Hello!

Here (finally!) is your very first Newsletter from The Web on Wheels!

I’m really excited to bring these newsletters to you.

And these newsletters are for you – if you would like something included, please ask. If you have a question, please ask.
You can be sure that if you’re having a problem with something on your computer, then someone else will be having that same problem too!

So your question will help someone else. Oh and we can help with other technology too. What about your mobile phone – do you know how to send a text message? We’ll cover that in a future edition.

In this issue we’ll look at:

• a brief history of the YouTube website and how to use the site;
• the video that’s on YouTube about the thirsty little koala in the Victorian Bushfires;
• how to view Microsoft Office files, even if you don’t have the programs;
• article: ‘Smile – love being you’; and
• a light-hearted moment

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Just a quick word about the content of this message.
Throughout this newsletter I have included various links to websites, and included some pictures. Sometimes those links don’t work.
It’s NOT you!
Sometimes your computer, or the system you’re using (eg. Hotmail, Outlook) decide to look after your security and block your ability to go straight to an outside website or to download pictures. Sometimes it’s simply that your computer is set to get only plain text messages. So no matter what you do, you won’t get the nice looking, easy-clicking tricks, your message will be just as it says – plain text without any of the fancy stuff.

If a link doesn’t work, try looking on your screen, usually toward the top of the email message and see if there’s some sort of message saying something about the link not being allowed. It might say, “Click here to download pictures” or “to protect your privacy downloads have been prevented” or “links have been disabled” – or something similar. Most of the time, it also gives you the option to click in that message area and give your computer permission to go ahead and allow the picture to come onto your computer, or allow you to get to the website.
(Let me know if things don’t work as you expect and I’ll get it sorted for you.)

Until next week, please take good care of yourself. This week’s news is a bit long-winded, but I hope you’ll enjoy it.

All the best,
Viv

“The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time”
Friedrich Nietzsche

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Site to See

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This week we’ll look at the site – You Tube

Brief History of YouTube

The website YouTube is one of the very many websites which are in the category of ‘Social Networking’. Essentially these type of websites have content – videos, written words, spoken words, music and pictures that are shared with others. People are encouraged to contribute to these websites by adding their own comments, or even adding their own information to build up a wealth of knowledge. (for example the Wikipedia site:   www.wikipedia.org )

You Tube was started by two guys who wanted to share their videos, so they made a site that would allow them to do just that – put their videos on the internet and let the other guy check it out. As with a lot of these ventures, it wasn’t originally the money that drove the technology – it was just some clever person wanting to do something.

They teamed up with another fellow, got some financing and it grew from there – and grew and grew. Within one year of the company’s launch it was bought in 2006 by Google – for US1.65 BILLION dollars! Such is the popularity of these video sharing sites that Google wanted a big piece of the action.

There are literally millions of videos on the site. And most of these are from ordinary people like you and me who want to share a video. It may be about something personal – perhaps a birthday party or the whopper fish that was caught. There are many business videos showing company products, how-to videos on all sorts of topics, there are famous speeches, as well as some quirky videos – really any subject is covered. My son has a video of his Lego spacecraft he made, and he’s showing people how it all works and goes together.

So in a nutshell; if you would like to put a video of your own on the YouTube website, you take a digital video, save the file, or at least know where the digital file is, then upload it to the site.

VERY BRIEFLY
MAKE A VIDEO: The video must be in a digital format, so one of the new video recorders, or the videos inbuilt into cameras and mobile phones produce digital video files.

SET UP YOUR FREE ACCOUNT with YouTube.
Go to the YouTube site, www.youtube.com and follow their steps to Set up a New Account.   (If you’re a full access member, I can help you with that)

UPLOAD VIDEO:   To put the video on the site, you ‘upload’ it.
Put the video card into your computer, or use a cable to connect your phone or camera to the computer – whatever other method is needed to take the video from the piece of equipment you used to take the video, to your computer. You can also save the video file onto your computer if you like, but it’s not essential.

• Go to the YouTube site, and Log In to your account.
• Click on the yellow Upload button.
• Move your mouse to the drop down arrow, and click on Video File.
• Click on the Browse button.
  This will then show a new window by which you find where your video is located – either on your computer, or still on the video card, or phone or camera – wherever you have the video stored.
• Once you’ve found the video file in the Upload file window, Double-click on the File.
  Your video will then go over the Internet to the YouTube site. Depending on the size of your movie (maximum allowed is 10 minutes), and the speed of your internet connection this can take a while. You will see the word Uploading displayed whilst this is transferring. Once it’s done, the word changes to Success.

ADD DETAILS: Whilst the video is uploading you can fill in the several blank fields below the space that shows you the progress of your upload.

- You can add a Title to your video, then in the next field, put in a bit of a blurb about your video.
- You can also add tags. A tag is a short descriptive word about your video. It can be something like fishing; holidays; recipes; fireworks, Boxer dogs …
This isn’t necessary, but it does help finding videos by certain topics easier.
- Next click on the down-arrow beside Category and click on the most appropriate one from the list.
- Next are the privacy settings for this video. You select whichever you want – share with everybody, or share only with you and up to 25 other people (your friends on YouTube).
- Lastly, click on the Save Changes button, and you’re done!

If you want to make any changes or additions to the video’s description or other details, you can always Edit it later.

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VIDEO IN FOCUS
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In this week’s example we’ll look at the video of Sam the Thirsty Koala.

You would no doubt be aware of the awful bushfires that we’ve been experiencing here in Victoria.
One of the few heartwarming things that we’ve seen is the video of volunteer firefighter David Tree giving a very thirsty koala a much needed drink.

Now you might have already seen this video and for those in Australia it’s almost certain that you will have, as the TV stations have shown it many times. But if you’d like to see it again, you can go the YouTube website, and see it any time.

This is the link to the video: Please click here to go to the website. (A new window will open with the video; you’ll need come back to this page to keep reading)
When you get to the site, the video will ‘organise’ itself on your computer – you might need to give it a minute or two to sort itself out. You’ll see a little symbol circling around on the black video screen. (Note: If you are on dial-up, then these videos can take ages to load, and maybe not even play at all.) Once the video has ‘loaded’ then it will start to play automatically.

On the You Tube site there are several options available to you. The controls for the playback of the video are on the Control Bar (funny about that ) at the bottom of the video screen.

Your choices from left to right on the Control Bar are: * play/pause * video place-marker * volume *  full screen

You can choose to let the video play on, or you can pause it any time, by clicking on the PLAY/PAUSE button on the control bar. It’s much like the play button on a video/cassette/CD player – the button changes to Pause once the video plays, and vice versa.

Next on the Control Bar, is the button that shows you visually where the video is currently, in relation to the total length of the video.
For example in the video of Sam the Koala, the total length of the video is 2 minutes 28 seconds.    The digital display shows you how many minutes/seconds has been played, (in the picture it is showing as 1:09 / 2:32. So 1 minute, 9 seconds has been played so far). The horizontal bar shows red on the left hand side for the portion that’s been played, and grey for the portion yet to be played If you wish, you can click on the little button between the red and grey areas, and drag it left or right to move forward or back through the video.

To the right of the digital time display, the next button is the VOLUME button. Double-click the speaker button to adjust the volume.

The next button is a SHOW FULL SCREEN button. As it implies, when you click on this button, the video will enlarge to the full screen size. When you want to return to normal size, just click anywhere on the screen and back it will go to normal.

Below the video screen you will see COMMENTS that people have left. In this particular example YouTube have disabled the comments, at the request of the Victorian Police as there have been many discussions about a suspected arsonist who has yet to face court. On other videos though, you may leave your own comments, if you have signed in.

Also listed is the number of times someone has clicked on the video and watched it. (number of VIEWS)

Now over on the right hand side of the screen you will see related videos – if you click on any of these that particular video will play.
If you are looking for a particular topic, there is a Search box, up on the right hand side. Type in a topic and press enter and you’ll be presented with a list of videos – again, click on any that interest you.

So that’s the basics of using the YouTube site. If you would like to see the video of Sam the Koala, here’s the link again.

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This week’s problem and solution

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This week’ David had a problem viewing email attachments on his computer.

Have you ever been sent an email from someone with an attachment that you really want to see, but when you double-click on the attachment you’re presented with a window that says something to the effect: “Microsoft cannot find the program to open this file ….”?

Often the file you’ve been sent is one that was made with one of the Microsoft Office programs. If you don’t have the particular Office program, then your computer won’t know what to do with the attachment, hence it’s error message.

Microsoft have at least got your solution to two of these problems, without you needing to go out and buy the programs.

They call it a Viewer file. So it will allow the attachment to be viewed on your computer, but you cannot make any changes to it.
But if you’re just trying to see what the PowerPoint attachment is, all you need to do is view it anyway, so that will suit just fine.

To get the Viewer files you will need to visit the Microsoft website, and go to the section for the particular viewer you need. Don’t worry, I’ve got the direct links below, so you won’t have to go digging around for them.

The attachments that people often send are Microsoft Word files and Microsoft PowerPoint files.
The way to tell which is which is to find the file extension at the very end of the Attachment’s name.  For example, I’ll be sending an email with an attachment to you. It’s called:    SmallestAirport.pps . The .pps stands for PowerPoint Slide Show.

If an attachment ends in: .doc   or   .docx	it’s a Microsoft Word program.
If an attachment ends in: .pps, .ppsx, pptx   or   .ppt	it’s a Microsoft PowerPoint program.

You can go to the Microsoft site and download these viewers if you wish, and then whenever you get any of those types of files your computer will play them.

Here are the links to the Viewers (as at February 2009):
PowerPoint Viewer:

Word Viewer:

If you’re up to trying this on your own (and good on you!), The quickest way is:

Click on either of the above links: Click on Download Click on Run

Depending on the way your computer is set up, you will probably need to give your computer permission to run these programs. Just click on the Continue or Allow or Run buttons as appropriate.
Once it’s gone through the Run procedure, then your computer will happily play these types of files.

As always, if you need a hand with making this happen, please let me know. Just Reply to this email and let me know what you need.
(More detailed steps for how-to-download files will follow in a future edition.)

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How are you?

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I really am interested in how you are feeling. It’s not just the usual greeting that people make and don’t really care about the response. (“Hi, how are you?” “Fine, thanks, how are you?” …)

Here’s an article that I found interesting – hope you do too.
It’s from Lenore Miller, and her website is: Outrageously Healthy. It’s what I’m going to be one of these fine days!
Her website is: www.outrageouslyhealthy.com

If you’d like to look at the article at Lenore’s own website, here’s the link:
http://www.outrageouslyhealthy.com/Article/article/HealthandWellbeing/Smile-lovebeingyou.html
otherwise, read on.

Smile – love being you

“It costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.” Dale Carnegie, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’

Have you ever heard it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile?

It can take as little as five and as many as 16 to smile. Like any muscle the more you use your smile, the stronger it gets and the more smiling benefits you receive.

There are many health benefits to smiling, including increasing your sense of wellbeing and pleasure with each day. Smiling also improves your health by boosting your immune system and lowering your blood pressure. It’s a great stress reliever and increases your attractiveness to others.

Smiling has been found to release powerful neurotransmitters like endorphins and serotonin – our body’s natural ‘feel good’ drugs. Endorphins are also released when laughing, exercising, having sex, eating chocolate, sunbathing, during massages and meditation, when dancing, singing and listening to music – just about anything that leaves a smile on your face. Serotonin is a vital part of regulating our moods, sleep, sexuality and appetite. The serotonin/smile relationship goes both ways – good mood, getting good sleep, good sex and good food will ensure the smiles and serotonin keep coming.

The term “keep your chin up”, has real physiological benefits. Notice what happens when you stretch your neck backward and look up – a natural smile forms in the facial muscles. There are many simple movements in the practice of yoga that produce this effect, which is probably why participants have a giant grin on theirface after a yoga session.

While happiness comes at all ages, smiling into your golden years can actually promote longevity. In a study on optimism published in General Psychiatry, of those over the age of 65 optimists were 71 per cent less likely to die from certain causes than that of pessimists. A life full of smiles also exercises muscles in the face, which helps prevent drooping and saggy skin.

Here are some reasons smiling is good for us:

1. Smiling makes us attractive
We are drawn to people who smile. We want to know a smiling person and figure out what is making them smile. Frowns, scowls and grimaces all push people away, but a smile draws them in.

2. Smiling changes our mood
Next time you are feeling down, try tricking your body by putting on a smile. There’s a good chance you mood will change for the better.

3. Smiling is contagious
When someone is smiling they light up the room, change the mood of others and make things happier. A smiling person brings happiness with them. Smile lots and you will draw people to you.

4. Smiling relieves stress
Stress can really show up in our faces. Smiling helps to prevent us from looking tired, worn down and overwhelmed. When you are stressed, take time to put on a smile. The stress should be reduced and you will be better able to take action.

5. Smiling boosts your immune system
When you smile immune function improves, possibly because you are more relaxed. Prevent the flu and colds by smiling.

6. Smiling lowers your blood pressure
When you smile, there is a measurable reduction in your blood pressure. Sit for a few minutes and take your blood pressure. Then smile for a minute and take another reading while still smiling. Do you notice a difference?

7. Smiling releases natural feel good drugs
Studies have shown smiling releases endorphins, natural painkillers, and serotonin. Together these three make us feel good.

8. Smiling makes you look younger
The muscles we use to smile lift the face, making a person appear younger. Don’t go for a facelift, just try smiling your way through the day – you’ll look younger and feel better.

9. Smiling makes you seem successful
Smiling people appear more confident, are more likely to be promoted and to be approached. Put on a smile at meetings and appointments and people will react to you differently.

10. Smiling helps you stay positive
Try this test: smile. Now try to think of something negative without losing the smile. It’s hard. When we smile our body is sending the message, “Life is good”. Stay away from depression, stress and worry by smiling.

My favourite affirmation is, “I’m so happy I can’t stop smiling”. It always helps put a smile on my face. If I don’t feel like smiling, I try to “fake it until I make it”. I pretend I am happy by smiling anyway and usually I find I am feeling better in no time.

Outrageously Healthy Tip: Practice smiling. When you are exercising, taking a walk or looking at yourself in the mirror tell yourself, “I’m so happy I can’t stop smiling”.

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Humour me!

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Subject: A Christmas with the family

A man in Brisbane calls his son in Adelaide two days before Christmas
and says, “I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother
and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough.”

“Gees Dad, what are you talking about?” the son screams.

“We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer,” the father says,
“we’re sick of each other, and I’m sick of talking about this, so you
call your sister in Darwin and tell her.”

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone.

“No way they’re getting divorced!” she shouts, “I’ll take care of
this.”

She calls Brisbane immediately and screams at her father, “You are not
getting divorced. Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my
brother back, and we’ll both be there by tomorrow. Until then, don’t do
a thing. DO YOU HEAR ME?” and hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. “Okay,” he says,
“they’re coming for Christmas and paying their own way.”

I’ll bet you don’t know anyone like that!!! Let me know if you’ve got a joke to share with us.

Bye for this week,
Smiles and best wishes
Viv

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