Hooray For Jon Leibowitz

FTC to ban most telemarketing ‘robocalls’ Sept. 1

“American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year.” (Robocall = recorded telephone spam)

This is amazing and impressive to me on a couple of different levels. For one, Mr. Leibowitz is a bureaucrat (not just any bureaucrat, he’s in charge of the FTC). It seems to this lil’ ole country boy that for the last several decades, a prerequisite for being in Government is that your only concern for your constituents is obtaining more of their money, and eroding their civil liberties as much as possible. Mr. Leibowitz sure seems to defy that.

If you read my recent article, Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You, you know that I didn’t come right out and call telemarketers bottom feeders and scum, but I think I made my feelings pretty clear. I absolutely, totally, completely support the ‘curtailing of free enterprise’ if it means that “Daisy” from the “carpet cleaners” will stop calling my business number several times a week.

Sadly, this new law will not terminate-with-extreme-prejudice the perpetrators of spam phone calls, but it will clearly define their activities as illegal and impose a $16,000 fine — per call. (With this formula, the “carpet cleaners” folks would be dinged $1.6 million just for their calls to me! Ha!)

In a nutshell, the ban stops spam calls unless the telemarketer has written permission from a customer that he or she wants to receive these calls. What kind of loon would willingly do that? If you want the full skinny, here’s the link, Federal Trade Commission rules. To read the Associated Press news story, click here.

I hope that there will be the action and enforcement promised, Mr. Leibowitz. I, for one, support you.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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How To Copy Your Bookmarks

Internet “bookmarks” (called “Favorites” in Internet Explorer) make it easy for you to return to a particular Web page. And if you’re like me, you have collected a few, and maybe even come to rely on them. It is much, much easier to pick a name from a list than it is to remember and type in a Website’s address!

Loyal readers of this site know that I am a huge fan of making backups of your digital stuff. Making a copy before you need it, and keeping it off to the side, makes bouncing back from “glitches” so much easier. And it prevents the anguish and frustration of “data loss”. Backups are “good” and you want them.

Tip of the day: Today’s tip is a quick and simple action that “exports” a copy of your Internet “Favorites” (aka “bookmarks”) from Internet Explorer. You can then “import” the copy (copy back) at a later date, or transfer them into IE on a different machine. In short, it makes a copy of your list, and saves it as a file.

1) Internet Explorer calls Website bookmarks “Favorites” and you access your list by clicking the gold star icon (upper left), and you add websites to your list by clicking on the icon right next to it — the gold star overlaid with the green + sign.
That is also the icon that manages your Favorites, so click that.

2) click on “Import and Export”.

3) Now a “wizard” will open and tell us how helpful it can be to us. Click “Next” to get to the actually helpful page.

4) Click on “Export Favorites”, and then click “Next” all the way through the wizard. Now you will have a file called “bookmark.htm” in your Documents folder — that is your backup copy.
[note: you can “browse” to a different Save location if you prefer.]

That’s it. You’re done. Now you can repeat this process but choose “Import” to copy it back into IE if you ever need to.. or transfer it to another machine’s Internet Explorer.

For more of my Internet Explorer tips, see Quick Tips for Internet Explorer.

Today’s free link: Firefox users interested in this type of ability will be interested to know that the process is almost identical to the steps above.. or they may be interested in a more comprehensive tool, The easy way to backup your Firefox profiles…

Today’s free download(s):
Today’s first free download is for Mozilla users and is contained in the link directly above.
For a truly comprehensive backup tool, see Backup, Backup, Backup With Free DriveImage XML

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Laptops And "Docking Stations"

Docking stations (aka “port replicators”) provides a simplified way of “plugging-in” a portable computer to common computer peripherals — such as a monitor and full-size keyboard. The use of a docking station quickly enables a laptop computer to become a substitute for a desktop computer, without sacrificing the mobile computing functionality of the machine – just lift, and go.

Most full-size laptops today come with enough ports so that you don’t really need these things, but if you are buying a very small, ultra-portable laptop, you may want to consider such devices. The main advantage is, if you have a desk at the office or your home office with a second monitor, one of these “docks” will be handy as you can connect your desk keyboard, mouse, monitor, power and speakers to the docking station, and then can just pop the laptop in and out as needed instead of hooking up a bunch of connections each time you ‘go mobile’ and each time you get home again.

Some of these “docks” also have “coolers” built in, which quite often is a real boon. Heat is a killer in the digital hardware world, and some laptops run quite hot. If your laptop gets hot to the touch, you may very well want to get a cooler, and if you can get a cooler with all the ports on the back, why not? For more on the different kinds of “docks”, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_station

Today’s free links: Folks, there are two articles today that I think are “must reads” if you surf the Internet.
* Want to be a Successful Cyber Crook – Here’s a Tip!
* Paranoia on the Internet Pays Off

Today’s free download: ZoneAlarm 8
An effective and easy-to-use firewall program, ZoneAlarm does a great job of keeping your PC safe from a variety of threats. ZoneAlarm uses a simple wizard to make configuring a firewall, which seems like a daunting task to many computer users, incredibly easy.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You

Folks, today I’m going to share with a secret, recurring fantasy I have. I am aware that this is a risky thing to do, and some of you may think me nuts when I’m done.. But, here goes:

In my fantasy, I’m endowed with a magic arm. With my ‘magic’ arm, I can reach through the phone.

It works like this: I just shove my hand in the receiver end of my phone, and it will pop out the speaker of my caller’s phone. Like in a cartoon. I have this fantasy every time a telemarketer calls.

I will leave it up to your imagination what my hand does to the telemarketer (or machine that plays the “pre-recorded announcement”) at the other end of the line.. but I will give you a hint: they never use the phone to ‘pitch’ another living soul ever again.

Since I do not have a ‘magic arm’ nor cartoon-like superpowers, I registered my phone number(s) on the National Do Not Call List.

By doing so, supposedly, telemarketers would be barred from calling me, and if they broke the Law, I could simply report them and they would be prosecuted (probably just fined. I know you were thinking Public Flogging, or worse). More information on what the service, and law, does and does not do, is available here.

Wonderfully, the suppers interrupted by real live salespeople has been greatly reduced. Regrettably, I had to use the word “supposedly”, because I still rather regularly get spam (recorded) phone calls – at least one a week from “Daisy” at some carpet cleaners, some “urgent” call about my credit card (in both a male and female voice), and one that tells me my car’s warranty is about to expire. Magazines want to “verify” my “information”.

Fortunately, I have only experienced “annoyance” calls, and no really dangerous con artists are going after me or my getting-up-in-years parents (I registered their numbers as well).
I cannot – with certainty- say if this is directly attributable to the No Call List. But, I can’t say it isn’t, either.

Tip of the day: If you have not already done so, click the link (above) and get your (and maybe, your loved one’s) phone number(s) on the list. It is an easy two-step process.
1) Enter up to three numbers on the form, and provide a valid e-mail address. (If you have more than 3, revisit the page.)
2) Copy the URL link in the e-mail you receive from Register@DoNotCall.gov, and paste it into your browser’s address bar.

That completes the registration process. You will have to wait for the legalities to cover you, so don’t delay. These kinds of things only work for us if we use them!

[update: A reader has provided more information: “I thought I’d mention that recorded phone calls are illegal as of December 1st 2008. Not that those “spam (recorded) phone calls” are made legally but now there is one more reason to report the calls to https://donotcall.gov/. Here is the news: http://800notes.com/articles/News.aspx/CAtiWMbEqAC4OAjLIpk_Jw (not sure if the link will work it’s http://800notes.com “FTC: Robocalls Must Now Include Terminator Option”)” — from Ex Telemarketer.]

Today’s free links: a quite excellent resource page, Do-it-yourself: Stop junk mail, email and phone calls – A free guide to reducing unwanted or intrusive advertising

Tom Mabe is a comedian who has a unique way of dealing w/telemarketers… as heard here.

* If you have a job where you are a telemarketer.. how do you live with yourself? Have you actually deluded yourself into thinking you’re “providing a service”? <sigh>

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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A New Apple

Apple will be releasing their new operating system on Friday. It is OS X version 10.6 and it’s called “Snow Leopard”. Not too surprisingly, one can find many articles regarding this event online. Galen Gruman of InfoWorld’s piece, titled The 7 best features in Mac OS X Snow Leopard is a fairly typical example of them. His words are in quotes and italicized, and mine are not.

“..here are Snow Leopard’s most immediately beneficial new features and enhancements.”

1. ActiveSync and Exchange 2007 support
“Following in the footsteps of the iPhone, Snow Leopard makes these Microsoft technologies native to the OS. That means Apple’s e-mail, calendar, and contacts apps work just peachy with Exchange 2007 server, giving users the same capabilities as Microsoft Entourage but with the better-designed, less-memory-intensive apps — Mail, iCal, and Address Book — included in OS X.”
Neither I, nor anybody I know, has an Exchange Server 2007 box set up in their home. And no, I don’t think this “enhancement” is going to make Business stop using Windows workstations and replace them all with new Apple machines. (But, I could be wrong.)

2. Exposé integration in the Dock
“The Mac OS X Dock makes it easy to access applications, open documents, and common folders, a concept Windows 7 is stealing in its retooled taskbar. Open documents are even more easily accessed in Snow Leopard, thanks to the integration of Exposé. Now when you click and hold an app icon in the Dock, you get preview windows for each of its open documents, allowing you to switch easily among them or to close them, all without having to clutter your screen with document windows. I never cared much for Exposé in its traditional role (providing hot corners and shortcuts to open application windows), but I love the Dock-integrated Exposé functionality that Snow Leopard adds.”
While nice, I don’t think a computer user will find this a compelling reason to upgrade — Microsoft or Apple user. (And please note, it is he who makes theft accusations.)

3. Automatic location detection
“When you travel, it’s easy to get mixed up as to when your appointments are, since your computer is still in your “home” time zone, and you have to mentally calculate the current time when looking at the calendar or clock. Sure, you can change the time zone in the Date & Time system preference, but it’s easy to forget. So Snow Leopard changes the time zone for you automatically (if you set that as the default behavior), using Wi-Fi mapping to figure out where you are — you will need to be connected to a Wi-Fi access point or router. iCal can also be set to adjust the times to the current time zone automatically, so your calendar always reflects the current times.”
Ummm… really? Well shoot, let’s throw a parade! I cannot tell you how refreshing and welcome this news is — what with how depressing the headlines have been lately.

4. The new Preview is more like Adobe Reader
“I have nothing against Adobe Reader, but I love that Preview now can open multiple PDF documents, display their contents as contact sheets, and show thumbnails of pages in a sidebar for easy navigation. In other words, it works a lot like Adobe Reader. That’s one fewer app to launch — and since Preview loads much faster than Reader, I can get to my PDFs’ contents much faster now.”
Let’s just chalk this one up to the old Grasping At Straws Department. But this guy’s a pretty good writer…I can almost feel his excitement.

5. Movie and screencast recording
“Snow Leopard takes the formerly $35 QuickTime Pro and makes it a standard, free app in Mac OS X. That means you can record movies and — great for many marketing, education, and Web professionals — screencasts from your Mac with no additional software.”
Why is this #5? This one actually makes some sense (for some people) as the Snow Leopard upgrade costs $29*, six dollars less than this stand-alone. However, those who know me know I wouldn’t touch QuickTime with a bargeman’s pole.

6. Systemwide automatic text replacement
“Automatic text substitution as you type is nothing new; Microsoft Word has had it for more than a decade. But Snow Leopard lets you specify such substitutions via the Keyboard system preference, so you have a common set of substitutions available to all applications. Right now, only TextEdit, Mail, and various Apple apps use this common auto-text service, but if other software developers adopt it, you may finally get all your text-oriented apps to autocorrect the same way.”
Wow. Okay…

7. No more gesture segregation
“I have a late-2006 model MacBook Pro at home, and it’s frustrating that its gesture-capable trackpad supports only the first generation of touch gestures (one- and two-finger moves), not the second-generation three- and four-finger options. Snow Leopard fixes that, so gesture-capable trackpads now support all gestures, no matter what Mac model you have. (Of course, your Mac has to have a gesture-capable trackpad, so models before 2006 aren’t helped out by this update.)”
Hmmm. I manage to convey my thoughts pretty well with one-fingered gestures… And since I’m a Kallyfornyan, I sometimes offer up the two-fingered “peace” sign… But I can’t think of any three-fingered…

* Note: The $29 upgrade price is for Leopard users; if you have an older Mac OS X version, it’ll cost you $169 to upgrade. Also, 10.6 will only run on newer, Intel-based machines, and not the PowerPC architecture.

I have to disagree with Mr. Gruman’s choice of these 7 from all the improvements Apple has made to their OS; and from my comments my feeling that much of this (such as every tech site’s listing Exchange compatibility as #1 Neat New Thing) is media hype should be pretty clear. But, hey. He’s entitled to his choices, and it’s his job to write something..

Apple did do (IMHO) several things right; such as pricing it at $29. To see the full list of changes made in OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, see, http://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/enhancements-refinements.html And then decide if an Upgrade is in your future.

Today’s free link: Snow Leopard upgrade: what’s in it for me?
This ZD/Net article has a neat chart which explains what new features will work on which Apple machines.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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The Best 10 Minutes

While this may very well be a “guy thing”, it is my humble opinion that this is the best ten (and a half) minutes of film yet shown.

Yeah. I know. It’s not “tech”. But, enjoy.

Where Did That File Go?

Our computers really are just a collection of files. These files are sometimes pictures, or documents, and sometimes they’re programs (aka “applications”). These files are sorted into folders, which often have folders inside them (called “sub-folders”, in a “folder tree”).

There have been occasions when I was not paying attention, and I saved (and/or downloaded) a file to some location I didn’t intend. What’s worse, I wasn’t watching closely enough to notice what and where that location was, and the file was effectively gone. Of course, my misplaced file wasn’t really gone … I just had to find it again. That’s when a desktop Search tool comes to my rescue.
Sometimes, though, the search comes up ‘empty’, or otherwise produces unhelpful results, and that’s what I want to address today.

Tip of the day: Find that file by using the proper search tool, properly. Windows comes with a built-in search tool, and there are “better” tools available (usually as free downloads) as well. But let’s start with the tool you already have. Windows Search is located in your Start menu (Start >Search) and is the magnifying glass icon.
If you cannot see a Search/magnifying glass: right-click on a blank area of your Taskbar and select Properties. Now click the Start Menu tab and click on the “Customize” button and select the Advanced tab. Scroll down and place a check in the box marked “Search”, as shown below.

Launch the Search tool and click on the “All files and folders” option in the “What do you want to search for?” area, and then — and here’s the trick — click on the “more advanced options” down arrow, and place a check in the top three checkboxes.

There are several “hidden” folders in the Windows filing system and it’s possible your file was moved into one of these (particularly downloaded emails) and if that happened, it will not show up in a “normal” search. Selecting the “subfolders” option ensures that your search is as thorough as possible. Now enter the file name and click the “Search” button and enjoy the cute antics of the animated ’search puppy’.

Bonus tip of the day: Often, I cannot remember the exact, or complete, name of the file, and that’s when the use of the wildcard symbol becomes very useful. Windows uses the “*” to represent “any”.

Let’s say, for sake of example, that I found a neat picture of a rose on the Internet (not copyrighted, of course!) and downloaded it. The actual file name is “DSCredrose16.jpg”, and being the incredible complex and super-busy human that I am … I download it to someplace other than where I expected. Searching for “rose.jpg”, in this case, produced no results (sometimes it will).

If I use wildcards, I don’t have to worry about an exact match. Typing in “*rose*.jpg” (no quotes) will find it, because I told the search to ‘match’ any letters before the characters r-o-s-e and any characters after them as well, and to show me only JPEG’s.

If I’m not certain the picture was a JPEG, and that it might be a GIFF, or a TIFF, or a PNG, or a Photoshop picture (.psd), or a bitmap (.bmp) …I substitute a wildcard for .jpg, like this: “*rose*.*”.
If I type *.* into the search for box, I will get a list of every file on my machine — because I told it to ‘match’ every file name, and every file type.

Bonus bonus tip: Recently I was able to play Hero when my sister called begging me to help her “find” my niece’s homework assignment. Normal Search techniques were only showing very old (early) versions of the project, and so they were scared that all their hours of hard work had vanished.

If you look just below the “Look in: Local Hard Drives” drop-down, you will see in bold “When was it modified?” This allows you to search by date (or date ranges). I used this to limit the search to just yesterday’s activity. I quickly found the missing school project– it had been Saved to a browser’s obscure “Temp” folder (because it had been e-mailed, and she had “Opened” it instead of “Save”-ing a copy to her Desktop).

Today’s free link(s): If you want a faster/better/more capable desktop search tool than the one built into Windows XP (and if you spend a lot of time searching for files on your machines, you may), the top three downloads are Microsoft’s Windows Desktop Search, Google Desktop search, and Copernic. I must warn you that there are some privacy and security issues revolving around Google Desktop that may or may not remain valid — that debate still lingers. I can also tell you that Copernic is the geek’s choice.

* Original post: 7/26/07

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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