What's out there?

What is out there?

Blog

A blog (a portmanteau of the term "web log") is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.


Flickr

Photo sharing websites have been around since the 90s, butit took a small startup site called Flickr to catapult the ideaof “sharing” into a full blown online community.Within the past couple of years, Flickr has become the fastest growingphoto sharing site on the web and is known as one of the first websites to use keyword “tags” to create associations and connections between photos and users of the site.



RSS feed

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites?

In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalising the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day.
It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it?

Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually.



Facebook

Facebook is a social networking* website launched in February 2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc., with more than 500 million active users in July 2010. Users can add people as friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.
Users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information and other personal information. Communicating with friends and other users can be done through private or public messages or a chat feature. Users can also create and join interest groups and "like pages" (formerly called "fan pages" until April 19, 2010), some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising. To allay concerns about privacy, Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who can see what parts of their profile.
The website is free to users and generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads. By default, the viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from the same network and "reasonable community limitations".

*A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging.


Windows Live Messenger (formerly named MSN Messenger)

Windows Live Messenger (formerly named MSN Messenger) is an instant messaging client. In June 2009, Microsoft reported the service attracted over 330 million active users each month.
Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time direct text-based communication between two or more people using personal computers or other devices. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet. More advanced instant messaging software clients also allow enhanced modes of communication, such as live voice or video calling.


Skype

Skype (pronounced /ˈskaɪp/) is a proprietary software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its additional features which include instant messaging, file transfer, and video conferencing. The network is operated by a company called Skype Limited, headquartered in Luxembourg and partly owned by eBay.


Wiki

A wiki ( /ˈwɪki/ WIK-ee) is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used to create collaborative wiki websites, to power community websites, for personal note taking, in corporate intranets, and in knowledge management systems.
Wikis may exist to serve a specific purpose, and in such cases, users use their editorial rights to remove material that is considered "off topic." Such is the case of the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia. In contrast, open purpose wikis accept content without firm rules as to how the content should be organized.
The essence of the Wiki concept is as follows:
A wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki Web site, using only a plain-vanilla Web browser without any extra add-ons.
Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link creation almost intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target page exists or not.
A wiki is not a carefully crafted site for casual visitors. Instead, it seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape.


You Tube

YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005.[3] In November 2006. It uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, BBC, VEVO and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.
Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos that are considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users 18 and older.




Twitter

Twitter is a social networking service, owned and operated by Twitter Inc that enables its users to send and read other user messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default; however senders can restrict message delivery to their friends list. Users may subscribe to other author tweets—this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers.
While the service is free, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees. The website is based out in San Bruno, California near San Francisco (where the website was first based).
Since its creation in 2006 Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide and currently has more than 100 million users worldwide. It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet."


Library Thing

Library Thing is a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing personal library catalogs and book lists.
Based in Portland, Maine, Library Thing went live on August 29, 2005. As of September 2009 it has 920,000 users and nearly 45 million books catalogued.
Users can:
· Join the world’s largest book club.
· Catalogue your books from Amazon, the Library of Congress and 690 other world libraries. Import from anywhere.
· Find people with eerily similar tastes.
· Find new books to read.
· Free Early Reviewer books from publishers and authors
While it is possible to keep a library catalog private, most people choose to make their catalogs public, which makes it possible to find others with similar tastes. Users can browse the entire database by searching titles, authors, or tags generated by users as they enter books into their libraries.

Meeting held on Monday 3rd May 2010

Unanimous decision to continue the club with a mixture of set topics and days with one on one help with individual issues.

Suggestions for future topics:

- Email, customize
- What's out there...Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Flicker e.t.c.
- Internet safety, financial transactions over the Internet
- Mobile phone use and customizing
- Photos resizing and emailing
- Memory and storage, different formats
- Microsoft word basic
- Clean up , defragmenting, cookies
- PC troubleshooting, E.g. My PC is frozen what can I do?

Email topic for June.

The Future of Our Club

Club Meeting 3rd May - 10 am

The Club meeting on Monday May 3rd is for us to decide where we go from here.

We encourage everyone to come along to help plan.

You know what they say.....

Be there or be square.

So see you there!

Attachments and Email

Opening attachments

When an email has a paperclip symbol in front of the subject line there is something attached to that email.

Open the email that has the paperclip symbol. Click the link that appears next to the paperclip symbol. Click Download Attachment. A window should then appear offering you three choices 1) Open 2) Save or 3) Cancel. If you only wish to view the file click Open. This is often the best option as you can save the file once you have opened it and checked what it is.

Adding an attachment

Begin writing your new email. You can add an attachment at any time.

- Click Attach files(This may be located in different places on the screen in different email accounts e.g. Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Bigpond, Optusnet and many more).

- Click on Browse and you will get a Select Files box.

- Locate the file you want to attach click on it, then click Open.

- To attach more files to this email repeat the above steps.

July 2009 - Basic Ebay

eBay

Here are some hints and tips refer to eBay help sections for more detailed instructions.

And Happy bidding!!!!!!


Launched in 1995, eBay started as a place to trade collectables and hard-to-find items. Today eBay is a global marketplace where businesses and individuals can buy and sell practically anything.

Although eBay is a great place for buyers and sellers to come together and trade almost anything, eBay can be a bit scary to new users who aren’t used to buying items online from strangers or buying at auctions.

Here are a few tips for making your eBay experience a good one:

• Learn how to effectively search and browse. eBay includes thousands and thousands of items, which can be sometimes overwhelming when you’re trying to find what you’re looking for. Learning when to search and when to browse can be helpful.
• Before buying an item, review the feedback that members have left for a seller, and learn about PayPal, eBay’s preferred way to pay. Learning about a seller’s past trading experiences will help you decide if this is a person you feel you can trust. Learning about PayPal before you buy will make your PayPal buying experience easier.
• Review eBay’s rules and policies. To create a safe and fair trading environment for all eBay members, eBay includes rules and policies for all members. Learn more about why eBay has these rules and policies in place and what happens if you violate them.
• Use the powerful tools in My eBay. My eBay can help you track and manage all your eBay buying, selling, messaging, account information, preferences, and more.
• Learn how to get the help you need when you need it. eBay includes many tools for getting help including online help, eBay Learning Center, Community Help Boards, glossary and more.

Protect your eBay account

Here's what you can do to protect your eBay account:

• Choose your user ID, eBay password and secret question carefully.
• Beware of fake email and Web sites requesting sensitive information.
• Install and update online protection software.
• Monitor your account for suspicious activity.

Here are some additional steps eBay is taking to help protect your account:
Identity Confirmation
PayPal Security Key

Choose your user ID, eBay password and secret question carefully.

• Your user ID and password give you access to your eBay account. Your user ID is the nickname that identifies you on eBay. Your password is the key to your account. You should choose both a user ID and a password that are not related to your email address or any of your other online accounts. Using the same password for several online accounts means that if someone can access one of your accounts, they can access your other accounts as well.
• If your user ID is the same, or similar to your email address, you should change your user ID. eBay members can still contact you after you have changed your user ID by using the Contact an eBay Member feature.
• Review Creating and Protecting Your Password for tips on how to select a secure password. Note: You should change your eBay password every 30 to 60 days
• In addition to changing your password regularly, you should also change the secret question and answer associated with your eBay account.

Beware of phishing (fake) emails and websites asking for sensitive information.

• A major threat to the security of your eBay account is fake emails and web sites, called spoof or phishing. They are used to get personal and account information.
• If you receive an email that looks as if it is from eBay and mentions a problem with your account or requests personal information and is not in My Messages in My eBay, it is a fake email. Forward suspicious emails to spoof@ebay.com.au.
• eBay will never ask you to provide sign-in passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information through email. If eBay requests information, eBay always directs you back to the eBay site.
• Review Reporting Spoof Emails and Recognising Spoof (Fake) eBay Web Sites so that you know what to do to protect your eBay account against these threats.
  Review Reporting Spoof Emails and Recognising Spoof (Fake) eBay websites so that you know what to do to protect your eBay account against these threats.
  

Install and update online protection software.

• Anti-virus software. Computer viruses can log and record keystrokes. Emails can carry viruses that can find and transmit information from your files. Install the latest version of anti-virus software and use it regularly to scan your computer.
• Spyware protection. Spyware is software that is downloaded onto your computer without your knowledge to collect personal information and record your Internet usage. By maintaining current versions of spyware protection you can be sure that people who want to steal your account or your identity won't have access to your computer.
• Internet firewalls. Firewalls are either hardware or software that controls the flow of information to and from your computer. Using a firewall helps prevent any unauthorised parties from gaining access to sensitive information stored on your computer. It is especially important to use a firewall if you have a high-speed connection that is always connected to the Internet.

Monitor your account for suspicious activity.
Periodically check My eBay to ensure no one has tampered with your account. It's a good idea to periodically check all your online accounts, not just your eBay and PayPal accounts.
If you see anything out of the ordinary with your eBay account, report it to eBay immediately and take action quickly to secure your eBay account and protect yourself from identity theft.

How eBay helps protect your account through identity confirmation

Keeping your personal information secure and confidential is one of our most important responsibilities. We continuously use a variety of technologies and techniques designed to prevent unauthorised access to your information. As part of this program, eBay will attempt to recognise a trusted member automatically by verifying the computer they use. If an attempt is made to login to your account from an unrecognised computer, we will require additional confirmation to protect your account from unauthorised access.
If an account owner is using a new computer ‑ perhaps at the office or at a friend’s house ‑ that owner will have to confirm his or her identity before they can sell on the site.

To help identity confirmation work quickly for you, we recommend that you:

• Ensure that your personal information is current. We might need to confirm the information in your account, such as your telephone number or address. We would also highly recommend that you to provide us with a secondary phone number.
• Review your secret question. Make sure the secret question and answer you have on file is easy for you to remember and difficult for others to guess.

Add extra password protection with the PayPal Security Key
Add an extra layer of security with the advanced password protection of the PayPal Security Key. The PayPal Security Key is a lightweight, sturdy, keychain-sized device that generates a new six-digit security code that you add to your password when you sign in to eBay. Learn more about the PayPal Security Key.

How to bid

1. Once you find an item you're interested in, it's easy to place a bid.
   Carefully review the item listing, and click the Place Bid button on the item page.
2. Enter your maximum bid.
3. Click the Continue button.
4. Review your bid, and click the Confirm Bid button.

eBay will bid on your behalf up to your maximum bid. You'll get an email confirming your bid. And when the auction ends, you'll receive another email indicating whether you've won the item, with an explanation of what you can do next.

Note: You may be able to place bids from more than just the item page. However, please carefully review the item listing before you place a bid.

About eBay’s automatic bidding system
When you place a bid, we suggest that you enter the maximum amount that you're willing to pay for the item. (You won't necessarily pay the amount of your maximum bid.) eBay compares your bid to those of other bidders and increases your bid on your behalf using only as much of your bid as is necessary to maintain your high bid position.

Automatic bidding system: eBay uses an automatic bidding system to make bidding more convenient. There’s nothing you need to set up, the system is already in place.

Bid increments: eBay’s bidding system is based on increments. A bid increment is the amount by which a bid will be raised each time the current bid is outdone.

Bid safely: eBay limits the display of your bid history information by using anonymous names. All bidders are assigned anonymous names, such as x***y. These anonymous names are used consistently across all auctions that exceed a certain level. When you bid on an item, your user ID is shown only to the seller of the item.

Note: Anonymous names may appear more than once in the bid history and may represent different bidders from different auctions.

Tips for successful bidding
Don't bid on identical items in different listings if you just want one item. If you win both, you'll be obligated to buy both.

If you’re outbid on an item, wait until the auction has ended before placing a bid on an equivalent item. If the bidder who outbid you retracts his or her bid, your bid may become the winning bid. Consider placing the identical item on your list of items you're watching in My eBay.

To change your bid amount, enter a new bid amount and click the Place Bid button.

June 2009 - Photos

PHOTOS
We will be looking at managing photos through Microsoft Picture Manager. Many of the notes in this are from the Help menu in Microsoft Picture Manager.

Start Picture Manager from the Start menu
Use the following instructions to start Picture Manager.From the Start menu, select All Programs.Click to open the Microsoft Office folder.Click to open the Microsoft Office Tools folder.Click Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Start Picture Manager from an image

Use the following instructions to start Picture Manager from an image on your computer.On your computer, locate the picture you want to work with.Right-click the picture.From the menu, select Open With, then click Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Create shortcuts to your pictures
You can create a shortcut to the folder that contains your pictures, or to each picture.

Create a shortcut to a folder
Locate the folder that contains your pictures.Right-click the folder and select Create Shortcut.Drag the shortcut to your desktop.

Create a shortcut to a picture
On your computer, locate a picture.Right-click the picture and select Create Shortcut.Drag the shortcut to your desktop.Right-click the shortcut, select Open With and then click Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Edit pictures
You can use Microsoft Office Picture Manager to make corrections to your pictures such as fixing brightness, color, or removing red eyes. To save time, select all the pictures you want to correct at one time, then use Auto Correct or one of the individual picture editing tools.
To get started with editing your pictures, click Edit Pictures. The Edit Pictures task pane appears with the following options.

Auto Correct
Correct colour and brightness. Click Auto Correct, then place the cursor in the area that needs correction.

Brightness and Contrast
Adjust the difference between light and dark tones. You can use this feature to correct pictures that appear too light or too dark.

Colour Adjust the hue and saturation . You can use this feature to correct pictures with colours that are tinted or dull.

Crop Crop out unwanted parts of a picture. You can use this feature to correct pictures that contain distracting elements.

Rotate and Flip Rotate pictures or flip them on the axis of the picture. You can use this feature to correct pictures that you have taken sideways for a portrait orientation.

Red Eye Removal Remove the red from your picture subjects' eyes caused by the camera flash. You can use this feature to correct red eyes wherever they appear.

Re size Change the dimensions of a picture. You can use this feature to enlarge a picture for printing or reduce it to send in e-mail messages or share on the Internet.

Compress Pictures Reduce image file size for various formats. Note: Click Edit, then Undo to undo any changes made with editing tools. Note: You cannot use Picture Manager to make images transparent, add text to pictures, or scan images.

Display a favourite picture as your computer's desktop background
When you decide you want to display a picture, just send that new picture to your desktop and it will replace the existing one.
1. On the Start menu, point to All Programs, and then point to Microsoft Office.
2. Point to Microsoft Office Tools, and then click Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
3. In the Picture Shortcuts pane, click the shortcut to the folder where the picture is located.

If the Picture Shortcuts pane doesn’t already have a shortcut to that picture, add the shortcut.Add a picture shortcut

1. In the Picture Shortcuts pane, click Add Picture Shortcut.
2. Browse to the folder that contains the pictures you want to work with. (The pictures will appear in the preview pane after you close the dialog box.)
3. Click Add.
4. In the preview pane, right-click the picture you want to work with, and then click Set as Desktop Background.
5. Switch to your desktop to see the picture.

Copy a picture
On the Standard toolbar, click Copy .Click the folder where you want to paste the copy, and then click Paste . Alternatively, you can copy the picture by dragging it to another folder. If you want to move the picture rather than copy it, hold down SHIFT while you drag the picture to the new folder. You can copy a picture to another Microsoft Office program. Select the picture you want to copy, click Copy , switch to the other program, and then click Paste .

May 2009 - Basic Internet Searching

Web Page


To move within a Web Page:

- Use the scroll bar on the left hand side of the page or the arrows located at each end of the scroll bar.

- Rolling the wheel in the middle of the mouse.

- The arrows located on the keyboard to the right of the letters.



To move between Web Pages:

Using the Internet involes following links. You know when something is a link as the mouse will change into a hand. To use the link simply click once with the left mouse button.

To go between Web Pages use the Back and Forward arrow symbols in the Toolbar at the top of the screen.

To get a fresh copy of a Web Page (e.g. Getting the latest news) use the Refresh button in the Toolbar.

To stop a Web Page loading either because you no longer want the page or it is taking too long to load click the Stop button in the Toolbar which is a red cross in a white box. You can then do a new search or use the Refresh button to try again.




Examples of the size of files you may download (These are only approximates):

- Text email 2-3KB
- Email with colours and small pictures 50KB - 80KB
- Photo from a digital camera 800KB - 4MB
- Music file 3-4 MB
- Movie 700MB to more than 1GB (Big)

Searching the Internet

There are a number of Search Engines (A program that searches Web Pages around the World) the one we will be using is one of the most used Google.

Go onto the Internet enter www.google.com.au in the Address Bar.

The basic Google search page is returned. The main white box is where you put in the keywords of your search. For example "I am going to plan a holiday" the keyword is holiday. Just putting holiday in the search box and clicking Google Search returned 312 000 000 results. Note that if you were to do the same search again you may get a different number of results that is because the Web is constantly changing.

The first searches returned may be under a heading Sponsored Links, these results are relevant to your search but they have paid Google to display their links. The next section begins the general results that have been returned in your search. By looking at the title of the result and also the URL or Web Address you can decide if this search is what you want.

The fact that we got 312 000 000 results is because we were not specific in our search. The more keywords that are used the more refined the search will be.

A way to refine a search is to use Google Advanced Search and it is a link to the right of the Goggle Search box. By using Advanced Search and entering "driving holiday" in the phrase section and "France, July" in the all these words section the results are down to 1020.

The best way to learn to search is to play. Experiment with different keyword combinations and results.

Have fun surfing!!!!!