Below is a typical Google search results page. You’re probably already familiar with the options at the top of the screen (”Images,” “Video,” “Maps,” etc.). If not, let me know and I’ll post an article about those, too!

A typical Google search results page, but check out the "Show Options" link.

The new options are hidden behind that link I highlighted in green, just below the Google logo. If you click on “Show Options…” your results page will change slightly to look like this:

A typical Google search results page, with new options in the sidebar on the left.

Largely, what these options–shown in the sidebar on the left side of the page–allow you to do is filter your results based on criteria of your choosing. Want to see only recent results? Click on the “Past week” link and Google will filter out older results. The best way to learn how these options will be useful for you is to simply go play around with them. However, Google has also kindly supplied an introductory video that you can watch for more information:

Enjoy playing with these new options. I think you’ll find them useful. I especially like the Wonder Wheel (essentially a visual version of “Related searches”). I could follow spokes from one wheel to another for ages!

Curious, I went to see what she was talking about. Here is an (edited) shot of the header of that email:

Email header from Outlook, showing the attachment.

Did you notice the generic-looking icon on that attachment? This is the primary clue to what’s wrong with this file: it doesn’t know what program it belongs to.

When I tried to double-click on it, I got this dialog box:

Choose a program to try to open the attachment.

Now, in this case, I already knew it was an Excel file–since my co-worker was sitting right next to me and told me so–but what would you do if you didn’t know? I would try the most likely programs first, such as Excel or Word. You might have an idea based on who sent it and why. If necessary, you could try every program until you find the right one. Eventually, you will find one that works (presuming that you have the necessary application on your computer).

That solves the problem of opening the attachment, but it doesn’t solve the problem of the generic icon. If you don’t fix that, you’ll have to go through the dialog box every time you want to open the file.

The generic icon, by the way, is not the source of the problem but a symptom of it. The real problem is that the file does not have an extension. The file name is “october 2008″ with no “.xls” after it. The extension–the part after the period–is what tells the computer which program to open the file with. Different extensions “belong” to different applications. For instance, “.xls” denotes an Excel file and “.doc” is a Word file. There are many, many possible extensions.

To fix this problem, you should save the attachment to your hard drive. (Generally, you should do this anyway so that you’ll be able to find the document if you want to view it again or make changes to it.) I made a few samples for demonstration:

Here we have two familiar icons, and two generic ones

“Example 1 copy” is actually a duplicate of “Example 1.xls” but because the file name is missing the extension, the icon is generic and under “Type” you can see that Windows can’t identify the file. The file with the Excel icon is described as a “Microsoft Office Excel 97-2003 Worksheet.” Similarly, “Example 2 copy” is a duplicate of “Example 2.doc,” a Word file, also missing its extension. Once I correct the problem by adding the extensions to the duplicate files, my file listing looks like this:

The duplicate files now have extensions, appropriate icons, and descriptions

Ta-da! No more generic icons, and Windows is fully aware of what type of files the duplicates are.

Note: If Windows is not showing you the extensions in your file listings, you can turn that option on in Settings. Adding the missing extension will work even if you do not turn that option on, though. Also, when you change, add, or delete an extension Windows may pop up a warning regarding the change. In this case, you really do want to change (or add) the extension so go ahead and say okay.

I have lots of mail. I want to select everything.

The picture above is an annotated excerpt of the Gmail interface.  The pictured area is right above the list of messages in the selected mailbox, near the top of the screen.  Click the “all” link to select all messages in the mailbox.  Every message you can see will get a checkbox next to it and its background will turn gold (or possibly a different color if you’ve selected an alternate theme).  You’ll also see something like this:

That's some, not all. We can do better.

It is really clear here, but that line is easily overlooked because it looks very similar to everything in the mailbox.  The entire center of the interface turns gold and that message blends in.  Click the link indicated and you’ll have everything in the mailbox, even the messages you can’t see.  It will look like this:

That's what I'm talking about.

Now you can easily delete, move or label every message in that mailbox all at once. For my Inbox that would be a 28-fold increase in my productivity.  Score!

Photo by TheGiantVermin

I am the entire IT department at my company.  I have to know, or know how to find out, the answer to pretty much any tech related question I’m faced with.  I support about 50 people, 40 desktop computers, 4 servers, the network that connects them all together, and internal and external websites.  In other words, for all of these things I am the one who gets called; I am tech support.   I’m not used to calling tech support right away because more often than not I can solve my own problems.  Sometimes, however, the power to fix something is beyond my control and I have to appeal to someone else for help. From somebody with experience on both sides of the technical support equation, here are some ways to get what you need from technical support.

Last night I had to call the ISP we use for Internet access at home (a major phone company that provides DSL service in our area).  In the evenings we often watch something with Netflix’s Watch it Now; 30 Rock is our current TV show on Netflix obsession.  Over the previous week or two the quality of streaming video from Netflix has been very poor, like a cruddy YouTube video blown up too large.

At first I thought it could be a problem at Netflix, but in the evenings we experienced the problem, the DSL Reports Speed Tests suggested it was closer to our end. Everything was slow, not just Netflix.  Af first we thought the condition might be temporary, but when it persisted we finally had to ask for help.  This brings me to my first tech support tip.

Know The Problem

Understand what you’re trying to accomplish and why the issue you’re experiencing prevents you from completing it and what the general scope of the problem is.  For example, you might try to print something from Microsoft Word only to encounter an error message.  That’s a pretty simple problem to understand: the goal was to print and the problem was an error message and nothing being printed on the printer.  To determine the scope of the problem, you might try to print another document, or print from a different application, such as your email.  In my case, I knew that my Internet connection problems were not just limited to Netflix streaming, but seemed to be limited to the evenings.  Understanding the problem you’re having and its general scope helps you in my next two tips:

Attempt to Resolve the Problem Yourself

I don’t mean to suggest that you should not ask for help.  Sometimes in the process of attempting to understand the scope or nature of the problem a solution becomes obvious.  To continue the previous example, the printer that won’t print may be out of paper.  You laugh, but I’ve had that happen at my office.

“Nik, I can’t print!” he asked.

I like to start troubleshooting from the simplest problems first. “Does it have paper?” I asked.

“Oh, no it doesn’t! That fixed it!”

Do not go beyond your expertise or comfort level in case you make the problem worse, but at least be able to reproduce it if you can. In my case, our home network is rather complex, including no fewer than 3 wireless access points, so it was not inconceivable that the problem was our own and not our ISP’s.  I spent some time resetting hardware and checking configurations in my attempt to decide.

Any diagnostic steps you are able to perform will give you more information about the problem you’re having, and that will be of use when you do call tech support.

Be Specific

Communicate the problem with the tech support agent clearly and specifically.  Tell them in detail what the nature and scope of the problem is, and what you’ve done to attempt resolution, if anything.  These details will give the tech support agent the information he or she needs to help you.

I provided the agent helping me with the information I’ve given you so far, including numerical results from an online speed test I had performed just before calling.

Vague or hyperbolic information (”I can’t use my computer because nothing works and also it’s on fire!”) don’t help tech support help you.  It will only cause them to ask you to be specific.

Be Calm and Personable

You wouldn’t call technical support if your problems were not frustrating.  Nobody enjoys on-hold music, after all.  The person you eventually talk to, however, is another human being who wants to, and is being paid to, help you.  Try not to take out your frustrations on them.

If you can engage your tech support agent in a friendly and personable manner, you will relieve them from what can be an otherwise tedious job interacting with annoyed strangers for a few minutes, and the help you receive will be that much better.

Follow Instructions and Provide Feedback

You are the technical support agent’s eyes, ears and hands.  If you don’t follow instructions, do things that the technical support agent hasn’t requested, or fail to provide clear feedback as you go, you will frustrate the agent, yourself, and the process.

I have helped people that are very poor hands and eyes. I recall attempting to help a particular relative once.  After a lengthy process leading to a particular dialog box, the dialog appeared and before I had the chance to ask him to read the text of the dialog to me, he muttered, “a box came up, I’m clicking OK.”  We had to start again from the beginning.

A Happy Resolution

In the end the problem I was having with my DSL was congestion at the DSLAM, which was something the tech support agent I spoke with had to call her own next level support to resolve.  Thanks to my application of the applicable techniques above, however, my problem was handled much more easily than I expected.  The worst part of my tech support experience was the hold music.

Typing a URL into a search engine

Although it’s not exactly wrong to type a URL into a search engine, I can’t imagine a reason to do so. It’s a little like calling 411 to ask for a phone number that you already have memorized. What’s the point?

Our theory is that there’s a little confusion out there about the difference between a search engine’s search field(s) and the web browser’s address bar. See below:

A Firefox window; other browsers may look slightly different, but the layout should be similar (some browsers do not have the upper search field)

Using the Address Bar:

Typing a URL (e.g., firstbytes.com or www.firstbytes.com) into the browser’s address bar causes your browser to load the page you requested immediately.

Using a Search Field:

On the other hand, when you type something into a search field (whether Google, Yahoo, or any other search engine) and hit enter, you are asking the search engine to go out and find sites that best match whatever you typed into the field. When you get your results list, you can then click on the most likely link.

Both methods will get you to your desired destination, but using the address bar gets you there directly while using a search engine requires an extra, unnecessary step–and an extra page load that costs extra time.

Note that not all digital audio players are capable of playing every audio format.  They can all play MP3, but there are some that cannot play the AAC format that Apple prefers, and only iPods can play tracks purchased from the iTunes Music Store that have DRM.  Happily, Apple no longer protects downloads from the iTunes Music Store with DRM and provides a way to remove DRM from tracks you may have purchased prior to that change.  With those caveats in mind, read on.

If you use iTunes on a Mac, and if your player appears as a storage device in the Finder when you connect it, you could use the Sync Playlist Files to Folder script I found on Doug’s Applescripts for iTunes.  From the site: “This script will copy the files of the tracks of a particular playlist to a designated folder; on subsequent runs it will update the folder’s contents to mirror the file tracks which have been added or removed from the playlist.”  That sounds like it will do the trick.  The script requires that you edit it to specify where it will place the tracks in the playlist, but comes with complete installation and configuration instructions in its ReadMe file.  Specify the filesystem location of your player (something like /Volumes/your mp3 player/), and it will sync directly into the device.

For Windows users of iTunes, this article describes two free applications that allow you to sync with any MP3 player (I found this article via J.M.A. Daily).  Both iTunes Agent, an open source utility, and iTunes Sync, a proprietary but also free program, have GUI configuration and are driven from the Windows System Tray.  Both of these applications work with iTunes 8, and they both require .NET Framework 2.0 which is available in Microsoft Windows Update and which you may already have installed on your computer.

If you already use another method to sync your non-iPod music player with iTunes on Windows or the Mac, let us know in the comments.

But how can you be sure? It would take a lot of work to learn the truth about each and every one of these, but luckily there’s someone out there who has done it for us: Snopes. Here are some examples:

The dying boy wanting to get into the Guinness Book? Actually, that started as a true story but he made his world record years ago and doesn’t need any more cards; yet the email still circulates. This has been going on for TWENTY years!

How about warnings that opening an email from a particular sender will allow a hacker access to your computer? Wrong. It’s a hoax that has been going around for at least a year.

An email warning about “Inflammatory Breast Cancer?” Turns out, sadly, that this one is true.

In general, you should greet any email forward that plays directly on your emotions with a large degree of skepticism. Don’t forward them to others without first investigating, and Snopes should be your first–and probably last–stop. I’ve never run across a forwarded email that Snopes has not already investigated and answered, although sometimes they have to conclude that a particular claim is “unclassifiable.”

If, after investigating, you find that the subject of the email is actually true (such as the IBC example above), there’s nothing wrong with forwarding it to people who you feel would benefit from the information. But please don’t forward it to every person you’ve ever known.

On the other hand, if you find out it’s false–a much more likely outcome–then please, please just delete it and let at least one email spark die out.

1. Google is not always the best answer. Sounds like sacrilege, doesn’t it? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there is another search engine that will do a better job than Google. But depending on what sort of information you’re looking for, you might actually find better information, quicker, by going directly to an information source. Examples:

   • Wikipedia. If you are looking for an overview of a subject, there is really no better place to start than Wikipedia. You’ve probably heard that you can’t trust the information in Wikipedia because “anyone can edit it!” (usually recited somewhat hysterically), but the truth is that most of the time the information there is just fine. There are a lot of people editing it, and for the most part it ends up right. If accuracy is critically important, then Wikipedia should only be your first research stop. One of the great things about Wikipedia is that pages are documented. Not only are there links between related articles, but there are also links at the bottom of the page to the sources that were used to write the article. If you follow the links to the sources, you can decide for yourself what is or is not credible.
   • IMDb. Looking for information about a movie? Or an actor, director, or television show? Start with IMDb, the Internet Movie Database. It is the single most comprehensive source for cast lists, summaries, biographies, and myriad other bits of trivia related to movies and TV. If you want more depth than IMDb has, you can also go back to Wikipedia, which also has a wealth of information on these subjects. You’ll find that IMDb and Wikipedia are organized differently, though, so you might go to them for different sorts of information.
   • Amazon.com. Did I just send you to a shopping site for information? Yes, I did. Amazon’s product database is huge, complex, and as close to comprehensive as probably exists. Even if you aren’t actually looking to buy anything, you will find nearly any pertinent information about a product in Amazon’s database. It’s especially useful for books, movies, video games, etc., but Amazon’s inventory has grown so much that its database can be a valuable source of information for all sorts of products and purchases.

   [Note: In the following examples, I use red text to denote search strings. This is to avoid confusion with search strings that include quotation marks, and I hope it will still be easy to follow.]

2. Be specific. The more related words you put in a search, the better your search results will be. (I’m sure it’s possible to go overboard, but in principle this is true.) For a simple example, say you wanted to look up information about author Dan Brown. Try Googling Brown. Surprisingly–because Google is just that good–that search does turn up Dan Brown’s official website within the first page of results, but it’s way down the page. Change your search to Dan Brown instead and his site pops to the top of the list, along with the Wikipedia page devoted to him and other relevant links. Any time you do a Google search, try to come up with words that make your subject unique or that are a key part of its description. Use those, and your Google searches will improve immediately. Searches terms that are too generic are probably the single reason why people have difficulty searching at times.
3. Google phrases, not just a string of words. Did you know that Google interprets your search differently if you put quotation marks around it? When you search for a string of words–without quotation marks–Google looks for pages that contain those words anywhere within the page. They might have nothing to do with each other in the context of the page, but because they appear in the page, they will also appear somewhere in your results. (This is one reason that many searches find literally millions of matching pages.) However, if you put your search string in quotation marks (type "Dan Brown" instead of just Dan Brown) then Google searches for the two words together in a page. This can be especially helpful if you’re looking for information about a quote or for song lyrics or a poem. Even if you can only remember a fragment, Google can usually find it if you put it in quotation marks.

Finally, here’s something I do that almost–but not quite–makes tip #1 a lie. I’m not sure it really qualifies as a tip so much as “Michelle’s lazy workaround,” which is why I didn’t include it in the list above, but I’ve developed this strategy because I pretty much always have a Google search bar handy (there’s one in my browser’s toolbar, and I always have my iGoogle page open). If I want to search for something that I know I’ll want to read–first anyway–on Wikipedia, I don’t actually go to the Wikipedia page and then search. Instead, I type my search phrase in the Google search bar and add the word “wiki.” This makes the Wikipedia link pop to the top of my results. (Continuing my example from above, I’d search for Dan Brown wiki–no quotes, although I could do "Dan Brown" wiki if I wanted to.)

The same technique works for IMDb–Google Clark Gable imdb, and the IMDb link to Clark Gable pops right up on top. It will work for any website that is indexed on Google, probably, so if you have a favorite information site that I haven’t talked about here, give it a try. Just make sure the identifying word you use is descriptive of the site; often the domain name is the best choice. (I just Googled firstbytes math and my post about Google Math popped to the top of the results–not bad, considering the site is only a week old!)

There is more to this subject, of course, so expect to see at least one more related post in the future. In the meantime, happy Googling!

1. Take more pictures!

Don’t worry about running out of space, and don’t delete the photos you snap while they’re still in the camera. Wait until you’ve seen what they really look like after you download them to your computer. The more pictures you take, the better the chance that you’ll end up with a gem.

2. Use the Internet to learn more about photography.

There is a wealth of information and advice online that can help you improve your photos, at any point in the process. For example, take a look at Digital Photography Tips and Tutorials, from Digital Photography School. That page has compiled links to tips from all over the site; there’s bound to be something there you’d like to learn.

3. Make sure your camera’s clock is set correctly.

The photo cataloging software that goes hand in hand with digital photography reads this data, so if the camera’s clock is correct your photos will already have the correct time and date attached to them. Also, if the date is wrong then some day in the future you might have no idea when the photo was taken!

Canon SD800 IS

4. Learn about your camera’s manual and semi-manual modes.

This one will probably require you to spend a little time with your camera’s instruction manual. Even a simple point-and-click model digital camera probably has capabilities you are unaware of. I have a Canon SD800 IS (pictured at right).

This is a very handy little camera that I take everywhere with me. For the most part I just use the automatic mode (manually turning off the flash when necessary–which is often), but I’ve also discovered that it has presets for different environments such as beach, aquarium, and snow. I love this feature! It makes my pictures come out much better in what would otherwise be challenging conditions. This is the sort of information it’s very handy to learn about your camera and it only takes a small amount of effort.


I took this photo at Kailua Beach in Oahu last February and, thanks to the beach setting, the picture came out great despite the glare off the ocean and the sunshine and sand.

5. Transfer all the photos you’ve taken from your camera to a computer (or another storage device).

Do not save photos on your camera any longer than absolutely necessary. You never know when something could happen (for instance, your camera breaks, you lose your camera, or your media card stops functioning) and you don’t want to be at risk of losing your precious memories. Also, if they’re on your computer rather than waiting around on the camera, you’re more likely to do something with them.

6. Take a few minutes before you share your photos to do some minor editing.

One of the primary reasons we take pictures is to share them with other people.  Most photographs can benefit from cropping, leveling, and possibly some minor color-tweaking or red-eye removal. It really pays to take a little time to perfect your photos. This will be the subject of a future how-to article here.

7. Use online services like Flickr or Shutterfly to share with friends and family.

Flickr is an online community centered around the sharing of photos–if you take a lot of photos, you’ll probably want to check it out. Shutterfly is more of a photo service; not only can you upload your photos to their site to show them to family but you can also order prints in multiple sizes, create personalized photo books from your own photos, and create many other photo-related keepsakes. You can also have these items sent as gifts. (Note that there are other sites that do the same sorts of things, it just happens that I’m familiar with and have used Shutterfly.)

8. Always backup your photos!

Hard drives are great, they hold lots of data and they generally last a long time. However, when they die they usually die very unexpectedly. Often the data is difficult–and/or very expensive–to retrieve, so give yourself some peace of mind by backing up your important photographs. Even if you keep your best photos online, you probably want to make sure your originals are safe. I, for one, typically upload my photos at a lower resolution than they’re stored in on my computer so I wouldn’t want to find myself with nothing but my online versions.

This list is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to digital cameras and digital photography. Keep an eye out for further articles relating to some of these tips. Also, please let me know if you have a particular area you’d like us to focus on.

Twitter is, as my headline alludes, a microblogging service. On a regular blog we can “talk” for as long as we like, making posts short or long to suit the subject and the author. On Twitter, each post is limited to 140 characters.

That’s 140 CHARACTERS, not words.

Here’s an example, posted by @Powells earlier today:

Three authors will be at our downtown store for their new books published by Akashic Books. Please join us. http://bit.ly/QWALt

(That was 128 characters.)

The idea behind microblogging is that short, simple posts encourage people to post because they can do it so quickly and easily. Instead of writing long posts that take time to think out and proofread and such, you share little 140-character thoughts throughout the day. This also makes Twitter fit very well with mobile devices, such as iPhones, Blackberries, and cell phones. These devices are all about short, quick communications (think text messaging).

Some people literally post about what they’re doing (”Having a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. Yum!”), while others post to share interesting links or other information that they find as in the Powells example above. For some of us, it’s a combination of these things with occasional “conversations” with friends thrown in.

Twitter is not all that conducive to conversations, really, which is partly why some people are stumped by its popularity and wonder at its usefulness. You can reply directly to someone and they will (probably) eventually see your reply, but conversations are not threaded so that related posts appear together. All posts appear chronologically, with the most recent at the top. The more people you “follow”–more on that in a moment–the faster new posts will scroll down the page.

The thing that I’ve found interesting about Twitter–because I, too, was skeptical about non-conversational posts–is that you can actually learn a lot (about a particular subject maybe, or a person you’re following) just by popping in and scanning your Twitter home page from time to time throughout the day. It doesn’t take a significant time investment to begin to see value in it, which may be part of the draw for a lot of people.

A few words on followers/following: As of this moment, I am following 128 people on Twitter and have 109 people who follow me. Some of these people are friends–people I know in real life, or friends I’ve known for a while online–some are celebrities, and others are people I’ve found by looking at other people’s lists for interesting individuals to follow. Some I’ve found because they followed me first. My following list leans toward writers, editors/agents, bloggers, and people local to the Portland area.

If I find that someone I’ve followed doesn’t add value to my list, I’ll eventually unfollow them, but in general I find that the variety of people on my list makes it interesting and entertaining and, surprisingly often, informative.

My advice? Give it a shot. Sign up and poke around, looking for interesting people to follow. Give it some time, because it does take a while to establish an interesting list of people to follow and to, well, get the hang of it. It can be hard to let go of the idea that we should somehow be having meaningful conversations. Twitter IS about interacting, but it isn’t particularly about conversing.

If you do decide to give it a try, feel free to follow me. I’m @michelletoich and I’ll most likely follow you back as long as you don’t appear to be an auto-Twitter bot!

There are details I haven’t covered here (like what those @ symbols mean), but I don’t want to overwhelm with too much information in what is meant to be an overview article. If you’d like to know more about Twitter, comment and let me know! (Or click on the “Send us your thoughts” link on the right to send us an email.)