web
Thursday, November 27th, 2008
by admin
Computer security is becoming a very familiar topic around the Internet as of late because of the fact that hackers are much more advanced in computer hacking then they were 10 years ago. Most people in this day and age also have some sort of virus defender. Well let’s just say that this post is directed more towards people without such software. Remember that these tips are not set in stone, and there are other ways in which someone can get access into your computer.
1-Know the link you’re opening- Links are a very common form of accessing a website. Unfortunately a portion of those websites aren’t that safe. So how do you prevent yourself from accessing these websites? Well first off it’s important that you don’t click links sent via email. This also applies to emails sent from family and friends including forward and/or replies. Please note that it’s not necessarily a members fault if you receive one of these types of emails, as hackers in the present time are very smart and are able to defy even the best of security software. If you absolutely must open a link, it’s important that you know where the link is going to take you, and how the website reacts.
Limewire
2- Don’t use Limewire- This one is a rather obvious tip. Hackers and “Internet Extremists” can use this program to send virus’s to your computer causing you to lose some if not all control of your PC. Hackers hide the virus in a file(usually a music or video file) and when you download your favorite song, you mightalso be downloading the latest in spyware. It’s also important to notice thatvirus’s aren’t obvious, and in most incidents give no warning whatsoever of it’s intrusion. So again don’t bother downloading Limwire unless your interested in filling your computer with unwanted “stuff”.
3-Stay away from random files- Unfortunately some people just don’t understand this. If a file’s on your favorite website doesn’t mean it’s legit. Some people post these files to social networks and services to hack into others computers using password encoding software. Once you click download on one of these files there’s no telling in whats going to happen next. In some cases you won’t even noticed that some sort of malicious software has been downloaded(some go for months without ever noticing). So again unless your 100 percent sure that the file being downloaded is legit, you should stay away from it. I know this tip is a bit of a stretch as computers in this modern age require files downloaded from websites to run smoothly and efficiently.
4-Install Updates- This is extremely important in a windows PC. What these updates do is protect your computer from the latest in virus’s, spyware, and other malicious software. Also if you’re getting a new computer make sure that it’s up to date with these updates. If not it’s important that you install updates immediately. Most people however are unaware of how to install these updates so I’ll give a quick tutorial.
- Open your start menu.
- Click Control Panel.
- Click the security icon in the window that pops up.
- Then click “Turn Automatic Updating On or Off”.
- From there you will see a new screen. On the new screen you will see a list of security options. I recommend setting it to automatically update.
I also recommend that you look around the Windows control panel making sure that all of your security options are set in a safer more secure manner. Once again updating your PC is very important in regards to keeping your computer as safe and secure as possible.
AVG
5-Get virus protection- Before i get deeper into this tip i should point out that this won’t protect you from all virus’s and or spyware but will give you a first line of defense. This first line of defense can be very critical when being attacked and may help warn you in certain venerable situations. There are plenty of options available to the consumer today like Norton, Mcafee, and much more. However there is also free alternatives available like AVG. Unfortunately some of these virus defenders slow your computer down dramatically. An example of this would be AVG: When i downloaded the software about a week ago my computer stopped responding and became slower than a snail. So just to warn you that when you do decide to download protection it does come with a cost of either price, or speed.
There is no one hundred percent defense on virus’s, or spyware but there are definatly ways in which you can protect yourself. It really depends on how you use your computer, and what programs/websites you use during your day. I hope these tips helped you out, and i surely hope that you don’t get attacked with any type of Virus. I personally have had it happen to myself, and it is no walk in the park. I’ll have another blog post coming up in the next little while on what to do if you have a virus already installed onto your computer and things you can do to attempt to destroy it. If you have any tips and tricks on how to defend your computer please feel free to comment below. If you would like to contact me the best way is to follow my Twitter account.
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
by admin
Today i recently made the partial switch from Youtube to Blip.tv. Although i will still cross-upload to Youtube, I am officially making Blip my official video host. Below I’ve listed 20 reasons of why I am now using Blip.tv
- The Front Page Looks Nice- It’s so nice to see the friendliness of a video when entering a site which hosts the video. When you go onto Youtube all you see are lists of icons lining up all across the page.
- Blip.tv is exaggerated- When you go onto Blip I notice things and when I go onto Youtube I don’t. It’s as simple as that.
- Better Quality- I notice in general that the Blip.tv videos seem to be of better quality than Youtube. However this may only be my impression as I’ve grown used to the same old Youtube format.
- No 10 minute limit- It’s so nice to know that you don’t have to rush when creating videos as there is no 10 minute limit on Blip.tv. It god a little annoying having to make sure that i kept my videos under 10 minutes.
- I can make money- Sorry Google, but I’m going to go with Blip who is nice enough to share their profit with me. After all, It’s my creation.
- I Like Blip’s Stats Page- It just looks so cool. I mean, where do you ever get to see a pie chart?
- There is no bulging Adsense add to the left of my video- That add that sits on the left of all Youtube videos really felt like it got in the way. On Blip.tv They keep the adds below the video.
- Blip.tv Looks nice- The overall chemistry of everything on the site works perfectly. I can see, and understand everything that is happening with my content.
- They Uploader shows progress- I got really quite annoyed not knowing how much of my video was finished uploading on Youtube. With Blip.tv they have a status bar showing what percentage of the video is uploaded.
- Blip.tv embeds a thumbnail image to my blog. I really like how Blip has allowed my users to choose whether they want to watch the movie on my website, and not having a monster video player sticking in their face.
- I can use the Creative Commons License- With Blip.tv i can choose what kind of copyright i want for each particular video.
- I have Ad Management- It’s not only the fact that i can put ads on my videos. It’s also that i can implement guidelines for the amount of advertising i want featured on my productions.
- Blip has a Blog- I really don’t know why this is on my top 25 list because i really don’t use this feature at all. The thought sounds cool though.
- They let you edit video players- With Blip.tv you can customize how you want people to view your video.
- Blip.tv gives you clear instructions- I find with Blip that i have easy access to instructions whether it’s on uploading videos, or just simply browsing the website. Blip.tv provides me with great service relative to website navigation.
- The Profile page looks nice- I personally felt that Youtube had a gritty old school look on their profile pages. With Blip.tv you have a simple interface with just a video player basically. No extra junk like recently played, favorites, ratings etc.
- Faster Upload Speeds- Again this may just be me, but i honestly feel that Blip has very good upload speeds in comparison to other video hosting websites that i know of.
- Bwana Uses it- That’s right! I use it because Bwana from Bwana.tv uses it. Not for the mere fact of his usage, but for his reasoning on why he uses it. He has very similar reasons of why i use Blip.tv which includes quality and professionalism etc.
- Blip.tv allows FTP Uploads- Blip.tv allows you to upload your videos directly by using your favorite FTP upload tool.
- Stats seem accurate- I noticed with Youtube that they had their stats all over the board. For example: I would see a stat saying on the video page saying a number when on the dashboard it gave me a totally different number.
Blip.tv is dong an excellent job as of late, which is one of the reasons of why i switched over to Blip.tv. However the fact still remains that Youtube has a stronger and more influential community than all the video hosting websites combined. Youtube has done a fantastic job for me and i’m sure it will get better in the years to come.
Saturday, September 20th, 2008
by admin
Firefox was the first to release this new generation of browsers spilling out their third official version of Firefox. Internet Explorer then realized that they were steadily falling behind Firefox in the web browsing industry. This caused them to release Internet Explorer 8 which at the time was all the rage with their new In-Private Browsing, and the ability to fix broken pages that were not yet compatible with the new browser. About a Month later who would expect that Google would come out with the premier of their browser called Google Chrome. This was a big surprise to the internet community as Google finally surpassed the walls of their online community and have reached into the users desktop with their own creative version of online browsing.
Google Logo
When you first open Google Chrome you notice a very clean and simple interface, somewhat reminding you of what Internet Explorer used to be. Easy to navigate, the refresh button, and all of the other Goodies that we’ve come to know with online browsing. Google Chrome gives you a small compact feel, with plenty large scale features that in my opinion were much needed for the online community.
First i’ll start out with the address bar. What? Yes the address bar is a very interesting and important piece to Google Chrome. Don’t worry, it still lets you search the website you’re looking for by the traditional format(ie http://bradwelltv.com/) but Google has also implemented their search engine within the address bar. Basically this simplifies searching the internet by typing your search directly into your address bar opposed to going to a Search Engine Website, or downloading a toolbar. This saves countless hours over a large period of time in searching the Internet. Google Chrome has also implemented a feature that Firefox, and Internet Explorer has already established in their browsers. I like to call it “Smart Search”, and what this does is allow you to search your history in a much easier way than previous browsers. With this ability Chrome remembers and recognizes your website history by showing you sites similar to the characters you are typing into your address bar. For Example: If I typed in “Mexican hammocks”.it would pop up all of the websites that i have visited with those keywords.
If you thought Google would only stick Chrome on your desktop, you were wrong. An amazing feature that Google has implemented into Chrome allows you to turn websites into applications. Some people might consider this as a shortcut to a website. This feature goes along nicely with web applications such as Google Calendar, where as you can access your Calendar directly from your desktop in it’s own application with the use of Chrome. This feature has really been around for a while know but people are now only realizing it. If you are using another browser such as Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer it’s as simple as copying and pasting a shortcut to your desktop, whereas on Google Chrome you are pasting an application.
Chrome has revolutionized tabs. I know it’s a scary thought but they have. We all know of using tabs(multiple websites in one window) on Internet Explorer, and Firefox. Which back in it’s day was a big hit with the general online community but now Google has advanced “tabbing” with an intriguing ability to drag tabs off of one window and create it’s own. You can also take the tabs you have pulled off a single window and place them back into their previous position. With Chrome you can also slide your tabs to organize them in whatever order best suites you. Organizing the tabs is as simple as drag and drop, or slide and glide.
We are all accustomed to the ability of setting a website as your homepage in other versions of internet browsing. Yes Google does allow you to do just that, along with another interesting way of viewing your history. You can set your homepage so that it shows your nine most visited websites along with a preview in your history. Along with that a bookmarks list and a history search all in one page. This simplifies going to your most frequently visited websites with just one click.
Finally a feature that we should all know about now first starting with In-Private browsing with Internet Explorer has become a key feature of Google Chrome….. Except for the fact that Google decided to call it “Incognito”. This allows you to view websites with the comfort of knowing no one else will which as we all know isn’t entirely true. By using this Chrome won’t leave behind a trail of browsing history, search history, and/or Cookies once you close your browser. As i’ve stated in my IE 8 review this can be used for “inappropriate” searching…. I’ll leave it at that.
Again Chrome in my opinion has revolutionized the way that we search the internet whether it be through search, and/or applications. Google Chrome is definitely the future of internet browsing and the way that we look at the internet. Chrome is a huge blowout to any and all of it’s competition.
Thanks
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
by admin
Ok maybe i exaggerated on the title of this post….. I’ve found once again a very cool website to do with photography.
It’s called Textorizer and what it allows you to do is to change your images and create text pictures out of them. This may sound like ACII Art but it isn’t, in fact it’s quite different. Here is what you do.
- Go to textorizer.whatfettle.com.
- Upload an image to a web host like Tinypic, or Flikr. Then take the Url of that photo and past it into the “Image” Box.
- In the box below that type in all the words that you want to be used within your text picture. Be creative with words like brad, bradwelltv, or cool. You can put as many words as you want within that box.
- Type how many strokes you would like your image to have. In simpler form they are asking you how many lines of text you want written. I recommend staying above 300.
- Adjust the edge detection otherwise known as the Threshold. I left it as is when i did mine, and it turned out fine.
- Then put the Width and Height you want. This is the size of your photo in the pixel format. This is very important in determining how large you want your text image to turn out.
After that Click Textorize and you will be pleasantly surprised of the results that appear. It will come up as your image with the same colors it had before in text. It almost looks like Graffiti in a way.
If you guys have any more cool websites you would like to share with me, feel free to email me by clicking here. I love hearing what you guys think are the latest and greatest products available whether it’s a gadget, software, website, or hardware. Also feel free to give your opinion on the website i just blogged about by commenting below.
Monday, August 25th, 2008
by admin
I’ve been blogging for almost nine months now, and I’ve enjoyed the experience. Now that I’ve compared it to other forms of expressing information like the newspaper, magazine, and other types of expression i think it’s sufficient to say that blogging, or news being published online is the new form of Journalism.
One of the things about blogging is that you don’t need a Journalism degree to be noticed. The everyday user has become more powerful then ever when it comes to creating, writing, and publishing news. They are publishing great content at a rate that has never been seen before. News is getting out quicker, cleaner and faster. I wouldn’t say that it’s coming out in it’s more truthful form, but users are getting there news more directly or right from the source.
Some major companies have been smart enough to realize this new form of Journalism like CNN or The CBC. They have started publishing their news online through Wordpress, which is a platform for blogging. By doing this, they have been pushed to the head of the game. Links to their website have been found all over the internet driving them traffic, and attention. In some ways more attention than they would get through feeding news through our television screens.
Blogging has also become the new source of income for journalist. Pay per click advertising has never been so popular. Also big companies are entering advertising within the blogosphere paying big bucks to have their ads shown on blogs. Income from Paypal is also growing with more and more people pasting “Donate Buttons” onto their website. Careers of hundreds of people have been made through posting new content, and information online.
This also brings up the question to whether Bloggers are considered Journalist all together. Of course they don’t have the education that qualified Journalist do. But they do post new and relevant information that any other professional writer would. If Bloggers are considered Journalist should they be held to the same standers, and consequences the media have to deal with? Usually Bloggers write for self soothing, or out of interest in a certain subject or topic. Does this mean that they are Journalist, or does this mean that they are everyday people writing as a passion? Should they be under laws, and jurisdictions? Or should they be considered allowed to have freedom of speech?
Credibility also comes up when you talk about Bloggers. Journalist generally are known to have more credibility than an everyday blogger. Do Bloggers have the same credibility as a Journalist? Should they suffer the same consequences as Professional writers for wrongdoings and mis-published information? Or should we just leave them alone if the publish copyright or plagiarized material?
Before i wrap this post up i should also ask the question of whether “Picture Blogs” is really a blog at all. In simpler form is a blog that is only pictures a blog or is it a photo album? Is a photography blog Journalism, or is it a photo album?
Whats your opinion? Is Blogging the New form of Journalism? Is it the future of presenting and broadcasting news? Is the time of the newspaper coming to and end? Where do you get your news from? Do you subscribe to online news distributors, or RSS Feeds? I would really be curious to know. If you have a thought or opinion on this matter please comment below or email me by clicking here. I reply to all email questions and read all of my email.
Thanks, Brad
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
by admin
Lary Halff and Tara Hunt made a speach at the technology conference Gnomedex in Seattle today. Lary Halff is based out of San Fransisco and is an entrepreneur. He also founded a bookmarking site called Ma.gnolia.com.
Tara Hunt has worked in a number of industries related to technology. She has won many awards in the past seven years. She is a very frequent speaker at conferences, and is a community based web 2.0 marketer. She is also a consultant with Ma.gnolia.
Lary Halff started off describing open ID and some of the problems when it first started, including the login problems. He also advertised the Ma.gnolia widget and what Open ID has to do with it. Open Id is what Ma.gnolia used for their users to sign in to their Ma.gnolia account.
Tara Hunt then came up, and talked about how she was related to Ma.gnolia as a consultant. Then she went on to describing how Ma.gnolia was one of the first companies to use Twitter in communicating with their costumers. She also talked about building a community, and letting the community contribute to the Ma.gnolia product. She also bragged about how Ma.gnolia gives you the option of getting rid of spammers simply by flagging them.
You can watch Lary Halff and Tara Hunt live at Gnomedex by going to live.pirillo.com. There is also a number of other speakers coming up within the next two days. For information on that you can go to the Gnomedex Website.
