May 2009

Interested in creating video project for a wedding, life tribute, memorial or life event?Go to multimedia memoirs here.

Senior Surf Website

Greetings!

Do you Tweet? Are you LinkedIn? Who's your favorite Blogger? How many apps do you have on Facebook?

Confused? Does this all sounds like crazytalk? Or maybe, just maybe these are familiar terms, but you're just looking for someone to explain it all?

That's where we come in. This edition will be another two parter on the phenomenon of Social Networking and Social Media - the latest sensation on the web - regardless of age, gender or background.

What is it? Who's doing it? What are your choices? Do you even want to be part of it?

Read on to join the craziness.

Dave Casuto
Founder, Senior Surf Computer Education


Social Networking Defined



Humans are social creatures. Yes, even when we're holed away behind our computers, playing Solitaire or writing the great American novel, we still cannot fight the powers of interacting with our fellow earthlings.
We have email. We have telephones. We have CELL phones. What more do we need to stay in touch with our loved ones past and present? That's where new social media such as Facebook and Twitter come in (have you heard the buzz?).

What is Facebook?
Facebook is a popular website service that allows one to stay in contact with "Friends", know what they are up at any given moment, share and view photos, news items, websites, videos and more. It is also a venue for meeting new people through "Groups" consisting of people of shared interest. For example, one group I am part of is a group that consists of people who used to play Little League baseball in a stadium in my home town back in New York. It's been a great way to view and share old photos and to get back in touch with old friends! There are groups for everybody. If you can't find yours, create it yourself!

Facebook just celebrated their 200 millionth member (yes, you read right. And most of these folks are outside of the US, and an increasing number are older adults 50 and better...read this article from the NY Times for some good info. Click HERE).

Sign up at http://www.facebook.com/. It's free and only takes a sec.
Psst...trying to find an old friend...use the easy to use Search box and just type in there name!
And I love this...

Facebook?



What is Twitter?
What are you doing right now? Your friends want to know. What is Hillary Clinton doing right now? Become her friend on Twitter and find out! What does Governor Arnold have in store for we Ca-li-fornians (insert your best Austrian accent here)...join his 100,000 followers on http://www.facebook.com/!


In 140 characters or less, you can share every exciting (!) moment of your life, every thought, your every action with all of your "followers" (your internet minions). You can receive them in your email, through your cell phone or just visit Twitter.com to have direct access to both your followers and your own people you follow.
Do you want to do it? Do you have the time? Do you see the point? Maybe not. 10 Million Twitterers are waiting....
And here is a video if you would like to watch an interview with the founder Biz Stone on the Colbert Report. HERE.

And one more NY Times article on Twitter...also very good. Click HERE.



Linked In - Professional Networking

We humans are a complicated species...when we 're not socializing, we're working. Or trying to get more work so we can socialize more. Ho-hum. Introducing another Professional Networking website: http://www.facebook.com/ (LinkedIn).


Looking for a job? Looking for new skills? Looking for professional events? Maybe you're an activist and want to join with like-minded folk? Perhaps you're a retired professional who would like to help mentor upwardly mobile professionals? LinkedIn offers the opportunity for all that and more. Just as Facebook offers the opportunity to interact socially with friends (and make new friends), LinkedIn allows you to do the same, but professionally.
Here is a short list of LinkedIn's features:
  • Post a Resume
  • Re-connect with Alum
  • Join a Group (for your interests)*
  • Start a Group!
  • Learn about and attend Professional Events
  • Get recommendations/Give recommendations
  • Ask questions from the question forum
  • Browse previously asked questions
  • Market and grow your business
  • Find employees (Recruit and assess)
  • Create and receive References
  • Meet new people who share your passions for what you do!


*One example of a group that I am part of is the Technology Instructors group. They send out information about current topics, events and other items. Very helpful!


How much does it cost to join? For a basic package, it's free...but they have higher level packages if you would like more features than the ones listed here for a cost...


Here is another great article about LinkedIn: 100 Smart Ways to use LinkedIn...click HERE.

September 2009

Interested in creating video project for a wedding, life tribute, memorial or life event?Go to multimedia memoirs here.



Hello Dear Reader. Hope you are having a great summer and enjoyed the two months we had away from each other. Like it or not, I am back. Here to torture you with needless information you desperately need to know. So put down the daiquiri, get away from the pool and start reading.

Warning: this month's issue may cause drowsiness and put you right to sleep, so please don't read while driving or operating heavy machine (or while drinking a daiquiri - actually, make that daiquiri a double).

Intrigued? Bored already? Read on...

Dave


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Digital Formats, Extensions, Formats and other Cocktail Party Topics


There is an old Russian proverb that says: "Tell me slowly so that I can understand quickly". If I was in Russia, I would be using that phrase a lot. For some of us speaking in techno-ese, it's all er, uh...Greek to the outside world.

Acronyms, file formats, extensions, applications, hardware, software...Um...English please? Don't ya wish someone would someone would just put it all out there and (slowly) explain all you need to know in just five minutes or less?

Start your timer.

In this article, I am going to break down, by category, some of the more common need-to-know unknowns in the digital world.

Let's start with Digital Music

There are only a few common music formats that you should know about.

MP3: stands for MPEG - 1 Layer 3: while MPEG stands for Moving Picture Experts Group - nonsense, I know, but bear with me hear (sic). This is the universal digital music format that can play all media players (iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc.). It was invented in order to compress music files that were originally too big for a computer coming from a CD - while still retaining quality.

Speaking of MP3 - see last section for a good deal on an iPod...

WMA: Stands for Windows Media Audio. This is a music format developed by Microsoft for the same purpose as an MP3 - to compress music files. Since this is a Microsoft proprietary technology, it will most likely not play on iTunes or Real Player or other non-Microsoft programs, and may need to be converted to something universal like an MP3.

MP4/AAC: stands for Advanced Audio Coding. The next generation of MP3 technology that allows for better quality sound without increasing the size of your audio file. Should be able to be played on most up-to-date players.

M4P - If you have iTunes and you've purchased music from the iTunes store, then your music is in this format. The "P" in this case means protected, meaning you cannot share this music outside of your computer iTunes player. Nor can you play it on any other program outside of iTunes.

Video

MOV - a video format created by Apple to play on their QuickTime software program, however most other applications like Real Player and Windows Media Player will run an .MOV file. Most (Windows) computers do not come with QuickTime installed, so you would need to download it (free) from the Apple Website

WMV - Stands for Windows Media Video. Similar to WMA, it is Microsoft's video compression format to create videos that are not too big, but retain quality. Will most likely only play on Windows Media Player and not Quicktime/Real Player; however, some new versions might. If you run on an Apple computer, you can still play WMV's by downloading the software here. Good to have just in case.

AVI - Audio Visual Interleave. Also invented by Microsoft but a much more widely accepted format for other programs. File sizes tend to be bigger while quality is also much better.

MPEG-4 - is the global multimedia standard, delivering professional-quality audio and video streams over a wide range of bandwidths, from cell phone to broadband and beyond. It delivers DVD quality video without creating huge file sizes. This technology was invented by Apple.

Want to download videos from YouTube on to your own computer? Wait till next month's newsletter!

Photographs and images

JPEG - Stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group (yeah, I know...rididulous). You've likely seen .jpg or .jpeg at the end of your digital photos. This is the standard for digital photographic images. Why? Because it can hold millions (literally) of colors, maintain the original quality while still compressing the size of the file. Compressing is important for emailing and putting up on the web (we've all received those HUGE pictures that clog up our inbox or with a close up of someone's eyeball). Please compress your photos before emailing.

See next month's newsletter on how to do this and what standards you should use.

GIF - Stands for Graphic Interchange Format. Digital image format developed by CompuServe in 1987. Instead of millions of colors, GIF's are good for no more than 256 colors. Many logos and solid colors are created in GIF. Not good for photos that tend to have millions of colors.

PNG - Stands for Portable Network Graphics. A new image format that is similar to JPEG that it compresses photos without losing quality. The difference in my experience is if you have a transparent background, a JPEG will show it as white, while a PNG will show it as transparent (good for graphic designers).

Not had enough of acronyms? Next month we'll be covering Office application formats and more. You've been warned.

Got a question about ones you've seen? Send 'em my way!



Term of the Month


Hardware

Common examples of hardware are printers and keyboard and a mouse. They are physical (or hard!) and you physically see and use them. What other hardware examples can you think of? Look around you right now and see if you can find any!

Software

Software examples are Internet Explorer, Safari or Microsoft Word. Another term used interchangeably is Program or Application. You can't really "see" it, it is digital.

In order to operate hardware, it needs to have software to function - the software contains the instructions for the hardware to operate properly - this software is called "driver". What other software programs can you think of? This should be easy as there are dozens you have installed on your computer right now!

October 2009

Senior Surf Website


Interested in creating video project for a wedding, life tribute, memorial or life event?Go to multimedia memoirs here.


Hello everyone. This issue is the second of two parts on digital formats. It also includes some tips on some useful download to make your life easier and possibly more entertaining and fun!

Also, a bit of info on the upcoming class I am teaching at SFSU coming up at the end of the month.

Stay in touch...

Best regards,

Dave



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As we progress in the world of computers, technology and all it's various iterations change with it. This segment will focus on some of the newer digital formats out there and how to deal with them (without resorting to violence or using profanity).

Microsoft Office Applications

Whether you are on a Mac or Windows computer, most of us will have exposure to an Office application. Some examples are Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Now, with the latest versions of Office 2007 (for Windows) and 2008 (for Mac) out, comes a host of new challenges. And they start and end with the letter "x".

The X Factor

Office application extensions from 2003 and prior went like this:

Word = .doc

Excel = .xls

PowerPoint = .ppt

For Office 2007 and 2008, they have added the letter x to each of these extension. Eg, Word is now .docx, Excel, xlsx.

Now, here's the problem: If you do not have Office 2007 or 2008 installed on your computer, you will not be able to open a file created in these new versions. (Yes, this is brilliant marketing from Microsoft that now forces the world to not sit by idly and get left behind and stuck with their now ancient technology).

So what do you do to fix this? The solution is both easy and free. If you want to be able to open up files with this new format, simply follow the link below and download the Compatibility Pack for Office. Again, it's free and easy to install and does not take up a lot of room on your computer. Click the link here.

Once downloaded and installed, if you try to open one of the X formats, it will open in a "Viewer", meaning that you can read it, but you cannot edit it (you'll have to buy the full program to be able to do that).

One last note, if you do own 2007/2008, bear in mind that others may not, so save your files as the older formats sans X. See your options menu on how to make that change permanent.


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Term of the Month


SMS

SMS stands for Short Message Service. The more common language used is "Texting", ie, from your cell phone. As in: "It is illegal to text while driving, lest you run over a hapless pedestrian."

See your manual on how to text. There is usually a minimal charge of $.10 per text sent and received.

November 2009

Interested in creating video project for a wedding, life tribute, memorial or life event?Go to multimedia memoirs here.

Hello Everyone.

This may be the most important issue of this newsletter ever published. It concerns you, your computer's data, your brains and this newsletter.

This month, we talk about the best way to save your data (i.e., back it up); we also discuss how to save your brain (hint: you're doing it right now). And lastly, Senior Surf is adding a link to this newsletter which will allow you to make a donation in the amount of your choosing on it's secure web space (or via mail). This link will be present on the remainder of all newsletters (read below for more).

Happy time change, stay warm and well-lit, and for goodness sake, back up your data!

Dave


Backing Up Your Computer: Just Do It

About six months ago, a nightmare occurred. The "blue screen of death" is what some call it. Others call it a crash. I called it other four letter words that I cannot repeat here in this article.

Suddenly, without warning, my poor little (or not so little) computer went belly up on me, dead on arrival with no way to access my over 100 GB of data. As a private business owner that has dozens of projects happening at once, this was, as I said, a nightmare.

Thankfully, I backed up.

What did I back up and how did I back up is the question. I used to use an external hard drive to back up my stuff, but I soon began to realize that that was too labor intensive and sort of sloppy and did not back up my data in "real time" (meaning right away, as I created it).

Then I discovered Carbonite.

Carbonite is a secure password protected, online service that backs up all your data as you create it, with an unlimited amount of storage space. I write a letter, a spreadsheet, download photos, music, you name it, and within minutes (or seconds) of creating it, Carbonite is backing it up ensuring my peace of mind. If I accidently delete a file, Carbonite has it backed up on it's server.

Once I reinstalled my operating system and got my computer up and running, all my data was there backed up ready to be restored to my newly repaired computer. I cannot tell you how grateful I was for this service.

If you are interested in using it, email me (reply to this email) and I can send you an "invitation" to use it. The cost is reasonable at $54.95 a year (less if you do multiple years). I will send you something right away and you can get started within minutes and all your stuff will be securely backed lest disaster strikes.

And by the way, they have been written up by the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, CNET and are backed by the Better Business Bureau.

Make a Donation

Senior Surf Computer Education is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to bridge the digital divide for older adults on all things technology. That is one of the reasons that this free newsletter exists. It is open to anyone, anytime and it is designed to provide a free educational forum for Senior Surf's friends, clients and constituents.

The time and resources for creating this newsletter are voluntary and exist to further the greater mission of Senior Surf and to benefit you.

Please make a donation to Senior Surf by clicking the button below. If you donate, your name (if you like), will be posted with the others who have donated in the past (click here to view). Since we are a 501(c)3, your donation is tax deductible and we can send you a receipt within one week.

If you would like to donate to Senior Surf through check (and not online), you can send it to:

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Thank you for your continued support.

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