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February 2004 - Posts

Sunday, February 29, 2004 7:40 AM

Find anything in Outlook in seconds!

OK, I'm officially excited. I have so much "stuff" in so many folders in Outlook that I often spend way too much time searching. Yes, I use all sorts of organizational schemes, categories, flags, labels, and other tricks to try to make it obvious (to
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 28, 2004 6:40 AM

PocketMac iPod Edition puts Outlook on your iPod

If you don't have a PDA but do have (or are thinking about getting) an iPod, here's a cool tool that puts your Outlook calendar, tasks, contatcs, and notes on Apple's music player and keeps it sychronized with your desktop. As a bonus, it will also put
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 27, 2004 1:22 PM

Upgrade your WinZip for security's sake

eWeek is reporting that a vulnerability has been discovered in versions of the WinZip utility installed on millions of Windows workstations. The vulnerability affects versions 7 and 8 and all versions of the 9.0 beta release. The official 9.0 release,
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 27, 2004 9:50 AM

Sophos reports 60% of spam comes from the U.S.

I love reading Leo's daily collection of facts, trivia, and a bit of opinion too. This one took me by surprise. I thought the bulk of spam was coming from offshore. Two Shows Nightly: Leo Laporte's Blog: Friday's Failsafe According to Sophos, the US generates
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 27, 2004 6:02 AM

NeatFreak Pack for Palm OS

I've written a review of two excellent utilities for the Palm OS that has just been posted at PDA 24-7 . Uninstall Manager and Cleanup (bundled as the NeatFreak Pack), remove all the extraneous files that can pile up on your handheld as you add and remove
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 26, 2004 7:59 PM

Microsoft & RSA announce native SecurID authentication for Windows

This is the best news yet out of the RSA Security Conference now going on in San Francisco (along with a few other activities). SecurID is a very strong suthentication mechanism that is virtually foolproof for end users. Having native support for Windows
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 26, 2004 5:58 AM

OneNote Online Overview

Microsoft is offering a free, online presentation about increasing your productivity using OneNote. The seminar sounds like a great way for new users to get their bearings and should offer a tip or two even to "veteran" users like me. :^) Events Home
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 25, 2004 9:35 AM

New Microsoft security to include "active protection"

Always On network reports from the RSA Security Conference that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced a range of new measures Microsoft will introduce in the forthcoming Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, whose company's
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 25, 2004 6:21 AM

Scroll in any direction with MyScroll

Here's a tiny applet that solves a big problem - scrolling horizontally. I'm sure you've found yourself working in a big spreadhseet or viewing a web page that's wider than your current window size will support. Happens to me on a daily basis. With MyScroll
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 24, 2004 2:47 PM

WinZip 9.0 official released

A while back I wrote about the WinZip 9.0 beta and the add-in for Outlook that brings WinZip right into the Outlook UI. Today, WinZip 9.0 went official and, at $29 (US), it's as great a bargain as ever. The Outlook add-in remains in beta at this time.
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 24, 2004 6:30 AM

McGee muses on Getting Things Done

A while back, Jim McGee said I find friction reducers. In a new post, he quite eloquently expands on what he means when he uses that phrase. Why am I not surprised to learn that Jim, like me, is a big fan of David Allen's Getting Things Done system for
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 24, 2004 5:41 AM

Elmore Leonard: 10 rules for writers

Novelist and screenwriter Elmore Leonard has ten rules for writers. Although oriented toward fiction, there are many good points for anyone who writes. The summary and one-liner takeaway? "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." Easy on the Adverbs,
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Monday, February 23, 2004 7:24 AM

WSJ's Lee Gomes on blogs

Thanks to Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine for posting this (as a subscription is required to read Wall St. Journal content online). I listen to the WSJ on Audible.com every morning and was delighted to hear that Gomes, whose "Portals" column is a fixture every
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Sunday, February 22, 2004 9:02 AM

FetchLinks plug-in for NewsGator 2.0

Graeme Foster has released a new version of the FetchLinks plug-in for NewsGator. This plug-in lets you pull the HTML from a site whose RSS feed contains just a post title. The new version lets you do this on a per-feed basis. FetchLinks plugin for NewsGator
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 21, 2004 6:04 PM

The answer to "soda or pop"

KC recently posted about the Dixie or Yankee quiz that tries to pinpoint your dialect origin based on your idiom of choice for carbonated sugar water and other words. If you liked the Dixie or Yankee quiz , you?ll love this huge database of mapped dialect
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 21, 2004 6:04 AM

Use ZoneAlarm? Get the update!

If you use the ZoneAlarm firewall (any version 4.0 or newer), read this advisory and update your product. A vulnerability has been discovered that is a perfect exploit playground for e-mail worms. Kudos to ZoneLabs for getting the fix out so quickly.
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 20, 2004 2:21 PM

This is completely silly and an utter waste of time!

But I can't stop playing with Virtual Bubble Wrap (requires Flash). For even more fun, try Manic Mode (make sure your speakers are turned down!
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 20, 2004 6:48 AM

New NBOR Player adds sound

NBOR (no Boundaries or Rules) has released a new version of the NBOR Player 2.5 that adds audio to the animated demonstrations in the previous player. This is a bigger download (~40 MB which took 5 minutes on my cable connection at home) but the audio
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 20, 2004 5:59 AM

Office on Linux? Microsoft says it's "not happening".

Microsoft Office on Linux rumors are constantly popping up on the Net. There's been a new one circulating over the past week or so suggesting that IBM would be driving such a project to support their ever-increasing affection for the penguin. Not so,
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 19, 2004 5:42 AM

PowerShell-XP2 - click less, do more

I love finding tools like this - small, free, focused, and capable of utterly changing how you work. With the added control I get from PowerShell-XP2, I have saved hundreds of clicks each day. You know the old saw: "A click here, a click there... pretty
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 5:44 AM

Free Windows Security Update CD

Dana Epps has a great find... a free Windows Security Update CD from Microsoft. No charge... even for shipping. Dana Epp's ramblings at the Sanctuary : Order the Windows Security Update CD Order the Windows Security Update CD Microsoft has a web page
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 17, 2004 4:51 PM

iTunes Music Store - Custom RSS Feeds

iTunes Music Store RSS Generator Leave it to Apple. This is a great idea. This page lets you choose the genre(s) of music you prefer, one of five filters (e.g. New Releases, iTunes Top Songs, etc.) and the number of feeds you want to receive. Click the
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 17, 2004 6:48 AM

Free tool for building Flash presentations

This looks like an easy way to develop Flash-based presentations. Powerbullet Presenter is a free authoring application that's as easy to use as a word processor for building dynamic, play-anywhere Flash presentations. Powerbullet freeware Flash business
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 17, 2004 6:07 AM

Project management - a new acronym that works

Discovered this via Ben McConnnel of Church of the Customer and "Creating Customer Evangelists" fame. Business Evolutionist is now part of my RSS feed. Business Evolutionist Project Management according to ALICE Ask, Listen, Investigate, Confirm, Execute.
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Monday, February 16, 2004 6:25 PM

First exploit already reported from leaked Windows source code

Althought his exploit only affects Internet Explorer 5 and 5.5, that still accounts for 25% of the browsers in use. BetaNews | First Exploit Surfaces from Leaked Windows Code First Exploit Surfaces from Leaked Windows Code By Nate Mook, BetaNews February
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Monday, February 16, 2004 5:41 PM

KeySuite - Outlook for Palm handhelds

I've written a review of KeySuite, an Outlook companion program for the Palm platform for PDA 24/7. This is the best Outlook compatible application I've found yet for the Palm OS. It maps most Outlook data fields to the Palm and has a wealth of elegant
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Monday, February 16, 2004 6:30 AM

Office Letter still offering ActiveWords SE for free

If you haven't taken advantage of this yet, do it today. The Office Letter is offering a free license for ActiveWords SE. ActiveWords is the winner of an OfficeZealot.com Stamp of Approval award that can save you time and give you more control over your
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Monday, February 16, 2004 6:20 AM

Is this the end of the Internet?

Sorry... couldn't resist ;^)
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Sunday, February 15, 2004 6:09 PM

A fix for RSS feeds with no content in NewsGator

Here's a solution to one of the few vexing problems with NewsGator 2.0... feeds with no description. Nice work Graeme! graemef.com FetchLinks NewsGator plugin released I've just released the first build of FetchLinks - a plugin for NewsGator which will
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Sunday, February 15, 2004 11:07 AM

eWeek on the risks of examing leaked Windows source code

eWeek has an interesting piece about the risks associated with developers even taking a peek at the Windows source code that was leaked to the net this week. Curious Programmers Face Legal Tangles with Leaked Windows Code Curious Programmers Face Legal
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Sunday, February 15, 2004 9:06 AM

Poor Man's Exchange?

Found this via Slipstick. Is this a poor man's Exchange? According to the site, OutlookFolders is designed for small companies or workgroups (2-75 people) who would like to share Outlook data without the expense of an Exchange server. To pull this off,
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 14, 2004 6:03 PM

How do I make these cool screen shots?

I've gotten a number of e-mails asking how I make the screenshots I often include in my posts, especially the ones with torn or waved edges. I could tell you it's my Photoshop mastery and that acheiving these effects requires advanced techniques like
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 14, 2004 6:41 AM

Should Microsoft release leaked code as Open Source?

When I first read this headline, I was thinking that aliens had abducted Microsoft Watch's Mary Jo Foley. After reading Jason Perlow's guest column, I must admit there are very good reasons why Microsoft might want to think about this. It would be a bold
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 14, 2004 6:16 AM

Interview with Denny Jaeger

I'll be interviewing Denny Jaeger, CEO of NBOR , on my radio program this morning. I'll post a transcript of the most interesting portions of the discussion this weekend. Search my archives for previous posts about Blackspace, the incredible software
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 14, 2004 5:53 AM

Statement of the obvious department

More on the Windows source code leak. Or is that moron the source code leak? Wired News: Windows Code for the Taking "I do not believe Microsoft would have issued a public statement if the source code for solitaire had been released," said (Richard) Starnes
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 13, 2004 2:06 PM

Google Zeitgeist for January

Google has just updated their Zeitgeist page with stats from January. This is always intriguing reading for me - not only to see who is searching on what keywords, but also to see what's captured the popular imagination in different countries. The two
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 13, 2004 6:30 AM

Windows source code leaked - what does it mean?

The Net is buzzing about yesterday's leak of millions of lines of source code from the Windows NT/2000 operating systems. Most of the major IT news outlets have already posted stories about this breach in Microsoft security. I don't think anyone can yet
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 12, 2004 6:41 PM

A look at Blogjet's HTML code editor

Here's a snipshot of the new HTML native code editor in the new build of Blogjet . This tool is really shaping up nicely. It features code coloring and nice (but not perfect yet) display of HTML as formatted by MovableType (the blogging engine we use
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 12, 2004 5:28 AM

Microsoft: Avoid the seamier side of the Internet

Today's Insider Update from Microsoft has some excellent suggestions on avoiding online scams and the "seamier side of the Internet". A good read and an excellent public service. Microsoft on the Issues: Staying Safe Online Staying Safe Online A few basic
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 11, 2004 1:25 PM

Visio 2003 update released

Microsoft has just announced an important update for the Visio 2003 application. Product Updates Alert: New Office Updates are Available The Microsoft Office Downloads site hosts free* updates that you can download to increase the security, stability,
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 11, 2004 6:00 AM

Are you a potential OneNote user?

If you've been wondering how OneNote might help you capture your thoughts, organize them, and find them again (!), Microsoft has put together an excellent page with profiles about four kinds of OneNote users: Consultants Engineers Lawyers Students & Professors
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 10, 2004 5:17 PM

Bloget Update: native HTML editor and more

Blogjet has just been updated again and finally offers a native HTML editor with highlighting and code completion! I continue to be mightily impressed with the responsiveness of this developer and the passion of the growing community of testers and supporters
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 10, 2004 4:58 PM

Star Wars on DVD at last!

OK. I admit it. I'm a total geek. But this was the best news I've heard in a while on the DVD front ;-> Star Wars To Be Finally Released On DVD Star Wars To Be Finally Released On DVD By Mark Hachman After more than 25 years, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 10, 2004 6:01 AM

Clear out the cruft with CleanCenter

Found this cool tool via Lockergnomes. If you install a lot of software (like I do) or just never have gotten around to doing a little spring cleaning on your PC, this might be just the tool you need. Developers call the temp files and old stuff that
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Monday, February 09, 2004 9:07 PM

NBOR 2.0 Player is now online

I've written twice before about the NBOR (No Boundaries or Rules) project and the Blackspace environment they're about to release. You can read the first and second posts to get some background. The original player was intriguing, to say the least, but
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Monday, February 09, 2004 5:39 AM

Fagan tweaks Google search to the max

SearchEngineWatch.com has an article today about power searching with the Google search engine by Mary Ellen Bates. If you've read the O'Reilly Google Hacks book, you probably know that there's a lot of power under Google's simple UI. Some clever folks
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Sunday, February 08, 2004 10:29 AM

A little fun at SCO's expense

Just got this from Slashdot via one of my radio listeners: "They should know, some of human DNA is stolen IP from SCO. They just compared random samples of DNA to one SCO employee and found a lot of common sequences in the code. They will start asking
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Sunday, February 08, 2004 6:30 AM

Free ActiveWords SE for readers of The Office Letter

Chris and I have written about ActiveWords and how it can really enhance your productivity. You might also recall that ActiveWords was the recipient of the very first OfficeZealot.com Stamp of Approval award. For a limited time, readers of The Office
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 07, 2004 8:20 PM

Wolfram's New Kind of Science online

Stepehen Wolfram, he of Mathematica fame, has put his book, "A New Kind of Science" online. If you missed the furor when this was published in 2002, it is a 1200+ page opus to Wolfram's theory that nature is governed not by laws but by algorithm. Specifically
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 07, 2004 8:12 AM

False Domain Info May Mean Jail

Wired News has a report indicating Congress is getting serious about domain name fraud, used to steal traffic from legitimate sites and to "phish" for credit card numbers and other personal information. It's a welcome move, IMO and good to see it's a
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 06, 2004 9:22 AM

Louderback misses the point completely

eWeek's Jim Louderback gets it all wrong today, accusing NewsGator of creating an "evil walled garden" in the otherwise free and pristine world of RSS. His complaint? That NGOS (the online services component of NewsGator 2.0) uses a proprietary API. His
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 06, 2004 9:01 AM

Maybe China can figure out spam

AP is reporting that the Chinese government will fight spam on the grounds that it is subversive. A number of governemtn ministries will coordinate to have 90 percent of China's e-mail servers aupdated to combat the spam deluge by the end of June. China
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 06, 2004 6:50 AM

Are end-users to blame for MyDoom spread?

What's your opinion? This conversation has been brewing for some time. I expect that the majority of OfficeZealot readers are technically competent and know not to open mystery attachments on strange-looking e-mails. Is educating end-users with less technical
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 06, 2004 6:30 AM

CNet: More on "fake" spyware tools

ZDNet is carrying a CNet article by John Borland with more information about these spyware-installing fakes. One, put under the bright light of journalistic scrutiny, scurried off to internet obliviion rather than answer the charges. Spyware cures may
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Friday, February 06, 2004 5:54 AM

Watch out - misleading Google ads for spyware removal tools

Patrick Kolla, author of Spybot Search & Destroy (a highly recommended tool for deleting malware) is having a problem with unscrupulous advertisers on Google using his trademark. It appears that these adverisers actually provide software that installs
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 05, 2004 2:21 PM

Cory Doctorow is giving away his new book

Eastern Standard Tribe This is the second novel I've made available as a free download (the first, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times and sold like hell). I'm delighted to do it a second time. Here's the deal:
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 05, 2004 9:01 AM

eWeek: RSS role in the future of e-mail

Brian Livingston has a great piece on the future of e-mail (hint: RSS). Citing the recently released Newsgator 2.0 and Newsgator Online Services as the harbinger of things to come, Livingston projects what RSS fans already know -- you can significantly
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 04, 2004 3:02 PM

orkut server has a sense of humor

orkut - server error in application Bad, bad server. No donut for you We're sorry, but the orkut.com server has acted out in an unexpected way. Hopefully it will return to its usual helpful self if you give it another chance. If it still refuses to play
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 04, 2004 6:21 AM

Stop the spyware before it starts

Here's a terrific new addition to your spyware prevention toolkit. This program is easy to install and use, provides protection against a lot of nasty spyware, and doesn't need to be running all the time to protect you. SpywareBlaster is "donation-ware".
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 03, 2004 3:08 PM

Free Marketing Wisdom report

A great offer from Marketing Sherpa. This report, featuring great ideas from 99 professional marketers, has been an annual favorite of mine. Sherpa reports are a valuable tool in my marketing kit (current favorite - Andrew Goodman's guide to Google AdWords).
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 03, 2004 5:19 AM

Remove personal data from your Office files

If you send Office documents to business partners, media and analysts, or other third parties, you may be sharing more than you intended. This free tool from Microsoft removes all of the personal and collaboration data from Office XP and Office 2003 documents,
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Monday, February 02, 2004 6:11 AM

Your first line of defense is... you!

This came in the Lavasoft (Ad-Aware) newsletter, The Eye, this morning: Let's start with a very simple question: In your defenses, such as antivirus software, antitrojan software, firewall software, and etc., which do you consider your first line of defense?
Posted by marc | 0 Comments
Sunday, February 01, 2004 8:26 AM

OfficeZealot review in Office Letter

The Office Letter is a helpful e-mail newsletter (and RSS feed) about tips and tricks to get more out of Office. In the current Standard (free) Edition, James Powell gives our community a nice review. I thought it would only be fair to reciprocate. The
Posted by marc | 0 Comments