It’s the relationship you spend more time on than any other. It deepens every year. And when things go wrong, you become afraid, tearful, and in some cases so enraged that you lash out by throwing things—but you’re willing to go right back into the relationship no matter what happens.
What are we talking about? The bond you have with your computer. If you work in an office, chances are you spend more time staring into your computer screen than having conversations with real live human beings. And you probably spend more time at your PC than you do with your significant other, best friend, and even your kids.
According to research conducted by SupportSoft Inc., a firm in Redwood City, California, that makes software for computer help desks, people are spending an increasing amount of time at their computer. This survey also revealed how computer problems can unleash powerful—even dangerous emotions. When confronted with a dead computer, 19% admitted to wanting to hurl it out the nearest window, 9% felt stranded and alone, 11% used language normally reserved for special occasions, 7% did so loudly, 3% did so tearfully and another 3% vented their wrath on inanimate objects.
With these results it should come as no surprise that 48% said they would rather help a friend move than deal with a computer problem, and 30% said they felt more frustration with their computer now than in previous years.
Want to have a healthy relationship with your computer? Then check out our Triada360 service plan. We’ll make your computer “behave,” which will lower your stress and anxiety, reduce computer problems to zero, and give you more time to spend with REAL human beings.

Until recently, MacIntosh computer users have long enjoyed relative freedom from hacker attacks; however, researchers at Symantec Corporation say online criminals are now setting their sites on Mac users.

First porn hunters were the target. Visitors to certain web sites are led to believe they can download a free video player when in fact they are installing malicious code onto their Macs. But even “safe” sites are getting malicious code through third party applets like Java and Flash using advertising agencies.

Once the users authorize the transaction, the hackers can redirect the users future browsing to fraudulent web sites and possibly steal the user’s information or passwords. Sometimes they simply send ads for other pornographic web sites. This results in thousands of dollars in income for the criminals.

While you may think that Macs are essentially more secure than PCs because they are built better, security experts would argue differently. They believe that the Mac is actually no more secure than a PC. In fact, they note that the relatively low number of viruses, exploits and other cyber attacks directed at Mac users is due to Apple’s relatively small share of the computer market. In fact some security experts put Apple about 10 years behind Microsoft in dealing with security threats.

“I don’t think that the Mac OS is more secure than Windows — I think it is safer than Windows because there are less people trying to attack it. There is a big difference,” Natalie Lambert, a senior analyst at Forrester Research recently shared with MacNewsWorld.

With that said, the fact remains that for every single attack on a Mac, there are at least 100 attacks on Windows-based systems.

So what should you do if you own a Mac? Use the same safe online surfing practices as PC users, keep your anti-virus software up-to-date, never open strange e-mails from unknown sources, and only verify user names and passwords by phone with your bank or other financial institutions. Antivirus software on the Mac needs time to catch up as well.

E-Mail drives us all nuts. No sooner you delete one, five more replace it in your inbox. If you are finding it hard to answer every e-mail you receive, you’re obviously not alone. E-Mail bankruptcy has been a common way of people dealing with it- dumping all of their email and starting over- but that’s more like putting your head in the sand, and doesn’t help deal with the volume of new ones coming in.

1. Get a Good Spam Filter Even if it just saves you a couple minutes a day, that adds up to many hours a year.
2. Cancel Subscriptions of Unwanted Mailing Lists and Legitimate E-Mail Newsletters Be cautious here, if you don’t already have a good spam filter in place, the emails that come into your mailbox may not be from legitimate sources. You may think you are opting out, but you are just giving them the knowledge that you have a working e-mail box that they can further spam. As you purchase goods online, uncheck the “subscribe” box usually at the end, unless you really want to read their latest specials.
3. Ask your family and friends to remove you from joke lists and chain letters We all have that friend or loved one that sends us every joke they receive and medical urgency they get forwarded. Ask them politely and tell them your situation.
4. Don’t publish your e-mail address on your website (or anywhere else for that matter). Spammers use automated tools called bots to scour websites for e-mail addresses that they can target.
5. Don’t respond to every e-mail you get. Seems silly but I’m guessing most of your emails you receive are meant for one-way communications. Unless it’s requested, no need to answer “OK” or some other acknowledgment. By doing so, you are contributing to the noise. Use Reply-To-All sparingly.
6. Be succinct. Don’t write long and drawn out emails. They either will not get read or they will be misinterpreted. Pick up the phone or find another way to communicate with them one on one. Keep your lists short or use blind copies so that Reply’s to All don’t flood everyone’s mailboxes
7. Subject Lines are your friend. Take advantage. Put your question there. So someone can easily read your message and respond to it without opening up the whole thing. Your good habits will rub off on others. Use small codes to draw attention to important messages or to just inform the recipient.
8. Schedule e-Mail time. This is probably the most difficult to do. Schedule your e-mail response times. Some people even make known when they will be responding to emails in an automated response or an email footer. By batching your email responses together your get more done with less distraction. Also, it gives you an opportunity to think more thoroughly and absorb all of the messages you may have received from that sender and response more appropriately. If you feel distracted easily, than turn off your email program for 30 minutes at a time and see how much more you will get done. As a side note, the best time to read your e-mails is not first thing in the morning. Don’t use up your morning energy that way!
9. OHIO- Only Handle It OnceUnless the message has a follow up that cannot be acted upon right away, either delete the message or respond to it right away. Touching the same message multiple times is just a time waster. create folders for things you need to do later or put them in your calendar. A great resource for this is http://www.43folders.com/topics/inbox-zero by Merlin Mann. It’s based on techniques from David Allen’s Getting Things Done (http://davidco.com)

As much as you want to keep your inbox down, you should do your best to help out others as well.

• Be courteous when you are forwarding e-mails. Summarize the thread if you can and put it on top like an Executive Summary. Spare your recipient from having to read the whole thing.
• Don’t copy someone on a message unless it is necessary. And explain in the message why are copying them. This way they don’t have to guess what your intentions are: Do they need to act on something? Are you just sending it for their knowledge or keeping them in the loop? Tell them!

Happy E-Mailing!

Since getting the Mac bug a few years back, I’ve flipped back and forth between both Windows and Mac (and occasionally Ubuntu Linux).  Because many of my applications require Windows or Internet Explorer (which only runs on Windows) I find myself finding ways to work around it using various tools like remote desktops to Windows machines and virtual computers that allow you to run a copy of Windows on top of your Mac.

Although Office 2011 for the Mac has narrowed the gap, particularly with Outlook 2011, in terms of functionality with its Windows cousin, there are some things that are frustrations.  In my effort to learn more about Outlook 2011 for my own use as well as customers, I came across the following post on Office for Mac Blog by Microsoft.

Here are some of those shortcuts: