For the adventurous: Skype 4.0 Beta 2 for Windows

If you’re into trying out software that’s not quite ready for prime time, here’s an opportunity: Skype has released the second beta of Skype 4.0 (for Windows) for public consumption. 

Skype says that they’re not releasing the full feature set until the final release, but there are a few goodies to check out. The GUI has been completely revised, and integrates the contact list, chat screen, and SMS interface into one layout.  You can still go to a compact view if you’d prefer it taking up less screen real estate.

I’ve been playing with it for about a day, and so far, things are looking good.  No crashes, and audio calls are working fine.  I haven’t tested the video yet.

Malware Alert: Storm Worm & Facebook Email Spoof

This article was recently posted on vnunet.com by writer, Shaun Nichols. As many of us use Facebook, this seems worth passing on – be careful!

Office 2007 Compatibility Pack

If you are hanging on to your earlier version of Microsoft Office for a while longer, you may have noticed by now that Micro$oft has changed the native file format as of Office 2007 – and that you can’t open their files in your earlier version (even Office 2003).

Microsoft has provided a Compatibility Pack that will let you both import and export in the new Office format for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats .  You can download it here and get more information about the pack.

Skype for Windows Updated to Version 3.8

Not big news, but welcome news: Skype for Windows was updated to Version 3.8 on June 4, 2008.  You can download it here.

Skype says the big improvements this time around are major improvements to call quality – better sound, less drops and cutouts.

And, one of my major peeves has been addressed: Skype says that you can now switch headsets/mics/etc. without having to redo your audio settings.  Hooray for that! 

Added on 16 October 2008: After quite a lot of use of Skype 3.8, I have found it to be better – more stable with better audio quality.  However… Skype still haven’t quite gotten their act together on switching headsets.  If I unplug/replug my USB headset, Skype automatically switches it back to “Windows Default.” This wouldn’t be a big issue, except that my Windows default is my EMU 1820m audio system, not my USB headset!  Oh well…

Skype: Caller ID now works in the US for online numbers

Small things often make me happy – and today, something small did exactly that.

About six months ago, I got a Skype-In number.  I’d been using Skype for a while, and decided it would be helpful to have a number so folks with phones could call my computer, no matter where I was.

Since I already was a Skype Pro subscriber ($3/month for unlimited phone calls to the US or Canada, a no-brainer if you ask me), there was a deep discount.

Everything went through, and had my number.  I turned on the caller ID and started making calls… and my friends wouldn’t pick up the phone.  They screened me with their answering machines.  Hmmm… what’s going on?  Turns out that Caller ID for Skype-In numbers in the US was not fully functional (some sort of regulatory flap with the FCC sponsored by big-name VOIP providers).  So, I was showing up on caller IDs as “(000) 123-4567.”  Which, of course, looked like a problem.

This afternoon, as I was checking my voicemail expiration, I thought, “what the heck,” and turned on the caller ID option to see if anything had changed… and joy! joy! joy!  My Skype-In number now shows as a real phone number! 

I don’t know what happened… but I’m glad it’s working.

If you’d like to do this, go to your Skype Account details, and activate caller ID as illustrated below:

Graphic Design on a Budget

Photoshop Elements 6 is an unsung diamond of the value-priced graphical creation realm. Though it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of its older sibling, Photoshop CS3, there is a lot that you can do with Elements that does not easily meet the eye.

PowerPoint – convert .pps to .ppt

In the church, there are a lot of PowerPoint presentations — for worship, seminars, you name it.  Some times, we’ll create a PowerPoint Show (a .pps file) after creating our presentation.  The benefit is, a .pps file cannot be edited, and therefore it’s harder for you to accidentally trash your file with an unintended change at the last minute when you really need things to work correctly.

But, sometimes, you need to change a file.  For example, I recently received two .pps files that had some duplicated information between them.  What I wanted to do was combine the presentation into one, but remove the duplicated information. 

I found a very  helpful article at Jalaj that offers a simple, effective solution: simply change the file extension of the presentation file to .ppt.  This tells PowerPoint to open the file in an editable form, you can do what you need to, to edit/combine/delete material.

In case this sounds like geek (I mean, Greek) to you, here’s the way you do it (with an extra step to preserve your original files):

1. Open up Windows explorer, and navigate to the directory where you have stored the .pps files.
2. Right-click on the file name, and click on “copy,” click on an open area in the explorer window, right-click, and click “paste.”
3. Right click on the new file you’ve made, and select “rename.”
4. Change the filename extension (the three letters after the dot) to “ppt” (except for the quotes, of course).  Push enter, and you’re done.

You can now open the .ppt file in PowerPoint, and print, fold, spindle, or mutilate as you wish.  The conversion works in either direction — to make a .ppt into a .pps, just change the extension.

Happy tech-ing!

Expanding Your Reach with eNewsletters

If your church is like many, you have a monthly newsletter.  And, if your church is like many, you (or your staff, or your wife and family) spend a lot of time writing, printing, duplicating, folding, and posting your news letter.

If the idea of adding 25 people to your mailing list gives you hives — because of cost, time, or just the general frustration of adding “one more thing” to your busy day, consider using readily-available technologies to expand your reach without adding much time or effort to your process.

Specifically, why not produce a PDF version of your newsletter that is emailed out to readers?  I’m not saying that you should replace your paper newsletter, just expand your reach by using a secondary media.

CutePDF offers a freeware PDF writer that does a great job for basic PDF printing.  It’s free for personal, commercial, .gov or .edu use.  It produces files viewable with any standard PDF viewer package, like Adobe Reader or FoxitReader.

Install the app on your system and then use it as a standard printer. No fuss, no muss.  As for the rest, you’re limited only by the size of your address book… and whether you send out 5 or 500, the cost remains the same.

For more flexibility, and you’re on a budget, consider something like CutePDF Pro ($49.95), which lets you annotate, combine, overlay, and work with form functionality.