What if you want to spread your tweets out over the course of the day, so as to avoid spamming your contacts? What if you’re at work and you know that Tweeting will get you in trouble, so you don’t want the post to go live right away? What if you simply won’t have access to a computer later, and you want to post before you forget about it?

There’s a few tools that can help you out with that – which one you use depends entirely on how much functionality you’re looking for.

Oh, and all the following tools are completely free.

Option 1: Twuffer 

This one’s for anyone who’s looking to put together a whole list of tweets, then schedule each of them for specific times and dates. Great for tweeting announcements, running contests, and giving everybody updates on an event your organization might be running. The interface is a little minimalistic, but hey- it works and that’s the important part, right?

Option 2: TweetsQueue

True to it’s name, TweetsQueue lets you set up a “queue of tweets.” Any tweets you enter into the application will be tweeted at an interval of your choosing. Want to throw out a tweet an hour? Set the interval to 60 minutes, and go nuts. While it doesn’t necessarily let you schedule your posts in the same way some of the other applications do, it’s pretty handy for spacing out your posts to Twitter if you don’t have the time to do it yourself. Plus, it includes a URL shortener.

Option 3: Future Tweets

Want to schedule a Tweet on a friend’s birthday? Looking to tweet an announcement about the end of a contest or the beginning of one event or the other? Want to tweet something at work, but can’t bear to be caught in a lie? Future Tweets can help. Using their simple online interface, you can schedule a Tweet to be sent days, weeks, months, or even years down the line. Pretty handy, eh?

Option 4: Auto Tweeter

If you want a means of scheduling posts, but don’t want to have to install any new applications to your Twitter account, Auto Tweeter’s the app for you. It’s a java API that installs directly to your desktop. Not only will people not know you used an auto-tweet scheduler, it provides exactly the same functionality as all the other items on this list.  This is the one that I myself use.

Option 5: Twaitter

Designed to be used by both businesses and consumers, Twaitter offers support for multiple accounts, connection to other social networks, a scheduling calendar, and the ability to create groups and view tweet statistics. It’s one of PC World’s top-ranked Twitter applications, so you really can’t go wrong if you choose this one – particularly if you’re an enterprise user.

Image Credits: Media Bistro, The Next Web, Mashable

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How to Schedule Your Posts on Twitter

The alternative is to simply post your video online instead, and everyone knows how to do this. If you’ve ever uploaded a video anywhere on the internet, you already know the process (as in take your video file, upload, add in text description, done).

At this point you’d like to simply upload your video and have people rent it out to make a few bucks – but how?

You have two options here. One involves a lot of red tape, and the other a lot less.

YouTube Rentals
Information: http://www.youtube.com/t/youtube_rentals

To be able to do this is not easy. You have to have a YouTube channel, but that’s the only easy part. You then have to post videos, over and over, gain a following and many subscribers, then after that apply to be a partner user. If (and that’s a big if) you’re approved, then you can rent videos through the YouTube system.

Amazon Video On Demand
Information: https://www.createspace.com/Products/VideoDownload/

This is the much-easier option. You can post your instructional video directly to Amazon, and have the option of listing it as pay-per-download or as a rental. The services allows it to stream just about anywhere (even on TiVo boxes), and the prerequisites are much less compared to YouTube.

Using either option above, you can completely skip the DVD-making process and just use what you already know how to work with. Everyone knows how to make videos, and if you can create an instructional video of at least 20 minutes in length, posting to Amazon is simple and easy. It’s most likely true you already have an Amazon account anyway, so you probably don’t even need to sign up for anything to give it a go.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How To Rent Your Own Instructional Videos Online

Those of you who pay attention to investment news already know the story of the hour- Facebook’s gone public.

On Thursday, they filed an IPO, and the entire investment community rejoiced. Several social gaming companies saw their stock skyrocket, and Zuckerberg revealed just how much money he’s really been making off of his world-changing social network- the guy’s got a bloody private jet at his disposal, and is slated to make tens of millions of dollars on the IPO.

Oh, we also have a bit of information on just how fast the business has been growing, as well. It’s already reached 60% penetration in the UK, and Zuckerberg has warned that this expansion will slow in the coming years, because, well…

What’s Going To Happen Now?

Of course, most of you probably don’t much care about all of that. You’re wondering what Facebook’s new status as a publicly traded company means for you, right?

How will this change the face of Facebook? Are investors going to start interferingwith the social network now that they have a say in how it’s run? Are we going to see more advertising, and more data being sold? Facebook’s getting so big that it’s starting to have trouble getting any bigger.

Honestly, this could go any number of ways.

In light of the recent chaos regarding online privacy and concerns involving Facebook’s own use of user data, they could very well end up putting pressure on Facebook to change their policies. We might well see more of an emphasis on the user. Zuckerberg already says he puts an emphasis on making Facebook’s services better for the end user. With pressure from stockholders at his back, he might well be motivated to make even more sweeping improvements to the service.

In other words, Facebook going public could be one of the best things that ever happened to its users. Of course, it could go the other way, too.

We could wind up seeing Facebook lean even more towards corporate interests. More advertising (and, possibly, more intrusive advertising, to boot), more personal data being sold to corporate stakeholders, and maybe even the introduction of a premium, subscription-only suite of services.

Okay, so that last one is about as likely as a whale being elected the next President of the United States.

Hyperbole aside, you see where I’m going with this, right? How the IPO affects the end user depends entirely on how well its chief stockholders understand social media – and how well the current executive can stand up to their pressure. Let’s hope they know what they’re doing, eh?

Image Credits: Vancouver Sun

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

What Facebook’s IPO Filing Means For You

It’s the phishing scam.

Generally sent through email, these scams are designed to appear as though they’re legitimate. The aim is to make a user log in, entering their password and credentials. At that point, the damage is done. They make off with the account, change the password, and use it for their own ends – either mining it for data, using it to make purchases/stealing money off of it, or simply using it to perpetuate the spread of malware.

Either way, you don’t want your account in the hands of these people.

Thankfully, it’s very, very easy to avoid phishing scams, if you’re careful about where you log in and who you trust. I already touched on this in my Email Safety Guide- but it bears a closer look, I think. We’re only going to look at spotting the more well-designed scams. We’re not even going to touch the scams where everything’s off-color, or the company name’s misspelled.

In The Event of Emails

1. Check the email address of the sender: Does it look like an official email, or is it something like “paypal@hotmail.com?” Even if it looks official, there’s a good chance it isn’t. It’s not all that hard to mask an email to look like it’s from someone it’s not.
2. Check the policies of the company that sent the email: What are their policies on compromised accounts? On shutting down accounts? On suspension of accounts? If there’s nothing in their terms of use about how they deal with such things – or if they specifically state they won’t contact their users about the issue the email claims to address - that should throw up some red flags.
3. Check where the email links to: Usually, the criminals responsible for phishing scams will mask the URL to look like something it’s not. Occasionally, they’ll get sloppy. Mouse over any links in the email to see where they go. Don’t click them. If an email links to a site you don’t recognize, that’s a sure sign you’re getting scammed.
4. Try logging in through the company’s website, rather than the email: Don’t click on anything in the email- do them one better. Navigate to the website, and log in to your account from there. Don’t see any announcements? Congratulations, you just avoided getting scammed.
5. Ask Around: Have any friends who use the service or play the game? Is there a web-forum or blog where the company posts official announcements? Do your research. Ask them if they know anything about what’s going on. If all else fails, contact the business directly.

Phishing Websites

Email scams aren’t the only phishing danger on the ‘net. Here’s how to avoid getting scammed on the world wide web:

1. Check, double check, and triple check the URL: One of the most common methods by which scammers grab victims is by setting up a domain that incorporates common misspellings of a popular service, such as “facebool” or “gmil”.  Before you log in, make sure you’ve entered the correct domain name. Otherwise, you might end up losing your account.
2. Keep your browser up to date: Some phishing sites or attack bots might abuse a security hole in an older version of your web browser. Always make sure you’re using the latest version.
3. Install security software: Antivirus software such as AVG can help to alert you of the most common attack sites. Use it.
4. Practice safe browsing: Avoid clicking any links that you don’t know the source of, stay away from sites promising free stuff…you know the drill.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How to Spot a Phishing Scam

Submitted for your pleasure are five more useful, unique, and/or downright cool Google Chrome Addons. Enjoy.

Invisible Hand

Shopping in person is difficult enough. Shopping online can be a downright overwhelming experience, particularly given the vast array of choices you’re presented with. Where do you buy from? Which location has the better deals? The amount of comparison you have to do, the amount of time you need to spend researching the best deals…wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t really have to do all of that?

Invisible Hand can help. With support for over 220 retailers in the UK, US, and Germany, and for over 589 major airlines, Invisible Hand is designed to make sure you get the best deal you can possibly find. When you’re on a shopping site examining a product, Invisible Hand will immediately and automatically search for a better deal on your behalf.

Convenient, no?

Opinion Cloud

I probably spend a bit more time reading YouTube comments than I should, and I’m pretty sure there’s a considerably large group that can say the same. Hey, it’s interesting to see what other people are saying about a video – lets me see where my own opinion fits into the public idea of things. Of course, it’d be nice if I didn’t have to spend several hours figuring that out.

That’s where Opinion Cloud comes in. Looking through the often thousands-deep comment thread can take hours, so Opinion Cloud does it for you, creating a ‘cloud’ in which the most oft-expressed sentiments (usually represented as keywords or very short phrases) are the largest. It separates these comments into positive and negative, so you know exactly what’s being said about a video or image from both sides of the fence.

Wishpond

Wondering if a store near you stocks a particular product? With Wishpond, you can find out. Not only that, it also searches out the best deals in your local area. Input a product you’re looking for as a ‘wish’ along with the price you’re looking to purchase it at, and Wishpond will not only alert you when the price drops, it’ll also search out deals on the product in your city and inform you of them. Basically, it makes bargain hunting into a simple, convenient process.

Autopager

This extension fits into the ‘unique, and kinda cool’ category. When you’re surfing the ‘net, Autopager will automatically load the next page of a site when you reach the end of the current page. Pretty much means that instead of clicking ‘next’ to load the next page in an article or web search, you can simply keep on scrolling down. Not bad, nothing particularly amazing either. Still, it’s a nifty little piece of software.

Gojee

Gojee’s one of my personal favorites. In the mood to eat something other than the usual macaroni and cheese crap you eat day in and day out? Enter into Gojee the components you have (for instance, maybe you have rice, cheese, black pepper, butter, and milk) and the addon will search through its massive list of recipes and present you with a meal fit for a king, complete with mouthwatering pictures. All you’ve gotta do is prepare and enjoy.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

5 Chrome Addons: Online Shopping, Cooking, And Clouds.

And, of course, let’s not forget that whole "Search + Your World" nonsense Google is doing. Google is saying to "give it time" and you’ll like it. I don’t, because search should be the easiest thing to do on the internet, with should being the operative word there. Giving anything time just means the interface and results were designed wrong to begin with out of the gate. I shouldn’t have to learn how to search. Gimme a break.

Bing is good, and I do recommend it, but like Google it’s a very "heavy" site. I also like DuckDuckGo, but their interface is something you have to get used to, which you’ll either give a yea or nay to. I ultimately gave it a nay.

I’ve been a diehard Scroogle user for a while now (which is Google search without the crap), but I’ve been yearning for something just a little better. People have been telling me (including several PCMech readers) to try Ixqiuck. I did, but didn’t care for it too much because the search results I was getting really didn’t work out too well for me.

Then I found StartPage.com, which is Ixquick and Google search results put together in a fast, simple layout. That was the winner and I switched over to it immediately.

StartPage.com’s primary claim to fame is that it’s a "private" search engine. Said honestly, I don’t care about that. What I do care about is speed, no extra crap shoved at me and an interface that has search like it used to be years ago (simple, easy, speedy). StartPage.com has all of that, and that’s why I switched to it. It is Ixquick. It is Google. It’s not heavy. It’s just everything I’d want in a search engine, and I do sincerely believe a lot of you out there would like it also.

No, I’m not getting paid by StartPage.com to say any of this. I just like the site that much, because the site brings back search to the way Google used to be years ago before they changed everything into a big pile of suck.

Seriously, try StartPage.com out and do a few searches with it. You’ll love it and will probably even set it as your home page in your browser. I did.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Retro Friday: StartPage.Com – Search Like It Was Meant To Be

Okay, so there’s this post on Facebook that officially broke over 1 million comments. It’s right here. Is the conversation interesting? Of course not, because this is Facebook we’re talking about.

Now in case you weren’t aware, Facebook’s Oregon data center consumes just as much power as the entire county it’s located in.

Said another way: “Yee-haw! 1 million comments on a post! Cool! But it burned up 28 megawatts to get there! Oh, well.. progress, right?”

Yes, I know it wasn’t just that one post that burned up 28MW, but it probably contributed to a lot of the usage.

Gee, thanks, Facebook.

For those interested, here’s the info on the county Facebook’s Oregon data center is in; it’s located smack dab in the center of the state, and the county population is almost 21,000.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Facebook Post Reaches 1 Million Comments, Requires Power Of Entire County To Do It

Turns out, they folks responsible for SOPA had something up their sleeves the whole time- ladies and gentlemen, meet ACTA. If you thought SOPA and PIPA were bad, just wait- it gets far, far worse.

See, some time before 2006, the RIAA, MPAA, and various other lobby groups got together with a bunch of men and women to start planning this bill behind closed doors. It’s almost as though they knew what they were doing was morally questionable- almost as though they were aware of the public outrage that would occur as a result of their blatant disregard for the people they claimed to be serving. Oh, and one more thing- most of these lobbyists and corrupt politicos weren’t actually democratically elected officials.

That’s right- we’ve got people who we haven’t chosen to represent us trying to make a decision that’ll permanently affect the lives of every man, woman, and child who’s ever used a computer, and they’re doing it in the most underhanded way possible.

If you paid attention to the SOPA fiasco, you’ll already have an idea what ACTA’s about. Trust me on this, though- compared to ACTA, SOPA was small time. In all honesty, it seems as though SOPA/PIPA were designed to fail- custom-tailored to catch public interest and cause public outrage. Then, with everyone burned out and beaming from their victory over the red herring bills, they planned to quietly have nations across the world sign the treaty- thus dooming the Internet on a global scale.

There’s some stuff about counterfeiting, seeds, and generic drugs in there, too, for some reason. It’s all very hush-hush, and all very confusing- we don’t even have access to the full bill yet (it’s being protected more closely than nuclear secrets- something which itself should immediately raise red flags), and what we do know already scares the hell out of me.

What is ACTA? 

Here’s what we’ve got so far:

1. Unlike other treaties, which mitigate what “effective enforcement” entails, ACTA conveniently fails to make reference to due process or fair, equitable treatment. Warning bells are ringing.
2. It approaches piracy and the distribution of counterfeit goods as the same thing. Piracy is the exchange of data(which many don’t even view as criminal), the production of counterfeit goods is a deliberate criminal act.
3. It changes the definition of copyright infringement to “the non-profit facilitation of unauthorized information exchange on the Internet.” Under ACTA, this very post could be considered infringement- after all, the clowns behind the bill haven’t authorized the release of information on it.
4. Safe Harbor will no longer exist- third parties will be even more liable for infringement under ACTA than they would have been under SOPA/PIPA
5. It allows for- and seemingly requires ISPs to sift through personal files and private data. If you plan to use the Internet under ACTA, kiss your freedom goodbye. Furthermore, it essentially allows rights-holders to use ISPs as a “secret police” against people they deem guilty of infringement, and the government will be required to cover the costs related to persecution- I’m sorry, “prosecution” of the pirates.
6. As a caveat to the above, individuals even suspected of piracy can be penalized.
7. It spits in the face of the democratic process by calling for the creation of a committee with the capability to review and accept or reject amendments to the treaty.
8. Music purchased on one device will no longer be legally allowed to be used on another device. If you burn a CD onto an MP3 player, you’re a criminal.

SOPA and PIPA had the potential to cripple the internet. ACTA will kill it.

Why is ACTA a Concern? 

This is why.

You mean, aside from the obvious?

It’s just a treaty, right? Nothing’s forcing nations to participate in it, sign it, or pass domestic legislation to keep with the jilted tenets of it, right? Funny story- remember the Digital Millennium Copyright Act? Remember how that was passed? A treaty.

The problem with trade agreements like ACTA is that they allow nations like the States- or, more accurately, the corrupt, outdated Intellectual Property barons of the States- to bully other governments into accepting them. They’ve the potential to quickly become an industry standard. Your laws don’t keep with the treaty? You didn’t sign it?

Sorry, but none of the participants can trade with anyone who refuses to comply.

A treaty such as this is essentially economic blackmail, imposing nontraditional sanctions against any nation that refuses to buy into it. This sort of thing has happened before- and now it’s happening again.

The people forcing through this piece of trash don’t care about the consumer. They don’t care about innovation, civil liberties, or freedom of information. All they care about is clutching desperately at their already-fading power. All they care about is making more money, at the expense of anyone who gets in their way.

Surely, the governments of the world won’t stand for something so morally bankrupt as ACTA?

You’d be surprised. Most of the developed world has already signed it- without consulting their citizens.They’ve gone over our heads to dictate how we live our lives online, and how we share information. Worse, they’re trying to justify this downright criminal behavior. Don’t believe me? How about now?

It has to stop. Now.

What You Can Do 

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty- Thomas Jefferson.

Everything in your power. The people behind ACTA think that they can get away with forcing through new trade standards that’ll benefit none but themselves. Our governments think that they can get away with signing on to the treaty without bothering to consult their citizens. They’re forgetting something, these pretenders.

They don’t run society. We do. They’ve just  been chosen to represent us- something which they no longer do.  And they’re failing to do so. You see where I’m going with this, right?

Spread the word. Write letters to everyone who could possibly influence the bill. Inform your governmental officials of how disgusted you are with their actions. Educate your friends. Educate yourselves.  Sign petitions. Join physical protests that are already occurring across the globe. Don’t just kick back and tell yourself that something like this will never pass.

If you resign yourself to such apathy, it will. 

Image Credits: Web User Blog, La Quadratue, ActivistPost, IB Times

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

ACTA: What it is, and Why It has to be Stopped

In the Google Chrome browser, you can use DuckDuckGo as either a keyword-invoked search, or just simply set it as the default search engine in the browser.

The video below shows you how to do both, plus some other tips.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How To Add DuckDuckGo As Your Search Engine In Google Chrome

If there is any one thing that will get your letter delivered properly, it’s having the correct ZIP code on the address line. Even with minor mistakes contained in the street address, if the ZIP code is correct, the letter still stands a very good chance of being delivered properly.

A site you absolutely need to bookmark is ZIPinfo.com’s ZIP code lookup. Punch in the name of the city/town and state, and all the ZIPs will be shown for the area you selected. Believe me when I say you will be very happy to have this at-the-ready, especially for those of you who make shipments often (such as from eBay sales).

Getting ZIP code border information

Why would anyone need to know the borders of a ZIP code? There are actually several answers.

US cities and towns pay very close attention to where ZIP borders lie because it determines who is responsible for what.

A few examples:

• In many regions the ZIP borders define school districts, particularly in larger towns where districts have to be "broken up" in order to service the population.
• Crossing a ZIP border may subject you to different local laws and ordinances, and this information is particularly useful to property owners. One ZIP region may allow for erecting a building without a permit while the other one adjacent to it requires it.
• ZIPs do define parts of a city that are either incorporated or unincorporated. If you’re currently shopping for a home, you may find that local taxes are less in the unincorporated areas (mainly because there’s no municipal government for that area, which some find very attractive).

Previously, the way I instructed how to get ZIP borders was to use Google Earth. Fortunately now you can get the same information in Google Maps without having to install anything.

To get the borders of a ZIP code on Google Maps

Using Tampa, Florida as an example, that city has a ton of ZIP codes, but we’ll be using 33602.

On a search for the term 33602 in Google Maps and nothing else, you can see a pink border with a gray dashed outline showing the borders of the ZIP:

When zooming in, the pink color disappears, but the dashed gray border remains, which you can follow:

If you zoom out, the pink color returns, and the further you zoom out, the darker it gets:

"I searched my ZIP code but I don’t see any dashed outline or pink background"

Some ZIPs are mailing-office-only locations which have no borders defined outside of the post office that services it, and you will need to pick a ZIP that has literal boundaries assigned to it.

For example, Tampa 33601 does not show any boundaries because it doesn’t have any.

If you run into the situation where you don’t see any borders, use the ZIPinfo.com lookup linked above, search your city/town and see what other ZIP codes are defined for the area. Chances are the one you want is there, and you can search that to see the defined ZIP code borders.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Easy Online Tools To Get ZIP Code Information And Borders