Ctrl-Alt-What?

Not all of you have the privilege that I enjoy of essentially having a capable Help Desk technician in your home. Jason can be quite handy. When he walks through the living room and sees me sitting there with my brows furrowed, biting my lip he'll ask,
"Whatcha doing?"
"Realizing I have to re-size all 100 wedding photos to get them uploaded to this electronic photo frame I want to display at our wedding dinner. It's going to take forever."
"You can have Photoshop do that automatically you know."
"I can?" [Eyebrows lifting, ray of sunshine falling on my face.]

This David Pogue NYT column has many of the tips and tricks I've learned along the way, either from Jason, or from befriending my company's IT guy.

(If I were offering career lessons to new college grads I'd say that there are 2-3 people that it is VERY IMPORTANT to be out-of-your way friendly to in the office: the receptionist, the office manager, and the IT guy. The office manager will make sure you get the better office chair, the better cubicle when it opens up and usually is the first to know the gossip of someone coming or going. Same for receptionist, and she won't mind if you get your personal packages delivered. But the IT guy, if he likes you, will tell you about the cool toggle keys, and much of the stuff of this column.)

I'd also add that if you're trying to figure out how to do something, whether it be in Powerpoint, photoshop, or there's just a problem with your iPod or Tivo, it's much easier to Google your problem rather then read the official instructions. Google gives you access to the more popular, multiple, phrasings of your problem, whereas the manufacture won't be of much help if you don't even know the right term for that Tivo button with the arrow and the line.

Jason is still wondering what I bring to the marriage. ;)

(Rings from Etsy.)