Newsletter Archives

• Woody Leonhard – A new life in paradise

  Posted on March 15, 2021 at 01:08 CDT by Chris Husted • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.10 • 2021-03-15

  PROFILES

  

  By Chris Husted

  Is he having fun yet?

  Late last year, after 28 years of publishing everything everyone needed to know about Windows, esteemed AskWoody founder Woody Leonhard retired. He disappeared from our screens, but never drifted far from our thoughts. That voice we had grown accustomed to, calling out Windows for its shortfalls – sometimes with a roar, sometimes a grumble, but never a whimper – had gone.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.10.0 (2021-03-15).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.10.F (2021-03-15).

  AskWoody, AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter AskWoody Plus Newsletter

• Temporarily putting the site in maintenance mode

  Posted on February 28, 2021 at 11:37 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  We’re working on the missing replies issue.

  Hang loose.

  The site is a bit bumpy right now as the indexing is going on in the background so again your patience is appreciated.  

  Shhh I think we’re somewhat back to normal.

  AskWoody

• Try to fix one thing, break another

  Posted on February 24, 2021 at 20:33 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Long story short we were trying to fix an issue with a duplicating post and ended up causing issues with the replies. You may not see any replies, or you’ll see some of them. <sigh> It’s an indexing issue.

  We have someone looking at it overnight (pacific time) so bear with us.

  As always thank you for your understanding.

  Update, just to assure everyone your posts are all still here it’s just an issue with the indexing which then causes the view to not be correct especially if you are an anonymous viewer. We’ve tested the solution and are just coordinating a time for when the fix will be done on the live site.  (Probably Saturday as that’s when the bbpress expert has time set aside).  At that time we’ll put the site in maintenance mode so you can’t post to it.

  Update II:  Indexing fix is scheduled for Sunday morning Pacific time.  Once again thank you for your patience.

  Once again thank you for your understanding and patience.

  AskWoody Patch Lady Posts

• Changes to policies

  Posted on February 21, 2021 at 12:05 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  “We are trying to build a gentler, kinder society, and if we all pitch in just a little bit, we are going to get there.”

  Alex Trebek said that in his final episode and it’s encouraged me to ask everyone here to make a slight change in the Lounge/Forum.

  I wanted to update you on a slight change in the policies on the venue.

  Posts and Privacy

  I’ve made a change to item number 3:

  3.  No politics and religion.

  So why are we changing this policy?  As a person in business for many years, the topics of politics and religion have been always considered to be something personal and not suited to be discussed on a site intended to be more technical than social.  Because these topics tend to cause topic drift I feel that at least for the foreseeable future I would prefer that this is a “free zone” where we all can come together and know that these topics won’t be causing a lack of civility.

  Sometimes we will have articles that deal with real-life issues that affect us all, such as the intersection of law and technology. Such topics can easily slip into a political discussion but we ask that your commentary remains polite, respectful, unbiased, and factual.  That sort of commentary is to be encouraged

  Anyone violating the terms of the Posts and Privacy rules will be dealt with accordingly.

  I want to thank everyone participating on the site for encouraging, embracing and enhancing our educational and technical topics on this site.  Rants (complaints) forum about technology will still allow you to complain about technology.  However I will suggest that taking a hammer to your old hard drive not only to ensure that it’s properly destroyed for security purposes, will also make you feel better than ranting.  Seriously, I can confirm this after many years working with computers.  The Fun Stuff venues are still available for your use to also relax after dealing with annoying technology.

  Also be aware in regards to 8. Before posting a link or question, search the site first

  There are two new boxes on the side of the site. One searches the postings on the site. I called it searching the “newsletters” as it will let you search for past newsletter stubs as well as the blog posts.  I’m going to be working on getting a more advanced search that will allow you to target *just* the posts or *just* the newsletters, but this is a short term workaround that I hope you’ll accept until I get a long term solution in place. The second search box allows you to search the forums/lounge. Because the site is in reality three parts – the “blog posts”, the newsletter posts and the forum/lounge we have to have multiple search tools. I’m hoping long term to get a unified search but again, hopefully this is a good compromise for now?

  Thank you to everyone and thank you all for your expertise and sharing of information.

  AskWoody Patch Lady Posts

• Can you check your user name?

  Posted on February 19, 2021 at 20:33 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Can you do me a huge favor? For those of you that frequent the forums, I need you to make sure that your user profile name is not your email address. If it is, email me at sb@askwoody.com and I’l change it for you.

  To check it easiest way is to hover over your name in upper right.  If you see your name or a word, then you are set.  If you see your email address up there, we need to get it changed.

  I think everyone that actively comes here have been fixed, but if you would be so kind to double check?  If you DO see an email address up there, remember to send me an email and we’ll get you fixed up.  This is to ensure that your email address is protected better from anyone trying to harvest info from the site.

  P.S. Another way to check is to go here and see what the Username field has.

  AskWoody Patch Lady Posts

• Giving you the choice

  Posted on January 17, 2021 at 12:26 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  I’m trying a test to see if I can get a better feel for bots and spammers on the site and where they come from.  When you come to the site you’ll notice a new box at the bottom about google analytics.  Note that you can click on that box to opt out.  Also know that if you log in to the site the tracking is disabled as well.

  Let me know if this impacts any anti tracking plug ins you use?

  (edit – I moved it to the top to make it easier to see)

   

  AskWoody Patch Lady Posts

• What do you want?

  Posted on January 11, 2021 at 00:50 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums
  

  CHANGE

  What do you want?

  Nice to meet you, how do you do?

  Thank you. To the over 4,000 AskWoody newsletter readers who answered our first-ever survey, thank you for taking the time to let us know what you want and don’t want. We were surprised and enormously grateful for the tremendous response.

  The survey is now closed, giving me the opportunity to share some of the results with you.

  Your use of Microsoft operating systems is in line with what the larger Microsoft ecosystem is using. In the larger Microsoft population, nearly 90% are using Windows 10. So, too, are AskWoody readers (91 percent are using Windows 10). The AskWoody readership represents a slightly greater number of users of Windows 7 (12.9 percent) versus the larger population (8.5 percent). Windows 8/8.1 users are in the distinct minority with approximately 3 percent in both the larger Microsoft user base and the AskWoody readership.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.1.0 (2021-01-11).

  AskWoody, AskWoody Plus Newsletter AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Masthead changes, Readership survey

• Time to adapt while acknowledging the past

  Posted on January 11, 2021 at 00:40 CST by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  CONTINUITY

  Time to adapt while acknowledging the past

  By Will Fastie, Editor

  I’m excited. I’m flattered. I’m honored.

  I have been a subscriber to this newsletter since the beginning, 18 years ago. Last fall I contributed a few articles, then was flattered to be considered for this post. I was honored when I was chosen and am excited to get going. This newsletter has always been a great resource and both Susan and I are committed to making it even better.

  As a long-time subscriber, I deeply understand the importance of continuity. I surely would not
  have read the newsletter for so long without its steady pace and dependable content. That is a past we must acknowledge; the incredible response to our survey makes that plain. Every minute of our planning has respected our loyal audience. You will not be abandoned.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.1.0 (2021-01-11).

  AskWoody, AskWoody Plus Newsletter AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Masthead changes

• Minor Lounge Button Tweaks

  Posted on January 5, 2021 at 01:15 CST by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  A long time ago when the Lounge was new, our wish list included having the Lounge posts with Reply, Thanks and Quote buttons in the header row of each post, and the Report button at the bottom. In the meantime, we have all got used to how we were forced to have it.

  Well, we now have the tools to make those wanted changes, which have just been activated.

  We are aware that some of us will be in the habit of the old button locations, and that this may be a bigger issue for those with sight impairments of varying degrees.

  We hope this change is found to be usable, and not too disorientating, in the short-term.

   
  UPDATE:
  The feedback received has been firmly on the idea that the header buttons should be in the footer, and vice versa. So we’re going to give this a try – Reply, Thanks and Quote in the Footer, with Report in the Header.
  Keep that feedback coming, please!

  AskWoody AskWoody Lounge

• Still working through the issues

  Posted on December 24, 2020 at 10:58 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  We’ve moved to a new IP at 167.71.243.126

  Again I ask that you be patient as we deal with the migration issues (and post migration issues)

   

  AskWoody Patch Lady Posts

• Bear with us again

  Posted on December 23, 2020 at 13:12 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  We’re going to resize the server a bit to let the forums have a bit more “zing”.  So things will be bumpy for about 10 minutes.  Hang loose I’ll let you know when it’s over.

  AskWoody Patch Lady Posts

• Site migrated

  Posted on December 22, 2020 at 13:31 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  At least where I’m at I’m on the new IP.  We’re now moved over to the new IP address.  Kick the tires, let me know if everything appears to be working okay?

  AskWoody Patch Lady Posts
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