Self Purging Receipt System
June 15, 2011
Hardware Organizational 1 Comment
At the end of the week, we all end up with many receipts from ATM’s, charge cards, grocery stores, gas pumps and even raffle tickets.
We seldom, if ever, need these receipts – and if they are needed we normally need them within a few weeks.
Wouldn’t it be great if they would just self-destruct after that time.
I devised the next best thing – a self-purging mini file cabinet system.
It is nothing more than a 4 drawer plastic unit. Each drawer is labeled as follows:
- Jan – May – Sept
- Feb – Jun – Oct
- Mar – Jul – Nov
- Apr – Aug – Dec
During the month of June – just put these types of receipts in the Feb-Jun-Oct drawer.
Come July 1st – you’ll start using the Mar-Jul-Nov drawer – but throw away the Mar-Jul-Nov drawer contents – which is actually all your receipts from March.
Notice that now, that contents in the Mar-Jul-Nov are now at least 8 weeks old. By now you should see that all of transactions posted ok on your credit cards, bank accounts and you do not need to return anything to the store.
This also makes it pretty easy to find a receipt if you actually may need one.
Stay Alert with Search Results.
April 16, 2011
Cybercrime, Google Leave a comment
Be careful when clicking on search results from Google, Bing and the others too I am sure
As an example .. when I search for VLC (my favorite video player) – the 1st result is not the actual VLC web site. The 1st result is just a paid ad – who knows what it really is. The result further down is the actual web site.
This happens with many searches.
Home phone for $5 a month? Yes We Can!
January 20, 2011
Telephony Google-voice, Phones, TELTUB, VOIP 4 Comments
What do you get when you add a Google voice account, TELTUB and an ATA device? You get a home phone that works pretty well.
First of all, make no mistake – this is not for the technically weak of heart – at first glance it can be intimidating. I would recommend this only if you like tinkering with things, and can follow instructions well.
TELTUB likes to use wizards to make things easy, and you can purchase the ATA from them – all configured for $50. That will save you from what seems the hardest thing – which is setting up the ATA.
Initially it all looked difficult, but in retrospect it was kind of easy.
I really recommend this as a 2nd line, or as a backup if you use your cellular phone as a primary phone. I have not used it long enough to feel comfortable recommending it as a primary phone, but I have a feeling it will work as well as Vonage or the other popular VoIP services. It’s certainly a great value at about $5 a month – no credit card needed and no contracts. The first month is free – great to prove to yourself how well it does work.
As of today this system will not call 911, when you make an outbound phone call it will take 10-11 seconds before it starts to ring, and you must always dial the area code – even if you are calling within your own area code. Personally these things do not bother me – especially since our cell phones are primary phones anyway.
Interested?
First, get yourself a Google Voice (GV) account. You will have to share it’s credentials with the TELTUB – so maybe you want to create an account exclusively for this purpose.
Second – you will need to buy an ATA. I bought mine on Ebay for $21. That is a little box, that plugs into your router and your phone. If that is scary just buy yours from TELTUB – already set up.
Third you need an gHome account with teltub. I configured it manually, but it does have a wizard to hand hold you through the set-up.
Next configure your ATA. TELTUB has a video to help. It did not exactly match my ATA screens, but was pretty easy to parse it’s information since there are only a few settings you need to enter.
One tip – get a paper notebook and use it. You will end up with 3 new user names, 4 new passwords and 2 new phone numbers. The TELTUB account is one name/password the SIP account is another, your GV is another, and you may want to pick an admin password for your ATA. Plus you will have a GV phone number and a TELTUB phone number. Sounds painful, but it’s not. Once your done, you won’t use most of these again for a long while.
Your system will dial out on the GV line and receive on the TELTUB line – once it is set up, it’s transparent to the end user and works just like a regular phone, without the 911, but that is in the works. No time limits and contracts like Vonage and you don’t have to plug this into a computer to use it like Magicjack.
When I first fired this up, it did not work. Email support from TELTUB, brought fast replies to verify my settings and look my account over, but it still failed. I restored factory settings to the ATA and started all over again and the second time it worked. I must of made an error in my excitement to see if this all would work – and it does!
The TELTUB system offers more than just phone calls – they have real time in-call picture and document sharing and a bunch of applications that you click and drag into your account. I have not explored those yet, but it is pretty clear that TELTUB will be growing fast. They certainly think “out of the box” and I’d bet they will be offering even more neat telephony applications in the near future.
TELTUB was beta in 2010 and only just launched publically on Jan 1, 2011. The founders Farid Fadaie and Ehsan Foroughi have plans to combine traditional telecommunications with social networks, Web 2.0 and HTML 5. Certainly a company whose growth will be interesting to follow.
You can follow TELTUB’s blog, on their Facebook page, or Twitter.
I’d like to see TELTUB start a support forum where users can help each other with technical issues and customers can discuss equipment and make feature wish lists. TELTUB said they are in the process of building something like that.
Using Google Voice as a Home Phone
January 7, 2011
Google Google-voice, VOIP 5 Comments
gHome is a term coined by a company called teltub. They give this video the look, feel and sound of Google presentation – but they are NOT Google. I don’t mean that in a bad way – just don’t want people to think this is from Google.
Kick Up Your Cell Phone Voice Mail System
December 31, 2010
Cellular Google-voice, Verizon, Voicemail Leave a comment
Cell phones may be the most amazing invention that I have ever seen. The technologies that make it all work is pure genius.
Cellular providers coupling that level of technology with relatively primitive voice mail technology is really disappointing.
There is a way to replace your cell service voice mail with a much better system and it’s totally free.
Conceptually, you simply take these steps
- Get a Google Voice (GV) account
- Set you cell phone to “no answer transfer” sending those calls to GV
- Set GV to transcribe those voice messages into text
- Have GV text message and optionally email you the transcription
It’s a little bit of work to do that and to set the options in GV, but it’s well worth it.
You will end up very efficient voice mail system that will save you a lot of time.
If you are technically weak get someone to help you! 
Assuming you have a GV account, jump into it at google.com/voice and click on Settings->Voice Settings.
Click in the “Phones” tab and add your cell phone number then click on “Activate Google voicemail on this phone”. Just follow the instructions on the pop up box.
After that is done, click on the “Voicemail & Text” tab
You will want to do a few things here on the Voicemail & Text page
- Set a voicemail greeting with your own voice. Just click on “record new” and you will get to name it something. Then select cell phone, your cell phone will ring and you will be able to record your outgoing message. I called mine “My Voice Default” and after you record it - be sure to select it in the dropdown box.
- Check the two boxes under the Voicemail Notifications options
- Check the box for Text Forwarding
- Since you already have a GV account you already set your PIN, so skip that and checkbox Voicemail Transcripts
Save Changes and click next on the “Calls” tab.
- Select these checkboxes on Calls tab.
Call Screening = Off
Caller ID (incoming) = Display caller’s number
Caller IS (outgoing) = Don’t change anything
Do Not Disturb = unchecked
Missed Calls = unchecked
You are pretty much done.
From now on, when someone calls your cell phone and you miss the call, they will be forwarded to your GV account. GV will not only record the message, but it will be transcribed send it to you as a text message. Transcription is not 100%, but it will let you know what the message is about, without having to dial into your voicemail to listen to it. That is a real time saver.
Plus, you will have a web based record of all your calls with many options like message forwarding, adding notes to a message or even forwarding a voice message to someone else (great for business and organizations).
If you have a Gmail account, go to Gmail labs and enable the GV player in mail option.
From now on – when someone leave you a voice message several things happen.
- You will get a text message sent to you phone. It will be a transcription of the voice message you have waiting.
- You will get an email of that transcription
- Embedded in that email will be a play button with the actual voice message for your to listen to.
- The transcription and voice message will be on google.com/voice for you to delete, archive, forward, add some notes to it.
- When someone calls your phone they hear only your voice, no more prompts from your cell phone company. Potentially much more professional sounding.
There is also a GV app for smartphones. See http://www.google.com/mobile/voice, http://www.gilsmethod.com/google-voice-iphone.
Settings and option can vary some and be much more refined, but the configuration above will get you started. You may want to teak them to your own needs after the basics are mastered.
Good luck – hope someone finds this useful.
Ya’ think Cleaning your Computer is not Important?
December 30, 2010
Rescued some data from someone’s computer a couple weeks ago, and while removing some parts, this is what we saw! Hey – it’s just a little dusty.
Get a Kindle for Christmas? Then this is a MUST READ.
December 29, 2010
Books Amazon, Kindle 2 Comments
If you are reading this then you must have a new Kindle. That’s great and you will love it – they are incredible. I am addicted to mine, BUT here are two things important to know that will save you time and money.
First of all, do not buy the cover below (or any cover without a light). It’s a quality cover for sure, but with a major flaw. It will cause your Kindle to reboot, lockup and loose track of what pages you have read.
No one knows why, but one theory is that the after a few weeks the paint on the hinge mounting system wears off and somehow shorts out some internal connectors.
I experienced this myself and it is now well documented on amazon’s web site. ( http://goo.gl/HJVix ).
David Jones, of the electronics engineering video blog created a 15 minute video of his analysis of the issue ( http://goo.gl/cl2rQ ). If you are a geek, watch it – if not skip ahead and get to my point.
To solve this issue – don’t buy any cover without a light. Sounds crazy, but it makes sense once you understand that the power for the light comes through the hinges themselves.
Amazon would not let me return the cover with the problem since I bought it 3 months ago. They did give me a $25 credit towards a cover with a light. They also send me a new Kindle (overnight fedex) just in case my lock up issue was not related to the cover. Great phone support, by the way.
Bottom line is – spend the extra money and avoid this issue.
Amazon has not officially acknowledge this issue yet and they are still selling the cover. I have no idea why they have not yet pulled it off their web site yet, or have not come out with a fix. The issue is now well documented on many web sites.
TIP #2:
Everyone talks about free books for the Kindle, well the problem is that most of the site that offer those free books have copyrights that expired – since they are 100 years old!
Personally I don’t want 100 year old books from places like Project Gutenberg, but I do want modern books recently written, especially that I am mostly a non-fiction reader.
Amazon does offer MANY free Kindle books, and Pixel of Ink is web site that will find them for you. This is a gold mine – just go to http://www.pixelofink.com – and subscribe to their daily newsletter. Each day they will email you a list of free books.
Stick with it, sometimes I go for days seeing books I have no interest in, but other days I may get 4-5 at one time. As of this moment – of the 31 books on my Kindle I bought 3 and the rest were free. They are recent publications that I can’t wait to read. Don’t miss this valuable resource – it’s like hitting the jackpot.
Good luck with your new Kindle and I hope you love your new Kindle as much as I do.
Go for the Gold
December 10, 2010
Uncategorized Backups DVD CD 3 Comments
It’s almost the end of the year and time to archive your data. Most people use normal DVD/CD’s but this is what they can look like after just 8 years.
I have also had DVD’s direct shipped to me from Microsoft a few years ago and had many of them also fall apart.
If you archive your important data on this type of media, maybe it’s time to go for the gold.
Backups – Just Do It.
November 28, 2010
Hardware, Software Backups, Carbonite Leave a comment
People want to be lectured about backups about as much as they do about brushing their teeth, but for some reason it has been a common question asked of me the past few few weeks.
I am no expert in backups or archival techniques – but I can tell you the simplified version what I do.
Your own technique should depend upon how much data you have, how valuable it is, how 
easy is it to replace and how often it changes.
First of all, I back up only my music, photos, documents and systems and content I create. Most of those files are impossible to replace, worth thousands of dollars and represent thousands of hours of work. Since I am using Windows 7 I just backup everything in the “c:/users/joe” folder. For me as of today it’s 220 GB.
I have two external hard drives and a Carbonite account.
Tonight I will backup to external drive A and tomorrow on drive B, alternating them each night. When the alternate drive is not in use – I disconnect it from the electrical power as well as the computer. Carbonite runs always.
I run ccleaner before each backup to get rid of files I do not need backed up. I use Karen Kenworthy’s free Replicator software to copy files.
Ccleaner erases unneeded files – no use in backing up things I do not need. I have it set to leave the recycle bin alone. Many people are obsessed with keeping the recycle bin empty – not me. I let it take care of itself.
Kare’s replicator software is set to back up new and changed files. That makes it really easy to find and restore files when I need to with no special software. Since no compression is used nor proprietary file format, if one file is corrupt for some reason the others should be just fine.
Carbonite’s restore function offer various versions of one file. If I worked on a spreadsheet several times, I can choose to restore yesterdays or last weeks version of that one spreadsheet. Very nice, and not possible to do from my external drives.
On top of that I archive my photos onto Gold Archival DVD’s each quarter. They are expensive, but after I saw DVD’s only 5 years old have the silver coating crumble right off in my hands – I only buy the Gold for my archives. Hopefully they will have the 100+ years life they claim to have. To fill each DVD to the brim I use DVD Span ($12 – but may confuse novices).
The plan: when my hard drives fails – I will reinstall the operating system and the software that I use. I have a list of software serial numbers stashed away – very important.
Next, I will restore my data from one of the external drives. Since the data on the external drive can be up to 24 hours old, I have Carbonite to cover the slack time.
There is no one best method in backing up, but considering the low price of external USB drives, free backup software and all your expensive music and irreplaceable photos – it’s crazy not to have a good backup system in place. Do not fear redundancy – backups go bad too, but having an organized system is key. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.