Success Abroad » Web

10 useful free software which will make your life easier

Zuzanna — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:27:19 +0000

Almost everyone uses a computer on a daily basis these days, whether it is for work or pleasure. But even heavy users of the web, bloggers or professionals advanced in Excel don’t know basic and useful free software available on-line. Of course, not everyone has to be a computer geek, but some of this software can make people’s life just easier.

Everyday PC user

Adobe Reader – software to read any documents (e.g. e-books, invoices) saved in PDF format.

http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/?promoid=BUIGO

Cute PDF – document converter, it can save any document (e.g. Word) into read-only PDF file, then you can share it with others without worrying that someone will copy or change your document.

http://www.cutepdf.com/index.htm

Microsoft Paint – basic graphic painting and photo editing software.

http://www.ehow.com/way_5465600_tutorials-microsoft-paint.html

Skype – communication programme which lets you call another PC user in any country in the world, you both need a microphone and good internet connection.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/

Web-creator/blogger

Google Analytics – a must-have for any who owns a website, it provides easy to analyze information on your web traffic.

http://www.google.com/analytics/

Google Add Url – you can add your website to Google search engine so it is visible to everyone in the net.

http://www.google.com/addurl/

Lifestyle/Hobby

Google Earth – an exciting way to explore the Earth from the space.

http://earth.google.co.uk/

Mind Omo – a free web-based mind mapping tool.

http://www.mindomo.com/

Dark Room – However exciting it sounds, it is actually a tool for writers. You get a full screen in black so there is nothing to disturb and it is easy to concentrate.

http://they.misled.us/dark-room

Audacity – free software for recording and editing sounds, e.g. you can record your voice for an audio book, cut long piece of music into short parts, remove background noise.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/

VLC – multimedia player and converter which can read most of the audio and video formats.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Social media for newcomers to London – an introduction

Zuzanna — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:53:40 +0000

We come to London to expand our horizons. We get to know people from different backgrounds, and want to experience the best of what this city has to offer. There is also a very busy viral life on the net and if you experience London life to the full there is no way you can miss it. According to an article on Telegraph.co.uk from 29th September, “London is the social media capital of the world”. Londoners love using Digg, Facebook, Twitter and other popular web applications.

Where to start?

Social networking – Facebook - connect with your friends online. Sign up, upload your photo, search for old and new buddys, share your thoughts by adding a message to your wall, post a link to an interesting blog post, share your holiday photos and much more!

Facebook is great because as well as keeping you in touch with people you know from all over the globe, it connects you to new people as well: you can join groups with similar interests, or you can even create your own. It is also a great way to organize an event. Join the Success Abroad Fan Club.

Communicate with the world – Twitter - share you thoughts with the world in 140 words or less. You can read other peoples’ thoughts or ‘tweets’ as well, and if you like what someone has to say you have the option ‘follow’ that person. You can post links to recommend an interesting article or video, and you can send direct messages to people. If you want to share another person’s tweet that you like with your followers you can ‘retweet’ it.

The best thing about Twitter is that it is a truly instant method of communication: once you send a tweet, the whole world can see it. If you posted a tweet with the word “Skyride” for example, anybody searching “the Twitterverse” for the word Skyride at that moment would see your tweet pop up, in real-time. How cool is that!

Twitter supports the use of special tags. The most popular commands are ‘@’ when you reply to someone, ‘RT’ when you retweet someone’s tweet or article, and ‘#’ when you want to use a keyword in your tweets. Follow Success Abroad.

The hottest news, videos, and images on Digg – find the best web content submitted by users, and share your favourite articles with others. You can submit this article to Digg if you like, just click the link at the bottom!

Find and meet like-minded people on MeetUp – find groups with similar interests and attend a meeting in the real world. You can sign up to a few groups, exchange your ideas and thoughts, get inspired, connect to people just like you, help and be helped. With a user friendly calendar on your profile page you won’t miss any meeting. Check out Meet up now.

Share your photos online with Flickr – dazzle your friends and family with your latest adventures, and search for some amazing photos from around the world. Have a look at our Flickr gallery.

Watch or share a video on YouTube – you can watch a whole series of films, funny videos, interviews – a whole assortment of weird and wonderful things are to be found here. Very useful if you don’t have a TV set in your flat-share. Have you been hiding under a rock, or what? Check out youtube now. Another video platform which we use is Vimeo, watch us on Vimeo here.

Listen to your favourite radio online – Last.fm – where you choose a genre or a artist that you want to listen to, and Last.fm will find similar songs and play them for you. It’s kind of like having your own personal radio station. Genius!

Get an answer on Yahoo Answers – if you have a question about anything, really, you can probably find an answer there.

Other social media services, to mention just a few are Blogger, Bebo, LinkedIn, MySpace, Picassa, StumpleUpon, Delicious, Reddit.

Facebook, Twitter and blogs have revolutionared the way we communicate. Every few months there is a boom for a new social media web service. What are the future big hits in social media? Audioboo.com for ‘tweeting’ audio bites?

Keep an eye out for Google Wave – could this technology actually replace e-mail in the near future? E-mail, something which has become part of most people’s, including your granny’s, every day life? Stay tuned.

Photo by Unlisted Sightings on Flickr

Online networking – blurring lines between business and leisure.

Zuzanna — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:01:09 +0000

Everyone’s talking about networking online through social and business focused websites. If you are doing business these days, it’s a must to be registered with a few of them as a way to connect to your potentional customers and business partners. If you are an employee, you can actually begin building your network of peers, recruiters, and employers before you start looking for a job. In case of future redundancy or plans of looking for another position you will have an established circle of people who are more likely to help you than those who don’t know you.

After registering with online networking websites after a while you may move towards meeting your networkers in the real world. Before you go for the meeting think about what you want to get out of it. Do you want to make business connections or new friends? The thin line between social and business networking can be easily crossed when our prospective business partners become our friends. And then I start thinking – is having business partners as my friends bringing me any new clients? Do I want to share with my business networkers all my private photos, thoughts, friends and family in e.g. on Facebook?

Blogs have enabled a new level of intimacy in the relationship with our customers. Not so long ago, blogs were mainly used by private users sharing their personal life. Now they’re a must on any company website to interact and communicate with customers. So now I’m wondering – how much of the company’s life should we give out to the public, to our clients? The best way to answer this question would be to think about the kind of image we want to present. For example, a company organises a staff party, then shares it with the world by writing a post on the blog. This will make a better image of a company who cares about their employees. Where is the line? Do photos of staff after few drinks do any good to the company’s profile in the long run?

Are you doing some crazy stuff with your network people, exploring yourself, being open for experiments, being creative and so on? – Great! Share the experience with them and your friends. But putting photos or videos from your networking parties on your website with your professional profile I think may be a little bit too much.
And the latest – Twitter. It’s so easy to mix your private life’s posts with a professional profile. It’s another great tool to make connections. But you need to choose if these connections will be with new friends or new business partners.

Photo: Flickr Tea, two sugars

Welcome to Twitter

Zuzanna — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:53:19 +0000

We’ve seen Facebook, Second Life, MySpace, blogs, browsing Internet on a mobile. Now we have Twitter – micro-blogging in real time. Only 140 characters to share a thought with the world but the speed of sharing a message makes Twitter so popular.

What am I going to write about? Well, any thoughts I have when I’m on the go. There will be some extra details from preparing a new post, new video or interview. Enjoy!

What is the press saying about Twitter:

Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app.

TIME Magazine

Suddenly, it seems as though all the world’s a-twitter.

Newsweek

Incredibly useful

Wired

It’s one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet.

New York Times

You can follow me here or simply view my posts on this website.

If you want to get a Twitter to your website or blog just go to www.twitter.com where you can find all the details about registering, getting started, how to send posts from your mobile, etc.