Computer and Web Articles

Have you ever watched the Slow Mo Guys video clips on YouTube? They’re fun. They’re short. They’re educational. They’re really cool. Watch what happens when life slows down anywhere from 1,000 - 5,000 frames per second (translation: up to 200 times slower than real-time).

• Soccer ball to the face: http://tinyurl.com/3k6phwu
• Colliding droplets of colored water and milk (this one is quite beautiful): http://tinyurl.com/6dxnj9k
• Flaming hand fireball: http://tinyurl.com/3dx7xow (Apparently you’ll need to confirm that you’re over 18 to watch this one)
• Water vs. fire: http://tinyurl.com/42×49ws
• Cat jumping/landing: http://tinyurl.com/6hkk68p
• And of course: Smashing china plates with a baseball bat: http://tinyurl.com/3bzxqqr

Built for small businesses committed to social media through ongoing time and money investments, BringShare.com collects data from Google Analytics, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, email campaigns, Adwords account, etc. and enables business owners to quickly understand what’s working and what’s not.

Unlike competing services, Bringshare doesn’t just aggregate results onto a single screen. It actually mashes all of a company’s data together in a clean, stylish manner and generates intuitive, valuable reports. The reports allow businesses to gain birds-eye views of their social media efforts by highlighting information such as which marketing efforts produce the most leads and how much interaction is generated by Twitter and Facebook accounts.

If your company invests in ongoing social media efforts, consider visiting the BringShare homepage (www.BringShare.com) and clicking the big green “Watch Demo Video” button beneath the main illustration. Within one minute you’ll have a good idea as to whether or not the service could benefit your company. It’s free for 30 days. After that, choose from a $49/month, $99/month, or $199/month plan based on your needs.

1. http://tinyurl.com/3b4hsj5 - Great article delving into the ongoing PC vs. Mac safety argument: Who Says Macs Don’t Get Viruses?
2. http://tinyurl.com/69ct5lw - This is hands down, by far, without a doubt one of the most interesting and enlightening articles I’ve read about general health and weight in quite a long time. The author explores the massive impact sitting has on your overall health, expected life span, and your weight. Think your hour and a half at the gym makes up for the complete lack of movement you experience each day at your office or school? Think again.
3. http://tinyurl.com/3dvwjsp - What can you do to protect your computer from lightning and electrical surges?
4. http://zite.com - For your iPad: The Zite app learns what you like (getting smarter over time) and uses the information it gathers to generate a beautiful, constantly updated, personalized magazine customized to your specific interests. It’s kind of like a You Magazine.
5. http://tinyurl.com/4xtf9tt - “Six YouTube Channels That Won’t Waste Your Time.” A great blog post. Very little text for you to read. Just a list of channels that can broaden your imagination, invoke critical thinking, and increase your knowledge on a variety of topics. Channels like Funny Cat Videos and Hilarious Girlfriend Pranks didn’t make the cut.

Maneuvering about and managing your layers in Photoshop by using keyboard shortcuts eliminates unnecessary mouse movement and clicks. Layer-related keyboard shortcuts save you time and allow you to stay focused on your work.

When working within your Photoshop layers, use these basic, absolutely essential keyboard shortcuts. Period, end of discussion. Use them.

(As always, the Ctrl key on a PC = Command key on a Mac and the Alt key on a PC = Option key on a Mac)

• Select the layer up or down from the layer you’re working on: Alt + ] or Alt + [
• Duplicate the layer you’re working on: Ctrl + J
• Toggle the Layers palette on/off: F7 key
• Create a new, blank layer above the layer you’re working on: Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N (If you’d like the option to name your layer before creating it, you don’t need to hit the Alt key.)
• Move the layer you’re working on up or down your layer stack: Ctrl + ] or Ctrl + [

You CAN get an Amazon Gift Card quickly and easily. No joke, no catch, no scam here. Just take advantage of Amazon’s Trade In program.

Got a Texas Instruments 89TVSC/CBX/1L1/A calculator lying around? Amazon will give you $36.75 for it. Star Wars Trilogy DVD set? They’ll give you $22.75. Toy Story 2? They’ll give you $5.75.

It’s easy. It’s fast. You make money.

Here’s how it works:

1. Rummage through your drawers, closets, bookshelves, and piles of maybe-it’ll-get-donated-or-maybe-I’ll-toss-it stuff. Pull out any books, DVDs, video games, video game consoles, cameras, iPods, phones, camcorders, calculators, GPSs, etc. that you no longer use and/or would like to trade in for Amazon credit.
2. Make sure the items you’ve found are in very good (or better) condition. No books with highlighted pages. No DVDs with ripped packaging.
3. Visit www.Amazon.com/trade-in.
4. Choose one of your items to start with. Select its category in the drop down menu in the middle of the page, then type in its title or ISBN # in the next field.
5. Click the Go button.
6. On the following page, find your product. You’ll see the amount of trade Amazon is offering for it. If you’re happy with the amount, click the yellow “Trade In” button. (At this point you’ll need to login to Amazon or create an account if you don’t have one).
7. You’ll arrive at a screen displaying a summary of your trade ins and how much your Amazon Gift Card will be worth. Keep adding items to this list and you’ll keep bumping up the value of your Gift Card.
8. Click continue when you’ve added everything you’d like to trade in.
9. Choose either a FREE USPS shipping label or a FREE UPS shipping label. Select your last remaining options from the final questions Amazon asks you.
10. When you’re done, pack up your products in a box, slap on the printed label that Amazon generated for you, and drop the box off at the Post Office or nearest UPS drop-off location.
11. Sit back and wait for the email from Amazon that says “We got your stuff, you got your Amazon credit, thanks very much, send in more whenever you’d like!”

Keep in mind here: Amazon’s trade in program is similar to the trade in programs at car dealerships. Fast. Easy. Painless. You get your credit/money quickly. You don’t have to keep your fingers crossed that someone out there in the world will find, then buy, what you’re selling at the price you set. Accordingly, in exchange for this convenience and sure-money, Amazon offers some pretty low trade in prices. Every now and then you’ll score big, but it’s typical to get a buck or 2 for a good hardback book. Perhaps four dollars for a DVD.

Remember though, we’re talking easy money here. So if you don’t watch those DVDs, read those books, or use those gadgets anymore anyhow, you can clear them out of your home or office and receive a bit of Amazon credit for it as well. Good deal all around.

In fact, I have a stack of shiny new books right here on my desk, thanks to the boxes of trade ins I sent in to Amazon a while back. Now that I think about it, I can’t even recall what I traded in. But I am very excited to read these new books.

GoodReader is a fantastic, flexible, handy PDF reader for your iPad. Mashable called it a “Swiss Army knife of awesome!”

GoodReader handles big files of 100MB or more with great speed. It gives you the ability to mark-up PDFs with ease. It allows you to sync your files and folders, zoom up to 50x, and create your own inter-document hyperlinks so you can easily jump back and forth between pages in large documents.

GoodReader is also a truly fantastic reviewing and annotating tool. The program allows you to easily highlight, underline, and cross out text. It lets you type notes onto the PDF while enhancing the notes with squares and ovals and circles and arrows of various colors. You can add sticky notes and even make freehand drawings by drawing directly onto the PDF with your finger. Pretty sweet.

As an added bonus, the latest version of GoodReader supports .ppt, .xls, .html, .jpg, .tiff, and even audio and video files!

So what’s the cost for all of these amazing features? A whopping four dollars and ninety-nine cents. Worth every single penny.

Learn more about all of the many, many things GoodReader can do for you (then download the app once you’re sold) right here: http://tinyurl.com/y2v9h3g.

1. http://tinyurl.com/3nvgd52 - If you consider yourself a Harry Potter fan, you’ll probably love this. It’s a fantastic YouTube clip called “How Harry Potter Should Have Ended.” And it’s so, so true.
2. http://tinyurl.com/4l8calo - An 8x telephoto lens for your iPhone! Then lens comes with a matte black iPhone case that you twist the lens onto. Twist the lens, adjust the grip on the manual focus ring, and snap away. Collapsible table tripod included. The cost? $35.
3. www.SocialMention.com – It’s like a Google Alerts for social media. SocialMention.com offers real-time social media search and analysis. Visit the site and search directly from the homepage.
4. http://tinyurl.com/ck9euo Five tips for avoiding bad (including downright deceptive) SEO companies.
5. http://ow.ly/6imhi - Watch a girl grow from 0 to 10 years of age over the course of 1:25 in this YouTube video clip. Fascinating to watch something that happens before our eyes each day yet is too slow for us to see in real time.

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