This is actually 2 videos put into one.

This is nothing new if you are a reader of my website, but this just goes to solidify the point.

If your son or daughter are about to head to college, encourage them to clean up their Facebook or MySpace site.

They may think it is private, but it really isn’t. Anything on their site is search-able via Google or any search engine.

See this article, click here.

This question comes from a reader, Patti:

“Tell me about these data storage systems I hear advertised…..Mosey (sp?), Carbonite (sp?) and Kodak and Shutterfly,specifically for pix. I have pictures and files I would hate to loose if my laptop were to crash. Are they worth the cost? Is there one you would recommend? Are there other ways to preserve your files?”

I have used Shutterfly, Kodak, and a host of other sites for photos. All were free, but I heard rumor that Kodak may start charging to use them.

 Personally, I no longer use Kodak. The site was too hard to use and kind of slow. My wife and I now use Shutterfly for getting photos developed (as needed) and sent to us, occasionally we will use Kodak, but honestly we rarely have photos printed. We use Vistaprint.com to do things like post cards and such with pictures of our son on it. Good prices, easy to use website. You likely have friends who print their own photos. Don’t go down that road. You will spend a fortune on ink and paper and possibly a printer only to have “okay” looking photos. Have a pro do it.

 Having said all that you were asking about where to store precious files like photos online. Honestly there is no 100% safe place. I upload most of my photos in a smaller, lower quality format to my facebook.com account for my friends and family to see. I keep the high quality version on my computer and occasionally back all of them up to an external 80 gigabyte hard drive that we keep in our closet. This way, my photos are in 3 places; my computer, my closet, and if worse comes to worse, I can get on my Facebook account and just right-click and save-as every photo on my account and save them to my computer. Albeit, in a lower quality.

A lot of folks reading this may scoff at what I am saying. They may love online storage such as Mozy (See the link on the left of my webpage for 2 gigabytes free). They love online storage, but even people I know who are video producers just keep several offline backups (like an external hard drive).

 You can even get little USB pen drives (flash drives) up to 10 gigs or even larger that may work for you. But I have seen USB flash drives go bad, so if you go down that road, buy two and do double backups.

What I also do, maybe 2 times a year, is backup all my videos and photos on a set of CDs, so I am covered in even more ways.

Thanks for your question!

This quick and easy tip will help your home or business learn how to only print out what you need, saving you loads of time and money on ink and paper, not to mention wear and tear on your printer!

I have always been a “PC guy.”

I never had anything against Mac products, it’s just that I never really used them. One huge turn-off to the Mac for me was (and still kind of is) the “coolness” of them; we in the PC world refer to them as “Fanboys,” people who MUST have a Mac or an iPod or an iPhone, not realizing that they have fallen hook, line, and sinker for Apple’s genius marketing department. Not all Apple/Mac users are like this, but even they admit there is a segment of Apple product users who are gobbling Apple products up simply to be different (or because they are weak-minded towards simple ad campaigns), yet they don’t realize they are being just like everyone else. I’m sure the “coolness” will wear off once these hip college students (who are trying to make a statement by owning a Mac) hit the corporate world where over 90% of the companies use PCs only.

However, I very much enjoy video editing and always give them the credit they deserved in the video realm, yet I still took sides on the PC field. Albeit, I am no fan of Microsoft and their way of treating customers like hostages, but I digress.

The company I work for has a 13″ Macbook. No one really uses it. It was bought for one employee who insisted he have a Mac. I finally caved in, only to find out he quit four months later, leaving us with a $1,400 paper weight.

I tried to find another department to use it with little or no success. Finally it got passed around enough to someone who claimed they needed it as well. Months later they let me know (only when I asked them about it) that the Mac no longer worked.

I was sure the warranty had expired so like an idiot, I didn’t even try to find out. I asked all my Mac-using friends about the problem this machine had. None had a clue. That’s a gripe I have with you Apple users. Sure, you brag that your machine never breaks, yet when it does you stand in front of it like a primate watching ants carry food to their nest, scratching your head not knowing what to do. At least folks in the PC world have an idea as to how to fix a problem.

Nevertheless, I was unable to fix this on my own. On a whim one night, I decided to check Apple’s support Web site to see if it was actually still under warranty. Was I wise enough to have gotten the three-year warranty when I bought this Macbook years ago? Yes, I was.

It still had about 9 months left on the warranty.

The support is different than what you may be used to. You don’t call in and wait for someone to take your call, you schedule a call. Sometimes you can schedule Apple to call you immediately, other times you have to schedule them to call you the next day. Long story short, I got my call the next day at the exact time I asked to be called.

The tech support guy was really cool. He was not a stiff, boring, overly technical guy. He was not Indian. He was not Mexican. He was a red-blooded American who I have no doubt had a Yankees hat or a “Granny” still living on her own in a rural area of his state.

He used words like “Alright man” and “Hey guy” and “Awesome dude” which all may seem very plastic in an effort for Apple to keep their “cool” image, but it felt real to me. He was able to pick up immediately on the fact that I was not some moron as far as IT goes, but he was also able to pick up that I had no clue about anything related to Apple products. It was refreshing.

However, his support was kind of wrong. He sent me a new hard drive. I knew this would not fix the problem, but I was so enamoured by his coolness that I accepted his solution. It arrived two days later. The install was easy but the problem was not fixed. The box it was sent in had a peel-off FedEx overnight label on it so shipping back the old hard drive was a snap, and free.

After realizing the problem still existed, I called back (or rather scheduled a call). They were awesome about e-mail updates so I never had to worry about losing my dispatch or case numbers. This guy was just as cool and hip and the first guy. He went over a few easy steps with me and quickly realized that this problem could not be solved by me, the user. I will say that though Mac users brag that their machines break so seldom, there is little any individual user can do about it. This is about what the tech support conversation went like:

ME: “Hey, its broke.”
MAC: “Did you try doing this?”
ME: “Yeah.”
MAC: “Okay, we will send you out a box to send the Macbook to us in. Ship it back to us and we will fix it and ship it back to you overnight.”

Sure enough, the next day there is an empty box waiting for me. I packed it up per their instructions, took it to FedEx, and got an e-mail this morning saying they had gotten it.

I have yet to get it back, but this article isn’t about the fix-ability of a Mac, only about how cool and easy going their customer support is. May eventually convince me to use a Mac, who knows?

This article can also be read at blogcritics.org by clicking here.

The title is misleading. Facebook is great.

However, there are a MULTITUDE of applications (called apps) for Facebook that people add to their site.

Frankly, I think they are pointless, useless, and annoying. But they range from apps to show who your favorite friends are to show your ranking in some online game. Really, there is an app for anything on Facebook.

The thing is, these apps are not made by Facebook and are not APPROVED by Facebook. In fact, some are programs used to crash your computer or harvest information from your account or your computer.

The best way to avoid getting this virus / malware is to not add stupid applications to your Facebook page. They mostly only serve to slow down the loading of your page and add clutter and disorganization to your Facebook page.

They are not needed for old friends to find you or to communicate with you, which is the main point of Facebook.

The news article can be found here.

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There is a new email scam that just surfaced in the past few days…
This is similar to a legitimate email that says your mailbox size is over the limit.
The exception here is that this email asks you to contact your administrator and supply your username and password.
Then it give you your “Administrators” email address.
These email addresses supplied are actually those of scammers who want to hack into your account.
If you get an email like the one below, do NOT reply and for the love of everything that is sacred and holy, do not follow the directions in the email. Your administrator will likely never ask you for your password and certainly will never ask you for your username.

See the text below and delete any email with the wording as below:

—–

Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit set by your administrator. You may not be able to send or receive new mail until your mailbox size is increased by your system administrator. You are required to contact your system administrator through e-mail with your Username:{ } and Password:{ } to increase your storage limit.

System Administrator E-mail:
web.system@live.com
systemadmin@mail2online.com
You will continue to receive this warning message periodically if your inbox size continues to exceed its size limit.
This email is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and contains information that is privileged and confidential.

 —-

Here I will paste the “Headers” for any email administrators who got similar emails and wish to have other headers for research purposes:

This week, I didn’t want to post an article about technology news or the like, but rather I wanted to put some Edline information out here to help some of you parents in the future.
Many times, parents email me or call me asking for help with thier password.

This is fine. STJ parents are very kind and I enjoy helping them whenever I can. However, ALL edline users, students AND parents, have the power to reset their own password.

I do not know any of your passwords. I can not see your passwords. If you call me to say you’ve forgotten it, the best I cna do is reset it. However, you can save time by resetting your password yourself, here is how:

1. Go to www.edline.net
2. Look above the password field. You will see a link that says “Forgot password?”
3. Click it.
4. You will be asked to type in your Edline screen name. Do this and click “I forgot my password.”
5. Check your email. A temporary password will be emailed to you. Go back to edline.com and use the temporary password to login. Upon logging in you will be asked to change your password.

Even if you’ve forgotten your screen name for edline, you can have it emailed to you. The instructions are very similar as above, only look above the “Screen name” field and click the link that says “Forgot screen name?”

Also, take a few moments to update your edline information. If you have an old email address with edline, you won’t be getting email alerts and updates like you should. To do this:

1. Go to www.edline.net
2. Log in.
3. Look on the left side of the page under “Command Center”
4. Click “Manage Account”
5. Make sure your email address is correct and also look at your security question. Is the answer simple? Or long and complex? I recommend it be one word, all LOWER case letters so there is no mistake in case you need to answer your security question in the future.

This actually covers the majority of questions I get with regards to edline. Should you have any other questions that the counselors cannot answer for you, feel free to email me. You can get my email contact information from any of the counselors or principals.

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