My Blog About Computer Tips, Technology, & More!
 
 
March 10th, 2010
 

Whenever someone hears that I have a website, they often ask, “What is the best website host?” or “What is the best web hosting?”

I have been using godaddy.com for several years and have never had an issue.  You can get web hosting for as little as $5/month, and when you buy web hosting, you can get a domain for $1.99!

What is “web hosting”?

Whenever you go to a website, such as this one, bear in mind that the files for that website, such as the main page, etc, all live on a server somewhere (computer).  A company that “hosts” the website for you, is called a “web host”.

What is a domain?

A domain is a web address such as garyfarnam.org or google.com.  You can only buy a domain if someone else doesn’t already have it.  It’s best to buy a domain and a web hosting account together as you can many times get great discounts, like what I mentioned above.


GoDaddy.com WebSite Tonight 125x125

 
March 5th, 2010
 

Looking to get a new USB Flash Drive?

Before you head over to Walmart, and pay too much for just one, why not get 2 for just a few more bucks?

USB Flash Drives are also known as:

  • thumb drives
  • flash sticks
  • memory sticks

At any rate, an 8 gigabyte flash drive is going to cost you about $26 at Walmart, but you can get 2 of them for just a little more through Buy.com AND GET FREE SHIPPING!  Buy one for you, and one for a colleague, or one for you, and one for a friend, or one for you, and then another one for you.

These make great portable back ups of your important files, pictures, music (up to 8GB of course), or anything else you’d like to keep an extra copy of, or just need a more portable copy of.

You  can even run an entire operating system such as Linux Mint and other great apps from a USB Flash Drive!

Get yours today, I’m getting ready to order mine :)



Kingston 8GB DataTraveler Hi-Speed USB Flash Drive, 2 Pack

Kingston 8GB DataTraveler Hi-Speed USB Flash Drive, 2 Pack

…by your computer.

We’re raised in a society of “Do what you’re told to do”, but this concept shouldn’t apply when it comes to your computer.

Otherwise, you may land yourself into computer trouble, laced with viruses, spyware, etc.

But you may be wondering,”When does a computer tell you what to do?”

If you get a popup on your computer that tells you to CLICK HERE to rid yourself of a virus or spyware that was just found on your computer, you’re being told what to do.  However, be sure to NOT follow the advice on your screen unless that popup was caused by your antivirus or antispyware software.

Also, another recent “Do what you’re told” threat is the fact that there are websites out there that will tell you to press your F1 key on your keyboard.  The F1 key is normally used for ‘Help’, but in this instance, anything but help will come.

The websites telling you to press F1 are just waiting on you to do so to exploit a known Internet Explorer security gap that allows all kinds of bad things to be downloaded and installed on your computer once you press F1 on one of these websites.

Check out THIS ARTICLE for info on how to avoid the F1 problem.

Shop for Antivirus Software

 
March 3rd, 2010
 

If you’re an iTunes shopper, did you know that you can easily earn gift cards for even more iTunes products each time you shop?

With MyPoints, a free points per dollar online program, you can!

How it works

Join MyPointsby clicking the MyPoints banner below.  Once you sign up (for FREE), you can immediately begin earning points per dollar for shopping that you already do online.  That shopping includes purchases made at the iTunes store.

That’s making your hard earned money work harder for YOU!

All things iPod

You can also earn points by doing searches on the MyPoints website and by printing online coupons.

So whether it’s a legal music download, or any other iTunes purchase online*, you earn points per dollar spent to get you more of what you want.

Don’t want to earn gift cards online for yourself? Earn points to get a gift card for a friend!


*note: Electronic Gift Card purchases are eligible for Points. Plastic iTunes Gift Cards are not eligible for Points.

If you’ve ever used Google’s Streetview, you know that you can view panoramic images taken from Google’s vehicles (cars, trike, snowmobile).  But that can be slightly limited to the view of those camera toting vehicles.

This is why Google has been integrating user submitted photos for the past year, to give you not only a vehicle view of places, but also a site seeing view.

User submitted photos from services such as Picasa and Flickr are in the mix that give you more angles to see your next destination even before you ever see it up close for yourself.

Just select the location you want to visit on maps.google.com and drag the little streetview guy over to the map.  Once you’ve viewed Google’s streetview, be sure to click on the “User Photos” box in the upper right corner to see lots of other views of the same location, taken at different times of the day, in black and white, etc.

streetviewguy

Google Streetview of the Water Tower in Chicago

Google Streetview of the Water Tower in Chicago

User submitted photo

User submitted photo

So whether you’re  a professional photographer, or just an amateur, your photos can be quite helpful to future visitors to the place you’re photographing.  Those very photos can give future visitors a better sense of that location and it’s surroundings.

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