07 Dec 2009
Computer Courage is proud to announce the launch of the Berkeley Public Education Foundation website.
Also built on the WordPress platform, It is a professional, but friendly website with a color scheme for each section. It also has a Google Calendar integrated into the calendar page and widgets. Visit the website at: http://www.bpef-online.org.
Computer Courage is a great fan of WordPress. We use the WordPress platform as a system to build all of our websites on, including this one. While we work with other systems, we’re impressed by WordPress more and more every day.
We were thrilled to see that in a new study by water&stone and CMSWire, WordPress came out on top as the leader in open source Content Management System satisfaction. Image and link below:
You can download the full report here
In today’s office, we’re all plagued by an ever-expanding inbox. I’ve found this to be one of the most challenging aspects of my job as a manager. Each email is essentially a task, or to-do, that someone else is assigning to me. Everyone in business today spends a significant amount of time managing their Inbox to get things done. What I discovered today, however, is that there’s more to managing email than handling your Inbox. Your Sent Items folder represents an important, and often ignored area of email management. In this article, I’ll detail the need to manage your Send Items, and propose my solution. Your input it always welcome below in the comments.
Every incoming message is a set of tasks for me. At the very least I need to open each message, skim it, and delete, archive, forward, or read and respond. This doesn’t include any “real work” that the email may demand (researching a product, running a report, etc). Like most of you, I find moments in the day to sit down and wrestle with the inbox, slashing away at it and trying to keep it to a reasonable size. I’ve learned to take each email, parse it, and act on it. This action may be an email response, a delegation of a task, an addition to a to-do list, an archiving, or a simple press of the delete key. With these tools, I can bring my inbox down to size and focus on my other tasks. But all this time, I’ve been missing something critical – I’ve only been managing my inbox, what about my outbox?
I’ve been reading David Allen’s critically acclaimed book, “Getting Things Done”, in an effort to find a way to manage my time and my tasks. I’m only on Chapter 4, but I’m already gaining some clarity about the scope of tasks that I surround myself with every day. One area that Allen opened my eyes to is the concept of the “open loop”, which represents an unfinished task, project, or communication. As he points out early in the book, an open loop can be an action that you are waiting for someone else to do. Allen recommends tracking these in a list called “Waiting For” and reviewing this list on a regular basis. At any given time, I’m waiting for 10 or more people to get back to me, and this is something I have trouble keeping track of.
The realization I came to today is that almost every email I send represents a task on the “Waiting For” list. How many messages have I sent out so someone assigning them the “next step” on a project, and then simply forgot about it? How often do they drop the ball and stall or kill the project? Maybe I’ve emailed my employee and asked him or her to draft up a letter for a client, or maybe I’ve asked a client for some data that I can’t continue without, or maybe I’ve opened up a trouble ticket with a software vendor. In any case, most of my outgoing emails require an action on someone else’s part, an action that I am actively waiting for and need to follow up on.
The “Waiting For” email list, aka my Sent Items, might be bigger than my Inbox! As I realized this, my heart sunk a little. I thought of all the new tasks I had made myself aware of. I envisioned opening up a to do list every time I sent an email and painstakingly transcribing details about the outgoing message, who needed to act, when I expected a response, when I needed one, etc. This sounds like an absolute nightmare. Fortunately, I found a pretty simple solution that I wanted to share with everyone, and see how it works for me or for anyone else.
The Technique: Managing Your Sent Items with “Resolved Sent”
The key to managing your sent items will be to essentially have two folders for sent items. The first folder is just your normal “Sent” folder – where sent messages are automatically placed by your software upon send. This is the temporary home of all sent mail, and your goal will be to clear this folder just like you do your inbox. Your goal will be to eventually move all of your sent messages into a second folder, which I’ll call the “Resolved Sent Items” folder. This folder is for sent items that do not require any follow up, and can be forgotten about forever.
As with any GTD technique, this would only work with proper review. I need to regularly go through my Sent Items folder and accomplish two goals: move messages to the Resolved Sent Items folder, and be reminded of items that I’m still waiting for. I propose doing these separately.
At the end of each day, I will go through the day’s sent mail, which lives at the top of the Sent Items folder This task is simple, all I need to do is look at each message and determine it is an “open loop” or not. If the loop is closed, the message gets moved to Resolved Sent Items. If the message is still an open loop, it stays put.
At the start of each day, I should look at the Sent Items folder in its entirety. Every single message in the folder represents something I’m waiting on (since I’ve screened the list the night before). As I read through these open loops, I may be prompted to send reminder emails, change courses on projects, or just to be aware that I am waiting. Once I’ve been through this list in the morning, I can forget about it until the end of the day, when the pattern repeats.
This can be implemented with either folders (Outlook) or labels (Gmail, Thunderbird). Outlook users can create a subfolder of the Sent Items folder called “Resolved Sent Items” and label users can create a label called “Resolved Sent” which they can attach to sent items. Either way, it will be easy to pull up a list of all sent messages that aren’t finalized, and parse them.
Success in business is accomplished many ways, and one of the tried and tested means of accomplishment in business is follow-up. I pride myself in being reliable and responsible with my tasks. This new, wider vision of my task responsibilities is intimidating, but will also allow me to perform in a more successful, organized, and stress free manner, if I can keep up with the twice daily reviews. Please post your feedback and comments below.
Update: Someone came up with a pretty cool looking way to do this with Gmail. See here: http://todmaffin.com/waitingfor. I haven’t tested it but it looks like a wonderful implementation. Now if only someone would come up with a similar solution in Outlook.
10 Nov 2009
Microsoft has just released Windows 7 – the latest in a long line of Windows operating systems. This article will help you understand how Windows 7 can affect you, what you should do about it, when you should buy, it and more. Read all the way down to find out how you may be able to get Windows 7 for free. If you have more Windows 7 questions, feel free to contact us anytime.
Windows 7 – Better Than Vista
The first thing you should know about Windows 7 is that it is better than Windows Vista, in just about every way. Many of you have heard us (and others) say that Windows Vista was a flop. Many of you are still running Windows XP, the previous version of Windows, because it is generally still respected as a quality (if a bit dated) OS. Windows 7 has the performance of Windows XP with a user experience close to that of Apple OS X.
Vista was a total disaster, Windows 7 is a success. Vista is slow and crashes frequently. 7 is fast and stable. Vista created massive problems for 3rd parties, 7 is highly compatible. Vista is expensive, 7 is affordable ($30 for students, $120 for upgrades, $200 for new home copies, $300 for businesses).
What’s Important About Windows 7 To You?
Windows 7 has many new features. Some are helpful, some are pleasant, some will become necessities in the future. None of the new features, however, are worth the upgrade alone. So should you upgrade? Easy answer:
Windows XP users do not need to upgrade to Windows 7. You’ll get 7 on your next computer, and it will run beautifully. In the meantime, there’s no direct upgrade from XP to 7 (you have to purchase a full copy, then reinstall). If you have a fast computer and you want the upgrade anyway, we can do it for you, just contact us. If you’ve been waiting to buy a new PC at the store, it’s now is a fine time. Though you might want to contact us first to get our free suggestions and buying tips.
All Windows Vista users should upgrade to Windows 7. Vista is a problem. 7 is the solution. The cost of the software upgrade is $120 for homes, $200 for businesses. The upgrade process is fairly easy, we can do it for you or you can do it yourself. This upgrade will make your system run better and faster for many years to come.
Businesses should continue to use Windows XP until getting a consultation. Your business operations are critical to your income and you shouldn’t take any chances. If you think your company is ready for the upgrade, contact Computer Courage to schedule a consultation so we can analyze your hardware, software, and needs before making the jump to Windows 7. It’s not a matter of “if” with Windows 7, it’s just a matter of “when”.
Windows 7′s New Features
Windows 7 is not just a fix for Vista’s problems, it also brings some new features and tricks to the table. You can see a whole feature list here, but below are some of our favorites:
Is It Too Early For Me?
Remember, there is no rush. Some people don’t like to run an operating system when its just come out – maybe it will have problems with your hardware or software. If you wait, those problems might get hammered out for you before you buy. Companies like Dell are still selling new computers with Windows XP on them, so you don’t have to make the transitions yet. If you have a business with a network, make sure to contact Computer Courage for a consultation before moving forward with Windows 7 upgrades.
Free Upgrade If You Bought After June 26, 2009!
If you purchased a full copy of Windows Vista, or got it preloaded on a PC from a major manufacturer, you are likely eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7 (with some tax, shipping, and handling). We strongly suggest you claim your upgrade disc. You don’t have to upgrade now, but you might as well take advantage of the offer (which won’t last forever). Note, even if you bought a PC with Windows XP on it, it’s likely to have been a copy of Windows Vista with an XP Downgrade, so you’re still probably eligible.
To find out if you are eligible for a free copy of Window 7, go to this page on Microsoft’s website.
Update: We’ve found a great tool for removing remnants of AVG if you get stuck, or if you accidentally install version 9 over version 8. Read the updated info at the end of this article.
The good folks at AVG have released the latest version of their excellent antivirus software, AVG Free Version 9. As many of our readers know, Computer Courage is a big fan of AVG. They provide high quality antivirus to the masses for free, without bogging down your computer.
The latest version of AVG Free doesn’t have much in the way of new features, it’s supposed to be faster and lighter. This is probably a response to the release of Microsoft Security Essentials - a new free antivirus option from Microsoft itself. MSE has some real promise to it, but we’re not ready to recommend it over the proven AVG yet.
When it comes to AVG, the most common question we hear is “why is it free?” The answer is simple. They provide a free product to millions of home users, with an option to upgrade to the paid version (which contains extra protection that we think isn’t necessary for a typical user). Even if they get only a tiny percentage of users to convert to the paid version, they will make big bucks. The other big guys (Norton, McAfee) use other methods such as advertising, and getting their software pre-installed on new PCs. Any way you cut it, everyone is making money.
Now, if you are running AVG Free 8 or 8.5, it’s time to upgrade. The upgrade is easy, with one caviat: You must uninstall AVG Free 8.x before installing AVG 9. This is critical – it will not warn you if you try to install AVG Free 9 on top of 8, and it can result in a loss of protection.
If you have any thoughts about the new version of AVG, or free antivirus in general, please share in the comments.
UPDATE
The last two responses have been about problems upgrading to version 9 of AVG. Here’s a very important tool that I’ve learned about, which should help you if you are “stuck” between versions.
You may need the AVG Remover. This is an official tool from AVG which is supposed to remove all traces of AVG from your system.
You can download the tool here: http://www.avg.com/us-en/download-tools
Note that there are 32 bit and 64 bit versions, you’ll need the appropriate one for your operating system.
How to use this tool:
1. Read all documentation that comes with it, and follow recommended use practices from AVG.
2. Try to remove AVG manually, though the Control Panel.
3. If removing doesn’t work, then download and run the AVG Remover from the link above.
4. You are now free to download and install AVG 9. Alternatively, we’re having fantastic experiences with Microsoft Security Essentials – http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials. We highly recommend you check it out – we may be advising it as our recommended solution soon.
