Posts in Web
Please Backup!

We never learn! You always hear it! Backup! Why don't we? I maybe have an idea. I think it is because it not easy. I think a good easy solution is  to do this is online backup. Most off these solutions use encryption to keep your information secure. Some of the most popular services used  are Carbonite, Mozy, and BackBlaze. Prices are very cheap at around $5 a month and guess what! Unlimited storage! I say what a deal! Please take advantage and back up. Please. Pretty Please...

Picturefrom[alexmuse]

WebJuan Zepedabackblaze, backupp, carbonite, mozyComment
Amazon Prime Deal for Students

I have been using Amazon Prime for a couple of years now and has been worth every cent. For those that don't know what Amazon Prime is, it is Amazon's subscription service that gives you access to exclusive sales/items and free 2-Day shipping (not every item is applicable. Prime is mainly used by those who use Amazon a lot and can get their money's worth through the shipping costs but today students can use it for 1-year with the low price of FREE. The only requirements are that the student has to be currently enrolled in a college or university, have a valid .edu email address, and input the college/university you're going to and your major. It's worth the $80 and definitely worth it for free. You can get more info and sign up at Amazon's Student page. [Amazon Student]

WebJuan ZepedaAmazon, Amazon Prime, Amazon Student, StudentComment
Get Facebook notifications on your desktop

Are you that kind of person that logs into  Facebook everyday? Doesn't it get annoying to see what wall post you have received or who has poked you? There is a handy program that sits in the system tray called fbquick that does just that. You can customize it to your needs. You may set it to check for new notifications and filter things you do not want to receive  alert for. For example, every time someone tags you. I guarantee this will make it easier to coexist with Facebook. That's why we are here for, A New Day, New Tip!

Thanksto[Tekzilla]

Pictureby[Malavida]

WebJuan Zepedadesktop, facebook, fbquick Comment
Later bro!

Sometimes, there have been occasions were we have wanted to update our Facebook or Twitter account at a later time and  knew that we where not going to be near a computer. I present to you Laterbro. Later bro is a website where you log in and can set your Facebook and Twitter status updates to a time you want. It's secure because they do not save your password. Try it today.

Snapshotfrom[Laterbro]

WebJuan Zepedafacebook, laterbro, TwitterComment
I want my own custom URL on Facebook.

I have seen people use their own Facebook page as a Personal website. They just say go to www.facebook.com/yourname. This seems like a very good idea, short easy and the information is there. You may ask, "How do i set that up?". Well, I am glad you asked. If you go to www.facebook.com/username and you are logged in you can set your URL to anything you want. For OneTechTip i say go to www.facebook.com/onetechtip. Enjoy this nifty tip.

Photoby[sitmonkeysupreme]

WebJuan Zepedafacebook, url, usernameComment
Firefox 4 Beta Released

The first beta build for Mozilla's browser, Firefox 4, was just released today with a variety of changes. First and foremost, check to make sure your crucial add-ons are currently compatible with the latest build. In this case, that would be beta1. If all is still well, then install and prepare for the changes (only two of them). The first difference is that tabs are now on top of the window, similar to the layout the beta release for Safari 4 used. If you weren't a fan of them, there is an option for you to return them to their familiar home.

The second is the introduction to the "Firefox button". Instead of a menu bar, you get a button. If you've ever used an app from Microsoft Office, then you know what I'm talking about. Just like the tab change, there's an option for the menu bar to return (which I will be doing).

For now, these changes will only be available for those that use it on Windows but will later be available for Mac and Linux users. You can get the beta here.

WebJuan Zepedabeta, Firefox, Linux, Mac, Mozilla, windowsComment
Found a picture online and want it bigger or better quality?

I have been doing a website for SBCC  TAP and have run into problems were I find an awesome picture BUT....  the picture is to0 small and if a make it bigger, it gets pixelated. I found a website that solves my problem. This website is called TinEye.  The website finds pictures relating to the ones you need. In order for it to work you must paste the picture URL or upload it to TinEye. Then, TinEye searches the internet to find related pictures. Walla! Problem solved.

WebJuan Zepedaimages, pictures, resize, tineye Comments
Want an Easy Online Photo Editor?

Well Picnik, is a simple and free tool that is online and also available to anyone. You can edit and fix up any photo you want with just clicks. There are tons of special effects that you can choose from to make your pictures look the best. If you would like to upgrade to premium and get all the effects from Picnik, the price is only $24.95 a year. So come and check this photo editor out.

Difficulty Level: Beginner

Linux, Mac, Web, WindowsJuan ZepedaComment
Brizzly

If you ever find yourself getting tired from switching back and forth between Twitter and Facebook, then Brizzly is for you. Brizzly is a great web app that helps you with stream of information coming in from Twitter and Facebook. Brizzly has great support Twitter like embedding pictures automatically but the best feature Brizzly has for Twitter its' support for Trends. Whenever something starts getting a lot of buzz on Twitter, it begins to Trend and shows up on the right hand column of your Twitter page. Well Brizzly does the same but what makes it so great is Brizzly users can submit what they think the trending topic means. It's great whenever you find yourself wondering what some of the topics mean. You can check Brizzly out at their website, here.

WebJuan ZepedaBrizzly, facebook, TwitterComment
Write emails with your handwriting

PilotHandwriting.com is amazing. It lets you write emails with your handwriting. It very easy and elegant. Simply, print out their template and fill boxes with your handwriting. Second, put the template up to your web cam and PilotHandwriting will detect and memorize your handwriting. If you do not like it you can edit the letters online.  Again, it is easy and fun to do.  Below you can see the video, so you may get a better understanding. Have fun. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHl8UEewbN8&feature=player_embedded]

WebJuan Zepedaletter, pilothandwriting, writingComment
What in the World is Google Voice?

Well, Google Voice is a program provided by Google that lets you call and text for free in the USA and Canada. With this, you can customize your voice mail greetings and choose who and what greeting they get when they call. It also has this ability called Voice Mail Transcription. This transcribes the voice mail that was left into a text and sent to you to via email/SMS. You can either use a Google number or a non-Google number for this. So check it out now.

Difficulty Level: Easy

technology, WebJuan ZepedaComment
World Cup 2010 Streaming Options

With FIFA's 2010 World Cup well under way, there might be a few of you out there that can't watch the matches. But if you have any form of high-speed internet, then you can just view the matches live on your computer. Tom Harrison has a post up on Lifehacker that contains a variety of sites that can stream matches to you. Like the post says, some services might be region blocked and will not allow users from certain areas to view while other services like ESPN3 (formerlly ESPN360) are paid services that the user pays through their Internet Service Provider. Go ahead and check out the post to see which ones work for you. Now those are the legal (and most likely the best quality) ways to view the match, but there are even more options. ustream and Justin.tv are known sites that offer un-authorized streams of various sports, ranging from the NBA to the World Cup. You can search for the specific match you want and there will be a variety of streams available. For the most part, some are of really poor quality or don't even work at all but you might get lucky and find one that works.

There are also people have their own blog/site dedicated to hosting their own streams. You can find these using Google. Just use "high quality world cup streaming" or a variety of other keywords. You can also just Google "lets-kickoff". *wink wink nudge nudge*

If you have any other sites or services that you know of, let me know in the comments and I'll add them on here.

Where to Watch World Cup Soccer Streaming Live [Lifehacker]

TV, WebJuan ZepedaLifehacker, Streaming, World Cup Comments
Photoshop For FREE!!!!!!!!

Photoshop is out online for free. This photoshop enables you to sync with your online photo albums, such as Picasa, Photobucket and Facebook. You can edit them and then save them, and then photoshop will send it back and it will be shown up as how you made it to be. This has more things available than the other free ones out there, like, the demos. So come and check it out here.

Difficulty Level: Easy

WebJuan Zepeda Comment
Download Embedded Media

A while ago here on OneTechTip, I gave a tip on DownThemAll, a download manager extension for Firefox. Now today's tip is a little similar to it because it's also a Firefox extension to help you download media but with a twist. DownThemAll helps you download media but only if the link to the media is posted on the webpage. If the media in question is embedded behind a media player (let's say it's a song), DownThemAll wouldn't be able to download it. This is where DownloadHelper comes in. You just click on DownloadHelper's icon in the status bar or next to the address bar and the available song(s) will be there ready for you to download. It does video as well with a long list of supported sites including YouTube.

Like DownThemAll, DownloadHelper does have a drawback. It can only download media if the file is already pre-loaded onto the sites servers. If they are streaming the file instead of downloading the file all at once, you will not be able to use DownloadHelper. I'll go over on what to use for that next week.

You can find more info on DownloadHelper here.

Difficulty Level: Easy

WebJuan ZepedaDownloadHelper, DownThemAll, FirefoxComment
Google has a background...About time

For many years Google's homepage has been very very simple. White and straight to the point. The only significant thing that has been changed has been Google's Doodles( found here). Just a couple of days ago Google allowed you to add "a favorite photo or image to the background of the Google homepage. You can choose a photo from your computer, your own Picasa Web Album or a public gallery hosted by Picasa which includes a selection of beautiful photos." Have fun and be creative customizing  your homepage, if of course you use Google. [Googleblog]

1.) Go to www.google.com

2.) Find the button/Text that Says "Change background image" on the lower left hide side and click.

3.) Choose your background and walla!

4.) If you want to remove it. You will see a button like in the picture.

WebJuan Zepedabackground, google Comments
Are You Getting The Bandwidth Speed You Were Promised?

Many internet service providers, also know as ISP's, promise a certain speed, but never actually give you what you are paying for. For example, for us we were promised a speed of a 512 kbps, but we actually receive an average speed of 200 kbps. The FCC, Federal Communications Commission, is trying to get high-speed internet service to all the houses. The FCC, can't do this by themselves, they need our help. They want to provide us with reliable and accurate statistics of the ISP broadband connections. But how can we help? Well just head over to test my isp and sign up. You will get a chance to change the American Broadband Industry and get a free high-speed wireless router! For more info go the site. FCC, SamKnows & you: "Working together for better broadband"

Info from the test my isp site

Difficulty Level: Easy

WebJuan ZepedaispComment
Improve Your Browsing Experience

Sites are becoming more and more malicious as exploiters are able to add code to a site and run it without your notification. So instead of dealing with it when your system is already affected, you can prevent it at the source with NoScript. NoScript is a Firefox extension that prevents any un-authorized scripts to be run. Whether it be Javascript, Java, or even Flash, NoScript prevents any of them without being run. If you're at a site that you do trust, all you have to do is click on the icon that appears in the lower right of the window and whitelist the sites of your choice. You can also temporarily allow sites instead of adding them permanently to your trusted sites.

It's not just a great security tool but a general improvement to your browsing. It can stop YouTube videos that auto-play, block those pesky flash ads, and any other scripts that interfere with your browsing.

This script alone makes Firefox worth using if you're not already. But to those that don't like using Firefox, there is an alternative for Google Chrome. The word alternative is used very loosely for Chrome's FlashBlock extension. Just as the name suggests, it blocks Flash from running until you choose to allow it. Just click on the Flash object and it will run as if nothing happened. The downside is that it isn't as advanced as NoScript but it is a start. If you have any other alternatives or suggestions, leave a comment and I'll check it out.

NoScript and FlashBlock

Difficulty Level: Easy

WebJuan ZepedaScriptComment