This week on the podcast we're discussing Facebook's new graph search, how to survive natural disasters, and how to microwave food without ruining it. We're also answering your questions about using multiple calendars, learning guitar online, and much more.
How to Listen to This Week's Episode
Here's how you can listen to our episode:
You can also watch a recording of the live, unedited broadcast on YouTube.
News and Top Stories
- Facebook Announces Graph Search: Facebook created a new search to help you connect with friends who have similar interests or get recommendations for restaurants, doctors, and other things your friends like. Some say it's going to be a major competitor to Google and Yelp, but we don't agree.
- Facebook Messenger Makes Free Calls to Any Facebook Friend on Your iPhone: Facebook Messenger can now make VOIP calls to other iPhones (or iDevices) with Facebook Messenger. That's kind of limited, but all your friends have iPhone and use Facebook Messenger it might be moderately useful.
- Build Your Own Adobe Creative Suite with Free and Cheap Software: Adobe's Creative Suite is one of the best software packs out there for professionals, but the suite is prohibitively expensive for most people. If you can't drop the cash, you can still get a similar experience with free or cheap software.
- The Complete Guide to What To Do Before, During, and After a Disaster: Do you know how to actually protect yourself during an earthquake or hurricane? What about a tornado or fire? You've probably heard lots of conflicting information over the years. We hope you won't ever need it, but this start-to-finish guide to handling disasters will help you remember what you should really do during an emergency and afterwards to recover as quickly as possible.
- How to Microwave Food Without Ruining It: Microwaved food often ends up soggy and unevenly heated. Fortunately, you can fix that problem (somewhat) with a few tricks.
Questions and Answers
Each week we answer five questions from readers and listeners. Here's what we tackled this week.
- My desk doesn't have a computer shelf. Can I put my computer on the floor? How do I manage cables? Try any of these methods for managing cables. You can put your computer on the floor if you have hardwood floors, but generally something between your computer and the floor is a good idea. You can just buy a shelf and screw in some wheels to do the trick (just make sure the two back wheels can lock) or buy a computer cart/caddy/platform. You can find them at The Container Store (sometimes), but there are several cheap options online (like the Syba SY-ACC65010, Allsop Metal Art CPU Caddy, and the Antec LanBoard Portable Computer Cart). Alternatively you can do what Alan used to and Whitson currently does: stick your computer on top of your desk.
- What's the best calendar app for multiple people so you can share schedules? The only two we know of that allow you to take multiple calendars and schedule appointments between them are Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar. Outlook's been great at scheduling between many people for years, and Google added this feature recently.
- How do I get better cellphone reception in a high-traffic area like a football game or concert? There really isn't a good way to avoid this because it isn't an issue of reception so much as it's an issue of limited spectrum and a potentially overloaded cell tower. What you can attempt to do is turn off LTE (or even 3G) data and go to a slower network. This may help you get access when the network is overburdened. If you happen to have a hotspot on another network, however, you may have better luck using that. Obviously that isn't a cost-efficient method, but sometimes when I don't have AT&T reception I can use my WiMax hotspot to get access (as nobody really uses WiMax).
- Do you have any good online resources to learn to play the guitar? You can search YouTube and find tons of lessons, some of which we've mentioned in this post. Soundslice teaches you actual songs, which is really the best way to learn (from what we've heard, as it provides a good goal and teaches you something you can actually play). Alan says Guitar World offers music with tabs so you can learn a few songs. You can also find tabs online through search. If you can't find tabs for the song you want, nickgrooves on Fiverr will make some for you for $5. Finally, if you have a Mac, you can buy lessons through Garageband.
- Can I buy a rooted Kindle or Nook? Apparently yes, you can! We found both rooting services and pre-rooted devices on Craigslist. Chances are you'll find them on eBay and other marketplaces as well.
Tips of the Week
Downloads of the Week
How Do I Submit a Question?
There are three ways to send in your question:
Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!
Newspaper, Computer, Clock (by Brandon Hopkins), and Alert (by Dima Yagnyuk) provided by the Noun Project.
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