More of this to come later, but here is the beginning of a Shed project to build a useful A-Z for bloggers …
CUT & PASTE
All bloggers need to extract the text from newspaper articles online sometimes and here is The Shed’s recommended technique – cut and paste the url of the required article into the box at http://www.printfriendly.com/
then, after the first result comes up, tick the box to Remove Images;
then cut and paste into your own file.
GOOGLE MAPS
see
NAVIGATING
NAVIGATING
Computeractive reader Nigel Spence recently submitted the following Tip Of The Fortnight:
A friend tipped me off about a way you can send a location from your PC to your phone or tablet using Google Maps, so it is waiting to be used by your portable navigation software. Go to Google Maps, log in with Gmail account on your Android device. Type destination into the search field at top left and click the correct autosuggest option. You now see a new Send To Device link. Click it to see the device connected to your Gmail account, then click that.
Now, swipe down from the top of your screen and tap Navigate to receive step-by-step instructions using Google Maps. Alternatively, tap Directions to see the whole route.
PICTURE FILES
Picture editors would like you to keep the following guide. The bane of their lives is being sent 125k picture files which will do for an on-screen thumbnail but become a formless mess if blown up for printing.
Roughly speaking, if you want to print or publish your pictures, you need:
10 megapixels of data for 16.5 x 11.6 inches (A3)
7.2 mp of data for 10 x 8 inches (A4)
2.2 mp of data for 6 x 4 inches (standard photo print)
The Shed would like to offer a formula which relates the size in kilobytes or megabytes of the picture file to the detail in megapixels within it. It depends is all we can gather so far. Maybe later. Experience tells us that anything less than half a megabyte is probably no good and 1 or 2 or 3 megs is probably ok for standard publishing.
* When scanning, select a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch) – 600 to use at A4 size.
* Find a handy online picture editing tool at
Computeractive recommends one for download, called Nomacs, at
SECURITY
Bobbie Johnson, in Gadget Clinic in Gdn Weekend Mag 11.10.08, gave advice on wiping computers before giving them away. No doubt there is something more up to date to be found, but The Shed likes to have a cutting as a starting point. Here is the Gadget Clinic advice …
“The most effective way to wipe a disk is to copy over every single piece of information again and again with blank data, until all trace has gone. Macs have a built-in tool for this, Disk Utility (it’s in the applications/utilities folder), but to be sure that everything has gone, set it to pass over your drive the maximum 35 times.
“For a Windows PC, I’d recommend a free tool such as Darik’s Boot and Nuke (dban.org) or Secure Erase from the University of California.”
morelater …
