Interesting Tech Stuff

In my daily tech travels, I visit a handful of websites for tips, tricks and information. One of my favorites is:

http://www.makeuseof.com/

This website has tricks for just about anything from promoting your blog and website to getting free stuff.

It's a great website with "Cool Websites and Tools" that is posted each day. You can even get updates from them on Twitter.

James

Automated Answering Services....

Most people I speak with absolutely hate getting "the machine" instead of a real person when they call a 800 phone number. Someone got annoyed enough to create a website dedicated to help people get around those systems. Gethuman.com is a site that has most major companies listed and the best way to beat the phone system so you can talk to a real person.

James

Ah how times flies....

It's been quite a while since my last post, so I figure that this one better be good. If you are like me, you have been very skeptical about Microsoft Vista. As a matter of fact, I only started using Vista on my main computer at work a couple of months ago. I wasn't overly impressed with Vista, seemed slow and for the most part, it really didn't add any value to my daily activities.

Microsoft has seemed to admit that Vista hasn't gone well for them. So much so that Microsoft is busy developing it's new operation system (Windows 7) to replace Vista. Rumors are that Windows 7 will be out before the end of the year.

If you want to get an early look at Windows 7, you can download and install the "Release Candidate (RC)." The Windows 7 RC is a unpolished, FREE, download that you can install on your own computer and begin using. There are some considerations though. The RC is not a finished product and issues/problems are likely to pop up. Not a lot of software or hardware manufacturers have gotten their products up to speed with Windows 7 RC either (though that is changing quickly). Also in June 2010, Windows 7 RC will expire and you will have to buy the full version to continue using it on your computer.

I went ahead and grabbed the RC and installed it on the work computer and I must say that it does run better than Vista (that computer seems faster for the most part). The install was easy. I have run into some issues with my video card and the RC but I'm working through those. At this point, I can say that I'm looking forward to Windows 7 once it is released commercially.

James

Lisbon High School SADD PSAs

The Lisbon High School chapter of SADD has produced some great Public Service Announcements that are currently being shown on tv. You can view the videos at:

http://www.youtube.com/lisbonschools

James

Google Voice

Google recently announced a new service, Google Voice, that Google feels will help make your life more manageable. How many different phone #'s do have, how about voicemail boxes?

"Google Voice is a service that gives you one number for all your phones, voicemail that is easy as email, and many enhanced calling features like call blocking and screening, voicemail transcripts, call conferencing, international calls, and more." - Google.com

So you get one phone # to manage your office #, home #, cell phone and voicemail. Interesting.

James

More online tools

My last post introduced you to Skydrive (a free online tool for storing and sharing) files, pictures, etc. To continue with this theme, I want to look at some more online tools. These days, more and more tasks can be accomplished via web tools/services. It is becoming easier to create, store, and share information via the web. The major advantage of this is that the computer is becoming less ... necessary. As long as you can get on the internet, you can do a lot of what you need regardless of what computer you are using.

Today, I want to look at Google docs. Like Skydrive, you can store docs at google docs, but unlike Skydrive, you can create new docs/spreadsheets/presentations or edit existing ones. Google docs also allows you to share the files so people can view them or even help edit them. Again, this reduces the need to work at the same computer to create files or even to carry your documents with you. Even if you use Google docs for some personal tasks, it is worth taking the time to look at it and try it out.

James

Reach for the sky......

Pcworld.com has an article today about 5 great web services that Microsoft make available to you (but you may not know about). I read the article and decided to try out Skydrive. Let me tell you that it is pretty good at first glance. You have 25 Gigabytes of space to work with (and trust me that's a lot by web standards). You can store docs, files, favorites, photos and choose to make them public or private. Best of all, it's free to use.

It's definitely worth a look. SkyDrive

James

Online Safety

Wired.com is running an article on how the Internet is being used to lure children into prostitution. An interesting discussion is touched upon in the article. A recent Harvard study found the the dangers to children on the Internet has been over blown. I would encourage you to read the Wired article and Executive Summary from the Harvard study so you can draw your own conclusions.

James

Netbooks (continued)

There has been a lot of energy around the arrival of netbooks and they are selling like hotcakes. I wanted to post this article (from PCWorld.com) that contains more info and reviews on netbooks.

Netbooks

James

PS. Just this morning Wired.com has an article about Netbooks.

Netbook

It has been a while (a LONG while) since I last blogged but it's time for me to catch back up. I have been busy demo-ing a ACER Aspire One Netbook. The basic concept of a Netbook is a tiny, no frills laptop that is very inexpensive. I will tell you that I'm very impressed with this netbook. The Netbook is best suited for document creation (MS Office or OpenOffice), Internet Research, Email, and a presentation platform. You wouldn't want a netbook if you were going to do things like high end gaming or video production. Other that that type of computer/resource intensive work, these netbooks are great. The average around $300 to $400. To take a closer look, go to:

http://www.acer.com/aspireone/

James "Computer G33k" Churchill