Cloud Computing - Continued Discussion...

Several times earlier this year (in Feb. & May) we discussed Cloud Computing, but things are changing and there are more and more companies offering us the ability to store on their clouds (which means on their servers) So- the discussion continues...

There is no doubt that cloud computing is here to stay.  Many of us have been using "cloud computing" for years without realizing it - If you use a hotmail, yahoo, AOL or Gmail account" for your emails, you go to the specific company's website, via the internet, enter your user name & password (from any computer in the world) and your email messages appear. You can then write/compose new emails - all the while the computer you are sitting at, is simply a vehicle allowing us to see and type - but all of our emails are actually being stored and/or written on/from their computers....hence "cloud computing"

Today many of these same email vendors are providing us with additional free space, so that in addition to our emails we can also store our documents, photos, movies & music in another part of our "email account" - like having an additional file cabinet...  Why would we do that?

Well, like your emails, you can access any of these items stored on their "cloud" when you are away from your computer (home or work) because remember it's stored on their computer - in their cloud...

If you have multiple devices - you may want to "sync" them, so that when you enter information on one device, it appears on all your devices...   

For example:

You have a Windows based computer, a Smartphone & a tablet - if you have a Gmail account and use the Google Drive Cloud - whatever is entered in these on one computer shows up on the rest

Or You have an iPhone, iPad and MacBook - by simply having an iCloud ID and password (and the iCloud ID can be your existing email address w/hotmail, Gmail, etc..) you can select in the settings of your iCloud what you want to share among your devices-Photos, emails, contacts, calendars, etc..

Or maybe you have a Windows PC, an Android Smartphone and a MacBook - you could simply choose to have the Apple iCloud on all your devices to share your music, data & moves...

And the combination goes on and one..

If you have been using hotmail/live/msn accounts - you have "SkyDrive" which is their free cloud computing for us to store data and photos - but anyone can go to SkyDrive.com and download the app and receive a certain amount of storage for FREE - Gmail users have the free Picasa Web Albums and Google Drive cloud; and again anyone can use this or Apple/MAC's iCloud or any of the other hundreds of companies... most allow some free storage - others charge an annual or monthly fee - some based on the amount of storage, some are by computer - it varies..

Shop around and remember you can use multiple "cloud services"; I know some people who store all their music in iTunes synced with the iCloud; and use their SkyDrive for their documents; maybe DropBox for their data from work; Google Drive w/Picasa Web Albums for their photos and Carbonite, so everything is backed up every time they are on the computer (no limit) but this service doesn't allow you to use a syncing feature (yet)!

The list of companies offering cloud computing is growing every day.  Each has their own features, it depends on what you are looking for... I always think it's better to begin with the FREE services while you learn, and once you've mastered that and understand what it is you are using, then you can always switch to or add another service if needed...Here is the link to an article recently published about some of the popular "cloud computing companies" -

http://www.consumer-rankings.com/online-backup

How to Download Audio & eBooks from most libraries…

Reading on portable devices has never been easier - and instead of running to your local library - most offer us the ability to download books from the comfort of our homes, office or anywhere we can access the Internet... 

Although the way in which can vary slightly from library to library, most work the same way – whether you want to download them to your computer, mobile device, iPod, iPad, Nook, Kindle or other eBook reader…  If you have a problem download, call or visit your specific library’s website, as most list their instructions for downloading…

WHAT DO YOU NEED:

1.   A compatible device with an internet connection – PC, Mac’s or mobile devices

2.   A current valid library membership card

3.   Free software, which is typically available at your library’s website, such as

•  OverDrive Media Console for Audio Books on PC, Macs & other mobile devices
•  Adobe Digital Editions, for PDF & EDUB eBooks on PC, Macs & other eBook readers..

 WHAT TO DO NEXT:

1.   Browse your library’s website, searching by title, subject, author or format

2.   Add selections to your “Cart” – Some libraries will allow you to place “a hold” on books currently not available and then you will get an email when they are available

3.   Click on the “proceed to checkout” link (similar to shopping online)

4.   Click “Download” or “get for kindle”

5.   Once it is downloaded, you are ready to enjoy your Audio Book or eBook

•   For  eReaders: You will Open “Adobe Digital Editions” and drag  drop the title onto the device name on the left panel-After the transfer is complete you may disconnect your device from the internet and enjoy your books..
•  For audio and video, Open “OverDrive Media Console”, select your title an click “Transfer” to launch the Transfer Wizard – Follow the prompts to complete the transfer process
•  For Kindles, click “Get for Kindle” to retrieve your download from Amazon.com, Select the Kindle or Kindle reading app in which o deliver the title and you are ready to go..

 REMINDERS…

·   The book “Titles” typically will automatically expire at the end of the lending period, avoiding any late fees.

·   Once you’ve downloaded these, many Audio Titles can be burned to CD, so you would insert you CD, then Click the Burn button in “OverDrive” and launch the Burn Wizard, Select the part you want to burn and when the burn is done, you can enjoy your title wherever you can play CD..

Different ways to shut down your computer or laptop..

Before shutting down your computer, it is always a good idea and beneficial for the life of your computer, to close all applications you have running, such as your email, multiple websites/tabbed browsing, word, excel, power point, game or other application programs.

·         This can be done by Left clicking the "X" in the upper-right corner of each program page (often in a red box)

OR

·         Using your task bar at the bottom of your monitor, Right click on each open program and then left click on “close group:.  If you have open applications such as Word, Excel and the like, you may be promoted to confirm whether or not you want to save any changes made to those documents, spreadsheets or power point presentations.. 

Using keyboard shortcuts

·         Press and hold the following three keyboard keys at the same time: "Control, ALT and Delete (CTRL + ALT + DEL)" keys on your keyboard

·         This will open the “"Shutdown" menu

·         Using your navigation arrows on the keyboard, press the downward (or upward) arrow to highlight the "Shut Down" option.

·         Once “Shut Down” is highlighted, simply press the "Enter" key on the keyboard and the computer will shut down and power off 

Using your mouse

·         Simply left click on your “Start” Button

·         When the Start Menu Appears, note that the right bottom side of the start menu list, you the “Turn off computer” button

·         Left click on this button or arrow

·         The “ShutDown” action box will appear and depending on the version of Windows you are using, you will have the choice of choosing “Standby”. “Restart” or “Shut Down”

·         Left click on whichever option you choose and that is the action that will occur

On an apple Mac:

·         Click on "Finder" at the top of your computer screen to access a drop-down menu (usually next to the Apple icon).

·         Highlight the "Shut Down" option from the drop-down menu.

• Allow your computer the time it needs to completely shut down before you close the lid on your laptop or remove the power supply from your computer.

How to convert music to MP3 format?

How can I change my iTunes or other music, to MP3 format so that I can insert them when I am creating a photo video in Movie Maker or Picasa Movies?

This is very easy and a very common question - whether your are using a PC with windows software or a MAC. When we purchase and download music from various vendors or when we rip them CD's, they typically come over the “fullest” version.

However when we want to create a project, using software such as Picasa Movie and or Windows Movie Maker, many of these application programs will not allow us to use the “fullest” version of the music because it is too large.

So when we open the music files from these programs, although we know the songs are there, we don’t see them - the file appears to be empty; so we need to change/convert the music to MP3 format, which all these programs accept - follow these steps:

• Simply open your iTunes or media player
• Be sure on the left you have chosen music as the media folder you want to see, and then find the album or individual song you want to convert to “MP3 format”..
• Highlight the song/songs that you want to convert in the playlist
• Go to the menu bar: in Windows choose Edit and on a Mac/iTunes – Choose iTunes
• When the menu bar drops down, choose Preferences,
• When the Preferences Dialog Box Opens, be sure you are on the General tab
• Now Choose Import Settings (about the center of the dialog box-right side)
• When the Import Settings Dialog Box opens, Change AAC Encoder to MP3 Encoder
• Also be sure High Quality is chosen and then click OK

Now, be sure your songs are highlighted that you want to change

• Right Click on the songs and when the action menu list appears, choose MP3 Version
• You’ll see the songs being converted
• You are done..

Notes:

• Next time you open the music folder from Picasa or Movie Maker you will see the songs as MP3 format and be able to include them in your video..
• You will now have 2 versions of every song – the original “full” version and the more condensed MP3 version

SKYPE HAVING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Many of us use SKYPE daily and if so, you know they are having some technical difficulties right now. They are working on the problems and hope to have a fix soon. You can check out this information for yourself as to what to do in the interim to fix it, which we copies from the MSNBC website:

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/26/6722180-skypes-not-working-right-now-heres-how-to-fix-it?GT1=43001

While you wait for Skype to fix things though, you can still use the service if you're willing to do a little bit of work. The "Next Web" has helpfully provided instructions on a trick which will let you sign in through your official Skype desktop client of choice (or you can wait until Skype fixes the problems):

WINDOWS VISTA & WINDOWS 7

1. Close Skype

· a. Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
· b. Choose Quit

2. Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.

· a. Click Start, type run and press Enter
· b. Type control folders and click OK.
· c. Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.

3. Locate the shared.xml file.

· a. Click Start, type run and press Enter.
· b. Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
· c. Delete the shared.xml file.

4. Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

WINDOWS XP

1. Close Skype
· a. Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
· b. Choose Quit.

2. Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.

· a. Click Start and then Run…
· b. Type control folders and click OK.
· c. Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.

3. Locate the shared.xml file

· a. Click Start and then Run…
· b. Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
· c. Delete the shared.xml file.

4. Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

MAC OS X

1. Quit Skype.
2. Go to the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/
3. Delete the file shared.xml (it will be recreated once you open Skype again, this is fine).
4. Start Skype.

Please note on the MAC OS X that the ~ sign means your home folder. You can find your home folder by opening Finder and selecting Go > Home from the menu bar or pressing Command (Apple), Shift and H keys at the same time.

OS stands for Operating Systems

New Wi-Fi Memory Cards for Digital Cameras

Have you heard of the new “wi-fi” memory cards for use in your digital cameras and camcorders… Check out this website:

www.eye.fi

The Eye-Fi memory cards look, stores media, and fit into cameras just like a regular SDHC memory card. On top of that, the Eye-Fi card has built-in Wi-Fi that uses your wireless network to effortlessly transfer photos and videos

The Eye-Fi card uses your home or office Wi-Fi network-Upon setup, specify which networks the Eye-Fi card uses to transfer your media. You can add up to 32 networks for your card to use. The next time your camera is on and within range of a specified network, your photos and videos will fly to your computer and to your favorite sharing site.

The Eye-Fi cards (4GB – 8GB for $40-$150 each) are the first wireless memory cards.

Features (from their website)

• 4GB memory. Store up to 2,000 photos or 90mn of video with top-notch Class 6 speed. Works just like with your regular SDHC memory card. Perfect for your compact camera
• Wireless. Upload JPEG photos & videos fast through your home Wi-Fi network thanks to built-in 802.11n speed
• Endless. Get the only card that can free-up space for you after pictures are safely delivered. Never worry about running out of space again
• Automatic back-up. Wirelessly upload JPEG photos and videos to folders of your choice on your computer, or even directly into iPhoto for Macs
• Organized. Photos and videos can automatically land in date-based folders, so memories are organized effortlessly
• Compatible. No need to buy a new camera – visit their website to confirm that your camera can be turned into a wireless uploading machine
• Effortless sharing. Wirelessly send your JPEG photos and videos to a popular website. Visit their website to see a complete list that you can choose from, which includes Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, MobileMe, and YouTube
• Pick your pics. You can select which photos and videos are uploaded
• Get notified. Get email, Facebook or Twitter alerts when your photos are uploading online
• Quick and sweet. Set up takes just minutes