Transfering Cell Phone Pictures to your Computer

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You just got a brand new cell phone and it takes pictures. All week long you take some really great photos but there is a problem. How do you get these pictures to your computer?

Well there is a great article on the microsoft website which explains quite well how to transfer photos from your phone to your computer. Please read "Camera Phone Options" for more information.

Call Loved Ones within North America For Free: SKYPE

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Skype is a program that lets people talk (voice conversation) to other people over the internet. This is what's known as Voice Over Internet Protocol or VOIP. You can talk with people all over the world for free if you are calling from your computer to another computer. But, you can also call from your computer to a phone for a given charge.

Skype currently has a promotion where you can call from your computer to a phone anywhere in North America for free until Dec 30 2006. What is nice is you don't have to supply any credit card. You dial the number and it connects you.

Here is where you can download Skype.

Accessibility on Windows, MAC and LINUX

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Even though you have difficulty with vision, hearing or mobility the computer and internet are still open to you. Accessibility is an important issue that many of the operating systems are taking seriously like Windows, Mac OSx and even Linux. Here are some starting points where you can make your computer easier to use.


Windows XP:
Windows XP has 2 places where you can configure your computer for accessibility.

• Start/All Programs/Accessories/Accessibility: Here you will find an accessibility wizard along with some interesting tools you can use like the magnifier and narrator.

• Start/Control Panel/Accessibility Options: You can configure your computer for such things as flashing the screen for alerts, displaying captions or using your keyboard as a mouse

Keyboard Shortcut

• Window Key + u Magnifier and narrator
  

Mac OS x10:

• System Preferences/Universal Access: In here you can configure your Mac computer to zoom to flash the screen for alerts, to use your keyboard (numeric pad) as a mouse and many other things.

Zooming Keyboard Shortcut

• Apple + option + = Zooms In
• Apple + option + - Zooms Out
• Apple + option + 8 Turns Zoom On
  

Linux: This is a great link that describes many free open source project for accessibility that are written for Linux, UNIX and Windows. Linux/Unix Accessibility Software

Hard Drives Fail: Backup

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Let's face it, we are all in denial. Losing data on the computer happens to other people. We never think that it can happen to us. Well unfortunately hard drives which stores your pictures, email, music and all other files on your computer can fail and when it does all your precious data are gone unless you saved it on another device.

So what do you do? Backup :)

Generally, you need to decide where you want to have a second copy of your files. You have several options. You can use CDs. You can also use an external hard drive. This usually connects to your computer via USB cable and shows up as another drive on Windows when you click on "My Computer" and a mounted drive on the MAC in "Finder".

Here are some great free backup programs you can use.


For Windows XP

• SyncToy

For the MAC

• SilverKeeper - This is from LaCie a company that makes external hard drives. The program is easy to use.
  

• PSyncX is great however you will need to supply the root users password when you run the program. The root user is a special user who has privileges to do pretty much anything on the computer. The problem is most mac users don't know what the root password is :). Please read this article "How To Set the Root Password Under Mac OSx" if you would like to know how to login as root
  

Accessibility: Joystick as a Mouse

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The mouse is not the most accessible device for users. Double clicking or single clicking can cause strain on your fingers. It is also hard to move the mouse if your hand has problem with finer motor control.

One inexpensive alternative is to use a joystick. Using software, you can set the buttons on the joystick to match the button actions of the mouse.

You can try, http://download.cnet.com/Joystick-To-Mouse/3000-18541_4-10170790.html. I haven't use this software. The one I used, phatsoft, is not available now.

One trick is that after you connect the joystick to the computer you may need to add it in
Start/Control Panel/Game Controllers and then calibrate it.