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Posted - August 30 2011 : 00:37:05
Listen now. or Download the archive.
Question: Margie asks, "I'm trying to connect to my dial-up Internet account and the computer says 'No dial tone'. What can I do?"
Answer: Good question, Margie. Most often, this error message means that your modem has gone out. First make sure your phone line actually works, then try this: shut your computer down, then unplug it. Without plugging it back in, push the power button. That drains all the electricity out of the system. Plug it in, turn it on, and try again. If nothing changes, try swapping the cord between the modem and the wall socket, you don't have to power down for that. If neither of those works, then your modem has gone out and needs to be replaced. A standard desktop modem runs $20-$30 plus tax and any applicable installation fee. That ought to get you going again.
Cool Site: FreeMusicArchive: Do you ever have a need for royalty-free music? If you do, then you need this week's site; free music archive dot org. This site has dozens or even hundreds of royalty-free MP3 files that you can use however you want. If you're looking to compile a music-on-hold mix; maybe you're creating a podcast and need some podsafe music; maybe you're doing civic theater and need just the right musical cue; or maybe you just like to sample the music of otherwise unknown bands. Each song has a play button and you can listen to as much or as little as you like. You can search or browse their music by genre, join in their forum to talk about the music you've found, or you can browse by curator. Different organizations contribute to the archive and add their own music for searching. These organizations are called curators by the site and include for instance, Creative Commons, which means that music licensed that way should be available. Once you've found something you like, just click the download button to download an MP3 of the song for free. Because this is an ORG, they subsist on donations and so, have a donation page. They have Facebook and Twitter accounts to leverage the social media sites to generate buzz. The site itself is directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America, and all downloads are absolutely legal. If you find an artist you like, their profile page will contain a "tip" button where you can give the artist a donation personally, and that page will also contain their appearance schedule so that you can experience the band live.
Cool Gadget: LiveScribe SmartPen: Well, school has started, and continuing that part of our theme for this month is this week's gadget, Livescribe. In the past, you could take a tape recorder to class and record the instructor's lectures. You still had to take notes, though. When study time came, you had two islands of data: the notes you took and the recorded lecture (if you could find the tape). If you wrote something in your notes and then later had no idea what you meant, or weren't sure of something, then you could put in the tape and either replay the whole thing, or shuffle back and forth until you found where the instructor was talking about what you wrote. With Livescribe, this occurs automatically. Livescribe is a pen that, used with special notepads, will record what the instructor is saying while you take notes. These two items are automatically linked together, so that to hear what was being said when a particular note was taken, you simply point at the note and hit play and what the instructor said will be played back, so you can remember what was being said. You can transfer the recordings to your computer and play them there as what they call a "pencast". Right now, they are offering specials on the pen and pads, but at $99 they're still a bit pricey. But check out the videos on their website at www.livescribe.com to see if smartpen technology would help you.
Cool App: Do It Tomorrow: I want to present "Do It Tomorrow". Sometimes I laughingly say that I want to put off procrastinating, because I just think that's so funny. But there is an app called Do It Tomorrow and it is very popular because over 500,000 people have downloaded that off of the Android Market alone. They also have a website, David and listen to this, it says, "Do you love procrastinating? Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow? That's the spirit! Do It (Tomorrow) is the todo app for you.
Planning out your entire week is a bummer - Do It Tomorrow lets you give yourself reminders for today, but makes it really easy to push things off to tomorrow." It's got a full notebook, it's very simple to use. If you've got something you need to do tomorrow, you can post that; it's gonna bring up a reminder, and what I like about it is that once you've done that item, it's gonna fall off, you don't have to do anything else. That way you can get busy procrastinating what you're going to do tomorrow. It's very simple, just easily check off your tasks, as completed or just delete them altogether; or you can move them if you want to further procrastinate. You know, when the kids get back in school, there are so many things that you need to do; places to be at certain times; and until you get that schedule on track, you may need Do It Tomorrow. This really cool app is available on the Android Market. They have a Facebook and Twitter page, and you can also log onto tomorrow.do for a version that runs in your web browser. Pretty cool.
It's All "Geek" To Me: Social Media: Social media is this week’s term. The term refers primarily to Facebook and Twitter, but can include other sites like YouTube that give users community building features, which can be as simple as a chat room. The main feature is that of creating a community around similar interests.
Links
Tech Tip Friday's Show Notes RSS Feed:
http://www.daconsult.com/downloads/rss.xml
Watch live on UStream:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tech-tip-friday
Today's show on UStream:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/16754699
Free Music Archive:
http://www.freemusicarchive.org
Livescribe recording pen:
http://www.livescribe.com
Do It Tomorrow at Android Market:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.adylitica.android.DoItTomorrow
Do It Tomorrow Website (NOTE: Won't work with Internet Explorer, even 9.0)
http://tomorrow.do
Social Media at socialmediadefinition.com:
http://socialmediadefinition.com
Social Media at Webster's:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media |
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