Kim Komando

I am a Kim Komando fan.  Her radio show is not available where I live, but I read her tip of the day, cool sit of the day, tech news of the day, all sent to me by email.  I also recieve her weekly newsletters.  Kim simplifies the technical stuff --- a Reader's Digest to the tech world if you will.

I  just started looking at the video of the day.  

Ah...so much time to kill...

IE 8...Beta

I just downloaded Internet Explorer 8, beta.

It's not working for me.  I can't get my igoogle page to come up.

I have the pesky yellow bar on top that says:

"Internet Explorer is currently running with add-ons disabled.  Click here to manage, disable, or remove your add-ons."

I click on the bar, and I don't have a clue what to do after that!

The yellow bar does not go away.  My igoogle page still will not come up.

I am liking the new Google Chrome browser...

 

Google Chrome

I downloaded Google Chrome.  I like its speed, and the tabs on top of the address window.  I also like the conveience of being able to type a website address or search term in the same window.   I like the tabed browsing, and you can move a tab by clicking and dragging it.

So far all the news video that I have tried from various news sites have worked without having to mess with any settings.  Supposedly one downed tab will not crash the other tabs.

I don't like that the f11 key does not hid all the toolbars like it does in Firefox, though the tabs an the browser window does not take up a lot of screen space.

It was nice to be able to transfer all my Firefox settings over to Chrome. 

Wikipedia has a good article on Google Chrome.

Target lawsuit settled

A lawsuit against Target stores was settled. Six million dollars.

It had to do with their website and how accessible it is to the blind.

As a web designer hobbyist, it causes me to pause. The main point is that when you put a picture on the internet, you need to include a description of that picture. Also, they need to make their website more accessible for people who use only the keyboard and not the mouse.

I use Joomla to create websites. These sites are easy to make accessible. Lately, I have been migrating over to Google Sites -- easy to use, very Troyproof --but with little provision for accessibility. Disappointing...

Chrome

Google is launching a new browser today. It is called Google Chrome.

The download is not available just yet. There is a comic book explaining it.

I don't care for Internet Explorer. I like Firefox, but lately I have had to fiddle with settings to get various video formats to play.

I love Google!

Waiting....impatiently....

Google Gadgets....

I figured out how to get "Today's Verse" on the Google Sites website that I go for my church. I had to make a "Google gadget".

http://sites.google.com/a/witticisms.org/resurrection-lutheran-church/

The verse code is javascript, and it takes a gadget to get it onto a Google site.

I also got Today's Bible Reading and Prayer Ventures on that way as well:

http://sites.google.com/a/witticisms.org/resurrection-lutheran-church/daily-feeds

The "More" link in Today's Bible Reading is not working in Explorer...I don't think I can fix that. I put a note with a link below.

Three or four nights of work.....

My first computer...

Franklin Ace 1200. I was in my first year of college when Mom and John got me this gem for Christmas.

I used it mostly as a word processor. WordStar, I remember. A half screen of commands I recall.

Pre-Windows days. Ahh...

I remember taking it with me to my first job out of college. World Christian Magazine down in Pasadena. Mom and John bought me a Compuserve kit to connect to the internet. I worked hard to get it to work so I could send e-mail, but did not succeed.

Nostalgia...

Email issues....

...Not mine this time. Pastor Roger sent me an email saying that he can send email through Microsoft Outlook, but he is not receiving it. Then he has to restart it, it receives some email, then it goes dead.

I am a webmail guy. I access my email from any computer and deal with it. I don't like having my email tied to a particular computer. I love my gmail...I have all my other email accounts forwarded to my gmail account.

Many people, including Pastor Roger, like pop email delivered through programs like Microsoft Outlook.

I did some research. It looks like there is a Outlook connector program that will fix Roger's problem:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9A2279B1-DF0A-46E1-AA93-7D4870871ECF&displaylang=en

Good luck Pastor Roger!

Tech support....

The other day we learned that our phones had stopped working. We use Vonage, a voip service, telephone service over our high speed internet connection.

Stepdad John had done whatever magic is required to make our Vonage service connect to the telephone lines in our house.

We have a internet cable box, a computer router, and a telephone router. Most of the time, unplugging the three boxes and plugging them back in solves any problems. If that does not work, the reset button on each box....eventually this works.

Today, this wasn't working. John suggested what I had tried. I carefully followed the re-boot process outlined on the Vonage help site. I had to call tech support.

The guy in India was friendly and patient. I had a Troy moment (deer with headlight in eyes) when he asked what the phone router was plugged into. I just saw a mass of crisscrossed wires. E figured it out. The guy asked us to plug the phone directly into the router. E brought the wireless phone over, plugged it in, and it worked!

Something wrong with the telephone jacks in the house. Both the kitchen and the bedroom are out. Instead of paying someone to come check it out, we decided to buy a new phone system where the base phone is plugged into the phone router, and separate handsets are just plugged into electrical outlets throughout the house.

I did my homework. I learned about DECT technology. We made our purchase.

Cherrypal

Sweeter than Apple...so the developer of this lean, green computing machine says.

A computer the size of a paper back...Plug in a keyboard and a monitor and you are good to go.

The applications are in a "cloud", that is, on a secure server that you access over the internet. The nice thing with that is that someone else handles the software updates; you don't. No viruses to worry about. The secured Cherrypal secured server offers the Openoffice.org suite of programs, iTunes, and some other Cherrypal software.

I use Google docs and spreadsheets all the time. Everything is simple, and is stored online for easy access from anywhere, and it's free. The functionality is always improving.

I won't rush to get one, but I foresee a day when I will. Make wifi available everywhere. Make wifi free or affordable. Make a portable screen and keyboard large enough for me to use and compactible enough for me to easily pack around...I would get one.

I hate dealing with updating software, and worrying about viruses. Let someone else deal with that.

Cherrypal.com

I'm not a geek!

Today is embrace your geekness day. I am not a geek!

Today I bought the domain wittren.com. Yes, I own my last name now. I am using it to forward to a new website I made to advertise Jodie and I as speakers.

I figured out how to forward email from my domain. troy@wittren.com forwards to my regular email account. I made one for Jodie and one for E.

Wittrens of the world...I have 97 more accounts I can create.

How many people have their first and last name as an email address?

Okay...I will hug myself...