Posted on March 13th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
We went down to a Google regional office the other day and boy do they have great chocolate macaroons. We were there to hear about their new DataLiberation.org site.
DataLiberation.org tells you how to get your personal data out of Google. We found that Google was storing a lot of information we’d forgotten all about.
Here are a few examples:
Google Docs: Get those documents off ”the cloud” and back into your own computer to access them offline.
Google Maps: Erase the list of recently searched locations.
Bookmarks: Take your bookmark list offline.
Download the videos you uploaded to YouTube.
Picasa Web Albums: retrieve your photos if your computer crashed.
It’s not immediately obvious what you should do when you first arrive at DataLiberation.org. It turns out, all you have to do is click on the Google item you’re interested in. You get a different set of instructions for each.
This is a great way to learn about all of the 25 things Google offers for free.
Posted on March 12th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
There are 178 million users of Google’s Gmail, and probably a billion or more who use their search tools. Google has ways to select what you get and from whom.
Google.com/dashboard lets you manage your Google accounts, documents, personal information and “alerts.” Alerts are emails you can receive on a given subject. Bob gets alerts on Ned Davis, the investment guru, which brings tidbits of the latest research to his inbox. Oddly enough, you can even list yourself as an “alert” to be followed, and then receive notices whenever your name is mentioned on the web. The Dashboard has lots of information.
Sometimes you search on a subject simply because you’re thinking of a present for someone, fishing equipment for a relative who likes to fish, for example. You, yourself have no interest in fishing, nonetheless the literal minded computers think you do and will show you ads and other information aimed at fishing. To stop seeing display ads you don’t want, go to Google.com/ads/preferences.
Posted on March 11th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
Talkatoo is a little gadget that caught our attention. It attaches to your child’s backpack and when they’re away from home and feeling stressed, they can push a button and hear Mommy or Daddy’s soothing voice. Should be good for adults too.
The device is $18 and comes as a necklace, or a clip-on for backpacks, lunchboxes, purses or belt loops. They were recently showcased at the big Toy Fair in New York and will be available in May from talkatoo.com.
Posted on March 10th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
Last week we mentioned a program from NewRad.com that lets you add voice messages to your email. One of our readers had trouble with the program, so we thought we’d point out that you can also do this in Windows without installing anything.
Here’s how. First attach a microphone to your computer if it doesn’t have one. Click “start” then “programs,” then “accessories.” Click “Sound Recorder.” Click “start recording.” Say your piece and Windows will prompt you to save it. Attach that recording to your email. Viola! You’ve done it.
A free service at FotoBabble.com offers what they call “talking photos.” You upload a photo, record your message, and share it. Click on a Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter icon to have it posted there, send it in an email, or embed it on your web page. The talking photos can be public or private. Sound clarity depends on your microphone.
Posted on March 9th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
Joy has recently been plagued with this message: ““Cannot use Adobe Reader to open PDF in your browser. Please exit your browser and try again.” This is real annoying. Fortunately, there are other places to turn.
The new PDF Reader from Nuance PDF is free and opens PDFs better than Adobe. PDFs are documents that retain their formatting. The process was developed by Adobe, which has long offered a free PDF Reader. However, the new Nuance program has more features and does it better.
Nuance PDF Reader will convert PDFs to other formats, such as Word or Excel, for example. This makes it possible to edit them. You can also annotate the PDFs. Along the way, the Nuance Reader has addressed a growing security issue, turning off “JavaScript processing,” which can make computers vulnerable to hackers. A recent report from McAfee, a leader in anti-virus products, predicted Adobe would become the primary target for hackers and virus writers this year. In all fairness, Adobe is working to correct the problem. We won’t find out if it works till the next hacker attack
Nuance PDF Reader has a built-in SharePoint Connector, so users can save PDFs directly to Microsoft’s SharePoint storage. Get the program at nuance.com/PDFreader.
Posted on March 8th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
YouTube’s annotation feature lets you string videos in sequences. If they’re related in some way, you’ve made a movie. We mean a real movie. (Watch “The Birthday Party,” noted below, for a great example.)
Go to ChadMattandRob.com to see some examples of short movies and find out how to do it. “The Birthday Party” is about three guys who set out carrying a Teddy Bear as a gift for their boss. Along the way, they get accidently involved in a wild shootout, disarm a bomb attached to a hostage, and so on. As each three-minute segment is coming to an end, you’re presented with a choice to click. For example, you can “Save Big Hurl” (one of the actors) or “Save Yourself.” The wrong choice brings a disastrous ending, but also a chance to choose again. Good movie, good fun. We’ll watch their “Time Machine” next.
Annotated videos joined together could be made for business, but it’s mostly pure fun and an excellent way to make a movie at no cost. We see no reason why you can’t string segments together for a full length feature. After all, that’s the way Hollywood does it.
Posted on March 7th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
Good50.com is a Google search page that’s easier on the eyes. Both the search box and what you type appear much larger. Click the “Low Vision” version to get a black background that makes it even easier to see.
Speaking of accessibility options, Windows has half a dozen built in, but you have to turn them on. For instance, Bob says he often turns the caps lock key on by mistake. An alert reader wrote in to say that you can get a beep when you turn it on and another sound when you turn it off.
Here’s how: In Windows XP, click “Start,” and then “Control Panel.” Double-click “Accessibility Options.” Select “Use ToggleKeys.” Or, if you’d rather get a visual cue, instead of an audible one, click the “Sound” tab and select “Use SoundSentry,” and choose from the visual warning menu.
In Windows 7 and Vista, click “Start” and then “Control Panel.” Then click “Ease of Access Center.” Click “Change how your keyboard works.” Then click “Turn on Toggle Keys.” To get a visual cue, go back to the “Ease of Access Center” and choose “Turn on visual notifications.”
Windows has a lot of other accessibility features you may want to explore. To find them, click “start” and “help and support.” Then type ”Accessibility.” You’ll learn how to turn on the magnifier, change the font size, or, in Windows 7 and Vista, hear text read aloud.
Posted on March 6th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
Here are some interesting topics making the rounds of the tech blogs, and we thought we’d add our two cents.
3D computers: You can get a 3D laptop from Acer for only $70 more than their standard $700 laptop. Before you say “gee whiz,” co-columnist Bob Schwabach first saw 3D computers at Argonne National Laboratory 35 years ago. Those cost a few hundred thousand dollars of course, and were the size of a dorm refrigerator. The Acer 5738 DG is mainly for gamers, and you have to look at the screen at a 120 degree angle or it’s blurry.
Spotify is a new music site that comes to the U.S. later this year. Why is it so talked about? It appears to have all the features of Pandora, LastFM, Slacker and Jango in one, and then some. You can make 10,000-song playlists, choose radio “stations” based on a single artist or composer, etc.
Making an Alice in Wonderland poster from your photo
Fiverr.com -hire yourself out or hire someone else for $5 a job. Someone is offering to make a personalized work of art from your photo. Another wants to make you an Alice in Wonderland poster. There’s also a translator from English to Finnish. And hundreds more.
DocVerse: a universe where you can share Microsoft Office docs online.Google just bought it. It’s more convenient than Google docs, if you have Word and Excel documents you want others to collaborate on.
Tawkon is a would-be iPhone app that Apple hasn’t approved yet. It tells you how much radiation is being emitted from your iPhone. But you don’t need this app if you remember a couple of things. Don’t hold your cell phone too tightly; a headset is better. The harder your cell phone has to work to keep a connection going, the more radiation it emits. So don’t try to call from an elevator or a restroom deep inside a building.
Google Chrome, the web browser, already has about half as many add-ons or extensions (around 3,000) as Firefox does (6,000). That’s because developers don’t have to get them approved first, unless they do things like share the content’s of a user’s computer. Take a look here.
adrive.com Free 50 gigabytes of online storage. Hard to beat that.
Posted on March 5th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
A survey by PopCap games revealed that nearly a quarter of respondents play games on social networking sites at least once a week. Over half are female and their average age is 48.
Among female social gamers, 38 percent play several times a day, versus 29 percent for men. Sixty-one percent play more than half an hour. One in ten say their average session lasts three hours or more. About a quarter are new to gaming.
Facebook is by far the most popular gaming destination. We read a study recently that said the amount of time spent on Facebook exceeds Amazon, YouTube, Google and Wikipedia put together. Wow! The most popular games are Farmville, Bejeweled Blitz, Texas Hold’em Poker, Café World and Mafia Wars.
Posted on March 4th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
– TVGorge.com has thousands of TV shows you can watch online, including those previously unavailable outside the U.S. We thought TVGorge was better than Hulu in many ways. It had the latest episode of our favorite show, “The Mentalist,” for instance, while Hulu had only short clips of older episodes.
– TinyChat.com is allows you to create your own chat room while you’re online, a place where you and people with the same interests can interact. They have video and audio chats and whiteboard drawing. You can bring in your Facebook friends, or — click “TinyChat Next” to enter a chat room with others, categorized by topic, such as “technology” or “humor.”
– Go to jimspages.com to quiz yourself on U.S. geography. Click “Do you know your states?”
We went down to a Google regional office the other day and boy do they have great chocolate macaroons. We were there to hear about their new DataLiberation.org site.
Talkatoo is a little gadget that caught our attention. It attaches to your child’s backpack and when they’re away from home and feeling stressed, they can push a button and hear Mommy or Daddy’s soothing voice. Should be good for adults too.
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