Let’s face it, not everyone can afford to download every single song that we hear in the course of a week. There is so much out there and maybe your musical tastes change throughout the day.

What if you forget your iPod?  Or maybe, Coldplay is just too jarring when you are trying to write that progress report for your boss.

Here are a couple of links for FREE ONLINE MUSIC SERVICES:

Grooveshark (free, sign in required)

The interface is colorful and easy to use. Like with most SaaS, you will need to sign up for an account. This is a typical screen.

Grooveshark interface

You can look up your favorite artist(s) and save as many playlists as you want.  Okay, I lied. I have no idea if you can have 50 or 500 playlists. I currently have 15 and still building, but I seem to be stuck on one artist right now.

AOL Online Radio

(no membership or signing in required)

http://music.aol.com/radioguide/bb will bring up some variation of this:

AOL Radio Blog Site

Okay! Pop Quiz time! What are you to do on this screen?

This service allows you to have 10 “presets” (your favorite stations).

AOL-CBS Radio Player

As you can see, there are many options. Simply expand each option by clicking on the plus sign next to each genre and you’ll have hundreds of options from which to choose.

The only real drawback to this is that every hour or so, they play a series of commercials. It’s not like a regular radio where you’ll get annoyed every 9 minutes from commercial breaks.

MUSIC LOVER’S BONUS:

An eclectic mix of LINKS for your your viewing and  listening pleasure:

• One by Mary J Blige & U2 on YouTube
• Mercy by Duffy on Duffy’s site
• Michael Buble on MySpace
• Akon on MySpace
• Lady Gaga on MySpace
• Kanye West on MySpace
• Mariza on MySpace
• Gabrielle Roth on MySpace
• Enya on MySpace
• Oscar Lopez (flamenco guitarist) on MySpace
• Diana Krall on MySpace
• Coldplay on MySpace
• Nickelback on MySpace
• Rolling Stones on MySpace

That’s all for now.

Yes, you have many options to add media to your blog. You need to familiarize yourself with this portion of your Edit Post screen.

• A. Adding an image (ie. image above)
• B.  Adding video(s)
• C. Adding audio
• D. Adding media (i.e. pdfs)

Selecting any one of these options will pop up the same screen, giving you the option to upload files:

Your screen will look slightly different if you have not already added images to your image gallery. Within this screen, you can upload images from your computer, WordPress gallery, WP library or add a link to a site.

Please note the file types that are allowed and that they are for static images only.

• E. Adding polls

Clicking on this icon will bring up another screen

Adding Polls

You won’t see this list when you click on the icon, because these are polls I created.

You cannot upload video, audio files or music without the space upgrade. If you don’t believe me, click here to get word from the WP powers that be. I’ve tried every which way to fool the system. While I couldn’t I found some interesting resources like free online streaming music (really) as well as audio and video conversion programs you might need.

Your free WordPress blog comes with 3 gigs of space. Space upgrades give you up to 25 gigs more space and allow for adding videos and music.

Here is the information on upgrades. If you’d like to go straight to that page for your upgrade, click here.

Upgrade Pricing

This pricing is accurate as of today, whatever day that is.

Don’t bother trying to get around it. I already tried…Now if I don’t change the subject, I’ll never finish this darn post.

MUSIC LOVER’S BONUS:

Let this page not be a total waste for you.. here for your your listening pleasure are a few links for you.

For the hopeless romantics, this one is merely a link to an outside page:

Thank You Stars by Katie Melua

Now, send this link to someone you love and be on your way spreading joy throughout the land! Stop by tomorrow (or the next) for a follow up post about audio conversion software, something equally as heady or some plain ol’ links to some great tunes! Toodles.

tips for reducing the size of files you upload to your site.

When posting images on your blog or your website, keep the file size down. The larger the file size, the longer it will take for your site to upload. People will get frustrated and you might lose a customer. This information is brought you on a NTKB*.

On a very basic level, you need to consider TWO things: file size and image resolution. There are others, but for the purpose of this discussion, you will only need to know these.

File Sizes:

(click below for more info…only if your brain has free storage capacity OR you aren’t looking for an excuse to take a nap, otherwise, don’t bother)

• byte (bytes): unit of storage information
  
• kilobyte (KB or kb): 1,000 bytes
• megabyte (MG or mg): 1,000 kilobytes (i.e. 1,205 kb= 1.2 mg – old math…carry the decimal point)

Here are some other useful terms you need to know if you are going to continue working on the web

Images:

• Vector images (lines, flat solid shapes with no dimension)
  

• Half tone images (photographs or anything that depicts form or suggests dimension with use of light and shadows. Those tones, shadows and gradations of color and light will be transformed into dots, also known as pixels)

Resolution

When someone asks you what the resolution is, they are referring to DPI (Dots Per Inch). You can change the resolution of a photograph in Photoshop a few different ways (see graphics below).

Image Formats:

GIF supports vector based graphics, animated icons as well as transparent backgrounds

JPG (or JPEG) typically used for photographs and supports millions of colors. It maintains the integrity of an image during compression or file size reduction.

PNG (pronounced PING) is widely used online and can often give you more clarity and depth of color than a GIF, but does not support animation.

Here are some examples of how you can change the file size of your image in Photoshop CS3:

Changing the Image size in Photoshop

Selecting this method will give you another menu box. Now remember that the resolution refers to the dots per inch. The best resolution for photograph in print ( is 300, while an online photo (depending on the detail can be 150, but generally speaking you will find graphics on the web to be 72 dpi). Always check the resolution and file size of your images before posting on your site.

If you have a photograph or image that is still several megabytes in size, you can reduce the file size by selecting the Save for the Web & Devices option:

By choosing this option you will be given a new menu box with a default setting showing you 2 optimized versions of  of your image. You can also select whether you would like your new version to be saved as a jpg, gif or png file.

I hope these tips have been useful.

* NOTE: KTKB means Need to Know Basis

I got so carried away with my own blog, that I wandered away from my original point. Bear with me, I do that  a lot. Don’t even ask my friends, just keep reading, you’ll see for yourself. I eventually do get back to the main point. Aricept helps. No, no, I don’t take it, I just think about it warding off Alzheimers and BOOM – back to reality. So, where was I?  Oh yes, helping you get your own blog started.

Ask yourself some of these questions before taking my next online course here at My F*N Blog, where we teach you the narcissistic art of blogging as well as other useful tools in the techie industry. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, you must be over 25 to read this blog.

Studies have shown that the brain stops growing between the ages of 23 and 25. While there is not necessarily a distinct correlation between the physiological development of the brain and continued learning, it is curious that most of us over 25 don’t know how to say Yu-Gi-Oh, never mind play it.

So, I’ve taken it upon myself to render that technologically speaking, everyone over 25 needs remedial help. That’s where I’m stepping in to mind the gap!

GIMME THE BEEF ALREADY!

Okay, okay, calm down… maybe you should be the one flirting with Aricept for your cranky pants attitude. Consider the following:

1. Where would you start?
2. Do you want your blog to be a journal of your daily life and musings?
3. Do you want your blog to be open to the entire world or more private as a way to communicate with your family and friends?
4. Do you want your blog to be a WIKI about a particular topic? If you don’t know what a WIKI is, then the answer is probably no.
5. Or are you just pretentious enough to want a blog just to speak of at cocktail parties, when you have nothing else to say except… “I wrote about that very thing on my blog yesterday…”It does come in handy when meeting those other pretentious folks who are so shallow to only define you by what you do. If you want to be a hit at those parties, don’t talk about your blog too much, unless you can make them laugh or somehow turn the conversation back to them. I’ll write another blog about the narcissistic art of working a room or any cocktail party. For now, back to the business at hand… the narcissistic art of blogging.

If you think you are ready to move forward, here are some simple steps you will need to take either before or after learning the blogging software you choose. (You know your own style of learning, like hooking up the VCR with or without the manual. How’d that work out for ya?). If you have techie ADD, check out this link….for a primer on what kind of learning style you have. If you don’t have the attention span of a gnat, then please proceed:

1. Pay attention to all those little voices in your head (well, okay, maybe not ALL of them… just the ones like ‘what the heck am I going to write about?’)
2. If you are a kinesthetic and/or visual person, buy a small notebook and carry it with you in your pocket, purse, man-purse, fanny pack or whatever travel bag you tote around. The point is, have it handy. As time goes on, you’ll want to capture those stellar ideas for future posts. Life happens and you want to remember those moments.
3. Start writing (even if you just start writing in Word)
4. Turn off your inner critic (unless of course he/she is your grammar coach). Yes, you will have brilliant ideas, and yes, you will have doubts….but I’m here to tell you to just go for it! Write what is there, even if you write short posts. You will find your inner voice.
5. Write for a week. Give yourself at least 15 minutes each day to write something. You may find yourself writing more and that is okay. The point here is to write regularly to break yourself free from whatever is stopping you from expressing yourself. Again, even if you are only writing in Word, get the material out of your head! (you can make your material private if that is what you wish)

So, if you are just beginning the process, try this out for a week. Report back to me in a week and let me know if anything shook loose.

The immortal words of Bill Brady.

There are a few mantras that still rattle in my brain thanks to my professor, Bill Brady, from Vesper George School of Art. He was amazing. He was the kind of guy who would look at something and tell you your type was crooked or the Amberlith had a tear in it. Amberlith and rubylith were films used on mechanicals for creating color separations (before your time and before the advent of the desktop computer and preceding Aldus Pagemaker, but I digress) – need I remind you that this is a resource for dinosaurs?). If you argued the point because you had measured it three times, he pulled out a magnifying glass from his back pocket to prove his point.  What a pain in the a** I thought, but damned if he wasn’t right EVERY single time! He trained all of us to pay attention to those details.

Now, before I go completely into the past and recount every story from the good ol’ days, let’s take a minute to review the proper way to cite sources. I simply must be upfront here by saying that in most cases, my means of giving credit to the source, will be to name the site and provide a link to it… and I’ll be breaking the rules. Or am I just modifying them to fit the medium and make it easier for you? I ask you, is it laziness on my part or on the part of the reader that I make this accommodation and justify this practice? I’m not telling. You figure it out for yourself.

Here are some useful links on citations:

The Chicago Style Manual

MLA (The Modern Language Association) Formatting and Style Guide style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. (from Purdue’s online lab)

APA (American Psychological Association) Formatting is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. (from Purdue’s online lab… that’s the university, not the chicken!)

Remember, the type of document and reference will guide which type of reference to use.  Given the birth of the urban dictionary, texting and yes hip-hop, many of these common rules have gone out the window. We look for shortcuts everywhere! But – OMG and WTF, sometimes the shortcuts are more appropriate in some arenas!

Okay, I see that there has been a recent spike in my stats, so again, I must refer back to a previous entry… my confession. I have not been blogging and have preferred the company of live human beings of late. That will come to a stop as soon as I can remember the act of attrition.

However you do it, please give credit where credit is due and for heaven’s sake… make sure you are able to say you play well with others!

Aha! You thought I was swearing again, didn’t you?! Well, let’s be the judge of that after you finish reading this. Awhile back (December 12, 2009 – The recession and your job), I referenced an editorial in CIO Insight about the talent pool running dry. Get a load of this… according to eWeek, the AFL-CIO is disputing similar claims. Who knew that reading eWeek would stir up a hot-bed of political activity?

H-1B visas essentially allow companies to hire non-immigrant, foreign citizens for specialty jobs in the U.S. According to the US Immigration website on H-1B visas, “The petitions are submitted by employers based on their need for the non-US.-resident employee.” Each year the cap is 65,000 H-1B visas and the government only requires a bachelors degree, yet defines this visa for “specialty jobs”. How many specialty jobs (certainly on the eastern seaboard) merely require a bachelor’s degree.

Here in New England, master’s degrees are a dime a dozen. Can you say Emerson, Harvard or Massachusetts Institute of Technology? Education is not only the pastime here, but is an unspoken requirement of simply breathing here, so we have tons of specialists in every field imaginable. Dare I even mention the thousands of people who have worked for companies that no longer exist.

• Digital/DEC
• Polaroid
• WANG Laboratories

Where did all those techies go that weren’t absorbed by Microsoft when they moved to town, or the thousands of start-ups that didn’t survive the DOTCOM bust and the banking scandal of 2008/2009 that brought down thousands of other businesses. Old  history, I know.

I know, I know, don’t get your panties in a bunch! Most of us have roots from other countries, but why should someone who is living here be refused a job that is given to a “specialist” with an H1B visa at half the rate.

Again, look at the job boards like DICE.com

Within the article in eWeek, AFL-CIO’s dispute and the ensuing commentary by readers both contest the legitimacy of business’ needs for importing specialists and claim that the business owners are merely looking for ways to reduce expenses and raise profits.

It certainly is a compelling argument when one looks at:

• the national deficit
• the staggering number and occupations of those displaced by these companies

• software engineers
• IT professionals
• developers
• coders
• UX/UI designers
• graphic designers
• usability professionals

• the number of open job requisitions
• the number of jobs requiring people to be both software engineers and visual designers
• did I mention the national deficit
• the number of foreclosures
• the number of bankruptcies
  
• the number of bailouts the federal government is sponsoring with your tax dollars (that you can’t pay if you are unemployed)
• the recent move-your-money campaign that Arianna Huffington started
  

Then again, people have had enough of the lack of DAM jobs that reflect livable wages going to American workers. eWeek addresses the relationship between wage reduction and the proliferation of IT jobs going to individuals granted H-1B visas and the number of American IT professionals out of work and able to do the work. They do raise very good points.

What in G-d’s name does any of this have to do with blogging or learning to blog? Everything! I’m here to raise your awareness and give you raison detre (huh…and apparently teach French – something I never learned!) peaved enough to express thyself!

Stand up. Get outraged. Stop being silent. Speak out!

Start your blog right now and express whatever is there for you! 

Send me an email and I’ll help you get started, whatever it is for, just do it!

Ha! You thought I was cursing again, didn’t you! Finally, other people with a sense of humor with regard to technology. I loved the article or was it just the acronym? Alright I confess, it was really just the acronym I loved. It spoke to me. Afterall, I did start this blog on the premise that people get frustrated with the gobs and gobs of information written, emailed, tweeted, FBd and texted (is that really a word?). I wanted this to be an expression, a retreat, a haven, a sanctuary if you will for those souls needing respite from the onslaught of technological mumbo jumbo they need to translate into usable everyday English. So my friend, YES, DAM spoke to me!

Our friend (not yet) Andy Moore over at KM World wrote up a nifty article on Digital Asset Management (DAM - I love that I can say that) introduces some new products for the DAM world.

What is happening to me? Now, I’m getting KM World in the mail and taking it with me to read while I pay homage to Caffeina at Starbucks. I was flaunting it, just daring people to see what I was reading as if it were a trashy novel.

I wondered what those people were thinking. Afterall, I wasn’t dressed like a geek… or was I? The activist in me took great pleasure in pushing the envelope – hoping this middle aged (a lie) cool artist (true) would confuse these poor folks.

A techno geek can take on all shapes and sizes. We don’t all look alike and wear glasses (even when we need to). Some of us can actually be quite stylish… why just check out what my friend Emmi is doing to help the techno geek’s image at A Man’s World.

If I have done nothing but teach you a new trick or a new buzz phrase you can use to impress your friends, then I’ve done my job.

Now go use what you just have learned and impress your friends!

I did discover that AOL has a free radio blog. In my spare time, I was also reading David Bach’s book  Start Late, Finish Rich and loved what he coined as “the latte factor”. He takes the reader through an exercise to look at where he/she spends money that can actually be saved. In some instances, like if you are a Starbucks fan, you can save a small fortune. (click here to use his handy/dandy latte factor calculator).

So, given that we are in a recession and I need to buy new software, I heeded his advice. As much as I love Rhapsody, I dropped the service to cut down on my latte factor. I’m not cutting out the lattes yet, but cutting out the other extras! So, now, not only am I saving 14.99/month, but I’m venturing out of my normal musical pathway and discovering new interests like Ruth Brown and Koko Taylor singin’ the blues.

It’s all the buzz. What’s that you ask? Storing your data in the clouds.

Who knew I would ever find myself reading CIO Insight or Baseline, never mind have it delivered to my mailbox! Yes, that’s right, my snail mail! I still crave ink on paper and having to wash my hands after reading a newspaper or magazine because the ink seeped into my pores. I still want to feel that head rush from the repetitive sneezing that comes from my allergy to the chemicals they use to make those magazines that are oh so glossy. Yes, bring it on!

Without even knowing there was a subscription in my name, I happily opened the December issue of Baseline. What drew me in was the cover story on developing social media strategies that support corporate goals. Much to my surprise, the first article I read was on the technological trends for 2010 in business management. Whoa Nelly! Hold me back! Am I gettin’ my game back on?

Hang on – now remember this blog is for you folks who aren’t techno-geeks. There is so much debate over cloud computing. Why? Companies are looking at smarter, faster and let’s face it – cheaper ways to run their businesses. Does this mean that everything will be automated or roboticized? What about jobs for people? And what about when the stuff doesn’t work? Who do you talk to? And what the heck am I talking about anyway?

Some of you already are partaking in cloud computing without even knowing it. Do you use Gmail or Yahoo as your email provider? Well, on a very basic level, those are examples within the REALM of cloud computing. You are not storing the data on your computer or server and you are using a software service.

However, there is another aspect to what is in the clouds, which is SaaS. As a former Saab owner, the mere letters caught my attention.  SaaS stands for Software as a Service. This is where the industry is going. You thought you were losing ground, well, time to catch up.

All in good time precious, all in good time! We’ll eat this elephant one byte at a time!

That’s where I’ll end this post. Now go talk to Caffeina.

So, would you please tell me how you got here? Thanks.