Tonight it's earth hour. That means that if you want to participate you need to shut down the lights in your house for one hour. By doing this you can save on electricity. If just one person does this it wouldn't be very effective but if more than 2 millions do this it's a whole other story. Lots of energy will be saved then.
But that is also the big problem. If everyone switches the lights back on at the same time there's a huge demand of electricity at that moment. And that can bring down the electric system for a few seconds or even a few hours. Because of that company's that provide electric ask everyone to not switch on the lights at the same time. They also ask you to only shut down the lights and not your complete house.
To keep all my data save I will shut down my computer this evening for once. Normally it's just in sleep mode, but this time I will power it down completely. You can never be sure enough.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Multiple inboxes in Gmail
Since a few weeks I'm using multiple inboxes on my Gmail-account. And yesterday I found a new option in the settings to rename the name of a certain inbox.
In the past you could only see the search for a certain message. Normally you see something like this:
from:mybestfriend.net
This search would show all the messages that where send from the domain mybestfriend.net. But because now you can change this you could set this to something like this:
Mail from my best friend
In my case I only use it to display messages that are sent to a certain e-mail address. I have several e-mail addresses that are forwarded to my Gmail address and by doing this I can see important mails (like from work) faster. I don't need to check the long list any more. I really like this new feature.
In the past you could only see the search for a certain message. Normally you see something like this:
from:mybestfriend.net
This search would show all the messages that where send from the domain mybestfriend.net. But because now you can change this you could set this to something like this:
Mail from my best friend
In my case I only use it to display messages that are sent to a certain e-mail address. I have several e-mail addresses that are forwarded to my Gmail address and by doing this I can see important mails (like from work) faster. I don't need to check the long list any more. I really like this new feature.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The web is changing - part 2
A few days ago I already published the post "The web is changing - part 1" and now it's time for the second part. In this part I would like to talk about Twitter. I hope that most of you know what Twitter is, otherwise please check out www.twitter.com.
In the past when something happened it took a very long time to get it know by other people. News was only written on paper or broadcasted on TV and radio. But years ago the first news sites posted the news on the internet. But that's not what I'm trying to tell you.
It's a fact that Twitter can and is used to share news with other people. Like when Gmail is down, you want to know if you are the only one with this problem you can simple search on Twitter. And if nobody has problems you can always tweet "Is Gmail down?" Other people can then reply so you can take advantage of it. But you can also use it to announce different sorts of messages.
Twitter is only text but because you can always link to items you can post pictures, movies and more. Sometimes it happens that you are near a certain place and see something. With Twitter you can share it with the rest of the world in just seconds. And other users can always retweet it.
I also use Twitter and I must say that since a few weeks I use it more and more. And once you start using it in a good way it's a great thing. But please do not ask what my name is on Twitter. I can't follow you all.
One bad thing about Twitter, to end this post, is that it has lots of downtime. But I haven't experienced one in the last month myself. And you can't tweet that. You can only tweet that Twitter is back.
More about the web is changing in part 3.
In the past when something happened it took a very long time to get it know by other people. News was only written on paper or broadcasted on TV and radio. But years ago the first news sites posted the news on the internet. But that's not what I'm trying to tell you.
It's a fact that Twitter can and is used to share news with other people. Like when Gmail is down, you want to know if you are the only one with this problem you can simple search on Twitter. And if nobody has problems you can always tweet "Is Gmail down?" Other people can then reply so you can take advantage of it. But you can also use it to announce different sorts of messages.
Twitter is only text but because you can always link to items you can post pictures, movies and more. Sometimes it happens that you are near a certain place and see something. With Twitter you can share it with the rest of the world in just seconds. And other users can always retweet it.
I also use Twitter and I must say that since a few weeks I use it more and more. And once you start using it in a good way it's a great thing. But please do not ask what my name is on Twitter. I can't follow you all.
One bad thing about Twitter, to end this post, is that it has lots of downtime. But I haven't experienced one in the last month myself. And you can't tweet that. You can only tweet that Twitter is back.
More about the web is changing in part 3.
Share ANTSYB with everyone
Since yesterday evening I have changed the template of ANTSYB. A few days ago I added a button to send a certain post to StumbleUpon. But because that isn't the only social bookmarking website on the internet I have changed that. Now you can easily share or save any post that has been posted to ANTSYB in the past.
And if you don't like to read the posts on ANTSYB you can always listen to them. ANTSYB uses odiogo to convert every single post into MP3-files that you can download. Or you could also use the buttons on top of each post. Please note that this will not work for brand new posts.
And if you don't like to read the posts on ANTSYB you can always listen to them. ANTSYB uses odiogo to convert every single post into MP3-files that you can download. Or you could also use the buttons on top of each post. Please note that this will not work for brand new posts.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Get rich on the internet
Sometimes you receive a message with the same subject of the one I used for this post. But most of the time it can't be true. If you want to get rich on the internet you must have something special. Off course there are always people that have a great idea. Let's take Google, Facebook and Twitter as 3 examples. As a normal user that can't be possible.
But you can always make a small amount of money without investing lots of time. Since a few years I have made myself a member of programs that pay you to read mails and a few days ago I have requested my first pay-out for two of them. Let's hope they pay me quick. It's not much but it's something and every single cent is a cent on your bank account.
This is actually the first time I will get paid for reading e-mails. If you don't take those for getting a job in mind. Because that's worth a lot more if you just think about it.
I also like to fill in surveys and there's a program that has paid me out twice or more. It's really great that this is possible. You just help someone by filling in a survey and you receive something in exchange.
The bad thing is that you aren't paid for any unwanted mail message you receive in your mailbox. Otherwise I would already have received lots of money. If I could receive just one cent a message, I would make a dollar a day some days. But for that we just have to keep on dreaming. Maybe one day we will get paid for that. But it would be much better to receive none of those messages.
But you can always make a small amount of money without investing lots of time. Since a few years I have made myself a member of programs that pay you to read mails and a few days ago I have requested my first pay-out for two of them. Let's hope they pay me quick. It's not much but it's something and every single cent is a cent on your bank account.
This is actually the first time I will get paid for reading e-mails. If you don't take those for getting a job in mind. Because that's worth a lot more if you just think about it.
I also like to fill in surveys and there's a program that has paid me out twice or more. It's really great that this is possible. You just help someone by filling in a survey and you receive something in exchange.
The bad thing is that you aren't paid for any unwanted mail message you receive in your mailbox. Otherwise I would already have received lots of money. If I could receive just one cent a message, I would make a dollar a day some days. But for that we just have to keep on dreaming. Maybe one day we will get paid for that. But it would be much better to receive none of those messages.
Get rich on the internet, keep on dreaming dude.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Do you need a numeric keyboard?
Apple released some new Macs today. But it also launched a new keyboard. It looks like the wireless keyboard but includes some USB-ports too. It's nice for people that don't like a big keyboard. But I wouldn't buy it because I can't live with the idea that I don't have a numeric keyboard. I always use those keys when I need to type in numbers. I also like all the other buttons that are available near those numeric keys.
But when you configure your Mac order on the Apple store website you can choose to buy the old version at no additional price. An option I would use if I was in the need of a new computer.
But when you configure your Mac order on the Apple store website you can choose to buy the old version at no additional price. An option I would use if I was in the need of a new computer.
The web is changing - part 1
It's a little bit strange to say but since I started using the internet 9 years ago in 2000 when I won my first modem in school some things have really changed the internet.
When I got that modem I also got my first account with an ISP. It was bundled with the modem and part of my prize. I could also choose for a gift card to buy a CD but I decided to take the modem. And I'm happy I did it.
At that time it was the time of free internet. You didn't have to pay for your connection to the internet on a monthly base. You only had to pay the telephone bill. I still have this subscription but since we have cable internet I haven't been using it for many years. I only use the subscription to receive my e-mails.
That takes me to a second thing that has changed over the years. In 2000 I didn't use webmail but I used Outlook Express because it made it possible to read your mail when you where offline. But since I started using Gmail a couple of years ago I stopped using offline mail programs for most of my mail messages. Webmail has taken a new step. They have bigger accounts, almost no ads, better search and you can visit them from every single place that is connected to the internet. I even read my mails on my mobile phone since last summer.
And because sometimes you need a new computer, you also need to transfer you e-mail too. And I must say that when I moved from Outlook Express to Thunderbird I've lost some of them. After some time I noticed that I had a few blank messages. But it was too late to recover them because the other computer didn't had them stored anymore.
More of this in The web is changing - part 2.
When I got that modem I also got my first account with an ISP. It was bundled with the modem and part of my prize. I could also choose for a gift card to buy a CD but I decided to take the modem. And I'm happy I did it.
At that time it was the time of free internet. You didn't have to pay for your connection to the internet on a monthly base. You only had to pay the telephone bill. I still have this subscription but since we have cable internet I haven't been using it for many years. I only use the subscription to receive my e-mails.
That takes me to a second thing that has changed over the years. In 2000 I didn't use webmail but I used Outlook Express because it made it possible to read your mail when you where offline. But since I started using Gmail a couple of years ago I stopped using offline mail programs for most of my mail messages. Webmail has taken a new step. They have bigger accounts, almost no ads, better search and you can visit them from every single place that is connected to the internet. I even read my mails on my mobile phone since last summer.
And because sometimes you need a new computer, you also need to transfer you e-mail too. And I must say that when I moved from Outlook Express to Thunderbird I've lost some of them. After some time I noticed that I had a few blank messages. But it was too late to recover them because the other computer didn't had them stored anymore.
More of this in The web is changing - part 2.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)