by ·Comments Off on Internet Explorer 8: The Page Function

Overview

The Page function of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is probably where most action takes place for web page related functions the user will take.  It has the following basic menu items

  • Cut, copy, and paste
  • Accelerators (links to sites)
  • Edit, Save As, Send page or link by E-mail
  • Compatibility viewing options (enable it or configure it)
  • Page displaying options like Zoom, Text size, Style, Encoding, Caret browsing
  • Properties
  • View Source

Most of the items here are common knowledge to the general user population; so we will only cover those functions that are more obscure to the most casual user.  We’ll cover those that are in bold above:  compatibility viewing options, style, encoding, caret browsing, and view source.

Compatibility Viewing Options

Previous versions of Internet Explorer have the reputation of not following web standards, as it relates to how web page mark up codes are interpreted. In addition, they were known to use their own unique mark up code–forcing web masters to create various hacks just to make sure their pages work in IE6 or IE7.

Well, after many years, Microsoft finally saw the light and have come to adopt web standards–resutling in the release of IE8. Now, what happens to the pages that were designed to be best viewed in IE6 or IE7? In some cases, they might not look right. This is where the compatibility option comes in.

If you enable the Compatibility View option, IE8 will allow you to run in a sort of IE6 or IE7 mode.  So if you ever find a site that may have been designed for the older Internet Explorers, you’ll want to enable this option, and add the site to the list of sites you wish to view in compatible mode.  You can add them by selecting Compatibility View Settings.

Bottom line…if a page doesn’t look right, try enabling the Compatbility View option.

Style

The Style menu item has two submenu items–no style and default style.  As some people know, web pages may have styles associated with it.  Styles can be embedded in a page or it can be included using CSS (cascading style sheets).

Styles control how content is displayed.  So by default, IE8 uses styles.  You can disable Style by selecting No Style.  When you do, IE8 will simply show you content in a linear fashion–pretty much in the order they appear in the page, with no style.

When would you use “No Style”?  Probably if you want to keep the view to the content plain.

Encoding

Encoding is the language and character set to use when displaying a web page. Most people don’t have to mess with this because the default setting is “Auto” and most pages have information to tell the browser what language encoding to use.

However, if for some reason the page does not include that information, and you have the Language Encoding Auto-Select feature on, IE8 can probably determine the correct encoding. For the case it cannot, the Encoding feature allows you to choose.

Caret Browsing

No. This isn’t some new browsing trend where you eat carrots while you browse. It is an accessibility feature on IE8 that allows one to browse using the keyboard.

When it is on, a movable cursor will become visible. Using the keyboard, a user can navigate the browser with that cursor. That same cursor can be used to select and copy snippets of the page being viewed.

This feature can be applied on a per tab basis. Pressing F7 toggles it on or off.

View Source

Most people would probably not care about using this feature, but if for some reason you want to see how a web page is coded in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), then this is how you would see it.

Closing Remarks

By getting yourself familiar with these features, you will become more knowledgeable about IE8 than probably 99% of the population! As a result, you can be more productive in how you deal with a web page.

by ·Comments Off on How to: Basic Google Search
Basic Google Search

Basic Google Search

Almost everyone uses Google to search the Internet; but not everyone really knows how to take advantage of some of Google’s basic search capabilities.  Knowing how to use Google’s basic search capabilities can narrow down your seach quickly from several hundred millions down to a few thousands relevant results.

Open your web browser to google.com.  This should open up to google’s simple, yet effective home page–the search page.  At this point, you can search the WEB, look for IMAGES, find some VIDEOS, or search for NEWS.  Most of the time, the default–WEB–will suffice.  Regardless, click the type of seach you wish to do.

In the search field, you can type relevant words that simply describe what you are looking for.  Say for example you are looking for an article on basket weaving.  If you simply type the words “basket” and “weaving” in the seach field, Google will come back with 1,150,000 results.  This is because google will look for articles that contain “basket weaving”, “basket”, or “weaving”.  Now, do you have time to look over that many articles?  Probably not.

To narrow down your results to more relevant searches, you can begin by using the “+” operator.  You can enter “+basket” and “+weaving”.  This will force Google to only return articles with both “basket” and “weaving”.  This approach narrows down the search to 704,000.  Better than the original 1,150,000 results earlier, but still too many.

To further narrow down the search, you can enclose your search criteria with quotes–i.e. use “basket weaving” including the quotes.  This forces Google to only return articles with the term “basket weaving”.  This narrows down the search to 370,000.  This is a significant improvement to the original result of 1,150,000.

Several hundred thousand articles are still too much to search through.  Think about what is unique about your search.  Say for example that you are only interested in nylon basket weaving techniques.  You can update your search to use ‘+nylon +”basket weaving”‘. This asks Google to find web articles that have the terms “nylon” and “basket weaving”.  This narrows down the search to 3,190!  This is definitely orders of magnitude less than the original 1,150,000 search result.  Most people will probably continue to get results of this magnitude; however, you now know basic Google search capabilities and should be able to limit search results to a few relevant thousands.

by ·Comments Off on Underlying Internet economy most people don’t see

Overview

If you’ve seen the movie “The Matrix”, you may recall the part where Neo, the main character, was asked by Morpheus to take the red or the blue pill.  Taking the red pill meant he’ll wake up and see reality; blue meant he’ll remain oblivious to reality–continuing his life in the virtual world of the Matrix.
What I’m about to tell you is the reverse.  Most people are oblivious to what is happening within what I call the “real matrix” in the Internet.  I will give you the blue pill so that you may see the virtual world or community that most people don’t realize exists!  The “real matrix” is the thriving Internet economy that only a few have seen and can comprehend.
If you are like most people, When you take the blue pill, you will be enlightened.  Your view of the Internet will never be the same.  You will realize that there are a few people out there living solely on the Internet.  I’m not referring to people selling things on eBay or Craig’s list; I’m referring to those people who earn income through the pure bits and bytes that flow through the Internet. Their product is not physical, but intelectual; thus it is created out of thin air and converted into the bit and bytes of information people need or seek through the Internet.
This income generating power has been around since the beginning of the Internet, but was never easily available to anyone until the emergence of the Internet giant Google.com.  They have single handedly revolutionized online advertising and have created opportunities not previously available to anyone.  This article will enumerate the various ways people are making money online.

Opportunities Abound!

Perhaps you’ve heard of rumors about how some people were able to leave their day job because they pursued and took advantage of this underlying economy.  The interesting thing is that most people are oblivious to this–only seeing what is on the surface of their Internet browsing experience!
So go ahead, take the blue pill.
Now have a look at this link:  http://website.ws/kvmlm2
Be advised that this will show you a video of an opportunity that might inspire you.  You don’t necessarily have to sign up because the main objective is to watch the video and see what point they are making.  Note that this is in not my link nor am I endorsing the product.  Only pay attention to the video message.
Have you finished?  Are you excited?  OK.  The main point I’m trying to make is that anyone can actually improve their financial situation by taking control of life, and that age and education doesn’t matter–only the strong desire to change your destiny really counts.  And all this can be done from the comfort of your home and computer.
After I saw the video, it inspired me to dig deeper into how people made income while working from home.  What I discovered inspired me even more.  Check out these articles:
Before making the above discoveries, I really thought that blogging was an activity that people did to document their activities and thoughts online.   In reading the above articles, I quickly realized that it was more than that; it was really the strong desire to share useful information with others, and in the process earn income from web traffic–enough income in some cases to leave their day job!
At this point I thought that I needed to build myself a blog.  But before I delved into my own blog, I tried my hand at various sites that allowed me to post information and earn from those postings.  Here are some that I tried:
For some reason, my efforts gravitated only towards the following sites; it is probably because it seems to be easier to setup and create articles.
eHow.com is probably the easiest place to post useful information and get micro-streams of income from the “get go”.  Note that the income may start flowing as soon as you post your article.  There is no limit to what you can write, and this site gives you a taste of how it would feel like to generate residual income from your postings.  Imagine if you took time to write hundreds of short “how to” articles.  You might think that you don’t know anything, but everyone knows how to do many things.  Your unique perspective can give your posting a special touch of personality.  If you wrote on topics you know, there is most likely many other people interested in those topics.  When they search the Internet for that topic, yours will show up.  And through the ads within eHow, you will earn some income.  It may not be much from the start, but if you build up a good set of “how to” articles, the residual income stream can start becoming significant.  Why?  Because you earn income even when you stop writing!  This is the power of residual income generation.
Next is Helium.com.  This site is a little tougher to get into, because they require longer articles.  However, because your articles are rated and compared with others, you get that extra motivation to improve your writing.  Your own motivation will help you push for the top 5 position.  At Helium.com you earn badges and various writing recognition. You are also encouraged to review other people’s articles and rank them.  Hence the name helium–quality rises to the top.  Another way you can earn income is by writing an article through their market place section.  There you get paid a certain amount based on what the topic requester is willing to pay.  This site too has residual income generation potential because you can earn income even if you stop writing.
The third site–bukisa.com–is also relatively easy to write to.  You don’t have to write about “how tos”; you can write about almost anything.  Some people on eHow have started to replicate their articles to Bukisa.  One unique thing about Bukisa is how you can earn from others’ work if you were able to recruit them into your network–like an MLM scheme.
The fourth site–hubpages.com–isn’t bad either.  I would say that it is almost at the same level as Bukisa, but I’m making more money ther than Bukisa.  In bukisa you can have people become fans.  The more fans you have, the better as it allows you to spread your knowledge faster through your fans.
At each one of these sites, I generate microstreams of income while I sleep, eat, and go to my day job.  Imagine if I had more articles in them; over a period of a couple of years there might be enough income there to earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month!

Blog and Earn Money

In parallel to this effort, I was trying to figure out what my blog should be about.  After much thought, I settled on a blog that would inform the common computer user about the various technology available out there for free.  This gave birth to my main website at http://www.freetechzone.com.  Before settling on this, I tried wordpress.com and blogger.com; however, most information about how to maximize income suggests setting up a blog under my own control.
Now that I have a blog, where’s the flow of money?  Well, the real secret to making money on the Internet is “web traffic.”  One has to build traffic to a site, as I am doing now.  You’ll want to do a Google search on how to build traffic to your website.  Of course, the best way to do that is to show up on the first or second page of a Google search.  To do that, a site has to be very relevant to the search topic; and based on Google’s own documentation, that can happen if you have high ranking sites linking to your site and that your site has very relevant content.  There are many other things that Google take into account in determining your relevance; the ones mentioned are definitely what Google mentions in their recommendations.
OK, so now that I got traffic, where’s the flow of money?  Well, money wont flow unless you have some form of advertising on your site and a way for you to receive payment.  To do this, you need to do three things.
  1. Sign up for a paypal.com account.  This will allow you to have a place where your money will accumulate as income starts to flow.
  2. Sign up as a publisher for Google.com through their adsense program.  This will allow you to get ads and have them placed on your web site.  Later you can sign up with affiliate sites like linkshare.com or Commision Junction (www.cj.com).
  3. Monetize your website!  To monetize, you will need to place Google and/or affiliate ads on your website.
Note that the effort towards generating income from the Internet this way will take time and effort.  On almost all articles I’ve read from those people who were successful in doing this, they indicate that this is not a “get rich” scheme.  You must be patient and must work hard to help keep your content relevant.  The more work you put into it, the higher the chance it has being relevant to the search engines.  If your content is useful, you will have thousands of visitors daily, and you can convert those visits into income–income that keeps flowing even when you are not working.  How cool is that!

Internet Money Making Explained

If this is all confusing, let’s step back and try to explain how websites make money from the point of view of the user.
OK, almost all sites that you go to now-a-days are free.  I would even say that it is probably safe to say that 99.9% of web sites out there are free.  How then are web sites able to keep open?  As everyone really knows, nothing is really free.  All sites, have one or more form of advertising on their site.  You see it everywhere and probably don’t even notice it because you’ve just gotten used to them being there.
Anyway, those ads pay for the site and more.  Some ads provide revenue to the website publisher on a page impression basis.  Some provide revenue to the site when a user clicks through the ad.  Some ads pay the website publisher if the ad generates a lead.  Last but not least, others’ ads provide commision on actual sales resulting from users clicking and then purchasing through the ad.
Picture this…
Let us say you are a website publisher or blogger and you are using an ad that pays $1 for every lead your site is able to generate.  Let us also say that you get 100,000 hits on your web site a month.  If you are able to convert 1% of those hits into leads, then you can potentially generate about $1000/month.  This is just from one ad.  What if you had 4 ads that generated as much revenue per month?  This means that you, the publisher, is able to generate $5000 plus per month!  This can be pretty conservative, if you have a very highly visited site, and this might just be enough to make you quit your day job.

Closing Remarks

The underlying economy in the Internet is like “the matrix”.  If you take the blue pill, you will see.  Until then you will be oblivious to the fact that some people out there are actually making a living from the Internet, working from home, and are able to quit their day job.  So go ahead, take the blue pill, see the underlying Internet economy, and perhaps participate in it.
If you have any questions about this article or anything related to this topic, don’t hesitate to contact me at forlanda@gmail.com.

by ·Comments Off on Internet Explorer 8: Getting Input and Output

In this article we will quickly cover the three basic functions that allow you to get input or output from Internet Explorer 8 (IE8).  These functions are as follows:

  • RSS Feed
  • Get Mail
  • Print
IE* RSS Feed Function

IE* RSS Feed Function

The image on the left is the icon representing the RSS Feed function.  RSS

Active RSS Feed

Active RSS Feed

 stands for “Really Simple Syndication”, but lately it also has come to mean “Rich Site Summary”.  When you browse a site with RSS feed, this icon will change in color from it grey color to bright orange.  At that point, you can click it and you will be able to subscribe to the feed using your RSS reader (mine is set through Google).  Thereafter, any new update from the site will show up in your RSS feed.  Thus RSS feed is a way to get input through IE8.

IE8 Read Mail

IE8 Read Mail

Next is the Read Mail function.  This is tied to your default email program.  On my Windows Vista machine, it defaults to launching Windows Mail.  I don’t quite see how this ties to IE8, but I suppose it makes it convenient to have email readily available from the IE8 interface.

IE8 Print Function

IE8 Print Function

Last but not least is the Print function.  Obviously this is a way to get output from IE8.  When you click the Print icon, you will get three choices:  Print, Print Preview, and Page Setup.  If you select Print IE8  simply prints the page you are looking at to the default printer.  Print Preview allows you to see how the print will look like, possibly make some adjustmenets, before you commit to a print.  Finally, Page Setup allows you to make adjustments to your printing setup–to include margins, printing orientation, font to use, and header/footer information.
There are really nothing earth shattering about the functions just discussed; however, if you’ve never used them, you might not know how useful they can be–after all, these features are IE8’s primary means of inputting and outputting to its users.

by ·Comments Off on Internet Explorer 8: The Home Page

Your Internet browser’s setting for home page is your very first view into the Internet the moment the browser is opened.  It only makes sense that you set it to a page that you use most often so that you can save time in your Internet surfing activity.  This page is called your home page.

What if you have more than one page you wished you could open everytime you ran your browser?  Well, with Internet Explorer (IE) 8 (or IE 7 for that matter), you can open more than one.  As a matter of fact, you can open up to 8 home pages when you launch IE 8.

Home Page Icon

Home Page Icon

 The Home Page icon is illustrated on the left.  When you click the icon IE 8 will take you to your home pages.  If you only have one, you can add 7 more by clicking the down arrow immediately to the right of the Home Page icon.

When you click on that down arrow, you can choose from the list of your up to 8

Remove Home Page

Remove Home Page

 home pages or you can manage your home pages.  Specifically, you can

  • Add or Change Home Page
  • or Remove (a home page or all)

If you are setting your home pages for the first time, the quickest way to do it is to open IE 8, set each tab to browse to the appropriate page, then click the Tools item from the command bar, then select Internet Options from the drop down menu that shows. 

In the Internet Options window, make sure you are in the General tab.  From there, simply click the Use Current button, and that will set your home pages.  Click the OK button of the Internet Options window and you are done.

Internet Options dialog box

Internet Options dialog box

Most people don’t know these about Internet Explorer 8’s Home Page function.  You are now one of the few who does; make sure to pass this information on.

by ·Comments Off on Internet Explorer 8: An Introduction of Key Features
About Internet Explorer 8

About Internet Explorer 8

It didn’t seem like long ago since Internet Explorer (IE) 7 was released (19 Oct 2006) , and right behind it was the release of FireFox 2 (24 Oct 2006).  Then in March 2008 Microsoft released Internet Explorer (IE) 8,  which was followed by FireFox 3 on 17 Jun 2008; then Google followed suit with their own Google Chrome on 03 Sep 2008.

As you can see the battle for your Internet browsing interface is fierce, and even though Microsoft has the market dominance with respect to Internet browsers, its share is slowly being eaten away by FireFox and now Chrome.

The release of IE 8 was a major milestone in that it was apparent Microsoft was responding to user needs and competition pressure.  Microsoft claims that IE 8 is web compliant and allows you to view web sites with ease.  It is also supposed to be faster and more secure.

This article will not attempt to prove Microsoft’s claims, but will provide users with a good overview of the key features available in IE 8 that most people don’t realize exist or don’t bother to use to their advantage.

Continue reading

by ·Comments Off on Zamzar.com: The mother of online file conversion utilities

Zamzar.com is relatively new to the scene; they’ve been in the public eye since around the second half of 2007.

What is Zamzar.com?  Their company mission says it all:

“To provide high quality file conversion for as many file formats as possible.“

The interesting thing is that they are able to provide file conversion services without having to install any application on your computer.  All you basically need to do is specify the source file, select the destination format, and provide an email address so that they can email you a download link for the converted file.

Their main strength is the wide range of files they can convert.  It is pretty comprehensive!  That is why I mention that their service is the “mother of all online file conversion” services. You can convert video, image, audio, and CAD files just to name a few of the major ones.

On top of that, you can even take a Youtube or some other online video content provided you have the video URL, and download a copy of it to your computer!

There is a limit of 100MB for the free account.  You don’t even have to register to get the conversion services.   However, if 100MB is too small for you, you can purchase their service for a price.  Go to their pricing page for the latest pricing information.

For the free service, you get no online storage and you only get 5 concurrent file conversions at a time.  As for support, response time is only best effort.

Bottom line though, even the free version is a great deal since most people will only want to convert some files once in a while.

by ·Comments Off on Windows Media Encoder: A Free Multimedia Tool in Window XP or Vista

You need a tool that will allow you to record your computer screen or any part of it in order to show how to do something on a particular application. You also need to be able to edit your recording. Where can you find such a tool without having to shell out a few bucks?

Well, look no more, there is a jewel of a utility right from under your very nose. It is called Windows Media Encoder. This tool is available from Microsoft and it is free. All you have to do is download and install it and you are off and ready to do screen capture and playback.

This tool comes with the following:

  • Windows Media Encoder – main program
  • Windows Media File Editor – edit your media files
  • Windows Media Profile Editor –  use create or edit Windows Media profiles
  • Windows Media Stream Editor – use to combine or split streams

by ·Comments Off on Protect Your Data from Data Wiping Worm

In the last few days there has been reports of a worm designed to wipe out your data.  CNET reports that this worm has already targetted US and South Korean web sites.  The worm travels through emails which has an attachment.  The email is basically a trojan with a payload designed to erase files on your computer–including the master boot record.  When installed on your computer, the malicious load with will basically render your computer inoperable on the next boot.

Don’t wait until this happens to you.  Take action; backup your precious files (documents, pictures, videos).  You have several options.

If you don’t have too many files to back up (i.e. less than 2GB), a free account at mozy.com would do the job.  They provide 2GB of free online backup storage space; however, for unlimited space it is only $4.95 per month!  However, if you are cheap like me, you can try to convince others to to sign up for their free 2GB as well, and you’ll get an additional 250MB of storage space for every referral!

There are other online backup solutions like elephantdrive.com and carbonite.com; however, these don’t provide an initial free online storage space.

The other approach is to simply buy a flash drive or an external high capacity USB drive.  There are many out there.  I’ve seen flash drive with capacities as high as 32GB, but I’m sure there are higher capacity units out there now.  You can buy external USB drives now with over 1TB of storage space for less than $200.  As a matter of fact, I recently purchased one at Best Buy.  Over two weeks ago, I completed a full backup of my drives containing years of accumulated documents and pictures.

I know that if by some chance my drive crashes or I am infected by one of this worm, I’ll have my backup to fall back on.

So don’t wait too long before backing up your data.  Get that peace of mind that you have something to fall back to should the worst happen to your hard drive.



Mozy Remote Backup. Free.Automatic.Secure.

by ·Comments Off on How to encrypt your Internet traffic

Encryption: key to secured data transmission

Encryption: key to secured data transmission

Not many people realize that the traffic they generate on the Internet as they check e-mail, upload files, chat, and so on are out in the clear. This means that if someone tapped into the network (wired or wireless) where your traffic is flowing, that someone would be able to capture the information flowing through that network, and possibly interpret or maybe even change the account or various confidential information that may be in that flow. One way to keep those Internet peeping toms from seeing your confidential information is by using some form of encryption technology. There are three general scenarios where encryption technology is crucial. The first is the encryption technology you must ensure is used when accessing confidential information online. The second scenario is when you are sending confidential information to someone or some organization. The third is when you are using wireless technology to access your network or someone else’s in the process of connecting to the Internet.

When accessing confidential information online, you must make sure that the site you are connecting to uses TLS/SSL (Transport Layer Security, the successor to SSL–Secure Socket Layer). You can tell this in three ways:

1) The URL for the sites starts with https://

2) There is an indication in your browser that your connection is secure—typically symbolized by a padlock icon (in Internet Explorer 8, it can be found to the right side of the address field)

3) Your browser indicates that it trusts the site you are visiting (in Internet Explorer 8, the address field background turns green)

For example, when you access your bank online, you will see that their URL begins with “https://”, and that there is a padlock symbol somewhere on the bottom or top of your Internet browser. When you’re browser is using TLS/SSL to communicate with a web server on the Internet, you are doing two things by convention—ensuring that the site you are visiting is who they say they are through the use of an SSL certificate which is certified by a trusted authority (for example Verisign) , and the data you are transmitting are encrypted and thus protected from eavesdropping exposure.

What if you need to send something to someone—like a file or an email containing very confidential information (e.g. a set of social security numbers tied to their corresponding owners’ identity)? If trust and confidentiality are important attributes needed in your communication, then there is a product called PGP Desktop that you and your receiver can use. PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy. The way it works is as follows:

1) Each user creates two kinds of crypto keys—one key is the secret key, the other the public key

2) The public key can be used to encrypt data. The data can then be decrypted using its corresponding secret key.

3) Say that user A and B have each created their PGP key pairs. User A wants to transmit data to B, and he wants only B to be able to read A’s message. They would first need to exchange public keys. User A would then use B’s public key to encrypt his data before transmitting it. When B receives the message, he can use his secret key to decrypt the message. No one else can decrypt A’s message because B is the only one that has the corresponding secret key to decrypt the message.

The use of PGP in the above example is just one of the many ways people can use the pair of crypto keys to encrypt their Internet traffic. By the way, the existence of PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) facilitates the exchange and certification of public keys.

The third and final scenario where you can encrypt your Internet traffic is WI-FI technology use. If you are using some form of wireless technology, you need to make sure you encrypt your wireless network lest you invite your neighbors to see everything you do on the Internet. Currently, the best form of encryption one should use for your home wireless access point is WPA2. WPA stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access. It is more secure that the previous WEP (wired equivalent privacy) or the WPA standard. By using WPA2, you are ensuring that your neighbors cannot see your private Internet traffic.

Remember, Internet traffic is generally not secure. To help keep your confidential data secured when it has to traverse it, you will need to put into effect the habit of only using web sites that support TLS/SSL. And if you need to transmit data to someone, you can use PGP. Lastly, make sure to use WPA2 encryption for your wireless access point to keep your neighbors from seeing your wireless traffic.