Data Doctors Tech Tips

If you feel like the Internet has reduced the general vocabulary of the masses, you're probably not imaging things. It seems that any word can be made up, abbreviated or misused despite the availability of auto-correct technology. If you'd like to make sure you can step up your vocabulary game, then today's tip is for you! It's a really fun site called, you guessed it -https://www.vocabulary.com and it's both entertaining and educational. No matter where your vocabulary skills are today, they'll be even better as soon as tomorrow when you spend time on this awesome site. The teaching tool works with you on the words that you don't get right during their skills challenges, so it's like playing a game that teaches you new words. Even if you are a very strong word-nerd, there are lots of other features of the site anyone can enjoy. A word of warning: this site can suck up a bunch of time because it's so engaging, so make sure you are ready to be sucked down the vocabulary rabbit hole!

The task of making sure your children are continuing to learn is never-ending and made a little easier by an awesome free online teaching resource known as the Khan Academy. This incredible web tool was originally launched in 2008 and continues to grow in both available content and effectiveness. The lessons cover subjects for students K-14 that are personalized for each student. Your child can learn at their own pace using the video interface that they love so much. Their huge library covers math, science, engineering, computing, arts and the humanities, economics/finance and various forms of test prep. Now more than ever, an online tool to help your child continue to learn both what is required and more importantly what they are interested in, can be a perfect choice. Check it out for yourself at: https://www.khanacademy.org

We're all making a lot more purchases online these days, which can make keeping track of everything more difficult. For those with amazing organizational skills, it may not be that big of a deal, but for everyone else, there's an app called Slice that can help. It's a free app designed to manage all of your purchases, track packages and even alert you when the price has dropped on something you just purchased. The best part of the app is that it does most of its work for you automatically by monitoring your purchases via your Inbox since that's where everything goes already. Instead of manually searching your email for various receipts or tracking numbers, Slice gathers everything for you in one place. It's a really handy tool for those that have to generate expense reports on a regular basis as well. Think about how much easier that expense report will be next month! Slice works with just about all of the major web-based email platforms, so it's simple to get started: https://www.slice.com

With the overwhelming number of places that you are likely visiting to gather information on the Internet, it's helpful to have a good tool to manage it all in one place. There are many tools that are attempting to do this, but one of our favorites is called Flipboard. The platform allows you to combine the feeds that you like to read from your social media accounts along with sections that are focused on your areas of interest from around the Internet. It started out as an app specifically designed for iPads, but it's grown to all your mobile devices and your computer screens. It arranges all your feeds to look more like a magazine or customized news site making it much easier to view everything in one place. I always suggest that you download the mobile app first, to connect all your accounts and get things set up the way you want it, then when you go the website and#160;https://flipboard.comand#160;and login, everything will pretty much look the same for both! If you haven't tried a content aggregator just yet, we highly recommend giving Flipboard a try.

It seems that there are two different kinds of people in the world when it comes to waking up in the morning: those that pop out of bed and those that struggle to get out of bed. For those that struggle, finding the right kind of alarm clock can make all the difference in the world. To that end, there are a number of apps for your smartphone that have incorporated puzzles that need to be solved instead of a snooze button. The theory behind this approach is to wake up your cognitive skills over the simple motor skill of slapping the snooze button that leads to failure in waking up. You can set these apps up as a regular alarm that uses various sounds, music or opt for the necessity to solve a puzzle in order to turn it off. A simple search for puzzle alarms in your associated app store should provide you with a number of options or here are a couple of free apps to try out: iPhone:and#160;http://www.morningworm.com Android:and#160;https://wroclawstudio.com/alarm

It's no secret that giving up your privacy when you use most every online service is just how things work these days. There are ways to reduce how much of your online behavior is being tracked with websites such as https://DuckDuckGo.com Their approach is to put user privacy first, so unlike the major league search engines, they don't track anything when you ask it for search results. None of the commonly tracked data from what you are searching for to what kind of computer and browser you are using to the date and times you searched is collected by DuckDuckGo. Because of its focus on privacy, it's using a different process for generating search results which means that will differ from what you would commonly see in a Google search. With this in mind, the best way to see if they provide adequate results is to do a side-by-side comparison with your current search engine. One thing that we know for sure is that any ads that seem to follow you around the Internet won't be from what you searched for in DuckDuckGo.

Today's tip is for anyone that is collecting virtually anything and wants to make it easier to track and trade their items. Serious collectors usually have some form of tracking system that's hand written and laborious to keep updated. Well, there's a website for that! It's called Colnect.com and it's the ultimate network for collectors all around the world. They've setup the website so you can keep track of your collection electronically and make it easy to interact with others with similar interests, including the buying or trading of items in your collection. If you take the time to notate the items you are willing to discuss for a trade or a purchase as well as items that you'd like to add to your collection, the network becomes really useful. It's now nearly at 250,000 collectors in 245 countries which means you'll find someone with the same interests as you somewhere in the world. Get started at: https://colnect.com

Technology has permeated every aspect of our lives and finding ways to learn new things is highly recommended in order to stay current in the workplace. Trying to use books to learn things that change so quickly is not nearly as effective as it used to be. Finding online training resources that can be easily updated or changed all together provides better up-to-date training and is much more visual than a traditional textbook. One of the best resources for learning all kinds of software programs as well as programming languages is at LinkedIn's Lynda.com. This well-designed system takes you from beginner through advanced courses at your own pace. It's a subscription service, but it offers a free month so you can try it out before committing to using it. The monthly cost starts a $20 when paid annually or $30 if you go month-to-month. Not only can you jump into the lessons on your computer, but they have a full array of mobile apps that makes it easy to continue your lessons on the go: https://www.lynda.com/apps Any business or individual looking to ramp up their software knowledge should look into https://www.lynda.com

Our smartphone apps and being connected to the whole world all the time is dramatically changing the way we get things done. If you're handy and can do most of the tasks that need to be done around the house, that's great, but for those that lack the time or the skills, there's TaskRabbit. It's a simple marketplace that connects people that have tasks that need to be completed with those that have the time and skills to get them done. Posting a task starts with a description along with the where and when it needs to be done. For those tasks that don't require someone to physically come to your location, your pool of potential people to perform the task can be global. Tasks can be posted as either a bidding process or by a rate that you choose. Their vetting along with user reviews of those offering to complete the task makes it a little more comforting when choosing someone. This could be helpful for some businesses that need temporary or seasonal works as well, so if you've never visited the site, check it out at https://www.taskrabbit.com

We love how amazing digital photography has become, but we're always on the search for tools that can expand on the technology further. Despite how incredible the technology in our smartphone cameras is, any number of variables can produce pictures that need a little help, which is why image-enhancing after the shot has been taken really helps. A powerful combination of both a web tool and an app from a company called FOTOR is still one of our go-to options. It's loaded with lots of features that can really make your images pop, especially their HDR processing tool. High Dynamic Range or HDR is the process of taking elements from multiple images and creating a single image that takes the best from each image. If you take two shots and one is too dark while the other is overexposed, HDR can often create a new image that's much better than either image. There are also some interesting retouching tools that can take away any blemishes on any portrait shots to make everyone look like a runway model. If you haven't found the ultimate tool for your photos, give https://www.fotor.com a try!