Thank God I use Gmail at my workplace

In office when you get hundreds of mails and you need to read,mark and categorize them as per official need. You may need to customize mail for the client and need to store a lot of e-mail IDs. Things may get messed up if your e-mail service is not . In most office there is an official e-mail software used in case you don't have one what you need to use.

Work Around

- Use Gmai Account for managing your e-mails.

Some of the popular features of Gmail are listed below:

Labeling E-Mails


Gmail provides facility to label e-mails. These methods provide user facility for categorizing e-mails by labeling them. An e-mail can be labeled any number of times.
User can display e-mails with a particular label and can also use it as a criterion for searching e-mails.

Managing Contacts

As you send e-mail via Gmail contact list of gmail gets updated. It also has auto-completion feature that pop ups e-mail ID, primary name as user writes address in the To,Cc,Bcc column.

Auto Save feature

Gmail is equipped with auto save feature that saves the current e-mail as draft in case the window gets close accidentally due to browser error or any other issue.

G-Mail Notifier

G-Mail is an Official Tool provided by Google for getting new mail notifications. The notification icon is installed in the task bar in PC and on right hand side of Menu bar in MAC OS and it signals whenever there is new mail in the Inbox.

G-Mail Chat feature

With G-Mail chat you can chat with other people who have g-mail account. It can also be synchronized with Google talk network and thus enables interaction with google talk clients.

Key board short cuts

Gmail provides keyboard shortcuts that can be used while browsing g-mail. These short cuts are enabled by default and need to be enabled by the user

Support to Multiple languages

Gmail provides support to about 40 languages. All web pages and e-mails are encoded in the Unicode standard (UTF-8). This enables sending and receiving e-mails containing Cyrillic, Asian and Latin special characters.

G-Mail’s RSS feed feature

G-Mail has RSS feed feature that enables feed as single line on top of the page. User can scroll the feed to read through the content.

Anti-Virus Scanning
Gmail introduced a feature which automatically scans all incoming and outgoing e-mail attachments for viruses. If a virus is found on an attachment the reader is trying to open, Gmail will try to remove the virus and open the newly cleaned attachment.

Provides access to Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Google Docs & Spreadsheets can be used to view word processor documents and spreadsheets. It is a free web-based word processing and spreadsheet program. It accepts popular file formats such as DOC, XLS, ODF, ODS, RTF, CSV, etc. You can share a document with another user and invite the user by email address. Invited visitors can sign and access the document for viewing or editing. Document can also be shared among multiple people. It has provision of a screen chat window that provide updated information which user changed which document and when.

Having problem in language Translation at Work Place?

Often at your workplace you need to do instant language translations. This task may become tedious if you do not have a right translation tool.

Work Around

-Use Language Translation tool simple!!!!!!!

Language Translator tool such as Google language Tools are user friendly and can be used to obtain instant translations from within your applications. Language translator tools can help you to translate e-mail/chat/document /web page from one language to other instantly. Such tool is ideal for businesses who need complete language translation solutions for their software, websites or day to day transactions.
Some other Language translation tools available online are:

Babel Fish Translation
Free Language Translation tool
World lingo Translation tool

Tips and Tricks to Organize files on your PC

With lots of file increasing on your PC it may be difficult for you for filing the files carefully in the right folder. Result ?At the time when you require some important information you may be fiddling with files stored on your PC with required file buried in the depths of hard disk.

Work Around

- Use a Smart Desktop Search Tool such as Google Desktop Search Tool

Desktop Search Tool can be used to search for wider range of items such as instant messaging chats, e-mails, contacts and recently visited web pages. This search tool scans through the entire contents of computer hard disk after installation. It compiles a index which contains details of searchable item found along with their location.
Some important features are:

• Very fast Search


• Provides preview of results that further expedites the search


• Indexed Information stored in hard disk itself


• Ability to search one PC from another (An updated feature in Google Desktop Beta)


• Google Desktop search works with Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape mail, Thunderbird, Mozilla mail


• By default it indexes emails, web history, different file formats, contacts and calendar.


• Google Desktop preference options is available to add/delete other data to be indexed such as Instant message chats


• Password-Protection feature available for Data Security

Instructions for use:

1. Just download the free application from Google’s website
   


2. After downloading just locate Google desktop setup files on computer’s desktop and double-click on it.


3. Go through the wizard instructions for the installation of the program

Other Desktop Search tools available are:

Yahoo Search tool
Msn search tool
Copernic Desktop Search Tool

Tips and Tricks to expedite Web Search –Part II

Search engine Math commands discussed above are one of the popular methods to expedite search. In case search engine maths fails to provide desired results another work around is using Boolean Searching.

Boolean searching as the name suggest includes basic Boolean commands
Such as And ,Or,Not.

1. ‘And’: ‘And used to find web pages that definitely contains both the keywords specified on either side of the command.


English AND Geometry : Will search webpages containing keywords English as well as Geometry


2. ‘OR’ :‘OR’ used to find web pages containing either of the keywords entered with the ‘OR’ command.
   
   English OR Geometry : Results in pages containing either of the keywords or both of them



3. ‘Not’:
‘Not’ command is used to exclude the keyword preceeded by ‘Not’ command

Beans NOT Java : will include web page that have keyword beans but do not key word Java(It will exclude webpage talking about Javabeans.

A combination of above commands can be used to get desired results.

Note:The commands discussed above are some popular search commands. There are many Search engine specific commands. Just check out Search Engine Featured Chart for complete information about various search commands available with different Search Engines.

Tips n tricks to expedite search on Web

Web is collection of millions of web pages and to search required web page search engine is the most popular medium. If you are an online recruiter or in industry of market research or in related job it becomes a daily routine to search relevant pages on net. Many times we get irrelevant pages irrespective of search keyword we use. Many times web page does not turn up in first few google pages. This not only delays work but also creates mental tension. So in that case what you need to do ?

Work Around

Be aware of Search Engine math

Each search engine acknowledges some basic search engine math which can surely improve the results and expedite the work. Just check out some basic mathematics that can really improve your searches

• Using ‘+’
  Using ‘+” ensures that search engine searches all the words you have entered in the Search tool bar for eg. If you want to web page containing information about both google and yahoo enter
  
  + google + yahoo
  
  Rather then entering google yahoo.
  If you want web page containing specifically summer camp registration date its better to write + summer + camp + registration + date to get web page specifically containing all the keywords.


• Using ‘-‘
  Subtract is used to specifically find web pages that contains one key word and not the other. For example you need information about TATA group but not about Tata Indicom.You can just enter TATA –Indicom
  With this command no page containing Indicom will be displayed.


• Using Phrase Search for multiplicity
  In addition we get all terms we entered but not in that particular order. To get the whole key phrase such as summer camp registration date we need to enter it within quotes such as “summer camp registration date”. This command will make search engine search specifically for the whole key phrase.
  
  Note: You can just combine the above commands to suit your need and to get improved results.
  

How to monitor Network Security?

Data security has become a major concern in today’s world. By breaching network security information can easily be hacked or damaged.

Work Around

- Be aware of the key areas in Network which are prone to security breach.

Network needs security in three areas:

• Perimeter where network connects to internet: Firewalls are each internet connection helps keep hackers and mischief’s away.
• Securing remote connections such as office, satellite as well as employees who connect 0from road or from home.
• Endpoints: This include individual devices on the network. They are most difficult to secure as they are more prone to malicious activities and difficult to secure due to there quantity, diversity and habits of people who are using them. It is at the endpoints that the hacking or other attack takes place and the attack propagates through the network making it insecure and may hinder in its functioning.

So in case you find any breach in these key areas just report your Network Administrator.


Source: IQ by Cisco Systems Third Quarter 2006
Note: Check out tips and tricks to reduce Network Down time in the Previous post

Tips and Tricks to reduce Network Downtime

Network Down means no work/ no business. The rapid developments in computer technology have resulted in a greater reliance on Client/server architectures that implies greater implementation of Networks. With large numbers of desktop or network computers interconnected in a network, networks act as eminent medium of connection between the servers and the clients. This increasing reliance on networks, driven by the growing use of sophisticated applications and popularity of Intranet and internet, has created demands for a zero fault tolerant network. Network Downtime even if it is of relatively short period of time can represent a substantial loss to the business. We can say that companies rely on their networks to sustain their business and need to have have a zero tolerance to downtime.

Work Around

- Need to monitor and incerease fault tolerance of Network

Tips and tricks to reduce downtime:

• Identify both source and cause of problem eg. Source of downtime may be router but cause may be improper configuration.


• Scrutinize network applications to make sure that service providers meet their uptime promises. Companies that run applications supporting vital revenue streams like real-time order entry or financial trading can attest to the dollar value of each transaction traversing their network. Network downtime costs these companies large sums of money every year in terms of lost productivity and lost business.


• Invest in redundancy


• Ensure that the core of the network is protected against any potential single point of hardware failure


• Monitor traffic regularly as any un expected increase may overload network and will call for increased bandwidth. Provide mirrored links for LAN and WAN traffic.


• Replace conventional switches and routers that tie transaction processing clients to server farms with non-stop devices.


• Upgrade Existing System: Fundamental way of addressing and managing the reliability problem is to create a network architecture that deploys fault tolerant system components.

Note: Check out Network Downtime Pdf for more information