Category: Useful Websites

Social networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter have seen a tremendous gain in popularity in the past year. Even Oprah has begun to post on Twitter, as do all 3 local TV news stations. Whether or not you visit social networking websites, this article should help you learn more about the latest phenomenon.

In case you’re not familiar with these websites, social networking websites are a place that people can interact with others and upload pictures and video for other to see and comment about. They are a place where you can meet and interact with people who you know, and people that they know. Wikipedia defines a social networking service as a “service [which] focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.”

• MySpace reached it’s peak in 2006 as primarily a place that teens and singles designed their own web “space” where they can post photos and music, and interact with other people. But recently people have started using the more popular website, Facebook.

• Facebook is currently the largest worldwide online social network. Like MySpace it allows people to converse with friends and family members in an open or privacy restricted online community, and publish pictures, videos and links to other websites of interest. Facebook has lots of fun quizzes such as “What famous actor you look most like”, and share the results with your friends to comment on. It also has fan pages and group pages where you can follow businesses of interest, sports teams, and other organizations – and interact with people of similar interests. You can follow the Computer Techs Reno fan page. If you’ve got nothing better to do, Facebook can be fun and entertaining. Facebook can also be a timesink.

• My favorite social network is Twitter. Twitter is a unique social network that limits entries to 140 characters of text-only posts or “tweets”. To get by that limitation some people use link shortening services such as tinyurl.com or snipurl.com to post shorter links in tweets that direct readers to web pages that contain more information.

I primarily use Twitter to follow people and organizations in the technology industry that tweet technology related information. The limitation of 140-characters is helpful to me because it forces people to provide a short and to-the-point “headline” about what they are trying to communicate, and I can choose to follow a link (if provided) to get more information.

Some people tweet from their cell phones as a text message which is then transmitted to everybody that follows them – on the Twitter website, their cell phone or both. This is how information about the recent Iranian election riots first became known. I was among the first people to find out about Michael Jackson’s death because I was doing a live Twitter search for “Michael Jackson”, which updates public tweets every minute. Twitter is very useful if you want to follow news as it is happening.

People can make their tweets public where anyone can read them. One of my accounts is private, so that only the people that I selectively approve are allowed to view and follow my tweets. To make it interesting and useful, I only follow people who tweet interesting and informative things – and I do the same. I don’t follow people that frequently say something such as “I’m eating a ham sandwich”.

At the bottom of this article see the Twitter widget where you can see our recent Computer Techs Reno (CTreno) tweets, and follow us. Below that is the Computer Techs Reno Facebook fan box, showing our recent posts.

When joining a social network, be careful about adding friends to your network. Many services will offer to add friends if you give the website access to your email address book, then email an invitation to everybody in the list. I recommend adding friends one-by-one, and not giving a social network complete access to your entire address book.

For more information on the social networks of Facebook and Twitter, read PC World’s How to Avoid Facebook and Twitter Disasters

Craigslist is a nationwide online classifieds website that some say has hurt the newspaper classifieds and contributed to the death of newspapers. Though nationwide, they have a local version of the website in major cities where local buyers and sellers can meet. The Reno website is at http://reno.craigslist.org

Craigslist offers free online classifieds for buying and selling goods, jobs and services. It’s a good place to make some money from some old, unwanted items or get a good deal on something you need. However just like any other place where you meet people that you do not know, you need to be careful about conducting business with strangers. If a transaction seems too good of a deal to be true – it probably is. Craigslist has honest people as well as scammers. See’s Craigslist’s advice on how to avoid scams here.

One of the items commonly sold on Craigslist is computers. If you have an old computer, Computer Techs can transfer any of your personal data to a new or existing computer. Then we can securely delete the data off your old computer, and in most cases restore the computer to it’s factory default state so that you can sell your old computer in working order.

Computer Techs technician Ron Seagraves sometimes buys used computers from ads found on Craigslist. Normally I don’t recommend purchasing used computers because new PCs are relatively inexpensive compared to a few years ago, and they come with a manufacturer’s warranty. However, if you need an inexpensive used computer under $200 or so, here are a few comments from Ron about his experience on Craigslist:

Craigslist is a site that is like a online garage sale. Many people in the Reno/Sparks community buy and sell items on Craigslist. I for one, do a lot of buying and selling on Craigslist and find that computers are no exception whether you are looking to upgrade to a newer system or want to buy a system for that student that lives in the house, that won’t break the bank.

If you have an old computer, you can try to either donate it or sell it on Craigslist . There are a lot of people in the Craigslist community who buy old computers. If you are upgrading to a new computer, sell your old one and put a little money back into your pocket.

If any of our customers have a question or are looking for a PC and find one on Craigslist but are unsure if it will suit your needs, the techs at Computer Techs can help you answer those questions. Once you purchase a computer, let the techs at Computer Techs examine the system to ensure that it is configured properly and that you have all security and productivity software installed, to ensure that you have a good computing experience with your new PC.

If you have any questions, please contact your tech at Computer Techs. We are always here to help you.

We often are asked about technology products that we recommend. To help with your buying decisions we’ve recently added a page to our Tips website where you can view some of our most recommended technology products and computer software. You can read a short comment on why we recommend the item, and click on the item to view more information about it and even buy it from Amazon.com – all from our web page. If you’re interested in buying something else from Amazon.com, you can search for items directly from the Amazon.com search widget on our web page CTreno.com/tips/picks

You can also find a few of the items we recommend in a widget in the left column of the Computer/Internet Tips & News for Computer Techs clients website – www.CTreno.com/tips

I frequently purchase from Amazon.com since they have reasonable prices, detailed product descriptions, user reviews and good customer service. Check out our recommended products page or widget before your next technology purchase.

Microsoft recently launched a new internet search website called “Bing”. From the Bing search pages at bing.com you can use some of the innovative features to get more information about your search results without having to leave the bing.com website.

For example, a web search features a text preview of the websites in the search results. A video search shows thumbnail-size previews of the videos. A shopping search shows product pictures, if applicable, plus prices and reviews. A maps search shows a 3D bird’s eye view of the location. Try some searches for yourself at bing.com.

Microsoft has also launched a free 411 information service called Bing 411 that competes with Google’s GOOG-411. Bing 411 is an alternative to the for-pay information services offered by telephone companies and cellular providers. Instead of calling 4-1-1, you can call 1-800-Bing-411 from a land line or cell phone to find local businesses or restaurants, movie times and weather. The computerized service uses voice recognition to detect what information is being requested by you, and will automatically connect your call if desired. Program Bing 411 into your phone’s speed dial and try it today.

You can get more information about Bing and Bing 411 at DiscoverBing.com

If you need a simple and affordable way to occasionally receive or send a fax document without a fax machine, I recommend an affordable service from maxemail.com. For the past 5 years I’ve been using the “Maxemail Lite” service plan to receive faxes for just $24 per year.

How it works: People who send me a fax simply send it to my own dedicated 815-prefix telephone number. I receive the fax as an email attachment, which I can print or just view on my computer screen. I can also send faxes by emailing an attachment to Maxemail, which they then convert and send to the recipient’s fax machine. Sending faxes on my subscribed plan is just 5-10¢ per page.

With the fax-via-email service I save time and money since I don’t need a fax machine, nor the hassles of having to be at home to turn on the fax machine every time I want to receive a fax, or the need of a dedicated phone line for a fax machine. I also save ink and paper because I don’t print unwanted faxes.

For more information about the Maxemail Lite service plan visit their website.

When you send an email message to more than one person, if you do not address the recipients as Blind Carbon Copy (BCC), you may be contributing to the spam email problem.

A common way spam and viruses are spread is via email. If you send a message to multiple email addresses without using Blind Carbon Copy, all the email recipients’ addresses are visible to all other recipients – and to any virus or spambot that may be on any of the recipients’ computers. Many viruses and spambots gather e-mail addresses from infected computers to redistribute viruses and spam.

Letting email addresses be visible to others is also a privacy concern – there may be people in your address book that don’t want their email address spread around for others to see.

You may be unknowingly spreading false information

Many urban legends are spread via email – often in the form of chain letters that urge you to forward the message to everyone that you know. Useful websites that help separate factual from fictional email chain letters are Snopes.com, TruthOrFiction.com and Hoax-Slayer.com.

Interestingly, I’ve received emails with a subject “Advice from Snopes.com” – but Snopes denies that it’s something they’ve distributed. Even if the email says that the information was verified on Snopes.com, do yourself and your email recipients a favor by investigating it on Snopes first.

Online maps have come a long way since Mapquest was the most popular website where you could print turn-by-turn directions from one point to another.

Google has gradually been making improvements to their online mapping website Google Maps, and they have recently taken street-level pictures of most roads and highways in the Reno area. With Google Maps you can now type in just about any address in the Reno area and see a traditional map, terrain map, satellite view or street view map as well as turn-by-turn directions from one point to another. In larger cities you can even view traffic maps.

Check out www.googlemaps.com and find your house.

After an earthquake or other major disaster, telephone and cell phone circuits may become overloaded with  people trying to reach friends and family.  In such cases you may be able to get messages through via e-mail or cell phone text messaging as mentioned in this article on the Reno Wireless Information website.

With the latest earthquake activity in the Reno area, people have been receiving email messages about earthquake safety. One of them which describes a “triangle of life” safety zone is giving information that is not advisable in the United States where our structures are built with earthquakes in mind.

A description of the bogus email is on Snopes.com and the KOLO-TV website.

For real earthquake information, a good place to start is the Nevada Seismological Laboratory website. If you’re interested in viewing the latest quake map and detailed list of quakes in the Reno area – you can type CTreno.com/eq in your internet browser’s address bar, which re-directs to the official USGS webpage.

• You can take an interactive quiz that provides real earthquake information here.

• The 40-page “Living with earthquakes in Nevada – A Nevadan’s guide to preparing for, surviving, and recovering from an earthquake” is a PDF file which can be downloaded, saved or printed at this link.

In my nearly 40 years as a Reno area resident, I have felt just a few earthquakes. However in the past few weeks I have felt 3 quakes, part of a swarm that started in late February that have been centered around Mogul/Somersett area. The quakes have measured around 3.0 and less, but the number of quakes swarmed in one area is alarming. The Nevada Seismological Laboratory has even dedicated a special web page to the recent activity.

If you’re interested in viewing earthquake activity you can visit the U.S. Geological Survey’s Real-Time Earthquake maps for California/Nevada at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm In my web browser I have created a link in my “Favorites” to a more detailed webpage which shows a map zoomed-in on the Reno area, and lists detailed information about every earthquake in a pane on the bottom of the page.