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Chatting can help you

Over the last couple of years, we have mentioned the benefit of chatting with customer support personnel. Chatting used to be reserved for AOL customers and teens. Recently, however, many companies of all types have  found that they can reduce costs and give better service with the power of Internet chat.

Chat is a simple technology that allows two (or more) computer users to write messages back and forth to each other. It differs from email in that each computer user sees the other's messages show up immediately on a screen that lets you follow the entire conversation. 

For you, it means not having to call an 800 number and navigate through an endless set of menus of push this number and than number, then be put on hold, and eventually talk to a person who has a very thick accent. Instead, logging into a support web site for the product you need help with and starting a chat session requires far less time (often you are connected immediately). The other advantages of getting support through a chat session include being able to "talk" to the support person at your own pace and also be able to receive instructions that you can read, study and print to help you thoroughly understand what you need to do.

RIGHT Click can save you time

I still get amazed at how many computer users don't understand the RIGHT click or are afraid to use it. The RIGHT click button has one primary function: instantly pop up a relevant menu of options. Don't read any more into its function than that. After you RIGHT click on a file, picture, the desktop, an email or Internet page, in a word processing document or anywhere, you switch directly back to the left mouse button.

When we instruct a caller on the show or if I'm teaching a customer how to RIGHT click, the very next question we always get is, "do I RIGHT click again?" Keep in mind that the RIGHT click has the one basic function of invoking a relevant menu for the task you are currently working with and you interact with that menu and all subsequent steps with your normal left click.

The firewall debate heats up

After my post yesterday, then my article in the newletter, a few people feel that I am way off base in recommending that most people don't need a firewall.

First, Windows XP has a firewall built-in, if you use DSL or you have your cable Internet running through a Router, then you have a hardware firewall. My comments are pertaining to the extra software firewalls like ZoneAlarm and Sygate.

My cool brother-in-law, Nishan, emailed me with a few comments about my articles. He designs and maintains a huge database for a medical billing company in Oregon. In other words, unlike me, he is a true geek. I merely pretend to understand when people talk about SQL, Linux, and Apache, Nishan understands this stuff.

Starting online accounts

Sometimes what I think might be an intuitive function turns out to be not as obvious to many computer users. One customer I worked with today hoped to create an online portfolio to track stocks. After arriving at the site, no matter what username and password combination she tried, it wouldn't work. When I asked if she had registered or signed up with the site, she responded "no". 

After looking around at many financial and other other sites, the username and password boxes are prominent and the sign up or register links aren't nearly as obvious. A user is easily lured into thinking that by simply thinking of a username or password and clicking sign in. However, you always need to sign up or register with the site first. Think of a unique username (some sites require you to use your email address as your username) and a password (try not to use the same password on all sites). Then click the register or sign up link and fill out the required form. Some sites require an additional verification step where the site will send you an email with a link that you click to verify your registration.

Unplugged and loving it!

When I talk about wanting to live in the 1800's, people are always surprised. A tech guy, an expert wanting to live in a time when the Pony Express was high tech? It's true I tell you. As much as I love technology, I also see how much time it can eat up as well. On our old fashioned road trip vacation, I took my laptop (used it twice for a total of about fifteen minutes), my GPS (used it once), my beloved Treo (used once, although I checked for signal multiple times), my MP3 player (never used it), and our portable DVD player (I watched one movie on it, but my son used it in the car while we drove).

I intended to use the computer more and submit Shotguns for our site, but wi-fi was extremely hard to find in the places we stayed and visited. And when I did find it, it was either for a fee or required me to hike to the hot spot…I didn't need it that bad. In fact, I actually enjoyed being "unplugged" for nearly 11 days and didn't miss Google, voice mail, SMS, email or any of it. I crave information and love the Internet for information gathering, but I also thoroughly enjoy exploring new places, meeting new people, and driving new roads (Northern Nevada is UGLY). I think that if I had the means, I would have no problem separating from technology and seeing the world in my Eurovan with my family. But since I don't have the means, I will continue to gather information on the web, SMS my friends, check email periodically, and continue to marvel at what technology continues to roll out every day.

Oh, one piece of technology that I did take and use extensively was my digital camera (Canon S2IS)…I took more than 900 photos of Oregon and Northern California…none of desolate northern Nevada.

New business model, same old AOL

I noticed in the news that AOL has officially made all of its services free. They have also lowered their rates to $9.95 for dial-up service.

Their pitch is that all of their content including email is now free. They are really trying to get people to sign up for their free email.

So, I figured, what the heck. I will sign up for it if it's free. Just so I can review what a free AOL service is like.

If you haven't heard us say it before, AOL is not an Internet provider. Perhaps they were at one time, but today their specialty is advertising. They charge subscribers for a service that's primary purpose is to show those subscribers advertising. Every link in the AOL software is advertising based. Whether you click on shopping, weather, Internet security or news, every link in the AOL program is put their because someone paid for it to be there.

A friendly reminder about Snopes

It seems that late summer is one of the busiest seasons for email forwarding. People forward jokes, photos, inspirational stories, and political content to their friends.

Before you send that forward on to a friend or family member make sure to check it out at www.Snopes.com . Snopes is a database of all email that gets forwarded around the world.

The folks and Snopes work extra hard to research the truth (or untruth) behind each story they are sent.

When someone sends me a forwarded story that I find suspicious such as how the government is going to start charging for email or about how kindergardens across the country are going to take the book "D is for Dog" out of their schools because "dog" spelled backwards is "god", I head directly to Snopes.

Vacation hair cut

Rick's vacation hair cut

When we go on vacation (especially camping), I don't like to waste time trimming my beard and shaving, so I usually shave the beard off. This year I did that again…and a little more. Now, I can spend my extra time monitoring my home surveillance equipment with my Treo!

Even though I have been on vacation, I still plan on submitting articles to our Shotgun series. Most will probably have a travel theme to them (like my wireless hints yesterday). I will be traveling with my MP3 player (Rio Nitrus), laptop (Averatec ultra-portable), digital camera (Canon S2IS), and of course my cell phone/portable Internet and email/maps/calendar/camera phone/a million other things (Palm Treo 650). We also loaded up the bikes for their first foray outside of Colorado. Surely all of this technology and madness will present ample opportunities for some good Shotgun fodder.

Spam on the rise again

I'm not sure what it it is about late summer, but I have noticed the last few years that my spam is at its worst in late July through September and then it tapers off again until the next summer. I have no idea what the correlation is, but it has been consistent the last three years. 

I don't worry about it, however, because my Inbox stays pristine with the help of Cloudmark Desktop. You have heard Adam and I rave about this product for nearly four years now. Without it, I would have probably given up email years ago! <

“I can’t find stuff on your web site”

We get this comment more often than we would like. I'm going to split the responsibility between our web site design and web surfing experience of the folks who tell us they have trouble navigating our site.

Our site has gone immense changes in the past year…for the better. If you might be in the camp who thinks that our current site is tough to navigate, you may have never returned to our old site after an initial visit. Our old site didn't have consistent menu navigation and had a horrible search engine. Our new site has the same menus on every single page that let you navigate to the main parts of our web site. You will find these menus at top right of every single page on our site.