Posts Tagged: mailing

How to print labels the EASY way! – Video Tip

I know I’m late for this year’s Christmas season, but you can learn and start using this tip TODAY to make next year’s Christmas card mailings a breeze.

Too many computer users have no idea what a database is, how to use it, and how to merge it with another program to create labels. Since printing mailing labels is only a once per year activity for many of you, learning how to do it again every single year requires too much time and frustration.

In this week’s tip, I take all of the mystery and hysteria out of creating and printing mailing labels. You will thank me every November when you need to print out your mailing labels. The tip centers around creating a word processing document where you can store, edit and print your labels quickly and easily. Watch the video as many times as you need to and you will NEVER be frustrated with printing labels again!!

If you can’t understand and utilize this tip to print your labels, get out your best pen and write them out instead.

Email Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 1 Comment
3
Nov 09

Changing email addresses – It’s not that difficult

photo credit: TheeErin

AOL made millions of dollars for years because computer users are afraid to change their email addresses. All week long, I hear, “Oh, it’s too hard to change email addresses now.” Or, “It will take forever to change my email address with everyone.”

Come on folks…we’re using computers! You don’t have to fill out a change of address form and march it down to the postal office. You don’t have to send out a post card to every person you know. You don’t have to fill out a change of address for all your bills and utilities.

Changing email addresses is actually pretty painless and can be cathartic as well. In fact, think of it as going into the digital identity protection program. Here’s how to make it a smooth transition Continue reading →

Internet Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 7 Comments
1
Dec 08

5 Reasons why YOU should be moving to the cloud

Over the past two or there years, I have written many articles about Web 2.0 or cloud computing. Cloud computing means that you work with programs and/or data that are not installed or saved on your computer. Instead, the programs and/or data live on an Internet connected computer (server) somewhere else in the world. These computers provide security via the password and user name that you choose. Five reason come immediately to mind on why you should start moving your data and computing power to the cloud.

1. Although more powerful than ever before, computers have become more unreliable than ever.

In particular, Windows computers require more expertise to keep them safe, updated, and problem free than at any time in the short history of home computers. Macintosh and Linux operating systems certainly require less technical expertise from the security standpoint, but still rely on desktop applications to create, save and edit data. Web based (cloud) applications provide plenty of power and flexibility for the vast majority of computer users while also presenting a simpler interface.

2. You already spend 90% of your time in the cloud already.

Non-business computer users spend the majority of their computer time emailing, surfing and researching the web and playing online games. Transitioning to web based mail and web based word processing, spreadsheets and more is easy and free with products like Zoho Office, Google Docs and ThinkFree.

3. Digital photography is easier in the cloud…and cheaper.

Too many computer users do not know how to properly resize and attach photos to email or gauge how many photos to attach to email. You spend way too much money and time on ink cartridges and paper trying to print good quality pictures. All these problems are solved in the cloud by helping you organize your photos better, share them easier, and print them in higher quality in more formats professionally. Flickr, Picasa Albums, and albums and services from Shutterfly, Snapfish, Winkflash, and others help you do all these things much easier than any desktop application. For those who like to edit their photos, these services offer some limited editing, but Pixlr, Picnik, Fotoflexer, Snipshot, Photoshop Online, and many others provide more than enough power for almost any digital photographer.

4. You either don’t know how or are too lazy to backup your important data.

I admit that I’m putting a lot of faith in Web 2.0 companies, but I know they will do a better and more regular job of backing up your data than you currently do. These companies have their reputations and big bank rolls on the line to take backing up your data lightly. If your data is truly important to you, learn to back it up. In the interim, your data will be much safer online than it is right now on your unprotected computer with no backup plan at all. If I’ve stirred you a little to think about backing up your current data, read my tips about online backup services that truly do make backing up your data easier and safer than learning to burn DVD’s, setup and configure backup programs and then maintain them.

5. Using cloud computing strategies sets you free from any computer.

Since your data and applications live on the web and are accessed through a web browser, you no longer are tied to any one computer or operating system. As long as you have an Internet connection (high speed only) and a browser, you can work and play from any computer!

I keep urging you to learn about and use these services because they are coming down the pike and becoming more mainstream every day. Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and other stalwarts of the desktop continue to make their own plans to finally come on board and offer more and more cloud computing options.

What do you think? Leave me a comment below to tell me about your cloud computing experiences and questions.

Photo by ewen and donabel

Computer User Group / Internet Tips — No Comments
8
Oct 08

Participating and/or Moderating Email Discussion Groups

Last month, John, a GJ User Group regular, suggested I lead a discussion about email discussion groups, sometimes known as mailing lists. I thought it was such a good idea, that I made it this month’s User Group topic. Email discussion groups allow emailers with a particular passion for a hobby, political leaning, medical infliction, educational purpose or any other common thread to share ideas, debate, and dialogue via email. Many discussion groups have left email and exist entirely online as discussion forums which allow for even more instant feedback and easier ways to share links, photos, videos and more.

To find discussion groups you can join, try these four techniques:

The association or organization’s web site that heads up the cause, hobby, etc.
Search for your interest followed by email discussion group (ex: African violets in dry climates email discussion group)
Go to and search Yahoo! Groups
Go to and search Topica

Unfortunately, discussion groups can be a hunting ground for email spammers to gather up email addresses. I recommend using a different email address than your every day address for these groups. When you sign up, you will generally have the option of receiving updates every time someone writes to the group, a daily digest of all posts for the day or a weekly digest of all the new posts for that week. For busy discussions, the daily digest is best. If you are fanatical about your group, go for the immediate notifications. You also have the option of changing how you receive messages at any time.

If you want to create your own email discussion group or list, use either the Yahoo! Groups or Topica services. Yahoo and Topica have matured over the years and merged with other smaller services morphing into easy to manage, powerful systems.

Internet Tips / Riding Shotgun with Adam — No Comments
3
Apr 08

Avery website offers great way to make labels easily

There are certain tasks that you would expect to be done simply on a computer. At the top of this list is making labels.

In my opinion the number of label making programs on the market should rival the number of digital photography or antivirus programs on the market.

For some mysterious reason, there are hardly any good label programs out there. They are either too simple and limited in features or they are too complex and require dozens of steps that are far from intuitive.

Envelopes and mailing labels are fairly simple to make with the use of Greetings List Plus. But that program only works for making address labels from an address book that must be carefully compiled or imported.

Not all labels are mailing labels. There are file labels, large sticker labels, envelope labels, etc. For these, I discovered a great tool online. Avery Design and Print Online is a very simple, yet easy to use program for creating almost any style of label you might need.

In addition to being able to create simple labels from scratch, Avery also lets you choose to only fill in certain labels on the page. In other words, if you have printed labels on labels 1-4, the next time you can print labels 5-10. This allows you to print one label at a time or many labels at once.

The only real draw back, and it is kind of a big one, is that you must fill in each label individually and can not import lists of any kind. Creating a sheet of identical labels is very simple though using a checkbox.

Announcements / Riding Shotgun with Adam — No Comments
24
Nov 07

Picasa class coming this Tuesday!

See below to pre-order my new Picasa tutorial CD. I will ship it out on Tuesday. Click on the "Buy Now" button and follow the directions. Note the link for non-PayPal users.

After month’s of requests, I am finally doing an entire class on Picasa. On Tuesday, November 27 from 7-9pm in conjunction with our regular digital photography user group, I will be teaching about Picasa for the entire two hours.

The class will be held at the Grand Junction Realty Board offices at 2743 Crossroads Blvd. Cost is only $10 for one or two people.Come by yourself – the cost is $10, bring a friend, the cost is $10. $5 for each additional person over $10.

I will also be selling my new Picasa tutorial DVD-ROM that covers everything we will discuss in the class.

Picasa is a free photo management program that helps you organize, view, tune and backup your photos. If you have trouble keeping track of all of your digital photos or you are looking for an extremely helpful tool that will take the complication out of backing up, emailing or organizing your photos, this is the class for you!

PRE-ORDER THE PICASA TUTORIAL CD TODAY!!

Email Tips / Internet Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 3 Comments
2
Nov 07

Prevent dead email links, save time and use URL shorthand – Video Tip

Have you ever received a link to a web site via email that can’t be clicked because it is so long that the link “broke”?

You might see something like this in your email:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&time=&date=&ttype=&q
=5400+E+Pima+St,+Tucson,+Pima,+Arizona+85712,+United+States&s
ll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.36116,82.265625&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=
0,32.243422,-110.877669&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1

That’s a 230 character web address (URL).

Using an online web address shortener like TinyURL.com can shorten that address to less than 30 characters and leave you with an address like: http://tinyurl.com/3y9hbw

These shorter addresses are much easier to deal with for taking written notes, writing articles for print media, and definitely for emailing. Watch the short 3 minute video below to see exactly how this works and how you can start sending and using shorter web addresses today.

Riding Shotgun with Adam — 668 Comments
14
Aug 07

Fun with Cameroon Pet Scams

I really love English Bulldogs.

Recently I became aware of a common pet scam that is based on every other over seas Internet scam.

Someone from Cameroon posts a desired breed up for a ridiculously low price.

He/she asks for money plus shipping. You never get the dog.

Here is my recent correspondence with one such scammer.

I have resorted the posts from oldest to newest so you can enjoy the events as they occurred.

For reference, here are the photos the scammer sent with the email. Keep in mind that these are the actual size photos that were sent!

tinybulldog
tinybulldog2
tinybulldog3
tinybulldog4

Original post that my sister saw on Craigslist in Denver:

Hello

Thanks for the mail,i work for a Christ orphanage care center at Denver,but presently i am in New lakes Cameroon. i have come to discover that the weather/climate,is not good for my baby.she finds much difficulties in adapting,and due to the nature of my work,i find much difficulties in taking care of her,so i want to send her back to the States/Canada to any caring family/ pet lover or a Christian home.i hope

that you will take great care of her ok? i will not refuse anyone from

getting my baby, all i need for her is love and care and if you will

accept in sending me update pictures of her every month.She is just 13weeks old

so gentle to kids, a very good companion at home, she is good with other

house pets.she is vet checked,AKC registered and up to date on all her

sorts.She will run and play like a 3year old kids.She has very good

temperament with kids and other pets at home she will make a very fine

house pet.This little girl loves to run and play, Likes

to stop and smell flowers.. She comes along with a 1-year health

guarantee She comes along all her playing toys, including her menu

booklet,and video CDs, which shows what she likes and dislikes.her asking price is $350.i will like to know

how soon you will be ready for the puppy.her pictures are attached to this mail

thanks

Yes, it was centered like that and no changes were made to spelling or punctuation.

My reply:

Please send me your contact information. I am very very intersted in saving your baby!

Thank you,

I was 99 percent sure it was a scam, but I thought I would give them a chance.

Their reply:

Hello

that you will take great care of her ok? i will not refuse anyone from

getting my baby, all i need for her is love and care and if you will

accept in sending me update pictures of her every month.She is just 13weeks old

so gentle to kids, a very good companion at home, she is good with other

house pets.she is vet checked,AKC registered and up to date on all her

sorts.She will run and play like a 3year old kids.She has very good

temperament with kids and other pets at home she will make a very fine

house pet.This little girl loves to run and play, Likes

to stop and smell flowers.. She comes along with a 1-year health

guarantee She comes along all her playing toys, including her menu

booklet,and video CDs, which shows what she likes and dislikes.i will like to know

how soon you will be ready for the puppy.her pictures are attached to this mail

thanks

The formatting was a little better, but everything else was identical.

My reply:

Ya. I saw all that in my sister’s email. How many dogs do you have? There were pictures of four different dogs with different markings. Do you have any larger pictures? I assume you are on a short vacation and will be coming back to Denver soon as Christ orphanage is very understaffed judging by the ads I always see on KKDNVR about their need for volunteers. I was wondering if you would be willing to trade it for a Mac p-p-p-powerbook. (I did not include this link in the actual email.)

I will gladly have one of my friends in Cameroon pick up the dog.

Thank you,

Their reply:

i am sorry fo the ale reply,i went for evening prayers.that is all the pics i have for the puppy,and the pictures you see is the pics of 1puppy,and not different puppies.so how soon are you ready for the puppy?

My reply:

At this point I decide to really start seeing if this person will get irritated at my responces. Please note that I made up the names of breeds as well as the distinctive features of each breed.

ashley,

it is no problem. I am so glad you wrote back. Those pictures are still very small. I used my photoshop custom enlargement filter and the dog has a brown patch over the left eye in some photos but not in others. Does the patch move? Did the patch appear as he got older? You didn’t use an bleach or other chemicals to remove the spot did you? The smell of bleach bothers my cats.

The dog in the picture appears to be a southwithshire breed. Can you tell me if this is the case. If not, it may be a kanarvastshire and those are very valuable. Are you sure you only want $325? Even shouthwithshires are selling for over $3200 by private breeders. kanarvastshires are only licenced to be raised by two breeders. Does the puppy have a pink nose or black, this would really help me in knowing more about which breed it comes from. Either way I am interested, but if it’s nose in pink (inside) I will be especially excited.

Are the pictures actual size? Have you had the puppy vaccinated against elm beetle?

Any answers will be appreciated.

Adam

Their reply:

Hello

i am just so sorry for emailing you very late,i was at a seminar,and only came back yesterday.the batch appears as she grows older. my baby is a southwithshire breed,and i am sorry you misunderstood me the $325 was for the transportation.her re homing fee is $1950.my darling has a pick nose.she has been vaccinated against elm,re best and is currently on sorts.she will come along 1yrs health grantee.pls i will like to know how many pets you have at the moments,because my darling is so sociable with other house pets.in fact you will see that magic in her when you get her.

hope to read from you.

My Reply:

At this point I decide to make some of the same mistakes in my post as they make in theirs. Note that they were hoping that the dog would go to a good Christian home and that they work for Christ orphanage, yet she was delayed in a previous post because she was gone for evening prayers. Isn’t that strange?

No problem ashley. I am in no hurry. For a shouthwithshire I will gladly take the time to get this right. Will you be coming back to denver any time soon.

I have a few other pets but they are also very sociable.I told my family about the dog and they are very excited. We think we may take a holiday there and pick up the dog at the same time. Is this a good time of year to visit cameroon?

Thanks,

Alvin (I decided to make a change to my name to see if they would call me on it.

Their reply:

I begin to sense that they are getting a little irritated at my wavering interest in their baby.

ok Alvin if you will come to pick her up here,then that will be very great.this is the rightful time to visit Cameroon,when you want to come do let me know,so that i can help make some reservation for you. i have close to 3months to be here in Cameroon,and the weather it really not good for the pup.so pls the earlier you come the better.

thanks.

My reply:

This should be my final message to them. At least until they get to Denver with the southwithshire.

Sorry, about that last note. It was written by my friend Alvin. He is always replying to my email. I have three other friends that often respond to my email their names are Simon, Theodore and Dave. You don’t have to reply to their messages.

I just realized that Cameroon is in AFRICA! Did you know that? I thought it was in Detroit or something. That is too far for me to go to pickup the dog. I will wait until you get back to Denver. Let me know when you get here. Please keep your dog in doors I heard that some places in Africa catch stray dogs and put them in baby food. I would hate for you to have to utter the words – “A baby ate my dingo”

I am sure you will find another interested party in Cameroon with air conditioning.

Thank you,

Aaron

Computer User Group — No Comments
11
Jul 07

All Q&A Session – July 2007

I don’t do it too often, but this month I decided to hold an all Q&A (2 hours) user group meeting. It truly is amazing how many questions 30 or 40 ravenous computer users can generate. Sometimes one question leads to another, and an entire “topic” can take up a half hour. You have to be at one of the meetings to truly experience the type of knowledge and information that gets shared and explored. Some of today’s topics included:

Creating a “Life Poster” from digital photos with Shutterfly’s software (hint to Adam for future topic)
Installing and using Ubuntu (the embers are smoking)
Why Picasa DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY PHOTOS and where to find a photo’s true location
Sorting your email address book
Creating, modifying, and deleting Microsoft Word templates
Printing problems
Keyboard shortcuts for closing windows or programs (Alt + F4)
Web 2.0 questions (carry over from last month’s topic)
Setting download speed preferences for watching videos in Real Player, QuickTime or Windows Media Player
What is Active X and why you might need it or use it.
Transferring and viewing photos on the road without a laptop
Showing the “address bar” in Windows Explorer windows
MSCONFIG – deciphering what to uncheck and what not to check
Defrag – Does it cure all computer woes? (Hint: NO) I revealed that with my last computer (which I used for more than four years), I can only remember defragmenting my computer twice…and that computer is still running strong for a neighbor who also never defrag’s on my advice.
Installing Windows XP on a new computer that came with Vista
FREE Internet phone calls – Skype, Skype phones at Radio Shack
Are Uninterubtable Power Systems (UPS) a good idea
Securing a wi-fi network
Using an older computer on a wi-fi network
Is AVG better than AdAware (hint: they fight different bad guys)
Drawing lines on a graph made on graph paper with horizontal, vertical and 45 degree grid lines
Backup questions
How to clear the address bar in the browser window
Downloading pictures to Picasa
Creating Picasa web albums
Emailing photos from Picasa
Breakdown of pricing of Ubuntu systems sold at Dell
Instant messaging programs – Trillian (communicates with all systems), AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk
Creating a CD in Picasa
Woot!

These are just the main questions that I could think of, but aren’t you kicking yourself now for not coming to the meeting?!

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 9 Comments
23
Mar 07

New radio show format

Two weeks ago, with little fan fare, I announced a dramatic change in format for our weekly radio show. Although I never discussed it with my co-host, friend and producer, Adam, he whole heartedly bought in on the concept and we are proceeding.

When I started the Castellini on Computers Radio Show in 1999, my intention was to provide a forum for beginners to learn about computers, technology and the Internet in a non-threatening yet entertaining forum. For better or worse, my desire to help people got in the way of my original goal of being as "non-geeky" as possible. We answered questions from all callers even if the question was applicable for only that one person. Despite our best efforts of trying to explain our answers and the caller's questions in layman's terms, we turned off many listeners. Our most common feedback about the show has always been, "I love your show, but I don't understand anything your talking about on the show."

It took us almost nine years to realize our mistake and you have stuck with us, but from now on, we will focus on the every day computer problems and resolutions. We want listeners to hear the questions and either say "I know the answer to that question" OR "I have that same problem". If we don't feel that our listeners can respond to a question with one of those statements, then the caller will be dropped and we'll move on to the next question or email.

I'm excited about our new direction and format and hope you are too. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the "NEW and IMPROVED" Castellini on Computers Radio Program and be sure to participate by calling in or emailing your basic computer questions. We think you will find the show to be much more helpful than ever before and easier and more entertaining than in the past.

Give me your thoughts about our new direction by leaving a comment to this story using the form under this article.