Windows 7: 90 Million people can't be wrong

Lifehacker.com reports there are over 90 million copies of Windows 7 sold, and happily running on computers worldwide. It is the first product upgrade to be such a success, and as I've written here before, it can improve your productivity in many ways.

Many former add-ons were clumsy to use or available only for purchase from other vendors. But Microsoft has bundled so much cool stuff into Windows 7, you won't need to look anywhere else. If your computer has plenty of disk space and at least 2 GB of memory, you might want to upgrade. Otherwise, you can get a Windows 7 computer for under $500.

Helen Gallagher

Video Email ???

Oh, you knew this was coming... We know that email is one of the most used computer applications todoay, and we know typing text won't satify the multi-media nerds.

We know the feeling when we don't have time to wade through the Inbox, we keep reading email over and over, not having time to decide where to put it, whether to keep it, how to find it later, and afraid to just press "delete" to get back to an empty Inbox.

So, this innovation from Google is not likely to make things better -- A move toward convergence of all web junk into your Inbox??? Google says this new Buzz is "a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz is built right into Gmail."



Learn more here.
So tell me... Do you love it? or ... Hate it?

When Oprah says "don't text and drive" will people listen?

According to the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis, cell phone use contributes to 6 percent of all crashes, which equates to 636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries, and 2600 deaths each year.

Oprah Winfrey just announced her “Hang Up and Drive Campaign” to educate consumers on distracted driving (i.e. texting, phone calls etc.) On her show today (Monday, January 18, 2010) she had guests on who have lost loved ones to distracted-driving crashes. Furthermore, a law was passed on January 1, 2010 that banned texting while driving in the state of Illinois (a law that has been in act since October 2008 in Chicago.)

So, texting and cell phone talking and electronic distraction while driving is illegal in Illinois... for good reason.

Something of value on YouTube??? It's possible,

I'm not a big fan of YouTube, even if there is good content out there, or very funny content with laughing babies or juggling hippos. Too much consumer-generated content, too slow to wait for video and too much time wasted.

But, reading Hemispheres on United Airlines last week, I learned there is something out in that vast wasteland. YouTube Edu -- here you can listen to and watch lectures and presentations from the academic world... online & free. Just launched in 2009, it contains lectures and coursework from over 100 universities. An interview in The Wall Street Journal states the content just from the Univ. Minnesota contains 200 lecture-based courses in literature, history, law, engineering and other subjects.

I know what I'm watching tonight...

Social Media Handbook: New book out in January 2010

If you're wondering what to make of all the cross-traffic on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter... wonder no more. I've put together a small book called Social Media Handbook, and will announce its availability here next month.

While most of the social media sites are temporary blips on the radar, more companies are using them to reach the friends of the friends of their friends, and the impact on society is undeniable.

I myself am a Twitter quitter, but participate in Facebook and LinkedIn, just enough to say I'm out there.

But this kind of stuff... just not worth any energy:

Connect with Twitter?

"Would you like to connect TweetMeme and Twitter together to be able to easily and quickly tweet your links? You will be able to edit your tweets before they are tweeted."

Hmmm. I think I'll just say 'no.'

Favorite new toy: Windows 7 under the tree

If you're wishing for a new computer, I hope you find a Windows 7 PC or laptop under your tree. If you have a Windows XP computer with enough power, memory and disk space, you can get by with a shiny new Windows 7 DVD and install it over Windows XP.

It's not quite as easy as opening a box with a fully configured Windows 7 set up on a hot new computer, so here's a link to some resources to help you if you choose to upgrade over Windows XP.

The Windows 7 Easy Transfer process will copy all your data files to the new computer (cross-over cable required)


Microsoft installation guide for each version

TechFlash guide to loading Windows 7 over XP

Holiday Gift Idea #1

If you have a techie on your holiday gift list, perhaps he/she is too smart to need Computer Ease, but here's a great gift idea...

For the techie who has everything and no pockets to carry it all....


Acccording to the Scottevest.com web site, this jacket has:
# Patented Personal Area Network (PAN)
# Interior cell phone pocket (connects to PAN)
# Interior iPhone/iPod/iTouch pocket (connects to PAN)
# Travel documents pocket
# PubPocket - typically large enough to hold a magazine, eBook reader or small netbook
# Camera pocket and ID/business cards pocket
# Eyeglass pocket, including chamois with versatile clip
# Magnetic pocket closures

it even has "Clear Touch fabric, allowing a traveler to see and control their iPod and cell phones through the fabric." Quite possibly the coolest way to stay warm this winter!

Helen Gallagher

Reverse Ingenuity

Here's a twist: Converting a PDF back to Word. Most people ask me for help increating a PDF but we used to need the full version of Adobe to make a .pdf editable.

This is the answer - and it's a free download from www.pdftoword.com

Windows 7 features continue to impress

Besides the fresh new look and fast performance of computers running Windows 7, here are a few more impressive reasons to move up or to add a Windows 7 computer to your life.

Easily partition the large hard drive into two. Why? With Windows on C: and your data all on D: if there is a system crash and you need to reload Windows, it won't disturb your data.

Use Windows Easy Transfer software to copy from old to new. (Cable required). TIP: Clean out all your temp files before copying.

Windows has a Backup utility.

If you have more than one Windows 7 computer at home, you can use a wi-fi signal to share files.

What's missing? So far -- Outlook and Outlook Express. Outlook Express is gone forever, in favor of Windows Live, which encompasses mail and calendar programs. Outlook is still available in certain versions of Office 2003 and 2007.

Browser wars are over!

Netscape always reigned supreme in comparison to the dreadful Microsoft browser Internet Explorer.

When Netscape was devoured and killed by AOL, the Netscape development team at Mozilla created SeaMonkey. Then Firefox from the same team, made browsing a dream, but lacked the integrated email that Netscape and SeaMonkey had. So that required using Thunderbird, a separate email program.

NOW - Seamonkey 2.0 is .. get this: A combination of Firefox and Thunderbird.
Are you dizzy yet?

AND the combo now includes the badly needed online, integrated calendar, so Lightning was embedded in Thunderbird.

So my personal experiences with the new Windows 7 operating system will immediately include launching SeaMonkey 2.0 to give me all three in one program:

A New, New Computer

Today is the launch day for Windows 7, the first new PC operating system in about seven years. I was one of the few to buy a new computer today. You know I did it for you -- so I can work with the new system and hep you with yours.

Windows 7 is available as a DVD to upgrade your Vista operating system. Prices for the DVD start at $119. And, I got a 15" laptop with Windows 7 for only $299. So you can see why it was such a good deal.

I'll report back soon on what hardware and software problems crop up, and explore some of the beneficial features. I'm hoping there are at least a few improvements in file management and intuitive interfaces. But for speed and performance... it rocks!

New Tech Gifts for the Holidays

Just when you think there's nothing new in computers, along comes Quirky. Here are just a few of their clever product innovations on the market or coming soon.

Now this is what I call a useful error message

Okay, I admit I've been working lots of overtime the past few weeks, and not taking much time for the lighter side of life. But then I got this error message today, and finally had a good laugh:

Anti-big-burger Day

World Anti-McDonalds Day is October 16, 2009

World Anti-McDonalds Day is a global day of action against McDonalds, including protests against promotion of junk food, unethical targeting of children, exploitation of workers, animal cruelty, damage to the environment & the global domination of corporations, mass distribution of leaflets by local activists around the world. Coincides with U.N. World Food Day

Visit : www.mcspotlight.org. Contact : info@mwr.org.uk

While this a U.K. based organization, let me know if you're aware of a U.S. counterpart.

The Internet is suddenly middle-aged

The Internet, as we know it, turned 40 - the big 4-0 this week.
Boing Boing celebrates the news and has an interesting video link... something the boys in the lab couldn't have imagined in 1969.

"Forty years ago today, in Leonard Kleinrock's UCLA lab, a group of computer scientists managed to pass bits of data from one computer to another over some some gray cable. In doing so, they created the first node of what we now call (long dramatic pause)... the Internet.

Kleinrock and colleagues were working with the government-backed Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), without which I would not be blogging these words today.

Now, some folks believe the actual "birthday" was October 29, 1969 - when Kleinrock sent the first message between two nodes, UCLA to Stanford. The message? "LO." As in "LO AND BEHOLD, THE INTERNET." Well, okay, not really. It was supposed to be "LOGIN" but the system crashed after Kleinrock typed "L" and "O."

See the video here.

Move away from AOL to GMail

Free at last - - -
"Extracting your digital life from your old e-mail account has gotten a lot easier. In the spring, Google introduced a feature — made possible by the TrueSwitch e-mail switching service — that lets you import your address book and old messages from several other mail services into a new Gmail account.

First, sign up for a Gmail account (gmail.com) if you haven’t done so. Once you have created an account and have your new mailbox on screen, click the Settings link at the top of the Gmail window."
read the full post at David Pogue's Personal Tech column here.

Long before Email, there was Enigma

The Enigma is one of the world’s best known cipher machine, and today I had the opportunity to type one that’s 64 years old.

Designed to encrypt messages during wartime, the Enigma used a plugboard with cables and involved pressing keys with an incredible number of possible key settings and machine configurations.

It also had three rotors which wired 26 input contact points to 26 output contact points on alternate faces of a disc and 26 serrations around the edge of the rotors to denote the initial rotation of the rotors.

With 26 dual-holed sockets on the front panel of Enigma, and the plugboard cable to make a connection between any pair of letters, cryptographers had the ability to create codes once thought impossible to break. The astonishing number of possible configurations led to the machine’s success in WWII battle strategies.

The unit in these photos was on display at the Joint Statistical Marketing Conference in Washington D.C., on loan from the National Security Agency.

Don't be fooled once...

Most of my clients know not to click on a link in an email, even if it is from a Nigerian princess offering $12 million, if you'll give her your bank account number.

Use this trick to avoid being fooled by scams: Look at where the link points, such as the "Click Here" link in this message. If you rest your mouse on the link, and look in the lower left corner of your screen, you'll see the actual address where the link points. Look what this example shows... (Note: It is safe for you to click on this image, to enlarge and read it full size.)




I don't know the official address of the Canadian tax authorities, but I'm certain it is not igotmyloverback.com !!

BING: Microsoft's search engine

Okay, so they are still a few years behind their competitors but Microsoft has crawled to the finish line with an attractive search tool. Their intent is to kill Google, no doubt, but mostly it will move use away from Yahoo, Clusty, and the minor search engines some of you have been using for ten years.

Bing is sharp looking, and the search results are intelligent. My favorite feature is the photo background. Maybe I'll get tired of it, but for now, it gets me every time.

Here are a few highlights from David Pogue's full review on the New York Times site. I'll give you just enough to make you start typing www.bing.com (or just 'bing' in Firefox) next time you think of using Google. Then go read David's full article, and become a convert:

"For example, if you search for a celebrity’s name, that space offers an attractive table of common-sense links: News, Movies, Quotes, Biography and Images. When you search for a sports team, you see Schedule, Tickets, Stadium, History and Wallpaper. When you search for a medical condition, that table offers Causes, Remedies, Treatment, Prognosis and News.

Both Bing and Google offer an Image Search page, where you can find photos from the Web of anyone or anything. On Bing, however, the results page scrolls forever — you don’t have to keep clicking Next, Next, Next.

As on Google, you can search for videos. But on Bing, you can preview the results far more efficiently. Just point to a thumbnail (without clicking) in the search results, and the video begins to play back sample segments, seven seconds at a time, right there on the thumbnail."

Read David Pogue's full and balanced review here

The millionth word in the dictionary is....

CNN reports today:

"English contains more words than any other language on the planet and added its millionth word early Wednesday, according to the Global Language Monitor, a Web site that uses a math formula to estimate how often words are created.

The Global Language Monitor says the millionth word was added to English on Wednesday.

The site estimates the millionth English word, "Web 2.0" was added to the language Wednesday at 5:22 a.m. ET. The term refers to the second, more social generation of the Internet."

If you're stumped, you can download my ebook "The Mysterious World of Web 2.o here"