3 Places I visit for Video and Image Media

YouTube

YouTube is a website devoted to video content. Anyone can create an account and add videos of any kind within the regulations of not being copy written, illegal content and other limited parameters. There is everything from how to videos, music videos, slide shows and much more.   

Shutterfly

Shutterfly is a website to allow people to upload their personal photos in order to make prints or many custom photo products. You can share your uploads with other Shutterfly customers and there is an endless way to use your photos on Shutterfly.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a social media collaboration site that allows you to save and categories ideas, photos, videos, and websites. You can share this ‘boards’ or categories or keep them private for your own personal use. The pages that you view give each item saved a picture to associate with it. So the main content-m  of this site is photos. 

3 Blogs I'm Interested in Reading Regularly

Following Simplicity

This is a blog I currently follow and read regularly. This blog is about how to live a similar life with an emphasis on living a Christian life. The authors Gina and Zac Detweiler are former youth pastors and have three children. They have turned their blog and small business into their careers in order to have a more simple life and have more flexibility. This is what their blog focuses on. You can find posts on anything from how to make to make homemade laundry soap, having an urban farm to financial and marriage advice.

Lysa Terkeurtst

This is a blog I have followed for a long time. The author Lysa Terkeurst is the president of Proverbs 31 Ministers a Christian minister for woman and book author. This minister offers books, bible studies, and many resources for women in their day life. I have read many of her books and really connect with her point of view. Her personal blog she writes about personal topics primarily targeted at married women with children. There are posts on anything from marriage, your relationship with God, and overcoming setbacks. I enjoy this blog because it is very positive and encourage as well as often times teaches me something about myself.

Bend Tech

Bend Tech is a new blog to me that I found searching for this post. This blog focused on sharing information about Central Oregon technology startups. The author is the organization Tech Alliance of Central Oregon which has a mission to bring together people and ideas to create startup companies locally. I think I will enjoy reading this blog as there is a potential for me to find opportunities I would be interested in. I also find more connection to this blog because it is a local blog which I enjoy so it isn’t so far out of my world. 

3 Safety Suggestions I Need to Follow

   1. Use separate passwords for different services.

This safety tip is simple to understand but can be hard to actually do. So many of us have many different online accounts and services we login to very frequently. It is hard to memorize many different passwords or have to write them all down and risk losing them. From this week’s reading I found out there are password managers that can store and help you come up with strong passwords so you aren't having to come up with them yourself or remember all of them. I currently have a handful of different passwords but defiantly have overlapping ones as I have so many different accounts for this or that. From the information I learned about password managers I think I will try one of these services to help protect myself online a little better. This will help prevent someone from easily accessing all my online accounts with just one or a few passwords. If someone does hack or find out a password it would only be for one service verse many of those I have online.

2.Don’t share personal information while connected to public Wi-Fi.

When you are out of your home with your computer and connect to any wi-fi whether it is at a coffee shop or at school it is important to not share any personal information. This is a safety tip I do not follow well. I hate to admit it but with a busy life and so much of day to day life being done online it’s hard to avoid sharing some sort of personal data while on a public network. I plan to be more aware of what information I am accessing or sharing while connecting to wi-fi that is not my home wi-fi. By doing this I am preventing hackers from getting my personal data. I also found in our reading that if you must access personal data while on public wi-fi you can use a virtual private network tool to encrypt your usage or to use your personal mobile hotspot. These tools can help prevent someone from accessing the same public wi-fi and hacking into your connect to steal your personal data. I found a great article about safty and public wi-fi that opened by eyes a lot called 'Think Twice Before Accessing Personal Info.'

3. Understanding the cloud

The cloud is a way to store your files, pictures, videos and most any data type in a virtual online storage database. It is a great way to be able to access your file when you are away from your computer. There are many different service providers that offer cloud storage. I personally use a cloud storage system but I am not a huge user of it. I can say reading more about it this week especially in the 'How to Avoid being Hacked' article, it has made me look more into the security of my current cloud provider and what all I actually have saved on it. Although most cloud storage services are secure you are still putting your information out there and for someone else to watch over opening up the possibility of being hacked. So you need to be aware of what you have stored on the cloud and what the security of your service provider is. 

3 Productivity Web Tools

Google Calendar

I use Google Calendar on a daily basic and have for some time. I love this productivity tool. This tool is easy to use and great for keeping track of everything from important dates to your ‘to do’ list. I like that I can add my Gmail Tasks to my calendar to make sure I am not missing anything that needs done. I also use this to collaborate. It can be used at work by sharing your calendar with co-works but also have privacy but allowing you to change the settings to show busy while withholding the detailed information from everyone’s view. I use this with my husband so we know when we aren't together and need to schedule something if either of us have a commitment already. All you have to do to use Google Calendar is sign up for a Gmail if you don’t already have one and go to Google Calendar. You can also download the calendar as an app on your mobile device.

Evernote

I have not personally used this application before but have read how helpful it is and would like to try it out myself. I just downloaded the mobile version to test it out. After reading the High Performance Lifestyle blog I thought it was interesting that many of the experts had Evernote in their list of favorite productivity tools. I went to Evernote's website where you can download and use this application.Reading about it there seems to be a lot of great tools, like the find feature being able to find words and images even within your handwritten notes.

Google Drive

This is an application I have used but not to the extent it can help one be productive. I’ve used it in college course to work on collaborating on documents. I love that you are able to see previous revisions of documents and who edited what, as well as real time collaboration being able to see exactly what someone is doing as they are doing it. I ability to share documents, files and more so easily and be able to access it wherever is great for how much I am on the go. I also found a lot of other great uses for Google Drive to help improve productivity in this Practical E-Commerce article. If you haven’t used this application before all your need is a Gmail account as I talked about for Google Calendar. In the top right hand corner of your screen click on the tile icon and then the drive icon as shown in the image below.  You can also go to https://www.google.com/drive/ for direct access.