Internet

Update Your Windows Operating System

June 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The last few versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating system have included an onboard utility designed to automatically update your machine. Windows Update, found in the Control Panel, can be set to periodically check for updates, download them, and even install them during periods of low use on your computer. For instance, you can set Windows Updates to check for new patchs and utilities late at night; your updating will be done by the time you wake up in the morning.

Of course, Windows isn’t the only software that can be updated using this feature. All registered and legal Microsoft products are eligible to receive updates through the use of Windows Update including Internet Explorer, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Defender, Microsoft Security Essentials and Microsoft Office applications. Using the Windows Update feature can help you keep your system and applications up to date. One of the most important concerns of any computer user is security, and Windows–as the most popular operating system–has had more than its share of hacks and malicious attacks. Keeping your system updated will help close any security holes as they are discovered and prevent a huge number of future problems.

There really isn’t any reason to avoid using the Windows Update utility, especially since it is so non-intrusive. The ability to run overnight, looking for and downloading updates, and providing you with complete control over which downloads should be installed, all comprise a robust and uncomplicated feature. When compared to the frustration that viruses and other malware can cause, Windows Update is a lifesaver.

Filed Under: Internet Tagged With: Control Panel, Microsoft, Windows Update

Most Popular Web-Based Email Providers

June 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Image via CrunchBase

Nearly everyone who uses the Internet is familiar with Gmail, Yahoo Mail and MSN’s Hotmail web-based email services, but there are actually many more such services that you probably haven’t ever heard of. For instance, Zoho is becoming rather well known for their web-based Microsoft Office-compatible applications that duplicate the functions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but they also have a very strong email service. Having your email working out of the cloud along with your document management system, all individual documents and your planning and organization systems reduces the typical computer clutter and streamlines all of your work.

Gawab is another web based email provider that offers tons of storage, a spam filter and virus protection so you don’t have to worry about heavy or unsafe attachments. This provider also offers a couple of paid subscription versions of their service for business users and those who need more than a free email provider can offer. By comparison, My Way Mail’s free server includes a lot more storage, but has less features overall. Labels and folders don’t work as well in My Way Mail as they do in Gmail and they tuck advertising into your outgoing messages. That looks unprofessional.

Of course, you can always count on the free email accounts provided by your Internet service provider, and most of those support both a desktop mail application and online access. Larger ISPs, by nature of their popularity, are beginning to run low on available user account names. Unless you don’t mind having arbitary numbers or letters in your email address, you’re probably better off choosing a lesser-known free email provider.

Filed Under: Communications, Internet Tagged With: Gmail, Webmail, Yahoo Mail

How Email Changed Communication

May 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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Communication means have come a long way since stone inscriptions and even the box telephone for that matter. The postal service, though still in existence, has lost a large number of its clientele to email. Formal communications have completely been revamped with its global acceptance and of course its speed. The security involved too is simple and effective that makes it the best means to communicate in this present day and age. The ability to personalize email for yourself or for a business you represent makes all the difference.

The rise of email has been a meteoric one and it has evolved almost overnight with its features. Email has changed the way businesses operate. Messages use to take a week to get from Point A to Point B. This resulted in businesses being localized. But with time, email changed all that. Businesses can carryout internal and external communications instantaneous.

Choosing an email host is an important issue. Depending on whether you have professional or personal use of an email account, you can choose from a free service or a paid service. Again, with the free service, there are many ways to upgrade your account for a small fee. You have the option of custom URLs, additional accounts for members of your staff, blog space if needed and all the online assistance that you require for market research.

Emails are also convenient in that they are not really time bound. If you are unable to talk to someone on the phone, you can send an email and be almost certain that the recipient will read it soon and respond instantly.

Filed Under: Communications, Internet Tagged With: Business, Mail, Uniform Resource Locator

The Multiple Benefits of Video Conferencing

May 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A dozen Indonesian students gathered at the U....

Image via Wikipedia

Technology has allowed video conferencing – when people across the globe can be simultaneously connected via the Internet and hold a live conference face to face. This development revolutionized the business world completely. Budgets for travelling significantly came down, allowing a company to do much more with their resources. Not only in business but also in several other areas, such as medicine and education, video conferencing has made a huge difference.

There are several benefits to video conferencing especially when it comes to business. Since people connect immediately, the process of decision making is sped up and productivity increases. Being able to confer with one’s team mates placed in different offices improves communication and creates better professional relationships. This also works in service provider – client situations as well. Without doubt, it makes better utility of a company’s resources and allows for interaction across time zones at a convenient pre-determined time.

There are uses for video conferencing in multiple other fields. Its advantages can be seen in the field of medicine, as second opinions can be sought instantly from colleagues in specialized hospitals. Since countries are connected, these opinions can also be sought from experts across the globe and a patient can actually be viewed and examined virtually. In the field of education, classrooms can be taken to rural areas where children lack the facilities to go to a school near them. It is also a great help to those who are based in far away locations such as the North Pole. Overall, video conferencing, which is now even available on tablets, is fast becoming the simplest means of keeping in touch.

Filed Under: Communications, Internet Tagged With: Business, Business Services, Videoconferencing

Instant Messaging is Here to Stay

January 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Programs that enable people to chat with friends have been popular for much of the history of the Internet. In fact, instant messaging pre-dates the Internet itself. However, these programs didn’t become well known until the 1990s. Some of the earliest internet services that were available to home users like Prodigy, Compuserve, and America Online had easy-to-access chat programs available either for download or on the web servers themselves. These early chat programs were very basic, set up in several different chat rooms that users could visit. The main drawback of chat rooms is the fact that you have to be in the same chat room as the person you wish to chat with.

These chat rooms lead to the creation of instant messaging. Instant messaging programs blended the instant chatting aspect of the chat room with the convenience of e-mail. The first instant messenger that really became well known among the general population was the America Online (AOL) Instant Messenger. In the mid 1990s, it became the must-have computer application. It did not take long for others to spring up, opening the door for more users to participate. The three that broke free from the pack to become the most popular were ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN messenger (now known as Windows Live Messenger.)

These were commonly used among computer users throughout the 2000s. As cell phones and, later, smart phones became more common, texting took over some of the instant messaging market, but did not kill it. In the last few years, Facebook chat has become a major player. Now, there are literally dozens of instant messaging programs. Many of them are simply shell programs that allow users to access their accounts from AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, and Facebook on the computer and from their mobile devices. Instant messaging is here to stay, and from the looks of things, it will adapt to the current needs of computer users.

Filed Under: General, Internet Tagged With: Instant messaging, MSN, Yahoo Messenger

What is Web Conferencing?

January 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You don’t have to dress in your best suit or rush off to the airport for your next work conference. No travel expenses or even large chunks of time missed from work. This is the very reason businesses and corporations prefer web conferencing over sending employees across the country for classes or training.

Now the employee can participate in conferences, training or presentations from the comfort of his or her own office. Less hassle, less expense, less time. Web conferencing definitely makes life easier not only for the business or firm, but for the employees.

A web conference is where individuals in various locations meet together in a conference through use of the Internet. This is done by downloading an application, or better yet, through a web-based application. Often participants receive an invitation via email with an embedded link which brings them to the site of the live or archived conference. This convenient method allows various employees working in different offices to attend the same meeting and receive the same information all at once.

One type of popular web conferencing is called a webinar. This refers to a web conference that serves as a presentation, wherein a presenter shares information with the audience. In this scenario, usually one or more individuals in the same location monopolize the spotlight, like a professor in a classroom lecture. Participants can voice their opinions through polling opportunities or question and answer sessions. Participation is somewhat limited though, in that persons are not seen and heard like an actual live presentation.

There are other features of web conferencing, such as electronic meeting systems, which allow for more structured discussions. With technology now, there is also the option of adding in anonymous participants. This means some participants are involved in the meeting without others knowing. This is useful for supervisors or executives reviewing or evaluating work. With the ability to web conference, businesses can perform their meetings much more efficiently.

Filed Under: Communications, Internet, Visual Tagged With: Business, Videoconferencing, Web conferencing

The Dangers of Instant Messaging

December 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Technology is advancing so quickly that parents can find it difficult to stay abreast of the newest and latest gadgets that their children are using. Protection of children is paramount, but with so many new technologies it can be difficult. Instant messaging has been around for almost as long as the Internet, but it is posing new dangers to children who may not be aware of the potential harm.

Instant messaging on computers is a medium through which children can safely socialize, but it can quickly spiral out of control if not properly monitored by the parents. The dangers of chat rooms have long been understood, but with social media platforms such as FaceBook displaying to the world your child’s instant chat contact information, it may not be long before you child is chatting with strangers.

It is human nature to believe in the best of everybody but the reality is that many predators lurk behind seemingly innocuous instant messaging situations. Before long your child may be inadvertently giving out personal details such as their name, age, address and more. They may even be sexually solicited or exposed to inappropriate material.

The best way to protect children is to educate them. Tell them to beware of instant messages from unfamiliar names, and teach them how to block unwanted names. Teach them how to create log-ins and screen names that do not reveal any personal information and stress that such information should not ever be revealed to anybody via an instant message. Under no circumstances should children ever fill in a public profile as this is public information.

Instant messaging can be fun and a way to keep in touch with distant friends and relatives, but it can also be dangerous to children who are unschooled in the dangers or how to safely partake in instant messaging. A few minutes of discussion is all it will take to make your child’s instant messaging a safer environment.

Filed Under: General, Internet Tagged With: Chat room, Facebook, Instant messaging

Email: A Blessing and a Curse?

December 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

One of the biggest changes since the invention of computers and the internet is the way we communicate. Communication has truly become easier than ever before. At the touch of a few buttons, you can compose an email and send it to virtually anyone in the world and they will receive it almost instantaneously. What does this mean for our civilization? The benefits of being able to communicate so easily and freely with people all over the world are too numerous to count. But a few of those benefits include the following.

First, you can write to people many times a day. Because of email, you don’t have to just send one letter, waiting for days or weeks until it finds your loved one, friend, or colleague, and then wait days or weeks for a reply. This means you can have long conversations that you might not have had otherwise. You can also include copious amounts of information, and you can do it all within a matter of minutes.

The downside of electronic communication is that sometimes it gets to feel very disposable. Many people save emails in their inboxes on the computer, but not many people print them out and save them in a box at home for others to read and enjoy. This means that though in the moment it is extremely satisfying to enjoy the benefits of easy communication, we may not have those same moments at a later date. Generations to come probably won’t have love letters to cherish and reread. We may not even have letters between famous thinkers or inventors to reread and analyze, providing us insight into their thought processes.

The benefits of email are truly great: we get to send and receive correspondence from many different people in many different places at all times of the day or night. The downside is that we may not always keep them.

Filed Under: Internet Tagged With: Communication, E-mail, Invention

The E-Library

December 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Public libraries in Columbus, Ohio, have accomplished another digital milestone for books this year, proving even more that the electronic age of publishing won’t be stopped and must be embraced. While print books will always be around (like vinyl, although the honest truth is print books will circulate still longer than that), e-books and e-readers will eventually take over the industry. You’re seeing it in schools and bookstores.

But the last place to be seduced by the digital side is the library. But you had to have seen it coming.

Remember the days when library catalogs were simply those filing cabinets filled with cards that listed every single book in stock? Those were the days…. And then the Internet came along. Now the library catalog is a click away. Columbus, Ohio, has taken it one step further. Libraries in the city have taken on digital collections and are also lending readers as well as providing connection processes to link your very own e-reader to the library’s collection and have you download the book(s) you want to borrow. Oh my God, libraries have gone digital. Surprised?

The time was coming, people. E-reading is on the rise. And it’s a convenient way to read. Libraries in Columbus, Ohio, are only the beginning. Soon academic libraries will follow suit. You might see it soon—students will carry around borrowed iPads and Kindles to hold their textbooks, not to mention the ever-growing usage of the Internet to integrate teaching and reading on an even higher level.

No more lugging your books out of the library in a big bag. All you need is your e-reader—be it a Barnes & Noble nook, or Sony e-reader, or whatever. Simple, efficient, clean, easy, and the best part—it saves paper!

Could this article sound any more like a digital advocate? Only time will tell….

Filed Under: Internet Tagged With: E-book, IPad, Library