Personal Technology Tips in Plain English
A Buzz Which Can’t Be Ignored
Feb 10th
Logged into my Gmail account today (which I do rarely since I manage my Gmail email account through pop access both on my Windows Mobile phone and with Outlook on my laptop) and was pleasantly greeted with this:
It’s Google’s latest push back regarding social media is now integrated into Gmail: Google Buzz.
And of course nothing is buzz worthy if you can’t use your cell phone to pass stuff along:
The big question is if Google Buzz will become a turbo booster for Gmail or will it become another Orkut or Wave?
How To Get Your Weather Forecast By Email
Sep 1st
Ok, so my last attempt to predict the weather daily didn’t really work out.
Here’s a better way to know what the weather is going to be like without turning on the radio or tv and waiting for the weatherman to come on. No opening up a web browser either to go check a weather website like www.weather.com or www.accuweather.com (my fav), etc.
I simply have the weather report emailed to me every morning right before I get up each day. That way when I check my email on my cell phone or computer, I have a quick weather report snapshot for the whole week.
What I like about this service is that there a bunch of options available like which days you want the weather report emails, what time of day for each delivery, if you want severe weather alerts, and if you want a 2nd weather forecast sent to you later during the day (perhaps before you go to bed?) too, etc.
It’s just a one-page sign-up form and you’re all set. Your own personal weatherman via email!
Do you use any other service to get the weather? Share them below in the comments. . .
Keep Yourself From Embarassing Yourself
Apr 28th
The smart whiz kids over at Google’s Gmail came out recently with a new feature that basically prevents the digital equivalent of beer goggles, hence the name Mail Goggles.
It’s one of those things in life that are super simple, no brainiac needed. Every time you send an email from Gmail, there’s a delay before it actually gets sent so that you can realize that the email attachment that you wanted to send wasn’t really attached — now you can go off and attach that file so you don’t have to send one of those “OOPS!” emails right after the first one.
I started to think, hey, that’s not so special? And guess what…I was right! Read the rest of this entry »
Laziest Way To Convert to PDF
Apr 27th
My brother recently emailed me about converting documents into PDF format. It can be a pain in the neck to generate PDF format files if you don’t own Adobe Acrobat software (not the Reader).
There are great online PDF conversion services, as well as free PDF printer drivers that let you print to a virtual printer which produces and saves a PDF document on your hard drive.
However, sometimes, you don’t even have the time to spend doing these simple tasks.
Here’s the easiest, laziest way I know of creating PDF versions of your Microsoft Office documents. . . Read the rest of this entry »
Timeshifting Emails: How to Schedule Emails To Be Sent In The Future
Apr 10th
Recently, I’ve been discovering and using productivity tools like reminder services to help organize and keep me efficient. There’s a bunch of websites that allow you to ping yourself in the future via text message, IM, Google Calendar, Twitter, etc. I personally like www.OhDontForget.com but some of the other one’s I keep coming across are:
- www.ohdontforget.com - simple text message reminder service
- www.gottakeepup.com - good for birthdays, anniversaries, other appointments
- www.rememberthemilk.com - more robust service with lists and other features – also IM reminders
- www.sportsTVinsider.com - couch potatoes can remind themselves to procrastinate and be lazy by reminding themselves of games to watch on TV
If you get into the habit of using a reminder service, it can be a real big help. But there are plenty of times where you wished other people are as (re-)mindful as you about things they shouldn’t forget…Or there are different circumstances where you just want to be able to email someone in the future, but know that you won’t be by the computer.
Perhaps some of you may think about using it to email co-workers during that “2nd hour of lunch” so that people think you’re back at your desk already…or even afterhours to make sure everyone knows just how hard you work…while you’re on your way home already! 
Of course there are tons of other possibilities that open up once you can schedule your emails to be delivered in the future… Read the rest of this entry »
You’ve Got Mail! (Even Though You Don’t Want To Read It)
Feb 19th
If you’re like me, you’re innundated with tons and tons of communication.
Snail mail, junk mail, voicemail (home, cell phone, business line, VoIP), live voice calls!, rss feeds, email, spam, and listserv email lists…and on and on and on.
Sometimes you just want to TURN IT OFF! Or at least just a channel or two — like when one of those community email lists goes bizzerk over an off-topic post that ignites the passion of every single subscriber-hermit that has never ever responded or contibuted to the list in decades….”long time listener, first time REPLY-ALLer…”
One simple feature of most email programs is to set-up a quick filter or rule that will handle that email thread the way you want…even making it so that you never ever see another message regarding that topic again. Here’s how to do it in Microsoft Outlook. . .