The best way to never get spam is to never give out your REAL email address

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Do you feel a little uneasy when a Web site asks you for your email address? Some Web sites require your email to work properly but you really don’t know what they’re going to do with your address and god knows we get way too much junk email these days. Well I’ve got the solution for you: get another “alias” email address and give that one out instead when you’re in doubt. Web sites like Yahoo and Hotmail give out email addresses for free. Sign up and get one, and then use that “alias” address instead of your real one. What’s great about this approach is that you still give out a valid address that you can access while at the same time you protect the privacy of your real email address. Works great for me!

Disclosure: Peter Kay also is the inventor of The Titan Key, an anti-spam technology that lets users create alias email addresses that never get spam

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Gnarly Surf Reports + Cable modem = beat the crowds

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If you’re a surfer and have a high speed cable modem, I hope you’re gonna also tell me that you’ve got a collection of surf report Web sites too. Now you can stay mild with your run-of-the-mill surf report to find out what’s going on at the bowl or at Lani’s, or you can get medieval on it and track the storms via satellites and real-time video on all the hot spots. You don’t have to wait for the weatherman to tell you the surf report because now You are the weatherman tracking the latest swell. And of course if you’re a real surf nut you’ll start getting a feel for how different storms affect your special, secret spot. All you gotta do now is build up your favorite collection of links, and check ’em out with your cable modem when you’re ready to get wet. I caught a bunch of great secret swells over the past year because I tracked the storms and knew when to get out there. Gotta tell ya, beating the crowds was just the bomb.

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Do you listen to the entire greeting? Bypass it next time!

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Here’s a simple tip and that we all know but rarely use and that is how to bypass the voicemail greeting. It’s a funny world we live in today but when you call someone it’s almost a guarantee that you’ll get their voicemail instead of the live person. Yet we still wait through to the long, drawn out greeting before we leave the message. You know, you don’t have for wait for that whole greeting message to play. Most voicemail systems today let you bypass the greeting by hitting the pound sign on your phone. I know for sure that my t-mobile service does. Next time you get someone’s voicemail (which will probably be the very next time you make a phone call) just try the bypass and hit the pound key. If it works right, you’ll immediately hear the beep. Then you can leave a long, drawn out message for the person who’s long, drawn out greeting you just bypassed.

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If you’ve got RoadRunner, you better be gaming online!

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By now, I’m sure that everyone has done a mailmerge at least once. A mailmerge is when you write one document and then merge it with a list of addresses to print personalized labels and letters. Back in the primitive 20th century we used to actually mail these letters using paper, stamps, and envelopes. Did you know that in today’s 21st century we can use software like Microsoft Word to do a email merge? It works just like the old way, except instead of printing paper, it will email your document to lists of people. Hit the F1 key in Word and search for email merge. Writeup your letter, gather your list of email addresses and by pressing one button you’ll never lick another stamp again. If you’re careful not to spam people, you’ll be email merging like a pro.

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Use Word MailMerge to Emails

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By now, I’m sure that everyone has done a mailmerge at least once. A mailmerge is when you write one document and then merge it with a list of addresses to print personalized labels and letters. Back in the primitive 20th century we used to actually mail these letters using paper, stamps, and envelopes. Did you know that in today’s 21st century we can use software like Microsoft Word to do a email merge? It works just like the old way, except instead of printing paper, it will email your document to lists of people. Hit the F1 key in Word and search for email merge. Writeup your letter, gather your list of email addresses and by pressing one button you’ll never lick another stamp again. If you’re careful not to spam people, you’ll be email merging like a pro.

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Quick way to search through Outlook Contacts

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If you use Microsoft Outlook, I’ve got a quick handy tip you. The next time you’re looking up a contact, click somewhere on the right hand side window where your contacts are listed. Then start typing in the last name of the contact you want find, slowing at first, one letter at a time. You’ll see that Outlook will quickly start flipping through the contacts that match the last name you’re spelling, as you spell it. Sometimes you’ll only need to type 2-3 letters to get straight to the person you want to contact. Once you get the hang of this technique you’ll be able to quickly zoom straight to the contact you need instead of scrolling or searching through a long list. I’ve also posted a quick video to show you how it’s done.

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Web TV guides are the Way to Go

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When you need to find out what’s on TV, what do you use? You probably either use the onscreen guide, which is great if what you want to watch is less than two hours away, or you’ll use the Sunday paper, which is great if haven’t tossed it out yet. Well if you’ve got Road Runner, just click your way through the online TV program guides. TV guide.com has one and so does Yahoo. It works great for me because I don’t have to wait to dial up and connect to the Internet. You can do things like a quick search to find out when Star Trek will be playing over the next two weeks, or go to any date and time like next Saturday morning’s cartoon lineup, or check out a specific channel for the whole day like Fox so you won’t miss the Simpsons. I think it’s the fastest way to search through what’s coming on TV. Give it a try on and I’m sure you’ll agree.

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Keep your voicemail greeting under 3 seconds

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How many years have we all been dealing with answering machines and voicemail now? Gotta be at least at solid 5 to 7 years, yeah? So how come some we’re still record these long, drawn out voicemail greetings. You know, the one’s that start with background music, then ease into a short story about where you are, how you’ve been, and how sorry you are that you can’t take my call right now. Listen folks, everyone has voicemail and we all know what the beep sounds like. Don’t make us wait through the long intro. When people get a voicemail greeting, all they really need to make sure of is that they’ve reached the right person. They know what to do when they hear the beep. The best voicemail greetings tell the caller your name and get them ready for the beep. Keep your greeting short and sweet and your callers will love you.

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Work faster by learning CTRL key shortcuts

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Now that everyone is alt-tabbing and right-clicking all over the place, I’ve got another great tip to help you work better and faster and here it is: learn to use your control key instead of the mouse. You see, in any given application like word processing and spreadsheets, there’s really only a handful of functions that you use and you’re accessing them by mouse-clicking your way through a series of menus. Well, the next time you go into those menus, look closely on the right-hand side for a control key shortcut. For example, you’ll notice the File, Save operation has a shortcut of control-S. By memorizing the control-key shortcuts of just a few common operations you’ll be able to work many times faster than the mouse. It’s really easy and you’ll get a big jump in productivity.

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Better, faster way to select, copy and paste text

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If you use copy and paste in Word, I’ve got a great little trick for you. Usually you need to copy and paste either a word or a sentence and of course the normal way is to carefully drag your mouse across what you want to select, right? Well I’ve got a much faster and easier trick for you. If you want to quickly select a word, just double click on it. If you want to select a sentence, hold down the control key and click anywhere in the sentence. When you combine this with using control C for copy and control V for paste and you too can be come a copying and pasting machine! It takes a little practice to get used to this but its well worth the effort. Of course, all these tricks are in the online help so just press F1 and search for “selecting” if you need a refresher.

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