Computerification

This is only the first about browing the web securely - there’s lots more to come!

The simple answer is this: Use Firefox. I’ll explain briefly why. Firefox was built with some of the flaws of other browsers (but we’re really talking Internet Explorer here) in mind; where Internet Explorer (IE) would get a virus by simply visiting a site - due to insecurities in the way it was built - Mozilla Firefox made sure it wasn’t suceptable. This is not to say that Firefox is flawless - as no program ever could be - but it has been proven to be significantly more secure than Internet Explorer.

The change is an easy one; you simply download Firefox, install it by following the instructions, and then run it. On first installation it will ask if you want to import anything - and it’s usually best to import your settings (That is - your Favourites list, Browsing History, Passwords, etc) from Internet Explorer in. When you load it, it will have all your Bookmarks (Favourites) that you had in Internet Explorer. However, instead of having to be extremely careful about where you go online (And I am a computer engineer by profession; so I see the worse of what IE does to people each and every day!) you can be sure that you are significantly safer browsing.

There are also claims that Firefox is slightly faster browsing; I can’t say that’s true for certain, especially as I’ve used it for so long now, but that’s a thought that’s out there. Hey, and make sure to check out “Tabbed Browsing” by using the middle mouse button to click (That’s usually the scroll wheel!). Yes - Internet Explorer has this feature now too - but they took quite a while to get this feature from Firefox!!

As with most of the posts I will make, this has been covered before ad infinitum; but my goal is to cover these topics in a clear, consise format that’ll mean even a complete novice can follow them.

My first HowTo is on how to embed YouTube and Google Video’s straight into a blog entry. It’s not hard, when you know how, but has baffled many including myself in the past!

So go ahead and start a new post or create a new page as you normally would.

You have to place a small bit of code in to your post which tells your Blogging program to grab the video from Google or YouTube. So - go to Google Videos or YouTube and find the video you want to include!

YouTube

If your video is on YouTube, then look just to the right of the video; you’ll see the following sections:

What you need to do is select the entire text that appears in the “Embed” field - click and hold your mouse from the beginning of the “Embed” field and drag it to the right to select all the text (there’s quite a bit there mind you!). When you’ve selected it all, release the mouse button and the text should still be selected; now Right-Mouse button somewhere on the text and click “Copy”.

Google Videos

If your video is on Google Videos, there’s a couple more steps - but it’s pretty much the same.

First, look to the right of your video: there should be the following:

Click the button that says “E-mail - Blog - Post to MySpace” and the click “Embed HTML” that appears directly below that button.

You’re then shown a box with the code in; click and hold your mouse from the beginning of the code field and drag it to the right to select all the text. When you’ve selected it all, release the mouse button and the text should still be selected; now Right-Mouse button somewhere on the text and click “Copy”.

For both - continued…

Now you have your code - you should be able to “Paste” it directly in to your Blog posts. Some blogging software doesn’t allow code to be posted, or use a “Visual” editor instead of a plain old one. If that’s the case, try going into a standard editing mode (sometimes called “HTML” mode) to complete the final steps.

Now simple right-mouse button anywhere on your new blog post and click “Paste”. You’ll see the code appear - now try publishing your post and you should see the video appear. Once you get the hang of where to position them and copying the code, this’ll become very quick.

Remember: You can post more than one video on a single blog post, and you can even post a Google Video in the same post as a YouTube video. There’s other video providers out there, but as YouTube and Google are the most popular, they’re the most important to cover.

I’ll happily clear up any confusion anyone may have - hopefully that’ll help you add videos to your blogs a bit easier.

Happy Blogging!