Specialist Appt

VA Urology was able to get me in the very next day to see Dr. Timothy Bradford.  VA Urology sat me up with online registration so that I wouldn't have to waste a lot of time in the waiting room. 

I went through a similar process as with my GP.  There were samples, needles, and comments of "this could be nothing, this could be something."  I already knew the laundry list of potential causes. 

We ended the visit with a brief discussion that a CT scan was warranted. 

I sat with the scheduler, Nicole and made an appointment for the scan.  I only had to wait two days. 

Little did I know that Dr. Bradford and Nicole would become close colleagues of mine in the near future. 

Five Time-Saving Google Search Operators

You  might think that all Google searches are the same. Just type in the subject that you're looking for and click "Search." Here's the thing, though: all searches are not created equal. You can search smarter by taking advantage of Google's built-in search operators. Using these search operators will make your searches more accurate, bringing the most relevant information to the top so you don't have to waste time wading through results that do not meet your criteria. While the average Google search is usually pretty helpful, it's sort of like having a Swiss Army Knife but only using the little scissors. Sometimes searching with the little corkscrew will be of more help...I think I'm mixing my metaphors, so without further ado, here's my five favorite search operators: 

1) Quotes: This one is probably the most commonly used. If you want to find results that match your search terms exactly, simply place the words in quotation marks so that the entire phrase is treated as one search term, not a bunch of individual words. This is particularly useful when trying to find things like the name of the song based on a line or two of the lyrics or the author of a certain quote.

2) Minus: Sometimes you want to exclude a word from your search because the results are all off-topic. By placing a minus sign before the word or words you wish to exclude you are removing all pages that had those words from your results. For example, if you were interested in finding out more about the squirrels that live in Richmond, your first instinct might be to search [Richmond squirrels]. Pretty quickly you realize that all of the results are about the minor league baseball team. By searching [Richmond squirrels -flying -baseball], most of the results are actually about the pesky animals that live in your yard.

3) Asterisk: The wildcard operator is used by typing an asterisk in the place of a word that you either can't remember or are trying to find. Using this trick is basically like having Google fill in the blank for you. You might use this if you quickly want to find what some people's favorite movies are, as [* is my favorite movie] is much more to the point that [is my favorite movie]. You could also use the wildcard if you are trying to remember a word from a quote or a part of the title of a book.

4) Define: It isn't terribly difficult to use a dictionary online, but you could save yourself some time with this tip. Just type "define:" before the troublesome word and the first result that Google brings will be a definition, part of speech, and pronunciation with links to several dictionaries for more information.

5) Site: Sometimes you might read an article on a website and have trouble finding it later, or you just might want to see what a particular site had to say about some subject. Exploring the site to find it might take a long time, and searching the website's name along with the subject still might not give you what you're looking for. For instance, if you wanted to find what we've had to say about Google in the past you could search [google 127tech.com] which gives you a few results from this site, but most of the results are irrelevant, showing all instances where the words "Google" and "127TECH" appeared on the same page. Searching [google site:127tech.com] shows only results from this site, making it much easier to find what you were looking for.


Now that you know a few more search tips you can save time by not having to go through pages and pages of search results to find what you were looking for. Taking advantage of these built-in search operators can make you a master-Googler so that you can now impress your friends and family with how quickly you are able to come up with information from the web.

Not again!

I had no more "sangria" incidents after those two times that night.  I chalked this up to either the beet juice dye or vigorous exercise.  Who was I kidding?  It wasn't an Ironman Triathlon, but I really wanted to believe that I wasn't sick. 

It happened again.  Tuesday morning.  Crud.  I am slightly concerned.  Not a happy camper.  Fortunately I was able to get in to my Dr (thanks, Dr. Morgan!) pretty quickly. 

I explained to him what happened, and he had me pee in a cup (that's always fun!) and they drew some blood for testing.  The results from the urine sample showed some bacteria and blood. 

He recommended that I make an appointment right away at Virginia Urology.  "It could be nothing, or it could be something."  The last time someone in the medical profession told me to do something right away I was rushed to the hospital with appendicitis.  I should have known. 

My appt was the next day. 

WTF?

I was camping, an activity that I don't thoroughly enjoy to start with. 

At least we were with good friends and in a cabin. 

There was a great birthday dinner for a dear friend.  We had steak, wine, cupcakes, some board games.  We were all feeling a bit tired because we had spent the day outside and had walked the trails.  Actually, I even ran for a good amount of time since my dog, Noel, was feeling quite frisky and wanted to tear down the trails as only she could. 

It was only 10 o'clock, but since we were tired, we were all turning in one after one.  I cleaned up, brushed my teeth, and went to the bathroom.  I was unprepared and in complete shock to see my urine gush out with a sangria color. 

I didn't want to alarm anyone, but my mind was in freak out mode.  There are all sorts of analogies that I could make regarding this experience, but I'll just leave it that I have never seen anything like this and was unable to process this situation.  

Did I say that we were camping?  Did I mention that I was "off the grid" and had practically no cellular signal?  As a geek, that in and of itself was stressful enough, but now I really had some information that I needed to seek out!

I let my wife, Lissa, know what happened and I attempted to gracefully excuse myself to step outside.  If I help my phone at the right angle outside, I could get enough signal to start Googling and get some information.  After quite a bit of time, I had a small list of potential causes. 

• Kidney stones
• Infections of the urinary tract (UTIs) or genitals
• Blockage of the urinary tract, usually the urethra: by a stone, a tumor, a narrowing of the opening (stricture), or a compression from surrounding structures
• Cancer of the kidney, bladder, or prostate
• Kidney disease
• Blood-clotting disorders
• Injury to the upper or lower urinary tract, as in a car accident or a bad fall (especially falls onto your back)
• Medications: antibiotics (for example, rifampin [Rifadin]), analgesics such as aspirin, anticoagulants (blood thinners such as warfarin, [Coumadin]), phenytoin (Dilantin), quinine (Quinerva, Quinite, QM-260)
• Benign (noncancerous) enlargement of the prostate known as benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), a common condition in older men
• Chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and sickle cell anemia
• Viral infections
• Inflammation of the kidney, usually of unknown cause
• Strenuous exercise, especially running, results from repeated jarring of the bladder. In one study, 24% of runners who competed in an ultra-long-distance marathon had hematuria after the race. The hematuria disappeared within seven days. A 20% incidence has been found in marathon runners.
• Foods: beets, berries, and rhubarb in large amounts
• Food colorings

I was able to quickly eliminate a few from the list.  I needed to calm myself down and was very hopeful after reading the last three potential causes.  I had experienced strenuous exercise, more than I had in a long time.  I had also had a red velvet cupcake from a gourmet shop.  Lissa shared with me that they likely used a high concentration of beet juice dye to make the chocolate cake turn red. 

That was enough to allow me to sleep.  I was deathly afraid of needing to go to the bathroom again ...

50 is the new 7

Not too long ago, computers had hard drives of 80Gb or less.  My first computer that came with a hard drive installed had a whopping 400Mb of storage.  Storage was expensive and difficult to upgrade for the average user.  Lately, Cloud Storage has shifted people's thoughts from storing their data on their own PC to storing it "somewhere else."  Online Storage was originally expensive, slow and small, even in Gmail.  The first Gmail users had "virtually unlimited" storage within their email accounts of up to 1Gb that could be accessed anywhere.  It really wasn't meant to store your data, but it could do in a pinch.  Gmail slowly inched up to 7Gb and stayed there.  Many users figured out ways to use this storage for files, music and more.   

Today, 50 is the new 7.  Box.net announced last week that any iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) users that logged in to their account or created a new account in the 50 days starting October 12 would receive a free lifetime 50Gb account!  That is enough storage to hold a decent sized music library, or a heck of a lot of spreadsheets and word documents!  

Dropbox also gives 2 Gb of online storage for free and has a great interface allowing you to use it just like another drive on your computer.  You can gradually increase your free storage amount up to 16 Gb.  I use Dropbox for all of my important "current" work.  Anything that I need today or in the near future is stored there.  

But what about all of your music?  You have thousands upon thousands of songs.  How about Google Music?  It can store up to 20,000 songs which you can play form any device.  It automatically syncs your "My Music" folder with the cloud!  You can store your music here and your important documents in Google Docs!  

I just taught my daughter how to back up her homework in Google Docs last week.  There will be no excuse such as "my computer crashed" for not turning in her papers.  It also helps lower her stress level because she knows that her work is safe.  

Is there any better reason to kick the hard drive habit today?  Do you really need to use that thumb drive that you keep misplacing? 

Check these services out: 

Box.net

Dropbox

Google Music

Google Docs

Five Things To Do Before Calling Tech Support

"It was fine just a minute ago, and now I can't get it to work!"

        - Everyone

Anyone who has used a computer for longer than five minutes has run into some frustrating, unexpected problem that seems to have appeared out of nowhere. Sometimes it can be a serious problem, like a hardware malfunction, and sometimes it can be a tiny little glitch that can be easily fixed. It's definitely scary when the thought "Oh no, have I lost everything?" pops into your head, and that fear may cause you to pick up your phone and call tech support right away. While that's certainly a valid response, you have other options to consider before dialing tech support or calling the IT guy to your home or office (not that there's anything wrong with some of us IT guys!). Below are five easy things for you to do on your own before calling in for backup.

1) Is everything plugged in? This might sound ridiculous, but it's surprising how often this can be the root of your problems. If your keyboard or printer isn't responding, or maybe you cannot connect to the internet, check the connections on your computer or router. Maybe you nudged your computer to the side when you were vacuuming and a cable came loose, or maybe the cat pawed at a USB cable and jiggled it the wrong way. If it seems to be a problem with an external device (like a monitor, printer,  keyboard, router, etc.) try making sure everything is plugged in securely. Surely it will save you from some embarrassment if you end up calling someone over for help.

2) Have you tried turning it off and on again? This one is so common that it became a recurring gag on the British sitcom, The IT Crowd. For one reason or another, this often fixes many small issues, from not being able to connect to the internet, to programs not opening up properly, to computers that seem to hang while performing tasks that should not be very memory intensive. Giving the computer a fresh start will often clear up whatever issue there was, and should be done at least a couple of times a week anyway to keep your computer running at its best.

3) Check help contents: If you are experiencing a common issue with your software or are maybe accidentally using the wrong settings, it is quite possible that the Help menu will actually live up to its title. Most programs will have some kind of help contents which you can search using keywords that describe your problem. Searches for information like "saving a template" or "viewing previous contacts" could come up with the information you are looking for. Taking a few minutes to search within the program's help contents is a great way of finding solutions for simple issues.

4) Google it: I'll let you in on a little secret: this is how IT people solve most unfamiliar problems. Chances are you are not the first one to have this problem, and a quick Google search of the error message or a brief description of the problem along with the name of the program will often produce multiple results of other people with the same problem and solutions suggested by others. If you know how to search for your issue and how to pick out the useful results from the not useful ones, searching on Google for a few minutes and following someone's instructions will probably give you a solution to at least 90% of your problems.

5) Gather all appropriate information: If all else fails sometimes you have to call for help. To make the process as painless as possible (or as painless as listening to a 30 second clip of smooth jazz over and over again for 20 minutes can be) make sure you have all relevant information at your disposal. Write down the exact error message and any error codes it gives you, and give them the name of the program giving you the problem, your computer's operating system, and exactly what you were doing when the problem occurred. Having this information at your disposal will make tech support's job easier and will save time in coming up with a solution.


Now you are basically a pro at fixing your own computer problems, or at the very least you have a basic understanding of the process that the tech support or IT people typically go through when trying to help you out. Of course there are some more difficult problems that should be left to professionals, but for most minor issues you now have the knowledge needed to approach a problem on your own time and without having to pay anyone. Usually the first things that tech support will have you do is to check that everything is plugged in securly and to restart your computer. Now you can tell them that you have already done this, and you can move onto more advanced solutions. Hopefully you will not run into computer problems anytime soon, but if you do we hope you remember this quick guideline!

Five Tips For Making a Secure Password

A common issue that people in the IT field are constantly dealing with is how to keep information safe. Everyone wants their information to be secure, whether it's the documents on a computer or access to their online banking or Facebook accounts. One of the best ways to keep intruders away from your data is to create strong passwords. Unfortuanely, many people do not know what it takes to make a strong password, so their risk of being hacked is even greater. Here I'll outline five quick ways to improve the quality and effectiveness of your passwords.

1) Complexity is key: "Password" is not a good password. Neither is "12345." All of the experts recommend using long passwords (the longer the better) to increase your safety. It's also highly recommended (and sometimes it is required) to use a combination of different types of characters -- upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and punctuation. Complexity is added when using them in unexpected ways. For example, the password "Dan is 5 years old!" contains upper and lower-case letters, a number, and a symbol, but is much less secure than the password "dan()1S()5()y3ars()01d!" Passwords like this might be difficult to remember at first (and are certainly obnoxious to look at) but it will beat password-cracking software that scans through every word in the dictionary when breaking passwords.

2) Don't use personal, easy to guess, passwords: It's really touching that you want to use your kid's name or your anniversary as a password, but it's one of the first things that a hacker will guess. If you still really want to use it, punch it up with more numbers, symbols, or unrelated words. I might guess that your password is "rachel," but I probably would not guess "raCHEL1997tOYtRAINS."

3) Use keyboard patterns: Passwords don't always have to be very meaningful. "zxcft6yhn" might look like nonsense and is admittedly not very easy to remember off the top of your head, but if you look at how it's typed, you'll see that it's actually a pretty simple shape on your keyboard. Again, add capital letters and symbols (maybe hold shift while moving a certain way on the keyboard?) to make this seemingly random string of characters even more complex.

4) Don't use the same password for every site: Even if you have a good password it's possible that someone will crack it somehow. If you use one password for everything, they'll have access to your email, your bank, your Facebook, your work accounts, and everything else you thought was safe. This is why it is good practice to use multiple passwords.

Often, you specifically will not be the target for a hacker -- it's usually a computer program that will break one of your passwords and try to use it on other sites. Since it would be particularly hard to keep track of ten unique passwords, you can use one "base" password and just add an identifier for the site you are using. With our last example, instead of using "zxcft6yhn" for everything, you could use "zxcft6yhnGM@IL" for Gmail and "zxcft6yhnF@CEB00K" for Facebook. Most computer software will not be able to figure out the base/identifier system, and will give up after finding that your Facebook password will not log into any banks.

5) Change passwords often: This one can be hard to do just because of the effort required. Nobody likes coming up with new passwords and changing them on every site, but it really does help keep your information safer. If someone gets your password(s), there's no telling when they will strike. By changing it fairly often it's very possible that you can stay a step ahead of them. Ideally you should be changing your password every few months, but if you change it at all you'll probably be doing better than most people. Try to set reminders to change your passwords every once in a while...it's a pain, but it's worth it.


Hopefully now you have a better idea of how to make a strong password and how to maintain it. It's ok if you want to write down your passwords at first until you really memorize them, but remember to keep it in a secure location. (Please note that a Post-It on your monitor or a notecard under your keyboard is not a secure location. You might laugh but we see it all the time.) Want to know how secure your password is, or what you can do to make it better? Check out The Password Meter to see how you're doing. Good luck, and safe computing!