A new photo blog

Check out my new photo blog at http://creationwillsing.wordpress.com/ .  The color changes to match the picture.  The theme was designed specifically for photo blogging!

Is Your Computer Sick? - FREE Anti-Virus

Hello! I thought you might enjoy something free today!  And No, I don’t get any commission from writing reviews for any products as of now.  Maybe someday this blog will be so “hawt,” as WordPress calls it, that people with cool products will pay for my son’s education (ha!  LOL).  Until then, I just like to share some of the techno freebies out there.  Enjoy!

See that checkerboard up above with the arrow pointing to it?  Because it’s not grey, it means that my virus protection is up to date.  PHEW!  If it were grey, I would double click on it and would be guided by my AVG Free software to update my internal database.  Sort of like giving my computer an antibiotic.  Soooo easy. 

AVG Free by Grisoft is an anti-virus software that we have used for at least 3 years and since it’s FREE, that makes it even more wonderful. It lets you know when you need to update and is as easy as clicking “OK” when you want to make sure that your computer is not sick. 

The “not free” version is only $55 and buys you even more security from viruses, email scams, web surfing, etc.

Good luck keeping those viruses at bay!  If you don’t do anything to protect your computer and you surf the net, as you may be doing now, your computer most likely will get sick.  And that is a VERY bad, possibly catastrophic to your computer, event!

 

FREE prints at Arts Cow

Here’s a new photo site - artscow.com. Sign up here and get 400 free prints. Refer your friends and they will get the same.

Now, the only thing left to do is figure out what to have printed, right?

TTT

Scooping Light - A Flash for a Fraction of the Cost

It’s true - I love to take pictures.  It’s calming to me.  I like to try unconventional things like putting my camera on the ground and taking pictures of flowers - to see if they’ll come out.  They do! 

But, what I seem to be drawn to the most is taking pictures of my son!  Shocker - I know!  But, what I don’t have inside is a lot of natural light.  But, what I do have now is the “Light Scoop” (see http://www.lightscoop.com/ and blog - http://blog.lightscoop.com/).  It uses a mirror to take your built in flash and bounce it off the wall or ceiling around you.  It’s simple and yet a fantastic tool.  Why is this so important ??  Because the flash that comes with your camera is pointing right at the subject and makes them look ghostly.  I can go on about this but here are a couple before and after pics to show you what I mean.

 
Before

After

I hope you can see the difference if in nothing else but skin tone.  It’s a great piece of equipment for only a fraction of the cost.

Managing Your Digital Pictures

My friend Sabrina writes:”My challenge is with pictures. I don’t know how to manage them once I get them in the computer. I would like to create separate folders for the different topics or events of photos so they seem more in order.”

When I upload pictures to my harddrive, I have a different folder for every month of the year.  Then, I drop the pictures into the appropriate month and when the year is over, I create a folder for the year and then move all the folders (Jan.-Dec.) into the corresponding folder’s year.  This is my way of organizing things because I am able to remember when I took most pictures.  But, Sabrina’s question is a good one because I know so many people have a tough time finding their pictures.   

The first thing you need to do is figure out what would help you to find your pictures most effectively.  I still believe that the “year” folder is essential to keep pictures organized.  I wouldn’t recommend using your child’s name as a folder name unless that child is the only one in the pictures; otherwise, you may get stuck when you have more then one child in a picture.  But, an event like “Disney World” might be better.   Like I said, it’s really what works for you - can you remember when you took a picture?  Then the month folders might work.  If subjects (summer vaca.07, Maine 06, snow 05) might work better.

Good luck Sabrina!

Just Do It!, Organize!

Ok, so I’ve come to grips with the fact that I really love to write like this.  Maybe it’s because I can erase and rewrite as much as I want (which is what I did about 3 times with this sentence).  Maybe it’s b/c my friend Cindy said I have a great online personality(ahhhh, thanks CB).  Or, perhaps it’s b/c I can write about anything I want and someone will — hopefully — listen!

The Nike ad campaign - “Just do it!” has become part of our culture.  It really was ingenious - 3 little words, endless possibilites.  So, what does that have to do with anything ?  Well, when it comes to organizing it takes the “just do it” attitude.  So, what do you need to organize today?  Your clothes - I do!! - or is it all those icons on your desktop, or maybe your digital pictures.  Don’t fall into the lull of the waves of the internet surf, just put your computer on hibernate (save your $$ and the environment, since it uses very little power) and get up and organize.  If it’s your digital pictures, then you can read my post about “Sorting Silverware” or ”Managing Your Digital Pictures“ , close your browser (yes, you can do it ), and organize.  You’ll feel better if you “just do it!”  I’m going to organize clothes for the change of seasons since I hear spring is coming to the N.E. tomorrow.  Thank the Lord!

Free Office for You! Really????

This is my best tip yet so I’m posting it for WFMW on Shannon’s site AND Frugal Friday on Lori’s .

It is not a joke - but it’s also not MicroSoft Office - but it will work just like it and will work with your MS documents.  This is not a joke!  Former Microsoft employees got together and developed this product.  It has a programs for Word Processing, Spreadsheet use, Slide show use (like Power Point) and others.  And, it’s ***free***!  It’s easy to install and you can even burn copies for friends (they encourage it on their download site (http://download.openoffice.org/) . 

So, if you just bought a computer (like the Dell on sale - check it out on http://www.bargainshopperlady.com) you should save your money and download “Open Office.” 

Being Frugal - 2 x the Cheerios - unrelated

Visit Lori’s blog for other great tips on how to be frugal.

I buy Honey Nut Cheerios and plain Cheerios and combine them both to save money and keep the sugar lower. 

That Little W in the URL (it’s called a FavIcon)

Lori asks…

“I thought of a question for you! How do I put a cute icon on the top of my blog… right by the web address? Such as WordPress has a W on this page?”

That’s a great question.  First you need an image that you want to put there, then, dynamic drive will do it for you!

Check out…

http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/

PHP,ASP, Javascript, etc…..What’s the Difference?

Cindy, my most dedicated inquisitor (thanks CB), asks:

“Could you please give this newbie the down-and-dirty plain English explanation of the uses for scripting languages (Java, PHP, etc.,) Thanks!”

Good question!

I wish I could give you the technical differences in a nice little package, but that’s a long explanation (see http://training.gbdirect.co.uk/courses/php/comparison_php_versus_perl_vs_asp_jsp_vs_vbscript_web_scripting.htmlif you are interested). 

But, the difference to the Developer of a site is that - your web host will either provide you with one or they may not.  For example, php is very popular now and is realitively easy to learn.  The database is also a free download as is the “platform” needed to develop locally(on your computer).  ASP - the language I first learned and have used the most - is usually going to cost you more, which may be worth it to some.  ASP is limited though to Microsoft’s proprietary IIS platform (that’s where the extra $$s are going) and requires knowledge of VBScript.  I really enjoyed ASP but it wasn’t on my nickel.  If I had to pay extra for it for my own personal website - I wouldn’t!  PHP is just easier to use. 

Java and Javascript are very different. Java is a robust programming language; whereas, javascript is used with HTML.  Java can stand alone.  Here’s a more technical explanation:  http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/javascript/article.php/3470971