1. With at least one document open, right-click the Office Button 
then Customize Quick Access Toolbar.
2. Click Advanced then scroll down to the Display section.
3. Clear the checkbox next to Show all windows in the Taskbar .
4. Click OK to finish and exit.
Use Ctrl-W and Ctrl-F4 will close the current document without closing Word itself.
Came across this Cool Tool From Google.
Hard to expalin really, but it’s a nice way to read online newspapers and magazines.
Website: Google Fast Flip
Searching for News on Balloon Boy, which we now know is a hoax, can result in a Virus or Malware to be placed on your computer. I was scanning the Internet today for stories, and almost half of the pages I went to were malicious sites. Stick with the major sites like CNN.com, ABC.com, NBC.com, etc. and you’ll be fine, but if you are doing searches on this or any major news story BEWARE!
Balloon Boy Falcon Heene Father Richard on CNN who also appeared on Wife Swap with wife Mayumi
How did I know about the Virus and Malware problems? Because I have blocks in place to protect me.
Here are two things I have installed that are picking up problems — both are FREE.
– McAfee Site Advisor
– AVG Anti-Virus
I also have Symantec (and McAfee) Anti Virus Installed, but AVG always seems to pick up things it doesn’t.
ALSO - Generally speaking, Firefox tends to be the Safer Browser.
Here is info from one page AVG protected me from….
These days, it’s not only viruses that can harm your computer. Online criminals can potentially take control of any webpage and infiltrate your computer.
Web-based threats like exploits, phishing, and social engineering can corrupt your computer, steal your identity or make your computer part of a “bot” network. AVG is committed to protecting you while online, and is constantly analyzing web sites on the Internet for these and other online threats.
Personally I’m not an Apple (iPod) fan. I think they are waaaaaayyyyy overpriced. They were not the first to come up with the concept of the MP3 Player and I don’t think they are the best either.
Apple limits you in memory. They ONLY have devices (including the iPhone) that have built in memory and you can not expand it. A lot of other brands (not all of them), allow you to expand the memory using something like an SD memory card, which can be purchased separately in various memory sizes.
From my personal experience, I would recommend a Sansa Brand (they come in MANY memory sizes and options).
Here are some examples…
Some Sansa Models do not have expandable memory, but many do.
Some Sansa models also include an FM radio (that works pretty well), a Photo Viewer, it plays videos, and is a voice recorder. iPods in this price range often only play MP3s
Something no one tells you, is that when you load up an iPod from your computer, you can’t unload the music to another computer. There is a lot of protection crap (like DRM-Digital Rights Management) out there that keep the average law abiding person from doing simple things - and iPods are particularly restrictive. Almost all other brands of MP3 players, will allow you to copy your files to another computer. It simply looks like another Hard Drive on your Computer - If you can click and drag files on your computer now, you can do it to an MP3 player. There is also a lot of protection crap that prevents you from making multiple copies, like when you have more then one iPod - it’s quite frustrating.
A lot of people use software called “iTunes” made by Apple - another product I’m not crazy about. Check out Media Monkey the version you’ll need is FREE and does a LOT. You can play around with it now, before you get a MP3 player. I also use it to listen to Music from the Internet - there are a few hundred stations you can play.
Now I’ve touched on this protection thing, let me elaborate a bit. If you take a CD and “rip” it (aka copy it) - the files are in a format called WAV - it’s a HUGE (about 30-40MB) file size (but high quality), so the format MP3 was created. It’s MUCH smaller (about 3-4MB). MP3s are reduced quality, but the average person can’t tell. Now the music industry came out with some other formats like WMA. These have hidden information in them and they can put a lot of restrictions on you, like you can’t play it on some devices, or you can’t make copies, or you can only make 2 copies, etc. etc.
MP3’s play on EVERY device, they are the most “universal”. You’ll see some other formats like OGG, AAC, etc (there are a LOT of formats). I’d stick with MP3s. If you have a CD collection, then rip them to the MP3 format (you can use Media Monkey or something similar) to do it.
OK - Back to Players…
MP3 Players come in a variety of sizes and options from very simple and basic with a small amount of memory (like 1GB) to a massive collection like 80GB that will also play movies/videos.
1GB=250 songs (approx) ~ 25 Full CDs (if you wanted EVERY song on the CD).
The smaller ones may simply play songs randomly (so you can’t pick the song you want next), may not have a screen, etc. The larger ones will have a screen, possibly show photos or even play videos.
The new software released Wednesday will enable people with mobile phones and other wireless devices to automatically share their whereabouts with family and friends.
The feature, dubbed “Latitude,” expands upon a tool introduced in 2007 to allow mobile phone users to check their own location on a Google map with the press of a button.
“This adds a social flavor to Google maps and makes it more fun,” said Steve Lee, a Google product manager.
It could also raise privacy concerns, but Google is doing its best to avoid a backlash by requiring each user to manually turn on the tracking software and making it easy to turn off or limit access to the service.
Google also is promising not to retain any information about its users’ movements. Only the last location picked up by the tracking service will be stored on Google’s computers, Lee said.
The software plots a user’s location — marked by a personal picture on Google’s map — by relying on cell phone towers, global positioning systems or a Wi-Fi connection to deduce their location. The system can follow people’s travels in the United States and 26 other countries.
It’s left up to each user to decide who can monitor their location.
The social mapping approach is similar to a service already offered by Loopt Inc., a 3-year-old company located near Google’s Mountain View headquarters.
Loopt’s service is compatible with more than 100 types of mobile phones.
To start out, Google Latitude will work on Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry and devices running on Symbian software or Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile. It will also operate on some T-Mobile phones running on Google’s Android software and eventually will work on Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iTouch.
To widen the software’s appeal, Google is offering a version that can be installed on personal computers as well.
The PC access is designed for people who don’t have a mobile phone but still may want to keep tabs on their children or someone else special, Lee said. People using the PC version can also be watched if they are connected to the Internet through Wi-Fi.
Google can plot a person’s location within a few yards if it’s using GPS, or might be off by several miles if it’s relying on transmission from cell phone towers. People who don’t want to be precise about their whereabouts can choose to display just the city instead of a specific neighborhood.
There are no current plans to sell any advertising alongside Google’s tracking service, although analysts believe knowing a person’s location eventually will unleash new marketing opportunities. Google has been investing heavily in the mobile market during the past two years in an attempt to make its services more useful to people when they’re away from their office or home computers.
Website: Google Latitude
There are several ways to listen to music online. Many radio stations have their own website and you can listen to their station over the Internet. There is software that let’s you tap into hundreds of online radio stations, catagorized by Genre.
One of the most unique sites I’ve seen in this arena is Pandora. This has been around for awhile now, and is a fun way to listen to music. Basically what you do is create a FREE account. Then enter a song you like. It takes that song and finds similar songs that you might like as well. The behind the scenes of how it does this is a bit complicated, but in general it works pretty well.
The result is a playlist of sorts. If you don’t like one of the songs it returns, you just tell it and it won’t play that song again. You can also rate a song, so it will play songs you like more frequently.
What does Pandora Mean? The name Pandora means “all gifted” in Greek. In ancient Greek mythology, Pandora received many gifts from the Gods, including the gift of music, from Apollo. She was also, as we all know, insatiably curious.
Website: Pandora
I will have many future posts regarding music, most of which will be related to MP3s. Since this website is geared towards the average consumer, let’s briefly talk about the MP3.
MP3 stands for MPEG Audio Layer III and it is a standard for audio compression that makes any music file smaller with little or no loss of sound quality. MP3 is part of MPEG, an acronym for Motion Pictures Expert Group, a family of standards for displaying video and audio using lossy compression.
What that means in brief, is that on a digital audio file (ie. a song) the file size is HUGE. This is in part because in order to maintain a high quality sound, you need a lot of information. An MP3 is a format that says “Well that’s nice, but you don’t REALLY need that high a quality” so it takes things out in such a way that makes for a far smaller file size. The good part is that you can fit several songs on your computer, or other device like an MP3 player. The bad part is that you do lose some quality. How much loss you notice depends upon how good of an ear you have. Considering that most of the time we are listening to music with other outside noise, the quality is acceptable for most.
If you’d like to learn more about the MP3, checkout “The History of the MP3″
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve most likely heard of various Social Networks. Two of the most popular are MySpace and Facebook. The demographics indicate that it is mostly the under 30 crowd making the most use of these services.
Social Networking is a hot topic today, they are amongst the most utilized websites. The concept is great, because it keeps you connected to a lot of people, and often enables people to re-connect to you if they have lost touch.
Online Social Netorking has always been geared more towards teens and kids. It moved into college age adults when Facebook came out. Now it’s reaching working adults. The most famous and popular Online Social Network for adults is “LinkedIn”.
Unlike the day-to-day chatty social networks of MySpace and Facebook, LinkeIn connects professionals with other professionals. Here you can post your professional profile and connect with other people you have work with, worked for, or who have worked for you. The better jobs are often not the ones advertised, but the ones you hear about through your networks. LinkedIn provides another way to keep and expand on your network.
I see more and more people I know using the service.
Website: LinkedIn
YouTube is a pretty common household name today. Most people know to look their for unique, funny, and off the wall videos, but there are other great uses as well.
YouTube is a great source for FREE Instructional Videos on all kinds of topics.
For instance…
Grooming your Dog (ie. A Bichon)
Check YouTube the next time you need a FREE Instructional Video on almost anything.
Website: YouTube
Do you have an interest, a hobby, or are part of an organization? Well Yahoo offers a great way to communicate with people who share your interests called Yahoo Groups.
If you go to their main page, you can search for all kinds of groups, even some that may be as local as your own town.
Maybe you are head of a local organization and wish to keep your members up to date with the latest news or allow them to communicate to the entire group.
Yahoo Groups was a Yahoo buyout long ago from a website called eGroups. It’s a great tool whether you run some kind of organization, or belong to one. It allows the group to communicate via email, without everyone having to know everyone else’s email.
You can even setup up one just for your friends of family. It’s really ease to use, and you can get it setup in a few minutes.
Google has a similar service, but Yahoo seems to be clearly ahead of Google on this one.
There are several ways to configure a group. Of course one of the best parts is that it’s all FREE !!!
Website: Yahoo Groups
