On Computers

We got a pitch to try out a new program from Acronis for moving all your computer’s content to a place in the cloud. Sounds so romantic.

Well, in essence, moving stuff to the cloud is no different than moving stuff to another computer — ’cause that’s what’s happening. The so-called cloud, no matter who’s offering it, is a big room with lots and lots of computers with lots and lots of hard drives attached. It is a cloud only in a public relations person’s metaphorical imagination.

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Filed under: backup | Comments Off on SOME MOVE, SOME DON’T

Our friend Ida, who is 95, likes to print out her Gmail messages, but the print is often too tiny, and she hates printing the column on the left listing all the folders. We have encountered this tiny print problem once in a while on our machines. But our solution for this — moving the text into MS Word, was too complicated for her, she said. So we tried another solution.

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Joy’s 96 year-old friend Ida had a real estate document that needed faxing. Joy’s scanner didn’t work, so what to do? Well, she took a picture of Ida’s document and emailed it.

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pbskids.org/noah has a new scavenger hunt game where players must decipher Spanish words and locate objects. Through videos, the site tells the story of a kid called Noah and his grandmother, who live in an area where everyone but them speaks Spanish (sort of like Miami).

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Filed under: games, kids | Comments Off on LEARNING SPANISH THROUGH GAMES

ZeroWasteHome.com is the site of a couple who throw away only a quart of garbage a year from their home in Mill Valley, California. When we looked at the site, Bea Johnson, author of “Zero Waste Home,” was writing about her first dumpster diving experience and the pleasures of a minimalist wardrobe. (Mill Valley, by the way, is one of the world’s hip places to live.)

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HankBoughtABus.com shows how an architectural student made a mobile home out of an old school bus. He can still drive it, and frankly it looks really sharp. Unlike most people who do this and document it, he also listed his costs: $3,000 for the old bus, $6,000 for the re-do.

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To whom it may concern: We are told by younger folks that nobody makes phone calls these days, they text each other. In case you do make calls once in a while, “Hello: Caller ID and Blocking” is a free Android app that makes it easier to place calls using a free Wi-Fi connection. It also blocks unwanted calls.

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Filed under: apps, facebook, social networks | Comments Off on APP HAPPY HELLO

We read about a guy who lost 140 pounds playing “Ingress,” a free Android/iPhone game that gets you moving about in the real world (whatever that is). You the player can choose to be on the side of the “Enlightened” or the “Resistance” as you search for power nodes that connect with another universe.

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Lots of people use the Google Maps app on their phones to figure out how to get somewhere. Fewer people know you can also use it as a phone book.

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Filed under: apps, maps | Comments Off on GOOGLE MAP TIPS

Joy’s brother-in-law recently divided a video into three parts to make it easier to email. There’s an easier way. Upload it to YouTube and change the “public” setting to “private” or “unlisted.” If you choose “private,” only those you designate will get an email link to it. If it’s unlisted, it can’t be found with just a search term.

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Filed under: video, YouTube | Comments Off on SHARING VIDEO