The following tutorial shows you how to easily set up a Blog using Google's free Blogger service. It takes only 15 minutes to set up. If you have an email account, you can create a free blog with Blogger (the other main rival is WordPress but Blogger is a lot easier). This blog here was created with Blogger. I have two other Blogger sites:
http://freesiu.blogspot.com/
http://raceandliberty.blogspot.com (to promote my last book. Note that I was able to upload and insert audio files, links to reviews, etc.).
I also have a national blog site via my think tank but they use WordPress (another blog creation tool): http://blog.independent.org/author/jbean/
You can allow comments or not. There are many tutorials on Youtube (also owned by Google!) that teach you in a few minutes. The following tutorial gives you the basics. Ask me for help if you need it but please come to my office so I have a computer handy! Use your blog to post thoughts about classes, get started on writing a paper, keep a diary, whatever pleases you.
NOTE: Double click on the following video thumbnail to get it in full screen. Hit ESC when you are done. The source is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aze0a4Row58
Friday, August 19, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Ninite: One-Click Batch Install and Update Your Programs!
The new school year is upon us and students will arrive on campus with new PCs. One of the pains of configuring a PC (or Mac, for that matter) is installing all the programs that are not bundled with the computer: Firefox, Google Chrome, Dropbox, and much more.
Ninite solves this problem. Go to http://ninite.com and click on all the programs you want. I selected about 20 programs that I would normally have to download one by one. Click the "Get Installer" green button and a small Ninite file will appear on your PC (a Ninite for Mac version is forthcoming). Click on that one file and it will batch download all 20 programs, eliminate junk toolbars--all without requesting any information from you.
[Click image to enlarge]
Here's the great added feature of Ninite: if you click on the Ninite file you downloaded, it will update to the latest versions. Moreover, Ninite knows whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system. If a program has both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, then Ninite will download the 64-bit program to your 64-bit PC.
This is all free. For $10 you can get it to auto-update or you can simply click that file once a month to update all your programs. NOTE: While many programs auto-update on their own, many do not so this is a great feature. Also, the programs that do update (like Google and Apple products) will install obnoxious update programs in your start-up, thus sucking your memory away until you actually use them. So Ninite can lighten your PC as well.
Ninite does not have all programs in the universe but it does an excellent job of keeping its inventory up-to-date. For a much more expansive alternative, check out http://allmyapps.com which contains about every software known to Windows or Linux (again, Mac version is forthcoming). Problem is Allmyapps store has many outdated programs and will actually "update" to older versions if you are not careful! It has great potential but hasn't been able to keep its thousands of programs up to date.
[Click image to enlarge]
For a short video tutorial, check out this video from Youtube. The one thing the tutorial fails to mention is the update feature of Ninite, either manual one-click (free) or auto-update ($10).
Ninite solves this problem. Go to http://ninite.com and click on all the programs you want. I selected about 20 programs that I would normally have to download one by one. Click the "Get Installer" green button and a small Ninite file will appear on your PC (a Ninite for Mac version is forthcoming). Click on that one file and it will batch download all 20 programs, eliminate junk toolbars--all without requesting any information from you.
[Click image to enlarge]
Here's the great added feature of Ninite: if you click on the Ninite file you downloaded, it will update to the latest versions. Moreover, Ninite knows whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system. If a program has both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, then Ninite will download the 64-bit program to your 64-bit PC.
This is all free. For $10 you can get it to auto-update or you can simply click that file once a month to update all your programs. NOTE: While many programs auto-update on their own, many do not so this is a great feature. Also, the programs that do update (like Google and Apple products) will install obnoxious update programs in your start-up, thus sucking your memory away until you actually use them. So Ninite can lighten your PC as well.
Ninite does not have all programs in the universe but it does an excellent job of keeping its inventory up-to-date. For a much more expansive alternative, check out http://allmyapps.com which contains about every software known to Windows or Linux (again, Mac version is forthcoming). Problem is Allmyapps store has many outdated programs and will actually "update" to older versions if you are not careful! It has great potential but hasn't been able to keep its thousands of programs up to date.
[Click image to enlarge]
For a short video tutorial, check out this video from Youtube. The one thing the tutorial fails to mention is the update feature of Ninite, either manual one-click (free) or auto-update ($10).
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