Setting Up Google Analytics with your tumblr Blog

People have been asking how to connect their Google Analytics account with their tumblr blogs.  So, instead of answer the question over and over I will just post the solution.  Essentially adding the Google Analytics tracking code to tumblr is the same as adding it to any other webpage.  Open the webpage you want to track and find the tag in the code.  From there, you copy and paste the tracking code right above the tag.  Save your theme and you should be good to go.  Remember, Google Analytics can take up to 24 hours to update, but you should be able to verify it worked back in Google Analytics.

If you would like the step by step check out the official tumblr post on how to accomplish this:  tumblr/google analytics

As usual let us know if you have any questions!

Links:
Google Analytics
tumblr
NinjaTechHelp Facebook page

What is iCloud ??

In the past few weeks a lot of people have been asking about iCloud,  whether or not it can be useful for them.  Think of iCloud as a giant hard drive on the internet.  Your chosen data can then be backed up and viewed from your iPhone, iPad, iTouch or even from the internet. 

Instead of reinventing the wheel here are some links that best describe what exactly iCloud is and how to use it. 

• Official iCloud site - http://www.icloud.com/
• Apple iCloud Site - http://www.apple.com/icloud/what-is.html
• Apple iCloud - http://www.apple.com/icloud/
• Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICloud

Setup and configuration is pretty straight forward, check back soon for a tutorial on how to do that.


-=nth=-

Is Someone Stealing Your Wi-Fi?

Lately we have been asked a lot about how to determine what/who is connected to their wireless internet. Most people become curious when they suspect someone is using their connection without their permission. Our first suggestion is to verify they are running WPA-AES security.  If they already are then we suggest changing your password to see if that helps solve the problem. Second you could also check your connected devices within your router's software. The best thing you can do is make sure you are running WPA-AES wireless security.

For more in depth information check out this post over at Lifehacker

The Best Android File Manager

There has been a lot of talk lately about file management apps for Android. Everyone seems to have a favorite for different reasons but our favorite is ES File Explorer It can be download from the Android Market Place HERE.

For more information check out this post over at Lifehacker

Do you have a favorite file management app? Let us know in the comments.


LINKS:

ES File Explorer
Android Market Place
Lifehacker

Frazier Park Food Bank Assistance

Here is the list of needed items for the Frazier Park Food Bank.  Any help is greatly appreciated and I will be in the Thousand Oaks area if you would like me to stop and pickup the food on the weekends.  I know toothbrushes and toothpaste is a big thing on the list... Donations are needed by October 14th, after that I will start collecting items for MANA in Thousand Oaks.

Your help is greatly appreciated as it gets closer and closer to the holiday season.  Thank you!

FOOD NEEDS:

Canned meats – Tuna, chicken, spam etc.

Pasta - Spaghetti, Alfredo type sauces (jars or cans)

Boxed Cereal

Dried  and canned soups

Non fat dry milk

Canned milk

Canned fruit

Canned vegetables (we have plenty of green beans)

Dried beans

Prepared box meals (Kraft mac & cheese etc)

Stuffing

Cranberry Sauce

Dried mash potatoes

Kid’s snacks (Individually packaged)

Oat Meal

Peanut Butter

Jam

Maple Syrup

Pancake Mix

Complete mixes (brownies, cakes etc.)

Cooking Oil

Flour -  Sugar

NON FOOD NEEDS:

Tooth Paste and tooth brushes

Dish Soap

Deodorant

Body soap

Laundry soap

Diapers & wipes

Toilet Paper

Shampoo

Edit Your iPhone 4 Photos in Photoshop

I recently got the new iPhone 4 in hopes of using that as a point-and-shoot replacement when wanting to capture quick and easy photographs while on the go etc.  With the new HDR feature on the iPhone the original image actually turns out fairly nice.  But what if you want to improve upon them in Photoshop?  Where do you begin?

Most of us know about the auto features: levels, color, contrast, but what if you want to take them to next level?  Well, I found an article over at  DaryaPino (summertomato) and she links to a great article over at the Digital Photography School website that explains Filters and Masks, and should help to get the ball rolling.

Here are some other links to check out as well:

How Can You Edit Photos on Your iPhone - Chris Pirillo

20 Best iPhone Photo & Video Applications - Brainz.org

61 iPhone Appls to Enhance, Edit, View and Share Your Photos - funkyspacemonkey

If you have any questions let me know :)

@NinjaTechHelp

Sources:
DaryaPino
Digital Photography School

New Site Design - Opinions, Thoughts and Questions

Many of you have been noticing that the site has gone through some changes, and in our opinion not for the better...  We have been playing around with various blogger templates and ideas, and feel that at least now, the site is useable.  In our research we are realizing that we may in fact need to switch formats all together.  We are looking in to actually purchasing a URL, setting up webspace, and setting up an actual blog template that makes it not only very easy for us to post updates, but also adds the user interface and functionality that you deserve.

Over the past year (yea, we are now 13 months old) we have made many updates, and struggled to get this up and running with very little monetary resources, so with that being said, if you would like to donate to the cause we will be adding a PayPal donate button very soon.  Although we do not have 501(c)3 status, and never will, we will come up with a way to reward those who pitch in to help us upgrade.

As always; your thoughts and suggestions are always welcome!

What are HDR Photos and Why Does My iPhone Take Them?

Many of you may have downloaded iOS 4.1 for your iPhone recently and noticed all sorts of new features.  The biggest question I have received is on the new HDR photo capability.

The folks over at Gizmodo have a great article explaining this and can be found by clicking here.  But essentially you are just talking multiple photo in various light ranges to produce one image that more closely relates to what your eye ball sees.

For more info on the iPhone updates check here


Sources:

Apple
Gizmodo

HD Helmet Cam, on the Cheap

For those of us in the market for a reasonably priced helmet cam, look no further.

Cheap Helmet Cam

Camera Mount for your Surfboard

At one time or another a decent percentage of us has wanted video of us surfing (or attempting) or doing other things while at the beach...

Perhaps this is a good option?  Click the link for more.

A Surfboard Mount for the ContourHD Camera

Redo Backup - Easy to Use Backup Live CD & Disk Recovery

Over at Lifehacker there is a great article on Redo Backup & Recovery.  This is essentially a Lunix CD that that helps easy the pain of backing up and recovering your system in the event of a failure.

Check out the links for more information:


Lifehacker
Redo Backup & Recovery
 

LIFEHACKER: How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords

 Lifehacker has a must read article on Password Security. We cannot stress enough the importance of random and complicated passwords. Make sure each site has a different password to make it that much harder to crack your credentials.

Click after the break for more info.



How I'd Hack Your Weak Passwords



Questions?  Just ask.  NinjaTechHelp

March 31, 2010 is Document Freedom Day!

Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for document liberation. It will be a day of grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general.

Click after the break for a couple helpful links about Document Freedom Day!


Document Freedom Day Org

Document Freedom Day - Open Office.org


NinjaTechHelp

LIFEHACKER: The Complete Guide to Saving Your Windows System with a Thumb Drive

Lifehacker has a pretty good article on saving your Windows system to a thumb drive. Check it out on the next page and decide for yourself. Caution: This may be tricky so ask us if you need help.



Here is the link:

LIFEHACKER

NinjaTechHelp

Easily Fix Your Parent's Computer

Lifehacker has a decent article on fixing a relative's computer. Click the link to check it out.

Link: How to Fix Your Relative's Computer

Windows 7 mp3 Bug Warning | Ninja Tech Help

According to LifeHacker (Jan 09) there is a bug in Windows 7 that corrupts your mp3 files when importing them into Media Center. There is a patch fix, but just to reinforce a best practice make sure you backup your media and all documents before installing a new OS. Weekly if not daily backups of your docs and media is always a good idea as well. Stay tuned for future articles on backing up data on PC and Mac systems.

Looking for products and gadgets to review - Need your help!!

Ninja Tech Help is starting a 'Reviews' Section... We are looking for the latest and greatest gadgets and tech items to review on our site. If you know of anything you want us to review speak up and let us know. Also if your company is looking to have their product(s) reviewed let us know as well.

We would also like to get some people involved to submit "User Reviews" If you would be interested shoot us an email. NinjaTechHelp@gmail.com

Windows 7 Hard Drive Striping and Mirror

One of the great new Windows 7 features is Hard Drive Striping and Mirroring. This feature was previously one reserved for Server products (at least in the XP family). So now that this option is available and what does it do? Read on for the explanation.



Mirroring and striping hard disk drives (HDD) is a form of RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Discs) array. RAID takes 2 or more HDD and creates various configurations. For example you can set up an array of three (3) or more discs and have Windows recognize them as one (1) large disc. Alternatively you can have 2 HDD that get mirrored to only show one (1) HDD but in reality you will have a backup drive. More detailed information is available on Wikipedia. So what is striping and mirroring? Keep reading.

Striping - Striping is where you take two (2) or more HDD and configure them as one large HDD.  For purposes of this article think of it as taking a movie file and spreading it over two (2) hard drives for storage.  Then when you want to watch that movie, you open the file and since it has been striped the load performance of the movie will be greatly increased because it is being accessed from two (2) seperate drives.  This is a good thing because you can combine two (2) 1 Terabyte HDD together so Windows recognizes them as one (1) and in theory your drive performance will be greatly increased.

Mirroring -   Mirroring is when you take two (2) HDDs and combine them together for redundancy.  What is copied and stored on one (1) HDD is also copied and stored on the other.  This creates an automatic backup of the drives.  For example you have two (2) 1 Terabyte drives that have been mirrored together, instead of having a 2 terabyte drive now you still only have a 1 Terabyte volume BUT a backup is being created in the process.  Then if a HDD ever fails or crashes, you still have all the files available on the second drive. 


Sounds good right?  So how do you go about implementing this?  Well I am going to tell you.  For this article I am using two (2) Western Digital 1 Terabyte Green SATA HDDs.  This could also be applied if you already have one hard drive and are adding a new one to be the backup.  Make sure to backup the existing data before formatting.


Begin by installing the HDDs like you would any other drive.  Start and login to your Windows 7 box. 

Once everything loads, right click on Computer and go to manage.  This brings up the Computer Management Screen.

From the left column Choose Storage > Disk Management.

The bottom right box shows all the HDDs installed on your system.  Find your new HDDs and right click the HDD box.  You should now have a choice to setup mirroring. 

The next box will ask  you to choose the second drive, so choose your second new drive.  Once you complete this your new HDD will be converted to Dynamic Disks and then formatted to appear as on drive.

NOTE:  IF THERE IS ANYTHING STORED ON THE DRIVES IT WILL BE LOST.  The new array needs to be formatted and all previous data will be deleted.


This should be fairly straight forward.  As always ask any questions through email or comments and remember this is for informational purposes only, and I am not responsible for any damage or data loss as a result of this tutorial.

Windows 7 Tips and Tricks

Here are some of our favorite Windows 7 Tips and Tricks. As time progresses there will be much more coming out about Windows 7, and it's great features. Post your Tips & Tricks in the comments section.



There are already a lot of sites with Windows 7 Tips & tricks but here are some of our tested favorites so far.

How to get the Quick Launch Toolbar Back.
          from NeoWin.net
   
     [ ]   Right-click the taskbar and choose Toolbars / New Toolbar.
     [ ]   In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
                  %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
     [ ]   Turn off the "lock the taskbar" setting, and right-click on the divider.
     [ ]   Make sure that "Show text" and "Show title" are disabled and the view is set to "small icons".
     [ ]   Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.

Display Empty Drives.

    Microsoft removed empty drives (like memory card readers) from Computer.  Do you want those back?
    Just Launch Explorer and click Tools > Folder Options > View and clear 'Hide empty drives in the
   computer folder'. 

Right Click Everything
  
   There are lots of new features in Windows 7 that can be found by right clicking things.  Right click everything to see the new and improved options.

For more Tips and Tricks check the two sites below, and don't forget to post your Tips & tricks in the comments!

Tech Radar
NeoWin.net
 

How to Install a USB Drive for Ready Boost in Windows Vista and Windows 7

Microsoft Windows Vista has the ability to use ReadyBoost (r) and a USB thumbdrive to boost the performance of your Windows Vista (r) or Windows 7 (r) computer.  Want to know how?  Click below for the full tutorial.



It seems like your computer is great when you first get it, but after a while it seems to get sluggish and performance seems to suffer.  You could upgrade the RAM and other components but what if all that has been upgraded to capacity?  Why not try Microsoft's ReadyBoost (r) Technology?  There are several things you should know before attempting to use ReadyBoost in an everyday computing environment.

  1.  The USB drive or SD device must meet certain performance criteria.

  2.  Once you allocate all or part of the USB device you can no longer remove
       it for other uses with serious performance degradation.

For most FAQ check this excellent posting over at MSDN by clicking here.

Installation of the ReadyBoost feature should be relatively quick and painless.  Just insert your USB device and follow the onscreen instruction to allocate all or part of your USB Drive.  The 2 images below are for guidance.

Read on if installation was not this easy.
 1.  Begin by inserting your USB device into an available USB port.
 2.  Open Windows Explorer and right click the Thumb Drive and click properties.
 3.  There should be a ReadyBoost Tab you can click and use for setting up the USB drive.
Ready Boost Tips:
 1.  Use a non SanDisk Cruzer or any U3P USB Drive.  These drives are able to run programs off of them and are designed to be used as an advanced Thumb Drive between multiple computers.

 2.  Most systems will benefit with a ReadyBoost size of anywhere from 2 - 4 gigabytes of space.  Play around with the configuration and size until you get the best performance.  I have not tested ReadyBoost with anything larger than 4 gigabytes.

 Please keep in mind this is form informational purposes only.  Although I do offer to help with any issues you may encounter I do not warranty anything in this article nor can or will I be held liable for any damages.

Any Questions, Comments, Changes or Corrections can be emailed to NinjaCompTeam@gmail.com