Last time, we showed you how to open up your Qzone. This time, we’ll show you how to add photos to it. Here we go:
First, open your Qzone.
Your Qzone. No photos yet.
Hover at the top to bring down the list of icons.
Hover on third set of symbols from the left and click the second icon.
Click on the second icon to start the album upload process.
Click the blue box to start the process.
Here’s where you can name your album, describe it and select different permission settings.
Name, description, etc. It’s all here.
Ignore the next menu. Click the X to close it.
Ignore this. It’s a quick uploader. You don’t need it.
Clicking the blue button brings up a typical Windows file choice menu.
Click this blue button to choose the photos.
Once you choose the photos and click the OK button in Windows, you get a thumbnail pic of whichever ones you’ve chosen. Click the upload button to finish the process.
Click the blue ‘upload’ button.
At this point you can describe the photos as a group or, one by one. If you’ve taken a trip, for instance, you can describe them all saying something such as ‘Summer Trip 2012’.
Now you describe all of the photos at once or one by one.
You’re done! If you use Google Chrome, the whole process is somewhat easier since Chrome will translate most menus for you. For the ones it doesn’t translate, copy and paste the text into Google Translate.
Other than photos, you can add blog posts to your zone, ask questions and interact with your friends in many ways. We’ll show you how to add blog entries in a future post.
Signing up for a new QQ account is very straightforward. No knowledge of Chinese is needed if you go to the QQ International site. You’ll find it here: http://www.imqq.com/
Once you have your account set up, basically that involves telling QQ who you are, your date of birth, a new password and confirming your email address, you can start looking for new friends. Each QQ account has a Qzone attached to it. A Qzone is where you share photos, stories, logs (blogs) with your friends. They can comment on your material and you can visit their zones to do the same. The Qzone is sort of a mini-Facebook.
Some QQ users spend a lot of time dressing up their zones. You can too but, first, you have to open it up. Once you log-in to QQ, click on the right icon, the one that looks like four mini computer screens, then click on the Qzone icon shown here:
Clock on the Qzone icon.
Once you click on the Qzone icon, you’ll be taken to a page that is completely Chinese. Ah, your adventure begins. While the QQ chat window is in English, everything in your zone is in Chinese. Don’t worry, we’ve been using QQ for years and we’ll show you how to get around. This is what the first page looks like:
QQ is inviting you to open your zone.
The English for the blurb under the words “JOIN US” reads like this:
Logging life bit by bit, photo sharing moments
Show their own individual tastes, and friends with idyllic
Independence not as good as the public Lele Lele, so what, just join the QQ space family! (at least that’s what Google translates it as).
If you click on the big blue box, the one that has QQ followed by two Chinese symbols, this is what you’ll see:
Fill out the information here, some of which is already completed, then click the bar at the bottom.
Basically, you name your zone (you can change it later), confirm your nickname, your sex, what calendar you want to use, your country of origin then a captcha (the BVQX thing). Lastly, signify that you have read the agreement by clicking the bar at the bottom. You’re set!
Next time we will add some photos to create an album. Stay tuned.
After we joined GTPlanet Forums, the one dedicated to Playstation Gran Turismo racing games, we thought we’d describe what forums are all about and how to join one. If you’re already familiar with them, fine, but many new computer/Internet users may not be familiar with online forums.
Whenever you’re searching for information, most likely you come across a forum that either asks the same question or, most of the time, answers it. Here’s what a forum looks like:
Each topic is on a thread, threads can be many pages long.
There is a main forum, then that forum is broken down into individual topics then each topic has its own thread. If you happen to change the topic in a thread, and that’s usually not a good idea, you will be asked, or told, to start a new thread.
TIP: If you join a forum, don’t post anything until you read through many posts or threads to get an idea of the atmosphere in the group. Each forum has its own ambiance, a feeling about it that you don’t want to disturb. Sure, you may be very excited about being able to read and share ideas about your favorite topic but take the time to get to know each forum before you post anything other than some bits about yourself on your own profile.
Once you’ve found a forum, there are several steps to go through before you can actually post anything. You need an email address, a username, a password and about a minute of your time. We’ll walk you through the steps, one by one.
TIP: Don’t use your main email for a forum. Some forums treat your email with care and others sell your email to spammers. That’s only a problem if you use your main email so make up a new hotmail/gmail/yahoo email to use for forums. We have many email accounts, some for this and some for that. You should do the same.
Here’s the first step in joining the GTPlanet forum. We’re using this as an example, but each forum is virtually identical. Oh, they are also free. Every forum we’ve ever seen is free, they are remnants of the old BBS system in the early days of the Internet. Don’t ever pay to join a forum unless it’s some kind of professional forum for work, if there are any such things.
Fill in your date of birth here. It doesn’t have to be true, but most forums want you to be over 18 since there are some adult parts in every forum.
Some forums ask for your date of birth, some don’t. Don’t worry about it. A fake birthday is fine. Just make sure you choose a DOB (date of birth) that puts you over 18.
You must agree (and adhere) to the forum rules. Believe us, they aren’t onerous, just full of common sense.
Agree to the forum rules and click Next.
Choose your username, fill in the slots and click next. Some forums use a ‘captcha’ to make sure you’re not a ‘bot’, or robot.
Here’s where you can choose your username, plunk in your email addy and make up a password. Passwords on forums aren’t that important but we recommend not using the same password as your Facebook account, for instance. Use long and difficult to hack passwords for your banking and social networking sites. Forums are sometimes hacked but it’s not a big deal if they are. Don’t use your real name and don’t give out any personal information. If you want to do that on Facebook, fine, but don’t do it in a forum.
Once you complete this registration process, the forum will probably send a confirmation email to the email account that you signed up with. Make sure you check your junk email box when you’re looking for it. Mark the confirming email as safe and then click the link in it to prove that the email you used is valid. You’re done!
Before you start using the forum, you could put in some details to flesh out your profile. This is optional. There are forums for every topic under the sun, many are for adults only, some are for kids, and there are thousands of forums for games, crafts, hobbies and so on. We don’t suggest putting up a profile pic on some forums but you’re on your own there.
Forums are fun and informative. Don’t be afraid of them. We’ve taught you about them here but if you have questions or problems, comment on this post or on our Facebook page and we’ll answer you as best we can. Here’s the link to our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ComputersMadeSimple?ref=hl
If you’re concerned about the security of your Facebook account, here’s how to eliminate the biggest threat. It’s easy, fast and once you set it up, you can rest a lot easier knowing that one route into your account has been plugged.
Facebook loves to send you emails. If you let Facebook have it’s way, your inbox would be chock full of notifications about this and that. Right now, there are many email scams out there. You might get an email that looks like it’s from Facebook, but it’s a very clever attempt to get your password in order to hijack your account. Here’s how to stop those emails in their tracks:
1. From any page on Facebook, look up on the top right and click on the arrow beside Home to bring down this menu:
Click on Account Settings
2. Once you are there, click on Account Settings then Notifications and you’ll see this menu next:
Notifications is the one you want now.
3.Start with clicking on the word Edit to the right of Facebook. This is what you’ll see:
This is what you want the menu to look like, all boxes unchecked.
4. If you use Facebook every day, why do you need an email to tell you that something has happened inside Facebook? You’re going to sign in and see the notices anyway, why do you need a follow-up email? We would strongly advise you to uncheck every box here.
5. Move down the list for each of the sections: Photos, Groups, Notes, Pages and so on. Make sure each box in each section is unchecked.
6. Now, look up on the top left for the word Apps and click on it. This is what you’ll see next:
Make sure that the Apps never notify you.
7. Here you will see that we have prevented Words With Friends from notifying us. See the word ‘never’ on the bottom right? Make sure that is showing and click Close to ensure that you will not get any notices from this app. Move down the list and do the same for every app that you use.
You’re done! Now, you won’t get any email from Facebook. Whatever email comes to your inbox or your junk box will be a scam. Guaranteed. If you follow our directions here, you’ll be safe from phishing emails. Phishing is where an email tries to get information from you in order to hijack your Facebook or your bank account.
If you still want Facebook to email you, you’re on your own. You risk getting tricked by one of these clever emails. Good luck! It’s scary out there sometimes.
Don’t respond or click on any link that you get from Facebook, unless you are 100% sure it is from Facebook. Here’s why:
1. We got this email today in one of our junkmail folders:
Looks legitimate, right?
2. We do have a Facebook account for this email address but we rarely use it. We’ve got our email settings in this Facebook account set to never send email. We also don’t know anyone named Christine McLain Gibbs.
3. We didn’t click on the link, that’s for sure. But we were curious as to how this think worked. We knew it was a scam but didn’t know what it was supposed to do. The links led to the following address: (We’ve left spaces in it so it doesn’t work and don’t try to make a link out of it) http://www. unitedtec.org /mobile.html
Our browser asked if we wanted to use Java when we pasted the link into a new window. We didn’t allow it and after a few seconds, we were taken to a real Facebook page. We assume the link sucked Facebook passwords from our cache using Java. Even though we didn’t allow Java to run, we changed our Facebook password anyway.
4. Unitedtec.org is a legitimate site, we think. It seems to be some sort of religious, Christian teen site. The url in the IP address leads to Site5 hosting. We’ve notified both of these sites in the hopes that these emails can be stopped.
If you remember to never click an email link from Facebook, you’ll be safe. Good luck!
Thanks for reading!
a little bit of hi-tech, a little bit of common sense and a lot of fun
