A Great Example of the Power of Social Media

I’m sorry that I’ve been remiss in writing. It’s certainly not for lack of ideas! My list grows longer and longer…it’s the time to write (or lack thereof) that gets me! My apologies. All kinds of fascinating things have come to my attention recently, but one really caught my eye.

Most people will admit that the last couple of weeks have been amazing from a news standpoint…from tornadoes a mile wide to a Royal Wedding to the death of Osama bin Laden. Whew! Information overload!!! Personally, I was riveted to the TV that Friday morning for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton (I’m a sucker for a romantic story). Fantasy and fairy tales aside, I’m going to focus on the bin Laden story (no blood or gore here…just some interesting information about the power of social media).

The Sunday night when bin Laden was killed will be one of those defining moments where you will forever remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news. Like the assassination of JFK, landing on the moon, explosion of Challenger, etc. most people (of a ‘certain’ age) can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing at the moment of those momentous occasions.

With the death of bin Laden, I was watching the nationally televised Phillies game on ESPN. As chants of ‘USA, USA’ began rippling through the stands, players and announcers tried to figure out why. People with their smartphones were reading that bin Laden was dead. Right there is a testament to the power of technology, but that’s not what caught my attention in the interminable 24-hour news cycle.

Rather, what caught my attention was an article titled “How 4 people & their social network turned an unwitting witness to bin Laden’s death into a citizen journalist” by a writer for the Poynter Institute (School of Journalism).

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you may know that I have an ambivalent relationship with Twitter. This blog is fed through Twitter, but other than that, I don’t tweet much. I just haven’t ‘bonded’ with that medium. I’m still working on understanding where it is useful and why I care that someone is picking up a latte at their favorite coffee shop.

That said, I took note when I read that one person’s tweet about a helicopter flying low in Pakistan was actually an ‘on the ground report’ of the start of the raid on bin Laden’s compound. Sohaib Athar is an IT consultant living in Pakistan. He wasn’t ‘reporting’. He was commenting to family and friends on an unusual occurrence. He had (past tense) a relatively modest (by Twitter standards) 750 followers. Within 24 hours, this same guy had over 86,000 followers!!!!!

How did that happen? For details, please read the article, but if you want my simplified view of what happened, keep on reading!

Sohaib Athar heard something unusual that Sunday night…helicopters flying low. His actual tweet was this: ‘What was a low-flying heli doing flying around Abottabad Cantt at 0130 hrs?’ Shortly thereafter, he tweeted about a large explosion (gee, could that have been the helicopter blowing up?).

Those original tweets went to his circle of friends – his 750 followers. Among those 750 followers was someone who was linked to someone who is in the media (or several someones). You don’t need to have a lot of followers yourself…if just one person likes what you have to say, they can retweet what you write and all of a sudden an ‘influential’ tweeter may have grabbed a hold of what you had to say and the rest, as they say, is history.

I envision Twitter (and LinkedIn, for that matter) being a series of interlocking circles. I might not know someone who is in the media mainstream, but I may know someone who knows someone heavily involved in media. The sphere of influence is ever expanding as people like the information that you have to share, and retweet what you have to say.

The ‘low flying heli’ tweet helps to highlight (for me) that the power of Twitter may not be in the ‘I’m having a latte’ type of comment, but on the ability of a single person – with no particular ability/interest in broadcasting news events – to ‘report’ on a singular ‘view’ of an event, and be able to share that with the world.

The next time there’s breaking news, I may turn off the TV or the ‘traditional’ news media outlets, and sign in to Twitter and see what the average person has to say about the ‘event’. I’m not totally comfortable in my relationship with Twitter yet, but I do see the value in being able to share important information quickly…and trust that ‘the word’ will get passed along.

Is there an easier way to access my “Cloud” storage?

In the last post, we discussed some free off-site computer storage which can be accessed from anywhere. If you have started using Amazon Cloud Drive storage or Google Docs or some other ‘cloud’ storage, you might find the various interfaces confusing, or get tired of always having to sign in to these alternate accounts to access your information. For me, a Cloud storage location would be most beneficial if the location “looked” and behaved just like a local drive. When I plug in an external hard drive or a flash drive (one of those little gizmos that that fits in your pocket and is great when you move from machine to machine – please don’t use flash drives as primary storage…they are notorious for losing data), it is automatically ‘mapped’ as a local driver (e.g. F:\ or E:\ or whatever other letter my computer chooses).

In other words, I want my cloud storage to behave like a local drive.

My wishes have been answered! I just found a terrific FREE tool offered by Gladinet which you can install on your computers (however many computers you have) which will make the cloud storage appear as a drive on your local computer – just as a flash drive or external hard drive does. YEAH!!! Imagine being able to switch between computers you work on regularly and having the files you want available in a mapped drive that reaches out to the “Cloud”. Talk about convenient!

The cloud storage providers that Gladinet Free supports currently are:

Gladinet Mapping Providers

I downloaded the program, and was able to easily map my Google Docs and Amazon Cloud Drive using this tool, so that I can copy/paste files or access files just as if it was on my local computer. You’re kidding, right? Nope, I’m not. This is just what I’d hoped for.

Even though I have two ‘Clouds’ mapped (Amazon and Google Docs), only one drive is mapped as my Gladinet drive as shown below:

Gladinet Drive Mapping

Within that drive, my two ‘clouds’ appear as folders. If I double-click on the Gladinet drive (on my computer it mapped as the ‘Y’ drive), then I can see the two Cloud storage locations that I have set up:

Gladinet Mapping

How can you do this for yourself? Go to www.gladinet.com and locate the ‘Free Starter Edition’ downloads (there is a paid version of this same program, but the free version works just fine for me). If you have a 32-bit computer, click that link. If you have a 64-bit computer, click that link. Directions on installing Gladinet locally will appear. I was able to easily follow them to install the program and be up and running in about 10 minutes. Not a bad time investment for the convenience I’m going to get! No more confusion with the different interfaces. No more needing to sign in/out of each one to move files around. I can work right on the document out there on the cloud, or I can simply copy/paste the file to move it up or down from the cloud! As simple as moving files around right on my computer. Now, THIS makes Cloud Computing much more convenient for me!

Note: The paid version appears to allow you to use the cloud as a continuous backup location or will allow you to sync files. The free version is an ‘on demand’ version – you have to move the files yourself.

Simple, free way to begin using “Cloud” computing

What the heck is ‘cloud computing’ and why do I care? If I decide I care about it, how can I take advantage of it?

First of all, there’s a good chance that you’re already taking advantage of ‘cloud computing’ – whether you know it or not. If you use your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or the like) to access e-mail, then you’re already using ‘cloud computing’. If you log in to your place of employment from off-site (like your home), you’re using ‘the cloud’. If you use Google Docs, you’re storing information in ‘the cloud’. If you back-up to a hosted service (like Mozy.com), you’re in the ‘cloud’. In fact, these days, it’s getting hard to NOT have a part of your computer time in the clouds.

Basically, if you can access your information or data from any computer – be it your home computer, work computer, a computer at a hotel, a friend’s computer, then you have some information stored in the cloud.

So, what’s the big deal? Well, there are a multitude of things, but from my point of view, there are two great benefits of working in the cloud:

First, I don’t need to have MY computer with me all the time. If my information is stored in the cloud, then I can use ANYONE’S computer to get to MY information. It saves lugging my laptop all over creation AND it is very convenient.

Second, someone else is taking care of backing up my data. Rather than trusting my data to my aging laptop, my data is stored on a server somewhere else. This server is probably in a large ‘server farm’ (a collection of servers in one location) which is monitored 24/7 by someone other than me! If there’s a technical issue. they are usually alerted before I even know there’s a problem.

So, you’re ready to start utilizing the cloud, but don’t know how/where. While there are a lot of choices (more arriving every day, it seems), I’m going to focus on one that seems to be a really easy way to get going. Amazon (yes, THAT Amazon) is offering ANYONE 5GB of storage on a ‘Cloud Drive’. This is simply a drive like your C: drive – only it lives ‘out there’ on the web. It is a 5GB Hard Drive for your exclusive use. Have some precious photos, that you would be devastated if you lost? Store them in the cloud. Have a document that you always want to access, but it is only located on your local computer? Store it in the cloud.

To take advantage of this feature, go to www.amazon.com/clouddrive. You’ll need an Amazon account. Sign up for one, or sign in using the same login you would use to go shopping on Amazon. After answering a couple of Terms and Conditions questions, you’ll find yourself on this screen:

Amazon Cloud Main Screen

From this screen, you can click the ‘Upload Files’ button and upload files to your new web storage location. By default. Amazon sets up four folders – Documents, Music, Pictures, Video. You can set up more if you like. You can add sub-folders if you like. You control the information just as you would a local drive.

Personally, I would not store sensitive or confidential information on a free, cloud-based system…just in case the security isn’t what it’s cracked up to be – or the security is breached (I’m sure that in the agreements I signed virtually, there’s something that says Amazon is not responsible if the files are lost, or security is breached), but for many files, this would be a perfectly safe place to store them, so that I have ready access from any computer.

Why would Amazon offer this service free? They’re hoping that you like it so much that you want to store MORE than 5GB of information, and that you’ll pay for the privilege! The ‘Buy Additional Storage’ button is prominently displayed while you’re working on your Amazon Cloud Drive.

Please be aware that there are LOTS of other alternatives (Google Docs not least among them, but I plan on discussing Google Docs at a later date). I happen to like this simple interface…it is one of the more comfortable ones that I’ve encountered.

Another tool to keep your computer running in a tip-top manner

I used to have an acquaintance that said she never wore the same blouse twice. What? What do you mean? I probably wear my blouses for way past their ‘best look’ lifespan. How could this person not wear a blouse twice? Well, I started paying attention, and darned if she didn’t wear a different blouse every day. No repeats. I would guess that the local clothing charity really liked her because she donated her ‘gently worn’ blouses to charity after one wear. Personally, while I don’t love doing laundry, I’m not morally opposed to it, and I much prefer getting my money’s worth out of my clothes before replacing them.

What does this have to do with computers?

None of us like to think about/deal with maintaining our computers, but *sigh* we need to! Unless you are wealthy (as was my acquaintance from above), most of us must work to get the longest life out of our electronic machines that we possible can. As we rely more and more on our electronic ‘friends’, we need to pay better attention to keeping them running and running efficiently. Not only will a little attention make our lives easier in the long run, but it will also e-x-t-e-n-d the life of your computers, thereby keeping money in your pocket for a longer period of time. Who doesn’t like that?

Last week, we discussed ‘Defrag’. This week, we’re going to discuss a ‘sister’ product to ‘Defrag’ and that is ‘Disk Cleanup’.

To begin, what is ‘Disk Cleanup’?

Disk Cleanup is a process that you can run that will help you to free up space from files that the computer created temporarily, but then didn’t discard.

For example, you are reading this page right now. Your computer has taken a ‘picture’ of the page and stashed it somewhere on your computer. You don’t really need to keep a copy of this page because if you want to refer to it again, you can just come back to the blog and call it up again. Regardless of that ability to find it again, your computer has made a copy. An image of every page that you go to on the internet can be stored on your machine (those are called ‘temporary internet files’). If you watch a You Tube video, a copy is actually on your computer. If you listen to a sound bite, that is also stored on your computer.

Likewise, when you open up a document (e.g. Word or Excel), a copy of the document is stored as a temporary file while you’re working on the main document. You may have had opportunity to ‘recover’ a file from a temporary file if you computer crashed while you were working on a document. When you open up Word or Excel, there’s a sidebar that says ‘Do you want to recover this file’? If you’ve ever seen that, then you’ve recovered from the temporary files.

When you install new software, the installation process creates all kinds of temporary files while its going through its installation gyrations. Many of those files too, just hang out there on your computer until you tell it to get rid of it.

You can imagine that as time goes by, your computer is stashing and storing a lot of information that it doesn’t really need to hang on to forever.

Enter ‘Disk Cleanup’. Windows has a built-in feature which can be accessed through Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools, then finally, select ‘Disk Cleanup’. When you open it, it will look something like this (different computer configurations mean that different selections will appear on different computers):

Windows Disk Cleanup

You’ll note a couple of things in the image above:

1. There is a checkbox next to each item. Check off those things that you want to ‘clean’. If you don’t want to clean up a particular area, just uncheck the box.

2. If you highlight the item (as ‘Temporary Internet Files’ is highlighted above), then a description of what that particular item will ‘clean’ if you check it is described below (under the label ‘Description’).

3. The ‘Compress Files’ setting will ‘squoosh’ (that’s a highly technical term) and ‘file’ items which you haven’t used for a while towards the back of your computer ‘filing cabinet drawer’, and will store it in a ‘zip-lock bag’ with all the air sucked out of it to keep it as small and compact as possible. That way, a file that you might need to keep for posterity, but don’t access frequently can be stored ‘at the back of the closet’ where it doesn’t get in the way of daily activity. If you really need it, the computer can crawl past the piles of shoes, and drag it back out for use!

4. I have chosen to NOT check the ‘Office Setup Files’ box. Why? If Office is installed, why would I need the setup files stored on my computer? Well, have you ever tried to do something in Microsoft Office and have it say ‘That feature is not currently installed, please insert the Microsoft Office Installation Disk’? If you don’t happen to have the disk handy, you can’t run the setup for the new feature. By leaving the Office Setup Files on my computer, I NEVER get that message. If Office wants to install a new feature, it just ‘reaches out’ to the setup files stored on my computer and adds the feature in. No more searching for the Office disk. I find that very beneficial, but if I needed space on my computer, I could choose to delete these, as well.

As we saw with ‘Defrag’ last week, Microsoft offers us a built-in tool for maintaining our machines, but there is another tool that I like that is available – for free! – which also helps to clean up other items on your computer. CCleaner (http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/) will also help you clean up/maintain other areas on your computer, such as your computer’s registry. The ‘registry’ is the vault on your computer that stores all of the program and configuration settings. If you install/uninstall programs, there are probably lingering registry entries that could be cleaned up which will help your computer operate more efficiently. CCleaner also has a number of other useful computer maintenance tools too numerous to discuss here.

Personally, I run my Windows Disk Cleanup every week (along with my Defrag). If you run them regularly, they don’t take long to run…they only take all night when you never run them! I run CCleaner once a quarter, or when my computer starts acting ‘strange’, crashing unexpectedly, etc. Oftentimes, it works its magic, and my computer starts acting ‘normally’.

Whatever you do, make sure that you run your computer maintenance tools regularly. You’ll find that you’ll get far more life out of your computer than you thought you would…and you won’t be donating your clothes after one wearing!!

What does “Defrag” do anyway?

OK…so you know that you’re supposed to “defrag” your computer, but most people don’t know why they’re doing it, or what it’s supposed to accomplish. Others don’t know where/how to do it. Here’s a quick lesson.

“Defragging” your computer is short for ‘defragmenting’. Computer hard drives get disorganized as information is added and deleted. While a computer is ‘smart’ enough to be able to locate/assemble this ‘disorganized’ information, it can operate faster if the information is stored ‘neatly’. How exactly, does information get ‘disorganized’ on a computer?

I like to use the analogy of a filing cabinet. If you are filing papers in a filing cabinet, you can store information in various drawers, and within the drawers, in various folders. Inside the folders, you can store information oldest to newest, newest to oldest, or haphazardly. If you’re in a hurry, you might misfile a paper. Perhaps you put it in the wrong place in the file. Maybe you put it in the wrong folder. Worse, you put it in the wrong drawer, altogether. Finding that misplaced piece of paper takes longer and longer the more misplaced you filed it. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know…its common sense.

Now, let’s think of your computer. Your computer ‘files’ documents (electronic files) as you work on them and save them. Every time you ‘file’ your electronic document, your computer looks for the first available space to stick the piece of paper. You’re computer doesn’t work alphabetically…it works on the first available space. If only part of the file fits into the space, then it actually rips the file apart and stores some parts of the file in one place, and some in another. Then, your computer writes a separate ‘note’ to itself telling itself all the places it filed that document. Don’t worry…your computer is good at this tracking. Unfortunately, the more files it gets, stored in more places, the longer it takes to locate the various pieces of the file and present them to you.

So…what is “Defrag”? “Defragging” your computer means that you’re going to reorganize all the files on your computer, so that they are stored logically. When you defrag your computer, you tell your computer to go reorganize itself! You tell it to go through all the files, gather them together in a logical fashion (rather than the ‘haphazard’ way they are stored when you first save them), then store them in the the most accessible (for a computer) manner.

Once your computer is defragged, it will be able to locate/access files faster. The more defragmented the hard-drive (think disorganized), the longer it takes to access the files.

Windows computers all have a built-in defragmentation tool. To locate it go to Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools, then finally, select ‘Disk Defragmenter’. Differing versions of Windows have different Defragmenters, so I won’t show screen shots because your version might look different than mine. Once you open up the program, select a drive to be defragmented (typically ‘C’), then ‘Defragment Selected Volume’, and ‘Start’. This utility is basic, but functional.

If you want a Defragmentation Tool that is a bit more sophisticated (e.g. one which will automatically defrag, but is smart enough to know when you’re working on your machine, so it shouldn’t try to defrag), try Smart Defrag. It’s a FREE tool, easy to download and install, but offering some features that the basic Windows Defragmentation Utility doesn’t offer, click here for Smart Defrag Download.

Warning: If you’ve never ‘defragged’, this process can take quite a while. I recommend starting it at night, and letting it run while you sleep! It should be done by morning!

Lessons a Phila Biz Learned Updating Its Old Website – Tips for Hiring a Web Developer

One of my clients, Ellen Fisher (Publisher of the Women’s Yellow Pages of Greater Philadelphia) and I had the pleasure of speaking with Joseph Mutidjo, a reporter for SmallBizTechnology.com. The following is a reprint of the article he wrote describing the process we went through when updating Ellen’s website.

Lessons A Phila Biz Learned Updating Its Old Web Site: Tips for Hiring A Web Developer

March 24, 2011 by Joseph Mutidjo
Originally published here: SmallBizTechnology.com

New Women's Yellow Pages SiteChange can be hard, even when you have to let go of that faithful 10 year-old website.

Ellen Fisher, the founder and publisher of the Women’s Yellow Pages of Greater Philadelphia, knew she had to update the 3,000-page website she first launched in 1999. That was back when she saw the Internet as the way of the future for her print directory of women-owned businesses and women’s organizations.

“If I wanted to stay in business I had to make certain changes. Our database was working fine, but our website was in frames and not good for search engine optimization,” explained Fisher. “We didn’t want to redo everything, since our data collection processes worked well, but our clients wanted to be able to advertise online (in addition to listings), so we needed to create that real estate on our website and be able to manage this new offering.”

Fisher hired Sandra Clitter, owner of SLC Consulting, as the project manager and technical lead for the job. The two ladies first met at a small networking event hosted by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).

“We hired her to do a few little tweaks to the database and then realized we were in love—with the way she worked with us,” Fisher said.

Fisher emphasized that when looking for an IT consultant or web developer to partner with, small business owners should not just look for a good programmer (or someone with good technical skills), but someone “who is interested in learning about your business in detail.”

Original Women's Yellow Pages SiteClitter was surprised Fisher had kept her site running for so long as they did with decade-old technology. The two had several brainstorming sessions to define the site’s purpose, outline the problems and craft effective solutions. Clitter presented Fisher with several solutions at varying price points, and discussed the pros and cons to each solution.

“Careful consideration has to be given to the purpose of the website—who is visiting, why are they there, are they conducting transactions, or simply getting information, is the information updated frequently or only occasionally. Answers to each of those questions should determine a different path for the technology underlying the website,” Clitter said.

They settled on a solution that cost $10,000, and started the 6-month renovation project—together. Clitter points out that building or rebuilding a website should be a close collaboration between client and provider.

“Clients often don’t realize that they need to participate in the project themselves in order to make sure that their substantial knowledge of their business are accommodated and incorporated as appropriate. Additionally, because we’re dealing with technology, an area that’s very uncomfortable for many people, there is an ongoing education process required. . . . The owner of the site should understand how/why the various components of technology have been chosen, even if they can’t understand the specific technology itself,” she said.

Many small business owners “hang on to their old site for longer than its useful life” because of their unfamiliarity with and fear of new technology, noted Clitter. A website, as with anything else, has a lifespan. She explained a “plain ol’ HTML page really never stops working,” but a website can have its visual component as well as functional underpinnings become obsolete.

“Make the website maintenance a part of the business budget each and every year—updating various parts that are ‘worn,’ or have better solutions can help it run longer. Like any other technology, websites need ‘tune-ups,’ just as a piece of hardware or other software does. Like hardware, organizations need to have a website replacement period and build it into the budget. It is unlikely that many computers of five years or older are still in place, functioning efficiently—and it is likely that websites of that age or older should also not be in place,” Clitter said.

Fisher said the updated website is a “stellar product,” and impressions have increased significantly. Five years from now, here’s looking forward to the roll out of another stellar website.

By Joseph Mutidjo, Reporter, Smallbiztechnology.com

What the heck is an ‘add on’, ‘add in’, or ‘plug in’?

Does it seem to you like you need to learn a new language every week as technology marches forward. First, you figure out that a ‘mouse’ isn’t some small, furry creature hiding in your walls. Next, a ‘virus’ isn’t something that you have to go to the doctor to cure. Then, ‘tweet’ is no longer something said by a bird! What!?!?!

The list goes on and on. We’ve all gotten those e-mails that have a long list of computer terminology that used to mean one thing, but now means something entirely different. Don’t you end up laughing out loud (aka LOL) and nodding your head? I know that I do.

And, those are the ‘major’ terms that we run across. So while we’re desperately struggling to keep up with those ‘popular’ terms, there’s another entire subculture of terms bubbling up. Those terms are the ones that might be casually mentioned in an article, included in the instructions for yet another contraption you’re trying to set-up or untangle, be the label for a menu choice on a screen, etc. They’re not big and flashy terms, but they’re tiny ones that just sneak up on you! All of a sudden, you’re surrounded by them…it’s time to figure out what they mean :-).

Today, let’s tackle one group of these ‘other’ terms. I seem to find myself running across terms like ‘Add-on’, ‘Add-in’ and ‘Plugin’ more and more frequently. While there may be some fine distinctions between these words, to me they are all part of one ‘class’ – basically, little programs that you can utilize to make bigger programs work more to your liking. Actually, they are quite ingenious! They allow you to customize applications…what a great concept!!! Who used to use the slogan ‘Have it your way’? I think that belongs to Burger King, but plug-ins and add-ons allow you to have your programs work your way.

First, a program is created with some basic functionality. It might even be a pretty sophisticated program (e.g. WordPress [in which this blog is created], Outlook [my e-mail/calendar/contacts program of choice], or Firefox [my browser of choice]). But regardless of how sophisticated the program, there’s always going to be ‘one more feature’ that you just WISHED you had. Some feature that would make it soooo much easier, or more convenient, when utilizing that particular software.

Enter the plug-in or add-on. These are tiny programs that run in conjunction with other, typically larger, programs. Each plug-in or add-on has a very specific job – a job that the ‘parent’ program doesn’t do. They enhance the larger program, adding a functionality that you may need, but that not everyone may want. I’ll give you a few examples.

In Outlook, I wanted to be able to sync all my information to my Gmail account – INCLUDING NOTES. I found a plug-in to Outlook (the one I found is called gSyncIt [available from Fieldstone Software]) which does just that. Install it and kabang! I can sync my Outlook Notes to my Gmail account.

Another example is in WordPress. Among the valuable comments made by many blog readers, there are also a bunch of people who make rude or unpublishable comments (consider it blog spam). In order to filter them out, you can add a plug-in called Akismet which automatically filters out ‘spam’ comments. Install it, and blog spam is significantly reduced.

This blog also uses a Statistics plug in, so that I can see, at a glance, what the traffic to the blog looked like for a given time period. This plug-in functions like Google Analytics, but just for the blog. Most interesting to me about this plug-in is that WordPress itself put it out to enhance its own tool. They realize that this feature might not be important to all bloggers, so they allow us the ability to install it (plug it in, as it were) if we want to use it.

The last example that I’ll give here is a Firefox Add-In. I often need to FTP something to the web (‘FTP’ stands for ‘File Transfer Protocol’ and is the way that web-pages are published, or information is passed to/from the web). Internet Explorer has an FTP utility built in, but many people don’t need it, so it just adds baggage to the program. Firefox doesn’t deliver it by default, but users can install FireFTP to the Firefox browser and voila! I can FTP from Firefox, just as I would via IE.

All of these little ‘tools’ make my online life much easier.

Bottom line: If you use a program and find yourself saying ‘I wish this program did X’, then try Googling the program name along with a brief description of the added functionality you wish you had, and see what pops up. More and more programs are allowing plug-ins, add-ons, add-ins (whatever you want to call them) to their programs. Take advantage of them! Your computing life may improve drastically.

P.S. Both Firefox and WordPress have pages dedicated to helping you find valuable add-ins. Here are links to those:
Firefox
WordPress

Using the Power of Google to Help the Victims in Japan

I’m sure that many of us are feeling overwhelmed by the devastating news coming out of Japan – overwhelmed, disbelieving, helpless…the list goes on and on. I keep wondering ‘what else can go wrong’, and then something does – from potential nuclear meltdowns to freezing weather. While I can certainly donate money to the Red Cross (and honestly, I don’t know that I have the skills to do much more than that), Google is actually DOING something…and doing it in a big way.

There is an entirely separate area of Google that many of us do NOT know about called ‘Google.org’. Typically, when we think of ‘Google’, we think of the search engine, and the accompanying elements that Google offers to us, the user. All of those are offered at www.google.com. However, it’s more than worth the time to take a visit over to another ‘Google’, this one being www.google.org (note the ‘.org’ instead of ‘.com’ at the end).

Google.org is ‘Technology-driven philanthropy’. How marvelous. A quick visit to the site shows all kinds of philanthropic missions, but today, we’ll focus on the Japanese crisis.

Last year, when the earthquake devastated Haiti, Google utilized its considerable resources to create detailed maps of the devastation which aid workers could use in locating survivors. Google mapped where electricity was and was not working, helping to bring in temporary electricity, where necessary. If memory serves me correctly, within hours, Google mobilized its corporate resources and reach to create tools which became invaluable to the rescue workers’ efforts.

Google did the same thing last week when the devastating earthquake and tsunami first hit Japan. Almost instantly, Google created a ‘find people’ resource, among other things. Helping to match frantic families back with missing loved ones is just an incredible contribution. I am lucky that I do not know anyone missing in Japan, but I do know of someone whose uncle is missing, and I hope that the Google effort reunites them quickly.

Maybe you can contribute talent, rather than dollars. In order to accomplish this Herculean task, Google is enlisting ANYONE who can read Japanese to help enter the data that they are receiving. Often, they are taking a digital image (photograph) of a hand-written list, and then entering it into the online database. If you can read Japanese, you can help! Just go to Google Volunteers (with Japanese skills) and see if you can assist. At the time of this writing, it appears that almost 60% of the data that Google has still needs to be reviewed by human eyes. And remember, more information keeps coming in, so that percentage could actually go UP before it goes down! Unfortunately, this page is in Japanese, and I can’t read it. I am, however, doing the best that I can to point you in the correct direction.

Another Google area supporting the Japanese crisis is a Picasa photo album of people/lists in the shelters: Japanese Shelter Lists

For those of us who are limited to English, here is another page on Google with information on the crisis: Google Crisis Response

I am astounded by the amount of information gathered/presented on this page. Scroll down below the appeals for donations. Look at all the links. There’s all kinds of information for those of us who are safe and want to help, and for those people struggling with the day-to-day issues caused by the devastation.

Google is also trying to give people an idea of where the rolling blackouts are going to strike, so that the people who are trying to resume their lives, can plan appropriately. They are doing that by updating Google Maps with information (again, this one is in Japanese): Google Maps showing rolling blackout locations in Japan

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of the residents of Japan, and those with loved ones in Japan. May life return to something approximating ‘normal’, sooner rather than later. How inadequate those words sound.

Thank you to Google – for doing well by doing good. I’d just written about that approach to life a couple of weeks ago, and here is great display of those words in action.

Cheap and easy way to capture screen shots of your computer

Whether you’re trying to create documentation in a ‘how to’ manual, or send a screenshot to your boss, or trying to explain to Tech Support what’s going on with your computer, being able to do isolated screen captures is a marvelous capability to have.

First, you should know that to capture your entire screen, you only have to press the ‘PrtSc’ or ‘PrtScn’ button on your computer keyboard (usually found above the numbers keys or the F-keys). Then, open up any word processing document and click or right-click and paste or CTRL+V. Voila! Your entire screen appears in the document.

But sometimes, you only want an isolated part of your screen. What do you do then?

If you’ve read this blog in the past, you’ll see images embedded – many of them bits and pieces of my computer screen, rather than the entire screen.

For instance, if I want to show you a piece of the window I’m editing this post in, I might show something like this:

easy capture image sample

So, how the heck do I do this? There are two tools that I use – one is FREE and one costs about $50. Why not just use the free tool? Well, because the tool that you pay for has some more features that I find useful, but I started with the free tool.

As you all know, I like a free tool wherever possible…if I need to upgrade, I do so when I’m actually capable of using the additional features.

So, the two tools are:
Easy-Capture (FREEWARE)
Snag-It (30-day free trial, $49.95)

Not only do these tools allow you to capture screenshots from your computer, they also allow you to do simple image editing – which for me, is all the image editing that I’m capable of doing. I want to crop, adjust the size, adjust the color, etc. Mind you, these tools aren’t PhotoShop, but if you only need to work on an image occasionally, and just need to make simple changes, then these tools may work for you.

How do they work? What do they look like? I’ll use the Easy-Capture as an example:

easy capture main screen

You simply select the type of capture you want to do from the ‘Capture’ menu:

easy capture capture menu

Once you’ve picked the type of area you want to capture, you’ll be given further instructions (in this case, I said that I wanted to capture a ‘rectangle region’, and it gives me this image:

easy capture area capture

The instructions tell me to ‘lasso’ the area that I want. It took me a couple of tries the first time, but once I got the hang of it, it was very easy. When I release the mouse, the image that I ‘caught’ appears in the capture window:

easy capture image captured

From here, I can use the toolbar at the top, or the icons on the sides to manipulate the image and save it. I can save the image in a variety of formats (the typical jpg, gif, bmp, etc.). Once it’s saved on my computer, I can place it anywhere I want.

Both these tools download and install quickly without alot of computer ‘overhead’ (i.e. they’re don’t hog all of the computer resources). I use them ALL THE TIME, yet I don’t even use all the functionality that they have available. Like most things in life, I use what I get comfortable with. Tools like Photoshop by Adobe, while incredibly flexible actually have TOO MANY features for me. Additionally, I don’t need an expensive tool to do something this basic.

I find that Easy-Capture or Snag-It have all of the image capturing and photo editing capabilities that I need.

Lessons in kindness to use in business and daily life…

For those of you who don’t know, I live outside of Philadelphia, PA, in an area surrounded by venerable colleges and universities. In some places, you can throw a rock in any direction and ‘hit’ an institution of higher learning. This last week, I heard of an event that occurred between two of those institutions, that reminded me of what we should be learning and teaching – in school and in business.

All too often, civility and caring and respect, are missing from business – and from life, in general. I am reminded that I was taught to ‘do well by doing good’. It is easy to forget this simple truth as we get wrapped up in our days…yet, it’s one that I want to try to keep first and foremost in my mind.

Back on January 29th, 2011, a senior at Swarthmore College by the name of Ceylan Bodur had a career-ending ACL injury (can you say ‘ouch’?). While this was devastating to her and her team, it is true that this happens all the time in sports – collegiate, professional and recreational. What was unusual this day was that Ms. Bodur had 999 career points at Swarthmore. Nine hundred and ninety-nine. One Thousand gets you a banner in the gym. 999 gets you nothing. Talk about devastating. Swarthmore is a Division III school. Ms. Bodur probably wasn’t planning on playing for the WNBA, but for individual achievement, the 1000-point mark would have been remarkable. As of that date, only seven players in Swarthmore’s history had reached that lofty level. It would have been a tremendous personal achievement and a legacy to leave Swarthmore.

OPPORTUNITY LOST…or was it?

Fast-forward to February 16th, 2011 and a conference match-up between rivals Swarthmore College and Bryn Mawr College. The coaches for Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore put their heads together before the match and decided that Ms. Bodur HAD to reach that milestone – so they cooperated.

On the initial tip-off of the game, Bryn Mawr made sure that Swarthmore got control of the ball. A teammate of Ms. Bodur’s dribbled down the court to where her injured teammate stood – unguarded – under the basket. She passed the ball to Ms. Bodur (on the court in uniform AND in a knee-brace) who took the layup (feet firmly planted on the boards) and scored 2-points for a total of 1,001 career points at Swarthmore.

Swarthmore then allowed Bryn Mawr to inbound the ball and take an uncontested shot of their own. Score? 2-2. Timeout. [Already, I’m feeling goosebumps because I love when the right thing happens for the right reason.]

The Swarthmore Coach then substituted all four of her seniors who walked off the court, arm-in-arm, to celebrate the milestone with their teammate. Wow! How special. That’s a moment that those young women – and the people who witnessed it – will remember forever.

How simple. How graceful. How perfect.

We need to translate moments like this into everyday life – both personally and professionally. When you get all caught up in the cut-throat world and focus just on getting ahead, you forget that ‘doing well by doing good’ should always be your guide. Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing what’s good? Am I helping to make someone’s life a little bit better?

This type of sportsmanship just doesn’t occur every day, BUT IT SHOULD. It was so noteworthy that the NCAA, Sports Illustrated and the Associated Press, all picked up the story. For those of you who want to read a bit more, or see the video, here are a couple of links:

VIDEO provided by Swarthmore College

NCAA Write-up

Sports Illustrated Write-up