Look Into The Milk Your Family Drinks: It’s been a while since America was an agricultural society. For most people, dairy products just magically appear on store shelves. How can you tell if a dairy product is local? Or maybe you’re trying to save money. Most stores sell both generic and brand name products. They actually might come from the same place. How can you check? Look into Where Is My Milk From.Just enter the code found on any dairy carton. The site will tell you which dairy the product came from. Also, you can see the other products that dairy makes.http://whereismymilkfrom.com/

Getting Rid Of Deleted Information: To get rid of files you can delete or drag them to the Recycle Bin. Files deleted that way aren’t really gone. Their space on the hard drive is just freed up for more data. Until that space is overwritten, your deleted data can be retrieved. And it can be retrieved fairly easily. For delicate information, it needs to be securely erased. EraserDrop puts a special icon on your desktop. Drag files to it, and they’re automatically deleted and overwritten. You can even choose between multiple methods of erasure. Stronger methods take longer. But the files will truly be unrecoverable. EraserDrop can also be installed on a thumb drive. You can carry it around wherever you go. You can securely erase files on any PC.   Free  http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/eraserdrop_portable

Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-343-6879 Direct

Tech Tips courtesy of Rick DeLuca at  http://www.RealEstateIdeaClub.com

You upload and retrieve files from its Website, but there is an easier way. SDExplorer lets you use SkyDrive like any other drive on your computer.  After installing SDExplorer, find it in My Computer (XP) or Computer (Vista and 7). It will appear as a drive alongside your regular drives. Double-click it to log into your SkyDrive account. You can then drag and drop files. There’s no need to open a browser. Free: Windows XP, Vista and 7    www.cloudstorageexplorer.com

Components Up Dates: Device drivers can be the most confusing culprits of problems on your computer. These allow your hardware components (printer, keyboard, etc.) to work with your computer. And they occasionally need updates. Some come through Windows Update. Some peripheral software regularly checks for updates. But for some, you’d never know when an update is needed. Device Doctor is a great solution. It scans your computer hardware and looks for available updates. You can download new drivers at the touch of a button. Free. Windows XP, Vista and 7   www.devicedoctor.com

Chose The Best Seat On Your Upcoming Flight: Many pay little attention to their seat choice. It’s usually about aisle versus window. However, there are a lot of other factors to consider. You can explore some of those factors at Seat Expert.  Simply enter your flight number or the plane type. You get a layout of all the seats on the plane. Click on a seat to get information the location. It might be in a high-traffic area. Or it might get too much light from the kitchen for sleeping. Choosing the right seat will make your flight a little more comfortable!  http://seatexpert.com/

Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-343-6879 Direct

Tech Tips courtesy of Rick DeLuca at  http://www.RealEstateIdeaClub.com

Help With Newsletters: You don’t have to be a desktop publishing expert to impress your database. Even better, you can do it without software. All you need is your Web browser and a few photos to share. LetterPop is a new site that lets you create graphic newsletters in a short time. Just choose from several templates. There’s a mix of themes for personal or professional newsletters. Next, add your text. You can work with different fonts and add formatting, like headings and bulleted lists. Most templates provide space for photos. You can test drive LetterPop on its Web site. The demonstration includes a few templates and stock photos. A free membership is required to add your own photos and to access all the templates. http://www.letterpop.com/

Better Than Post Its’ Around Your Screen: Stickies is a powerful program. You can send notes without the aid of a separate e-mail program. You can also share notes directly through a network with others who have Stickies installed. When you do so, the notes will appear on the other computer’s screen. Recipients can edit the notes and post them back to your screen. You can opt to save logs of all sent and received notes automatically. Or, set notes as alarms, complete with sounds and visual cues. Stickies even supports Windows or Palm mobile devices. http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/

Trouble Shooting Your Computer: We have to do some troubleshooting from time to time. Maybe your DVD drive won’t read inserted discs. Or, the computer won’t send printing jobs to your printer. Microsoft’s Fix it Center automatically diagnoses and fixes many common problems. You can download individual tools for specific problems. Or, get them all in one package. Microsoft’s Fix it Center can sniff out the cause of most issues. It can find and remove conflicting startup programs and fix hard drive errors. It can adjust settings to provide optimal battery life. The package version will also anticipate Windows updates. This can help eliminate potential conflicts before they happen. Free   http://support.microsoft.com/fixit#tab0

Uninstalling Unwanted Programs: Windows lets you do it with a few mouse clicks. An uninstalled program rarely disappears. You’re often left with unnecessary files, folders and registry entries. These things just junk up your hard drive. Removing this stuff manually isn’t so simple. Revo Uninstaller can completely remove those unwanted programs. It will clean out all the stuff normally left behind. That saves you precious hard drive space. This program can also clean other areas of your computer. Permanently delete specific files and folders. Clean out Web tracks from your browser. You can even remove recent document history from Microsoft Office. (Revo Uninstaller comes in free and pay versions. Be sure to download the free version.) http://www.revouninstaller.com/

Great Reminder Notes: What do you write your reminder notes on? Do you use Post-it notes or scraps of paper? This program is a better way. It lets you use almost anything as a reminder note. Write text notes. Save and annotate photos. Record audio reminders. You can even clip portions of Web sites you want to remember. http://www.evernote.com/

A Compact Calendar on Your Desktop: Maybe you just want something you can check at a glance. This compact calendar sits right on your desktop. It includes a to-do and upcoming events lists. You don’t have to open a program or search for a document. Just look at your desktop to see what you should be doing.  http://www.rainlendar.net/cms/index.php?option=com_rny_download&Itemid=30

Maybe a More Powerful Calendar: Short notes and alarms are handy. But for serious scheduling, you need a more complex calendar program. Sunbird is a great option from the organization behind Firefox. You can schedule to-dos, tasks and appointments. Set up alarms and pop-up reminders. You can get an overview of everything you need to do. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/download.html

Find The Program A Little Easier: You probably have quite a collection of programs. But getting to them isn’t always easy. You don’t want your desktop covered in shortcuts. Start>>All Programs can be a ridiculously long list. Tidy Start Menu offers a better way. It lets you group programs into sensible categories. They are Office, Utilities, Games, Entertainment, Internet, Programming, Graphics, Security and Other. Then you click Start>>All Programs. That huge list is now just nine folders. Tidy Start Menu comes in free and Pro versions. You’ll have to pay for the Pro version. But the free version works just fine. http://www.tidystartmenu.com/index.shtml

Hope you find this helpful and if you need anything please give me a call or email me. I am here to help.

Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson

Tips courtesy of Rick DeLuca and the Real Estate Idea Club. http://www.RealEstateIdeaClub.com

Communicating With Groups: On Wiggio, you can share and edit files, manage a group calendar, poll your group, post links, set up conference calls, chat online and send mass text, voice and email messages to your group members.  Each group member can define how they want to keep informed of group activity.  http://wiggio.com

More Usable Photo Editing Site: Photosynth creates a new experience with groups of photos.  Creating a synth allows you to share the photos you value using the cinematic quality of a movie, the control fo a video game, and the detail of the real world. http://photosynth.net/default.aspx

Convert Email to Text Message: AwayFind is a web application that finds your most important emails.  When you receive an urgent message, AwayFind will notify you with a cell phone call, SMS, IM, DM,(Twitter), or delegate the message to someone you specify.  http://www.awayfind.com

Jot Down Notes: Your computer is a great place to jot down quick notes. You can copy a URL you want to remember. Windows comes with a handy program for taking notes. It’s Notepad. CloudPad is a good note-taking alternative. Write them up, give them a title and set their priority. You can also tag them with descriptive words and phrases. You can view them by priority level. You can search for both note titles and content. And you can easily locate common note tags through a tag cloud. http://sourceforge.net/projects/cloudpad/

Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-561-4463 Direct

Technology tips courtesy of Rick DeLuca at www.RealEstateIdeaClub.com

Photos For Your Website: Do you need photos for your Web site or another creative project? You needn’t settle for sub-par images. Check out microstock photography. You can buy photos from microstock sites online. Generally, you won’t pay much for the rights to use these photos.  morgueFile offers plenty of free photos for your creative projects. There are also plenty of tips to help you improve your microstock skills. http://www.morguefile.com/

Government Auctions: The Department of the Treasury has a site that lists government auctions. It covers both in-person and online auctions. Don’t just look at the seized or forfeited items. There are also surplus goods. This site does not put all the auctions in one place. Rather, it helps you find auctions across government agencies. You’ll have to do some clicking! http://www.ustreas.gov/auctions/

McDonald’s Has Wi-Fi: The list of free Wi-Fi connections just grew by 11,500. McDonald’s has made Wi-Fi free at most of its 14,000 U.S. locations. You don’t need to make a purchase to use the Wi-Fi. Just walk in, fire up your laptop and log on.   To find a McDonald’s location offering free Wi-Fi in your area, visit its site.  http://www.mcdonalds.com/wireless.html

Managing Your To-Do List: TeuxDeux is one of the best task managers . It doesn’t have a lot of fancy features. Simplicity is its strong suit. When you sign in, you’ll see five columns, each labeled with a day of the week. You’ll also see a section labeled ”Someday.” There is an entry box for each column and the Someday section. To get started, enter a task in one of the boxes and hit Enter. The task will be added to your to-do list. As you complete tasks, click on them. A strikethrough will mark them complete. Or, click the X next to a task to delete it from your list. You may also want to move a task to a different day. In that case, just click and drag it to another column.  http://teuxdeux.com/

Please remember, don’t keep me a secret because I am never too busy for your referrals.

Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-231-1578 Cell

Technology Tips courtesy of Rick DeLuca and his Real Estate Ideas Club.

Back Up; Back Up; Back Up:

Forty-three percent of people lose irreplaceable files every year.
• Only 3 out of 100 stolen laptops are ever recovered.
• Thousands of files are lost each year to fires, floods and other disasters.
• Up to 13% of hard drives crash in their first year.

Understanding Your Medications: You need to know side effects and dosages. It is also essential to understand drug and food interactions. Check out the Physician’s Desk Reference for this valuable information. This is the guide that doctors use.The publisher has a site for laypeople. PDRhealth provides information about prescription medications. You’ll also find information on over-the-counter medications, herbals and supplements. They can also cause side effects and interactions. This site is valuable for anyone with health questions.  Of course discuss any concerns with your doctor. http://www.pdrhealth.com/home/home.aspx

Flash and External hard drives Don’t Offer Much Security: Thieves wouldn’t have much trouble viewing most of them. Encryption scrambles data using complex algorithms. A key unscrambles the data so it can be read. Password protection also uses a password to prevent access to data. But the data isn’t necessarily scrambled.   http://www.truecrypt.org/

Meal Planning Can Help With Organization: Plan your meals ahead of time will take a big bite out of time stresses during the day. Supercook can help with this along with planning healthy meals and shopping. Start by entering ingredients. The site finds a recipe that uses all or some of them. Pay attention to the “Do you have” box, too.   Supercook is a new recipe search engine that finds recipes you can make with only the ingredients you have at home. The more ingredients you add, the better the results will be  http://www.supercook.com/

Once LIFE Magazine Brought The World to our Mailboxes: Google is archiving LIFE Magazine. It first added a collection of LIFE’s photography to its Images site. Now, Google has placed the magazine on its Books site. Google Books offers every copy of LIFE between 1936 and 1972. That’s 1,800 weekly copies. Each copy is available in its entirety. You can read every story and view every photograph.There’s a contents page for each issue. It has navigation links, for easy access http://books.google.com/books?id=N0EEAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s#all_issues_anchor

Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson

Tech tips courtesy of Rick DeLuca http://www.RealEstateIdeaClub.com

Lenovo Has Issued A Battery Recall: Fortunately, the batteries are not being recalled due to safety concerns. Rather, they are faulty and don’t work correctly. Users may receive messages such as “Battery cannot be charged.” The recall affects batteries in six ThinkPad models. Lenovo has a diagnostic tool on its site. If you own a ThinkPad, visit Lenovo’s site. If your battery is defective, Lenovo will issue a replacement battery.

Digitize Your Signature: A scanner is an easy way to digitize your signature. Simply sign a piece of white paper and scan it into your computer. Then, drop it into documents.  You can use your camera in lieu of a scanner. Again, sign a white piece of paper. Then, snap a photo of it.  A graphics tablet is probably the best way to digitize your signature. You open a new file in a graphics program like MS Paint. Use the pen included with the tablet to sign your name.

Compare Foods For Proper Nutrition: Twofoods can help you make smarter decisions about the food you eat. It will help you compare the nutritional value of two foods. Just enter the foods you’d like to compare. Then, hit Enter. You’re presented with nutrition information. Below the nutrition information, you’ll see other choices. These help you get more specific with your comparison. Twofoods provides information on calories, carbs, fat and protein content. This is great for those on a diet. Twofoods isn’t limited to generic foods. You can also look up specific menu items from restaurants.  http://www.twofoods.com/

Here’s A Great Mapping Site: Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! all have excellent mapping sites. You may prefer one over the others. Geshout will help you decide which you like best. Enter an address in the search box and click Go. You’ll see the address on three maps from the three companies. It is interesting to see each company’s approach to mapping services!  http://geshout.com/mapscompare/all.php

Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-231-1578 Cell

Amazing Gigapixel Photography: It isn’t uncommon to see digital cameras with 12-megapixel or larger sensors. But check out gigapixel photography which is about one billion pixels. Gigapixel images are created by stitching hundreds of photographs together. The resulting panoramas are breathtaking! Gigapixel photography is typically used with wide, expansive subjects. However, one innovative photographer has combined gigapixel photography and microscopic imaging. The results are stunning. Click the images. They’ll open in the GigaPan viewer and then zoom in on portions of the photos.Prepare to be amazed! http://www.gigapan.org/index.php

Genealogical Research Is Very Interesting: Why not work on your family tree? You can do considerable research within websites. At this site find links to birth and death records, deeds and much more. The site is organized by state. So, it helps to know where your ancestors lived. But you’ll find clues as you do your research. http://www.usgenweb.org/

Google City Tours Helps Plan Visits To New Cities: You probably want to plan a trip carefully to a new area. Use Google’s new City Tours feature. City Tours puts together a travel itinerary for you. All you need do is enter your destination city! Along with your itinerary, you’ll get maps showing you where to go. In most cases, it will give you a three-day itinerary. Also, it only gives you an hour at each attraction. Check out each attraction with Google’s link to make sure you want to go there. City Tour itineraries are easily edited. So, you can add or remove attractions as you see fit. http://citytours.googlelabs.com/

It’s a Good Life!!!!
Jerry Robertson

Microsoft Windows 7 Release: Microsoft plans to release Windows 7 on Oct. 22. This poses a dilemma for computer buyers. Do you buy a new computer now, or wait until Windows 7’s release? Microsoft doesn’t want to deter customers from buying new computers. So, it has launched an upgrade program. It offered a similar program for Vista. Computers purchased June 26 or later qualify for a free upgrade. To qualify, a machine must be running Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate. You’ll get a comparable version of Windows 7.

Genealogy Can Be Interesting and Valuable: The Internet provides a wealth of information for genealogists. There is no one-stop spot for genealogists. The National Archives is an outstanding research site. You can access a variety of databases containing genealogical records. The National Archives also contain records that are not online yet. It’s site will help you track down copies of the records. You will find plenty of tips and advice for making the most of your search! http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/

Making Plans For Your Trip: There is always so much to do before taking a trip. Plants, mail, cameras and packing will all need to be considered, plus more. Planning carefully before going on vacation may start by making a list of everything you need to do. Packwhiz can eliminate a lot of the pre-vacation stress. It helps you create a customized packing list. You can access it anywhere you have an Internet connection.Start by selecting some options for your trip. Packwhiz will generate a list based on your destination, transportation and accommodations. http://www.packwhiz.com/

Things To Do At Home Or Travel: If you are planning a trip or going to stay close to home this summer, NextStop.com is a site that may help you find things to do. There’s plenty to see and explore nearby. It will help you find the most interesting attractions in your area. There are also plenty of restaurants you will enjoy trying. Check it out. http://www.nextstop.com/

Your Webcam Help With Software: There are many things you can do with a Webcam. And the software you use should allow you to do it. You can take photos and record video with your Webcam. Those photos can be directly uploaded to the Web. You could use motion sensing to activate your Webcam. And there is a whole lot more. Yawcam is free program that can do everything you need. Most of it can be automated. You can also schedule the recording of photos and video. Couple this with motion sensing and you’ve got a security camera. It can record while you’re out. But it won’t bother when you’re home  http://www.yawcam.com/

One I have shared before is www.AbeBooks.com as a place to order books online for a great price. They offer used books on all subjects and in good condition. I get almost all my books from them now. Check them out.

Have a great summer and check back here for news on the market and other technology tips.

It’s a Good Life!!
Jerry W. Robertson