Year: 2004

Windows Task Manager in English

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You use Ctrl+Alt+Del to see what’s running on your PC, to close crashed programs and processes, and to check performance. You probably avoid a few processes whose names mean nothing to you, but they’re essential to Windows. svchost.exe sure likes to appear all the time and multiple times at that. What’s taskmgr.exe? Oh yeah, it’s … Read more

Creating Fast Email Replies Pt II

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We’re going to do an easy one since I was down and out over the past weekend. Part I covers using mail merge. This one is creating a simple template with no merging. The text is the same and all you have to do is add information and send it. We’ll do it for Mozilla … Read more

Creating Fast Email Replies Pt I

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As an editor for a few newsletters, I write to readers who write or complete feedback surveys. One of the newsletters gets several hundreds of responses with every issue. If that sounds overwhelming, the first issue alone got over 1000 responses! I use a few methods for handling large email jobs and use whichever depending … Read more

Web Search Garage

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Those familiar with Calishain’s ResearchBuzz know of her expertise with search engines, Google especially. Her previous book is Google Hacks. This is a book of a different nature and doesn’t focus solely on Google. Anyone who uses the Internet to do searching and research will find this book valuable. I’ve been using operators and special … Read more

Windows Error Reporting Part 2

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Previously, I provided an overview of Windows Error Reporting. Someone wrote and said he never received resolutions to his problems when submitting an error report. I don’t know if this happened to him or not, but it may not be obvious that Microsoft is providing a possible solution. I got an error after writing this … Read more

Windows Error Reporting

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I get, “The system has recovered from a serious error” message from time to time (see the screenshot) with two buttons: “Send Error Report” and “Don’t Send” regarding sending the report to Microsoft. The error message appears when an application runs into a problem it can’t handle. When this happens, XP stops the app and … Read more

Buy a Laptop

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Shopping for a laptop is overwhelming because of the numerous choices. No one can tell you what you need or don’t need, except maybe your spouse, parent, kid, local geek, or know-it-all who knows you. But it’s still good to know a few things about buying a laptop. An educated customer is a happy customer, … Read more

Behave, Word, Behave!

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If you copy something from a Web site or elsewhere… or you reuse a document and the formatting is making you crazy with its weirdness, then stop the insanity. The first option to make the document behave loses some of the formatting. You can always undo the changes if you don’t like it by pressing … Read more

Remote Desktop in WinXP

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Since I am recovering after two hospital visits in less than two weeks, I’m spending most of my time in bed with my laptop. However, my desktop has most of my emails and other things on it that aren’t reachable even when file sharing. The solution. Using Windows XP’s built-in Remote Desktop. Now I am … Read more

Hospital Usability Lessons

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Usability isn’t only for Web design. It’s also applicable in the real world as things aren’t always well-designed. Paying attention to real world design can help you think through usability for Web design. For instance, there is an elevator in New York where the numbers are in three columns. The numbers go across, but in this elevator they go from right to left instead of left to right. It’s in English not Hebrew.
Elevator in NY:
10 9 8
7 6 5
Most elevators:
8 9 10
5 6 7
This concept can be applied to a Web page by assuring numbers, letters, and other meaningful groups of information are sorted in a logical order.
I also saw a school speed zone sign where it said to slow down during the following times:
7:30 AM – 8:15 AM
2:45 AM – 3:30 PM
Hmm… figure out what’s wrong with this sign? This one can also teach a lesson for Web design usability. What lessons come to mind?
Donald Norman talks about such design in The Design of Everyday Things. While I was in the hospital twice in a little over a one week period, I discovered a few usability problems.

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