Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Ancient wisdom of the gods revealed! – Which Chart to Use? (VOL020)

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

Charts are everywhere in daily life; from news commentary, to stocks, to web polls, right down to entertaining sites like www.graphjam.com.

Who really knows which one to use? We all understand the old phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” but which picture (or, in this case, which chart) gets me closer to that thousand instead of 3?

Today we are going to cover some basic chart types and what picture they draw. So, like Prometheus giving fire back to man, I now give the knowledge of Redmond back to the masses.

The four most commonly used chart types are Column, Bar, Line, and Pie. These are not the only chart types, but they cover what most mere mortals like you and I can probably get the most out of. (more…)

Organizing Your Mail and Contacts – Things that Rock (VOL019)

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Welcome back to the podcast!

This week’s episode: “Organizing Your Mail and Contacts”.

You know, nothing’s more honest than a 7 year old kid. He tells me things he likes, he tells me things that he doesn’t like, but one of his favorite likes happens to be organizing and arranging things, or just searching through one of those “Where’s Waldo?” books. You know, it can actually be fun looking for one thing in the midst of others. Heck, there’s even a game on the Nintendo Wii where you can sort and organize your Miis. (more…)

5 Secrets to Improve Your Presentations (VOL018)

Monday, June 8th, 2009

If you’re in business, you will either be the victim of a bad PowerPoint presentation or possibly be the perpetrator who exposes others. I know one of my worst experiences was going to see a computer company who presented a show that had different colors of text and backgrounds on every slide. Not only was it distracting from what they were trying to present, but it was tiring just to watch. I happened to see the same presentation done at a later date via a webinar where, because of the colors and high resolution, images looked horrible and cheapened the message they were attempting to present.

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“Where’s that message?” OR “Honey, where are my keys?” (VOL017)

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

How to find what you need to get the job done!

Ask my wife sometime and you’ll probably find out that my short term memory has a lot to be desired, and is in fact practically non-existent. I could easily have four drinking glasses lying around the house at any given time and never even realize it. Her number one response when I ask where I put something is invariably, “Where did you have it last?” I typically respond to this with something akin to, “If I knew where that was, I wouldn’t be asking.”

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Are computer support specialists really Magicians?

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

I would think so if you go with this quote from Arthur C. Clarke.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” – Arthur C. Clarke

I think we as technicians show our magic on every call and with each little bit of guidance we give.

The best part is really becoming more of a teacher with many apprentices learning your craft than hoarding your knowledge in a giant book of shadows.

So, share the magic and teach someone to be a magician too!

"Leaving work at work" or "Let go of that CrackBerry" (VOL016)

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Memorial Day is a time for…

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Your business has an image to keep. Are you blurring the line? (VOL015)

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Whether you’re in Hollywood, Politics, or Business your image in the public arena is critical to your success. So why wouldn’t the images in your documents need to have the same impact? (more…)

PA Company Helps Keep IT Jobs in the US

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

This article was originally published on ComputerWorld.com

PC Helps is my company and we are excited to get someone to recognize the quality of outsourcing in the US and how we compare to the rest in Bangalore! (more…)

Analyzing Data with Pivot Tables or How to Identify Assets Like the CIA. (VOL014)

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Organizing the layout of your data is critical when attempting to do analysis.

Acquiring the best data set possible can be a very elusive agent. When it comes to finding out what is needed to select the best assets, identify problems, or just to view the results of a campaign, I look at it from the approach of an intelligence agency.

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Manage Your Mailbox Ghostbuster Style! (VOL013)

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Tackling your vastly over-filled Inbox can be as scary as ridding yourself of a ghost or poltergeist. You have probably noticed related behavior like: messages that suddenly disappear, attachments from strangers, e-mail that just sits in your Outbox, and spam that makes you feel as though if you inadvertently opened it, you would be covered in slime.

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