My Writings. My Thoughts.
Week 7: eBay
// March 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // computer group
Welcome back class! This week we began to cover 2 great websites for buying and selling stuff on the Internet: eBay andcraigslist. (Ok, so eBay this week and craigslist next to be a little more specific.)
Feedback to the future
One thing that eBay has going for it all these years has been it’s unique feedback rating system. Basically, when a transaction is made, the buyer and seller are encouraged to behave ethically and promptly to ensure a smooth transaction of goods and funds. They can then leave “positive” or “negative” feedback about the experience, a short comment and this gets attached to the other’s profile. The total percentage of positive-to-negative feedback is always displayed by that person’s username, as well as the number of feedback items accumulated thus far.
Save for a few exceptions, this system has been very good for eBay, and is a fairly reliable way to “research” who you are buying an item from and if they will be trustworthy with your transaction.
To sell or not to sell
eBay accounts are free. They are however in limited supply. For those of you who have signed up for a new email with yahoo, aol or hotmail – you will know exactly what I’m talking about. For instance, if I want the username “rockerRyan” I’m going to have to settle for some cryptic form of this name – like rockerRyan2929 – this is because rockerRyan has long since been taken. (my eBay account is actually adrenaLANrush – from my old lan party of the same name)
Anyways, once you get your free eBay account, you will need to set up a paypal account to pay for your things. Everything is still good and free – the basic paypal account that is attached to a checking account costs 0 and will continue to cost 0 as long as you only buy from people who use paypal.
This all comes to a halt however, when you start to sell. eBay requires you to hold a different type of paypal account when accepting payment from auctions. Once you have a premiere paypal account, you can accept credit cards, sell on ebay and more – with a small percentage (I think it’s 2.9% + .30) – so if you want to sell, this is a necessary “evil” that we’ve all learned is the cost of doing business on eBay.
Not sure how up-to-date this link is, but found the information about paypal fees interesting.
Do your research
Before you start selling your item, it’s a good idea to get your stuff organized. This includes:
- Take your photos (different angles, and try not to hide blemishes – people actually like to see the “real” of certain items)
- Search for your exact item on ebay. Chances are high that someone is either selling one now, or has sold one in the recent past (make sure you check “completed listings” for the most comprehensive search)
- Start a document on your computer (or google docs) and copy & paste your competitor’s description just so you have something to go by. (you can COPY by selecting the text, right click + copy. Bring up your word document in another window, and right click + paste.
- Decide which photos will go up and organize them in a folder.
By having a few of these things out of the way, we’re ready to post our acution!
AUCTION TIME
Step 1: Get your pictures to the web
You can use a free hosting service like picasa (we went over last week) or photobucket.com (melody’s favorite) or a listing helper (like auctiva.com) that does a lot of the leg work for you.
Step 2: Decide where your item is going, and what you want to say about it.
By typing your document in your word processor (Microsoft work or google docs) you have the benefit of spell check and autosave so you don’t have to write everything up all in one sitting. Remember that copy (right click + copy) and paste (right click + paste) to get everything from your document to eBay’s description box.
Step 3: Link your pictures
This step is a little bit tricky, but a few sites (photobucket & auctiva) make it a lot easier to place images on your page. Auctivain particular makes for very easy listings – it is free so is worth checking out!
If you want to use photobucket, you’ll have to copy and paste the image codes (HTML) from photobucket into your auction to get the photos to show up.
Step 4: Clearly state the terms of your auction
By stating your auction terms clearly, you will eliminate confusion and have some “rules” you can fall back on to make sure you don’t get suckered. Here are some good suggestions:
- Will ship only to United States & Canada
- Paypal only please.
- Payment is expected within 7 days of auction close, or I will relist.
- Guaranteed not DOA for 7 days upon receipt. (good for electronics)
You can go a little overboard on this – you want to keep it simple, and not discourage average people by stating too many requirements.
That’s it! Do this a few times, and you’ll have a new hobby that makes a good bit of cha-ching on the side!
Week 5: Anti-Virus, Malware & Cleaning
// February 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // computer group
Welcome back gang! Melody and I just retuned home from a week in New Brunswick, Canada to have a great class about all the nasty horrible software out there ready to infect your windows PCs (sorry mac users, you’ll just have to suffer through this on!)
The first point we discussed in class, is that there are some significant ways you can change your computer habits so that you will probably never have to deal with spyware/viruses. The most significant of which is:
USE A DIFFERENT WEB BROWSER THAN INTERNET EXPLORER (or yahoo’s excuse for a browser)
Ok, so we didn’t talk about the yahoo browser in class, but I had to throw that in there. The only people who will be using a yahoo browser in the first place will be people who use ATT/Yahoo DSL and installed the disc supplied with their “self install kit” which loads a whole bunch of bloated software on your poor computer, including a useless copy of antivirus (more on this later) the yahoo instant messenger (train wreck!) and the infamous yahoo web browser, which seems to use the same engine as Internet Explorer (which we’ll refer to as IE from this point on).
IE used to be the only game in town a few years back. Microsoft had “won” the browser war by default (kind of like a hockey game where only one team showed up – they werent necessarily the best team, just the winner ’cause all the other teams were too scared to play) IE was awesome for a while – it was faster than netscape and came already installed on a PCs and was FREE – why bother with anything else?
Fast forward to 2006 – Pop-Ups have become an everyday term, and many of the “holes” IE had in it’s infastructure had begun to be exploited by bad people. We summed up in class that the best offense is a good defense – so use a different web browser for your everyday surfing, and your chances of ever getting a virus or spyware will significantly be reduced. A couple great alterantive web browsers are:
Oh, and by the way, one of the best sites to get most of the software we’re using today is FileHippo.com : bookmark it! it just makes sense 
Oh no! I have something on my computer that has: (please choose one)
[] Slowed my computer down to a crawl
[] Making more popups than a redneck campsite
[] Been telling all my friends and family to download some crazy file I never sent them.
[] Made my control panel disappear, and all of a sudden I have a new antivirus that finds a TON of viruses! what the….
Here are my recommendations for getting your computer back in shape quick. (well, this may take some time, so grab a coffee)
Step 1: Clean your temp files
Even though we went through this step last in class, it’s a good place to start. The fewer files on your computer to scan, the faster you’ll be happy. Two of the best cleaners out there are ATF-Cleaner and CCleaner. (just make sure you “uncheck” the yahoo toolbar installer when you install CCleaner)
Step 2: Have ONE antivirus program, and keep it updated
In the sea of antivirus programs, there are only a few that work really good. The rest do work (or at least we hope) but are mostly marketing fluff these days (yes, even the commercial version of Norton). Keep in mind, you should only have 1 real-time scanner installed on your comptuer at any given time. Too much of a good thing is bad when it comes to this stuff – your computer can become like a sleepy sloth while your virus scanners duke it out for who is king of the hill.
…so here are my recommendations:
- AVG Free Edition: this is an easy favorite. It’s pretty easy to install, it updates itself, and best of all, it’s free! It may not be the best program to clean an already-infected computer, but is just fine for everyday protection.
- ESET’s NOD32: If you really want to pay for antivirus, this software is worth it. It has a small footprint (which means your compy will run faster) and is better for older PC’s that don’t have a ton of RAM.
- Kapersky: We didn’t discuss this one, but it’s another good choice if you really want to pay for your protection. This is also a good solution if you’r trying to clean an existing infection.
If you have a virus already, use NOD32 or Kapersky to clean it off, and then un-install your free trial and put AVG on there, you should be good to go.
Step 3: Check your malware at the door.
Malware (or “badware” for all your linguists) is software that is bad. We talked about all the bad stuff in class (spyware, viruses, keyloggers, phishers, etc..) so here’s the links to get it clean:
- Malwarebytes Anti-Malware: if this link dosen’t work, just go to Download.com and click it off the top 10 list at the bottom of the page. Make sure it’s updated before you scan. The quick scan is usually good enough for most cleanings.
- Adaware & Spybot: these have both been great in their time – the both still work good, but I find they aren’t needed as much thanks to Malwarebyte’s awesome program that is so tiny and quick!
- If your computer is REALLY infected (like a process-killer that will keep you from installing any of these great tools) you may have to do some drastic cleaning with programs like “combofix” (google it) or follow some of the great tutorials on “bleepingcomputer.com”
That pretty much wrapped up the suggested downloads for this week – let me know if there are any questions! Till next time…
Week 4: Google Docs
// February 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // computer group
This great video from Google Docs explains a lot of what we learned in class this week:
Week 2: Skype & Facebook intro
// January 26th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // computer group
This week for our Computers & You class at the Tabernacle, we wrapped up our introduction to Skype. We talked last week about where to buy a webcam to take advantage of some cheap video-calling you can do when you skype-to-skype call someone. Amazon has the Microsoft Lifecam VX-3000 on sale with free shipping right now for just over $25 : Check it out here>> . (by comparison, Wal-Mart sells the same item online for $35)
There are more expensive webcams out there of course – like the Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF – an auto-focus Carl Zeiss lens and automatic rotor that follows you around the room makes this $100 cam a geeks dream : (See it at amazon). Alas, for the casual user just starting with skype, a $25 cam is a nice start.
Skype Security
There were a few real-life examples of why it’s probably not smart to answer Skype calls form strangers. As with any online service, you are connected to the world, and should take appropriate cautions. One such example Ed gave was when he changed his Skype status to “skype me” he got lots of weird calls. ”Skype Me” is a feature they’ve had for a while in skype where if you were bored and felt like talking to anyone, you can just leave your status at “skype me” and it places your name in a directory that makes your record look like this:
Displaying your status when you’re online. (btw, if you have skype installed, you can use the above button to call me… cool huh?)
This is good for attracting weirdos, lonely people or scammers – not so good for your friends, so leaving your staus at “online” is good enough.
Speaking of status, we discussed “going invisible” for those times you want to make calls but not necessarily take them. ”Do Not Disturb” is also a good way to keep people from bugging you when you’re busy.
We only briefly discussed Facebook near the end of class – the focus of next weeks group will be completely on the “phenomenon” they call Facebook. If you haven’t done it yet, head over to http://www.facebook.com/ and set yourself up a new account – we’ll be discussing at depth next week. Facebook is sort of the new e-mail – with groups, public walls, photo and video galleries, it’s a great way to connect with old friends, new friends, families, co-workers… or pretty much anyone else who’s “online”. Chances are, if you went to a particular school, some of your old classmates are already online.
Tagged Photos
Our first topic to kill on the facebook warpath is Photo tagging. Once you upload a photo or view a few albums others have created, you’ll start to encounter this feature called “Tagging”. Tagging was created as a way to notify others that you have a photo of them online. They get a message stating they were tagged in a photo, and a link to view the photo directly for their convenience. Tagging has also been used to identify people within a photograph. This purpose works, but is not the initial reason for the feature. In fact, because of the way tagging works, it makes sense to only tag people in exceptional photos, or if there is an entire album that person is in, just a few good shots from that album is sufficient. Otherwise, they get a notification for every single time you tag them, and their inbox can get pretty gummed up this way.
If you want to tag a photo for Identification purposes only, use a nickname or something other than their Facebook profile name – this workaround is common and acceptable on FB – and you won’t drive your friends crazy!
It’s also worth mentioning that every photo you are tagged in gets placed in a special album in your profile – if your friends want to view your photos from your profile page, they will see every photo you have been tagged in.
This is great – except when your aunt Gerty posts that picture of you with your mouth full of cake! Thankfully, there is a cure for this – just go to the photo and “un-tag” yourself in the caption at the bottom.
If anyone has any specific questions about Facebook they want addressed during our group this saturday, feel free to send me a message, post a comment on this blog, or give me a ring on skype.
Week 1: Introduction & Skype
// January 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // computer group
Our first group meeting we discussed a few of the things we’d be learning this session in the Computers & You Group. A few questions came up about Skype, so we dove right in and got some software installed, and some accounts set up.
Mac Users can download the latest version here.
Windows Users can download the latest version here.
The download and install are pretty straightforward. You will have to pick a user-name that no one else is using… I typically recommend using your real name, or some variant of it (firstlast, last.first, etc…). Make sure the e-mail address you use is entered correctly! Skype doesnt verify the address, so if you loose your password – you’re in trouble! Finally, make sure you use a good password – if you start to use Skype a lot and take advantage of some of the paid services, you don’t want someone pretending to be you on there… so don’t use a password everyone knows.
Skype Features
Skype is a multi-faceted application that can really change the way you communicate. Some of the most popular uses include:
1. Free Video Calls: using a web-cam, you can call another skype user for free video calls anywhere in the world.
2. Phone Calls: you can call Skype users for free, and it’s extremely cheap to make local and LD calls to landlines and cell phones. (just $3/mo. to US and Canada, unlimited – $10/mo. International!)
3. Text Chat: less obtrusive than a full phone call, you can send text messages to other skype users in an instant message. For obvious reasons, this is faster than e-mail, more convenient than texting on your mobile phone.
4. Extra Phone Line: For $30/yr. (special price if you have monthly subscription mentioned above) you can get a REAL phone number for people to call in to your Skype account from any regular phone. This is a great option for small businesses or companies that want to expand their capabilities on the cheap.
So anyways, enough already… you get the picture. Skype is a free or extremely cheap way you can use your computer to save money and enhance your communication with friends and family.
C&Y Online Schedule
// January 24th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // computer group
Welcome everyone from the group – I’ve posted this season’s schedule and a short description of the group here. Thanks for stopping by!
Computers & You Group
// January 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // computer group
This past week Mel & I held the first “computers & you” small group at the tabernacle, and the hour flew by! My primary goal for this first class was to get through the introductions and “formalities” and find out what everyone was really interested in learning during these 14 weeks or so we’re going to have the group. We got some great responses about Skype, so we dove headlong into that – most of the class having gotten the software installed, with the rest planning on getting some webcams for next weeks class. (stay tuned for promised suggestions). If anyone missed the class and would like to get a little bit more out of their “online experiences”, feel free to stop by this saturday from 10 – 11 am (laptop suggested but not required) – We’ll be happy to have you!
Treo 800w Sprint Initial Thoughts
// August 7th, 2008 // No Comments » // technology
Just recieved the new Palm Treo 800w from sprint today… It’s been hard to contain my excitement… Not that I havent been happy with my Treo 700p for some time – it has served me well… It’s just… beat up and I’ve had the crave for something a little more techie.
Got the box, the phone feels like a really nice weight, better ballance overall than the 700p, which kind of feels like a happy meal toy. Everything is plastic of course, so it’s not half as sexy as a new ipod, but following the design of the centro, this unit has no external antenna and a somewhat symmetrical layout.
I’ve had the 800w out of the box for a total of 15 minutes, already I have it connected to the office wifi and have begun downloading my IMAP office e-mail. Oh, and I updated my twitter with it already. Crazy. Eventually i’ll have to call sprint to activate my number, and connect it to my mac to get my contacts going, but until then, I have some work to do – but oh the goodness! I can’t wait to install opera and try to do some basic administration on my websites.
Our 10th Anniversary!
// July 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // life
A few weekends back was Mel & my 10th anniversary! It has been quite a journey thus far – many ups and a few downs, but after all, we have definitely grown together and stronger because of it!
To celebrate, we decided to stay “gazelle intense” about our finances and enjoy a “Timeshare Pitch” weekend in the Poconos. This works out for a couple reasons: 1) Our honeymoon was in the Poconos, and 2) The weekend only cost us $50 plus gas and food, very niiice!
The drive to the “resort” was quite nice – Route 84 all the way to PA, then route 209 through the Delaware Water Gap Reserve – which was beautiful to drive though! Our little girls were joining us for the fun adventures, so with gameboys clicking, we had a nice quiet drive there!
We arrived at the resort around noon-ish on Friday. Of course, I didn’t read the directions on our confirmation printout, so I drove us to to the wrong building to check in. Melody was very gracious, she let me make my little mistake with much grace While standing in line to find out we were at the wrong place, some lady gave me some discount mini-golf tickets, which I thought to be slightly odd… until I figured out that it was 6 bucks per adult for mini-golf! We finally ended up back at the welcome center, where we confirmed our reservation, and were sent back to the first building to get our room keys.
With room keys in hand, we were off to check out our suite! After taking at least 1 wrong turn, I got us there safe and sound! The timeshare facilities were cute little “villas” that were more like 2 level condos. From the outside, they looked spiffy enough, there were probably 80 or so nestled in the cluster we were staying at (pictures to follow)
Our first impression was that there was a dead animal somewhere near our villa (Ridgetop 103) but after a few trips back and forth to bring our bags in, I realized it was just the garbage bins that were right in the middle of everything in our parking lot. No biggie – at least we didn’t have to haul our garbage far when we checkout eh?
The rooms were spacious and inviting – almost like a ski villa – there was a cute firelpace in the small living room, a kitchen, dining room, and some open toed stares that gave the upstairs a loft-like feeling. Upstairs there was a small master bedroom, 2 full size beds in a separate bedroom, and 2 bathrooms (one with whirlpool tub… ooo!) The girls aren’t used to stairs (the only ones in our house are the crummy ones to our basement) so they made a game out of passing things to each other through the open stairs. This was not a big thril for Mel and me – all we could envision was one of them getting their head stuck in the stairs and somehow hanging themselves to death or something else horrible… So… time for something else fun to do!
We went out to dinner at this place called Peppes – it was an italian themed restaurant that advertises kid-friendly atmosphere. This seemed important to us, since many “fine dining” places in the area had either rules about kids, or no kid-choices on the menu. This is usually not a problem for us, as our kids could split an adult meal – they are good eaters and not picky, but we figured we’d get better service at a place that marketed itself in our demographic. It was a good choice – the atmosphere was somewhat unique, the wait staff was fairly nice, and quite attentive. All in all, it was a great place for our anniversary dinner – they even brought blueberry cheesecake and sang happy anniversary at the end (surprise!)
Very nice.
We decided that it was time to get in some swimming – we got all done up and drove to the indoor pool attached to the main Shawnee recreation center. The pool was nice, the room was very humid and a little dirty, but the girls had a great time swimming. We were probably one of the only “Caucasian” families there – no big deal – the more the merrier eh? This is not the kind of thing I would have normally noticed, but it seemed like there was sort of a general disregard for adults in some of these kids – splashing anyone they could in the pool, and not happy or sorry looks at all – just kind of mean stares…. weird. I swam for about 15 minutes, and then sat out and did my people watching thing… It was getting depressing – one kid was cowering in the corner because his “friends” were going to beat him when he got in the pool. We wrapped our our swimming shortly thereafter anyways because the girls were tired, and we wanted to grab an ice cream at the local DQ before we hit the hay.
The next day, we had to attend our 120 minute no-pressure sales presentation. We signed up for the early show because we wanted to get it out of the way for the rest of our day, which we were hoping to spend at the Celtic festival going on that weekend at the ski resort. The atmostphere was cozy, yet efficient (short, hotel grade rugs, self serve coffee and lobby-type waiting chairs… made me kind of feel like I was at bobs discount furniture) I could tell they were designing this place to move tons of people through will still trying to keep the maintenance down and looks up. Looooong story short: we didn’t buy because their rate was outrageous and I didn’t feel like putting more credit through any other sources (i.e. credit union). We were apparently the “ideal couple” making the “ideal income” and they wanted our business – the low pressure quicly became high pressure, and our salesperson looked more like she wanted a cigarette the whole time than anything else – I became frustrating to deal with, the pushed us through a few more salespeople before finally dumping us at the exit counter. We grabbed our $100 refund and took off. In hindsight, it was a very interesting experience – we learned a lot about timeshares, saw what Windham had to offer. We completely underestimated the amount of energy involved to deal with the situation, and spent most of our brainpower for the day before lunch!
We took off to find the Country Kettle – they have a huge bulk-candy selection and being candy lovers all of us, we had to check it out. 4.5 pounds of candy later, we left to grab sugar buzzes and drive back to the villa. We all took naps, and when we woke, found that the weather sucked, nixing our plans for the Celtic fest that afternoon. We grabbed some supper at the Four Seasons diner and played some pac-man, and hit the mini golf course to finish up our day.
Sunday, we had to be checked out by 10, so up and out we went - we grabbed breakfast at a local “IHOP” type restaurant and decided to drive home instead of hang around. I drove the first 40 minutes or so, but by the time we hit 84, Mel offered and I slept… all the way home. She made great time!
Overall it was a cool weekend adventure that sort of embodied our 10 years – a little frustrating, a little me-being-stupid, a little unexpectedness, a little spontanaeity, some hard work and resulted an a lot of joy and some really great memories. All in all, I think we would probably do it again… maybe in another 10 years!
Setting up the Treo 700p to sync from Leopard (osX 10.5)
// December 28th, 2007 // No Comments » // technology
Having trouble syncing your smartphone with your mac? I did, and decided to post a short writeup to expand the wealth of knowledge on the internet. This method worked fine for me with my Treo 700p and MacBook Pro intel 2.4 – it probably will for you too.
I had to re-install my macbook over the weekend because I upgraded the hard drive. (I pulled a 250 from a recent costco purchase, so thanks to Western Digital, I’m now fast, fat and happy!) So… to gain the added experience of restoring a macbook from files of a crashed drive, I swapped out the drives (after making a backup of course) rather than run time machine (which is hella cool btw) and did it with straight data from the old drive.
So anyways, the method that I used and hoops I jumped through to get my Treo Sync’d with iCal and Address Book:
1. Install Palm Desktop 4.2.1 Rev D
http://www.palm.com/us/support/macintosh/macdesk421revd.html
2. Sync the Treo using USB cable (not sure if this step is needed or not, but I assumed the conduit connections need to be created first – and I didn’t mind making a backup to the palm desktop software)
3. Open iSync – select “Devices -> Enable Palm OS Syncing…” This should disable the conventional palm conduit and get you ready to sync in iSync
4. From Palm Desktop, Select “HotSync -> Conduit Settings” – notice that iSync Conduit says “see Conduit Settings” – click it and then click the “conduit settings” button.
5. “Enable iSync for this Palm device” MUST have a check – do this, click “ok”
6. Re-open iSync if you closed it – you should now have your treo in the list. Click the “Sync Devices” button and perform a hotsync from your palm – voila!
I realize this method isn’t all inclusive, and may work with other devices. Like I said, it worked for me, maybe it can help you too!
Peace
