FAQs of Life

For the past few days, one of my customers has been reporting that some of the email she was sending out were not recieve by the recipients. Furthermore, if she forwareded the original message that didn’t go through on first attempt, it would go through as reliably as ever on second try. Now the more I learn about email and will everyone using some sort of spam filter, I’m really surprised that email ever works. But it usually works, and fairly well considering how many things have to work perfect for a message to go from my inbox to yours. So when a customer says that their emails are getting to the intended recipients, it’s my job to figure out why. And you will never guess what the problem was…. A blank subject line.  All of the messages that didn’t go through on the first attempt had blank subject lines.  When she forwarded the messages, “FWD” was automatically added in the subject. Turns out there is a  setting in Symantec Antivirus for Microsoft Exchange which I had forgotten about, that if enabled will ‘drop’ emails (at one time this was indicative of spam or virus infected message). ARGH!
So the moral of the story is to include a something in the subject line of all your emails (and yes I have since disabled this restriction)…

What kind of computer should I get for my son/daughter when he/she goes to college?

It depends - and yes I do say that a lot. There is rarely a question regarding technology that can properly be answered without more specific information, but often times folks don’t know what questions to ask! Anyway, here are a few of the questions you should ask when considering a computer purchase for your new college student:

Does the college have any computer requirements/recommendations? Some schools have established guidelines for entering students. Check with the campus computer store (often part of the book store).

What do they need to do with the computer? Basic functionality such as email, writing papers, and web-surfing are a given, but do you have an aspiring Spielberg or Gates on your hands?

What are they going to be studying? The needs of a social science major will be quite different than someone focusing on creative arts or film.

What computer resourses are available on campus? Perhaps there’s a multimedia lab available for the once-a-semester project that requires a higher-end computer for video editing so you don’t need to equip junior with the same tools that he’ll use twice in his 4-5 years at the university.

Notebook or Desktop? Have you seen the size of dorm rooms? The only benefits of a desktop over a notebook for a college student is price (for the same level of performance desktops are cheaper) and the ability to upgrade individual components later. Nearly all colleges now offer some sort of wireless internet access for the in-between-class email checking from a notebook on a sun drenched quad… Oh - one more case that you might want a desktop is for the ultra high end performance - video editing and multimedia apps require more performance that usually isn’t available on notebooks without spending a fortune.

And somewhere along the line you’ll need to decide between a Mac and a PC but that’s
a topic for a different day.

“You’re a computer guy, you must have a really great computer – what do you have?”
I really don’t have anything fancy since the most resource intensive app that I use is QuickBooks. My primary machine is a Dell Latitude D620 notebook (which I absolutely love) and it’s at arms distance nearly 24/7. I have a 4+ year old home-built desktop that I use when ever I’m actually lucky enough to sit at *my* desk. The Latitude and desktop basically interchangeable functionality-wise, so I defer to the desktop if I have any prolonged data entry. Desktops still have an edge ergonomically and at this point can’t justify the expense of a docking station (at least the nice one that I’d want). I also have a Compaq Presario 2581 that has been retired to the “living room” computer which is used just for surfing and the occasional online poker session.