First Look Google +

I finally got an invite to use Google Plus, the much anticipated Google version of social media. I have been looking forward to trying it out because it solves some of the problems that I have with Facebook. I reluctantly started using social media a few years ago, with so many things in my life that require my time I initially viewed Facebook as just a big time suck. But I started checking it out, my relatives started using Facebook, my wife started using it, and my friends did too. It didn’t take long before I saw the usefulness of Facebook as a virtual meeting place.  I also started detesting it.

My problems with Facebook first started when I clicked on a like button for Veterans for Peace. I’m a veteran of the U.S. Air Force with almost 11 years of active duty and 4 years of active reserves and this organization seemed to share a lot of my values. The next thing I knew I get a reply to my clicking the “like” button from a second cousin that responded with “Really?” My second cousin is a self proclaimed Tea Party activist and her husband who is in the National Guard was getting ready to be deployed in Afghanistan. Needless to say I just ignored the comment because I just didn’t want to go there.

 

Then there was the person who I didn’t want to be associated with who was checking out all of my pictures because his wife was friends with my uncle. I had to change my picture settings to try and shut that down. Recently I started getting friend requests from relatives that live 3000 miles away that I’ve never met. I have a last name that is so unique that anyone who has it is a relative, and these strangers now want to be my friends. This is all good and fine if I could easily restrict the kind of information that they see and respond to. You can sort of do this with Facebook but it’s a royal pain in the ass. 

So here comes Google Plus with circles, an easy way to control your relationships with people as its major focus. This feature directly addresses the main reason I detest Facebook, everyone isn’t your friend. I want to be able to easily have private conversations with groups of people without having to filter what I’m saying. I want to easily see conversations in the way I want to see them, and show people information in a way I want them to see it.

The first thing I notice when I’m using Google Plus is that the screen is clean and uncluttered. The buttons are intuitive, so the learning curve was shorter for me, than I experienced with Facebook. When you initially add people to Google Plus you add them to circles, so when you post to a particular circle you know who your post is being sent to. To post a message you simply click on the circle on the left of the screen and then post. The message, picture, video, etc. is only shown to members of that circle.

I’m going to keep playing with Google Plus, and add circles for all sorts of groups. I would even add those far off relatives to Google Plus because I can easily control what they see. I think for me Google Plus could easily take the place of Facebook, and Linkedin, but I will keep you posted as I fully explore this new social media site and new developments unfold.

How to Check if a Link is Safe to Click On.

Have you ever wondered if a web site is safe to visit? Here is a simple process for checking out the link before you click on it:
First click on this safe link to Norton Safe Web, then bookmark that page. Norton provides a free online tool for checking web addresses to see if they are safe for you to visit. It's very easy to use and its FREE.

Here are the steps:

1. Open Norton Safe Web in its own tab.
2. Right click with your mouse on the link you are concerned with.
3. Select Copy Link location.
4. On the Norton Safe Web page next to "Is this site safe?" right click your mouse in the box, then select paste.
5. Then suspect web address should have been pasted into the box. Now hit "enter" on your keyboard.
6.  Norton then will open up a page with a complete report on the site. 

Its easy to use, its FREE, and takes the worry out of clicking on a link.

PureSync an Easy To Use Free Synce and Backup Program

Syncing files between computers has always been a pain for me, I use a couple different computers to work on various writing projects, and keep photos stored with my projects to go along with the writing. My wife and I also share the photos we take on a shared drive so we can both use them to post on Facebook to share with our groups of friends.

I’ve used some of the syncing features of Windows in the past but I wasn’t really happy with how it worked. Plus syncing seems to work differently depending on which version of Windows you are using. With a bit of searching I found a free program called PureSync by Jumping Bytes software. PureSync has an easy to use interface that allows you to not only Sync your files, but to also backup and mirror your drives.

PureSync can run automatically when your computer boots, or manually with a one click sync of the folders and files you want managed.

PureSync has a personal version that is donationware, and a professional version for business use that has a few extra features like the ability to use FTP, and compress and encrypt backups all for about 15 Euros.

i2PDF Converting Scanned Documents to PDF the Quick and Easy Way

One of the things that I had to do recently is to send signed documents to someone via email. They sent me the forms that I needed to sign, then I needed to send back signed documents in PDF form. This is how I did it with Free software:

The best way to do this is to scan your documents with your scanner, or (if you don't have a scanner) take a digital picture. Make sure to save the files in JPG format on your computer. Then put those picture files together into a PDF file, and send the completed PDF to it's destination as an attachment in an email message.

But how do you do this without buying some expensive piece of software to convert those pictures into a PDF? With a very simple and easy to use program that is completely free called i2PDF. This program is so easy to use grandma could use it.

Open the program, then drag the picture files into the window, you can drag the file names around so they are in the order that you want them in the PDF file.

Then hit the "Build PDF" button and click "OK" at the next screen. There are options on this page if you feel you need to change something, but usually you won't have to do anything here.

Then select where you want the PDF to be saved, and Whala you have your PDF document ready to send off to your recipient.