Byte of the Week
January 3, 2007 - PC Pitstop Happy New Year!!
This year for New Year’s I’m bring up one of my very favorite online tools: PC Pitstop: www.pcpitstop.com
PC Pitstop provides a free tune up for your computer. You just need to click on the Tune Up for new members. You can register, but it’s not necessary. It takes a few minutes to run PC Pitstop and you may need to answer a few questions (such as what type of Internet connection do you have) but the tool with run a few tests and will tell you how your computer is running.
I love it. It will tell me what’s wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t too technical and they are generally pretty easy and quick to fix. Usually I will see a difference in how my computer runs after running PC Pitstop and making changes.
December 27 - Google Calendars Rock!
Happy Holidays! I am going to start by admitting that I need to be to a Christmas party in 40 minutes and I have to pick up a cheesecake on the way so this is going to be quick.
I have a client who needs a calendar on their web site. They may want to let lots of people add events to this calendar; they may want to deputize a select few to add events. They want to do this inexpensively. They don’t want to give up all control. They expect to have a lot of events added.
I’ve been looking all afternoon for a solution – until I ran into my old friend Google. They have a new-ish calendar application (http://www.google.com/calendar). So I created a quick calendar to test on my site (http://www.treacyinfo.com/calendar.htm). I haven’t spent a ton of time on it – but for less than 10 minutes of work, it’s not bad. As you can see you can browse through my events. If I gave you permission you could add an event from the backend (a Google page). I’m not sure yet if I could give free reign for strangers to add events – I don’t think so.
It looks a lot like Outlook, which is good since most people know Outlook. It is very easy to set up and browse. A very nice added attraction is that if you add a street address to as an event detail then users can easily link to direction and more info to the event on Google maps. That might be the seller for my client.
December 20 - Posting PPT Online
Last summer I looked high and low for an affordable tool to easily and attractively post PowerPoint slides online. Well, this week I finally found a tool I liked PointCast (www.poinecast.com). (Cost was $100.)
I used it recently to upload a presentation on email newsletters:
http://www.treacyinfo.com/EmailMarketing/start.html
It was very easy to use. Once I downloaded the software, an additional button was added to PowerPoint to “publish” the presentation the same way I would save it. And once that was done I was able to upload the files to my web server.
You can set the slideshow to advance automatically. I set mine to advance as someone clicks through the slides. Apparently you can add audio with PointCast too. I haven’t had time to test it yet – but I’m hoping to get the chance soon.
On a completely different note – David in St Paul sent me a fun shopping site last week that I wanted to share: www.AliShops.com. It features reviews of Twin City shops.
December 13 - Using the Internet for the Holidays
Everyone is busy these days, super busy. So I thought I’d send a few notes on different web sites that I use to save myself time near the holidays.
Google for Coupons www.google.com
Know you’re going to buy something specific, such as an American Doll? You can do a search on [American Girl coupon] to find a number of web sites that compile coupons for various vendors. I can’t speak for all of them – but I’ve found and used coupons.
The Food Network http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/entertaining/
The “easy” recipes on the Food Network are even easy by my standards and their search (found on the left) is pretty good. The link above goes to their party planning page. Their kids section and planning section are good – although not necessarily helpful if your party is in 2 hours.
Gift.com http://www.gifts.com/
If you can describe your recipient, they have a matching category that will give you plenty of gift ideas.
Mom’s Minivan http://www.momsminivan.com/
Thankfully our biggest travel over the holidays will be to a mid-tier, Twin Cities suburb – but that’s not to say that we won’t be printing off some of these games for the cars or learning about how to prevent car sickness.
December 6 - All About Microsoft
Did you know that Microsoft has a public labs page just as Google does? That was news to me until Rick in Minneapolis sent me the link:http://www.microsoft.com/events/vlabs/default.mspx
It’s a great place to see what Microsoft is working on. I’ll admit that a number of the projects were too techie for me – although there is a section for business executive that I thought was more interesting.
They also have a searchable database of training opportunities (online and off) so if you wanted to learn more about their upcoming Operating System you could attend a Vista 101 workshop.
For the less techie folks in the crowd, Microsoft also a great site for clip art:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx?lc=en-us
And a site of templates including holiday party invitations and other season treats:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/FX100595491033.aspx?pid=CL100632981033
Nov 29 - Possible Convert to Explorer 7.0
Last weekend I downloaded – and started using Internet Explorer 7.0. I have to say, so far so good. One of the big additions to 7.0 is the easy access to RSS feeds. (Now the RSS feeds are just a click away, which means (for web publishers out there) that I think RSS will soon be worth including on your site if you update frequently.)
Things I liked:
The latest Explorer also includes “tabs” in a browser window so that you can have several web sites open in one browser, accessible through the tabs. As I recall Firefox has this too. The added feature I like is that you can view all of your tabs at once (in thumbnail view) by clicking a button.
New Explorer assumes you want a search button on the browser with easy access to a search engine(s) of your choice, again I like this but since I previously used Google Toolbar this wasn’t a huge difference.
New Explorer includes a virus check (always nice!) and a phish detector. (Phishing is akin to being an online imposter. Someone creates and email or a web site to look like it is hosted by someone else – such as your bank – on the hopes that you will provide confidential information.) The Phish detector alerts you to suspicious sites.
Things I didn’t like:
Maybe it’s my imagination but my computer seems to run a little slower now that I’m running 7.0. I’ve always had more than one window open at a time – and generally several Explorer windows, but – right or wrong – it seems as if the tabs are draining my Internet access.
Again this may be my imagination – but after I downloaded 7.0, the login information I need to upload half of my web sites (which is on Dreamweaver, a completely different, non-Microsoft software) disappeared.
So there’s my two cents worth. You’ll have to let me know what you think if you have tried it.
Nov 22 - 2006 Annual Thanksgiving Quiz
1. According to a recent Cub survey (Cub is a grocery store chain in Minnesota), what is the favorite Thanksgiving side dish?
Stuffing (at 36%)
Potatoes 28%
Pie 29%
Green bean casserole
2. According to AllRecipes.com, which side dishes would people be happiest to live without?
Green bean casserole 28.2%
Gelatin (Jell-O) salad 51.4%
Sweet potato casserole 26.1%
Cranberry sauce 22.2%
3. According to TripAdvisor, will more people be traveling home for Thanksgiving by plane, train, or automobile?
56 trip via car,
41 percent via plane
Train wasn’t actually listed
4. How long can you keep leftover turkey in the fridge?
1 month
1 week
3 days
What leftovers?
5. How many cranberries are used in one gallon of cranberry juice?
880
2,200
4,400
6. How many people comprise the average Thanksgiving Day celebration?
8
9
10
11
On average, survey respondents celebrate Thanksgiving with 9.1 people. However, in the North Central and South Central regions of the country, celebration sizes increase to 10.3 and 10.2 people respectively.
7. Who is the least likely member of the family to cook the turkey? (No names please, we’re looking for family role.)
I want to thank everyone on the byte list for reading the bytes and sending occasional nice notes. Here are the answers:
1. stuffing at 36%; 2. Jello salad at 51% followed by green bean casserole at 28%; 3. 56% by car and 4`% by plane; 4. 3 days; 5, 4,400; 6. 9; 7. Grandpa (although my kids guessed mom.
Nov 8 - Word for Brochures
Here is a word on Word. Last week I used Microsoft Word to create a custom brochure. Someone else created a nice logo and image for the brochure and I used the header and footer fields to keep them in place on the page and now the final client can type in the text they want. It was surprisingly easy to do.
Get the Page Set Up
- Open a new document
- Select PAGE SETUP (under menu item FILE)
- Under the MARGINS tab choose the dimensions and layout you want
- Under the LAYOUT tab select “Different first page” in the headers/footers section
Place the Images
- View the HEADERS AND FOOTERS (under menu item VIEW)
- Paste images (in header and/or footer area)
- Double click on the image and select the LAYOUT tab
- Select wrapping style (Square worked best for me)
- Select a Horizontal Alignment and the ADVANCED TAB
- Under the advanced tab you can select the actual placement of the picture either by selecting comparative or numeric placement. (You can get the image to the edge of the page by selecting to place it compared to the edge.)
- Because you have selected “different first page” in page setup, you can create 2 different page (or side of a brochure)
Add text
- You can create multiple CLOUMNS under Format to add text it various panels
- Or insert a TEXT BOX into each panel for text
Skip the columns section above and you could create letterhead or flyer templates this way as well. (Or check out the Microsoft templates http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx for a brochure template.)
The following is a suggestion from Denise in Minneapolis - top tips for sending email (or email newsletters).
1) Do not send one email message to more than 10 people at a time. Many email filters will throw that into the junk bin because it is going to too many people and often that is a sign that it’s junk. If you need an informal list, you might check out Bravenet (http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/elist/). They offer free lists; their pro version is pretty good too. If you’re going to pay for a list, I’d consider Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com).
2) If you send one message to multiple people, be sure to put their addresses in BCC (blind carbon copy) field. That way you don’t share the addresses with everyone and it makes it easier to forward the message. (With Outlook you can get to the BCC field by double clicking on the TO box of an open message.
3) Be wise with subject lines. Clever can be fun if it’s still meaningful but we’re all busy. We all judge an email by the subject – so make it easier for the recipient and your messages will get read more often.
4) Include contact info on your email. The easiest way to do this is by adding a SIG (or signature) file. Get info on setting up a sign file here (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/help/email-signatures.htm).
5) Keep it short. Again, we’re all busy; a concise note is a gift to the reader.
6) If you’re replying to a message, be sure to leave enough of the original message in tact so as to give context. Some of us get more than 100 messages a day and a little context is always helpful.
Oct 26 - Web Site Check Up
If you have a web site, it’s easy to kind of forget about it. It’s built, you probably spent a lot of time on it at one pint but now it’s done. Today I’m going to Detroit Lakes to talk about giving your site a Web Site Check Up. Very quickly these are the things I think you should check on our site periodically:
- Is the info on your site still true? – or are you featuring an upcoming 4th of July sale and a phone number that no longer works?
- Here’s a fun tool that will help you at least check out the links on your site to make sure that they are still good: http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/valet/
- Can the search engines find you? Do a search on your name and a few keyword terms that someone might use to find a business like yours
- Here’s a tool that will tell you how your site ranks with major search engines: www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/
- Are you supporting your site?
- Do you have an email newsletter? Do you mention your URL on your voicemail?
- Are other sites lining to you?
- Here’s a tool that will show you who is linking to you: www.linkpopularity.com
There you go a very quick prescription for a check up.
Oct 11 - Online Ads & Sponsorships
OK Today’s Byte is really long – but I’ve tried to break it up with a Q & A format. I think the Byte will be of greatest interest to nonprofit organizations that have web sites.
Last week I gave a presentation on online ads and sponsorship at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Annual Conference. I gave the presentation with my friend and fellow search engine junky, David Erickson. (David posted the presentation on his site http://www.e-strategyblog.com/2006/10/online_ads_spon.html.)
A couple of question came up during the presentation and I thought I would answer them here:
Do you have a sample link policy for folks who might link to my site?
You can’t really stop anyone from linking to you. A “link” is an address and addresses cannot be copyrighted. Copyright becomes an issue when someone copies your content and posts it on their page.
The Texas Department of Information Resources does a good job of outlining the links they encourage and “links” they don’t allow (http://www.dir.state.tx.us/standards/link_policy.htm). The bottom stuff gets into government stuff – but the top paragraphs are pretty useful.
The March of Dimes has a pretty strict policy (that requires linkers to agree before linking) but it does allow folks to use their graphic for a link.
Do you have a sample link policy to help us decide which links to include on our site?
Above all else, you want to make sure that your links are helpful to your visitors.
The Educator’s Reference Desk (http://www.eduref.org/linkpolicy.shtml) has a nice link policy that I think actually helps you decide what to include.
First Gov for Kids (http://www.kids.gov/linkpolicy.htm) does a good job explaining their criteria to potential link requesters.
Minnesota Revenue (http://www.taxes.state.mn.us/taxes/home_con/link_policy.shtml) has a more business-like policy.
Do you have a sample sponsor policy?
We were talking about seeking sponsors for web site; in short people who might be rewarded for a donation with a link or banner link on your nonprofit web site. On the one hand it’s nice to get money; on the other hand some sponsors might have goals or reputations that conflict with your own. As I did the research I realized (and remembered from my days in service-learning) that this issue is much larger than the web. If you want a scan of all of the issues, do a search on “nonprofits taking tobacco money”.
For the Byte I can only say that I’d start by looking at the link policy (using resources above) and if someone didn’t make the cut without a “donation” then I’d have to think long and hard about adding them just for the money. Or it would have to be a lot of money. Ask yourself, is it a site that your visitors would find of value and would you be proud to be associated with them?
Do you have to report revenue generated from online ads (such as through a program such as Google Adsense https://www.google.com/adsense/)?
I talked to my accountant and he said, yes. He also said ask a lawyer – but I looked online instead. NonprofitExpert.com (http://www.nonprofitexpert.com/income.htm) had a nice article on earned income or unrelated business income. It doesn’t address online ads specifically, but I think it addresses the issue.
Oct 4 - Microsoft Templates – Worth a Look
Lately it seems as if I’ve had Bytes for folks in Minnesota, business people, or web site owners – well, today’s Byte is for everyone.
I had to make a flyer this week. Whenever I have to make something like that I always start with Microsoft Templates (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx). I did a search on “flier” and got 100 choices back. But revisiting the site just reminded me of how much I like it.
Right now they are featuring checklist templates. I think I might use their kids chore list (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC100760011033.aspx) – although the house cleaning checklist (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC100762411033.aspx) did not seem as appealing for some reason.
They also had Halloween templates (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA012301241033.aspx) and event planning tools (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT062640421033.aspx).
The search is pretty good. So, the next time you have to create a document or project on the computer – don’t start from scratch, start with the Microsoft Templates. I know if saved me at least an hour with the flier I created. (They even have template letters, such as cover letters for job and fundraising requests.)
Sept 27 - E-Democracy E-Debates
Today’s Byte is probably of most interest to folks in MN – but it’s an idea that could be replicated elsewhere.
E-Democracy (http://www.e-democracy.org) is a Minnesota nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes online civic discourse by providing space for online discussion.
This year E-Democracy is sponsoring an online debate among the MN gubernatorial candidates. We did this in 1998 (the year Jesse Ventura won in MN) but haven’t done an online debate since. (I am a longtime E-Democracy volunteer.) As of yesterday, all of the major candidates just agreed to participate. So we’re pretty excited.
Citizens are invited to submit questions e-debates@e-democracy.org. For more information you can visit the E-Democracy web site (http://www.e-democracy.org/wiki/Minnesota_Gubernatorial_E-Debate_2006).
The online debate is sponsored by the Blandin Foundation as part of their Next Generation Broadband conference (http://www.blandinfoundation.com/bbsummit/). In the spirit of full disclosure I should let you guys know that I am helping with the conference. So, if you plan to come I’ll see you in Alexandria MN in October.
Sept 20 - What’s a swicki?
According to Wikipedia, a Swicki is a social search engine created by eurekster. Swickis, like wikis, are collaborative, so users can modify and improve the focus of the search engine.
From what I’ve seen, swickis are search engines that you can put on your web site or blog. Visitors to your web site can use the swicki to search your site and/or the Internet. Visitors can also rate the results of the search engine. The search engine will learn from the ratings and will rank results accordingly. The swicki will also track which results get the most clicks and will weight those accordingly as well.
The theory is that the community of visitors to your site would create search results tailored community members by highlighting results they like and discarding results that were not appropriate or applicable.
Here are a couple of examples:
Info for NY http://new-york-city-swicki.eurekster.com/
Popular Science http://www.popsci.com
I think swickis are very interesting in theory – but in practice I didn’t find any that jumped out at me. Maybe it’s just too early to tell.
Sept 13 - Google Earth – New Content
Today I tried out Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/). I shouldn’t have because it kept me distracted for too long, but it was really neat. (Google Earth is different from Google Maps http://maps.google.com/; I mention that because I’m hoping to research a new feature in Google Maps in the next two weeks and will mention it soon.)
In their own words, “Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.”
It’s not a web site, it’s a software application. So, I downloaded it. I didn’t delve too deep into the options but I could plug in an address or location (such as city of country) and the software would fly me there. I say fly because it looks as if you’re in an airplane. You can see the terrain as you pass and once you get to your destination you can steer right, left, up, down or you can zoom in and out or tilt your camera view.
I checked out Dublin and tried to find the place I used to live – but had marginal luck. (And then only because I lived near a major landmark.) But I checked in St Paul, which I know quite a bit better and had no trouble zooming onto my block.
My intention had been to check out some of their new tools but I must admit I’m not there yet. In short they have partnered with new content providers to offer even more info on places through Google Earth, such as Discovery and the United Nations Environmental Program.
For today I just had to tell you about this not-so-new, but new-to-me tool. Someday I am going to work with my kids to learn more. One thing I liked (for kids and others) was how it gives you an idea of where things are and how big they are (such as the US is compared to Africa). It also gives you a glimpse at the different terrain and housing density. I once lived in a town in Spain with no grass or trees – it was very fun to compare that to Dublin or St Paul. (The town is Mollerusa, Spain – in case you want to check it out.)
Sept 6 - Being Safe
People have sent me emails on being safe today. The world of safety differs from “how to fall from great heights” to Internet security – but it seemed as if someone was telling me to do a Safety Byte. Here are some of the resources – I hope that there are helpful but that you will never need them.
(Oh a couple people have asked about my kids’ podcast – they actually have been updating it recently: http://www.10questionsabout.com/.)
Survive a Long Fall http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-Long-Fall
It made my palms sweat just reading about it. But
Security Evolution Quick Hits http://www.secev.com/news/bulletin.htm
A fun and helpful newsletter on Internet security from Mike Endrizzi (MN security guru)
USFA Kids http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/kids/flash.shtm
A fire safety site for kids. (Warning: they will ask about batteries in the smoke alarms if they see this – so be prepared.)
National Crime Prevention Council http://www.ncpc.org/Topics/Personal_Safety/index.php
They have topics on nearly everything for adults and kids.
Keep Schools Safe http://www.keepschoolssafe.org/
Info for parents, kids, and educators. (Warning: if I had this much info on lab safety as a high schooler I could have led an effective campaign to ban chemistry or at least make it an elective.)
Aug 30 - Putting PowerPoint Online
Say what you will about PowerPoint presentations – lots of people use them and they can be a good way to transmit information. The hard thing about PPT is that it doesn’t generally transfer to the web very well – unless you have the right tool.
The Free Answer
It is actually very easy to upload a PPT – even to include sound. You simply save a web page and upload. They problem is that it’s not very dynamic. It doesn’t flow or look like it does in PPT. The users has to click through pages themselves and doing that isn’t necessarily intuitive to the visitor. Microsoft has support to upload PPTs to the web (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP052667841033.aspx). On a positive note – it’s free and it’s easy.
Articulate $499
“Articulate Presenter lets non-technical users create e-learning courses by adding narration and interactivity to a standard PowerPoint file. At the press of the button, your presentation is transformed into a compelling Flash-based course.” OK, I tried this and it was easy. One down side is that you have to record the sound using this tool. Here is a sample of a presentation posted with Articulate: http://www.articulate.com/demos.html#
Impatica $499
“Impatica for PowerPoint makes it easy to add narrated business presentations to your web site or e-mail marketing programs.” I tried this one too. It was less easy to use – but the support people were really helpful. One benefit is that you don’t need to record audio with the tool; it will convert audio recorded with PPT. Here is a sample of a presentation created with Impatica: http://www.impatica.com/imp4ppt/
Camtasia - $299
”Camtasia Studio gives you the power to easily record your screen, PowerPoint presentations, voice, and Web camera video to create compelling video tutorials, training presentations, and rich sales demonstrations for Web and CD-ROM delivery.” I didn’t try this one because it seemed much more like video – and therefore didn’t meet the purpose I had last week. Here is a sample created with Camtasia.
Aug 23 - You Tube – It’s Easy
I mentioned You Tube earlier this summer. It’s a web site where you can post video clips for free. Well, I finally had a chance to use it and I wanted to report back on how easy it is.
I recently posted a fun video on broadband technology for a group from International Falls, Minnesota. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op4cb8u3hTQ)
All I needed to do was set up a free account and upload the video – by walking through their series of questions. They have some limitations: video time limit is 10 minutes and size is 100MB.
Rick in Minneapolis recently sent me a great use of You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrAjAIZhktM). These guys have posted brief snippets of videos from a recent conference. I think that’s a great way to share a conference with folks who can’t attend; or to help promote your conference for next year.
You Tube recently implemented a bunch of new improvements; none are worth going into – but I think it indicates that You Tube is gearing up to be bigger and better. It could be a good way to share family videos or just about any kind of video online.
Aug 16 - Dell Recall
OK, this isn’t my usual Byte fodder – but I use a Dell and since I had to look up the details I thought I’d share.
If you haven’t heard Dell is recalling certain batteries sold with laptops because people have had their laptops blow up. You can see why this caught my eye. Potentially affected batteries were sold with the following models of Dell notebook computers or separately as secondary batteries:
Latitude: D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810
Inspiron: 500M, 510M, 600M, 700M, 710M, 6000, 6400, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 9400, E1505, E1705
Precision: M20, M60, M70, M90
XPS: XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170, XPS M1710
In addition, these batteries may have also been provided in response to service calls. The batteries were shipped to customers between April 1, 2004 and July 18, 2006. The words "DELL" and "Made in Japan" or "Made in China" or "Battery cell made in Japan, Assembled in China" are printed on the back of the batteries.
Sadly, I have an Inspiron 700M. So I needed to check to se whether my computer was one of the lucky few, which meant checking the battery. I found directions for removing the battery.
Luckily, my battery part number was not included in the recall. But if it had been I could have gone further on the site presumably to double check to make sure my battery was part of the recall and then to place on order for a battery switch. I will plug Dell here because I had to order a replacement piece earlier this summer. They never really asked how I broke the computer, they sent a free replacement, and (this is the best part) it was hand delivered by a technician who handled the replacement.
To learn more about the battery recall, visit the Dell battery recall site: https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/Default.aspx
While I was looking into this I noticed another page of interest that lists other Dell Recalls, visit the Dell web site.
Aug 9 - Creating a Web Site
Last week someone asked me about how to plan or design a web site. Here are some of the resources that I think are helpful to think about the layout and look of your site - whether you are hoping to create your own web site or talk to someone about creating one for you.
Open Source Web Design: http://www.oswd.org/ - this is a great list of free web site templates. Use it to find a model that you like. Then you just need to download it and make modifications to make the site yours. Or use it to find what you like and show your web developer. Then can download it and make the changes for you.
Don't trust your opinion? Check out Web Sites that Suck http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/. It a fun place to learn what not to do - by example. While some of it is subjective, it does hit upon what are considered standards of good site deign tactics.
What to make sure that your site is easy to use? Jakob Nielsen is another I like (http://www.useit.com/ ) - admittedly he might sacrifices usability for aesthetically appealing but his rules for design will make site easier to use and often will help with your search engine ranking.
If you're in the Twin Cities, I have to tell you about a fun event this weekend - The Irish Fair (http://www.irishfair.com). My husband is running the Summer School that is happening on Thursday - it should be fun and there's always room for more if you're looking for something to do.
Aug 2 - Blog Categories
I’ve talked about blogs before – they are web logs where the author posts regular articles, generally on a given topic. People use them to show off a hobby, keep their audience updated on a project or event, demonstrate their expertise, or many other reasons.
Blogger (www.blogger.com) is a free blog creation tool and hosting service. I like it. It’s easy to use even if you haven’t built a web site. It’s easy to update. There are several nice templates to choose for your layout. It archives old blog articles. There is one hitch. Many blog tools will allow you to easily organize article by category as well as chronology. It’s a nice way to help your readers follow articles in a given vein or thread. Blogger does not have this feature.
Well this week I found a tool that helps you organize Blogger articles by category. First you use the tool to create code that you need to paste into your blog to show your categories: http://www.mobibo.com/gencat.htm
Next you have to add this code into the template of your blog, which you can do fairly easily from the Blogger admin tool.
Finally you have to make sure that the terms you use in your categories are used in the titles or text of the article you want to put into each category.
For more details instructs visit the following: http://shorl.com/dunudryralany
July 26 - Vacation Tips
Here in no particular order are some sites that might help you on a trip or while planning for a trip. Sadly this is purely academic for me; I’m not actually going on a trip any time soon.
Oanda http://www.oanda.com/
This is a great online money conversion tool.
Fahrenheit to Celsius Converter http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm
Now I can finally explain to my mother-in-law in Dublin how cold it really gets here!
Yahoo Weather http://weather.yahoo.com/
Enter your zip for a 5+ day forecast or click through the menus to find local weather around the globe.
SideStep http://www.sidestep.com
Searches 100 travel web sites to show you the best deals. (Looking for more sites like this? Here’s a good review on travel search engines: http://www.consumersearch.com/www/internet/travel-sites/index.html.)
BabelFish http://babelfish.altavista.com/
A web site translation tool, you can ask it to translate a block of text or entire web site. If you have a web site you can provide a quick link to this site from your own so that people can easily translate your site. The translations aren’t perfect – but probably better than I can do with a dated French Minor.
July 19 - Lily’s Podcast
OK I guess I’m kind of into podcasts now. Lily is my 7 year old daughter. We just recorded her first podcast yesterday, “10 Questions About.”
She started by writing down 10 questions she had about lions. Then we researched lions together online using Yahooligans (www.yahooligans.com), Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), and an online dictionary (www.dictionary.com).
We went to Odeo (www.odeo.com), which I mentioned in an earlier Byte. (It’s a free, phone-it-in blog creator.) I logged in. Then I went to the Odeo Studio page (http://studio.odeo.com/create). I set up a new podcast (http://studio.odeo.com/create/channel). Then I called their phone number: 1-415-856-0205.
I went through their brief login progress and menu options, introduced Lily and handed the phone over to her. When she was done I pressed the pound key and went through their brief signoff process.
It is now available here: http://odeo.com/channel/111903/view
Or for the kid who has everything, I bought the www.10questionsabout.com domain name for $9 at GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com) and redirected it to the site above. Now when the teacher asks about her summer vacation she can almost literally phone it in!
And since I’m all about family today, I’d like to tell anyone in the Twin Cities about an upcoming one-day Irish culture Summer School for adults. My husband is running the event. Guests include Liam Clancy, and experts on F Scott Fitzgerald, JM Synge, Irish music and more. You can learn more here: http://www.irishfair.com/summer_school/index.php
July 12 - Google for Enterprise-Wide Email
Today’s Byte is for readers who work with an office of folks ... I’ll start by saying that I don’t know much about this firsthand as I don’t have an office of folks – but this looks interesting. Google is beta testing a program that would bring Gmail to every user in your domain. Since Gmail for your domain is hosted by Google, there's no hardware or software for you to install or maintain. The Gmail accounts would include the following:
- Gmail - 2 gigabytes of storage and search tools that help your users find information fast.
- Google Talk - Users can call or send instant messages to their contacts for free * anytime, anywhere in the world.
- Google Calendar - Users can organize their schedules and share events and calendars with others.
- Control Panel - Easily manage user accounts, aliases, mailing lists, and chat settings.
Google is looking for beta-testers now: https://www.google.com/hosted
July 5 - What’s a Google Mashup?
Google creates tools to help web site developers build more interactive web sites. They started a few years ago when they created search function that a developer could add to a web site. (You can see a sample here: http://www.minnesotaruralpartners.org.)
Their latest tool is a mapping function that lets you tap into their tools to create an interactive map on your web site. I looked into working with the Google Maps a few weeks ago. They provide explicit instructions on their web site (http://www.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html). I must admit that it just seemed like a lot of work.
Recently I heard about a tool that helps web developers create a Google Maps Mashup (http://www.mapbuilder.net). (Thanks to David & Rick in Minneapolis.) With Map Builder you sign up, add your addresses and descriptions, and they build the map. You can host the map on the Map Builder site or publish on your own. To publish it on your site you need to get an API code from Google (Map Builder will explain). (Actually they offer a few options.)
Here is a sample map (http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/atreacy/21033). It tracks resources that help rural businesses. I’m working to finesse the map but I was happy with how easy the site was to create.
I’ll let you know how the site progresses and what I learn about the tool.
June 28 - 4th of July Quiz
Just for fun I created a 4th of July quiz for the Byte this week. You can access it here: http://treacyinfo.com/quiz.htm
I created it very easily using the FunBased Learning Quiz Maker: http://funbasedlearning.com/tools/quizMaker/default.htm Really I just filled in some form fields, pushed a button, saved the file and uploaded it to my site. I looked at a few tools and this was by far the easiest free tool to use and required the least amount of registration and fuss.
If you are looking for more July 4th themed quizzes, you can visit the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization Self Test:
http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/exec/natz/natztest.asp
June 21 - Byte of the Week Podcast
OK I finally did it – I created a podcast! You can access it here:
http://odeo.com/channel/108348/view
Mostly I just go over the instructions to start your own very simple podcast. It was very easy and took less than 10 minutes. I signed up for Odeo, made a phone call, and hit record (well # really). It was free.
The specific instructions are outlined on the Odeo “podcast by phone” page at: http://help.odeo.com/index.php?_a=knowledgebase&_j=rate&_i=14&type=yes
My next step is to get the little bit of equipment required to record a podcast with more than one person. I see that as a greater application of the tool (for me) than creating solo podcasts, as really I am better in writing than audio. But it was fun to see how easy it was to create a podcast.
I forgot to mention last week that over my vacation I added a number of archive Byte posts to my web site: http://treacyinfo.com/byte.htm. I’m going to try to be better about updating my web site when I post a new Byte!
June 14 - YouTube, Prosper, Squid Labs
I am just back from a wonderful vacation in Detroit Lakes. Those of you who know me will be amazed to hear that I went a week without a TV. What more amazing is that I've been home 5 hours and still haven't watched it!
While on vacation I picked up a copy of Wired just for fun. Here are some of the fun sites I learned about:
YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) - OK it's not new but I was amazed to read so much about it. It's a site where you can upload and download videos for free. A lot of people are getting their 15 minutes of fame here. But I think it's a good place to hear about and/or promote new trends. I saw a video from the Spiderman 3 set, a few minutes with a Brazilian World Cup Fan, a song about YouTube, and 5 minutes of Zach Braf (guys from Scrubs).
Prosper (http://www.prosper.com/) - this is the "online marketplace for people-to-people lending." If you need money you post your case. If you have money to lend you post your rate. Or if you are a borrower you can join or start a borrowers club to try to get better rates. It looks a little bit like eBay.
Squid Labs (http://www.squid-labs.com/) - best described on their homepage, "we're not a think tank, we're a do tank." These guys do R&D for hire - and it looks as if they collaborate a lot. (In other words if you have an idea, they might have a way to help you work on it.)
What really impressed me with most of what I read for fun was the many ways in which the Internet is really becoming a place where people post info, talk to others, and form communities. It was good to step back and see that.
I am at a wonderful conference (Symposium on Small Towns and Rural Summit) today and head out to vacation to a wonderful resort tomorrow. So, today’s Byte is brief.
Below are instructions for setting your email to the automated out of office reply when you go on vacation (although I’ll actually be checking email in the next week):
For
Microsoft Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290846
Microsoft
Outlook 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255509/
Microsoft
Outlook 98
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/271709/
May 31 - Spam Protection and a New Library (not necessarily related)
Last week I talked about how email addresses (IP addresses actually) get blacklisted. Rosemary, from St Paul, wrote in to tell me that addresses can also be blacklisted when there is a poorly constructed email-based form on their web site. It’s a good reminder to check your web forms too. You can learn more here (http://rickconner.net/spamweb/spam_formmail.html) if you are interested.
Looking for a quick description of the web form problem led me to find Popular Spammer Tricks (http://rickconner.net/spamweb/tricks.html). I think this site does a great job of describing how spammers get their job done (how they spam) and how you can avoid receiving spam and/or avoid making the spammer’s job easy.
On a completely unrelated note – I have to put in a big plug for the new downtown Minneapolis public library (http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/newcentrallib.asp). For those from outside MN – the library has been completely rebuilt and it’s amazing. You can get some great shots of it on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=minneapolis+library). The best picture, however, can be found on the Minneapolis Star Tribune (http://www.startribune.com/10001/gallery/445640.html) just click on #3. Some of you may recognize these smart looking girls are my youngest two! (I have to add that this actually made the paper version of the news too!)
I spoke with someone today whose email is not reaching his intended recipients. He works for a small company. They handle their email on their own server. They noticed a while ago that their messages were bouncing back to them – rejected. They had been blacklisted.
So what does that mean?
There are organizations on the Internet who track spammers and potential spammers on blacklists. Internet service providers subscribe to these lists and refuse to carry messages from people on the list (tracked by the IP address used by their mail server). This is one way ISPs try to thwart spam and viruses.
One problem is that potential spammers are unaware of their status – because they aren’t really spammers; they are often small organizations who handle their own email and have left open a back door to their server. A spammer can sneak through this backdoor and send email out through the server without the company knowing. (This might happen to your ISP too – though they should know better.) Once this error has been detected they may be added to the blacklist.
What can you do?
If you suspect that you have been blacklisted or want more information – you can check out MAPS at http://www.mail-abuse.com/enduserinfo.html. Their web site walks you through the process of checking to see if you have been blacklisted, gives advice to remedy the situation, and instructs you on how to request that your IP address be removed from the blacklist once you have repaired your server.
Thankfully I have not had to deal with being blacklisted. I have heard that the folks to maintain these lists are very helpful if you are in earnest about clearing your good name. I do keep the blacklist in mind when I’m selecting an email provider – some cheap ones taint their name by selling accounts to spammers and that’s how they get on the list. I might research a provider by doing a search for their name + blacklist. If an ISP has made this mistake you can bet someone has mentioned it in a newsgroup.
Despite what Google would like us to think, there really isn’t a definitive engine. None of the search engines catalogs all of the web sites. So it makes sense to know about a few of them and to know how they work together.
Many of the search engines share databases, which is part of the reason results may look similar in different search engines. Bruce Clay has a wonderful chart that diagrams the relationships of the major search engines (http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm). The chart is especially helpful if you have a web site that you want the search engines to find. Tap into the big feeder search engines and you’ll reach the others.
The top search engines include:
Google
- http://www.google.com/
Yahoo – http://www.yahoo.com
MSN – http://search.msn.com
Ask – http://www.ask.com
See the popularity of various major search engines at SearchEngineWatch (http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156451).)
Specialty search engines include:
Yahooligans
http://www.yahooligans.com – still my favorite for kids
NexTag http://www.nextag.com – for comparison shopping
Business.com http://www.business.com/
- for business sites
Melissa Data http://www.melissadata.com/Lookups/ - a couple of good info databases
Beyond Google http://www.llrx.com/features/supersearch.pdf
- a presentation that includes lots of scientific and academic search
tools
I hope that helps!
If you’re located in the Twin Cities, you are welcome to join us (ASIST & others) tomorrow evening for a great talk on information policy. You can get more info online (http://www.asis.org/Chapters/mnasis/index.html) or just let me know if you want more details.
Search engines like web sites that are popular. I mentioned that last week but thought I’d talk more about it this week.
(For readers who don’t have web sites – here’s a fun site full of Mother’s Day ideas http://www.amazingmoms.com/htm/holiday_mothersday.htm.)
Search engines define popularity by the number of web sites that link to a specific page. To determine your web site’s link popularity you can use the following tool: http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop
It will tell you how many links Google thinks you have, how many Hotbot thinks you have, and the same with MSN and Yahoo.
If you run the report, you’ll notice that the numbers differ. Generally MSN will give you credit for many more links than the other search engines and Google will give you credit for the fewest links. That is because Google will only give you credit for “quality” links. They don’t define quality – but generally a quality link is a link from a web site where the content is related to your content and where the site is also popular. Google does not like “link farms” that simply list links to hundreds of sites without a rhyme or reason. (We’re all seen these.)
So, how do you get links?
First you just ask. Ask your real world partners if they have a web site and if they will link to you. Find sites that you think are quality sites and ask them to link to you – but give them a good reason. “Hello, I think your visitors might like my monthly specials page, please link to me...” Don’t be afraid to exchange links with sites that you think your visitors would like.
Second, provide content that is link-worthy. Be sure to have information on your web site that other sites might find link-worthy. In fact there are some sites that might be happy to publish an article by you on their site and provide a link to you – which can be a good way to spread your message.
Third, send out a web-based press release via PRWeb (http://www.prweb.com). I did this with a recent client and we went from 4 links to 145 in 10 days. Now these weren’t all quality links and many links will only be available for a short time – but the links had an impact.
May 3 - How can my web site do better with the search engines?
I get that question a lot. Luckily I have some answers – some of which I’ve talked about in previous Bytes – but I think it’s a question that comes up often so I thought I’d talk about it again over the next few weeks.
(For those who don’t have a web site – here’s a cool site to give you market prices of homes by neighborhood: http://www.zillow.com Thanks for Christy in St Paul for that tool. I just didn’t want to leave my non-web owning friends in the cold today.)
First I think it helps to think about how search engines look at web sites. The backend of the search engine is a database. The different fields track information on your web site – such as tracking all of the words used on your site and frequency of use. That info helps a search engine determine the topic of your site.
So if you mention on your web site 3 times that you “sell refrigerators in Minneapolis” and someone searches for “refrigerators for sale in Minneapolis” the search engine can show them your page – before someone who only mentions it twice and after someone who mentions “refrigerators for sale in Minneapolis” 3 times. Now it’s not really that simple – but it nearly is.
Some of the fields (or characteristics) that really matter to search engines include:
- Words: how often
do you use the keywords someone is searching on your page
- One note – search engines cannot “read” images so don’t count any words you have in images. You will get partial credit for “alt” tags, which provide text alternatives to images – but only partial.
- There are other nuances that I’ll get into in future weeks.
- Title tags: the blue bar above the web browser that appears when someone is on your web page, search engines give you extra points for any words found here.
- Freshness of content: when was the info on the page last updated and how often is it updated. You can train search engines to visit you more often by updating info more often.
- Popularity: this is often determined by the number of web sites that link to you. Some links are worth more than others (a link from NY Times is better than a link from your kid’s blog).
There are other things that matter too – but I think these are the biggies. It helps to see exactly what a search engines “sees”. Here are some tools that will show you that:
1
Hit - http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.search-engine-viewer.htm
Spider Simulators - http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/search-engine-simulator.shtml
SEO Toolkit - http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php
Sim Spider - http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/sim_spider.cgi I love this tool but it is not always available. If you get a page not
found you can try again – but it’s really touch and go.
I include it because it’s so darned good when it’s there.
I learned about the following resource from a lunch companion at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofit conference yesterday.
Rent a Coder (www.rentacoder.com)
It’s a site that connects web site programmers with folks who need programs. You describe your project and offer a price for the service and with any luck programmers contact you with their credentials. My lunch buddy had tried this and got some work done very affordably from a coder based in Russia.
One a tangential note – the MCN conference was very good. I gave a presentation on “Getting Found on the Internet,” which I just posted online (http://www.treacyinfo.com/MCN_2006.htm) if you are interested.
April 12 - Kids Sites & New Byte Feature
After last week’s Byte a few people asked me about safety and sites such as MySpace (an online teen haven). So I’ve done a little research about online safety for kids.
Surf Swell Island (http://disney.go.com/surfswell/index.html) – My older kids (ages 6 & 7) love this game! They started playing it before they could read. It’s all about online safety and isn’t scary. My hope is that safety is ingrained before they can read or type well enough to join online chats or other “social networking sites”.
NetSmartz Workshop (http://www.netsmartz.org/) – This looks good for teens. The blog quiz brought up some great points, such as “college recruiters can get info on me through social network web sites.” Taking this quiz with your favorite teen would introduce some important topics – and provide guidance on the how’s and why’s of safety.
Wired recently ran an article on MySpace (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70287-0.html) – The article is pretty interesting. Feedback from readers found below the article is very interesting.
And just so we don’t forget that the Internet is worth the risk, here’s my new favorite site for kids (http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/). The site creates quick worksheets for kids. Most worksheets seem to be for grade school kids though they mention a word-of-the-day vocabulary builder for high school kids (to prepare for PSAT & SAT tests).
New Byte Feature - IndeNewsletter
I work with a lot of different companies – most are independently owned. Sometimes they have fun news to share. The news isn’t always Byte material but often I think it might be interesting to some readers. So, I’ve decide to start a blog that features client news – and just quickly mention the topic in the Byte in case it’s a topic that might interest you.
This week IndeNewsetter – OneStopLenderApps (http://www.onestoplenderapps.com) is a neat tool for mortgage lenders that was recently unveiled. Apparently mortgage brokers need to fill out big applications with multiple wholesale mortgage lenders to get mortgages for end users. These guys have created one online form that a mortgage broker can complete to be submitted to multiple wholesale lenders (they have more than 200 in their database.) Learn more on Indenews (http://www.indenewsletter.com)
April 5 - People Want to Interact Online
The Washington Post recently ran an article on the changing landscape of the top 50 web sites. Traffic is leveling out on many of the top web sites; however sites that feature blogging, social networks, or local information are seeing great increases in traffic.
Some of the fastest growing sites include:
Blogger
(www.blogger.com)
– provides free space and tools for users to publish blogs
Myspace (www.myspace.com)
– an interactive site for young people (teens)
Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com)
– an online encyclopedia where everyone is invited to post info
on an entry
CitySearch (www.citysearch.com)
– a directory of city info that featured local reviews
Each of these sites includes an interactive component.
So, what does this mean for you? Well, if you’re looking to buy advertising online, consider interactive web sites. If you maintain a web site that you hope to become a destination web site, consider an interactive component.
If you don’t have a web site – consider visiting some of these places online to start interacting online. If you have teenagers you should visit MySpace and talk to your teens about what is acceptable online behavior. (Make sure they are aware that they should never give personal info online.)
For more info, check out the Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/03/AR2006040301692.html).
Guess the Google (http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/) is a horribly addictive game you can play online (no download required).
The game shows you 20 images found by doing a search on Google. You have 20 seconds to guess what word was searched to produce the 20 images. (I think it’s always one word, not a phrase – although maybe if you’re good they start to use phrases.)
That’s it. I’m afraid I spent my weekly budgeted Byte research time playing this horrible game. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
It seems as if lately everyone is asking me about blogs. I know I’ve written about them here before but the questions are being asked so I thought I’d write again.
A blog (web log) is an online journal. Generally one person or team of people posts articles on their blog (which is really a web site) a regular basis. Articles are automatically archived. Most blogs have a theme.
Start a Blog
You can easily start your own blog. It’s free and there are several choices out there. My personal favorite is Blogger (www.blogger.com). The have very simple instructions on their web site:
- Create an account (need name, email password)
- Name your blog
- Choose your template (they have several layouts to choose or create your own)
Once your blog is set up you simply go to www.blogger.com, login, click on “New Post”, type your article or snippet for the day and hit publish. You can include pictures and links to other sites.
Once you’re comfortable you might want to change your various settings. You can elect to publicize your blog, have your articles promoted through an RSS feed, post the blog on your own server (as opposed to the blogger.com server), let people post comments on your articles or not let them post.
Read a Blog
You can find blogs in several places such as Globe of Blogs (http://www.globeofblogs.com/).
You can also sign up to receive updates from blogs if the author has elected to promote new articles through an RSS feed. Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) is a service where you can sign up to get those notices and view them from the Bloglines web site. (You can also get notices through an RSS Reader – but for today I thought I’d use a web-based service.)
I think visiting (and signing up for) Bloglines will give you a good idea of what an RSS feed is; it’s like a web tickertape that reviews headlines. You can access RSS feeds from a tool like Bloglines, from an RSS Reader as I mentioned, or you may seem them on various web sites who subscribe to RSS feeds to use them to provide updated news on their web site. (The feed resides on the web site.)
March 15 - Colors & Speaker Invitation
I found a new favorite color web site, ColorMatch 5K (http://www.colormatch.dk/).
Those of you who know or have seen me know that colors and matching are not my longest suits. ColorMatch is a tool, where you select a color and it provides you with a palette of 5 matching colors. Now if I could only take this clothes shopping with me.
One announcement for the folks in the Twin Cities:
Next week Patrick O’Donnell is going to be speaking about James Joyce’s Ulysses for the American Society for Information Science & Technology. The meeting is Thursday (Mar 23) from 5:00 to 6:30 at the College of St Catherine’s. It’s free. If you’re interested please let me know and I’ll send more details.
Patrick is truly an expert on James Joyce. We normally have tech –related speaker but though this would be fun for March.
Have a great Freedom of Information Day tomorrow & St Patrick’s Day on Friday!
This week had a reason to revisit Google Maps (http://maps.google.com). I needed satellite pictures of some property. I forgot just how cool it was. I could see how many cars were in the parking lot and it was so easy to use.
I made me want to check to see what else Google has been up to lately and report my findings:
Google Page Creator (http://shorl.com/henudryvolofa) - Yes, apparently Google is testing a simple “web site in a box”. I couldn’t test it out because they had a backlog of people wanting to test it out. The reviews have not been great so far – but in fairness the format for reviews is more of a complaints board.
Google Video (http://video.google.com/) – I actually found this for a client the other day. We had video we wanted to make available but we didn’t want to waste space on our server or get too involved in the details. Google allows you to post your own videos on their server. You can also search for video to download. Some of the videos look interesting (some Google insider training for example), some look desperate (such as the Jessica Simpson I clip I passed up), some look less than family-friendly, and some require payment (such as old issues of I Love Lucy). If I had a video I wanted to promote I’d post it here. If I were really bored I might peruse videos.
Google Suggest (http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en) – As you type in your Google search, Google offers some helpful search suggestions. As I searcher this is remotely interesting. As a web owner, it is interesting to see what they offer. I was disappointed that they really just offer variation on what you are searching. So what you get is additions to the search you are devising – I was hoping to get synonyms, which would be helpful when you are trying to find out what terms a potential client is using when they search for your services.
Sep 21 - Today's
Byte is a guest
Byte from Tom McGrath
in Minnesota. Tom sent me this great suggestion and I asked if I could
use it pretty much asis.
I find that I am receiving more and more email that has the look and feel of spam or virus mail. In fact, some real people can compose email that looks more like spam and virus infected mail than virus and spam generators can manage.
My personal rules are:
Always start the email with a reference that will assure the recipient that it was not written by a bot. (Referring to a previous communication or specific issue in the first paragraph will accomplish this.)
Explain clearly what any attachments are in language that could not be anticipated by a virus.
Avoid non-standard
abbreviations, especially in the subject. I have seen my spam filter,
a Bayesian filter, send legit emails to Junk
Suspects when the subject used multiple non-standard abbreviations.
I think it picks these up as the nonsense words that are often used
to try to fool these kinds of filters.
I receive my email using Outlook. I use it with the auto-preview (not
preview pane) turned on. This lets me see the first three lines of the
message without opening it. Based on what is in these first three lines
I determine if I will open the message or not. Do I ever make a mistake
and junk an email I would prefer to open. Maybe, how will I ever know!
Still I think everyone would be well advised to make the subject and
first lines of the email they send beg to be opened.
(Ann's note - I
would agree and emphasize good use of subject lines. I try to get as
specific as possible both to let folks know my message isn't spam but
also so that it's easy for them to find later if they archive it.)
Sep 14 - Password Protect A Web Site
Last week I learned how to password protect a web site, or section of a web site. It's pretty easy but there are two catches: 1) the web site needs to be hosted on a UNIX server (ask your web host if you're unsure) and 2) this will keep out plenty of folks, but it's not foolproof.
To password protect a site you will need to write and upload two files onto your web site. The first one is called .htaccess and is placed in the directory you wish to restrict.
Step 1: Create a text file that looks like this (the bold portions are variable):
AuthUserFile /www/home/user/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName Byte Subscribers
AuthType Basic
<LIMIT GET>
require user valid-user
</LIMIT>
Step 2: If necessary, change the variable info.
AuthUserFile is the path to the .htpasswd file and is the folder that
will be password protected. You may need to call your web host to get
this path.
"AuthName"
is just a short description of the secure area.
Step 3: Save this file into the folder you want to protect. In this
example I'm protecting /www/home/user. I start by saving the file as
htaccess.txt. Then I changed the name to .htaccess.
Step 4: Next, create the password file (.htpasswd) that will contain
the username(s) and password(s). Mine looks like this:
ann:HuoIsxeDj94JY
Create a username and password that make sense to you. (My username
and password are ann & byte.) These are what you use when you login.
However to create the password file use a password generator (such ashttp://www.flash.net/cgi-bin/pw.pl)
to create an encrypted password. Put that encrypted password into the
.htpasswd file.
If you want multiple usernames and passwords simply create/generate
multiple passwords and add them all to your .htpasswd file - one username-password
pair per line (always separated by a colon).
Step 5: Save password file as htpasswd.txt into the same folder as the
.htaccess file. Once it's saved, rename the file to .htpasswd.
Step 6: Upload both pages and test.
OK, clearly today's Byte was more technical than most - but I was so
excited about learning this and really once you get into it it's pretty
easy.
Sep 7 - Internet Info on Katrina
It's been hard to watch the events unfold in the South during and after Hurricane Katrina. It has also been interesting and heartening to see how the Internet community has created opportunities to help - demonstrating once again the global nature of the Internet:
Craig's List of New Orleans is a community bulletin board where people post wants ads, jobs ads, and more. There are lots of local Craig's Lists. The list is New Orleans has become a great tool for posting news, needs, and support.
Just as it sounds, Share Your Home is a site where families offer to share homes and families in-need sign up for help.
Katrina Aid Wiki is a community maintained site that posts resources, news, and a help board. Speaking of wikis (web sites where everyone can post edits and additions) PeopleFinderVolunteer is a volunteer effort to consolidate info from the many other sites that track victims and survivors.
On a local basis,
Minnesota Public Radio has been tracking the migration of 3000 New Orleans
transplants to Camp Ripley in Minnesota. You can learn more and lean
how to help on the MPR
web site.
My kids are back to school next week. We're very excited! To get back into the swing and because we've had lots of questions we have been researching weather (hurricanes) online, which has led to today's Byte - online resources for students and parents.
Scholastic
These are the people who sell the books you always wanted to order when
you were at school. They have a nice hurricane
site.
FEMA
for Kids
This is the Federal Emergency Management Agency site. Their "what's
happening now" link tells you about any recent disaster areas and
what FEMA is doing to help.
Yahooligans
This is Yahoo for kids, with fewer ads and more access to information.
They only index sites that are good for kids.
Here are some good homework helpers:
BJ
Pinchbeck
An index of sites organized by a teenager to help kids with homework.
Homework
Spot
Looks like good info for projects and reports.
Your public or school
library - you knew I was going to mention them. Online or in person
the libraries are great. Online and in person - the librarian will help
your student find information without doing the homework for them. The
Internet Public Library
is a great place to start.
In Minnesota one of our politicians recently got into trouble because he was republishing news articles on his web site without permission. Actually he was republishing modified articles without permission. It seemed like a good reason to remind folks about copyright.
Copyright on the Internet gets tricky because it's so much easier to copy a creative form of expression - be it text, music, artwork or other. It also gets more dangerous because if you use copyrighted work on a web site anyone with access to the web can see it. So, it's easier to get caught.
LLRX, a neat legal resource, just published a great article on Copyright and Licensing Digital Materials. It's worth checking out for in depth info.
Here's a shortlist of rules I have used with various clients when creating web sites:
- Links are not copyrighted. Links are really addresses and you can't copyright an address because an address is not creative; it's a fact. (You can't copyright facts.)
- Republishing articles on your site is rarely a good idea. Even if you are the original author, you may not have copyright permission. Check with the original publisher before using an article and get explicit permission to use it. (Once you get it be sure to add that permission to the web site.)
- When in doubt - link to articles. As I said before links are OK. You can even preface a link with an annotation, rebuttal, or other comment. So, introduce an article and then link people directly to it.
- Don't forget
to add a copyright to your own work. Once you add the copyright sign;
you are copyrighted. This is a first line of defense.
However if you want to get serious (or sue someone over copyright) you will also want to register your work with the US Copyright Office.
Today I've been checking out Amazon. I thought I'd share some of their new things; they're kind of interesting. (This isn't an endorsement for Amazon - just a look at what they're doing.)
Purchase
Circle:
These are lists of best selling books by population segment, such as
employee of
Oracle or person living in St
Paul. OK, I'm not sure why you'd care - unless you had a job interview
at Oracle and wanted to appear to fit in, but it's kind of interesting.
Honor
System:
Through Amazon you can provide your customers a way to pay you - perhaps
to make voluntary payments or pay for digital content. In short you
put the Amazon 1-Click icon on your site, the visitor makes the payment
to Amazon, and Amazon pays you.
Amazon
Yellow Pages:
This is a beta service - but if you run a business I think now is the
time to make sure that you are listed and that you expand your listing
- (since it's free now). The easiest way to do that is to find your
listing by searching your zip. Once you find it you will see places
to "click to add or update info".
Aug 10 - Access
Yesterday's Web
Today's Byte is short and sweet. I have mentioned it before, but not
in years.
This site archives web sites. Search for a URL and it will provide links to how the site has looked through time. I love this site. I use it when I want to see an earlier iteration of a web site that I'm updating. I use it when I want to see access info I know was available last year. I use it when I want to see what a company has done with the web site over time.
The Way Back Machine
does not index all sites. Some pages will not be available and some
pictures or other items may be missing from a page but other than that
it's pretty darned good.
Aug 3 - Sending Unsolicited Emails
Last night I was helping my husband promote a one-day conference on Irish Literature & Music. (If you're interested you can learn more here. It made me think that a lot of people are shy about sending emails to folks, when they shouldn't be. Done right, sending email can be very effective. I successfully use email often to share info with strangers (often to promote conferences). Here are the steps I take.
I think of people who would generally have an interest in my message. For example it seems that local English teachers might have an interest in the Irish Lit conference.
Once I have a target group I think of two ways to reach them: through an association where they might be a member and through personal email. For example there is a MN Council of Teachers of English and I can get many of the teachers' personal emails through their school web sites.
I send personal notes to associations asking them to forward the message on to their members, I ask them to add the event to their calendar if they have one, and I might offer to write an article on the topic if appropriate. This is a good way to reach a lot of people.
With personal emails I make them personal. I use the person's name if I have it and I try to make a connection to the person using whatever info I have been able to glean from their web site. It might be as simple as saying "...since you teach English I thought you might be interested..." Sometimes I can glean more, "I see that you wrote your PhD on James Joyce, so I bet you'd be interested in..." Reaching people these two ways has worked very well for me.
It takes a long
time to email this way - but the return on investment is usually pretty
good. And rarely have I had anyone who was upset about receiving an
unsolicited email message.
July 26 - Setting up Web Site Redirects
Today's Byte is a quick Web Development 101 lesson. (If you aren't into html, shoot to the penultimate paragraph for a tip for everyone.) Someone asked me to set up a redirect for them last week. I realized that I had never done that so I had to look it up. I thought I'd pass on what I learned.
A "web redirect"
will automatically send a user from one web page to another. It's handy
if you move one page of your site or when the "real" address
of a page is too long or you want to create a more memorable
address. For example you can turn this:
http://www.bizpathways.org/BizPathways/BizPathways.
aspx?path=2845c1fc-dd5e-4ec6-997a-7480b1082577,dca3cd25
-e5be-4347-b11c-6e687e627965,095fc0c3-09bb-4ed6-9ecd-
cd2408f9101c
into this: http://www.treacyinfo.com/biz.htm.
(This
makes life easier if you think you're going to have to read this address
on the phone or email it to folks.)
To set up a redirect, paste the following into the code of your web page and save it as the address you want to use. In the example above you would save this as the more readable address and replace "http://www.domainname.com" with the address of the page you are targeting (the long address in the case above).
<html>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" content= "0;URL=http://www.domainname.com">
</html>
On a related note
- if you ever run into a long address that you want to send to a friend
you can shorten it by using shorl.com. http://www.shorl.com Simply paste
the long address into the tool on
shorl page and they'll give you a shorter version to copy and paste
to your friend. So (http://shorl.com/fahepubraliju)
is another short cut to the long address above.
July 20 - Intro to Last Week's Topic
A few people have asked me re-introduce the topics that I mentioned last week: blogs, podcasts, wikis, and RSS. So that's what I'm doing this week.
Blogs are like online
journals. Some are fun and interesting; some are business focused. You
don't need to know how to create a web site to write a blog. There are
online tools (such as Blogger)
that will help. If you can use Word, you can use Blogger. To find an
interesting blog, you can check out Blogwise.
Podcasts are like audio blogs. You can listen to them online or download and listen to them later (maybe on your iPod). iPodder is a directory of podcasts. You can create podcasts using Audioblogger and your phone. I haven't tried it but it seems pretty simple. Tools progress from there to include ways to interview people for your podcast or even produce a video podcast.
Wikis are like joint
or shared blogs. Instead of one person having the power and responsibility
to post on a site - a team does it or it is opened up to the public.
The best example I know is Wikipedia.
RSS stands for "really simple syndication" or "rich site
summary". Some web sites offer RSS feeds; this generally means
you can sign up to get a notification each time the site is updated.
(You use an RSS reader on your computer to "get" the feed
from the producer - the reader will pop up when you have a new item,
similar to the way some people have the "You've got Mail"
set up for their email.) It's a good way to keep up on a site, a company
or a topic. Some sites aggregate RSS feeds from other sites to either
offer you a super RSS feed - or they post information from other sites
(through the RSS feed) on their site - kind of like a tickertape going
across the site. This isn't the most technically sound explanation -
but I hope it helps. To get an RSS Reader you can look online. I use
one from RSSReader.
Creating or using an RSS feed can be a great tool for anyone interested in getting visitors to their web site. I'll talk more about that in the next few weeks.
July 13 - Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts, RSS, and More
Last night I went to a great presentation by Garrick Van Buren to the Minnesota chapter of the American Society of Information Science and Technology. He was terrific! I am killing two birds today by writing up my notes and sharing them with you and ASIST. So today's Byte is an annotated bibliography of many of the resources Garrick mentioned on wikis, blogs, RSS, and podcasts.
WordPress - software to help you create/maintain a blog. As their site says, they're "free, yet priceless."
Garrick's web site - includes links to various blogs, wikis, and podcasts, including Garrick's podcast, First Crack
Technoratti - a search engines for blogs (aka the blogosphere)
Google Patent - we mentioned this last night, this is my favorite article on the topic
Audacity - open source audio recording for creating a podcast
Audio Hijack Pro - upgraded software for creating a podcast
Audioblogger - easy tool for creating poscasts, much like blogger.com for blogs
WikkaWiki - software to create a wiki (a wiki is akin to a shared blog)
MNspeak - operated by City Pages, it looks like part blog, part wiki, part old fashioned web conference
NetNewsWire - an RSS reader - for info consumers.
Feedburner - Helps you generate and track an RSS feed that you have created - for info creators
Trackback - this is the Wikipedia definition of Trackback, a concept that allows and tracks posts among blogs with a reduced chance for spam.
About a month ago I briefly mentioned Google Site maps. If you have a web site I think this is the new best way to get Google to look at your site - all of your site. A regular site map (such as found here) helps search engines and users to track the pages in your web site. It acts like an index of a book. Google has devised a slightly different kind of site map that they like to use to track pages in a web site. They want the site map to come in xml or txt, preferably xml. (XML is a language akin to HTML.) I have created some Google site maps for smaller web sites with success.
For more information
you can visit Google's
site on site map.
I briefly mentioned it before because the details can get cumbersome.
I mention it again because since Google announced the site maps, new
sites have popped up that can help you build site maps easily. XML
Sitemap Generator is one such site. If you have a small to midsize
web site (fewer than 500 pages), it will create a Google site map for
you and give you instructions on how to upload it and report it to Google.
If you have a web site I strongly suggest you look into this.
June 29, 2005 - Upcoming Events
My apologies to the folks outside Minnesota, but I have been directly and indirectly working on some events around the Twin Cities that I thought locals might find of interest. For everyone – Rick in Minneapolis expanded on last week’s Byte on Google Alerts by pointing out that you could monitor your own name to see who’s talking about you!
Here are the events:
Podcasts, Wikis, RSS, and Blogs with Garrick Van Buren - Tuesday July 12 5:00-6:30 - St. Paul, Minnesota
Garrick Van Buren Principal Behavior Strategist at Working Pathways Inc, a social software consulting and customer research firm will be talking about pocasts, wikis, and blogs. There is no cost. To learn more contact atreacy@treacyinfo.com.
International Symposium on Local E-Democracy- July 26-27 - Minneapolis, Minnesota
This is the world's first international conference focused specifically on local e-democracy. The first day we'll explore leading e-democracy trends around the world. The second day is a field trip to the "wired" chambers of the Minnesota State Legislature and Northfield, one of Minnesota's forerunners in online civic engagement.
Minnesota Rural Summit - July 28-29 - Collegeville, Minnesota
The Great Reconnect - Bridging Rural & Urban Resources for Community & Economic Success. This is conference will showcase efforts that link community and economic resources between rural and urban Minnesota for the greater good of all. To learn more visit the conference web site.
June 22, 2005 -Web Friendly Colors
I have one very fun web site to share today. It’s particularly for folks with web sites – but I think it would be fun for lots of folks and useful for anyone who is as color challenged as I am.
VisiBone Webmaster’s Color Lab
Visit the color
lab and you can see a wheel of web-friendly colors. Select one of more
colors to view them together. It’s a great way to see how two colors
will match, contrast, or complement each other. It can save a step if
you’re a webmaster. If you work with a webmaster this might help
you be more specific about the colors you want to use.
June 15, 2005- Another look at Google
Every few months it seems as if it makes sense to check in with Google and see what news things they are doing. Below are three things – the first two are for searchers and the last is for web owners.
This is a service that tracks news and new items on the web. You enter a topic and they will send an email with related items that they have recently added to their database.
This is a way to track your history of Google searches – then you can revisit them by visiting the “My Search History” page – which shows results by calendar. The advantage to this over your browser’s history is that you can login and access it from any computer.
Google has created
a way for webmasters to submit a site map directly to Google. This is
a good way to make sure that all of the pages in your site are indexed
by Google. You need to know how to upload items to your server and understand
some scripting to do this well. An alterative is to send .txt site maps
that only include URLs to the pages of your site. I have been trying
this with some customers and will report back later to let you know
how this has been going.
June 8, 2005 - Book recommendation
Today’s Byte is a little different – it’s a book recommendation. Although in fairness I have to admit that I haven’t read the book. I learned about it through the Future Tense site. Here’s the line that caught my eye, “Write down passwords, keep them in wallet.”
It is advice from Bruce Schneier, security expert and author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly about Security in an Uncertain World (http://www.schneier.com/book-beyondfear.html), which I’m planning to read soon.
I loved his advice! And from what I can tell I like his philosophy. He describes the need to balance security with utility, which I think is a good reminder for us all. He broadens the topic, but I’ll stick to technology here.
There are cases when I think it is very important to remember technology:
- Never use email
for private information
- Don’t use
your credit card to make an online purchase from the computer at your
library
- Tell kids not
to give even basic personal info to online buddies
- Use a password
with letters, numbers, symbols, capped and lower cases, when it’s
important
I also think there are times when we are too clever. Do you really need to go to the grave with your library barcode and pin memorized? The books are free after all. Does everyone in your house need to have a separate password for the computer? What if you want someone to look up a number for you? You’ll have to share your password anyways, which gets back to the balance of utility versus security.
Just some things
to consider…
June 1, 2005 - Sites for Cheap Living
Looking to save a little money or make a little money this summer? These sites can help. (Or if you have a teenager maybe you could set them up for a summer of earning!)
This is an online magazine with article on topics such as selling items on e-bay versus garage sales.
This is more of a compilation of items such as a list of cheap recipes and links to free budgeting software and calculators.
Another magazine of sorts – this site includes an online forum, so you can get and give opinions on sales and products.
This site, as you might expect, is for moms; it talks about ways to make money from home and ways to save money on typical mom purchases (like alternatives to teacher appreciation gifts).
Thanks to Katie
& Dan in Chicago for the fun links!
Free email accounts are great! Thye can help separate work from fun email. They are good options for kids. They are good options when you have an ISP that keeps changing their name, thereby changing your email address. As promised last week, I’m outlining a few of the free email options out there:
Gmail - This is Google’s free email offering. I know some folks who love it!
Pros – you can import contacts from other email accounts; search feature is second to none; you can report spammers in an effort to filter out the bad guys.
Cons – keyword ads are placed on the mail pages; due to search features some feel Gmail is (or soon won’t be) private. Interesting – because of the extensive search feature, Gmail encourages you to “archive” messages rather than delete them.
Yahoo Mail - Yahoo mail has been around for quite a while.
Pros - it works for a lot of people; you can receive messages up to 10MG (good for photos); it integrates with Yahoo Messenger.
Cons – Yahoo has been known to change it’s privacy policy, which could mean sharing your address with third parties
FastMail - I don’t know a lot about Fastmail but in doing research it caught my eye.
Pros – you can access Fastmail from Outlook and other email clients; (In other words it supports POP and IMAP access.) you can choose from a long list of domain names to use.
Cons – does not support encrypted messaging; does not store a lot of mail.
If you are looking for other options, About.com has a nice list of their top 10 favorite free email options.
May 18, 2005 - Email is Still King
Email is still the most popular application on the Internet. Since I get questions about email I thought I’d send a few answers to the most frequently asked questions.
Email is not private.
So never send your credit card number, social security number, or other
information you’d rather not share via email.
Email lives longer
than cockroaches. It lives on your computer and on your Internet service
provider’s (ISP’s) mail server. So, it’s not a good place
to keep secrets.
Work email is the
property of work and people have been fired for misuse. If you need
a non-work account there are free options; I’ll outline a few next
week – including Gmail.
Don’t open
suspicious email. Spam and viruses can look as if they come from anyone.
When in doubt, don’t open strange email or attachments.
Get a virus checker
(learn more in this old
Byte). Ask your ISP about any industrial virus checker they might
use. (I’m super happy with IP
House and their virus/spam checker.)
Never reply to unwanted,
unsolicited email. Once you reply, the spammers know your address is
good. Even if they never use it themselves – they may sell it.
On an unrelated note, a Byte subscriber sent me a fun Minnesota podcasting site last week: The Sounds of Minnesota. It’s a short directory of MN podcasts. Some topics are not for the faint of heart – but some (others) look good.
May 11, 2005 - Update your Web Site
Here are five simple suggestions to give your web site a boost with search engines and users.
- Print out the
pages and read them. Is the info still true? How are your spelling
and grammar? Fix any mistakes.
- Post some news
or a tip or a quote on your homepage and commit to changing it on
a regular basis. That will encourage search engines and visitors to
come to your site more often.
- Is you homepage
one big graphic or a Flash animation? Large graphics and animation
are hard for search engines to catalog, hard for the visually impaired
to “read”, and hard for low bandwidth folks to download
it. Consider a new, more text-friendly design if your homepage is
more than 30% graphics – especially if that 30% is at the top.
- Add a site map.
Search engines love them and many web users are turning to site maps
the way readers turn to book indexes. A site map is just a list of
links to the various pages in your site.
- Do you have dated pictures on your site? Get new ones and make them color photos - unless there’s a good reason to go black and white. Certainly don’t mix and match haphazardly. (And for smarty pants friends, I know the picture on my web site is 10 years old but I haven’t changed!)
May 6, 2005 - 5 Web Site Tips
Here are five simple suggestions to give your web site a boost with search engines and users.- Print out the pages and read them. Is the info still true? How are your spelling and grammar? Fix any mistakes.
- Post some news or a tip or a quote on your homepage and commit to changing it on a regular basis. That will encourage search engines and visitors to come to your site more often.
- Is you homepage one big graphic or a Flash animation? Large graphics and animation are hard for search engines to catalog, hard for the visually impaired to "read", and hard for low bandwidth folks to download it. Consider a new, more text-friendly design if your homepage is more than 30% graphics - especially if that 30% is at the top.
- Add a site map. Search engines love them and many web users are turning to site maps the way readers turn to book indexes. A site map is just a list of links to the various pages in your site.
- Do you have dated
pictures on your site? Get new ones and make them color photos - unless
there's a good reason to go black and white. Certainly don't mix and
match haphazardly. (And for smarty pants friends, I know the picture
on my web site is 10 years old but I haven't changed!)
Today's Byte is for folks who have web sites. For the rest I say Happy Mother's Day and/or don't forget to call your mom!
NetMechanic is an old favorite site. It seemed to disappear for a while so I lost track of it - but recently we have been reunited. NetMechanic runs tests on your web site to see how it's running and how it compares to other sites. Here are a few of the tools you can try for free on NetMechanic:
HTML
Tool box
Enter your URL and it will test up to 5 of your pages for free. It tests
the basics: spelling, HTML code, links, and load time.
GIFbot
Upload your web images and GIFbot will optimize them - giving you several
options to choose. Each image includes download time so that you can
decide how to balance quality of image with time to download.
Search
Engine Submission
Enter your URL and information on content and they will submit your
site to up to 12 search engines. Normally I would be skeptical of a
bulk submission tool - but NetMechanic doesn't make any promises and
they report on their submission success. (You wouldn't' want to do this
more than once every 2-3 months.)
April 28, 2004 - Google Scholar
Google has yet another new feature - Google Scholar. It indexes scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.
It debuted late last year. I think it's a neat tool - but it has some pros and cons:
Pro - It filters out a ton of junk that you would normally find on Google. (The items in Google Scholar are also in big Google; but items in big Google are obviously not all in Google Scholar.)
Pro- There's no advertising (aka sponsored links).
Pro - You can link from citations in many articles in Google directly to the cited resources, or at least to the abstract.
Pro - It appears as if you can search by keyword, author, publication, or date. I did a little testing and was impressed.
Con - Sometimes you cannot access the actual item listed in Google -only the abstract. You can often get full articles from your local library but it can take a few days. As I pointed out to students when I worked at an academic librarian - that doesn't help if the assignment is due tomorrow.
Con - What Google Scholar defines as scholarly might not qualify for many of us as scholarly. Sometimes it matters; sometimes it doesn't. They don't have a list of what is included in their database or even list their criteria for inclusion.
I have to put in a plug for traditional scholarly "Googles" that you can find in your local library - and can often access remotely. Traditional journal indices will let you hone your search even more - such as searching by subject terms, which are determined by info specialists and can be very helpful.
The Byte is a day early this week so that I can tell you that today is free scoop day at Ben & Jerry's - available noon to 8 pm. Really any news pales in comparison to free ice cream, but…
The rest of the
Byte is for folks with web sites and/or an interest in search engine
optimization (getting your site to rank highly with the search engines).
Marketleap has three online tools to help you track the "searchability"
of your site:
Keyword
Verification - Tell you if your site is in the top three pages of
a search engine result for a certain keyword.
Search
Engine Saturation - Tells you how many of the pages within your
web site are indexed (found) by search engines.
Link
Popularity Check - Tells you how many pages link to your site and
compares that info to other sites in your industry.
Thanks to Jan in Wisconsin for telling me about Market Leap.
April 13, 2004 - Online Charity
Today’s Byte is for those of us who wish we had more time or money to give to charity – but we don’t. Here are little ways to “do good” that either take little effort or capitalize on things you were going to do anyways.
Dining
Out for Life
This is a national event, held of different days (April 28 in Minnesota),
where participating restaurants will donate part of their proceeds to
AIDS research. (It’s good excuse to eat out!)
The
Animal Rescue Site
This is one of those sites where you click on a link and the sponsoring
web site will donate a small amount of money to a given charity (in
this case animal rescue). The idea is that if you link daily the donations
will add up. (I know that many of you have your own favorite sites like
this – send ‘em to me and I’ll send them on in the bottom
of next week’s Byte.)
Guidestar
When you want to or can write a check, this is a great place to research
nonprofit organizations.
Volunteer
March
When you want to or can donate some time to volunteer, this is a place
to search for possibilities by location and/or interest area. I noticed
that many of the jobs in my area were actually online jobs – so
if I had the time I wouldn’t even have to leave my home.
April 6, 2004 - Online Conference Registration Tool
Today’s Byte is for anyone who ever plans conferences. (For those who don’t, here’s a quick link to kids’ worksheets. It kept my kids going for hours during spring break.) Back to the conference planners…
Last month I worked with an online registration service that was new to me – Regonline. As the name implies, it facilitates online registration for events. It’s not free. The cost is a few dollars per registrant add 5% transaction fee IF you use them as a merchant account to accept credit cards. We were really happy with it – so happy that even though it wasn’t free I’m writing about it here.
Of the 100+ registrants, only one had trouble using Regonline – and she eventually figured it out. Attendees received an automated email confirmation of registration and were able to modify their registration at any point with an assigned password. Attendees could register and/or pay on site.
All of the conference planners had access to the registration and attendees through the web site. I could run reports and post them on a password-protected web site for the less technical or less involved planners. It was easy to set up name tags, tickets, and a voucher system. There were a lot of lodging options that we didn’t use.
So, there
you go - - an unsolicited (and unrewarded) plug for Regonline for conference
planners. (They appear to do member management too – but I can’t
speak to that service.)
Mar 30, 2004 - Tax Time Tools Online
April 15 is right around the corner. To help prepare you for the inevitable, I thought I'd share some helpful tax web sites.
The
IRS
The IRS site is super helpful and easy to use. Popular sections include
the File
Free online service and the Where's
my Refund page.
Nolo
Taxes and Audits
Nolo has a lot of good info online. This page helps with details such
as "how long should you keep tax records."
Yahoo
Finance
OK, like many Yahoo sites, this one has plenty of ads - but some of
the links are great. I like the tax
prep checklist and the tax
calculators.
Now I have to quit looking up the cool tools, and actually gather forms…
After last
week's article on web site that seem to have disappeared, Roger in Minneapolis
suggested that the Wayback
Machine is a good resource too. They archive old web sites. They
don't track all web sites, but they track a lot. If you haven't visited,
you should. It's fun to see what your favorite web sites looked like
last year, or the year before.
Mar 23, 2004 - 404 File not Found
We've all seen the 404 page as we've surfed the web and it makes us sad, "404: Page not Found." Usually it happens when a page on a site we are visiting has been moved or removed. Often as a user we just leave the site. It's a missed opportunity for the visitor and the web owner. I have two fixes.
As a visitor, a good re-route is to access the web site's home page and look for a site map or search tool to search for whatever it is you need. To get to the homepage you want to strip down the web address to its root or http://www.domainname.com. For example if you visit http://www.treacyinfo.com/byte.htm you will get to my "digested bytes" page. Strip that down to http://www.treacyinfo.com and you'll get to my homepage. Some pages may not use the "www" - so another way to look at it is to delete anything after the third /.
As a web owner, consider adding a customized 404 page. Then when visitors try to access a page on your site that doesn't exist they will get a more helpful message than "file not found." The first step is to create the page; include a message such as "sorry this page does not exist" and then point the visitor to your site map, search tool, and/or provide contact information. Second, you want to have your server point to that page whenever a user tries to access a page (file) that does not exist in your domain. To do this, create an .htaccess file. Start by creating a text file in Notepad; it should contain the following:
ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.htm
where "notfound.htm" is the name of the custom page you just created. Save the document as htaccess.txt. Once it is saved you will want to change the name to .htaccess and upload it (and your new custom page) to your server.
This won't
work with all servers - but it has worked with most that I have tried.
Some web hosts (such as Go
Daddy) make it even easier. On their administrative pages they let
you flag options for 404 errors: use their custom page (which advertises
their services); point users to your homepage; or create your own.
Mar
16, 2004 - Podcasting
Podcasting is making audio files (most commonly in MP3 format) available
online in a way that allows software to automatically download the files
for listening at the user's convenience. The term comes from iPod and
broadcasting. The podcaster makes a file available online so that the
listener can download the file and listen at their convenience.
Although there are many applications for podcasting, the most popular
seems to be audioblogs. Here are a few examples:
Winestar's
celler
Really Learn
Spanish
Poker Channel
Indymedia
(IndyMedia is particularly neat. It's an international, community-based
resource taking call-in updates from viewers/member from all over the
world.)
To listen to the podcast: you need to have a speaker but the download
process is generally point and click.
To produce the podcast: there are some resources to walk you through
the process:
- Podcasting
Thoughts And Tips 008 - an article that outlines the steps towards
podcasting
- Poor Man's Podcasting - instruction on how to start podcasting inexpensively
I learned about podcasting doing some research for an international webcasting community. You can find out more about webcasting at the DoWire.org Webcasting Exchange.
Mar 9, 2004 - Search Engines are Going Local
Many search engines starting to track web sites by geography - often by MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area). This is helpful if you are looking for a resources in a specific area or if you want to be found by researchers in a specific area.
Here are some of the search engines that are going local:
A9
Ask Jeeves
Google
SuperPages
Yahoo (for search
and they have the old directories)
For searchers: You can get access to the local search features through a "local" or "advanced" tab on the search engines. Follow the instructions from there. (Google is working on profile based searching where you sign up and they return sites to you based on a profile you start and they complement with searches you make.)
For web site owners: Now is a good time to get listed with these local search resources because today it's free - eventually they may charge. In most cases you can register through a link on the local search page. Just look for the "add your site" or related link.
Some search engines (such as Overture) sell keyword ads on their local pages. As an advertiser you can select the areas where you ad is shown. A searcher's area is determined by her address and/or terms searched. I have tried this with less than impressive results - but I think it may catch on when a web site's target market are found in particular areas.
Thanks
to Jan in Wisconsin for her suggestion for this week's Byte!
I had a little misfortune this week - I picked up a peeping popup, aka spyware. It was, and still is, kind of sad - but I'm on the road to repair and I'm happy to share my map with you.
What is spyware? It's a program that monitors your actions online. Hackers can use it to get confidential information as you surf, more often advertisers us it for market research - and then they feed you ads you probably don't want. Unfortunately those ads often include adult-oriented ads that you really, really don't want.
I suspected there was a problem when I noticed a lot more popup ads than usual. Once I admitted I had a problem the first step was to quit using Internet Explorer. I downloaded Mozilla's Firefox. And you know what, I actually like it. Because I do web development, I keep Explorer around to see what sites look like in Explorer - but moving to Firefox has been really easy.
The next step, I ran spyware checker programs. Much like running a virus check, a spyware check will scan your files for spyware. First I tried AdAware from Lavasoft. They have a free trial version and I have been happy with them in the past. Unfortunately it froze up on me. So I tried Spy Sweeper; again they have a free trial. I ran it and it found 100+ suspicious files. So, I just deleted them all, which is easy to do when you use a checker. I could have chosen to save some files - as some were probably innocent cookies to help me remember passwords - but I wanted it gone.
So, there's
my tale. I hope it helps you. Also I have to thank Rick in Minneapolis
for helping me. He's my tech hero! For more information on spyware you
can check out the Wikipedia.
For those
of you who are long-time Byte subscribers you may recognize the following.
Two people in the last couple of weeks have asked me about identity
theft so I am rerunning a Byte
December 17, 2003 - Minimizing Risk of Identity Theft
This statistic is dated (Dec 2000), but according to the Identity Theft Clearinghouse, the average time it took for someone to notice identity theft had occurred to them was 14 months. Here is a short list of things you can do to minimize your risks.
Check your own credit rating once a year. You can do that through one of the following services: Equifax Credit Information Services, Experian, or TransUnion Corporation.
Place passwords on your credit cards. Right now many credit companies use mother's maiden name - ask to use a password instead. And then pick a password that uses numbers and letters.
Protect your paperwork at home and in the trash. Secure information you have on hand and destroy personal information before you toss it.
Avoid using your social security number whenever possible. Often companies (like your employer) will use your SSN as an identifier; simply ask them to use something else. Often they will.
If your computer is online make sure it is secure. (I'll be going through steps to secure and back up your computer on New Years week.)
I created the list above from the FTC site, for more tips and details on protecting yourself, visit their site.
Feb 16, 2004 - Newsgroups and Email Lists
Newsgroups and email lists are both online discussion groups. You can access newsgroups through your web browser or with a news reader. You access email lists through your email box. Newsgroups generally do not require registration so the participation comes from a wider audience. Email lists are based on subscription and therefore often have more of a community feel.
Here are some of my favorite newsgroups & mailing lists:
Nonprofit Tech Talk is for techies in the nonprofit sector. Some members are really experts; some are just learning but folks are respectful and helpful with questions from both ends.
Hidden Tech is a list of tech-related business owners in Western Massachusetts. People ask good questions, get good answers, and I’ve seen some interesting business deals getting started here.
E-Democracy hosts a number of mailing lists for local political and policy discussion. There are lists in the Twin Cities, Chicago, Iowa, and now in the UK. (If you’re not in one of those areas – you can always check with this volunteer-based group about starting a group in your area.)
Minnesota Fishing Forums gathers fishers from across the state to talk about fishing. The hot topic these days is ice fishing. I love it because so many people include pictures!
You can find a Yahoo Sponsored newsgroup here; Tile.Net is still the best list of email lists I know. Sometimes getting involved in a public discussion can be a great way to promote your web site – if done very carefully. (In other words just be helpful and include your URL in your email; don’t try to post ads, they are rarely well-received.)
Feb 9, 2004 - Finding Pictures Online
Normally, I focus on words but sometimes having the right picture really is worth 1000 words. When I need the right picture I often go online. For personal use, say for use in a party invitation, I will admit that I do not adhere to strict copyright law - but them I usually don't have to - it's for personal use. (Here is my favorite copyright site.)
For professional use, I always try to stay on the right side of the law. So, if I don't have permission I don't use it. Subsequently I have spent time perusing free clip art sites. There are a lot of them - and most of them are not worth the price. But here are a couple of sites that I think are worth the time - and sometimes cost:
Free Images - You need to sign up for an email list and give credit when using images - but the images look professional and they are free.
Microsoft Clip Art - The site includes photos, graphics, and animated graphics. Use is free - so long as you don't' resell the images alone (as part of a project seems to be OK).
Clipart.com - The site includes photos, graphics and fonts. Minimum fee is $14.95 for a week. (The time period is on the time you can download images - not on the time you use them.)
Photos.com - Photos are very professional, but there's a charge. Minimum fee is $129.95 for a month. You download what you need when you need it. (The time period is on the time you can download images - not on the time you use them.)
Now you're
all set to create clip art Valentines for family, friends, and love
ones!
Feb2 , 2004 - What's a Mac Mini
I have heard so much on the Mac Minis lately – on the news, in newsgroups, jokes on TV - that I just had to look into it for myself. I thought I’d share what I learned. (This isn’t meant to be an endorsement for Mac – just an effort to keep us all in the know.)
The Mac Mini is touted as “the most affordable Mac ever.” Costs start at $499. That price, however, does not include a monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Mac calls it BYODKM or Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, and Mouse.
The Mac Mini seems to cater to folks who have other computers and want more computing/storing power and/or a cheap way to make their files more portable. It will work for storing music, playing DVDs, downloading pictures or video from a digital camera.
It comes with the following software: email, chat, web browser, calendar software, Quicken 2005, an address book, some games, faxing and a way to download your contacts to your cell phone or iPod. You can balance your check book with.
Here are the hardware specs: 1.25 or 1.42GHz G4 processor, 40 or 80GB hard drive, a slot-loading CD-R/DVD-ROM optical drive, 256MB DDR SDRAM and ATI Radeon 9200 graphics chip with 32MB dedicated DDR SDRAM.
So, am I going to get one? Probably not. With 3 kids, my computers suffer most from peanut butter in the keys or fingerprints on the screen. So if I go new, I want it all to be new. And I’m not in the market for a boost for my other computers at that price. But I think it’s an interesting concept.
Today’s Byte is a hodge podge of sites that I think are fun and/or useful.
Deep Web Research 2005 – this is a great article from a librarian about the “deep web”, which the author describes as the 600 billion pages of information located through the world wide web in various files and formats that the current search engines on the Internet either cannot find or have difficulty accessing. (Currently search engines find about 8 billion pages.)
EurekAlert – this is a list of the top science stories by EurekAlert in 2004. It includes an ancient brewery discovered on a mountain top in Peru. (Thanks to Sheldon in Minneapolis for this lead.)
Wikipedia – this is an encyclopedia written by everyone for everyone. You
can search the encyclopedia without logging in. The entries include
links on every word that could be expanded and links to external pages
when helpful. You need to log in to edit or add to an entry. Registration
is free.
Jan 19 , 2004 - Competitive Intelligence Online
Today's Byte is for anyone who needs to know about a business for a job interview, for a competitive advantage, to make an investment choice, or any other reason. The Internet is a great place to learn more about a company. Here is a short course on how to start competitive intelligence online:
1. Look
for the company web site using a search engine such as Google.
Use the company, product or service name. From the web site you can
generally learn:
" The company purpose
" History, location, and staff members
" Future plans through press releases, letters from the president
or investor notes
" You might even get a customer list from a clients or testimonials
page
2. Look for recent news and press releases on Google News. Google News is better for press releases than news.
3. Check your local newspaper (especially if the company is local) and/or local library for access to local newspapers to so a search for more news on the company.
4. Check out stock information (if it's a public company). You can start at Yahoo Finance or jump right into the Securities and Exchange Commission site, EDGAR.
5. See
what regular people are saying about your company by doing a search
with one of the following tools:
Look at the newsgroups: http://groups.google.com/
Look at blogs & RSS feeds: http://www.faganfinder.com/blogs/
Look at who links to them: http://www.lilnkpopularity.com
Check out
these sources and you should have a pretty good view of the company
in question.
Jan 12 , 2004 - Bravenet: Fee Tools for Web Sites
(Today's Byte is for folks with a web site.) For years I have seen the Bravenet tools on the web. This week I actually looked at the Bravenet services. Here's what I learned:
Bravenet has tools that you can cut and paste into your web site, such as guest books, forms, clip art, and more. They seem to have a free version of everything and/or you can upgrade to their fee-based service. They even host free web sites.
To use their service, you have to sign in and then they will give you the html code for the application you want for you to copy and paste that into your site. You can manage your application from their web site. (So for example you can see the results of on online poll on your password protected portion of their site.)
I signed up. It was pretty easy and I don't seem to be deluged with extra spam. I signed up to get a mailing list. So, far it seems to work well. Visitors to the site can sign up for their newsletter online. The client can manage the service from the Bravenet site. The only downside is that the list is clearly branded for Bravenet.
I think the Bravenet free services are good for a hobby or maybe nonprofit site. The Bravenet branding distracts from use for a professional site. The fee-based service is very reasonable. (For the tech lovers in the crowd the applications I have seen have been in php.) Usually I would opt to code something specifically for a site but there are times or sites where that doesn't make sense. In those cases I think Bravenet is a good alternative.
I love when the Internet can help us save time or do things better in our real life. I have found a couple of sites that will help you recycle, donate, or barter stuff you don't want.
Freecycle
They link to a number of local discussion lists where members post items
that they are willing to give away. The bad news is you have to join
Yahoo Groups to see the posts. The good news is that (at least in the
Twin Cities) the groups look very active.
Craig's
List
There are Craig's Lists all around the world. The link above goes to
the Minneapolis-based site but there are links on the right to other
sites. Each Craig's List has a "for sale" and "free"
section. Visitors post notes on things they want to buy, sell, barter
or give. Again, these groups are very active.
ABC
Free
This is a national site where people post items that they want to give
or get. You can search by keyword and/or location. The spin here is
that local schools get to see the free stuff before anyone else - so
it benefits schools.
Dec 28, 2004 - New Resolutions
Here’s an idea for New Years – take a day to fine tune your computer. If you treat it right, it will perform better for you and last longer. Here are a few steps that can help:
- Get a tune up. PC Pitstop is a web site that will perform free diagnostics on your computer. Visit the site, select “full PC tune up” and their system will test your computer for problems and potential problems. The testing takes a few minutes but once it is complete, PC Pitstop will rate your computer’s performance in eight areas: system, memory, disk, video, Internet, Windows, security, and comparison to similar systems.
- Start repairing your system. PC Pitstop will give you step-by-step instructions to help you fix any designated areas. The instructions are not written for the technically inclined, but written for someone who is comfortable using a computer.
- Back up your files. You can do this by burning a copy of all of your files to a CD or disk. If you don’t have a CD burner and you have too many files for a disk, consider copying your files to an online storage source. All the Space (http://www.all-the-free-space.com) is a web site that tracks free and low cost online storage merchants.
- Update Virus Protection. There are two popular brands of virus protection (MacAfee and Symantec). Both are good, both offer a contract for ongoing updates, and both are about the same cost. Choose one and follow the directions to make sure that you virus definitions are updated often and your system is checked regularly.
You’re
done! Files should open a little more quickly and your transactions
should be a little safer. If your computer hasn’t been serviced
in a while you may recognize minutes of saving every day if not more.
Isn’t that a good start to the New Year?
Dec 22, 2004 - Flying Walendas
Today's Byte is really just a holiday greeting and a reminder take time to do something fun. That's what I did yesterday.
My workout
friends and I took a trapeze class yesterday - with costumes. You can
see us on the Girlfriends
Express Workout web site. (I am the fool who thought that a shiny
silver leotard with a skirt would be slimming.)
Dec 14, 2004 - MSN Beta Search & Desktop
This week I am in Chicago at a Search Engine Strategies conference. It has been great and I have lots of fodder for future bytes!
Today, however, I am short of time and will therefore have to share two quickie resources that I haven’t had time to fully research for you:
MSN
Search
MSN has improved their search tool; it’s in beta test right now.
As you’ll see, it looks a lot like Google.
MSN
Desktop
Download this tool to use the new MSN search to search the local files
on your desktop (including email messages).
Dec 7, 2004 - Holiday Shopping Web Sites
A recent survey indicates that more than half of online shoppers plan to use the Internet more than last holiday season to comparison shop (89%), research gifts for others (86%), buy gifts for others (74%), and buy gifts for themselves (53%). (2004 Shop.org/BizRate.com Online Holiday Mood Study)
So, I thought I'd share a few shopping web sites that you might find helpful as you get through your shopping lists.
BizRate reviews and compares items and stores. Their goal is to list every shop and product in their searchable database. Users are invited to send in review of products and services at the site.
Froogle is a search directory of products that works much like its parent site, Google.
MySimon is a comparison shopping site. They list millions of items and always focus on shopping the least expensive merchants.
Epinions is a consumer review site. Members post their reviews. Often the views are biased, but as a shopper it can be a refreshing resource.
If you sell items online you might look into getting listed on these resources - many provide basic listings for free. In fact I think only MySimon charges to be listed; the others often charge rates for enhanced listings.
Happy shopping!
Nov 31, 2004 - Improve Your Search Engine Ranking Without Changing Your Web Site
Today's tip is for folks who have a web site. If you have a web site, you are probably looking for ways to get found more easily on the search engines. Normally you do this by making changes to your site. One trick that doesn't involve your actual web site is - sending out a press release that links to your web site. The steps are pretty easy:
1. Write a press release. Think of a topic that is even remotely newsworthy. Maybe you have a new product or service enhancement. Maybe you're having a big sale or giving a presentation to an association.
2. Include your URL in the press release. Then readers can link directly to you from the press release.
3. Send your press release to a service such as PRWeb. They will distribute your release for free. (Enhanced distribution is about $30.) PRWeb will send your press release to thousands of people - but that's not the best part. They will also archive your press release on their web site. Search engines (especially Google) seem to pick up these press releases very quickly. Like potential visitors, the search engines will follow the link on the release to your site. It's a quick and easy way to get their attention or remind them that you exist.
I have had great luck with client web sites and press releases. Hopefully these steps will help you too. If you're interested in the idea but don't have the time and would rather outsource it - feel free to give me a call.
Nov 24, 2004 - Thanksgiving Quiz
Just for fun, today's Byte is a Thanksgiving quiz today. You can share it with your families tomorrow - or just slip some interesting Thanksgiving facts into conversation and let them think you're the smart one. You can get the answers here below:
1. What
year did the Pilgrims have their first Thanksgiving Feast?
1621
1619
1564
1702
2. The
Horn of Plenty, or Cornucopia, which symbolizes abundance, originated
in what country?
Ireland
Holland
Greece
Turkey
3. With
which Nation of Native Americans did the Pilgrims celebrate?
Ojibwe
Wampanoag
Sioux
Lakota
4. About
how many people participated in the first Thanksgiving?
14
41
140
410
5. What
president didn't like the idea of having a national Thanksgiving Day?
Adams
Jefferson
Nixon
Lincoln
6. Which
president first established the date of Thanksgiving as a national celebration?
Washington
Jefferson
Adams
Madison
7. How
long did the Pilgrims' voyage to the 'New World' last?
27 days
66 days
99 days
200 days
8. Who
was in favor of making turkey the National Bird of America?
John Turkey
Benjamin Franklin
Ponce de Leon
William Bradford
9. When
did Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade start?
1910
1917
1920
1924
Answers
1. 1621
2. Greece
3. Wampanoag
4. 140
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. George Washington
7. 66 days
8. Benjamin Franklin
9. 1924
If you have kids, here
is a great site to learn more about Thanksgiving (while you watch
the game).
Nov 17, 2004 - All About Libraries
In honor of the passing of former Minnesota Governor (and long time library lover) Elmer Anderson, I am going to talk about libraries today. I know it's not really technology - but they can be such as asset that I like to bring them up periodically.
Public
Libraries
For business owners, libraries can be the best free consultant in the
world. Next time you need a quick answer to a question - call (or email)
your local library. As a former reference librarian I can tell you -
we live for the fun and interesting questions!
Next time you need help with a business plan or major research, try visiting your library. Libraries have the books and electronic resources you need to look up information that will help you make good business decisions. The librarians can help you through the research process. (Again, we live for that stuff!)
Academic
Libraries
If you live near a college, you might be able to access their collection
too. Even if you can't check items out - it can be a great place to
get answers and do research. The University of Minnesota will let you
access some pretty fancy databases if you visit them. And if you ever
need technical or scientific information, it can be well worth the trip.
I have found when traveling that often academic libraries will let you use their computers to check email. Assuming that you aren't there during finals weeks, don't seem too menacing, and ask nicely.
Special
Libraries
Special libraries focus in a niche area. They are open to the public
in varying degrees. One example is the James J Hill Library. They have
a business collection. You can access most of their items for free on
site. Their web site has access to many free resources. But to get to
the really good stuff online, you have to be a paying member. I mention
them because the director said I could give you their phone number to
call for a free trial. Their number is 651-265-5458; just ask about
a HillSearch Trial and they will give you a password to try for a week.
I have focused on the business uses of the library - but I can tell you that the libraries are equal opportunity helpers. I know that some of the best (most fun) reference questions I got while a librarian stemmed from a bet among friends. So, next time you're about to come to blows about who has won the most Oscars - call a librarian to settle the score.
Here are
two web sites to help you find the library you need:
Metronet
Minnesota Web Directory
The
WWW Library Directory
Nov 10, 2004 - Intranets for Hire
Last week someone asked me about free and low cost work spaces online. Specifically they were looking for space or tools that would allow them work with colleagues who were not on the same network. Here is what I found:
Standard
Applications
Most of the resources that I looked at let you share a calendar, files
and photos, create polls, and carry on an archived conversation
Yahoo!
Groups
Yahoo! Groups is free but it includes a lot of advertising. You can
limit use to members only or open it up to the public for people to
join. Yahoo! Groups is good for a potentially public list, such as for
your matchbook collectors club, a very casual list, such as your family
or high school reunion list, or when free is the most important.
Intranets
Intranets is a low cost solution; it's $60 per month for 5 or fewer
business users and $50 per month for 10 or fewer nonprofit users. With
Intranets you can host real-time chats. I have used Intranets and I
think it works quite well - although the chats were not very easy to
follow. A free 30 days trial is available.
HyperOffice
HyperOffice is another low cost solution; it's $6 per month for one
user, $30 for 10 or fewer users and pricing goes up from there. I haven't
used HyperOffice but it looks quite good. I think it would be a good
solution for a contractor who needed to access files remotely. A free
30 days trial is available.
I have
to say that I also found several solutions that didn't have pricing
- so I haven't included them. And I have tried other solutions that
I didn't like much - so I haven't included them.
Nov 3 , 2004 - Survey Savvy Pyramid Scheme
OK I feel like I'm inviting you to an Amway party this week - but it's all in the name of information sharing. Last May I registered for Survey Savvy. They pay you to take surveys online.
I have not exactly gotten rich through Survey Savvy - but so far I've earned $20 for taking one survey. Here's how it works. Companies pay Survey Savvy to send out surveys to qualified target markets. If your profile matches that target market they will send you a link to a web site to answer a couple of quick questions to see if you qualify to take a paid a survey.
For example, your profile might say you have a baby so you get an invitation to the Pampers survey. Then through the initial filtering questions they find out you use cloth diapers, so you don't qualify to take the Pampers survey.
If you get the initial invitation but don't qualify for the survey your name goes into a drawing for $10. If you do qualify they will send you to the web site with the entire survey. They surveys seem to be about 10 minutes long, and the payment seems to be about $20 per survey.
I like taking surveys so I have enjoyed my Survey Savvy experience. Also, I have not been inundated with unwanted email so - I thought I'd pass this fun site on to you. Here's the sneaky part - if you join and take surveys I will get paid too, hence the Amway reference above. If you refer others you too will get paid every time they take a survey.
So with some hesitation I will give you my referral link: http://www.surveysavvy.com/?id=1353864&hid=1353864. Through here you can sign up online.
Thanks to Terri in Coon Rapids for getting me hooked up with Survey Savvy!
Oct 26, 2004 - Online Storage - for Free
Today's Byte is short but hopefully helpful…
This week someone asked me about backing up documents online. Specifically, they asked if I knew of any web sites that would store documents online for free. I was going to look for a few sites to share with the Byte list when I came across the following great resource:
All the Space - a free online file storage directory. They track free and paid resources for backing up your data online.
They seem to have a sister site that tracks information on cheap web hosts. It doesn't list my favorite cheap host (Go Daddy). So, it's not an exhaustive list, but it lists enough to compare your choices.
Also a
friendly reminder to vote next week! It's a win-win proposition. If
your guy wins you made a difference; if your guys loses you have a leg
to stand on when you complain.
Tomorrow, thanks to a really good sister, I will be spending one night in a fancy hotel in Chicago with my husband and without my children! In preparation I got to use a lot of the online travel planning tools and I thought I'd share what I learned.
Expedia.com
This site lets you do fairly elaborate searches, where you can pick
area, class (or stars), dates, and more. They seem to offer good travel
advisories, such as letting you know if the staff in a hotel are on
strike and picketing. They seemed to track hotels in smaller cities
too.
Hotels.com
This is a great site for getting an overview of the hotels in a given
area - if that area is a fairly large city. They appear as if they will
track hotels in any area - but I tried a few places and they came up
with nothing. I did like their last minute deals section.
Priceline.com
Everyone else seems to have used this site - you select some criteria
and then post a dollar amount you are willing to pay for a hotel that
meets your criteria. The scary thing is you say yes to a type of hotel
- not a specific hotel. But it seems like a great place to make a deal.
What I
learned about all of the sites is that the closer to your visit, the
better the deal. So, I checked back periodically to get a price that
would let me spend more money on the great Chicago restaurants. In the
end I got a 4 star hotel room off North Michigan Avenue for $100 from
Priceline.
Oct 13, 2004 - Fixes, Leaves, and Stats
Today's Byte of a hodge podge of info. First, Microsoft just put out a warning and a bunch of new patches for a few of their products. You can get the technical details here and instructions on downloading fixes here.
Second I have a very fun web site to share. The Star Tribune has a great site for kids on autumn leaves. It's an interactive guide to identifying fall leaves. My kids and I used it over the weekend with some freshly hunted fallen leaves and had a great time.
Finally
I have two great statistics-types sites from Sue in Duluth. Paycheck
to Paycheck compares salaries and housing costs for various occupations
in metropolitan areas. Childstats.gov
published anything and everything on kids and families.
Oct 6 , 2004 - I created a blog
In June, I wrote a Byte on blogs. As a result I have recently been interviewed for a public access TV show about blogs. In preparation for the big interview I thought I better actually create a blog.
Last Sunday I created a blog. It was super easy. I created one through Blogspot. I went to their site, answered three questions and I was all set up. You can find it here.
As you can see I plan to just post my Bytes there, since I'm not really looking for another weekly writing assignment. In fact, I think the only hard part about blogs is the actually writing. The technology is easy. So, for those of you out there you have something to say I strongly suggest you try a blog. I know at least two of you already have blogs - and I know several of you would be good blog candidates.
(Oh the TV show will be on a week from Saturday at midnight. For more information on the show, check out the Bat of Minerva web site.)
Google News is a repository of news. They compile news from 7000 new sources in a searchable database. The news is selected, compiled, and fed to users though computers. There are no human editors at Google making judgment calls on which stories to add and which to delete.
So it seems funny that when you search for "John Kerry" on Google News you will find more conservative stories than liberal stories. When you search for "George Bush" there is a more balanced representation of stories.
How does this happen? The answer may help us all better use Google as a search tool and a promotional tool for our own web sites.
Mainstream and more liberal news sources tend to refer to John Kerry once in an article and then abbreviate to Kerry; conservative sources tend to refer to Kerry by his full name through a story. Using Google's method of matching articles to searchers, an article that contains John Kerry throughout is going to rank higher as a better match for a search for John Kerry than an article that refers to Kerry.
It serves
as a good reminder to those of us with web site - try to include on
your web pages terms that your customers would use to find you through
Google or any other search engine.
Sep 22 , 2004 - Internet Security
Today's Byte is a shorted version of an article I co-wrote with Jan Hepola from Minnesota Technology Inc. It's all about security and it's a promotional piece for some upcoming e-commerce classes that are happening at Normandale Community College. I thought you might be interested in the article and maybe the classes.
Internet Security is more than just technology
Think Internet Security is just a concern for the IT department? Think again! The IT department can install the best technology to prevent security incidents, but security is more than getting the right technology. You need to create a security plan that factors in people, policies and procedures. Consider the following elements as part of your security plan:
Acceptable Use Policies: Create a document that outlines the computer activities that are considered acceptable. Include consequences for non-compliance and communicate this to employees regularly. This will protect both you and your employees from any lapses in judgment. Also, develop and monitor the security procedures that take place when an employee leaves your business.
Passwords: Use "strong" passwords. This means using a combination of random letters, numbers, characters and a mix of lower and upper cases. Hackers have tools to break password codes starting with words found in a dictionary or common names. Insist that users not share passwords; this includes posting the passwords on their computers or writing them in Rolodex under "p".
Virus Protection: Install virus protection software on each computer in addition to the network. This will ensure that files (including attachments and shared discs) will be checked for viruses before they cause damage. Critically important is a policy that each user must regularly schedule the updating of their virus definitions. It is important to show your employees how to do this while communicating why it is important.
Firewalls: Protect your computers and network from attacks from the Internet with a firewall. There are two types of firewalls: hardware and software. As data attempts to come into your network, the firewall determines if it is dangerous (hacker attempts) and should be deflected, or safe and allowed to pass through. Having a strong firewall is particularly important if you are using DSL, cable, wireless or satellite to connect to the Internet.
Training: Teach staff about technology security. Talk about why certain activity is expected or restricted. It is easier to get compliance when users understand the risks to your business and their personal safety.
Sep 14 , 2004 - Did you vote yesterday?
The primaries were yesterday. Did you vote? I did – in the rain with two kids dragging behind me. I won’t bore you with my political views – but I do implore you to get out and vote on November 2. To help you prepare I am listing some fun political resources:
E-Democracy is a nonprofit, nonpartisan information resource on local politics in
the Twin Cities, Chicago, Iowa, and Winona. The best part of - Democracy
is the online and email discussion among citizens – anyone is welcome
to join and share their opinions respectfully.
MyBallot is another Minnesota resource. You type in your address and it will
tell you who’s on the ballot and where you should go to vote.
Balanced Politics is an interesting site that appears to outline the pros and cons of major issues as well as links to less neutral sites on the topics and reader comments.
Remember
to register. There are plenty of places to do that online, such as the
Rock the Vote.
And remember to vote!
Sep 8, 2004 - Homework Helpers
Today my oldest daughter starts school. In honor of this momentous step I thought I’d look into some online homework helpers:
BJ Pinchbeck’s Homework Helper – apparently created by a high school student, and hosted by Discovery.com, this is a directory of great sites to use for your homework (like Cliff Notes)
The Internet Public Library – manages virtual shelves of web resources, a teen area that includes guides for writing papers, and kidspace for younger kids. IPL also offers Ask a Librarian sections where you can ask questions of librarians. (I am a former volunteer.)
Check with your local public library. Most offer email-base reference services, which I use and love. Many will provide even more support and guidance to students. For example, St Paul provides supplies and mentors to help students in the library.
Two Byte subscribers recently started blogs; I thought we might all be interested in them:
In Pursuit of a Master’s Degree – Sue Stromquist writes about her experience as a student in the first class of a degree in advocacy and public policy out of UMD.
Sheldon
Mains writes two blogs, the first relates to nonprofit
management issues; the second is a personal blog on politics
and community issues of local interest ( Twin Cities).
Sep 1 , 2004 - Expanding your Circle of Experts
It’s not what you know, but who you know. For years the Internet helped with what you can know – but suddenly it seems to also help with who you know.
There are several Internet services that focus on expanding your circle of friends and experts. These web sites help you track the people you know and help you grow that list by tapping into friends of friends. It’s like a giant cocktail party where guests wear résumés instead of name tags.
I am a member of one of these services, Linked In. Someone invited me to join, so I did. Basically I clicked on “OK” and entered a brief biography. (The service is free.) Now I can see and be seen by many people online. It can be a great place to find a new job, a new employee, or just find folks who share your interests.
I haven’t taken great advantage of the network yet, but I see its potential. More importantly, I’ve been a member for several months and have not received unwanted email from them – so I think this is a service worth trying.
I thought
about using the Linked In service to send out the Byte this week and
then invite all of you directly to try out the service but out of respect
for your privacy I decided against it. That being said – I’d
be happy to send you an invitation to join via Linked In. I think it
expedites the sign in process. If you are interested, let me know and
I’ll invite you.
Aug 25, 2004 - Digital Photomats
I don't know a lot about digital pictures or cameras. But lately I have a renewed interest - maybe due to new baby - and I've been running into places where you can post your pictures for free.
Generally the deal is that these web sites will allow you to upload digital pictures for free and your friends and family can then order the pictures through their service. You seem to be able to upload unlimited number of pictures, edit pictures, and share them digitally - all for free.
Here are a couple of services that I'd tried:
Snap
Fish
They offer digital camera prints for 15¢ and film developing for
as low as $2.99 per roll.
ofoto
They offer "Kodak" prints for 22¢ and seem to offer a
wide range of print sizes.
I have
used both of these services as the friend of a photographer and I must
say they were easy to use and I was able to get free copies of the digital
pictures. Photographers have told me that they are easy to use too.
Aug 18, 2004 - Need a Map for your Site?
Today's Byte is for the Web Developers. This week I was reminded of one of my favorite freebie web tools- MapQuest Business Solution Maps.
If you need to provide a map on your site and budget is an issue, I strongly suggest looking into MapQuest's Link Free product. With it you can provide a link to a detailed, interactive map of a single location. Visitors will be able to zoom in, zoom out, or enter their address for door to door directions. Here is an example.
I suspect most of us have used Map Quest for door to door directions. I have heard that they don't always provide the quickest route from A to B - but I have always had good luck using them. If you haven't tried MapQuest for directions, think about them next time you're going to a new location.
This week I will be in Hibbing at the Rural Summit so I may be more difficult to reach. I will be reading email and listening to messages - or you can follow the direction in the example above to track me down in person.
Aug 10, 2004 - Phishing - Be the one that got away
Phishing is another name for a type of Internet fraud. It is an email or pop up ad that looks like it is a business you know and trust, but isn't. The offending company will use the logo of your bank or a vendor and find a reason to ask you to confirm important details, such as a credit card or bank account number.
Two people I know have been "phished" in the last two weeks. Both times it was an email message that looks as if it comes from US Bank. The messages have looked pretty authentic. Each time the message said there was a security issue with the account and that the recipient needed to provide/confirm bank information through the web sit - immediately. One recipient was not even a US Bank customer.
So, what can you do?
Beware of anyone asking for confidential information. If a bank has an issue - they will call you; they won't use email. (Now, telephone fraud is another issue - but the advice is the same - beware.) Try to use an alternative means to contact the organization if you have further doubts. Finally, never give private data via email; it's just not safe. For more information, check out the FTC consumer alert on phishing.
Added
note on earlier Byte - Microsoft Settlement:
Marit in Minneapolis wisely suggested that Minnesota Microsoft users
might want to donate their Microsoft settlement vouchers to a nonprofit
organization. You can learn more by checking out the settlement
page.
Aug 3, 2004 - Borrowing Passwords on the Web
I have a new favorite web site for the week - www.bugmenot.com. I learned about it from Time Magazine.
Bugmenot.com is a place to share username and passwords for web sites that require them - but don't requirement payment. The Minneapolis newspaper is one example. To access more than one story, the Star Tribune now requires registration - as do many other newspapers, such as the NY Times, Washington Post, and others.
To get the username and password, you simply visit bugmenot.com, submit the URL of the web site in question, and if there is an account available and registered with bugmenot.com, they will tell you the username and password to use. If there isn't an account set up, then you are invited to set up a fake account and register it with bugmenot.com.
I would
not promote this site for paid sites, or for sites where they use your
registration to customize your experience, but plenty of sites just
seem to require registration for commercial purposes - registration
doesn't enhance the experience. In those cases, I'm going to go with
bugmenot.com.
July 28, 2004 - Following Up on the Minnesota-Microsoft Settlement
Yesterday I got a letter from the Minnesota District Court of Claims Administration telling me how to file a claim against Microsoft as part of the big class action suit. I thought I might save you some reading or answer some questions by pulling out what I thought were the more important pieces below. (I apologize to the non-Minnesota subscribers. Next week I'll have something for everyone.)
Who
is entitled to settlement benefits?
Anyone who legally purchased "Microsoft Windows operating system
software or MS-DOS operating system software" from May 18, 1994
to March 17, 2003 in Minnesota for use in Minnesota.
What
can you get?
Depending on the purchases you made, you will get a voucher to buy various
computer products or software. Here is an itemized list of benefit amounts:
- $15
each for Microsoft Windows or MS_DOS operating system software
- $23
each for Microsoft Office
- $9 each
for Microsoft Word
- $23
each for Microsoft Excel
There is a way that you can redeem vouchers for cash - but that requires proof of purchase, which means product ID numbers and/or documentation of purchases.
How
do you file a claim?
You can file online or download the necessary forms
online.
The form must be postmarked or sent online before February 20, 2005.
Most folks will use the standard form. If you purchased through a volume
license, you will want the volume license claim form.
If you have fewer than 5 items to claim and will redeem less than $100 then you only need to know the name of the product you purchased, year of purchase, and seller of purchase. If you have more items or plan to redeem more than $100, you will also need to have the product ID number or documentation of purchase.
What
if I don't file a claim?
If you don't file a claim you will get nothing. Also, your lack of action
will indicate that you are OK with the settlement - so you will not
be able to sue Microsoft again. To be able to take part in a different
suit against Microsoft you must request to be excluded from the settlement.
You can exclude yourself by sending a letter of exclusion to:
Settlement Claims Administrator
Microsoft - Minnesota Settlement
PO Box 202
Minneapolis MN 55440-0202
Letter must be sent by October 4, 20044
For more information on filing a claim, visit the claim site. For information on the settlement, check out this PC World article.
July 21, 2004 - Contractors and Security and the IRS
I read
an interesting article yesterday about the IRS and computer security
concerns. Apparently the IRS hired contractors to upgrade their computer
systems. The contractors were allegedly not as careful with security
as they should have been. And while the IRS acknowledges that security
was a problem, they claim it was not a big risk. Here is the
full article.
As I said, the article is interesting but what I thought was really interesting was the list of security concerns. I thought it might be a good idea to share that list to remind us all to be aware of security breaches in our own systems. Here were the concerns:
The IRS granted the contractor "root" access to the computer system. (Root access gives a user permission to make unlimited and unrestricted changes to any part of the computer system.)
Unauthorized chat and instant-messaging activity left the IRS vulnerable to hackers
Contractors' computers were vulnerable to hackers and viruses because they did not have security patches for known vulnerabilities in operating software.
Some computers used by contractors were too old to support a secure operating system, and the IRS did not have enough money to replace them.
July 14, 2004 - Explorer isn't the Only Browser
Security concerns have promoted many users to stop using Internet Explorer. I won't go into the problems (to learn more you can visit the following news story). I thought I'd introduce a few other browsers instead:
Netscape: I used to love Netscape! I still remember the sad day I gave it up - but it's still out there!
Safari: I'm not a Mac user, but I've heard very good things from Mac users about Safari.
Mozilla: This is like the grandkid of the original browser. Mozilla celebrates open source technology - inviting developers to build upon their existing products.
The advantages of the above are: they're free; they're not Microsoft so hacking aren't spending as much time targeting them
The disadvantage is that they're not Microsoft so for many of us they will be different from what we are used to using. Also because 9 out of 10 users choose Explorer over other browsers most web developers program with Explorer in mind - so sometimes the formatting or functionality is less than perfect with other browsers.
If you
are interested in a more complete list of browsers you can check out
the list from DMOZ.
July 7, 2004 - Late Breaking Byte News
Folks – sorry for the late Byte this week. I’ve been waiting on some breaking news and it finally happened. It’s not tech-related, but it’s excited to us.
On Monday I had a baby girl – Aine Therese O’Donnell was born at 3:08 in the afternoon. Aine is an Irish name (pronounced like Onya). She was 8 lbs and 13 oz – much bigger than either of her sisters was at birth.
June 30, 2004 - All About Trademarks…
This week I'm doing a favor for my brother. He has a really good idea for a State Fair food - and we want to protect the idea as much as possible. A patent seemed like overkill, but we figured a trademark might set up an obstacle to anyone wanting to pick up his idea.
The US Patent and Trademark Office is the place to go to learn about and process a trademark registration. Their site is very user-friendly! Below are the things I learned and process I went through:
- The fee for the most basic trademark - with one intended purpose - is $335.
- Step One - search the trademark database to make sure that no one has already trademarked your term, symbol, or design
- Find
the form
you need online. I found the form for new
trademarks quickly.
- The
forms are template-based and it's very easy to click on the links
for more info (and back to the form) when you have a question.
- You will need to submit a "specimen" of your trademark. A specimen is an actual example of how you are using the mark in commerce on or in connection with the identified goods and/or services. (It sounds as if a .jpg picture of packaging will work; a business card will not.)
Our stopper was issue number 5 - but once we have a specimen, we will be going back to the USPTO site to complete the online trademark form.
So there
you go - time to start thinking of ideas and product names that are
worth trademarking!
June 23, 2004 - Blogs - What, How, Why?
What is
it?
Blogs - or weblogs - are personal web sties that an author updates on
a regular basis. Here are some samples:
Busy
Mom Blog - apparently not too busy.
Baghdad
is Burning - from a girl in Baghdad
The Resource
Shelf - a really great resource from a librarian
How
can you write a blog?
Starting a blog is easy. There are several free web-based tools out
there. Blogger is one good example. Their directions say it all "Create an account.
Name your blog. Choose a template."
Why
write a blog?
There are lots of good reasons to start a blog. Any of the following
will do. (I don't have a blog - but I do have this newsletter, which
is awfully similar.)
You have so much information to share on a particular topic and your loved ones have threatened to leave you if you share any more with them. You'll find an interested audience online.
You want to build a reputation for being an expert in a particular topic. Writing on it everyday forces you to keep up AND you might build an audience online.
You have a unique perspective to share. I think particularly of the soldiers in Iraq or civilians in Afghanistan who kept blogs.
You want to have a searchable journal for yourself.
Why
read a blog?
Sometimes they are entertaining. Mostly I think they can be a great
way to track down an expert and find out what they say on a given topic.
For example if I were going to buy a digital camera I'd look for a blogger
who knew photography or technology and see what they said. Sure, the
advice might be biased, but so long as it's not sponsored by a product
vendors I'm OK with biased.
June 16, 2004 - Happy Bloomsday!
In honor of Bloomsday, we're going to get a lesson in Irish Literature. (For those who weren't aware of it, I have actually an MA in Irish Literature; it doesn't come up as often as one might think.)
Bloomsday is June 16. It is the day that James Joyce's fictional novel Ulysses takes place. In fact, today is the 100th anniversary of that day. The novel follows main characters Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus through a day in Dublin. There are 18 chapters to the book - they loosely parallel the trials of Ulysses from mythology. Each chapter is written in a very different style.
To see a very fun web rendition of the novel, visit the Ulysses for Dummies.
To access the full text online, visit bibliomania.
For more detailed commentary about the book, visit the Irish Times.
And if you happen to visit Google today, check out their subtle tribute to Joyce in their second "g".
And if you ever get a chance to visit Dublin for Bloomsday - take it. Lots of people follow in the steps of Bloom and Dedalus. They drink in the same pubs, eat gorgonzola for lunch, and visit the same churches. (Not in that order.) In fact in many ways I think it's more fun to be in Dublin for Bloomsday than for St. Patrick's Day!
June 9, 2004 - Summer Festivals and Fun Spots
It's been a while since we've had an off-the-topic fun Byte. So in honor of my favorite summer festival (Grand Ol' Day, which was last Sunday) I thought I'd point of some great sites for making summer plans. Sorry to my non-Minnesotan subscribers - maybe you can look at this as proof that we're not cold all year long - in fact we can get quite humid!
The Star Tribune lists festivals organized by Metro & Outstate and then alphabetically by city and then at the bottom of the list by date. So, it's not the prettiest list - but it appears to be inclusive.
Explore Minnesota has a searchable database of events. You can search by date, location, keyword, you name it. They also list a few cyber specials.
Fesitvals.com is an international site for finding festivals - for any of you who are looking for a good excuse to leave the country.
Minnesota
Federation of County Fairs lists the dates for all 95 county fairs
in Minnesota! This is a great place to start if you're looking for bingo
and homemade jams.
June 2 , 2004 - Google Ads on Your Site
Last week I talked about placing ads on other web sites to generate traffic to your own web site. In February, I talked about placing affiliate links on your site to generate revenue. (Affiliate links are links on your site to specific products, such as an Amazon book, and getting a portion of each sale made through that link.) Today I'm going to talk about placing Google Ads on your site.
Google sells ads to customers based on keyword terms. Those ads might run on the Google site or content partner sites. Google Adsense is the program for potential content partners. If you have a web site you can partner with Google to have them put ads on your site.
I have done this for two sites now; both were nonprofits. The whole process takes about 30 minutes. Signing up takes 10 minutes - but then you have to wait until your site is "approved". This takes 1-2 days. Once you are approved if takes 10-20 minutes to paste the html that they supply (determined by a few choices you make on size, shape, and color of ads) onto the pages of your site where you want to place an ad.
Google has some restrictions on the type of site they will accept. They don't want to be part of a site that is a compilation of ads. They also don't want to be listed on pages that could be considered illegal. Other than that they are pretty open.
They ads that they will feed to you will be based on the text of your page. So if you have a site on how to grow flowers, they might push you ads about a Home and Garden show. You get paid when a visitor to your site clicks through one of the ads. The amount that you will earn varies depending on the amount that Google is charging for the ads and since ads are generally purchased through a bidding process the range can be great. Google will send you a check once you earn more than $100.
I've read the stories from people who make their fortune through Google ads. This hasn't been my experience, but it does seem like a decent investment for 30 minutes of work IF you have a site that is content-rich and you don't mind if people click away from your site. In other words if the goal of your site is to have visitors buy something from you then I would not suggest Google ads. If the goal of your site is to provide information and generating revenue would be a welcome surprise, they I'd say go for it.
I'm actually
waiting for the approval to add the ads to the Byte page - just to see
how they do on a commercial site. I'll be sure to report back. Learn
more about Google
Adsense from their web site.
May 24, 2004 - Web Advertising Terminology
Buying an ad in a magazine or newspaper is simple. You pay your money, you design your ad, you choose your space, and they run it. Buying an ad online, especially through a search engine is not that simple. Below is some of the terminology to help you understand online advertising.
Pay for Inclusion (PFI) - this is when you pay a fee to a directory or search engine to get listed, or to expedite the process of getting listed, or to "enhance" your listing. Yahoo currently charges a fee for inclusion.
Pay per Click (PPC) - this is when you pay for a "sponsored" listing; however you only pay when a visitor clicks on your ad and visits your site. On content (regular) web sites you might select a page for your ad, Search engines allow to you choose a keyword term, then your ad appears when a visitor uses your term in a search.
Data feeds - this makes sense for sites that have a catalog of items for purchase. Sites such as Yahoo, Froogle, and BizRate ask you to send a "feed" of your database of items and they will index your products on their shopping sites. Often these services charge on a Pay per Click basis.
Affiliations - larger sites, such as Amazon, place ads on content (regular) web sites and pay only when a visitor clicks through the ad and makes a purchase. Unlike the other ads described here, affiliations are generally controlled and maintained by the vendor. (Next week I'll talk about affiliations and other programs that might help generate revenue if you have content site.)
Some web
sites will still run the simplified pay-per-month type of ads. Similar
to the print ad, you pay your fee, choose your placement and they run
your ad.
May 17, 2004 - Tips for Buying a Computer
Recently someone asked me about buying a computer. I must admit that buying isn't really a long suit of mine - but researching is. So I found some sites that helped with the process of buying a computer. I thought I'd share them with you:
Federal
Citizen Information Center
Includes a helpful computer
buying checklist, which I've seen reprinted several places
Dave's
Guide to Buying a Computer
Apparently a professor at Michigan State University, Dave gets pretty
detailed but also seemed to give some good opinions.
Maharishi
University of Management
Starts with the Mac-PC debates and goes on from there - I thought this
page was very useful.
Advice
from my tech buddy Rick B. in Minneapolis is to choose an option that
comes with plenty of support!
May 12, 2004 - Great Directories
I'm down on Yahoo. I used to like it. It was a great place to find general information or find info on a topic that was new to me. (Much easier to learn about Rugby through Yahoo than doing a keyword search on Google and getting 8 billion sites in return.) Sadly, Yahoo has become just a great place to find ads.
In mourning Yahoo, I've gone on the hunt for good general and topical directories. Here's what I found:
Librarians'
Index to the Internet
A great general directory - maintained by librarians!
DMOZ
OK, this wasn't new to me - but it is still a great general directory,
maintained by volunteers.
All
Music Guide
OK I can't speak to their knowledge of classic music but they did list
some artists that I know can be hard to find other places (such as El
Vez and the Redskins).
Topix.Net
It's all news, all searchable and organized by location, category, with
links to people news. Enter your zip code and it will give you news
in your area from the last few hours.
May 5 , 2004 - Web-Based Translation Tools
In honor of Cinco de Mayo I thought I'd take a look at a couple of online translation tools:
Babel
Fish Translation
Enter in a phrase or a web site address and Babel Fish will translate
it for you. Languages available include most European languages, Chinese,
Korean, and Japanese.
Google
Again enter in a phrase or web site address and Google will translate
it.
The translations
are computer generated - so they're not perfect - but it's better than
getting out your high school Spanish dictionary. Also, I have noticed
that these tools do not work with dynamically generated sites, which
are generally sites with the longer URLs that often include .asp but
they work on traditional html pages.
April 27, 2004 - Google Shortcuts and Features
I heard on the radio this morning that Google is days away from going public. Since I probably won't be buying stock, I thought I'd show support for my favorite web site by checking out their new features:
Google Local: allows you to narrow search to geographic location
Personalized Google: you build a profile and they will try to cater results for searches based on your interests
I want to thank Sue in Duluth for telling me about the following Google shortcuts:
Flight status: type the name of the airline and the flight number in the goggle search field to get its status.
Calculator: type a mathematical equation in the search field, press enter and you will get its result.
Definition: type define: "word to define" and press enter to get its definition.
Map: type in address including city and state and Google will link to map providers - link will take you right to the map you need.
Maybe these
features will help you decide to buy into Google as a user or as a stockowner.
April 21, 2004 - Lots of Random Household Tips
The Byte is a little unusual today. Someone sent me this fun list of household tips yesterday. I couldn't resist passing it on in honor of the season of spring cleaning. I'll post the top ten tips in this email and the whole list (40 items) on my web site with other "Digested Bytes."
I hope you enjoy the list of tips as much as I did - next week I'll be back to technology!
1. Budweiser beer conditions the hair
2. Pam cooking spray will dry finger nail polish
3. Cool whip will condition your hair in 15 minutes
4. Mayonnaise will KILL LICE, it will also condition your hair
5. Elmer's Glue - paint on your face, allow it to dry, peel off and see the dead skin and blackheads if any
6. Shiny Hair - use brewed Lipton Tea
7. Sunburn - empty a large jar of Nestea into your bath water
8. Minor burn - Colgate or Crest toothpaste
9. Burn your tongue? Put sugar on it!
10. Arthritis? WD-40 Spray and rub in, kill insect stings too
11. Bee stings - meat tenderizer
12. Chigger bite - Preparation H
13. Puffy eyes - Preparation H
14. Paper cut - crazy glue or chap stick (glue is used instead of sutures at most hospitals)
15. Stinky feet - Jello!
16. Athletes feet - cornstarch
17. Fungus on toenails or fingernails - Vicks vapor rub
18. Kool aid to clean dishwasher pipes. Just put in the detergent section and run a cycle, it will also clean a toilet. (Wow, and we drink this stuff)
19. Kool Aid can be used as a dye in paint also Kool Aid in Dannon plain yogurt as a finger paint, your kids will love it and it won't hurt them if they eat it!
20. Peanut butter - will get scratches out of CD's! Wipe off with a coffee filter paper
21. Sticking bicycle chain - Pam no-stick cooking spray
22. Pam will also remove paint, and grease from your hands! Keep a can in your garage for your hubby
23. Peanut butter will remove ink from the face of dolls
24. When the doll clothes are hard to put on, sprinkle with corn starch and watch them slide on
25. Heavy dandruff - pour on the vinegar!
26. Body paint - Crisco mixed with food coloring. Heat the Crisco in the microwave, pour in to an empty film container and mix with the food color of your choice!
27. Tie Dye T-shirt - mix a solution of Kool Aid in a container, tie a rubber band around a section of the T-shirt and soak
28. Preserving a newspaper clipping - large bottle of club soda and cup of milk of magnesia, soak for 20 min. and let dry, will last for many years!
29. A Slinky will hold toast and CD's!
30. To keep goggles and glasses from fogging, coat with Colgate toothpaste
31. Wine stains, pour on the Morton salt and watch it absorb into the salt.
32. To remove wax - Take a paper towel and iron it over the wax stain, it will absorb into the towel.
33. Remove labels off glassware etc. rub with Peanut butter!
34. Baked
on food - fill container with water, get a Bounce paper softener
and the static from the Bounce towel will cause the baked on food to
adhere to it. Soak overnight. Also; you can use 2 Efferdent tablets,
soak overnight!
35. Crayon on the wall - Colgate toothpaste and brush it!
36. Dirty grout - Listerine
37. Stains on clothes - Colgate
38. Grass stains - Karo Syrup
39. Grease Stains - Coca Cola, it will also remove grease stains from the driveway overnight. We know it will take corrosion from car batteries!
40. Fleas in your carpet? 20 Mule Team Borax- sprinkle and let stand for 24 hours. Maybe this will work if you get them back again.
41. To
keep FRESH FLOWERS longer Add a little Clorox, or 2 Bayer
aspirin, or just use 7-up instead of water.
42. When
you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you ever wondered which
is the freshest, so you "squeeze" for freshness or softness?
Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a
week? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a
different color twist tie. They are: Monday =
Blue, Tuesday = Green, Thursday = Red Friday = White and Saturday =
Yellow. The colors go alphabetically by color Blue- Green - Red
- White - Yellow , Monday through Saturday.
April 14, 2004 - Web-Based Tools for Business People
Tomorrow night I'm giving a presentation for the International Institute for Women Entrepreneurs at the College of St. Catherine. I'm very excited to be speaking at my alma mater. The topic is free web-based business tools. You may have already figured out where this is going…
This week's Byte is actually my notes from the IIWE presentation. Think of it as a retrospect on my favorite Bytes. The only common thread among the tools is that I tried to collect items that are free and would be helpful to folks working in a small business or nonprofit. A list of the tools is available online.
April 7 , 2004 - Faster PDF Viewing
I have a great new tool today for anyone who hates to wait for PDF documents! It's the Adobe Reader Speed-Up.
Just like it sounds, the Adobe Reader Speed-up is a program that speeds up Adobe, the software that lets you view PDF documents. I downloaded Adobe Reader Speed-Up the other day and noticed the difference immediately. Apparently the Speed-Up tool eliminates some of the Adobe advanced plug-ins, but I have yet to miss them.
[Not sure what a PDF document is? PDF (or portable document format) is a great format for a web publisher to use when they want to maintain an exact look of a document such as a brochure or long study with charts. Here is a very random sample.]
Thanks to John in Owatonna for the tip. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do. (It's now one of my favorite free tools!)