Be Your Own IT Blog » Free Stuff

Forward Urgent Emails to Your Cell Phone as Text Messages

Ty — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:01:25 +0000

So, I wanted to write today about something I recently did, and for me was kind of cool and exciting.

I have tons of email addresses. I have my work email, 3 personal emails, and a bunch of personal business email addresses. I get flooded with messages every day to say the least.

I noticed the other day that I get a daily email that is very time sensitive, and if I can read the email right away when it is sent to me, I can capitalize on some opportunities. The email usually comes into my Inbox around the same time each day, but I’m a busy guy, I forget what time it is, I don’t always go in and check for it right away. And my schedule doesn’t permit me to sit in Gmail and keep hitting refresh.

You might have a similar situation. No matter what the reason, if you have an email that comes from a certain person or business, or has a certain subject line, you can forward those emails to your cell phone as text or MMS messages, so you’ll be instantly notified once the email comes in.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1

You probably have an email address with your cell phone carrier and you might not even know it. It’s usually your 10-digit number @ the service providers email domain. Here are some examples for major carriers:

[Insert XXXXXXXXXX with your 10-digit cell phone number]

AT&T:

XXXXXXXXXX@mms.att.net (I prefer mms because the text message sender will be the email address that is forwarding the message)
XXXXXXXXXX@txt.att.net (The text message sender will be a random phone number)

Verizon:

XXXXXXXXXX@vzwpix.com (mms)
XXXXXXXXXX@vtext.com (text)

Sprint:

XXXXXXXXXX@pm.sprint.com (mms)
XXXXXXXXXX@messaging.sprintpcs.com (text)

T-Mobile:

XXXXXXXXXX@tmomail.net (text)

US Cellular:

XXXXXXXXXX@email.uscc.net (mms)
XXXXXXXXXX@mms.uscc.net (text)

So try it out first. Open up your email, and send a test message to your email to SMS gateway as described above. If you get the text message on your phone, you’re good, move on to Step 2. If it didn’t work, call you carrier and make sure they have your phone number email address setup. If your carrier isn’t in the list of providers above, here are some more for your reference.

Step 2

Go to your email client. I’m using Gmail for demonstration purposes.

Once you’re logged into your Gmail account, click on “Settings”
Go to the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab
Add a forwarding address. Use your email to SMS gateway, 1234567890@mms.att.net, for example
Gmail will send you a text with an confirmation code. Enter that code into the confirmation box in Gmail and click verify.
Go the “Filters” tab and either edit a current filter or click “Create a new filter” to set a new one
Edit the filter criteria. Make sure to be a specific as possible so you only get forwarded the emails you want.
Click on the “Test Search” button to ensure your filters are bringing up the emails you desire to have forwarded. Then click “Next Step”
Check the “Forward it to” box and choose your email to SMS address in the drop down. Click on “Update Filter”
You’re done. Now the next time one of those emails hit your Inbox, you should get a text or mms notification on your cell phone within seconds.

Enjoy. Let us know if you have questions or any ideas to make this better.

Thanks!

Forward Urgent Emails to Your Cell Phone as Text Messages is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Something to Make Use Of

Kevin — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:07:46 +0000

MakeUseOf.com is a website/blog where you can read about cool websites, computer tricks and downloads that make your life easier and more productive. MakeUseOf’s mission is to guide you through the web and tell you about hot websites that you have never heard of, best software programs, and all kinds of “how to” tips for Windows, Mac and Linux computer users. Launched in 2006, MakeUseOf has over 450,000 subscribers and was founded by Aibek Esengulov and Kaly Mochoev. By subscribing to the site, you get daily e-mails about the newsletter so you are always in touch with the website. Along with the newsletter, MakeUseOf has tons of give-aways. Recently I won the WinX Cell Phone Video Converter and received a personal e-mail from Jackson Chung, Associate Editor of MakeUseof.com telling me that I won and thanked me for subscribing. When you get a chance, check out these people and subscribe to the newsletter, you will not regret it.

Something to Make Use Of is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Defragmenting=Very Important

Kevin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:00:54 +0000

To keep your computer running as fast as possible, it is important to perform certain maintenance tasks on it. One these tasks are called defragmenting your hard drive(s) or defrag for short.

What is defragmentation?

Let’s say you have saved a bunch of files to a brand new hard drive (HD) and then over time you remove half of them. Those spaces or blocks you removed the files from are empty but scattered throughout the HD. Now let’s say you save a much larger file to the HD. The system will use the smaller blocks first thus breaking the file into pieces. When you go to open that file, the system needs to reassemble the file and depending on how many blocks the file resides in will depend on how long it will take to open. Defragging your HD will put those pieces in order allowing the system to find them faster and open quicker. Running periodic defrags will keep your system running as fast as possible and although Windows comes with its own utilities including one for defragging, I use a software called Defraggler.

Defraggler

Defraggler can be found here and is developed by Piriform. With Defraggler you can analyze and defrag your HDs as well as certain folders and files. I found it to be very fast and a better utility than the one offered by Windows.

Defragmenting=Very Important is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Getting music can be free and legal…

Kevin — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:55:10 +0000

If you are like most people in the world, you have some type of MP3 player. Whether it is an Apple product, Microsoft product, or another named brand device, one thing remains the same, downloading music costs money. If you search the internet, you will find thousands of entries for free music downloads, but how safe or how “free” are they? More importantly, is it legal to download from these sites? Being and Apple customer, it got very expensive to keep buying music at .99 and now 1.29 but recently I was introduced to a site on YouTube called Jarvmp3 and you can get to it from here.

Jarvmp3

Jarvmp3 is free, completely legal and virus free. The interface is simple to use yet very powerful. You can register for the site, but it is not necessary for use of the site.

With Jarvmp3, you can:

Search music or lyrics.
Listen to a sample to make sure it is the correct song you are looking for.
Once you find what you are looking for, you can download or play it.
Copy and paste the embedding code for your website.
You also have an option for to make a ringtone but that carries a monthly charge.

I use Jarvmp3.com for my own personal collection, once downloaded, I load it into iTunes and sync up my iPod. As I said earlier, I learned about this site on YouTube and the channel I found it on can be found here. I also did a video about it myself and you can see that here.

Please make sure to read the Terms of Service on Jarvmp3, it can be found at the bottom of the page.

Getting music can be free and legal… is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Audacity: The free audio editor

Kevin — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:40:55 +0000

Problem:

One of the biggest problems I run into is editing music and sounds for my videos and/or websites. Like anything else, there are plenty of software packages you can buy to edit music. Depending on your needs, sometimes freeware is the way to go and I feel Audacity is one of those exceptions.

Resolution:

Audacity is an audio editor that can be used for all types of things. I use Audacity all the time to make ringtones for my iphone, music drops for my videos and to edit sounds for my websites.

Here is the list of features Audacity offers: (From the website)

Recording

Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize recordings from cassette tapes, vinyl records, or minidiscs. With some sound cards, it can also capture streaming audio.

Record from microphone, line input, or other sources.
Dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings.
Record up to 16 channels at once (requires multi-channel hardware).
Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording.

Import and Export

Import sound files, edit them, and combine them with other files or new recordings. Export your recordings in several common file formats.

Import and export WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files.
Import MPEG audio (including MP2 and MP3 files) with libmad.
Export MP3s with the optional LAME encoder library.
Create WAV or AIFF files suitable for burning to CD.
Import and export all file formats supported by libsndfile.
Open raw (headerless) audio files using the “Import Raw” command.
Note: Audacity does not currently support WMA, AAC, or most other proprietary or restricted file formats.

Editing

Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete.
Use unlimited Undo (and Redo) to go back any number of steps.
Very fast editing of large files.
Edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks.
Use the Drawing tool to alter individual sample points.
Fade the volume up or down smoothly with the Envelope tool.

Effects

Change the pitch without altering the tempo, or vice-versa.
Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises.
Alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass Boost effects.
Adjust volumes with Compressor, Amplify, and Normalize effects.
Other built-in effects include:
- Echo
- Phaser
- Wahwah
- Reverse

Sound Quality

Record and edit 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit (floating point) samples.
Record at up to 96 kHz.
Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and dithering.
Mix tracks with different sample rates or formats, and Audacity will convert them automatically in realtime.

Plug-Ins

Add new effects with LADSPA plug-ins.
Audacity includes some sample plug-ins by Steve Harris.
Load VST plug-ins for Windows and Mac, with the optional VST Enabler.
Write new effects with the built-in Nyquist programming language.

Analysis

Spectrogram mode for visualizing frequencies.
“Plot Spectrum” command for detailed frequency analysis.

Free and Cross-Platform

Licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and GNU/Linux.

Check out Audacity…What do you have to lose?

Audacity: The free audio editor is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Creating a webpage can be a breeze

Kevin — Mon, 03 May 2010 12:33:28 +0000

Over the last year I have been actively researching ways to create my own website. Not really understanding HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) I started reading books and scouring the internet for tutorials. I found quite a bit on YouTube and learned how to read the language but not being the most creative, I was coming to the reality; you need expensive software or buy into a site that offers all the tools needed to complete your website. I didn’t want to jump in to the pool with both feet until I learned how to swim and rather than put out a big expense, I started looking for alternatives.

PageBreeze

Getting free web hosting is quite easy and most of them have website builders but you are limited without some type of HTML editor. I was determined to find something and recently I came across PageBreeze. PageBreeze is free but it does offer a paid version…I currently use the free version and am quite happy with the results.

Ease of use

With PageBreeze you pick from one of their default templates, use one of your own templates or create one from scratch. Once you have decided on a template you have all the tools you will need to create the perfect website to suit your needs.

With PageBreeze you can:

View the page normally. (Makes editing a snap)
Adjust the properties of the page. (Style sheets, Description, Meta Tags, and adjust the overall coloring)
Look at the HTML code. (With a little experience you can tweak the code to your liking)
Preview the page in Explorer. (Shows you the exact look in the browser as well check to make sure everything is working.)
Publish to an FTP site. (With all the correct credentials, this makes uploading you site a breeze)
Create forms. (From drop down menus to validation codes)

The interface reminds me of Microsoft Word which makes the text editing very easy to use. Check out PageBreeze, it is worth the price.

Creating a webpage can be a breeze is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Quick Hit: Grab Video off Hulu and YouTube

Matthew — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:07:52 +0000

As people get ready to go on vacations this spring, many will be looking for something to keep them entertained as they travel. While some planes now have wi-fi, many still do not, which leaves you without the ability to stream video. There’s some great programming out there streaming on sites like Hulu and YouTube, but you can’t watch it without a internet connection. Not anymore, as a great new program lets you capture streaming video to watch back later.Note: Be Your Own IT does not advocate piracy and is not telling you to create a Hulu library that you will keep forever. However, if you want to add an additional dimension to time-shifting, go right ahead.

Grab Hulu Videos with StreamTransport

Take your videos from Hulu to go with StreamTransport. This great little utility is pretty barebones, but it more than gets the job done. You can point it to the Hulu video that you want to grab and watch later, click a button, and you’re good to go when it’s done. This program does not offer the ability to convert the resulting files, which are flv, for use on other devices. If you need to take that route, check out VLC Media player. It will play flv files on your PC, but also convert them for iPhones, iPads and other devices. You can even convert the files to playback on a PS3 or Xbox 360.

Stay legal as much as you can by watching your shows on Hulu, but if for some reason you have to take it with you, try out StreamTransport. It’s free and easy to use!

Quick Hit: Grab Video off Hulu and YouTube is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

Alternatives to Expensive Software

Kevin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:16:03 +0000

There is an old adage out there that says, “You get what you pay for…” until now.

Have you ever downloaded free software that didn’t work that well, was a stripped down version that was limited or one that was on a time trial and before you knew it you were shelling out the necessary $$$ to keep that software package? This was the scenario for me most of the time but I have been introduced to a website that will allow you to search for an alternative to the more expensive software(s) and in most cases, the functionality to make it worth while.

Alternativeto

Alternativeto.net is a website designed to search for better options than to pay for the high priced software(s) on the market today. Take Photoshop for instance; when you use the “Find and alternative” link, it lists a boat load of software packages that are comparable to it. Some are free and some have a fee but either way you are getting good software and not killing the wallet. Alternativeto is cross platform, whether on Windows, Mac or Linux, you can customize the search for your operating system. There is also an online search function if you would rather use a web based application.

In Closing

I have found this website to be as an asset, I hope you do too. Check out Alternativeto, what do you have to lose?

Thanks goes out to ikedtec for the introduction to this site and you can find the video on it here.

Alternatives to Expensive Software is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

‘Ware Wednesdays: GIMP – Free Image Editor

Matthew — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:00:45 +0000

As we create a larger presence for ourselves online, many people need ways to edit images. It may be for a blog, a photo sharing site, a Facebook page, even a LinkedIn profile. Since Photoshop costs over $200 dollars and even the stripped down version of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, is close to $100 dollars, there is a great need to discover a usable and useful alternative. If it didn’t cost nearly as much, that would be a great plus as well. Luckily, there’s a great free image editor called GIMP. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program.

Image Editing At No Cost

The best part about GIMP is that it is free. No fees, no licenses, no nothing. All you have to do to get GIMP is download and install it. You can find GIMP on a number of sites, but the most reliable source is always from the author. Here is our recommended download link for GIMP.

Plenty of Functions – More Added Each Day

In the short time that I’ve used GIMP, I haven’t been able to find anything that it couldn’t do for me. Minor touchups and alterations are just as simple as they are in Photoshop. Resizing and cropping works just as easy. Doing work with layers is just as intuitive. While I’m nowhere near the level of a Photoshop expert, I found it was capable of handling just about every task I threw at it.

One of the best parts of GIMP is the ability to add plug-ins. Developers are constantly coming up with improvements for GIMP and making them available to all users. GIMP’s authors even do a pretty good job of testing and evaluating the plug-ins, while also letting the community have its say. Check out some of the great GIMP plugins.

One Minor Drawback – GNU Based

One minor hassle that I’ve found with GIMP is that it wants to save the files it creates as GNU files, which have some limitations. Many places on the web will not recognize these files as appropriate image uploads. GIMP does give you the option of saving your creations in different formats though. It’s quick and simple to save as a JPG or a GIF. You do have to jump through one additional hurdle, but it doesn’t negate the great value that GIMP has to offer.

‘Ware Wednesdays: GIMP – Free Image Editor is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog

John’s Background Switcher: Desktop Customization

Kevin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:00:15 +0000

If you are like me, you don’t like plain and boring backgrounds. Through one my YouTube subscriptions, I have been introduced to great piece of software to create customized backgrounds for your desktop. That software is called John’s Background Switcher (JBS) and it was written by a gentleman named John Connors.

JBS can be set up to change pictures periodically to as much as every hour. You can use pictures from your computer, Flicker, Facebook, and/or Picasa. Once you setup the credentials, it will pull the photos you select. This program launches on start up and sits in your system tray, it does very little to hurt your system’s performance so you have no worries about slowing your computer down.

There are quite a few options on how to view your photos. From colorization to how they are viewed on the desktop, your possibilities are virtually endless. As far as operation systems go, I have used this on XP, Vista and Windows 7 with no problem.

John’s website can be found here and it has other useful programs, information and templates on it. JBS along with the other softwares listed on his site are freeware.

Thanks to Britec09 for the video on this software.

John’s Background Switcher: Desktop Customization is a post from: Be Your Own IT Blog