Tech Tips [Is Your ISP Slowing Your Internet Service? + How Many Songs Fit On A Flash Drive + Make Windows 8 More Like Windows 7 With Some Easy Tricks] 08-12-14

WorldStart Tech Tips 2014-08-12 Having trouble viewing parts or all of the newsletter? View the entire newsletter here! Roger writes: The sound system in my new car will allow you to just plug in a USB drive and play songs. I have quite a few songs that I've taken from CDs on my computer. How large of a flash drive should I buy? Roger, a flash drive will hold quite a few MP3s. Assuming your songs are MP3s and about 3 minutes long each, you can expect they will hold: 2GB Drive: 500 songs 4GB Drive: 1000 songs 8GB Drive 2000 songs 16GB Drive 4000 songs 32GB Drive 8000 songs As you can see, you can fit a whole lot of tunes on there. Enjoy listening to your favorite songs! ~ Cynthia Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version This flash drive is proof that begging and pleading works! We wanted to feature a HUGE 8GB flash drive in the newsletter today, but MAN - almost EVERYONE'S price on these is just CRAZY! So, we talked to every supplier we knew and told then what we were trying to do - and we almost gave up! But then... One of them came to the rescue with an absolutely insane deal! So, for today ONLY, we're giving you a chance to grab a whoppin' 8GB flash drive for just $4.97 WOW! Do you know how much "stuff" you can put in this baby? We're talkin' thousands of files here - it has the capacity of 11 CDs! On ONE little drive! This 8 GB flash drive is the Grand Canyon of the storage world! You can store up to... 4800 Photos 2000 MP3 Songs 24 Hours Of MPEG4 Video 400,000 Typical Size Documents Massive storage in the palm of your hand! Plus, these are some tough & durable flash drives (with a protective connector cap) so you KNOW it's gonna be good - talk about built to last! Then to top it all off, it's the best price we've ever been able to offer on an 8GB flashdrive! $4.97 - that's insanely LOW! In fact, I was at a local Target store last night and guess what - they had a 4Gb flash drive - HALF THE SPACE - for four bucks MORE than what we want for our 8GB drive! OfficeMax was even WORSE at $27.99 for a puny 4GB drive!! That's like paying for a large pizza and getting a small!! I was also at Best Buy so I checked there too - and almost fell over from sticker shock! How do these people sleep at night? We're talking BIG BUCKS for a "geek squad" 8GB flash drive - and here we are nearly giving this away for just $4.97 ! Pass on this one and they'll have to admit you to the asylum for the financially insane! Grab yours today: http://store.worldstart.com/product/9887 PS - Because these are BRAND NEW flash drives at this unbelievable price... I HAVE to limit these to two per customer. Otherwise, we'd be sold out before noon! Are You Getting The Internet Service You Pay For? ISPs around the world are notorious for shaping traffic and limiting traffic in a way that is oblivious to their users. Most of the time, Internet users believe that the fault is with their connections or their network setups but they are unaware of ways to test their Internet connection for this problem. Do you experience slow speed after a few days if you download a lot of content? Is your browsing speed considerably fast but you experience slow download speeds over torrents or over HTTP? If that is true, your ISP is probably shaping your traffic. While traffic shaping is a practical approach to maintain quality of service across all users, it also limits the purpose of having an Internet connection for many of you out there. Glasnost test is a simple way to check if your ISP shapes your traffic. Running the test Head over to the Glasnost test home page. Scroll down a screen to see this section. Whichever test you want to run, select it. If you are not sure, select HTTP transfer as shown and click the Start Testing button. On the next page, you will get a Java applet confirmation dialog. Click Run. On clicking Run, you will see the test progress as shown in the next screenshot. Finally, you will see a report generated as shown. The report is not cryptic at all and explains things in a lucid language. If you want to see a detailed report, there is link at the bottom of the section. You discover that your ISP is indeed shaping your traffic, what now? Once you reach this stage, you have two options. You can either switch to an ISP that does not shape traffic and limit your connection. Alternatively, you can get in touch with your ISP and ask for a reasonable explanation as to why your traffic is being limited. There have also been cases when people went ahead and filed class-action lawsuits against their ISPs. However, the important takeaway from this post could be that now you have a way to know if you really are getting what you are paying for when it comes to your internet connection. ~ Chinmoy Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version Do you have a question for us? Ask it here! Facebook Bracelet Helps Make Real-Life Connections A new product promises to let you make Facebook friends by simply shaking hands or exchanging a high-five. It's called the Social Bangle and is being developed by a company called Hicon. The bangles use Bluetooth to sync up to an app on your smartphone and allow you to interact with your social media accounts using little buttons on the bangle. The buttons are interchangable and can be customized for the social media accounts of the user. The overall look of it gives something like the look of a charm bracelet with the colorful plastic buttons serving as the charms. When you have an alert on a social media account, the button will light up and vibrate gently to notify you. It works with accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linked In, Pinterest, Viber, WhatsApp and Google Plus... Head on over to WorldStart to learn more! Barbara from Brookline Station, MO writes: I need help. I have a new all in one computer which I love. What I don't love it windows 8. Is there a safe way to get 7 back so that I can use this easier. I find 8 very confusing. Any help would be much appreciated. Well you could remove Windows 8 and buy Windows 7 as an operating system, but that's a bad idea for several reasons. It's costly, inconvenient and you'd lose a lot of stuff. Also, Windows 7 is an older operating system and new programs will likely be designed to work with Windows 8. Also, Windows 8 is actually a pretty stable, secure system. But it is very different interface. Let's look at a way that will make it feel more familiar. However, you'll have to take the free upgrade to Windows 8.1 first. I explain how to do that in this article – Upgrade and Install Windows 8.1 Once you have 8.1 in place, you'll be able to make some changes. I want you to go too desktop and then right-click on the taskbar. Select Properties from the Windows that open. Next, you will need to... Just click WorldStart for the rest of this helpful tip~ Make A Photo Collage With BeFunky I told you about BeFunky, the free online photo editing program you can use on your PC or as an Android or iPhone app. In this article, we'll look at Collage Maker. If you aren't familiar with BeFunky, you'll want to go back and read the articles where I introduced you to how it works. BeFunky- Fun, Free Photo Editing For Your PC Touching Up Portraits With BeFunky Photo Editor BeFunky Photo Editor: Effects & Filters To get started making a collage, go to befunky.com and choose the Collage Maker tab on the left side of the page. Click the photo icon to add the photos you want to use in your collage. Click Add Photos and choose files from your computer. Go to WorldStart to find out more! For stories, jokes, quotes and cartoons every day, sign up for our Just for Grins newsletter. Boat Bound Have you ever wanted to rent a boat, but weren't sure where or how to do so? Well Boat Bound takes the guess work out of the whole process with their site that is devoted to helping you find a boat to rent quickly and easily. I'd suggest starting your journey looking over their Getting Started section. You can navigate there by clicking Help in the top right corner and then selecting Getting Started from the drop down menu. This is their FAQ and it covers everything I could think to ask about the site and the process of renting a boat. Want to just dive right in and see if you can find a boat to rent? Well all you have to do is type a location into the handy search field on the main page. For example if you type in Toledo, Ohio it brings up two pages of results. Once you're on the results page you can use the sliders on the left side to fine tune your options by the number of people, size, and price. You can also check off amenities you'd like your boat rental to have below the sliders. On the right side of the results page, you'll find the rental listings displayed. You can look at all of them at once, or use the tabs at the top to choose between Bareboats and Capatained boats. In order to set sail (rent a boat) you'll need to register for a free account. Click Register from the rental page, or the Join Now button at the top of the page. Fill in the form with your name, working e-mail address, and create a password, then click the Join Now button. Once registered you can start taking advantage of the boat rentals. This is a cool way to find some summer fun out on your favorite body of water! Check it out today! https://boatbound.co/ ~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 You use surge protectors, right? I certainly hope so. Whether it's your computer, your TV, your stereo system, or outlet you charge your mobile devices on... you NEED a surge protector. Expensive electronics turn to gigantic paperweights. Your computer goes from having all your photos, videos, and documents to having NOTHING... it's not pretty. That's one MONSTER surge protector! Most of the time, it's recommended to have a surge protector that's at LEAST rated for 200-400 joules. When you get to the 600-joules rated ones, you're considered "well protected" THIS ONE IS RATED FOR 1080 JOULES! I think the numbers speak for themselves on this one! So, I could go on all day about the benefits of surge protection... but I'm pretty sure you get it! Your stuff is expensive, this isn't, and it protects your expensive stuff. It's a no-brainer! But Here's Something REALLY Cool! Two of these outlets are "smart" outlets. You know how you hear about "vampire" energy drain? If you leave a charger in the outlet for anything (laptops, phones, MP3 players, etc) the charger will KEEP drawing power even after the device is fully powered! That's a waste of electricity. And that means it's a waste of money. Yep. The two smart outlets are capable of sensing that they don't NEED to be drawing power anymore and will turn off until they do. That makes this a PERFECT surge protector to keep nearby your computer area. Plug your normal devices in the "always on" outlets, and your chargers or other devics that you don't use all the time in the other ones. It's BRILLIANT! No surges, no wasted energy, more money in your pocket. YOUR PRICE IS ONLY $9.97! If you think this is going to sell out fast, you're right! So get to the store quick! http://store.worldstart.com/product/9316 PS - $19.97 is what these go up to Wednesday!! August Wallpaper The featured desktop wallpaper for August is ready to go. 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! Cub In A Tree I found this little guy as I was driving through Cade's Cove in the Smoky Mountains early one morning. I saw him at a distance and decided to walk up a little and investigate. I grabbed the gear (my longest lens setup), and slowly made my way towards his position. Mom was…(More) Angel Wings This was just one of several keepers from a furious 45 minute session just before sunset. The light was absolutely perfect, and after observing where all the birds seemed to be congregating, I positioned myself so I could get some backlit wings as they came in. Now, I'd love to say that...(More) Split Rock Moonrise This photograph almost didn't happen! The day this was created was the day after the full moon, with moonrise coinciding with sunset pretty closely. I knew from checking my compass that the moon would be in a good location, but you can imagine my disappointment when I saw that huge bank of clouds along the horizon. We were literally packing it in and calling it a night when...(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 few months. Your support helps to keep the wallpaper comin' every month! THANK YOU! ~Steve

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