Ivan’s Expert Blog

I’ve used photographs from iStockphoto for websites. For less than $50 (often less than $10!) you can get incredible photography from amateur photographers around the world. The selection is huge, and you can search by keyword. And the photos are royalty-free, meaning that you pay just once upfront and that’s it.

But recently for the first time I started browsing iStockphoto’s large pile of illustrations, also available for similarly low prices. It’s hard to browse illustrations by style, but extremely easy to search by subject matter. Looking for computer-related images, I found some dross (of course) but also was amazed to find such a wide range of ideas.

The illustrations are also often available as vector images, which is great if you’re looking to use them at various sizes for web and print, for example.

It’s free to browse. Once you’re ready to buy, you use a credit card to buy iStock credits, and each image is priced according to what size and resolution you need. And then you just download it.

The idea of amateur photography, as opposed to a stock photo source such as Corbis or Getty where the quality is strictly vetted, plus the vast number of illustrations makes iStockphoto a fun place to look around for ideas for your own photo shoots too.

What do you do when your Entourage email database gets huge? The best thing to do is to archive some of it. For example, perhaps every January you’d like to archive all emails older than 2 years. Well there are 2 different easy ways to do it.

A program that’s been around for years and years is still the easiest way to archive, and it’s been updated over the years. It’s called Entourage Email Archive X, and it costs $30.
http://www.softhing.com/eeax.html
It offers lots of alternatives and options for archiving. You can even download it and try it out.

However there is an export feature in Entourage, which you can use for free; to get it to archive email older than a certain date requires a few specific steps. So it’s not as easy as EEAX. Someone has put together a mini tutorial here on how to do it:
http://blog.gingergeek.com/2009/06/how-to-archive-entourage-2008-mail-using-multiple-identities/

Unless you really, really don’t want to spend the $30, I’d say go with EEAX. It gives you much more flexibility and also avoids any errors that might happen in the multi-step free process.

And don’t forget to back up your Entourage database before you do the archive, just in case something goes wrong! To back it up, go to your user folder and go to Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities (if you’re using 2008) and copy the Main Identity folder to your desktop or another place on your computer. All your mail is in there.

An article by Charles Passy in today’s Wall Street Journal entitled “Can Big-Box Merchants Fix Your Computer?” is his tale of taking 4 computers to 3 different large retailers that offer computer repair, plus sending one away to a fourth company.

The three retailers, Best Buy (Geek Squad), Office Depot, and Staples, all did varying degrees of a crappy job on the PC repair. Most of their techs didn’t seem to be actual experts. And they all had terrible customer service. Although all were cheap, ranging from $75 to $200 for service. (Passy does say GeekSquad was the best of the 3.)

The last company, IResQ, is a mail-away service for Mac computers. They did quite a good job although they, too, had customer-service issues.

Granted, what happens with 4 computers is not necessarily a trend, but the article does show the importance of choosing a computer support company that has true expertise and also is dedicated to listening to and actually helping customers with whatever they need.

That’s why we truly feel we are offering something different. Focusing (almost) exclusively on Macs was a conscious decision to offer service in an area where we really excel. And we also consciously decided to make client service a priority. We have one-and-a-half people (Naomi and me) who are not Mac experts but instead are available to help with the myriad issues and problems that come up for our clients. And we choose our Experts based not only on their Mac knowledge but also on their personal skills, their abilities to really work with people and help them.

And this will make the difference in the long-term growth and success of our business.

Etsy is the great place to shop for handmade items that are the perfect mix of craft and tech. The combo of the two is a special interest of mine. Here are five favorite categories.

1. Flash drives (also known as USB drives). They range from old Pez dispensers to old keyboard keys to handmade cases carved out of purpleheart wood from Central America. The kitschy to the beautiful.

Purpleheart wood flash drive from xomonline.

2. Jewelry. Mechanimation makes jewelry out of old circuit boards, mounted in silver or copper frames. One is a piece from an Apple board. Yes, geeky, but also funky and almost elegant.

Pendant with circuit board from Mechanimation.

3. MacBook sleeves. My favorite so far is this industrial felt sleeve by Byrd & Belle, with black leather straps and embellishments, and the sizes are especially designed to fit the 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pros.

Felt sleeve for MacBook Pro 15" from Byrd & Belle.

4. Housewares. I just love this set of glow-in-the-dark coasters with the Space Invaders images. Yes, perhaps more geeky than really techy, but somehow still elegant.

Coasters from lostmitten.

5. iPhone accessories. Check out these incredible wooden iPhone cases from Substrata, that come in a range of woods (this one is zebrawood). Or this amazing leather sleeve made to look like an old-fashioned Walkman. If you like a more classic look, here’s an elegant red leather case with a single snap as adornment. And here are cases made from vintage neckties, by RogueEmpire.

Sleeve for iPod with Walkman design by tovicorrie.

Plenty of good stuff for holiday or birthday gift-giving. And it supports independent designers across the world.

I read the following quote today, said by Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer (courtesy of All Things D):

“Frankly, the economy is good for us, because people do understand that Macintoshes are quite a bit more expensive for essentially the same computer.”

So he’s expecting to have strong sales, thanks to the bad economy. I disagree.

First, let’s just point out that Apple has not used the word “Macintosh” for ages. Get with it, Steve! It’s “Mac” now. So right there I feel like Microsoft isn’t really in touch with what Apple is doing.

And on to my main point. I don’t think it’s true that people automatically buy more inexpensive products when the economy is bad. Yes, of course things like lipstick sell strongly at those times, because people want an inexpensive treat. But a computer isn’t an impulse purchase. It’s something carefully considered. And in this market, people want something that will last. Something that they think has real value.

And in terms of value, I argue that up-front cost has little to do with actual value. It’s the value over the life span of the computer that is meaningful.

Let’s take the life of the PC. The view is that PCs don’t work that well and need more support. Partially that’s because of viruses, which can cause so many headaches (as can the anti-virus software, which can slow your computer down and cause real issues in terms of productivity). Partially it’s because the hardware and software are not made by the same company. Partially it’s because PCs seem to slow down more and more the older they get. And partially it’s because many PC problems require a real IT expert to solve them. So the costs over time can really add up.

Let’s now look at the Mac. Yes, a Mac may cost more up front. But there are virtually no viruses. The hardware and software are made by the same company so they work extremely well together. The Genius Bar can help you with so many Mac problems and answer a ton of questions, all for free. They routinely last for 4 or 5 years without needing much maintenance. Thus many users find it much more productive and they have less frustration and less down time. And okay, I guess we need to add in a little something for “coolness factor” which has some kind of worth, to some people.

All of the above added together is worth a lot. So Steve, a Mac is not the “same computer” as your PC. Cost is not the same as value.

And Steve, have you seen Apple’s fiscal Q4 earnings? Net income $1.7 billion, well above estimates. Record sales of 3.1 million Macs (up 17% from a year ago). A growth in market share to a 15-year high. (All numbers courtesy of CNN’s article.) So obviously people are buying Macs in this economy. Again, cost is not the same as value.

In the chill of winter, it’s annoying to have to take off your mittens to make a call on your iPhone or adjust your music or surf the web–since the iPhone touch screen only works when your actual finger touches it.

To solve the problem of cold hands, I’ve invented Slittens, a pair of mittens with a slit at the right index finger to allow you to poke one finger out and tap at your iPhone screen. (This works for the iPod Touch too, of course!)

The defining feature of the Slittens.

To knit your own pair of Slittens, pick any knitting pattern in the round for mittens. The ones in the photo were made with the Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd from Interweave Press.

When the right-hand mitten gets up to your knuckle of your index finger, cast off 4 stitches right where the index finger sits inside the mitten. Knit the rest of the way around in pattern. When you get back around to the cast off stitches, cast on 4 stitches and then knit the rest of the way around in pattern again. Then continue to follow the pattern normally.

That’s it! You should end up with very normal-looking mittens except with a little slit at your right index finger.

If your Slittens are made using very thick yarn you may want to reduce the number of cast-off stitches to 2 or 3; likewise if your Slittens are made with lighter weight yarn, you may want to increase the cast-off stitches to 5 or 6.

Here they look just like normal mittens.

The Slittens in use.

I wanted a way to be able to update my Facebook profile, my Facebook IvanExpert fan page, and my Twitter feed all at once–and to be able to choose, on a post-by-post basis, where I wanted the posts to display.

Twitter doesn’t have any built-in functionality to allow Facebook updates from its website, so that’s no good.

Facebook does have a few apps that allow sync with Twitter, but none of them work perfectly. The official Twitter app for Facebook is permanently broken, plus it’s hard to set certain posts to go only to the fan page versus the profile page. Other Facebook apps will pull a Twitter post if the post begins with #fb but that doesn’t look professional.

Today I am trying out and liking a new piece of software for Mac called Seesmic. (It also works on PCs.) It’s a free application that you install and run on your Mac.

The Seesmic window.

Some of the benefits of Seesmic that I’ve discovered already:

1. It allows me to see my Twitter feed, my Facebook profile page feed, and my Facebook fan page feed all at once, in individual columns. I can also add columns for Twitter replies directly to me, and private tweets (although for now the 3 columns are plenty to keep track of).
2. For each individual post, I can decide whether to post it to my Twitter account, my Facebook profile page, and/or my Facebook fan page.
3. But there is a way to put default settings so that, for example, if I want most of my posts to go on Twitter and Facebook fan page only, it’s quick and easy.
4. It allows me to choose which site I want to use to shorten my URLs, and which one I want to handle my images.
5. If I want, it can alert me via visual and/or sound when a new post comes up. (I ended up turning this off, too annoying.)
6. I can set it to launch on computer login.

And things I haven’t figured out yet:

1. Can I easily RT (retweet) from Seesmic?
2. Can I easily send a personal Twitter reply from Seesmic?
3. Can I create custom columns based on priorities I set?

So far I’m liking Seesmic because it’s extremely basic, not too many bells and whistles, yet it does the few things I need. Goodbye, unwieldy Facebook apps!

My 2010 calendar, made in iPhoto with photos from my trips over the years, showed up about a week ago.

It looks great. Most of the photos came out very sharp and colorful.

My only comments are:

1. I’m glad I manually lightened and color-adjusted all the images. They would have been too dark otherwise.

2. I removed the text from the calendar cover but there’s a think vertical gray line that isn’t attractive. Luckily I won’t be seeing the cover too often.

3. The one photo that iPhoto warned me was too low-res came out okay. It does look slightly pixellated but it’s not terrible. These calendars do print BIG so you really do need to have very high-res images; the standard jpgs that most cameras shoot as a default may not cut it.

4. I  liked the design I chose: I believe it was the Modern Lines theme.

5. I chose to make the images full bleed but next time I would like to try a white border around each image, and a caption below.

Here are a few (bad) photos of the finished calendar. Can’t wait to start using it!

January: Iceland.

April: Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

May: A stand at the Minnesota State Fair.

It’s that time of year, when everybody sends out cards to friends and family. Or in our case, we send out cards to a select list of clients and colleagues. We use Mail Merge to do it.

If you have your address book in Entourage, it’s easy to create a mailing list and format it for printing straight onto labels, all using Mail Merge in Microsoft Word. Here’s how.

Step 1: Unless you want to send a card to everybody in your address book, the first thing to do is to create a new category for your mailing list, and then put everybody in it whom you want this mailing to go to.

In Entourage, under the Edit menu, choose Categories and then choose Edit Categories. This is where you can add a new category (using the New button) and give it a name (like “Holiday mailing list”).

Then go back to the list of contacts, and for any contact you want on that mailing list: a) highlight the contact, b) click the arrow next to “Categories” in the top bar of the Entourage window, c) select the new category.

Now your mailing list has been created.

Step 2: Now comes the Mail Merge part. Open up Microsoft Word. From the Tools menu, choose Mail Merge Manager. A Mail Merge Manager box will pop up with numbers 1-6.

Step 3: Go to #1 and click on Create New, and choose Labels. In the box that pops up, pick the correct label brand and size that fits what you have. The most common for these types of addresses is Avery 5160 but look at your package. Then click OK. A window will pop up that’s already formatted for your label type.

Step 4: Go back to the Mail Merge Manager box and go to #2 and click on Get List. You want to choose Office Address Book, since that’s where you have your contacts selected by category.

A new box pops up. This is where you will select which fields you want on the labels. A field is a chunk of info: first name, last name, city, zip code. So one by one, select the proper fields in the proper order from the Merge Field pop-up list. Probably you will choose fields that look a little like this:

{First name} {last name}
{address}
{city}, {state} {zip}
{country}

Make sure you put a space between {first name} and {last name} and a comma between {city} and {state}, and so on. So that the formatting will be correct. Then when you are done, click OK.

Step 5: You will see that your Word document now has those fields in each box. Does the formatting look good? If you want to change the font, or the size of the text, now is the time. Select all the text on the entire page and then use the proper menus to change the font and size.

Step 6: Go back to the Mail Merge Manager box. You can skip #3 as you shouldn’t need this one. Click on #4, Filter Recipients, and click on Options. A box pops up showing all your categories. You just click on the checkbox next to the category that is your mailing list. Then click OK.

Note: There is a bug in MailMerge for Office 2008 where all the names of the categories don’t show up by name; so you may see no text next to some of the checkboxes. It’s highly aggravating if your mailing list happens to be one of the categories that doesn’t show up. If that’s the case, the only solution I have found is to try each of the checkboxes, one at a time, and see which one has the number of records that matches your mailing list. So yes, trial and error.

Step 7: Go back to the Mail Merge Manager box. Click on #5, Preview Results, and click on the first button, the ABC button. This should show your mailing list names and addresses filling up the Word document.

If it looks good, go on to the next step.

If it looks bad (fields are wrong, layout looks wrong), then go back to step 4 and add or delete fields, or go into the Word document and change font or text size, and then continue with steps 5 through 7.

Step 8: Go back to the Mail Merge Manager box, and click on #6, Complete Merge. You can choose to go straight to the printer, but instead I’d advise choosing the second button, Merge to New Document. That way, you’ll have a Word doc showing all the names and addresses for your mailing list. Save this Word doc.

Step 9. If you want to make manual changes to individual addresses, you can do that in the Word doc. For example I often will send one card to two people who live together (such as a husband and wife) so I will add the second person’s name next to the first person’s name.

If you want to use Mail Merge with addresses from another program (not Entourage), such as Apple Address Book, the easiest way to do it is to export from the program in a format that Mail Merge can read (such as tab-delimited), and then import into Mail Merge in step 4 above.

One of our clients is moving out of his apartment for a week and a half over the Thanksgiving holiday. He wants to know how he can make sure to have internet access during that brief time he’s away.

It isn’t worth the money to purchase a wireless card and a plan for that short a time. But another option is to rent it. Many companies have cropped up that will rent either a wireless card or a MiFi device for a day, a week, a month. They cater to home users and businesses.

Whoa, let’s step back a minute. What are these devices?

A wireless card is a little piece of hardware that either sticks into the card slot or the USB slot on your Mac (or PC). It’s got an antenna (sometimes sticking out, sometimes built on the inside) and it functions like a mini cell phone–but instead of receiving and transmitting a voice conversation it’s sending and receiving data, over the cell towers. All the major cell phone carriers sell them: Verizon and AT&T and Sprint/Nextel. This can only be used by 1 computer at a time.

A MiFi is the size of a credit card. It functions like a wireless card, in that it allows internet access anywhere using cell phone technology. The big benefits are:

1. It doesn’t need to be plugged into your computer to work; your computer just needs to be in range of the device.
2. Multiple people (up to 5, I believe) can use the same MiFi for simultaneous internet, if they are all in range of the device.

You can see how these devices would be very useful if you need internet access in a place where normally there isn’t any. But they do cost money: There is a one-time purchase fee, plus a monthly subscription fee, and a 1-year contract (yes, they are a lot like cell phones in this way also).

So if you need one of these devices for a short time only, you can now rent them from many companies at various prices depending on device, service, length of time, and which company you rent from. Here’s a short list, found just through browsing the web (and I’ve never used any of these companies, so do your homework first):

• DayPass Wireless
• Event Radio Rentals
• EZ Wireless Communications
• Go Wireless LLC
• Rent2Roam
• RovAir
• WiFi Rents