Tech Tips [Saving Voicemails To Your Computer Made Easy + Oooops: Security Update Breaks Office + DOS Explained ] 06-25-14

WorldStart Tech Tips 2014-06-25 Having trouble viewing parts or all of the newsletter? View the entire newsletter here! Kay from Michigan writes: How can I save voicemails on my Verizon cell phone to a computer file so I can delete them from voicemail? I have several from deceased friends and grandchildren that are just priceless to me. My suggestion would be to use Audacity – a free audio program that you can download to your computer. Open Audacity and under the edit menu go to Preferences then Recording and tick the box by Software Playthrough. Plug your Smartphone into your computer's microphone jack using a mini to mini cable like this: Hit the record button, then play your voicemail. When it's finished, hit the stop button. Then click the File menu and choose export to save it as a file type you can play back (MP3 is a good choice.) ~ Cynthia Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version They. Are. EVERYWHERE! Ever tried to enjoy a nice night outside? After all, the weather is finally warm enough! But there's one big problem... those mosquitoes. They're around every corner! You step outside, and before you can even close the door behind you... CHOMP! There's one. Then two. Then a dozen of them! So how do you deal with them? Hopefully not sprays and chemicals! In fact, I have to say, bug spray is one of the WORST solutions! In addition to all the obvious things that we all hate about it, it's potentially dangerous! Prolonged use can even lead to severe skin conditions, rashes, or burns! The National Institute of Health has an ENTIRE article dedicated to the potential hazards of bug spray! "Persons who use very high concentrations of DEET [the chemical used in most bug spray] on their skin over a long period of time may have more severe skin reactions that include blistering, burning, and permanent scars of the skin." What are you other options?! Bug zappers? The mosquitoes are all over you, they don't care about some silly light! And mosquito nets are terrible - you went outside to enjoy some SPACE, not to be confined in a net! Look, you can enjoy your outside WITHOUT mosquitoes, nasty chemicals, or useless zappers! It's not even 5" tall and keeps your area completely bug free! It has 3 frequencies that it emits that keep mosquitoes from coming anywhere NEAR you! Two of the frequencies keep female mosquitoes away by mimicing the sound of males. (If you didn't know, only female mosquitoes are after your blood... meaning no more bites!) But if that wasn't enough, it ALSO emits a sound that mimics the dragonfly: the mosquito's natural predator! So any of the little blood-suckers that weren't scared before? Oh yeah, they're hightailing it out of there now! See, these freqencies are loud and clear to mosquitoes... but to you? Practically nothing! Chances are you won't hear a thing! So you can avoid the sticky bug spray WITHOUT making any tradeoffs! In fact, it's completely safe for people, kids, even pets! Only mosquitoes are gonna be annoyed by this! That's a win-win if you ask me! Speaking of a win, check THIS out! THAT'S A GIGANTIC AREA OF COVERAGE! This is perfect for decks, patios, backyards, camping, even social events! Cover a HUGE area! So if you're on the go, pop some batteries in this bad boy and you can put it anywhere! At less than 5 inches tall, there's no place this won't fit! But if you're at home, feel free to plug this into any outlet and BAM! No batteries, no mosquitoes! YEAH BABY! Keep The Bugs At Bay For CHEAP! Only $14.97 and you don't have to worry about those nasty, itchy bites all over your limbs! That's a great deal to finally take back your yard and LITERALLY save your skin! Grab 'em below, but be quick! Last time we ran these, they COMPLETELY sold out! http://store.worldstart.com/product/9626 Warning: I wasn't kidding - these ALWAYS sell out! And if you wait until Thursday the last few will cost $21.97 anyway! Lamar from Los Angeles writes: Sometimes in your tips I see a reference to DOS. Please tell me what DOS is, it's uses and benefits. Thank you. DOS is an acronym for Disk Operating System. Most of the time, it also refers to MS-DOS or Microsoft Disk Operating System. This was originally developed as a standard operating system for all IBM-compatible computers which were created by Microsoft. This was the first operating system installed on almost all computers many years ago. It is pure text and command system which is not at all user-friendly to the average PC user. When you open the program, it would prompt you to enter a command: The first-ever Microsoft Windows OS released was an application that runs on top of MS-DOS. Now, all Windows operating systems still continue to support DOS for different special purposes by emulating the system itself. MS-DOS commands are simple to remember and use and it has proven to be a stable operating system. MS-DOS is the underlying OS for all modern versions of Window. DOS does not take much space on your hard drive and can help you resolve issues with a crashed drive or format and run old DOS apps that will never run with newer versions of DOS or Windows. More importantly, even if you have a relatively slow computer, you could still access it very fast. You can easily access MS-DOS on a Windows 7 PC by clicking Start, click All Programs, then choose Accessories and choose Command Prompt. For a Windows 8 or 8.1 system just type Command Prompt in the search charm. You'll see a window with a black background with "C:\>" or something similar to "C:\Documents and Settings\User Name>". This is what's called the command line and this shows what directory you're currently in. Here are some of the commands commonly used in MS-DOS or Command Prompt: CD – this changes the current directory COPY – used to copy files DEL – used to delete files DIR – provides list of all directory contents HELP – displays information about the MS-DOS commands MKDIR – used to create a new directory RD – used to remove a directory REN – used to rename a file ~ Heather Buford Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version Do you have a question for us? Ask it here! Instagram Part 2: Taking A Photo In part 1 of this series, I showed you how to sign up for the popular social photo sharing and editing app Instagram and gave you a quick tour of the basics. In part 2, we'll look at how you take a photo. There are two options for Instagram photos. You can use images already on your phone or take the picture within the app. I prefer to take the photos using the controls on my phone's camera. That's just because my phone has a very good camera that offers me a lot of options for picture modes and I like having that control. To take a photo, tap the camera icon in the middle of the menu. Your screen will now display whatever the camera is pointed at, whether it be a beautiful sunset or your shoes. (or the Happy Meal toy on my desk.) You have a few options for the camera within the Instagram app. Tap the grid symbol and you'll see a grid that helps you choose your shot. This is important for this app, especially when you first start using it. Photos in Instagram are cropped to a square. Your camera takes nice wide rectangular shots, so you'll only be able to use a portion of the shot. So it's important that you frame the show so that you can crop out a square to get what you want in the picture. You can also choose to switch to the front-facing camera on your device for a selfie or to turn the flash on or off. Want more? Head on over to WorldStart! Ken from Tacoma writes: I am not very impressed with my Email account with Comcast.net, how do I get back my old Windows mail account without changing my Email name ( Travelair )? Ken, unless you deleted your old Windows mail address, (I assume by Windows mail you had a Live Mail or Hot Mail Address) you should be able to go to www.outlook.com and just log in with your old username and password. All Microsoft e-mail accounts were switched over to Outlook.com. Your address would still be the same as it was. If you deleted the account, you can open a new Outlook.com account, but I can't guarantee you can get Travelair as your e-mail address. Just click WorldStart for more of this tip! Ooops - Office Security Update Breaks Office 2013 Microsoft's recent security update for Office, caused some big issues for quite a few users of Office 2013. According to the Microsoft engineering team, about 1% of users were unable to launch their Office products after this update was installed. This issue affected people using the Office 365 subscription and the stand alone Office 2013 .While the percentage is small, that's still a whole lot of people, considering that there are millions of users of Office 365 and Office 2013 – it's enough people to populate a small city. Users report seeing this error when they try to launch: We couldn't start your program. Please try starting it again. if it wont start, try repairing Office from "program and features" in the control panel. The problem seems to be isolated to click-to run users. Click-to-run allows users to access Office programs without fully downloading the whole program to their computer. Using click-to-run, you could have multiple versions of Office installed on the same computer. Click-to-run products also update automatically and you can continue to use Office while it updates in the background. Office runs in a self-contained virtual environment and doesn't change other products installed on the computer. t can be handy for things like testing out a new version of Office to see if it works with your system. Products possibly affected by this bug include: Go to WorldStart for the rest of this helpful tip! For stories, jokes, quotes and cartoons every day, sign up for our Just for Grins newsletter. 30 Breathtaking Satellite Photos When this gallery came across my Facebook dashboard, I had to check it out. Once I did, I couldn't wait to share it with you! They've curated 30 amazing satellite photos from around the world designed to change your perspective. It's amazing to see the amazing organization or color of each photo. Navigation is easy! Just read the blurb above the photographs to find out more about where they came from and then scroll down through the images. One of my favorite images is the one of the Vineyards in Huelva, Spain. I think the way they swirl across the countryside is reminiscent of fingerprints. Another really interesting photograph is the one from Brøndby Haveby, Brønby Municipality, Denmark. Each individual circle reminds of dandelions after they've gone to see. And the Terraced Rice Paddies in Yuanyang County, Yunnan, China image looks like a painting. After you've scrolled through all the images you can watch a video on the Overview Effect which you learned about in the introduction. These are an awesome collection of photographs go check them out today! http://www.boredpanda.com/daily-overview-satellite-aerial-photography-earth/ ~Amanda Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version Do you have a cool, non-commercial site that you want to share? Send it to Amanda at amanda@worldstart.com FACT: When you really want to get into serious, powerful image editing, you're only choice is usually Photoshop. Nothing else really comes close, so you fork out the big bucks for Photoshop. What if I told you I found a photo editor that was was so much like Photoshop you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference? What if I told you that it was less than $7? (For a very, VERY limited time) And what it it worked absolutely GREAT? Well, you guess it, I found it! It's Serif Photo X4 Plus and it's all that - and MORE! First off, if you didn't know better, you'd think it really was Photoshop. All the main tools are there, and 90% of the controls and tools work about the as they do in Photoshop! In fact, I can REPLACE Photoshop with this - it's that close! (It even opens Photoshop files!) Sorry if I seem overly excited, but I couldn't believe my eyes the first time I saw this - for a second I thought I'd hit the wrong button and opened Photoshop on accident! I've seen a LOT of great deals in my day, but this was a shocker even to me! Check it out, it's all there - layers, masks, brushes, red eye remover, filters, tools, and more! Crop, straighten distort, resize, selection (lots of selection tools), brush, pencil, clone, pattern, blemish remover, scratch remover, patch tool, red eye, smudge, blur, sharpen, burn, dodge, sponge, replace color, erasers, gradient, warp, pinch, twirl, test, pen, shapes, and MORE! Need to make an adjustment to your photo? Oh, you are TOTALLY covered! We're talking adjustment layers for levels, curves, color balance, hue / saturation, selective color, channel mixer, gradient map, lens filters, black and white, threshold, posterize, and negative image! Yeah, pretty much everything you'd ever need - and pretty much everything you'd find in Photoshop too! Things like PhotoFix that gives you instant result with a LOAD of amazing presets. You can spruce up the color, add contrast, make the photo more dramatic, saturate color, or even make some quick adjustment with the handy sliders! This ALONE is enough to process almost any image! Check it out, I turned the image below into an "old time photo": Or things like Image Cutout that allow you to quickly remove a person from one photo and stick them in another! In this one, I took my prom photo of my daughter and stuck her in front of a waterfall! Or a WHOLE SLEW of amazing filters - many of which can't be found in even the most current version of Photoshop! We're talking over 60 filers - PLUS the regular "Photo Filters" adjustment that has even MORE! With this, you have everything you need - and probably WAY MORE - in a program that seems like an ingenious hybrid of Photoshop! Plus, it has a really FANTASTIC help section that will show you, step by step, how to use each and every feature! Oh, and if you already know Photoshop, the learning curve is even shorter! WOW! I'd love to list everything you can do with this, but the truth is that, like Photoshop, it's really only limited by your imagination! Pretty incredible. Let's face it - we all take digital photos, and sometimes they need a little editing. After all, that's one of the major perks of shooting digital! This makes it easy to fix the color, or contrast, or maybe clone out a bit of garbage. Maybe we want to stick someone into a photo or take them out. No matter how large or small the editing task, this high-powered software can handle it - for a FRACTION of what you'd pay for Photoshop! Not only do you get the photo editing software, but you also get an amazing FREE BONUS! It's PanoramaPlus - a $29.99 value - and it's included FREE! This amazing software makes it EASY to create AMAZING panoramas from your photos! (It can even do them from VIDEO!) Included FREE! Now, we all know how expensive Photoshop can be - and now they want you to actually PAY a monthly for a subscription to use the current version! That's NUTS! Look, I know this deal seems WAY to good to be true - I was blown away the first time I looked at the software too. But don't worry - it's the real thing! Again, the price is just crazy good - we're talking just $6.97! That's the lowest price EVER - but ONLY for a VERY limited time! How's that for a deal? Check it out: http://store.worldstart.com/product/7808 PS - You'll never find THIS much editing horsepower for this cheap ever again! This is THE best Photoshop alternative I've ever come across and I hope you don't miss out. Adobe gets about 90X the price for basically the SAME THING! June Wallpaper Is Ready! Wow, May just FLEW by! Time for some new desktop wallpaper for your computer! Check out the featured images below and stop by the site - hundreds to choose from! All can be found here and are 100% free: http://www.backcountrygallery.com/wallpaper/ Oh, and if you enjoy these images, please tell your friends! NOTE - The raccoon below is consistently one of the top 3 images on the site. It's normally square, but I did a horizontal crop that looks pretty good for the wallpaper. You lose the top of the hole, but he's still freakishly cute. Raccoon Hideout So, there I was, minding my own business searching for birds in Ritch Grissom Wetlands in Viera Fl, when I spotted a bit of fur inside a hole in an old palm tree. As I slowed down, my intense gaze was met by an equally intense gaze from a raccoon that had decided to…(More) Mid Air Dance This egret was coming in for a landing when he ran into a bit of a problem… The spot where he was planning to land already had an occupant. Of course, he couldn't see that during the first part of his approach, but he figured it out in a hurry when he got... (More) Early Morning At Bond Falls We had scouted this area out the day before and the image you see before you was the one idea that kept sanding out in my mind. From the bridge, I knew if I could talk myself into wading out into the chilly river I'd likely have a really sweet view of the... (More) For these and other great selections of desktop wallpaper, head to: http://www.backcountrygallery.com/wallpaper/ As always, the wallpaper is 100% free, so enjoy! PS - I also want to thank all the people who helped support the wallpaper with a voluntary contribution over the last two months. Your support helps to keep the wallpaper comin' every month! THANK YOU! ~Steve

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