Category — Tech Tips

Do you know what an illegal character is?

 ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + = - } ] { [ | \ ? / > <

Those are illegal characters.  They can royally screw up your life.

So… when you’re making a new file, renaming a file, thinking about the naming of a file, think those characters right out of your pretty little head.

Don’t use them.  They make things break.

Like uploader tools.  Stuff like that.  So, if you’re SURE you will never ever ever put that file (document, PDF, image, etc.) on the web, go ahead and illegal character away.

If you might want to someday show it to the world: Just Say No.

I have become that client.  I have become the person who wants everything on the home page, all the time.  (Note the new Flickr widget I recently employed on the right sidebar there…)

Don’t be like me.  Don’t put so much crap on the home page.

Every day I say this, it seems like.  In fact, I said it about 5 times this morning in a client meeting.  But I can’t help it (and must assume that neither can they.)  The difference? 

This is a blog.  It is a bunch of randomness from the inside of my brain.  It can look like a ridiculous mess of randomness.  THAT’S WHAT IT IS.

Usually, unless your website is a blog too, and you really don’t care if anyone other than your best friend and your girlfriend read it, you should be exercising at least a small bit of caution and restraint in what you throw up on the home page. 

It just makes it easier for those of us who want to be spoon-fed what it is that you want us to see.

Last Monday, I got home to find my back door hanging open, door frame shattered - someone had broken in, and I wasn’t sure if they were still there or not. Deep dread took root - I immediately returned to the sidewalk and called 911. The cops came, cleared the house, and took me on a quick tour to see what had been taken. And while very little was actually stolen - sorry folks, no Xbox or plasma TV in this family - they went through EVERYTHING. Every single drawer in our bedroom was dumped out; they went through our closets, took the cushions off the couch, pawed through our photographs. Ugh.

So all week, I’ve been feeling shaky, crazy, violated - there’s something really unique about trying to decide whether to pick your underwear up and put it away, wash it in hot water, or throw it out and start over. Last night, I was having a hard time getting to sleep, and my mind wandered to an odd summer 10 years ago. In college, I spent 18 months living in and running houses owned by the Brown Association for Cooperative Housing. This experience was amazing and inspiring - nearly 50 students responsible for everything from household maintenance (purchased a new boiler and new roof at age 19) to planning menus and cooking meals. But keeping the houses full in the summer was a critical part of the organizations’ financial solvency, and sometimes a challenge. One summer we had an interesting house mate: a Trinidadian steel drum professor whose wife had kicked him out for running around on her. He was desperate for housing, we were desperate for a rent check, and a match was made.

This gentleman had major physical limitations due to childhood polio, and once he latched on to me as the “landlady”, he was constantly calling me to help him put up curtains, move furniture, etc. Always generous, he would try to pay me for my time with joints - he smoked more pot than any college student I’ve seen before or since, and we had some serious hippies in the house. But he also taught me the secret of using blueing crystals to wash out the bad spirits from a space that’s being moved into, or that’s been tainted with bad juju. You put just enough blueing in to turn the water pail blue, then scrub out each corner of each room with this purifying water, to bring peace to any tormented spirits and to the home. I’ve had a square of blueing tucked into my stuff, moving around with it for 10 years, but never using it. Maybe it’s the secret I need to clear my head.

Google has introduced a new thing called Google Tutor.

Go forth, my friends, and read the damn thing.

And stop calling me to come over and fix your computer in exchange for dinner.

Though I do love dinner…

I work for a web firm.

Somehow, this means to everyone in my life that I am their personal Geek Squad.

For my friends who wonder about things and think I know the answers, here is a good tutorial I found on Google Tutor on how to Clear Google Search History to Maintain Your Privacy:

In Internet Explorer

The search history that displays in the search box on the Google homepage is stored by your browser, not by Google. You can clear the history or disable this feature entirely by following these steps:

1. Go to the “Tools” menu
2. Select “Internet Options”
3. Select the “Content” tab
4. Within the “Personal Information” area, select “AutoComplete”
   • To clear the current history, click on “Clear Forms”
   • To disable this feature entirely, uncheck the “Forms” box

You can also delete individual entries from your search history by using the Down arrow key to highlight a previous search and then pressing the Delete key.

Read the complete post if you use Firefox…