RSS in plain English

I’m being followed on backtype

Didn’t know backtype had that feature. Had to do a double take though because I’m being followed by Bankrupt! Ha! Not an omen I hope

g-mail & Firefox crashing

I have spent more time in my sent emails than ever before. Mainly, I’m double checking what I sent and when it was sent – looking for names again. Inevitably, while I’m in those sent emails, Firefox crashes. Every few emails that I open, there it goes . . . crashing again.

I haven’t noticed it on any other pages.

CamStudio

I took a course a couple of years ago at ECU in tech writing and one of the gals I was teamed with used Camtasia. I’ve wanted it ever since, but it’s got a pricey tag on it.

For my self-driven professional development, I wanted to add me talking through the many lessons that I have provided online for students. So I found CamStudio (freeware) and am going to give it a try.

Your Stuff on Google Reader

I accidentally clicked on Your Stuff on Google Reader this morning. I’d never noticed it before.

Does anyone use it? And if you do, how do you use it?

Do-Not-Reply emails

Surely you get them too? I get them from a new source now – companies to which I’ve applied. Thank you for your resume (application). Make sure you do not reply to this email because no one is listening. Mixed emotions here. So glad my that time consuming application went through, but what are my chances with a company that won’t talk to me?

I did a search on these emails. Seems absolutely no one likes them, yet they are widely used to disperse information. AWeber has a good review about marketing campaigns that use Do-Not-Reply emails.

People who use “Do Not Reply” addresses…

• … try to have one-way conversations in their marketing.Problem is, a one-way conversation isn’t a conversation at all. It’s a monologue.
• … treat subscribers as a cost whenever they’re doing anything except buying something.To them, feedback isn’t free research on how to market better; it’s a cost to be avoided.
• … don’t get that the main thing that affects your email deliverability is basically whether you make subscribers mad. Make them mad, they click the “spam” button. Enough of them do it, and you have a delivery problem.To subscribers, spam isn’t just unsolicited bulk email, it’s any email they don’t want. And not many people want to hear from people – or companies – who refuse to hear back from them.
• Business who use a “Do Not Reply” address don’t understand that they’re asking for spam complaints.

Pretty good thoughts, but I don’t consider those notices from a company that received my application as spam NOR would I ever complain about them

What is in your spam folder?

To be honest, until I started job-hunting, I didn’t have much in there to look at. Now, I bet I delete 300-500 a day. Now I know I don’t have to delete them, but you’ve seen my desk and know I just don’t like stuff sitting around.

Now there are business offers. *cough* Did you know that the government has millions of dollars it’s trying to give away? Well, I know they are giving, but I doubt I qualify (yet). You can open a pet store, a dollar store, a toy store. All from the comfort of your home! Amazing isn’t it. There are also all kinds of ways to make thousands of dollars on google. Freelance writers, bloggers, data entry and typists are also needed. One poor guy is in really bad shape because with every email he sends he still needs 137 typist immediately.

There are picture offers. I don’t know what’s up with Jessica and Erika, but they send out emails multiple times a day! I am grateful that the subject line tells me there are pictures to keep me from looking.

You can get credit cards, money for college, ink and paper, and what is up with the dozens of kinds of berry juice available?

Married but lonely? It’s in my spam folder. I’ll be happy to forward it to you.

What kind of tech user are you?

Jim West posted this quiz on his blog today.

I am:

You are an Digital Collaborator

If you are a Digital Collaborator, you use information technology to work with and share your creations with others. You are enthusiastic about how ICTs help you connect with others and confident in your ability to manage digital devices and information. For you, the digital commons can be a camp, a lab, or a theater group – places to gather with others to develop something new.

So, what kind of tech user are you?

Yazzem

TC was wondering how everyone keeps up with their online selves yesterday, and today I run across another online expression. Yazzem. Different from twitter (at least as I understand it) because the conversations are stacked.

On Yazzem’s about page, you find its “team” is two 14 year olds from Michigan! Wow!

HP Update

After going back and forth with HP, it seems my computer’s latest problem of having a bad CD/DVD Driver was in fact Vista’s fault (SP1). I finally found the info I needed on Windows and had to remove a couple of files from the regedit (scary).

CD/DVD working now, but I lost my volume and internet connection icons from the tray. Found how to get those back, but they were grayed out and not clickable – so off on another internet hunt to see what I could do to get those back.

That’s accomplished, but now the HP isn’t recognizing the printer (sitting here with book orders and can’t print packing slips or mailing labels). Funny thing is that the software is/was still there. I’m having to uninstall it to install it again.

Hopefully this will be the last of it!

I really don’t like my HP anymore

It’s been in the shop twice in the last few months. Today, I go to play a CD on it and I get a lovely message about there being no CD Device. Try a DVD – same thing.

So I delete the driver with the charming little yellow flag beside it and reboot. Driver reinstalls with same little yellow flag.

Contacting HP yet again . . .

HP back from the shop

Lucky me! I was home to accept delivery today

They replaced a systems board and wiped the hard drive again. So right now, I’m trying to set the silly thing up ONE MORE TIME.

It has kept the internet connection all afternoon. Still doesn’t run as fast as the Sony though.

My HP goes BACK to the shop

This is twice in as many months. . . .

*sigh*

I’m sick of computers

I have two that aren’t that old. Between the two of them, I should have a decent one.

I’m waiting to hear back from tech support on both of them. I’m really thankful for the snow day for that one reason alone.

The HP which is tiny, won’t hold a wireless connection. It hasn’t been back from the shop long. Before Christmas, it crashed. It probably wasn’t holding one when it got back, but I didn’t have time to fool around with it. Setting a computer up just the way you need it is time-consuming. I’d turned it on messed around with it for a couple of hours. It looked good – went back to using the Sony which I’d taken the time to set up AGAIN when the HP crashed. Now that I’ve got all the programs back on it, it pulls this number. Windows diagnostic. Nada. Restore to previous point. Lasts 24 hours. *bleh*

Now, the Sony’s DVD player won’t play. Downloaded driver to no avail. AND I’ve never liked it’s screen. It’s supposed to be state of the art, but I think I got a lemon. Oh well, at least it’s got wireless . . .

UPDATE ON SONY – they are no help because I upgraded my operating system to Vista Ultimate – through a link that came on the Sony btw.

I have a blackberry

Blackberries are nice in a pinch. They really are. Have you tried existing on one for a week? Ok it wasn’t even a week. It was days only days. Friday to Thursday. ACK it was a week.

Woefully insufficient. I’m not sure woefully will cut it here. Desperately, terribly, lamentably . . . well, surely you get the picture!

I was able to read my favorite blogs. I even responded to a couple. I was able to read personal email, but I couldn’t get into my corporate email because I’d forgotten to log out before I’d shut the computer the last time I was online. *ahem* Haven’t even tackled that bear yet and may just let it wait until Monday. Does it matter if it’s turned into a brown bear or a grizzly?

Have you ever tried reading a really long and passionate thread on the baptistboard.com on a blackberry? Well, why do I care why someone is fighting for the rights of KJVO anyway? Not my fight. Why am I drawn to it like a moth to the proverbial flame?

Have you ever read a blog that is on a dark background in little bitty black font. *bleh* And just why do the comments take so long to come up anyway?

Or web pages? They take too long to load. It’s all so inconvenient. There is no flash! What do you mean I can’t see the page because it’s in flash. Double *sigh*

But there I sat each day sloshing through iddy biddy page after page reading like my life depended on it. Ron just read the paper.