So what are we going to talk about? Whatever you want! I've got some ideas on using email, calendars, and some online resources to keep control over our electronic lives. I'd like to share them, and have you share some of what's worked, what hasn't for you. But, I think what people need is really unique to the individual and what works for you. Comment here if you want to see a topic covered that we haven't talked about yet.

So, today's topic is passwords. I don't have specific questions, because I don't want you to necessarily post on a public blog that you keep your passwords in a file folder on the third drawer on the right! But, please chime in with thoughts. I've detailed some of my discoveries after the break. (Click continue reading...)

Also, check out the email post from earlier. There are more comments, and those of you who haven't commented, go for it! The captcha seems to be letting comments through even if it doesn't tell you that it worked. (Still working on that...)

Rather than do a separate blog for each class as I originally intended, I'm introducing the second class to our blog. I'm also hoping to inject a little life into it by doing it. I was bad for a week, but I've scheduled time in MeetingMaker (yay - calendaring keeping me sane) so that I am guaranteed to post now. I promise to keep updating at LEAST until the semester starts, and maybe even longer, so at this point - don't feel obligated to continue to post, but it helps my self esteem to know you're still reading, so I appreciate anyone posting comments, even if you didn't come to a class!

Sorry for the gap in posts, I'm out of the office right now, back tomorrow. However, I was reading this interesting article in the New York Times and I wanted to post it.

Well, I made it to the beginning of the semester, still somewhat regularly posting. A lot of you quit commenting, and it's probably because life has gotten less sane with the kids coming back, and that's understandable. (Also, I think I've gone off on some tangents lately that maybe didn't qualify for a comment...)

The blog also made the "big time" and got an official link off of Computing Services' website, and I've noticed a couple of folks who weren't in class following the blog. Awesome.

So, class dismissed. (This was, after all, in theory a class...) However, I'm going to keep blogging. If anyone has something they want me to talk about, either comment somewhere, or email or call me directly and I'll either research it for you, or steal liberally from your idea, which ever you prefer! I enjoy thinking about organization, but I think I'm a poor authority on it and would rather learn from you and then share what I've learned with the world.

So, it's time to down another Faygo Rock & Rye and get back to working, hopefully in a more organized fashion than when I started this blog.

Thanks for visiting, if you've popped over because of the link from the help desk! Feel free to peruse the past articles, comment, and if you want to know more about a topic, let me know.

I had to post this though, because I've tried hard to average TWO posts a week (rather than the advertised "one post" on the help desk), and for the most part, I've done it. I guess that's what I get for free advertising...

I do try to schedule posts to hit Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but if you do want to add my little old blog to your reading cycle, I really recommend an RSS reader, like Google Reader.

This is a basic post, but sometimes it surprises me the number of people unaware of the computing resources available to employees off campus, so I thought I'd catalog them over the next few posts. Today's post is about email.

Yeah, the title doesn't make sense unless you are picking up on the John Lennon lyrics. But, this is a continuation of last week's post about resources available from off-campus "getting you through the night".

The rest of the resources are a little more self-explanatory.

I have been bad at posting again - this past week has been very hectic, really ever since I cleared my desk before my last post.

It's very easy to slip into bad habits and my worst habits are:

1. Letting work pile up on my desk with no organization.
2. Letting email pile up in my inbox with no organization.

When these two things happen, I start to spend more time trying to figure out what I need to do than actually doing it again. Not good. And what is the point of staying organized when if the chips are down and it's crunch time, it doesn't help anyway. However, I find myself falling back on one BIG tip that keeps me sane during the very disorganized times, and that's free text search, Ctrl-F, either in Eudora, MeetingMaker, on web pages, or big documents (Word, PDF). When I'm in a hurry, I press Ctrl-F and search for a word in what I'm looking for. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people panic and search through their email, email by email, instead of just using Ctrl-F and searching for a key word.

I've even found something similar in Datatel that unfortunately won't apply to 99% of the people reading this post, but maybe take an opportunity to think more about how you can quickly find things in the programs you use, instead of hunting and searching line by line, or screen by screen.

Yep, this is a repeat idea, but I wanted to at least post something to prove I hadn't forgotten about you guys.

Here are some neat tips and tricks, some of which I didn't even know and plan to start using!

David Pogue's articles in the NY Times are diverting - Even though I love my iMac, I find his obsession with things Apple a little overboard, but when he's avoiding Apple topics, I think he's dead on most of the time.