I predicted this 18 months ago....but today at a tech conference in China, Microsoft has announced that its new Windows 10 Operating System will be free to anyone using Windows 7 or later.  Previous articles mentioned that Windows 10 was floating the idea of a subscription service, but 18 months ago, Apple announced that they were doing away with the pay-for-operating-system structure, and Microsoft is wise to follow suit.  

 Last quarter Microsoft’s revenue from consumer licensing accounted for only 16 percent of the company revenue, down from 23 percent the previous year. With Apple and Google Chromebooks slowly eating into Microsoft’s market share, a non-paying customer is better than no customer at all.


As I mused earlier, the business world, for the most part, runs on Microsoft Office.  It's a smart move for Apple; it would be equally so for Microsoft. 

A while back, I sent out a survey to the community find out if there was interest in Hyattville for a few basic Computer courses, and here are the classes that got the most votes, along with their presentation schedules:

March 10 - Course 1:   MS Office Tips (Word, Excel, Powerpoint – the Big 3).  Most of these tips can also be applied to Google Docs or Open Office – Word, so don’t hesitate to join in this class if you don’t have Microsoft Office.  Other document options (Google or Apache's free version of Word, Powerpoint, Excel)

• Bring your laptop if you have one.   If you use Google Docs or MS Office 365 on a tablet, bring your tablet along. 
  

March 17 - Course 2: Storing information on "the Cloud", and Accessing your information from any device (home computer, tablet, phone)

• Bring your laptop, Tablet, or Smart Phone (or all 3 if you have a collection!)
  

March 24 - Course 3: Mobile Device Basics (smart phones, tablets, iPads)

• Bring your smart phone or tablet
  

March 31 - Course 4: Introduction to Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc): The importance of "owning" your own name on these platforms

• Bring your laptop
  

April 7 - Course 5: Overview of the variety of internet browsers (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari) and Safe Practices for using the Internet

• Bring your laptop
  

Each class will take place in the Hyattville Community Center Library at 6:00 pm. 
Course cost is $5.00 and Handouts will be provided. 
The library has open wi-fi that all are welcome to use for the training. 
What to bring:   You do not have to bring a computer along to attend.  If you have a desktop computer at home, you can still attend and receive the tip sheets, and try what you have learned at home.

Please RSVP if you plan on attending so that we know how many settings and printouts to provide.

It's a new year, and along with that come new resolutions.  One of them on your to-do list might involve determining if you could - or would - cut the cord to pay-for-cable TV.  This has been harder for some folks to do than others - namely, sports fans.  

Last week's CES (Consumer Electronics Show) illustrated that the cord-cutting tipping point is here. For those who have been unable or unwilling to cut the cord previously, largely due to sports channels and movie channels, a new service called Sling TV offers a collection of streaming channels - including sports - for $20 per month.  

I cut the cable cord two years ago, and for me, it has been relatively easy.  I watch lots of documentaries, I get my news online, and I love PBS programming.  That said, I've been able to find all the shows I love through a simple combination of Hulu and Netflix, with PBS online to round it it.  

If this is something you're considering, I say - go for it.  Often, depending on your market area, if there is competition, you'll see great promotions from cable providers to woo you back into the fold if it doesn't work out.  If it does, you might end up saving quite a bit of money.  

Slate magazine has created a great little cable-cutting calculator that allows you to populate your cable costs, internet costs, and what you might want in terms of online viewing choices.  The handy calculator tallies up the expenses and tells you at a glance exactly how much you might stand to save by cutting the cord! 

My mother passed away recently, and our family is still addressing issues with insurance companies and credit agencies.  I've learned a lot through that experience, and would like to share a few productivity tips with you.  

A few of the surprises that I've learned along the way were the suggestions to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles, so that they can "close" a driver's licence or identity account of the deceased, preventing identity theft. Another surprise was that some social media sites (Facebook and LinkedIn) required a copy of the Death Certificate to close accounts.  Update - Februrary 12, 2015:  Facebook will now allow you to identify a Legacy Contact in the event you wish for your Facebook posts to be memorialized, rather than deleted, after your death.)

Finally, I learned another valuable lesson on patience.  Many of these actions are started by surviving family, but can encounter delays depending on the agencies (and the number of them) that you are dealing with. Hopefully the information here will help during that time.  This information doesn't replace the wishes that your deceased loved one may have stipulated in a Will; but is intended as a guide for you to navigate through this time. 

• Encourage your parents to document a Passwords list.  You may be able to guess their password to Facebook, but do you know all of the websites that they've created accounts for?  Personally I use a password manager for my 150+ different log-in and password requirements.  It's safe to assume an elderly parent wouldn't have a robust social media presence, but it could become very frustrating to try to figure this out after a loved one passes.  
• There are an inexplicably huge number of phone calls to be made.  After the second or third automated menu and endless loop, you will be ready to choke someone.  Use the website www.gethuman.com to type in the company you're trying to reach, and you'll get a list of the best options to reach a real, living human being on the other end of the phone.  If that doesn't yield results, my second choice is messaging the company via Twitter.
• You'll probably be in shock for a while, or numb, or simply not able to perform at your best.  That's understandable.  That makes having a list to guide you through these new and sometimes unexpected actions very helpful.  

I've created an action list that our family used to divide up who could do what after my mother's death.  I'm posting it here in the hopes that it might help you or your family through difficult times. 

These items are in no particular order of priority, and are fairly generalized. They are meant as a tool to use, not a prescription for how to manage your situation. Each situation is different and may require different flavors of the actions listed below.  

Computer Items

1. Log in to computer: export Contacts and email the Contacts file to yourself or your family.
2. Archive documents and images to a shared cloud storage account for family to go through; don't delete things now.
3. Import contacts to your computer or account. There will likely be people that you'll want to notify of the death.  From your own email account, notify the deceased’s contacts about the passing and provide them with contact information for any future communication.
4. Work with the email address provider for the deceased to close the account.  If wary of closing the email account, set up a forwarding rule so that you receive all incoming email meant for the deceased, and have the deceased’s email account closed after a month or 45 days. This should be enough time to capture any unanticipated incoming email from persons or companies who were not aware of the death. 
5. Close social media accounts. Keep extra copies of the Death Certificate handy - Facebook requires one to close a loved one's account, for example, as does LinkedIn (although these rules are always in flux.  Be prepared anyway.)
6. Check digital camera for images to share or distribute.
7. Check cell phone for contacts to archive and share, or – if a smart phone – for images and other items to archive and share. 
8. If a smart phone, depending on the cell phone type, notify the iTunes store, Google Play, or Windows Store about the death and ask them to work with you to close the account(s) on any and all Apps that the deceased may have installed.  You’ll do a separate notification to the carrier (Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T for example) in the Financial notifications, below. 

Disbursement 

1. Gather items to be shared among family.  While family is around, especially when they have all come from a variety of locations, use this time to sort through and claim any desired clothing or other items not expressly stipulated in a Will.  It may feel grotesque to do this shortly after someone dies, but it could also be an effective way for the mourners to share memories of your loved one and to feel busy. 
2. Collect items to be donated.  
3. Donate eyeglasses and hearing aids to the Lions Club International.
4. Donate other items to area groups of interest. Was the deceased a painter? Perhaps an art gallery could use the extra supplies.  An avid reader with too many books to keep?  Consider donating them to a senior citizen’s center, community center, or small library.  

Documentation 

1. Obtain as many certified copies of the Death Certificate as you can get.  We needed about 20. 
2. Other documents you will want to ensure you have readily available: birth certificate, marriage certificate(s), any divorce certificates, any hard copies of life insurance policies.
3. For the survivor(s), list out bills and their frequency, the source for payment, schedule, and add to calendars to help automate some of the more routine things in their life for the time being. 

Financial 

1. Notify the three Credit Reporting Agencies of the death. You can request the account be changed to "Deceased - no additional credit inquiries allowed". There are a number of good online notification letter templates available. Send copy of death Certificate w/date of birth, address, and social security number, and marriage certificate to: 
   Experian: PO Box 9701, Allen, TX 75013
   Equifax: P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374
   TransUnion: P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19022
   A.  Send items registered, return receipt required. 
   B.  You should receive a confirmation letter from each along with a credit report on the affected Social Security Number. 
   C.  Verify the activities on the credit reports. In our case, one of the big three confused my Mother’s social security number with the next SS number in chronological order.  What resulted was called a “blended” or “mixed” credit report, and apparently this is not an uncommon issue!  
2. Notify all credit card accounts. You may need to provide copies of the Death Certificate for this purpose. 
3. Notify all Utilities - may need to have account name changed to that of surviving spouse, and this may require a certified copy of the Death Certificate. 
4. Notify all Financial institutions. Most accounts will go to surviving spouse as long as they are also named on the account; if no surviving spouse, then the beneficiary information provided to the bank by the deceased will come into play. 
5. Notify Social Security. There is a $250 death benefit that the surviving spouse must 'apply' for; may take up to four months to receive. 
6. For elderly spouse survivors, consider adding a trusted family member to remaining open accounts to help the survivor manage them going forward.  This may become a necessity if the deceased spouse managed the money throughout the marriage, or if the surviving spouse has any disabilities. 
7. Consider enrolling in online banking and auto bill pay for reasonable expenses and utilities for the surviving spouse. 

Other Notifications

1. Notify all Insurance companies (home, health, auto, recreational vehicles, etc)
2. Notify Medicare/Rx program
3. Notify / Update Deeds and Titles (this may not be necessary in states with Spousal Rights of Survivorship if deeds and titles are in both names). 
4. Send copy of death certificate to the County for vital statistics / ownership / spousal survivorship information, and removal from jury duty pool.
5. Notify DMV / Cancel Driver's License. This helps prevent identity theft.
6. Notify your tax preparer.
7. Notify and Cancel memberships AARP, Amazon, discount clubs, health clubs, etc.
8. Notify family attorney (you may need his or her help in filing life insurance claims, working with Social Security, working with tax or deed and title changes)
9. Notify volunteer organizations that they were involved with
10. ​Notify alumnae organizations
11. Thank You note writing can be shared by family after the services and reduce the burden of just one person doing them all. 

If the deceased is named in your Will, Power of Attorney, or other legal documentation, eventually you may wish to consider recreating or updating these legal documents.  In my family's case, my Mother was named as my Father's primary durable power of attorney, with me as the secondary.  4 months after my Mother's death, my Father had a series of strokes. In order to even obtain hospital updates (due to HIPAA requirements) I had to present the durable Power of Attorney along with a certified copy of my Mother's Death Certificate. We did arrange for an elder care attorney and revision of my Father's legal documents to allow more clear support from both my brother and myself. 
​
There you have it - most of the things that our family did to manage after my Mother's death.  Have we missed anything that you've experienced after the death of a spouse or parent? Please let us know! 

Who doesn't love free tools?  Once again, Microsoft is offering teachers and students alike the use of Office 365 for most up to date versions of Word, Excel, etc and a host of online collaboration tools.  For Free!  

Beginning today, teachers in the U.S. who are eligible to get Office from their school can sign up for Office 365 themselves using a school-provided email address at www.office.com/teachers. Students in the U.S. can check their eligibility at www.office.com/getoffice365.

This is a great opportunity for students to gain fluency with office and collaboration tools prior to entering the working world.

Have you seen the slow load icon on any of your favorite websites today? That is there to remind everyone what an internet without Net Neutrality would be like. 

Net Neutrality is the principle that assumes all internet traffic and data are treated equally - that is, NOT charging differently by user, content, site, platform, or application. Information and knowledge are power - restricting access to that is destructive.

Here is how to take action, and contact your representatives to urge Net Neutrality. 

Is your career stuck in a rut? Do you want to learn new skills, or perhaps pursue a different career path? Learn How To Become provides information on the steps to pursue a variety of careers. I wish something like this had been available when my only goal in High School was to earn good grades and participate in extracurricular activities that would look good on scholarship applications! My goal at the time was higher education....not so much the subject of that higher education. And, it's never too late to learn something new or of interest!

The website allows you to search through a variety of career paths to learn more about what those careers offer, and then provides a realistic learning plan to get you there.