Back from vacation

Greetings all - for those of you looking for the Monday morning computer tip, it is just below this post. My family and I have just returned from two weeks in Cuenca, Ecuador, spending the Christmas holiday with family and friends. It was fantastic!

Allow a pop-up window - just this once!

It is now common for most users to have pop-up windows blocked for most websites. I recall those days of trying to view the content of a site, only to have a bunch of annoying ads sprouting in the middle of the screen, all trying to get my attention. These days, all of the major web browsers have pop-up blockers turned on automatically so you don't have to be bothered with those ads.

However, there are some sites that use pop-up windows legitimately for their content. For those, you actually WANT the new little window to open in front of the main window. How do you do that? There are a couple of ways.

First, if you visit that particular website regularly and trust it, you can just enable pop-up windows to work on that site all the time. This would be a setting in your browser options (usually under Tools - Options).

The other option is if you are visiting a site for the first time, and you click a link, and nothing happens. Or, you get a message that says "Please disable your pop-up blocker in order to view all content" or something similar. In this case, just hold down the CTRL button on your keyboard and then click the same link again. The CTRL button just temporarily disables the pop-up blocker for that one click, so that you can see what the website is trying to display.

This week's video is a clip from Fenway Park in Boston. This particular day was Disability Awareness Day, and the National Anthem was sung by a man with autism. When he got nervous, the crowd rallied in support and helped him out.

No posts for a couple of weeks

For those of you that subscribe to my newsletter that links to this blog, I wanted to let you know that I will be taking a few weeks off for the holidays. Next newsletter and blog post will be on Monday, December 31, 2007.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Follow-up to Gmail recommendation

Last week I talked about using Gmail as your primary email account (for more details, just see my last blog entry - below).

When I work on a Gmail user's computer, one thing that I often see is that the Gmail website inbox has hundreds or thousands of emails just sitting there. What a mess! The reason for this is that Gmail does not offer the use of folders like other email services. Instead, they allow you to "label" an email (that's a subject for another tip, another day).

There is a quick, easy solution to cleaning up your Gmail inbox - and it doesn't involve losing or deleting any of your emails:

1. Click the link that says "Select all"
2. Click the new link that says "Select all ### conversations in Inbox" (where ### is the number of emails in the Inbox)
3. Now that all Inbox emails have been selected, click the "Archive" button and then click Yes on the "Do you want to continue" question.

Now you will see that your inbox is completely empty. If you want to see all of the emails that were just there a minute ago, you can always do that by clicking the "All Mail" link on the left side.

Note: the above procedure only applies when you are looking at the web-based version of Gmail (at www.gmail.com). If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express, you can clean up your inbox by placing those emails in a folder or folders of your choice.

This week's video - a boxer having trouble getting into (and out of) the ring

Choose your new email address carefully!

Lately, I have been getting several emails from my clients to advise me that they have a new email address. This is because high-speed internet is becoming more and more widely available. Obviously a higher speed for your internet connection is always desirable.

However, there is another factor to consider. With your new internet provider comes a new email address. Should you use this as your primary email address? In my opinion, no.

Here's why not: How many internet providers have you had in your lifetime so far? For me, I just counted 7. No matter how much you like your current provider, the chances are very good that they are not going to be your internet provider for the rest of your life. Why would you want to go through the hassle of changing email addresses every time you change your internet provider? Why not just get one email address and use it for life?

Another reason is that most of the spam filters that I have seen for email accounts that are provided by an ISP are not very good. You will miss some email because your internet provider's computer thought it was spam, and you will also get some spam in your email inbox.

What I recommend is to get an account (or multiple accounts) with Gmail - Google's free email service. Some reasons why:

1. You have this email address for life. It doesn't matter who your internet provider is. It doesn't even matter if you are using your own computer - you can get your email from any computer with internet access.

2. You can automatically have your emails come in through Outlook or Outlook Express, if you want (Yahoo charges $20 per year just for that service, last time I checked).

3. Gmail gives you a ton of service space - so you can store all your email there, instead of taking up space on your computer.

4. Computer crash? No problem as far as email is concerned - your emails can all be stored on the Gmail server, so nothing was lost.

5. The Gmail spam filters are very good - it is quite rare that I find a spam email in my inbox.

So next time you change internet providers, don't automatically go for the one they offer you - instead, get one with a lot more features. In fact, get several if you want - Gmail accounts are all free.

This week's video is one I may have posted before, but I don't recall. It is a clip of the Human Slinky.

Windows Media Player in Firefox

The general trend in web-based video is to have the video play in a Flash player (you probably already have Flash installed so that it plays in your web browser). Flash is just a programming language. If you can see the video I have posted below, you are viewing it in Flash.

However, some sites display videos in Windows Media Player format. If you use Firefox (as I know many of you do), and you have trouble viewing Windows Media videos, you may just need to install the Windows Media Firefox plug-in. This is very simple to do. Just open Firefox, then download the plug-in from here. When you see the "Install" button, click it. You will probably have to restart Firefox.

Now you are ready to view Windows Media videos from Firefox.

This week's video is a compilation of various people having a really bad day at the office:

How to safely recycle your old computer

The days of one computer per family are long gone. The prices have come down so much that a large number of households now have several computers. In our house, we have 4 people, so we have 4 computers.

That just means that when a computer becomes obsolete (or just stops working and is no longer repairable), there are more computers being disposed of each day. In most communities, it is not acceptable to just throw your old computer in the garbage (and you definitely can't just toss that old CRT monitor). You generally have to contact a computer recycling/disposal organization and have them pick it up (or take it to them). In our area, there are scheduled "computer collection" days where everyone can bring their old computers to one location (such as a school parking lot), and a company collects them all for proper processing.

However - before you recycle or dispose of your old computer, you need to make sure you have not left any of your data on there. Even if you think the data is not very important, delete it. Maybe there is a cookie on there storing the password for an email account that you no longer use - what harm could that do? Here are a couple of ideas:

1. Someone could get onto that old email account, and send emails that appear to be "from" you. They could perhaps send an email "from" you, to everyone in your old Yahoo contact list, telling all your friends "hey, I am broke and stranded in New York, could you just send me $100 by Western Union today?" If that email went out to 50 people, some of them would wire the money without even verifying any details - because it came from you, someone they trust.

2. Even if a scammer didn't get into that email account, they would have knowledge of at least one password that you used. Do you use a different password every time you create an account online? Didn't think so. Now all the scammer has to do is find out what websites you may have registered with, and he has your password for those sites.

How to wipe out all of the data on your hard drive? There are products designed to do just that.

There is a product called BCWipe that is supposed to work pretty well. There is another one called SureDelete, that I believe is free. I have not had personal experience with either of these. Or, for $100 you can go the hardware route. The Drive Eraser actually plugs into your old hard drive and wipes it clean of data.

If nothing else, you can bring it to me and I will destroy the data on the hard drive (and recycle the computer for parts). Whatever your preference, make sure the data is destroyed before you get rid of that old computer.


This week's video is a funny prank done with a bathroom mirror. Or, at least it's supposed to be a bathroom mirror. In fact, it's just a clear glass window with an identical room on the other side. The girl standing there (who is in on the joke) is "mirrored" by her twin sister on the other side of the glass. But everyone else that comes in finds that the mirror just doesn't work. It has some of them questioning their sanity.

Find the cheapest gas in your area

It looks like gasoline prices are going up again. And what can we do about it? We can't just stop driving. But at least we can use the internet to find the cheapest gas in town.

That's what Gas Buddy does for you. Just go to the site and enter your city or zip code, and it will give you a nice list of the current gas prices. Now you know where to go for the best value on gasoline.

This week's video - an amazing hammer juggler

AOL loses one third of its subscribers in a year

In other news: there are people that actually still use AOL.
Details

Get back the RUN command in Vista

For those of you that are using Microsoft's newest operating system (Vista), you might notice a small difference when you click the Start button. In Windows XP, you could click Start, then Run. In Vista, the Run command is gone. This command is handy sometimes, so it is nice to have it back.

To bring back Run to the Start button menu, do a right-click on an empty area of the Task bar (that is the bar running along the bottom of your screen). Choose Properties, then click the Start Menu tab. Click the Customize button. Now, scroll through the list and check the box that says "Run command". Click OK to close the open windows, and there's your Run command, right where it should be.

Of course, you could also just type the name of the command you want to run in the text box that is already there, but that is not quite as obvious.

In this week's video, politicians show once again why the American public trusts them so much...

Ordering a cake from Walmart

Customer: I would like to order a special cake
Walmart: And what would you like for the cake to say?
Customer: I want it to say Best Wishes Suzanne, and underneath that, We Will Miss You
Walmart: You got it

Here's how it turned out:

Screensavers

If you're looking for a new screensaver for your computer, one thing you DON'T want to do is go searching on Google for "free screensaver". Just about everything that comes up in that search result will be loaded with spyware, and could really mess up your computer.

Incidentally, screensavers have really gone through an evolution. With the original (really old) CRT monitors, you had to have a screensaver to avoid having the icon images burned into the screen. Then, with the newer CRTs, the problem of phosphor burn was no longer an issue so you didn't really need a screensaver other than to have something interesting on the screen when the computer wasn't being used. Now, with almost everyone using the new LCD monitors, screensavers are again necessary to avoid the icon burn-in problem.

I have recently found a few great screensavers that are safe to use, and free. They also are all along the "clock" theme. Here they are:

The first one is called PolarClock. (download)
This is basically a black background, and a series of incomplete circles. Each circle represents a component of the date and time, and the circles complete as time passes.


The next one is called Fliqlio. (download)
This one just resembles a big digital clock that occupies your entire screen.


And finally, we have WorldClock. (download)
As the name implies, this is a selection of clocks, and each one resembles a different time zone.



In this week's video, this little kid hasn't quite gotten the hang of drinking from a hose -

Think you're a nerd?

You are not a nerd, unless you have one of these.

Windows Activation headaches continue

Even with Windows Vista, Microsoft continues to use its flawed activation procedure, annoying and frustrating customers (but when was that ever an issue for Microsoft?). More details here.

Alternatives to Office

Without a doubt, Microsoft Office is the choice of most businesses and individual users when it comes to word processing (Word), spreadsheet (Excel), and presentation (Powerpoint) software. When virtually everyone uses a particular program, you might find it difficult to use something completely different. If you send a file to someone else, they need to be able to open it. So most people just use Office to avoid compatibility issues, even though it is expensive and sometimes rather slow.

However, there are alternatives.

Lotus Symphony is a suite of applications that includes document creation and editing, digital presentation, and spreadsheets - much like Office. One big difference is that Symphony is free. And you can use Symphony to create or edit documents in Word, Excel or Powerpoint format - so anyone with Office can still open your files. I have not used Symphony, so I don't know how it compares in speed.

Another option is Open Office, which is also free. Again, this software is compatible with the programs in MS Office. I used Open Office a few years ago, and it seemed to be pretty slow. However, that may have been the fault of my computer. Or, more recent versions may be faster. The advantage of Open Office is that there are more software choices - this group includes programs for word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, drawing, database and advanced math.

There are other alternatives as well, depending on your preferences. CNET has a good article on this, as well as a comparison chart, here.

This week's video - a chair that assembles itself

Goofy motorcycle

This doesn't look like a Photoshopped image, so I think it is probably an actual motorcycle (you can click on the picture to see it larger). But it raises a few questions for me.

1. How could anyone ride like that for any length of time?
2. Why would anyone want to?
3. Your arms are already outstretched - how do you make a turn, since one arm would have to go even higher?
4. Is this street legal? Should it be?

Still considering Comcast?

I have written here before about Comcast, and their reputation for "less than stellar" customer service. If you are still considering them for your ISP, I recommend that you read about this recent customer's experience. It involves a 75 year-young woman, and a hammer.

Read it here.

Open a file with a different program

Question: I recently had my computer hard drive replaced. Now, whenever I click on a movie file, it opens in Windows Media Player instead of RealPlayer. How do I get my movies to open in RealPlayer instead?

What you need to do is change the file association. In other words, whatever type of file you are trying to open is currently associated with a particular program (in this case Windows Media Player), and you want to associate it with a different one (Real Player) instead. The file type is designated by the extension, which is the 3 letters (or numbers) after the "dot". For example, if you double click on a photograph file named "birthday.jpg", then the program that opens up and shows you that picture is the program you have associated with the ".jpg" extension.

Let's say for example you want to view a movie file with the extension ".avi" (this is a common video file type). First, you have to find that file on your computer. But don't double click it - instead, RIGHT click on it and from the new menu, choose "Open with". Then, click on "Choose program". This will open a new window with a list of programs. You should see RealPlayer there. Click once to highlight it, then put a checkmark in the box that says "Always use the selected program to open this type of file". Then click OK. Your movie file will open in RealPlayer, and that type of file will open in RealPlayer from now on.

This week's video...I don't quite get the practical value of this skill, but he is obviously very good at it -

Homework solution

Interesting history quiz

This quiz came from one of the blogs that I read on a regular basis. Try to answer all the questions before looking at the answers.

Who said it?

1) "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

A. Karl Marx
B. Adolph Hitler
C. Joseph Stalin
D. None of the above

2) "It's time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few...and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity."

A. Lenin
B. Mussolini
C. Idi Amin
D. None of the Above

3) "(We)...can't just let business as usual go on, and that means something has to be taken away from some people."

A. Nikita Khrushev
B. Jose f Goebbels
C. Boris Yeltsin
D. None of the above

4) "We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own...in order to create this common ground."

A. Mao Tse Dung
B. Hugo Chavez
C. Kim Jong Il
D. None of the above

5) "I certainly think the free-market has failed."

A. Karl Marx
B. Lenin
C. Molotov
D. None of the above

6) "I think it's time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in (the) entire economy that they are being watched."

A. Pinochet
B. Milosevic
C. Saddam Hussein
D. None of the above


Now click here to see the answers.

Random image slide show

Do you know how easy it is to make a blog? Just about anyone can do it. This site that I use is actually owned by Google. All you have to do is go to www.blogger.com and sign up for a free account, then start publishing your material for the world to see.

There are many thousands of people uploading material on this site every minute, and that includes pictures. One interesting thing to see is JUST the pictures, in slide show format, as they are being uploaded. You can now see this here. It is just a continuous slide show of unrelated images from every category. It's about as random as you can get!

If you see a picture that is particularly interesting, you can click on it and go straight to the blog where it is posted. Blogger filters out objectionable content in this service, but they also have the disclaimer that some inappropriate material may slip through by accident (I have not seen anything like that though).

This week's video is just two guys doing a funny comedy act. Wow, they are pretty funny and there is no vulgarity involved - how did that happen?

Is your PC secretly connecting?

One of the biggest threats to computers around the world today is the wide proliferation of botnets. This is an abbreviated term for a network of computers that are all acting in "robot" fashion - following their programmed instructions to do damage and create chaos.

Imagine if your computer got secretly infected with spyware that ran in the background undetected. That spyware caused your computer to, on command, send out thousands of spam messages while you were at work during the day. You come home at night and everything is fine (or appears to be fine anyway). Unless you had a program designed specifically to catch this kind of activity, you would not be aware of anything being wrong - so it would continue unrestricted.

Now, imagine hundreds of thousands of computers just like that around the world - all programmed to perform a specific malicious action at the same time. This use of large groups of "zombie" computers has become the favorite tool of spammers and other scum. It's a good reason to have a quality antivirus and antispyware program running all the time. In the meantime, you can check and see if your computer is connecting and doing something online without your knowledge. Here's how:

Click Start - Run and type "cmd" (without the quotes) in the text field and hit OK.

In the new window, at the cursor prompt, type:

netstat -b 5 > activity.txt

After a couple of minutes, click Ctrl + C.

Go back to Start - Run and this time type: activity.txt and click enter. This should bring up the activity file in Notepad. Look through there and see if you see any unusual program connecting to the internet without your permission.

This week's video - just some idiots falling down a hill

Taking the plunge

The computer that I currently use is a Dell Dimension 4550 and was purchased in March of 2003. My industry standards, that is getting pretty old. It has gotten loaded with tons of software over the years and gradually become slower and slower. Now it is at the point where I have decided to wipe everything out (reformat the drive) and reinstall Windows XP.

Really, this is a good thing to do for your computer from time to time anyway. It basically takes your computer back to the state it was in on the day you purchased it. Of course, no one ever wants to do this because it's a pain trying to be sure that everything you need is saved to another drive. I have made lists and double checked, so I think that anything important enough to save is backed up. Now I am going to physically open up the case and blow out the dust, dog hair, and other various foreign particles that collect inside there. The reformat process will begin shortly after that.

I say all this just to let you know that if you don't see a new blog post here on Monday, you will know that something went wrong and I am probably sprouting additional gray hairs this weekend.

Update: All went well - computer is back up and computing much faster than it was previously.

Okay, time for a break

Sometimes you work a lot and you deserve a break. This week, we showcase some websites that are designed to give you that break from work that you so richly deserve. Of course, they might also end up wasting a lot of your time. But at least you'll be having fun! Thanks to my friend Gizmo for the information about these sites.

Side note: I don't know why, but this blog post took me hours to finish.

World Clock
I found this site very interesting. This World Stats Counter shows current statistical figures for world population, births, deaths, deforestation, and much more. Except for population and earth temp, all stats reflect the growth since the beginning of the selected time period. Hint: click the "Now" button to reset several categories to zero, and see how quickly the numbers rise.

What's wrong with this picture?
You may have seen this before. Look closely. I figured it out - can you?

You control gravity
This is a fun little diversion. Drag the circles and the levers around, and adjust the angles of the levers, to control the direction of the bouncing balls.

Line Rider
Draw the line from top left to bottom right, then click the Play button and watch the little guy ride his sled down the slope you just created. My guy died multiple times at high speeds.

Scene switcher
I am not sure exactly what this is because the site is not in English, but it seems like an advertisement for a kitchen manufacturer. Click and hold the mouse for a panoramic view of the different scenes.

Fake or Foto?
Do you think you can look at an image and tell if it is a real photo, or if it is computer generated? Take this quiz and find out. I got five out of ten correct.

Icon's Story
Every wonder what your desktop icons do at night while you are sleeping?

Your birth date
Everything you ever wanted to know about the day you were born. I didn't really care to know the date I was conceived, but it was interesting to find out that I share my birth date with Paul Revere and J. Edgar Hoover.

Only Riddles
If you like figuring out riddles, this is the place for you. Example: Which does not belong in this group: Apple, Grape, Banana, Cherry, Pear. (Answer: Banana - it's the only one that you have to peel before eating). Just keep hitting the Home/Refresh link to get a new set of riddles.

Optical Illusions
Nothing here but things to trick the human eye. I particularly liked the Mona Lisa test.

Cool Illusion
This one is amazing! I still don't get how it works. First you see some pink dots in a circle. Then you see a green dot that isn't really there. Then all the pink dots disappear, and only the green dot is left - even though the only dots there are actually pink, and they never did disappear! You have to try this one!

Falling Sand Game
Draw lines to see how you can control the falling sand.

Slow motion videos
Lots of common things shot with a high-speed camera and then played in slow motion.

Kitten band
Complete nonsense, but it will make you smile.

Windows Sounds mix
Whoever created this knows Flash and Sound Recorder very well. And has way too much free time.


This week's video - why every kid should have a pet!

Gmaps pedometer

I love to walk, and I hate for something to come up that messes up my walking routine. Here in Florida we have some great thunderstorms, so that can be a hindrance (only sometimes - I have been known to keep walking in the rain). In the summer I have to wait until around 6 pm or so when the temperature has dropped a bit; collapsing from heat exhaustion is not my idea of a good walk.

I have a 2-mile route and a 3-mile route. If you're a walker, you can identify with this - you want to know how far you actually walked that day. How do you measure the distance? Oh sure, you could do the old-fashioned thing - drive your walking route in the car and measure it on the odometer. But that's not absolutely accurate (and don't you know that when you drive your car you are destroying the planet by causing global warming?).

Instead, I use technology (probably not a big surprise there). Almost everyone uses the internet to get directions to an unfamiliar address now (Mapquest, like Google, has become a verb). Now you can use the Google Maps site along with a hack for measuring distance. It is called the Gmaps Pedometer.

First, enter the zip code of the city where you want to walk. Then zoom in so that you can see your walking route. Click the button that says "Start recording", and just double click the starting point of your walk. Double click your way through your entire route, and when you get to the end, you will see the total distance covered.

This week's video shows a little kid having a really good time!

There are better choices than Comcast

Looking for a new internet provider? If you are considering Comcast, think again.

Comcast advertises high speeds and great service. What they don't tell you in their initial advertising is that they limit your use of the internet. What is that limit? They won't say, and you won't know until you exceed the limit and get cut off.

This generally would apply to the user that downloads large files each month. However, since Comcast will not specify "how much is too much", no one really knows what the limit is. If you have other choices, you would be better off to go with an ISP that lays out all the rules clearly. It is much easier to stay within policy if you know what the policy is.

More details here.


This week's video sends a message - even if you are having a bad day, you can still be happy.

The latest in computer privacy

Google Earth surprise!

You probably already know that I am a fan of Google Earth. What an amazing program - you can have virtually a "treetop" view of just about any place in the world. And this great program is also free.

But there's more...Google Earth actually has a flight simulator program built into it! That means you can have the controls of a virtual airplane (your choice of an F16 Fighter, or a more comfort-oriented SR22 4-seater). You can choose where you want to fly, and since this is inside the Google Earth program, you appear to be actually flying over whatever city you choose. To start flying, open Google Earth and then hit Ctrl + Alt + A.

It takes a little practice to avoid flying the plane in uncontrolled loops and crashing into the ground. But if you are interested in flying, or just want to see what it is like to fly over your city, it's worth a try. You can see the various keyboard controls here.

Note: you have to have the most current version of Google Earth in order to use this feature.

This week's video is a hand-shadow puppet presentation. Big deal, you say? Just watch it.

Another area to watch out

Think about this...if you receive an email that is designed to infect your computer with a virus, the worst thing you can do is to follow the instructions in the email. Sometimes that is easier said than done, because the creators of these virus emails can be very clever.

One method that they use is to pretend that the email is from a friend who has sent you an "e-card" - an electronic greeting card. Of course it all sounds very innocent - just click on the link in the email to get your e-card. However, what you don't realize is that clicking on that link is actually taking you to a malicious website, or downloading a virus or spyware to your computer.

Personally, I really don't like the whole e-card thing anyway. I certainly never click on a link that is embedded in one of them. If you really want to see what it is, open your web browser and type in the address of the e-card website manually, then find the area on the site where you can "retrieve" your card. Then, enter the retrieval code manually. If the email was legitimate, you will get your card that way. If it was a malicious email, the worst that will happen is that the code won't work.

This week's video shows what is great about all those beauty pageants. Not only do they show off the physical appearance and individual talents of the contestants, they also demonstrate the ability to answer a question coherently. Or the inability, as demonstrated by Miss Teen South Carolina.
Update: Miss Teen South Carolina appeared on the Today show, and explained what happened. She was actually an Honors Student in high school.

Wow

(click on the picture to view it full size)

Really, I only wonder...what does the owner of this place look like?

Windows update restart nag

Just about everyone that uses Windows has had this annoyance. Windows has some important updates to do, so you download them while you are working on something else. At some point the Windows Notification pops up and says that the updates have been installed, and you need to restart your computer for the updates to take effect. You have two options: Restart Now, or Restart Later. You choose "Later" because you have some work that you have to get done now.

A few minutes later, the reminder pops up again to see if you want to restart yet. Again, you choose "Later".

A few minutes later, guess what...the reminder again. Don't you wish you could just tell it to not remind you any more, and to trust you to do a restart at some point? You can.

To get rid of the Windows Restart Nag, click Start - Run and type "cmd" (without the quotes) in the box and hit Enter. In the next screen, type this:

sc stop wuauserv

and hit Enter. Then just close that window. No more nags! Now, don't worry - you will still get Windows Updates. You just won't be reminded to restart the computer afterward. So you have to remember to do a restart eventually. I'll bet you can handle that.


I think one of the funniest things about men getting older is when they go bald and try to hide it with the combover. Don't they realize they aren't fooling anyone? This week's video shows a guy who does a combover that actually might work - as long as no one takes a real close look.

Now that's a crowded pool

This is what it's like at the local public pool in Tokyo on a hot summer day. And watch the video below - that's the same pool, when they turn on the wave machine.

What are those F-keys for?

Sometimes I get asked, "What does the F1 key do? and the rest of those F keys?"

Well, it is hard to answer that question in a simple way. That's because the F keys (actually they are called Function keys) do different things in different programs. However, there are some consistencies in their usage. Here are some of the things you can do with them.

F1 - this is generally considered the button to hit when you want to open the Help dialogue box - this is fairly consistent with most programs

F2 - In Word, if you hold Ctrl and hit F2, you will see the Print Preview window

F3 - used to open a "Search" window in most programs

F4 - In Word, F4 will repeat the last action. If you just typed a long sentence or paragraph, and for some reason you want to type it again, just hit F4. Also, Alt+F4 will close whatever window is open and at the front of the other windows (this is the safest way to close a pop-up ad)

F5 - In most web browsers, F5 will refresh the content on the page. Go ahead and try it now - you will see this web page reload

F6 - In Firefox or Internet Explorer, this moves the cursor to the address bar and highlights the current address. So if you want to go to a different website, you don't have to move your mouse up to that line, drag to highlight the address and enter the new address. Just hit F6 and type the new address.

F7 - In Word, F7 automatically runs the Spellchecker

F8 - This key is often used at bootup, if you want to start the computer in Safe Mode

F9 - not many common uses

F10 - in most Windows programs, F10 activates the menu bar - that's the bar at the top of the screen that says File, Edit, View, etc. Hit the F10 key, and then hit the "Down" arrow on your keyboard, then the "Right" arrow, and you will see what it does. Just a way of accessing those menus with the keyboard instead of the mouse (handy if your wireless mouse battery dies in the middle of something and you have to get to those menus)

F11 - switches back and forth from Full Screen Mode in Firefox and Internet Explorer. Try it and see what changes. Just hit F11 again to get the screen back the way it was before.

F12 - Ctrl + Shift + F12 opens the Print window in Word. Of course, you could just do Ctrl + P

You really can't hurt anything by experimenting with the Function keys in different programs. And you might just find a keyboard shortcut that you will use forever!

This week's video is not funny, but it delivers an important message.

Photos of the bridge collapse

This site has some pretty impressive photos of the bridge tragedy in Minneapolis.

A wonderful backup program

Actually I have been using this program for years, but forgot how great it was until this week - when I installed it on three different computers. The program is called Karen's Replicator, and it is free. Here is the download site.

We all know we should be backing up our data, but most of us don't do it as often as we should - and in reality, most people don't back up their data at all, until a hard drive crash teaches them the painful lesson of why backing up is important. This program makes doing your backups a no-brainer, because you don't even have to think about it.

Ideally, you should have an external hard drive large enough to contain all of your backups. You can get one of these for less than $100, and it just plugs into a USB port so it is very easy to set up.

In the Replicator program, you set up a "job" for each folder of data that you want to back up. For example, most of your documents and pictures are contained somewhere in the My Documents folder. So you would tell the Replicator to do this: every day, at 3 am, copy the My Documents folder from your computer to the My Documents backup folder on the external drive. Of course, the computer has to be left on for this to happen. From that point on, your backups are done automatically for you every night. So if you create a new Word document, you don't have to worry about losing it if your computer crashes.

You can also have it back up your email messages and folders, but that is a little more complex and would depend on what program you are using for email. Of course, if you use Gmail as I have recommended for a long time, then all of your emails are always stored on the Gmail server so you really wouldn't have to back them up at all anyway.

Incidentally, Karen has a lot of other free programs available on her site. It's worth a look.

This week's video is about a high school football team who came up with an ingenious trick football play:

Need another email address? Don't use Yahoo

I have a Yahoo email account that I used to use a lot. Now I check it occasionally. Based on what shows up in my inbox there, I would definitely not use Yahoo for my primary email now.

The problem is spam. Of course, every web-based email provider has to deal with spam. They do this via spam filters. What is supposed to happen is that an email comes in to the Yahoo server, and the server checks it for certain key words or phrases. If a word such as "free" or a phrase such as "make money" is detected, the spam filter is supposed to divert that email into your Spam folder instead of putting it in your inbox.

In the case of Yahoo, here are a few emails I have received that got into my inbox with no problem:

Sender: Investment Education
Subject: How to Generate Staggering Profits

Sender: Ref WAL-1098
Subject: WAL-MART five hundred dollar gift card inside

Sender: Laptop report
Subject: We will purchase and ship you a laptop you choose

Sender: First Premier Special Offer
Subject: Apply for a credit card today

Sender: Cheaper House Payments
Subject: Think you have a low house payment? Think again

Now obviously, anyone can look at these sender names or subject lines and know without a doubt they are all spam and scams. But for some reason, the Yahoo spam filter thinks these are perfectly legitimate emails from real senders.

So I complained to Yahoo. I forwarded several of these, along with the full email headers (as Yahoo requires with any spam complaint). Here is the response I got:

"We understand your frustration in receiving unsolicited email. While we investigate all reported violations against the Yahoo! Terms of Service (TOS), in this particular case the message you received was not sent by a Yahoo! Mail user. Yahoo has no control over activities outside its services and therefore we cannot take any action."

This of course is ridiculous. Yahoo can only filter out spam if it was sent from a Yahoo account? I don't know what Yahoo is thinking, but I do know that the Gmail spam filters work very well. Use Gmail for your email account. You can have as many different accounts as you want and they are all free.

This week's video - here's a report about an announcement from the Department of Transportation, regarding improved communications between drivers:


Tired Of Traffic? A New DOT Report Urges Drivers: 'Honk'

Get a new phone number - free

If you have ever found yourself in a situation where you have to provide a phone number, but you don't want to give out your cell phone or your home phone, today's tip is for you.

PrivatePhone.com is a free service that provides you with your own personal phone number and voice mail. You can set up your own outgoing voice mail message so your callers hear your voice when they call in. And when you get a new voice mail, you can be notified by email, or even by an alert sent to your cell phone.

You listen to your voice mails, there are a couple of options. You can call in from any phone and enter your PIN, or you can use any computer to go to the website and listen to the messages from there.

For your phone number choices, there are lots of cities across the US from which to choose. If you are not in one of those cities, then your phone number won't be a local call. But with the increasing use of flat-rate long distance, and the fact that almost all cell phones include free calls anywhere in the US, that is not really a big factor.

This week's video shows a street performer with some pretty impressive skills in handling a soccer ball:

Google Easter Eggs

Usually you think of Easter Eggs only in late March or April. Kids have all kinds of fun hunting around and seeing how many hidden eggs they can find.

In the computer world, "easter egg" means something different. You see, computer programmers like to have their own little geeky inside jokes. Many commercial programs have secret codes built in to display something that you would never see normally. People discover these things by chance, and it is like finding hidden treasure.

Here is how to find some Google-related Easter Eggs:

Google Loco
Go to www.Google.com and type this in the search box:
Google Loco
Then click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button

Google Gothic
Go to www.Google.com and type this in the search box:
Google Gothic
Then click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button

Google Pig Latin
Go to www.Google.com and type this in the search box:
xx-piglatin
Then click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button

Google Easter Egg game
Go to www.Google.com and type this in the search box:
google easter egg
Then click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button

My wife loves watching baseball - whenever the Red Sox are playing. Personally, I think it is pretty boring. This week's video shows why you shouldn't fall asleep at a baseball game - people might be watching.

What is that red X?

Here's a question that I get fairly often:

Someone sent me an email with some pictures, but instead of seeing the pictures in the email, all I see is a red "X". What is going wrong?

Actually there are a few potential fixes for this problem. Here are some things to try:

1. You might just be offline. In many cases, you can read your email without being connected to the internet (such as with Outlook or Outlook Express) but the images won't show up. Solution: check your internet connection and make sure you are online.

2. Outlook Express may be "protecting" you by blocking images from downloading. Solution: In Outlook Express, click on Tools - Options and then click the Security tab. UNcheck the box that says "Block images and other external content in HTML email". Click OK. Close Outlook Express and open it again.

3. The image that is not displaying may be hosted on a website that is down at the moment. Solution: not much you can do here except wait for the website to come back up.

4. "Show pictures" may be turned off in Internet Explorer. Solution: Click Start - Control Panel and double click on Internet Options. Choose the Advanced tab, then scroll down to the Multimedia section. Check the box that says "Show pictures".

5. Your firewall may be blocking the images. Solution: Turn off or disable the firewall and see if the pictures appear (the steps for disabling the firewall are different for different firewalls). Note: if you use a router for your network, that has a hardware firewall built in. You don't really need a software firewall such as ZoneAlarm or Norton.

6. The website where the image is hosted is up, but your internet security settings are set too high for that website to get through. Solution: Click Start - Control Panel and double click on Internet Options. Click on the Security tab, and click the button that says "Default level".

7. One more potential cause is that the sender is not sending the images correctly (the email has to be sent in HTML format, not plain text). Solution: tell the sender to change his or her email sending mode to HTML.


This week's video falls into one of my favorite categories - the prank. This guy named Scott (not me though) has a boss that is overweight. The boss keeps breaking one desk chair after another, and he thinks it is because he's fat. There's actually another reason...

Put your email in vacation mode

Have you ever taken a vacation - and not checked your email the whole time you were gone? Personally, I would probably not enjoy that very much. I guess I am a bit obsessive about checking email and responding to it (if a response is necessary). I don't like people to think I am ignoring them.

But sometime you might be in a situation where you cannot check your email for a few days or a week, maybe even longer. If you use Gmail, you don't have to worry about it. Just use the Vacation Mode.

Log in to your account at www.gmail.com, and click on Settings. Under the "General" tab, you will see a section called Vacation Autoresponder. Just turn it on, and type in a few words such as "I am on vacation until xxxx - I will respond to your email when I return". Anytime someone sends you an email, they will automatically get that response back right away. So they know you are not just ignoring their email, and you can enjoy an email-free vacation.

Yahoo email offers the same thing - click on Options, then "Vacation Response". Other email services usually offer this as well - check your settings to see how to use it.


This week's video - what if you could design your own home, and you didn't have to consider at all how much it would cost. What would it be like? Well, one very wealthy person did just that - and this is the result:

satellite cellphone locator

This is kind of scary...plug in your cellphone number (including area code) and watch the satellite locate you in real time.

Try it out here

Get some new wallpaper

My guess is that many of you know how to do this already. I think I have mentioned it before. But, no matter how well-known a computer tip might be, there are always a few people that say, "Wow, I never knew that before!". And it is pretty handy.

If you want to change the background picture on your computer screen, it's very easy. That picture is actually called the "wallpaper" (some people call it the screen saver, but that is not correct). Just about any picture you see on the internet can be used as a wallpaper on your computer. Here is a great way to find wonderful wallpaper pictures.

Go to Google Images and type in the name of the kind of pictures you want to see, such as sunset, mountain, lake, whatever. It is also a good idea to select the "Large" option so that you only see higher resolution pictures.

When you see a thumbnail image you like, click on it. Then when the next page comes up, click the link that says "See image full size".

When it is full size on your screen, do a right-click on the image and choose "Set as wallpaper". If another window comes up asking for the formatting of the picture, choose "Stretch". Now you have a new wallpaper! You can do this for almost any picture you see on the web.

My nephew Adam has already seen this week's video, and he has suggested a title. So here it is - the Crazy Baby:

Latest terrorist just captured in US

Woot

I think I have mentioned this website before, but it is worth talking about it again. The website is www.woot.com.

At Woot, they offer one item for sale each day. When that item sells out, you're out of luck until the next day when a different item shows up. This is the type of site that you want to have as part of your home page tabs, because you need to check it each day to see if they are selling something you need.

A word of warning - a description is written about each item for sale. I find them difficult to read. They try so desperately to be clever, hip, witty...and I just want to get the details about the item for sale. I guess a lot of people consider the ad copy as part of the charm; I find it to be annoying. I just scroll down past the few paragraphs of text and read the list of features to get the information I need.

Sometimes the Woot is a great bargain, and sometimes it's not. Bargains usually sell out at some time during the day (the new daily item actually gets listed at 1 am eastern time, and some of the devoted Woot fans stay up to see what it is). If you are not sure if an item is a good value, click the link that says "Discuss this product" and read what some others are saying about it.


This week's video - there is a show in the UK that is roughly the British equivalent of American Idol. The show is called Britain's Got Talent. I am not really a fan of these types of shows, but I came across this clip that is worth watching.

Linkwad

One of the things I love about using the Firefox web browser is that there are hundreds of ways to customize it by using what are called Extensions. An extension is a small bit of software that makes Firefox do something interesting or handy - something that it originally was not designed to do. I have lots of extensions already installed, but I found a new one this week that is wonderful.

The new extension I just discovered is called Linkwad. If you use a lot of tabbed browser windows in Firefox, you might like it too.

If you use Firefox, you know that one of its great features is tabbed browsing. You can have 2 or 3 or 10 different websites open in one window, each one with its own tab. My problem is that I have too many tabs - I have a bunch of websites that open up automatically when I start Firefox, and even on high speed it can seem to drag a bit while all those sites are loading at the same time.

With Linkwad, you can have different groups of tabs. For example, you could have one group that opens automatically when Firefox starts. Then you could have another group of sites that are all political blogs. Then you could have a different set of tabs that are all news or entertainment sites. Another group could be a set of different pre-set eBay searches. There really is no limit! All you do is create a set of tabbed sites, then save that set (each set is called a "wad") by giving it a name.

Linkwad always resides at the top of the Firefox window, and you have the command to Open a set of tabs you have already saved, Save a set of tabs you just created, or Close the current set of tabs. And of course, it is completely free.

You can read about Linkwad and download it here.

By the way - I had a lot of people respond to last week's post about the early days of video games and the new program called Joost. I gave out about 70 or so free invitations. I am glad you are enjoying it. Here is what my 9 year old nephew had to say about that post:

I love this post! It's sorta like a History lesson on the internet. And you can actually imagine what happened at that time. I'd be excited too if I was around that time. I mean, the FIRST video game. How exciting was THAT! I give your latest post a A++ (aka 100 A+).

Thanks Adam! Glad you enjoyed that history lesson!

This week's video is a news reporter, doing a report on a new roller coaster ride somewhere over in Europe. I don't know why they chose her for this report - she doesn't seem to be a big fan of roller coasters.

Free invite to Joost

When I was a kid, the primary form of electronic entertainment was television. We didn't have computers, or even video games. I remember the excitement that was in the air when Pong was introduced - what an amazing invention! You may remember, Pong was the first "video game" that came out (it was introduced in 1972). It looked like this:

Each player controlled a paddle, and the white dot moved back and forth like a ball. All you had to do was keep the ball in play. What amazing technology! It sure seemed like it back then.

Fast forward to 2007...now everyone has a computer, most people have high speed internet access, and video games now have graphics that are virtually lifelike in quality. But things have come full circle - now you can watch TV on your computer! I am not talking about a TV card that you can install. I am talking about Joost.

Joost is a free service that delivers video content right to your computer screen from the internet. Here are some screenshots:

So how do you get Joost? It's free, but you can't just go there and sign up - you need to be invited by someone who is already a user. Lucky for you - that's me! If you want a free invite to Joost, just send me an email at the email address on the right side of the screen. The information I need is your first name, last name, and your email address.

This week's video shows a conflict between a snake and a rabbit. You might be surprised at which one comes out the winner!

I just had Lasik surgery!

I have thought for a long time about having vision-correcting surgery. I have had either glasses or contacts since third grade, so being glasses-free certainly sounded nice (those of you with glasses know what I am talking about!). My condition is nearsightedness - I can read fine without glasses at all, but I could not see things in the distance - so I have to wear glasses all the time. Of course, when I first heard of the procedure years ago, I was concerned because of how new it was. Back then, the procedure of choice was RK (Radial Karetotomy).

Today, the most popular procedure is called Lasik, and a more advanced variation of that is Lasik Custom Wavefront. I found an eye doctor here in Tampa that has done more than 30,000 of these procedures. Although there is a small risk involved (as with any surgery), the procedure is considered very safe and has an extremely high success rate.

I went in on Friday, May 25 for an initial consultation and multiple tests to see if I would be a good candidate for Lasik. The doctor told me that all indications were that it would work wonderfully for me.

(I also had a choice to make. When doing the surgery, they can correct for nearsightedness or farsightedness. If they fixed my nearsightedness, I would be able to see things at a distance, but would probably need reading glasses for up close. But there is also an option called Monovision - this is where one eye is corrected for nearsightedness, and one eye is corrected for farsightedness. So you would use one eye for viewing in the distance, and the other eye for up close. They let me "try out" what that would be like, and I did not like it - depth perception was different, and it just didn't "feel" right. I probably would have gotten used to it eventually, but I decided that reading glasses are not all that bad to deal with.)

I made the appointment to have the procedure done a week later, on June 1 (yesterday). All of the financial arrangements were taken care of, and I was brought into a pre-op room to ask the doctor any questions I may have thought of. Dr. Groden is excellent. He has a very good manner of dealing with people, and it is obvious that he knows that some people would be very nervous about having their eyes operated on (even though they have made the decision to have it done). He talked and "coached" me throughout the entire procedure to let me know that everything was going fine.

The procedure itself took about 20 minutes total. You are awake the whole time, but there is no pain involved at all. The first thing they do is put a couple of drops in your eye that numbs it. This works almost immediately, so you don't feel anything. The feeling I guess could be best described as brief "pressure", or "discomfort". On a pain scale of 1 to 10, I would rate it as a 1.

After it is completed, more drops were put in my eyes for lubrication, to prevent infection, and to insure a speedy healing process. I was also given some sunglasses with the instruction to wear them all day and even that night while sleeping. The purpose was not really for blocking light - it was to prevent me from accidentally rubbing my eyes, which could mess things up and delay healing. On the way home, my eyes were very watery and blurry, and it felt best just to keep them closed (this was all very normal).

The doctor recommended that after the procedure I go home and take a nap. This is mainly for the therapeutic effect of keeping my eyes closed and relaxing them for a while. When I woke up, the difference was amazing. Not nearly as watery or blurry, and best of all...I could see everything clearly, even at a distance. It was incredible! I didn't do too much the rest of the day. I wore the sunglasses all day and overnight.

This morning I went back for a follow-up visit, and everything is fine. In fact, I now have 20/15 vision! And I can read the computer screen without reading glasses. I can also read a printed page without reading glasses, but it is easier if I use them. I will continue to use two different eyedrops four times a day for the next week and I have one more follow-up visit, and that's it. I also have free enhancements for life, should I need any further correction.

As you can probably tell, I am very pleased with the outcome. If you are considering having Lasik done, do the research and if you feel it is right for you, go for it!

Did you know your mouse could do this?

Some of you already know this, and some of you may have discovered it by accident one time. It's a feature of the scroll button on your mouse.

Right now, try clicking on that scroller button - just push it down like a regular mouse button. Do you see something appear on the screen? Now move the cursor up, then back down. When that special icon is on the screen, you have enabled automatic scrolling. To scroll down a web page (or a text document), all you have to do is move the mouse down - no clicking required!

To go back to "normal" mode, just click the scroller button again and the scrolling icon disappears.

This week's video - an impressive stage performance by some Japanese actors. Probably like nothing you have seen before:

Intriguing photo

I came across this picture on the internet recently. So much could be written about it as far as commentary. Overall, however, it is just sad.

Stop that printer!

A couple of items this week...

Ever had this happen? You have a long text document on your computer - perhaps it is 20 pages, or even more. You send it to the printer, and just as you click "Print", you realize that there is an important change you need to make first. But it's already printing! Panic! How do you quickly stop the printer from printing all 20 or more pages?

This may seem like a rather primitive and non-technical way of solving this problem, but the quickest way is to just remove the paper from the printer. The printer will discover that it is out of paper, and will send an error message to your screen. That gives you time to go to the lower right corner of the screen and double-click on the printer icon. Find your document in the print queue, and cancel it. Then re-load the paper in the printer, and you can print whenever you are ready.

I found a website this week that I found interesting. It is a photography blog. Each blog entry shows a photograph from somewhere in the US in the last 100 years. From the site: "Shorpy is a photo blog about what life a hundred years ago was like: How people looked and what they did for a living, back when not having a job usually meant not eating". Check it here.

This week's video is some pretty amazing female gymnastics/acrobatics:

Take your phone number out of Google

Concerned about your privacy? One proactive step you can take is to remove your phone number from Google PhoneBook.

As you may know, typing a residential phone number into a Google Search bar (though not the Google Toolbar) performs a reverse lookup that lists your name, address and even a link to a Google Map of your address. Fortunately, Google gives you the option of removing all your residential listing information--all you have to do is fill out a short form and wait 48 hours. Granted, there are countless other services out there that offer reverse phone lookups, but Google is a household name and therefore a good place to start.

Some people are concerned about having their information available on the internet. Is this concern valid? To a degree, yes. Try this: type your full phone number in as a Google search (include the area code). For most people with a published phone number, Google will come back with your name, address, and even a link that will show a map of where you live. That link can even display a satellite image of your house.

If you don't like being that "exposed", there is a small step you can take. Just click on the link that says "Phonebook results for". On the next page you will see an option that says, "Request to have your name removed from this list". On the next page, here is what Google will tell you:

"To remove your residential listing information from the Google phonebook, please fill out the form below, entering all information exactly as it appears in your phonebook entry. Doing so will mean your residential listing does not appear in Google for any phonebook search, even searches conducted on your name instead of your phone number. Please note that this removal is permanent and that it's not possible to add your phone number again in the future."

Removal can take 48 hours. Of course, you should realize that this is not exactly the equivalent of the Witness Protection Program. There are multitudes of other ways that people can find you on the net. But it's a step in the right direction if you are concerned about too much information being made public.

This week's video clip - I want this door in my house!

Switch users more quickly in XP

Switch users fast. If you're working on a PC with multiple user accounts, you can bypass the welcome screen when you switch users. Open the Task Manager (click a blank spot in the taskbar and select Task Manager from the pop-up menu), click on the Users tab, right-click on a user name, and choose Connect.

Many families still have one computer that is used by several people. Each user can have his or her own desktop. When Windows XP starts up, you just click on the user name that applies, and you get all of your own "stuff" (icons, programs, wallpaper, etc.).

The normal procedure to switch users is to click Start - Log Off - and then either log off completely and log in as the other user, or you can click the "Switch Users" option. But there is even a quicker way.

Hit Ctrl - Alt - Delete. In the window that pops up, click on the Users tab. Right-click on a user name, and choose Connect. Now you are logged on as that user (although you might have to enter the password if the user account is configured that way).

I don't know why weathermen seem to be funny, but this week's video shows what happens when a cockroach happens to show up while a weatherman is trying to do his job. He doesn't like cockroaches. Not at all.

What is going on with our world?

I have come across some stories lately that I just cannot ignore. It makes me wonder where our country (and our world) is headed.

1. A group in Austria called the "Association Against Animal Factories" (I assume similar to the nutjobs at PETA) is actually pushing to have a 26 year old chimpanzee legally declared to be a "person". The lawyer representing the group said, "Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights."

2. We now have a deadline for the end of the world, thanks to the global warming "scientists". "World leaders will have to agree the shape of a "son of Kyoto" treaty before the end of the year if the most catastrophic effects of climate change are to be averted, UN officials said yesterday." That's right - if we all continue to use more than one square of toilet paper per bathroom visit, we are doomed...and it will happen in just 8 months.

3. The Florida Legislature has inspired new confidence among their constituents. What, you thought politicians were dishonest, and only concerned about promoting their own personal agenda regardless of the promises they made while campaigning? How dare you make such an unfounded accusation!

And the Florida Senate has just the answer to combat that public opinion: They recently voted on a bill that would actually require them to tell the truth. This bill would require them to take an oath any time they appear before a House or Senate committee, and if they lie they will be subject to charges of perjury.

Oh...the bill did pass, but only after it was debated vigorously for about 15 minutes. It's good to know that the officials we elected finally were able to resolve the tricky and confusing issues of honesty and integrity.

Oh yes, one other thing...three of them voted against it. Apparently these three don't quite see the value in telling the truth. Not hard to imagine:

- Senator Al Lawson called the bill a "big conspiracy". He said he didn't mind having such a rule that affected lobbyists. But applying it to lawmakers, such as himself, crossed the line.

- Senator Gary Siplin (Orlando) is currently appealing a grand theft conviction.

- Senator Mandy Dawson in 2002 admitted that she lied when she claimed she had a degree from Florida A&M University. Then in 2003 she entered a rehab program so she could avoid being charged with prescription drug fraud.

Clarify the text on your screen

This is for everyone who is still running Windows XP (which is most of us). It works best with an LCD monitor, but should help even with an old monitor as well.

This procedure adds clarity to the text on your screen. Do a right-click in a blank area on your desktop, and in the new menu that opens choose Properties. Click the Appearance tab, then click the Effects button. Look for the option that says "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts" and check that box. In the drop-down menu just below that option, choose "ClearType". Click OK, and click Apply in the remaining window. You will see a noticeable difference in the text clarity.

If your screen already had that display property in place, UNcheck it and click OK and Apply in the remaining window so that you can see the difference it makes. Of course, you will want to set it back to the clearer display again. Pretty big difference! I am not sure why anyone would NOT want to take advantage of that clearer setting.

Okay - last week's video was rather serious, so this week it is back to the fun! I found some more clips of Bill Dance - he is the guy with the fishing show that seems to constantly attract bad luck. I also found out some more about this guy. He lives in Tennessee, and has been doing this fishing show since 1968. I guess with almost 40 years of being on camera, it makes sense that there are this many mishaps caught on tape. Here we go!

Just a nice story

I just read this on Craigslist, and thought it would be a nice thing for you all to read.

After becoming a recent single mom, that had no family within 2,000 miles, I found myself and my children with nowhere to spend last Thanksgiving. So I decided to make the best of it. My kids and I (they were 6 & 9) volunteered at the Salvation Army soup kitchen, handing out meals to the homeless (helped me be grateful that I have what I do). Then I splurged and the three of us went out to a very nice dinner downtown (even though I was behind on bills, and did not have the money for extra expenses).

My kids and I sat down and enjoyed a wonderful meal..they were impressed how nice it was (not our usual McDonalds). We had decided to eat dessert at home, but when the waiter came over he told me that another family in the dining room wanted to treat us to dessert. The kids were so excited and I was grateful.

When we were done (and stuffed) I asked our waiter for the bill (I was guessing it to be around $125). He came by handed me the bill holder and told me to read the card inside, and that our bill was taken care of. It had a business card that said "Please accept this random act of kindness in memory of our son ____________". I looked at the waiter, who was tearing up...and I started to cry. He was asked not to tell who had paid for our meal and the room was full of seemingly unaware people. I got myself together and the kids and I left.

I think of that moment often! I was very alone and depressed that day, and knowing that someone was wanting to help meant the world to me. I thought it was a wonderful thing to do to remember a loved one by during the holidays...and it is something that truly touched my heart. If you are a part of that family, I thank you, and your son's name will forever be engraved in my mind.