Just now, Hotmail (oops, I mean Outlook) changed!!

Microsoft just now did one of those things I just simple H-A-T-E! They “modernized” the user interface (no doubt to make it more compatible with ‘mobile devices’) and changed the look of my Inbox.

Thanks a lot Microsoft! Don’t you know we users detest this crap?

Didn’t you learn from the kickback you received from Office’s “Ribbon”? Or Windows 8?

Crap man. At least offer a setting that says, “No thanks. Leave my Inbox the *&^% alone.”

And now to send an email, I have to learn where you moved the buttons and thingies.. Just how I wanted to spend my time! (Not good to change the “insert inline image” to a seperate command button..)

NO. I am not going to start using One Drive just because you always default point to it. Or put shortcuts – for me – to it.

 

Syncing Your Devices – Calendars, Email, Contacts, oh my!

My job as a support and repair technician is evolving — which is only natural, as tech itself is evolving. At an exponential rate.

Years ago, my job consisted mainly of trying to cure non-booting Windows installations (remember “Error: ntldr.exe is missing or corrupt”?), getting a recalcitrant printer to ‘install’, crawling in attics and under houses “pulling” Ethernet cable, and removing the occasional virus.

Around 2007, the explosion of cybercrime forced me to become a virus removal specialist, and accounted for the majority of my hires. Affordable Wireless G networking gear pretty much ended my need for coveralls and flashlights, and I had to learn about (and master) RF ‘spectrum’, interference, and wireless security. Plug and Play’s finally maturing to functionality greatly reduced my printer install calls; but now there was “home entertainment centers” (with Dolby Surround Sound!) and “nanny cams” to install.

Today, the call coming into my shop – it seems – has a 50/50 shot of either being a nasty virus, or something like “I just synced my iPhone, and now I have three copies of each of my Contacts.” (or, “I just synced my iPhone, and now my Inbox is empty!“) We are transitioning to “cloud computing” – like it or not – and “mobile computing”.

People used to know better than to mix Apples and Windows (for one thing, it didn’t work), but today.. well most people seem to have at least one iGadget, maybe an Android phone (perhaps a BlackBerry), and their PC at home is Windows. And they expect them all to play together in some Utopian sense of “I paid for it, it should work.” Like.. the folks at Apple and the folks up in Redmond like each other, and go on picnics together.. and join hands and sing kumbaya, and the folks at Google just show up and join in. One big happy family. (I just made myself “lol”.)

“People are no longer tied to any specific location or device as they roam about getting work done on laptops, tablets, or even smartphones. The challenge is to keep everything synced so you can access the same data from each of those platforms.“

Well, here’s the real truth: it is not in Apple’s or Microsoft’s best interest to play well together, and in fact it profits them to try to “lock you into’ their products. Google? Yeah, it profits them to play nicely (and move you into the cloud) as their purpose is -> they want to learn every-single-thing they can about us, and then show us ads we don’t want to see.
Yippee.

Okay. So it’s 2011, and you want to keep your Outlook, iPad, and Blackberry all in “sync”, and you want it so, when you enter a new phone number for a Contact on one device, the Contact ‘merges’ seamlessly on your other devices with no errors, duplications, and do it in real time.
Good luck with that.

This is fledgling technology (learning to crawl), and everyone under the sun is selling some product which they claim can do this. But know this, (and I quote) “No perfect, seamless solution exists yet”.
Of course it doesn’t: this is all too new. This stuff isn’t even to version 1.0 yet, it sure seems to me. And there’s other agendas and cross-purposes in play as well (think “sales”).

But there are methods. Imperfect methods. But.. better than none, right?

For Outlook user who want syncing with iPads and/or iPhones, my (admittedly limited) experiences tell me you have two routes, really. And probably the best one is a $100/yr MobileMe account. Which, guess what? Is now closed for new sign ups (as of today?)(again, I made myself ‘lol’). But, coming this Fall, if you can wait that long, there will be a new version – called “iCloud“. Which probably will work.. and probably will stick around longer than MobileMe did… The other route is to ‘go Google’.. basically installing things so you can use Google’s (“cloud”) servers and services as your ‘middleman’. (So they can learn all your habits..)

What I suggest – if this topic is relevant to you – is you read this great PC World article: How to Keep Your Data in Sync Across Platforms and Devices

“Keeping your contacts, calendars, and other data synced across all your mobile devices and PC platforms isn’t as difficult as it seems.“

One thing about tech.. you have to constantly keep learning.. it isn’t sitting still! (TCP/IP v6 is here..)

Today’s (other) reading reco: Here is a Very Nice and Useful Firefox Add-On and Chrome Extension That Will Save You Paper

“Here is a nice Firefox add-on and Chrome extension, called iWeb2X,  that is engineered to convert a web page to a printer friendly PDF, image snapshot, or high resolution wallpaper. What sets this iWeb2X apart from the other PDF utilities out there is that no sign-up account is required and you get the following features: […]”

Today’s quote: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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How To Set An Automatic ‘I’m Away’ E-mail Reply In Outlook, Windows Mail, Thunderbird.

A few days ago I posted a tutorial on how to set up an automated “vacation” (aka “out of the office”) reply for those folks who use webmail services for email (see, How To Set An Automatic Webmail ‘I’m Away’ Response). Today I am going to provide the same tutorial, but for those folks who use an email client for managing their mail – Outlook, Windows Live Mail, and Mozilla’s Thunderbird.

If you go on vacation (or otherwise won’t have Internet access for a while) and you have a vacation responder turned on, an automatic reply – with a message you’ve pre-typed – will be sent automatically to the Sender letting them know you will get back to them, just not right away. When you get back online again, you simply turn the feature off again.

[note: you would have to have an “always on” Internet connection, and leave your computer running while you are away.]

Outlook: In Outlook, you need to create a “Rule”; and this Rule tells Outlook what to do with an incoming message. We want the Rule to tell it to ‘send this reply to the Sender’.

Click on the image to go to Step 2. (The walkthrough is on About.com)

Outlook Express/Mail/Live Mail: Again, we will need to set a Rule, but we also need to create a .txt (text) file, containing our response.. so Step 1 is to open Notepad..

Click on the image to go to step-by-step tutorial. (The walkthrough is on About.com)

Thunderbird: Basically, you do the same thing as with the other clients – create a “Rule” – but in Thunderbird, it’s called a “message filter”

Click on the image to go to step-by-step tutorial. (The walkthrough is on am-novice.com)

* My thanks to TuneUp for reminding me.

ATTENTION: You have already seen the ads. “Black Friday” sales are everywhere. I want to remind you that this is the cyber-criminal’s favorite, and most active, time of year. It is the time to redouble your “paranoid common sense” and triple your vigilance for scams, e-mails links, making sure the payment portal is https://, etc.. ATTENTION

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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TGIF | Winners Announced | Etc.

Folks, I am pleased to announce the winners of my latest software license giveaway drawing.

The folks at SPAMFighter have  donated 5 licenses for SPAMFighter Pro to me, to award to my readers. SPAMFighter is a community-based spam filtering tool for Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Thunderbird that automatically and efficiently filters spam and phishing fraud – keeping it out of your Inbox.

When a new e-mail arrives, it is automatically tested by SPAMfighter. If it’s spam, it will be instantly moved to your SPAMfighter folder. If you receive a spam mail that is not detected, click on a single button, and the spam mail is removed from the rest of the 7,258,856 7,264,984 SPAMfighters in 228 countries in seconds.

“Overall, SPAMfighter is a very simple to use product, especially for the novice. It can be setup and run with little to no user intervention and simply begins working on its own. I currently run this as my spam program and have given it an Editors Pick due to its simplicity, effectiveness and ability to keep a free version.” ~ Tim Tibbetts, review on MajorGeeks. Rating = 5/5 Stars

Benefits:

• Award winning technology to block spam
• Protects all the email accounts on your PC
• Protects against “phishing”, identity theft, and other email frauds
• Privacy Guaranteed – we don’t see any of your email
• Blacklist and block domains and emails
• Spam abuse reporting with one click – Get revenge now!
• Unique language filtering tool – Stop emails in languages you don’t understand

SPAMFighter Standard is free for personal use, but the program adds a SPAMfighter footer to your outgoing e-mails, and also displays small text advertisements in its toolbar. Purchase SPAMfighter Pro (retail $29/yr) and you get rid of the ads and footer. You also gain the ability to blacklist or whitelist unlimited domains and addresses (the free edition is limited to 100). The Pro edition can block messages written in specific foreign languages.

And the lucky winners are:

Winners, congratulations! Check your e-mail for your license key. Again, I thank the folks at SPAMFighter for making this giveaway possible. If you use an e-mail client, try it out yourself. You can get started by downloading the trial, here. (It will revert to the free version after 30 days.)

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Well, that was a nice “Friday thing”. Upbeat. Light-hearted. Kinda fun. A couple of readers have written in and asked me why I didn’t post my usual Sunday Beauty images recently.. so, I will put one up here, now, as more Friday Fun.

Today’s free download: Internet Explorer 9 (beta)
Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on September 16, 2010

“First Take: After several months of teasing Internet Explorer’s upgrade with a series of feature-free developer’s previews, Microsoft has unleashed on the world an Internet Explorer 9 beta (32-bit Windows 7; 64-bit Windows 7; 32-bit Windows Vista; 64-bit Windows Vista) with some impressive new features. Like any properly named beta, though, there are also some bugs to be ironed out.

This is the biggest overhaul to the browser since Internet Explorer 7 landed. The changes to the interface are enormous, the browser’s overall usability has greatly improved, it’s more secure, and it’s significantly faster and more standards compliant.”

I hope you all have a marvelous weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Contest Concludes In Just A Few Hours…

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** A Chance To Win A Valuable Prize! **

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The folks at SYNCING.NET have generously donated six Professional Edition licenses to me, to award to my readers. SYNCING.NET is a Business Class program which enables users to sync their Microsoft Outlook data on multiple computers.

To enter the drawing, please see: Software License Giveaway: SYNCING.NET
Enter my current giveaway and (possibly) win a pair of licenses!

Entries must be received before midnight (Pacific) tonight (Thurs. May 20th) so act now.

Copyright 2007-2010 © Tech Paul. All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Software License Giveaway: SYNCING.NET

Folks, I am pleased to announce my latest software license giveaway drawing.

The folks at SYNCING.NET have generously donated six Professional Edition licenses to me, to award to my readers. I sincerely thank them for that. So I am going to do a random drawing¹ contest from folks who “enter”. The contest will end midnight Thursday, and the winners announced Friday.

SYNCING.NET is a Business Class program which enables users to sync their Microsoft Outlook data on multiple computers. Contacts, calendars, notes, tasks, email, and Outlook features will be displayed the same on all your synchronized computers. The program provides secure, encrypted syncing (that doesn’t require a server), offline editing of files, and automatic document or file syncing of designated folders. SYNCING.NET keeps all your data in ‘real-time’ sync, which is automatically maintained.

Publisher’s description:
SYNCING.NET offers powerful Outlook synchronization, backup and file sharing tools for professional and personal use. By providing unique, secure peer-to-peer synchronization with integrated Outlook syncing and comprehensive file sharing, you can access your data anytime and any place. No additional software or expensive server hardware are needed to use our tools. SYNCING.NET gives you a powerful solution that is simple, secure and affordable.

“Syncing without Thinking“. We offer the most comprehensive syncing software with the highest security and best value.

• Real-time, seamless synchronization
• Automatic, background functionality
• No server or IT staff needed

Be aware, this software is pricey (it is “enterprise grade”) but if you are a “road warrior” and you’re tied to Outlook, I agree with PC World magazine reviewer Preston Gralla’s summation, “if you need to use Outlook on more than one PC regularly, you’ll find Syncing.net is well worth the price.” (See, Editorial Review of SYNCING.NET Home Edition)

How to enter? To enter the drawing, simply click on “comment”, and enter a name and valid e-mail (so I can send you the keys) in the form. Actually commenting is optional. And, I shouldn’t have to say this, but it seems I do — multiple entries will result in disqualification. (In this contest. Entry in prior contests doesn’t count against you.)

Note: Because a license is required for each machine to be synced, I am bundling the six into three prizes of a 2-license ‘pack’ (thus, a winner will be able to sync two machines).

While this contest is for the ultra-deluxe “Pro” Edition (which has some very kewl collaboration features) I believe that the majority of readers of this site will find the Home Edition more appropriate for their needs.
A 30-day, fully-functional free trial of SYNCING.NET can be downloaded here, Free 30-day trial (which includes features of the Business Edition) Try it out yourself. (And then leave a comment. You may just win one of these valuable prizes!) Again, I thank the folks at SYNCING.NET for making this giveaway possible.

¹ All entrants will be placed into Random.org’s “randomizer”, and the top 3 results will be the winners (of two licenses each).

Copyright 2007-2010 © Tech Paul. All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Free Online TV

This week the number one download on ZDNet is Free Online TV Player 2.0.0.8.

“The Internet is awash in video content, both the kind that originates on TV and the kind only intended for online viewing. The amount of content available on the Web makes the hundreds of cable TV channels we’ve all come to expect look like a drop in the entertainment bucket. Free Online TV Player is an easy way to access streaming video in a variety of genres from around the world.”

Which doesn’t really surprise me – “free” and “TV” and “online” all being rather popular words. String them together and you have a winner, surely.

I am not a fan of TV (IMHO, it rots your brain) but I went ahead and downloaded this program anyway, so I could test it out for my readers. Since it says I can view channels from around the world, maybe I would find some show worthy of my time and attention?

Publisher’s description:
Free Online TV Player uses proprietary technology that took us over one full year to develop. Our technology locates and plays over 750+ free online TV channels right over the Internet. You get live TV broadcasts daily from around the world. No TV card or hardware to install. Just live TV streamed directly to your PC via your Internet connection.

I found that it is true that there is a huge selection of channels to choose from, and out of the 6 that I tried, 5 didn’t work and one (the SciFi Channel) showed me a commercial that I could not skip, mute, or fast-forward through. While I liked the large selection of channels, and the ability to sort through the multitude easily (by sorting them into categories.. such as genre), I do have an odd quirk, I want to see the listing by shows, not by channels, and telling me what’s-playing-right-now would be good, too.

Now I admit that my very quick testing and poking around is hardly a fair assessment. I found it installed quickly, and uninstalled smoothly and properly. Small and lightweight, it looks sharp and the menu is easy to figure out. Popular channels are listed, as well as obscure titles. C/Net’s Editors give it 4.5 out of 5 stars, and as I said, it’s this week’s top download, so.. here you go: Free Online TV Player 2.0.0.8.

“If someone is looking for an easy online TV viewing solution, this one is very good.” — Rick Robinette, What’s On My PC..

(Might be a great app for travelers and other road warriors… help pass the time waiting for the plane/train to board..!)

Related download: XBMC

Unrelated download:
Are you looking for a good way to sync your Outlook on multiple machines? One solution is SYNCING.NET.
PC syncing made personal

“With SYNCING.NET, keeping a desktop, laptop and notebook up-to-date in real time has never been easier or more cost-effective. We offer unique solutions for every type of individual and business. Secure data exchange solutions for your personal needs – and all without a server. 30-day free trial.”

• Full Professional Edition functionality
• 30-day free trial with no further obligation
• Simple, user-friendly installation

Copyright 2007-2010 © Tech Paul. All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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