Week 10: iPod & Music

// March 30th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // computer group

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.  ~Ronald Reagan

Our session this week focused on how we can use our computers to enhance our lives with music.  Right at the start of class, Gary gave us the link to a cute little website to listen to oldies: www.tropicalglen.com – not bad if you’re looking for some nostalgia or a quick song fix.  The only thing you want to be careful with on a site like that is you don’t want to click on the adds… they will take you away from tropicalglen and you can end up at strage places!  With that warning in place, use it at your own risk – that’s the price of free for you.

iPods, iTunes & iThink my head is about to explode!

Apple has dominated the portable music market lateley, and with good reason – their iPods are easy to use, they look really cool and sound great.  They’re also relatively cheap considering all that you get!  One big consideration when you buy one – You can use apple’s genius bar to get help with your product – the appointments are free, and they have a store right in the westfarms mall. (the only drawback being that you can’t buy smoothies there, haha)

iPods

We looked a few varieties of apples in class, here is sort of the breakdown on the bunch:

• iPod Shuffle – this tiny guy has no screen!  it does hold 4 gigabytes of music however (about 1,000 songs), and speaks the title of the song and artist through your headphones on demand – pretty cool!
• iPod Nano – this sleek device comes in about 9 colors. It has 8 gig & 16 gig models (2k or 4k songs), plays music, videos and games,  and has a motion sensor – when you want to shuffle your music, just shake it!
• iPod Classic – the unit yours truly uses (mine is actually a 5th generation video iPod)  These guys have tons of space and tons of battery life – 120 gigabytes allows you to hold like 30,000 songs, and you can get up to 36 hours of audio playback on a single charge.
• iPod Touch – I dont know how they can even call this an iPod – it has so much more including apps, email, wifi built in, we could even use one to control our projector during worship remotely!  I’ll have to take some of my earlier lessons to heart and make some money off ebay before I can jump on board with one of these… I guess I can’t have all the toys eh?

iTunes

Coming soon!  I’ll get back to the blog and update once I get a little more time.

Week 9: Yuuguu & Craigslist

// March 28th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // computer group

This past week at Computers & You group we had a good turnout – and a good time learning about more cool things to do with our computers.

Yuuguu

I’ve used a number of tools in the past for screen sharing and support, and this is my current favorite. (my previous being crossloop).  Yuuguu has some distinct advantages:

1. Cross Platform Support: Mac, PC, Linux, whateva… it’s java based and just works.
2. Automatic Screen Scaling: one bid drawback to crossloop was that the VNC software didn’t easily support this feature.  This means if you have a big screen, it will make it fit inside mine without having to scroll left and right.
3. Built in Chat: you can text chat during the session, freeing up your phone or skype line for other calls.
4. No More Numbers: yuuguu accounts are free, and connecting is as simple as inviting a friend using their email.  once they have a connection, you get them in your yuuguu contact list and can connect easily from there – no numbers or passwords needed.
5. Multicast up to 5 users form one screen – this is the reason we set it up this week – it was actually much easier than setting up the projector.

Craigslist

We spent the last few minutes of class going over craigslist.  Craigslist is basically an online classified ads service that doesn’t charge for basic listings.  The interface is very basic (some would say minimalist) and adding your listings are pretty easy and straightforward.

Finding what you need

Navigating craigslist is probably the most confusing part of the whole process.  The site is actually very interesting in this way: they really don’t care if you don’t get it.

Let me clarify: I went to a public forum about a year ago and Craig Newmark was there (the guy who started craigslist) and during the session, I learned a lot – this guy created the site to “give back” to the world, and he has no personal ambition to commercialize it, grow it, or even run it!  He hired someone else to be CEO and he is content to work in customer service… for his own company.

“Who needs the money? We don’t really care,” Craig Newmark said in an interview at the Picnic ‘06 Cross Media Week conference here. “If you’re living comfortably, what’s the point of having more?” Newmark said.
- Interesting read from this blog

So if you’re frustrated trying to learn how to get started, that’s understandable. Let me try to shed light on it for you.

Craigslist is not one big site that holds all the ads, it’s actually a collection of smaller, local sites that each have a separate database. You have to navigate the the geographic location you’re in, and then you can browse or search for stuff. This is different than ebay, which has a national (or international) audience as it’s default.

So let’s say I’m looking for fishing lures – I would have to click “connecticut”, then “hartford” and THEN I can search for fishing lures. If I don’t find any lures in Hartford, I can go back to “CT” and look in New Haven (CT has 5 geographic separations)

Sell it like you mean it

There are 2 ways to sell on craigslist:

with an account
or
without an account

If you are in a rush, feel free to post without setting up an account.  You will have to keep the e-mail that craigslist sends you; it’s the only way you can change or cancel your listing.

Creating an account is simple and free, and is the best way to manage all your listings in one place, so I highly recommend setting one up if you’re going sell more than one thing through craigslist.

Cash Only!  We talked about this in class, and I want to highlight it – there are a lot of bad people wanting to exploit you, so if someone offers to send you a certified check and wants you to ship your item to zimbabwe, resist the temptation!  Also, it dosen’t hurt to pick up a cash marker like this one at Staples.

It’s actually a common thing at craigslist to only take cash.  Don’t think you’re being rude by being a stickler about it.  You should also plan on paying this way also, unless you are bartering goods or services.

And by the way: if you’re uncomfortable about any part of a transaction, don’t be afraid to walk away.  Better safe than sorry, and remember, these are classified ads, not auctions – it’s first come first serve with cash in hand, but the only agreement you’re bound by is the one you make with the seller directly.  There is no follow up, no feedback and nothing craigslist can do (really) about a scammer who takes you for a ride.

We’ll talk about Craigslist a little more in the upcoming class. The best suggesion I can give to anyone is to read anything on the screen.

Week 7: eBay

// March 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // computer group