Tech Tips for Catholics

Like many things in life, sometimes less is more.

Step1: Open the Volume Control Panel.  You can do this a couple different ways: double-click the volume icon in the system tray, right-click the volume icon and click on “Open Volume Control,” or you can get there by going through the Control Panel > Sound and Audio Devices.

Step 2: Once the Volume Control Panel is open, simply hit “Ctrl+S”.

To switch it back just hit “Ctrl+S” again.

Like the different divisions within the Protestant Reformation, some of the social networking identities are “throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” for the sake of “unity.”

Both MyChurch.org and MySpace have been making changes to be more like Facebook (or so it seems).  Facebook is making changes to try and distance itself from the copy-cats (or so it seems).  Then MyChurch.org goes and tries to copy the changes that Facebook is making (or so it seems).

MySpace has managed to implement some of Facebook’s features pretty well.  I just hope they don’t go even further and try to copy facbook’s latest changes.  This is what MyChurch.org is dong and it will probably backfire on them.  I wonder, how many less people are logging onto Facebook since the new changes?  The only time I log onto Facebook anymore is to check a post someone has left on my wall or to view my friends’ pictures.  MyChurch.org is headed that direction.  I find myself using MySpace more than I previously had been.

MyChurch had some neat things that set them apart from other social networking sites and these are some of the things they are getting throwing out.  It just doesn’t make sense to me.

4marks.com, which is similar to Facebook, has not made the switch to the new Facebook format yet.  Who knows, they may become my new social networking home.  I do like their built-in poll feature.  I stumbled upon 4marks a long time ago, but you had to pay a monthly fee to use many of its features.  They have since opened it up and you can now use these features free of charge.

I would be interested to hear what features our readers like about their favorite social networking sites and what they dislike.  Click here to take part in the discussion.

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Every Friday I post my top 5 blogposts that I have come across throughout the week.  You have all weekend now to check them out : )

1. Party time: Catholic Underground LA
2. What is Heaven Like?
3. How We Can Clean Up A Lot of the Economic Problems
4. Honest Measurements & Mirror Deception (take the time to read both of Greg’s linked blogposts)
5. God Calls Us to Different Paths to Perfection

If you have a blogpost that you would like to share with me feel free to contact Catholic Tech Tips and I will get it.

Have a great weekend!

Joshua

I came across Thomas Lickona’s blogpost titled “Teach Manners,” which is written for parents and mentors, but I wanted to share one part of it with you here.  It is called Alphabet Manners.  If it sounds a little childish, it is because it is used by Susan Skinner, a kindergarten teacher in Columbia, South Carolina.

So here they are:

A — Accept a compliment graciously.
B — Be on time.
C — Clean your hands.
D — Do chew with your mouth closed.
E — Elbows off the table.
F — Friendliness to others.
G — Good grooming shows self-respect.
H — Hang up your clothes.
I — Interrupt only for a very important reason.
J — Join in and include everybody.
K — Kindness to all living things.
L — Lend a helping hand.
M — Magic words: “Please” and “Thank you.”
N — Never point or laugh at others.
O — Obey the rules.
P — Pleasant tone of voice is a plus.
Q — Quiet when others are working or sleeping.
R — Remember others on special occasions.
S — Sit up straight.
T — Thank the host or hostess.
U — Use your beautiful smile.
V — Visit a friend who is lonely or sick.
W — Watch out for little ones.
X — “X” out bad habits.
Y — Yawn if you must but cover your mouth.
Z — Zip your zipper.

Okay, now go grab a book and take a seat over on the carpeted area ; )

If you are like me, then your mind already bypasses the first two or three Google search results, because they are “sponsored links”.  Personally, the companies in the sponsored links section tend to be trying to sell me something that I don’t need or want.  That is where the CustomizeGoogle extension for Mozilla Firefox comes in.  This is an add-on with all kinds of features and tweaks for Google, but this tutorial is just focusing on how to remove sponsored links from the search results page.

Step 1: Open Mozilla Firefox.  Go up to Tools > Add-ons in the menu bar.

Step 2: When the Add-ons dialog box opens make sure you are on “Get Add-ons” tab and click on the “Browse All Add-ons” link.  This will take you to Mozilla’s Add-on directory.

Step 3: Search for “CustomizeGoogle” or you could have just clicked the link directly in the first paragraph and bipassed the first three steps of this tutorial ; )

Step 4: Click on the “Add to Firefox” button and follow the instructions.

Step 5: After you have shut-down & restarted Firefox go into the CustomizeGoogle Options.  You can do this a couple different ways.  The first is to go up to Tools > CustomizeGoogle Options.  The second way of getting to it is by finding CustomizeGoogle under the “Extensions” tab of the Add-on dialog box (Tools > Add-ons) and clicking on the “Options” button.

Step 6: Once in the CustomizeGoogle Options, check the “Remove ads” in the “Web” tab.  Browse the many other options and click “OK” when they are to your liking.

I know businesses pay a lot of money to advertise themselves in Google, but CustomizeGoogle also can save them some money.  How you ask?  Well, let’s say you like the sponsored links and choose not to block them.  By selecting the “Remove click tracking” under the “Web” tab, the click tracking in Google adds are also removed.  This means that the advertiser doesn’t have to pay for your clicking on their link, because Google will have no knowledge that you clicked the link.

Below are some related links about CustomizeGoogle:

• Important Changes in the CustomizeGoogle Firefox Extension
• Improve your Google Experience with CustomizeGoogle (Video)

Every Friday I post my top 5 blogposts that I have come across throughout the week.  You have all weekend now to check them out : )

1. Colbert Guide for Catholics - A Guide to a Satirical Apostle
2. Jewish Origins of Catholicism by Taylor Marshall
3. Campaign Merchandise
4. Lessons from the Amish (for Teens, step 3 can be changed to “Play with your siblings”)
   
5. A Mother to Many

If you have a blogpost that you would like to share with me feel free to contact Catholic Tech Tips and I will get it.

Have a great weekend!

Joshua

Outside Da Box’s latest DVD features Chris Padgett as Jesus’ running mate.  This spoof on our modern day politics is pretty funny and has a great message.  Padgett plays a great politician character who is quite full of himself.  The following YouTube video is the reel footage — the parts that didn’t make it into the final cut.

Go to www.outsidedabox.com/jesus08/ to watch the real campaign videos.

Here is another fun way to Twitter! It is called TwittEarth and it is a huge time waster.  It is really cute though.  Plus you can download a screensaver version, which might be pretty cool (I haven’t tried it yet).  I actually heard about this site a few months ago, but when I tried to capture a screenshot it came up blank.  I’m not sure why, but it let me today, so here you be…

Last week, I worked my annual stint at our local county college fair, representing my alma mater as an alumni representative.

In the process, I met countless kids and parents, giving away close to 500 brochures and flyers.  The night was a whirlwind, with the majority of the kids (and several parents too), cruising by looking for freebies.

I can count on two hands the number of student who took the process seriously enough to leave a lasting impression.  They were the ones who stopped squarely in front of me, introduced themselves, shook my hand, looked me in the eye, and listened attentively when I answered their questions.

Two students stood out above the crowd.  One handed me a meticulously prepared resume as she expressed her strong interest in our University.  She had clearly done her homework and left me with something to remember her by.

The second student had prepared a series of hand written index cards, each containing a question about the school.  She cautiously advanced through each question, clearly looking to garner enough information to make a truly informed decision.

Both young ladies taught me a lesson Wednesday night.  It’s one that I already know, but that can’t be reiterated often enough - first impressions count.

As people who are looking to make the most productive use of our time, their lesson is valuable for all of us.  We never know when we are going to have the opportunity to make an important contact, obtain crucial information, or leave a lasting impression.

We need to be mentally and physically prepared, every day, to make the most of even the most chance meetings that arise.

Maybe we don’t need to constantly carry a resume, but we do need to always have business cards on hand and not be afraid to hand them out.  More importantly, we need to remember that through the course of every day the people we meet have importance and meaning.  Let’s remember to address them with professionalism, compassion and an open mind and heart.

On the Bookshelf:
When the Little Things Count . . . and They Always Count: 601 Essential Things That Everyone In Business Needs to Know

This post is courtesy of the Productivity @ Home Blog.

Today, we (the company I work for) received “good” artwork for custom printed balloons with a Catholic parish’s logo screen-printed on them.  Why am I making such a big deal about this?  You wouldn’t believe how many times we get artwork for Catholic organizations and churches that is simply unusable, either because it is a low-res raster image, or a really tiny high-res raster image.  I am almost embarrassed by this.

Art has always been a big part of the Catholic faith.  There is no reason our logos can’t be great too!  The following is a quick lesson of the differences between “good” artwork and what we classify as “bad”, “horrible”, or just plain “ugly” artwork!

Here is an example of what we are looking for when it comes to good, clean vector artwork (the red selection points are to show the vector attributes.)

What is the difference between raster and vector artwork?

Raster: are images made up of pixels (such as: jpgs, gifs, tiffs, picts, psd, bmp, etc…) and can become distorted or “fuzzy” if blown up larger than it’s intended medium. For instance, web pages are generally created in low resolution which look fine on computer monitors and load very quickly. However, these low-res (usually around 72 dpi) images can not be used for print media. High resolution images are those ranging from 300 dpi or higher, at actual size. The acronym dpi stands for “dots per inch”.

Vector: art created in a drawing program (such as: Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Macromedia Freehand). Vector artwork can be blown up to the size of a building and still look as crisp as it did sized for let’s say a coffee mug. This is because vector art is not made up of pixels, but of shape objects.

Generally vector art is the preferred format of most suppliers, but this also depends on the type of medium the artwork will be used.

It is worth paying a professional to design your logo, or to have them recreate your existing logo in vector form.  The church secretary, using a low-end software package, just isn’t going to cut it these days.