Google SMS

If you send an SMS from your cell phone to 46645 ("googl") and Google will send you a prompt reply with an answer to all sorts of queries.

How to use Google SMS (http://www.google.com/sms/howtouse.html)

Want to start using Google SMS? Here's a quick introduction to how it works and how to get it.

Important tip: You can get Google SMS help information sent directly to your phone by sending the word 'help' as a text message to 46645.

• Business listings
• Residential listings
• Driving Directions
• Movie showtimes
• Weather conditions
• Stock Quotes
• Q&A
• Product prices
• Definitions
• More useful information
• Help

Business listings from Google Local

Google Local enables you to search the entire web for just the stores and businesses in a specific neighborhood. Get the name, address and phone number of a business near you or in any zip code across the US.

To get business listings:

Enter what you want to find. You can search for either a specific business (Pizza Hut) or a general service (pizza).

Make sure to include both a city and state, or a zip code with your search terms.

If you want to make sure you get Google Local results, put a period between the business name and the location ('pizza.10013' or 'pottery barn.boston ma')'.

Sample queries:

pizza 10013

pizza new york ny

pizza.10013

Pottery Barn 02116

Pottery Barn Boston MA

Pottery Barn.Boston MA

Driving Directions

You can use Google SMS to get detailed driving directions, including total number of steps, estimated distance and travel time. Just send your start and end address to 46645 ('GOOGL' on most phones), and we'll return step-by-step directions.

To get driving directions:

Send a query with your start and end addresses. Use 'from' before your start address and 'to' before your end address. Based on how much you know about your location and destination, you can combine any of these query types*:

Address + zip code

Address + city + state

City + state

City (for major metropolis)

Zip code

Airport code (e.g., EWR for Newark Liberty Airport, LAX for Los Angeles Airport)

Sample queries: pasadena ca to santa monica from 98112 to SEA to 1130 N State St Chicago il from 251 e huron 60611 *Note: No need to use the symbol '+' in your address; this just indicates what combinations you can use.

 

Movie Showtimes

You can use Google SMS to get showtimes for movies playing near you. Just send a text message query with the movie title followed by the zip or city and state and you'll get back showtimes by location and movie details like running time, MPA rating, movie genre, and critics' rating. To get movie showtimes, theater listings and movie details: If you're looking for showtimes of a movie that's currently playing, enter the movie's title followed by your location (a zip code or city and state). For a listing of theaters near you and the showtimes of their top movies, enter 'movie: theaters' or 'movie: showtimes' followed by your location. For a listing of movies playing near you and their theater location, enter 'movie: movies' or 'movie: films' followed by your location. For movie details such as running time, genre, MPA rating, and critics' rating, simply enter the movie title. Get Google Local results in addition to your movie showtimes when you type 'theaters' or 'films' followed by your location. Learn more about our movie showtimes feature.

 

Weather To get the latest weather conditions and four-day forecast for a particular U.S. location, just enter 'weather' followed by your location, zip or city and state. You can also get weather in your Google search results on your computer. Learn more.

Sample queries:

weather dallas tx

weather 75201

 

Calculator: Want to convert the temperature from 'Fahrenheit' into 'Celsius'? Try Google SMS' calculator feature. For example, enter '70 F in C' or '70 Fahrenheit in Celsius'.

Q&A

To get answers to questions that cover a broad assortment of topics, including authors, inventors, populations and more, just send your fact-based question or query as a text message to Google SMS. Google will scour the web to find answers to your question and include our information source so that you can learn more.

To get facts: Enter the fact-based question or query Sample queries:

india population

Mark Twain's real name

who wrote hamlet

 

Definitions Find definitions for a word or phrase on the Web: Enter 'define' followed by the word or phrase Or use the shortcut 'D' before the search terms Google SMS is not case sensitive, so 'D' and 'd' are the same Sample queries: define prosimian D Gordian knot d crepuscular

Print Options in Word

Source: http://www.woodyswatch.com/wowmm/

PRINT PREVIEW
Print Preview was once an essential part of Word because it was the only way to get an idea of how your document will look on the printed page.  It isn't as necessary these days because Word now has an editing view called Print Layout which gives the same result as well as letting you edit the document.

However Print Preview still has a place.  You can get broad and multi-page views that are not available in editing mode.  Sometimes the difference between Print Layout and Print Preview isn't obvious until you try to change text in Print Preview.

Depending on your version of Office there is also an option to 'Shrink to Fit' which will reduce the font size of a document to stop a few lines of text creeping onto another page.


TOOLS | OPTIONS | PRINT
Aside from the Print dialog there are more printing options in the Print section of the Options dialog.

In Word 2003 here are some of the options available (most are common with earlier versions of Office as well).

Draft Output

Some printers have a 'draft' or 'economy' mode that prints more quickly and with less toner.  This option in Office _may_ trigger that option on the printer however the results may not result in much saving in either time or money.

Why is this choice on the Options menu rather than the main Print dialog?  After all this is a 'one off' decision you'd normally make at printing time instead of the overall settings normally on the Options menu.  Good question - one of the mysteries of Microsoft design choices.

Update Fields

Any fields you have in your document will be updated immediately before printing.  This can be useful but can also be bad.

For example if you use the {DATE } field to set the date at the top of a letter.  If you and reprint that letter at a later date you'll want the date of the original letter - not the current date.  Setting this option OFF would prevent that happening.

But, if you have a document that is always current at printing time - for example a receipt for an immediate purchase then you'd want this option ON.

There are other field options to cover these types of situations that go well beyond the scope of a single issue of Office for Mere Mortals ...

Update Links

If you import dynamic information from other documents using the {IncludeText } field for example, the document being printed will be refreshed from the linked sources at print time.

Allow A4/Letter paper resizing

We covered this in the last issue of Office for Mere Mortals.  This option lets you print out A4 or Letter sized documents to the other paper size without reformatting the document itself.

Background Printing

Normally Office does the printing job in the background, letting you get on with other work while it does all the pre-processing and communicating with the printer.  Usually all this happens without any interference with your use of the computer but if you do have problems you can de-select this option.

Print Postscript over text

It is possible to send printer codes and commands directly to the printer using the {PRINT} field.  Most commonly this happens with Word for Macintosh documents and even then pretty rarely.

Reverse Print Order

Instead of printing page one first, the last page comes out first.

INCLUDE WITH DOCUMENT
All these choices let you show things that you normally would not want printed but can be useful especially if you're trying to troubleshoot a document.

Document Summaries

The same summary info that's on the File | Properties | Summary tab.

Field Codes

A troubleshooting option for the most part (though you could use it in writing training documents about field codes themselves).

XML tags

Lets you see the tags applied from a schema - only available in those versions of Word 2003 that support XML features.

Hidden Text

Text in a document can be formatted as 'hidden' and would not normally appear in a printed document.  With this option on hidden text will appear along with everything else.

Drawing Objects

Normally this option is ON, but if you're printing a draft you could speed up the process by de-selecting this option and having blank boxes appear instead.

Background color and images

If you have a document intended for screen display it may have background colors unnecessary in the print version.

OPTIONS FOR THE CURRENT DOCUMENT

Print data only for forms

You might only want to print the entered data from an Word document as a form.

Default tray

This lets you choose an alternative paper tray for a particular document. Useful if the document needs special paper.

Oxyride Batteries

New Batteries: Twice the Life
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,119723,00.asp

New technology leaves traditional alkalines in the dust.

Rex Farrance
From the April 2005 issue of PC World magazine

Move over, alkalines: In PC World tests, new Panasonic Oxyride disposable batteries delivered more than twice the performance of high-end alkalines for the same price.

That's welcome news given the proliferation of high-drain battery-powered devices these days, such as digital cameras, MP3 players, and portable game consoles. AA and AAA rechargeables are still the most cost-effective way to power many such devices, but lots of people use disposables anyway, perhaps because they forget to charge the batteries they own or because they never buy rechargeables in the first place.

Power Well
Advertisement

Using a Canon PowerShot A400 digital camera, we compared the new Oxyride AAs ($4 for four) with Duracell Ultra alkalines (also $4 for four) and with 1800-mAh Rayovac nickel metal hydride rechargeables (about $12 per four without charger). Panasonic says that its new cells last up to twice as long as alkalines, but in our tests the Oxyrides exceeded those claims and nearly matched our NiMH rechargeables. After loading the camera with each type of battery, we took an even mix of flash and nonflash shots. The Oxyrides powered 290 shots, compared with just 131 for the Duracells. And the Oxyrides completed only 10 fewer shots than the NiMH cells did.

Panasonic says it uses a patented process and a combination of new and improved electrolytes to manufacture the new AA and AAA cells. After eight years in development, they finally reached store shelves in Japan last year.

Upshot

Oxyrides face some competition in the disposable arena from long-lived AA and AAA lithium disposable batteries, which makers say last about five times longer than alkaline batteries. But these batteries also cost about three times as much as alkalines. Given their relatively low price and their sizable power boost, Oxyrides should hold greater appeal for many battery buyers. There's one slight catch: At least for now, you can get the batteries only from Panasonic; the company has no plans at present to license its technology to others.
-- Rex Farrance

Test Report: Better Fuel for Power-Hungry Devices

In PC World tests, Panasonic's new Oxyride disposable batteries proved they can keep your favorite portables going significantly longer than top-of-the-line alkaline batteries.

Creating Panoramic Photos

http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/1807

From Lifehacker.com:

Photographer Todd Ogasawara covers how to create a panoramic photo with a regular ol' digital camera and photo-stitching software.

He uses a camera phone in his example but this works with any type of camera. Take multiple photos covering a scene (I'd recommend a tripod for this, too) and merge them together using photo-stitching software like PhotoStich or ImageAssembler. Fun!

I've used (and would recommend) the not-free PhotoStitch which came with my Canon. But do you have a favorite photo-stitching software application? Tell me about it - tips at lifehacker.com. The free-er, the better.

Get the Big Picture with a Little Camera Phone [O'Reilly]

Gadget Gifts II

Tape Measure Kitchen Timer

A nifty kitchen gadget, and a cool kinetic sculpture. Pull the ring to set the time. The tape counts minutes, not inches, as it slowly retreats into the aluminum cube, sounding a bell when the time?s up. Because it?s vertical, you can see it from across the room and know about how much time is left. Created by industrial designer Jozeph Forakis, a native New Yorker based in Milan. 60 minutes. 4" cube.

$14.95
http://www.signals.com/signals/Themes_300/Education_3AG/Item_Tape-Measure-Kitchen-Timer_HB1342_ps_cti-3AG.html

Glow Brick Night Light

The ?glow brick? is a light bulb set in a clear solid brick. Simply set the bulb near sunlight and it?ll soak up whatever juice it needs to make a decent night light once darkness takes over. Only $45 and available now (including shipping, no less!), this might be just the thing you need to add to your quirky light-toys collection.

$45
Catalog Page [Gnr8 via Engadget]

Underwater Fish Tank

The Underwater Tank is an aquarium with a reverse periscope, allowing you to peer into the hearts and souls of your fish, with a feeder positioned right near the scope?s lens, letting you watch them eat. The periscope lets you inspect your fish at their own level, and a fish feeder has been positioned right by the scope?s lens, so you can watch your fish feed. Use slow gentle movements so you don?t create turbulence in the water and disturb or frighten your fish.

$49
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/UNDTAN.htm