Zip it!

Zip Files

Zip files have been around for decades.  A zip file is compressed data from another file in order to make its transfer faster or to allow for greater storage on a hard drive.

Purpose of Zip

Basically, Zip takes a file and uses a formula to convert all of the words and phrases (or code) in the file into smaller codes that use less characters.  Then, later when you "unzip" in translates those codes back into the original text.  There are other compression formats as well, such as RAR, ARJ, or ARC that work similarly. Zip seems to be the most popular by far, not only because it works well, but because it is in the public domain and free to use.

Zip files are not as important as they used to be.  Many formats already use compression, so zipping them does not do much more.  Compressing a text file may make it as little as 1/10th its former size.  But zipping a JPEG photo, which already uses compression, gets you almost no space savings.  Most people don't bother to zip files any more since they are usually small enough and the Internet fast enough that it would take more time to zip/unzip than it would simply to transfer the file as is.

Gmail and Zip

Google still likes the Zip format.  If you download multiple mail attachments at once, Gmail puts them into a Zip file.  If you want to avoid this, you can download the files one at a time.

Zip/Unzip Programs

For many years, you needed a special Zip program to zip and unzip files.  The original program made for this purpose was called PKZIP, using the initials of the creator of the Zip format: Phil Katz.  But many other programs have evolved to support Zip.  One of the most popular is WinZip, although I don't like that one, as it is shareware.  After 30 days you have to pay to continue using it.  I like a free program called 7-zip.  It has an easy to use interface, supports multiple compression formats and works well with all versions of Windows.  There are also dozens of other programs that do pretty much the same thing.

Unzip Without a Program

For the main function most people need, unzipping a zip file, you probably do not need a special program at all.  Microsoft long ago incorporated an unzip feature directly into Windows.  If you have a zip file on your computer, you just double click on it and it should open.  You can see all the files or folders stored in there.  You can click on any one of them to access it.

Extracting Zipped Files

There is an important caveat however.  When you are viewing the contents of a zip file, you can only open one file at a time.  If you click on a program that relies on other files within the zip file, it will not work.  For that, you will need to extract the files.  If you have double clicked on a zip file and see the contents, in Windows XP click on the tool bar and go to File, Extract All.  In Windows 7, you see "extract all" directly on the tool bar.  This opens an extraction wizard that will let you save all the files uncompressed to a folder of your choosing.

Times to Use a Zip Program

Zip files can also be password protected. If you get one like this, you may not be able to open it in Windows.  In that case, you will need a program like 7-zip to open it.  If you get a compressed file in a format other than Zip, it is likely that 7-zip will also support that format.  If, for some reason you wanted to Zip a file, you would also need the program.  Windows only supports unzipping.

No Relation to Zip Drives

In between the development of floppy disks and CD-R disks, there was a disk sold called a "zip disk," which stored about 100 MB of data on a disk.  They never became terribly popular since they were from a proprietary system that required special hardware to run.  They also had an unacceptably high failure rate Despite the similarity in name, they are of no relation to zip files.  . If you get a Zip disk from someone, we cannot help you with it unless you have a zip drive to open it, and that drive is able work with a modern version of Windows.

Internet Browsers

Internet Browsers

More and more of our work is being done on cloud based apps that are access via an Internet browsers.  Unlike software being loaded on your computer, cloud based apps run at some remote location.  The term "cloud" simply means you use the Internet to access your data or applications.

Typically, you need to use a browser to connect to the site.  A browser is simply a program on your computer that allows you to access other web sites through your internet connection.

Your Internet browser must be distinguished from your Windows browser.  When you click on "My Computer" in Windows XP, or simply "Computer" in Windows 7, you are in your Windows browser, where can view the various folders and files stored on your computer, or on the network server.  This is a different program from the Internet browser that is used to access web sites.  Microsoft blends the two so that you can often get to a web site simply by typing the address in the address bar Windows Explorer, although you will notice it must launch your default Internet browser to get you there.  In most instances, you can use an Internet Browser to access a local file on your computer or on the network.  For example, we do this with our Research Home Page, which is simply a series of files stored on a server in the main office.

Internet without Browsers

To make things even more confusing, many programs can also access the Internet without using a browser at all.  For example you may have a formula in a MS Excel spreadsheet that draws information from a web site without ever opening a browser.  If you have an offline email program such as MS Outlook, it gets your mail from the Internet without using a browser.  At home, you may have computer games that you play with other people over the Internet, without using a browser.  Access without a browser is actually the norm on phones and tablets.  Most of your apps there are using the Internet for any number of things without ever accessing your phone's browser.

Main Types of Browsers

Many years ago, Netscape was the standard and most popular browser.  But Microsoft was able to dominate the browser competition and become the standard by the mid-1990s.  Hopefully all of you are familiar with Microsoft's Internet Explorer.  It comes standard on all Windows computers.  We use it to access Webview for time entry.  Many of you also use it for most of your Internet browsing.

Netscape eventually evolved into an open source browser called Mozilla Firefox, which is still very popular. Apple has always supplied Safari on its computers.  Google has also gotten into the browser game with it's browser, called Chrome.  Chrome recently passed Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in use worldwide.  There are many other browsers as well, but these are the biggest four  in use today.

Why should I care which browser I use?

For many years, it mattered relatively little what browser you used.  Sure, some may have been a little faster or have a few extra features, but by and large, all of them could read the same web sites, that used the shared common language of the Internet, HTML.  More and more, however, that is changing.  While most web sites will still work on almost any browser, many more are being designed to work with specific browsers. Some sites may not work at all with some browsers, or have some functions that will not work properly.

For example, Elite does not allow you to access Webview with any browser other than Internet Explorer.  Similarly, many Gmail and Google Drive functions will not work properly unless you are accessing the site using Google Chrome browser.  Google has also recently discontinued support for Java, which had been used on many web sites, including some court sites.  For more on this, see my earlier post on the subject.  Therefore, you may need to use more than one browser for everything you need to do.

Microsoft has announced that it is retiring Internet Explorer later this year when it released Windows 10.  The new version of Windows uses a native browser currently called Spartan.  That name may change with the actual release.  It remains to be seen how Spartan works with the sites we use that require Internet Explorer.  We will begin testing once the final version is released.

Your Default Browser

You have the ability to set a default browsers on your computer.  Your default browser is the one that will open whenever you click on an Internet link.  Of course, if you already have a browser open and click on a link within the browser, you remain in that browser.  Typically, I like to set my default to Chrome, since we use that for Gmail.  But if you prefer something else, that is fine.  You can still open your non-default browsers from the icon on your computer.  If you want to change your default browser, you can do so in the settings for that browser.  If you have any trouble, the help desk can fix it for you.

Some web sites, not only restrict use to a particular browser, but want to use particular version of that browser.  For example, Webview will only work on Internet Explorer 6 and higher.  Also, when you get above version 8, you often need to set the site to "compatibility view" in order for it to work properly.  Compatibility view is a setting that can be changed from the toolbar within IE, in Tools, Compatibility view settings.

Customizing your Browser

The main thing people like to set is the default home page.  This is the page that opens every time you open your browser.  Typically, I set my Chrome browser to open to Gmail.  I set my Internet Explorer to open to the Research Home Page.  But you can set these to whatever you like.  You can even have your browser have multiple home pages, each one opening in a separate tab.  This is simply a matter of preference.  Just know that opening more home pages can slow down how fast your browsers opens when you start it.  If some other program changes your home page, we can always change it back.  Just call the help desk.

You also have the ability to customize your search engine.  When you type a phrase into the address box or search box at the top of your browser, it can search for your query using your default search engine.  I recommend using Google search, but Microsoft Bing is also pretty good.  Some program updates or malware can sometimes change your default search engine.  Often these change it to inferior search engines such as answers.com or Yahoo search.  Some malware can change the searches to blatantly terrible searches that simply direct you to advertising.  You should always be able to reset your default search engine in the browser settings.  Again, the help desk can assist you with this if you need it.

Some people also like to set up certain tool bars on their browsers.  This is fine if you want it.  But sometimes you get too many tool bars up there, which takes away from the space you have on your screen to view sites.  Some tool bars can also slow down your Internet experience or interfere with some web sites.  Typically, you can delete or disable tool bars in your settings.  Also, if you just need a little more space on your screen once in a while, you can hide everything by pressing the F11 key to go to full screen (and press it again to go back to normal).

Conclusion:

Browsers are critical to many things we do.  By default, we install Chrome and Internet Explorer on all computers.  You are welcome to install others such as Firefox if you wish.  If you choose to install other more oddball browsers, you should check with the IT Department to make sure there are no security or performance issues related to use.  We also allow customizations with the warning that some add-ons can impact your computer performance.  But if you come across things that could be useful to others, feel free to pass along your ideas to me so I can make them available to others.

Fax

I have been fighting fax machine problems the last few weeks.  It's really gotten me thinking about how we need to end faxing as we know it.

The fax is a rather old technology.  The basic technology was invented in 1843, even before the telephone.  It was able to send images across telegraph wires.  In 1964, Xerox began selling the first commercial fax machine that could work over the telephone.  It took time to catch on due to the high costs, but by 1980 faxes were becoming commonplace.

Consider that in 1980, few of us even had VCRs or CD players, let alone computers.  By technology standards, even the modern fax is ancient.  It transmits painfully slowly when compared to modern means of communication and mostly wastes paper.  There really is no good reason why we still use faxes today.

Today, most documents are already in electronic format.  Emailing them to someone is much faster, cheaper and more convenient.  Some insist that faxes are important because paper documents still need to be transmitted.  But there is no reason that on those few occasions, one cannot simply scan the document and email it that way.

Transmitting a fax takes minutes rather than seconds via email.  It often incurs long distance charges and often requires one or more dedicated phone lines.  There are additional equipment costs, compared with email which uses the same computer you use for everything else.  There are also confidentiality and more time lag issues since faxes are sent to a common location and then need to be distributed by hand.  Once received, an email attachment can by copied or redistributed easily by use of the forward function.  By contrast, a fax must be taken to a copier and redistributed by hand, or scanned into an image for further processing.

Faxes were great in their day, but that day is long passed.

That said, some of our clients still use faxes and we need to accommodate them.  Many years ago, I looked into some fax server options for the firm.  These involved giving everyone a separate fax line.  Incoming faxes could then be distributed automatically to the recipient via email or file transfer.  We rejected this option then because the machine itself would have cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, but we would also have to spend thousands more each month for the hundreds of fax lines needed for such a system.  Such an investment in a dying technology seemed foolish.

But because fax has lingered as a needed service.  I have begun looking at some other options.  One would be to get a single device located in our main office that could serve as the receiving point for faxes to any of our offices.  Rather than being printed, the faxes would be saved as PDF documents.  Someone at Reliable, or other designated staff, could sort through the faxes and email them as an attachment to the final recipient.

We would also have a desktop application that would allow you to send faxes as easily as printing a document.  Paper documents could be scanned as images and then sent through the fax application.

With such a system in place, we could do away with traditional fax machines entirely.

Finding Gmail

Losing an important email can be frustrating.  More often than not, an email is not gone, but cannot be found for some reason.  Today's post will explain a few Gmail tips on finding an email.

Search for it

Google is, of course, best known as a search company.  So searching your own email should be something they do well.  At the top of your screen, there is a search box for searching your mail.  Just type in a term and hit enter.  It should be that easy.  Clicking on the down arrow between the search field and magnifying glass brings up an advanced search field.

Search trash and spam separately

But what if search does not find what you are seeking?  For starters, search does not display results from your trash or spam folders.  If you want to search there, you need to specify that folder.  For example, if I wanted to find an email that contained the word "flower" I would run these searches for the following folders:

in:spam flower
in:trash flower

Incidentally, both the spam and the trash folders hold emails for 30 days and then delete them. So you should not use these folders to hold anything you want to access later.  It also means you don't need to worry about cleaning out these folders manually.  They are self-cleaning.  Cleaning out items manually only denies you that 30 day recovery period if you made a mistake.  Once removed completely, you cannot recover them.

Archived mail

Sometimes an email has been archived.  Archiving in Gmail means something very different than in our old system.  Previously, it meant the message would be moved offline to a separate database.  In Gmail, archiving simply means the message is retained but is not in the inbox or in any other folder you may have created.

There are times when an email gets archived by mistake.  Often, deleting an item on your phone causes it to be archived.  You can search for archived items in Gmail, or simply open "all mail" to view everything, including archived messages.  If you see a message with no labels on it, you can add a label to move it to one of your folders, or add the inbox label back to put it back in your inbox.  Or, you can choose to delete or make as spam.

Another quick aside: why mark something as spam rather than just delete?  If you mark an item as spam, Google will remember that choice and be more likely to mark future similar emails or emails from the same sender as spam.  This helps keep your inbox cleaner.  But if you want to see similar messages in the future, just delete them.  Don't mark as spam.

Narrowing your search

Say you run a search but get too many results.  You may want to use some more advanced search results.  You can limit by date.  You may also want to limit a name by field.  Say, for example,  you are looking for an important email that Mr. McKenna sent you .  If you simply type Mckenna into search, it will show every email on which he was copied, or even just mentioned.  But if you search for from:mmckenna@margolisedelstein.com you will only get messages sent from that address.

For other advanced search commands, check out this advanced search help page from Google.