The time has finally come. As of this past weekend, Facebook is moving its new Timeline feature from “optional” to “mandatory”.

There have been reports that some Facebook users received notices this past week that their profiles were being changed to the new Timeline, and that they had seven days to clean and modify the profile information on their Timeline before it would be activated and made visible to their friends.

A short while back, I wrote an article that went into the details of the new Timeline, which you can still read here…

“Facebook Timeline – Your Facebook Profile changes for the better!“.

I’ve also just updated my book, “Getting It Done with Facebook“, which you can read about by CLICKING HERE.

But in essence, your Facebook Timeline is a “story of your life” that draws from your profile information, wall posts, and photographs. When friends click to see your profile, they are taken to a chronologically arranged page where scrolling down takes you backward in time.

And as I mentioned in the other article, I personally think the Timeline is very cool and a worthy upgrade for Facebook.

But here’s the deal… since Facebook is now going to require that you switch to the Timeline, you might as well beat them to the punch and just do it on your own terms. You can change to the Timeline before they even contact you by logging into Facebook and going to www.facebook.com/about/timeline, and then clicking the Get Timeline button at the bottom right corner of the window.

As I’ve mentioned, once you’ve make the change, you’ll have seven days to clean things up before folks can see it. And the change is NOT reversible.

Of course, what friends will see depends upon how much information you’ve entered into your profile, and as you view your own profile and mouse-over a posting (or as Facebook calls it, a “story”), options appear which allow you to edit or remove it from the Timeline.

And to editing the Timeline even easier, there is an Activity Log button just under your “cover picture” that takes you to a page listing ALL your activity with options to remove an activity from the Timeline.

Here are some other things to be aware of as you get your new Timeline ready:

• After you make the switch, you’ll first want to add a new “cover” photo. This is a picture that will display across the top of your Timeline page. In the screenshot above, you can see that my cover photo is of my son Jack, playing baseball. Keep in mind that unlike your Profile Picture (which you still have and is used as a thumbnail for your posts), the cover photo stretches across the entire top of the page, so you’ll have more flexibility in using a larger picture.

• Next you’ll want to scroll down your Timeline and check all your old posts. As I’ve mentioned, you can mouse -over them to display an editing button. And since things are now arranged chronologically, you might want to edit any post or information dates that are not correct, so that they show up in the proper sequence.

• Clicking the “Star” option for a post, makes it stretch across the page, which is great for “milestone” events in your life, or just to show-off something that is important to you.

• If you click the drop-down menu next to the HOME button at the top of your Facebook page, and choose PRIVACY SETTINGS, you’ll see an option down the page called MANAGE PAST POST VISIBILITY. Choose this and you can automatically make all your old posts visible to FRIENDS only, which is probably who most folks want to see their old stories.

• You can double-check how your Friends will see things by using the VIEW AS tool. At the top of your new Timeline page, click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Activity Log button, and when you choose VIEW AS you’ll see your Timeline as a Friend would see it.

Again, I’ve provided a lot more information about the Timeline in my other post called “Facebook Timeline – Your Facebook Profile changes for the better!“.

And don’t forget my newly revised book called “Getting It Done with Facebook” that you can purchase and download online, or have a print copy sent directly to your address. To learn more about the book, CLICK HERE.

And as always, I’d love to hear your experiences or comments about the new Facebook Timeline. You can leave them below…

I tend to be on a lot of “techie” newsletter lists, with the best intentions of trying to keep up with all that’s going on with computer technology so that I can pass along the most important news to my students.

Every day there are at least 4 or 5 newsletters to read, and although I do my best to quickly scan through them, I know that I’m only really scratching the surface of what’s going on out there in Technology Land.

But, there is one newsletters I always take the time to carefully read… the one that has to do with Internet Security. I’ve personally been burned too many times by viruses, malware, and even hackers to NOT pay close attention to news articles that might help me better safeguard my computer.

Not to mention (again) that I need to keep up with Internet security so that I can inform you, my students, with what’s going on.

Which leads me to the point of this blog article.

As is customary for Microsoft on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, this past Tuesday they released an “update patch” for Windows that fixes some security flaws. Security patches, which are simply Windows program updates, are not at all unusual and in fact, many of the updates that Microsoft does on what has become known as “Patch Tuesday” are security related.

But this particular Tuesday, they released a patch to fix two fairly serious problems. In the first, a crafty hacker could gain remote access to a computer that was using the Windows Media Player to play a deviously coded MIDI media file. In the second, certain filters that handle media files in DirectShow (a Windows component used for streaming media) improperly handle specially manipulated media files which again can make your computer vulnerable to outsiders.

Now, my goal here was not necessarily to inform you of these particular updates, but instead to again bring to your attention the importance of making sure Windows Updates happen on your computer. Keeping Windows up-to-date with the latest update patches is just as important as having an anti-virus program, an anti-malware program, and a firewall program, if you intend to stay safe on the Internet.

[By the way, if you want to learn lots more about Staying Safe on the Internet, CLICK HERE for information about our latest Internet Safety eBook.]

How do you do a Windows Update? Well, the good news is that for most typical Windows users, the updates are set to happen automatically without you having to do anything extra. All you end up seeing is a small message popping up from your Taskbar tray area (where the time is displayed) saying that updates were installed.

But it’s never a bad idea to make absolutely sure that Windows Update is set correctly. So to help you make sure this is the case, I’ve put together a short video on how to check the Windows Update program on your computer.

Click on the video below to watch it….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7mnerbchK4

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments area below.

Although the DiscoverSkills site IS my “business” site and not intended to be a “family blog”, there are times that I just can’t help but include family events, especially those that relate to the technology that we teach about on the site and at our computer lab in Lincoln, NE.

And last night a family event happened that I just HAD to write about here.

If you’ve read any of my other posts about Apple iTunes and iDevices (iPads, iPods, iPhones) you know that although I’m not an “Apple guy”, I LOVE their mobile devices, and often recommend them to folks looking for easy-to-use, portable access to the Internet and Email.

I’ve even put out an eBook that talks about using iTunes and iDevices.
You can CLICK HERE to read more about it.

But I’ll also be the  first one to admit, that mobile devices that are as cool as iPads and iPhones can also become addicting to the point that accidentally leaving them at home as you make a trip to the grocery store can cause the “shakes” to set in.

Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit, but the truth is, as well all become more tied into our mobile devices, the potential to overuse them and neglect personal time with family and friends, is greatly increased.

And that brings me to last night’s family event.

Over New Year’s, my family gets together in Lawrence, KS, at our oldest son’s house. With 7 grand kids under 9, and a 10 year old of our own, it always turns out to be a great, but tumultuous time, and this year was no exception.

But what was interesting this particular year, was that every one of the adults, including my wife’s mom, brought along either their iPad or an iPhone. Needless to say, as everyone visited and caught-up with family happenings, the iDevices were in hand, taking us to emails and Web sites that supported whatever direction the conversations took.

We were definitely a “connected family“.

But here’s the cool part.

As the family conversations headed into the evening hours, and the kids settled down into their own games and fun down in the basement, the adults decided to play a game.

No, it wasn’t cards or domino’s as we’ve played in the past. This time it was Scrabble… but NOT the traditional Scrabble you’re thinking of. This Scrabble game was  happening online through everyone’s mobile device.

Here’s what the scene looked like…

Now, at first glance it might look like everyone is gathered around the table, ignoring each other and focusing on their iPhone or iPad. But the truth is, everyone was engaging each other verbally, as they matched Scrabble wits across the Internet, using their devices.

And it was a blast!

In fact, even after heading off to bed, folks were still engaged in the game as they laid in bed with the lights off, and fought to stay awake. No kidding!

So here’s what I learned.

As much as it often times bothers me that mobile devices such as the iPad and iPhone almost make us “too connected” and can become almost habit-forming, I also realize that used in creative ways, the devices can bring people together, offering unique ways to interact that can actually bridge the generation gaps and create new family bonds.

Oh, and if you are wondering what online game everyone was playing, it wasn’t the actual Scrabble game, but a variation called Words with Friends which you can learn more about at www.wordswithfriends.com. The online game is available to play on your Internet connected computer, iPad, iPod, iPhone, or Android device, and can even be played as an App on Facebook.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments area below.

[Update: As expected, Facebook is now making the change over to the Timeline mandatory. If you haven't yet, you'll soon be getting a notice saying they are going to change your profile to Timeline, and you'll have seven days to clean things up to your liking. Read below to learn more about the Timeline and how to work with it. I've also posted another more recent article on the Timeline that you might like called "Facebook Timeline - Now Mandatory for Everyone".]

Today’s a big day!

Well yes, it’s just 3 days to Christmas…, and yes, it IS my mom’s 90th birthday today…, oh and it’s the first day of Winter…,  but what I’m really talking about is what today means to the Facebook world. Today, Facebook is officially making its new Timeline available to the world.

Now, to be honest, Timeline has actually been available for quite a while now, to developers and those computer geeks who were willing to jump through a few special hoops to get it.

But as of today, any Facebook user can change their Profile over to the Timeline way of doing things. And since I just finished up another “Using Facebook” class down at the Lincoln Computer Education Center, and since I also just finished the final touches on a new “Getting It Done with Facebook” eBook, I thought it might be a good idea to let everyone know what this new Timeline stuff was all about.

 What IS Facebook Timeline?

Facebook users know that there are two main areas on Facebook where you spend the most of your time.  The first one, which is your Home Page, is where all of your Facebook Friends’ posts and events appear in the form of a scrolling “newsfeed“. So this Facebook area lets you keep up with what your Friends are doing.

The second Facebook area you spend time in is your Profile. Your Profile is where all YOUR “stuff” is, and includes your Wall (posts, photo notices, event notices, etc.) and your Info (all your biographical information, such as Current City, High School, etc.). So this is the area that is “all about you”, and is where your Friends visit when they click on your Facebook name at various places around Facebook.

To give you a visual idea of what I’m talking about, here’s a “Facebook Map” that I created for my Getting It Done with Facebook ebook.

It’s in this second area, your Profile, where Timeline comes into play.

Until today, the Profile area was a fairly plain, boringly organized place to put your personal facts. Here is an example of what my original Profile looked like, up until a few days ago.

Here’s what it NOW looks like, thanks to Timeline…

Quite an improvement, don’t you think?

So what actually IS this Timeline thing? Timeline is still your Facebook Profile, but now your posts, information, and events are shown as a scrolling  ”life story” that I saw one blogger call a “cross between a visual blog and an online scrapbook”. It’s a chronologically organized look at everything you’ve put on Facebook, that also includes “milestone” dated events such as when you were born, when you graduated from high school, etc.

When I first saw Timeline presented in a video that Facebook was using to promote it, my thought was… “boy, that’s going to be a TON of work to setup, and no-one is going to want to use it”.

But now that I’ve set it up myself, I can tell you that I was totally wrong. Not only does Facebook do most of the initial setup for you, but they’ve also made it pretty easy to go down the Timeline and remove things you don’t want Friends to see, or add things you would now like to include.

In fact, once you’ve set Timeline up yourself, I think you’ll find yourself going down through your Timeline and historically adding events and thoughts, just as if you were now putting together your own personal journal of your journey through life.

Timeline really CAN be your Life Story.

How to Get Started with Timeline

Of course, to use Timeline you must first have a Facebook account. But once you get setup, it’s easy to switch from the old Profile to the new Timeline Profile. Just visit the Introducing Timeline page ( www.facebook.com/about/timeline) and click the green GET TIMELINE button at the lower left corner of the window.

Once you do, Facebook will go back to all of your old posts and events, and along with the other information from your Profile, will magically change your Profile page to a scrollable Timeline. It even keeps all your old post security levels.

By the way, Facebook is leaving the upgrade to Timeline as something you can “optionally” do, and is also NOT automatically including it with new Facebook sign-ups. So if you don’t want to change your Profile to Timeline, you don’t have to.

However, most Facebook insiders think that it’s only a matter of time before they force the Timeline onto everyone, so my feeling is, you might as well jump in early and get it going.

If you do make the switch, keep in mind that you’ll have 7 days of working with your Timeline before Facebook makes if available to your Friends for viewing. As you work with it and get it setup just the way you want, your Friends will still be seeing your old Profile. However, you can also “publish” it yourself at any time during that 7 day period.

Also keep in mind that once you DO make the change to Timeline, you can’t go back to the old Profile.

How Do I Make Changes to Timeline?

To give you a bit of guidance on how to initially work with the Timeline once you make the change, I’m including here, a section from my eBook, “Getting It Done with Facebook“. By the way, if you’d like to get a copy of the book for yourself, I’ve got it on sale right now. Just CLICK HERE to visit the book sales page.

As you go up and down the Timeline that Facebook initially creates for you, all along the way you have a chance to add or remove any content that you see fit.

The Cover – At the very top of the Timeline you’ll see a button that says “Add a Cover”. The Cover is basically a photo that you choose to display across the screen above your Profile picture. When you click the button you’ll have a choice of choosing a picture from your existing Facebook Photos or uploading a new one.

Once you choose a photo it is placed in position and you can drag it and re-position it as needed.

Here’s what my Cover looked like once I inserted a picture. You can see that there is a message in the middle saying I can drag to position it, and a button at the lower left corner for Saving my Changes.

Views – Just below your Cover is a box that stretches across the screen and contains your basic Profile information, as well as thumbnails for your Friends, Photos, Maps, Likes, Notes, Subscriptions, and other Apps you may have added. An arrow at the right side lets you expand this box downward.

Clicking on the thumbnail or title beneath the thumbnail takes you to a page with that information on it.

Activity Log – Also note the Update Info button and the Activity Log button at the upper right corner. Update Info takes you to a screen where you can edit your profile information, and Activity Log takes you to a screen that shows you a chronological summary of all your posts.

The great thing is, as you scroll down through a history of all your activity, you can click the small circle button on the right to display a menu for that post, where you can choose if and how that post should be displayed on the Timeline.
And with those posts that are on the Timeline, similar “Featured” and

“Edit or Remove” buttons can be seen at the upper right of the post when you mouse over it.

Featured – This will enlarge the post and spread it across the page. Then, clicking it a second time will reduce it back to the original small size.

Edit or Remove – Shows a menu that varies according to the type of Post, but gives options for changing the post, deleting it, or just removing it from the Timeline.

Adding Content – At any point along the Timeline, if you mouse-over the Timeline and click, you’ll get a menu that lets you add information. Clicking Status or Life Event even gives you a submenu that includes options for choosing specific events.

And when you add an event to the past on your Timeline, it will still go out on your newsfeed but will indicate that it was added to the Timeline on a particular date.

For example, on December 20^th I went back on my Timeline to November 20^th and add this new post. You can see what it looked like when it when out on the newsfeed.

 Is the Timeline for You?

Alright, so I’m a technology geek and it’s easy for me to sit here and tell you that switching over to Timeline and getting things setup is pretty simple. But “easy” and “simple” are always loaded-words coming from geeks, so how can you be sure that Timeline is really for you?

Well, I guess you can’t be completely sure. But as I’ve mentioned, it probably won’t be very long before Facebook forces you to upgrade to Timeline, so why not beat them to the punch and just do it now?

Seriously, if I didn’t think it was a really cool thing that a lot of my students would enjoy, I  wouldn’t make a big deal of this. But I think that if you do make the change, and take a look at Timeline for yourself, you’ll find that it might just give you a lot more reasons to spend time on Facebook, as you start building your Life Story and sharing your own personal Timeline adventure with family and friends.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments area below.

When I was a kid, photography fascinated me. And although I grew up in a small farming town of only 600, I was lucky because the local high school science teacher was into photography and willing to teach me all he knew about working in a darkroom.

I spent many an hour with those smelly chemicals, agonizing over developing the perfect print that would truly showcase what my camera could do. But more often than not, in the end I often had to settle for just a mediocre print of a picture my minds-eye saw as beautiful.

Still, it was a lot of fun.

But now we jump to the present. No longer do I have to work with smelly chemicals, or even spend hours agonizing on ONE picture. Instead, I now spend my “photo development” time in a DIGITAL darkroom, right there on my computer, and my pictures TURN OUT GREAT…. just like my minds-eye sees them. And it doesn’t take me  hours to make them look great, it takes me only MINUTES.

And what’s even cooler, is that ANYONE can do it... with a little push in the right direction.

So here’s the deal…  At our computer lab, the AgeWell Computer Education Center in Lincoln, NE, we offer two classes that take you from the basics of how to work with your photos, all the way through the fun of restoring and fixing your most important photos.

In the first class, called Digital Imaging Basics – Featuring Photoshop Elements, we take you through the essentials you’ll need to do “quick fixes” of your photos. Some of what you’ll learn in this 3-part class includes:

• All the basic terms and jargon you’ll need when working with pictures and talking with others about it. (Your friends will be amazed!!!)
• How to scan in all those old prints, slides, and negatives you have sitting in a shoebox under the bed.
• A quick review of the best place on your computer to keep your pictures, and how to get them there.
• The quick (less than 5 minutes), basic steps to take that make your pictures look their best before you print them or send them out on the Internet

And besides a great handout-outline of what we’ll do, we also have a Digital Imaging Basics book available for purchase on our web site, but also available for purchase (at a discount) at class time. In fact, we let you review the book for 2 weeks before you even have to decide if you want to keep it.

And for a preview of what the class is like, you can CLICK HERE to watch a tutorial video we put together on how to do some basic photo fixes.

In the second class, called More Photoshop Elements, we take you beyond the basics and teach you the fundamentals of enhancing, fixing, and restoring photos where the picture is important enough to spend some quality time.

Some of the things we cover in this 5-part class include:

• How to crop and size your picture to make it perfect for printing or email
• How to take a photo that’s too dark or too light and make the exposure almost perfect!
• How to color correct those pictures that are little too blue, or green, or red… etc.
• How to remove imperfections (dust, blemishes, cracks, creases, people we no longer like, etc.)
• How to tone down a busy background so that the subject almost pops out of the picture.
• How to create a vignette effect.
• How to take the best parts of two pictures and pull them together into one.
• How to create a photo collage
• and lots  more…

And just as we have a great book for the Photoshop Elements Basics class,  we also have a More Photoshop Elements book available for purchase (at a discount) at class time. In fact, we let you review the book for 4 weeks before you even have to decide if you want to keep it.

And to give you a better feel of what the More Photoshop Elements class is all about, I’ve put together a video overview that also takes you through what we call “basic photo editing workflow”.

[Click on the Video, below, to watch it]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsehtcIyMIc

And as always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments area below.

[Click on the Video, below, to watch it]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf3d7aFAkDE

Having just finished up another one of our iDevice and Digital Music classes at our teaching lab in Lincoln, Nebraska, fresh on my mind is what a great program, iTunes is.

If you’re not familiar with iTunes, it’s a free program you can download from Apple.com, and use to organize and play all your media files (music, video, TV Shows, etc.). Not only that, but you can also use it to “rip” your music CD collection (which means copy the tracks from the CD over to your computer), and better yet, access the Apple iTunes store and purchase everything from music, to movies, to TV Shows, and beyond.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Now, as I’ve said many times in other blog posts, I’m not a big Apple-guy. I’ve been using PC’s since the early 1980′s, and have taught PC’ technology for the past 25 years. Still, I’ve been an iTunes fan since it first came out, because I’ve always believed it’s one of the best computer media players/organizers out there.

I’m not at all, a fan of the Windows Media Player, since it’s way too cumbersome to use as an organizer. Yes, I use it to play media now and then, but most of my media-time is spent with iTunes.

Anyway, iTunes is great, and in our iDevice classes where we teach folks how to work with digital media and use their iDevices (iPads, iPods, iPhones), we make a big deal of teaching folks how to use iTunes.

So, just for fun, I thought I’d pass along a little of that teaching here, in the form of a two-part video blog that overviews the main iTunes features.

In this first part, we’ll take a look at the iTunes interface and learn the basics of how to navigate around, access your media, and put it into Playlists.

Then, in part two, we’ll specifically look at how to add music to your iTunes Library, including how you use iTunes to rip CDs, how to add folders of music manually, and finally, how to access and use the online iTunes Store.

And as always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments area below.

[Click on the Video, below, to watch it]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF1voXJPkac

Back in the “old days” we had those things called pull-down menus and toolbars.

Sure, at first it took us a while to get use them, but after 10 years of clicking here and clicking there, most folks finally got that hang of it, and were able to become comfortable with something they thought would last forever.

Then came the dreaded “ribbon“. And computer life as we knew it, changed.

Ok, I’m being a bit dramatic here, but the fact is, the “ribbon concept” that Microsoft introduced with its Office 2007 products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) has left a lot of folks scratching their heads as they scramble to find options and features that use to be right there in front of them, on their favorite toolbar or in their favorite pull-down menu.

But before you throw up your hands in disgust, and check that new computer out the window, let me console you a bit.

The ribbon isn’t really THAT bad, once you get the hang of how ribbons work.

Yes, it will take some time to look around and find your favorite options, but once you do, you might actually find that ribbons aren’t so bad and there actually might BE some light at the end of the Microsoft tunnel.

And to help you get started, I’ve put together a short, 10-minute video that shows you the basics of using the Word 2007 / 2010 ribbon, or for that matter, the ribbons in ANY of Microsoft’s programs (since the ribbons pretty-much all work the same).

By the way, if you are in the Lincoln, Nebraska area, we offer a 3-part class on using Word 2007 / 2010 that we run almost every month. CLICK HERE to check out latest schedule and see when the next class offering might be.

We also have a newly created eBook called Getting It Done with Word 2010 over in our online catalog. Although it focuses on Word 2010, it’s also a great resource for Word 2007.

And as always, I’d love to hear any comments you might have. Just leave them below…

Happy Computing!!!

The passing of Steve Jobs has left a huge gap in the technology world. Although I’ve never really been an “Apple-guy”, nor someone who hung on every word that Steve Jobs said, I’m still a technology guy, which means that I’d be totally remiss if I didn’t sincerely respect Steve for the incredible vision and cutting-edge designs he produced.

And just to be fair, although I am a PC person through and through, I also do not worship at the alter of Microsoft and Bill Gates.  But I do respect anyone, like Bill, who sees a need and then takes the initiative and action to fill that need.

But here’s my point…  as much as I might not be on the Apple side of things, I’ll be the first one to carry the banner for their iStuff.

When I say iStuff (or iDevice, iThing, iGadget), I’m referring to the flock of products they’ve released since 2001, that includes iPods (portable media players), iPhones (Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones), and iPads (audio-visual focused tablet computers).

I love Apple’s iStuff. In fact, my entire family (Ok, that’s just me, Sue, and Jack) loves Apple’s iStuff. And coming from a family of technology geeks that are skeptical and can find something wrong with almost any technology device they own, that’s saying a lot.

So why this great love of our iDevices?

Let’s go back a few years. We got our first cell phone back in about 1997. It was a pricey Motorola model that was suppose to let us connect to the Internet. Oh, it would let us connect, but the speed was so pitiful, that after about a week of trying to browse the Web remotely, I gave up. After that, during the early and middle 2000′s, I stayed completely away from any cell phone that wasn’t free with my plan (i.e. I had only basic cell phones that would let me make calls, and that’s it).

Then one day, a few years ago, Sue brought home a iPod Touch she was using as part of a grant project at the school she teaches at. Her homework was to learn how to use the iPod, and then somehow use it in the classroom.

Of course, as a “technology family“, ALL of us took turns messing with the device, and within a few days, we were ALL hooked.

First, we went out and purchased an iPod Touch for Jack.

Then, a few weeks later, being at the end of our cell phone contract, we bought two refurbished iPhones for Sue and I to use.

Then, this past year, using funds that all three of us contributed birthday money and allowances to, we purchased an iPad 2.

So now, between the three of us, we have 2 iPod Touches, 2 iPhones, and 1 iPad.

Now, rather than think of us as trendy nerds that just HAVE to have the latest in technology gadgets, understand that we are the types of nerds that do NOT spend money on technology without a very good reason. If you look around our home, every piece of technology that we have is very heavily used, and there’s nothing that just sits and collects dust.

So back to the original question… WHY do we have this love affair with our iThings?

Perhaps I can best answer that by telling you how we use them during a typical day…

• 5:00 AM – I wake up and grab my iPhone from the side of the bed, checking on overnight email.
• 6:00 AM – Sue and I are up, sitting on the couch, listening to KFAB (a local radio station) on my iPhone, while browsing through my email on the iPad.
• 7:00 AM – Jack gets up, turns on the TV to ESPN SportsCenter, then grabs the iPad to play his “Tiny Zoo” game.
• 8:00 AM – Jack and Sue head off to school (Sue teaches at Jack’s school). Sue takes her iPhone and text’s me when she gets there.
• 8:15 AM – I am in my home office, in front of my computer starting the workday. The iPad is sitting, open, on my desk, with my email program up and running so that I can see if new messages comes in.
• During the Day – As I’m away from my office in my car, I listen to technology podcasts on my iPhone.
• During the Day – As I’m away from my office, I monitor my email and refer to my Google Task list on my iPhone.
• During the Day – As I eat lunch at the kitchen table, I watch an ad-free TV show episode on the iPad.
• During the Day – Sue and I send text messages at various times on our iPhones.
• During the Day -
• 5:00 PM – Jack and Sue get home, Jack does his homework, sometimes using the iPod or iPad to look up words or Google information.
• Evening – Jack practices his voice lessons by playing back recorded piano accompaniment from the iPad.
• Evening – I continue to monitor my email on my iPhone
• Evening – Sue sits in the front yard swing, reading her email on the iPad.
• Evening – Jack texts his cousin Elly (in Minnesota) using my iPhone
• 9:00 PM – We head to bed, but not to sleep.  Sue takes the iPod and plays her favorite game, Sudoku.
• 9:00 PM – I read a technology book on my iPhone, and check my Facebook account.
• 10:00 PM – Lights off, I watch YouTube videos on the iPad, and do one last check of my email.
• 10:30 PM – I hook both the iPad and the iPhone up to power outlets to charge, right next to my bed.

Pretty geeky day, I’ll have to admit. But I also have to admit that my iPhone is glued to me from dusk til dawn, every day. And I can’t imagine not having it there to check my email, listen to podcasts, or quickly jump on the Internet to check something.

But now the downside to our iDevices.

As much as it’s great to have instant access to email, the Internet, audio books, podcasts, movies, games, etc. from anywhere… it’s can also be a terrible, non-productive distraction. There is such a thing as being too connected. And now that we have our iThings next to us 24/7, there are definately times I feel way TOO accessible and connected.

Now, to be honest, during the day,and especially in the morning when I do a lot of my writing and best thinking, I actually turn my iDevices OFF (and also my email on my computer), just so that I can focus.

But as much as I might sometimes feel too connected, I still can’t imagine life without my iStuff.

And that’s the story.

Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas and insights about these devices that you can use to make your own decisions about getting one, or perhaps about some other things you can do with the one you already have.

I want to close with one more comment about Steve Jobs.

Since my start with computer technology back in 1981, I’ve often heard that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were just two lucky guys that happen to be in the right place at the right time. I suppose there is some truth to this, and in fact, this could probably be said of most successful entrepreneurs.

But what is often NOT said, is that to take advantage of the “right place and the right time”, an individual has to TAKE ACTION and DO something.

That’s what Steve and Bill both did. As they both stood in their right place and their right time, they took their passion and love of technology and actually built something.

And that’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it?

Here’s a nice tribute by David Pogue to Steve that I ran across on the CBS Sunday Morning site.

The technology world is changing.

Sure, technology itself changes on a daily basis, but what I’m talking about here is REAL change… change that modifies the actual technology landscape we’re all walking around in.

The change I’m referring to is the one being brought on by the widespread adoption of tablet devices.

But let me digress for a moment.

For the past 5 years, mobile technology, spearheaded by “smartphones” that let us access our email and the web, has exploded in popularity. Having a phone that gives you access to almost anything Web, is a great convenience to a lot of folks.

Personally, I can’t imagine leaving the house without my Apple iPhone. Not only can I make calls with it, but I can text, read my emails, browse the Web, post blog articles, read ebooks, listen to music, catch local radio stations, watch movies, and play games.

As one of the many smartphones out there, my iPhone is  a true mobile, communication/information/entertainment device. And to make things even better, it easy to use because it’s a touch-screen device.

But it’s still NOT my personal computer.

What I can’t do (very well) with it is “create” things like I can with a PC. With a PC, I can edit pictures, write stories, create slide presentations, and so on. Sure, to a small extent I can do that with my phone, but the size and speed make it pretty cumbersome to do.

But now back to the present.

Tablets are becoming all the rage. In reality, a tablet does all the stuff a smartphone will do, just faster and with a bigger screen. And because it does have a bigger screen, one that really is more conducive to “creating” things, a lot of folks are now wondering if tablets will soon overtake the PC, and in fact replace it completely.

I personally don’t think so.

As with my iPhone, I LOVE my iPad (Apple’s tablet). I can sit anywhere in my house, and very comfortably read my email, browse the Web, watch movies…. all the same stuff I mentioned earlier with the phone. But unlike the phone, I’m doing it on a bigger screen.

But what I still can’t really do, is CREATE things… at least not as quickly and easily as I’d like. The touch-screen keyboard is OK, but the minute I go past typing in a few sentences for something, I start dearly missing my regular PC keyboard.

Even when I connect an external keyboard to the iPad, I still can’t type like I can on the PC.

And when it comes to editing pictures, or creating PowerPoint slide shows… again, I can get my work done 5 times as fast on the PC.

So here’s the deal…

A few days ago I had a student in one of my Lincoln classes approach me about purchasing a new computer. Her question was…  should I get a Windows 7 PC? Or, should I get one of those new Kindle Fire tablets for $199?

And this is where the changing landscape of technology is making things tough.

We are now in that transition time where tablets, that can ALMOST do everything a PC can, are making big enough waves that folks are even questioning the purchase of a new PC. And it really IS a tough call.

But here was my answer to her question…

It depends.

Tablets are great for all those things I mentioned above, including email and Web browsing, and are especially great because touch-screen technology makes them easier to use. But they are not the greatest for creating things.

PC’s still make you use a mouse (at least for now), and are much less portable, but they are great for “creating”.

So there’s your choice. The one you choose depends upon what you plan to do, which has always been a common theme when deciding on technology.

Now, as for the new Amazon Kindle Fire versus the Apple iPad.

Below I’ve embedded a couple good video programs from CNet that give you the scoop on the Kindle. My take is, the smaller Kindle Fire with the lower price ($199 versus $499 for the cheapest iPad) is going to be great for folks on a budget or for those looking at devices for their kids. The iPad still is the shining star of tablets, especially with the 140,000 some apps for it and the larger screen.

But with the power of Amazon behind the Kindle, there will be no lack of content or apps for the device. In fact, a lot of folks feel that Amazon is probably taking a loss on the Kindle in order to make its money on the apps and content that Kindle users will purchase.

Time will tell… but there’s no doubt that Apple and Amazon are going to be doing a lot of head bumping in the coming months, and frankly, will probably be pushing a lot of the other tablet guys out of the picture.

So here are those videos I mentioned. The first is a short summary of the Kindle Fire that also includes some news reports, and the second is a longer round-table discussion that goes a lot more in-depth.

As always, if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below in the comment field.

Great… just as you FINALLY started getting use to Windows 7 (or even Windows XP), you get wind that good-old Microsoft will soon be releasing, (gasp!) Windows 8.

Well, not to worry. At a recent developers conference, many of those who are “in the know” said it would probably not be until the Christmas holiday season of 2012 before the Windows was released. And if you consider Microsoft’s track record in meeting release-date deadlines, well, it may not be until 2013.

Still, it might be fun to take a very quick look at a few things we’re learning about Windows 8, and the direction that Microsoft seems to be heading.

A few years ago, when Microsoft released Windows Vista, it wasn’t long before they realized they had messed up. Compared to the very stable and comfortable Windows XP, the new fangled Vista just couldn’t hold a candle. Yes, there were a few new, kind of cool things, but when all was said and done, Windows Vista was just plain buggy.

Microsoft learned from this experience (which is pretty unusual for Microsoft, considering they had exactly the same bad experience when they released Windows ME as an upgrade to Windows 98SE), and when Windows 7 was released, it ended up being a very stable, well thought out operating system, making it one of the best Windows versions, ever.

[Here's a video we did to introduce the new features of Windows 7]

So considering that Windows 7 is doing well, and just now starting to make a real dent onto the home users PC, why is Microsoft coming out with Windows 8?

I think there are two core answers to that question.

First, as a software developer, Microsoft makes it’s money by selling you (and businesses) software. And in the world of computers, software that has been out for over two years is rightly or wrongly considered to be “old”. With a public release date of October 22nd, 2009, Windows 7 will soon be over two years old, putting it into that “old software” category.

So to continue to make money, Microsoft “needs” Windows 8 to give Windows a fresh, new boost, even though Windows 7 is still perfectly capable of doing what it’s suppose to do.

Second (and I think that this is the REAL reason that Windows 8 is on the way), the computing world around us is becoming very mobile, and in fact, there is quite a “war” of opinion going on right now between those who feel we are heading into a “Post-PC era” (where tablet devices will rule) and those who feel PC’s are here to stay.

At this point, it’s really too early to tell if we are heading to a Post-PC time, but there’s no denying that portable tablet-like devices are all the rage, and anyone who makes a living off of technology better pay attention to that fact.

With Windows 8, I think that’s what Microsoft is doing.

We got our first preview look at Windows 8 not long ago, at a special Developers conference that Microsoft held to show software makers what Windows 8 will look like. And although Windows 8 is still made for a PC with a keyboard and mouse, it’s easy to see that it has REALLY been designed for use on a touchscreen equipped device.

For example, here’s a shot of the main screen (in what they call “Metro-style”), where you can swipe across with your finger and move through large thumbnail pictures that represent your “apps”.

Then, when you go into an app, it takes up the entire screen (without a border), and to view the app commands and options, you swipe your finger downward from the top, or upward from the bottom. If you swipe from side to side, you can quickly change from one app to another.

If you don’t have a touchscreen, you can use your mouse and get the same type of actions by moving the mouse cursor to the lower corners of the screen. And although I don’t know this for sure, I would imagine that other types of mouse movements (such as dragging) let you move in a similar way as swiping a finger.

If you’d like to see more screen shots and find out more of what Microsoft has to say about Windows 8, CLICK HERE to visit a special preview page. They even have a PDF Windows 8 guide that you can download.

But here’s the bottom-line…  Windows 8 is still a fairly long way off, and with a lot of folks just now, finally upgrading to new computers that include Windows 7, by the time Windows 8 is released, there will be a large contingency of PC users who probably won’t want to change from a Windows 7 system that is very stable and very comfortable once you get use to it.

And unless Microsoft comes out with some pretty earth shattering new features that we just can’t live without, I have a feeling that it will take a long while for Windows 8 to make it’s way onto our PC’s.

UPDATED – I found a great ZDNet video entitled “Windows 8 Developer Preview” that I’ve added here for you to see. It shows you some more detail on how the Windows 8 interface looks…

 
I’d love to hear what you think about all this Windows 8 stuff. If you have something you’d like to add, please leave a comment down below.

Not long ago, Sue and I had an opportunity to spend the weekend house sitting for our son Brian and daughter-in-law Brandi, which also including watching 4 of our 7 grandchildren, who range in age from about 1.5 years to 8.

Of course, our youngest son Jack (who is 10) came along, so adding up the household we had 5 kids, a dog, a couple of fish, two lizards, and two parent/grandparents.  Needless to say, we had a wild, crazy, and fun-filled time.

Now, if you’ve read many of the article posts here on DiscoverSkills, you know that one of the subjects I spend a lot of time on is digital photography (CLICK HERE to see our Digital Camera posts, and CLICK HERE to see our Image Editing posts). It’s been one of my passions since I was a kid, and something that I especially love to do and teach about now that “digital” has become the norm.

Rosie and Finlee, the best of buddies

So it might surprise you to hear that upon arriving at our kids house, I realized that I had NOT brought along any of my digital cameras. Here we are, watching a covey of energetic, boisterous, playful kids, and the adults have no camera to record the “Kodak” moments.

How pitiful is that?

But wait…  after realizing the camera bag was still sitting at home, in the next breath my left hand instinctively went to my left-front, pant poocket, and low and behold there it was. My ever present, ever handy, take-it-with-me-everywhere, Kodak Zi8.  We were saved!

For those not familiar with it, the Kodak Zi8 is a small, pocket-sized, high-definition, digital video camera. In the world of video, the Zi8 is grouped with a family of cameras which we typically call “flip” cameras, named after the now discontinued line of Flip Video cameras that started the entire pocket-sized video camera movement.

[I'll devote my next article to telling you more about the pros and cons of flip-style video cameras]

I love my Kodak Zi8. Not only does it take high quality video, but it’s small size makes it a snap to take it with me every where I go. This means that I rarely, if ever, miss a shot, and that’s what photography is all about… having the camera ready when the moment is right.

And so it was…  during our grand-kid-watching weekend. “Moments” popped up all over the place, and in every case I had my Zi8 out of my pocket and ready to go. We got LOTS of great Kodak moments.

But there was one particular moment that especially stood out, and prompted me to write this article.  Our granddaughter, Finlee, is about one and a half years old. She’s a doll, and at that age where she’s constantly moving, exploring, and interacting with the world around her. And one of her favorite “targets” of interaction is the family dog, Rosie… a Golden Retriever that is just about Finlee’s same age.

So here is the scenario…  I’m sitting at a dining room table, doing some computer work, and out of the corner of my eye, in another room, I see Finlee walk and stand in front of Rosie who’s chewing a bone. Of course I’m thinking, “uh oh, trouble’s coming”… but then the next instant, Finlee is climbing all over Rosie who is treating her as gentle as a lamb.

Talk about Kodak moments.

Here is a 5 minute sample of the video I took.  I think you’ll find it fun to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dLe6JsaXpc

But the big message to take away is this:  Our typical days are full of Kodak moments, but the only way you’ll get them is if your camera is there with you.  And with the new slew of micro-sized point-and-shoot cameras, and even pocket-sized flip cameras like the Kodak Zi8, taking a camera with you everywhere is easier than ever.

Give it a try!

Oh, and as always, if you have any Kodak moments of your own you’d like to share, please leave us the story in the comment area below. We’d love to hear about them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFYUKJnj32c

In a recent Photoshop Elements class at the Lincoln Computer Education Center, I discovered (along with the class) that the side-panel area of  Elements tends to have a mind of its own when it comes to opening, closing, sizing, and positioning bins. After spending some quality out-of-class time with the side-panel, I think I finally have some things figured out.

In this video tutorial, I take you through what I learned, showing you how to take control of the side panel rather than letting it take control of you.

As always, if you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them below. I would love to hear from you.

If you’re like most people, remembering to make backups of your important files (such as pictures or financial documents) is not high on your daily priority list. It SHOULD be, but it often just isn’t. But that’s where Dropbox can be a big help, and is why it’s become one of our favorite things to talk about when students ask about doing backups.

So let’s take a look at what Dropbox is and what it can do.

In it’s simplest form, Dropbox is an online storage solution that you can use as an offsite backup for your important files. But it’s really a LOT more than just an online storage solution, since it can take the bull by the horns and automatically synchronize selected files from your computer to your online Dropbox space, any time you make changes to those files.

To get get started, you visit the Dropbox web site (www.dropbox.com) and setup a free account. The free account includes 2GB of space that you can expand up to 8GB of free space by inviting your friends to use Dropbox. Additional space costs $9.99 per month (for 50GB) or $19.99 per month (for 100GB).

Once the account is setup, you download and install the Dropbox software on your computer. Dropbox can be installed on multiple computers and also on your mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, etc.), which allows you to easily share files and folders between computers, but we’ll talk more about this in a moment.

Once Dropbox is installed, you’ll see a new Dropbox folder in your regular folder window and your folder navigation menu, right next to your Documents (or My Documents) folder. If you open the Dropbox folder, you’ll see two folders that have already been created for you, one called Public another called Photo. But you can then make as many additional folders as you please.

Now to the really cool part.

To have a file or folder automatically copied up to your Dropbox space, all you do is copy or move it to the Dropbox folder. As soon as you do, the program will start “synchronizing“, and you’ll see a small blue circle icon with arrows appear with your file or folder icon. As soon as the blue circle turns to a green circle with a checkmark, the file is done being copied.

That’s it! You now have a backup of that file or folder.

Plus, if you open that file or folder and make changes to it on your local computer, Dropbox automatically synchronizes and copies it up to your Dropbox space, just like that! It’s all automatic.

And here is another very cool thing…

Let’s say you have another computer in the house (or even on the other side of the world!) with Dropbox installed and linked to the same account as your first computer. Computer #2 will automatically have all the same Dropbox files and folders as computer #1, and the minute you make any changes to those files on computer #1, a small notification box appears on computer #2 to alert you of the change.

This feature makes it a breeze to automatically share files between two or more computers. And to make things even better, you can install Dropbox on your favorite mobile device and have the same kind of sharing. Plus, you can access your Dropbox files from ANY computer connected to the Internet, even if it doesn’t have Dropbox, by logging into your Dropbox account via the Web.

But I’m not done with the coolness!

You can also selectively share files and folders with others who have Dropbox, but are not linked to your account. To do this, you simply mark a file/folder for sharing (RIGHT click on it in the Dropbox to do this), and then send that other person an email message with the link for sharing.

This last feature is especially great for sharing photos. Remember I said there was a special Photo folder under the Dropbox folder? If you go to Photo and create a new folder full of pictures, that new folder automatically becomes a “gallery” which can be shared with others who can then view the pictures and even download them to their computer.

Finally, I should mention that Dropbox files are available on your computer even when you are not connected to the Internet. Of course, if you’re not connected you won’t see the changes that others might make to the same Dropbox account, but as soon as you reconnect, those changes will automatically happen.

With regards to security and safety, Dropbox keeps a one-month history of all your work so that all changes you might make in  your Dropbox folder can be undone, and any files you delete, undeleted. And since Dropbox uses the very secure Amazon S3 service as it’s hosting company, your files are as safe as they can possible be on the Internet.

So by now you should have a pretty good idea of how really great Dropbox is. But before I close, let’s get back to the whole “backup” thing one last time, by relating a personal example of how I use Dropbox.

Last week I finished up a new eBook about computer terminology that I’m going to use in some of my computer classes. I saved the eBook as a Microsoft Word document into the Dropbox folder on my desktop computer.

Without doing anything other than just saving the file, how many times has my new eBook been backed up? Well, here is where it now sits:

• On my local desktop computer
• On my notebook computer
• On my iPhone
• On my iPad
• In my Dropbox storage space

If you are interested in taking a look at Dropbox, just CLICK HERE to visit www.Dropbox.com.

By the way, this link is an affiliate link, which simply means that if you visit Dropbox and then decide to sign-up for a free account, I’ll get “credit” for sending you there, and will get a boost in my free storage space, with no cost to you. And don’t forget, you can do the same thing with your family and friends. And in spreading the word about Dropbox, I think you can see that you’d be doing your friends a service.

If you have any comments or stories about Dropbox you’d like to share, please leave them below. We always love to hear what you have to say!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm3WwKezxKw

In part two of our series about Online Learning, we discuss we discuss Webinars, what they are, how they work, and the 3 different kinds you’ll find on the Internet. We specifically describe how a web-only webinar (where you use only your computer and speakers) works, and how DiscoverSkills uses webinars to provide classroom-like teaching across the Internet.

Please leave any comments or questions in the comment area below…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdcfJ1coCaE

This DiscoverSkills.com video tutorials shows you how to access AnyMeeting (formerly called Freebinar) based Webinars. We created it as a guide for DiscoverSkills students who are new to attending one of the many webinars that we conduct, using this service.

Please leave any comments or questions in the comment area below…

We spend quite a bit of time talking about how to stay safe on the Internet, and especially how to protect yourselves from computer viruses and malware. (CLICK HERE to see a list of Internet Safety/Security Articles). But what if you do get infected? That’s where creating a Rescue CD comes in.

A Rescue CD is a CD or DVD disc that you create ahead of time, and then if your computer starts acting funny because of a possible virus infection, you insert the disc and reboot your computer using the disc. On the disc is a simple operating system (often times one called Linux) that your computer uses to get started, as well as anti-virus and anti-malware programs that run and attempt to remove the infection from your machine.

The easiest way to create a rescue disc is to visit one of the many anti-virus software company web sites, and download the one that they offer. One of our favorites is the free AVG Rescue CD (CLICK HERE to visit the download page). When you visit the download page for the AVG Rescue CD, you’ll see three different files that you can download:

• Rescue CD (For CD Creation) – This file downloads as a file type called “ISO“. An ISO file is a “disc image” that can be used by your CD burning software to create a full CD. Once you download and save this file to your computer, to use it, you’ll open your favorite burning software and choose “burn a disc image”.For example, in Roxio Creator, you choose  ”Burn Disc Image” from the “Data-Copy” menu, and then browse for the ISO file you downloaded. When you click the green-arrow “go” button, Roxio burns the disc image, and you have a bootable disc.

• Rescue CD (for USB stick) – This file can be downloaded either as a “RAR” file or a “ZIP” file, both of which are called “archive” files. If you are a Windows user, your best bet is to download the ZIP file. Once downloaded, RIGHT click the Zip file and you’ll see an option to “Extract All” which will copy all the files in the ZIP to a folder. Then, when you open that folder , you’ll see a “SETUP” program you can double-click which will walk you through creating a bootable USB flash drive.

Keep in mind that creating a bootable Rescue disc and then putting it to use is somewhat of a geeky thing to do. To be honest, running an anti-virus rescue disc is exactly what a computer repair store will do if you take your infected computer in for servicing. That’s why some of the screen shots you see above might look a bit daunting.

But, if your computer ever does become infected, and if you’d like to try a “home remedy” before spending the $150 to have a repairman fix things up, take the time to download and setup a Rescue CD. What do you have to loose?

I’ll bet you have a hobby or interest that you’re pretty passionate about. Maybe it’s cooking, or fly fishing, or collecting political buttons, or who knows what… we all have SOMETHING that interests us beyond the ordinary. Well, if you DO have an interest that you think about almost every day, Google has a great tool to help you stay on top of that interest, called Google Alerts. Let’s take a minute to to talk about what they are and how to set up Google Alerts.

The concept is really pretty simple. Rather than you going to Google each day and searching for some new information about your favorite thing, Google does the work for you automatically, and then alerts you with any new sites, pages, or articles that might have poped-up over night. It’s like having your own personal search service that reports to you on a regular basis.

And the really cool thing is, it’s easy to set up.

Here are the steps:

1. Go to Google (www.google.com), and from the menu at the top left, choose MORE / EVEN MORE, which will take you to the Google Products page.
2. The very first product listed is “Alerts”. Click the Alerts link and you’ll be taken to the Google Alerts page.
   
   NOTE: Although you do NOT need a Google Account to use Alerts, life is easier if you have one. We suggest you click the SIGN IN link at the upper right side of the page, and either sign in with an existing Google Account, or use the link on that page to setup a new, free account.
   Having a Google Account lets you better manage your alerts, plus, when you set up an alert without first having a Google Account, you’ll have to verify the alert through email. If you have an account, Google skips the email confirmation part.
3. The Google Alerts set up page is pretty simple…
   • Search Terms – Here you type in the search words that match your interest. In our example here, we’ve typed “landscape photography”. If you click the PREVIEW RESULTS link, you’ll see a window appear that shows the current “hits” and what the email message you’ll get from Google looks like.
   • Type – This drop down list lets you choose the type of search results, including News, Blogs, Realtime (primarily Twitter Tweets), Video, Discussions, or Everything. We suggest you choose Everything until you get some experience with what Google sends you.
   • How Often – Here you choose how often Google should check your keywords and send you the results. Once A Day is a good choice, but you can also choose Once A Week or As It Happens. The latter sends you results whenever Google indexes a new page that matches your keywords. For keywords that get lots of hits, you might get bombarded with emails if you choose As It Happens.
   • Volume – You have two choices here: With “Only the Best Results”, Google filters your results and tries to remove the junk; “Everything” gives you just that, anything that Google finds with your keywords included.
   • Deliver To – Most folks who use Google Alerts just have them sent to an email account. However, you can also have Google send you the results as an RSS (Really Simple Sindication) feed that goes directly to Google Reader. For now, unless you are familiar with how RSS works, we suggest you just stick to email.

    

4. Click Create Alert – If you have a Google Account, you’ll be taken to the Google Alert Management page which shows you a list of your alerts. Here, you can delete the alert or edit it. If you do NOT have a Google Account, you’ll be prompted that a verification email has been sent, and you’ll need to go to your email, open the message, and click the included link to verify that you really want to get this alert.

That’s it!  Now all you do is sit back and wait for Google to find something related to your keywords, and then send you those results via email. Here’s an example of what we get from a Google Alert for the keyword “DiscoverSkills”…

Pretty cool, right?

And keep in mind that once you start playing with Google Alerts, it makes sense to go back and tweek them by trying different keywords  until you get exactly the results you’re hoping for. You can make up to 1,000 alerts, so there’s no real end to the Alerts that you can create.

Give it a try!  And please, let us know how things go by leaving us a comment below.

Happy Alerting!!!

Many of you know that we offer a lot of digital photography related classes at the Computer Education Center in Lincoln, NE. One reason is because we, ourselves, just love photography, and have for a very long time. And there’s nothing quite as fun as sitting around with other folks who enjoy the same hobby, and pass tips and tricks back and forth.

In our digital photography classes, and specifically, in our “Using Your Digital Camera” class, one of the favorite tips we pass along has to do with taking a decent picture in low light, when you’re too far away to use your flash.

First of all, you should know that we do NOT like the flash. Sure, there are times when you really need it and have little choice but to use it, but we still don’t like it. The problem is, flash often leaves the subject of the picture looking flat and uninteresting because the light from the flash has removed important shadows that help give depth. In addition, flash in an image that is not properly exposed can wash out parts of the subject (glare), and create new, unsightly shadows on walls and other objects.

Here is an example. In the picture on the left, we’ve used a flash. Look at how the face is washed out (no shadows), but behind the subjects you can see shadows on the wall that are distracting. In the picture on the right, we’ve turned the flash off and the subject is being lit from a window to the side. We now have soft, facial shadows, that give the subject depth.

Can you see why we don’t like flash very much?

And still, flash is often a necessary evil when there just isn’t enough light on your subject. Or is it? And what if you are too far away to use the flash, which is typically only good out to about 10 or 12 foot?

That’s where this great thing called ISO comes in.

ISO (which stands for International Standards Organization, which tells us nothing about what it really is), is a measurement of how light-sensitive the digital camera light sensor chip is.

ISO has been around since the days of camera film, and in fact WAY back was called ASA. But even with film, it measured the same basic thing… how light-sensitive film was.

ISO is indicated by a number. The higher the number, the more light-sensitive the film or light sensor is. Typical numbers are 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, and even higher. What this means is, as you increase the ISO number, your camera becomes better at taking pictures in lower light, without having your pictures come out blurry because of a low shutter speed and camera-shake.

NOTE: Although I don’t want to get into a big discussion about shutter speed and aperture right now, the two camera features that determine the exposure of your picture, I at least have to mention something about shutter speed, since it’s related to why we need the higher ISO.

In order to get a proper exposure in low light situations where you can’t use the flash, your camera automatically lowers the shutter speed. If it drops too low, your pictures get blurry because of camera movement or subject movement. As a rule of thumb, you need to keep the shutter speed above 1/60 of a second.

So, as you increase the ISO (increase the light sensitivity of the camera chip), your goal is to get an ISO that’s high enough to get the shutter speed above 1/60. Once you do that, you’ll have less blur in your low light picture.

But there is a draw-back. As the ISO increases, noise (on film we call it graininess) is introduced. How much noise? Well, it depends on a lot of things including the subject and even the quality of your camera sensor chip. But the good news is, even though noise is introduced, raising the ISO in low-light situations where you can’t use the flash at least lets you get a picture that you otherwise would not get.

For example, here’s a picture taken of my son Jack at an indoor sports facility that was poorly lit.  I was too far way to use the flash, and was actually using a telephoto lens. But by increasing the ISO to about 1600 (in this case), I was able to get a picture. It’s not perfect, but certainly good enough!

That’s why we really like ISO.

As far as how to set the ISO, you’ll have to check your camera manual since they’re all a little different. Just look up “ISO” in your index or table of contents.

One more thing… in normal picture-taking situations, most cameras are set to “automatic ISO” where the camera will vary the ISO between 50 and 300, depending on the lighting situation. Many photographers feel that it’s a good practice to turn OFF the automatic setting, and for normal picture-taking, set the ISO to as LOW a number as you can, just to get the least amount of noise.

For example, if you are outdoors on a sunlit day, you can set the ISO down to 50 and still have enough light for a good picture, but also get the least amount of noise.

That’s it for now. If you have you own experiences with ISO or flash or anything else having to do with your camera, we’d love to have you leave a comment, just below.

Happy Picture Taking!

When Twitter started making news in 2006, and I had my first chance to check it out, my first thought was…  ”what a waste of time!”  With regards to Twitter, all I really heard about was folks using Twitter to tell their friends that they had just visited the bathroom, or that they had boldly purchased chocolate milk instead of skim at the store.

Like I said, a big waste of time.

For a long while, I ignored Twitter thinking it would go away. And then something interesting happened. While reading an article from one of my favorite “tech” authors, I noticed at the end of the article, he had a link that said… “Click here to follow me on Twitter“. Hmm…

I clicked the link, and next thing you know, I’m seeing all these “tweets” about tech things that I’m actually interested in.

As time went on, I started finding that same link at the end of ALL my favorite authors posts, and pretty soon I was following a bunch of people on Twitter, as a great way to keep up with my hobbies and interests!

That was a few years ago, and today I access Twitter on a daily basis… more in fact, than I access Facebook.

So here’s the deal…

Twitter is a great tool for getting small, brief updates about your favorite topics from your favorite authors throughout the day. It’s a way for you to stay right on top of those things that interest you, without doing anything more than opening up a small desktop program, and scanning down through a series of 140 character-in-length messages.

In the very near future I’ll be posting a video blog that details how to easily get setup with Twitter, and then “follow” folks that you find interesting, but for now, let’s just learn a few Twitter facts…

• Twitter is  a free service that lets you compose and then send 140 character “tweets” (messages).
• It is sometimes referred to as “microblogging“, and along with Facebook, is considered to be one of the top social networking sites.
• If your tweets are public, anyone on Twitter can find you and read your tweets. Tweets are publicly searchable.
• If someone likes what you have to say, and wants to read your tweets on a regular basis, they can “follow” you, which means that your tweets are broadcast to their Twitter account, and show up on their scrolling “timeline“.
• Tweets can include clickable links to web sites, making it very useful for telling someone about something you’ve seen online.
• You can also directly message another person who follows you by including a “@” in front of their Twitter name at the beginning of a tweet.
• Groups of folks who follow each other have been known to have almost real-time conversations with each other through Twitter.

And that’s all Twitter is really about!  It’s a simple concept and is pretty simple to use. All you have to do to get started is…

• Go to www.twitter.com, fill in your name, email, and password to sign-up
• On the main screen, type a “tweet” into the What’s Happening box
• On the Who To Follow page, use keywords to search for folks to follow
• When you find someone, click the “follow” link next to their name
• Their tweets now show up on your timeline.

That’s it!

If you start using Twitter on a regular basis, you can always just keep a browser window open, logged onto Twitter, or you may decide to get one of these free third-party programs that keep Twitter right there on your Windows desktop…

• Twhirl (www.twhirl.org/)
• Seesmic (seesmic.com/products/desktop)
• TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com/desktop/)

Oh, and of course, if you’d like to follow me on Twitter, you can click this button…

I don’t send out a lot of tweets, but the ones I do normally have information about computers and technology that you’ll find interesting.

That’s if for now, but if you have some thoughts about Twitter, PLEASE leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!

Most of you probably know Wayne Casper, the guy who teaches at and runs the Computer Education Center in Lincoln. On my Wednesday trips to Lincoln to teach, Wayne will often put little reminders on the white board, if someone has asked a question that perhaps I can answer.

This past week the note simply said “Upgrade to IE 9.0?“

Of course, what Wayne was referring to was the fact that Microsoft was now making their newly revamped browser, Internet Explorer 9.0, available for upgrade, and he and some students were asking if they should do the upgrade or stay with what they had.

Good question.  So I thought it would be worthy to talk about here.

First a bit of history. Internet Explorer has been around a long time, almost since the beginning of World Wide Web. No, it certainly wasn’t the very  first browser out there (one called Nexus was first), but along with an early contender called Netscape, Internet Explorer was already dominating the browser world by the mid to late 1990′s. At one time, it even had about 90% of the market in its pocket, and even had other browser companies bringing up monopoly lawsuits against it.

Was it the best browser out there? No, probably not. Netscape was a great browser, and it’s offspring, Firefox was even better. But since Internet Explorer CAME with Windows, and Windows was the predominant PC operating system, Internet Explorer became the most popular browser by default. (CLICK HERE to see a great “browser war” history article over at Wikipedia).

Today, Internet Explorer has slipped a ways in popularity. As of March of this year, the combined market share of Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, 8, and 9 was about 54%, still pretty sizable, but much lower than during it’s 1990′s heyday. Other browsers such as Firefox (21%), Google Chrome (11%), and Apple Safari (7%) have come along with arguably better features, giving Internet users lots of choices when it comes to how they navigate and use the Internet. (CLICK HERE to see a good market share comparison).

So, that leads us to Internet Explorer 9.0, and if it’s worth upgrading to.

This latest version of IE actually came out in March, but it’s only now that Microsoft is making it available as an OPTIONAL download with Automatic Updates. This means that when your copy of Windows does it’s regular check for updates, Internet Explorer 9.0 will be offered as an optional update that you have to first approve or disapprove. It won’t just automatically be downloaded and installed. Also keep in mind that Internet Explorer is only available for Windows Vista and Windows 7, NOT for Windows XP folks, who will have to be content with Internet Explorer 8.0, and no farther.

So, for you Windows Vista and 7 users, should you upgrade?

Well, I guess my answer is… Maybe. (Don’t you love it when geeks are so decisive about things?)

The truth is, IE 9.0 does have a lot of new features that I like. It has a very clean screen, with a minimalist toolbar that gives you a lot more space to see the web page you are looking at. It also has better support for what’s called HTML 5.0, an upgraded way that web page developers make pages that are more interactive. And it does seem to work faster, both in loading up and in displaying pages. And there’s even more stuff that will make it a pretty good competitor in the current browser market. (CLICK HERE to see what Microsoft says about Internet Explorer 9.0 and all of it’s new features).

BUT, I’ve also found that it has some quirks. Not all the pages I routinely visit display correctly. In fact, when I got on to DiscoverSkills to write this article, I tried using IE 9.0 and the program I use wouldn’t let me insert the pictures that you see here. I had to go to another browser to do it.

So here’s my advice.

I think you are OK to upgrade to Internet Explorer 9.0, but I wouldn’t make it the only browser on my computer. I would also go ahead and download both Firefox AND Google Chrome, and have them ready for when Internet Explorer doesn’t display a page correctly. In fact, I bet if you started using one of those other browsers, you might even find yourself liking them so much, you’ll forget about Internet Explorer (like I have most of the time).

So that’s my take. I’d love to hear YOUR take on the subject of browsers. Which one do you use? Why?, etc.  Just leave a comment below this article.

Oh, and Happy Browsing!