Submit technical
questions about the Internet, PCs, networking, etc.,
to mike at mikebaird dot com, and the answers will be posted below
Q: Sometimes I don't want to search
Google for something because all I get are thousands of links - I just want
an "Answer.
A: Try using answers.com,
and also, if you download their free
1-Click Answers™ utility - then you can Alt-Click on any word in any
program on your screen for instant, accurate facts. Try it - it is amazing!
Q: How do I conduct academic search to
find scientific articles on the Internet?
A: Google has a Research Tool at
http://scholar.google.com/ which returns the academic research
most relevant to a search request. Try searching on "snowy plover morro bay"
for example and you will see many targeted academic and government
references returned
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=snowy+plover+morro+bay .
This free Google search capability should be of great assistance to most
docents.
Q: Is there a free Anti-Virus program that is as good as Norton or McAfee?
A: Yes
-- AVG
Anti-Virus (http://www.grisoft.com)
offers one free "home user" license for
Free
Edition (http://free.grisoft.com.
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is for private, non-commercial, single home computer
use only. Easy registration is required for access to technical support forums
after download. For your safety, do not download from any other site other than
http://free.grisoft.com.
Certain advanced options related to scheduling of virus scans and handling of
problems are not supported in the Free edition. Another free anti-virus
package, one which I have not personally evaluated yet, but I have heard good
words for, is http://avast.com
It is a "free 60-day demo" download. After registering online they will e-mail
you a key good for another year.
Q: How can I upload and share all of my digital photos
online, for free?
A: There are many ways to do this.
morro-bay.com/bookmarks
describes and compares over a dozen popular free photo-sharing sites. I
highly recommend that first-timers test out
Slide.com
, which allows you to rapidly and easily upload 1000's of full-sized images, and
your viewers can always see the full-sized versions. This is a great service
that is really taking off! Uploading tools are the best.
See my sample
http://mikebaird.slide.com/
Q: How do I create my own web
site?
A:
morro-bay.com/howtoweb describes how
to create content and publish online. Here is the best path for most
first-timers.
Acquire the
Microsoft FrontPage 2003 editing tool (about $170) and install it on a
Windows XP computer. Use FrontPage's built-in Help system to answer
questions you may have. Be sure to
update Microsoft Windows and
update
Microsoft Office. Acquire a
domain name (e.g., morro-bay.com) from an
accredited domain
name registrar and sign-up for a "FrontPage extension supported"
web-hosting service. These actions can be done at the same or different
vendors, but it may be more convenient for you to simply use the same vendor for
both services. Recommended for both low-cost domain name registration, and for
proven low-cost reliable web hosting, are
1and1.com (especially if you
want to host multiple domains under one low-cost account) and
Godaddy.com. If you have
choice of choosing a Linux-based versus Windows-based server, and you don't know
why you would use one technology over the other, choose the Linux-based system.
Monthly fees are typically between $4 and $20 per month. The more you pay the
more storage space, bandwidth, and features you get. You can always start out
with the least expensive package and upgrade later. Domain names typically cost
between $7 and $12 per year. You might want to pre-pay for your domain name for
several years in advance so you will not have to worry about your domain name
expiring sometime in the future by mistake.
Yahoo also offers
reasonable domain name service and web hosting services. Read and follow these
domain name
naming guidelines. Follow the instructions at your web hosting service
for the next specific steps to take. More information on alternative
domain name registrars and web site hosting vendors is listed at morro-bay.com's
"unrelated" page.
You can find first-level help regarding PCs and the Internet at morro-bay.com's
PC Help page.
Q: I just got a new digital camera
- how do I take good wildlife and nature photographs?
A: Check out
http://morro-bay.com/digitalchocolate/howto/naturephotos/
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Visit
http://morro-bay.com/pchelp/ for more PC self-help ideas