Using notes folder to store login/passwords

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Lots of Web sites require you to register with a login ID and password to access valuable features or content. And if you’re like me you’ve registered yourself at who-knows-how-many Web sites. The problem is that it’s impossible to remember all those logins and passwords. Here’s a simple solution if you use Microsoft Outlook. You’ll notice that Outlook has a little notes folder that kinda works like an electronic postit note. Every time you create a new login and password, copy that information into a new note along with the Web site address and a brief comment. If you ever forget that login and password combination just right click on the notes icon and do a search. Outlook will quickly find the answer for you and off you go. Save those valuable brain cells for remembering important things like your anniversary, not your Yahoo password.

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Business on the Web

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Are you looking to the Internet as a way to increase profits? My best advice is that first and foremost you must be an active user of the Net in order to fully understand how it can benefit your company. I’m amazed by how many executives want to sell their products and services on the Web, but have never bought anything online themselves. For your business to truly succeed on the Internet, you need to get online, see what your competition is already doing, understand what is really going on in your industry, and then develop a business plan. The best way to succeed online is to use the Internet like you were a potential customer and try to buy something from your competitors. That will give you a real insight on what you need to do to compete effectively.

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Can Web Sites Get Your Email Address?

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I recently got an email asking me if a Web site can automatically get your email address without you knowing. Great question. The answer is no, unless you specifically volunteer your email address, there is no easy way for a Web site to get that information. However there are lots of other things Web sites know about you, like the time of day you visited, the type of browser you used, and the web pages you viewed. Some advanced sites will know if you’re a return visitor and continuously gather tidbits of information you may leave from time to time. By stitching these bits together, a rich profile about you can be built. The best way to know how sites will treat your information is to read their privacy policy which describes what they will do with the information they obtain. By understanding this policy and keeping an awareness of the what you give out, you’ll have good idea of how your personal information is being used.

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Have you installed a CD burner on your computer yet? Well if not I gotta tell you, you’re missing out bigtime.

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Have you installed a CD burner on your computer yet? Well if not I gotta tell you, you’re missing out bigtime. CD burners let your computer create custom CDs and this has a whole bunch of great uses. For one, you can build your own custom music. All you do is gather your favorite music CD’s, tell the computer which songs you want and it will automatically copy the right tracks and burn a custom CD just for you that works like any other music CD you have. Once you’ve tried this you’ll love it! CD burners are also great substitutes for floppy disks. The measly 1 mb capacity of a floppy means they can’t really store anything but you can copy 600 mb of data to a CD with your burner! Trust me on this one, once you’ve get a burner you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

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Clean out that mouse!

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When was the last time you cleaned out your mouse? What, you say you didn’t even know your mouse could be cleaned? Cleaning out your mouse is a must if you want smooth, easy scrolling. Here’s all you have to do: Turn your mouse over and you’ll notice a little ring with arrows around the ball in the center. Turn that ring in direction of the arrows until it unlocks, allowing you to remove the ball. Inside you’ll notice two little rods and they will probably be extremely dirty. Use your fingernail to scratch all the crud off those rods, blow it all out, and then replace the ball. Put the ring back on and turn it opposite the direction of the arrows. Turn your mouse over and try it now. Ahhh. Nothing like a clean mouse to scroll yourself all over the place.

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Sending giant email attachments

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When you send email attachments, do you pay attention to how big the file is? Most people don’t and sometimes send multi-megabyte attachments. Now if you’re using DSL or cable modems its no real big deal, but if the person you’re sending to is connected to a phone line it might take hours for them to download what you sent with one click. Email attachments cause additional problems because they actually mushroom to several times their original size as they get transmitted over the Internet. Before you send an attachment, its really a good idea to make sure you know how big it is and who you are sending it to. I would say that if an attachment is over 1mb in size you need to make sure that its not going to cause any problems. Practicing a little extra care when sending email attachments will save you, the recipient, and the computer operators a lot of potential hassles.

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Digital Signatures with Adobe Acobat

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As many of you know, I’ve been on a continual quest to have a paperless office. And I’m very proud to say that over the past 2 years, there hasn’t been a single piece of paper on my desk. Not even a post-it note! Now one of the secrets to my trick is that I was able to eliminate having to sign paper using pen and ink by digitally signing Adobe Acrobat documents instead. All you need is the full version of Adobe Acrobat and an Acrobat document of course. Folks, once you start creating and digitally signing Acrobat documents you will have eliminated the final reason to keep paper and trust me, you will love it!

Use BCC field when sending email

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Have you gotten caught in an email storm? That’s when someone sends an email to a whole bunch of people who in turn reply with an email that goes back out to the whole group which then creates more emails and more replies and before you know it you’ve got too many emails in your inbox and a huge waste of your time. The next time you send an email to a list of people, prevent a storm by addressing the email properly. Instead of putting a long list of addresses in the TO line, put them in the BCC line instead. Using BCC is great because the email still gets sent to everyone but because their address is hidden, all replies only come back to you. This simple step will cut down on those wild email storms and save you from potential embarrassment (and I think you know what I’m talking about here).

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You need to be online all the time

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When you need to use the web at the office, do you have to dialup through a phone line? Or even worse, do you have to walk over to another computer to get access to the Internet? If so, you need to know that your competitors are probably working many times faster and better than you are. Internet access should be something that is always available on your computer so that using the Web doesn’t take any more effort than using a Word processor. The Web now contains so many powerful services, many for free, and so much valuable information at no cost that any company not taking full advantage of these resources is at a serious disadvantage. The good news is that today it’s fast, easy, and inexpensive to get your whole company connected. Don’t get left behind. Get a full-time Net connection.

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