mcox.com - Mike Cox

Critics

2008-06-27T07:54:00.000-04:00

Why not take a break to read the words of this great American, and get yourself nice and rightly in a Fourth of July mood:

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

Teddy Roosevelt, Sorbonne 1910.

Runner-Friendly Headphones

2007-11-19T18:02:00.000-05:00

via From Where I Sit:

Michael Hyatt has some great recommendations for runner-friendly headphones on his blog, From Where I Sit.

Chart Pattern Fills in Excel 2007

2007-11-16T05:05:00.000-05:00

via DailyDoseOfExcel.com:

I've heard several people complain about the fact that the chart pattern fills are not available in Excel 2007. This feature can be useful if you print charts on a non-color printer. Although charts created with previous versions of Excel continue to display the pattern fills, there is no way to apply patterns fills using the Excel 2007 UI.

Microsoft's Eric Patterson addressed this problem by creating an add-in. You can download it here: Chart Pattern Fills.

This add-in creates a new group (Patterns) on the Chart Tools / Format tab. The group has one control that, when clicked, shows the available patterns to apply to the selected chart element.

Are Your Prepared for Holidy PC Repairs?

2007-11-15T06:58:00.000-05:00

via ZDNet:

Ed Bott has a great article on ZDNet with some recommendations on how to prepare for the inevitable Holiday PC Repairs.

Nordstrom Opposes Christmas Creep

2007-11-14T06:04:00.000-05:00

via Consumerist:

Nordstrom has conquered the urge to celebrate Christmas before Thanksgiving. The retailer announced its decision to respect the calendar and common sense by hanging signs declaring that they will wait until the day after Thanksgiving, the earliest acceptable moment, to display their Christmas decorations. The vainglorious announcement is an important indicator that Nordstrom's competitors have overdone the unseasonable cheerfulness schtick.

How to Maximize the Bang for the Buck When You Buy Organic Food

2007-11-13T05:54:00.000-05:00

via GradMoneyMatters:

At the grocery store, I have noticed that organic food in general costs about 25 – 50% more than regular items, and in some cases the mark up is more than 200%. According to the USDA certification guidelines - “Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation.” For some, especially those with young children, it may seem like the benefits of using organic foods justifies the extra cost. But like everything else, it is important to look beyond the label to get the best bang for the buck. Here is some information that can help decide which organic purchases are worth the extra cost and which may not be.

Security experts: NIST encryption standard may have NSA backdoor

2007-11-12T05:52:00.000-05:00

via Ars Technica:

According to security experts, an algorithm for generating random numbers that is included in an official standard documented by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could potentially include a backdoor planted by the NSA.

In a recent blog entry, cryptographer Bruce Schneier describes research that was presented by his colleagues Niels Ferguson and Dan Shumow at the CRYPTO 2007 conference this past August. The security researchers have raised concerns about a potential backdoor in the Dual_EC_DRBG algorithm, which is documented in NIST's 800-90 publication about deterministic random bit generators. Dual_EC_DRBG, which is based on elliptic curves, is said to be significantly slower to compute than the other algorithms in the standard and was supposedly only included at all because it has the strong support of the NSA.
Read the rest at Ars Technica

Tech Support - The HP Way

2007-11-08T06:16:00.000-05:00

via Zoli's Blog:

Reading this gem (hat tip: Ben Casnocha) about the nightmare of trying to get HP support their PC’s reminded me of my own horror story. Actually, not horror - just comedy.

Anyway… yeah, I was weak, fell for the good deal at Costco, and got myself a Vista-loaded junk from HP. There’s one component that shines - literally: the display. 22 inches of shiny black beauty, sharp screen, it tilts and moves around in every imaginable way, even pivots for a vertical view. But there was a little glitch with pivoting: I had to lie down to read the screen. There was no way to get the screen image rotate - something that should happen automatically.

I’ll spare you the first 20 minutes or so of the online chat with HP support, let’ s just jump to where it got really interesting:

Support: You probably have a video card that does not support auto-pivoting.

Me: That’s not possible. I did not build this machine, it’s a standard HP system out-of-the-box.

Support: I don’t understand.

Stop. Take a deep breath. This is just hilarious. Rather than trying to find the answer, the easy way out is to claim a standard configuration HP is selling consists of a mismatched video card and monitor. She has absolutely no idea how she is damaging the brand. Oh, well, let’s get a supervisor … wait .. disconnect.

Btw, “disconnecting” appears to be a standard HP solution to support issues: I’m still waiting for this other fellow to “gather all information” to my email over a month ago. Perhaps he’ll figure it out by the time I dump this PC.

LinkedIn and the Future of Business Networking

2007-11-07T06:47:00.000-05:00

via ReadWriteWeb:

In the heyday of the Facebook hype (it seems so long ago now!), Facebook was going to eat LinkedIn’s lunch. Based on recent experience, I don’t think so.
I recently had reason to use LinkedIn seriously, using my existing network to tap into a market that I had not previously been exposed to. I had not used LinkedIn since the early days, so this was my first serious update.
I have NOT used Facebook seriously. I registered out of curiosity about the phenomenon and found that the only network I could join was based on zip code - and that was useless. Then Read/WriteWeb set up a group on Facebook, but I looked once and left. When I want the Read/WriteWeb network, I go to the site itself. So please take my comments on Facebook with a large lump of salt; but Fred Wilson too has made a more determined effort to use Facebook and he has been disappointed. If there are technology entrepreneurs on Facebook, you would think they would respond to an ad from one of the leading VCs in the social media space saying “be my friend”.

Humor of the Day

2007-11-07T05:11:00.000-05:00

via Ben Casnocha:

The New York Times Magazines revisits the first episodes of Sesame Street, the packaging of which warns that the shows "may not suit the needs of today's preschoolers." The writer discovers an abundance of "disturbing" content in early Sesame Street, such as one scene where "two brothers risk concussion while whaling on each other with allergenic feather pillows."

3 Reasons Your Business is Growing Slowly

2007-11-06T06:42:00.000-05:00

via Freelance Folder:

Reason #1: You’re Fishing For Customers, Instead Of Going To The Fish Market.

Reason #2: You’re Using People Nobody Knows As Your References

Reason #3: You’re Not Charging Enough (And Justifying Why You’re Worth It)

Write Well, Get Rich

2007-11-05T06:16:00.000-05:00

Hedge fund manager Mark Sellers recently told some Harvard business students the secrets to success as an investor - here's a clip:

As an investor, you need to perform calculations and have a logical investment thesis. This is your left brain working. But you also need to be able to do things such as judging a management team from subtle cues they give off. You need to be able to step back and take a big picture view of certain situations rather than analyzing them to death. You need to have a sense of humor and humility and common sense. And most important, I believe you need to be a good writer. Look at Buffett; he's one of the best writers ever in the business world. It's not a coincidence that he's also one of the best investors of all time. If you can't write clearly, it is my opinion that you don't think very clearly.

Don't Break The Chain

2007-11-02T07:09:00.000-04:00

via LifeHacker

This post was great timing for me, considering NaNoWriMo just started yesterday!

Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show, Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic. At the time, I was hanging around clubs doing open mic nights and trying to learn the ropes. One night I was in the club where Seinfeld was working, and before he went on stage, I saw my chance. I had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. What he told me was something that would benefit me a lifetime...

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don't feel like it.

He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here's how it works.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."

"Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis.

Over the years I've used his technique in many different areas. I've used it for exercise, to learn programming, to learn network administration, to build successful websites and build successful businesses.

It works because it isn't the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard "inch by inch anything's a cinch." Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day.

Daily action builds habits. It gives you practice and will make you an expert in a short time. If you don't break the chain, you'll start to spot opportunities you otherwise wouldn't. Small improvements accumulate into large improvements rapidly because daily action provides "compounding interest."

Skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next.

I've often said I'd rather have someone who will take action—even if small—every day as opposed to someone who swings hard once or twice a week. Seinfeld understands that daily action yields greater benefits than sitting down and trying to knock out 1000 jokes in one day.

Think for a moment about what action would make the most profound impact on your life if you worked it every day. That is the action I recommend you put on your Seinfeld calendar. Start today and earn your big red X. And from here on out...

Don't break the chain!

4 Strategies To Help You Live Debt Free

2007-11-01T04:17:00.000-04:00

via Consumerist.com

SmartMoney.com has a great article about four simple principles that you can remember which will help you to live debt free.

"Change the monthly mind set"
No more "low monthly payments" for you. This means their answer to is to apply it all to a high-interest credit card account, for example. The sooner you pay these sorts of loans off, the more you'll save. If you pay 1/12th more each month on your home loan—the equivalent of one extra payment a year—you can shave 7 years off a 30 year mortgage.

"Fix it and forget it"
Get out of your ARM loan as soon as you can, and if you have good credit, look for the elusive fixed-rate credit card. SmartMoney suggests you check out CardRatings.com.

"Shuffle the cards"
Take advantage of zero-interest transfer offers from credit cards, not so you can run up the card with new charges, but so you can pay off your debt faster—which can lead to a better credit score, which makes you a more attractive customer to credit card companies, which means you can shop for better offers and lower rates.

"All under one roof"
Consolidate your loans into one payment at a lower rate, usually through a home equity loan if you can get one.

Reduce Firefox's Toolbars

2007-10-31T06:05:00.000-04:00

If there is no page to go back to, no page loading, or no page to go forward to, you can save some screen real estate in Firefox by disabling those buttons on your toolbar when they cannot be used. The following changes can be added to your userChrome.css, which will remove those buttons when they are not usable. The buttons will automatically appear when they can be used.

#back-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; }
#forward-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; }
#stop-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; }

NaNoWriMo Begins in Two Days

2007-10-30T06:08:00.000-04:00

If you've never heard of NaNoWriMo before it is National Novel Writing Month. It is held every November with the goal of completing a novel (50,000 words, around 175 pages) from start to finish in one month. Editing is not important, that is for December.

For more information, please visit NaNoWriMo.org.

Citations, Equations, and References in Word 2007

2007-10-29T05:30:00.000-04:00

Reed @ the Microsoft Office Word Team's blog has a great post detailing some of the new reference, citation, and equation features in Microsoft Word 2007.

Create A Password Management Plan

2007-10-26T05:58:00.000-04:00

via The Productivity Portfolio blog:

When was the last time you changed your passwords? If you have a hard time coming up with an approximate date, don’t worry. The bigger question is whether you have a personal password plan. Although this sounds daunting, it’s easy to create one that strikes a balance between security and convenience.
1. Use a Password Manager

One problem is we seldom realize how many passwords we have until we start recording them. This is where it becomes essential to have a good password manager that securely stores this information.

A good software package will accommodate many information types whether it’s your credit card number or bank login. These programs should also encrypt your data with a non-proprietary encryption method. Two password manager programs that we’ve used include RoboForm and SplashID.

2. Prioritize Your Passwords

When a crisis occurs one of the first steps is to triage the situation. The same applies to your passwords based on what you’re trying to protect. As example, the password to access your bank takes a higher priority than one to read the online version of a magazine. The key question is what would you lose (or someone else gain) if someone else got access.

When evaluating the risk, also think about what an online service knows about you. For example, you may not think twice about merchant XYZ. You only bought from them once in the year. But what if the service maintains your address and credit card data for easy ordering? Do you also use that password on other popular ecommerce sites?

3. Create a Password Formula

Relax, this is not as complicated as it sounds. The idea is to make it easier to remember your passwords. You don’t have to go through a brain drain trying to think of something clever.

If you are stuck, most password managers have a feature where they can create a random password for you. While this method works, I prefer to remember mine in case I need to log in from a remote computer.

The trick I use is to think of an expression, book, slogan or quote that relates to what I’m protecting. From there, I use a formula to apply against that expression. It might be the first letter of each word, last or both. This is like the old tricks people used to remember the lines of the treble clef. “Every good boy deserves fudge.” Below are some sample password formulas to give you an idea.

Starting Phrase

Sample Formula

Resulting
password

Every good boy deserves fudge

First letter of each word

Egbdf

Every good boy deserves fudge

Last letter of each word

ydyse

Every good boy deserves fudge

Number of letters per word

54385

Every good boy deserves fudge

First word letter + word count

Egbdf5

4. Routinely Change Passwords

Even though you may have a strong password, you still need to change it. I change my important passwords and batteries when I adjust the clock for daylight savings.

There is one password I don’t change that I call my default sequence. I use it for sites that require registration to read the content. I use the same account and password as there is little risk. I don’t even record these entries in my password manager.

5. Know what to Expect

One nice thing about changing passwords on your schedule is you know what to expect. Most systems will send you a notification when you change your passwords. This gives you an opportunity to see what these real emails look like.

Does the email contain your name?
Does the email have a line about who to contact if you didn’t request this change?
What is the sender’s email address?
Does the email use no-reply address?
Is the email plain text or HTML?

Once you create your password management plan, I’m sure you’ll see that it takes less time to manage than you thought. Plus, you’ll also be thankful you have all the information in one safe place.

Seven Topics To Avoid During Conversation If You Don't Want To Be A Bore

2007-10-25T06:59:00.000-04:00

via Gretchen Rubin @ The Happiness Project

1. A dream.
2. The recent changes in your child’s nap schedule.
3. The route you took to get here.
4. An excellent meal you once had at a restaurant.
5. The latest additions to your wine cellar.
6. An account your last golf game.
7. The plot of a movie, play, or movie—in particular, the funny parts.

Inside Google's Ann Arbor Office

2007-10-24T05:55:00.000-04:00

via Mary Hayes Weier @ InformationWeek

Google has its sprawling headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., and flashy offices in Manhattan. But it's got another growing office close to the country's heartland: Ann Arbor, Mich.

Google Ann Arbor is downtown near the University of Michigan campus.

(click for image gallery)

Google Ann Arbor also is hiring -- for 850 positions, in fact. Opened last year, Google promised the state as part of a tax-break deal that it will hire 1,000 people in Ann Arbor over the next few years. Google has hired just over 150 employees so far, and is expanding from one to four floors in a downtown Ann Arbor office building.
Google Ann Arbor is the new headquarters for AdWords, the company's advertising system and its largest revenue source. Most of the facilities' employees are AdWords sales and customer service representatives. Google is familiar with the area: Co-founder Larry Page grew up in the state and got his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The company views the region as a hot talent pool of college graduates that don't require the high salaries needed to live comfortably in Manhattan and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Grady Burnett, director of online sales and operations at Google Ann Arbor, said the office draws graduates from both Midwestern and East Coast universities, and occasionally graduates from West Coast universities.
Google Ann Arbor is a smaller, toned-down version of the company's pampering headquarters in Mountain View. Employees are treated to free hot lunches and an abundance of snacks and drinks; Starbucks latte machines; masseuse services; an onsite workout facility; and staff trips to places like Squaw Valley ski resort in California.
The company also hopes to lure talent with the city's quality of life. The culture is youthful -- about one in three people in Ann Arbor's population of 115,000 is an undergraduate or graduate student at the University of Michigan. The city's politics lean to the left, and the university and its medical center draw students and staff from China, India, the Middle East, Europe, and other regions.
[where: 48104]

Microsoft Slashes Prices For Microsoft Dynamics CRM

2007-10-23T06:10:00.000-04:00

via Mary Hayes Weier @ InformationWeek:

Microsoft took another step in its strategy Tuesday to gain share in the on-demand CRM market, announcing that it's slashing the license fees for Microsoft Dynamics CRM to resellers by 40%.
It's yet another sign of Microsoft's determination to go after market leader Salesforce.com.
Microsoft can't make real inroads, however, without the participation of its resellers. With the price reduction, resellers will now pay the company about $15 per subscription, providing them with potentially higher profit margins. Resellers offering Dynamics typically charge around $50 per seat for the basic package, although customization can drive up that cost to around $200 or so.
The move could prompt Saleforce.com to drop prices on the lower end of its product offerings. Gartner ranked Salesforce.com as the leader in the on-demand CRM market in a report issued earlier this year based on the quality of its software; Dynamics lacks some of the desired features in Salesforce.com that's allowed it to win more deals. But Salesforce.com's premium pricing of between $125 and $195 per user could create problems for the company as it faces increasing pricing pressure from Microsoft.
Microsoft also is working to get its first multitenant version of Dynamics -- version 4.0, also called Titan -- in the hands of resellers by year's end. With Dynamics 4.0, resellers can host multiple customers on one server, further driving down their operational costs for Dynamics.
At a Microsoft customer and reseller conference in Copenhagen Tuesday, Microsoft announced new European and Australian resellers for Dynamics that include EveryWare, Increase, JayThom, and Mondo.

Beating "White Screen Syndrome"

2007-10-22T06:22:00.000-04:00

via Robert Janelle @ Freelance Switch

I’ve done all my research, triple-checked my facts, now I just need to write the article.

I fire up the word processor and am I prepared to hammer out the best thousand words I’ve ever written. Then I lean forward to type…and…nothing inspires me. Not even the fact that my deadline is in one hour.

This is what I like to call “white screen syndrome.” You know you need to write something but can’t seem to do anything other than stare at the blank white window in front of you.

Freelancers are business, and being in business means writing to some degree. Whether it’s correspondence, a blog entry or magazine articles, something usually needs to be written and the white screen syndrome beaten. The following are a few methods I’ve come to use to get past it.

Begin Anywhere But the Beginning

That first paragraph, the one that’s supposed to engage the reader and make them want to read on is often the hardest one to write. It’s been one of my biggest sources of writer’s block, since I’m uncomfortable writing if I don’t have a beginning.

However, when I was an intern at a daily newspaper and tasked with writing three articles per day, I didn’t have the luxury of suffering from writer’s block. So to get around it, my default opening sentence was “Lead goes here.”

I’d then continue with the rest of the article as if there was already something brilliant to start it with.

Once the article was done, it was pretty clear what it was about and summarizing it at the beginning was much easier.

Write What You REALLY Mean (But edit it later…)

“I have to write about writer’s block and yet I have writer’s block, LAME!! So, how am I going to get this done in time – frankly, I wish I could just type what I’m thinking and sending in a piece about how lame writer’s block is…”

My favourite method of getting something on the white screen is to just write what’s going through my head on the subject – then revise afterwards. I see it as a combination of stream-of-consciousness writing and Ann Lamont’s “shitty first draft.”

You know the subject matter, so just write. Usually it can be modified into something useful at the end and who knows, maybe you’ll find a few great sentences you wouldn’t have written if you were trying to stay professional.

I’ve written a few articles entirely like this and only had to edit out all the obscenities.

Just remember to edit before submitting!

Look Away From the Screen and Think Visually

I’ve suggested mind-mapping in other columns and I’m going to mention it again.

In fact, I was introduced to the method by a senior writer at a newspaper when he noticed I’d get back from whatever protest, car accident or fire I’d been sent to and stare at the whiteness about an hour before doing anything.

Sit back with a piece of paper, write words related to what you’re trying to write, draws lines to see the relationships. This is especially helpful for visual learners.

This helps juice up the right brain and hopefully ideas will pop out and least get you started.

Of course, with everything said and done, you could beat “white screen syndrome” by just changing the default background colour in the word processor.

Office 2007 Administrative Templates (.adm .admx .adml)

2007-10-19T06:04:00.000-04:00

Judith Herman on the Microsoft Group Policy Team Blog has exciting news from the Microsoft Office 2007 team - The 2007 Office System Administrative Template is available.

This download includes:

The updated Group Policy Administrative Template files (ADM files)
The updated Office Customization Tool (OCT)
The updated Office customization tool OPA files
ADMX and ADML versions of the 2007 Microsoft Office system Administrative Template files for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
An Excel workbook that provides information about the 2007 Office system Group Policy settings and OPA settings.
Multiple language versions of the template files, including English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

You can download them from this link at Microsoft.com.

How to beat writer's block

2007-10-18T06:31:00.000-04:00

Via Ransom @ the Mental Floss Magazine blog:

I’ve got a lot of stuff on my writing plate these days, and as such I deal with my fair share of that dreaded — but not usually fatal — affliction: writer’s block. I’m certainly not alone. Some of our greatest writers have battled the block, but every one of them had their own quirky way of dealing with it. Here are some of my favorites.
When Victor Hugo wasn’t writing Les Miserables, he was miserables — from writer’s block. His cure? He instructed his servant to take away all his clothes for several hours, during which time he would only have access to a pen and paper. That way, he reasoned, there was nothing else he could do but write.

Graham Greene wrote exactly 500 words per day, even stopping mid-sentence if necessary.

Novelist and journalist Alan Furst had an unusual set of conditions he imposed upon himself early in his career, writing “with one eye closed, my feet tied together, left-handed, with a dull pencil.”

Playwright Maxwell Anderson claimed he could only write while it was raining, and to make sure he was productive even when the weather was clear, he had a sprinkler system installed on the roof of his studio.

Film legends The Coen Brothers found themselves struggling with writer’s block halfway through the script for Miller’s Crossing, and rather than press on, they decided to work on a different script: Barton Fink. Three weeks later, it was nearly finished, and Fink — I think it’s their best work — became a movie about a screenwriter struggling with writer’s block.

Sherwood Anderson quit his job as the manager of a paint factory and left his family in 1906 to devote himself full-time to writing. Assuming he was a good investment, his publishers sent him checks each week until he asked them to stop, explaining “It’s no use; I find it impossible to work with security staring me in the face.”

Perhaps the most tragic of all writer’s block stories is Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s. By most accounts, he produced his best work in his mid-twenties. By age 32, he had begun to despair of his own diminishing abilities, writing in his journal “So completely has a whole year passed, with scarcely the fruits of a month! O sorrow and shame … I have done nothing!” Coleridge wasn’t the only one who felt he was wasting his life: his friends implored him to write again, but he insisted that the very idea filled him with “an indefinite indescribable terror.” “You bid me rouse myself,” he said to an incredulous friend. “Go, bid a man paralytic in both arms rub them briskly together, and that will cure him!” If Coleridge looked into any cures for writer’s block besides smoking opium, none of them worked.

As for me, I have a number of strategies I employ to beat writer’s block, though none are sure-fire cures: a brisk walk can be helpful; endless soloing on the guitar I keep near my desk; cat-petting; compulsive email-checking and/or web surfing (this definitely doesn’t help); listening to music with no lyrics. How do you beat writer’s block?

Organize Your Downloads

2007-10-17T05:11:00.000-04:00

Via Ed Bott:

If you’re like most people, you store downloaded programs in a variety of locations-on the desktop, in the My Documents folder, or wherever the Save As dialog box happens to be pointing when you download a file. I recommend that you look for these downloaded program files on your hard disk and pull all of them together into one well-organized Downloads folder. You can then transfer the whole collection to your new PC by copying that folder, and when you’re ready to reinstall that software, you can do so quickly and efficiently by working through all the items stored there. Spending a few extra minutes getting organized now can save you hours later.

Start by looking at the list of programs you use most often. For each of those programs that you acquired by downloading, your goal is to find the original Setup files (compressed Zip files, executable programs, or Windows Installer files) and organize them in a common location. If you can’t find the files for a favorite program, or if your downloaded copy is more than a year old, find the software maker’s Web site and download a fresh copy. (A program’s Help menu often includes the software maker’s Web address; if not, use your favorite search engine to track it down.)

Finally, go through your old e-mail, printed receipts, and other sources to find serial numbers, product keys, and other important information you might need to reinstall the software. This information is especially important when you’ve downloaded a trial version of a program and then paid to upgrade it to the registered version. You’ll need to supply your proof of purchase to unlock the program’s full set of features when you install it on a new PC (or reinstall it after a disk crash or other disaster).

Here’s how you can mirror the system I use to keep downloads organized:

In the My Documents folder, create a subfolder called Downloads.
Within the Downloads folder, create a subfolder for each downloaded program you’ll want on your new PC. I’ve got subfolders for WinZip, Nero, Adobe Reader, and dozens of other downloaded programs.
Download fresh copies of any programs on your list that you can’t find or that need updates. Now place the file or files for each downloaded program on your list into its related subfolder. Create a shortcut to the Web site from which you downloaded the program and place it in this subfolder as well, along with any notes about installing or registering the program. If a serial number or product key is required for installation, save that information in a text file along with the program files in the subfolder.

Every few months, I go through the Downloads folder and click the Web shortcut for each program I use regularly to see if a newer version is available. If I find an upgrade, I replace the existing file with the new one and upgrade the currently installed version. Then, I burn the contents of my Downloads folder to a CD or DVD, label it with the current date, and store it with the rest of my disks and documents.
Getting organized this way takes some extra time initially, but once your Downloads directory is created, it takes only a few extra seconds to create a new folder to store a new downloaded program. And you’ll save plenty of time if you ever need to reinstall a program.

Starting Phrase	Sample Formula	Resulting password
Every good boy deserves fudge	First letter of each word	Egbdf
Every good boy deserves fudge	Last letter of each word	ydyse
Every good boy deserves fudge	Number of letters per word	54385
Every good boy deserves fudge	First word letter + word count	Egbdf5


Google Ann Arbor is downtown near the University of Michigan campus.
(click for image gallery)