SP Tech Blog

What to buy?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:28:03 -0400

With all of the many devices out there I believe many people are confused on what device they should buy. You can buy small things, big things, portable things, powerful things, fast things, multi-functional things, light things… the list seems endless. I’m going to try and make it a simple flow chart so let me know how it works out for you.

I’m not claiming to say that one answer fits all, this is intended for the general run of the mill non techie person who needs a little guidance when making a purchase. For example my parents need to replace their aging laptop and I am recommending a cheap desktop (I may try and refurbish one of mine) for them to plonk in the corner of their house so that they can store photos and video on it and let guests access the internet easily. Then I’m also suggesting they get an iPad or similar device for the everyday internet browsing and Skyping with me and my family.

If you were thinking of making a purchase I hope this helped somewhat. I am still available to chat with if you’re still unsure.

Darren

Creating Microsoft Office documents on the iPad? Yes, please.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:26:54 -0500

People have been screaming for it, and finally it’s here. Even better, it’s free. You can now create Microsoft Office documents right on your iPad and have them automatically transferred right to your computer’s desktop. Using the iPad app CloudOn you can create Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files directly on your iPad. You simply download the app to your iPad from the app store, create a account for CloudOn, create a account for Dropbox, and you’re well on your way to creating Microsoft Office documents directly on your iPad. Creating accounts for CloudOn and Dropbox are extremely simple and can be done right on the iPad within the CloudOn app once you launch it. The Dropbox account is used to store all of your documents. You can also download the desktop version of the software from https://www.dropbox.com/. Right now you’re probably thinking “so if I download the desktop application of dropbox will the files I create on my iPad go directly to the Dropbox folder on my desktop?” Yes, indeed. All of your Microsoft Office files that you create on the iPad will sync directly to your desktop as long as you have the Dropbox program installed on your computer. In addition, you can also edit files that you have already created on the iPad. Say, for instance, you have Microsoft Office files saved on your computer that you want to take with you somewhere so you can edit them. Simply put them in your Dropbox folder on your desktop and you will be able to open them on your iPad so you can edit and save them.

This is a very awesome and powerful app that allows you to take full advantage of the iPad. For those of you who have iPads and are on the go a lot, I strongly recommend you download this app and take a look. I think you’ll be very happy you did.

Picasa Web Albums. Your Pictures. Anywhere.

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:33:00 -0500

Since I have a toddler at home, it’s nice to have pictures available all the time. Our normal trip to the mall or grocery store usually results in seeing people we know and them asking how our daughter is doing. If she is not with us, my wife or I usually whip out our phone and show them a few pictures of her. Not just pictures that we’ve taken on our cell phone, but pictures that actually reside on our home computer. You know, the pictures that are actually clear and you can tell that you looking at a person and not some dark blurry blob that cell phone pictures usually look like. Whether the pictures are of your kids or your most recent vacation, it’s nice to have access to your pictures all the time, from anywhere. You will need a smartphone (IE iPhone, iPad, Droid, or Windows Phone) and internet access in order to make this really cool process work.

There are 4 steps that I will outline below that you will need to follow in order to set everything up.

1. You will need a gmail account.

If you don’t already have a gmail account simply go to www.gmail.com and click on create an account to create your gmail account. This account will not only allow you to access your pictures from anywhere, it will also allow you to use gmail which is a very cool email service. Creating a gmail account is free.

2. Download Picasa to your computer and upload photos

Go to www.picasa.com and download and install Picasa to your computer. Picasa is a free download.

Upon opening Picasa the first time, it will do a scan of your computer and automatically import all of the pictures on your computer. You can simply organize yourself by creating folders and dragging and dropping certain pictures into certain folders.

Once you have your pictures in Picasa, you can simply right click on the pictures you want to access from your phone and select “Upload to picasa web albums”

You will be prompted for a username and password. This is the username and password that you created in step 1. IE username@gmail.com and your password

At the top of the screen you will notice that you can create new albums very easily. Just click on the “New” button in the top right hand corner, give your album a new name, and just like that you’ve create a new album.

Now you can upload pictures to that particular album or any other album you wish to create.

3. After you create your albums and upload your pictures, you need to install the Picasa Web Album app on your smartphone/tablet.

If you have a droid go into your market and search for Picasa Tool and install it. It is free.

On the iPhone/iPad there are several different Picasa apps you can download, some of them are free and others you have to pay for. All of them are going to work pretty much the same. On my iPad I have the Picasa iShowPhoto HD. It’s free and it works well.

After you have the Picasa mobile app installed, you will have to login with the account that you created in the first step.

After you login, you will be able to select the Albums tab and view the albums that you created in Picasa and all of the photos that you uploaded to those albums.

4. Access to your pictures from anywhere

Now, not only will you be able to access your pictures from your smartphone, but you will be able to access your pictures from any computer that has Internet access.

Go to www.picasa.com and click on Picasa Web Albums underneath the Download Picasa link (right hand side of the page).

As long as you you’ve uploaded photos through Picasa (step 2), you will be able to view your pictures.

This is a fantastic way to share photos with family members and friends. I realize that Facebook and Twitter can do the same thing but some of your family or friends may not have Facebook or Twitter accounts. This will provide and alternative solution for you to share pictures with them.

The best part about all of this, is that it’s free. Google gives you 1 GB of free online storage for your photos. However, if you have tons of photos that you would like to share or are planning on using this as a backup for your photos Google also offers extremely reasonable prices if you wish to upgrade. You can get 20 GB for $5 per year, 80 GB for $20 per year, 200 GB for $50 per year, 400 GB for $100 per year, and 1 TB for $256 per year.

For those of you who have iPhone’s and iPad’s, iCloud allows you to do the same thing. But for people who have droids, this is a great way to access your pictures from anywhere. As always, if you have any questions please let us know.

The following virtual presentation was recently shared with...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:43:49 -0500

The following virtual presentation was recently shared with parents of the Lower School. We thought that you might also appreciate viewing it. As always please contact us if you have any questions.

If you’d like to view a more enriched Flash version of the presentation with chapters click here to go to the site directly.

Steve Jobs leaves us with a legacy: iCloud

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:13:00 -0400

Steve Jobs paced the stage at the World Wide Developer Conference in June wearing his usual jeans and a black mock turtle neck. He introduced the newest Apple operating system and highlighted all of the new features it would entail. At the conclusion of his presentation he stopped, turned, looked at the audience, and said the phrase that everyone was waiting for. “But there’s one more thing.” This phrase had been made famous by Jobs in his keynotes when he had one more ground breaking announcement to make. This one more thing had been in the works since 2002 and was something that Jobs knew would change the face of computing. Back when he revealed the iMac he referred to it has a “hub for all of your information.” This new announcement was a hub for all of your information that could be accessed from anywhere and he called it iCloud. Instantly, the audience was in awe of his announcement. He explained that there would be no more need for syncing your iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, or iMac. It would all be done for you through iCloud. Take a picture on your iPhone? That picture would be automatically on all of your other Mac devices there waiting for you. Purchase a new song from iTunes? That song would automatically be on all of your devices.

iCloud was released last week and I took the plunge and updated both my iPad and iPod Touch to the latest version. iCloud is very impressive, clean, and easy to use. It automatically syncs your entire iTunes library, photos, documents, contacts, calendar, and mail. If you are an Apple user and all of your devices are Apple, I would highly recommend updating your devices so they will be compatible with iCloud. If you have a Mac it must be running Apple’s latest Operating System, Lion, in order to be compatible with iCloud. If you are looking to update to Lion, it’s available in the App Store for $29.99. iPads and iPhones are able to update to iCloud and no additional cost. Before updating any device, be sure to open up iTunes, click on Help, and select “Check for Updates.” Your iTunes version must be 10.5 before installing the iCloud update to your devices. Once you have iTunes 10.5 installed, you can simply plug in your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch and access it through iTunes as you normally would. Select the device within iTunes and click on check for updates. This will start the update process to your device. Be patient. The update could take between 30 minutes to an hour to complete. After the process has finished you will be able to go into the settings portion of your device, select the iCloud tab, and configure iCloud the way you want. Another cool feature of iCloud is the ability to open a web browser on any computer and go to www.icloud.com to access the data that you chose to have on the cloud. You can even track where your devices are on a map so if you lose them you can simply login to your icloud account and see where they are anywhere in the world.

If you have any questions about iCloud please feel free to ask us. It’s very easy to back up your pictures, videos, appointments, emails, and anything else you may choose. Give it a try, your life may get a whole lot easier!

US student printing instructions

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:01:00 -0400

Upper school students, this morning our print server that houses mainly mac printing failed. Luckily we have another server ready for you to connect to. Below you will find instructions on how to install printers on both Mac and Windows.

IMPORTANT NOTE - Windows users should remain unaffected from this morning’s crash, but if you do experience any problems just follow the instructions on the video.

Windows Instructions

Mac Instructions

Below is a list of Printers available (entered in the Queue and Name fields) and next to them is the driver needed in the ‘Print Using’ field.

Live Mesh - syncing folders between devices (PC & Mac)

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:17:42 -0400

Does this sound familiar?

You are at work and you spend a good 30 minutes working on a word document for class the next day, you save it and go home. When you get home you realize you forgot to save the document to a flash drive/desktop/folder on your laptop etc. So you have to do the 30 minutes of work again and then continue editing for class the next day.

You are not alone. But there are ways to help. One such way is Windows Live Mesh and it’s free. The hard work has already been done for faculty and students at St. Paul’s because your new email account is fully compatible. The main other requirement is to ensure you have the software on your PC or Mac (yes it works on a Mac too - how exciting). Watch the video and you’ll see how to check if you have it but here’s the link to Windows Live Essentials download if you do not.

To put Mesh in a nutshell you create/use a folder on computer A and add it to Mesh. This uploads it to a section of your Skydrive. Then you synchronize the same folder to computer(s) B, C, D, E, etc. however many you want. When you make a change in that folder on one of the computers it will immediately make changes on all of the others*.

If you use this folder as your default location to save and open files your documents will always be the same no matter what computer you use. As an added bonus you can still access the files for download from any computer even if you do not have Live Mesh enabled by simply going to the Sync Folder on your Skydrive (shown in video).

Words make it difficult to explain so watch the video and if you have more questions just let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them.

I mentioned in the video that there was a Live Essentials blog to look at, well I was slightly mistaken. We have talked about many of the features of Live Essentials but not the suite itself. Look at Windows Movie Maker for one of the features of Essentials and we’ll try and do a post on essentials soon. In the meanwhile you can read about it on the download link above.

*A computer only syncs when a computer is: on; has Mesh signed in and running; and has an internet connection.

Looking for a video editor?

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 07:11:46 -0400

We all have tons of video. Whether it’s still on our video cameras or computers one things for sure, we all have tons of video. Almost all of us take video for an extended period of time resulting in us having to “cut” certain parts of the video that we don’t need. Have you ever wondered how to do this? It’s actually very easy. Apple ships its computers with a built in software called iMovie that you can edit your videos with and create professional looking video montages. Likewise, Microsoft also has a free product called Windows Live Movie Maker. PC’s usually do not ship with Windows Live Movie Maker but can be obtained for free by downloading and installing Windows Live Essentials. Windows Live Movie Maker allows you to trim down video as well as creating video montages like the aforementioned iMovie. Both programs are very easy to use and allow you to create transitions between clips, add music and text to your movie, and publish your move in a format of your liking.

In addition, within the past few months the online video giant, YouTube, has introduced video editing right from their site. All you have to do is simply create an account, upload the video of your choice, and edit it with their tools. You can do just about everything you can do within Windows Live Movie Maker and iMovie right from YouTube’s site. It’s actually a win, win. I am sure that most of you would like to share your video’s with family and friends that aren’t close by. So why not upload your video’s to YouTube, edit them the way you want, and then publish them so your friends and family can see them as well?!?! Not to worry, there are privacy settings that you can set to make the video “Private” or “Unlisted” in case you don’t want the whole world seeing the particular video. If you do set the video to “Private” or “Unlisted” you simply send the person a link to the video and only that person can see it.

Basics on using your Skydrive

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:07:00 -0400

In this blog you will find the basic features of the Skydrive associated with your @stpaulsschool.org account.

I can’t stress enough how useful this can be to you. You have FREE access to a basic version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (Mac and Windows users)

You also have 25GB of online storage space for any file type (50MB per file max size). This means your homework, assignments, or classwork can always be accessible at anytime from any internet connection - YOU CAN’T FORGET IT OR LOSE IT!

Watch the video for the basics and contact either of us for more advanced use if you so require (you may have to wait for a minute for the video to buffer).

Excitingly enough it is sort of compatible with the iPad. I will create another video outlining that soon…

Directions on how to setup email on your mobile device

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:39:05 -0400

We hope that it has been a smooth transition from summer to the school year for all of you. We also hope that you have been enjoying our new e-mail system. We have heard nothing but good things from students and teachers and are very happy with the finished product. If you have yet to setup email access on your mobile smartphone, it’s very easy to do. Below are step by step instructions depending upon the particular type of phone you have.

For Droids…

1. Go into your mailbox and setup a new account

2. Choose Exchange ActiveSync

3. Enter your email address (yourusername@stpaulsschool.org) and your password and touch next

4. Fill in the following fields: Email address: enter your email address Server Address: sn2prd0102.outlook.com Domain: Leave blank Username: enter your email address again (Note: not just your username the entire email address) Password: enter your password. Finally, make sure the box that says “this server requires an encrypted SSL connection” is checked and click on Next. On the next screen, make sure Mail, Calendar, and Contacts are all checked and touch Finish Setup.

For Blackberries…

1 Go into your mailbox and setup a new account

2 Enter your email address (yourusername@stpaulsschool.org) as the username and your password and touch next

3 Your Account will setup automatically

For iPads and iPhones…

1. Go into Settings

2. Touch Mail, Contacts, and Calendars on the left

3. Touch Add Account on the right

4. Touch Microsoft Exchange

5. Enter your email address

6. Leave the Domain field blank

7. In the username field enter your full email address

8. In the password field enter your password

9. Type a description in the Description box IE school, SP, work etc

10. Click on next in the upper right hand corner

11. When the account finishes verifying click next again

12. Make sure Mail, Contacts, and Calendars are turned on and click Save

The First Post of the 2011-2012 School Year

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:10:06 -0400

Welcome Back! We hope that you had a fantastic and restful summer. We are excited to start the SP Tech Blog again for this coming school year. There has been a lot going on at St. Paul’s over the summer and we are eager to fill you in on technology happenings. As most of you already know, we have completely revamped our entire email system. This process was a lot of work for our entire department but we are proud of the finished product and excited to say that we’re now offering an email system to our entire school community that several Colleges and Universities are using around the country.

We have a lot of exciting technology being introduced at SP this fall including a Technology Curriculum and Faculty Professional Development Plan, iPads in our Kindergarten, Pre-First and First grades, laptops for our Middle School faculty, and something called a skydrive that almost everyone in the school is going to start adopting (and loving).

We always try to offer the SP community the very best in technology and multimedia and we feel that the steps taken this summer strongly support this. Please stay tuned to this blog as we will cover each of the above topics in great detail in the coming weeks. We hope you have a great year…don’t worry the power will be back on soon ;)

Last Post for the 2010-2011 School Year

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:42:07 -0400

So we’re now at the end of another school year and we’re sure many of you are ready to chill out and relax. To help you with that, this will be our last blog until the start of school in the fall. That said, now that you have some extra time on your hands (haha) it could be a good time to catch up on some of the blogs you didn’t get chance to read. We will now highlight some of the more relevant blogs that we published this past year to help.

This summer, the most important task that you should consider is backing up your files; professional and personal. You can either do it yourself using an external hard drive or thumb drive or you can use an Internet service such as Carbonite that does all of the work for you. Our Carbonite blog

Another popular blog was the one about QR codes and although this may not be life changing it is certainly informative and something that you will see more often. Our QR blog

Anti-Virus software is very important to have on a computer but some of the software comes at a price, a very expensive price. Our blog “To pay or not to pay… that is the ???” will help you install very antivirus software that will not break the bank and put some extra money in your pocket for summer vacation.

Here’s a run-down on the year with dates on when they were posted to help you find them at http://sptechblog.tumblr.com:

Jan 03 – Backing up Files

Jan 07 – Windows Live Movie Maker

Jan 10 – How to download video from webpages

Jan 13 – Sky Drive

Jan 18 – Anti Virus software

Jan 21 – St. Paul’s website (www.stpaulsschool.org) signing up for email alerts

Jan 25 – Photography basics

Jan 28 – Must have software

Feb 02 – System Restore: When you have to start again

Feb 04 – Email archiving at St. Paul’s School

Feb 10 – Safety tips for online transactions

Feb 15 – eBay 101

Feb 17 – Calendars in Outlook at St. Paul’s School

Mar 1 – Installing Printers at St. Paul’s

Mar 8 – Media on www.stpaulsschool.org

Mar 28 – Craigslist 101

Mar 31 – Fix that slow booting computer

Apr 18 – Steps to remove a virus

May 2 – Meeting requests in Outlook

May 9 – Windows 7 features Part 1

May 17 – Windows 7 features Part 2

May 25 – QR Codes

Jun 6 – The iPad2: What’s all the fuss about?

We have enjoyed doing this throughout the year and hope you have too. Next year we would love to have more input from you, the readers, to give us ideas on what it is you want to know about or need help with. Contact us by using the links on the sidebar.

Have a great summer, Jeff and Darren.

The iPad2: What's the fuss all about?

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:06:00 -0400

My hunt for an iPad 2 came to a conclusion a few weeks ago. I had been looking for one for at least three weeks. I was calling stores all around the area. From Walmart to Target and HH Gregg to Best Buy. All were sold out and they hadn’t seen a shipment of iPads come in since launch day in mid-March. Finally I caught a break early last week when I called a local area Best Buy store and they reported that they had 1 left in stock. I landed the white 16 gigabyte Wi-Fi + 3g model. The iPad2 comes in two colors white or black. The Wi-Fi model comes in 16 gigabyte, 32 gigabyte, and 64 gigabyte options costing $499, $599, and $699 respectively. Likewise, the Wi-Fi + 3g model also comes in 16, 32, and 64 gigabyte options costing $629, $729, and $829 respectively.

So what does the 3g do? The 3g signal allows the iPad 2 to connect to the Internet even without a Wi-Fi signal. The 3g signal is the same signal that is used by AT&T and Verizon customers who have smart phones. At first I thought that I was just going to go for the Wi-Fi model for two reasons. First, because I didn’t feel like having a separate 3g data plan to pay for monthly and second, because everywhere I was going to use the iPad 2 was going to already have Wi-Fi. However, after some research I discovered that the Verizon 3g service on the iPad 2 (it also comes with At&t Service which doesn’t offer the pay as you go option) is a pay-as-you-go service without a monthly contract. So you can buy 1 gigabyte worth of data for $20 and when that runs out the iPad will ask you if you want to buy additional data. You can even turn the 3g on and off. If you purchase 1 gigabyte of data for $20 and you are in an area with Wi-Fi service, you can actually turn the 3g service off so the data you use doesn’t take away from your 1 gigabyte allotment. Then you can flip the 3g service back on when you’re in an area without any Wi-Fi service.

I’ve been playing with the iPad 2 for about a week now and I have to say that the fuss is legitimate. The iPad 2 is an excellent device to have. Whether you’re showing off pictures and video to your family or checking and sending email, you’ll love using the iPad 2. The bright LED Hi-Definition screen is a pleasure to look at and makes images pop to say the least but, be aware though that outside on a sunnyish day it can be quite difficult to see some images on the screen. The iPad 2 is also lighter than its predecessor and comes with a front-facing and rear-viewing camera to take pictures or record video. The camera is of an OK quality but not great so expect that you’ll likely keep using your phone’s camera or a regular camera for taking pictures. The front/rear facing camera is also nice to have so you can use Skype and Facetime (Apple’s versions of Skype) right from your iPad.

The apps are also fantastic. You’ll find that Apple has redesigned the majority of its apps specifically for the iPad. So everything is in brilliant Hi-Definition. For some reason Facebook hasn’t released a full-featured iPad app yet. Not to worry though, there is an app that looks and feels just like Facebook. This app is called Friendly and it’s free. Twitter does have a full featured iPad app and looks great. Some other fantastic apps:

· iMovie: Designed specifically for iPad2, iMovie is a full featured moving making app just like the program you would find on an Apple MacBook. You can add videos/pictures to a project from the iPad that you’ve taken on the iPad or videos/pictures that you’ve imported onto the iPad from your computer. $4.99 from the App store

· ABC Player: Access all of ABC’s TV shows using this app. Stream full episodes of any show. Free from the App store.

· Flipboard: Goodbye newspaper! You can link all of the news you want into Flipboard, including your Facebook and Twitter feeds. All information is laid out in a convenient newspaper column format for easy reading. All of your news is linked into one simple app. No more web surfing for News stories. Open up Flipboard and you can read everything in one, convenient place. Free from the App store.

· Team Viewer: With Team Viewer, you can access your PC or Mac from anywhere that you have an Internet Connection. Simply install the Team Viewer application on your computer, then download the app and you will be able to connect to your PC or Mac from anywhere that you have your iPad. Free from the App store.

· USA Today: Just like holding the USA Today newspaper in your hands, this app delivers all of the World’s news right to your iPad. It’s ranked the number 1 news app for the iPad. Free from the App store.

· Skype: Video chat with your friends and family from anywhere right on your iPad. There is not a formal iPad app for Skype yet but you can download the iPhone version. The app just appears a bit smaller on your screen but is still completely functional. (Like I said above, you can use Facetime, which is Apple’s version of Skype, for a full screen/Hi-Definition experience).

· Evernote: For those of you who use your iPad for work too take a look at Evernote. It is a cloud based piece of software that can be downloaded to pretty much any device (iPad, iPhone, Droid based phones, Windows computers, Mac computers, etc.) and what it does it acts like an electronic briefcase for whatever you want to put in it. You can store pictures, files, handwritten notes, web pages, etc. It is very handy for professional or even personal use (put your shopping list on it and it will be available on every device you own!).

There are thousands of more apps, and more that we like and use but for now those are the ones we’re touting. If you have questions send us a message, please.

QR codes: what are they and how do I use them?

Wed, 25 May 2011 09:13:36 -0400

These QR (Quick Response) codes are something that have been around for over 15 years but have only recently come out of the manufacturing industry where they were used to track parts in vehicle manufacturing. You will now see them in commercial tracking and for applications aimed at the mobile phone user.

Essentially what happens is a device with a camera and the correct software can view the QR code and then translate all of those squares and white spaces into any number of things:

a text
website url
telephone number
SMS (text) message
email address
email message
Contact Details (VCARD)
Event (VCALENDAR)
Google Maps Location
Paypal Buy Now Link
Social Media
iTunes Link
YouTube Video

The email message one interested me the most so I tested it and it really does create a message. If you scan the QR code below your phone will (in all likelihood if everything works…) show you an email with me as the recipient, the subject and a brief message to me. Go on, try it and send it to me, I’ll reply to let you know it worked (unless this goes viral and I change my address).

So you can imagine what the other ones can do.

Below is a video of me using my phone to capture a QR code on my phone:

I hope that you are feeling a bit better about how it actually works now.

Finally I need to tell you which apps you can use on your device. Personally on my Samsung Droid Captivate I use ‘Barcode Scanner’ and it has never let me down (cough*free*cough). Now because I do not have an iPhone and a Blackberry also I cannot vouch for what is best for them but I have found these apps recommended on various websites (not all are free):

Optiscan - for an iPhone (rated highly).
I-Nigma - very popular works on many smartphones.
Quickmark - Android and Windows Mobile
Barcode Scanner - As seen in the video.
Nokia - Most Nokia’s now come standard with the Nokia’s own scanning software.
Google Zxing - Android and iPhone + others but not Windows Mobile
SnapMaze - QR code reader for Nokia, Sony Ericcson and Motorola phones
OkoTag - Java, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Android.
Blackberry Messenger - See link below for help.

(Information taken from QR Stuff, CNET, eHow Droid, eHow Blackberry)

So that’s QR codes:

Windows 7 features Part 2: Using single file recovery

Tue, 17 May 2011 07:50:08 -0400

I am sure at least once before, you have deleted a file accidentally from your desktop or a specific folder on your computer and yearned to have that file back. Well with Windows 7 there is way to get that file back very easily. The video tutorial below shows you the steps to take if this happens to you again.

Windows 7 features Part 1

Mon, 09 May 2011 08:08:44 -0400

Over the course of the next few blogs, we’re going to be outlining key features in Windows 7. With Windows 7, Microsoft finally did it right. It’s a stable and speedy operating system that people are really talking about. Below is a video tutorial showing two new features of Windows 7. Please check back often as we will be doing a few blogs outlining Windows 7 features.

Meeting Requests

Mon, 02 May 2011 07:13:36 -0400

I have been using meeting requests regularly all year when I have met up with faculty and staff at St. Paul’s. The feedback that I have had has been very positive, “I knew you were coming because it pinged and popped up with a message that you were coming.” “It was handy having that reminder as I had forgotten that you were coming.”

Now the power can be in your hands. Please watch this blog to learn how to send meeting requests and how to respond to them. Even if you do not plan on sending any you may well receive them and an appropriate response may be required so skip to that part if you need to.

Ahhh, I have a virus!!

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 10:58:45 -0400

Removing viruses. It just sounds daunting doesn’t it? Maybe, but there are a few things you can try on your own before shipping your computer off to a computer repair shop that will probably do your computer more harm than good.

There are a bunch of signs that your computer has a virus. Your computer may be running slower than normal or you may experience a lot of pop-ups when accessing the Internet. Lately, spyware and adware makers have been coming out with fake antivirus programs that appear on your computer. They may look legit but certainly are not. So what should you expect with these fake antivirus programs? A program will pop up on your screen that looks like an antivirus program and it will be “scanning” your system. When you try to close the program a message will usually appear saying “Are you sure you want to continue unprotected?” Most people know what virus protection they have on their computer. Whether it’s Microsoft Security Essentials, McAfee, Norton, Kaspersky, Trend Mirco, or AVG most people know legit antivirus software. Bottom line, if you didn’t install it and something weird is popping up, usually a virus is to blame.

The first, quickest, and easiest way to fix your computer if you suspect a virus is to perform a system restore on your computer. System restore is an excellent utility that is built into Windows XP/Vista/7. When you perform a System Restore, it doesn’t affect any of your documents or programs; the utility only restores key Operating System files that may have become corrupt due to the virus. To see how to perform a system restore please, checkout our blog on it:

System Restore: Your best friend in a bad situation

Not very often, but sometimes, a virus can corrupt the System Restore utility. Programmers of viruses do this because they don’t want you to access System Restore because they know running the utility will kill the virus. So if this happens and you get a weird error message when trying to run System Restore, you can run a program called MalwareBytes Anti-Malware. This is a free download from the Internet and does a fantastic job of finding and removing viruses on your computer. You can download the program from this webpage:

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware

You can try to boot up your computer as you normally would, access the Internet, download, and install the program. However, depending on the severity of the virus, your computer may not let you get out to the Internet or run the program. If this happens to you, follow these steps:

1. Shutdown the computer completely.

2. Press the power button on the computer.

3. Tap the F8 key repeatedly .

4. The computer will load to a menu with several choices.

5. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard and select Safe Mode with Networking (Press Enter to select).

6. The computer will start booting into Safe Mode (it may take a few minutes).

7. It will come to a login screen. Enter your username and password.

8. A long message will appear, Click Yes to the message.

9. Windows will then load. Everything will appear bigger and your desktop wallpaper will be gone. This is all ok. You are in Safe Mode. Windows loads the bare minimum when in Safe Mode.

If you have to boot your computer into safemode use the computer as you normally would. In other words, open Internet Explorer, download the program by clicking on the above link, install the program, update it, and run it. Update it and run it? After you install the program, an icon will be placed on your desktop. Double click the icon. When the program loads and appears on your screen you will see an update tab. Click on the update tab and click check for updates. The program will install any updates if there are any. This will allow for Malwarebytes to check your computer for all the latest threats that are out there. After installing any updates, scan your computer. When the scan is complete (it could take upwards of an hour) you will be able to remove any infections that Malwarebytes found. Now you should be able to reboot your computer and be good to go. Most of the time, one of these two procedures will work when removing viruses. If neither work then it may be time to take your computer to a professional for them to look at. Just make sure it’s someone who knows what they’re doing and won’t charge you an arm and a leg.

Fix that slow booting computer

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:37:39 -0400

When you’re at home or at work, depending on what is set on your computer to start during boot up, it could take forever for your computer to fully start up. You turn your computer on, go get a cup of coffee, talk to some people, make copies, and come back to find your computer STILL booting up. 9 times out of 10 this is because many of the programs that you have installed on your computer are set to start during the boot up process which usually makes it painfully slow.

There is a way to disable programs from starting up during the boot process. Don’t worry by disabling programs from the boot up process you will in no way harm any of your programs. All you’re telling your computer to do is boot up without automatically starting any programs and you’ll launch programs yourself once Windows loads.

Alternatively your computer may boot up very fast and you hate having to open all of your programs when it does and you wish that it’d just do it for you. You can follow the same procedure below and add programs to startup instead of removing them (just be careful you don’t slow down your startup though). This process is very simple and straight forward. Ready? Here we go.

For Windows XP users click on Start and then select run. For Windows Vista/7 users click on the start circle in the lower left hand corner of your screen and locate the search box (it will say “search programs and files” in it. It’s directly above the start circle once you click it).
In the run box (windows xp) or search box (vista/7) type MSCONFIG and press enter. This will launch a system configuration window. Click on the STARTUP tab.
This will display a list of all of the programs installed on your computer and the boxes with check marks indicate that program is selected to start during computer start up. The only program that you should certainly have starting up is your antivirus program. (At St. Paul’s we use Symantec Endpoint Security. At home this could be a variety of programs. Here are a few: 1. Norton Antivirus Protection 2. Symantec Client Security 3. Microsoft Security Essentials 4. Kaspersky Antivirus 5. Trend Micro 6. McAffee Antivirus. Make sure that your antivirus is checked)
You can, theoretically, uncheck everything else in the list. Besides your antivirus software, there is no need to have all of these boxes checked during computer startup. It’s at this point you can choose to check programs like Outlook, Skype, or a messenger program but the key is the fewer the faster it will start up so don’t get carried away. You can easily launch any program you wish by double clicking it once Windows loads.
After unchecking/checking boxes and leaving your Antivirus checked, click on the Apply button and then click the OK button.
You will receive a message asking if you’d like to reboot now or later. It’s your choice. Whenever you reboot, your computer should load much faster the next time. If it doesn’t then that means your computer has one of the other 1/10 reasons why its booting slowly :)

Craigslist. So why should I care about Craig’s List?

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:15:59 -0400

So I did eBay and found it OK (check my blog for details) so the next one to try was Craigslist. Let’s have a little history to start with. Craigslist has been around in some form since 1995 and originally was designed to be an email distribution list amongst friends featuring local events of the San Francisco Bay Area. After a few changes to its model it now stands as the 37^th most visited site in the world and 10^th in the US.

So what are you going to see that’s different between this and eBay? Well the first thing you will notice is how basic it looks; even by 1995 standards it was basic. By today’s Website standards it’s the equivalent of papyrus, maybe even cave paintings but strangely brings the same sense of nostalgia (well it does with me).

You’ll also notice the lack of hoops you have to jump through to become a member.

STEP 1 - Sign up for an account

Go to the main webpage (in the hyperlink above). Then click on the link in the bottom left hand corner that says that. Put in an email address and verification words, click on Create Account and then an email will be sent to the account you entered which will require you to click on a hyperlink to complete your sign in process (adding a password and such).

STEP 2 - Go

That’s it. You have an account, go and buy things, or sell them.

This might seem too insecure in this day and age of security and online fraud etc. and in some ways it is but that is the beauty and reason for its success also. You don’t have to place any information on the site that is sensitive. It does not want my birthdate, my mother’s maiden name, phone numbers, financial details, my shoe size, or my first born child. I feel safe that none of that is on there, no-one can hack in and steal it from me, I control the information.

Craigslist is very easy on the eye, nothing to distract from what you want, no ads, no banners, no suggested sales, no junk basically. It can be a little hard to navigate at first but it has a short learning curve. When you have your account and you are logged in you will see this page:

As you can see it’s pretty featureless, but make sure you do have ‘baltimore’ (or wherever you live) written at the top. If you need to change cities simply find it in the list on the right side of the screen. If you want to search for something just keep clicking on links and you’ll narrow your search. If I wanted a monitor for a computer I’d click on ‘Computer’ or ‘Electronics’ under the For Sale section and then in the search bar at the top I’d type in monitor. I found monitors in both, some good ones in fact…I might buy one.

Selling/Doing Things

To sell click on My Account in the top left hand corner. If you are logged in it’ll take you to this screen below, if not it’ll ask you to log in and then you’ll get there :)

The screenshot I have given has blacked out the items I am selling and my name (this is not an advertisement for me J) but you can see the format is, again, simple. If I want to sell something choose the right city in the top right corner, click on ‘go’ and you’ll see this:

Put it in the most logical location for whatever it is you are selling/doing and keep narrowing it down until you get to something like this:

The Posting title would be something like – Wooden Table and 4 Chairs from Scan. The price is whatever you want and for Specific Location give that some thought. DO NOT PUT YOUR HOME ADDRESS, I just want to make that clear. Owings Mills, Downtown, Fells Point, or ‘anywhere on beltway’ are acceptable. You want to put in something vague enough that gives people and idea of where they would have to travel to complete the transaction but not exactly where you live. I’ve always left the ‘Reply to’ as ‘anonymize’. The Posting description is where you can give dimensions of objects, specific details of condition, hyperlinks to websites showing the item, etc. whatever you want really.

‘Add/Edit Images’ is also very basic. Click on it and you’ll see this appear:

Simply click on ‘Browse…’ and find your image and then click ‘Open’.

Now when I take a photo of my items I make sure that I take it in a space of my house that does not reveal where I am or who lives there. That makes my pictures less cluttered and me safer. When it has uploaded you’ll see a green O where the red X is. When you have put everything in, click Continue and you will get to see what your post looks like. Click ‘Continue’ to do that or ‘Edit’ to do that. When you’ve done it’ll appear in your list as mine do in the picture above.

When Selling

Craigslist feels raw, and it is. It is not designed to keep you all safe and happy, that’s not its job. I like craigslist because it gives me control over my actions and I get to choose how I get paid, where I make a transaction and who I deal with.

When someone wants to buy something an email is sent to me from them. I assume all of them are spam; I think this is a sensible default setting. From there I try to ascertain the veracity of the sender. First of all does the email simply say something like, “I will buy it.” And then has an email address that just looks weird, ‘charlesguilder@H3tre6Yp.co.ru’. If it does it is likely fake, you can try and reply if you want, all you are giving them is your email address but email addresses are important. I’d say unless you are desperate to sell go with a gut reaction on an email like this.

If the email is genuine it will likely relate to the item, “I would like to buy your table” or seems like a human being wrote it, “I am interested in taking this set off your hands.” They will give you a minimum of their email address (in the email From box) and a maximum of a name and phone number on top of that. There are basic checks you can do with this info.

Google separately the phone number and the email address. The phone number should be registered to the local area, if you’re lucky you will get some more free info (don’t pay to get a reverse number check – waste of money in my opinion). The email address might tell you where they work if after the @ sign it says something like bobsburgers.com. This way you can check to see if that business is real and if it is then it’s likely the sender is real.
Use Facebook to see if the email address leads to a person. You might even get a picture of them so you know when you go to sell what they already look like.
If they give you a full name Google that too. You can often find out roughly where they live off a search unless it’s a very common name.

True story – I was selling a giant toy stuffed pig (the sort you get from a fairground) and the person who emailed me was called…”Ladies name Pigman”. I thought I was being scammed but I googled her name and I found that this person did exist and lived in my area (I could have paid to find her exact address but I wasn’t going to waste my money on that). When I checked the email address I found a Facebook Page and a Yahoo Answers account both with pictures so I felt comfortable she existed, and I know what she looks like. When I went to meet her to sell the item she (and her husband – sensible for two of them to come) told me they were having a child and that they wanted to have a pig theme for the room because of their last name. Strange but true.

When making a transaction

Please read my Safety First blog for some general tips but I will tell you here what I do. I have always made it clear in my emails that I want to complete the transaction in a certain public place during daylight hours. In fact I usually suggest the place in my first communication with a buyer/seller. I have always used the car park of a local Best Buy when the store is open. Why? I do it here because it is always busy with people coming in and going out of the store, there is security in the store if necessary, it is well lit and open, and has cameras recording the area.

No-one yet has asked me to change the location but if they did I would ask why and if they did not have a good enough reason I would tell them that this is not something I am comfortable with and if they can’t meet me at the store then we unfortunately do not have a deal. If they did have a good reason I would be willing to do it in another location that fits the same criteria that I have listed as long as it was not too far away.

If possible go with someone else, if not, be on the phone with someone else via a Bluetooth headset so that any person you are making a deal with is aware there is contact with someone else.

Finally, cash is the only currency I would do business with. PayPal, checks, money orders, gift cards add too much unknown into the equation for me.

Final Thoughts

After using both eBay and Craigslist I have found Craigslist to be better for me. I was mostly selling furniture so eBay buyers would have to live in the local area anyway and craigslist narrows down your audience to that by its nature. I’ve sold multiple items on craigslist and because I have been diligent in my checks of people I trade with and follow my own advice it’s gone very well.

Craigslist had no hidden fees, in fact no fees. EBay took a slice of my selling price, can charge you for posting an item, charges you for having a ‘buy it now’ price, charges you for each photo after the first, and if you use PayPal take another bite of your profits. I also struggled to find a way to allow me to charge for more than $4 for shipping, I’m sure there’s a way but I could not find it. This meant on a couple of books I sent I actually paid more than $4 shipping charge for the envelope and the mail delivery.

EBay would be better for smaller deliverable items and also more specialized things (a specific pattern of crockery for example) because you need a bigger audience than craigslist can provide but for general goods and services I’d say craigslist is better for speed and ease of setup and profit for items sold.

As I said, for me, it is better but I am sure there are many readers of this blog who would disagree and I’d be more than happy to hear your reasons on why you prefer eBay. If appropriate I’ll even post them on the blog to give a balanced perspective so please feel free to contact me.

Happy and safe selling/buying wherever you do it.