My decision - Most likely my last blog post here

I've decided to migrate away from the bigger social media companies. This includes blogger, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. I do NOT like where this is going.

The problem with Google and Facebook, as companies, is that they don't realize who uses their platform. Yes there's a lot of people who criticize certain groups, but there's even more who will stand by free speech. People who's content are seemingly benign. These are the ones you should worry about.

COMPETENT people are for open discussions even if it means letting idiots have their say.
COMPETENT people are for the free market (not corporatism, that is different)
COMPETENT people are patient, but do have their limits, and when those limits are reached, they'll leave in DROVES.

But it's not just the users that will leave, if the economy improves, it will also be the employees. You fired one of them already. Many more will follow. Then you will be stuck with people who have no clue on how to run a business and they will drive Google to the ground.

There are more competent people than the vile, race/sex-baiting hedonistic-type people you see screeching on network television. There are more us than of them.

If Google doesn't realize this soon, I give them a few more years. They're catering to the wrong people. After all, there's a real reason why network television is STILL losing viewers and revenue.

FYI, I'm not shutting down any of my accounts. It is possible that Google will realize what they are doing and change their policies before it's too late. In the meantime, check out http://www.mometek.com. I will start posting articles there after a few weeks.

There's also the problem that all these sites are integrated in logins. I have an Android phone which is pretty much owned by Google. I'm finding it difficult to get family to switch to an alternative. A lot of people will have a difficult time leaving - for the same reason why I have a difficult time leaving. No one else will move.

It was only recently that I got back onto Twitter. It was to improve the likelihood that my posts will be seen. Now, I'm going back to using Twitter only as an aggregator - until I find something else. Gab.ai seems to be okay, but I don't know how well it works with other sites.

Anyway, I'm going to be one of the few that actually announce "the leaving". Most will quietly find something else. No complaints. No sound.

Windows 10 - Installation

By Microsoft Corporation [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

So, I'm back, and what better way to start off again, than to do a few posts on Windows 10. There's a lot to cover, so there will be several posts, including installation.

About a month ago, I reserved my free copy of Windows 10. Since I already had Windows 8.1, I figured there was no harm, well other than a few bugs here and there.

I'm normally not an "early adopter". Somewhere between Windows 95 and XP I had decided to just get the latest when I purchase a new computer. Since I had kids, I found that I was more inclined to spend money on food for them, rather than on software to replace what already worked just fine.

Not to mention the time involved on devising work-a-rounds for the inevitable bugs that happen with new software.

It was just easier to wait a year when all of the early adopters have called attention to the bugs, where Microsoft would then finally send a service pack or update that took care of the problems.

Granted, I would get the new computer pre-slowed with the new patches, but at least it was stable.

So getting the upgrade so soon, for all intents and purposes, is something new to me. I figured that since I already have Windows 8.1 pre-installed, why not?

It was easy... Maybe a little too easy.

If you've seen me complain on Facebook, it is usually about the flaky internet, which is why I was attempting to schedule the update for a time that I can be at the Library. The library's internet was a bit slower, but much more stable. I hadn't backed up my files and I knew that if the internet flaked out, I would be in serious trouble.

So, while I was waiting on clothes to dry at the Laundry room by the clubhouse, I went through the scheduling steps. So far, so good, and self-explanatory.

As soon as I was ready to click on schedule, which was right next to the "update now" button, Michala walked in to ask me for something. I don't recall what happened but as I turned, I must have bumped the wireless mouse as I clicked on the laptop mouse to continue.

No idiot confirmation dialogue box.

Let's face it, we've all (at least once) installed or deleted something that we shouldn't have. We all have had our idiot moments, and I had mine when I installed Windows 10.

Things started to shut down and I realized what I did. I immediately moved my laptop closer to the window to make sure it had a better connection and prayed that it would not crash.

It didn't crash fortunately and the install was pretty straightforward.  Some things did have to be reinstalled, but my files were not effected.

If you choose to install Windows 10, make sure you back up your files, just in case AND make sure you have a stable internet connection. I "lucked out".

Making a Website for Profit! Part Two

A stack of Money/Picture of money (The following is the description taken from image metadata on the FBI Buffalo Website) Orientation of image: 1 File change date and time: 2010:06:02 12:07:25 Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

In my last post, I opened an account on strikingly and started a website. However, it's far from finished. I added two links to two stores. One for my Astore and one for my Cafepress Store.

It's the two ways you can make money off you blog or website. I have to say, though, the market is so saturated logo mugs, it's difficult to sell any... Unless, you get a lot of visitors and a really awesome logo that everyone will want.

Can you make money on Cafepress? Well, I haven't, but to be fair, I may post to this blog maybe a few times a month. Even the most popular bloggers seem to think this is a bad idea. There may be a few who can get away with it as they may be popular by other means, like an author or celebrity.

It looks pretty grim if you do a search online. It's true that Cafepress's base price is a bit high, which is why you don't see T-Shirts in my store. That said, I may put some on in the future. Some sites I came across said that they do make money off the product.

We will see.

That said, I'm going to actually put some effort into it, one last time. Then I will post my efforts and results in another post. Yeah, this is definitely another post for later.

Then there's the AStore. This one has a little more potential. Again, I hadn't made the effort on this blog, so I haven't made much. I'm not even sure if anyone buys something in these stores or they later check it out on the Amazon store itself.

That said, I had put stores on the site. Both are easy to set up and if there is a way to make money off these two stores, I will find out. The stores I will be promoting will be on this site.

As for the website I've been working on, it's just a demo site to show what available resources there are to start a business at home, possibly to even make a passive income.

As for the Website, I will still be tweaking it and posting my efforts. More posts to come.

Related articles

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Making a Website for Profit? Part One.

Linkware Freebie Image use it however you like all I ask is a credit link to : thegoldguys.blogspot.com/ or www.lumaxart.com/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Found another freebie. It's another free web hosting site, but this one is quite simple. So I decided to create a mock website that might make money, and post it step by step here.

First things first: How to make your own website in minutes.

This link goes to Strikingly, a very simple website editor. I did sign up to their affiliate program but only after I messed with it.

If you don't see the link above, then you probably have adblock on. You can use the site link below, then click on "Create Your own Site With Strikingly" at the bottom. This would be a bummer, because ads like this do support this blog.

This site is quite simple. You sign up free (or you can pay for a better choice in templates and tools),  then you pick a template, then you add or remove sections, modify them, then publish. It's so easy, you don't even need any knowledge of web design as the templates pretty much do that for you too.

Since this was a mock site, I went onto  a random name generator. "Redonex" sounded cool, so I went with it. I'm not sure what it means, hopefully nothing offensive because that's now the name of the site:

http://redonex.strikingly.com/

The bulk of the video that's on the page was created in Flixpress (no affiliation there) , then I mashed it together in Windows Movie Maker (WMM). Then added a few of the built in (and cheesy) titles.

I don't really like the newer WMM. Perhaps it's because I like the ability to edit each track separately. The older XP version allowed me to edit the video without touching the audio. I ended up buy Magix as the open source software was too complicated for what I needed. I'll have to make another video editing software blog soon.

The sunset photo is a picture I took outside my house when I lived in Brandon. It's in one of the free download links below "Images".

The team photos of me, myself, and I were taken by my built in laptop camera. Not the best lighting, but I am surprised that they did come out okay. Use a white sheet and some lamps, and the photos will come out better.

Then of course you have to have comments. Facebook is already available in the "apps" section. So I used that.

Then I added a donate button so you can beg for money. That said, in my next blog, I'll replace it with something a little more tangible, like links to a few books I find interesting or even a book that I made myself...

Oh, did I just type that? Well, that's all you know at the moment.

Last but not least, I bought a domain name from www.GoDaddy.com, since I already have an account with them.  I bought it at the time of this post, so it's not quite ready yet.

Strikingly also has a domain service that is included in the premium account.

On to Part Two

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Free Publishing Software

I typically use Microsoft Publishing ever since my husband was able to acquire Microsoft Office for only $10 from his old job, but it won't be long when it's so out of date that the latest Windows won't run it.

I'm not quite sure if Office 2010 will work with Windows 8 and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. So lately, I had been checking out some alternatives. LibreOffice is similar to OpenOffice, except it runs much faster and it's a pretty decent substitute as it's much easier to install both in Linux and Windows.

Neither have a decent publishing app.

A few weeks ago, I had been setting up my new memory stick with portableaaps and I came across the portable version of Scribus.

Typically, I have a bias towards free software, but Scribus is a distant substitute for MS publishing. I decided to try to make myself a basic business card, and I still haven't been able to change the text color. Granted, it may be there, staring me in the face, but would it have killed them to put a color option in the right-click menu? You know, right click > color then a dialog appears with the color wheel.

I don't expect Scribus to be exactly like Microsoft office, but there's a lot of people who need software like this who don't have the time to read an entire manual just to change the text color. And I don't need a complete college course on typography just to design a simple business card.

That said, it does seem to have a lot of potential. When I get the chance, I can learn it and it's probably a very useful program.

If you are interested, you can check it out here at scribus.net

I've added the link to my Free Software page.

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An Impressive Free HTML WYSIWYG editor

English: M in blue square (similar to seen on ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Microsoft surprises me again. Since I do web design as a hobby (at the moment), I am constantly on the lookout for legitimate freebies (as in, not “pirated” software). Enter Microsoft Expression Web 4 and Microsoft Expression design 4.

Expression Design 4 is a basic vector graphics editor. I typically use SWiSHmax as it does export to PNG but ED4 does have some interesting features. Because I haven’t use it much except to make a logo for my husband’s website, I don’t have much to say about it, except that it’s free and seems easy to use. Maybe I’ll be able to get into more depth in another post.

I wouldn’t exactly say that it’s comparable to Dreamweaver, but it is the best free WYSIWYG out there so far and unlike FrontPage or Word (both from Microsoft that can do webpages) it doesn’t add useless code.
It’s also not that difficult to learn as I figured it out pretty quickly without looking anything up or checking the help files. I did have get a little confused when adding styles to objects. The odd thing is, you right click on the CSS properties box on the left-hand side, and create a style, but then, the right-click no longer works and you have to click on “New style” on the right to create a new style.

It wouldn’t hurt to brush up on your HTML and CSS as there were a few times I gave up on using the design mode and switched to code, but it does have an instant code feature. Just start typing and the list of tags, objects, or properties show up.

Overall, it’s an impressive freebie and I would recommend it for the not-so-beginner web designer. If you want to learn HTML and/or CSS, you might want to check out W3Schools.com.
.

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Free Microsoft Office Stuff?

Windows Live SkyDrive (Photo credit: 阿國)

My mother's computer is old and probably could not handle Microsoft Word 2010, which is unfortunate, since some of the writing contests that she really wants to enter require a Microsoft Word compatible document. OpenOffice is a great program, but sometimes converting it to MS Word does not work out so well.


So, I decided to look into SkyDrive, again.

The last time I was on SkyDrive, I could not edit my documents online. So I had decided just to use it as a backup drive only. Handy, as I know full well what happens when you don't have a backup. I was fortunate enough that my husband had bought an adapter for laptop hard drives, allowing me to move my documents to the desktop. So when I heard of "SkyDrive" from Microsoft and how at the very least, OneNote can synchronize with the drive, I was elated.

I've switch computers twice since then (once from a netbook to the desktop, then from the desktop to my new laptop) and it was nice that I didn't not have to worry about my office documents.

After I had the discussion with my mother, I thought about trying SkyDrive again because I heard that they added new features that allow you to not only view your documents, but to edit them.  I was not disappointed.

Now, you can create (or edit) a Word document, Excel workbook, PowerPoint presentation, One Note (my favorite), and an excel survey. The web version is missing some features, but for basic Word documents (such as typing up the next American Novel) or a paper that's due tomorrow.

For the purpose of the blog, I did a "test" word document and just typed up a paragraph. I was surprised on the fact that the look and feel was similar to Word 2010, it didn't lag at all, in spite of the fact that I have a lot of background programs running.  Typically, I have to shut a few down to go onto Facebook.

I haven't used it enough to give a decent review, but I thought it was good enough to mention now as I do know there are plenty of people who cannot afford to shell out  $100 for Microsoft Office, especially, in this economy. You will be hearing from me on SkyDrive again.


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Free! From... Microsoft?

Microsoft has changed.  When I was growing up, getting anything free from Microsoft was as fictitious as Santa bringing in free gifts. Well, almost. One of them is real (explain that to your kids).

Recently, I had downloaded free "Live Essentials" and I was impressed by the quality of the programs.  The old adage "you get what you paid for" is no longer true. I've already blogged about Windows Live Writer which I switch back and forth with Scribefire - depending on my mood. Live Writer is pretty decent as it supports many blog formats including Blogger and Wordpress, two of the most popular blogging sites. Unfortunately, (and this is the real reason why I switch), Live Writer does not support Tumbr or Posterous.

Recently, as I was hunting for a better free, web design software, I came across this gem from microsoft: Visual Web Developer It's a bit over the top for just making templates (as in templates for modx) but if you are interested in starting a whole new website from scratch, this would be an excellent product for you to try it. So far, I'm impressed. It has so many features that I haven't discovered yet. I don't think I will be using it much, yet, as it's a bit over the top for what I need.

As a matter of fact, I'll probably stick to Kompozer - which, by the way, was aquired by Mozilla.  How much do you want a bet that we will finally start seeing some improvements?  They've already improved their website.

Another little know WYSIWYG editor is Amaya. Amaya is made by w3.org which sets the standards for website design. If you are within their standards, then the majority of your audience can view your website the way you intend them to view it.

The problem with Amaya and Kompozer is that it's difficult to be "cutting edge" Both don't support HTML5 tags, but you can always put the tags in anyway. It just won't show up in the preview.
I have a page with some freebies for you to check out.  These are all programs that I have used and like.  It's here: http://mometek.blogspot.com/p/free-software.html.

Get Your Website hosted for FREE!

Image by Kinologik via Flickr

So, you want your own website but don’t have much money to pay for a host, let alone to pay for a professional to host and design the website.

Then there’s the issue of learning HTML, CSS, PHP, and a bunch of other abbreviations and the time it takes to design and build the website. So what are you going to do?

How about using a free Hosting site? Here are four sites that I’ve created. Three are for demo purposes, the fourth was for a church that I,m attending:

• http://sites.google.com/site/nanciesweb
  
• http://Sahmslife.webs.com
  
• http://www.wix.com/nanciesweb/demopage
  
• http://castletonchurchofchrist.blogspot.com/

Webs and Wix are free hosting sites that have a user friendly interface for even those who are completely clueless about HTML. Using a point-and-click type interface, it makes it easy to have a website up and running in no time.

Wix is the easiest to work with and it takes seconds to get a One page “business card” site up, but it’s all in flash. It allows you to upload files to share

Google Sites is the hardest, in the sense that it’s harder than the others, but still quite easy. It’s also the most flexible as it allows you to use post files that others can download (have you downloaded the PDF files I posted on my Google Sites account?).

Blogger happens to be the second most flexible, as it allows you to add pages to your blog, so that you can have a site. You can’t actually upload anything, except pictures, which Google uses picasa to store.  But like the Church site, you can use gadgets and widgets to add a contact page. You have to use external sources to store any files.

All the sites have many more features that I don’t have time to discuss. Blogger and Google are not subject to ads (at least not yet) while Wix and Webs have ads unless you want to pay the premium.

You really do need to see for yourself. Even if you have to sign up to every one, at least they’re free.

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Free Stuff–Task Coach

Image by john.schultz via FlickrThis has to be the Ultimate to-do list – especially for those of us who like keeping a to do list.  After all, there’s nothing more satisfying then crossing an item off of the list, knowing that it’s done.

Task Coach – Your Friendly Task Manager is a program that allows you to categorize your to do list and use subcategories. Then the tasks themselves can have subtasks. You can also take your email from outlook or Thunderbird and drag it into the Task Coach manager so that if you use email a lot to talk to clients, this is a great way to organize it all.

If you don’t mind it running in the background (not good if you are using a netbook), it also has a reminder feature to remind you when the next task is due.  But on slower computers, it's yet another item running in the background. I own a netbook, so I try to keep my running background programs to the minimum.

There are many more features, you can check it out here: http://taskcoach.org/features.html and you can download it for windows here: http://taskcoach.org/download_for_windows.html. Not running windows?  No problem.  There’s  version for Mac OS X, Linux, Iphone, and Ipod touch.

Related articles

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Free Stuff: Windows Live Writer

I decided to try out Windows Live writer, since it does work with blogger.  Perhaps I won’t have to load my browser to use Scribefire – which, by the way, is excellent for blogging, except you do have to load your browser, which means that if you have a lot of plugins (as I always do), it may take a while to load.

Posting directly from blogger isn’t so bad either, but once again, you still have to wait for the browser to load.
Writer on the other hand is free for Windows user and you have to at least have XP service pack 2 according to their website.  This is good, you don’t have to pay for an upgrade to Win Vista or 7 to get it.  You can download the whole package here, or you can download just the writer here.

So far, it’s been pretty easy.  Setting up is a no-brainer.  When you first load live writer, it asks you for your blog username and password.  Then you just have to wait. 

Now you are set to go.  Not only is it easy to set up, but you can manage multiple blogs.  So far I have this blog and my WordPress Blog set up.  Yes, I finally set up a WordPress blog just to see how Writer handles it.  Haven’t gotten around to it yet.  As a matter of fact, I haven’t tested many features at all.  I just wanted to see how quickly I can get a blog post up.

So there you have it.  If nothing else at all, you can at least post from Writer very quickly and easily – and of course, it’s FREE.

I'm still testing Windows Live Writer so in the near future, I may come back to this topic.

Free Stuff: Google

Image via CrunchBaseOkay, before you say "Well, DUH! Everyone knows of Google!  It's like, the best search engine ever!" continue reading first.  I'm about to talk about Google's other features, like Gmail, Calendar, Blogger, and Google Desktop - all which are free.
I've had my account on blogger since before Google owned it, but it has improved a lot since I first signed up.  One main thing, is that at one time, only geeks with a lot of knowledge of at least HTML and some CSS could have unique templates.  Everyone else was stuck with the few basic templates they had.
Now, there are so many templates, you finally can have a blog that is pretty unique.  If you think it's not unique enough, you can very easily upload your own background and change the colors and modify the layout by adding and removing widgets.
Calendar is also a decent feature. I use it to keep my blackberry calendar up do date and I'm planning on using it so that Mike and I don't get conflicting schedules.  I just need to convince my husband of the awesome power of the shared calendar.
There are many other google applications that you can use, but there's one item that ties it all together: Google Desktop. This program, you download and install on your computer.  I use it in place of Windows Gadgets and it lets me see my calendar and the weather in one glance.  I also have a too do list and a little notepad to take quick notes without having to run notepad.
The Google Sync for the blackberry automatically syncs with your calendar, so that whatever you or someone else puts on the online calendar shows up on your blackberry calendar.  Using Google Mobile App, you can check your gmail and the news.
If you already use any Google account (including Youtube), you can use your email and password to tie all of your Google accounts together.  So you can use just one email address and password.  This works even if you don't have a Gmail account.

Free Stuff: Evernote

Image via CrunchBase
Possibly one of the most useful free program you will ever find.  Considering that I've tried many, MANY different programs, that's saying a lot.  You can check it out here at http://www.evernote.com

Now, suppose you see some really interesting page on the web that you are absolutely sure that you are going to use in the future. Of course, we all know that it will just get buried in your bookmarks and you will probably never use it again.  If you do, you end up just searching for it because you can't seem to find it.  Worse, if you do find it, the page is gone.

Enter Evernote Web Clipper.  You sign up for an account (important if you have more than one device/computer) then install the software on your computer and whatever device you own.  Then when you come across the site you want the notes from, you simply highlight the text you want to save, right click on the highlighted text (or click on the icon in the toolbar), and add it to Evernote.  Now it's available to all of your devices and computers.  Add your tags to the note to make it even more easy to search.

One feature that I found the best was the text recognition in photos.  Take a photo with your smartphone and the text in the photo becomes searchable.  I have been using my Blackberry Curve to take photos of posters and text since it's much faster than typing it.

This is a great tool for everyone, including stay-at-home moms who have a lot going on.

Online Bible Study

So, you are trying to come up with a sermon, or maybe you want to do some personal research on specific spiritual topics. You could spend hours, or even days searching and reading the Bible to find the answer you want - or you can use these two great sites:

Biblegateway.com
youversion.com

Both have searchable Bibles in just about every translation available, both have reading plans, and both allow you to use your smartphone to read and search the text.

There are differences.

Biblegateway has a more intuitive search engine and a better list of resources available.
YouVersion has a better mobile app (one that I use on my blackberry) and is also community based.  You can also have a journal entry so that you can keep your notes in the same place, and if you have an insight you want to share, you can contribute it to the community.

I've used Biblegateway when I'm discussing scripture with others in forums and Facebook, but I use YouVersion for my personal devotions.  Both sites are a great tool to help one grow spiritually.