Make no mistake about it, EMAIL IS WAR; it’s us against the spammers and evil virus makers of our world. Are you buying enhancement products today? NOT LIKELY and if you were, would you trust someone who called you “Dear recipient?”

The following tips can put you in charge and give you the advantage in this war. We will have victory!!!

Procedure 1 (GOAL …Get a handle on incoming mail)

Even with filters and rules, some of the unwanted trash trickles through. The fastest way I have found to get a handle on email is to enable your email JUNK settings and then select the check box next to the below statement.

“Treat all e-mail as junk unless it comes from someone in my Safe Senders or Safe Recipients lists or from senders in my organization”

Now take a few minutes (or you have an assistant do this) and go through your junk mail each morning and evening. The only thing you are looking for is “Safe Senders”. You now tag them “As Safe” and move email from them to the inbox. The next time that sender will be allowed through the spam gate to your safe and now clean inbox.

This procedure will put you back in control in a hurry. You now have the email you need to receive at your finger tips and you know it’s something you need to handle.

Procedure 2 (GOAL …Take action on email and keep the box Empty)

Create two folders and label them Action and Review. If you have the ability, keep them at the top of the stack of meaningless folders you’ve created. Put exclamation marks in front, if need be, and paint them a red and green color (if possible): red for Action and green for Review. Anything that comes to your email has the potential for four actions. Handle it on the spot! Delegate it! Move it to Review or to Action items.

Procedure 3 (Rules … Use this procedure sparingly and with caution)

Now you can start using Rules to manage the rest of the inbox. In most cases, email coming in will fit into Action or Review; however there may be other items coming in such as bank statements, pictures from your sister or daily stock tips that actually would fit in a folder of their own. In most cases, they will fit under Review; although you may wish to give them their own home. Some of the static stuff you don’t really want cluttering the inbox, or your Action and Review folders for example. In this case you need a rule. Here is an example of the logic of such a rule, “All email from Citibank should go into a folder called “Citibank” and not touch my inbox. Rules of this type are easy to create and can help manage the clutter you would prefer not to enter your pristine inbox.

Summary

If you follow these procedures, you will get control of email and find it a useful tool once again. I had more than 1,000 emails in my junk box this morning and none of them were from anyone I knew or needed to hear from. I simply just looked at the “from” address and, if it was an actual name, then I looked at the subject line. Otherwise I deleted the message. It took me less than five minutes to manage. Then I turned to my inbox and started working on real email.

Best of luck to you! May you win the inbox war!

Microsoft has released many operating systems, and I’ve used all of them over the years.  I began my drudge through the valley of the shadow of these now-dead operating systems, with Windows 3.1. My journey has now paused at the curiously stable and robust operating system that is Windows 7.  Microsoft’s marketing strategy made each of these operating systems seem to be the greatest thing since the invention of sliced bread.  Ironically, Microsoft would sew a few bugs into the fabric of each of these operating systems. Skeptics would say they did this on purpose in order to sell the next version.  Others would say the bugs were there because the product was rushed to market.  Those of us with the task of supporting the end users of these operating systems have always been told by Microsoft that the bugs would be fixed in the next revision. This, we believed, was the Microsoft motto for tech support.

This company attitude (it’s fixed in the next version) was reflected over and over with each operating system Microsoft would build over the years.  There were a few duds that didn’t last very long at all;  Windows Millennium and Windows Vista would qualify as two huge failures and would be serious black marks on the Microsoft record.

In my experience, Windows 7 is a good idea and a well-built operating system.  It appears to be very stable, feature-rich, secure; and I rarely see the “blue screen of death”, a common error page, displayed when things go wrong.  I’m actually happier so far with Windows 7 over all the other attempts Microsoft has come up with over the years.  Windows 7 is relatively bug-free,  and it does seem stable across many hardware platforms.

Whose idea was it really?  Well, it wasn’t the dozens of very funny actors and actresses that Microsoft employed in their commercials.  It may have been influenced by the very similar look and feel of Apple’s OSX; however, there are just enough differences to make it unique.  It definitely wasn’t the idea of the dozens of YouTube videos taking credit.  The truth is the someone(s) that actually developed, built, and released Windows 7 was Larry Osterman and several teams of developers at Microsoft (Osterman).  The marketing is really hype, and more a spinoff of the very popular Apple vs. PC commercials, authored by Apple,  to try to gain market share.  I’m sure they did listen to focus groups and the feedback of people like you and me;  however, the “my idea campaign” was really just a slick marketing spin from Microsoft’s marketing company Crispin Porter & Bogusky (Elliott).

Windows Vista was an epic failure, and it appears Microsoft may have learned from its mistake once again and built a more bionic operating system in Windows 7. Sales at the initial launch surpassed that of Windows Vista by 234%.(Gralla)

Windows 7 is a giant success for Microsoft and has really been a breath of fresh air for many of us self-proclaimed computer geeks.  I wish it was actually my idea and Microsoft would have paid me for it. It wasn’t, and I will have to settle for the satisfaction that I can do something on my computer, running Windows 7,  in far less time than that of its predecessors.  I will say that “I’m a computer nut” and this paper was my idea.

References

Elliott, S. (2009, October). The billion designers of Windows 7. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Gralla, P. (1009, November 6). Why Windows 7′s success may ruin Microsoft. Retrieved from http://blogs.computerworld.com

Osterman, L. (2008, October). Engineering Windows 7. Retrieved from http://blogs.msdn.com

Choosing to run 64bit software as an Operating System (OS) or 32 bit software on a machine has everything to do with horsepower and memory and very  little else. 

A 64 bit OS has the ability to address a lot more Memory than a 32 bit OS. However, if you don’t have more than 4 gig of RAM in your machine don’t bother with a 64 bit operating system.  

I’ve found the 64 bit version of Internet Explorer to perform well but Adobe hasn’t come out with a workable version of Flash for that platform so you are still stuck with 32 bit browsing in most cases. Very few companies are producing 64 bit software even today. You do need to make sure that you order the 64 bit versions of the software if they exist or, again, you really aren’t getting the performance from the machine it is capable of . If you are doing video editing or intense graphics work and are using 64 bit software, there is a real performance increase. If you do choose to run a 64 bit OS, you really see big gains only if your total RAM is larger than 4gb. I’m running 8gb in a Quad Core machine and am very happy with it. 

So if you are going to run the play for a 64 bit operating system,  make sure the quarterback installs more RAM and is running as many of the 64 bit versions of the software as are available for your needs.  Hut Hut, Hike Hike!

— Christian “Mckay” Ririe

Want more on this topic, send me a note Chris@mckayradio.com or call me at 888-641-3931, and I will email you out our free report.   Print this page to start a library of tips and topics you find of interest

We want something light and easy to carry in a portable computer,  a light beer version if you will, less filling but without the after taste of really poor performance.  Who knows when the slick shapeshifting airlines will ask us to pay extra to carry a full size laptop on a plane along with our carry on? 

The problem with the netbooks we tested is they either come loaded with Windows 7 Starter or Windows XP.  I haven’t figured out why the manufacturers of these products didn’t load the systems with at least Windows 7 Premium.  It’s like a cake without the frosting. Do we really have to eat this stuff?  My guess is they want to still sell their much more expensive laptop bricks as the only thing powerful enough to run the “Full Operating System”.   That’s like saying “ObamaCare” won’t cost us any more money!  Some may say that’s stretching the truth a tad.

Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise run on the netbook platforms fairly well with a full blown version of Windows 7,  so running the “Light” version really doesn’t make sense to us end users.  The back room manufacturer and the almighty Microsoft may beg to differ.

The ever growing need for encryption on portable gear also leads us to think that we might even have to go with the bitlocker capable Enterprise or Ultimate. 

To make your netbook “Mission Capable” with a full version of Windows 7 capable of running bitlocker encryption (the built-in Microsoft answer to expensive clunky encryption software) you simply go to the control panel on a Netbook loaded with Windows 7 Starter and search for the Windows Anytime Upgrade.  You will have to purchase an upgrade key from Microsoft or from a retailer but in the end it will be worth the cost.

Choosing which mini to buy is another story.   I’ve owned almost every brand and I regret to tell you to stay away from the Dell mini for two reasons.  The RAM in these devices cannot be upgraded to the Atom processor max of two gig and the battery life doesn’t compare with the other minis on the market.  Dell gets the credit of having the first HDMI capable High Def screen (battery sucking though it is) but, they just weren’t thinking when they soldered the RAM to the motherboard giving other manufacturers the edge of just popping a chip in the back of the machine.  RAM is cheap and you can get a $300 mini, upgrade it to two gig of RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise,  and you have a light portable encryption capable. 

I hope Dell will wake up here.   I like the form factor of their minis but they blew it in this hot netbook market by building an inferior machine.

So fellas,  marketing is one thing, but give us some options.  Retool, if need be, but tell us the truth.  We want our frosting with our cake!

 — Christian “Mckay” Ririe

Want more on this topic, send me a note Chris@mckayradio.com or call me at 888-641-3931, and I will email you out our free report.   Print this page to start a library of tips and topics you find of interest

 If you use Outlook, you may find that the address “type ahead”  function is a critical element of your day-to-day e-mailing.  

Some times, when you begin to type the address, multiple addresses will come up.  Some of those addresses will be wrong.  There may be one address that comes up. However, it may be incorrect, causing e-mails to bounce. 

This happens because every time you send an e-mail the address you send it to is stored in a file on your computer called the N2k file. 

This file  is not something that gets changed by itself when you change an address in your contacts  (you would think .. “Hello, Microsoft. Anybody home?).  You have to either delete this file or edit it with a special utility. 

The best utility I’ve found for this is linked below.  Keep in mind that you have to run the utility on all the machines from which you run the Outlook client.  

The other option is to edit one of the machines and then copy the file to your other machines that use this file.  Cumbersome and clunky?  Why yes!

I’m not a fan of putting (EXE) links in a post,  however this one is safe.  If it scares you then you can go to the site and download the .zip file instead.

 http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nk2edit_setup.exe

 — Christian “Mckay” Ririe

Want more on this topic, send me a note Chris@mckayradio.com or call me at 888-641-3931, and I will e-mail you out our free report.   Print this page to start a library of tips and topics you find of interest

On a recent consulting job with a large DC government firm.  I was tasked with deploying ”Pretty Good Protection” (PGP).  I can tell you that I lost a lot of hair working with this encryption product.  I had users complaining about performance.  I hated the interface.  Very clunky and hard to use.  I would have nightmares when it would come to getting recovery keys.   Does it have to be this hard?

Microsoft finally released their version of encryption in Windows Vista, a product  known as “Bit locker”. Bit locker is a nice product as long as you have the hardware chip required in your PC and Windows Vista as the operating system. Let’s talk about Vista  for a minute.  Even with the recent release of Service Pack 2, this product still is a little buggy and Windows 7 is to be released right on its heels.  It might be me, but it seems every third operating system Microsoft releases is a dud.  Remember “Windows Millennium”?  

You may want to investigate “True Crypt” a new Open Source product that shows promise.  It is free (Open Source) and it seems to work fairly well. 

Maybe the encryption world finally has a little competition.  It’s about time.

 — Christian “Mckay” Ririe

Want more on this topic, send me a note Chris@mckayradio.com or call me at 888-641-3931, and I will email you out our free report.   Print this page to start a library of tips and topics you find of interest

There is a danger in standing on a belief about a particular technology for very long.  I was under the impression that the new LED televisions or “panels” as they are called now (nobody uses a TV as just a TV anymore) are the latest and greatest and we would be wise to “upgrade” to the newest of these thin, sleek devices. 

I was bludgeoned in my ego last evening when I stopped by the local Buy More (shout out to the TV series “Chuck” where they spoof  the store “Best Buy” with “Buy More”).  I was given an education by a young twenty-something clerk on the value of plasma over LCD or LED.  He informed me that my knowledge on the subject was dated and so he began my education.

The problem for the longest time with Plasma TV’s was the “Burn In Factor”  You couldn’t use them effectively as a monitor because if you walked away for any long length of time or left them on overnight you would see a ghost image of your computer screen “burned in” to the screen after you turn of your TV. 

Last year the plasma manufacturers got smart and developed a pixel shift technology which effectively eliminates burn in.  This technology changed the game.  Now you have a high-quality picture with deep blacks and rich color that can be used as a computer monitor or as a TV screen with no burn.  The best part is you can get 67″ plasmas now for the price of a 42″ LED.  The price is right!

The drawback to plasma is power consumption, and that’s about the only drawback that holds water.  Plasma panels will drain more from your wall socket than an LCD or an LED.  However, if you maintain wise viewing habits, and turn off the light and the TV when you leave the room, you can go a long way to helping the planet.

 — Christian “Mckay” Ririe

Want more on this topic, send me a note Chris@mckayradio.com or call me at 888-641-3931, and I will email you out our free report.   Print this page to start a library of tips and topics you find of interest

Here are some quick tips that will help improve your talk shows.

• The show’s topic and phone number (basics) should be mentioned as many times as possible.  however, it is very important that you mention the basics before and after every commercial break.  For example, “Today we are talking about the best time to buy stocks.  Call right now 888-641-3931 that’s 888-641-3931.”

• Prior to going on the air go over the basics with your staff/producer,  and during the program send reminder prompts to keep the host on track. If you want to promote a seminar or upcoming event, agree on the number of times to mention the event during the show.

• Radio is a direct response media! Therefore, you should avoid using the following phrases, “leave a message” or “go to my website”.  These are not effective ways of getting responses from radio content. Provide a telephone number where they can call a live person to take their information and answer questions.

• The call screener should take the caller’s name, topic, e-mail and contact information.  This will cut down on  prank callers and will build a database for future reference, testimonials and marketing purposes.

• To stimulate calls, start a recorded call bank!  In the years I’ve been producing talk shows, I have found that there is such a thing as “radio peer pressure.”  If you start the show and you don’t have calls ready to go on hold, you can use your call bank!  Pull a call that covers what you want to talk about and break the call down on the air.

 — Christian “Mckay” Ririe

Want more on this topic, send me a note Chris@mckayradio.com or call me at 888-641-3931, and I will email you out our free report.   Print this page to start a library of tips and topics you find of interest