Data Doctors Tech Tips

Are you one of the millions that is constantly getting a message on your smartphone that your storage space is almost full? Both Android and iPhone users that have devices with no expandable memory need to be more diligent in keeping unneeded items from taking up valuable space. You can certainly start with old apps that you haven't used since you downloaded them, but a more likely hog of the space is your images and videos. The biggest space hogs are those high-resolution videos as a single file can be as big as a large number of images. Did you know that there's another, less obvious place that could be the culprit? It's your old text messages. Many text messages have associated pictures and video attached to them, so if you don't get rid of those old messages, those attachments will continue to take up space. For more tips on clearing out the junk on you phone, checkout our advice at: http://bit.ly/2N8hwDt

If you have a young child, you've likely thought about what you can do to help them become proficient in our increasingly digital world. One skill that, in my opinion, has become a fundamental must-have for any young person is learning how to code as it translates to value in virtually everything these days. This isn't to say that they need to pursue coding as their life's work, simply that having a solid grasp on how things are created on the Internet and how software is developed will be extremely valuable. A solid starting point for exposing your child to this skill is at an awesome and free website developed by MIT - https://scratch.mit.edu It's known as the 'Scratch' project, because it will help anyone that wants to learn coding to start from scratch.and#160; All of the skills that need to be understood and developed in any child for their future can begin with this great web tool. For the record, anyone at any age that want's to better understand the world of coding should checkout https://scratch.mit.edu

It shouldn't surprise anyone that mobile devices like tablets and smartphones have become digital babysitters for lots of parents these days. Anytime you see an unruly child in a public setting, often times the only way to get them under control is to hand over a screen to distract them. The problem with doing this without locking down various parts of the device is that unintended outcomes can be plentiful and in some cases, expensive. All of these mobile pacifiers have options that allow parents to lock down various apps, functions or even access to the Internet that are built in and waiting to be activated. If you're not aware or familiar with these settings, there are lots of places to get up to speed, including these sites: Android users: http://bit.ly/2ZPYfrX iOS users: http://bit.ly/2ZMk3EX

There's a popular visual method of presenting data known as an 'infographic' that may seem like a difficult thing to create. It's been transforming nearly undigestible data from spreadsheets and long white papers into easily digestible bits of data for years. If you spend any time of social media or news sites, you have not doubt seen an infographic and assumed that a graphic designer was at work. It turns out that anyone can make an infographic from any information they want to share at a website called Easelly. Start with a template or if you're up to it, create your own design and drag the visual elements that will make your complex data very pleasing to view. This free tool is for anyone that wants to step up their game in the info presentation process - no design skills required! Check it out for yourself at https://easel.ly

The internet has made connecting with lots of people that aren't nearby very easy, unless you are trying to connect with a large group of people at the same time. If you do this on a regular basis, hopefully you aren't still using the old email - manual coordination process that's a huge consumer of your time, not to mention frustratingly tedious. Automating this common need is being done at a website called Schedule Once. It's designed to help both individuals and teams wrangle the scheduling issue, while offering automatic syncing options to make it even more efficient. No matter where in the world the various members of your group may be, the tool manages and understands the differences in time zones. Before you commit to using the service, you can sign up for a free 2 week trail to give it a test drive first at http://www.scheduleonce.com

It's not going to be long now for the nasty flu bug to start rearing its ugly head. Since we all want to avoid anyone that's already contracted the virus, wouldn't it be awesome to have an app that could warn you about the potential outbreaks that may be happening near you? Well, there is an app for that and it's called SickWeather for either iPhone or Android users. The primary function of the app is to scan social media for obvious terms that indicate that someone is sick along with the data the other user provide though the app. They can then forecast potential problems based on the data that they collect using sophisticated machine learning algorithms. This approach has been able to predict outbreaks ahead of the CDC in previous years and it gets better at it as more people start to use it. Learn all about it or download the app at http://www.sickweather.com

Anyone tasked with presenting information that is based on Internet resources has likely had the need to capture a basic thumbnail of the resource as part of the presentation. If you have to generate presentations on a regular basis, you might have all of the tools that will allow you to do it manually, but we have a better way. An amazing and free tool located at https://www.thumbalizr.com makes it quick and easy to grab a thumbnail representation of any website. Simplyand#160;type the website into their tool to start the process of collecting the elements of the page and bring them together for your choice of thumbnails. When you're trying to get the attention of anyone viewing your report, adding a thumbnail to a web link can make a big impact and potentially provide the focus to your report that you want.

Although the Internet is still relatively young, the changes that have occurred are pretty dramatic, especially when you look back to the early years. An awesome way to see the old web is at a web tool called the Wayback Machine that has been archiving the web since 1996. It allows you to literally go back in time in their archives to see what lots of websites looked like as they changed. You start by typing in the website that you want to reflect on, which generates a timeline of snapshots that the system has taken. Each circle on a date represents a snapshot that the system took. When they started the project, they were just grabbing home pages, so don't expect the full website experience. They've updated their technology to grab more, so the later years are likely to have more content for your enjoyment. It's great to know that even the big tech giants had embarrassing websites in the early days, which you can checkout for yourself at https://archive.org/web

How many of your friends seem to already have everything or worse, are so hard to shop for because they have a different view of life? There's also that annual problem of finding something unusual for the white elephant exchange that so many companies tend to throw. Today's tip is for a couple of very helpful resources for finding that perfect weird gift at either Perpetual Kid - https://perpetualkid.com or Vat19 - https://www.vat19.com The assortment of beyond the norm options that are very affordable is pretty amazing. Vat19 takes it a step further by creating helpful videos that show off how various items work or why they would be so compelling. These sites are really good for those friends of yours that like off the wall flavored foods and snacks that can't be found in any local stores. Crazy, possibly cool gift ideas await you at both of these funky sites!

How many times has this happened to you?: you popping around the Web and suddenly a security pop-up appears on your screen claiming that you computer is in dire straits. Since it looks very much like an official Windows screen, if you click on any of the buttons, you can expect nothing good will happen. In some cases, if you do click on virtually any part of the pop-up, the result can be a locked computer with only an offer of salvation when you agree to pay them. These sophisticated scams continue to evolve and catch lots of people off guard. What's really important to understand is that even if you click on a button that says cancel or even what appears to be the red X the corner, you can still be victimized. That's why we wanted to review the steps to take whenever anything like this appears - kill off the session instead of clicking on anything. Windows user can use Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the Task Manager and Mac users can use Ctrl-Option-Esc to Force Quit the pop-ups. If you want to see this in action, we have a video tutorial we created located at: http://bit.ly/2KViY9N