Tag: computer

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Website Designed for My Sister

I have been exploring the possibility of designing a website for my sister to have and use, so of course I have turned to the Internet for assistance. I remembered my brother telling me about a web-site of Hosterio.com which he tells me is an affordable way to have a great web-site with 20 MB of space, a free on-line site builder, free pop mail I.D.s, free sub domains, a free shopping cart, front page extension, a FTP user account and a cpanel.

What is cool is that I actually understand most of it now since I have started learning about this process.They have expert web designers available to assist you with your Website Design, whether is be for personal or business use and have several packages from which to choose from according to your individual needs and unique characteristics. I have looked at several web hosting sites and have learned what to look for when looking for a web host and I put what I learned to the test when researching this site and I think that it will do just fine for what her needs are. No need for her to spend her hard earned money when I can do the same and/or better for nothing.

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Bulletproof Microphones

Since both of our parents were killed over five years ago now, my oldest sister is always stuck playing hostess for most of the major family holiday dinners and get-togethers. Since I am on my own and live the closest to her and her family it only makes sense for me to pitch in where the others really can’t manage to do for a variety of reasons, I try and help out in any way that I can.

Over Christmas it was mentioned that we should try doing some karaoke at the next family dinner, which just so happens to be Easter and that believe it or not,  is only a few short weeks away. My sister does have a karaoke machine but it’s been around the block a few times from the look of it and it doesn’t have the microphone that used to go with that particular karaoke machine. I have been looking at various microphones online in my spare time and have been totally surprised at how many microphones are really out there.

I think I finally decided on the right one, the sm57, but what freaked me out was in the description part of the add it boasts that it is bulletproof and how it stands up to road travel and abuse. Guess these are just an added bonus to the whole deal, I really don’t think anyone in my family would get that crazy during karaoke at my sisters on Easter, but in case they do I will know that the microphone will make it through all right! I can’t wait to share this story on Easter day with the family members that manage to find their way there this year.

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He’s Large!

There’s a scene in the movie, Popeye, where Olive Oil is hanging out with her girlfriends and she starts to sing a song about her fiancé, Bluto. She tries to sing of his virtues, but the song ends up, “He’s large,” and the girls sing along like backup singers, “Large.” That was the polite way, back in the 1980’s, to describe guys like me. I’m large and I’m not all that worried about losing weight. I’m not fat. There is a difference between large and fat.

My problem with being large is finding clothes that fit. For some reason a lot of U. S. manufacturers have decided that men who are wide must also be short. If I can find clothes that fit me around the waist, the legs are too short. If I find a shirt that is large enough for my barrel chest, then the sleeves are too short. That is why I shop for Large Men’s Clothing online. I know the measurements that I need and I can usually get enough details from the web site to know if the clothes will fit me.

Enjoy the video, thanks to YouTube! I’ve always been a Popeye fan and was thrilled when this movie came out. I think it’s time to dig that movie out and watch it again, probably been ten years since I’ve seen in last!

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Paper Trade Account

This morning I am taking advantage of a nice quiet house, not that it is ever loud, to get online and learn more about the stock market. It seems to me that the huge decline in stocks these past several years or so has brought the price of many stocks down to a price point where there are good opportunities for smart investors. Four years ago if you told me to invest a couple thousand dollars into a handful of stocks, I would not have gotten much for money. The price per share would have been so high that I would not have many shares. Now that the price has dropped to what I call an adjusted level of reasonable price points, the challenge is to find the businesses that offer good value for the investment and that have a good to excellent chance of coming through this recession as a healthier, stronger company.

If you find the right companies for this investment strategy, you will be rewarded in a few years with rebounding share prices. A good friend told me about a web site that is an online stock broker and also a great learning tool. They have a great feature called a “paper trade account” so that you can play the market without risking real cash. Once you are comfortable with the results of your paper trading efforts, you can easily open a real account and manage your real shares. What a wonderful idea that I believe I am going to check out here real soon and would urge others to try out as well, just to get a good idea of how it all works before jumping in.

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The Old Homestead Crying Out For A New Kitchen Undermount Sink

It really shouldn’t surprise me that so many things are in such bad shape around here, but with so little time and little money to put back into the old homestead it sure is frustrating and very disappointing. The latest thing that I have discovered is the need for a new Undermount Sink in the kitchen.

Now instead of going into town and spending the time and money that it takes for the gasoline that it takes for the trip, I have asked my eldest sister to take a look for me on the Internet to help find some sites that have affordable Undermount Sinks. Since she is very familiar with everything around here just about as well as I am and I trust her judgement since she helps out more than anyone else around the house when she is able. Right now I really have my hands full on the farm, this crazy weather makes farming so much harder to deal with, so any help right now is totally appreciated.

I don’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I tend to buy frozen dinners that you just toss in the microwave for a few minutes. Eat it while watching the TV or sitting in front of my computer. When I’m done eating, everything expect the fork and the glass that I have used goes right into the trash, so there isn’t a lot of dishes and clean up in that old kitchen, but I don’t want to wait much longer to where it will turn into a real pain in the neck.

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Web Design Tutorials and Templates

In my opinion, design is the most critical aspect of a web site. You can have the most vital, important information to share with your readers, but if the design is crap, most people will move on without reading what you are trying to say. Design is combining art and style with form and function. It takes a talent for composition, a sense of style, an eye for detail and a deliberate learning process that develops skill to be a good designer.

The biggest mistake most beginners make when designing anything, whether is is a flyer that hangs in the convenience store window, a personal scrapbook of family photos and memorabilia, or a web page is to clutter the page with too much “stuff.” Beginners use several different type styles and fonts, making the page look like a ransom note. They use too many “cute” embellishments like clip art, busy borders and doo-dads. And they often lose track of the main thing they are trying to communicate – the original content. Any decent web design company should be well aware of

You can’t teach someone everything they need to know about design in just a few minutes. And some people never “get it” no matter how hard to you try to teach them. But if you have an interest in design and any talent for art or composition, there are a lot of books in the library, if you can find a book store I’m sure that they have a good amount of books about the subject. There are some great website design tutorials along with a ton of free web resources to learn the basic principles and then move on to advanced skills.

One of my favorite resources on the web is a blog by a designer who really knows the Internet. His posts are short and to the point, and they cover a wide range of talking points. This is not for the beginning designer, but anyone who has successfully completed a dozen or so projects will most certainly appreciate his comments and suggestions. If you are interested in learning some of the intermediate and advanced techniques, you should check in with the web design blogger site once in a while. He talks about more than just design. Recent posts include topics like search engine optimization, determining your Google page rank, web design tutorials and web site templates. So you can see that there is a variety of useful information presented and worth the time to click over there.

web design tutorials

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Free Website Templates, Free Is Good

My blog has been on my mind lately and I’ve been considering and seriously thinking about getting a new look for my blog. There are so many gorgeous free web templates out there now. Either my blog needs a new look or I need a new haircut. But something needs to have a fresh look . . . guess I’m in the winter doldrums today.

Actually, if I had the time and the right software I would love to design some free templates on my own. I have some ideas for themes that aren’t represented now – at least in the sites I’ve been browsing through as of late. But there are so many free website templates out there right now that it just boggles my brain.

To make a premium template it takes a lot of time and effort from people that know about programming, music, animators as well as usability experts, just to name a few that come to mind. So it is a team effort, whether you have an expert from each important and very necessary field or one person that “knows it all”  and can get the job done on their own. I do know some folks that can and do it all, no way I would even attempt most of the stuff. Even though I’ve been blogging for numerous years now, I still consider myself to be a newbie.

Most of what I learned I taught myself and thank goodness for my sister who quite frequently drove all the way up here for a few hand’s on sessions. That made so many things so much easier to do and it helped a lot of what I learned to make sense.  There is just so much to learn and things are always changing. I feel a headache coming on/out and my stomach is being “sensative” just thinking of those times. Not the best

 

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Yet Another Browser To Learn and Use

Another browser? Good grief! I was originally a Netscape fan, back in the days when you had to buy one on disk. They got muscled out and I reluctantly converted to Internet Explorer, which worked well for a while and then I had an issue, can’t remember what that particular issue was because that was a couple of years ago and numerous computer issues. I was told that I really needed to stop using good old Internet Explorer, that was when my  IT buddies turned me onto Firefox, and that’s where I plan to stay. Unless I buy a Mac, then I’ll have to use the Safari browser.

Now Google has come up with another way to get us to come over to the “dark side” and get into the market and they have launched their own browser called, “Chrome.” The early testers are posting rave reviews, so maybe they’ve got something there. Plus I know several people that have turned to Google and tried out their “Chrome” and it is all good positive stuff that I’m hearing about it. But for a little longer I plan on using Firefox and letting the new Chrome work out more of the bugs before I install it and give it a try.

I’ll have to be in the right kind of mood to switch over as well. I’m not looking forward to yet another browser and learning all the ins and outs of the darned thing. So I’m in no hurry what-so-ever to switch out, but it is inevitable.

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Role Playing Games

My brother has discovered an awesome role playing game on the Internet called World of Warcraft, which I’ve heard about, but know nothing about. He was telling me about the game and wants me to join in the fun and play along with him. From what I understand, you download the software and sign up for the game online and then you buy a wow game card so that you have unlimited access to the game web site for a month.

The game card is like a subscription. There is a place online where you can buy a world of warcraft game card, and they have special deals where you can get a 60 day subscription. Instead of having to drive to the local game store, park your car, go inside the store to get waited on, pay for the game card, then drive home with it, you can just go online and get your wow game card code right away. They send it to you in an email and you have it in minutes instead of all the time you would waste buying it from a local store. That all makes sense to me, as I really would prefer buying things on the internet. I’m just not sure if I will have enough free time to spend playing this role playing game and that I’d be just throwing my money away. I’ll have to go over to his place and watch him play it and see if it is even something that I would want to do.

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Domain Names

My blog was not set up to be a big public blog, but it has gotten some interest from people in faraway places, for one reason or another. I find that very flattering and hope that any visitors to my site find something enjoyable or worthwhile. A few of my real life friends have asked me for help in setting up their own blogs.

So here is what I did, and I’m sure anyone else can do the same. I bought a domain name from a company that sells domain names. I wanted my own name, of course, and this site let me search to make sure it was available, just in case there are others in the world who might have claimed this domain name before I thought of doing it.

Then I found a web hosting company. I used the webhostingchoice.com web site to compare the rates and hosting plans among the top 10 web hosting companies. Once I decided which hosting company to use, I had to transfer the domain to that site so it would appear online. I liked the webhostingchoice.com site because it was quick and easy to find out what I wanted to know. They compared the rates and had a learning center with articles on everything I needed to know to get started.