Tech Coach Tom's Tips

Entourage March 11-31 Problem

If you use Entourage 2004, you may have been frustrated and confused about your calendar appointments between March 11, 2007 and March 31, 2007. They are all listed as one hour later than the appointment's actual setting.

If this problem is occurring to you, then make your way to the Microsoft Office Update page where you should download the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.3 update. Once you install the update, those March appointments will be correct.

The problem with the March dates is an acknowledged bug in Entourage, which is described here.

I have observed that many of my clients blame themselves when their computer isn't doing what it's supposed to do. I've also observed that in almost all cases, it was not my clients' fault. There is usually a very good reason why something isn't working properly, and it often has to do with a poor design, or as in this case, it was simply a software engineer's error.

User Review - Netgear SPH200D Cordless Skype Phone

First, the bottom line: If you have been wanting to use Skype to reduce your long-distance bill, but have hesitated because you don't want to be attached to your computer while you are calling, this phone is for you.

This past October, I was asked to beta-test a new cordless phone, the Netgear SPH200D [amazon.com]. What excited me was that it was a Skype phone, and it did not require a computer. I had used Skype once or twice before and I liked the voice quality, but I did not find it compelling enough to continue using it because I did not like being tethered to my computer for long calls.

I do a fair bit of over-the-phone coaching, and the type of calls that I make are usually long, 30 minutes or more, and I like to get up and walk around a bit during the call. So I was looking forward to trying Skype on a real phone.

I've been using this phone in my home office for almost three months and really like it. I'm using it now for all of my outgoing calls and my long distance bill has fallen to zero. I'm also using fewer minutes on my cell phone and saving money there as well.

Voice Quality

The quality of the connection is superb. This phone uses DECT technology [wikipedia.org] which means that it is fairly immune to WIFI interference and disruptions due to microwave ovens and such. I'm able to roam around the house without worrying about dropouts, something that I cannot say about my 2.4GHz cordless phone. I live in a older house with plenty of signal-absorbing plaster and sheetrock and furniture, so I am pleased with the dropout-free wireless performance of the SPH200D.

The voice quality is great too, but there is a slight delay - similar to what you get when your overseas call is routed through a satellite. This is common with most internet based phone services. It just takes a bit of getting used to.

I like the fact that the phone comes with a standard 1/8-inch headset jack - I use a headset for most of my calls.

Setup

There is practically no setup. I just plugged the base unit into my router, and it connected automatically to my network. I did have to punch in my Skype name and password on the numeric keypad, but it turns out that I could have done that easily through a web browser - the base unit has a configuration page similar to other Netgear routers. Once my name and password were in, I could start calling.

The phone displays all of the contacts that you have previously set up with Skype. In fact, I recommend using the Skype software on your computer to enter all of your contacts - it's just easier that way. The phone even shows the amount of Skype credits that I have.

The base unit can also connect to your regular phone line, and when you make a call, you are given a choice of whether to use SkypeOut or your landline. This allows you to use the SPH200D for regular local calls. More importantly, it allows you to make emergency calls, which is something you can't (and shouldn't) do with SkypeOut.

Usage

It's pretty much like using a standard cordless phone, but with some extras. First, all of your contacts are one click away, and you simply scroll through the list and select one. Contacts can either be other Skype users, or regular phone numbers. You can also just enter a number directly.

Starting a call is just like on a cell phone (and unlike a regular phone) - you need to press the call button. At this point, you will be asked whether to SkypeOut or use the landline. Once you've done that, the call starts.

The phone displays the call duration, and when you are finished, it shows the dollar amount of SkypeOut credit remaining. This makes it easy to know when it is time to go to your computer and login to Skype to replenish your account.

You can also change your online status from the phone, so that you appear online, offline, silent, away, etc. But I find it tedious to be changing my status all the time, so I just leave it online.

What about WIFI Skype Phones?

I know that WIFI phones have been around for a while. And on first blush, these seem to be ideal - just connect wherever there is a WIFI signal available. But after giving it a little bit of thought, I decided not to try a WIFI phone.

The main reason is interference. Whenever someone uses the microwave oven, or someone nearby is using a 2.4GHz cordless phone, I've noticed my WIFI connection on my laptop drop or become really weak. This may be fine for intermittent surfing and such, but not for a phone call. I want something more reliable, and the SPH200D meets that requirement.

Things I Didn't Like

To be honest, there is not much to dislike.

The phone has a blocky shape and I find it tiring to hold it to my ear for lengthy calls. But as I mentioned, I use a standard headset for most of my calls.

I think the thing that frustrated me the most was not the phone, but Skype itself. I've been helping my Dad use Skype, and he has had real problems trying to pay for SkypeOut credits with his Visa card. I've never seen such a poorly implemented payment system on the web. According to many of the comments on Skype forum pages, this is affecting a lot of people.

Eventually, I resolved the problem by having my Dad establish a Paypal account and then make a payment that way. But it shouldn't have to come down to this. He should be able to pay with Visa directly, not through Paypal.

Conclusion

I going keep using this phone - the quality is great and I'm saving money. You can't beat Skype's $29.95/year price for calls to the US and Canada.

Of course, Skype-to-Skype calls are always free, a big plus for overseas calls to friends and family if you can get them to use Skype. Hopefully this phone will be available to them as well.

Restoring Windows Native Unzipping

Are you being annoyed by trial software that came with your Windows system, specifically those for unzipping your ZIP archives? Did you know that Windows XP Home and Pro both come with unzipping capability built in?

While there many good archiving programs out there (such as WinZip, WinRAR, WinAce and so on), I think that Windows builtin capability is pretty decent. So to remove the trial software, go to the Add/Remove Programs control panel, find the trial software and remove it. Then do START -> RUN and type the following:

regsvr32 zipfldr.dll

This will restore the unzipping capability in Windows. To uncompress a ZIP archive, right-click the archive and select Extract All....

Windows will extract the contents into a folder located in the same place as the ZIP file.

Tags: windows zip

Who Knew Excel Could Do That

I've been working on some Excel and PowerPoint automation scripts recently, which are really cool, and I came across this resource from PCWorld Magazine that I want to share with you:

Who Knew Excel Could Do That? Ten Top Tips

It has tips like:
- Quickly multiplying a range of cells by a number (without using a formula
- Shading alternate rows
- Adding a dropdown list

Check it out!

Tags: excel

Email Automation

Many of us send emails from work to our home computer to remind us to do something. Why not have your home computer do it for you when it receives the email?

Mac OS X Hints has a neat tip that explains how to send an email from work to your home Mac computer to tell it to run a script. The example shows how to start a bittorrent download. But here are some other examples that might be fun:

Tell Safari to save a bookmark
Save a photo in iPhoto
Add contact information to Address Book
Add an item to your home To Do list

I'm sure that I'll think of many more, but the point is that it is easy to set up email automation and then use emails to trigger that automation. Be creative and see what you can come up with.

Tags: mac OSX safari email

Bookmarklets for Safari

Andy Budd as a nice list of bookmarklets that you can use in your Safari web browser. An example is one that converts a long URL into a TinyURL

Give bookmarklets a try - they are great timesavers!

Tags: mac safari bookmarklet

Screen Capture Just A Window

You are probably familiar with Mac's screen capture shortcuts - Shift-CMD-3 to capture the whole screen and Shift-CMD-4 to capture a portion of the window. But did you know that you can capture just a window?

To capture just a window, press Shift-CMD-4 followed by Shift-CMD-Space. Your windows will be captured as a PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file named Picture 1.png on your Desktop.

Before I knew about this shortcut, I always had to edit my screen capture in Photoshop to make the window look decent. Now all I need to do is to rename the picture and save it in JPEG format, and I'm ready to share my screen capture.

Tags: mac shortcut tip

Maker Faire

This is not a tip but rather a report - I had a great time yesterday and today at the Maker Faire in San Mateo. My most favorite exhibit was Crabfu's steamtoys which showed off such gems as a steam powered centipede and an R/C tank. Another favorite exhibit was Jeff and Anca's cardboard hat making station. They brought along a bunch of cardboard scraps and let everyone build stuff - my daughter built a nice volcano, complete with burning village.

I'm really jazzed by all the stuff that I saw. I can't wait to get into some robotics with my daughter this summer.

Tags: makerfaire

Archive Your iPhotos

Macworld has a great tip for easily archiving your iPhotos and removing them from your computer. In their article, Smarter iPhoto Archives, they suggest using the Smart Album feature that allows you to group photos by date. Create a Smart Album for photos earlier than a specific date and burn them to a CD-R or DVD-R. Then remove those photos from the library. I highly recommend reading the entire article.

Launchbar and AppRocket

You know, I've been typing away on computer keyboards since the late 1970's, and although I thoroughly enjoy using the mouse for operating my computer, I do like staying on the keyboard if at all possible. When I'm in the typing groove, I don't necessarily want to interrupt my flow by stopping, reaching for the mouse, and fumbling around while I search for a file or try to open an application. Fortunately, there are some nice solutions available that let you stay on the keyboard.

For a number of years now I've been using two programs that let me stay on the keyboard when I need to launch new applications or open files. They are LaunchBar for the Mac and AppRocket for Windows. Both are available in as trial versions and they are both low-cost.

How do they work? Basically, both use exactly the same keyboard combination to activate: CMD-Space on the Mac, and ALT-Space on Windows (the CMD and ALT keys are the same on Mac and Windows, even though they are named differently). When you activate LaunchBar or AppRocket, a small list pops down from the top of your screen. The next step is to simply type a combination of 2 or 3 characters (like an abbreviation) and hit Return or Enter.

For Microsoft Word, I type "WO". For Excel, I type "EX". I have several versions of Photoshop, so I'll use "P4" for Photoshop 4.0, or "P7" for Photoshop 7, or "PE" for Photoshop Elements 2.0.

Now sometimes when you type your abbreviation, LaunchBar or AppRocket will guess the wrong thing. Simply use your arrow keys to move down the list until you find the right choice. And here's the cool part: Both LaunchBar and AppRocket are intelligent enough to learn your preferences so the next time you use that abbreviation, your preferred choice is first on the list.

Both LaunchBar and AppRocket are tremendously useful for opening applications, but they are not limited to that - you can use them to open files, photos, contacts, web pages, or MP3 songs.

I really like using LaunchBar and AppRocket - I find them so much quicker than hunting through my All Programs list or Applications Folder. In fact, I removed most of my application shortcuts from my Mac's Dock and Window's Taskbar.

I really encourage you to give LaunchBar or AppRocket a try. I think you'll agree with me that it is just a simpler way to open applications and files. If there is a downside, it is only that you have to recall what the name is of the thing that you want to open. And if you don't, the mouse is still there and waiting.

CD and DVD Labeling with LightScribe

I've been making a lot of recordings onto CDs and DVDs lately (especially recordings from my Tivo) and I've been wanting a simple way to label them.

The simplest method that I've found is the good old Sharpie permanent ink pen, but my penmanship leaves a lot to be desired. I'm looking for something a bit more snazzy.

I've used labels and they're pretty good, but boy I find it's a lot of extra work. I have not tried printable CDs and DVDs - those come with a white surface and you put them into an inkjet printer like the Epson R200. I don't have an R200 nor place the place to put it.

Lately though my interested has been piqued by the LightScribe. It is a new technology that burns a label right onto the surface of the CD or DVD. Their motto is Burn - Flip - Burn. Once you've made your recording, you flip it over to burn the label. That sounds pretty convenient!

I haven't purchased a LightScribe burner yet, but when I do I will report back to you about my experience. In the mean time, send me your CD and DVD labeling experiences and suggestions.

DSL or Cable?

Mark F. Nida, CPCC asks, "What is the difference between DSL and cable connections? And which one is best?"

I'll start with the bottom line to the second question: In my experience, they are pretty much equivalent, so go by price and availability. There is a difference though, so let's dig into it.

Both DSL and cable connections provide high speed access to the internet, much faster by far than dialup. Dialup download speeds average about 4,500 Bytes per second, where DSL can provide up to 150,000 Bytes per second and cable between 150,000 and 750,000 Bytes per second.

From those numbers, your first impression might be that cable delivers much better downloading speed than DSL does. But there are several factors to consider. The main difference is in the way the connection is shared with your neighbors.

When you get a DSL connection, you are getting a dedicated connection. The download speed stays the same no matter what time of day you are accessing the internet.

With cable you are getting a connection that is shared with other cable internet users in your neighborhood. What often happens in the peak online hours of 5PM to 10PM, the download speed drops dramatically for all users in the neighborhood. Typically it will be slower than DSL.

However, not everyone can get a DSL connection. The key is how far you are from the nearest central telephone office. The nearer you are, the faster the connection. You can usually count on full speed if you are within 1 mile of the nearest central office. If you are farther than 3.5 miles, the speed will probably be too slow.

So which is best really depends on several factors, such as your distance from the central office and how many cable internet users there in your neighborhood. The phone company will tell you how far you are and may even tell you what speed to expect. I doubt that you will be able to find out how many cable internet users there are, and besides, that changes over time.

Of course, one of the most important factors is one that I haven't mentioned yet: price. Clearly, this will play a big role in your decision. Expect to pay from $15 to $50 per month for DSL or cable. Don't hesitate to shop around.

My advice is this: If you can get both DSL and cable in your neighborhood at a similar price, and you are near a central office, get DSL. Otherwise, shop by price and availability.

One-Click Maps from your Mac Address Book

Did you know that you can get a map with one-click from Address Book? If you use Apple's Address Book as your contact manager, simpy Control-Click the address and choose Map Of. (If you use a two-button mouse, a Right Click does the same thing).

Address Book will send the address to Safari and open a MapQuest map for you.

What is Podcasting?

Have you noticed how many folks are walking around listening to iPods these days? Did you know that some of these folks are not listening to music, but to audio content that was posted on a website? Whether they have an iPod, MP3 player, or just a computer, they could be listening to your voice delivering your message.

What makes podcasting unique is the way it is delivered. I liken it to Tivo. If you are familiar with Tivo, you know that you only have to subscribe once to record every episode of a particular TV show.

Podcasting is similar. Listeners subscribe once to your podcast feed, and from then on, their computer will automatically download your podcasts and load it into their iPod.

This means that they didn't have to go to your website to look for updated content. It just appears on their iPod a day or two after you posted it to your website. It is just this ease-of-use that makes this process different than posting audio and waiting for someone to find look for it.

Does this interest you? Is this something that you would like to add to your website? Please contact me if you want to know more.

Cheers,
Thomas "Tech Coach Tom" Beutel

More About Podcasting
American Public Radio: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/futuretense/
Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1210/p12s03-stct.html
Houston Chronical: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2902873
Macworld article on BBC Radio: http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/11/22/bbc/index.php

List of podcasts: http://Podcast.net

More Useful Tools

Last time I introduced a number of web tools that I thought were useful enough to have a permanent space on your browser's toolbar. This time I will continue with some more tools, including a few that some of you suggested to me.

Have you ever wondered what a particular website looked like many years ago? Have you ever searched for something with a search engine and clicked on it and the page is no longer there? Wouldn't it be neat to go back in time to see those pages?

Well it turns out that you can go back in time by using the Wayback Machine. Type in the link of a website that you know (or perhaps the one you couldn't access when you searched) and the Wayback Machine will show you what the website looked like long ago.

I was able to use the Wayback Machine on a client project where they were getting many hits for pages that no longer existed. The Wayback Machine allowed me to figure out a mapping between my client's old website and their new pages and thus convert failing page hits to relevant ones.

Speaking of the web, do you want to replicate the Pantone colors of your 4-color marketing brochure on your website? Then you might be delighted to learn about the Pantone color to web color conversion charts. Here you can search for the Pantone color by number and see the equivalent RGB (Red-Green-Blue) for use on your web page.

If you travel or have the opportunity to live for an extended time in another country, you might find metric-conversions.org useful. How many cups in a liter? How many hectares in an acre? Metric-conversions.org has many different metric calculators for weight, length, temperature, volume, and more.

And if you are traveling, you might also find www.xe.com helpful. It's a currency rate and conversion tool with up-to-the-minute exchange rates. How far will $100 US Dollars go in Europe? Enter $100 and press convert to find out right now.

Curious about flags? Check out http://www.fotw.net/flags/iso3166.html for the flags of the world listed alphabetically. You will find the current flag for every nation and a little bit of history behind it too.

Well there you have it! I know that you find these tools helpful and I recommend that you bookmark them so that they will be just one click away when you need them. Please let me know if you have your own recommendations for useful web tools.

Enjoy,
Thomas "Tech Coach Tom" Beutel