What’s a blog?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI

About 5 or 6 years ago, the Blog Explosion hit the web.  Everybody and their sister had a blog.  There were plenty of sites that would host your blog for you for free, and people just went crazy…for a while.

But there was a small problem, all of a sudden there were too many blogs to read, and people got tired, frustrated, and confused.  There were a lot of interesting blogs to read, but the reader had to go and find that blog site everytime they wanted to read it.  A vacation here, a case of the flu there…and all of a sudden you weren’t reading their blog any more.  But then you remembered that blog 6 months later so you go out to read it and it hasn’t been updated for 4 months because everyone stopped reading it and the blogger just gave up…because no one was reading.

It happened to me, plenty of times.  We all have good intentions, but life just get’s in the way.

So along comes Web 2.0.  The whole concept behind Web 2.0 and New Media is for you the reader/consumer to consume the writers content ON YOUR TERMS!

How?  RSS (Sound Familiar)  But this is kinda cool, you can actually have all of the blog posts of just about ANY BLOG on the web come to ONE PLACE - FOR YOU!

RSS

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

And Here is the video on how to use the Reader that I use - Google Reader!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPZ2Uu_X3Y

This definitely changes things.  Now you can read cool blogs on Quilting, your favorite NASCAR driver/team, your Faith, anything.  You just have to find the blog that you want to read, and click the little RSS button, and you’re set!

The New Thing is called Micro-Blogging.  And the biggest site for it right now is Twitter!

Another video to explain something pretty difficult in plain english (Thank You so much Lee!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Twitter is pretty cool! You can setup a free account at http://www.twitter.com .  You only get updates from people that you FOLLOW! I am on it EVERYDAY, so if you want - you can Follow Me by Clicking Here!

There is a lot more Web 2.0 around the corner!  New technologies are coming on the scene EVERY WEEK!Â

If this is new to you, there is a LOT of INFORMATION to take in!  Here is what you should do:

• If you don’t have an RSS Reader, go here to Google’s site (here is the link) and setup your Google reader.
• Then find the SUBSCRIBES menu on my blog, and look for the Add to Google button.  Click on it, and have it added to your Google reader!
• If you have an iGoogle portal (also Free), you can add the PowersZone blog to it as well!
• Then go out and find some other blogs, and start subscribing to them as well.

HEY (Late addition)  If you just want the blog posts sent to your email address, just fill in the Subscribe by Email form on the right!

If you have any questions, or just want to say “Hey”, leave a COMMENT below!  It would be much appreciated!

Take Luck!

Mike

I don’t know about you, but I typically don’t have time to hit every website and blog that I want to see.  Now up until about 5 years ago, I would have to go to each website/blog that I wanted to read/review.  I would start out wanting to read 20-30 different blogs, but would typically pair it down to 2-3 because I didn’t have the time.  I would also play “catch-up” games and usually missed out on something cool when I did.

Well an interesting thing happened in the past couple of years.  Web 2.0!

Web 2.0 is basically a universal catch-phrase that covers a lot of different technologies and web culture changes - but it basically means that the web has grown up a bit.  The basic idea (according to some gurus out there) is that Web 2.0 allows YOU to consume whatever web content you like - Blog Content, Videos, Social Networks, etc., and you consume it on YOUR TERMS!

What does that mean?  Well, if I want to watch YouTube videos, I can now watch it on my smartphone, my pc, my iPod, or even on my PSP (Playstation Portable), Xbox360 or on my Wii!  It’s my choice!  Not like the old days when I would have to go to a website to read it.

Even though I still typically do go to websites to browse and review, once I find content that I really like - I SUBSCRIBE to it! That is what gives me options.

Our friends Lee LeFever and his wife Sashi run the CommonCraft Show and you can find their great videos on YouTube and on their site!  Watch their video below!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPZ2Uu_X3Y

If you want to subscribe to the Powers Zone blog, you simply have to click on one of the little icons (There is one for Google Reader) on the right in the Subscribe Box.  Then follow the simple directions!  I put most of mine right on my iGoogle, MSN, & My Yahoo site.

Now technically these are called RSS Feeds, and that’s what it does - it “feeds” the content to you wherever you want to read it.  There are also sites that do a good job of managing your feeds for you (a bunch of them are in the subscribe area on the right!).  iTunes and Zune are both very popular and are used for Video and Music feeds.

The first step is Awareness.  There is a whole lot more to Web 2.0, but this will keep you busy for a little while!

Take Luck - Mike

Now if you have been reading any of my posts, I preach about two things:

• Protecting your pc from viruses, trojans, hackers, etc.
• Backing up your pc data

Now there is THIRD issue that I need to really pound on and that is keeping your pc CLEAN!  I’ve already shown you how to clean out your TEMP files in XP and in Vista which helps out your performance a bit (Click this link to read it), but that is only the one step in keeping your pc clean!

Another step would be to clean out your internet cache, but since we all use different browsers to surf the internet (I actually use a few, IE, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera) it makes it difficult to go into 4 different places just to clean out cache.

There are other garbage files that your pc keeps “hidden”, especially if you use Microsoft Office apps like Word or Excel.  Many other programs do the same thing, and even I don’t know where they all are!

Well there is a great tool available that will clean all of these files up off of your pc.  CCleaner.  (short for Crap Cleaner!).  This is one of the most valuable apps that I run.  I have it on every pc that I own, I often put it on my “Emergency” Flash Drive an use it on clients pc’s as well.

It will go out and find ALL of the garbage files on your pc and remove them.  It will also clean out entries in your registry (you registry is basically the list of instructions and permissions that your computer needs to run).

After running CCleaner and a few anti-spyware apps on a pc that is running very slow, I can see a DRAMATIC difference is speed and response.

I love this app, and HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you use it to clean your pc.  I would suggest running it at least once a month.

Watch the video below as I show you how to find the app, download it, install it, and run it.  (Be kind, this is one of my first vids)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay67_rpljy8

I have a few other videos on YouTube.  Click the Subscribe button to show your support!

I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of email everyday.  I have a lot of different email accounts because I need one that is personal, I have a couple for work, I have admin accounts that track stuff for me, etc.

One of the biggest problems that I run into is trying to get my mail when I am not home or at the office.  Yeah, I got one of those cool phones that I can read email with…but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

It’s hard to find old emails because the search function is poor, and another HUGE Problem is dealing with the fact that I have to BACKUP all my emails in Outlook.  If my computer dies, I spend more time recovering emails than any other aspect of the recovery!

So, I have started to bypass all of these issues by using a GMAIL EMAIL ACCOUNT by Google!  It is completely web-based.  I can do everything that I can do in Outlook, and it’s VERY EASY to USE!

And I can still read my GMAIL in Outlook if I want.

There is some great functionality in Gmail that you just don’t get in traditional email applications.

Oh, by the way…It’s FREE!

Now you need to get an INVITE to use Gmail, so click here to Email Me and let me know you want a GMAIL account and I will send you an invite.  (I only get 100 invites, so first come-first served)

Mike