Posts in Web
How to change your FB relationship status without everyone knowing about it!

Graph Of When People Break Up On Facebook
 

Your on Facebook and  have gone through a tough sad break up. You know that if you change your relationship status you will get some of the dumbest comments hurting you even more.   Ok ok ... changing your relationship status does not always mean you are doing it to break up with someone. I know people who do not want to grab attention when they are engaged or even married.   The point is that you DON'T want the world to know that you changed your relationship  status.  Here is how to do it...

If you are using Facebook's timeline

1.) Start on your Facebook Timeline.

 

 

2.) Click Update Info

 

 

3.) Go to your Family Section

 

 

4.) Click on the Edit button. Then Select "Only Me"

 

 

5.) Make sure you hit save before changing your status!

 

 

6.) Now change your status.

 

 

Graph by [BUZZFEED]

Tune in to Blackfriday.fm

 

This upcoming Black Friday will have many of the large retailers opening at Midnight instead of the early morning. If you would like to get a head start or possibly avoid leaving the family earlier then you need visit http://www.blackfriday.fm/

Blackfriday.fm is a great resource to plan ahead and save yourself time as well as money.

The site has a plethora of information on Black Friday Deals in particular has BlackFriday ads before they have been revealed to the public.

This Black Friday utilize technology to save yourself money and time.

Free Legal Full Length Movies

Here's a treat that many people are not aware of. Youtube the past year or two has increasing been updating the site to support full length movies/documentaries. What many Youtubers do not know is they could watch full length featured movies without the Part 1/10, Part 2/10, etc.

Youtube has a section of Full Length Documentaries and Feature Films. Even a free section which you may view here.

And with a recent announcement that Youtube will feature over 100 original channels in a year or two expect Youtube to replace cable/satellite very soon.

How to buy at Costco without a Costco Card

Costco has large quantities, cheap prices, and an awesome return policy but what if you don't have a card?  How could you possibly take advantage of these great deals? Also, I bet people go to Costco once or twice a year so it is not worth investing into a membership.  Did you know that you can still shop at Costco without a membership!  Here it what you need to do.

  1. Go to Costco.com in the Cash Cards section.
  2. Purchase as many cash cards as you need of $25.00.
  3. When you checkout, grab a friend with a Costco membership to help you enter their membership  number.
  4. After buying the cards, every time you walk in to Costco show one of your Costco cash cards
  5. At the cashier pay with your cash card.
  6. Done, you will be buying at Costco without a membership. :-)
Happy shopping!
If you enjoyed this tip, you may head over to the consumerist.com to see more information on this tip or other related tips.

 

 

 

Verizon Wireless is collecting your information

 

It looks like Verizon Wireless will be pushing out a new privacy policy as reported by a few reputable technology websites like: PCMag, International Business Times and others. Verizon has been sending out email in regards to this change. If you have not received that email here is a link to it.  Verizon will be collecting:

  1. URLs of website you have visited
  2. search terms
  3. app and device usage
  4. consumer information about the use of  the product
  5. demographics in age, gender, pet owner, and other similar  demographics
They will be using this data for marketing purposes and targeting content.
If you do not agree with these changes you can op out by Calling them at 1-866-211-0874 or visiting www.vzw.com/myprivacy.
Where are your References!?

Today's post largely caters towards students or anybody who is composing a research paper article.  Often the very last portion of the research paper is the Bibliography or the citations. Yet, many people have difficulty remembering the proper format for citations especially if the professor/teacher asks for a specific format, for example MLA or APA. There's a website for that.  EasyBib makes writing easier.

The site enables the user to construct a Bibliography in any style you desire.

The Autocite function enables the writer to simply input, for example, a title of the book and it will provide you a list of citations for the book with that title. From there you may select which one to add to your citation list. Below is an example of the short process

Step 0

save image

 

Step 1: Search for a book for example 1984 save image

Step 3: View citation and make any necessary changes

Tip: You could also cite specific pages under the citing option.

save image

Step 4: Hit Create and add to an exportable/printable list aka done!

save image

 

Step 5: Repeat to add to current list at no charge :)

You may create an account doing so will enable you to save your list online for later usage.

http://www.easybib.com/

Google Takeout - Who is hungry!

Sorry! No, Google does not have a food service but something similar. It's not with food but with your data. Now, your data is very valuable to you but also to online companies.  If you are a Google user you might use the majority of their services.  It's a scary thought that one day all your mail, posts, contacts, and other things will always stay up there without being able to have a copy.  Luckily, the data liberation team, "an engineering team at Google whose only purpose is to make it easy for users to move their data out of Google products, has been involved in Google Takeout . Yes, here is where i got the pun. If you head over to Google.com/takeout you may export all your data from Google to keep locally.  I was very excited when I heard about this because I truly believe the user should be in full control,  like the data liberation team states in their mission statement...

"Users should be able to control the data they store in any of Google's products.  Our team's goal is to make it easier to move data in and out."

 

Take advantage of this and really push for other companies to be  open with there data.

www.google.com/takeout

Favorite OneTechTips

  The past few months we have been on a bit of hiatus due to school and some technical difficulties with our host. Now, we are back and better than ever. We are slowly evolving our webpage and always looking for improvement. Monday October 17, we shall see the official relaunch of OneTechTip (OTT) with daily posts and some new featured posts, still following our one post, one tip a day format. For example, we will be having an Andriod/iOS App of the week each week on Tuesdays. Subsequently, we shall be increasing our activity via social networks the next couple of weeks so be sure to follows on @OneTechTip and on Facebook. In addition we have an Android App which can be downloaded via the market, here.

Here is 7 of my favorite featured tips on OTT in no specific order.

  1. Remote Access to Your PC From Anywhere - Teamviewer enables the user to take control of another computer, File Transfers, and access presentations. Great way to help a friend with a computer issue or see what they see.
  2. Look at the Alternatives - This posted highlights a site that features a list of Open Source Alternatives, free to use, to Premium Software.
  3. IM from your Browser - Increasingly social media networks are becoming an integral part of our lives, and many feature chats. In this post we show you a site that enables you to chat via multiple IM clients from one webpage.
  4. Apple Refresh - Apple has come a long way in a little over 10 years. Presently, Apple product redesigns and refreshes are quite common, in this post we feature a site that let's you know whether to hold of on purchasing the current iPhone or to go for it.
  5. Let's Make a Deal - Many of our non-tech savvy friends are unaware that often they save a significant amount of money by buying online.
  6. PCPartPicker - Ever wanted to build your own PC but did not know what components go with what?
  7. Learn HTML, CSS, Javascript - for FREE!!
Feel Free to Contact Us about a tip or a tech related problem you face, whether you are tech savy or not.
Control technology, do not allow it to control you. :)
Google Flights

The holiday season is around the corner and many people travel around the country to visit family. One thing that is always a hassle, now that travel agents aren't around as much, is booking that flight ticket. Google made it easier by making a simple flight tool at www.goole.com/flights. This was expected because they acquired ITA in April 2011.

With this simple tool you can choose from the regular parameters like price range, duration, departure, return, and many more  but the thing that I really like is the graph they show you which can be manipulated to see the shortest and cheapest flight. I believe Google did a good job. I know I wont be visiting those other cluttered sites to search for flights.

 

www.goole.com/flights

 

Internet for only $10 a month

Are you one of those families that received free lunch when you were in school? I remember I would always speed walk to be one of the first people in line and let's say I was not the only one.  Now, if you were one of those families who received free lunch, the ...

'Internet Essentials' [ program is] to Provide Families with Children Eligible for a Free Lunch Under the National School Lunch Program with Low-Cost Internet Service, Affordable Computers and Digital Literacy Training.

When Comcast bought NBC Universal a promise was made to offer internet to  undeserved communities. Now, they are following through. The Internet essentials program will allow affordable internet at $9.95 +tax if you qualify for school lunches. To find out more call 1-855-8-INTERNET or visit InternetEssentilas.com.

 

Press Release , Internet essentials

 

 

Google has a Hotel Finder Tool

Google has come out under experimental mode a service to find trustworthy hotels in any place. They have made it easy by having filtering options in price, rating, and even location. In the location menu you may draw a shape on a map, to tell Google in what area you want to stay. It also highlights on the map, areas that are popular among tourists. I find it very straight forward without any ads. Google also does a good job of compiling all the hotels information.  Take a look at it at www.google.com/hotelfinder.

 

Author: Juan Zepeda

Spell checking for dummies

I am a college student who is pursing computer science and who also working at a medical device company. You would think that I'm a good speller and at least know how to cross my "t" and dot my "i"s. Well, I apologize but that is not my strong suit. I am a terrible speller. I think some of my old post may show that. How do I handle this? I rely a lot on spell check but I have found out that in Gmail, my browser, and even Microsoft Office, all give me different results for each misspelled word. Many times I have not been able to correct my misspelled word. I rely on another tool. This tool has access to any of the data on the information superhighway or Internet. Google! To find the correct spelling I copy and paste my misspelled word into Google and out pops out the correct word. In addition, this shows you how powerful Google is.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame with a computer

Do you remember the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame? Quasimodo? Well I'll be honest, I just remember a guy being hunched over and that's about it. How does this correlate to computers?  In the recently months, my posture has been brought up to my attention. I hunch over when I am at a computer and in the long run, this really could affect my back. I tend to spend many hours at the computer coding away. I took action right away and bought a TKO Anti Burst Fitness Ball. How does this ball help? This allows me to focus my attention on my back by stabilizing and keeping it straight. Based on my week of use, I can say that I have noticed that my back and core have been sore. I have forced my body to stay up straight and stabilize itself.  Remember, I not a chiropractor.


 IMAGE[http://chiropractorpasadenaca.com/sit-up-straight/]
How to disable Windows 7 Password Expiration

Windows 7 password expiring is not too common  but it does happen. I received a computer from a program called California Connects in which by default they set the password to expire every 30 days. It's a huge annoyance. Yes, I understand it's the difference between security and convenience but if you have a strong password you should be ok. Now what if I don't care about the password. How do I remove it? 1.  Go to the start button and type in  “lusrmgr.msc” into the start menu search box. (or the Run box on Windows  XP).

2.  You should get the Local Users and Groups Window. Click on the "Users" folder.

3. The right will populate with accounts. Select the proper account. In my case its CAconnects.

 

4. A pop should show up and just check the "Password never expires" box and click OK

5. Now your set. Just close all the windows and restart Windows.

Facebook is Creeping out Users With Facial Scanning

Facebook's users upload millions of photos daily, and Facebook  has added functionality  to add tags to identifying the people in them. Just a few days ago, we found out that Facebook is scanning, with facial recognition software, every single picture that is uploaded to their servers and grouping similar faces.  Doesn't this creepy you out? Its grouping even non-Facebook members.  Yes, you get a message when people tag you but Facebook is storing this information. What could they do with this data? The company could use it to sell you advertisements  or even be used against  you in court with a subpoena.

Facebook's Blog post

There is something small you can do. It still doesn't stop Facebook from grouping data  but ...

If for any reason you don't want your name to be suggested, you will be able to disable suggested tags in your Privacy Settings. Just click "Customize Settings" and "Suggest photos of me to friends." Your name will no longer be suggested in photo tags, though friends can still tag you manually. You can learn more about this feature in our Help Center.

Be aware of what Facbook does and speak out. If we are not heard we might have a new Big Brother.

 

Suggestion: Post your opinion in their Help Center.

Go Offline in Chat for selected Friends

Facebook in the past integrated Facebook Chat  and allowed you to always be online to all your friends or just not use Chat. The service for some time did not allow you to customize and block any friends. Now, with Facebook lists you can block/ show offline to those friends that you don't want to be bothered by.  To do this create a list of friends that you want to show offline too. Friends-> Edit Friends-> Create a List

After creating a list, head over to Chat and click the green toggle button to set your self as Offline to those individuals.

Now enjoy  your privacy :-)

Facebook Filters Your Wall Feed?

A huge part of Facebook's user have no idea that Facebook filters their friends updates based on how much you interact with certain friends. Basically, on your wall you would see updates, pictures, links, and similar items from  friends that you interact with the most.  In my opinion, Facebook is controlling what I can and can not see and I highly dislike that. To change that  

Go to "Most Recent" on your wall and click "Edit Options":

 

In the "Edit Your Friends Settings" drop down select "All of your friends and pages" and click " Save":

and you are done. Now you will receive updates from all  your friends!

PCPartPicker.com at Your Service

Are you one of those types that love to build your own system? You are usually are a gamer, a techy person or just a person willing to take a risk.  PCPartPicker.com is  a site that lets answer these three questions:

  • Which parts give me the best performance for the price?
  • Which parts are compatible?
  • How do the prices compare across multiple merchants?

 

These questions relate to building your own computer because when you do, there always issues that you need to consider like price, compatibility,  and performance. It's easy to get started, just head over to the main site, PCPartPicker.com, and click the 'Get Started" button. You will be redirected to a page were you can start picking your components like CPU, motherboard, RAM, Power supply, etc...

 

Happy building and thanks to my co-worker David R. for the Tip.

 

Map the Distance You Ran or Cycled

Google, for a while now, has had Google Pedometer. Google pedometer is a mapping service that  you use to lay out the course you want or have taken. This way you know how long the trip is.  That way you can see how fast you are going running or Cycling. Its simple to use.

First,  In the 'Jump to' box enter a city to find where you have run or will run.

Second,  Click 'Start recording' and double-click on the map. Start out with Starting point and double-click till you map your route.

There are many numbers available like Mile markers, total distance, and what metric system to use.  Have a nice exercise.