Windows 7 and the curse of retraining

As a computer person, I am in the position where I need to constantly retrain myself. Many of the things I learned in college are already obsolete. A career in computers always presents new challenges and new opportunities, and that is part of what I like about it.

I find that many people hate the fact that things change. Computerization of jobs is one thing. I know two doctors with small offices who are pretty computer illiterate. They both plan on retiring if and when they have to submit all medical claims electronically instead of faxing or mailing them. I certainly can understand that. In that situation they feel there is too much added expense (in time and/or money) in retraining themselves, buying equipment, and possibly hiring an assistant to do the computer work.

However, even computer literate users generally dislike retraining. I understand the thought. People who are not in the computer field seem to look at computers as an appliance, much like a stove. If I had to retrain myself on how to use a stove every year I'd dislike that and just order out more.


Since people don't like the idea of retraining, they tend to use a new tool the way they used the old tool. However, newer versions of tools generally include better ways to do things. For example, since Windows 95, I used the same process to take a picture of what is on my screen and save it. I would hit the print screen button on my keyboard (or hit alt+printscreen to only capture the current window). If I wanted to only keep a part of the image instead of the whole thing, I would then open a program like Photoshop, create a new file, paste the screen image, select the part I want, crop it down, and save. This process is clunky, but it works, and this was just how I did things.  Windows 7 (and some versions of Vista) include a tool called the Snipping Tool. This tool would let me take an image of part of my screen in many less steps. Were I not constantly playing around with new features, I would be less efficient. For those of you who haven't started using this cool tool, here is the Microsoft Snipping Tool tutorial.

Rather than learn new versions of a tool, people may even actively seek ways to make the new tool look like the old tool. For example, when Office 2007 came out, people hated the Ribbon interface, which replaced the old menu interface. A number of companies released tools (such as ubitmenu) that allowed users to display the old menus back in Office 2007.

For me, retraining is part of the allure of computers, but if you are among those who view it as a curse, I can understand the thought.

Monetizing a Site

As some of you know, I teach courses that involve Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, social networking, and other such material. For me, it is critical to be involved with some of these because it keeps me up to date on the stuff I am teaching. After all, if I am not staying involved with these things, how can I speak to their effectiveness, ease of implementation, and details?

I'll definitely talk about this in my Internet course this semester, but I felt like it might be a good idea to put some information out about how people make money off of Web sites, even if they are not selling products or services online. Here are three ways a Web site can make money with no risk, and links to sites I have personal experience with.

Advertising: Google has a program called AdSense, which allows a Web site owner to sign up and set up an account to display ads. Through a pretty straightforward step-by-step process, they are given the option to choose how invasive they want the ads to be. For example, you will notice I have a few small ads on this site. Through Google's Blogger service (which hosts my blog for free), it is even simpler. For other sites, Google will give you some HTML code that you embed in your Web site. If you don't know what that means, your Web developer will.
From my own experience, I've been running this blog since 2006. Google will send you a check after you make $100, and I haven't received a check yet. If I were being paid by the blog post, I'd probably be making about 20 cents a post. If my goal was to try to make money, I could choose to display more ads, or make the ads more prominent. I am also displaying blog entries in my Facebook account, so I assume many of my students are viewing this through Facebook and don't even see the ads, which also cuts down on possible ad revenue. In terms of keeping myself fresh with the technology, I will usually hop on and change the format a little bit before I talk about it in class. This way, I can speak about the latest version of Google AdSense from my own personal experience.
Is Google the only site that allows you to advertise? No. However, Google is pretty trustworthy. There are other, less ethical sites that allow users to display ads and may pay more. However, some of them use some shady business principles.
In general, if you are a small Web site, Google AdSense allows you to easily connect with advertisers without having to worry about doing much work.

Affiliate Marketing: Sites such as Amazon and Walmart offer affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing basically allows me as a Web site owner to provide links to Walmart or Amazon. If anyone clicks on those links and buys something, I get a small percentage of that sale. Amazon Associates is among the most popular. Users can log in and get a personalized link.
Users can link directly to a product, or just to the main site. Amazon requires a minimum payment of $100 before they will pay you. Again, I may reference it once in a while, but I've never received a check from them because I really don't push for clicks. I have a small link on the right hand side of my blog, and will once in a while go and build a link to stay on top of things.
Sites that really want to monetize may even ask their users to click on the Amazon link they have provided if they are going to buy something anyway, as it will help support them. The more a user sells, the larger a percentage of fees they get.
As a member I see (sometimes on a weekly basis) how they are changing the program. Amazon and some states are in court because of Amazon Associates. The short form is that states are suing them because states feel this program should compel Amazon to charge sales tax. Looooong story there.

On-Demand Publishing: Sites like CafePress allow users to upload a logo. Once the logo has been uploaded, you can decide what you want it to be on. Do you want it to be on t-shirts? mugs? underwear? You then choose how much markup you want to ad and provide your users with a link to the site. This is a great option for a company that does not want to risk buying t-shirts and then having them not sell. As a matter of fact, one of my students last semester mentioned he set up a site like this for one of his high school organizations. I've got a small site on there I haven't played with in a few years, but it's kind of a neat way for Web site owners to create shirts with no overhead, or for artists to make logo shirts, mugs, and other items.

If you have a Web site or are an artist of sorts, these are some options available to you.

There's an option for that

One thing many computer users don't seem to intuitively understand is the idea of customization for the programs and apps they are using.

My approach to using software is to try to use the software, and when I find something I don't like, to try to find some way to change it. For example, inside of Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can change the start page. Most computer savvy users know this, but one of my friends just called this morning saying he changed his somehow and couldn't figure out how to switch it back.

This applies to Web sites as well. For example, Facebook allows you to turn off certain notification emails, change privacy settings, and change many other options. Most free email providers allow you to set up "filters", which would basically let you screen your mail (for example, you could have all email from people at a certain college go in to a special folder so it does not fill up your Inbox, but does not get deleted). If you use a site such as Yahoo! Calendar, you can set it up so it will send email reminders for events to a certain email address or phone number by default, instead of having to set that up every time you create a new event. Even games like World of Warcraft are customizable. You can switch things on or off using some of the menus in a game.

Chances are, if you are annoyed by something, there is an option to change it. Don't like Excel starting every file with three worksheets? You can change that. Do you hate it when you open a bunch of windows, and things compress on your taskbar? That can be changed. Would you prefer your Word to always space in one inch when you hit tab instead of a half inch? That can be done. Does your Blackberry give you annoying little "message sent successfully" messages every time you send an email? That can be removed.

The key is knowing that things can probably be changed, and finding the answer on the Internet.

Proper Hardware Disposal

In one of my classes last week, we discussed the proper way to get rid of old computer hardware, to avoid privacy issues.

I've gotten rid of old computers, but I generally either keep the hard drives (to destroy) or use software to do a thorough wipe of the drive's data When I say "thorough wipe", I am not talking about deleting files, because data can easily be recovered from a hard drive, EVEN AFTER YOU DELETE IT. Really. As a matter of fact, Microsoft's pre-Windows operating system, DOS, used to include an undelete tool which could recover deleted files easily.

eBay is one place people can purchase used hard drives, and they even provide information on why you need to thoroughly wipe a hard drive before you sell it. You can see that the site shows that social security numbers, credit card numbers, and all sorts of stuff can be found on these hard drives. This means your identity can be stolen even if you do nothing wrong, if a company you have purchased from does not follow good procedures for hard drive disposal. Aside from eBay, there are sites like Craigslist where people get rid of old hardware, and there are always garage sales. In the corporate environment, many colleges and companies pay companies to dispose of old hardware (such as eRevival locally). If you go with a cut-rate company, you may find that though they promise to clean hard drives, they may not do so thoroughly. Any of these are ways that data can be leaked if the hard drives are not wiped.

One way you can provide a level of security is to physically destroy the hard drive, though someone could pick it out of the trash and recover something. The best way is to do a full wipe of the hard drive, or what we used to call a "zeroize" at the company I used to work for. We were putting defense systems in military crafts, and one of the requirements was that the pilot needed to have a button to wipe all the data in the system, to prevent classified data from falling in to the enemy's hands. (Yes, that information is public.)

The Department of Defense has pretty high standards for data wiping, and there are a number of tools that meet their standards. The problem is most of these tools cost money. The one that I recommend is a free tool called Darik's Boot and Nuke (available for download at www.dban.org). Despite the informal name, it is a legitimate program (referenced by CNN and the BBC). There are commercial tools that do this sort of thing as well, but the major difference is not function, it is speed (DBAN has a reputation for being slow - the BBC article says it took two hours for an 80GB drive). DBAN is cool because it gives you a CD to boot off of, and you select the depth of the wipe you want. The more depth you want, the longer it will take to run. If you are going to do this, I would recommend choosing the most in-depth wipe, doing it before you go to bed (as a home user) or before you leave work in the evening (at work), and just letting it run overnight. That way, there is no time wasted waiting for wipe to be completed. In a professional environment, having a DBAN CD around is not a bad thing, especially so your company does not end up in violation with the standards that govern your industry (Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, FACTA, etc.).

A larger company may want to invest in faster, packaged software for this, or a hard drive sanitizer (such as this one - though I am certain their claim of 7 minutes per drive is for the simple wipe and not the seven-pass version).

Any of these options are better than the ol' sledgehammer method, because who wants to clean up that mess?

Stalking a criminal

The Internet has obviously changed many things. One thing it has changed is crime. Criminals are known to use sites like Craigslist and eBay to sell stolen goods.

It's interesting how people have also used this in the investigation of crimes. For example, a woman recently had a GPS stolen, and used Craigslist to get in touch with someone who was selling a GPS of the same brand the next day. She contacted the guy, got his email address, used that to find his profile on an online dating site, used that information to find him on Myspace....

The police were able to get video footage from a McDonald's where he used her card, and the Myspace profile matched the face of the person on the video.

It's a lesson that (as she says) you never know who you are robbing.

Link to story

The Weakest Link: Password Reminders

Security vs. Ease of Use...always is a tradeoff.

I always use an example of a car security system in class. If I could GUARANTEE that no one could steal your car, and it wouldn't be expensive to install, you'd probably go for it, right?

What if I then told you it would take 90 minutes to get in to the car? At that point, the security isn't worth it.

Generally, when you sign up for accounts, you are given very few choices for password hints. For example, what is your mother's maiden name? Or, where were you born?

The problem is that some of these things can be found out from social networking sites or even from personal knowledge. For example, if you friend your mother, everyone who is a friend of yours now knows the answer to that security question, especially if you use the Facebook "related to" option to show she is your mother. Where were you born can be guessed many times as well, even without Facebook. Where I went to high school, I would guess that most of the students were born in the same hospital. In more rural areas, that isn't as tough of a question as you might think. A good private investigator might chat you up in a bar to find out the answer to the question "what was the name of your first pet", if the answer to that question is valuable enough. In divorce cases, this sort of information can be a gold mine. If you are going through a divorce, remember that things like birthdays and anniversaries are things your future ex may know, and they can circumvent your password that way. Even things like "what is your blood type" aren't great, because how many possible choices are there? (A, B, AB, and O, I think). Even questions like "who is your favorite actor/actress" is tough, because answers change.

On the other hand, no one wants the question to be "pick your favorite number between 122 and 488".

Some sites will let you create your own questions, which present their own problems. People may tend to make even easier questions ("what is your middle name"), or really poor questions ("what color shirt are you wearing"). Yes, I've seen questions like this when helping people.

One of the better questions I have seen is "what is your father's middle name". I couldn't tell you the middle name of my friend's fathers, so this would require a little more work. Other good questions might be "what was the first bone you ever broke" - certainly something you would remember, but still vague.

Another clever idea that hasn't taken off is "Passfaces", where people use visual reminders as a password. Clever idea either as a replacement for a password or as something to augment password reminder security, but not mainsteam yet.

The best defense is to pair sets of questions together, asking people to answer multiple questions to get access. Another way would be to give people a checklist, for example, ask "which of the following statements are true about you", give a list of 15 things, and have the person check off which they have done. For example, give statements like:
I have shoplifted something worth more than $10.
I have been to Cincinnati.
My first car was white, yellow, brown, or green.

Have the person check off yes or no for each, and they are only granted access if all 15 questions are correct. Even if someone tries to guess their way through that, that is hundreds of possible responses. The problem here is that the best questions are the deeply personal ones that no one else knows the answer to. These are also the questions people might be shy about answering honestly. For example, the "shoplifted" question is good, but would I really check off "Yes" if this were a password reminder for a company I work for?

Or, you can do what I do, and give fake answers to the questions in a way that you will still remember it. Or, just use your mother's maiden name everywhere and wonder how all your accounts got hacked on the same day.

Out of Office Message and Privacy Risks

I remember as a child my parents used to have an answering machine.  For those of you too young to remember those, they were basically like voicemail, except they plugged in to the wall.  I remember at some point my parents changed the message from "we are not home right now" to "we can't take your call right now".  I remember the explanation was that if you said "we are not home right now", a criminal would know you weren't home, but the other message might give them pause.  My parents did not lock the doors, by the way, so I do not think an answering machine message would deter them.  I suppose I can see not wanting to say "we are out of the country from June 1 through June 10", but do you really confuse criminals by saying "we can't take your call right now"?  I guess I never felt like it would be a deterrent.

The reason this came to mind is because as I mentioned I am going to be away from PCCC next year.  I am considering what to do with my out of office message.  By putting one out there, there is a slight risk of that information being used against the College.  A smart social engineer could in theory find a way to leverage that information.  However, the alternative is to check my work email, and I am in theory not supposed to when I am on leave.

We use Microsoft Exchange.  This will allow me to put up an out of office message.  I have the choice to reply only to people in the same domain (@pccc.edu) or only to people outside our domain (everyone else), or simply everyone.  Most people would just put up an out of office message saying to contact their department chair, but the problem is that by doing so, I open up two accounts for spam.  If a spammer sends an email that gets past the email filters, they will get a reply not only showing my email is active, but also giving the spammer my department chair's email address. 

I could also make it a little more complicated, for example, say email
person at pccc dot edu
(which would of course translate to person@pccc.edu)
...but some people would get confused with this.

Making matters more complicated is that I have some business contacts that I would like to be able to contact me.  If I want them to be able to find me, I should probably provide some sort of email address for them to use to contact me.  So, the end result is going to be me setting up a new email account, to protect my home account from spam, and an added risk to both my email address and my department chair's email address.

Now, to figure out what this message should say...

Professionalism and what they don't teach you in college

All of a sudden, I feel like the committee that put together our schedule was brilliant.  They scheduled it on  the week of Daylight Saving Time, which gives us all a week to get used to the new time schedule.  If it were planned, I would be impressed, but I do get the feeling it was not actually planned and is just a coincidence.

I was thinking about something this morning, and it has to do with professionalism, and how these things are not formally taught in a classroom.  Specifically, I was thinking back to a moment about ten years ago, and how I personally didn't understand professionalism once I got in to the workplace.  My first place of employment out of college was an Internet startup, and the standards there were, shall we say, lax.  It was a rather informal environment, and it was a perfect adjustment for me coming out of college.

However, the Internet startup days were ending, and the company wasn't meant to succeed.  Many of the employees saw the writing on the wall and started to look elsewhere for employment.  A friend of mine worked at a place in Clifton, and I was hired there.  It was quite a change.  At Montclair State in graduate school, I remember we talked about this thing called COCOMO in a Software Metrics class, and we discussed how large companies and small companies differ.  I understood that on a logical level, but going from a company of 40 people to a company of 40,000 (really) was a culture shock.  Where I used to walk in to work in a football jersey and jeans, I now was expected to be in business casual attire.  Where I was used to not needing to be in the door EXACTLY at 8:30 am if I didn't mind staying later, I now needed to be.  Where I was used to being able to use the Internet at lunch time and at various points in the day to check personal email, it was now monitored and reported to supervisors.  I struggled with this, because I was doing a good job, and I didn't see why this other stuff mattered.

There was building access at ITT 24 hours a day, and there were times I needed to come in during off-peak hours to work on things.  I came in on a Sunday and worked 10 hours one day, because there was a limited number of systems we could use to test our software, and it made our lives easier.  Since it was a Sunday, and there was rarely anyone else there, I didn't think it was a big deal to come in wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  To make a long story short, one of the more established members of my department was also there, and told my boss, and he talked to me about it.  Another time, I was working overnight for the same reasons as I mentioned before, and I brought in music and a radio.  Since no one was around, I had the music playing loudly.  A similar situation arose, where someone mentioned it to my boss.  My reaction at the time was to wonder why these people were not minding their own business.  However, I sort of understand it now.  I had to drop my ego in order to really start to succeed in the business world.  I dressed the way that was expected, acted as if someone were around, even if they were not, and generally tried to behave the way other people in the company were.  I bristled at this, but it was my route to success.

I say this because I know employers complain about students sometimes, and the complaints typically are not about technical capabilities, but in the business savvy, or "soft skills".  A friend of mine was recently laid off, and I know from my personal relationship that they can be somewhat abrasive and irresponsible.  Companies, many times, make personnel decisions based on the way you fit in to a company.  Even if they say that they are laying you off because of cut backs, many times that is just a way to fire someone without having to show cause.  Things like dress code, business communication, taking constructive criticism...these are things that people are not necessarily taught.  My feeling is that college should be part of that.  When you as a student deal with a professor, it's a chance to practice interacting with a boss and authority figure.  When you are in college, some of the things you can get used to that will help you professionally are timeliness, maturity, responsibility, and how to be less egocentric.  These were some of things I had to learn, at least.

Watching TV on your PC

I like watching TV shows, and I finally broke down and got a digital video recorder (DVR) at some point, because it was a pain to program my VCR to record all the shows I wanted to see (and yes, I said VCR).

I know many people like the idea of watching television on the PC, because you can do it from locations (like work), and you aren't on the network schedules.  Hulu is a great site for this.  It's free (advertising supported), legal, and lets you view episodes of many shows that have aired recently, even if you don't pay for a television package.  Unlike sites like megavideo, you also don't have to worry about legal issues, time restrictions, and spyware.

www.hulu.com

If you are like me, you can also hook up an old PC to your television and use Hulu to watch shows on your TV.  I took an old machine, wiped it out, put a basic operating system and security suite on it, and it's now my TV computer.

Using Technology to Save Money

Among other things, I like saving money.  I brought this up in both of my CIS 101 courses, but when I look to buy things, I use the Internet to help me find some deals.
For example, rather than simply going to Staples to buy something, I check prices online.  It's not worth my time to go visit 20 sites to get the best price, so my time is also a consideration.  The best solution is to use one of the sites that do the work for me.  Two such sites are PriceGrabber.com and Google Products (formerly called Froogle).  Let's say I wanted toner for my home printer - a Samsung SCX 4100.  If I go to PriceGrabber, I see the price on Staples is $95.39.  However, if I were willing to go with another company, I could get it as low as $68.70.  Not bad for a few minutes work!  Now, in this case, the vendor with the low price is one I don't know, so I could also read merchant reviews on the site, and make a decision on how safe I want to be.

They also offer generic toner, so if I were willing to do that, I could get a generic cartridge for this device for $30.99.  That is a savings of almost $65 from the original retail price, if I am willing to go with a generic cartridge.  As a bonus, the retailer with the lowest price is one I am familiar with and one who has excellent reviews.  If I needed toner, I'd go with the generic cartridge for that price.

I used toner as an example here, but you can try anything and see the results...a Nintendo Wii...a Panasonic VIERA 50" Plasma TV...an LG Refrigerator...Acqua Di Gio Cologne...a Fellowes Intellishred SB-99Ci Shredder...Note that not everything on the site has multiple vendors listed, but it is a good site to do some initial research.  Remember - if there is a site you are not sure if you trust, read reviews, and feel free to make a decision from there.  These sites do not discriminate between big sites (Dell, Staples, etc) and small sites, so all will be listed.

There are other places I go for other deals, but if there is something specific I am looking for, I usually start on PriceGrabber or Froogle.

Windows 7 "God Mode"

One cool thing about new software is that there are all sorts of things that are built in there that will be found.  Most of the time, you are looking at bugs or other problems in the software, but recently a Windows 7 feature has come out called "God Mode".

This feature is basically a secret warp zone to most of the common tasks that you typically find in different areas of Windows.  For example, display settings are in one spot, adding printers is somewhere else, and things like "Set up ODBC sources" ... well, I couldn't even tell you where that is normally.

Anyway, this is an interesting feature...my only question is why was it so deeply hidden?

Link to Article

Free RAM Analysis Tool

I always seem to walk out of other people's classrooms learning something.

I observed one of our part-time faculty a few weeks ago (this is part of my responsibility as a faculty member), and she gave an example that I plan on using in the future.

One thing I always have trouble explaining to students is what type of RAM they need.  The best answer I've been able to give is to consult the manufacturer's Web site, which is admittedly a pain in the rear end.

Crucial (a company that makes RAM) has made available for free a memory scanner.  This program will tell you how much RAM you have, along with how many slots you have available.  If you were considering a RAM upgrade, this is vital information, and this tool saves you having to open up the PC. 

www.crucial.com/systemscanner/

Test Taking Strategies

I am in the process of grading some tests and I was struck by how many people are having problems not only with the material (this always happens), but also how many are just not answering questions.

Here are some things that I can offer as suggestions:

• Read the instructions! For example, if I am giving short answer type questions, I always include the words "using complete sentences" in the instructions. Many professors will take off points if they ask for sentences and get fragments. Likewise, for true/false questions, I always ask for people to write out "true" or "false". This way I don't get a letter that is a combination of a T and an F.

• Answer the questions as asked. When a question asks "Discuss xxxxxxx", what the professor is looking for is NOT a list. For example, if I asked "Discuss three sandwiches", I wouldn't expect the answer would be "peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese, eggplant". If I simply wanted three answers, I would likely say something like "List three sandwiches" or "Name three sandwiches". When a professor asks a student to "discuss" or "describe", they are looking for more information.When a professor asks "compare and contrast X and Y", this is going to require two separate parts to your answer. First should be a comparison of X and Y (how they are similar) and second should be contrasting of X and Y (how they are different). If I asked you to compare and contrast baseball and football, the correct answer would not be a definition of baseball, followed by a definition of football. Instead, a correct answer would include a comparison (for example, baseball and football are both team sports, both are played in stadiums, etc), followed by contrasting (while baseball has nine players on the field at a time from one team, football has eleven, baseball uses a circular ball that is struck with a bat while football uses an oblong ball that is thrown and kicked).
  
  
• Be on time and ready to go! If you get there on time, you will get your choice of seat and have the chance to relax before the test starts. I remember I was 45 minutes late for a final once, and I was overly stressed for that reason. I personally also schedule tests to have a set time frame, for example, one hour. If a student shows up 30 minutes late, they now have only 30 minutes to complete the test. Also, take care of any bathroom-type business before the test starts. Many professors do not allow bathroom breaks during tests, because there is potential for cheating.
  

Going to head back to do some more grading, but I wanted to put this information out there.

Shut down telemarketers!

I recently wrote about the telemarketing laws that have changed. However, I realized I never mentioned the National Do Not Call registry.

A number of years back, a law was passed requiring most telemarketers to not call people if they asked not to be called. The problem is that I as a telemarketer could get your phone number and distribute your phone number to 100 other telemarketing companies. Even if you told my company to remove it, the other people still have your phone number.

The government stepped in and set up a free service - the National Do Not Call registry. You put your phone number in the system, and most telemarketers are required to not call you. If they do, you can report them and they face heavy fines. Most telemarketers will be required to stop calling you 31 days from your registration date, so if you put it in the system today, you should be safe by the end of next month at worst.

Of course, there are exceptions. First of all, any company that you have a business relationship with is exempt (though you can still ask them to remove you if they call). So, your phone company, cable company, etc. can do so. In addition, if you order from a Web site and give them your phone number, you may also be opening yourself to legal telemarketing calls.

Other exceptions include charities, political organizations (of course, because guess who passed the law - politicians!), and surveys that don't include any sales pitch.

The Federal Communications Commission does seem to pursue complaints. I was able to find a list with a hundred citations of companies that have been complained about and been fined as a result. The biggest so far was a Florida based company named Dynasty Mortgage, which got a warning and apparently kept calling people, leading to two sets of fines totaling around $1.5 million dollars.

No harm in signing up, because once again, it's free!

donotcall.gov

Fat Fingers

Late last year, I got a PS3 for myself, and I was looking to pick up a few games for it. One game I wanted was Guitar Hero, and I wasn't finding very good prices. I went to eBay, and same thing, there weren't a ton of great prices. I decided to try a site that I've used called fat fingers.

When an eBay seller lists an item for sale, they specify the keywords that go in the listing title, etc. People make mistakes, and if they make typographical errors, the end result is sometimes that they just don't get people to see their item. If no one sees it, no one buys it.

Anyway, fat fingers is a free site that will find auctions that are spelled wrong. For example, I was able to find an auction for "Gutar Hero" when I searched, and it was an auction starting at $5. I bid $5, and no one else bid on the item (because they didn't find it due to the spelling error), and I got a brand new copy of Guitar Hero for $5 plus shipping. When I bought this, this was an excellent price for it.

Note that this works well especially with eBay auctions. If it is a "fixed price" auction, you probably aren't getting a deal, but if it is an auction, you have a great chance of putting in a low bid and winning something.

I am still shocked that eBay hasn't found some way to fix this, because when their sellers lose money, they also lose money on commission.

Anyway, here's the site:
www.fatfingers.com

Job Seeking Techniques

I am serving on a few search committees for positions at my college and it got me thinking about mistakes people make in the job search process. I also have a Web link later. Let me present the following hypothetical situations that could be reality.

• Imagine a person applying for a faculty position sending in a 15 page resume. Do you think anyone is going to read it? (Resumes are typically much much shorter, and I doubt Barack Obama's resume is 15 pages)
  
• Imagine someone sending a cover letter saying they were looking forward to interviewing...except it lists the name of another college. What does that say about an applicant?
• Imagine reading a resume for a non-labor position and seeing someone listing their height and weight...why would I care if I were an interviewer?
• Imagine a resume or cover letter with typographical errors that are so mangled that they are near unreadable at points. Guess what happens to that resume?
• Imagine a resume arriving for a position that requires a certain degree, and the person doesn't make their degree clear on their resume. Guess what happens to that resume?
• Imagine showing up for an interview for a highly paid position...in jeans and a t-shirt. What message does that send?
• Imagine not being on time for an interview...what message does that send interviewers?
• Imagine being asked about your current job and talking bad about them. Even if it is true, that sends a poor message!

These are all situations that could and do happen. You obviously don't want to be "that person" if you can avoid it.

I saw an article on the Web at some point that details some of the common interviewing mistakes people make, and I thought it might be a decent thing to link.

Link to article

Become a Gmail Ninja

Google's Gmail is a nice little email program, ignoring questions about privacy, of course. For example, there are ways to set it up so you can automatically filter things. If your email address is JuanPena@gmail.com, you can create "disposable email addresses". I could send email to JuanPena+dfkjhasdkjlhfldksj@gmai.com an it would still get to you. You could then give out one version of your email to your friends - the easy one - and use another one for Web sites you trust - and a third version for Web sites that you don't really want to have your email address, but you have to give them one for something.

The cool part is that you can then use Gmail's filtering system to automatically ignore anything sent to the junk version of your email address - so if someone emails JuanPena+spam@gmail.com, you could have that automatically put in to a garbage folder, or you can have it deleted automatically!

Obviously this is not something everyone can do easily. What Google decided to do is create the aforementioned Gmail Ninja site. They've divided things up in to four categories - basically, easy, medium, hard, and really complex - and this way, based on the skill level you select, it will show you tips.

I like this idea because there are plenty of Gmail help sites out there...and Google has taken ownership of it and organized it in a logical way.

http://www.google.com/mail/help/tips.html

How to attract Web site visitors

One of the things we don't spend a lot of time on in our curriculum is how people can attract people to their Web site. You can have the best looking Web site, one that does a ton of cool stuff, but if no one visits it, you've got a problem. As a Web developer, customers will look to you for some expertise in this area.

Of course, one of the best things that can be done is for a person to start advertising themselves - print new business cards with the Web site address, add the address to existing publications (menus, newsletters, whatever), etc. Making information available is definitely one of the goals of a Web site, and if putting prices or directions on the Internet helps someone find you without calling your employees, you've saved time, and therefore money.

However, this does not address how to attract new customers, which should also be part of a Web presence goal. Let's say you did a Web site for a small pizza place in Paterson. Someone new to the area says "I want a pizza" and puts pizza paterson nj in to Google...will your site show up? Will it show up high on Google's rankings?

(Those are two VERY different questions, by the way)

You can submit your Web site to just about any search engine for free. For example, you can add it to Google here:
http://www.google.com/addurl/

The only problem is, you're not going to show up at the top of the rankings.

You could also pay to have this done, and it's typically around $50-$100 to submit your site to over 100 search engines, big and small. It sounds like a lot of money, perhaps, but if you're being paid $30 an hour to do Web site design, it would take you more than 3 hours to submit to that many search engines. It might be worth charging the customer for that and letting the service do the work for you. (an example of how this service works)

There are also ways you can optimize your placement. There is no one solution that is perfect - no one knows the exact formula Google uses to rank pages, though we have guesses. There are times where you can re-order words, change HTML code, etc. to improve your ranking on Google. The META tag keyword choice is important - what words to choose? How many to use? Use too many and your keywords seem less important to Google, too few and you may not be found.

Though it is an expense, sometimes it pays off to pay to advertise the Web site. There are many services, including Google AdSense, that will allow you to advertise. There are also more targeted Web sites. For example, you can advertise locally on yellowpages.com, or on local sites like northjersey.com or patersononline.com. This way, you are relatively sure you are getting people who are local to you. If you are dealing with a client base who speak another language, knowing local publications in that language can help as well (for example, eldiario.com for Spanish speakers).

Inbox Zero

One of the problems in this electronic age is that there are so many emails that need to be answered. Personally, I have a hard time keeping up at times; I have around 100-150 students a semester. Add to that vendors, colleagues, students interested in our CIS department programs or Graphic Design programs, adjunct faculty, and prospective students, and I have a lot of people who send me email messages.

One of the first things that has to go on my work email is forwards. Sometimes, students (and colleagues) decide to send me forwards, and I have to be firm about that not being okay. For example, I recently received a forward about how teaching math has changed. It's cute and all, but I've seen it about four times already, plus, it's not appropriate use of my work email. (Most companies have formal policies on email like this one specifically requiring email use be restricted to work purposes only).

Secondly, the use of templates has helped me a lot. I've got some templates set up for students who email with questions regarding the Graphic Design program, as well as potential adjuncts who send resumes in (my department chair, Professor Siegel, has had me overseeing this lately). Instead of having to think I can copy and paste from my Flash drive. For example, if I get a resume from a potential adjunct, I have this template handy:

Hello,

My name is Eric Cameron. I am a member of the CIS faculty at PCCC. Your resume was forwarded to me.

The school typically requires a Master's Degree from teaching applicants, but we will keep your resume on file.

The school typically requires prior teaching experience from teaching applicants, but we will keep your resume on file.

At the moment, our department is in the process of reviewing resumes for the Fall 2009 semester. We are specifically looking for someone who can teach daytime courses. Please let me know if you would have any availability for teaching day courses.

We will keep your resume on file as we look to fill courses.

Regards,
Eric

--
Eric Cameron
Assistant Professor, CIS/Engineering Department
Coordinator, Graphic Design Certificate
Passaic County Community College

Now, notice there are three parts in there that I've highlighted in red. The reason is that most resumes will not see the first two lines (about the Master's degree and about the teaching experience). Those are there because at times I saw people sending in resumes with no Master's degree or no teaching experience. Our department rarely hires someone with no teaching experience, and even more rarely hires someone without the Master's degree. So, basically, when I get a resume, I open it up, check the experience and education, and reply. I paste the template in to an email and just cut out the parts that don't apply.

This has saved me a ton of time, and it helps the department. If someone sends a resume, and doesn't hear anything for six months, they are less likely to respond if we do call them eventually. Some of these folks ended up getting called in January this year when a class opened up. At least they knew that we had previously looked at their resume.

Tips like this, tips that I have implemented, have come from a site that had a series of articles called "Inbox Zero" - a free set of articles that discuss strategies to be more effective. This includes things like filters, etiquette (do you send a "thank you" email, or no?), and other tips.

Definitely worth a read if you deal with large amounts of email messages and feel overwhelmed.

http://www.43folders.com/izero

How readable is your Word document

Most programs have features that people don't use. As a matter of fact, I read a few years back that Microsoft estimates that people use less than 20% of the features in their tools. For example, in Word, things like file comparison, commenting and change tracking, mail merge, tables of contents, and many more go unused as people do things in a much slower and much less efficient way. As someone who uses these programs to a very high level, I rarely run across something I didn't know.

Earlier this semester, our internship coordinator was showing me a tool that will check how readable a document is. There is apparently something called the Flesch-Kincaid model, which analyzes word usage and will figure out what grade level and how easy to read your document is.

Out of curiosity, I just ran this on a recent assignment I gave in the class, and here are the grade levels:

• 14.6 (like a college sophomore level)
• 14.2 (same)
• 12.1 (just above a high school senior)
• 10.0 (high school junior)
• 8.0 (eighth grade)

You can do this yourself. Basically, you enable this option, and after you run a spelling and grammar check, it will show you the statistics. This is a pretty cool option, and if you find your paper is at a lower level, you can always improve it by doing a little editing. Try it out on your papers today!

Link to instructions