Getting  Along With Your Computer Column Archive

Computing on Christmas
By Cate Eales

Appeared December 21, 2006 on castanet.net

Some folks won't be going near the computer on Christmas, but for the rest of us, here are a few things you can do to get into the Christmas Spirit.


Carols at the spinet
How about some different Christmas music while you finish up your holiday wrapping? You can listen on castanet.net while you do whatever it is you do. I am listening now! Just browse to http://castanet.net, and click on the "Christmas on castanet.net" image part way down the left side of the page.

This will open a player in a separate window, and in a moment you'll hear commercial-free Christmas music. Your friends with Macs can listen, too!


Internet Yule Log
The famous television Yule Log has gone digital. While it doesn't yet have it's own blog, it does have it's own fan page, here. That page has been taking a looooong time to load, so I'd recommend a different site, here. A brand new 21" flat screen monitor makes a very nice way to display that Yule log!


Decorate your computer
Downloading "free" screen savers can be dangerous because many of them include spyware. But here is one from Microsoft which does not include anything unpleasant except the "Windows Genuine Advantage" validation routine. Microsoft describes this as "A Christmas desktop theme with new wallpaper, animated cursors, new icons, new sounds, and a 3D screen saver." Or you can always make your own screen saver with your own photos using Picasa2 from Google.


Reach out to friends and family
I've written about Skype before. If you have Windows XP, you can use Skype to talk, for free, to anyone else using Skype on their computer all over the world. You can also make a call from Skype to any "regular" (land line) telephone just about anywhere. For the past several months, calls from anywhere in North America to a land line or cell phone anywhere in North America have been free. Yes, free. You can use your computer to call someone on their telephone. And the quality is excellent most of the time.

The free calling to phones will end December 31. (Computer-to-computer calls will still be free.) Beginning January 1, calls to phones in North America will cost US$29.99 per year. Yes. Per YEAR. And if you sign up before the end of the year, you can get this plan for 50% off, plus about an hour of international calling.

If you have friends and family scattered all over the place, Skype is a great alternative to long distance charges. You need to read (and understand) the terms and conditions, and determine whether you think this is a good deal for your particular circumstances, but from a quality standpoint, Skype works very well for me on a computer with Windows XP and a fast connection. Find out about it here.


NORAD tracks Santa
From last week's column, NORAD tracks Santa's progress on Christmas Eve. There are other fun things for kids to do leading up to the big night, too. Browse here.
 

A very Merry Christmas to all of you! Please have a safe holiday.

Links
Castanet.net http://castanet.net
Television Yule Log http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_Log_(TV_program)
Internet Yule Log Official Fan Page http://www.theyulelog.com/
Internet Yule Log alternative http://www.adverteria.com/ROCKFLUX/YuleLog05.html
Free desktop theme, wallpaper, cursors, icons, sounds, and screen saver for Christmas http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E8CCD255-288C-4C33-879F-B9CE7D5FB08C&displaylang=en
Picasa2 from Google http://picasa.google.com/
Skype http://www.skype.com/helloagain.html
NORAD Tracks Santa http://www.noradsanta.org/index.php
Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives http://rlis.com/column.htm
Get Cate's column by email http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=20618
RSS Feed: http://rlis.com/rlis.xml

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Cate Eales has been helping people make online computing safe, accessible and fun for over 20 years. She lives in Kelowna with her husband, Eric, and her dog, Sandy. Cate is a partner in Real Life Internet Solutions, helping individuals and small businesses with virus, spyware and malware eradication; personal computer training and management; digital image management; music transfer; and website design, hosting and management. Email Cate at cate@rlis.com with your comments, suggestions, or questions. To browse the column archives, visit the Real Life Internet Solutions website at www.rlis.com.