The newest news… what you want, when and where you want it… free and easy!

by Bob McCluskey on February 10, 2010

Computers for senior citizens: information overload.

I admit that I am an information junkie. I suppose that had something to do with my gravitation toward education as a career. However, I never had as much fun indulging my information compulsion as I do now that I am “semi-retired.” When I worked for educational institutions I dealt with information that was structured by the needs and demands of other people. Now I can deal with the information I like. The Internet came along a perfect time for my retirement.

Research tells us that the likelihood of living to 100 years of age is higher than it has ever been in human history. I plan to use my life expectancy to absorb and try to understand as much interesting information as possible. The problem is, there is just too much of it. Web wise seniors really need efficient ways sorting through all of the available information and digesting it as efficiently as possible. In this post I am going to tell you about a tool that does just that. It brings information write to our computer desktops on a schedule that we control and in a form that is meaningful to us.

Even on the World Wide Web, traditional information tends to reside with traditional information sources. However, much of the really interesting information is created and published on a daily basis by individuals. Typically, this information originates in the form of blogs. The word “blog” is a contraction of the words “web log.” A blog is a kind of a journal that is published on the Internet. It is certainly possible to find blogs by using the typical search engines. There is, however, a much more efficient way to connect with them. I usually call this tool a “blog reader.” It is more technically a “web feed.”

What is a Blog Reader and How Does it Work?

A web feed (or news feed) is a software program that is used to provide users with content that is updated frequently. A blog is one type of such content. Blog authors can easily publish to a web feed, and users can subscribe to it. Bringing a collection of web feeds together is called aggregation.  A blog reader is a kind of aggregator. It works like this: a blog author publishes a feed link on his/her web site to which people can subscribe using a program (which I call a “blog reader) running on their own computers or in a web browser. The aggregator constantly  checks all the computers that it serves to see if they have new content. If they do, the aggregator pulls that content together with all other content and makes it available to subscriber blog readers when they ask for it.

The Benefits of Blog Readers.

There are many benefits to using blog readers.

  • Subscribers don’t disclose their email address when subscribing to a blog to be delivered to a blog reader. They are not then increasing their exposure to the threats associated with email: spam, viruses, and identity theft.
  • Subscribers don’t have to send an unsubscribe request to stop receiving news. They just remove the blog from their subscription list.
  • The blog posts are automatically sorted on the reader screen.  Each blog has its own set of entries.  They can also be sorted by date, so you know the order in which they were published.
  • The blog reader works like an automated e-mail program, but no e-mail address is needed. The user subscribes to a particular web feed and thereafter receives updated content each time updating takes place.
  • Blog readers can be used on many mobile phones.
  • Blog readers can be used in personalized home page services like iGoogle or My Yahoo.
  • Organizations can use blog readers to easily and quickly distribute internal information.

Google Reader, as an Example.

Google Reader is the most widely used blog reader on the Internet.  When you want to read the latest information about some topic on the web, you can search for it and then directly visit the website where it is published or you can subscribe to that site’s web feed and have all the new published material delivered to you.  Google Reader constantly checks your favorite sites for new content and delivers it to. It doesn’t matter whether a site is updated once a day or once a month, you will receive it immediately. The reader displays your favorite sites in one place and enables you to subscribe. read and share all your blog subscriptions. It is like an inbox for the whole Internet. You can follow Google Reader on your mobile phone or even Twitter. If you are interested in more details about Google reader see the  Ultimate Google Reader Guide.

Late-breaking news: Google recently announced a cool update to Google Reader. You can now use it to track changes on any page; even those that don’t have a web feed. Google creates a news feed for these pages and displays a short excerpt of the page changes in the the reader whenever it sees a change. New you can automatically know when changes occur to your friends’ or business’s web sites, or be alerted to the latest sales in your favorite stores or on-line shopping sites!  For example, I subscribe to the “weekly flyer” pages for my local grocery stores.  When the flyers are updated they show up on my Google Reader and I “set them aside” for my next trip to the store.  I can, of course, print them out or I can just drag and drop them into a folder on my desktop and save them for later!  I no longer have newspaper inserts lying all over my house (where I can only find them when they are in my way!).  Now that I think about it, why do I need to get the newspaper anyway, now that I have my news reader?

If your life or business requires you to keep up with and organize lots of information from the Internet, or if you are just an information junkie like me, you will find the implementation of a blog reader indispensable. If you would like other information about computer or internet use, take a look at our computer classes for senior citizens.  Please let me know what you think about these ideas by using the comment form below. Thanks!

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Get your computer to pay you for a change!

by Bob McCluskey on January 26, 2010

Ordinarily, when I recommend computer accessories to my senior friends, I try to recommend the least expensive option for that type of accessory. I am going to make an exception in this case. This recommendation is based on many years of personal experience, cost and time savings.

How many times have you wondered when the “paperless office” was going to become a reality? How much paper have you accumulated in your own home office? Perhaps even more important, how much trouble do you experience trying to locate one of those papers when you really need it? Well, I can honestly tell you that I am an information junkie, but my home has been largely paper-free for many years.

The key to this accomplishment is the simple scanner. The key to the effective use of a scanner is the word “simple.” Based on my conversations with fellow seniors over the years, I would be willing to bet that many of you already have scanners, but never use them. I have heard lots of reasons to explain why people have scanners but don’t use them.

  • “They are too complicated.”
  • “It never works right.”
  • “I can’t get it connected properly.”
  • “I don’t really know what to do with it.”
  • “It takes up too much space on my desk.”

None of those objections apply to the little device pictured on this page. It is simple and fast to install and operate. It can be placed between your keyboard and your monitor without, in many cases, taking up any extra space at all. It doesn’t even require another hard-to-come-by electrical outlet. It is powered completely by the USB port that connects it to your computer.

Before I got my scanner I had a stack of papers on my desk that I was going to “get around to” sending to people: newspaper clippings, recipes, photos… all the usual stuff. That stack just kept growing. I kept my wastebasket on the floor just below the edge of the desk where that pile grew and became ever more unstable. I used to joke that when the pile tipped over and fell into the waste basket I considered that a sign that God no longer expected me to do something with it. I discovered that if I hit the desk with my knee or open the window a little bit I could give me stack of papers a little help into the waste basket. We all have our own methods for dealing with these things.

Since I got my scanner, I can scan and file, e-mail, or copy those papers in a few seconds. Most scanners come bundled with the software required to accomplish these tasks.  For example, the scanner which is pictured on this page, which is one of several of this type available, comes with the following software:

  • Business card scanning. In many cases the software recognizes the name and address information on the business card and stores it properly in your contact list.
  • A program which can read and translate text from your scanned documents.
  • Another program which allows you to index and search for documents you have scanned in by entering parts of the actual text in the document.

This means that you can find any scanned document in any location on your computer by entering anything that is printed on the document, almost immediately. This eliminates the need for complicated disk organization or filing systems, with multiple files and folders that have to be kept in a certain order in a certain place on your disk. I used to be very proud of my disorganization, even though it failed me many times. Now I can retrieve documents within seconds without having to set up or remember complicated systems.  I can read them on my screen, email them, post them to my website or social account, or print them out.

In my previous career, as a school administrator, I was a specialist in filing and retrieval systems for documents. I have been responsible for being able to locate a particular paper document from among millions, on demand. I am aware that there is a certain psychological security and comfort level in being able to physically locate and see a document. I have been responsible for implementing paperless offices, even an entire paperless university, systems where hundreds of thousands of documents were scanned, electronically indexed and destroyed. I have seen the anxiety that can be provoked by this process. I have heard the question, “How do you know those documents are really still there?,” dozens of times.

The truth is, though, the security and retrieval rate for electronically stored documents is much higher than for physically stored documents. I always assume, of course, that every computer user has an effective backup and retrieval system or his/her machine. That is something that everyone absolutely should have, whether they are using their computer for a primary storage medium for their documents, or not. That, however, is a topic for another article.

I began this post by admitting that my scanner recommendation would not be for the least expensive possible device. So it is. However, no piece of equipment has value if it is not usable enough to pay for its cost. If your time and peace of mind is worth anything to you, this little scanner will return your investment many times over.

If you click on the scanner image above, you will find the Amazon.com listing for this scanner. There is no obligation for looking. No one will take your name or call you.  In the interests of disclosure I need to advise you that, if you purchase this item through this link, I will receive a small commission. However, this is not the purpose of my endorsement of this type of scanner, nor has it influenced my comments.

Please let me know what you think, or leave any questions you have as a comment to this post.

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Should I upgrade to Windows 7 (or whatever…)?

by Bob McCluskey on December 30, 2009

Windows 7 Upgrade

I am often asked whether it is important to upgrade to new computer operating systems when they become available. An “operating system” is the basic software that operates the computer and provides the “interface” by means of which the computer user communicates with the machine. For example, Windows XP and Windows 7 are operating systems made and sold by Microsoft to run personal computers.

Senior citizens are often reluctant to upgrade their operating systems for a number of reasons:

1.    There is usually a monetary cost for the upgrade. The cost is generally less than the cost of the original software, but is rarely free. Most computers are sold with the latest version of their operating systems installed and the cost  of the operating system is included in the price of the computer. When an operating system upgrade becomes available, computer owners often feel they are being asked to pay for something they originally got free. Trust me, operating system software is never free. If you need any evidence to support that statement, check out Microsoft’s balance sheet.

2.    Operating system upgrades are infrequent. As such, they are unfamiliar and the thought of them can make us uncomfortable. Humans don’t much like the unknown, and seniors can be even more vulnerable to such fears.

3.    Operating system upgrades have a bad reputation. Many people who have tried upgrading operating systems will tell you about nightmarish experiences: they don’t work; they destroy your computer: you have to call tech support, and so forth. These experiences are, for the most part, reflections on things that happened in the distant past, after which the victims never tried again. Actually, such experiences are rare with modern operating system upgrades.

4.    Using new operating systems involves an enormous learning curve. There is some truth to this objection (depending on how you define “enormous”). Most changes that provide benefits require some learning. Upgrading your computer is no exception. It is my opinion that, in most cases, the benefits justify the learning curve.

So, what are the benefits? Here are some:

1.    Improved ease-of-use. Notwithstanding the learning curves, software upgrades are intended to improve the features and ease-of-use of their systems, not to make them harder. The vendors who provide software upgrades normally describe the benefits in great detail in their advertising and promotional materials. It is up to the user to weigh the costs and benefits and to decide whether upgrading is worthwhile. In my opinion it almost always is.

2.    Ability to use the latest software. New software programs are designed to take advantage of the latest operating systems. There is generally some backwards compatibility built-in to new software so that it will work on a few of the most recent operating system versions. However, the programmers will not continue to write software that works on older operating systems forever. They assume that their users will want to take advantage of the new features and benefits of operating system upgrades within a reasonable period of time.  Eventually, if you don’t upgrade your operating system, new software won’t work on your computer anymore. At that point,  you may be facing an even more complicated upgrading process because you will be upgrading through several versions.

3.    Improved accessibility features. Software companies want to make their programs usable by as many people as possible, and as easily as possible. In recent months and years software upgrades have included more and more features to make them usable by disabled persons. Voice recognition, for example, has been implemented in most recent operating system upgrades.

4.    Compatibility with other users. When businesses, friends and family members upgrade their operating system software they acquire computing and Internet features that they will want to share with you. You will eventually have to upgrade your software in order to take advantage of these new features, as well.

Now let me go back and address some of the potential objections to upgrading that I mentioned above:

1.    There is usually a monetary cost for the upgrade. Almost everything that we own or use becomes less effective over time, sometimes completely obsolete. As we gain experience as consumers we learn to weigh the costs of replacing or upgrading against the benefits we are losing by continuing to use that which has grown old. Sometimes there are actual costs involved in remaining faithful to something we bought in the past. Software is no different. As a consumer who has invested time and money in using computers you owe it to yourself to determine the benefits of upgrading your operating systems.

2.    Operating system upgrades are infrequent. As such, they can make us uncomfortable. Actually, modern operating system upgrades are quite simple and foolproof. If you don’t want to take the time to read the directions, or if you are uncomfortable with the thought of upgrading, you can take your computer to almost any computer or office supply store and they will do the upgrade for you for a reasonable fee. If you buy the software from them, they may bundle the price of the software and the installation, resulting in even further cost reductions.

3.    Operating system upgrades have a bad reputation. Again, don’t let past experiences, or the anecdotal experiences of other people, prevent you from enjoying the benefits of an operating system upgrade. You are unlikely to have any problems. If you want to ensure success, have a local computer or software vendor do the upgrade for you.

4.    Using new operating systems involves and enormous learning curve. Well, we can always avoid change and effort by doing nothing. Challenging yourself to learning something new can be the very best way to avoid mental decline in your senior years. Learning new computer skills gives you a double benefit; it improves your quality of life as a citizen of the world and improves your mental health at the same time.

Now, let me bring some balance to close the discussion. It should be clear that I am generally in favor of taking advantage of software upgrades. However, I do suggest that you wait a while after the software upgrade becomes available before you upgrade. Although software upgrades undergo rigorous testing before they are released, no testing procedure is as effective as the stress testing the software will undergo once it reaches the hands of the public. Operating system software undergoes continuous modification after it is released in until the next version comes out. The majority of those modifications take place within the first few months after the new software becomes public. Why? Because the millions of people who dive into the new software right away uncover the little “bugs” that inevitably make their way into software development. I am generally impatient to try all the new features of an operating system upgrade right away. However, I have learned to  give new operating systems a little time to iron the kinks out before I start using them. Wait for a while.  Do an internet search to see what people are saying about the upgrade a few weeks after the upgrade is released. Ask knowledgeable friends and acquaintances. Ask people in computer stores.

When you find general agreement that the new software is working well… go ahead and upgrade.  You will be glad you did!

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Living to 100 – boring?

December 25, 2009

In recent months numerous news reports have discussed emerging research that indicates it will soon be common for people to reach 100 years of age. Many people who are approaching or have reached retirement age may find this to be good news. On the other hand, I know that many do not.
When I began teaching [...]

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