Soft Tech Reviews » General

Win One of Two MacBook Airs or $100

Alisha — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:20:10 +0000

Bloggers are probably one of the most generous people. Sure they usually have a reason (like bringing more traffic) but it’s great for the visitors! We all really do like contests, don’t we?

Even though it would be great to win $100, a MacBook Air would be even better! I would love to have a new laptop to replace the one that I have that overheats (has melted the bottom of the laptop) and probably cause a fire (I hope not).

Anyway, there are several ways to get entries in this contest over at Bloggin-Ads. I recommend getting as many entries as possible if you really would like a chance at getting a MacBook Air. I will be very surprised, but very happy if I actually win a MacBook Air. Not because it’s a MacBook Air, but because of what it’s worth. That’s an expensive prize! And very much wanted.

There will be 12 winners. 10 winners will each receive $100 and 2 winners will each receive a MacBook Air.

Contest ends June 13, so get your entries in now! Good luck!

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Diggnation: Win Alex Albrecht’s Xbox and Kevin Rose’s iPhone

Alisha — Sat, 17 May 2008 02:28:46 +0000

If you don’t know about Diggnation yet, go watch an episode, or two, or 150. Diggnation is probably one of the best shows from Revision3. The Totally Rad Show is pretty awesome, too, but when you put Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht together, it just makes it more fun.

On one of the Diggnation episodes, Alex announced that he’s going to give away his Xbox and some other goodies along with it to a random Twitter follower. But first, he needs 20,000 followers. Once he reaches 20,000 followers on Twitter, he will announce it on Twitter and ask everyone to reply if they want the Xbox, giving them something like 8 hours to reply in. Then, someone will be chosen randomly.

To win Kevin’s iPhone, I think the same thing applies. I’m not sure about the followers, but just follow Kevin on Twitter and wait for him to announce it if you want his iPhone for free.

Why do I want to win Alex Albrecht’s Xbox? Because ours broke a while back and I miss playing games on it! Besides, who wouldn’t want to own something Alex and Kevin signed?

Why do I want to Kevin Rose’s iPhone? Well, I don’t really need the iPhone, but I like it, and it belongs to Kevin!

This is real! Proof is on the latest Diggnation show, episode 150. Good luck everyone!

UPDATE: A winner was announced for Alex Albrecht’s Xbox 360. And, he’s decided to give away his iPhone to a random follower as well.

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Keep Your Pownce and Twitter Posts Separate

Alisha — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:59:28 +0000

With so many social networks available, it’s very hard to pick just one. Some of your friends and family choose one, others choose a different one, and then maybe a couple picked another. You either get invites from them or they tell you about it and you feel obligated to create an account. I’ve been there, but refused to do it again when family and friends started in with their MySpace pages.

I was slow grabbing a Twitter account and started off with Pownce. I like the ability to share pictures, videos and music. I eventually signed up to Twitter and started using it. I can see the difference between Pownce and Twitter and don’t mind using them for two different things. I haven’t even once wanted to post to both with the same message. Why? The people who follow me on Twitter are different from the people who read my posts on Pownce. If anyone wanted to read what I have to say/share on either one, they would add me.

Everyone keeps comparing Pownce and Twitter, but really, they are two different services. One offers several features, the other offers mostly just 140 characters. In my opinion, Pownce is more like StumbleUpon than it is like Twitter in the sharing aspect of it (images, videos..). Twitter is like having a chatroom open and reading what people have to say with the occasional link to read more.

I’m not telling you to stop cross-posting to both Pownce and Twitter, but try to consider the people who are following you. Are they going to be interested in reading what you have to say on Pownce with an @reply to someone on Twitter? What about the people who follow you on both Twitter and Pownce? Do they want to read duplicate posts? How do they know which one they should reply to that will get a response back? It wastes time. You may be saving time by posting the same message to both, but you are wasting other people’s time. Also, think about the replies. People on Pownce won’t see any of the Twitter replies, and vice versa, so they may be missing the whole conversation.

If you used IM the same way, wouldn’t you be annoyed if someone sent the same message to you with all of their IM accounts at the same time? (Yahoo!, MSN, AIM, Google, etc.)

There may come a time when you want to hear what both Pownce and Twitter people have to say, because maybe you’re asking for help or for an opinion or getting an idea for a new blog post. But cross-posting to both all the time could become annoying to some.

Suggestions

Pownce allows you to group your friends. Maybe you could create a group that wants to receive your Twitter posts on Pownce. This may or may not work depending on the client, if it allows you to select a group.
Prefix your posts with Twitter/Pownce so if someone is interested, they can follow up on either.
Use Twitter and Pownce as two separate services, as they were designed.

As I said, I’m not telling you to stop, but just keep your friends in mind the next time you cross-post. If anyone else has a suggestion or reason why Pownce and Twitter posts should (or shouldn’t) remain separate, please comment.

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What Is Twitter and Why Do You Use It?

Alisha — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:21:46 +0000

I felt like one of the last people to start using Twitter, even though I know there are so many people who still don’t know about it. Most of my friends and family have a MySpace account though. I don’t have a MySpace account and they don’t have a Twitter account, because they don’t really know about Twitter (or don’t understand it) and I don’t really care for MySpace.

Since I’ve had a Twitter account, I started to understand what it can be used for. I don’t have a lot of followers, but I don’t feel that I need a lot of followers. Although, that may say “Hey! I’m popular!”, but that’s not why I use Twitter.

I first started to use Twitter to see what all the buzz was about and then realized I could follow the same people who blog that I subscribe to in my RSS reader. Then, I found out I could also use Twitter to update whenever I published a new post on my blog, possibly grabbing more interested readers. (I don’t get a lot of traffic through Twitter this way, but it’s still worth a try.)

Twitter is also a great way to get help for anything like WordPress, computer problems, etc. I kind of think Twitter could possibly take the place of RSS feeds, because you can also hear about things in the news and a lot of bloggers use it to announce when they’ve published a new post on their blog.

Check out this video that explains what Twitter is. Video by leelefever.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I think Twitter is what you want it to be.

Now it’s your turn. Why do you use Twitter and has it helped you in anyway?

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Remote Access to Home or Office

Alisha — Sun, 04 May 2008 20:57:31 +0000

Remote Desktop Connection is one of my favorite tools in Windows, because it allows me to connect to my desktop computer from my laptop when I don’t want to sit at my desk. But, if I wanted to be away from home, there just isn’t a way for me to access my home computer, unless I set it up differently.

Remote access is needed sometimes. This becomes easier when you don’t have to download any software and can do it directly from the browser.

RemotePC makes it easy to setup the host computer and the local computer. There are two separate Remote Access Host installs, one for Vista and one for other versions. I used the one for Vista. On the local computer, installing the Remote Access Viewer is also easy.

With RemotePC, you can invite a guest to access your host computer by sending an e-mail via RemotePC, which will send the guest a license to connect. This license will expire depending on what you choose. The license can be set to never expire as well. I like that, because if I knew I was going to be away from my computer for a long while, this would be a great way to give myself access without worrying that it would expire after a few hours.

On the local computer, you can access the host computer through Remote Access or a web browser. To do this, all you have to do is login to your RemotePC account on the website and it will list the available hosts for you to access. Before connecting, you need to know the host key that you initially created when setting up the host.

After the guest has disconnected, you can delete the license and invite another guest if you choose. If the license is going to expire, you can just let it expire or manually delete it by right clicking on the RemotePC icon in the system tray.

When you aren’t using RemotePC, disable it by right clicking on the icon in the system tray and a little x will appear over the icon. Nice way of knowing when RemotePC is enabled or disabled.

The RemotePC Viewer was a little slow on my laptop. I had to manually disable Aero, because RemotePC did not do this for me, it only disabled the wallpaper. Even after disabling Aero though, it was still a little slow with refreshing.

If you have files that you need to transfer between the host and local computers, RemotePC allows you to do this. This was very easy to do once I realized that Vista prevents me from saving in certain locations, so I just saved to an external hard drive. The file transfer didn’t popup any warning about the file not being transferred, because it had said it completed, even though it hadn’t.

Another product, Remote Meeting, looks like something the company I work for should have. It would be great for meetings with the employees who can’t make it into the office because they are sick or working from home. It includes some really nice features, such as showing/hiding the screen to/from select people. It also allows up to 10 people to share one desktop.

For me, if RemotePC was somewhat faster, it would be a favorite of mine. I’m always looking for ways to access my computer away from home.

Has anyone else used RemotePC and noticed it being slow? I’m curious if something I was running caused this slowness.

Sponsored by RemotePC

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A List of 25 Lists

Alisha — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:10:06 +0000

Lists seem to be very popular and attracts readers. (Not why I am writing this list.) I thought I would check out some lists with at least 50 or more to see what people have come up with. This was actually harder than I thought it would be. Here are 25 that I found:

If you want to create a top 10, 20, 50, 100, etc. list, you need to be able to do your research and have plenty of time available. Here are five tips for creating captivating lists. Top 50 ‘Sesame Street’ Moments is one example of tip five for creating captivating lists:

Ever try Video? Lists are not only meant to be done in text so I suggest you add some flavor into your routine by putting out a list using video. Video is different, fun and allows you to share the inner actor in you.

I know there are a lot more lists than what I listed, but I wasn’t trying to include them all. If there’s one you like that I didn’t include, please leave a comment.

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Public Release of Pownce Brings New Features

Alisha — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:55:11 +0000

Pownce was opened to the public as of midnight. I wasn’t able to stay awake when this happened, but when I woke up this morning I wanted to see what new features Pownce brought. There are a few features that I have been waiting for.

Read replies and reply directly from the Pownce desktop client. In previous versions this wasn’t possible. The biggest complaint I’ve seen so far (myself included) is not being able to minimize to the tray. A tray icon was added for Pownce, but its only function is to tell you when there are new messages. Pownce still minimizes to the taskbar. Hopefully there will be a fix for this in the next version. Until then, check out PownceTray.

You may notice that if you use PownceTray with the newer version of the client, that there will be two icons in the system tray. If you hide Pownce’s icon in the notification settings, only PownceTray’s icon will be displayed. This is a temporary fix.

Finding old and new friends is now easier. Choose to import your friends from other network sites and e-mail accounts, such as Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo and more. You can also search for people or look through the Featured Powncers list and find some worthy Powncers.

Others that are talking about the public release of Pownce:

What features do you like the most and what features would you like to see?

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Connect With Other Bloggers, Readers and Advertisers

Alisha — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:51:40 +0000

Blogoria is a great Blogger Search resource to find bloggers, readers and advertisers to connect with. This is a great way to get your blog exposed to more people who might be interested in reading your blog. I’m always trying to find new ways to do this because I need all the help I can get.

It’s very easy to register and find what you’re looking for. There isn’t any clutter causing you to become lost on the site. I am now a new Blogorian for the moment at least.

The site displays the new Blogorians on the front page and below that the newest content is listed. When logged into my account, I can view related bloggers and recent posts from channels that I’m interested in reading feeds from. One I might be interested in would be Technology.

As you can see in the image above, the highlighted one is a post I wrote today and is found under the Technology Channel. This is in the Recent Posts tab and allows me to find other posts that have been written by other members under the channel that I choose.

I’m hoping this might bring more traffic for me than Technorati does. I rarely see someone visit from Technorati, so I hope Blogoria will provide something different. Even if it doesn’t help with traffic, it’s a great way for me to find other blogs that I may be interested in subscribing to or even networking with.

Sponsored by Blogoria

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Posts Around the Web

Alisha — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:16:11 +0000

Today, I thought I would share some posts around the web from feeds that I am subscribed to.

Is Your Desktop Naked?

This one comes from Mitchellaneous and caught my attention, because like Mitch, I also like a clean desktop. The only difference between mine and his though is that I use gadgets from the Vista Sidebar. But, it’s still clean because I don’t have icons cluttering my desktop.

This is useful if you are working on a project for a client, because whatever you decide to save on the desktop is for that project alone. Then as Mitch said, you can move file(s) to another location when you’re done, or delete if you no longer need the file(s). Great tip.

Photoshop Tutorial: Candy in a Plastic Wrapper

This tutorial comes from Larissa Meek showing us what to use the plastic wrap filter for in Photoshop. I haven’t put her tutorial to the test, but it looks easy to follow. I’d be interested to know if anyone’s used the filter for anything else.

5 Packs to Transform Windows to other OS

One thing many people like to do is making Windows look like another operating system. The two most common ones I see are Mac and Vista. This list comes from MakeUseOf.

Vista Transformation Pack
Mac OS Transformation Pack
FlyakiteOSX
Fedora Transformation Pack
Ubuntu Transformation Pack

For screenshots, check out the post.

Google Takes Feeds Out of Search Results

I read this great news over at Jeffro2pt0. This is very important to me, because I was starting to consider using another search engine because it annoyed me that every search result included a lot of feeds, rather than the actual content. And it takes time to manually find the link to the content.

It’s also important that if you have a blog, that your feeds aren’t showing up in the first results, possibly resulting in less visitors.

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The No Fix, No Pay Tech Support

Alisha — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:35:08 +0000

The only tech support I’ve received is through my children’s father. So, if I didn’t know how to fix a problem myself, most of the time he was able to fix whatever the problem was. The best part? It was free no matter if he fixed it or not.

Some people aren’t able to get free tech support and have to pay a lot of money only for the tech support person to say they can’t fix it because . I don’t think that’s right, charge less when you can’t fix it! This is why I am liking PC Ask Me. I have not tried it out yet, but if I run into a problem someday and have no free tech support, it might be worth remembering.

PC Ask Me offers PC Repairs and can fix problems over the Internet or you don’t pay. I thought of my friend, Shannon, when I saw that they also offer virus and spyware removal. She gets them frequently. They even offer setup and installation of peripheral devices, memory and performance enhancements, and more.

For those of you looking to install Vista but not sure how to upgrade, they offer Vista upgrade install/reinstall.

Even though I personally use System Mechanic for this, they also offer PC diagnostic/tune up. This is great for anyone who doesn’t know what to use or do to keep their computer running smoothly.

Why call PC Ask Me for support:

They will give you a free estimate.
They are located in the US, so you are probably likely to talk to someone you can understand in your language.
If they don’t fix the problem, you don’t pay for it.
If you talked to a specific person about a problem before, you will talk to the same person again.

The prices for the most part seem reasonable, but maybe a little expensive for a few things. I don’t charge to help anyone with computer problems, so I’m not sure if those prices are cheaper or more expensive than what most tech support would charge.

Watch the video summary of how PC Ask Me works on their front page. It even looks like they are offering a free PC diagnostic for a limited time. Might be a great way to try them out and see if you like them.

Sponsored by PC Ask Me

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