Today’s top story for November 24, 2015:
Video of my favorite band Papa Roach:
Travel Video for Porto, Portugal:
Animated cartoon with YoMama Jokes:
In today’s world, streaming music is the main stay. CD’s & tape cassettes are soooo 1990’s. With today’s technology everybody has a cell phone or a tablet, which makes it easier to have your music on the go.
In the past, I use to use Spotify. However, I seem to prefer Pandora Internet Radio. I really don’t know why I prefer Pandora. I think it’s because I already have it set up & my music preferences already set. Plus I’ve found the user interface pretty easy. That’s imporatant because my 6 year old daughter likes to give her favorite songs “Thumbs Up”.
To share MP3 music files, I would definitely recommend Reverb Nation. See my favorite song by the band Papa Roach embedded down below.
Pinterest is one of my favorite social media applications that I use. It is also the one app that I have the most followers. I like Pinterest because Im a visual person. I love bright photographs. I love colorful hair. I love nature photography. Also if I need a natural remedy to clean my house or tired of the same old recipes, Pinterest is the first place I head to find these ideas.
To me Pinterest is like a magazine stand. If I find an article that I like, I pin it to my board. Back in the day I would have to rip that page out & put it in a folder on my desk. This process saves paper & keeps my desk much cleaner.
Here is a link to a info graphic on Pinterest that explains what time to post & engage with your social media audience. Check it out. It may be useful for you…. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/128985976804120578/
I’ve been on Twitter for my business account for some time now (@StarAngelGFX). I have some followers, but not as many as I would like. I just need to be more consistent with using it via Buffer or Hootsuite. Check out my Twitter feed to see the 2 retweets required for this assignment.
Linkedin is a great social media tool for finding a job or linking professionally to your colleagues. I am currently updating my resume to this site. It is pretty much up to date with my most recent job & academic skills. My fellow colleagues are always endorsing my skills & I greatly appreciate it. I always return the gesture to them as well.
Check me out at https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=AAMAAAlIOqgBJSXNMrsZu7MQsyhKxHTuJp7I_Xg&trk=hp-identity-name
With so many browsers out there, Google Chrome is my favorite. Maybe I’m partial to it because I Google every question that comes to mind. However, as a web designer, it seems to perform the best with loading & displaying websites. As a matter of fact, as I type this now I’m using Google Chrome.
My second preference for web browsers would be Mozilla’s Firefox. It performs great and even has some great features that web designers love, like the Inspect Element. Inspect Element which lets the user see the HTML code of a web site. That feature….I LOVE!!
The third browser that I have is Microsoft Edge. Edge is relatively new & was installed when I upgraded to Windows 10. I’ve played with it a bit because I wanted to see if it was an improvement from Internet Explorer. It is an improvement but I think the stigmata of a Microsoft browser has stuck to me that it doesn’t work very well.
The extensions that I have are only installed on Google Chrome since I use that browser the most. Here is what I have installed…
Buffer is relatively new to me but it’s the one I use the most. Buffer is a content aggregator that lets me schedule my social media posts. It limits the number of posts I can load in my queue but I just like it for it’s convenience. The extension I have on my computer is mainly for my photography FB page. However, I use Buffer on my phone for my Twitter & Linkedin profiles.
The extension I’ve had the longest is Pin It. This extension allows me to pin any picture I see on the web directly to my Pinterest profile. I use to use it a lot when I was pinning like crazy. But now I mostly use it for my sister’s hair salon Pinterest page. It’s a great tool for all those Pinterest freaks!
Last Pass I just heard about and installed on my lap top today. With the numerous web sites that I build and subscribe to this extension should be a god send. So many times I struggle to remember what my login and password are this web site & that web site. This should relieve the headache and time wasted trying to figure out my credentials.
This work by Shannon Cavanaugh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at www.starangelgraphics.com
I most definitely will be putting this on my website, especially for my photography work. I like this idea. I think I will use this for the hair salon website as well.
Over the years, I have used several computer security software programs over the years. I would work daily on my computer thinking I was safe from malware, spyware & viruses as I surf the web. Some programs would claim to be the best, but most of them are just viruses themselves. Infecting my computer unbeknownst to me.
Then many years ago a nasty virus wiped out ALL of my design files & rendered my desktop computer useless. I had a professional look at my computer & I eventually had to have the hard drive completely wiped out. I cried for about a week afterwards. Then I got smart about the situation and educated myself.
I investigated numerous software programs. AVG, Avira, Panda, etc. Some worked ok, but others just plain sucked! The problem was I would pay for the software & it just wouldn’t work to my satisfaction. I wanted something that was effective & FREE!
Being a PC user, I decided to use the software program that is provided with my Windows operating system, Microsoft Essentials. It worked to my satisfaction but I still wanted to be a bit more through.
That’s when an IT friend of mine informed me about CCleaner & Malwarebytes. She had been using these programs from years with great results. Here’s a quick breakdown of what each program does.
CCleaner by Piriform is a small, effective program for computers running Microsoft Windows that cleans out the ‘junk’ that accumulates over time: temporary files, broken shortcuts, and other problems. It protects your privacy. It cleans your browsing history and temporary internet files.
CCleaner can also clean unneeded files from various programs saving you hard disk space, remove unneeded entries in the Windows Registry, help you uninstall software and select which programs start with Windows.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware’s industry-leading scanner detects and removes malware like worms, Trojans, rootkits, rogues, spyware, and more. All you have to do is launch Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and run a scan. It’s that simple.
After the conversation with my friend, I ran home & installed both of these programs onto my computer. I instantly ran both scans. I was amazed with what CCleaner & Malwarebytes found. I had 124 malware files & 225 unwanted “leftover” files from programs that I had uninstalled. Really?? Why didn’t Microsoft Essentials, or all of the other programs I’ve used, find these problems? Wow…I’M SOLD! My computer doubled in speed. It no longer froze in the middle of a project. The lag was gone…Yay!! (Needless to say I’ve been using these programs faithfully ever since.)
The moral of the story is to protect yourself and your computer(s). Investigate the pros & cons of a security program. Look at the reviews from users that are already using the product. And what’s most important of all is to REGULARLY run your security programs. It will save you time & money in the future.
This is my first attempt at a free blog on this site. Being a web designer, I have been using WordPress themes for many years but for websites only. So I like the fact that this blog spot is just like a miniature website. The back end interface is quite similar which makes this process much easier for me. The themes that are available for free are pretty nice, however, I seriously doubt I will pay for a theme. If I do decide to become a continuous blogger, I think I will do my blogging on my actual website.
I give this site 2 thumbs up. It definitely serves it’s purpose.
Shannon Cavanaugh 
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