Make that Disk Sooner Rather than Later

It used to be when you bought a PC, a system repair disk was also included.  This was useful in the event you needed to rebuild your system.

During this holiday season, many will be getting a new PC as a gift. What you will not receive is a system repair disk. This can be used to boot your computer in the event you are unable to from your hard drive, need to recover windows from a system error.  You will need to make a system repair disk.  This should be done as soon as possible after purchasing your new computer.  It could end up being invaluable in the event of a system failure.

To create a system repair disk, click the "Start' button.  In the address bar type "Backup" .  Under "Programs"  select "Backup and Restore".  In the left pane is an option "Create a System Repair Disk".  Select this.  Insert a CD to create a system repair disk.  When you are done creating your system repair disk make sure to put it in a safe place but not so safe a place you forget where.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Why I Am Not Following You On Twitter

Twitter is a very prominent social networking and microblogging service. Those using Twitter have people they follow and people who follow them.

There are those people who I will follow when I see that they are following me. There are those I will tend not to follow. The reasons I do not follow someone are entirely not personal.  The person could be a very good person. These reasons are not absolute as I have made exceptions. Some reasons for not following someone are:

1. They have less then 10 tweets. I like to get a feel for what the person is like before following. With few or none tweets of their own, I am unable to grasp what they are about. Do their tweets align with their profile? 
2. Someone not having a profile or the profile does not tell me about them. Who are you? What are you about? I would like to know about you if I am to follow you.
3. A person seems to be tweeting on an almost ongoing basis. There are those who it seems are constantly on Twitter tweeting what appears 200 times daily or so. Twitter is about conversation and in a conversation there is an exchange of ideas.
4. Tweets consistently showing the same link. The person is spamming on Twitter. 
5. Their interests do not match what I am interested in. Let's say a person constantly tweets about Newton's 3 Laws of Motion. This is a subject that would make me not inclined to follow. That said, I did once make an exception for a follower who I had no intent of following. They did however list me and mentioned me on a Tweet.  I must admit they charmed me into following them and I am glad to follow as whoever tweets for this Twitter handle is a really nice person.
6. Their tweets are all about them and trying to plug their product and/or themselves. Similar to #4.  
7. "Tips on making money" is in their bio. Again it is about them. We all want to make money but at least be subtle about it. 
8. Someone who follows many people and hardly anyone follows them. A lot of times this ties in to having few or no tweets.  
9. They do not have a link to their website or blog in their profile or just as bad the website link in their profile does not work.  
10. They seem to argue rather than discuss. Twitter is about an exchange of ideas and not I am right and you are wrong. Further 2 people can have different approaches to an issue and both be right.  

While there are other reasons, these are the main ones.  For those not having many tweets and/or no profile, I want to know more about you before I follow.  

AOL

When many people first got a personal email account it was an America Online (AOL) one.  Their browser was user friendly and the easy to navigate AOL features that were user friendly.  We remember the old AOL CDs that were mailed out and in stores all over. There was the monthly subscription fee which enabled access to a dial up connection and all the other AOL features.

Today having an AOL email address is free. That is one of the changes that AOL has made over the years.  Another change is they are no longer known as America Online but rather the initials AOL.

Like Gmail discussed in a previous blog, attachments are limited to 25mb.  AOL however does have unlimited storage.  There also is a filter for incoming emails that allows you to handle them in the manner you choose depending on the criteria that is set.  You still have the option of playing a sound when new mail arrives.  Some of us may remember "You've Got Mail" when there was a new message in your inbox. Well when you sign into your AOL account using the AOL browser, you still get that message when you have new email.

One of the better features of AOL mail is when replying to someone else's email you have the ability to highlight any text from the stream that you want to remain in your email that you are preparing, then click the "Reply" button. It will then automatically list the highlighted text, with a header on it in your email.  You also have the ability to block email from specific addresses you specify. This filter can also be set to allow email from specific addresses as well.

I am not too comfortable with the interface of the Contacts List.  For starters there is nowhere to input a website address.  The contacts do not open quickly as well.  The contacts can be found easily in AOL mail on the left hand side. When using the AOL browser it is not as easy.  If you are not familiar using the AOL browser you may forget that it is in the "Mail" menu under "Address Book".

There is also no automatic save feature like there is when using Gmail. You need to click on "Save Draft" otherwise you could lose the email you are preparing should your computer freeze or another issue arises.  

There are those who may like AOL with their own browser.  It is not for everyone but those who have been using it for many years may feel comfortable with its familiarity.