Your computer crashes and you take it to a techie who gets it working again but needs to reformat (erase) the hard drive.  You get your computer back with nothing on it.  No problem you think, you have a backup of your important data on Disk, either CD/DVDs or a USB hard drive.  But when you try to restore you find:

1. there is something wrong with the backup disks, either the data is corrupted or there simply is no data on the disk(s)
   or:
2. the backup was made with software that you don’t remember or don’t have.  You need that software in order to restore.

If you can’t restore … your backups are worthless.

To prevent this happening to you, here are a few suggestions.

1. When you do your backups, *always* check the results. 
   If you backup to CD/DVD, take that disk to another computer, put it in the drive and see what happens.  Does it come up to a ‘Do you want to restore’ prompt?  Are the files on the disk that you expect?  If you backup to a USB external hard drive, explore the results.  Are the files where you expect them to be?  Do you know how to restore them?
2. Periodically test your restore capability. 
   Pretend to lose a file that you want to recover from your backups.  The easiest way to do this is to rename it.  For example, let’s say you have an Excel spreadsheet called TaxRecords.xls.  Rename that file to zzzTaxRecords.xls.  That way you still have the file, but your computer sees that the file TaxRecords.xls is gone.  Now try to restore that file from your backups.  For an example of this, see the Geeks on Tour Show Me Video on Backup to an External Hard Drive.
3. Use a backup procedure that creates file by file copies of your data rather than backup ‘packages.’ 
   There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of different ways to make backups.  Every USB hard drive comes with software to make backups, there are lots of free backup programs you can download, and there are many backup programs you can buy. They all work a little differently.  I like the ones that result in file copies rather than backup ‘packages.’  If I can see a file, I can copy it.  If I only see a backup ‘package’ I need the original software to restore it.

I am currently using Windows 7 backup utility to backup my entire computer to a USB hard drive.  When I look a the USB drive, I see a folder labeled with the name of my computer.  When I click, I get options to Restore (and it works just fine), but I can’t look inside and see all the files.  All I see is this one ‘package’ that somehow contains all my files.  What if I changed computers and no longer had Windows 7?  How would I get my files?  I don’t know. 

I am also trying out the online backup service called Carbonite.  If I want to restore a file, I can browse all my online backed up files and pick the one I want.  True, this is using the Carbonite software, but it’s a service … with support … that I’m paying $50/year for.  I can trust that when I want to restore files to any computer in the future – I can.

My favorite backup program is still a freeware package called Karen’s Replicator.  You can set it up to copy whatever folders/files you want on any schedule you want, and you can see the results.  You will see the actual files – not a backup ‘package.’  For more information on this program see this past Geeks on Tour Newsletter.

Use Picasa to backup your photos.
Picasa gives you the best of both worlds.  First of all, it is SO simple to make backups of your pictures to CD/DVD – Picasa even burns the disk.  It will backup all the special Picasa features (edits, albums, face recognition) along with your pictures so you can restore to another computer, but it also is making file by file copies of your photos.  You don’t have to use the Picasa restore process to get your pictures back.  I have 10 years worth of photos backed up with Picasa.  I have no intention of using the restore feature to put all those on another computer.  But I know that, if I want a particular picture from 2002, I can find it on my backup CD.  Here’s a Geeks on Tour Show Me Video on How to restore a single picture from a Picasa Backup.

A happy computer user has good backups that they know how to restore.

BACKUP!  BACKUP! BACKUP!

Happy Computing!
Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com
Computer Education for Travelers

Related posts:

1. Backup with Karen’s Replicator
2. BUCS
3. Ccleaner to Clean your Computer

Books are usually delivered to the Kindle wirelessly in about a minute and cost less than $10 bucks, sometimes free.

Did you know that you can put your own content on your Kindle?  It’s easy.  You can load PDF documents from your computer to the Kindle using the USB cable.  You can even use email to send documents to the Kindle.

Every Kindle has its own email address.  Just attach a file to an email to your Kindle address and Amazon will take care of getting it to your Kindle.  That will cost a whopping fifteen cents.  How Geeky is that?

This really came in handy recently when I had some problems with my generator.  I didn’t have the specs for my unit.  I found the manual on the web and downloaded it to my computer.   No big deal.  Now, I needed that information outside by the sick generator.  I could take the computer out there, but that would be inconvenient.  I could print out the manual, but then I would have papers to store.  Not very green.  So I sent a copy to my Kindle.  Now I have the manual in an easy to read, convenient device.

TIP: To keep it clean, I put it in a Ziploc plastic bag.

The Geeks On Tour have a Picasa For Beginners book.  We offer it in eBook form, too.  Transferring it to the Kindle makes it much more convenient to read.   Now, if would just play the videos…

There are other eBook readers beside the Kindles out there.  The iPhone has an app for that.  Sony makes several models.  Barnes & Noble has the new “Nook”.  Hanlon, Iriver, Bookeen and others make devices to read eBooks.  Some have proprietary file formats, but most will work with PDF files.  Screen sizes vary.  Some offer text-to-speech, it will read the book to you.  Other phones will have readers available, too.

I think it all comes down to screen size and portability.  Reading a book on a computer monitor is not always convenient, like sitting on the john or reading in bed.  Phone displays are too small.  The Kindle is just right for me.  Check it out at Amazon.

Related posts:

1. Technology Top 5 for 2009
2. Email Choices on the Road
3. Ten Rules for Email ‘Netiquette’

Although I like Live Writer a lot, I haven’t been using it for my personal blog (on Blogger) because I use a lot of pictures and the pictures come from my Picasa Web Album.  I use Picasa Web Album’s ‘link to this picture’ feature, and it just seems easier to do that while working in Blogger than with Live Writer.

UNTIL …

I discovered the Picasa Web Album plug-in for Live Writer!  How cool!  Now all my Picasa Web Album photos are available to me with just a couple clicks.  I am using Live Writer for all my blog posts now.

If you use Live Writer, you’re familiar with the Insert section of the sidebar.  This contains all the basic tools for creating links, photos, and maps.  If you look at the bottom of the list, you’ll see the option to Add a plug-in.  Click on that and you can spend hours perusing all the possibilities.  The one I’m talking about is called Picasa Image Plugin.  If you don’t see it in browsing around, you can search for Picasa.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, you will see ‘Picasa Link…’ in your Insert bar.  Click on that, enter your username and password for your Picasa Web Album, and in a couple seconds, you should see a list of all your albums.

Select the album to work with and you’ll see all the photos.  Adding a photo to your blog is as simple as clicking on the little left arrow next to the photo you want.  The picture will be inserted exactly at the point where your cursor is in your text. 

You must be online

In my previous article about Live Writer, I promoted the fact that you can create your blog entries while you are offline.  This is a big reason to use Live Writer for travelers who don’t always have a good Internet connection.  But, to use this Picasa plug-in, you must have an Internet connection to your Web Albums.  You can always use the ‘Insert Picture …’ button to get photos from your My Pictures folder on your computer.  Then Live Writer will upload them to Blogger (or whatever Blog system you’re using.)

If you don’t have a blog now, then just stow this tip away.  The point to learn is that Picasa has gained support from lots of directions.  It’s good to be popular!

Chris Guld
www.Geeksontour.com
Computer Education for Travelers

Videos: Adding pictures to your blog from Picasa Web Albums (membership required)

Related posts:

1. Blogging Offline with Windows Live Writer
2. Use Live Writer for Blogging
3. Sharing your Photo Story 3 movie

1. Boot Camp: videos on how to use your computer, Essentials, Vista, Safe Computing and Internet connections. Disk includes a 40 page self-study booklet.
2. Travelers Collection: videos on how to use fun software of interest to travelers. Picasa for managing digital photos, Photo Story for fancy slide shows, Blogger for travelog websites, and Google Earth and Maps.

$20 shipping included	$35 shipping included
Online Membership covers all of the above topics requires high-speed Internet connection $39
‘Geek Bundle’ all of the above ($94 value) $69
Why would you want the online membership *plus* the disks? Well, the disks can be used when you’re traveling and don’t have a good Internet connection; the online membership gives you access for a full year so you’ll be able to see all the new videos we make! To purchase, go to Geeks on Tour Shopping page.

Related posts:

1. Geeks on Tour
2. The Geeks at FMCA
3. Blogging Offline with Windows Live Writer

In our 5 years on the road, we have taken nearly 20,000 pictures! Being a computer professional, I was undaunted by the tasks of managing those digital photos. I knew how to organize them into folders, I knew how to use Fireworks (like Photoshop) to crop, resize, and make them look better, I knew how to make websites to share them and backup software to keep them safe. Each day, after taking dozens of photos, I would spend 30 – 60 minutes preparing the photos and putting them on my blog.

Then I discovered Picasa and life with photos got a whole lot easier. What used to take me an hour and 3 or 4 different programs, now takes me 5-10 minutes and all I need is Picasa. View the video below for more information. And, if you’d like a Picasa tip emailed to you every week:

Overview of Picasa 3 for Windows:

For more Picasa Videos see www.geeksontour.com/picasa.cfm

Chris Guld
www.GeeksOnTour.com

Related posts:

1. Managing Digital Photos with Google’s Picasa
2. Movies from Digital Photos with Photo Story 3
3. Sharing your Photo Story 3 movie

Check out these downloads and Web sites that cost nothing but have big value.

The World Wide Web originally was designed as a tool for the free exchange of information. In fact, in the early days if you were found abusing this wonderful communication system for your own personal gain, you would be “flamed” — an online equivalent of being stoned or pilloried — by the other users. The Web has since developed into a colossal marketplace of commerce and personal gain, but free stuff is still available. Unfortunately, some of the free material offered online is a scam, a way to get you to pay for something else, or a means to deliver payloads of viruses or spyware to your computer. So you need to be informed and stay alert to these types of dangerous offers. Still, there is plenty of useful and beneficial information available, and the free stuff described below is nothing short of amazing. Some of the best software I’ve ever used is included!

Picasa For Managing Digital Photos

RVers take a lot of digital photos, and it can be very confusing to decide what software to use to manage them. There’s the program that came with the camera to transfer photos to the computer; Windows for organizing, printing, and e-mailing them; Photoshop Elements or IrfanView for editing them; and dozens of Web sites for publishing them. Then you also need CD-burning software to make backups or copies to give friends.

The first thing that’s so great about Picasa, available free from Google, is that it does all of the above. You only need to learn the one program. The second thing is that it’s quick and easy. One click and you can e-mail one or more photos — and it takes care of resizing them on the fly. One click prints your photos. And it lets you preview exactly how the pictures are going to fit on the paper before you waste all that ink. One click and you can burn a CD with a slideshow to give to your friends. One more click and you have a Web site for your photos; it’s called a Web Album.

Probably the feature that we love most about Picasa is that it makes it so fast and simple to improve the quality of images. I receive a lot of compliments about the photos on our blog (http://www.geeksontour.blogspot.com). I know it’s because Picasa helps me improve every picture. And it does it without changing my original image. I don’t have to make a copy before I start editing, as with other programs.

I’ve been teaching computer software classes and seminars since 1983, during which time I’ve covered probably a hundred different programs, and I can confidently say that Picasa is the most useful software I’ve ever known. I love the things it does, but I think it’s even better for what it doesn’t do. Because it doesn’t do serious editing (such as erasing a power line from the sky), Google has kept it lean and mean. It does 90 percent of what we need on a day-to-day basis and it does it quickly, easily, and for free. For the other 10 percent you still need Photoshop Elements, Fireworks (the software I use), or some other photo editor.

Picasa is for the Windows platform only, at http://www.picasa.google.com. Sorry, Mac users, but you have iPhoto, which is very similar.

Movies From Photos With Photo Story 3

Picasa will impress your friends with a simple slideshow, but put your photos into a movie and it will knock their socks off. Photo Story 3, a free program from Microsoft, makes it so easy. Just follow the wizard, which guides you through all the steps necessary to create an impressive photo presentation. Import and arrange the photos you want to show, and then click the “Next” button. Add titles, narration, music, and movement. It is so simple. And the results rival productions that took thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment only 20 years ago.

Photo Story 3 can be downloaded for free from Microsoft’s Web site. This is also Windows-only software.

Every Traveler Needs A Blog

Ever wished you could write travel articles for a magazine? Now you can write the whole magazine. It’s called a blog and it’s a special kind of Web site that anyone can create with the help of the free Blogger.com Web-based software from Google. As long as you have a computer, an Internet connection, and something to say, you can have a Web site. The word blog comes from Weblog, meaning a log or diary on the Web. So, any day you feel compelled to write, you can log on to your Blogger.com account and have at it. You also can upload photos, videos, and links to other Web sites.

Blogger keeps everything organized. It date-stamps your entries and publishes them in reverse order so the most recent is always on top. You can write for years this way and Blogger will keep your archives in order as well. Want to see what you were doing in December 2005? Just look it up in the blog. I’ve been keeping our blog since May 2003. You can even search our blog with a convenient search box provided at the top. Want to see the pictures we took at Devil’s Tower or the video of kayaking at La Jolla? Just go to the blog (http://www.geeksontour.blogspot.com) and search. It’s such a great thing for fickle memories.

Since Blogger is Web-based, it doesn’t matter what kind of computer you’re using, so this one can be used on Mac systems as well.

Virus And Spyware Scanners

Unfortunately, it is a fact of computer life that dangers lurk on the Internet. Your computer needs to be protected with antivirus and antispyware programs. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of choices. Some cost a lot, some cost a little, some are free, and some are scams. It is a common consensus among geeks that the Anti-Virus Free software from AVG Technologies (formerly Grisoft) is one of the very best programs available.

You should use only one antivirus program. But in the antispyware category, you can install more than one. There is so much spyware out there that no one program catches everything. Two good programs that also happen to be free are Spybot Search & Destroy by Safer-networking.org and Ad-Aware by Lavasoftusa.com. But our favorite is Defender by Microsoft, primarily because it does everything automatically on a schedule. You install it and forget it. The other two need to be manually run. These are all Windows programs.

Maps And Globes

This category has a ton of offerings. MapQuest, Maps.Live.com, and Yahoo! Maps are all free offerings. They are also all Web-based, so they will operate on Macintosh as well as Windows systems. We have the most experience with Google Maps and Google Earth.

If there’s anything that makes a traveler drool, it’s a good map. If this describes you, get out the bib before you look at these programs. These are so much more than maps. Sure, you can get directions from Google Maps (maps.google.com), but you also can create your own custom map, complete with a line for your route and markers for your various stops (sample: Geeks on Tour 2008 Travels). When a viewer clicks on a marker, they can see your photos of the place, anything you have to say about it, and links to other Web sites. This program does not require a download.

Did you ever dream of having a magic globe? Want to point to a place on the globe and get answers to questions about that location? That’s Google Earth (earth.google.com). You can explore photos and information about any spot on the planet that will keep you occupied for hours. It’s not a map. It’s a globe-based information system that you download to your computer. Photos, Web sites, news feeds, encyclopedia entries, videos, and more are all referenced by latitude and longitude, available just by clicking or searching. After watching one of our Google Earth seminars, I remember hearing one woman exclaim, “My poor husband is going to starve!” She apparently felt there would be no more time for cooking once she got started on Google Earth.

Lots More

The programs mentioned above are just some of the more visible choices. We teach seminars on all of them, but there are many more. If you need a spreadsheet to keep track of expenses but don’t want to shell out the cash for Excel, you can use Google Docs online for free, or you can download the complete productivity suite of OpenOffice, also for free. Yes, you read right — a complete office suite that allows users to work on documents, spreadsheets, databases, presentations, and illustrations. OpenOffice can open and save Microsoft Office files. It is now available for Macintosh as well as Windows and Linux.

Need a free e-mail account? Choose from Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, and more. How about an online calendar? Google Calendar can be used by you individually, or you can share it with a team. Want a free Web site? Geocities, Google Pages, Yahoo!, and so many more are available. Just use Google to search for “free Web site hosts.”

A good way to get any of these programs is by visiting Download.com, a service of CNET. I have long trusted CNET as a kind of Consumer Reports for the computer world. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on Download.com, you probably don’t want it.

Oh, I can’t go on without mentioning the free investing tools available online. Yahoo! Finance and MSN’s Money Central are goldmines for stock charts, company research, and analysis. These are two I use, and I’m sure there are many, many more.

Why Is It Free?

It’s important for me to understand why something is free; otherwise, I don’t trust it. I think there are three reasons why software is available to the public at no cost.

First, companies use it as a “presale” or free sample in hopes that people will like it and buy a more full-featured version later. Second, they use it to sell advertising. The more page-views a Web site receives, the more a sponsor will pay for their ads to be placed on that page. Finally, it is used to build a community of loyal customers. The Web today is all about community. The larger your community, the more you can be supported by just a few chargeable items.

Some software has no good reason to be free and may end up costing you in the long run. Some software is nothing more than a scam to gain access to your computer. After you download it you will notice all sorts of pop-ups on your computer; it will become infected with a virus; or you may find that your computer has been turned into a zombie that does only the bidding of the company you downloaded the product from. Remember, get your downloads from Download.com or from another site that has been recommended by someone you trust. Be careful and stay informed, but don’t be paralyzed. Go ahead; use the good stuff. Haven’t you heard? The best things in life are free!Chris Guld is president and Web master for GeeksOnTour.com. She and her husband, Jim, live full-time in their motorhome and tour the country conducting seminars at RV parks, conventions, and rallies, including FMCA events. They recently presented a number of topics at FMCA’s 80th International Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. Tutorial videos are available on www.geeksontour.com.

Related posts:

1. Free Computer Anti-Virus Programs
2. Blogging Offline with Windows Live Writer
3. Antivirus Slowing Your Computer?

Photo Story 3 can render your movie small enough to send as an email attachment, but it’s awfully tiny. If you have your own website, you can upload the full-size video (a .wmv file ) and set up a link so people can download and view it. This will be the highest quality. Macintosh users won’t be able to view it properly though – see the comments to last weeks’ post. Uploading videos to Youtube.com is probably the most popular method of sharing videos. That is really quite easy. You need to set up a Youtube account – it’s free – then use their ‘upload’ tool to get your video online.

Here is a video I just made for this blog post. It is 7 photos with music and narration added by Photo Story 3. I used all three of the above techniques to share it with you. You can click on each of them to see the difference.

1. Email size video: 269k

2. Full-size .wmv file hosted on my website: 2.23 megabytes, be patient!

3. Full-size .wmv file uploaded to Youtube.com you will need the Flash viewer. Those are three choices, but there is a 4th – and it’s my favorite. Use Picasa! You’ve probably heard of Picasa for managing your digital photos. Picasa makes it one-click easy to upload your photos to a web album. If you want to learn how, watch the videos on my website. Web Albums are provided free of charge courtesy of Google, the owner of Picasa. What many people don’t know is that Picasa will upload videos to your web album as well as photos.

4. Full-size .wmv file uploaded to Picasa Web Album

Both Youtube and Picasa Web Albums convert the movie to a flash format and compress it. The quality suffers in the process, but I think the Picasa version is at least as good as the Youtube, and I like having the video in the same location as all my photos. Chris Guld www.GeeksOnTour.com

Related posts:

1. Movies from Digital Photos with Photo Story 3
2. Photo Story 3 Works on Windows 7!
3. A Picasa Plug-In for Live-Writer

Read more …

Related posts:

1. Movies from Digital Photos with Photo Story 3
2. You have a Digital Camera … Now What?
3. A Picasa Plug-In for Live-Writer