Monday, June 29, 2015

Cloud Storage

Thanks, George, for a great article on the different cloud storage available for free and how much more for a price...

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/onedrive-dropbox-google-drive-and-box-which-cloud-storage-service-is-right-for-you/

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Class Summary 6-25-2015

Started off with the following:

White Paper on Macrium Reflect image backup
http://rwevans.com/cccgc/BackingupwithMacriumReflect.pdf

I will also be doing papers on creating the backup boot disk to use if you need to restore your hard drive, and one on locating a file or folder inside the last image to restore it to your hard drive, and how to restore the entire drive from the image.

Take the class with Ron and then use these notes as backup to what you learned.

TextCleanr
The quick, easy, web based way to fix and clean up text when copying and pasting between applications. Remove email indents, find and replace, clean up spacing, line breaks, word characters and more.
http://www.textcleanr.com/

For just text work and good site is http://notepad.cc/ which gives you the equivilant of notepad, but with a spell checker. I use this all the time. It does not clean up email text or remove end of line markers. For that TextCleanr does a great job. TextCleanr also has spell checking.

This one is just for fun unless you are not using the Classic Shell addon to Windows 8/8.1 to the Start Menu back. How to find the secret Start Menu built into Windows 8.1

To make the menu appear,
1. Right-click the taskbar and select Toolbars > New toolbar.
2. This brings up File Explorer, where you should navigate to 
3. C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
4. Once there, click Select Folder.

The new toolbar, named Programs, will appear on the right side of the taskbar, immediately to the left of the notification area. Click the chevron to the right of the word Programs to bring up the menu. Locate the article at http://tinyurl.com/psxlcfp
Also spent time talking about using a smartphone without having it connected to a pay for phone service such as AT&T or Verizon. All smartphones work for everything else when connected to a WiFi hotspot. And you can use services such as TextPlus for free SMS texting or MagicJack app for free phone calls from anywhere.

Then we talked some more about using a Roku box for wathcing TV series and movies with no need to pay for Cable TV. Use and old fashioned set of "rabbit ears" and you can receive many local channels off the air. No charge.

I am sure we discussed a bunch more. Join us online starting this week on Thursdays from 2-4.

Online Classes

We are experimenting with some online classes using Skype. I set up a Skype account named CCCGC.Club. Sign on to your Skype account and asked to be added to my account. I am going to put 2-4 on Thursdays aside for an Open Forum. You will NOT come to the club. This is totally online and you will access it from your house, or get together with another member and all watch on the same computer.

You will need:
1. An internet connection
2. Skype installed. I suggest the desktop program and not the Windows 8 app that comes with 8. You can download it at http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-computer/ or get it from http://ninite.com
3. A webcam connected to your PC. All new laptops have one, but if you have an older laptop or a desktop you may have to get an external one. You cannot setup Skype without a microphone and a camera. Desktops will also need a microphone as they usually do not have one; laptops do, even the older ones.

Sign in to Skype and ask to join my account ASAP so you will be ready to join the class on Thrusdays.

Bookmark This Page

There is no longer a link on the club site for this blog. So make sure you bookmark it for easy access. You can also get to it from my site http://rwevans.com or from my blog site at http://dickevans.org.

Facebook Stuff

An almost free (.99) book on Kindle promises to show you a number of things you can do with Facebook. I ordered it but have not looked at it yet. Will do later, but here is the link so you can get the deal price if you want it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BZDEJMQ?tag=kiq-dds-20




Thursday, June 18, 2015

Class Summary 6-18-2015

Ever use sticky notes? People either love them and use them everywhere or just don’t use them at all. Well here is a program for your computer to put sticky notes on the desktop. Use pnotes.net to add sticky notes to the deskop -- two versions http://pnotes.sourceforge.net/ and here is an artcile about it http://www.ghacks.net/2015/06/18/add-sticky-notes-and-more-to-the-windows-desktop-with-pnotes-net/

This is a good article about the upcoming Windows 10 launch:
https://us-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?retry_ssl=1#top-story-0

Nеvеr Losе Αnything Αgain with this neat invention:
https://buy.thetrackr.com

Create a one-of-a-kind photo book today!
http://www.picaboo.com/

Took a look at using MultCloud to consolidate all our free cloud storage in one place.

MultCloud makes managing files and transferring files across clouds easy. Works like JoliDrive.com which we have looked at before.
https://www.multcloud.com/index.jsp#home

Talked about the Xfinity Free WiFi hotspots all around town. All you need is your comcast username and password and you are in wherever there is a hot spot available. If you do not have an account I believe you can pay for one with comcast and use the hot spots. So the next time you see Xfinity listed on your phone or laptop wifi locations know that you can use it for free.

http://us.wallapop.com/ To sell stuff on line. Like a garage sale online...

http://www.textplus.com/ for Free phone calls and texting with a phone number! Check with your kids to see if they have an old smartphone hanging around. You can use it to access the internet using WiFi anywhere. And with textplus you get a phone number and free phone calls and texting without ever paying a phone service to use it. All you need is a WiFi hotspot.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Class Summary 6-11-2015

We took a look at the note taking app/program from Google called Keep. It can be run from the web on any platform (Windows, Apple, Linux) or from an App on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. Make a note on any of these and it immediately appears on the others.

Want to get some cheap stuff? Check out Wish.com. They are located in China so expect to wait a couple of weeks for your order to arrive. Shipping charges are pretty low, like $1. If you are nervous about buying from China with your credit card think about getting a Visa gift card and putting some money on it. This way if your card gets hacked you only lose whatever you put on it.

Looked at another site called getpocket. When you find something you want to view later, put it in Pocket. Makes it easier than bookmarking the page and ending up with hundreds of bookmarks you will never need to go back to again.

New from Google is unlimited photo storage! That is right. Backup all your photos to Google’s cloud for free. And the search capabilities are great. It looks at the meta data on your pictures and the file name you used and facial recognition and more. Want to see all the pictures you have of a horse? Type horse and any picture you have in their cloud that contains a horse comes up. Add the app to your smartphone and every time you take a picture it will sync to your cloud storage. And you can view all your cloud stored pictures on your phone!

Had a question about using Audacity to pull out an audio clip from an audio file. Went to Ninite to get the program and then opened an audio file to demonstrate.

Also demonstrated using CCleaner to clean out temporary files, remove unnecessary registry entries, backup the the registry file, and uninstall programs.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Class Summary 6-04-2015

We talked about Facebook groups and showed how easy it is to set one up. Check out the new group for the class. If you are on Facebook ask to be added and you can post to the group. Only those in the group can see the posts.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1623760451171360/

Reviewed some browser basics. Three major ones, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome. My choice is Chrome. Discussed using tabs to open more than one site. Talked about the address bar being where you can type in an address to a web site or words for a search. And the easiest way to get there is to press Ctrl+L. This moves the insertion point to the address bar and selects the data currently in it. When something is selected you do not have to delete it before typing. As soon as you start to type the selected words will be gone. When searching the more words you include the narrower your results. But the search engine knows where your computer lives so it automatically gives results based on your location.

Someone asked why use an address shortener like tinyurl. When the URL you are sending to someone is already short there is no reason. But if it is a long one usually taking multiple lines the resulting URL will be much easier especially if they have to type it in from a document and not just click on it from an email.

I demonstrated a site called fiverr. People post tasks they are willing to do for you for $5. I used one of them to have a picture of me done in a cartoon form. If you have a skill you and want some extra cash, you can add your name to the list and offer you services as well.