Closed For Remodeling : Be Back Soon!

I have decided that I am gonna “remodel” this blog. It just isn’t what I want it to be. It’s on the right track, but not quite there yet. This will take at least a few days, probably a week or more to do to my satisfaction and yours. The look won’t so much change (I think) as will the presenation and “feel” of the place. Simply put, I ain’t happy with it. I did this thing on a whim, basically overnight, and it shows. That’s not the way I roll. Please bear with me as I undergo this process. I want to be comfortable with the blog, but more importantly, I want YOU to be more comfortable with it and feel like you can come here and get answer to a specific question or discover something that will be useful to you. Feel free to leave a comment with a suggestion or topic for further use as I’ll be checking in for that every day. Thanks a load for participating up to this point and I’ll see you soon!

Toby

Avoid Disaster and Heartache : Backup Your PC!

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)

For those of you who have never experienced the ,er, uh, <cough> joys of the Blue Screen of Death, take it from someone who has (within the last year), it ain’t no fun. However, the ol’ BSOD doesn’t pack nearly the anxiety factor if you have a backup of your hard drive. Your hard drive is where all the information on your PC is stored. A messed up hard drive means you can lose everything - files, music, bank account info and photographs that are one of a kind.  For newer computer users, this is a subject that doesn’t rank high on the list of “Things That Will Go Wrong Tomorrow”. What, with the excitement of having a shiny new computer and the whole world wide web just waiting to be conquered, one “www dot” at a time. I learned my lesson about hard drive backups about a year ago. Thankfully, about a week or so before I saw the BSOD, I had a backup of my HDD (hard drive) made. I was lucky. My PC was over six years old and I had NEVER had a problem with it, then BOOM ! Moral to the story : BACK UP YOUR HARD DRIVE ! OFTEN ! Windows comes with a backup program as a part of your XP/VISTA/7 Operating System. It’s a decent application as it does what it’s supposed to do, but I have one small problem with it. It backs your HDD to a separate partition on the hard drive installed on your computer. 99% of the time this is not an issue, but I tend to be overly cautious about doing a regular backup because I have several thousand pieces of music and several thousand more photos that I do not want to lose, so I use an external hard drive ( a separate portable HDD ) for all my backups. I do it once or twice a week, therefore the chances of losing all my data are remote. If my laptop were to crash and I lost all my stuff, I simply plug in the Toshiba (1TB) External HDD and click a few buttons and PRESTO!, I am back in business. External hard drives are very affordable (my Toshiba 1 terabyte cost me less than $100) at online retailers like newegg.com or tigerdirect.com, both very reputable companies. Considering the consequences of not backing up your computer, spending an hour a week doing it will one day pay off. Trust me on this one. Later, we’ll explore some Free backup software to keep you prepared for the inevitable computer crash and the dreaded Blue Screen of Death.

Got a Cell Phone? Mopay May Be for You

Cell phones today are being used for many things other than just making phone calls, like web browsing, sending email and pictures, posting to the internet, online purchases…wait!…online purchases? Yes, online purchases on your cell phone. The folks at Mopay.com offer this service to cell phone users in over 75 countries and as of recently, also offer Mopay for your landline. This is a particularly good idea for those without credit cards or those who are uneasy posting credit card info on the web. Make Use Of has more on Mopay. From what I can tell, Mopay seems to be a pretty good idea and fairly hassle-free. Read the info at the links above and give your opinion in the comments !

For New Bloggers : Adding Links to a Post

• My wife recently started a new blog, and she has plenty of questions as this is her first-ever attempt at blogging. I just started blogging about six weeks ago, so I, too, have lots to learn. Heather (my wife) wanted to know how to add links to the body of her posts that look like actual words instead of stuff like this: ” http://gobbledygook.com/ef#saassapincv’”. It’s really very easy, so let’s see how to do it in Blogger and WordPress. So, Heather, here we go…

• Blogger – On the “new post” page, you’ll see a toolbar with all sorts of symbols on it. Look for the “Link” button and click on it and a little box will pop up. Where it says “Text to display” type in the words as you want them to appear in your post. Next, put in the URL (website address) in the “To What URL…” box. then click OK. You are done.

• WordPress – To add a link in WordPress blogs it’s basically the same , with a couple of minor differences. When you get to a point in your post where you want to insert a link, go ahead and type in the words that will act as your link and highlight them as if your were going to copy and paste (but don’t C & P). On the toolbar (the thing with all the little symbols on it), click on the symbol that looks a piece of chain (the link of the chain) and you’ll get a pop up box. Simply add the URL (website address) in the text area of the box that reads “Link URL”, hit “Insert” and, voila!, you have a link!

See? Easy as can be. Follow these instructions and within a few seconds you’ll be a Link King/Queen and your blog readers will have instant access to the information in each link. Good luck ! The comments, as always, are a great place to share bwhat you’ve learned or to learn something new. Let us know what’s on your mind.

Takin’ the Weekend Off

Fish.Fear.Me. And the Eagle Ain't Bad Either

I am gonna take the weekend off from blogging to spend some time with my family. Take a look at the archives because there’s some good stuff in there. If you have a topic that I haven’t covered yet (and there are many), please leave a suggestion in the comments. Be safe and have a great weekend! Gawn fishin’.

Toby

Searching The Web : More to it Than You Think

Searching the web is easy, right? Right. Getting the best results from your search is easy, right? Ri——, Not so fast. Nine times out of ten when you use a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing, you’ll get something that satisfies you. But what if you don’t find what your looking for or if you don’t find enough of what you’re looking for? Enter Deep Web Search Engines. DWSE’s do exactly what you’d expect. They go to places in the web that ordinary search engines can’t, places where most of the information on the internet actually is. Even using an ordinary SE like Google can be improved upon. Did you know that just adding “+” or ” quotation marks” with your search terms can bring you better results? Yup, it can. Don’t let some the techno-terminology you read make you skittish, they’re just nickel words meaning simple things. This page has a guide for beginners that could very useful to even the more experienced web searcher. Click through the links on the page and be amazed at what you didn’t know. I consider my self an intermediate computer user and I discovered a boatload of tips and tricks. Give it a whirl, then head to the comments and tell the world what you learned that surprised you.

Downloads to Star Gaze By

The Night Sky

As the sun sets here on the East Coast, I was just thinking about the nighttime sky and its billions of points of light. The Big Dipper is easy to spot, but what about Venus? Or the constellation Orion? Immediately two applications for star gazing come to mind. I have used them both, so I can say that either is a good thing to have on your computer. Let’s take a look at them.

• Stellarium – The default star catalogue in Stellarium has over 600,000 stars in it. It has too many cool features to write about here, so look here to get the skinny. Stellarium is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Nice program.
• WorldWide Telescope – WWT is Microsoft’s offering for the amateur astronomer in you. Very nice application and it’s easy to use. You can take a tour of  WWT and see what you think. WorldWide Telescope is compatible with Windows and there’s Web Client link for Mac.

Be sure to check the system requirements for Stellarium and WWT in order to make sure your computer has all the right stuff to run them. In my opinion, either one is a keeper and just like the stars they show you, both programs are FREE !

Windows Live Essentials

Microsoft is a huge company that, as a consumer, you expect great things of and are often disappointed with what they offer. Take Windows Vista, for example. I used to work for a large electronics retailer and almost every day before Windows 7 was released to the public, I had at least one customer a day that had a complaint about Vista, and rightly so at the time. Here’s the skinny: Microsoft promoted Vista like it was the Second Coming and, at first, it turned out to be a dud. It simply wasn’t ready for the retail market. If Microsoft had waited another few months to release Vista (when it was actually, you know, ready for the everyday consumer), they would not have had a two year PR disaster. Fortunately for Bill Gates and Friends, Windows 7, which is what Vista should have been, is exactly what they said it would be and then some. It seems like the boys in Redmond, WA are on a roll. After the very successful launch of Win7 in October, 2009, along comes Windows Live Essentials. This package of applications is something that every Vista and Win7 user should look into. It contains Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and more. I shall let the folks at the Microsoft Website fill you in the details and system requirements. I think you’ll find most, if not all, of these programs useful, especially Movie Maker. Explore and have fun !

(Hat tip : Doreen Bob)

At Work and Want to Waste Time? Read This!

Original Time Waster

I am on Facebook enough to know that some of you have too much time on your hands at work. Just sayin’ I am now retired, so I have more than enough time on my hands to look for ways to waste time while I have too much time on my hands. So, with too much time on my hands (enough already!), I found these excellent ways to look busy without actually being busy! Your boss will offer you a raise for your diligence at doing your job when you are actually killin’ time! You’ll thank me later. What better way to goof off at work “do research” at work than to watch your favorite TV shows? The place to do that is Hulu. While at work, I know many of you would like nothing better than to be on the links. But! You’re at work and you can’t get away, right? Wrong! Play virtual golf in 3-D right from your work desk! Damn, I’m good! Some of you are pretty funny guys. Why not write punchlines for Dilbert comic strips?!! I can think of a million ways to avoid working while on the job and most of them are legal and none of them violate your wedding vows, but I am going to stick to the fourteen I found while using my Google-Fu. By the way, I will not be responsible for any reprimands, demotions or firings because you get caught goofing off on the job. Click here to begin your time-wasting.

Watch TV On Your Computer (FREE!)

There are many people who have given up conventional ways of watching TV and movies (broadcast, dish, cable) in favor of doing so on their computers. At our house we generally catch TV on the cable (or DVR). I’ll catch a football game, or other sports, online from time -to-time. I’m not much of a movie guy, but my wife is a movie fiend. She catches even the newest movies online. I am going to offer up some good sites to watch TV shows on and get to the movies in the near future.  The URLs that I’m listing are all perfectly legal. I DO NOT condone piracy of copyrighted material in any way, shape or form.

• Television
• Hulu – This seems to be the Top Dog of  TV on the web places. Hulu has a huge library of  TV series old and new in all genres…comedy, action, drama, cartoons and more. Hulu also offers movies, but the pickings are slim, in my opinion, but bear in mind that I am not a movie kind of guy. This site is worth the visit even if just to browse around.
• Fancast – Fancast is another site that garners a lot of buzz around the web. You’ll find a nice selection of TV shows and movies here. Definitely worth a look.
• Watch Series.com- TV Series, documentaries, cartoons and more are what you’ll find on watchseries.com. Also hosted on Watch Series are a nice choice of arcade and board games to wile away the hours.

These three sites have plenty of content to keep you occupied for hours on end. And keep in mind it’s all LEGAL and FREE ! Throw some popcorn in the microwave, grab a nice refreshing beverage and make good use of your LAZ Boy. Your favorite shows await you!