My web browser homepage has been Yahoo for years. I’ve lost track of how many years – at least 15 years, maybe longer. So maybe it is time for a change?
Google has a homepage that is fully customizable with widgets in three columns. They have a selection of themes and skins, and I was attracted to the new comics themes. I have an edgey sense of humor and was very surprised to see one of my favorite comics was actually included in the collection of themes. So I clicked on it and gave it a go. I really like it.
I found a website about recycling inkjet cartridges months ago and liked the way they profile several different suppliers so I can check the different ones and find the best deals, so I have bookmarked the web site and I send the link to friends who ask about discount laser printer toner supplies.
I’ve been using an HP 1020 laser printer, and the retail cost of a new toner cartridge is over $60. By using the website to find a refill and a coupon for free shipping, I got a refilled toner cartridge for under $40.
There are comparable savings on the different color cartridges for my Epson photo printer. The Epson requires 6 different cartridges and goes through ink like string through a duck.
At work we use a variety of printers, so I gave our Purchasing Manager the link and I know we are recycling both the inkjet cartridges and the laser toner cartridges, and using refilled cartridges at work, too. No one has complained about the quality or had any issues – knock on wood – so I guess that speaks well for the idea of saving money and saving the environment at the same time with printer cartridges.
My son called me this morning, getting ready for his trip to L.A. and just wanted to touch base. He has settled into his new place in Atlanta and this will be hist first business trip going through Hartsfield airport in years. His flight is on American and I sure hope that by now they have fixed all their safety issues that caused so many flights to be canceled the past couple of weeks.
His only problem is that his laptop isn’t working right and he decided to not even take it with him on the trip. He can order a new one and have it shipped to his hotel in L.A., and then download his data from the internet. The reason this plan will work is because he took my advice months ago and signed up for the online backup service from fastteks.com
I’m so glad he listened to me – losing your data really stinks. Once you’ve suffered through a hard drive crash or a laptop being stolen, you appreciate having an online backup and data recovery service. All he has to do is take the new laptop, get online and then download all his information from his old laptop onto the new one, and he’s on his way!
After all this work planning the actual party and designing the website, the next big step is getting the word out.
There are sites that have the emails of a large number of spades players, but they are linked within charts and lists. To harvest the actual emails, she can download a free parsing program and run the parser on the different charts to compile her invitation list.
Once she has a compiled list, she needs to clean it up, removing duplicates and removing emails addresses that are no longer valid. Then she can send out one email notice, with an opt out line so she doesn’t get busted for being a spammer. The next challenge is to find a way to send multiple emails without triggering the receiving email client’s spam filter, or all her work will be automatically directed to the players’ bulk folder or spam folder and they notice won’t be read.
So there is quite a bit of work involved and not much time to do it. Thankfully, a lot of this can be handled using software to make things faster and easier, but there is still a need for the human touch and oversight.
My friend who is planning the spades party had a few questions tonight, so we stopped shooting messages back and forth on Yahoo Messenger and I gave her my phone number so she could call and talk, to save time.
Ideally, she wants to have an online form so people can register on the website with some core information, such as name, email address, when they plan to arrive, do they want to have the catered dinner on Saturday, etc.
Well, for this project to go from a simple web page as a flyer to a multiple page website with a form for data entry and perhaps shopping cart to handle the processing of the registration fee, there is a big difference in the amount of time that I can spend on this as a free favor.
Programmers have various methods of handling forms and that is getting into an advance skill level. There is information on the internet for people who want to learn about processing forms, and a few free or low cost sites that include simple forms as part of their hosting package. If you are asking the general public to input information, there is a good chance that someone will not enter the correct information or they will enter it in the wrong format. For instance, if you ask for an answer that includes a number, for example 45, there is a difference between these answers:
If the user puts the answer in the wrong format, you have a problem processing the answers. To help make sure the answers are in the format you need, your form needs to have a step or process called validation. You can see the benefit of using validation before the answers are accepted and why this is not longer a simple web page flyer.