Word Check and my dictionary work now only available to clients

After eight years of providing my work to the general public I’ve had to bite the bullet and recognise the small financial return is insufficient for me to continue. Very little income has come from the hundreds of hours of work over the years and I have to accept I need to focus my energy on my clients, as they are the people who support myself and my family financially.

I’d estimate that probably over a million Australians now use my work in open source projects, but unfortunately open source for most people is about obtaining free software and I understand that. I’m pleased however whilst I may not have received much financially, it is however pleasing to think in a small way I’ve made a difference.

By refocusing on my clients I’ll now be able to continue my work as part of my consulting activities.

Thank you for sharing this part of the journey with me.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

MyAnswers: You are using an old version of Internet Explorer that Gmail no longer supports.

The following MyAnswers solution 2159 is now available:

When using Gmail on a Windows XP computer I get the message "You are using an old version of Internet Explorer that Gmail no longer supports. Some features may not work correctly." What should I do?

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Windows 8 release date not know yet, but Microsoft shares more at Microsoft's Build conference

Whilst the release date of Windows 8 is still not known at this stage (I’d guess at the end of first quarter 2012 with a possibility of mid 2012), more details of the functionality of Windows 8 have now been released by Microsoft at their Build conference for developers.

Now some people are going to be aghast as Microsoft’s emphasis on their Metro interface (designed for touch screen) with the lessening emphasis on the Windows desktop. Whilst I’m one of those people I can also see Microsoft really have little choice. I was helping a user with their Motorola Xoom Android tablet yesterday and for most of the day, they could easily use their tablet and not touch their Windows based notebook computer.

A lot of people spend most of their time now either in their email client or on the internet. For most people a tablet computer will do a lot of what they need. Ask yourself when was the last time your created a document or a spreadsheet for your own personal needs. For some people due to their job ,they will create documents every day, but for others it may be days or weeks since they’ve really needed a desktop or notebook computer.

As a general rule if you’re a consumer of services you may find a tablet becomes your primary device. Your smartphone is probably used more, keeps you in contact, but isn’t really that great for entering text. I see many people will use their smartphone as their first level of communication, then their tablet and next their desktop or notebook. If you’re a creator of information then you’ll be using your desktop or notebook. It really depends on your role as a user.

If Microsoft provides an operating system which enables a tablet to easily operate as a Windows desktop/notebook by docking with a keyboard, mouse and even a large screen, all of a sudden the need for a desktop or notebook for many is gone. Microsoft can’t miss that boat or they’ll be in real trouble. For me right now an iPad or an Android tablet doesn’t do what I want and need to do, but there’s a good chance Windows 8 will. So the opportunity for Microsoft is still open but if they don’t get this right or at least close, if not, they could be in trouble. Whilst they’ll have the corporate market for a while they’ll have lost the consumer market. At first that won’t appear to matter, but in the long run consumers also have jobs and what they use will leak into the corporate market, as the iPad has done.

Certainly interesting times for Microsoft. For us it is still about using the tools which help us do what we want to do.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if your need assistance with your computer, tablet or mobile phone.

 

Would you like the preferred Australian English spelling to be available for Microsoft Office?

If you’d like the preferred Australian English spelling to be made available as a spellcheck dictionary for Microsoft Office please make the effort to add your voice.

I’m currently in contact with Microsoft and to their credit, they are taking my request for assistance to make my work available with Microsoft Office and passing the request through their channels.

For Microsoft right now I’m a lone voice with a request. If you’d like my work to be available with Microsoft Office please help by adding your voice by making a comment on this blog post. I’ve tried this on a number of occasions over the last five years so this will be the last attempt at making the preferred Australian English spelling available to Australian Microsoft users. It is now or never so please make your voice heard.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

 

Need help setting up email on your mobile phone?

One of my clients wrote this to me.

I have an Iphone and can't work out how to get emails happening - is this something you could help me with? I have been back to Telstra shop but they are bloody hopeless.

Generally the people at the Telstra shop are sales people and their skill with technology will be quite varied. We can’t all be good at everything. In addition to work out how best to set up the iPhone, you need to first work out what options you have available. There services you are currently using will limit your options and I find people need a small amount of training to understand what can and can’t be done. Unfortunately every option currently available has a number of trade-offs and people are usually restricted in the options they can use based on their previous choices. The result is a compromise and people need to be aware of what the compromise entails.

I find it is much easier to help people set up the smart phone if they are present. Working with them over the telephone where you need to step them through the menus can be quite time consuming. In the case of this client I assisted them over the telephone and what I couldn’t see was the iPhone 4 suffers from the “death grip”, where if held in a certain way the signal strength drops considerably and connectivity can be intermittent or drop out completely, was making support more difficult. I’m happy to assist people with telephone support but generally it can be more time consuming and thus more expensive for some problems.

If you need assistance with setting up email on your mobile phone, tablet, or in fact any computer, I’m happy to assist.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if your need assistance with your computer.

MyAnswers: CA parental control blocks the internet after CA Internet Security removed.

The following MyAnswers solution 2156 is now available:

CA parental control blocks the internet after CA Internet Security removed.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910703 if you need assistance with your computers.

Alert: Blog comment by Majid Ali

To share with others typical blog spam I see on my blog I thought I'd write about the comment left by supposedly Majid Ali.

Majid Ali made the request in the blog comment Please help me by reading my appeal on my profile.

When I received this comment on my blog I decided to check the profile. According to the profile Majid is from Haiti and this appears to be an appeal to raise money by appealing to the better nature of people. Over 8,000 people had viewed the profile which is a massive number.

On checking my logs I found no one from Haiti had visited my site. Visitors for the day had come from: United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Turkey and Pakistan.

I just rechecked the link for the profile and the profile is no longer available, which possibly means the blog has been removed.

It is almost certain this is nothing more than a scam. With over 8,000 views of the profile this really was massive scam with spam sent to ten’s if not hundreds of thousands of blogs. A search of Google for the term Please help me by reading my appeal on my profile shows it appears over 2,000 times meaning it went public on thousands of blogs.

If you are reading blog comments be aware that many of the comments are fake, may be scams and you should not assume just because the comment was added to the blog it has been checked. Over 90% of comments I receive on my blogs are spam or scams. I don’t release comments without reviewing them and I suggest others with blogs do the same. Most comments I’ve found are attempts at advertising.

If you decide to use a blog to promote your business I’d recommend you don’t release comments automatically, otherwise you’ll allow scammers to use your site to ensnare unsuspecting victims who could be your family, friends or customers.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Need help with your internet presence contact Online Connections.