Tag Archives: mobile technology

Are eCigarettes a Real Option for Smokers?

Posted on by
Reply

e-cigarette vaporBack in January, the Honey Badger quit saying that my horrible habit didn’t bother him. In fact, he complained that I was concerned about HIS health and what he ate and the number of sodas he drank, and yet I was still puffing away on my vice.

He asked me to quit and I told him that I’d give it my best shot. He went a step further and bought me an e-cig at a convenience store to try. I agreed, but, honestly, I hated it.

So he went to the Internet and started doing research to help encourage me. He said that the e-cigs were free of all the chemicals I was currently inhaling (except for nicotine). Armed with his chemistry degree and his experience in the medical industry, he was pretty convincing. He said that the “vapor” was basically water and glycerine. He asked me to try another brand of e-cig and when I agreed, he went back to his research. A few hours later he came to me with his findings. Continue reading →

Why I Gave Up On Windows 8

Posted on by
1

Why I hate Windows 8So… my itty bitty Asus Windows laptop with a touch screen is kinda awesome. The Windows 8 “apps” that let me utilize them with the touch of a fingertip are really cool — especially the entertaining ones that let me spin items around three dimensionally.

I worked around the “no start” button by placing shortcuts on my desktop (including a folder of my most often used programs) forcing “My Computer” “Network” and “Control Panel” to show up on my desktop and making sure that I always remembered the Win+D shortcut so I could get back to my desktop easily every time Windows 8 decided to toss me somewhere OTHER than the desktop — and that happens a lot. I even utilized the trick of placing my desktop “app” in the upper left hand corner of the appy start-screen thingee, so I only had to hit return from there to automagically get back to the desktop where I could do real work. (You are all a-flutter with my high-brow tech-speak aren’tcha?)

Yeah, I know those icons on the side are called “charms” and I’m aware that a Windows coined a bunch of other new terms (and entire lingo) for this OS, but I refuse to play along. Continue reading →

Easy, Free Remote Desktop Tool to Help Clients Virtually!

Posted on by
1

Remote Desktop Tool for FreeSometimes one of my clients calls in need of a little “long distance technical assistance.” This might be a simple “how do I…?” question or their issue might require multi-step troubleshooting.  Either way, it’s often easier to show them than to try to explain it all in multiple back-and-forth emails or chat sessions — or even a “walking through” over the phone. And, demonstrating on their own computer, so they can see what I’m doing, means they are more likely to be able to do it themselves next time. Win-Win!

There are paid options for this, but I’ve found that one quick and easy way to be able to be able to show — using their own computer and their own mouse — is a little tool that presents itself as a Chrome extension. And, it’s a cross-platform tool — so if they have a Mac and I’m logged into my WIN7 machine, it works. Likewise, if I’m  on my MacBook and they are using some flavor of Windows, I can still help them. That’s nice!

It involves opening up a session (two clicks from the apps screen of your Chrome browser) with a code shared with the client. The client will then type in the code and approve the share. Once the session is over, the code won’t work again. It’s easy, it’s secure and it gets the job done.

If you aren’t already using the Chrome Browser, I highly recommend it. I sing its praises to all my clients and now there is this new, uber-cool reason to use it. It’s called (simply enough) the “Chrome Remote Desktop” and it works like a charm. Download it today and put it in your arsenal of tools to help others!

(Note: Special thanks goes out to KentuckyComputerDoc.com for suggesting this tool when I was looking for the best option.)

Phone Number for Microsoft Support

Posted on by
Reply

Get Microsoft on PhoneAfter wasting about 45 minutes of my life searching for this information online (and enduring a myriad of issues), I found the actual information and I thought I’d share: (800) 642 7676.

Since the page location is apt to change and since I had to deal with 500 server errors and links for “Microsoft for Mac” that led to directions showing screen shots of ONLY Windows versions, I thought there might be others out there with the same frustrations.

This information is cut and pasted directly from the page I finally unearthed:

Talk with MicrosoftConnect directly with a support representative to solve your issue quickly.

+1 (800) 642 7676,
+1 (800) 892 5234 (TTY)
Monday – Friday
5 AM – 9 PM
Weekends
6 AM – 3 PM

 

But, don’t expect anything about this process to be “quick” — since I started writing this post after I’d been on hold for several minutes and I’m still listening to muzak.

Enjoy!

(Update: I’m still on the phone after 29 minutes… still listening to Muzak and STILL waiting for Microsoft’s speedy support to “resolve my issue quickly”) — wish me luck!

Merging Multiple iTunes Libraries Using a Mac

Posted on by
1

Making a single itunes library from many a simple processDigitally, I have cleaned up my act with two GLARING exceptions: Multi-Media and Photos.

For years I’ve had multiple iTunes libraries, backed up from multiple machines on multiple external drives. Basically, it’s been such a mess that I quit using iTunes and all my media contained therein. I could never find what I wanted, but I found what I didn’t want multiplied with duplicate copies. Grrrrr…

I’ve used iTunes for many years, and let’s just admit that the first attempts at music management were less than perfect — especially from the data management side of things for power-users of multiple machines with varied OS systems. I’ve tried to consolidate in the past. The result has always been even more duplication and additional itunes folders. With that said, I’ll also have to admit that it’s dramatically improved since I first looked at iTunes with a critical eye. So, I decided to tackle one of my remaining behemoths… my iTunes media files, folders, podcasts, music, movies, TV series, audiobooks and whatnot.

It took a great deal of time, but I transferred all the iTunes libraries over to one external drive (with the exception of the library on the machine I was using to do the cleanup — which was my iMac). I had nearly three terabytes of iTunes stuff in duplicate, triplicate and so forth. Yep, you read that right… TERABYTES. I used a three terabyte drive with two terabytes of iTunes stuff on it and ignored (initially) nearly another terabyte on my iMac’s hard drive. Continue reading →