Friday February 17, 2012
Did you know that Facebook has changed their privacy settings so all your information is publicly viewable?
Did you realize that you can charge your cell phone using only an onion?
Do you understand that if you don't forward that chain letter that your mother sent you, that you're probably going to get boils, dandruff, or lose your keys?
Hopefully, you've recognized that these are all Web hoaxes, circulated among a large group of people via email, social networking, blogs, and message boards. The most interesting characteristic of a hoax is that it offers a grain of believable truth to it, one that preys on your fears or makes you think "hmmm, I could see that happening!" These Web hoaxes are usually easily discredited with a simple Web search, but people (unfortunately) keep circulating them, adding fuel to the already raging hoax fire. If you've got a Web hoax that you'd like to check out - whether or not you think it's a hoax - you can do that pretty easily with this article titled Five Ways to Check Out a Hoax on the Web.
image Getty Images/Dimitri Vervitsiotis
Thursday February 16, 2012
Tumblr is a very popular blogging platform that enables users to effortlessly share their lives with each other. It's especially popular for people who want something they can customize with little to no programming experience, and it's great for sharing all sorts of multimedia, fast. There are some pretty amazing people on Tumblr, and you can find some incredibly interesting content there.
But how do you find the people who are sharing the stuff you're interested in? There are a couple of ways to go about this. In order to get the most out of these tips, you'll need to be signed into Tumblr (registration and accounts are free); that way, you can get the "inside look" at how the search functions operate.
Use your Tumblr Dashboard. Within your dashboard are two immediate ways to browse other Tumblr blogs: "Explore Tumblr", which gives you a rotating list of people you might be interested in, and "Search Tags"; which brings back posts tagged with whatever you're looking for.
Search by email. You can use the Lookup Your Contacts page to find people you might know on Tumblr that have email addresses at Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, or MSN.
Use the Spotlight. The Spotlight features interesting people from a very long list of categories, ranging from Architecture to Writers.
Use a Google site search. You can search all of Tumblr simply by using this search string:site:tumblr.com "my search".
Use the Following search bar. Check out the Following dashboard, and you can search by URL, username, or email address.
More interesting ways to find people
Wednesday February 15, 2012
When does a disposable email address come in handy? Mostly, they're good for when you need to give an email address to a website and you'd like to avoid further emails (aka, spam). Basically, they are useful for protecting your privacy on the Web (for more on protecting yourself online, read How to Guard Your Web Privacy). Here are four sites that offer free, disposable email addresses:
Guerilla Mail: Get a temporary random email address generated by GuerillaMail, or set up your own personalized email address (i.e, john@guerrillamailblock.com). The service expires after sixty minutes; you can read and reply to emails sent to this address at the GuerillaMail website. MyTrashMail: Create an account (no sign up required), forward emails to your private account, and protect yourself from spam emails. Mailinator: No registration, no sign-ups, just send your mail to a temporary account. 10 Minute Mail: For quick email needs, like a confirmation email so you can subscribe to something, this is perfect - only ten minutes worth of email time, but just right for those kind of situations.
More about email
image courtesy sxc.hu
Tuesday February 14, 2012
One of the things I like to do when I'm actually supposed to be doing something else (like chores, or paying bills, or...you get the picture) is check out the fantastic photos at Flickr, the most popular digital photo community on the Web today. There are quite a few ways you can look at Flickr images, but here are my five favorites:
Seven Day Slideshow: This shows you the most interesting photos for the last seven days in a nice slide show; you don't have to do any clicking, just watch. Browse the Tags page: This page has all the most popular tags that Flickr photographers are tagging their photos with. It's an easy way to see what's bubbling up to the top of Flickr. Galleries: Galleries are a group of photos (usually around 15-18) focused on a specific theme. Flickr Clock: Videos taken at specific times, so, if you want to see a video of the sunrise, click around 5:30 AM or so. Flickr Map: Pinpoints images submitted by Flickr users from all over the world on an interactive map.
There are even more ways to explore Flickr, for instance, the Last 7 Days Interesting photos, Most Recent Uploads, or the Explore Page. What's your favorite?
More images on the Web
