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'Bout Computers What's New at Linda's Computer Stop First of all, let me say it's nice to be offering you a new edition of ABC again. My hiatus was much needed and hopefully the ABC Fleet of writers and I are coming back to you refreshed and full of new ideas. However, some of the writers may have fallen asleep while we were on hiatus, cuz many of them did not contribute this month. Let's hope this new issue inspires them to once again share their excellence with us :-) Sooo ... what have I been doing for the past three months? Well, first of all, I've been testing a lot of new software. Unfortunately, most of it hasn't impressed me enuf to want to share it with you. But, I did come across one really good one that I love. I've been creating 3D stuff for the Sims 2 (you can see my creations here) and this takes me to a lot of free sites. Since many Sims 2 creators offer their stuff for free and can't afford to pay for a website, these sites often have a lot of aggravating advertisements and popups. Now, we all know programs like Google's popup stopper do a great job of blocking popups ... but most of these freebies do NOT remove the ads within a page. Some pages are so full of flashing, sparkling, twisting, animated ads, that it's almost impossible to see the content and in some cases, it gives me a headache. Now, I have mixed feelings about ads on a site. I really do understand the need for web sites to include ads to cover the cost of what they do and I do not object to that. I've even been known to visit a lot of these advertisers to try to help support these websites. But, ads don't have to be so intrusive. An ad that is simply a picture or some text is one thing ... but an ad that keeps bouncing up in front of me .... or is so animated that my eyes can't focus on the content of the page ... or, even worse, an ad that gathers information from MY computer! ... well, this just ticks me off and sometimes I will leave the page becuz of this. However, that's sad becuz the content of that page might really have been something I wanted to see and I missed out. So, when the makers of Super Ad Blocker came to me and asked me to test their product, I decided to give it a shot and I LOVE it. Not only does it remove ads from pages, it lets ME decide which ads I want to see and which ones I don't. And, it not only blocks ads, but it blocks lots of malicious, malware codes too! It's so easy to use and simple to configure. A real no-brainer. I had it set up with all my preferences in minutes. And, I can easily allow or disallow ads ... which is especially handy when I come to a site that won't even load if I block the ads ... in this case, if I really need to see the content on this site, I can simply tell Super Ad Blocker to allow ads on this site. Here's a sample of what I mean. This is one of those free screensaver sites. You know the ones I mean ... they have lots of fun stuff but often have distracting, aggravating ads. Here's how the site looks when I'm not running Super Ad Blocker. What you can't see here though is the ad at the top is bouncing around and very distracting. But I'm sure you've all seen these annoying ads telling us we've won something (yeah, right):
And, here's how the same site looks when I have Super Ad Blocker turned on. Ahhhh, so much better:
And when you are at any site, you can simply right click on the icon in your system tray and choose to "allow" ads from that site (not that Freelists has bad ads, mind you LOL):
And, any of you who have ever purchased anything I recommend, know I never recommend something unless I've tested it completely and have grilled the company's support system. I can tell you that the support team at Super Ad Blocker passed my tests with flying colors. Every question I submitted to them was answered VERY quickly and they went out of their way to give me detailed, accurate answers. Some of the best support I've ever received on a product! You can learn more about Super Ad Blocker and download a trial copy here. I think you will like it as much as I do. AND, Super Ad Blocker has given us a coupon so ABC readers can get a 20% discount if they order and give this coupon name (LindaABC). Just pop it into the coupon box when you place your order and click the "Apply Coupon" button...here's how it looks:
Oh, and a wonderful free service provided by Super Ad Blocker is their File Search Center, where you can get information on any program or process that is running on your computer. Very helpful if you are trying to diagnose whether or not something you see in your running processes is friendly or not. Check it out here! Other than that, my time has been filled with two things. One is real life work, which has been heavy. It seems the college I work for has recognized my ability to teach lots more classes so my schedule lately is absolutely nuts. The second is what I mentioned above. I've become a fanatic at creating 3D objects for Sims 2 gamers. Learning how to use 3D programs and getting familiar with vertices and faces and meshes and all kinds of stuff has been a MAJOR learning experience for me. I think this is some of the hardest stuff I've ever tackled on a computer. Compared to this, formulas in Excel and queries in Access are a walk in the park. LOL Now, I'm in the market for a new video card for my computer. Here I thought my video card was perfectly adequate for viewing 3D stuff, but I've come to find that some of the more subtle 3D effects are only visible to people with the highest quality video cards, so saving up for one of these is now a big part of my budget. Hope you all are well and surviving the winter (if it IS winter where you live). I look forward to offering you all kinds of new tutorials, articles, and great deals in upcoming issues. It's great to be back! Linda Johnson is a college instructor of all of the Microsoft Office Programs, as well as Adobe PhotoShop and Windows. She also teaches online distance learning classes in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word at Eclectic Academy. She has worked helpdesk and teaches and lectures at many local businesses and tech schools in her area. Support this newsletter by checking out Linda's eBooks, MS Word MAGIC!, Book I: Fonts, Fun & Formats and Book II: Table Wizardry, How To Get Started As a Software Trainer, and her newest series of MSOffice eBook Tutorials and CD |
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