Computer and Web Articles

1. http://tinyurl.com/6kuqpyx - Is it worth paying for cable every month? Have you considered any of the (many) free and/or more comprehensive options now available to you?
2. http://tinyurl.com/5vamtsf - The days are warmer, the sun is staying out later: spring is here. I think it’s time to replace your stale desktop wallpaper, don’t you? I knew you’d agree. Here we have a “Dreams of Spring” collection of fresh spring wallpapers, just for you.
3. http://tinyurl.com/ykgcwno - Twenty ways to drive leads through social media. Many of these might not be right for you, but if you’re on the hunt for new marketing ideas, this list might contain the spark you’ve been looking for.
4. http://bing.com/toolbox/webmasters - Improve your site’s SEO and learn what Bing thinks of your site with Bing’s Webmaster tools.
5. www.PreyProject.com – Track your phone or laptop at all times (and increase the likelihood you’ll your phone or laptop if either gets lost or stolen). Free version and paid Pro version available.

1. http://tinyurl.com/4bb5489 - What you need to know before you buy an iPad2.
2. http://tinyurl.com/63vjgzn - A horse named “Arrrrr” (yes, really!), a horse race, and an announcer with a great sense of humor. This is your weekly laugh-out-loud video!
3. http://ecogeek.org/ - Thoughtful website that covers the latest news on how technology and nature can work together for good.
4. http://tinyurl.com/4784roa - “Compared to you, most people seem dumb”—a great read.
5. http://tinyurl.com/nfnnne - Mesmerizing examples of photo manipulation art.

As typing takes time and as time is money, perhaps TextExpander can save you a good chunk of cash.

Going about our days we type the same things over and over and over—from signatures to boilerplate contract wording, from credit card and billing information to standard responses for common business inquiries. We even have a tendency to regularly repeat the same typos.

Enter TextExpander, the fantastic tool that gives you instant access to those so-often-repeated snippets of text, lets you fill in forms with the click of a button, auto-fixes your typos as you go, allows you to quickly type special characters without having to launch a special characters palette, and so much more. I mean that: so much more.

Unfortunately for PC people; this software is available only for Mac, iPhone, and iPod touch users. Learn more at http://smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/

Dear iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users: have you heard of the 1Password Pro app?  Priced at $14.99, 1PasswordPro looks to be worth far more than its weight in gold.

It can save you oodles of time (and prevent many a headache) by enabling you to log in to password-protected websites with nothing more than a single tap.

Can’t remember your username? Forgot your password again? Doesn’t matter. 1PasswordPro has got you covered.

Learn more here: http://tinyurl.com/yeubl78. (Special thanks to “long time fan and loyal reader” Jeff Cospolich of Breckenridge for the tip!)

A few months ago Tommy Ryan of Fairplay emailed me a section of a great Q&A article he’d come across in a (then) recent issue of Popular Mechanics.

A reader had asked the article’s author: “Are there any dangers to using URL-shortening services such as bit.ly or TinyURL?”

The author’s response included the following comments:

• URL shorteners are potentially hazardous
• Clicking on a shortened URL is like opening an email attachment sent by a complete stranger
• There’s no guarantee that shortened URLs will stick around; they would break if the service that generated them shut down
• People who currently use URL shortening services should consider using full-length versions of their URLs
• The author would love it if websites moved away from long URLs and used shorter ones instead

Here are my thoughts on the author’s response:

• As a general rule, it’s not smart to click on any link that’s been posted online or emailed to you by a person or company you don’t trust. What appear to be absolutely valid, normal website links can whisk you off to bad websites just as easily as shortened URLs.
• There’s no guarantee that any URL, whether shortened or not, will stick around. Sites come and go. Site content and pages get updated. URLs change. The web is a dynamic creature with broken links playing an inescapable part in its reality. (However, if you truly fear that a URL shortening service will someday close its doors, causing all its shortened URLs to break… then it probably wouldn’t be very wise to use that service.)
• Asking people to use full-length versions of URLs is not the most realistic of requests. (How many of you are thinking, “How would I fit URLs containing more than 140 characters into my Twitter posts?”)
• Websites use long URLs for reasons; they don’t do it just for kicks. Lengthy URLs often play important roles in providing secure, encrypted browsing sessions. Including keywords in URLs is an effective strategy for those looking to achieve great search engine rankings. Including variables in URLs allows some websites to generate dynamic pages (pages that don’t permanently exist in a website but instead contain content generated on the fly). As I see it, suggesting that the web “move away from long Web addresses” is kind of like saying, “Everyone should move toward driving scooters, and scooters only.”

Here are my thoughts in a nutshell: Don’t feel terrified about using URL shortening services. And don’t be scared of clicking a shortened URL if you trust the person or company that gave it to you/posted it online (which is the same basic rule that applies to just about all links on the web).

And with that being said, if you’d like, you can view the original Popular Mechanics Q & A article in its entirety right here: http://tinyurl.com/23smp8k.

Thanks again to Tommy Ryan for sharing this article!

If you’re a regular Word user, I’m guessing you’ve noticed just how much the program looooooves to make a blue, underlined hyperlink out of every single email address and website address you type into your documents. Sometimes that functionality is handy. Other times, it’s a downright pain in the butt.

A neat tip I recently learned allows you to easily remove every single one of those active, blue, underlined links from your Word document–no matter how long your document is. To remove all the links, first hit Ctrl+A to select all the text in your document. After you’ve let go of the Ctrl and A keys, press Ctrl-Shift-F9. Done.

If you’d like to keep Word from auto-hyperlinking text in the future, just click on Tools in the menu at the top of the screen and select AutoCorrect Options. Next, click the tab that reads “AutoFormat as You Type“. Once you’ve made sure that the box next to “Internet and network paths with hyperlinks” is unchecked, go ahead and click the AutoFormat tab and clear that same checkbox again.

You’re now good to go.

If you’re a regular Excel user, you very well know that when you’re type type typing away inside a cell, hitting the Enter key on your keyboard bumps your cursor down to the next cell. That’s all fine and dandy … if you want to drop down to the next cell, that is.

What if you want to simply start a new line in the cell in which you’re typing? Easy. Instead of just hitting Enter, hold down the Alt key on your keyboard, then hit the Enter key.

Simple as that.

I can hear the whispers now… “Is she crazy??” “Has she lost her mind?” “Is she shooting herself in the foot by writing about this?”

I have a hunch many people will feel a bit suprised by what I’m sharing today. Why? Because the tool purports to do for free the exact service my company offers to clients (not for free): create awesome websites.

Wix.com enables individuals and companies to build their very own Flash websites. For free. The Wix interface offers drag-and-drop site creation and requires zero knowledge of HTML or programming. To sweeten the pot, Wix sites are even search engine friendly!

Musicians can build beautiful sites to present and promote themselves. Designers can build their very own online portfolios using Wix.  Photographers can build their very own online portfolios without paying a web designer one single penny.  In fact, close to three million websites have already been created using Wix.

What’s the catch, you ask? How can such an amazing tool possibly be free? Well, while there is no actual catch, there are a few rules you have to play by. First, you can’t use your own domain name. Second, Wix ads will appear on your website. And third, you are limited to a set amount of bandwidth, storage, and number of pages.

If you’d prefer to build a website free of these limitations, you can do so by upgrading to one of Wix’s Premium Plans. Depending on what you’re looking for (eCommerce? Stats Tracking? Premium support?), a Wix Premium Plan could run you $4.95, $9.90, $14.90, or $19.90 per month. Pay a year in advance and your pricing becomes even cheaper.

And just in case you’re still tottering on the fence, Wix offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee that lets you to try one of their Premium Plans for two weeks and, if you’re not happy, get all your money back. Simple as that.

Check out the features. Check out the galleries of beautiful sites other Wix users have created. No need to hire your own website designer — just sign up, build your own website, and have fun.

Gickr.com lets everyday people instantly create animated photos (i.e., mini photo-slideshows) for their websites, to send to friends via email, and for Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr accounts, etc.

Choose up to 10 images or photos you’d like your image to animate through, choose your image size, then choose the animation’s speed. Easy!

Gickr even provides you with the code you need to drop your animated photos into sites like Friendster, WordPress, Orkut, Hi5, and LiveJournal.

Check it out at www.gickr.com.