It's almost Christmas day!!! can't wait

Before making a purchase, it is good to do some research.

For this Christmas, I got myself a new vacuum cleaner.  After a long research of around 3 months I finally "bite the bullet" and made the purchase.

I

can't wait!

A friend of mine owns an old kenmore canister vacuum cleaner that she had got on Sears long time ago and I had used several times and really like it a lot. So from the time I moved to my new home I have been thinking about acquiring a vacuum cleaner but I wasn't able to find one just like hers.

I did my research and found out that Electrolux would be the closer to her vacuum.

It took me a while because on the other hand she also owns a Dyson and they are without doubt the best rated vacuums in the market but with a much higher cost.

At the end, and after reading hundreds of reviews and even watching videos on youtube I decided for this particular vacuum electrolux ultra active. I got it on sale for almost half the original price on walmart.

I, like Rockie, couldn't wait and got it out of the box this weekend and use it around my house. I am very happy with my purchase :)

so the tip for today:

Do your "homework" or research before making a large purchase. There are a lot of sites that offer reviews about everything you want to buy. Avoid reading the 5 stars or 1 star reviews. I always read the 3 or 4 star reviews that will tell you the good and the bad.


Merry Christmas and Happy and Prosperous New Year!!

Keep your billfold in your pocket and Feliz Navidad !

If you are planning to buy a new PC maybe it will pay off to wait

As usual on Christmas time, I have received a few calls about suggestions for what computer to buy as a Christmas gift. I know there are a lot of sales and some are really good deals. However it might be a good idea to wait.

christmas gift

The computers now are being sold with windows 8 or 8.1 that most users dislike and in some cases some companies offer computers with windows 7 pro installed and with a free upgrade to windows 8.1. Which the user will have to install himself.

Although windows 7 pro is a really good option, there are some features that doesn't work as well on windows 7 as on the newer version windows 8.1.

So my tip for today:

If it is possible for you, wait for Windows 10, it is supposed to come out on late summer or early fall 2015.

see you soon with more tips.

what career or major to take?

Being prepared for the future includes having technology skills.

#futureready

I was checking on my twitter and I came across the hashtag #futureready.  It is related to a president initiative name ConnectED. The main idea of this initiative is to prepare american students with the skills they need to get good jobs and compete in the global economy demands.

That really captured my attention. It is really important for students to be ready to face a labor force that will require them to have technology skills.  Not only be able to use iphones and ipads and all those devices they comfortably use but to be able to be productive with them.

I have heard young people make comments that they don't like technology or computers because they don't like math or feel that they are inadequate because their grades in math are not as good, etc. Also, students are picking a career or major basing their decision on those fears.

Independently of what career path students chose, they will have to have computer skills. We all need to encourage kids to be future ready and in fact to select technology or any other STEM career.

The punch line today, while I was encouraging a student to pick computer science as his major instead of social studies, it was the fact that many people complain about calling tech support of any kind and always getting someone with a foreign accent, so I told him,  you have to power to change it! you all need to pick computer science.

So my tip for today:

Don't be afraid of technology, stay on top of it!

:)

see you soon.

The problem with the chromebooks.... is it really a problem?

The biggest complaint about chromebooks.

The problem with the chromebooks?

The biggest complaint people have made about chromebooks is that they only work with an internet connection. That is not true. There are some things that can be done offline. Yes it is very limited what you can do off line but to be honest, i don't know many people that owns a computer, ipad, etc. that uses them to work offline.

The other complaint I have heard is from the people that travels a lot and want to get some work done while flying. That is not a problem anymore because airlines offer wi-fi internet on their flights nowadays.

I our school district we have deployed 500+ chromebooks to students. We have wifi coverage on all our buildings. The students love them and can actually produce finished products on them like presentations, videos, documents, websites, blogs, etc. The price is very accessible, they come with a keyboard and webcam and they are so easy to use.

Are they the same as a PC? of course no, that would be comparing apples to oranges. 

Are the iPads cooler than them? maybe, but their price by the time you include a keyboard is almost un-affordable in this economy.

So my tip for today:

Don't let the fact that chromebooks need a internet connection to work best make you ignore its advantages. Christmas is coming we all need to be wise with our budget too. 

see you soon with more tips.

My google drive is different!!! can't find my shared with me folder

Incoming is the new shared with me folder.

With online applications the users aren't normally aware of an upcoming change. Since they are online, the application can change overnight without any user input.

The good news about the google drive is that as for now you can go back to the "old drive". Go to settings and click on leave new drive.

My tip for today:

I like the new drive. They have made some improvements to it that we just need to get used to.
Just don't panic, the shared with me folder now its named incoming and all your stuff is still there!

See you soon with more tips.

Where did i Put that Email? ...Skip the Email, just share it on your google drive.

Advantages of using Google drive or other shared spaces.

I would like to list some reasons to start using cloud storage and stop using email as your only collaborating tool.

Where did i put that email??

• Space limitations. Must emails have a quota of how much data can be sent through an email. So if you have a large file or picture, it is not possible to send via email.

• Different versions of the same document. Sometimes while collaborating the document that is being work on has several revisions or versions and it would be hard to keep up with which is the latest version when you have several email with attachments and worse if several people is modifying the same document. On a shared document it is only one document that is online, and of course that would be the latest version.

• Save one log in. This might not apply to everybody, but in our district, students that use chromebooks, have to log in on wifi, then to their google account and since the only email they can access is the one provided by the district (microsoft) then, there it goes another log in if the document is sent by email. However if it is shared, they would be able to see it on their google drive without having to log in.

• Privacy settings. The user that shared the file can decide who can view or who can edit the 

• Better organised. It is a bad practice but users tend to use their email as a cloud storage and then have a hard time trying to keep up with it.

I am sure that there are other advantages that i didn't cover but those are all I could come up with really fast.

So my tip for today:

Stop using your  email as a cloud storage.  Start using your google drive or one drive, after all they work better for collaborating and they are free :).

See you soon with more tools.

Can we go back to the old phone system???

The user resistance to change. 

We just updated our old telephone system to a new voice over IP telephone system and it has been a nightmare. Not only dealing with the telephone company but with resistant to change users.

I know its different, its going to take some time to learn it but at the same time the old system was literally  falling apart and we needed a new one.

Telephone systems cost a lot of money and it wouldn't be wise to replace an old system with another already obsolete system. It would be like buying a new PC and installing Windows ME on it.


So my tip for today:


Give yourself time to learn the new system and allow yourself to make some mistakes. You will learn to love the advantages of this new technology sooner than you think.


see you soon with new tips.

The infamous ticketing system .. a necessary evil

What happens when the telephone system goes down.

So today, i had to send a email to all our employees to inform then that our telephone system is down. We are in the process of changing the old telephone system to a new Voice over IP system ( which means telephones that use our data network), and the telephone company is still working to fix a few unforeseen issues.

the infamous ticketing system a necessary evil

And now we have users knocking at our door asking for help!

I understand it is much easier to pick up the phone and call than filling a service request. However, when using a ticketing system allow us to serve the users better as it gives us a way to track our work, we get some important information we need beforehand, gives the supervisor an opportunity to assign jobs to the right help desk person and the ticket just need to be submitted once instead of calling and getting a busy tone and having to call back.

My tip for today:

Use the ticketing system, once you do it one or two times, you will realize it is not that hard and it is fair for everybody.

See you all soon with more tips.

what is the cloud???

About the cloud and other storage. 

I love that commercial where a woman ask "Where is the cloud? Are we in the cloud?". So I thought it would be nice to talk about Cloud Storage.

Cloud storage is internet base storage or put in another terms, it is storage that you access through internet. "The cloud" is just a metaphoric name for internet computing.

Is this the cloud?

There are several companies that offer free cloud storage as: iCloud, Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive, and many more. They are all different but at the same time they offer the same, storage space that can be accessed over the internet.

And you might wonder why would people store their information on the cloud? well, it makes it easier to share files between your different devices, as your computer and mobile devices. Also, it gives you the opportunity to access your files from any computer as long as you have access to internet and can remember your log in and password. And you could also share files and collaborate with other users.

As many users I have seen having problems with corrupted or ran over flash drives, I would really recommend them to give cloud services a shot.You could still use your flash drives as a secondary backup option.

Which one is the best? they all have their pros and cons.

My tip for today:

 If your current email service provides cloud storage, then, than would be your best option because at least you already know that user name and password.

See you all soon with more tips.

It's like magic....isn't it?

When users see the computers just as a black box.

It's like magic

For some users computers are like a black box that works like :

input -> blackbox -> output.

They don't really know how it works or what make things work the way the do. I remember meeting a young lady that said to me "computers are like magic to me". I guess it gave me a lot of insight of what some users perception of computers is.

It does seem like magic now with the new operating systems, but there is a lot of engineering inside those black boxes and a lot of processes going on before and after every click the user makes.

What to learn more about what goes on inside the black box?  then keep reading my blog.  :)

See you soon.

All roads lead to Rome.

When working with technology if it doesn't work one way, try another way. Do not get stuck.

When personal computers first started, the user used the command line to input commands one at a time and it was easier to have a written procedure to follow from beginning to end. It is not like that anymore. Now users can reach the same results following different paths or methodologies. We just need to be more flexible and creative.

A good example of what I am talking about is all the different browsers now available. For example the most popular ones are: internet explorer, fire fox, chrome, safari. There are more out there.

I have noticed that some websites work better in ie and others prefer chrome or firefox or safary. So, when facing problems with display on certain websites, it is a good idea to try a different browser.  I wouldn't recommend to have 4 different browsers on you computer but you can pick 2. I would have IE and another of your preference (chrome or firefox).

Users tend to have a preferred browser and it is just that they are used to it, their layout, colors, etc. But as i have said, in this day and time it is best to be flexible and just try different ways to accomplish the task. 

So my tip for today:  Be flexible and don't get stuck. :)

Who you gonna call?

When facing computer problems, Who you gonna call?

As a user myself, I sometimes face issues with software I am trying to use or deploy. As part of education system,  we tech people also have a helpdesk support in Frankfort we could call if needed. However, it is important to know whom to call. When it is a internal operations issue we call our helpdesk, otherwise, when it is a software application issue, then we need to call the software company support.

I  know it is a fine line and I guess as a user calling your own tech support would be the first option for most users and that is ok. 

My Tip today : There are several sources of help we could use.

• GOOGLE IT. Don't underestimate the power of "googleing".
• FAQ. In most websites they have a FAQ (frequently asked question) sections where they have posted questions and answers to common questions.
• FORUMS.  most software companies also have forums where users can go and post issues they are experiencing and they get answers from other users.

Of course when all this options fail, call me :D, but don't be like some users that work for 2-5 days and call everybody on their contact list and then, when the level of frustration is 200 (on a scale from 1-10), they call tech support.... It is hard for us too.

Hope these tips help you and I'll be back soon.

Always, always log off

Students : always, always log off.

always log off

This is a very important rule to follow, students should always log off or sign out of the workstations they have been working on. By doing so, they would be sure that nobody else will delete files from their network drive or browse inappropriate internet sites using their credentials.

Also, when a student leaves a workstations and they are still logged on, it uses resources from the computer making it slower,  and sometimes locking the computer so it has to be forced to shutdown for other user to log in.

Our user credentials leave a footprint in all that is done on our network and internet too. User credentials is in a way a signature, so it must be treated like that too.

So my tip is : LOG OFF

It takes some of your time to log back in but I assure you it is worth it!

How many user accounts and passwords??? say what?

It is 21st century and yes it is important to learn and be able to handle several user accounts and passwords.
 
I myself have so many user different accounts and passwords that i have a app installed in my iPad to administrate and keep a record of all of them. And the punch line is that to enter that app i need to type a pin number for security !!!

That is how many users would feel. What a person has to do in the name of security.

I know people that use the same username and password for everything, yes EVERYTHING, like tv commercial and it is not a good practice at all. It is all about controlling a risk. There are some places like bank accounts, etc, that I put more complicated passwords and try to change them every so often. In some cases i have no other option but to do it.

My recommendation would be to use a different email or account name for your financial matters and another one for play (facebook, linked in, twitter etc).

So that's all for today, hope you find this tip useful.

:)

Still working on settings for this blog. Apparently there is a learning curve.

In the mean time look at this pic :

Welcome to my blog, 

in this blog I will talk about topics I love to most: technology, cats, travel and occasionally a random rant.