Here is another question I received and I think more people can learn from the answer:

Question

Which software is the easiest and free for me to build my own website.

Answer

Hi
I think in today’s world it is better to use an online editor like WordPress or Joomla
I battle too much with Joomla so I prefer WordPress. Most people think WordPress is for blogs but it is not, you can do a normal site with it as well.

You can download it for free at wordpress.org but you will need a server to upload it to.

That is the method I show my students at www.createyourownwebsite.co.za

If I were to start from scratch now I would not spend my time learning the ins and outs of web design I would rather take something like wordpress or joomla and spend my time on getting quality content for my site.

I currently use Dreamweaver for my web sites which costs about R7,000 for the software and months of frustration to get to know it. Once you know it I guess it is the best option but in the year it takes you to learn the ropes you could have earned thousands from your web site already.

Best regards
Pieter

Question:
We have been using this email address that we got through Polka. We want to cancel this Polka (now Mweb) as they are charging us the R 150.00 for the adsl and this email address. The other company  said theirs include 5 free email addresses. Will I be able to keep my current email address?

Answer:

NO, you won’t be able to keep yur current address because it is a polka addres. It is yourbus@polka.co.za .

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If you have to schedule a meeting or call somebody in another country and you are no sure what time will be best for both parties, then you can use this nifty feature by time and date.

Just go to http://timeanddate.com/

You will see a block similar to the one below. Select the towns in which the different parties are located in. You can enter up to 4 different locations. Then hit the “Show Timetable” button.

Select the different locations

The results will look like the picture below.

The green fields indicate the first half of day when most people are at work (Monday-Friday)

The Yellow fields indicate the second half of day when most people are awake but not necessarily at work

The Red fields indicate the night time or normal sleeping hours

So best time to call is where all fields are green or a mixture between green and yellow.

Results show when is best time to call

There are many institutions which offer software courses and tutorials.

But sometimes you might find that you live too far from the main cities where these courses are presented.

This happened to me when I bought the new DreamWaver CS4 and wanted to get to know it better.

The solutions was to do an online course with online tutorials. Adobe suggested that I use Lynda and I can see why they refer their clients to Lynda. The content of the courses are excellent. It opens a whole new world.

They offer various courses ranging from Phot Shop, Dreamweaver to simple things like Microsoft word, Excel etc. They have something for everybody.

I think the price is also fair. If you look what you would pay for a course then the little monthly fee the charge is nothing.

Check them out at www.lynda.com

The other day I lost some of my files.

This is what happened:

I downloaded a whole lot of pictures from my camera this morning (moved not copied)

On the computer I then previewed them and changed some of them in gimp.

I then created two folders to sort them and sorted them accordingly.

Then I wanted to copy it to the laptop in order to write on CD

For some reason the laptop did not see the new folder (over network) and I then moved the folders to one of the folders on the PC which the laptop could see.

This is where the brown stuff hit the fan.

When I moved it a message popped up saying it could not move one of the folders because it was used by another program (although gimp was already closed)

I then just said OK and thought I will just copy it instead of moving it.

BUT when I went back to my original two folders the one still had all the pictures but the other folder was empty (and still is). So somewhere between moving them and receiving the error message they were lost.

I tried searching for the file names on the whole computer but did not get anything.

Is there anywhere else one can look? I have not rebooted the PC yet so if it does store it in a temp folder or something it must still be here somewhere

The solution:

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A while ago I complained about FireFox which became extremely slow and resource hungry. I then switched to Google Chrome as my default browser. Although Chrome is much faster in standard form it is a bit frustrating working on it since it lacks some basic functionality.

Today I found a cure for the slow and resource hungry FireFox. I implemented the changes and I am glad to report that FireFox is working like the speed of light again and I am using it as my default browser again.

This is what I have done:

Open FireFox and in the address bar type the words about:config and then hit enter.

about:config

Your browser will now display a list of setting which you can change (if you know how to). Note the “filter” box at the top.

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AVG just launched their new improved version 9 of their anti virus software.

If you are using the Internet you must have an antivirus and anti spyware software installed on your computer.

AVG combines the two and with one program you enjoy virus, spyware and spam protection.

Here are some of the advantages of the new version:

• Surf, and search with confidence, while LinkScanner® keeps you safe from harmful sites
• Get online and offline protection from viruses, spyware, and other nasties
• Enjoy consistently high-speed PC performance with our new enhanced virus scanner
• Automatic updates keep your protection current
• Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7

I am not sure for how long I have been using AVG Free, it must be something like 6 years now. But one thing is for sure that during the past 6 years I enjoyed secure trouble free browsing.

I suggest you download and install the latest version today. Remember that it is important to let it update itself each day.

Get your copy at http://www.avg.com/ww-en/product-avg-anti-virus-free-edition

Some fax to email clients who uses gmail accounts complained that they do not receive their fax to email faxes.

One of the biggest reasons why people do not receive their fax to email faxes is because the spam filters grab them.

It seems as if gmail’s spam filter decided that fax to email emails are spam for some odd reason.

Here is a short tutorial which shows how you can check if your faxes landed up in the spam folder, how to get it out of there and how to prevent google’s gmail system to put your faxes under the spam folder in future.

Login to your email address on the following website www.gmail.com

Once logged in on the left hand side go to more option and click on it as shown below with arrow.

Click the "more" link

When you clicked on it will give you more options click on Spam, it will now load all email listed as spam, select all the faxes with a tick mark next to it and right on top select not spam, the faxes will now go to your email inbox.

Please see below for more options!!!!!
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This morning I had a slight problem on one of my web sites. I was not aware of the problem since it only affected Internet Explorer users.

While looking for a solution to fix the problem I had to open my web site in Internet Explorer. Something I have not done in the past year. While waiting patiently for the page to load I wondered “Why the heck are clever people still using Internet Explorer?”

I mean it takes ages to load a page and then it has all kinds of “security”  measures and stubbornness built into it which will prevent its loyal users to open all the web pages they want to see.

I think it might be because most Internet users do not even know that they can use another browser. (a browser is the program you use to open the Internet pages, ie the program you are using to read this post at the moment). When you buy a new PC with Windows installed on it, Internet Explorer will be the browser that has been installed and most people will just keep on using it for the rest of their life.
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I found this nifty online Logo Builder this morning.

I know many people would love to have a professional logo for their business or web site but they do not have the software or know how to create their own logo.

You will love this.

This web site helps you to create your own professional logo, step by step, online . It is extremely easy and I am sure even a 10 year old would be able to create a professional logo

Just go to LogoYes.com (click here) . You will see some examples of logos that have been designed by people using their system. Look at the top right is a link which says “try it for free”. Click that link and start creating your own logo,

One of the main income streams from your web sites or blogs will be advertising revenue.

You can sell the ad space on your web site or blog. There are various ways advertisers prefer to pay for your ads space. The easiest way is to charge a fixed monthly rate but most advertisers do not like this way of paying unless they know your web site receives a lot of traffic. I think the biggest problem with “per period” advertising is that there is no way the advertisers knows what traffic your web site gets, they have to rely on the information you send them.

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