Resources & Tech « Paloma Cruz

Old Spock vs new Spock

I am a SciFi nerd. I love Science Fiction in all of its forms. So, this Audi commercial featuring Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto, old Spock and new Spock. It thrills my little scifi heart.

Technology Linkpost

A round-up of news and resources to share:

• “Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime” from the NY Times. The article covers the side effects of being so connected all of the time. From the loss of downtime to actually making our brains tired… it’s an interesting article.
• “The 12 Best Ways To Customize Your Facebook Pages” from TechCrunch. This post gives a good list of some services to help you make your Facebook page better.

Steps to Take BEFORE Getting Rid of a Computer

BNET featured some great tips recently, advising “Do These 4 Critical Steps Before Disposing of an Old Computer.”

Here’s the rundown:

Back up your data. Even if you choose not to make a complete backup of the entire drive, though, you’ll want to be sure to keep a copy of your personal files (on Windows Vista and Windows 7, that’s everything in the User folder).

Serial numbers and registration keys. To reinstall your programs on the new computer, you’ll need all your various software keys. Hopefully you saved that information with the original discs, but it’s also possible to use a utility to recover that from your old hard drive.

Securely wipe your old drive. Before you recycle, give away, or donate your old PC, make sure your personal and business data is completely erased. There are ways to do this, but personally, I always remove the hard drive and give the PC away without it. I later physically destroy the drive.

Keep anything that’s useful. Pull out the monitor, memory… anything you think you might be able to use on a different PC.

My source: BNET’S “Do These 4 Critical Steps Before Disposing of an Old Computer”
Their source: MakeUseOf

Must-Have WordPress Plugins

Want to add some functionality to your WordPress blog? or just want to spruce it up? Matthew Wettergreen presented a workshop on the “must have” plugins at the recent Houston WordCamp. Here’s his list of WordPress plugins:

Below is a list of three types of plugins and specific examples we’ll be covering. This is by no means an exhaustive or complete list and any suggestions are welcome and encouraged:

• Type I: Plugins that increase your control over a WordPress powered site (Type I.rar)
  • Askimet
  • WP Super Cache
  • Google XML Sitemaps
  • Headspace 2
  • WP-DBManager
• Type II: Plugins that increase the interactivity of a WordPress powered site (Type II.rar)
  • cFormsII
  • WordPress Related Posts
  • ShareThis
  • WP-Cumulus
  • Lightbox
  • PodPress
  • UPDATE: PicApp
• Type III: Plugins that create multiple directions of communication on a WordPress powered site (Type III.rar)
  • Sociable
  • Intense Debate
  • Disqus
• Industry Specific Plugins
  • Music (Music.rar): PodPress, SoundCloud, GigPress, Audio Player, Last.fm
  • Video (Video.rar): TubePress, Vipers Video, YouTuber, Apture, iBox
  • Photo (Photo.rar): ZenphotoPress, PloggerPress, FlickrPress, Lightbox Gallery, iBox

Definitely a place to start. I know I will be looking into a few of these as a place to start.

is it real or an internet hoax?

It seems like every day I get some email about a child who is collecting names to break a record, a supposed scam that’s going on, or a new virus that’s going to shut down my computer. But how do you know if that Nigerian prince is real or not? Check online!

Tech Republic has a blog post listing the “Top 10 sites to debunk Internet hoaxes.” #1 is, of course, Snopes.com, but there are a few in there I’d never heard of.

This is a good list to bookmark.

The Ten Myths of Creating Web Content

From PrNewser.com: “College Humor founder Ricky Van Veen — a man who knows a thing or two about web content — presented his ‘Ten Myths of Web Content’ today at the Mashable Media Summit in New York” earlier this year. Here’s the shortlist.