Many people mention they have a problem with American spelling in their documents. I’ve heard of lecturers frowning on students using American spelling, from a number of people attending different tertiary institutions.
The problem isn’t the spelling, it is that most people assume that spelling words with “ize” is using the American spelling. In Australia we have the unusual situation where we have two or more ways to spell thousands of words. For example “organise” and “organize” are both correct in Australia. However the preferred spelling is “organise” and if you use “organize”, people will often consider the spelling is wrong.
It is now very easy to use the preferred Australian English spelling with the Exclude file I make available for Word 2003, Outlook 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010 (which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access). The Exclude file marks thousands of words as incorrect spelling so you can easily use the preferred spelling, which also has the advantage of resulting in consistent spelling in your documents.
For more information visit the Microsoft Exclude page.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Helping Australians one word at a time.
Friday, 28 October 2011
Is American spelling causing you a problem in Microsoft Office, Word or Outlook?
Alert: Facebook app Pink Your Profile being a virus is a hoax.
A person said to me they'd been told they were concerned they’d installed a virus into their iPod Touch by running a Pink Your Profile app. I investigated this and found this was a hoax. The Pink Your Profile app appears to have been a legitimate app from CUA (Credit Union Australia) to raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
My initial thought was the person had run the app on their iPod Touch and it was very unlikely this would be a virus. Performing a search on the internet found the following page on the Hoax Slayer confirming this was a hoax.
Hoax - Facebook 'Add Pink Tinge to Your Profile' Virus Warning... Read More
If you are told about a virus I suggest that before telling others, that you first do a search on the internet. In addition, be careful of the sites you visit as part of your investigation because they could be malware sites set up to trick you. A number of clients now send requests to check out a suspicious email when they’re concerned.
A hoax like this is usually little more than a nuisance. But it is possible if people were to believe the hoax, that they may end up paying to have someone check their computer when in fact there was no need to incur the cost. If you receive a suspicious email, before letting your family and friends know please take a moment to do a little research. If you don’t you may end up causing unwanted and unnecessary stress, or even an unnecessary repair cost.
- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with computer problems.
No problem too small.
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Blog comment spam
Every day I receive comments on my blogs from spammers which I delete before my readers also end up being spammed. I received the following comment which I thought I’d share.
Neat blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple tweeks would really make my blog shine. Please let me know where you got your theme. Thanks <link to site removed>
I see a lot of people who start a blog, share this type of comment with their readers without realising they’ve been blog spammed.
A compliment is often used to make people feel good about their blog and thus they accept the comment on their blog. I suspect a lot of those writing blogs also leave their blogs completely open for anyone to post a comment. I’m finding, at a guess, possibly up to 95 per cent of comments on blogs are spam. The aim of the comments is to either gain a greater presence in Google with links to a site, or to have people click on a link and visit the site.
I decided to check this comment and see how often it had been posted on blogs. To do this I chose a reasonable portion of the comment (Neat blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?), placed quotes around this text and performed a search using Google.
For search results from Australia, there were 2,890 results returned, and for results from the web, there were 487,000 results returned.
This is just one example of blog spam. Nearly half a million blogs have been spammed with just this one message. If you think about the number of spam blog comments occurring across the internet this is a massive problem.
To avoid this issue bloggers should think about removing automatic approval of comments on their blogs and to review comments before releasing them. If bloggers make it harder for spammers this avenue won’t be attractive to spammers and this will make it easier for all bloggers.
If you think it doesn’t matter, I recently clicked on a blog spam comment which had an address to a site in Australia, this immediately redirected me to a site in India, which then immediately redirected me to a site in Russia. I didn’t wait to see what the result was going to be but I have no doubt the intent was malicious. Blog comment spam may contain a link to malware.
If you run a blog, please consider removing automatic posting of comments.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Helping small businesses with their computers and internet presence.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710 announced
The press release is available at the following site.
http://press.nokia.com/2011/10/26/nokia-showcases-bold-portfolio-of-new-phones-services-and-accessories-at-nokia-world/
I found it interesting Australia does not appear in the list of six countries for the initial release, or even the second group of countries, but we'll most likely see the devices sometime in 2012.
I recently went into a couple of Telstra stores to check out the latest version of Microsoft Phone 7.5 and all that was available were a couple of old devices. I still haven't been able to check out the upgraded operating system. That's not a good sign for Microsoft in Australia.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you require help with your computer.
No problem too small.
Saturday, 22 October 2011
Repco GearUP USB Car Charger Kit Universal gets the thumbs down.
I plugged the cable provided into my iPhone and the adaptor into a portable 12V battery designed to jump start a car and also provide power to accessories plus a number of other features. To my surprise and disappointment the iPhone 3GS reported it wouldn’t work with the device. I then plugged in the cable which came with the iPhone and it worked. Next I decided since it was a dual USB charger to plug in the iPhone 3GS and an Android mobile phone and charge both at the same time. Instead of the iPhone being charged, it was still losing power over time, whilst the Android phone did start to charge. I worked out you can only charge one device at a time.
It wasn’t worth the trip half way across Melbourne to where I purchased the unit, so like many people who purchase products that don’t live up to expectation, this one will probably end up in a draw and I’ll purchase a reputable product through my computer suppliers.
I didn’t expect to receive what I’d consider a substandard product from Repco, so I didn’t mind taking a chance. But from now on I’ll stick with the products I know and trust.
How many computer related devices have you purchased that don’t measure up to your expectation and end up in the draw?
At Online Connections I generally stick to devices and brands which have proven themselves across my client base over time. Often that doesn’t mean paying more. A good product can cost the same as a poor product. Marketers will often use the line “you get what you pay for” to encourage you to buy a particular product. To me what is important is the product proves itself in the field. Those are the products I’ll recommend to clients.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
Call 0415 910 703 if you require assistance with your computer.
Serving Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham and the surrounding area.
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Google Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) announced.
I read the following announcement (Samsung Galaxy Nexus ... Read More) on the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus with the latest version of Android 4 and can’t help wonder what that means for the stocks being held of current Android mobile phones. I’ve noticed a number of Android based mobile phones being sold are based on Android 2.1. Even the new Amazon Kindle Fire is based on a fork of Android 2.3.
If you’re considering an Android mobile phone keep in mind the version number. I’d suggest avoiding Android 2.1 and prior mobile devices. Android 2.2 for me meant Skype worked and Android 2.3 I believe is when they brought out the quite useful hotspot feature. It really is hard to keep up with the frequent and small changes. I know a person who purchase a new Android mobile to end up with Android 1.6 and since they wanted to use Skype, they weren’t able to.
Android 4 is the version which purportedly brings the mobile phone and the tablet operating systems back into a single operating system.
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is being released in parts of the world in November. That is quite a way from the Christmas buying season, so there is still plenty of time for new devices to hit the market.
The most important thing is to make a note of the version of the Android operating and make sure it has the features you want for your needs.
- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with computer problems.
No problem too small.
MyAnswers: Facebook app doesn't work after upgrading Apple iPhone 4 to iOS 5.
The following MyAnswers solution 2180 is now available:
I upgraded my Apple iPhone 4 to iOS 5. Now when I go to click on Facebook it does nothing and I can't get Facebook to work. What can I do?
Click here to obtain the solution.
Click here for related solutions.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)