Technology

IN THIS SECTION

Whether you're a beginner or technologically advanced, here you'll find what you need to understand and make the most of your computer. There's also a page to help with buying a mobile phone and informative guides to digital technology such as digital cameras, MP3s, or podcasting.

The ultimate steal

With tough times ahead of us, the last thing we can afford is retail prices for products on our computers, but Microsoft has some offers that are practically a steal!

Not known to most people, and indeed myself until I read an article on it, Microsoft’s volume licensing program for most companies and organisations contains what is called a “Home Use Program” for their software. This allows any employee who has a work email address to purchase a Home Use Program license, as long as the company activates the Home Use Program. Here is the best part; you get access to this software for only $30, a package that usually retails for over $700. If you are not sure if your company offers this service, ask and rally for it! You should note that your license will become invalid once you leave the company, or their license with Microsoft expires and is not renewed.

Another great deal is focused on Australian University and Tafe students. Microsoft is giving students at these institutions the opportunity to purchase a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate edition for only $75, as long as they can provide a valid university or tafe email address. Click here to find out more.

Since the whole transaction and downloading is over the internet, make sure you have a backup copy of the Office 2007 Ultimate installation - burn the lot to a DVD so you can install it again later and don’t forget to record the product key - without it you won’t be able to reinstall Office 2007 in the future.

Tracking Santa

With fewer than nine days until the big man in red starts his travels, NORAD has been busy uploading their site with fun for all ages. Sign-up for their Santa tracker, which will follow his movements around the world on Christmas Eve!

This site is great fun as well as an interesting concept. You can visit this site on Christmas Eve and share the flights of Santa around the world with your children and grandchildren. Included on the site is a “Santa tracker” which you can download to your phone (if you have the supported features available) which will show you where he is in the world at any given time!

While some of us may doubt the authenticity of Santa, the real spirit of Christmas can be brought to children through such a site. And is much simpler than climbing onto the roof at 9pm at night and putting a bucket of water and carrots on the roof for the reindeer, and having to climb up again during the night to “remove some of them” as the children want to make sure the reindeer ate them the next day!

So get into the Christmas spirit and give the Santa tracker a go!

Safe Senders

Recently, AboutSeniors received a question regarding our newsletter being sent to the Spam box for yahoo mail accounts. We have come up with a simple guide on how to fix this problem. If you have a similar problem regarding Hotmail or Outlook Express, click here to view a previous article to fix this.

Q. Hi,

Can you explain why emails from you are going to Spam?
This has been happening for a while now… I am still a learner at computers… I enjoy the emails from you, any help would be appreciated.
Regards, Doreen

A. Hi Doreen,

I have gone and made a Yahoo account to show you what needs to be done to prevent this for happening in the future.

Log into your Yahoo account and go into the relevant folder containing the latest newsletter that was sent by AboutSeniors, for example the Spam folder.

When you have found an Email from us, left click on the email, and then right click on it and the following drop down box will appear as on the right of our screen. Click on the option at the bottom named Add Sender to Contacts. You will not have to change any of the information, so just click Save. Once you hit Save, a box will appear confirming that the Contact was added. Click ok, and now you are done, and can do this for other contacts as well.

Free TV online

Watch what you want, when you want. The internet is changing the way we view television, making sure you never miss your favourite show.

Don’t you just hate it when you forget to watch a program and the television station is never going to repeat that episode? ABC was the first Australian broadcaster to follow the ideas of overseas broadcasters such as the BBC to make all their weekly programs viewable on their website. Released this year, the technology named iView, is extremely simple to use and navigate, suitable for broadband and ADSL internet connections. While the website includes a large selection of weekly programs, it also offers a range of factual and documentary programs.

With every silver lining comes a cloud and there is a downside to iView. Viewing programs uses a large amount of your download limit, with most programs averaging 200 megabytes. The internet service provider (ISP) iiNET and the ABC, have and agreement that traffic won’t be counted for their customers using iView. The ABC states on their website that they are in negotiation with other ISPs to offer iView unmetered to their customers.

To view what iView has to offer, click here.

Protecting children online

Protecting children online from stumbling across pornographic material, being sexually solicited over the internet or playing violent and inappropriate video games is easier to control than you may think.

You don’t need to know much at all about the internet to implement a system of control on a computer, all you need is Net Nanny.

Net Nanny is the leading brand in Family Safety software for the Internet and has been protecting families worldwide since 2001. But how does this software work?

Net Nanny is installed on the computer you want protected and begins working immediately. You can set very minimum restrictions or extreme restrictions on the computer users. An example of minimum would be turning on the pornography blocker and internet filter while extreme restrictions would be the monitoring of all instant messaging of users by the system which provides email alerts if potential online predatory behavior, cyberbullying and other inappropriate comments are recorded.

Teenagers see this type of software as an invasion of privacy, and some parents agree, but in this day and age where teenagers are spending increased time online talking to strangers, and are not afraid to meet them, precautions such as these may keep your children safe.

To find out more about Net Nanny click here.

To download a free 30 day trial version, click here.

Playing safe or censorship?

Is the Government’s plan to force ISPs to block “inappropriate material” censorship going too far?

The Federal Government has a plan to force all Australian ISPs to implement a filtering system to block inappropriate material on a blacklist compiled by a government agency in an effort to provide greater protection to children from online pornography and violent websites. This blacklist is compiled of over 1000 sites linked to ‘child pornography’, ‘violence’, ‘X-rated material’ and ‘other’ inappropriate material.

While it was reported at the beginning of 2008 that the government would provide Australian internet users with an option to opt-out of the filtering (remove it from their connection), in October 2008, the government made a back flip on this decision and announced all users’ internet connections would be subject to filtering and blocking.

It is important to note that when implemented, these filtering protocols will directly affect the speed of all users of the Internet. To understand this, think of the line up at peak hour going into a train station, putting your train ticket in the machine. Now think of having to put your train ticket in the machine over 1000 times and the bottleneck it would create. This example is grossly over exaggerated but you can see what we are getting at.

Unfortunately, these internet filtering plans will only limit those technologically challenged, and prevent only a limited number of children who want to view any of the blocked sites. This is because the internet is full of loopholes and ways around filtering such as these being implemented in Australia. There are already many articles explaining how to get around these filters from other countries that have tried the same thing!

I applaud the government for trying this initiative, but believe that they should implement blocking of all illegal material such as child pornography, and provide an opt out service for the ‘violent’ and ‘other’ material websites, many which offer material which can be bought over the counter in news agencies, thus providing a safer internet for all children while providing adults with the freedom they deserve.

Webmaster Drew

Security online

Are you secure online? Do you know which passwords people use most often and therefore leave their online security more vulnerable?

In this day and age, we worry a lot about how secure our information is online. Most people are protecting this information by following basic internet security rules, but reported recently, about 20% of those online use only one password to access all of their online activities. This is a major flaw in protecting your online information, and if you currently only use one password for all your activities, I recommend you go and change some of them once you finish reading this article. To stay secure online, it is recommended you change your passwords every six months, but when was the last time you changed it? May be time for a change?

Listed below are the top 10 most frequently used passwords in 2008. If your password is one of these, I would suggest you change it. If you are going to use, for example, your partner’s name, include their birthday as numbers before or after their name. This will add an extra level of security, and help you remember their birthday.

1. Password
2. 12345
3. Football Club
4. Partners Name
5. letmein
6. Monkey
7. Own name
8. 1234
9. qwerty
10. First school or Colour

If it sounds too good…

We all know the old saying, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. This saying stands true in most sections of life and is no exception to the following company we have received information on. AboutSeniors subscriber, Nigel, contacted us in regards to an organisation operating in Australia and worldwide, who offers seminars on Internet Training Workshops or Internet Cash flow Workshops. These seminars generally come with a free three-course meal and are held at top hotels such as the Hilton or Sofitel conference centres. These seminars can attract anywhere from 50 up to 500 people at a time and instead of being seminars on how to make money online, are dubious operations setup to hard sell their online merchant store products.

Why do people get so interested in these products? Because a picture is painted by the presenters, slowly wearing down the guard of the attendees. A large majority of the targeted audience are people over the age of 50, generally with little experience in the internet. This company targets their product at being operational with no knowledge of computers at all.

Be careful with what you do with your money and generally if you get an invite to a seminar for free, it is going to be a company trying to hard sell their product to you. Attending these seminars, can provide you with a lot of information on convincing people to purchase your own products, what devices and internet services these company’s use if your looking to setup your own business without investing, and at the very least, provides you with a nice three course meal (though as seen in articles below, some didn’t even get that).

To read some personal experiences of people attending these seminars click here

To read a news article from the Brisbane Times regarding these seminars, click here

To read about the ACCC investigation and freezing of the company’s funds for a period of time, click here

Less spam

Last Tuesday, in the US, the webhost McColo was shutdown. This came after a four month investigation by the Washington Post and resulted in the company’s internet service providers, Global Crossing and Hurricane Electric, flicking the switch.

McColo was responsible for the hosting of “international firms and syndicates that are involved in everything from the remote management of millions of compromised computers to the sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and designer goods, fake security products and child pornography via email”, The Washington Post reported.

It has been reported that in the two days following the shutdown of McColo, that spam levels worldwide dropped more than 70 percent. Unfortunately, it is predicted that these spammers will re-deploy themselves under other hosting companies, and this reduction in spam is only temporary.

Please be careful when reading your emails and remember the following information

· your bank will never ask for your information online
· that email you just received informing you of a seven million dollar inheritance, sadly, is not true
· never open an attachment from someone you don’t know (common virus emails at the moment include UPS tracking)
· that girl from Russia emailing with her photo, is most likely a guy trying to get money out of lonely men
· the final but most important point, If it sounds too good to be true, it is!

If you have heard of or seen some crafty scams via email and want to notify others so they do not fall into the trap, please post them on our Meeting Place.

Shop online

Do you want to buy something new, and want the best price you can find? Why not look and shop online? It can take hours searching through stores such as Harvey Norman looking for what we want to purchase and negotiating the best prices, but why do this when you can find the best prices online within minutes?

Websites such as www.oo.com.au offer the very best prices online for a majority of leading brands in a large range of products. These merchant stores can be very handy for picking up a bargain as long as you can wait a week for that product to arrive. If you are happy to buy a second hand product or alternatively buy from a local reseller, check out www.ebay.com.au

Before making any purchase, visit a local stores website such as Harvey Norman and compare the online stores price. It may be worth giving the store a call and trying to negotiate a price by quoting the online stores price to see if they can get a price anywhere near it. This may help you o avoid waiting a week and you may prefer to have the warranty from a “bricks and mortar” outlet.

One company taking on the big department stores, selling their products directly online is Kogan. Read this article about this highly successful online store and visit their website to view their prices!

Saving connection costs

Browsing the web and reading up on our local technology news, the team at AboutSeniors came across these two handy tools targeted at finding you the best-priced Broadband and Mobile phone deals, tailored to your needs.

It is really easy to check out the deals being offered, simply visit this website to view what Mobile phone plans are on offer. Select the phone you prefer, how much you are willing to spend per month, and how long you want to be locked into a contract for. Then estimate how many calls you make per month, or select light, medium or heavy talker if unsure, and the best plan for your needs is displayed.

To search Broadband deals, click here and select your location in Australia, how much you are willing to spend per month, the speed of the internet you want (if unsure, choose 512kbps), and how much in download bandwidth you want per month (at least 1 GB if unsure on your useage). Click Find the Best plan and you’re ready to see what’s on offer!

Don’t lose it

Whether you’re on the internet frequently, or just a casual user, you’ll come across sites that you find useful, and of which you want to keep note. Now there’s a simple tool that helps you manage this.

Do you have websites that you visit on a regular basis? Do you constantly come across a website with information you think could be relevant to yourself down the track or even a friend? SAVETHIS has taken a great concept and made it available for free.

Book marking or saving information you feel is vital, but would have no idea how to recover if your computer was to get a virus, or if you had a house fire, is safely stored in your online inbox.

Go to: http://www.savethis.clickability.com/

Click on Sign Up as pictured to our right

Enter all your details listed on the following page and agree to the terms and conditions and click Sign Up.

Now on the next page, a set of instructions will appear. Once you read through the steps, scroll to the bottom of the page to find the browser buttons they speak of (Save This and Email This).

*NOTE: Links ToolBar, may be called Favorites Bar, if so, visit the following website for instructions on how to use.

Once you have added these buttons, hit done.

The next page will step you through importing your current bookmarks, you can skip this or follow the instructions and import these.

Now you have completed registration, as seen below, you will see that there are a number of different options for you to choose from here.

If you have already added a link, for example Yahoo!7 as seen below, simply check mark the box on the left, and click share. This will take you to a page where you can share the link with a friend and includes a message. You can also simply just click the name Yahoo!7 for it to take you directly to that page.

What is PayPal?

If you are looking to purchase products online or have in the past, you may want to know if PayPal, the preferred payment system by EBay and many other sites, is secure and safe.

PayPal has been operating since 1999 helping individuals and businesses process money transactions all over the world. During this time, PayPal have managed to provide a secure and safe service to their customers at a reasonable price.

Recently, using PayPal has become easier, with the use of your credit card without having an account to pay someone via PayPal has been introduced. The only negative of this system, is that it opens up a lot of possibilities for fraud, when a credit card is stolen from someone in the real world.

With customer purchasing protection and the option to reserve a payment transaction within a certain time frame if the item does not arrive, PayPal makes the job of purchasing online easy!

Utilising search engines

In the search for information on specific topics, you can be overwhelmed with useless information. Here Webmaster, Drew, explains how to optimise the use of search engines.
Here we are looking at Google, the largest search engine in use today. The whole idea of utilising search engine capabilities is to be able to cut out the middle information we are fed that we don’t actually need, and to be given exactly what we want! Let’s get started:
• Please go to the following address in internet browser (Internet explorer/Firefox etc.)
http://www.google.com.au/
• To the right of the search box there is a small word saying Advanced Search
Click this.
• We will now be presented with a large range of data fields that can be entered.
• For example, let’s say we wanted to search for a website on conspiracy theories relating to the assassination of John F Kennedy, we could use the following words: Oswald Kennedy Conspiracy. Type this into the first row.
• If we had an exact quote that we knew from the past, such as from a news article we were looking up, we could place this in (or the exact headline) the next box given.
• The next box can be used if you have more specific information but it not too relevant.
• The important box here is the “Don’t show pages that have”
This tool is very creative and will eliminate any of the pages with certain words from our list. For example if we wanted to look it up with no words about the government, we would put it into this box. This will eliminate many of the thousands pages we would have otherwise got.
• The next box, Need more tools? Is quite good, I personally hate having to click between those 10 items only limits when you search, but you can select to see up to 100 on the one page with this great tool!
• You can also select the language or the file format in this area.
• The final box is extremely useful; I forget the full name of a website I visited all the time! But with this tool, I can place part of the name in if I remember something I looked up there, and it will find it for me!
• Now that all your information is placed in, at the bottom right hand side of that large box of information is a button named Advanced Search. Click this and we are done.
I hope this helps in your quest for information!

Mastering Microsoft Outlook

Many of us receive hundreds of emails every year, and file away the important ones in folders, but when it comes time to find that important email, we have forgotten where it was put, luckily, Webmaster Drew shows us the quick and easy way to find those lost files.

Undoubtedly the most useful tool implemented into Microsoft Outlook is the find function. This function allows you to search all emails you sent or received by any word in the title, email address or also in the body of the email!

How to use the find function

Open up Microsoft Outlook and click the find button located next to the send/receive button as pictured in the image to our right.

Now that you have clicked this, the find bar will have dropped down, below the toolbar you just clicked on. As seen below, the next step is to put in that keyword you wanted to search for. A good way to do this is to search by the email address or first/surname of the person who sent you the email, otherwise, a key word such as birthday will do.

Once you have typed this in, click the Search In button and choose what you are looking for. For example, if it was an email sent to you, click “Mail I Received”, but if it was sent by you, then select “Mail I Sent” (not shown in the picture to the right).

Now click the “Find Now” button that is on the right hand side. Depending on the size of your email box, this could take anywhere from 10 seconds up to 5 minutes to find the email so be patient. When you see the email that you have been searching for pop up, you can double click it and open it!

Sorting your Mailbox

While the Find function may be extremely useful, it may sometimes not be practical if you do not know exactly what you are looking for, but know where you filed it. There are a number of different sorts you can do in your mail box.

Above your emails it the header row which is used to sort your mail. As seen on our right, there are a number of symbols. From left to right these sorts are as follows:

From: This will sort the emails alphabetically by name of person the email was sent by.
Importance: Some emails are marked important by the sender, this will bring them to the top
Icon: This will sort between opened and unopened emails
Attachment: This will sort the emails which have files attached and those that don’t
Subject: This will sort emails alphabetically by the subject title
Received: This will sort emails by Date and time received
Size: This will sort emails by the size of the file
Flag Status: This will sort emails by the flag status that the sender put on the email

Once you know which sort you want to use, just click the button that you want and it will automatically sort. Please note it will sort the opposite way if you click it again (it starts out ascending, then reverses to descending order if you click it a second time)

To get it back to the default, you need to click “Received” at the end of this sorting process and make sure you have the last received emails at the top!

How to create a signature

In Microsoft Outlook

Open Microsoft Outlook and at the very top row, left click the word tools and a drop down box will appear. Click on the word Options, as seen to our right.

Once you have clicked this, the options box will appear with a number of different tabs at the top. Click on the Mail Format tab, as seen below to our right.

Now look to the bottom of the Options box in the Mail format tab. There will be an area named Signatures with a click box as seen to our right. Click the word Signatures and this will open up the Create Signature box

If you already have a Signature, you can select it and click edit, alternatively if you don’t have one, click the word New… which is on the upper right hand side.

Step 1: Enter the name you want for the Signature For example, I will call mine Test
Step 2: Click the box, Start with a blank signature
Now at the bottom, click Next
Step 3: Now it is time to enter the test we want. Once you have all of the text in place, you can now change how you want it to sit. For example on our right, I have shown you how to use the font button, located just below where we enter the text.

Once you have all this information in place, at the bottom right, click Finish
Now on the next screen that has appeared, at the bottom right Click ok.
You will be presented back at the Signatures screen we started at. Make sure your signature is selected as mine is in the photo to our right at the bottom of this article, and finally Click Apply at the bottom right, and Ok.

Now we are done and ready to send personal emails with style!

No place to hide

Recently an AboutSeniors’ member wrote in telling us about when applying for a local council parking permit he was asked, “Why do you need a parking permit, when you have a parking spot in your backyard?”

With the implementation of services such as Google Maps, which provide a view of your backyard and house to anyone in the world, it is no wonder that local councils and government are using this to consider applications for parking and building permits

The use of this type of technology has gone beyond what anyone has expected in my opinion and I am sure it is only a matter of time until it expands even further. Just wait another couple of years and I am sure we will be able to take a virtual tour of our own backyard, another scary thought, but if I had told you two years ago, that you could type in your street address and see your house from the outside, you would have called me crazy!

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald linked below, tells us how the City of Sydney council has contracted a group to make a similar product, inner Sydney aerial maps which provide a 3D life-like simulation. This system will be used by town planners to zoom in on areas of the city and simulate the impact on surrounding areas if a 30-storey building was built in an area for example. This might offer a more practical use for this type of technology.

To read the full story click here

Connect and save

Technology is constantly advancing but this often costs us more each year. AboutSeniors Webmaster, Drew, details a viable option for cheaper internet and phone deals.

TADAust, a leading provider of technology for the elderly, veterans and people with disabilities, offers great deals on all types of internet plans, mobile phone plans and even home phone plans

Dialup internet from $6.60 per month
Broadband internet from $29.95 a month
Home phone from $19.95 a month
Mobile phone from $1.00 a month -

Brain training

Exercise is a large factor in good health, for both the body and mind, and Brain Training, for the Nintendo DS system makes exercising the mind fun, competitive and simple.

Nintendo has been bringing games to households for over a decade and have released a number of brain training games for their newest hand held game system, the Nintendo DS. This system is extremely easy to use, and chances are, if you are navigated your way to reading this article, then you are more than capable of using the Nintendo DS system.

The first time you play the brain training game, it will record your scores from a series of tests and will determine your DS brain age. Once it has this, it will track your progression so you know how you are doing! This system is fun to use and is a great way to exercise your mind!

Watch a number of videos of people using the brain training software here.

Photo sharing

Images of our past, our experiences, our adventures, are extremely important to each and every one of us. Although most of us don’t like having our picture taken, you may still want to share those photos with the rest of the world. Flickr is one of the most popular websites on the internet, used to host and share photos. You can get lost for hours, looking through the millions of photos uploaded by other members, of their adventures, their triumphs and their hidden treasures.

Kindly, flickr provides a simple and in depth walk through explaining every section of their website in a 8 step tour from how to sign up, to sharing your photos with your friends. Click here to take the tour and start sharing your photos!

Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2

Recently released by Microsoft, their second Beta test software for Windows Internet Explorer 8 focuses on features of enhanced privacy, security and ease-of-use for the user.

Some of the many new features included is a security feature that allows the user to block tracking tools being used by third-parties to monitors a users behaviour online, while another feature offers “Private Browsing” which turns off all history, temporary internet files and cookies from being recorded on the users computer.

While these may not seem extremely useful to many users, I personally have been shopping online for a loved one and been caught by that very person when they try and use my computer the next time because of history logs, ruining the surprise. I also feel that we have the right to choose if we want to be tracked and recorded by third parties or not.

I suggest downloading and giving this new software a go and to post on our meeting place your thoughts on ease of use, security features and any other relevant feedback you have found.

The latest beta release of Internet Explorer 8 is available for download at www.microsoft.com/ie8.

Tips for technophobes

While you may think you know all the tricks of the trade, there are always more rabbits to pull out of the hat and today we discuss ways to perform tasks more quickly, easily and how to undo those mistakes!

Please note that these tips are prepared for Microsoft Windows users and may not be applicable for MAC users.

Undo: In all Microsoft products, if you make a mistake, there will be an undo button available to you by holding down Ctrl and pressing Z. This function can also be found in Microsoft Word for example, by clicking on Edit located at the top left hand side, next to File, and clicking on Undo Typing. As you can see, it shows the Hotkey for this is Ctrl+Z.

Copy
There are normally three different ways to Copy/Cut/Paste an item. You can highlight the text or document you are wishing to copy and then do one of the following three.
· The quickest is to hold down CTRL and press C (Ctrl+C).
· You can go up to Edit, and click on the Copy button
· You can right click on the highlighted text or item, and select Copy

Cut
· The quickest is to hold down CTRL and press X (Ctrl+X).
· You can go up to Edit, and click on the Copy button
· You can right click on the highlighted text or item, and select Cut

Paste
· The quickest is to hold down CTRL and press V (Ctrl+V).
· You can go up to Edit, and click on the Copy button
· You can right click on the highlighted text or item, and select Paste

Desktop management

Desktops v1.0

While there have been many similar products in the past, Desktops v1.0 is an extremely quick download, easy to understand and useable within 1 minute of downloading, never having to change it ever again!

What does it do?

Desktops v1.0 is a product, which allows you to organise your desktops to allow for different views. For example, your first desktop could be work related, while your second desktop could be related to games and so on. There are many different things you can do with this program. I especially like using this for when I have a hundred documents open, doing a thousand things at once. Desktops v1.0 allows me to view emails in the first window, work on important documents in the second and third windows, and do web surfing for information on the fourth.

How to use it

Visit the following website for a free download of the software.
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx

To download the software, Look at the image above in this walk through. You will see this same image on the far right hand side of the screen on the microsoft links website. Click the button that says “Download Desktops (62KB).”

Click Open

This part may be different for many different users, as we will have different software. My copy opened the file as seen to the right (Using Windows XP)
Now click on the icon named Desktops.exe
Click Extract all
Please note the following process is for using Compressed Folders Extraction Wizard
Click Next

Click Browse and select a suitable folder to extract all the items to. I would suggest C:\DesktopTool\
Click Next
Click Finish

This will automatically open the folder with the extracted item inside it. Double click the icon named Desktops.exe.
Click this icon and open it,
If you get a security warning, ignore it, as this program is not a threat and hit Run.

Setup your setting as seen on our right, in my “setup”. Please note, this is only what I use, and you could try out what suits you best. Many people find it easier to set their F1, f2, f3 and f4 keys up as their defaults. Simply click the “Tick” next to Alt, and this will deselect this!

While these hotkeys are great, you don’t have to use them, you can simply click on the icon at the bottom right of your screen, as pictured on our right, to select which screen you want to use. But remember, as seen above, to click the “Run automatically at logon” so it automatically loads for you!

Jing

Have you ever been looking at something on your screen and just thought, I wish I could record this and send it to my friend? Or prehaps wished someone else could show you how to do something, without having to drive to your house. Wish no more, Jing is a new concept recently created and currently free to use. Once you have watched the demonstration, you should be able to use Jing right away and soon enough you will be creating your own videos of what you are seeing or doing! To record the video, it is as simple as clicking one button and selecting the area of the screen you want to record. This program can be used extremely effectively if you want to demonstrate how to use a function in a program and share it over the internet, which hopefully i will do in the future!

Visit the following website for a full demonstration (Click on video tour at the top right corner) and free download!
www.jingproject.com

Successful bidding

Almost everyone has looked at items one Ebay or tried to purchase something, many unsuccessfully. Here are three handy tips for successful bidding.

Tip 1. Set yourself a limit and do not go over it. Make sure you know how much the product would cost retail, and subtract the postage fee from this price, then you will see the price level to which you need to bid.

Tip 2. When bidding, only bid in the final hour. Bidding before this time generally will only raise the final purchase price. If you cannot be at the computer at the time of auction ending, set your limit ahead of time, and put this as your maximum bid.

Tip 3. The last minute bid. Everyone gets frustrated at the auctioning system, but you can use it to your advantage to get the product every time. As long as you have a fast broadband connection, you can keep refreshing the auction page (F5 button) to see how long is left on the auction and post your bid in the last 10 seconds to secure the product.

Good luck and happy bidding!

Technology gone too far?

Does our webmaster Drew, a true technology champion, feel that Google has gone too far with their latest offering, Street View.

They say it’s all in the name of technology but do we really need to be able to see each other’s houses online?

We received a lot of feedback on our first article regarding Google maps, which showed readers how they could view their own homes and backyards through the satellite images collected and posted by Google maps. There were those who felt this technology was a invasion of their privacy, I can only imagine what they are saying now with the release of Google’s new technology added to their mapping system in the past week, Street View.

Street View is a concept that has been in development by Google all over the world for quite some time, and has now been successfully implemented. What is it exactly? In simple terms, Google has driven around with special cameras, currently in Australia, Northern America and parts of France, and taken enough photos to provide a virtual tour of any major city, including urban and metropolitan areas.

I was extremely surprised and shocked when I put in my home address and even though the image was a good four months out of date (I could tell by the trees), the images of the outside of my house were crystal clear. You could even tell the make and model of the cars in the driveway, which I dare say, could be zoomed in on to find out my number plates, should someone want them.

While some people in the media have felt otherwise, I personally feel that this technology has a large use in our ever-expanding society; it will make jobs easier for quite a few people who provide services to different clients every day, by helping them identify what the house will look like. The list of benefits received by this service will outweigh the criticisms received, and at the end of the day, we are all nosey people and would love to see what the first house we lived in looks like!

Google maps has kindly provided on their website an introduction video on how to use the new feature including a tour. To take this tour, click here

Urls and why smaller is better

We have all heard the term URL when using the internet, but what does it mean? A URL is an acronym meaning: Uniform Resource Locator.

Depending on the website, you can have small and large URLs. For example, when I want to look up a map, I will go to the website
http://www.mapquest.com/maps

I would be more than happy to simply send this link to my friends via e-mail, alternatively I would be happy to receive it from my friends. I would also be happy to receive this address in person from a friend, because it is small and easy to type in from a piece of paper.

When I do a search on the Mapquest website, I get a extremely long address like the following:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?ovi=1&mqmap.x=300&mqmap.y
There is no way I am even contemplating sending this to my friends, or printing it out to give to them. Lucky for us, there is a website which can help! TinyURL.com is a site providing a niche service to the Internet community for free.

How it works

Visit the TinyURL website at http://www.tinyurl.com
In the middle of the screen on the homepage is the tool you will need. Where it says “Enter a long URL to make tiny”, Enter your URL by copying it (Ctrl C is the shortcut when selected) and then clicking in the area provided on the TinyURL homepage, and paste it (Ctrl V is the shortcut). Now simply click Make TinyURL!

The site will then tell you how many characters it has converted from your pasted web address and what it has created (normally will convert below 26 characters). For instance, I converted from 62 characters down to 24 on the above example. The link you receive will be similar to the following: http://tinyurl.com/rdb5a.

Now you are ready to send or print this web address!

PC vs Mac

AboutSeniors subscriber, Jim, told us that his current computer is getting a little out of date and freezing just a little too much, so he has asked us which is better to purchase, PC or Mac?

Being a PC user all my life and only recently having encounters with Mac computers, I have quite a biased view on which I prefer, I would straight away say I prefer a PC. Why? Because I am resistant to change, like so many other people. But this article is not about me, it is about what is right for you, and for Jim.

For a person who has used a PC and never used a Mac computer before, the change to the new software is quite a leap to make. The whole setup is different, but you would encounter the same problems if you purchased a new PC with Windows Vista, which also has a totally different feel to that of Windows XP,2000, 98 and even 95 which are relatively similar in style.

A PC can do anything you want, use as much hardware and as much software as you want, on as many operating systems as you want, while Macs do not have this same amount of customization. You need to look at what suits your needs before you purchase a computer.

Jim mentioned that he was looking at the price of a Mac vs PC and found that the MAC was around 40% more expensive than the PC. I’m happy to say, in performance standards, that this is actually not true. If you purchase a Mac and PC of similar values, these will actually be of similar performance.

My honest opinion would be that if you are not looking to play all the new fancy computer games with high graphics and details, but still want to watch movies and different clips on your computer, the Mac would be your better option.
If you have a very limited amount of money to spend, you can pick up a second hand PC for a lot cheaper than you can a Mac, there simply are more out there on the market.

I hope I have made it a little clearer to you, rather than just confusing you on this topic, so I will simply end with several dot points which may back you decide easier!

· If you have a small budget, get a PC
· Macs run faster and load software quicker
· Mac and PC prices for quality and speed are similar at the middle to higher end
· PC have more customization with software
· If you’re resistant to change, stick with what you know!

Top five sites for fun

The internet is a rich source of fun, but sometimes it’s hard to know where to find what you’re seeking. This week our webmaster, Drew, shares his five favourite fun sites.

There comes a time in everyone’s day when you want to just sit back and laugh at others, complete a puzzle, ask someone a question or even just check out someone else’s photos from around the world and just dream of what could be.

My favourite sites in no particular order are as follows:

Lovatts
This site is is loads of fun! I also enjoy the AboutSeniors Sudoku and Crossword puzzles!

YouTube
When you are feeling like you want to hear a song you haven’t heard in a while, listen to a funny joke or just simply laugh at someone, YouTube is the place to look!

Flickr
A great way to share photos, without having to send them via email. You can look at other people’s photos or create your own online photo album to share with friends, this site is a lot of fun!

Yahoo Answers
There are some questions that we just can’t ask our friends or family. You can anonymously ask questions to people all over the world who will happily help you with an answer, or you can search for the answer to a question you have wanted to know for a long time. Or you can help someone in need of your knowledge.

YourMovies
Don’t you just hate it when a movie gets a good review from a critic but turns out nothing like they say? So do I! The great thing about this site is you get honest critic reviews from the site managers, but also get to see what normal people think, and you can even submit your own review!

Big brother (Google) is watching

We all by now have heard of Google Earth, the program that has astonished many, in which Google has mapped the world from above with scary close up imaging. Unfortunately, Google Earth, is out of the technical capabilities of many of us.

Lucky for us, Google has simplified their mapping system to be included onto a web based, easy to use version!

We start by visiting the following link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Once you are at the site, in the section shown above, enter the street address, city name, state name and postcode if you have all those details for example. Flinders Street, Melbourne, Vic 3000.

Please note you can also search by landmark name, for example the Great Wall of China, by simply entering its name and by clicking on the desired search results on the left hand side of the page.

Now that you have the address you desire. To adjust how far in you want to zoom in or out, simply place your mouse over the button pointed out by the red arrow (picture on the right of this text). Hover your mouse over this button and hold down your left click mouse button and drag it up to zoom in or down to zoom out (Please note that if you take it all the way to the top, it most likely will not load an image, I would suggest you go 4/5 the way up the scale for best results).

The next feature’s we will look at are the following located on the top of each map after you have done the steps labeled above.
You can see clearly in the image further down this page the four tabs labeled “more...”, Map, Satallite and Terrain.
The default view you will start out on is Map, which shows us a nice clear map view of the location we are viewing. What we want to see it the actual Satellite images that will astonish you when you search your own house! Simply click on the word Satellite and it will take us to a Satellite view. Please note that you may need to zoom out a little for this to work, and then zoom in as far as you can slowly!

The final, yet extremely useful, feature we will look at tells us the best route to travel to get from one place to another, instead of us having to search it up in our street directory!

You can start by either putting in your starting address or the location address to which you are travelling.

Once you search for this map, the information shown on our right, will appear.
If you are looking to travel to, for example: 102 Collins street, Melbourne, Vic 3000, then you would click To here, pointed out by the red arrow, while if you are starting at that location you would click the From here button pointed out by the blue arrow.

You will be presented with the following:

Simply put in the address of the other location you wish to travel and it will give you the directions and a map!

Keep your PC bug free

Drew, AboutSeniors webmaster, tells us how to protect your computer from that winter flu, for free!

Do you lock your car every time you get out of it at the shops? Then why are you leaving your computer unlocked to the world to just break into!

AVG Anti-Virus is one of the most trusted names in antivirus protection tools. AVG offers home users a free edition of their popular software for the life of the products, proving you with regular updates to protect you from the most recent virus outbreaks.

If you do not have protection for your computer, I highly recommend you download this free edition today by visiting this website, and clicking the Download Now button as shown below.

Overcoming spam

Our webmaster Drew turns spaminator this week, making sure you don’t loose your favourite newsletters in an endless pile of virtual junk mail.

Don’t you just hate those annoying spam emails popping into your box every day? There are a few short steps you can take, to prevent the hassle of opening your email and finding 1000 new messages asking for your credit card details.

There are a number of different options we can choose from when we want to setup our email box to prevent spam. I’ll walk you through this is in both Microsoft Outlook and in Hotmail. Steps will be similar in other programs

Microsoft Outlook
In Microsoft Outlook, click on “Tools” and then “Options”.
This will open up the Options window and the default will be Preferences. This is where we want to start!

Click on the “Junk Email button” and you will be presented with a number of different tab options.

The first tab we will start on is Options. As you see there are a number of different filtering options. Currently, I have the Low option clicked and receive quite a few, but not a large amount of spam email (not enough to annoy me). I check my Junk Email regularly and have yet to find a single email that I require being placed into there. It is possible to select High, but I would suggest checking your Junk Email box weekly.

The next tab is Safe Senders. This is quite useful for keeping all your friends on your safe list. The wonderful thing is that you don’t have to add just a full email address; you can add the domain in which the email is coming from, such as @aboutseniors.com.au. We will step you through setting up our Enewsletter address as the example.

Click the add button located on the right hand side of the screen. Type in @aboutseniors.com.au as pictured below and click ok.

Once you have done this, you can add in more addresses by clicking add again.

The next important step can be seen in the above image. At the bottom of the screen on the left there are two tick boxes, one is clicked and one isn’t for Also trust email from my Contacts and Automatically add people I email to the Safe Senders List.

It is very important to click both of these (I have also clicked the 2nd box now!). This will automatically add emails to your safe senders list without you having to go through this step process every time!

Now that we have added our friends and work colleagues to our lists, it is time to filter the junk!

At the top of the current Junk Email Options screen there are a number of different tabs, click on the Blocked Senders tab. We will be presented with a similar screen to the Safe Senders. We click the add button on the right hand side and can enter the exact email address, or even the domain which the email came from for example @test.com.au and this will be permanently move any emails from these senders to junk mail. Please note, I would NOT suggest adding hotmail, yahoo or any other large providers emails within your country or global emails to your blocked list, as this may filter legitimate emails.

Once you have completed this step, click ok for the Junk email screen and then click ok for the Options screen and we are done!

Hotmail
Log into your hotmail account and get to your inbox screen.

Once you are here, as pictured to the right, please click the options button located on the far right hand side, above your emails.

You will be taken to the options screen. 1/3 of the ways down the page you will see options for Junk Email as shown in the image below. We will start by clicking on the Filters and reporting.

We are presented with a number of different options and I will walk you through these.

We firstly have to choose a junk email filter. Currently on my hotmail account I have an Exclusive filter. This means that everything else apart from my contacts will be placed into my Junkmailbox. I would not suggest this unless if you are happy and willing to check your Junk mail daily.

I would suggest that you choose the standard junk email filtering option. This means that a majority of the spam will be filtered out effectively. I would suggest that you do check your junk email box at least once a week, as some can slip through the cracks, and if this does happen, open the e-mail and simply click “Not a junk email” and it will not happen in the future.

The next section is Delete junk email.

You always want to have Later selected as your option, as if you click immediately, you may loose some of those “missed” emails that automatically went to your junk email box.

The final section here is Report junk messages.

I would always suggest leaving Report junk as the clicked option, could you imagine if no one had this option clicked, our email box’s would be receiving 1000 messages a day!

Once we are done here, click save, located at the bottom right hand side of the screen.

You will be taken back to the options screen. 1/3 of the ways down the page you will see options for Junk Email as shown in the image below. We will now select Safe and blocked senders.

You will be presented with three different headings to choose from. We will start with the top one, Safe Senders. Click on Safe Senders and we will be presented with a screen that is going to allow us to add new safe email addresses AND domains (for example aboutseniors.com.au).

To remove someone from your current safe list, select them from the list on the right hand side and simply click the remove from list button in the middle.

Below is an example of how we will add a new email address, you can use this as your first try, which will also ensure our enewsletter never goes to your junk email box!

As shown below, type in aboutseniors.com.au to the box on the left hand side. Simply click the Add to list button and it will load it into the box. You can then start to put in your friends, family and other important email contacts so that they are never lost!

Now it is time to go back to the Safe and blocked senders options screen. Hotmail is not too user friendly, but there is a simple way for us to get back. As seen in the image below, look at the top of your screen above where on the white background in black it says Safe Senders, there will be on light blue background the words Safe and blocked senders, click this as shown below.

Now click on the Blocked Senders option, which is the third one down.

You will now be taken to the current Blocked Senders list. Have a quick read through this and remove anyone you “think” you may know, as you could have accidentally added them by mistake!

Once you have done this, if there are any email addresses or domains that are constantly barraging you with spam emails, type in the address to the box on the left hand side. Simply click the Add to list button and it will load it into the box.

iPhone

The new 3G iPhone from Apple has had a extremely successful launch in Australia and around the world. When you see men, women and children of all ages, huddled outside a dealer being supplied with only a certain number of phones each day, hoping it is their day (not just the opening day!), then you realise, there must be something special about this iPhone.

Key Features:
· Mapping and Navigation
· Connect to the internet and email
· iPod inside
· 2 mega pixel camera
· Bluetooth enabled
· Louder speakers than previous versions
· Smart contact search feature

The mapping and navigation system of the iPhone are practical and serve the purpose of giving you a general idea of how to get from your current location (the phone knows where you are!) to where you want to be. Unfortunately, it does not show you the exact route and give voice navigation however, it is still a valuable tool.

The two main features of the iPhone, are access to the internet and email, and what we like to call, the “iPod” inside. The iPhone navigates the internet and email fairly efficiently, with not too many dramas in the larger sense and does everything that it has promised, with a little to be desired for the future. The music playing “iPod” section of the phone is quite similar in design to a standard iPod and is quite easy to use.

While the iPhone may look complex, it is fairly easy to navigate once you get the hang of it. We must remember with every new product released on the market, they cannot accommodate everything we (or the critics)may have hoped for. Click the following link to view an article, Top 10 reasons to hate the iPhone 3G, from APCmag.

To view more information on the new iPhone 3G from Apple, and to find the nearest stocking locations, visit Apple.

Picture this

David, an AboutSeniors subscriber entered our favourite site competition and suggested an absolute cracker of a site that we’re sure everyone will enjoy.

Picture Australia is a government site that draws from State Library archives, Flicka, museums, photos from the general public and many more to provide a pictorial history of Australia.

Many fun hours will be had searching for photos of the Australia of your childhood and the events that have occurred throughout your life.

To search for photos of your town, favourite sporting moment or historical event, visit Picture Australia.

Face behind the screen

Drew, our very clever Webmaster, this week explains to us the ins and outs of Facebook, and how to make it work for you.

Most of us use the computer on a daily basis, and most of us will talk to people via forums or emails and will never see the face of the person at the other end. Over the past few years, this trend has changed with the introduction of the MySpace phenomenon and recently, this has extended to a new site named Facebook. Facebook is much like MySpace, but more advanced. Instead of having to contact all of your friends directly, when you create an account, it will be able to look up your e-mail address book and send all your friends an invitation to add you to their Facebook.

Facebook is not just about having a profile, letting the world see who you are and what you look like, it is also about reconnecting with old friends. The search function is really simple to use. In your profile you can include which school you went to and when you graduated, you can even search for people who finished in the same year if you want to - that is how advanced this website has become!

I will step you through how to set up your Facebook account for the first time, how to get that automated email sent to all your friends, show you how to setup your profile and how to join the AboutSeniors Facebook community site!

The first step is to visit the website. You will be prompted with a simple looking website with an easy to use registration in the bottom right of the page as seen below.

Simply fill out the following information and click signup. You will have to enter a security code that comes on the screen (this is to prevent spammers).

Once you have done this, you need to open your email address and click the relating link to activate your account. It will take you directly to the next page as seen below.

For example, as seen above, it will have your e-mail address already typed in, and a selection of e-mail providers in the drop down menu too choose from. Simply click “find friends” and it will send an e-mail to your friends who will be prompted to either join up or add you as a friend, alternatively, those friends who may have invited you in the past, in the next screen you will be prompted to add them to your Facebook!

Now that we have passed this step, it is time to setup our profile. You can use as little information as you like in this step, it all depends how much time you want to put into the profile. Click on the edit button shown below.

We will be prompted by a new screen, fill out all the following information and as seen in the next photo, there are different section tabs for us to click on once we save the changes. Make your way through each of the following until you have filled out all the information!

Now that we have set up your profile, it is time to add yourself to the AboutSeniors community! As seen below, the following bar appears on the left side of every page, click the “Groups” button.

Now you will be prompted to search for the group, as seen in the image below, type in AboutSeniors and hit the enter key on your keyboard to search for it (Do not hit create a new group).

Once you have done that, the only option that will appear will be our community group as seen below, click join group where the arrow points it out.

Now you have joined the group, you can browse all the members who have joined, post discussions and share photos!

Let us know how this works for you.

Do you Youtube?

The real question is, why do you not YouTube! Everyone is doing it! YouTube is one of the biggest online community websites in the world. It can be used by the most computer illiterate of users, up to the “video blogging experts”.

The key feature of YouTube is the wealth of videos provided on a wide range of topics and the relevance when searched for. If you are looking to listen to a old favourite song such as Henry Hall singing his 1932 classic, The Teddy Bear’s Picnic, or if you are simply looking for a laugh, type in stand up comedy, or your favourite comedians name such as Jerry Seinfeld and you will be overwhelmed with hours of hilarious material.

Apart from the “comedy”, “jokes” and “music” side that YouTube is well known for producing, there are many video’s dedicated to cooking, healthy living, wellbeing and many other sections that may be of interest to you, including this informational video on Tai Chi.

How to YouTube

If you are unfamiliar with YouTube, I will run you through the basics of this website:

Click this link to go to YouTube.

As you enter the site, you will be prompted with a number of options and will feel overwhelmed. As an advanced technology user, every time I go to the YouTube homepage, I also feel this pain. Lucky for us, we can search for whatever we want by clicking in the dialogue box shown below and entering a category such as “jokes” shown by the red arrow below, then clicking search (blue arrow).

This search we just performed was very broad, and we can define this search further by clicking in advanced, which is located next to the search button on the right of it.
Once we have clicked advanced, the following box will appear, shown to us below.

Now we can define our search further. For example, we have searched for jokes, now we want to refine what we are looking for. In my example I have selected a short joke, which is less than 4 minutes. I have selected only jokes in English under Language. I have then asked it to sort results by rated which means the most highly rated, (and hopefully funniest) jokes will be shown first when I search for it. I have decided that I won’t put any restriction on when the video was posted, as I don’t think this matters when it comes to jokes. Now we simply click search and we will be prompted by a screen of jokes which give us a short detail of what the jokes are about, their rating as seen below pointed out by the arrow, and the duration. Simply click on the title of the video for example “Best scrubs joke” and watch it! Once you are done, click back and you can view the rest!

Now that we have mastered the search system, it is time for the simple stuff! We all love to know what everyone else is watching. Click the “videos” tab at the top, shown below by the blue arrow and you will be taken to a new page. I have pointed out all the relevant tabs below you can choose from with the red arrows. Simply click on one of those (you will start on Most Viewed page) and work your way around to see what everyone else is watching!

Stay tuned for next week’s AboutSeniors e-newsletter, which will feature a technology piece on Facebook!

Webmaster Drew

First aid phone

We all know we should be up to date on first aid techniques and this could help save the life of a friend or family member in an emergency. Now there is a simple and affordable CPR download for your phone.

The Australian Red Cross has launched an initiative that may save many lives. For only $3, you can download 3 easy steps to preforming CPR, which could ultimately save someone’s life. Knowing the money raised is going to the Australian Red Cross service, gives you one more reason to have this life saving instructional animation, sent to your mobile phone to keep. The $3 will be charged directly to your mobile phone, so there will be no need to use any payment plan over the internet. Please check the FAQ’s to see if you have an appropriate mobile phone to receive this instructional animation.

Webmaster Drew’s Life Choices

Name: Drew Patchell

Born: Melbourne, Australia, 1986

Fondest memories: Spending five weeks in China back in 2000, with a school group visiting Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai, with not a worry or concern in the world.

School: Caulfield Grammar School (Class of 2003)

Major turning point: When I was told that I was not expected to do great things because I was not naturally smart, compared to other people my age at school.

What happened next: I grabbed the bull by the horns and started to make more of an effort in everything I did. I am currently in my final semester of University finishing my Bachelor of Business.

Next steps in life: We all reach a fork in the road where you are not sure where you are heading, or what you want to do, most of us have that thought every day! I’ve hit that fork, waiting for my results and then determining what I want from my life, where I want to go, or even just take a break from it all.

How I will make my mark: I would rather make my mark for people to see, and not be recognised for it, than being the one in the spotlight taking all the recognition. I don’t know how, I don’t know where, but I will leave a large impression on this world!

How I keep learning: They say you learn something new every day until the day you die, I try to learn three new things every day.

My favourite books: Anything which engages my mind, and allows me to think and imagine a world outside my own, filled with fantasy and mystery, where I can become the character.

My favourite movie ever: The Shawshank Redemption is by far one of the most interesting and mind capturing movies I have ever watched, over and over and over. I would have seen it a good fifty times, but every time, it still engages me. A close second is Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler in this role just makes me laugh!

My pets: Currently I have no pets; I have previously had birds, rats, cats and a dog. I would love to get a pet in the next year or so though! Some say I do have a pet though seeing I’m an eager Geelong Cat’s AFL fan!

My inspiration: My father has devoted his life to his work and his family, sacrificing a lot to build up a strong business, a roof over our heads and food on the table. If I can achieve half of what he has, I will be very happy, but I will be happier if I achieve more!

Any questions and comments can be directed to

Safe online seminars

It’s E-Security awareness week and with 66% of Australian households having internet access, used every day for banking, shopping and keeping in touch, do we really understand the security implications of a virtual lifestyle?

ASCCA (Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association) will support National E-Security Awareness Week, 6-13 June 2008, by holding three seminars to help you stay safe online.

The purpose of the seminars is to help internet users understand the importance of e-security to allow them to confidently use and benefit from technology. Topics covered will be:
· Why and how installing and updating security hardware will help secure your computer!
· Are there questions about emerging technologies such as social networking and the use of wireless security?
· What can you do to help keep your family safe online?

Events are free and open to all however, booking are essential. Seminars will be held throughout the week on the following days:

Friday, 6 June 2008
1.00 pm – 4.30 pm
Cooranbong Community Centre,
Freeman’s Drive,
Cooranbong NSW

Tuesday, 10 June 2008
10.00 am – 2.00 pm
Level 1, 280 Pitt Street,
Sydney NSW 2000

Thursday, 12 June 2008
9.30 am – 1.00 pm
The Coral Sea Room,
Ipswich RSL Club,
Cnr. Downs & Lowry Streets,
North Ipswich Q’ld

Bookings can be made by emailing and the full program can be viewed at www.ascca.org.au

Where is grandpa?

This little ditty made us smile and hopefully it will do the same for you.

The computer swallowed grandpa.
Yes, honestly it’s true!
He pressed ‘control and ‘enter’
And disappeared from view.

It devoured him completely,
The thought just makes me squirm.
he must have caught a virus
Or been eaten by a worm.

I’ve searched through the recycle bin,
And files of every kind;
I’ve even used the Internet,
But nothing did I find.

In desperation, I asked Jeeves
My searches to refine.
The reply from him was negative,
Not a thing was found ‘online.’

So, if inside your ‘Inbox,’
My Grandpa you should see,
Please ‘Copy, Scan’ and ‘Paste’ him
And send him back to me.

Irish inventions

For years the Irish have been the butt of jokes calling into question their lack of intelligence but did you know they were responsible for some of the world’s most important inventions?

For a nation which prides itself as being fun-loving and easy going, the Irish have been responsible for inventing weapons used commonly in wars! However, they have also been responsible for some more useful and less violent inventions:

The submarine
After leaving his native Co. Clare in 1872, Philip John Holland headed to the US where he invented the world’s first submarine in 1899.

The atom bomb
Ernest Walton of Dungarvan Co. Waterford was part of the team that developed the atom bomb in 1945.

The harpoon gun
Invented in 1760 by Thomas Nesbitt as a means to cull whales off the coast of Donegal.

The armoured tank
Commissioned by Winston Churchill and developed by Walter Gordon Wilson in 1915.

The hypodermic syringe
Francis Rynd, a Dublin physician, invented the hypodermic syringe to inject patients with pain relieving drugs in 1845.

Free blogging

Finding your ancestors has certainly been made easier with the wealth of information now at your finger tips thanks to the internet, but how can you make it work for you?

One way of getting your information out there for anyone searching for family members is a blog. “What’s a blog?” is a question most people ask when it’s first suggested to them. A blog is quite simply your own webpage that you can let people know who you are, what’s been happening in your life and share photos with family and friends.

The next question is usually, “How do I get started?”. There are many mediums which enable you to post blogs and you can get free blogging on Google site, www.blogger.com. Once you have set up your account, Blogger offers step by step instructions on how to set up your blog, using eye catching templates, post photos and get feedback

You can take a quick tour of what’s involved in setting up your blog, which helps illustrate how easy it really is and what information you’ll need. Making it even easier is the ability to blog onto this site straight from Word, download videos from YouTube and translate your blog into other languages, nothing could be simpler. For more information on Blogger, click here.

Top Ten Googles

Imagine a life without the internet? Too difficult, but what do we really use it for? What were Australians Googling in 2007?

Well, if you live in Victoria you were most likely to be searching for cricket, European holidays if you reside in NSW and Queenslanders were looking for second mortgages for that holiday home by the sea. Does this give a true indication of how we as a nation live?

As 25% of Google searches each day are looking for something new (i.e. never been searched for before) it seems having vast amounts of information at our finger tips doesn’t quench our thirst for knowledge, no matter how trivial! Add this to the fact that Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and YouTube are among the ten fastest rising searches of 2007, the world wide web is fast becoming part of every day life for so many of us.

What about the really important stuff? For details of the top ten most Googled sports, celebs and shops, click here.