WHICH MEDIA TOOLS ARE WORTH OF YOUR TIME

Article from: Andrea Goulet      Edited and Contributed by: Ainul Yasmin   
Uploaded By: Amalina

so with all of the tools out there, which ones are worth your valuable time and attention? This is a comprehensive view by Andrea Gouleta blogger who is passionate in bringing authentic, conversational voice to your marketing communications. In this article she focuses on some on the new media tools that can be used by individuals, businesses and organizations in leveraging  their communication mediums. 

MYSPACE

I usemyspace to keep in touch with all of my friends and family. That’s it – very little business (although I do have a link to my business website). I like myspace because I can send out event invitations to everyone at once. For example – my birthday is coming up (June 28th in case you’re feeling generous) and I wanted to get a bunch of my friends together. Instead of calling each friend individually, I sent an event invitiaton through myspace (similar to evite.com if you’re familiar with that). Myspace then emailed all of my friends and showed them the invitation. My friends can RSVP and leave comments.

LINKED IN

This is the one site that I can absolutely say did make me money this year. I’ll get to how in a minute. Let’s first talk about what Linked In is.The main complaint I hear about Linked In is how it doesn’t DO anything. People say they have a profile and contacts just sit there. Well, it’s kind of like potential vs. kinetic energy. Linked In is a database of your networking contacts and their history. I use LinkedIn as a followup to networking events. Instead of sending an e-mail I send a LinkedIn invitation. It’s all about building the database (potential energy) and using it strategically (kinetic energy).Here are three ways I use LinkedIn. 

First, if I have two contacts who need to meet eachother and they’re both in my Linked In network, I forward the LinkedIn profile instead of an e-mail. This way the person who’s receiving the referral can check out the other person’s history & recommendations. They can also e-mail them directly.Secondly, If I have a question I can send it out to my contacts. For example, I was doing research for an article about websites that make businesses productive. I sent out the question to my contacts and got some great responses. I only had to post once, and the information was sent out to everyone – great time saver.

Finally, the way I made money – when I left corporate and started my own business I updated my LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn automatically sent an e-mail to all of my professional contacts letting them know that I had changed my profile and was now self-employed. Within 24 hours I received 15 phone calls, set 8 appointments and landed my first 3 clients. Granted, this is a one time event – but again – it’s the kinetic energy.

TWITTER

I've tried it and think that this site is a complete waste of my time. Why do I need to post what I’m doing all the time? Who gives a rip? Plus, I can’t even search to see if my friends are already on the site, which gives twitter a real big thumbs down for me. I know some people swear by it – I just can’t figure out why I should bother.

SPIN  THICKET

A listing of PR/Marketing/Advertising news stories.  MY RAGAN kind of like Myspace.com but for MarCom professionals. I like it because it’s easy to use and has a lot of rich content. Granted, if you’re not in the marketing/advertising/PR field, you probably won’t find it as interesting as I do. I wrote a longer review that you can check out.

BLOGS 

The biggest mistake I made when I started my blog was going to wordpress.com (they host and it’s free) and not wordpress.org (I host, it’s still free but I can use a blog promote my links). About 2 months ago I got a slap on the wrist because I was including a link to my website at the bottom of each post. Now it’s difficult to switch because I have dedicated readers and I’m not sure if they would follow me to a different site. I tried downloading the software and uploading my previous posts, but it came out all wrong. The frustrating part is that WordPress.org has importing shortcuts for a Typepad or Blogger blog – but not a wordpress.com blog.But enough about wordpress (who I really do like – it’s open source). Who should use a blog and how often should you post?

Well, it’s kind of like a gym membership. Any business can benefit from a blog – but if you’re not using it it’s pointless. Keeping with the metaphor, I advise my clients to start slow when beginning their blogs. Have you ever joined a gym January 2nd, told yourself you were going to go 4 times a week and then that eventually turned into basically twice a year because you burnt yourself out? Same thing with blogging. Start slow – once a week. Once you have that under your belt go totwice a week. Then you’ll eventually become addicted and be posting all the time. It’s better to be consistent than to push yourself towards unrealistic expectations.

BACKUP YOUR ENTIRE COMPUTER

Everyone knows about losing data in a computer crash or as the result of a virus, and backup is one of the most powerful ways to protect against this. While backup will not save your computer from crashing, or keep viruses from being able to infect it, it will ensure that no matter what happens to your computer you will still have access to the files that are important to you. 

Backup is a powerful tool and everyone who uses a computer should have at least some of their files in backup.We all know that someday something will happen, and when that day comes you will be happy to have your files in backup

Backup Your Entire Computer

       While not always necessary, it can be smart to backup your entire computer in case of a system crash. In the old days it would be very difficult to back up much of your computer, as the only tools available were floppy disks which held just over a megabyte of data. While computers were themselves smaller, it was still very difficult to conceive of backing up every file on your computer onto these disks.

        Nowadays, with ZIP drives, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, among others, it has never been easier to backup your entire computer. ZIP drives even come with a special utility that is designed specifically for the purpose of backing up your entire computer onto ZIP disk. These formats can hold hundreds of megabytes and even more of information on a single disk, and can prove very powerful in the backing up of your information.

       Just imagine, being able to restore your entire computer from disk even if the worst has happened to your computer and your operating system. It is a beautiful feeling to see everything back to the way it should be after having a complete system crash on you.

       One thing to remember when you backup is that the sooner you backup, the better. If you have the time to backup your computer today, take it. You never know when something will happen. Time spent in backup is never time wasted, because you will appreciate it when the time comes. Backup has never been easier, and there is just no excuse not to have at least the important files on your computer backed up, if not your entire system.

       Backing up your entire computer will take a little bit of time, but it is certainly worth it. There are programs which you can utilize in conjunction with your backup disks, whatever they may be, that will allow you to restore your entire computer from disk in case of a system crash.

      Rather than having to reinstall your operating system and all of the programs and utilities which you have put onto your computer over the years, as well as all of the personal things that you have created yourself that can never be restored, restoring your entire computer from disk is fast, easy, and will include anything and everything that you had on your computer, even files that you had forgotten existed and haven't looked at in years.It is a very powerful thing and a task that you should certainly look into undertaking.

Article by: Walter Stevens       Contribute by: Azmira Azhar   Upload by: Munirah

p/s: all pictures are for illustrations purpose only 

The first ‘Terawikh’

Article  by: Ema suraya                                   Upload by: Munirahim

Assalamualaikum and hello everyone…

Happy fasting to all Muslim and hope this Ramadan will bring us happiness and always be blessed by Allah swt all the time !!!!!!.

For the very first day of Terawikh (night before the first day of fasting) my friends and I went to perform Terawikh (pray that only can be performed during Ramadan) at Masjid Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, which is the state Mosque of Selangor.

Alhamdulillah, there were so many people came to perform the first time Terawikh for this year. It was surprisingly that the big mosque was fully loaded by prayers from all level of age.

So people outside there make this Ramadan more meaningful and blissful to us as well as to our family, love ones and friends.

Here is some info for the beneficence of Ramadan.

http://www.ahmed-deedat.co.za/downloads/TarawihSummary.pdf

How To Use External Storage

Speed up your Computer by Saving Files Elsewhere

Retrieved: Mar 21, 2010                  Author: Kayleigh Teachout 

Article by: Azmira Azhar                  Upload by: Munirah 

A Basic External Hard Drive 

Each year, students write midterms, essays, finals, and assignments. Professionals write reports, presentations, and other files. Freelance writers can write up to five or more articles every day they need to or want to store for a portfolio or future edits. Home computer users save emails, pictures, music files, and many other digital files.

       While most modern computers have at least 2 gigs of storage space, that may not be enough for many computer users. In addition, files and pictures need to be stored for years and need to be transferred to a new computer or two over the users lifetime. Saving files on a computer is great for temporary or short-term storage, but for those files that will be hanging around for a while, there are better options.

Why Storing Files on a Computer is Bad

      Having thousands of music and photo files stored on a computer's hard drive slows it down considerably. Each time a computer is turned on, it has to load every file. If there are multiple users on a single computer, each storing files regularly, it may take a long time for a computer to start up and run.

     Another problem occurs when a new computer is purchased. How are files transferred from the old computer to the new one? It used to be a long process of saving each file on a disk and then transferring them onto a new computer. Each user would have to save his or her own files and keep track of the disks.

Now there are a few newer, better options, but not everyone knows about them, or understands them. These three options are ways of storing files externally, or not on the computer's hard drive.

Option 1: External Hard Drive

      An external hard drive can be a small thumb, or flash, drive that can save a few text documents and photos, or can be as large as 1 terabyte (TB), which is 1024 Gigabytes (GB) or 1 million megabytes (MB). External hard drives are set up similarly to the file system on basic computers. Some come with pre-named folders such as Photos, Documents, Music, and Videos and others let the user create their own. 1 TB external hard drives take the average computer user many years to fill, so it is a good choice as long as it can last.

      This type of storage device usually looks like a novel sized box with an indicator light, a wall plug, and a USB connection. It can be used with a laptop or computer and can easily be plugged into a new computer. Most brands can also be networked so multiple users on multiple computers can access and store files on it over the network without needing to be plugged into each computer.

      External hard drives are commonly referred to as back up drives due to their ability to back up an entire computer so nothing will be lost if the computer is broken or is infected with a virus. A basic 1 TB external hard drive costs around $100 USD or more, but is worth the investment to store large amounts of data and allow computers to run faster.

Option 2: Paid Third Party Storage

A second option for external file storage is paid third party storage. There are a few companies who server sell storage space for computer files. Basically, files can be uploaded to the company's website after the user purchases a storage plan and sets up an account. Certain storage companies only allow text files while others allow many types of files.

One example is Box.net

Website:

http://computer-drives-storage.suite101.com/article.cfm/how-to-use-external-storage

Video: RSS in Plain English

DEAREST CLASSMATE! ,LETS BREAK FAST together???? IDEAS PLZ??!!!

Good morning everyone! Amal is so happy today ! yeay! have u guys read and take note on your latest assignment for ms baby?? o o o , and one more thing for the internship thingy Imah wants to hand it off to Ms Mel by this thursday so, to those who still haven't clarified do it now!give it to Imah by this Wednesday coz if not we won't be guaranteed that we will get the place  =)

heee.. let's get back to the main topic..happy day bebehs n dudes,as u all notice that, Ramadhan  is nearly arrive.Everyone, i'm thinking of break fast together with the class.. what u guys think?? hurm... i need you guys' help, to make it fair i would like to ask people of 5b's suggestions.. i think there should be no problem ritey?? =) furthermore , some of us is having different schedule for the elective subjects. now what you u have to do is put down your beautiful fingers on the keyboard and do comment ,thank you =)  teeheee.. =D

DO INCLUDE your suggestion with specific date and place... =)  i think that's all from me  this morning, i'll keep updating all of you with the latest news that people of 5B  should know. love u guys <3

NENO NENO!!ATTENTIONNN!!! Miss baby's assignment!!!!! list of group)

It's time to improve u'r skill in doing ur HOMEWORK! hahahah =D no worries, it's a group work =)  to my dearest classmate please keep urself update to the new assgnment that was given to us today , as we all know  in here I include the name list  of Ms Baby's assgnment, that has been given today:

Group 1                            Group 2                         Group 3

Ani                                      Fatin                                  Hadhinah
Zura                                    Syeera                              Yaya
Ella                                     Hanim                                Aseng
Fanaa                                Amal                                  Naimah
Mira                                    Epol                                   K.wan
Juju                                     Mukmin                             Amy
Juji                                      Elly                                     Eton
Ema                                    Yasmin                              Hafiz
Moon                                                                            m.jalani


p/s ----> Please take note on this! o u'r negligence may cause u trouble.. heheh

              
According to Ms. baby, we will be discussing about it next week..be prepared! =) good luck guys!!