Witchy Tech

Your Personal Information for the World to See!

Yes, that’s right.  Your personal information may be out there for anyone to discover.  And YOU put it there.  Using your real name in forums, signing up for personal networking services (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.), advertising on Craigslist or eBay… While it may be uncomfortable at first, you get used to it.  What’s the harm?

Well, what if you’re looking for a job? Do you know that employers are now checking up on the online activities of their employees?  And it’s not spying because it is PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION which you yourself provided to the internet.

Or worse.. what if you’ve made an online enemy?  With the information you’ve provided, they could hack into your online email account and REALLY embarrass you. (Remember what happened to Sarah Palin!) Oh no!

Well, you’ve decided that you want to clean up your online presence.. but where do you start?

Smashgods.com has a wonderful article filled with suggestions.  I definitely recommend at least reading through it.

Science Tattoos!

I am hardly a tattoo person, but if I ever did decide to get one, I would definitely consider a science-themed tattoo! Check out the Science Tattoo Emporium over at The Loom blog at Discover Magazine’s website.  I have been enjoying going through the gallery and reading the stories behind people’s tattoos.

Free Antivirus Protection

You need protection when cruising down the information highway.  That’s why most computers come pre-loaded with software to help protect you!  But when the subscription to that software runs out, you have a choice to make:  Do I pay to keep that subscription up to date? Do I keep going with software that is getting farther and farther behind the times?  Do I pay to subscribe to a new antivirus service?  There is another alternative… FREE antivirus protection!

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antivirus

Quick Prints of your Digital Pics-From Photobucket and Target!

Photobucket.com and retailer Target have teamed up for an easy and quick way to get prints from your digital camera!   If you have a photobucket.com account, just log in and go to your album.  In the menu in the gray area at the top, rest your cursor on “Buy Prints” and in the menu that pops up, select “Print at Target.”  (There is a bullseye logo in the menu like the one shown here.)

In the next page, select the photos from your album that you would like to print.  It is only 20¢ (twenty cents) for a 4×6 print.

Witchy says:  If you have reduced the size of your pictures for emailing or posting on the internet, they are not “print quality” images.  You will need to upload a full sized, high pixel version to photobucket.com for nice prints.  If you don’t remember if it was reduced or not, DON’T WORRY! The TARGET checkout screen will tell you if your picture resolution is too small with a little exclamation point next to it.   If you rest your cursor on the symbol, the message, “Insufficient resolution for high quality print of this size” will pop up.

If you don’t have your own photoprinter, this is the quickest and cheapest way I have found to get prints from your digital pictures.  If you give it a try, please let is know in the comments!

What is… GOOGLE?

I bet you have heard the word “google” many times.. either in your travels on the web or in the news. But what IS “google” exactly? Why it is one of the most useful tools on the internet, that’s what! And it’s EASY to use! Want to know more? Then read on!
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Around the Web

Some sites offering help with computing or modern living:

SimpleHelp.net is a good place to check out when you want to know how to do something specific. They also have lots of Macintosh information for those of you Apple lovers out there!

HelpwithPCs.com offers tutorials and study notes to help you get the most out of your PC. And it’s for people like us!

Sometimes it’s hard to have a chat about the weather with our online friends from other countries…their temps are Celsius and our temperatures are gaged in Fahrenheit. There are online converters all over the web that translate Celsius to Fahrenheit and back. I have this one bookmarked: Fahrenheit to Celsius converter by National Weather Service in Buffalo, NY.

TV Going Digital in 2009-What does that mean?

Here in the states, there will be no more analog TV broadcasts from the “full power” stations after February, 2009. However most of us regular people who did not grow up in the “digital” age have no idea what that means. I know most of you don’t care about what it is and why we are doing that, you just want to know if your TV will still work! And if it won’t, you want to know what to do about it. Well read on! I’m going to break it down for you: Read the rest of this entry »

Another Online Editing Page for Digital Pictures

I’ve already told you that you don’t need expensive programs to edit your digital pictures, thanks to websites like photobucket.com and picnik.com. Well, one of those expensive programs now has their OWN online photoediting site! Hooray! My favorite art program, Adobe Photoshop, has established “Adobe Photoshop Express” website for online photo editing! It’s not the full program where you get flustered with weird buttons that have nothing to do with anything you learned in art school. It’s very straight-forward and Witchy Tech readers should be able to do basic photo editing without too much trouble.

If you try out Adobe Photoshop Express, or any online photo editing site, please let us know in the comments below.

What is ….Web two-point-oh (Web2.0)?

You’ve been seeing the term “Web 2.0″ a lot on your travels along the information highway. Do you know what that means? What was Web 1.0? I wondered, too. When I went to find out, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was already up and running on Web 2.0… and so are YOU!

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Simple Explanation of RSS

This video is a simple, visual explanation of RSS and gives general instructions on how to use it! I felt that this would be a good companion to the previous Witchy Tech article on RSS.

VideoJug: RSS In Plain English