The Empty Cabinets of my Mind

Google +

I have some of the nicest online friends.  When my head is deep in the sand, like an ostrich, or in a recent case, like a tourist (yes, the sand at Carmel-by-the-Sea is nice!), they keep me up to date on what is going on in cyber space.

Get thee to Google + my buddy said, so I'm reading about it in one window and typing this in another.  I like being sort of in the forefront on things like this.  It makes me feel cyber competent, sort of...

Google is a Verb

Next after "Let's Do Lunch" comes "Google is a Verb" and aren't these sayings cute?  Granted, I have some reservations about everything-Google, but sometimes the products are just too useful to shun.  You could say that I am addicted to my Android phone. 

Oh, for those who haven't heard, I upgraded from my Samsung Moment to the Epic, a move which surprised even me. But now because the phone is even better, I am on it more and on my laptop less.  That is so much less, in fact, that I have to look up the term ppc search engine marketing now to see what it means. You would have thought that was a no-brainer, huh?

Of course it is all about maximizing your online presence (a good thing to do if you are monetizing a blog or selling something) but hey, I'm retired and trying to minimize just about everything else. 

The Epic is truly awesome, though, and I keep adding stuff from the Android Market, mostly free stuff.  I loaned the Moment to a friend who had to accessorize it with the Swipe-It program.  No, that is not software to help you steal, but rather it is an incredibly useful way of entering text data without having to "thumb" that little keyboard. 

Get Paid

Several years ago I inadvertently stumbled across my first PTC site online, by accidentally clicking on a banner ad.  That landed me on a site with pretty pictures and to my amazement, after clicking on some of them I looked up and noticed that my computer screen said I had earned 4 cents and that if I kept looking around and clicking until I earned 50 cents, they would deposit that little bit of money into my PayPal account. 

Maybe 50 cents is not something you would get excited about, but I am the sort of person who picks up every penny I find on sidewalks and in parking lots, and so I was amazed to learn that people could literally pick up pennies off the information highway.

What is a PPC agency?  That is a company that helps people connect folks who have something they want to advertise online with people who like to look at ads, a marriage made in Heaven.  PPC stands for Pay Per Click. 

Another way to make money online is by using a Local search marketing.  Like paid to click, paid to search is a marketing tool wherein people who want others to do a search on their web pages hook up with services that pay people to do the searches.  Fascinating, isn't it?

Web Design

I love my blogging platform and recommend it to others because it has such  easy web design software that anyone can very quickly post content rich articles in just minutes.  Thinking back to when microcomputers were just entering the market, I remember a time when setting a line of type by using markup code on a mainframe computer seemed like miracle work.  Now we have the drop-down menus with font families and sizes and photo and link insertion not just on blogging platforms, but even in the gmail editor.

Once in a while I meet people who for whatever reason have squeaked by this far in life without ever having had to use a computer. To me it almost seems like these people are from a parallel universe.

They are amazed when they see a few of the things my smart phone can do, and the first question I usually hear is "How did you get that picture from your garden onto the computer."  It must seem like magic. 

At the same time, I cannot imagine what it would be like to have been born after computers had already been invented.  I remember as a small child trying to figure out how the "people" got inside the radio, before we had television.  But the multimedia capability of today's computers goes so far beyond radio or TV that I cannot quite visualize what must be going on inside a little one's mind when they grow up playing on the internet. 

Aldiko is a Must-Have for my Android Phone

I just got around to reading that Kindle now works on Android phones, but when I got my Samsung Moment Google phone last March the only book reader in the Android Market was Aldiko, and it will be a long time before I run out of free things to read from their collections.   

Do You Need to View PDF Files?

PDF Adobe's Portable Document Format and from time to time someone will send me a document in PDF format.  In order to view or print such a document it is necessary to have a  PDF Viewer.  Designed to make "rich text" portable, PDF files are also more secure than html, although they may not be as convenient to edit.   Other advantages include accessibility and the ability to compress large files. 

It is necessary to purchase software to create PDF files, but not to view them.  Since PDF files can be converted to html, it doesn't make any sense to me that anyone would want to publish files in PDF format on the internet, but one does see it from time to time. 

If anyone is interested the html tag for linking a PDF file is this:

<a href="Filename.pdf">Download PDF File</a>

Of course, if you are going to do that you probably want to enable a "Save As" option too.

PDF is used for business slideshows and what-you-see is what-you-get pages to print out, but it is not yet ready for use on cell phones and PDA's, I think, although it is supported by Aldiki, the wonderful free eBook reader that I use on my Google phone.  For that matter, I just read that Kindle now runs on the Android, and they have support for PDF files, too. 

 

 

What is SWOM?

Wow, I found the neatest thing.  It is a new social networking group called SWOM.  I joined just today and upgraded to Gold Member already. I'll write more about it soon, but just wanted to get the word out:

My SWOM referral link -- Please join and connect with me there!

More on this soon.

Where Do Geeks Come From?

Geeks had not been invented yet when I was growing up, or I would have been one from the start.   But wait!  I forgot that the word geek used to have unsavory meanings.  It used to refer to those people who bit off the heads of live chickens in side-shows. 

I never went to see anybody do that.  Even if the shows had not cost money, I still would not have gone.  Actually, except fpr the Circus-Circus Casino, I have never been to a circus.  Clowns do not appeal to me either. 

The internet does appeal to me, however, big time.  I love e-mail and it grinds on my last nerve that some of my friends do not use it.  Because I got involved with microcomputers early on, I have been through a lot of  email hosting companies. 

When I find a good host, usually I stick with it, but in some cases the companies have gone away, and then I have to go shopping.  I always used comparison services to help me identify which service provider to choose, as these services are free and a wonderful resource.  It is nice to find hosts that are recommended by other geeks.  Fortunately, however, I have not had to look for any new hosts in a very long time as they ones I am using have stuck around. 

Android Smart Phones Rock!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

Boost Mobile is now offering the Motorola il walkie talkie enabled phone which is powered by Android and has a 5MP camera with video and other goodies.  Opera fans will be pleased to know that it comes with the optimized Opera Mini 5 Web Browser, which is, of course, what I use on my smart phone.

Weighing in at 3.5 ounces, the 1/2 inch thick il touchscreen phone is compatible with a 4GB memory card, which can hold a lot of photos and/or songs. 

This phone is only available in the Boost Mobile stores.

Boost has some really good plans, too, with very flexible payment options as described on their Re-Boost pages.

I have an unlimited data plan on my android because I'm constantly looking things up on the internet and because the smart phone literally replaces almost everything I used to have to lug around in a handbag.  Now I take the phone, a credit card, lip gloss, and a few facial tissues.  That's it! No pen, no calculator, no calendar, no flashlight, no mirror, no wristwatch.  Additonally, I'm never without reading material, having downloaded the free Aldiko reader.  I just finished reading Thomas Hardy's The Trumpet-Major and A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde.

Blackberry users will like Boost's unlimited plan that is tailored especially for them, supporting unlimited e-mail for up to ten accounts. 

Although I usually post to my blog from home using a laptop computer, it is nice to know that I can post text and photos directly from my phone, tweet, IM, or update social network sites.  This technology rocks!

Evaluating Web Host Providers

I am very satisfied with the web host I am currently using for my domains and also with the company that provides my blogging platform.   It did take an awful lot of time researching them online to make an educated choice.  

Fortunately my blogging service allows me to use my own domain name for my blogs.  That is important to me.  They have pages and pages of excellent online help and so does my web hosting company.  The latter also has excellent 24/7 live support. That and reliability and a powerful yet easy to use interface are the most important features for me. 

Having access to online  windows web hosting directories featuring in-depth information on the major web hosting providers was invaluable.   Without those resources, I probably would have ended up paying more for the hosting and maybe not gotten all the features I needed or wanted. 

I don't mind paying something for good web services because the better the service the easier it is for my blog to be self-supporting.  What comes around goes around, as they say.   I knew when I first started having a web presence that unless it was really easy to publish online that I would probably start off with a bang, but then lose interest and the posts would dwindle down to nothing.