| Sam Young Newsletter |
Issue 63, June 2003
Hi guys,
Well, here we are with the hydro lakes now OK suddenly, and we can go back to normal. But perhaps there are some lessons to be learned from the power crisis. One of the main ones for me was that I could save money by very simple measures. If you are keen on staying focussed on power saving, apply some of the tips in Saving Power below.
Want to apply formatting that you have set up to other areas of your document or to new documents? Then Check out Copying Formats in Word.
Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.
| Saving Power |
With all that has been said about power saving in the media, there are lots of actions that you can take to save power that haven't been mentioned.
There is also a lot of mis-information out there. Fallacies that I can clear up for you;
- Switches will wear out. Yes, switches will wear out faster if you are turning things on & off all the time. However, they are usually relatively cheap to replace and won't wear out THAT much faster (usually good for a million operations). So you are hardly likely to notice a difference
- Turning the lights off will mean you will use more power (or will have to "fill up" the lines again). Power is just like water; voltage is present up to the light switch. When you turn the light on, the power is "on tap" and ready to go. Just think about the logic of this - where else would the electricity go to?
- You don't use much power in the lights. Stand-by hardly uses any power. Not much is still some. Why pay for it - and destine us all for power cuts - when you don't have to
- It is cheaper to leave your hot water tank on when you go away on holiday. Every time there is a temperature differential between the hot water tank and the outside air you will use energy to heat your tank up. If you are going away for the weekend, turn your hot water mains off. The power required to reheat a cylinder from cold is less than that required to keep it hot (NB - power companies often use ripple control. This means that you can only access hot water heating at night only)
So I thought I would share a few ideas with you;
Lights
- Turn all lights off when you leave a room, even if you are only intending to go out for a minute
- If you have natural light in the office, use it
- Turn off store display lights at night and unplug sales displays
- Incandescent bulbs - replace higher wattage bulbs with lower wattage
Machinery
- Unplug everything you can from the wall & leave as little as possible on stand-by. This includes your cellphone charger, your palm cradle and your printer
- Turn off your monitor every time you leave your desk (this will extend the life of your screen too)
- Shut down your PC AND turn off the monitor if you are going to a meeting
- If you have a two freezers, empty one and turn the other off
- Only run the dishwasher when its completely full
- Don't use the dryer - put the clothes on a clothes airer in the lounge with you at night if they don't dry during the day!
Water Savings
- Shower every second day or have a cold shower every second day. Put a timer in the bathroom and set it to three minutes for everyone
- Rinse dishes in cold water
- Set the washing machine for cold wash only and disconnect the hot water altogether
- Lag your hot water pipes and tank
- Turn the hot water temperature down a degree or two
- If you have solar power or a wet-back, turn the power to your hot water tank off
And, if we all start being less wasteful of energy, perhaps then next winter we won't be in the same squeeze as we were this year.
Here's hoping, anyway.
| Copying Formats in Word |
When Word intro-users discover all those formatting options, they tend to go overboard with the toys, creating their "perfect look".
Then, of course, they want to have the rest of their document looking the same, and perhaps have new documents looking the same as well.
To save the formatting, you are best to create a "Style". To do that:
- Highlight the paragraph. Click in the Style field on the Formatting toolbar (it usually has "Normal" showing in it), type your new Style's name, and press [Enter] to save the style
- To modify the format, highlight the paragraph, go to Format | Style, click modify, click the "Add to Template" box on the Modify Style box, then select the category you want to change or amend from the Format drop down list and amend the item. Click OK all the way back out.
Then there are three ways that you can apply your new style to document text;
- Highlight the text you want to change, then select your style name from the Formatting toolbar's Style list
- Highlight the text containing the formatting you want to copy, key Ctrl, Shift & C (to copy the formatting only, not the text itself). Highlight the text you want to format and key Ctrl, Shift & V (to paste formatting).
- Highlight the text containing the formatting you want to copy, click on the Format Painter tool, then click and drag to select the text you want to format.
Et Voilà. Formatting changed.
| Adding to the Language |
How much influence does advertising have on our lives?
Lots. The really funny part is when the phrasing of an ad is adopted into our speech and looses its association with the original brand or product that it was designed to promote.
Some examples that spring to mind are;
- The TV ad for Claytons from the late 70s that ran "The Drink you have when you are not having a drink". This is now spoken of in two ways: "He's got a Claytons one" or "the [X] you are having when you are not having an [X]"
- The TV ad for Jif liquid cleanser, also in the late 70s, with a big greasy plumber who cleaned up, after doing a domestic plumbing job, with Jif; and finished up with the by-line "No-mess Charlie, that's me!" I still hear people saying "I'm no-mess Charlie"
- The name "Woolworths" being synonymous with cheap and tiny; such as "having a Woolworths bladder" etc
- Hoovering & luxing as terms for vacuuming in the 50s & 60s. This resulted in the products themselves loosing their brand identity as they became generic terms
- Toyota's "Bugger" TV Ad of the 90s, making the use of "Bugger!" acceptable in daily usage
- The Duracell bunny who just keeps "going and going and going and going"
- Walkman was originally a Sony brand. Now a "Walkman" refers to any kind of mobile radio, cassette, CD or mini-disc. And it can be found in the dictionary.
I find it fascinating that language - and particularly English - is in such a state of constant flux and growth. New words and phrases are being created daily that will influence us long into the future.
And we need this constant injection of change. Without it, we cannot hope to keep pace with the our changing attitudes, workplace and technology.
| TLAs for SMEs |
Here are this newsletter's TLAs for you;
- EOM, End of Month! Often used to confuse, along with "End of Year"
Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.
| Short+Hot Keys... and now tips |
All the Function keys for you again, but this time we are shifting as well - all you can do with Ctrl in Internet Explorer;
- Select all items on the current Web page - CTRL & A
- Open the Organize Favorites dialog box - CTRL & B
- Copy the selected items to the Clipboard - CTRL & C
- Open multiple folders (in History or Favourites bars)" CTRL & click
- Add a link to your Favourites list - CTRL & D
- Open Search in Explorer bar - CTRL & E
- Find on this page - CTRL & F
- Open History in Explorer bar - CTRL & H
- Open Favourites in Explorer bar - CTRL & I
- Go to a new location - CTRL & L
- Open a new window - CTRL & N
- Go to a new location - CTRL & O
- Print the current page or active frame - CTRL & P
- Refresh the current Web page only if the time stamp for the Web version and your locally stored version are different - CTRL & R
- Save the current page - CTRL & S
- Move forward between frames - CTRL & TAB
- Insert the contents of the Clipboard at the selected location - CTRL & V
- Close the current window - CTRL & W
- Remove the selected items and copy them to the Clipboard - CTRL & X
- Add "www." to the beginning and ".com" to the end of the text typed in the Address bar - CTRL & ENTER
- When in the Address bar, move the cursor left to the next logical break (. or /) - CTRL & LEFT ARROW
- When in the Address bar, move the cursor right to the next logical break (. or /) - CTRL & RIGHT ARROW
- Refresh the current Web page, even if the time stamp for the Web version and your locally stored version are the same - CTRL & F5
- Move back between frames - SHIFT, CTRL & TAB
| Hot Linx |
Remember to keep working towards saving that 10% of power usage. For some extra information on what savings we have made, go to http://www.winterpower.org.nz/ and for information on how you can save, go to http://www.energywise.org.nz/
Want to get a blast of the past? Then check out this site http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/
Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here
