With the Atlantic and Pacific hurricane season getting into full-swing, and expected to produce an above average number of storms, this is a good time to look at ways to keep track of tropical weather.  If you live in an area where tropical weather can become a factor, then you definitely need to keep up-to-date on the latest developments.  That’s why today I wanted to point everyone towards some good sources of news and information about tropical storms.

The Weather Channel’s Tropical Update Center

The Weather Channel, one of the most watched and trusted TV channels, as well a trusted web site, has an excellent page that shows news for both the Atlantic and Pacific basins.  The news gives updates of the development of systems, strength of existing systems, and news of their movement.  The map also can be switched between such options as Advisories, IR Satellite, storm track, projected path, satellite images of different areas of both oceans (as well the Gulf and Caribbean), and more.

NOAA’s National Hurricane Center

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, better known as NOAA, run the National Hurricane Center.  The NHC is responsible for all reporting and investigating of tropical developments – AKA the ones who fly the planes into the storms to get readings.  They are also responsible for issuing all watches and warnings.

Their website offers maps of outlooks, active storms, and marine forecasts.  There also other maps available depending on the current situation.  In addition, they offer season summaries, reports, and tracking charts.

Google Earth

Yes, Google Earth.  They have actually added weather information to keep users informed.  According to Google “You can also keep track of the current tropical storms through Google Earth, where we’ve made tropical storms part of the “default-on” Earth experience (just make sure “Places” is checked in the left Layers panel).”

They no get you stot only cover the US with Atlantic and Pacific information, but also several other areas where such weather exits, like the Indian Ocean and Tasman Sea.

“In Google Earth, you’ll find information on a storm’s intensity, heading, as well as the latest news and advisory information. Where available, we also provide links to download the historical and forecasted storm positions as a KML file. Be sure to turn on the “Clouds” layer under the “Weather” menu in the left Layers panel to visualize the magnitude of each storm.”

There are three good places started, but I am sure many more exist.  If you have, please share it in the comments below.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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Dropbox claims a usage base of over 175 countries, but now they are finally adding native language support for a few of them.  They announced today the addition of French, Japanese, German and Spanish.  They have also added a translation feedback system to allow users to help out with this transition.  According to Dropbox’s Dan Wheeler “Your input helps us make sure that Dropbox is perfect for your language. Big thanks to everyone on the forums for already sending us tons of great corrections — it’s made a huge difference! We hope you enjoy.”

Dropbox has become a go-to app around here.  We use if for almost anything – even my wife distributes school lessons for her students to download.  The best part is the more you use it the more free space you are given.  Whenever people log into your account to access files or sign up for an account of their own then you re given credit.  More available languages means even more opportunity.

If you would like to read more about how they are doing the thranslation then you can read about it over on the Dropbox Tech Blog.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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Thanks to an upcoming project I have recently had the need to convert Word documents I created into PDF files.  Since I already spend more than I care to mention on computer equipment and software I really didn’t want to shell out the nearly $300 for a copy of Adobe Acrobat.  So, I went searching for more economical alternatives to convert these files.  There is no shortage of free online tools and I am planning to try out a few different ones, but the first one I decided to test was doc2pdf.

doc2pdf is both a free online Word to PDF converter as well as a paid desktop app.  Since I love free (and I am sure you do also) I am only trying the free version.

To get started I navigate to the doc2pdf website and scrolled to the bottom of the page and clicked in the Convert this document box and then browsed to my file.

In the To box make sure Portable Document Format is selected and then click Convert document.  A box will open that prompts you to make some selections.  You can open the PDF with your default PDF reader, open it online with Docs Online, Zoho, Google Docs, or Vuzit, or you can save the file.

The conversion was almost instant – although, the document I tested was only one page with very little text.  It opened in my default PDF program, Foxit Reader, which allowed me to view it and also gives me the option to save it locally.

This app could not have been simpler or faster so it is definitely in the running for my product of choice in this category.  However, I still plan to test out a few other free converters I ran across in my recent search.  For now, though, this is one you can’t go wrong using.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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Although you may not have heard of it, as there has been little fanfare, today marks the launch of a brand new music website called Noisey.  It is “a new music discovery platform that profiles some of the most talented new bands and local music scenes from around the world.”  The debut was made official yesterday at SXSW with a live show that featured Bun B, Ariel Pink, Yuck, JEFF The Brotherhood, Oberhofer and Dirty Beaches.

They plan to add new content to the website on a daily basis.  There are 38 artists on the site as of today’s debut.  You can scroll across all of those acts on the main page.  You can also sort music by Most Recent or Most Popular or view live shows by location, which include The USA, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and many other places.

They also feature episodes which introduce viewer to new bands.

Each episode includes five segments, including a short documentary introducing viewers to the band and the local music scene, then four segments of uninterrupted performances. Launch episodes feature The Vaccines (UK), Das Racist (US), Pictureplane (US), Austin TV (MX), Duddi Wallace (ESP), Hotel Mexico (JP), Frittenbude (DE), The Shoes (FR), Bewitched Hands (FR), 24 Hours (CN), Criolo (BR), My Disco (AU), and No Joy (CA), among others.

If you’re a music fan, and enjoy being the person who discovers the latest up and coming artists before all of your friends, then this is a cool new resource.  With the backing of Dell and Intel the site may have a very bright future.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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If you are looking for old computer games then you may want to check out Free Oldies.  They have links to hundreds of old games that have become abandonware.  Since the games have been abandoned by their authors / companies there’s no need to worry about illegal downloading.  You will find links to games in such categories as action, sports, and adventure.  You can browse through the games by category. Yu can also search by title or release year.

Be warned that, while most of the site is in English, there are parts that are in French.  There are a ton of games here, many of which you probably have never heard of, but it’s fun to browse and try them out.  Every once in a while you will find a gem that will make it worthwhile.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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If you are a runner and a fanatic, as most runners are, about stats like distance, time, pace, etc then MapMyRun is something you may want to add to your tool list.  MapMyRun can do a lot of things – allow you map out course and get the distance and elevation of them, view routes created by other users, keep a comprehensive log, and many other things.

The primary focus of the website, as implied by its name, is mapping out runs.  This is simple to do – with just some mouse-clicking you will soon have route laid out and have the exact distance and elevation changes.  You can also save your routes so that you can build up a collection of choices you can peruse next time you are looking to do a run of, say, 5 miles.

You can enter all of your run’s statistics into the online log – even such information as heart rate, weight, calorie consumption for that day, hours of sleep, and personal notes.  Just click on a date in the calendar and begin entering all of your info.

While those are the two main features of the service you will need to go there, create a free account, and play around with it for yourself to find all of the cool, but lower profile, features. There are also mobile apps available for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.

When I started running in high school cross country my consisted of a notebook of lined paper and a pen.  It’s amazing how far everything, even something as basic as running, has come.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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If you are looking for a way to easily stream or download music then you may want to check out Riptune.  Riptune doesn’t actually store the music, but uses a search algorithm to quickly scan the web for .mp3 files.

The interface is clean and simple.  There is an option to search by artist, song name, or album title.  There are options to Play, download, or add a song to your playlist.  You can view the Now Playing, Playlist, and Settings.  Setting consists of one option – to change the background image.

When you click the Download Selected button you see a link appear below the main interface.  To download the song you will need to right-click that link and select Save link as…

I tried to look into the legality of it, but wasn’t able to find anything concrete.  They are simply a search engine so they probably can claim safe harbor.  It’s likely they won’t have any problems for now because it’s pretty low-profile, and also because Grooveshark has continued to flourish on much the same platform.

It’s a nice alternative to Grooveshark and I like the clean, simple, Google-like look.  The search is quick and results are good.  It’s a nice site to keep open in a tab if you like to have music while you are working.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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If you have a website then chances are you use WordPress to manage it.  Of course, you can do a simple search under the Themes heading in your WordPress dashboard and find lots of themes that you can use.  But, if you want to use a different theme then it requires an additional step.

After you have download the theme you want to use then you will need an FTP program, such as our favorite, Filzilla, to connect to your website.  If you need further information on setting up Filezilla the you can use this generic FTP guide we posted a while back.  For information on how to connect to your specific site then check with your hosting provider.

Once connected, via FTP, to your website then you will need to navigate to Root => wp-content => themes.

You will now need to navigate to your new theme’s folder in the left column and upload, or drag and drop it, to the theme’s folder in the right column of the FTP program.  While WordPress states that the folder does not need to be unzipped, I have found that it does not always show up in the WordPress dashboard unless it is.

As you can see, it’s a pretty simple process, and learning your way around an FTP program and connecting it to your web site is something anyone running a site should learn.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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YoHDR is a cool website that allows you to turn your photos into an HDR (high dynamic range) image.  You can use almost any camera to take three photos and upload them to YoHDR and process them.  HDR is the process of taking pictures at different exposures and then combining them into photo with the best effect.

As you can see from the example above there is a lot of detail that is gained in this process.  You will need a camera that allows you change the exposure, which most do.  YoHDR is a free to use website that helps photographers get the best photographs of their scenes. The site’s functioning is quite simple. It requires you to shoot three pictures of the same scene. The pictures should have varying exposure levels – underexposed, normal, and overexposed.

Once you upload the images YoHDR will process 2 “finished” versions – Vivid and Natural.  You can download both versions.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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Most of you know the big-time genealogy websites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.  But there are a lot of smaller sites that are very useful for those searching for ancestral information.  Here are three that can help you out in your quest.

Find A Grave

While it may seem like it, you are probably NOT the only person online searching for a particular person from the past.  Go to Find A Grave and you may be surprised that someone has already posted information on that long-lost forefather.  As the name implies this is a site where you can enter in or search for information and pictures from cemeteries.  Search by name and you may find burial location and information from the marker, which can include birth date, death date, and other things.

RootsWeb

Like Find A Grave, RootsWeb is a user-driven website.  While it’s now owned by genealogy powerhouse Ancestry.com, it remains much the same as it has always been.  Users can upload information – and they have done so in droves over the years.  The mailing  lists are second-to-none in the genealogy world.  You can sign up for location based lists for counties where your ancestors resided, surname lists, or subject lists such as Quaker.

I Dream of Genealogy

I Dream of Genealogy is the least known of the sites I have listed here.  They boast 60,000 resources and include vital records, SSN database, marriage records, and cemeteries.  They cover the US and many other countries such as England, Ireland, and Canada.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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