I couldn’t resist the title. Red, one of our long time supporters here in Colorado, told us recently about a site that lets you look through telescopes from around the world right from your computer screen. The site is called simply Space.com.
Thanks Red. The photo I chose from their site is of a storm on Saturn.
Poisson rouge means red fish in French. Poissonrouge.com is one of the greatest web sites for kids that I have ever been to. Chances are it will keep about 75 percent of adults entertained for an hour or two as well. The site is simple, visit and click on anything to discover new areas. The site will seem endless as you or your children click through feature after feature. No keyboard skills are required and the site is so well designed that it will hardly seem like you are on a website at all.
Another great web site is Hero Machine. This one may at first seem like it is just for boys, but my 9-year-old daughter has spent her share of hours on it as well.
If you haven’t had a chance yet to try out the Zoho.com online productivity applications and you have a Yahoo or Google account or email address, you can now use that account information to sign-in to any of the Zoho.com applications. This new feature from Zoho gives literally millions of computer users the opportunity to see what online applications are all about without going through any new sign-up process.
In our monthly computer user group today, the discussion some how made its way to disposable email addresses. Many web sites offer free, disposable email addresses you can create for one time use to sign up for a temporary web services, or make an inquiry to a web site that you don’t want to have your real email address. Beyond anonymity, using a disposable email address will reduce the amount of spam that comes into your real email inbox.
Throughout my week I receive many exasperated calls from computer users and encounter flustered users when I visit their home or office. In the almost 13 years that I’ve been helping people with their computers, I have found that many problems can be resolved quickly IF the following three steps are practiced:
eBay has been around for more than 10 years. However, many computer users still find eBay either dangerous or hard to figure out. In this week’s tip, I set forth some simple steps to help make your eBay experience, a good experience.
In the video, I demonstrate my four steps to finding a reputable eBay buyer:
I also point out, in the video, that none of these rules work unless we all leave honest feedback after the completion of any auction you complete…good or bad. I didn’t mention in the video that you should always know your product and not get caught up in the excitement of auction bidding and over-bid your position.
Take a look at the video below…it will save you a lot of grief when buying on eBay, and probably make you a more frequent eBay buyer!
I Stumbled on this extremely interesting video the other day answering the questions, “How do people find the time?”
The speaker explains how many hours are spent watching TV and how just carving 10% of that time can harness tremendous amounts of brain power to work together on the web. The more I thought about the video, the more I was amazed so I wanted to share it with you.
Click here to watch the video and then come back here and leave me a comment about your thoughts on the subject.
Grand Theft Auto IV was released this week and, as always happens when a version of GTA comes out, there has been a lot of discussion about video game violence and sexual content.
Without going into detail GTA is a game that features guns, civilians, cops, cars, prostitutes and an environment that allows you to act in any way you please. As you can imagine, most teen game players choose to use the game as a simulation for testing their skills at abiding the law.
Those of you who have kept up with me over the years know that I’m not a utility junkie. The fewer utilities and installed programs the better for me.
That being said, I admire and cherish great utilities that serve purposes I need. Some of my favorites over the years include Tech Smith’s Snag It screen capture tool and Camtasia which I use to create our video tips. I also am never without a desktop tape calculator. My current favorite is the Moffsoft Tape Calculator.
I recently wrote about the wonders of Craislist both on HelpMeRick.com and in our free weekly email newsletter.
Someone posted a comment that I think needs to be addressed. There are many many scammers on Craigslist. However, they are stupid and easy to detect.
Here are a list of ways to detect a craigslist scammer.
1. The item is priced very low, but not too low. A $50 digital camera that retails for $5,000 is obviously a scam. Craigslist scammers typically would price such an item at $1,100 making it almost believable. Think about it, would anyone really sell an item for half as much as they could easily sell it for on eBay.