Update!

Site Update - I added a few advertising links. The ones from google are nice because they are focused on the topic that I am discussing as you may have noticed already. I posted the one from brinkster because I like the picture of the guy rock climbing. Also Brinkster is a great webhosting company, good prices and great tech support. Thats who is hosting this blog as well as 4 other sites I am affiliated with or I own.
Also, I set up a site feed. That means that this site can be viewed through newsreaders that will automatically update the user when a new post has been made. It is a real nice little feature. For more information click this link and then follow the one that says Blogger Help.Doc's Blog Site Feed

Personal Update - I gave my notice at the Library. My last day as webmaster for the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library is April 15th. After that I plan to manage my business full time. This is a huge step and quite a risky one but I feel that I am ready for it. In preparation for my big jump, I am trying to pack my chute as well as possible, by finishing up ITRealm and finish up my business website webICS.net
A few big projects I am currently working on, are a restaraunt website with built in online reservation system, staff management & a meet the staff section, and dinner menu display and management. Another project I am working on is a income property management site for a client. So he can show apartments or commercial listings that he may have available for lease. I am also working on two highly potential projects with the engineers @ Bizingo llc.

Cheers!

--Doc

Getting What You Need @ the Best Price...Free!

Have you ever needed a specific piece of software to open that important file? For many, I am sure that it had something to do with Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat? Well, you clicked the right link to find out some FREE alternatives to some of the industry's most expensive software, and I am not talking about software piracy.

One of the biggest problems I face when working with small business owners, is that they need to open Word and Excel documents, but they can not afford to buy Microsoft Office for each machine in the office. This expense can rack up as high as $500 per computer. But there is a solid alternative, it is called OpenOffice.Org and it is developed and distributed by the community. When I say community, I mean a community of programmers that pool together ideas and functionality to a product. In most cases the outcome is an easy to use, very functional, and quite impressive piece of software. With OpenOffice.org, they stood up to those standards.

OpenOffice.org is packed with many features. It allows you to use it as the default program for opening and editing Microsoft Office Documents. OpenOffice gives you the ability to make professional text documents, create highly functional spreadsheets, impressive presentations, and intense 3D drawings. For more information about OpenOffice.Org, please visit their website. Please, if you try it and are satisfied with it, don't hesitate to donate. Every penny helps.

Another problem that many businesses face is creating PDF (Portable Document Files) documents. Because of the free software from Adobe, Adobe Acrobat Reader, PDF documents have become an industry standard for distributing information and forms. Because of the importance of PDF documents, Adobe has created a dominant need and desire for their software, Adobe Acrobat, that allows you to create PDF files. The only catch is that Acrobat costs around $279 for the standard version, but there are alternatives.

One alternative that I have found to be extremely effective is PDFCreator. It installs on your computer as a print driver. What I mean by that, is when you choose to print a document from a program like Microsoft Word, you can select PDFCreator as the printing device. This will then activate the PDFCreator and begin creating your PDF document, which you can then save and use it how you please. The best part about this piece of software is that it is effective and free. For more information, please visit their website.

--Doc

New Technique for Dealing with Spam

Now I know many of you have signed up for a newsletter or two at some point, and before you know it you have 20 spam emails a day entering your vulnerable inbox. Well, any type of newsletter is usually one of those instances where you should feel uneasy about handing out your precious email address.

Newsletter providers, although they can be very helpful, may often sometimes travel down that dishonorable road and sell your information to a greedy spammer. So if you find yourself at a loss because it is a MUST! to have that American Chopper newsletter, here is some help for you.

Many email providers offer options called "Email/Message Filters". These filters act as the "Air Traffic Controller" of your inbox. Yahoo for instance allows you to filter emails from specific places. The beauty of this is you could have your favorite newsletter set up to be forwarded to your non junk email account or a specific folder set up for your newsletters. Then this way you never have to sift through 25 spam emails to get your favorite newsletters.

--Doc

The information gurus at Google Strike again!

Next time you are on "Who wants to be a Millionaire", you can feel at ease, because when it comes time to "phone a friend" you already have a sure thing at your finger tips. Google recently announced a new service available called 'Google SMS'. SMS being the acronym for 'Short Message Service'. Google's new service allows anyone with text messaging capabilities on their cellular phone to get information about anything, quicker than they can type "GOOGL".

This new service has many uses. You can search for the number of your favorite pizzeria parlor on your way home from work to place a pickup order. You can look up the definition of sedition (Conduct or language inciting resistance or rebellion against lawful authority) to settle a dispute from a friendly game of scrabble. Most interestingly you can even use it as a study aid to validate your answers from converting english units such as inches into metric units such as centimeters. For more information on uses and tips for using this new service, please visit the brilliant minds of google @ www.google.com/sms

The most beautiful part about this service is that it costs mere pennies. For instance, I only get charged what it costs to send and receive a text message and with verizon its 10 cents to send a text message and 2 cents to receive.

I give this new service a 5.0 out of 5.0 stars. Congrats to the brains at google, keep up the good work.

--Doc

Upholding the 1st Amendment: Creating a Blog

A 'blog', is short for web log which is a journal or diary that is viewed and stored on the internet. It can serve as a "soap box" for activists, a record of events or news for businesses, or even a gateway for a couple to show off their newborn to friends and family. Virtually a blog can be whatever you deem it to be. The most interesting fact about a blog that many do not realize, is that a regularly maintained blog can be an added source of income. So today we are going to teach you how you can create your own, you will be amazed to find out how simple it really is.

For advanced users, you could create your own blog through website design and server side scripting, which basically is a whole lot of work that I don't even want to do. For the lazy (me!) and the non programmers, we have the very capable and simple to use Blogger.com.

Blogger.com is a product of the legendary Google Corporation. So, now that you know that, I am sure you feel a little bit more comfortable with the idea of having your own blog since Google strives to only release products that are easy to use, effective, and fun. To begin we'll start by navigating to blogger.com, to do this you can click the link above or type www.blogger.com into your address bar above. Next we will click the link that says "Create Your Blog Now". Next step is the account setup; username, password, display name or "pen" name, email address and the acceptance of terms, "Continue". Here we have "Name Your Blog" and this is where we are going to pick a name for the blog and also a web address that the blog can be found at. This is when it begins to be fun, selecting a template. As I am sure you realized, this template is the basis that Blogger.com uses for the look and feel of your blog. You can always change this template at a later date if you are not satisfied. Finally, the horizon is visible, and your blog is created.

From one of my favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes, "Where do we go from here?" Well, I can only think of two good things to do, create your profile and post your first entry into your blog. From the blog creation, blogger.com takes you directly to your first post. Once you complete your first post, you should create your profile.This can be acheived by clicking the link in the upper right that says "Back to Dashboard". From here there is a link on the right hand side that says "Edit Profile", click it and be prepared to be as creative about yourself as possible.

Look at that you have created your very first blog and indirectly created a portal from your brain to the world. Thanks to the engineers from Google, it was easier than asking a girl out on a date for the first time. Till next time, happy blogging.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, if you are looking to make this blog a source of income, there are a few things you have to keep in mind. First off, you have to have an interesting topic to talk about. Second, you have to perfect your writing ability and keep a consistent style. Third, you have to be responsive to your readers and spread the word of your blog to all your friends and family. Finally, you have to ad Google Adsense to your blog. For more information on Google's AdSense, go to your Blogger.com dashboard or directly to the source @ www.google.com.

--Doc

Spam: Don’t let it take over your inbox

For those of you who do not know what I mean when I use the word spam; spam is unsolicited email. Spam has many faces as well. It can be anything from “Lowering your mortgage rates” to sexual stimulants and enhancement drugs. Spam has become a major problem to many computer users. If it hasn’t been a problem to you personally, I am sure you know someone who it has. My mom for instance, has received over 200 spam messages over the course of one weekend. It got so bad that it took her computer anywhere between 15-20 minutes to download her email messages. That’s when I decided to sit her down and teach her a few things about spam.

So the next question to address is, how do spammers get your email address? That’s easy; they get it directly or indirectly from you. Have you ever browsed a website and signed up for a promotional sweepstakes and it asked for an email address. Or have you ever signed up for a “Free” Newsletter. In most cases, those “free” services aren’t really free. There are companies that specialize in gathering user’s information in order to sell it to hungry spammers.

What you can do:
• Have multiple email addresses. In our modern time, it is common for someone to have more than one email address. Not to mention there are so many companies that offer free email addresses (i.e. Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, Lycos.com and soon Google.com). The reason you want multiple email addresses is simple, you designate one email address for junk mail. The tricky part is how you determine whether or not to give your main email or your junk email address. Give out your main email for:
o Friends & Family(As long as they don’t send annoying forwards)
o Businesses that disclose a privacy statement
o Schools
o Trusted Sites (i.e. Google, MSN.com, ebay.com and so on…)
o Business contacts or business purposes
o Online businesses that carry the BBBOnline logo (http://www.bbbonline.org/)
For all other email requests, give out your junk email address.

• Use email filters. Most email providers provide email filters that you can configure through your options page. For instance if you get harassing email messages from a specific person each time, you can filter out any incoming message with that persons email address in the “From” line. Or you can configure the filter to search the subject line for specific keywords like ‘debt’ or ‘mortgage’.

• If you use Outlook 2003, there are updates available from Microsoft that enable outlook to have spam filtering features. If you don’t have the latest version of outlook, there are many 3rd party programs that offer spam filtering capabilities. Just go to www.download.com, do a search for “spam” and try a few out.

Utilizing these tips will greatly reduce your chances of receiving spam, if not eliminate them all together. But just remember this; they can’t spam you, if you don’t give them your email address.


-- Doc

Windows XP Tweak: Speed up Disk Cleanup

Have you ever noticed how running disk cleanup has become a time consuming process? The reason for this is that the disk cleanup utility has to scan your entire system in search of old files that you may wish to compress. In my opinion, you should not compress any files on your system for one reason, if you ever need those files in the future, it can take twice as long to read them. Ultimately succeding in slowing down your computer.

So in this edition of "Windows XP Tweaks" we are going to teach you how to disable "Compress old files" in Disk Cleanup. In order to perform this tweak we have to edit your systems registry. As always I suggest that all users backup their registry before making any changes to it. For more information on your system registry and backing it up, please visit The System Registry.

• Step 1: Click the "Start" menu and then click "Run...".
• Step 2: In the text box type "regedit" and press "OK".

• Step 3: In the left frame of the window that appears is a "file" tree. We need to navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\Volume Caches
  To do this we are going to click the "plus" sign next to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", then the "plus" sign next to "SOFTWARE", and etc... till we reach "Volume Caches".

• Step 4: In the left frame we are going to right click on the entry under "Volume Caches" named "Compress Old Files" and select "Delete".
• Step 5: Reboot the computer and run Disk Cleanup.

Till next time, Ciao.

--Doc

Computer Security: What does it mean to you?

Is your computer safe? Computer security is like that of security of a bank or building. At a bank, security is there to make sure that the banks money, employees, and customers are secure. Computer security protects your personal information, protects your kids from seeing inappropriate content, and the overall performance of your computer. For a computer, poor security can be more harmful than people suspect. Did you know that your personal information such as credit card numbers, social security number, email and home addresses can be taken from your computer in under a second?

The three biggest threats to computer users such as yourself are viruses, spyware, and 'hackers'.

1. A virus is a computer program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer. More modern viruses have been able access your mail client's (i.e. Outlook/Eudora) address book and send itself to every one of your contacts.
2. Spyware is any software that secretly gathers information about a user while he/she navigates the Internet. It then transmits the information to an individual or company that uses it for marketing or other purposes. Why is this harmful? Identity theft, email spamming, or even mail to your home. Not to mention spyware can be extremely harmful to your computers performance.
3. There are many types of hackers, and not all hackers are bad. The type of hacker I am reffering to is one who breaks into computer systems in order to steal, change, or destroy information as a form of cyber-terrorism. These are less common for the average home user, but can still effect your system.

There are 3 basic ways to protect your PC and your personal information.

1. Obtain a firewall. Firewalls are useful because they block suspicious activity from occuring until you tell the firewall that the activity is ok or not ok. This will prevent hackers from getting into your system as well as preventing certain viruses and spyware from causing damage to your system. There are many out there, I prefer Kerio Personal Firewall, which can be found for free from www.kerio.com.
2. Obtain antivirus software and keep it up to date. Norton and McAfee are the most popular but many alternatives exist. I use AVG Antivirus made by Grisoft. Also, another way to prevent viruses from infecting your system is to only open email attachments that are from people you know.
3. Finally obtain spyware removal software, keep it up to date, and scan for spyware. The top 2 are Lavasoft Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy. I use adaware, its FREE! www.lavasoftusa.com .

I say to keep your spyware and virus software up to date because they can only find what they know exists. New viruses and spyware is being developed every day, so by not updating the software, you might as well not even have it installed.

If you have any questions, please ask. For know, happy computing!