Texter

We all have those certain sayings that we type in over and over again, such as your email, or the link to your blog. All this typing takes up productivity time. Even if you are a fast typist it will still take longer to enter 20 characters then it will take to do 5 key strokes. Well, thanks to texter that is now a possibility to only type those five key strokes. Once you download the software just use the command string Ctrl+Shift+H and you get a nice popup with two textboxes, one for the hotstring (or the text to be replaced) and the text to be inserted. It's simple and it also provides a approximate time saved statistic in the preferences menu. It's cool but say that you have multiple signatures that you have programmed and always forget what they are? Don't fret there is a "print cheetsheet" button in the preference too. As I said this program is cool. Once you start working in this software you won't have problems and it will become a real time saver. Below is a video from the texter website:

 

-- Jerry Smith

BitStrips Comic Creator

Bit Strips is a completely online comic strip creator where you make your own avatar and the put him through what ever you want. You can do as many strips as you want, with as many frames as you want. Its pretty easy, but I would recommend using a mouse to create the strip because it was kind of hard for me to move and resize items in the editor with the touch pad that I have on my laptop. Overall I would say that this was pretty good, but it was nice that I didn't need to download any software to run this. The future of software is heading to be completely online and this is a step in the right direction. On a ten scale this would get a 7.

Here is a .png image of the strip.

 

--Jerry Smith

Laptop purchase

So this past weekend I was doing my research on laptops. My decisions were narrowed down by price, and well that's it. My final decision was an Acer 15.4" Aspire 5315-2077, and decided to place my order on Friday night. It was 498.00 from Wal-Mart.com and came with the following specifications.

• CrystalBrite 15.4" widescreen LCD
• 1.86 GHz Intel Celeron M processor 540
• 1 GB or DDR2 system memory (RAM)
• 802.11 b/g built in wireless LAN
• Microsoft Vista Home Basis

Complete specifications are available at http://www.revies.cnet.com.
This laptop will be for simple tasks such as instant messaging, and running my live stream and, being the host of my chat room. If you have any suggestions for software I should run on this laptop just email them to me at nj.jerrysmith@gmail.com. Thanks in advanced for any suggestions.

--Jerry Smith

Register your #Jerry nickname

So you have been in and out of my chat room enough to the point where you know you'll be here everyday and you don't want anyone to steal your nickname, or you just plain don't want anyone to steal your nickname. Well then here is a way to register you nickname so that only you ,or whoever you give the password to, can use it.

Steps

1. Log-in to the chat room with the nickname your want to register. To find out how to log-in refer to this post.
   
2. After you have chatted with the nickname your want to register for over 120 seconds enter
   /msg nickserv REGISTER the password you want to use your email address
3. Click "Send" or hit enter
4. A new window should open and say <NickServ> Nickname your nick here registered
5. Just click the little red X under the word "TFLASH" in the upper right hand corner of the chat box
6. Continue chatting as normal

Note: The next time you log-in you must enter the password you supplied in step 2 in the password (optional) box.

Have fun chatting and please donate to WyldRyde (our chat provider) to keep these FREE services running.

How to log-in to my tech help chatroom

So...you need some help logging in to my chartroom. Well you've come to the right place then. All you have to do is follow the 4 simple steps below and you can ask as many questions as you want. Don't forget questions can also be emailed to mailto:nj.jerrysmith@gmail.com?subject=Tech%20Help.

Steps

1. Let the page load and then you should see a gray box that says "To start chatting please enter your nickname". Enter a nickname that you want to be identified as. DON'T use your first name unless you want people to know it. Chose something simple such as Lost@Tech or INeedHelp
2. Click Login, you don't have to worry about entering a password because only registered users need passwords.
1. To register your nickname refer to this post
3. Start chatting by typing your question in the white box next to the send button. Hit enter (above your right shift key and to the left of the quote, apostrophe key) or click on the send button.
4. Wait for our response and continue chatting.

Have fun and please be nice in my chat room because offensive users WILL BE KICKED. No questions asked. Please respect the authority of all ops (@ next to their names) and halfops (% next to their name). Thank you

We run on a WyldRyde server and it is free of charge. Visit there website here. Please donate to them to keep their free service running.

--Jerry Smith

Pandora- Free Online Music

When I say somenthing online is free it really must be because I'm just a fifteen year-old who doesn't have a credit or debit card to buy stuff online. So with that said, Pandora is a free online radio that I found in my travels on the internet. Click on the link below to be brought to their site.

Pandora Radio - Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music

Simple steps to listen to you favorite song:

1. Go to Pandora.com.
2. Let the player load.
3. Type in the name of your favorite artist or song (ie. Greenday or Only One)
4. Hit Enter (above the right shift key and to the right of the quote and apostrophe button)
5. Listen to your song and other songs of the same qualities.
   

View Pandora's FAQ's at http://blog.pandora.com/faq/.

I hope you enjoy this way of listing to music....it is very interactive.

--Jerry Smith

Helping old people with technology

Hey all....here are my top five tips for helping seniors or the technological illiterate people with technology. Don't forget seniors can get very antsy and mad when it comes to stuff they don't know how to do so with that said here are my top five tips.

1. Be calm and talk slow. Seniors and the technological illiterate will NOT know all the shortcuts that we geeks know and live by. Most likely it will take them 3 or more times as long to do the simple tasks that we can do in five seconds. Talking slow and loudly (for seniors) will make this process much easer for them and less stressful for you.


2. Be prepared to explain the same thing multiple times. This will mostly apply to seniors because they often have problems hearing. So always tale VERY slow. Also be prepared to
   


3. Having a preprepared list of steps to read from, will make the process of teaching easier. Just type them or even write them up. It will make the speed of the session go so much faster because you won't have to sit there and stare at the screen with that blank stare that we get when we forget stuff.


4. When you are done showing the "student" what they asked you to teach them, ask them to use their computer to make a step-by-step instruction manual. Use the print screen button to take a screen capture of each page as you show them again how to do whatever they asked. Keep a word document (hopefully Microsoft Word) running in the background and then just copy down each screen capture into the document. After you have finished the task, use the simple drawing tools to circle the icons, drop down lists, or whatever they have to click on for that step. Put each picture on its own page and include text (use at least 20 size font).
   
1. Don't forget to save the file in a folder in their desktop and print out a hard copy for them to have.
   
2. Also, if you have a usb key (which most of us have) save a copy there to in case their computer crashes and they loose the file.
5. Show them how to open and print the file in case they loose it. Most likely they will and it will save a second trip to the house if you showed them how to print out another copy.

Bonus Tip!! Now with new technology there is the ability to screen record. Simply install a simple screen recording software
(such as CamStuido) and record the steps to a video file and embed you voice over it. To view an example of that watch this youtube video.

I hope these tips help you with your technological endeavors and make the process of teaching those new to the technological world how easy it is to use these quite simple machines.

Here Chris Pirillo's video of these tips.


--Jerry Smith