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RSS – Really Simple Syndication

Admittedly, I’m always a little late to some technologies. Sometimes because of a time factor and other times because it takes me awhile to figure out a use for the technology. One technology that has been around a few years that I’m just starting to take advantage of is RSS.

RSS allows any web user to ‘subscribe’ (for free) to an automated feed from a web site. At first, I thought, "hmm, why not just visit the sites you are interested in instead of having the headlines (and summaries) delivered to me in an RSS program or email." Now, I can see that getting customized headlines delivered to me immeadiately is an extension of personalized portal pages like MSN and My Yahoo. In fact, one HUGE reason that Adam and I worked so hard in the fall to redesign and orgainze our site was to be able to offer a clean way of offering RSS on our site.

Find black single christians in your area!

Ya gotta love spam sometimes. The above title was the subject line of a spam email sent to an elderly white client of mine who has been happily married to her husband for decades.

With a straight face, I told her not to judge the company that sent the spam until she had tried the service. She didn’t think that was funny. 

Is this the guy sending me viagra ads and stock tips?

I had to snap a photo of this with my Treo and post it to the web site. Whether it's the meat (can we call it that?) or the junk we get in our email box, I think it is a peculiar bumper sticker. What do you think?

 

I can get on Yahoo! but I can’t connect to the Internet

Let me begin by saying that it is never the purpose of our Shotgun articles to make fun our clients or make anyone feel ignorant. We often use examples from our daily adventures simply to point out common problems, misconceptions or new problems to watch out for.

Today I had a client who told me she couldn’t get on the Internet, she could only read her Yahoo! email.

When I hear something like this, I know that the client has a misunderstanding about something or I don’t understand the problem.

Since Yahoo! is on the Internet, you have to be able to connect to the Internet to use their services. When I got to her house I discovered that her computer helpers at home had put shortcuts to Yahoo!, Google and one that just opened the browser to a home page.

Do your parents a favor, follow through with your favors

Most of my clients are over 50 and a good portion of them are over 65. I have learned that age has nothing to with computer aptitude. Computer aptitude is determined 99 percent by computer attitude. Those who are not afraid or intimidated by their computer are the ones who learn the fastest, no matter their age, gender or religious background.

One of my primary goals with my business, with the show and with the newsletter is to convey the message that you don’t have to be a computer wiz to use a computer.

I have many clients who do nothing but email on their computers and I don’t in any way feel that they are under utilizing their computer. If your life is made easier in any way because of your computer, then you are using it for its intended purpose.

Searching through the email

Many of you are familiar with how to search the Internet, but did you know you could search through your email similarly? Look for the "Search" function in Thunderbird and the "Find" function in Outlook or Outlook Express in the  Edit menu.

Using these tools, you can quickly search through hundreds of messages to find a specific sender, content of the message, etc. Simply fill in the boxes corresponding to the information you want to search for. You can choose to search for a word in the From, To, Subject or Body of the message.

Laptops are perfectly adequate computers

One of my customers today just purchased a laptop to compliment her desktop computer. She wasn’t thrilled about the idea of having two computers, but didn’t realize that her new laptop was every bit as capable as her older desktop computer.

She isn’t alone. Many computer users think size equals power. When they look at a svelte laptop and compare it to a large black or beige box, they think it must be missing something. In specific instances (designing the next Golden Gate Bridge or editing the next Oscar winning movie or playing the latest FPS game) laptops will not perform as well as a souped up desktop computer. However for most general computing purposes (Internet, word processing, email, digital photography, etc), laptop computers are perfectly capable.

Good ol’ AOL

Amazingly, I have not railed against AOL yet in any of my ‘Shotguns’. No matter how hard I try, somehow the topic comes up. Just today, I helped a customer hook up her new DSL Internet and cancel her AOL account. By switching to DSL, she is saving about $2 a month locally and gaining so much more service. In some areas, you can save $10 or more by switching to DSL.

What else is gained by switching to DSL service from AOL?

The power of databases

Lately, I have been helping a business customer set up a database to help manage a portion of their business. Databases are highly underutilized in the small to medium sized business. Databases differ greatly to spreadsheets and potentially offer many more benefits to using spreadsheets.

Properly designed and built, a database can save many hours of data entry and reduce entry errors to almost zero. Databases also provide the opportunity to instantly extract subsets of information from the data…this is done through a process called queries. Reporting functions also excel (no pun intended) with databases and can be customized to meet any need.

Never be embarrassed

One of my stops today led me to a nice woman who said that she was somewhat embarrassed that she didn’t use her computer for more "important" purposes. She described that her computer usage primarily revolved around email, browsing the Internet and an occasional word processing document. When I explained to her that she wasn’t alone and that many people I see use their computers for exactly the same purposes, she was quite surprised.

One of my philosophies about computers is that you should never do something just because someone else is or someone else told you so. I think it is good advice for life too. If you are happy with how your computer works and with the types of activities you can perform, then great, no worries. Using a computer is a very individual undertaking and there is no reason that we all have to be performing the exact same functions with them.