Technology

Blog category about technology topics

Create Your Own Font with YourFont.com – and Type in Your Own Handwriting!

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Did you ever wish you could type in your handwritten signature at the end of a typed letter? YourFonts allows you to create a font out of your own handwriting. It’s a great way to do things like digitally sign documents with your handwriting. It’s a great service that is also very affordable!  You will fill in a two page form, scan your form in, and then you can download and install your handwriting just as you would any other font to use on your computer. Visit their Web site for detailed information and instructions.

Click Here To Go To The YourFonts Website Now

Up for Adoption: Attitudes on Technology Integration

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By Dominique Jones

Listen to Audio Version (~14 minutes)

So many clients ask questions about adopting a new technical tool—a new type of computer such as an iMac, a handheld device such as a smart phone, a new type of software, using Facebook and Twitter in their marketing strategies, or a new application service such as Smashwords to publish their ebook. The answer is, inevitably, it depends.

What does it depend upon?

The technical environment, the person’s abilities, the uncertainty of the person’s computing situation, and the complexity of the technology. Somehow, though, that list feels like business- and techno- babble.

Deferred Decisions about Adopting New Technologies

It’s a lot like a situation I find myself processing in life around installing a ceiling fan in my dining area. I have been circling a solution to upgrade the ugly gold-colored pendant that sits directly in your line of sight as you enter our home. The main problem is that it clashes with everything else in our house. For years I have gone through a hemming-and-hawing process.

I have heard that changing a light fixture is simple. I have a loop in my mind that is always looking for the ultimate ceiling fan/light fixture that will blend into our southwestern architecture. I find something that costs at least $500, ponder, and dismiss it as too extravagant. After having fixed our water filter through research and experimentation, I also started researching how to hook up a light fixture on my own. I read a few sections in a book while standing at Home Depot. I watched home shows in frame-by-frame motion to grok the process of hooking up light wires in the ceiling. Of course, I searched online and watched YouTube videos. I even considered taking an adult education course on electrical maintenance. And I ended up getting a $15 replacement pendant cover to hook somewhat recklessly onto the bottom of the existing chain.

I am simply not comfortable changing and upgrading the light fixture at the wire level, no matter how much I read. And this story has been unfolding for five years.

That is a long time to suffer a line of sight I would like to improve. I think some of my clients suffer technology woes with the same non-starter experience. They have the spirit to move forward, and they know they would like something different, improved, more modern. They just feel inadequate to handle the whole thing, and they don’t even know which parts they should do themselves vs. which parts to contract. A feeling of discomfort leads to deferring the change that could help them appreciate technology more.

Personal Design for Technical Literacy

Like home design, there are so many choices in too many places when it comes to adopting a new hardware or software tool. There is a whole industry with its own language and standards that can serve as a barrier to action for someone who doesn’t know the right words to use to explain what they would like. The sheer number of choices and lack of simplicity conspire in a situation fraught with entropy. While commercials and emergent social mores send the message that technology is passing us by, the truth is that many people are passing technology by because they are presented with too much to absorb.

We are in times of change, like the early 20th century when electricity was not yet stable. Rural areas did not all have electricity at that time; just as rural areas do not all have Internet access at present. Electricity was run as a for-profit business and unregulated for decades. It was a young industry, and, similarly, we are still in the first 50 years of the widespread propagation of computing and networking.
Because the Web and the new communication abilities have brought such a dramatic change to our lives, in many cases easing burdens and making life easier, we focused on innovation after innovation. And businesses have a stake in prompting us to buy the latest generation of items. However, there is another aspect to creation that has not yet been experienced and embraced in the technology world: appreciation.

Multiple Approaches to Learning New Tech Skills

Instead of experiencing the joy of all our new capabilities as time progresses, we appear to be stuck, like a record skipping on a turn-table, in a cycle of innovate-improve-innovate-improve-innovate when it comes to interacting with technology. It feels like a techno junkie yearning for the latest gadget, or it sounds like someone throwing up their arms entirely and saying “I am just not technical!” It looks like the delusion that if you do not understand technology you are not “smart.” Or it looks like the delusion that all our students have access to the Web and to the tools they need to “compete in the 21st century.”

Instead of training our future generations to compete with technological skills, why not view tech as one more in a set of tools we can use to personalize our life experience in new and fascinating ways? After all, the technical tools we use are like other tools we use to build our environments, and we don’t require everyone to become an electrician in order to enjoy better lighting.

Or, we can view the technology we pick up and use as a game that is not so serious. Or, my personal favorite approach, we can view our interactions with technology as an art that we use while living our lives—a creative way to express ourselves as we paint the story of our lives onto the canvas of time.

Positive Technology Adoption

Whatever our circumstances in the technical world, we can consciously choose to enjoy our next steps. Positive psychologists who study happiness, such as David G. Meyers, are helping us define new definitions of human progress, and I think this applies to human technical progress as well. Meyers’ research showed, in his article “Who Is Happy?” that “wealth is like health: its absence can breed misery, yet having it is no guarantee of happiness.” I would extend this concept about happiness to our interactions with technology as well.

Being cut off from modern technologies can be limiting and painful as you try to navigate the online world, but after you have acquired a fairly small set of technical skills, you will have enough to get around. It’s like visiting a foreign country and learning enough to order in a restaurant. As you spend more time in the country, you will naturally learn more of the language. However, requiring yourself to learn limitlessly can set you up for feeling pressure. If you are suffering in any kind of technical project, know that the problem-solving and meeting the project timeline are a lot less important than witnessing your enjoyment in learning and creating new abilities. You have the power to choose your level of engagement, and you may find a happy truth that when they are made easier, you do enjoy things like video conference with your friends and family, recording your own audio podcasts, sending text messages or email on a smart phone while you are traveling, and other creative projects.

The freedom to choose is the greatest freedom I know so far, and we deserve enjoyment as much (or more) than we deserve innovation. Technology’s rise has brought with it a speed that is akin to desperation and technical innovators are tangled in a trellis of dark capitalism/competitiveness that has swept our culture for a few decades. Possibilities, however, have emerged alongside the greed and addiction. We can choose from profound communication capabilities and powerful automation capacities.

As it stands, however, there are trade-offs for implementing powerful technologies. It takes considerable capital and a hefty investment in learning new details. Even choosing an option to try is a process of details, details, and more details. It’s a delusion to think we can buy a new smart phone and immediately use all of its features without studying them and trying them out in several ways. We will not merely flip a switch and be able to navigate the virtual world.

You and Technology, Hand-in-Hand

One of the secrets to choosing technologies that work for you is to pace yourself. Choose only as much as you need. If you study and learn fewer things, you will have more time to enjoy your knowledge about the things you already have. Similarly, if organizations keep their automation projects more humble and realistic in scope, rather than reaching to be on the edge of innovation and to customize extensively, they can enjoy the improvements in their operations more.

The decision about how much to learn and imbibe of the new virtual landscape is very personal and we all can feel good about our level of interest. A good decision can come from the place where you feel genuinely curious about something, and free from pressure. If you start asking a lot of questions about a technical subject and you feel joy while you are asking (instead of dread, fear, frustration, or some other barrier), that is a clue that it would be a nice thing to explore learning to do yourself.

If you do not want to learn something, but want a system set up for you that is a great option, too. For example, I would not want the electrician I hire to change my light fixture to explain everything they are doing in detail so that after they leave I can change my own light fixture the next time. I would rather just hire them twice.

Hiring a person with expertise can help you work with a new technology a lot faster than working on your own. It is the solution to making a major change if you don’t feel comfortable as a DIY techie. If you want to interact with technology, the proper support can help you more naturally evolve in your relationship to the digital elements available in the world. An evolution peppered with support can enhance your life in our communication age. My opinion is that everyone who seems to be a “techie” has had considerable help along the way.

Unfinished

Humans have not yet found the best ways to express themselves through machines and networks. This is not to deny the transformational waves of improvement that have come about through what, in distant ages, would be called magical and miraculous communication methods. It is simply to acknowledge that we are in an age of technological chaos and that humans find more enjoyment and beauty in simplicity.

Technology is in the process of being created—it is not yet finished. Just like a gift, half of the joy is in its being received. When technology can find simplicity, we can add appreciation to innovation, and its creation will be complete. In the mean time, although not as easy as a light switch, you have lots of options and you can decide the level of engagement you would prefer in the virtual world without worry about whether you have the “right” setup.

–end–

Web Host Review: GoDaddy.com

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Save 50% Now on Go Daddy SSL Certificates! Only $1

The Daddy of all web hosts? Yes, in my humble opinion (imho), GoDaddy is great as far as a Web host. We have had sites hosted here for about a decade, and we can attest to the reliability, customer service, and software availability on Godaddy. It’s also as economical as any other Web host out there, depending on your needs.


We have a special right now, where you can have us handle organizing and setting up your Web hosting, e-mail, and any other online services you may need (such as online file sharing, faxing, calendar) for only $199 plus the GoDaddy hosting fees. Contact us at 505-977-8827 if you’d like to get started today, or email us.

That means you can gain the efficiency of our GoDaddy knowledge, as we have worked with their systems for several years. You can get your site set up fast, with any support you need for moving forward. This is a great advantage, since it can take a while to learn about host software, WordPress (if you want to start a blog), and Web design and security at any Web host. We can handle all this for you!


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To keep it real, the only down side I have ever experienced is a little bit of need to study how their Web site is organized. Sometimes it is apparent, but sometimes I need to hunt to figure out how to do something. This is better than being limited by services not offered at all.

If I call, their customer service is available 24 hours a day, however. So any difficulties are ameliorated by their strong customer service.


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What are the things I have done on Godaddy? Well, here is a partial list:

  • Worpress sites
  • Web sites and Email (including Web mail) for clients’ domains
  • Securing Web sites with SSL
  • Online Fax Services / Email Faxing
  • Ecommerce & Web Shopping Carts
  • Linux/Unix and Windows Web sites
  • Web applications (.NET and Java)
  • Linking domain names to Google Blogger sites
  • Drupal and Joomla Content Management Systems
  • Video and audio podcasts
  • Online Calendars
  • Getting Dedicated Servers for Clients
  • Storing large file online

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You can depend on GoDaddy, like any good patriarch 🙂

SuperMediaStore for Inexpensive CDs, Dvds, and Storage

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Today we bought a thousand white sleeves for CDs and DVDs for about $20. If we go into a brick and mortar retail store, we pay $9 for about 25 or 50 sleeves. So, conservatively, we saved about $160 compared to shopping in person.

That’s what initially attracted us to SuperMediaStore. We figured it was too good to be true, but we ordered some anyway about 3 years ago. When we received them, all nicely packaged and ready to use, we were pleasantly surprised at the quality and speed of delivery.

Since then, we’ve ordered our media for much less money online than we’d pay in person. For example, I am using lightscribe CDs to record audio presentations for individual clients now, and we save a great deal of money by buying in bulk from these folks.

One of the goals of the technology coaching blog is to clue you in to technology services and products we have tested and experimented with. Sometimes, our reviews may reveal weaknesses in a technology source, as well as its strengths. However, in this case, we don’t see any problems at all to report from SuperMediaStore.

SuperMediaStore is a gem we believe you would benefit from, too. So, please visit them and if you click from here, they’ll know we sent you.

Happy archiving!

What is a Technology Coach?

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A technology coach helps you take positive action to close the gap between your current level of technology literacy and where you would like to be.

A lot of people can envision themselves using technology to help achieve a goal in their lives, but they are stopped from getting there by one or more barriers. Some people are part of an organization that has adopted a new technology, and they are mired in a chaos not of their own making. People also experience what we call the iceberg moment–when they are asked to do something that seems simple to someone else, but there is an iceberg of knowledge they would need before they can do it, and the task at hand is only the tip of the iceberg.

While we are asked to adopt software and hardware tools faster than we can drill out our failed hard drives, there is a still small voice that whispers about wisdom in the use of technology–if you listen. Sometimes, that voice is honored and honored very well by people, teams, and organizations. More often, however, there is chaos around the acceptance of a new, complex and expensive tool or set of tools and techniques we label a “system.”

This type of support exists to help you listen to the voice of wisdom in your relationship with technology. The tech coach’s job skills include compassion, understanding, determination, critical thinking, and also mature technical and business skills. A candidate technology coach would have many years experience in information technology and a broad range of knowledge. She would have an avid interest in human motivation as well–psychology, sociology, and perhaps the arts, anthropology and philosophy. He has formed the physical and psychological connections to understand how to incorporate technology into life. In essence, a technology coach has integrated software, hardware, and computer equipment creatively into their lives. They view it as an art or craft form and can help you do the same.

Tech coaches will not promise that they will make technology easy for you. Nor that you will be able to avoid the chaos and hype surrounding its use. Instead, they will help ground you, provide a sounding board, and give you a safe place to express how you feel about the problems in front of you. Then, they will help you find and choose options for moving forward. Often, once those options are identified and the pressure to perform is alleviated, people find they can relax and have more fun learning a new craft.

Lastly, a technology coach is optimistic about your potential and cares about you.

If you can benefit from coaching, please contact us at Larntz Enterprises any time to discuss your situation.

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