1.  Three asterisks (yep it’s a thing)

Open a new word document and type *** then hit enter.  Word will automatically create a dotted line across the page.  In fact, it’s just one of a few examples.  === will produce a double line.  _ _ _ will produce a single line.  ~~~ makes a jagged edge.  The ones I could find are in the image below (click to see it full size).

Why would word hide these away?  No idea. Not even a clue.  I’m not sure what industry or profession was clamoring for this feature…  Moreover, as far as I can tell, this doesn’t count as Autotext or Autocorrect.

2. Autotext allows you to finish common words or phrases simply by pressing enter.  You may have noticed that when you type “best r” on a new line, you are offered “Best regards,”.  If you press enter, Word will finish the line for you.  This also works for months (try typing “Oct”), days of the week (try “mon”) and the current date.  That, by itself, isn’t that weird.  What is kind of strange is how open the possibilities are.  You can add your own entries and they can be absolutely anything.  Here are dumb examples that I’ll probably regret adding to my dictionary:

and    

3. Autocorrect was designed to take common misspellings (a word that is itself easy to misspell)  and correct them for you.  acn becomes can.  Ammount becomes amount.  However, it does much more than just fix your mistakes.  Here are some examples:

Those are just some of the many built in examples.  However, the possibilities are endless if you create your own.  It’s relatively simple to set it up, in your options menu, you’ll see the settings.  Here is an example:

When I was a chemistry grad student, I used this feature to turn H2O into (something that is not possible on the web, hence the strange image floating above the line)…

4. Random text

This one is weird but kind of useful.  Have you ever needed some random text to fill out a space, to check a font or whatever?  Try this: type “=rand()” and press enter.

In Word for Mac, the result is this paragraph 3 times:

“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

A quick side note, that phrase (the quick brown fox..) has every letter of the English alphabet…  The phrase that will print with Rand() is different in each version of word, so give it a try!

I think that about does it.  Let me know if there are any other weird word features via email: ab AT justanasterisk.com.

Enjoy,

~ab

The truth is this:  when your picture goes out into the lovely webs of cyberspace, it’s never gone.  It might be just sitting on a shelf without a label – that is, until the technology to link you to the evidence comes along.  As an example, try Googling yourself on Google’s image search:

When I tried this, I found my photo on page 17 of the results from a site that I had never seen before.  That alone was pretty strange.  However, don’t stop there – add a piece of information about yourself that others might know (like the company you worked for last) and you might be surprised how much the field narrows.  I went from page 17 with millions of hits down to page 1 with my picture as number 2, just by adding a former job to my search.

Companies liked LinkedIn and Facebook are the source of many of these images, but there are also companies that archive older pictures from the Facebook or LinkedIn database.  For example, Radaris (which does background checks) has a copy of my LinkedIn image (how is that ok?).  Long story short, even if you remove a picture from the site you’ve signed up with, you might be too late.

There really isn’t a fix for this. The best answer is probably not to post things unless you’re sure you want the world to see it.  I know that we’ve heard this before, but the supporting evidence is rarely so easy to find.

Best of luck staying safe out there!

~ab

But anyway…

Here is what is really important:  Gmail has always supported signatures, but they were lame. You could write in plain text and split it into multiple lines. This all changed today when Gmail introduced “rich text” signatures, so I thought I’d walk through what you can do now.

Part 1: Rich is mostly about formatting

To see your signature, go to Settings and then the General tab. You’ll see the signature window about half-way down the page.

As you can see from my screenshot above, rich formatting gives you that toolbar that you’ve seen above your Gmail for so long. Using the simple buttons like bold, italic and underline, you can add basic flourishes. There are also font options, colors and high-lighting for your spicy new signature. One of my favorite additions is that you can insert true links into your emails.  For example, you can put a link to “my site” rather than spelling out the web address of your homepage.

Part 2: Inserting photos

Inserting photos into your signature is now much easier, although it still requires a bit of work. The first step is to click on this little button:

Once you’ve done this, you’ll be asked for a website where you’ve stored your photo. Yes, I realize that it’s a bit of a pain to have to keep the image online, but as you can see, once you have the link it is very easy to include a photo – even a very stupid one.

When you’re done typing the address, you should see the image appear in the box below the address field (as mine did above). Click OK to finish.

When you’re done with part 1 and/or part 2, don’t forget to save your work! You wouldn’t want to lose it!

Have fun with the new signatures. Feel free to brag about any cool ideas in the comments!
~ab

Hi all,

After a few weeks with my new MacBook Pro, I’ve probably installed (and then deleted) 100+ apps as I try to rebuild my digital life on a new platform. Finding apps that did what I needed was a bit of a chore (not to mention a bit pricey sometimes), so it was great to find lists like this one from Mac.Appstorm.Net (check it out).  Some of my favorites?

1. Firefox – My alternative to Mac’s Safari browser.  Firefox is better supported, and so I use Safari until I hit a problem.

2. Fluid – creates applications out of websites.  It sounds a bit strange, but it’s way better than just a bookmark for sites like Gmail, Remember the Milk, etc.

3. Cinch – Snaps windows around like Windows 7.  I grew to love the feature and feel less-productive without it (this is not evidence-based…).

Are there any apps that I should try out?  Anything that a mac user out there is dying to know?  Leave a note or suggestion in the comments and we’ll take a look.

If you’re in the same boat as me – enjoy the transition!

~ab

In truth, I get it. The idea is so simple: click a button, pay $100 for a year and receive your push mail, contacts, calendar, storage for your photos and files, plus a “find my iphone” application all in one handy interface to your computer. However, it forever irks me when I’m told about these services as if they are the only game in town. I mentioned my doubt to the Mac Store genius a few days ago and was told “yes but MobileMe is seemless and far less complicated”…

That sounded like a challenge to me, so I wrote out my alternative to MobileMe system.  I thought it would take longer, but it’s actually quite simple.  Here are my choices:

Push Gmail, Calendar, Contacts

Comes straight from Google for free (Mail was included back in September 2009) and here are the steps to set it up.  When you make a change to your email, calendar of contacts, the change appears almost instantly on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Photos

If you’re using Gmail, you have a Google Account. This means you have a Picasa account, even if you haven’t activated it. Just head over to picasaweb.google.com. Your storage is shared with your email (most people have about 7GB). If you need more space, it’s available for a reasonable rate (see my picasa post for more details).

Storage (iDisk)

Dropbox is a service I’ve talked about before.  It’s easy to use and it integrates with both Windows and Mac.

See the little icon with the box and the check?  i got that to replace the default MobileMe icon on my Mac with several hours of coding…  HA! Just kidding.  It was as simple as dragging the old icon off the tool bar and installing Dropbox (10 seconds).  I would love a free Mac product to store my stuff, but using Dropbox is a breeze and it’s free.

Find My iPhone

Finally a service that doesn’t have a free alternative.  You setup your MobileMe on your iPhone and the service will help you find it if you misplace it or someone steals it.  I won’t downplay how great this service is, but if it’s the only part of the MobileMe family that you can’t get for free… is it worth paying $100?  There is a similar product on the app store right now (who knows for how long) that’s called “Find my phone” which does exactly the same thing (as far as I can tell) for only $0.99.

The moral of the story

I’m not trying to be a jerk.  My new Mac has made me very, very happy.  Moreover, I’m perpetually enthused about Apple products.  My only complaint is that MobileMe is $100.  It should be free or at the very least, uber-cheap.  If that were the case, I’d convert over from my google alternatives in a heartbeat.

In short, don’t believe all the hype quite yet.  If someone is asking you to pay $100, it should probably be for something entirely unique.

Enjoy!

~ab

“Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information, are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like the electricity grid.” (Wikipedia)

I’m a geek and the above, although well intentioned is about as easy to understand as the other buzzy language I hear on the topic.  Let’s write our own definition (in a few parts):

1.  The “cloud” is the internet – the mass of computers connected together all over the world.

2.  Often we use software on our computers (Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, ITunes, etc).  We have seen the disks to “install” these things.

3.  Sometimes, we use software on the internet (Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, etc).  This software is not on our computers as it’s “on the internet”.

4.  ”On the internet” means that internet applications are really on someone else’s computer (according to our definition of the internet – point 1).

Therefore, in super, super simple terms:

Cloud Computing = Making someone else’s computer do the work.

Soooooo – if cloud computing is just making someone else’s computer do the work, I try to make my computer do the minimum amount of work possible (it’s only fair).

A great example of this concept is the Chromium OS – Google’s attempt to make an operating system that’s based on “cloud software” (this would be in place of Windows or Mac OS that may be on your computer now).

Here’s a quick video to learn more…

So now you know what cloud computing is, but you might be wondering “what’s the big fuss???”  Imagine this futuristic world:

You no longer need a computer.  Everything around you has an internet connection and you can login to your website from everything (even the toaster). On your website, you have your documents, which you can edit with Microsoft Office.  However, the software for Microsoft office is also online, so there’s nothing to install… You can just open a document and start typing.  When you’re done, you click email and your email opens.  Your photos from your camera have uploaded to the site and are available to email to your friends (remember everything is connected).  You write yourself a few reminders in your task application and head off to work.  All this information is available via your phone if you need it (or the next toaster you come across).  In fact, no one cares what program you have or device you carry, because it’s all instantly and universally available.

Thus ends my reverie…  Maybe I’m biased, but to me, cloud computing is the amazing attempt to simplify our lives into a single internet presence.  It’s not going to happen tomorrow, but the steady shift of our software from our computers to the internet is the first phase. Buzz word it may be, but it’s still an awesome concept.

Not much else I can add…  Hope this has been a fun post.  Ping me with questions – ab@justansterisk.com.

Enjoy,

~ab

Why?  Well I’m learning!  Apple is not my strong suit and everything is new.  That said, every feature pleasantly surprises me.  Each time I think “there must be a way to…”, I stumble upon what I’m looking for, amazed that it’s there, without code or effort.  What had worried me about the transition was this: I’m a pretty geeky dude.  Won’t it be hard to transition the hard stuff from Windows to Mac?  The answer?  Not even a little bit.

Google Calendar and Gmail were both quick to setup (a Google search put me on the right path).  Microsoft Office was a simple install.  My programming environment in Windows (Komodo Edit) is available for Mac, so no transition there.   Skype and Dropbox were the same story.  To be honest, if we discount the time for my downloads, I’ve probably set the entire machine up, super-user environment and all in less than 3 hours.  That even includes the time I’ve spent playing with it… Pretty amazing.

Given the fun I’m having, I’ve decided that just an asterisk is going to follow me on my new adventure into Mac land, writing about the land of the apple from the big apple.  That said, my day job still requires a PC and I’m sitting on a ton of windows hardware, so JAA will have to be about more than just the domain of Steve Jobs.  We’ll see where the balance lies after a few months…

I guess this is really a post about posts that I’ll write in the future.  Keep an eye out for a Mac post soon and feel free to send questions to ab@justanasterisk.com.  I’d love to have ideas of what to try next.  We’ll explore this lovely transition together.

Best,

~ab

The first step is to get the right hardware (a TV or blue ray player is probably easiest, but you can also use game consoles and other toys). Here is the list of “Netflix ready devices”.  If you’re thinking of buying a TV, why not aim for one that is Netflix ready?  If you’re kids have a console chillin’ (or you do secretly), why not use it for some free vids?  Whatever device you get, it just needs to be on the web and connected to your TV.

Once you’re setup on the hardware, the rest is easy-peasy.  When I go into Netflix, I head over to “Watch Instantly”.  This is old news – I used to sit in front of my PC and click “Play” to watch a great selection of old and new films and TV shows.  What’s new and amazing (to me) is this button:

If you click it, the media you’ve chosen can be viewed by devices other than your computer.  On your device (TV, blue ray player, etc), you just need to go to the Netflix application and voila! You’re choice is there to watch!

I should point out that you need a good internet connection if you want to stream HD movies to your TV.  If you’re planning on doing this over a wireless network, I suggest that you bolster your wireless signal to as close to MAX as possible.  You’ll need every bit of it.  I’ve written about wireless networks before, so read this if you need help.

And then… well, you’re done! You can now watch movies from your Netflix enabled device. There isn’t much more for me to say. In the end, this is more of a hardware look-what-is-possible post than one about software.  I hope you get to play with this technology soon – you’re missing out!

Enjoy,

~ab

Mass Storage – the USB jack

The internet – the Ethernet Jack

Digital Video Recording and Playback – the PC connector

When I got my new TV, the features above made me wonder why no one had told me this was all possible before… Well now you don’t have the same excuse.  Ha!  If you’re still nursing an old CRT box, now is the time to explore an upgrade – and the “extras” like those described above will sweeten the deal quite nicely.