Several short snippets this time, from repeating yourself to digital photos to repeating yourself. (Get it? Sorry…)
Why you have to repeat yourself online
Often, when you’re typing your details in on a website, you have to type the email address (and occasionally other bits) twice. For example when you’re signing in to use an online shop.
It seems a bit odd – but it’s not that the website didn’t hear you the first time (though I’ve used websites so poorly designed I might believe it…)
It’s just that a lot of people make small typing mistakes when typing in their email addresses. And just one letter different stops it working.
So they get you to type it in twice and if the two don’t match, you’ll get an error message asking you to check it. That way it should be right and you won’t miss out on whatever it is you’re signing up for.
More about printers
I mentioned last time about the printer I’d bought recently. If you can’t remember, I was after a new printer for home – I don’t print much at home so I didn’t want a big fancy one.
What I didn’t say was if you do print more, the thing to look at is not the cost to buy the printer – it’s the cost of the ink. If, like me, you don’t print much, then a cheap printer might well be right. If you print a lot, though, look at the cost of the ink instead and it’ll probably be cheaper in the long run to buy a more expensive printer.
Thanks to Alan for suggesting I mention this.
A question about digital photography
I was asked recently if the new videos I recorded earlier this year included much about digital photography – the answer’s not really. There’s a little bit about using a mobile phone or tablet to take photos, just so you can see how it works. But there’s nothing about using a proper digital camera, tips for taking good photos or editing the photos once they’re on your PC.
That’s because I’ve already covered all that specifically – how to use a digital camera, putting the photos onto your PC, editing them if you want to (for example removing red-eye or straightening a wonky photo) and printing them out.
You can read more here: www.helpfulbooks.co.uk/photovideosMay2013.html
A trick you can use in Google
If you use Google (the search engine) to find information you’re after on the web, you can also use it to define words or phrases. Just type in the word define, then a space and the word or phrase you’re after. You can also put a colon after define, like this: define: philosophy of history. (In theory that gives you a slightly different thing but in practice it works in much the same way.)
It works either if you go to www.google.co.uk or if you just type it into the search box in your web browser (assuming your browser uses google rather than one of the other search engines). It can be useful as a quick and easy way to check what a word or phrase means.