What you can do online beside check email

Computer Care: Behold the wonders of the Web By Arthur Glazerglazer.tech@gmail.com POSTED: February 4, 2012 1:00 a.m.

Did you know that Finley Stephens of Weston, Mo., lays claim to the largest ball of string (not twine) at 19 feet in diameter, weighing 3,712 pounds? How about the fact that it would take about 80,000 years to travel to the nearest star in Alpha Centauri with the technology that we have today? Australian shepherds don't come from down under but originate from Colorado. Really? Yes. I didn't know those facts, either, but I found them quickly (with multiple sources) on the Internet. Many of my clients tell me all they need their computers for is email, and they don't know what else they can do with them. I often sleep but five hours a night because I get caught up in Internet searches. Much of my computing knowledge I've learned from websites. I read news stories online, watch missed TV shows, do comparative research for products I want to buy, find programs for my computer and apps for my cellphone, learn how to repair things that I break and sell things that I no longer need. I have booked vacations, sold cars and artwork and bought cameras and laptops, all online. Most of the electronics I need for my computer business are purchased online at better prices than I can get locally, even considering the shipping costs. My point is that if all you use your computer for is email, then you need to take your mouse out for a ride. There is a world out there just waiting for you to explore. Too often I hear excuses like, "I am too old to learn," or "I don't know how." Well, bunk. (Synonym I found online for a more aromatic term I usually use.) When I was a kid, the only research I had access to was the World Book Encyclopedia. Each year, my parents would buy the annual supplement and I was thrilled. It was nice, but limited, and it cost a small fortune. By comparison, today the Internet is huge and it is free, aside from your connection fees. The information is literally available at our fingertips and is enormous, almost infinite. You don't need any special knowledge, only a desire to know or want something. Just ask Google a question. Speak like you would to a friend. Type your query in question form. Don't worry about grammar or using caps. If I want recipes with broccoli, but without cheese, that's what I would type: I would ask, "What are broccoli recipes without cheese?" (without quotes). Have a hankering to understand Einstein? Type, "Explain the Theory of Relativity." You will get pages of hits to your queries; the first few on the first page will usually answer your question. Avoid responses that say "ad," as they are paid-for responses and will steer you astray to the sponsors' product pages. Look at a few pages and save them as bookmarks or favorites, depending on what your browser calls them. Shop online. Do comparisons between products and stores and read what shoppers say about what you want to buy. If you buy online, you can have your purchase shipped or pick it up at local stores like Target, Sears and Wal-Mart, to name a few. Use snopes.com to dispel those email rumors we all get. (Bill Gates will give you $50 if you forward this column.) Feeling bad? Look up your symptoms online. Did your doctor prescribe some new medications for you? See what you shouldn't mix with them on the pharmaceutical's website. Discover which foods are antioxidant-rich or low in fat. Aside from Google, I like ask.com, howto.com and youtube.com. You'll find that many queries will refer you to these three sites often. You Tube is great if you need to know how to do things like fix a leaky toilet, change your car's water pump, refill your inkjet cartridges or install RAM in your computer. If you are a DIY enthusiast and a visual learner, you will like their videos. Watch, pause and rewind them. Bookmark the videos and watch them again. Are you tired of the bar scene? Internet dating has increased over the years. Approximately 5 million singles use online dating services worth about $4 billion worldwide. (Yes, these statistics come from the Internet.) If you have a webcam, download and install Skype, a free video-conferencing application. You will truly enjoy chatting with your dates or your out-of-town children and be able to see them at the same time. Welcome to the 21st century. The Internet works. My wife and I met online back when the information superhighway was but a dirt road. We have watched the Web and our marriage grow for almost 20 years, although I do believe Teressa knows more trivia than Google. If all you go online for is email, live dangerously. Go look up something. You can't break your computer — not like that, anyway. You don't need a Ph.D. or any special knowledge. The latter is what you'll gain. Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly on the Business page and on gainesvilletimes.com.

Did you know that Finley Stephens of Weston, Mo., lays claim to the largest ball of string (not twine) at 19 feet in diameter, weighing 3,712 pounds? How about the fact that it would take about 80,000 years to travel to the nearest star in Alpha Centauri with the technology that we have today? Australian shepherds don't come from down under but originate from Colorado. Really? Yes. I didn't know those facts, either, but I found them quickly (with multiple sources) on the Internet. Many of my clients tell me all they need their computers for is email, and they don't know what else they can do with them. I often sleep but five hours a night because I get caught up in Internet searches. Much of my computing knowledge I've learned from websites. I read news stories online, watch missed TV shows, do comparative research for products I want to buy, find programs for my computer and apps for my cellphone, learn how to repair things that I break and sell things that I no longer need. I have booked vacations, sold cars and artwork and bought cameras and laptops, all online. Most of the electronics I need for my computer business are purchased online at better prices than I can get locally, even considering the shipping costs. My point is that if all you use your computer for is email, then you need to take your mouse out for a ride. There is a world out there just waiting for you to explore. Too often I hear excuses like, "I am too old to learn," or "I don't know how." Well, bunk. (Synonym I found online for a more aromatic term I usually use.) When I was a kid, the only research I had access to was the World Book Encyclopedia. Each year, my parents would buy the annual supplement and I was thrilled. It was nice, but limited, and it cost a small fortune. By comparison, today the Internet is huge and it is free, aside from your connection fees. The information is literally available at our fingertips and is enormous, almost infinite. You don't need any special knowledge, only a desire to know or want something. Just ask Google a question. Speak like you would to a friend. Type your query in question form. Don't worry about grammar or using caps. If I want recipes with broccoli, but without cheese, that's what I would type: I would ask, "What are broccoli recipes without cheese?" (without quotes). Have a hankering to understand Einstein? Type, "Explain the Theory of Relativity." You will get pages of hits to your queries; the first few on the first page will usually answer your question. Avoid responses that say "ad," as they are paid-for responses and will steer you astray to the sponsors' product pages. Look at a few pages and save them as bookmarks or favorites, depending on what your browser calls them. Shop online. Do comparisons between products and stores and read what shoppers say about what you want to buy. If you buy online, you can have your purchase shipped or pick it up at local stores like Target, Sears and Wal-Mart, to name a few. Use snopes.com to dispel those email rumors we all get. (Bill Gates will give you $50 if you forward this column.) Feeling bad? Look up your symptoms online. Did your doctor prescribe some new medications for you? See what you shouldn't mix with them on the pharmaceutical's website. Discover which foods are antioxidant-rich or low in fat. Aside from Google, I like ask.com, howto.com and youtube.com. You'll find that many queries will refer you to these three sites often. You Tube is great if you need to know how to do things like fix a leaky toilet, change your car's water pump, refill your inkjet cartridges or install RAM in your computer. If you are a DIY enthusiast and a visual learner, you will like their videos. Watch, pause and rewind them. Bookmark the videos and watch them again. Are you tired of the bar scene? Internet dating has increased over the years. Approximately 5 million singles use online dating services worth about $4 billion worldwide. (Yes, these statistics come from the Internet.) If you have a webcam, download and install Skype, a free video-conferencing application. You will truly enjoy chatting with your dates or your out-of-town children and be able to see them at the same time. Welcome to the 21st century. The Internet works. My wife and I met online back when the information superhighway was but a dirt road. We have watched the Web and our marriage grow for almost 20 years, although I do believe Teressa knows more trivia than Google. If all you go online for is email, live dangerously. Go look up something. You can't break your computer — not like that, anyway. You don't need a Ph.D. or any special knowledge. The latter is what you'll gain. Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly on the Business page and on gainesvilletimes.com.

Search Engines

Computer Care: Search engines are your browser's GPS
Knowing how to type entries can speed up and narrow your searches

By Arthur Glazer
glazer.tech@gmail.com

POSTED: September 3, 2011 1:00 a.m.

Internet Web browsers get you where you're going online. But what if you don't know where you're going? It's like driving without a map or global positioning.

Enter the search engine. Think of it as a GPS for your browser.

The method by which I search for things on the Internet is Google. Others are Yahoo, Microsoft's Bing and the all-inclusive Dog Pile.

Search engines do more than point the way. With the proper tools, they have the ability to guide you exactly where you want to go and more.

There are some helpful shortcuts when using search engines. Using Google try these: "Define: your word," when looking for definitions. You can also highlight any word on a page and right-click for a definition.

Use it as a calculator. Type, "300/3" or 300*3 or whatever calculation you need. It's that simple.

You can also type, "Sunrise Any City," "Weather Any City," "Time Any City," "cm in inches," and "Movies 30501." UPS or USPS tracking numbers can be entered directly in the search bar for results.

Most search engines have built-in Boolean logic. That means there are a few search terms you can use to narrow down what you're looking for. This is helpful when looking for websites.

The most common Boolean terms are AND, OR and NOT. They must be typed in caps for them to work.

Let's say you were researching the census in Georgia. You could type "census Georgia." The AND is implied. It's like typing "census AND Georgia." Your results would yield Georgia census results.

But if you typed "Census OR Georgia," the results would differ dramatically. You'd get both census results from all over, plus all kinds of data about Georgia.

Adding a minus sign (-) is the same as saying NOT.

If you want to discount an area in your census search, you'd say, "Georgia census - Atlanta," or Georgia census NOT Atlanta. That would give you results without Atlanta being counted.

By placing your search terms in quotes, you ensure every word that you type in your query will be part of the search. The search engines tend to ignore prepositions. If you were looking for information on freedom of speech, place the search terms in quotation marks to be sure the entire phrase is being searched for, not individual words. Search with, "Freedom of speech."

Google has an "Advanced" link at the top of its results page, to the right of the search box. Click on it to discover a plethora of ways to hone in on your search. Also click on the plus sign near the bottom of the Advanced Search page. It will open options concerning dates, region, usage rights and more.

Using the advanced mode will greatly enhance your search capabilities.

Some websites are dated. You may be surfing for info and land on a page only to discover it's from 2003. Depending on your topic, an outdated article may or may not be important, but keep it in mind.

Searches engines like Google are free thanks to the ads on every page. The trouble is, many Web surfers don't know the difference between an actual hit and an ad. Advertisers are counting that.

Often, the top two hits on a page are paid-for ads. So is the entire column on the right-hand side of the page (on Google). Ads state that they are such, but sometimes the pale color of the font that says, "Ad" is so light that it's barely noticeable, especially on a laptop if the lid isn't at just the right angle.

This is the cause of many surfers' search results being tainted. Even a genuine hit can steer you in the wrong direction. You can also be misdirected by a hijacker, often resulting in a virus.

Occasionally when I search for a device driver, I click a link from my search results and end up on a page that sells utilities that install drivers, not at all what I wanted.

The best way to find something is to simply type your query as if you were talking to your computer.

Type, "How do I find drivers for HP OfficeJet 6500?" You will be taken directly to the proper HP download page.

Try it with anything. I was working on my daughter's car. I asked it, "How do you change the gas filter on a Volvo?" I was taken to a bunch of You Tube videos and some helpful pdf files.

Google will mark a direct hit with a star and a checkmark to help you find your way.

After you find the websites you've searched for, you'll need to save them.

Rather than have one long scrolling list of your Favorites or Bookmarks, create customized folders to store your sites in. With Chrome, for example, click the star to save a page, then click the "Edit" button and choose "New Folder."

Organize your folders so they make sense to you. It will make finding those websites easier later on, once you have them sorted.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly on the Business page and on gainesvilletimes.com.

Google: not just a search engine

Google is not just a search engine anymore

By Arthur Glazer

arthur@glazerthepctech.com

Firefox used to be my browser of choice. I never liked Internet Explorer and have dabbled with both Opera and Safari, but always returned back to Firefox — until recently.

One day I downloaded and installed a Firefox update only to discover my browser crashed like the Dow on Black Monday.

Then Firefox would crash almost every time I used it. I would click on a link or type in an address and boom — gone. But they are so polite at Mozilla, the creators of Firefox. Each time it crashed, I would get a message saying they were sorry and would I like to report the incident? Each report I sent got a bit stronger than the last.

With some research, I discovered the Firefox enhancements — or plug-ins, as they are called — don't work under Windows 7. I was told I should update each of the plug-ins. That wasn't going to happen and I just got rid of them instead.

I soon found it was the new Firefox that didn't play well with the new Windows and since I wasn't about to get rid of Win 7, it was time to retire my browser.

Enter Chrome, from the folks at Google. I like their search engine; I use Gmail, their e-mail client; the highly customizable home page iGoogle they offer is superb, so I thought I'd give Chrome a try.

It was touted as a lean, clean, super-fast browsing machine. They weren't lying. I can't think of a single bad thing to say about Chrome. It is wonderful. It's easy to use, stable and extremely fast.

Other browsers needed outside applications to tweak their settings. Chrome doesn't require any tweaking. This is not Googles's first barbeque. They apparently know what they are doing — and do it well.

Chrome can be downloaded here. It will take less than three minutes to download and install it.

You'll find it is also highly customizable with hundreds of themes to use. They will put pictures at the top of your page, from sunsets to SpongeBob. Their plug-ins are called extensions and there are many to choose from to enhance your browsing experience.

At first glance, you may notice there is only an address bar, no search bar like Firefox has. Well, it is an all-in-one deal. In that one space you can type the URL (address) you want to go to or type in your search query, then just hit Enter.

Not only is it a tabbed browser, but it allows you to arrange the tabs simply by dragging them to wherever you want.

It will save your passwords for you, has malware and phishing protection and will import your settings and favorites from another browser.

You have the option of opening it to a home page of your choice or to a page with large thumbnails of either your most recent pages visited or your most often pages visited.

I have mine set to a custom iGoogle page. Once you have any account with Google, you just sign in and make your page. I use my Gmail account to do that. My iGoogle page has local weather, headlines, an editable to-do list, my recent Gmail inbox (with the ability to compose an e-mail from that page), as well as a calendar and a search box. It has all of that content plus a nice tropical palm tree/ocean motif at the top of the page.

There is a shortcut bar you can toggle on and off by typing Control + B. It will keep your most often used website shortcuts there for you. If you are on gainesvilletimes.com and go there every day, just drag the star before URL to the bar below, and voila: You just created a shortcut. You can delete it by right-clicking on it and choosing delete.

Other shortcuts that will make your browsing easier are Control +Shift + N that opens an incognito window that doesn't save your history or cookies.

Alt + Home opens your home page. Control + J takes you to recent downloads. Control + T opens a new tab, while Control + Shift +T opens the last tab you closed. There are lots more.

I like the fact that it saves downloads to bar beneath the main window. This saves you the trouble of searching the system for the file you just downloaded. From that bar, you also have the option of seeing your entire download folder, should you need to.

Google has proved to be a cutting edge company with lots of products I find useful. Recently, I began using their Google Voice, which transposes my cell phone voicemail to a text message and an e-mail. It also lets me play the message on my computer. Now how cool is that?

Google is not just a search engine anymore.

And Firefox is not my browser.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly. Arthur welcomes your computer questions and ideas for future columns.