Google Maps street view – 360degree view of Neighborhood

Street View on Google Maps helps you see a 360 degree view of most streets. Google Maps called “Street View”, Street View gives you the ability to view 360° panoramas of street-level imagery on Google Maps:

For a cool demo of how this works, take a look at this fun YouTube clip:

..This page features the same YouTube clip with more information and links to read about.

This new Maps viewing experience is much better test driven than being read about so head over to Google Maps (or follow the direct city links above), center the map on the US and click “Street View” up at the top. Choose a city with a camera marker and zoom in to have a play!

Thanks to http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/ for this article

Share Microsoft Office files online

I have worked with some of you to step out into the world of technology and embrace the benefits of using it to make life simplier, and here is another step in that direction. I know I am probably asking for questions, but I think this could help simplify life.

Here is a new service that allows you to share documents and organize your electronic life on the internet. Microsoft has setup a free way to store and share your Office files(Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, etc…) online. Take a look at the site and give it a try.

http://workspace.office.live.com/

I have been waiting a while for something like this where I could go online, edit a document online, save it online and not need to put it on a flash drive or email myself the file. Another cool thing is that can organize tasks, lists and schedules for a family or group in one spot.

http://workspace.officelive.com/Examples

Hope this makes your life easier and more organized.

My Disclaimer:
Privacy and security of your data is something that I feel more comfortable with Microsoft than other sites out there. “BUT” In general keep in mind the information you put on this site or the internet in general is not the same as having your data on your own computer.

Listen to Bible in a Year

I created a webpage based on Tom Dooley’s BibleonRadio.com content. Unfortunately the site did not always have the most updated content, so I developed a couple of pages that allows you to choose the date you want to listen to and either stream it over the internet/phone or download the file to play on your mp3 player. The streaming page was created for playing on my cell phone.

To play the audio on my cell phone I needed the following software:TCMP – http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/tcpmp.smartphone.0.72RC1.cab
This link is to download other versions like pocketpc’s or palm.
http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/

Jott – A great way to make notes

This is a great application. Here is a review that I ripped from http://www.nonliteral.com/articles/jott-mini-review/

I know that Jott has been around awhile, but I’ve only just started messing with it — and now I’m a believer.

The concept is elegantly simple — you call Jott (typically from your mobile), tell it who you want to leave a message for (in my case, usually “me”), and speak a short message. A minute or two later, the message (transcribed) shows up as text in your email.

This is a great application for the terminally disorganized (again, usually “me”) — tie it to a speed dial number on your mobile phone, and when something occurs to you that you need to deal with later, press the button, and leave your message. When you get back to your computer, there it is, ready to be dealt with or dropped into the task management system of your choice.

If this kind of thing keeps up, I could start running out of excuses for not getting stuff done.

You can also add your own contact list (I now have too many web apps with contact lists — I need some way for them all to be synced automatically), and send Jotts to other people or groups.

The transcription is very good, and in fact, appears to be manual. There are a lot of assurances on the site about the privacy of your messages, but if you want, you can ask to leave your jotts untranscribed, and do them yourself.

All in all, another great “voice 2.0″ application. My only concern is whether they’ll start charging for the basic service once it’s out of (open) beta, and if so, how much.

Jott

Startup Programs that will kill performance

Over the years I have worked on many computers of friends and family. The main reason I get involved is because the system is slow and not functioning like it used to. One of the main things to check is to see what is being loaded when you computer starts. The first place to look is in the Program files – Startup Folder. Most of the time is unneccessary to have programs loaded from this point. One example of a reason you would want a program loaded, is if you want your Outlook or Email system to load automatically and check for email. Most applications like to put themselves automatically in this location, so when you do use their software it will load up quicker. The reality you can wait the additional 1-2 seconds to load it up when you want, instead of constantly having the program running in the background taking up resources.

Here are the top 3 programs I see that are loaded that slow a computer down:
1. Kodak Easyshare program. – This helps you load pictures from your camera to your computer and edit them. If you are running XP your camera will automatically be seen as a separate drive letter when you connect it. This method will allow you to can copy your pictures to your harddrive.
2. McAfee and Norton Anti-Virus – these are good anti-virus applications, but they are resource hogs. I normally would uninstall these programs and load the AVG anti-virus program. This is very light weight, effective and FREE
3. Quicken BillMinder, Financial Program apps – These are classic programs that are loaded in startup, but dont need to be there.

The next area to verify under Windows XP is the registry entries that are loaded at startup. This is a bit more complicated, but is the next area to check for startup programs.

I’m Back for now

Sorry to be away for a while, I have been very busy with work. This leaves me with very little time to update blogs and keep up with this process. I have been answering many questions and providing advice. I will try to keep the info fresh.

Capture list of files to a Spreadsheet or Document

I have had the question asked a few times over the years, and the solution has been the same since DOS (Disk Operating Sytem). That is before Windows existed.

You want to create a spreadsheet or document that contains the list of files from a folder. This solution exist for PC’s running windows

1) Click START, then click RUN
2) Type in CMD and select OK.
The Windows Command Prompt appears.
3) Access the directory where your files are.

For example: If the files are located in Documents and Settings\User Name\My Documents\My
Music, then you would type CD “C:\documents and settings\user name\my documents\my music”
and press the enter key.
If you are unsure of the correct path right click one of the files in the directory that
you wish to make a list of and select properties from the menu popup and then look for the
field Location, this will give you the path.

4) Once you have accessed the directory (step 3) then type :

DIR> c:\myfiles.txt
then press enter.
This will create a text file myfiles.txt in the root drive of c:\. You can designate the folder or drive where you want the txt file to be created.

5) In Explorer, browse to the folder, locate the myfiles.txt file.
Note this file can be edited in Notepad, Word, Excel or any other Word processing program you have.

Want to download videos from Internet – Try VideoGet

If you have wanted to save a video to your computer that you saw on Youtube or Google, this software is a good solution. It is called VideoGet

VideoGet currently supports download from:

* YouTube,
* Google Video,
* Yahoo Video,
* MySpace,
* DailyMotion,
* AnimeEpisodes.net,
* DumpALink,
* Glumbert,
* Lulu TV,
* VSocial,
* PhotoBucket,
* Yikers,
* ZippyVideos and a lot more…

VideoGet features

* Downloads video from more than 100+ video websites. Click here to see full list of supported websites
* Converts video to variety of video formats (*.AVI, *.MPG, *.FLV, *.MP4, *.MP3, *.3GP)
* Script auto-updater allows you to be always in touch with latest version
* Download works through WinInet API, which is used by Internet Explorer, allows easy and fast download of Flash movies
* Allows to download in batch mode with ability to save / load batch
* Allows to pause / resume download process
* Can resume broken download instead of downloading file from the beginning
* Ability to login on YouTube due to inappropriate videos for which we need to prove we are 18+ years old
* Automatically detects which online video service you are attempting to download from
* Ability to setup width / height, video / audio quality, video frame rate and audio sampling rate of encoded video
* Small and compact
* Designed with “Easy-to-Use” concept in mind, extremely easy to use
* Works on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 Server.
* Works with all types of Internet connection
* Supported languages: English, German, Russian and Ukrainian

Stream your Webcam/TV tuner on a webpage

A great way to stream your webcam over the internet, try Ustream.TV?
This site is free and allows you to embed your webcam or video source into websites.

With Ustream.TV you can:
* WATCH – LIVE Concerts, Shows
* CONNECT – Conferences, Meetings
* BROADCAST LIVE – Concerts, Shows, Around-the-town

I have added my webcam to kevinsadvice.com, but it is not active all of the time. I did set this up to run off my tv tuner one day, so I was able to watch CNBC while I was away from the house. Very interesting concept to utilize your webcam on internet

Home Network: Wired or Wireless?

I think you can use both wired and wireless together. There are advantages to each. The reason to run wire is primarily for speed, security and reliability, . In most cases for normal internet use, you have a wireless network in place that works. If you had the ability to run a wire through your house it might make sense to have it in a few strategic areas. These are in order of importance to me:
1. Office area and/or desktop locations. When sharing data between systems or backing up data, you want to transfer between hardwired connection if possible for speed

2. Strategic areas for additiona wireless points. Depending on the size of the house you may put multiple access points so that throughout your house you have adequate speed.

3. Living Room near your television or entertainment area: Possible uses are interactive tv, gaming and streaming video across network to TV.

4. Master Bedroom. Future expansion of security systems that utilize home network, like wireless cameras around house.

Putting in a wired network is definitely more costly than wireless. I do think it is a good idea to run wire in the 1 and 2 scenarios above for future flexibility and high speed connections. The type of cable to use these day should be atleast cat5e or preferred cat6. Cat6 allows for the highest available data transfer, but is also more expensive.

Bottom line wireless is going to get faster and wireless is the future, but since you have access to run wire I would definitely consider doing it. Running wire is something you could do yourself, so that could cut the costs of do it.