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Organize Feature in Outlook 2010 – Where Did it Go?

Posted by Andy on September 15, 2010
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This is one of my favorite features of Outlook 2003/2007.  Using it, you are able to change the way messages from certain people are displayed in your inbox.  For example, mails from my boss can be in bold, red, and a totally different font and size from the rest of the text in the inbox.  This is immeasurably helpful making important mails stand out from the crowd.

Much to my chagrin, the familiar organize button is missing from Outlook 2010.  I was concerned, but didn’t panic, since I was sure that Microsft just hid the feature somewhere else – I was right, they combined some features and put it in what I think is a better place, albeit harder to locate.

This what it used to look like:

In Outlook 2010 the Organize functions are grouped with what Micrsoft calls Advanced Settings and are found under the Condictional Formatting button.  To get there, go to the View tab, choose View Settings, then Conditional Formatting.

This brings up the conditional formatting window.  And yes, I have 4300 unread mails, but close to half are mails that go right to trash, so get off my back.

From here, just click on Add to create a new formating rule and give it a name.  Click on the Font button to change the font, color, size etc.

Once that’s done, click on the Condition button.  Here you can set the conditions incoming mails must meet to have the color/font rule applied.  For example, if you want all mails from john@doe.com to have the fint settings you made above applied, put John’s email address in the From entry bar. 

Click OK three times to get out of all of the windows and you are done.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.  You can experiment with the serch features and other items in the conditional rule settings – there is alot you can do.  For the most part I just use the color/font combinations by sender, and occasionally I’ll add an alert window for those mails I want to hit me in the face.

Happy formatting!

Computer Jargon Explained

Posted by Andy on September 14, 2010
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I’m a Technology Geek – I admit it

It’s true.  And as a Geek, I am immersed in jargon.  Tons of technical words, abbreviations, acronyms, short hand and nicknames.  Unfortunately, it’s a world full of WENUS’s.  When explaining technical concepts or processes it is easy to slip into jargon that not only non-technical people find difficult to follow, but also techies themselves find baffling.  Often I have to force myself to stop mid explanation, regroup and continue without the acronyms and techie-speak so that the person I’m speaking with comes back from the glassy-eyed stare that clearly shows I’ve lost them.

So, below is a list of items that, although very basic, may help you when faced with techno-speak.  There are thousands of words to explain, so here are a very few.  Thanks to these guys for the inspiration.

Internet, World Wide Web

We all know it was invented by Al Gore, right?  Well, no.  Here’s a history of the origin of the Internet.  The Wiki on this topic isn’t bad either.  The Internet is the network of computers we’re all familiar with. It’s quite common for the terms “Internet” and “World Wide Web” to be used interchangeably, but these aren’t actually the same thing. The Internet is essentially the wiring that allows computers all over the world to communicate. The World Wide Web is a system that operates via this wiring. Web pages are transmitted via Internet connections but there is more to the Internet than just the web. Many other types of data travel across the Internet too, for example email.

Bandwidth, Broadband

Bandwidth is an indication of how quickly data travels along a connection. The greater the bandwidth, the faster data will be sent and received. Broadband is a rather vague term that refers to bandwidth somewhere above that of an old dial-up modem, although there is no precise definition of the term. Broadband connections are generally “always on”, unlike modem connections. There are various technologies which provide “broadband” speeds – such as ADSL, cable, satellite etc.

Have you ever heard of a T1?  Broadband speeds are measured in Megabits Per Second (MPS) – see the section on bits and bytes below for more information on the definition of a megabit.  Once you get beyond cable modems and ADSL, the next step up in broadband speed is a T1 which is about 1.5 MPS.  T1’s can be “bound” together in groups to provide more bandwidth.  Each of these has its own acronym too, T3, DS3, OC3 etc, each being more costly as the speeds go up.

Memory, Disk Space

Another very common source of confusion. In computing, “memory” generally refers to the temporary storage used by a computer whilst it is switched on. A computer loads programs and data into its memory in order to carry out tasks. This is more accurately called RAM or “random-access memory”. Disk space (or “hard disk space”), on the other hand, is a more permanent store that holds files even when the computer is switched off. It’s from here that the computer loads things into its memory. Strictly speaking you don’t store things in the computer’s memory as that vanishes when you turn the machine off.

Memory is generally measured in Megabytes, while disk space is generally measured in Gigabytes.  You may hear memory referred to as a “500 Meg Chip” or a 500 Meg DIMM for example.  Memory, unlike most hard drives, is made up of silicon chips put together to form an integrated circuit.  A DIMM is a specific kind of circuit – a Dual In line Memory Module.

 

Hard drives historically are made up of round, very thin magnetic platters that spin at high speed  and are read by small electronic “heads’.  The disk and spindle act very much like an old school vinyl music record.  The disk spins, the head reads the data and sends it to the guts of your computer. 

 

More and more, however, hard disks are moving toward “Flash Disk’ technologies.  These are storage chips (like memory chips) that are very small but can contain a lot of data.  Most smart phones use these storage mediums as do iPods, iPads etc.  Until very recently Flash storage was too expensive and drive sizes not large enough for realistic use inside a computer.  This is rapidly changing, and the days of the palette and spindle hard drive are numbered.

Virus, Spyware, Trojan, Worm, Malware

These terms are often confused, although they have distinct meanings.

A virus is a piece of software that can copy itself and which attaches itself to some other program in order to survive and replicate. It may have some malicious intent or it may exist simply to reproduce. A worm is similar but it can exist independently; it doesn’t need to attach to a separate program. A Trojan – or Trojan Horse – is a piece of software that gains access to a computer by pretending to be benign or by hiding within some innocent-looking application. The name is obviously derived from the wooden horse employed by the Greek army during the Trojan Wars. Spyware is software that secretly monitors computer activity, attempting to gain private information without the computer user knowing.

By and large, all of the above will have some malicious intent – to harm data, spy on computer activity and so forth. Malware is a general term for all such programs – it simply means any software, of whatever sort, written with a malicious intent. Viruses are generally malware but there is more to malware than just viruses.

Bits, Bytes

At a basic level, all computer data is just a series of 0s and 1s. Each of these is referred to as a “binary digit”, for which “bit” is just an abbreviation. A byte is (generally) a collection of eight bits, so called because of the pun with bit and bite. Similarly a collection of four bits – half a byte – is sometimes called a “nybble”.

In order to refer to large numbers of bits and bytes, various prefixes are used, as in :

1 kilobyte = 1024 (or 1000) bytes
1 megabayte = 1024 (or 1000) kilobytes
1 gigabyte = 1024 (or 1000) megabytes
1 terabyte = 1024 (or 1000) gigabytes
1 petabyte = 1024 (or 1000) terabytes

Reboot

To switch a computer off and on again, allowing its operating system and programs to be reloaded. Note that this is not the same as placing a computer into standby/hibernate and then resuming. A reboot requires that all software is completely reloaded.

The term derives from “bootstrap”, as in the phrase “to pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”, because of the similarity to that seemingly impossible act (as a computer can’t run without first loading some software but must be running before any software can be loaded).

Cookie

A small text file sent to your computer by a web site you have visited. These can be very useful in that they can allow the web site to recognize who you are when you return. Cookies cannot store viruses or other threats, although they can be used to track your activity across different web sites in order to provide, for example, “targeted” advertisements.

Firewall

A firewall is a piece of computer software or hardware that restricts the data that is allowed to flow through. Firewalls block traffic that is undesirable in some way, the intention being to prevent infection by malware and so on without restricting the user from carrying out legitimate activity.

Spam

Unsolicited email messages sent out in bulk and generally commercial in nature. In fact the term is used more widely these days to refer to such messages in a variety of places, not just on email – for example comments on blogs.

The origin of this sense of the word spam is unclear.

CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA checks are the strings of letters and numbers that have to be typed in on some web pages before something can be saved. They exist because, although humans find interpreting these strings relatively easy, computers do not. Setting up these checks therefore blocks an automated process – such as one generating spam – from using the page, whereas a human is still able to.

The acronym CAPTCHA actually stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart” – a rather contrived way of arriving at an acronym that sounds like the word “capture”.

 

First Tweet from Space!

Posted by Andy on January 24, 2010
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“Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s”

T.J. Creamer

On Friday, NASA upgraded software on the ISS that allowed astronauts direct personal access to the web.  How cool is that?  Previously, any tweets had to be emailed down to earth, then posted to twitter by someone on the ground.  NASA is calling this the “ultimate wireless connection”.

Star Wars Adidas Gear – how cool is this?

Posted by Andy on January 21, 2010
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Adidas has teamed up with the Star Wars folks to produce a line of sneakers and clothing based on the Star Wars movies.  I want the storm trooper shoes!!!

http://www.starwars.com/vault/collecting/news20091208/

Windows 7 RELEASED – Why you should upgrade

Posted by Andy on October 25, 2009
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I’m very happy with Windows 7 these days.  I still have a couple of XP systems in the house, but they will be upgraded soon.  XP is a fine operating system, but it is just outdated at this point, and the advantages of Windows 7 are compelling.

First, a couple of cautions.

1) Moving from XP to Windows 7 is not an upgrade, it is a migration.  That means that when you install Windows 7, and data on the machine will be wiped out.  Microsoft provides a migration utility, Windows Easy Transfer for this, but you may be better off transferring your files yourself.  Also remember that all applications will have to be re-installed and re-configured.  This couple be a royal pain if you’ve never done it before.  Please be careful here, and if you need assistance or have questions on how to get help with something like this, drop me a note or leave a comment.

Note that if you are a Vista user, then you can just upgrade and all of your data and applications will remain intact.  I would still back everything up to be sure that nothing is lost, but the upgrade path is pretty quick and easy from Vista to Windows 7.

How do you know if your machine can handle the upgrade?  A simple rule of thumb is that if your machine is 5 or more years old, stay with the operating system you have unless you are sure the machine can handle it.  Microsoft also provides an “upgrade advisor” here that will tell you if your machine meets the specs for Win 7.  At the end of the day, it’s a judgement call.  If you are at all unsure, don’t do it, stay with what you have.  The last thing you want to do is to migrate then find out your machine runs like paste. 

Oh, and here is the Windows Upgrase and Migration page

So here are my reasons for upgrading.

1) Faster boot time, faster recovery from sleeping.  If this were the only advantage, I think I’d do it just for this.  The difference in boot times from XP to 7 is just staggering.  I havent’ put a stop watch to it, but I feel like 7 is probably faster to boot by a least 2 minutes.  I will time it and post resuts.

2) Better UI – so many things about the UI that I really like.  Hot keys to maximize and dock windows, more intuitve ways to get to applications, hovering over application icons brings up icons of open instances, all of the Aero stuff.

3) Gadgets – Sidebar applications that are really useful – I have a stock ticker, XM radio app, System meter, calendar and clock.  All right there, easy to use.

4) Very fast install time – 15 minutes start to finish.  Try that with XP!

5) Upgraded standard apps like calculater, paint, wordpad, etc.  Not a huge bonus, but nice improvements.

6) Virtual XP mode – you can run older XP applications in a virtual XP environment, side by side with Windows 7 applications.

7) Revamped task and start menus.  Pin to task/start menu, jump lists, etc.  Very useful features.

8) Improvmentets to User Access Control (UAC).  I had this disabled completely in Vista, not so now.  Way less intrusive, and actually helpful.

9) Device Stage has pretty pictures ;)  Management of your devices is much improved, goofy pictures aside. 

10)  Managing WiFi connections is much easier. h

AT&T gives on VoIP over their network

Posted by Andy on October 06, 2009
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Very good news for iPhone users, regardless of AT&T’s motives.  Now you can make VoIP calls (via Skype or whatever client you like) not only over Wi-Fi, but also over AT&T’s network.  I’m sure you’ll get charged for mintues,but you won’t have to deal with their nonsense for international calls.

Interestingly, no more news on Google Voice being approved, but given this news, I expect that to happen soon.  As has been noted, cell phones are not just cell phones anymore, and I’m glad to see the monoliths responding.

Tech for the rest of us

Posted by Andy on February 10, 2009
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Hey there, welcome to me.  I’ve tried to blog before with limited success, but as the old adage goes, if you don’t succeed, try, try again.

This will be yet another tech blog, with some other stuff that I’m interested in throw in for good measure.  I know, another tech blog?  You can’t be serious.  I am.  I don’t expect to become the next tech advice sensation, but I do hope to impart some of my knowledge and experience and highlight some of the tech I find cool.

Feel free to comment, I don’t consider myself an expert on everything, and I want to know when I’m wrong or misinformed!