.exe, is connecting from port 1050 on my local machine and connecting to port 1863 on the destination machine.

The -b switch allows me to see the actual application that is using which ports.

I can see that update.exe is also connecting from port 1086 on my local machine to http or port 80 on the distant machine.

If you have more than one Windows machine on your network, it becomes easier to troubleshoot problems with certain applications and using both or more machines.

Asus Motherboards To Feature Embeded Linux0
Joe M posted in opinion, products on May 19th, 2008

Asus announced a couple of days ago that they will be embedding a version of Linux into their motherboard.

Splashtop, which they are also calling Express Gate, will feature a Firefox version and Skype.

What does this mean for the consumer?

If you are running Windows (or Linux) for your hard disk installed OS and have some sort of problem, you won’t have to use a “Live Boot” disk to get to the web to research your problem (that is, provided you don’t have another machine to use.)

This could be a great opportunity for the Linux community to gain more ground.

What will happen?

Younger users will explore it.  Adventurous users will explore it.

How non-adventurous and fearful users will respond is anyone’s guess.

Several models will provide the feature, provided by a distribution company, DeviceVM.

These motherboards start shipping this quarter and Asus will also put it on several desktop and laptop motherboards.

Airline Travel – Avoiding Discomfort0
Joe M posted in opinion, well-being on May 18th, 2008

At one time or another, most of us are going to have to fly.

How do you maximize the experience of flying and minimize the discomforts? Sometimes it’s not easy.

• Planning and Timing – If I can, I plan and time my flight. I avoid the heavy travel times, if possible. Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday are the heaviest travel days.
  Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon are usually heavier travel times. I will travel out on Saturday, if I can. Depending on your destination, the flights may still be full, but the airport is usually less crowded on Saturday afternoon, and car rentals and hotel check-ins go a little better without the long lines or crowds.

• Watch what you eat and drink – Before you fly, avoid carbonated drinks and foods that will make you uncomfortable. Drink bottled water to help keep you hydrated, but don’t overdo it. Drink when you are thirsty, sip, and do not force it. You won’t be able to carry it through the security checkpoint, but you can buy bottled water at a reasonable price at the airport.

• Pack a carry-on bag – You want your bare necessities with you. In the carry-on, pack your undergarments, change of clothes, medications, toiletries, reading items, notebook and a pen. Choose a bag with a handle and wheels (wide wheel base) or a back-pack. I have a bag with a handle and wheels, and I pack my laptop in a lightweight case. When it comes time to board, I put the laptop bag inside of the larger bag with wheels.

• Arrive to the airport 2.5 to 3 hours before your flight – Two hours is the rule you see everyone following. It’s posted all over the airport. Chances are, the other people on your flight are going to be checking in two hours, or less, before the actual flight. Remember, boarding is going to take place about 30 minutes ahead of flight time.

• Use self-check-in kiosks, if available – This saves a great deal of time. You can save yourself 20-30 minutes using the self-check-in. Remember to specify how many bags your have to check in and have your ID ready. Remember to use the selector to get a window or aisle seat. Emergency exit rows are great for larger people that need a little more leg room. You may be able to select your seating online, before you fly, using the airline website. If so, take that opportunity.
• Be ready for the security checkpoint – Remove your watch, your phone, your belt and any other items and place them in your bag. Pull your laptop and any console games out of the bags and place them in the trays. If you have everything in order, going through the checkpoint is much easier for you and for the security team at the airport.
• Be on your toes for boarding call – When the boarding calls start, put your laptop away, hang up the phone, stand up and get your boarding pass ready. The sooner you get on the plane, the easier it is to get your baggage placed and get settled for the flight.
• Chewing gum helps – If you can chew gum, carry a pack and chew it while ascending and descending. The chewing motion helps your ears pop. Sometimes, I clear my ears, like a diver. Yawning helps. Some people prefer to wear ear plugs to avoid the excessive noise.
• Take Kleenex with you – Pressurized cabins can sometimes wreak havoc on my sinuses, and it’s better to have it in case you need it.
• Open Conversations – Don’t be afraid to talk to other people. Sometimes a good conversation will divert your attention away from the long hours of the flight and may make the people sitting next to you a little more comfortable as well.
• Avoid alcohol – Alcohol has a tendency to dehydrate you. For a couple of years, it seems that about every other week you heard about someone getting drunk and disorderly on a flight. You need your discernment and your inhibitions, so for the most part it’s better to avoid it. Nothing will make you more miserable than a hangover or groggy feeling when you arrive at your destination.
• Keep your cool – Traveling can be enjoyable, but it can also be stressful. Be courteous and respectful to all the airline staff and to those around you.

For me, the last thing I make sure I take? My iPod. The in-flight audio system is ok, but I prefer to have my iPod to catch up on all my technology shows.

The XO and the Birmingham School System0
Joe M posted in opinion, products on May 16th, 2008

I read the story recently about Larry Langford, the mayor of Birmingham, and his $3,000,000 purchase of the OLPC XO laptop for the school system there.  That was about 15,000 laptops.

First off, I think putting technology into the hands of kids is a wonderful thing. It will create opportunity and exposure that the kids would not otherwise have.

I have watched kids and technology before. I am always in awe of how quickly they take to the technology, like a duck in water.

Some years back, I saw a friend’s three-year-old sit with a Nintendo and its controller. At first he just looked at the controller, then looked blankly at the screen.

I returned to the house a couple of weeks later to see the youngster had not only learned how to work the game, but had all the top scores. He was a pint-sized expert.

Reading over the comments on the particular story I pulled up, I saw one that said, “The kids won’t know what to do with the laptops.”

If someone has never seen a technology or a product before, none of us know exactly what we are doing with it.

The difference with kids?

Kids don’t have all the ‘blocks’ and ‘boundaries’ that we as adults have.

There is a story that I have heard in some problem-solving classes. Ever see an elephant, in a show or circus, with a tiny chain to its leg? Wonder why the tiny chain holds the elephant, when it could easily break it and run away? As a baby, the elephant is placed on the chain. The baby pulls and tugs, and finally learns to accept the fact that it cannot get away from the chain.

Exposing kids to technology early on is the opposite effect.

In my opinion, exposing them to open source software along with the technology, you are enabling them to think outside of the Intel and Microsoft chains that most adults have.

This is an interesting story and I hope that it gets enough media attention so that we can all follow it.

How To Fix Those Red Eyed Photos in Gimp0
Joe M posted in Howto, photos on May 15th, 2008

A Windows Vista Look in Windows XP with Thoosje Sidebar0
Joe M posted in Howto, free stuff on May 14th, 2008

It still looks like the public is slow to embrace Windows Vista, whichever of the multiple flavors one might actually choose.

One thing you have to admit is, the screen shots and the eye candy turned out pretty well, regardless of what technical challenges there may still be with the OS.

Looking around, I came across several sidebars that are designed to give that part of your technical eyeball or sweet tooth a little satisfaction.

I decided to give thoosje a shot.

Some of the sidebars I have tried in the past gave me artifacts or weird error messages.

Thoosje seems to be pretty stable, and it has a fairly wide assortment of skins and features.

Here is what my XP machine looks like:

Not bad.  So I get to keep my more stable version of XP and get some features from Vista!

Change Default Formats in OpenOffice to MS Office0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on May 13th, 2008

I have been working on a laptop for a friend of mine.

I have gone over it several times, removing junk and trying to optimize it without spending any additional money.

I found a trial version of Microsoft Office 2003 on it.

I removed it, and replaced it with the new OpenOffice 2.4.

I am big on writing myself notes and making reminders. I admit, my memory is not the greatest.

Sometimes I get all the way through a document and save it and close the app, only to realize that I have forgotten to save it to an MS format for my die-hard MS fanatical friends.

Luckily, OpenOffice has settings so that you can automatically save to MS Office formats, by default.

This is really easy to do, with a couple of tweaks.

Pull up OpenOffice Writer.

Go to Tools and choose Options.

Go to Load/Save in the left pane.

In the pull down box right above the Help button, choose Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP.

Click OK.

As you can see, when you attempt to save a file, OpenOffice defaults to saving the file as a Word document.

You can repeat the above steps in OpenOffice Calc (for Excel Spreadsheets) and OpenOffice Impress (For Powerpoint Presentations). Use both pull downs at the bottom to set the Document type and the Always Save as for each, respectively.

Nutshell Registry Editor Basics0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on May 12th, 2008

A couple of days ago, I posted on removing viruses and malware from a machine on which I have been working.

From time to time, if you do any maintenance or try to fix problems on a Windows machine, you are going to emerge yourself into the inner workings of the OS.

The 800 pound gorilla enters… The Windows Registry.

There are times in which I have had to go into the registry editor to remove programs, a task ‘not for the faint of heart.’

I thought I would cover the basics of using regedit.exe.

A word of caution: You can disable the entire Windows Operating System if you make changes to the registry. Make sure you have a full, accurate and recent backup of your system prior to making any changes. Proceed at your own risk, with caution and care!

To run the Windows Registry Editor, click Start… Run…

Type regedit and click OK.

The Registry Editor starts. You will notice the function and appearance looks much like Windows Explorer. You can expand keys and subkeys much in the way that you expand folders in the directory structure in Windows.

The main hive in which I work is usually HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

Within HKLM (the abbreviation for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE) the two key structures in which I work most are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

The Run structure contains a listing of programs that fire up automatically when you log into your Windows machine. For the most part, you can make changes to this subkey structure safer and easier using msconfig, and I recommend that you use it whenever you can.

The Uninstall structure contains a list of installed programs on your machine that populates the screen for Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. You should make the changes from there whenever possible.

On occasion, you find programs that will not uninstall from Control Panel and you have to use your last resort.

If you have to make changes to the registry, highlight the structure that you are changing and choose File and Export.

Give your backup file a name and note its directory location, in case you need to restore it.

I have never had to restore a structure after making changes, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

If you practice safety in your surfing and know exactly what you are installing on your Windows machine, you can avoid having to do this for the most part.

Not all of us are that lucky. Some of us have family members that innocently make changes and installs or downloads that sometimes cause problems.

If you have to edit the registry, make notes about what you suspect is the problem and do your research before you change it.

It never hurts to double and triple check your findings before you execute your change!

Annoyances In A New Windows Machine0
Joe M posted in Home Support, products on May 11th, 2008

Everytime I have a friend that gets a new machine, they usually have me go over it to remove the built-in subscription ‘triggered’ software before they start using it.

The software vendors learned a long time ago, if you give someone a free 90 subscription to your service or your software, it is so much easier for the consumer to pull out their wallet or credit card than to figure out how to make the change and use a different product.

People hate change.  Even at the expense of costing us more money to ’stay the course.’

Working on a machine, recently, I came across The PC Decrapifier.  The name could not have been more dead-on’.

It downloads as a stand-alone application and does not make any changes to your machine.

If you decide that you no longer want to use it, you simply delete the file.

It makes no entries in the Windows registry or Control Panel.

I also liked the list of crapplications.  What a fitting description!

This list is also useful to get an idea of what software is useful, and what really isn’t.

Even if your machine isn’t new, you can still use Decrapifier to remove items from your machine.

As usual, it’s FREE!

The Prescription For Infections in Windows Is Constantly Changing0
Joe M posted in Uncategorized on May 10th, 2008

From time to time, I always seem to wind up working on someone’s machine that, put simply, “It has a virus.”

Every month that goes by, the virus and malware authors seem to be making their ‘goods’ more and more trifling.

I usually choose one of the free virus scanners, along with Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware to clean the system. Usually, you will have to run both of them in succession, then reboot. After that, it does not hurt to add in a virus scan.

Recently, what I have grown accustomed to the amount of time to a resolution gradually increasing.

The progression I have seen?

At first you could get by with installing a virus scanner and running a scan. Either do that, or place the drive in a machine with a good virus scanner and running a scan.

Those days are long gone. Now you have to worry about rapid development of viruses and malware.

As soon as everyone came online, you had a new frontier for the authors. It’s still being explored, and it is still there.

With that added element of the network connection, you had to add spyware and malware scans to your prescription for an infected machine.

The two items that I have found that I have had to mix into my practice are using Safe Mode and the Registry editor. Sometimes, you even have to use both at the same time.

The last couple of Windows machines that I worked on both required all the above. While running Spybot, I found a couple of nasty changes to the registry.

Not only did I have to boot into safe mode, but I also had to actually change permissions on the registry keys before I could remove them. I have not seen much of that before.

Luckily, that did the job and I was able to recover the machine without having to completely re-install the OS.

More and more prevalently, I have seen weird error messages pop up during the boot and logon processes.

During my last experience, I had to use regedit.exe and use the search function in order to correct the problems.

“C:\WINDOWS\System32\myapplication.exe – The registered program myapplication.exe can not be found.”

If you have to search the registry, as with any search operation, the more information and exact detail you include, usually the better luck you will have in finding the items for which you are searching.

If you cannot find anything related to the error message, remove some of the information in your search and make it broader, searching from one of the main root keys. If I can’t find “C:\WINDOWS\System32\myapplication.exe,” I may be able to find it by highlighting the root key again and searching for “myapplication.exe” instead.

The problems that I find most related to viruses and malware are within or found under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive.

If you find yourself having to edit the registry, export the hive that you are working on to an external file for backup purposes. (Select the main key, Choose File and Export.)

You can find an abundance of tips and hints for editing the registry.

Use caution when editing the registry! You can completely disable your operating system if you are not careful.

For the most part, I have never ruined Windows with the registry editor.

If Windows is not working correctly to begin with, you will probably find it worth taking the risk to fix the problem.

If you find yourself having to boot into Safe Mode, it is a little safer than editing the registry.

By pressing F8 immediately after the BIOS screen during startup, you can get to Safe Mode (Choose Safe Mode at the top of the text menu). In Safe Mode, you get a functional GUI, yet most of the resident programs and utilities don’t start.

If you find a program starting during login that you want to stop, you can use msconfig (Start… Run… msconfig (enter)). Click on the startup tab and uncheck any items that you want to keep from starting. After reboot, you will get a message. Click the checkbox to disable the message and click OK.

Using the registry editor, msconfig and Safe Mode will give you a couple more tools in your arsenal to help recover from exposure to malware in Windows.

Save More Gas Finding Lower Gas Prices Before You Leave Home0
Joe M posted in homelife, products on May 9th, 2008

Thinking about the outrageous price of gas, I stumbled across a website that is a “Google Mashup.”

It’s www.gaspricewatch.com.

This looks promising, not only from a consumer standpoint, but there is potential for mashups like this for all sort of applications.

There is also the mapquest site http://gasprices.mapquest.com.

And there’s http://www.gasbuddy.com/.

Using these, I have found that I feel a little better knowing what prices are offered in my area.

How To Make a Cheap Multi Function Touchpad0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on May 8th, 2008

Running Lean and Shapes of Things0
Joe M posted in opinion, products on May 7th, 2008

I heard over the weekend that HP is now getting into the small laptop game.

The interesting thing is, for years now, vendors in software and hardware have been seemingly working together to bully the consumer into continually reaching into his or her pocket to keep up with technology.

If you want the latest and greatest functions in both arenas, it has been tough in order to keep up in a proprietary world of vendor driven standards.

Nick Negraponte started something with the OLPC foundation and the project.

This area is starting to get competitive. OLPC was just the start.

Since OLPC, Intel, Asus, Everex and others have gotten into the game.

The characteristics that are emerging in the small portable laptops:

• Flash memory base
• Small compact design
• Full featured, yet lean Operating System

I like my 15 inch Asus laptop, but if I had to travel with it everyday, I think I would probably get tired of it pretty quickly.

The questions that are coming to the forefront:

Will Microsoft provide a leaner version of Windows that will run on this new platform and in this new space?

If Microsoft chooses to try and compete in that space, will the product offering be crippled or some sort of subcription-base?

This is a great opportunity for Linux to gain market advantage. The developers (that is a broad descriptive term) have done a great job of taking several restrictions and providing a product that will provide function and satisfaction.

If you look at the historical facts, how many times have you bought a PC or a laptop only to discover that Microsoft is coming out with another version of Windows a few months down the road? In retrospect, how many times has it required a hardware upgrade?

Some years back, I can remember going to a Christian bookstore with my mother to review a piece of software for the church. Windows 3.1 and 3.11 were just starting to become accepted. If you had 1 megabyte of memory at that time, your machine was considered cutting edge.

During the demonstration, the presenter made the statement that if you wanted to run Windows with the package, you had to have 4 megabytes of RAM.

At the time, I shook my head and wondered if there was some coordination between the software and hardware vendors.

The overall message that was being demonstrated was ‘the bigger the better.”

I never thought that making a machine ‘chug’ on heavy GUI routines was a good thing, from an efficiency standpoint.

Don’t get me wrong. I use a GUI everyday. I use both Windows and Linux and use a GUI in both.

The difference is, when I put my faith into an Operating System, I don’t want extra routines in there to hang my system. I consider myself slighted if I have an application or an OS that will inherently cause me to shell out more money.

Enough rant.

Back to the topic at hand. What will happen in the small portable laptop space? Is it just a fad? Will it have the same fate as PDAs?

You don’t see those much anymore. Or more accurately, you see their successors, cellphone-based devices.

Setting Up Evolution For Your Email0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto, free stuff, products on May 6th, 2008

Evolution is the default email client that comes on Ubuntu.

With that said, I decided to step through setting up a POP email account on it.

In the following example, I use a gmail account.  The ports are correct.  If you use another service, you will have to look up the ports for sending and receiving email and change them, accordingly.

Should you want to set Evolution up to use with gmail, you will need to login to your gmail account and change the settings on your account to allow your POP client to connect. The instructions for that are pretty easy to find inside of gmail.

Click Forward.

Click Forward.

Fill in your Full Name, Email Address and Reply to.

Click Forward.

For receiving email on gmail, the server type is POP.

The server is pop.gmail.com:995.  Notice that we append the port number on the end of the domain name, preceded by a colon.

Change these to your own preferences. Click Forward.

For sending through gmail, the server is smtp.gmail.com:465.  Change the encryption type under Security to SSL encryption.  To your own preference, I check Remember Password.  Click Forward.

On this screen, we give the account settings an identifier so that we know how to distinguish it from another account.  This is for our own purpose, and is not seen by anyone else.  Click Forward.

To set the time zone, the easiest way is to choose a city in your same time zone using the map.  Click Forward.

Click Apply.

I am done.  At this point, I can go back and tweak any of my previous settings I made during the previous steps by choosing Edit and Preferences.

I have used Evolution for quite a while now, and it has worked flawlessly.

My Most-Used Firefox Hot Keys0
Joe M posted in Howto, products on May 5th, 2008

When I use Firefox, I take advantage of some of the keyboard shortcuts.

I find that’s much easier and faster than going to the menus and hunting my way through.

My most-used shortcut is Ctrl+t, which opens a new tab in your browser.

I also come across some websites that have small text (my eyes are not as good as they once were) and I use Ctrl++ (that’s control and the plus button). Ctrl++ enlarges the size of the text on the page. Ctrl+- (Control and the minus) shrinks the text size on the webpage. Ctrl+0 will return the text to the original size.

I spent a little time this weekend with my parents.  I showed them this shortcut.  Dad was playing with the XO laptop, and Mom was surfing the desktop.  That one definitely helped them.

Ctrl+b or Ctrl+i show my bookmarks. That’s handier than the menu.

Ctrl+j will display your downloads. Most of the time this pops up automatically when you download anything.

F11 switches between windowed and full-screen browsing. This is helpful if you are looking at maps or illustrations.

Ctrl+h displays my history, in case I am randomly surfing or research and I cannot find a site that I used within a given timeframe.

F5 or Ctrl+r will refresh the webpage you are viewing. Some websites, like digg have quite a bit of activity and listings can change in seconds.

Ctrl+d will bookmark the page you are currently viewing.

End will take you to the bottom of the page, and Alt+Home will return you to the top.

You can also add keyboard functions with certain plugins.

The reason I love Firefox is that it allows you much more freedom. Chances are, if you perform a function inside of Firefox, someone has created an extension or a plugin to help you with the task.

That’s something you won’t find in the other proprietary browsers.

Writing Emails to a Broad Audience0
Joe M posted in Howto, opinion on May 3rd, 2008

I am an email fanatic.  A maniac.  I email several people on a daily basis.

If you type an email to one person, you usually know the person.

That makes communicating with them pretty easy.

You know what to say and exactly what details to include.

What if you send an email to a broad audience?

My rules of thumb:

Put yourself in their shoes. How many people in your intended audience are technically challenged?  How many people are technically adept?  Even a mixed group of people that are all intelligent and technical all have different styles of communication.  Include details and points that will provide all of them with clarity in your message.

Pretend that your audience knows absolutely nothing about the subject about which you are talking. So many times when you know a subject better than your audience, it becomes very easy to forget that you are communicating with with someone else, not yourself.

Even though you are communicating with adults, write and word the email as if you were talking to a nine-year-old. Since we all have preferences in the details and information that we receive, sometimes you will get questions or negative feedback if you do not include enough information.  Don’t be condescending or rude, but cordially include enough details with simple explanations so that someone in Elementary school could follow your message and any included instructions.

Anticipate and forecast questions. When you proofread your message, look for slang, acronyms and lingo that need explanation.  Insert parentheses and footnotes if you need them.

Give an ample timeframe for your audience to pose questions. If your message is time-sensitive, send it out far enough ahead of schedule to allow your audience to approach you or respond with any questions.

Don’t forget the Who-What-Where-When-Why-and-How.  Proofread your message at least three times before clicking the send button.  Have a classmate, teammate, friend or coworker proofread the message first, if you have the opportunity.  Write “Who What Where When Why How” out on a scratch sheet of paper.  As you proofread, leave a checkmark by each item as you cover it in your message.

Remember, your goal is to cover everything in one message. You may find yourself getting a number of questions regarding the message after you send it.  Sometimes it happens, no matter how much planning and preparation you put in the email.  Wait a little while, collect the questions and answer them all at once.  If you find yourself having to send more emails following up the first one, still try to limit the number of emails regarding the subject.  Respond to people individually, unless it becomes obvious that you need to address the same question with everyone in your original audience or distribution.

Keep the tone light and positive. Don’t talk down about individuals, groups or policies.  Accept those as a part of life and share your message in such a way that will not offend anyone.  You want to send your audience the implied message that you are being supportive and keep their respect.

I have discovered the above through experience.  As I grow in my communication skills, I find that these help me to not only comfort my audience, but they also help me in my own intra-personal communication.

I have found that reasoning through my messaging process gives me most of the answers to most of the questions that I encounter as a result.

Repairing Internet Explorer0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on May 2nd, 2008

As much as I would rather not use it, there are times in which you have to use Internet Explorer.

Whether it’s running updates or pulling up those IE only websites, it’s notorious for hanging and hourglassing.

If it starts to hang or you see artifacts on the screen, it’s time to do something about it.

First try uninstalling add-ons and extras. I have seen several toolbars and some IM clients and extras wreak havoc on IE.

It may be that simple. I worked on a machine yesterday that refused to ‘behave.’

I found several add-on and some extras in Control Panel. Being suspicious of those, I uninstalled them, then rebooted.

Internet Explorer began to work like it was designed.

What if it is just too ‘hosed’?

You can go to the command prompt (Start, Run, cmd, enter) and run the following command:

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %windir%\Inf\ie.inf

It will ask you for the Windows XP installation CD, and it may take some time.

After it finishes you should have a fresh copy of Internet Explorer 6.
You may have to run updates for security at this point.

You can also install Internet Explorer 7, and sometimes that will repair problems with Internet Explorer 6.

My preference between the two is IE 6. In my opinion, IE 7 has several annoyances that attempt to address security flaws in IE 6.

It’s a matter of preference.

To avoid problems in the future, be cautious and avoid free add-ons and extras for Internet Explorer.

If you want to use extras and add-ons, Mozilla Firefox has a robust community with a vast number of plugins.

Approaching Your Tech Support0
Joe M posted in Home Support, Howto on May 1st, 2008

A few days ago I made a post on providing support. What if you are the one asking for support?

At some point, everyone has questions or needs to ask for help.

What is the best way to ask for help?

My experience has taught me:

1. Define your problem. Take the time to research the problem you are having as much as possible before approaching someone else about it. Go on a mission of discovery. Try everything that you can think of so you know what works and what doesn’t. If you have done the footwork, the person you ask for help may know the answer without having to diagnose or look up your problem.

2. Be descriptive and detailed. Instead of “It doesn’t work” or “it gives me an error message,” write down which buttons you clicked on, what all you were running when you got the error message. Sometimes the application you get an error in is not the culprit. Details and exact decriptions help the person helping you.

3. Write down as many details as possible, to share with the person you approach for help. Write down any error messages you receive and what you are doing when you encounter each one. Write down the error message, word for word, character for character. Each character and each word mean something to the person diagnosing your problem.

4. Make screen shots or screen prints. A picture is worth a thousand words. If you are paying for your help, it can mean a shortened service call and a faster solution, if the tech does not have to do that part of the research for you. It can mean less money for the call. Maybe, a picture = 1000 words + $ you save.

5. When you approach someone about the problem, word the problem in the form of a question. Forget about how mad you are. Forget about how frustrated you are. Nothing will scream, “You don’t want to help me” more than acting fed-up or demanding.

6. Talk to one person at a time. Nothing will confuse you more or frustrate the person helping you if you are juggling questions between two or three different tech sources. Don’t go down the line asking questions. If the techs all work on the same team, and they talk, they may get the impression that you have someone else helping you, and you no longer need their help.

7. Be polite. If you play your cards right, you can tickle the challenging part of that person’s character to solve a problem. They look at it like a puzzle.

8. Follow up with the person. Let them know about the solution working, or if you found another one. Be careful not to sound like you are griping if you don’t find the solution with their help. You want to be able to approach them again if you need them. If you get good results on a help line, ask to speak to the supervisor of that person and give positive feedback. Overall, positive feedback positively reinforces good behavior.

You will find that if you practice the above steps, you will not only gain an understanding of your problems, but the answers will gradually begin to mysteriously reveal themselves to you.

People providing support learn the same way as everyone else. They gain experience in running applications and Operating Systems and learn from there.

Most of the tools that we use are available to everyone. The answer may be as simple as running a search on the specific wording of the error message in Google.