Another Tech Blog

Another in a series of “Questions I Get Asked”.

This one is from my wife – she is an avid user of Google Calendar and Gmail, and loves Gmails use of labels and the ability to color labels any way you like.  She was quite surprised to learn that you can NOT color calendar appointments in Google Calendar in the same way.  That is, you can not pick a different color for each appointment in the same calendar.  I thought this was odd, then found out that not only was she correct, but also that this is probably one of the most frequently reported bugs/feature requests for Google Calendar.

So what to do?  Turns out there is a way around this, and although I think I’d prefer the ability to directly choose a color, this works pretty well.

In short, you need to create multiple calendars in Google Calendar , assign colors to them, then tag appointments to the color you want.  Sound complicated?  It’s not, and it works well.  Here’s what you do.

First, create a second calendar:

1. At the bottom of the ‘My calendars’ section on the left, click the Create link.
2. Enter the required information – name the calendar the color you want to star with, say Blue, for example.
3. Click Create Calendar.
4. Next, assign a color to your new calendar by clicking on the down arrow next to the calendar name and pick the color you want.  

Now you have two calendars, your primary and another called “Blue”

Now add an appointment (click anywhere on the day you are working on, or click Create Event).  On the details pop-up, simply choose the Blue calendar from the Calendar Drop down list, enter the event details and click Create Event.

 That’s it – you’ve just created and event and given it the color you want! 

You can add as many calendars/colors as you want.  Once an event is created, you can change the calendar (and its color) by clicking on the event, then choosing Edit Event Details, then changing the Calendar to any of your existing calendar/color combinations.

 Easy enough, right?  I like that you can add lots of colors or event groupings and move things around easily.  For more poeple, I think there are just a few categories events will fall into, so creating a seperate calendar for each is a very easy way to manage your buckets.

So, LED traffics lights are great, right? Low power consumption, high visibility, low maintenance.

Turns out they don’t produce enought heat to melt snow though, so in cold climates they are dangerous to the point of causing fatal accidents.  Incandesent lights generate heat that melts the snow that covers them.  OOOPS!!!  Major dope slap.

Full article from Engadget here.

Engadget posted pics of the Nexus One. I’m really excited by the slew of Android phones out now, enough that it is making me rethink my iPhone 3GS. Oh, there is that nagging two year contract I just purchased, but good tech trumps cost, right? Well, no, not in this economy, but I digress.

Here’s a link to the article, the phone looks great!

If you are fighting a virus/malware on your computer, it is best to boot in safe mode before you start removing things and running scans.  If you don’t, it is likely that the malware will likely just re-install itself.  I’m not going to go into a whole tutorial on virus fighting (maybe in a future post) but the basics are as follows:

1) As soon as you notice you are infected, unplug your internet connection or turn off your wireless.  This will prevent the infection from spreading, and will isolate the offending program from its source.

2) Boot into Safe Mode

3) Run your favorite antivirus/anti-malware program.

This post is really about Safe Mode – how do you get there?  There are a couple of ways depending on the operating system you are using.  Here’s the Microsoft Page on the topic.

Windows XP

If XP is the only operating system installed on your computer, boot into Safe Mode with these instructions.

• If the computer is running, shut down Windows, and then turn off the power
• Wait 30 seconds, and then turn the computer on.
• Start tapping the F8 key. The Windows Advanced Options Menu appears. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a “keyboard error” message.  If this happens, resstart the computer and try again.
• Ensure that the Safe mode option is selected.  If you are trying to clean a machine that is virus laden, choose Safe Mode Without Networking.
• Press Enter. The computer then begins to start in Safe mode.
• When you are finished with all troubleshooting, close all programs and restart the computer as you normally would.

If you don’t want to bother with function keys, you can use the System Configuration Utility method.

• Close all open programs.
• Click Start, Run and type MSCONFIG in the box and click OK
• The System Configuration Utility appears, On the BOOT.INI tab, Check the “/SAFEBOOT” option, and then click OK and Restart your computer when prompted.
• The computer restarts in Safe mode.
• Perform the troubleshooting steps for which you are using Safe Mode.
• When you are finished with troubleshooting in Safe mode, open MSCONFIG again, on the BOOT.INI tab,  uncheck “/SAFEBOOT” and click OK to restart your computer.  THIS STEP IS CRITICAL.  If you don’t change this back, then the computer will continue to boot in Safe Mode until you do.

Windows 7

Safe Mode in Windows 7 is basically the same as XP – use F8 to get to the Safe Mode startup screen.  MSCONFIG is slightly different – Safe Mode is called Safe Boot, but otherwise the process is the same.