Guest Post by Melissa Tamura

There’s nothing worse than running across technology that you must understand for your job, blog, or just for personal reasons, but truly don’t know what the heck you’re reading. Most people encounter this frustrating circumstance at some point in their lives. However, this doesn’t make the situation any less frustrating.

If you are in this sticky jam now, there are steps that you can take to learn it without pulling your hair out. Take a look at just how easy it could be to learn technology that you’re absolutely clueless about:

1. Take a Moment to Breathe

This may seem like an unnecessary step, but it helps tremendously when you’re feeling anxious, time-pressured and under-confident. Self-talk is a big deal when you’re trying to work through something as complicated as hard-to-understand technology, so before diving in, it’s a good idea to step back, tell yourself you can get through it, then go ahead and tackle it.

2. Read Instructions and Tutorials

The Internet is a wonderful playground for acquiring information on just about anything you can imagine, including how to learn specific technologies. The beauty of the competitive nature of the blogging world is that someone is always eager to be the first person to release instructions or tutorials on the latest technology.

This is to your benefit because there’s probably going to be some step-by-step tutorial out there to walk you through just what you need to do to get started. So if you’re stumped on how to get started, conducting a quick search on tutorials or other instructions is a great way to ease you through the process.

3. Don’t be Afraid to Backtrack

Sometimes it’s possible to take on something technological that happens to be two-steps past your current level of expertise. If this is happens to you, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with backtracking some to learn the pre-requisite technology needed to help you understand what’s presented in front of you.

You may not want take on this step if you’re technologically savvy because you may feel that it showcases a sign of weakness. However, nothing could be further from the truth. By taking the time to backtrack some and learn prerequisite technology, you could not only get the information you need to focus on the latest technology, but also expand your wealth of knowledge overall.

4. Don’t Allow Yourself to Get Overwhelmed

You may remember in school that if you were introduced to too much information too soon, you quickly felt overwhelmed. Sometimes, if you put too much on your plate when trying to learn specific technology, you could easily overwhelm yourself again.

The key to learning difficult-to-understand technology is to find the tutorials, define words you don’t know and learning technology that came before it to help you acquire knowledge on the current technology. If you take the process step-by-step without becoming overwhelmed, in no time you will know it like the back of your hand.

This article was written by Melissa Tamura, who writes on the topic of online accounting degrees for the Zen College Life Blog. She would love to hear from you at melissatamura@gmail.com. If you like to write a similar post, find details here.

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Leave a Comment: 4 Steps to Understanding Not-So-Understandable Technology

Windows 7, the latest potential winner from Microsoft is almost here; Oct 22 is the big day. Last month, I found many cool Windows 7 pages online. After WordPress on the first issue, and Image Handling on the second, this months issue of “Best of @MillionClues” is about Windows 7.

(An extract from each post is included for easy reference)

First,See if your System is ready for Windows 7 with Upgrade Advisor:

Download Free Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Only PCs with Windows Vista can be upgraded to Windows 7. Remember Windows XP users are required to do a clean install of the Windows 7 RC as well as the final product. If you are running Windows XP and do not have .NET Framework 2.0 yet, you will be asked to download and install it.

Why do you need Windows 7? Here is the answer:

18 Cool Things Windows 7 does, that Windows Vista Doesnt

Snap into place

Simply drag your window to the left or right edge of the desktop to snap and resize the window to one half of the screen. Drag the window to the top to maximise it. A pretty neat idea made neater by the use of the keyboard shortcuts (Win + respective arrow keys). No longer do you have to frustratingly position the mouse at the edge of the window to resize it.

But there are many Windows 7 versions, which one to choose from? How much do they cost? OK, here is the buyers Guide:

Windows 7 Buying Guide : Which Windows7 version to choose

The various editions of Windows 7 are designed such that each version has all the features of the previous editions plus something extra that makes that edition unique. Also, you can use the Anytime Upgrade feature to purchase a serial key online and upgrade your existing Windows 7 license to a more advanced edition.

For instance, if you decide to buy Windows 7 Home Premium today, you can use Anytime Upgrade and shift to Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate edition anytime.

Now that you have decided on your copy of Windows 7, here is the user manual:

Windows 7 Complete Guide

Windows 7 is Microsoft’s biggest user-interface overhaul since Windows 95. It’s no surprise, then, that even Windows veterans could use a crash course on how to use it.

Time to hack!

The Ultimate Guide to Make Windows 7 Blazing Fast

Disabling the Unwanted Services to Speed up Windows 7

There are many services in windows 7 that we dont require for our daily use. There are some exceptional cases though. Services such as “print spooler” is only needed when we use a printer. If we use a printer only occasionally we can safely turn off that service in Windows 7 and turn it on only when we need to take a print.

Free Tools for Windows:

Process Hacker – A Powerful Windows Task Manager Alternative

Windows Task manager only lists running processes, but Process Hacker allows you to investigate where these processes are coming from (even if they are hidden) and displays helpful graphs and statistics about them. Its kernel-mode driver gives the application the power to terminate, suspend and resume all processes and threads, including those that are usually untouchable by Window’s task manager.

Windows Password Recovery Tools

This is a collection of amazing password Recovery tools for Windows. There are tools to find your saved IM passwords, email passwords and any other passwords that you might have forgotten. Some tools list all saved passwords right when you open it; open them when you have no one around.

For the bigger picture, follow @MillionClues on twitter.

Image Credit: Windows 7 Guide (A black version of this wall paper is also available)

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When I hunt for knowledge, usually I turn to Google’s PDF Search. PDF’s are better resources for two reasons. One – Usually PDF’s cover the subject matter comprehensively, Two – Though it’s not really hard to make a pdf, usually, the authors are extremely knowledgeable.

Here is one such PDF that gives you a 10 Point list for Site optimization. This book is basically oriented at an Internet Marketer, but most of the points work for bloggers in general. Having said that, if you are (or would love to be) an Internet Marketer, this book has some relevant information and Study reports that will help you design your site better and improve your sales.

I was impressed by the Direct, To-the-Point style of the book. Most e-books come with a lot of intro and self promotion material, but here you start with the tips on Page 2! Even the conclusion is minimal. If you are planning to write an e-book, you might like to copy the conclusion!

The books take you through the various steps of Marketing, starting from finding your Buyers, keeping them engaged, serving them with what they need and finally helping them purchase what you sell effectively.

Each tip comes with Case Study reports and an action plan, complete with illustrative images on how to optimize your site and improve sales. The author himself is a Marketer and a Web Strategist, with both online and offline Market experience.

Something I found missing was the links to the Case Study reports. For instance, a reference of a case study report from Bazaarvoice is mentioned. A link to the original report would have satisfied a curious reader and would have improved the overall credibility.

When I read the title, I felt that it would be for the Bloggers. Some tips like, how better images improve sales can be adopted by all, but the real target is the marketers. When you find this pdf on an internet marketing blog, you can’t complain on the title, can you?

Moreover, marketing your blog is more like selling a product. One tip from the book is “Call your Traffic to Action”. That’s a simple tweak on the human way of thinking; when someone tells you to do something, the brain has a greater tendency to do it. See, the tips apply to everyone!

Get the book by signing-up for WebTrafficROI’s newsletter. I had been a subscriber for some time. No, he doesn’t spam!

Along with the checklist, you get a secondary e-book “Napoleon Hill’s Awesome Secret!” which contains some self improvement lessons that would help you succeed.

Get the The 10 Point Website Optimization checklist now.

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Last week I attended the Free and Open Source Conference at Amrita (Fooster). I also gave a presentation on Blogging Basics to some cool folks there and the presentation is embedded here. The presentation is a very basic course on starting and running a blog.

Enjoy the presentation…

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Leave a Comment: Slides from Amrita Fooster 2009

Last December I hosted a small contest with the intention to create some buzz. Though the event had some participation, it was way below my expectation. But the learning experience was awesome! Here I sum up some of the lessons I learnt.

The Prizes Speak for itself

A contest is all about winning, and if one can’t win anything, will he take part? The prizes that I had in my contest were not useful for everyone, it was too targeted. If you want normal people to take part in your contest, try to get some real prizes that anyone can use. And the bigger and better the prizes are, the more buzz you will get.

E.g.: All your readers would love to have a 100$ cash check, but not everyone can use a Joomla template. Try contacting Web Hosting companies, everyone can use some extra hosting space and since these Web Hosts have a high margin on their products, they would be more than glad to sponsor!

Keep the Rules Simple

Don’t expect people to do all kinds of things for a chance of winning, keep them simple. Subscribing to the newsletter is the most common simple rule. But if you are giving away a HP laptop, then I think you can make them do more than that! My rules were simple too!

Don’t write an essay

One big mistake I did was, I wrote a full length announcing post with some reviews to my sponsors. A long post usually scares a reader away, so keep the post simple as possible and tell them exactly what is to be done to take part. If you have some chance multipliers, mention them separately.

Let it Run

Give amble time for the contest, but don’t make it too long. I gave it about 20 days, which is a bit too long. I don’t think that you will get more participants if you give more time. Instead, if it’s just available for a short time, it might get lots of buzz! (Who would wish to miss a limited time offer?)

Updates in between definitely helps

Just before the contest was going to end, I make an update. This update got more buzz than the initial post. Again, that’s the effect of a limited time offer!

Contests will suck away your time

If you have ever run a contest, you will know this already. It will take away most of your blogging time. Finding and negotiating with the sponsors, popularizing the contest, checking contestant’s status, follow ups, deciding the winners, again making sure that the winners get the prizes, aah, it took most of the time I had for Christmas. So if you don’t have time to do it, save the contest for a later time!

These lessons are what make the contest worth it. If you need expert advise, follow Chethan or Ajith; both of them have hosted very successful contests!

(P.S: I won in both of them! In the Christmas Giveaway of Chethan I won some free ads and in the SEO contest of Ajith, I won one year of Business Hosting and an Online Profits Subscription! Thank you guys!)

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Recently, a friend of mine had a problem. One of his best posts was copied and the copy of his post (on the copier’s site) was ranked better on Google. The infringer did not link to the original post, but he posted an exact copy of the same post without any attribution. He asked me what to do, and I said him to email the infringer politely. And it worked! The content was removed in 6 hours!

What if the infringer doesn’t take action with just an email? Of course DCMA is an option, but how to file an official complaint? How do we format the emails to be sent to the infringer or DCMA?

All these questions are answered on a guest post by Gary on ProBlogger. Gary explains in simple terms, how to claim your copyright (in his own way!). And I seriously support his method; because it gives the infringer one chance to remove your post. If he doesn’t do that, Gary goes to the Web Host and files a DCMA take-down notice.

If you ask a lawyer that will say this step is pointless and you should always start with a DMCA takedown notice addressed to the copyright infringer’s webhost. I think starting with the big guns is a bit too much. My advice is to contact these people in a friendly(ish) manner. Let’s not forget that we’re humans and no one likes when it’s threatened. So put together a few lines in a way that it’s not so harsh, but neither too friendly
- Gary speaks @ ProBlogger

Gary also shares some templates for the emails to be sent to the infringer and most importantly, a format for an official DCMA notice. This is very important because if you don’t do it the right way, your complaint will never be processed.

Read How to Defend Your Blog’s Copyright at ProBlogger and sue all those infringers!

Update: Here are some useful links on Google Help Center that you will find use if the infringer doesn’t take action.

• File a complaint and block the infringer’s Adsense Account permanently
• Report the Infringers page that appears on the Google Search Result (and sucks away your traffic, this was the case with my friend)
• A Post on the Inside Adsense Google group that shows how Google respects your copyrights!
• Blogspot Bloggers can easily file a DCMA using this form. (via Labnol)
• A comprehensive Guide on reporting Spam Blogger and WordPress.com Blogs.
• A Success Story of how Syam Kumar claimed his copyright with lots of resources and reference links.

Make sure that you warn the infringer before you take him down. To forgive is divine!

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Leave a Comment: How to deal Content Copiers who copy from your Blog

RSS is one of the Web 2.0 jargon for many. This guide will answer:

• What is RSS?
• What is feed?
• How to decide when to choose RSS or Email Subscription?

If you know the first two answers already, press the fast forward button.

What is RSS? What are Feeds?

RSS is Reader Subscription Service!

Well, I just made up that one! From the webmasters point of view it is Really Simple Syndication, but technically, RSS is Rich Site Summary. It’s a comprehensive summary of the contents of the site which includes all the links and images. Before you understand how RSS works, you need to know what a Feed is.

A Feed is basically a file which contains only the content of a webpage with no CSS and extra styles. You visit a site for the information that the page has, not to see the site design and that’s exactly what a feed has. It has all the information that you want. (Wanna digg deeper? Read more about RSS and Feeds here & here )

To subscribe to a blog via RSS, one need a RSS Feed Reader or otherwise called a RSS aggregator. RSS Reader is any software that can process the feed and present in a readable form. There are both offline Readers like RSS owl and online readers like Google Reader. Offline readers have to be installed on your PC, but you can download the updates and read them offline. Online readers work like your email account. It’s a place where you can find all your feed updates online. Here is a good list of RSS Readers.

In Email subscription, the feed is composed into an email and mailed to a specified email address. Usually publishers (including me) send updates once a day on those days when there are any updates. So if there are no updates, that means, you get no email.

Making the Right Choice…

RSS subscription is like a Post Box service. You have to go to the post office (the RSS Aggregator) to get your mail (updates). On the other hand, Email is home delivered. Updates are mailed right into your inbox. So the choice depends on your habits. But here are some tips that will aid you making a choice.

• If you are not in the habit of checking RSS Reader regularly, then use email subscription for the blogs that you closely follow.
• Email newsletters are often sent from the publisher’s mail address, so use email if you wish to comment on the posts directly as replies to the email.
• If you subscribe to a large number of blogs, use a RSS aggregator, because it helps you organize your subscriptions.
• For sites like Giveaway of the day, which brings you free software only for a limited time, use email subscription. But if you check your feeds regularly, then RSS is better.
• Feeds are updated right about when the blog is updated. But Emails are sent only once per day, with all the updates till that time. You can stay abreast with the hot updates with a RSS reader. Set the RSS Reader to auto update every half hour and you are never gonna miss any hot news.
• Some blogs host huge giveaways every now and then. The basic criteria will be subscription via email. If you are into such stuffs, try your luck with an email subscription.
• For blogs that are not updated every day, choose email subscription. Then you don’t have to keep checking the RSS reader for any updates. Since they are updated very rarely, you don’t have to worry about an over-flown inbox.

As a Thumb Rule: Use RSS, if you have lots of blogs to subscribe to, else use the email subscription. It’s up to you!

What’s your Decision?

So that you have made your decision, now its time to take action!

• If you have made up your mind to go for the email subscription, click here.
• For RSS lovers, here is the link to the rss feed.

Share your views on how you make the choice between RSS and Email. I use Email for those blogs I love reading everyday because I love reading emails. For all other blogs, I use RSS which I read once every 3 days.

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Leave a Comment: RSS or Email: The Choice Guide

In the past week, I got the following questions:

• What is Twitter?
• How to Update on Twitter? (After me advising them to add some updates)
• How to get Followers in Twitter?

The answers for these questions and some basic twitter guidelines are explained here.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a Social network, and what makes it different from other social networks like Facebook, Orkut or MySpace is the way people socialize. Twitter is like an open Chat room. Everyone answers just one question; “What are you doing?” and the reply cannot be more than 140 characters. The intention is to let the world know what you are doing right now, thanks to the mobile support on twitter.

Who is on Twitter?

Barack Obama, Britney Spears, All A-listed Bloggers, Celebrities, Politicians, Techies, Web Enthusiasts, Real people, and me (lol).

How Twitter works?

To start with, you need to sign-up at twitter. You will get a profile page @ twitter.com/yourname. Everyone out there has a similar page and this is the page where your updates will be seen. You can subscribe to the updates of another fellow twitterer (usually referred as tweep) by pressing the ‘follow’ button near the profile picture on his profile page. That’s how you keep track of what he is doing. The updates from your friends will be shown on your homepage.

The best part of twitter is that, you can reply to your friends updates. Press the small arrow near his update (or type in @his_user_name in your update box) and type in your reply. He will get it in his @replies section of his profile.

To send an @reply the recipient doesn’t have to follow you!  Image how cool it would be to talk to Barack Obama in person!

You can also send Direct Messages (DM) to your friends, but only to the people who follow you. DM’s are private to you and your friend.

Update:

Recently, twitter changed @replies to @your_user_name and they call it mentions. Whenever someone mention your name in a tweet, it shows up in the @your_user_name section on your twitter sidebar.

How to Update on Twitter?

Do you see the text box that asks: “What are you doing?” Enter some text there and press ‘Update’. That’s your first update!

How to get Followers in Twitter?

Having a long list of followers is a mark of credibility in twitter. There is not shortcut, but do these basic steps.

• Upload a profile picture that looks real just to prove that you are a real human. The o_O image sucks. If you don’t like to be seen in public, upload your dog’s image, let him be the star. (Upload picture is under Home >> Settings >> Picture)
• Write something in your bio. If you don’t have anything to say, just say ‘Hello” (Home >> Settings >> Account >> One Line Bio)
• Make some updates. Others like to follow only real people and real people will be always doing something. If you are not doing anything, just say that you are sleeping.
• Read Breaking the Twitter Etiquettes from The Daily Blonde, that’s a Good Start.
• Don’t be a link Whore, and don’t be there just to sell your products, be social.
• Show community love, follow others.
• Use a twitter client. It makes tweeting easier and fun. I Recommend Tweet Deck.

You can start by Following me, and I will follow you back!

Enjoy Tweeting

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Leave a Comment: Twitter Quick Start Guide

Microsoft recently released the beta version of Windows 7 and it is available for direct download till the end of January. What you download here is an iso file which when written to a DVD acts as a bootable DVD and installs the Windows 7 beta.

• Download Windows 7 (32-bit)
• Download Windows 7 (64-bit)

Burning the beta version of Windows 7 to a DVD is actually wasting one DVD. Because, it’s an error-prone version which will soon expire. Of course, you can use a Virtual DVD drive to install it, but the trouble comes when the system tries to boot from the virtual DVD, which is impossible.

Thankfully, Computing Unleashed has come-up with a solution. In the 20-step tutorial to Install Windows 7 or Windows Vista without a DVD or Pen drive, Amal explains with examples, how you can install the OS from you hard disc which not only saves the DVD, but is much faster then the DVD install. You will need a Virtual Drive to start with.

Read the tutorial now!

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There are many ways of subscribing to a blog. RSS and Email are the traditional ones. Users are not satisfied with these Subscription Services alone. Now, you can subscribe via twitter, Yahoo Messenger or Skype using the unique Subscription options of Feedblitz. If you are not satisfied with any of these, you may try adding a SMS Subscription Service using the Google SMS Channels. The set-up procedure follows.

Setting Up SMS Subscription Service

Step 1: Go to Google SMS Channels Homepage. You will be asked to login. Login with your Google Account. If you don’t have a Google Account yet, make one at the Google Homepage.

Step 2: You will be taken to the SMS Channel Directory where you can search for and subscribe to various channels. On the right sidebar there is a Section ‘Create your own channel’. Click the ‘Try Now’ Link.

Step 3: If you have not registered a mobile with Google yet, you will be asked to do so. Just give your mobile number. You will be sent a verification code to your mobile phone, enter the code and verify your mobile phone. Now click the ‘Try Now’ link again.

Step 4: Give the name of the channel, Description, Category, and Location.

Step 5: Now provide the source as RSS/Atom Feed, and give your feed address there. If you publish on Blogger, you can choose to give your blogspot blog address (in the first option) instead of giving the feed address. Check the ‘Title’ and ‘Body’ boxes, if you wish to send both the post title and post body.

Step 6: Select ‘Allow Publishing By’ as ‘Only Me’ and ‘Who can subscribe’ as ‘Any User’.

Step 7: Press ‘Create Channel’. Your SMS Channel is ready. Place the link to your channel on your blog and you are done. You will get the subscription link in ‘Manage channels’ under the ‘My Channels’ Tab in the Directory index

Now every time your feed is updated, an SMS would be sent to your subscribers containing the title and/or body of your post.

You can also send other messages to your readers. Just visit your channel and enter the text in the text box. You can use this facility to notify your readers of important updates.

Currently, this service is available in India only ( ). By the time Google SMS Channels would graduate from Google Labs, we can hope that it would be available globally.

Join the SMS Channel of Million Clues! and Receive SMS updates on your mobile.

After you setup your channel, do come back and tell me about it. Leave a subscription link too. I love reading SMS

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