The Tech Slayer

from Webware

2009-03-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

March 14, 2009 6:00 AM PDT

Get ready for fantasy baseball--18 top sites

by Don Reisinger

Baseball season is almost under way. So it's time we all get online and start forming our fantasy leagues. Perennial favorite sites from ESPN, Yahoo, and MLB.com will probably top the list for most people when they decide which service to use, but more goes into fantasy baseball than simply signing up for leagues. What about stats? Did you forget about the news? Did you happen to remember scouting tools?

Hear are the rest of the sites you need.

Step 1: Form the league

There are a number of fine league-building services out there, but if you want to have the best experience, stick to these selected few:

CBS Sports Not only is CBS Sports' Fantasy Baseball league free, it provides real-time scoring, live chat so you can talk with buddies during the game, and adequate player news and stats to help you make more informed decisions. I've used it a few times over the past five years and find it to be easy to use and high-powered for a private or public league. Disclosure: CBS Sports and CNET are owned by the same parent company: CBS.

ESPN Fantasy Baseball provides an easy-to-use interface.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)

ESPN Fantasy Baseball I've also used ESPN's fantasy sports services for years, and I've been impressed with how much they offer. Leagues are free, player news and stats come straight from ESPN, one of the best sources for sports news, and managing your team couldn't be easier. But ESPN's penchant for charging for extra scouting help and more in-depth player information is annoying.

MLB.com If you want the most basic offering for your fantasy baseball league, you'll probably want to use Major League Baseball's service. It's free and makes it easy to set up a league. But I'm generally unimpressed with its stat tracking, and managing a team isn't nearly as easy as it is in competing services. It's a well-known fantasy site, but it's not the best.

Yahoo Sports Yahoo was one of the first companies to start fantasy leagues. More than a decade later, it's still providing an outstanding experience. All the leagues are free, player information is always up-to-date and reliable, and the service's stat tracking is second to none. Yahoo does charge some hefty fees for access to a draft kit ($9.99) and a scouting report ($14.99), but it's still a great service.

Step 2: Find the right players

Now that you've found the right fantasy baseball service, you need to find the players that will take you to the World Series and help you beat your friends. Usually, the fantasy baseball services have only basic stats. Going outside your league site for full information is worth the effort.

DraftHelp.com expects Ichiro to have another good year.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)

DraftHelp As someone who doesn't spend too much time watching many other teams besides my beloved Yankees, I don't know too many players from other teams. That's why DraftHelp comes in handy each year. I go to the site, find depth charts for teams and get tips on who to pick at each position. But the site's projected stats pages is what I use most often because it tells me, based on past performance, what a player's expected year-end stats will be. They're not always right, but they tend to be close. And having that "cheat sheet" comes in handy when I need to find an advantage over competitors.

ProFantasyBaseball If you want information quickly and you don't want to spend time crunching the numbers yourself, ProFantasyBaseball.com is a great place to start. It provides you with all the best picks for your draft and provides you with information about "sleepers"--players who might have had good years, but aren't so well known--as well as printable rankings so you know which players are the best at every position. And it's free.

RotoAuthority RotoAuthority won't provide you with draft kits and it won't even give you all the stats you need from previous years to help you make more informed decisions. But it does provide you with everything from the top players to pick in this year's draft to player projections, in a blog that's updated daily. It's a nice site to check out after you've performed your research elsewhere.

SportsReference If you want to do the heavy lifting yourself, look no further than Baseball Reference from the SportsReference family of sites. It provides exhaustive research on every known baseball player from the minor leagues to the majors and gives you the result of every game dating back decades. You won't believe how much information this site has. But be aware that you will need to do all the number-crunching yourself.

Step 3: Managing your team

Now that your team is in place, you need to make sure you keep abreast of all the news and events surrounding your players to ensure you're making the best fielding decisions each day. In fantasy baseball, your work is never done.

BaseballNewsCentral BaseballNewsCentral might not be the best-looking site and you won't find much information about transactions or injuries, but it does a fine job of separating news by team. Each time the Associated Press releases a story about something related to baseball, BaseballNewsCentral updates its site immediately. It might not become your daily haunt, but you'll definitely find some use in it.

BenchCoach lets you know how your players are performing.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)

BenchCoach BenchCoach is unique in this roundup because it does something other services won't: it allows you to import your fantasy baseball team and it will then analyze your roster, give you advice on how to improve it, and project your success. Even better, its forums section is a superb resource for getting in touch with folks who are expert fantasy baseball players. It's a must-stop for any fantasy baseball manager.

FantasyBaseballChamp Sometimes, we just don't have time to spend searching through mass quantities of player information. For those moments, FantasyBaseballChamp will come in handy, thanks to its tables showing real-time rankings of players based on their expected fantasy performance and articles on mid-season management and advice. Most of the information is in-depth and all of it is actionable. But if you want more than just one person's advice, you probably won't find too much value in this site.

SandlotShrink If you want the best information available on the Web about sports, go to SandlotShrink, pay the $89 for a one-year subscription to the site, and enjoy the content. The site is written by some of the top journalists in the business, and includes projections, answers to all your questions, and much more. You can spend hours on the site and not get bored. The content is that good.

SportingNews Having information and the news at your fingertips is important when getting ready to manage your team all year. That's why I usually go to SportingNews to find out information about my players quickly. The news is categorized by team, player, or injuries, and, in a matter of seconds, you'll be able to check your team's status. It's a fine destination if you're not too happy with your fantasy league's built-in news updates.

All the rest

If you still aren't satisfied working through the sources I've listed above, I have even more for you. These are general purpose and don't necessarily fit into a category above. But they're still worth trying out.

Baseball America As a manger of a fantasy baseball league, you need to remember that you can't just keep a watchful eye on the MLB. Sometimes, sleeper stars come from the minor leagues. And that's where Baseball America, with its thorough reporting on the world of Minor League Baseball, comes in. It includes stats, news, and star player information. Keep a watchful eye on this site.

Baseball Monster When you're ready to start making changes to your team, or you need to find the single player that will provide the best Earned Run Average for the season, Baseball Monster is a great place to start. The site allows you to filter players by any stat you can think of. Want to know who leads the league in on-base percentage? Baseball Monster will tell you. Want to find out which first basemen has the best average with hitters in scoring position over the past three days for an American League East team? Baseball Monster will deliver that answer too.

FanGraph's graphs are second to none.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)

FanGraphs FanGraphs isn't necessarily designed for fantasy baseball players, since you can access information from most major sports, but it's still a great visual tool that will let you know where players on your team are headed. Once you get to FanGraphs, you can find a player or team and project their future success based on prior performances. The site graphs any information you ask for and helps you see, visually, how your team should perform going forward. I use it when things aren't going so well to see where I can make changes and improve my chances.

RotoTimes If you're looking for basic news and statistical information that's designed specifically for the fantasy baseball player in mind, look no further than RotoTimes. See, most sports sites write their news stories for general readers and fans. RotoTimes publishes news stories that will not only give you the lowdown on what's happening in the league, but also provide you with actionable fantasy league information that you can put to use on your team.

TG Fantasy Baseball If you want more than stats and news, check out TG Fantasy Baseball. The site features player reports and depth charts so you can see how often your players will be in the game, but its best features are its Dollar Values and Projections tools. The Dollar Values tool comes in handy if player salaries and salary caps are implemented in your league, because it tells you how many players at each position you should be fielding. The site's Projections tool gives you information on how well your players should perform over the course of the year. I've found that both tools work quite well and return accurate results.

Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

from Lifehacker

2009-03-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

Icon Grabber Converts Favicons to Image Files

By The How-To Geek, 1:00 PM on Mon Mar 2 2009, 2,951 views

Web application Icon Grabber takes a Favicon, the little icon in the address bar, and saves it to PNG, GIF or JPG format from any web site.

Using the web application couldn't be simpler—just paste in the URL, select the output format, click the Grab It button, and then right-click and save the grabbed icon from the page. Once you've saved the icon you can use it in a dock or launcher application that supports regular image files. Note that even without using this application, you can download the favicon as an ICO file from almost any website by simply appending /favicon.ico to the end of the URL, and using the right-click menu to save to a file—but converting icons to image format takes another step.

Icon Grabber is free, simple, and easy to use. To create your own Favicons, use previously mentioned Favicon Generator, then assign them to any Firefox bookmark with the previously mentioned Favicon Picker extension, or you can just block distracting animated favicons.

from Lifehacker

2009-03-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

FrameFinder Sizes Up the Right Frames for Your Face

By Adam Pash, 1:30 PM on Tue Mar 3 2009, 18,193 views

Web application FrameFinder lets you try size up frames online so you can find just the right glasses for your face without dealing with the pushy LensCrafters folk.

Just upload a pic, step through the simple wizard, and start sizing yourself up for a new pair of killer frames. It's a great little tool if you're not sure what sort of frames fit your face (though we've got a few rules of thumb for that, too), and since you can save bundles of cash by buying eyeglasses online, it offers a great way to do a little virtual sampling before you buy blindly.

The most annoying thing about the site is that it requires you to register to use it, including your phone number, but 555-555-5555 worked just fine for me. If you try it out and find a good frame, share your results in the comments.

Lifehacker

2009-02-28T01:15:00.000-08:00

Pod to PC Transfers Music from Any iPod, iPhone Onto Your PC [Downloads]

from Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy

Windows only: Pod to PC can grab the music and movies off nearly any Windows-formatted iPod for transferring to your PC, and avoids duplicates while doing so.

Install and fire up the software, and if your iPod is connected by a USB transfer cable, Pod to PC should find it and offer up basic stats:

Most notable is that, along with an iTunes-like read on space use, iPod name, and the like, Pod to PC shows how many of the tracks on a device are already loaded into iTunes on your computer. So that "Automatic Transfer" button smooshed into the lower-right corner (Pod to PC has a pretty rough graphical interface, in case you couldn't tell) does exactly that, grabbing uncopied tracks and placing them. Or you can tackle a transfer manually:

Advanced visual cues show you what's in your library already, what's protected or free, and what type of media each file is. Select the files you want, or use the upper-right search bar to narrow-as-you-type search. When you're done selecting, head to the File menu, hit "Initiate transfer," and you'll get a pop-up window giving you the report. Pod to PC can't place the files in iTunes itself, but it does create an "Import File," a simple text document, that iTunes can read to bring in multiple files at once.

The caveats: Pod to PC is not the most stable software we've tested—the inteface is a smooshy thing, and crashes and freeze-ups, especially when attempting to preview a file, aren't exactly rare. But it does work with an iPod touch or iPhone just as well as a first-generation white iPod, and does a nice job of sorting what you do and don't have already. For a full guide to reliable transfer software, check out our guide to copying music from your iPhone or iPod to your computer for free.

Pod to PC is a free download for Windows systems only.

Pod to PC [via gHacks]

Lifehacker

2009-02-28T00:56:00.000-08:00

Stream and Download Music with MP3 Search

By Jason Fitzpatrick, 1:00 PM on Sun Feb 15 2009, 22,095 views

MP3 Search is a web music finder with a simple interface. If you're in need of some quick tunes to listen to, or you're hunting down pieces of an obscure mix, take a peek.

Similar to previously reviewed Mix Turtle, MP3 Search sports a spartan, grab-it-and-go interface. Unlike Mix Turtle, though, you can download the tracks to your computer. The music you select loads in a small pop-up flash player for preview or quick listen, though you can't queue up multiple tracks as on Seeqpod.

For more methods to scour the web for musical bounty, make sure to check out our guide to finding free music. If you have a favorite site for streaming music or finding tunes, sound off in the comments below.

from Lifehacker

2009-02-28T00:48:00.000-08:00

Computer Repair Kit Packs Dozens of Tools in One Portable Package

By The How-To Geek, 11:00 AM on Mon Feb 16 2009, 74,023 views

Windows only: Portable system-fixing bundle Computer Repair Utility Kit puts 57 recovery tools into a single package. That gives you easy access to important system utilities without the fuss of building your own toolkit.

The launcher can be run directly from the folder or copied to a flash drive for access from any system, with a system tray menu for quick access to the included tools—which can be tweaked to add your own favorite portable applications. Most of the included utilities are familiar to Lifehacker readers, with well-known utilities like reader favorites CCleaner, PC Decrapifier, and Process Explorer along with dozens of other utilities that perform tasks ranging from killing spyware to system tweaking—and a copy of Portable Firefox is even included for good measure. If you haven't taken the time to build your own flash drive toolkit, this download might be worth a look to get you started.

Computer Repair Utility Kit is a free download for Windows, though readers should be forewarned that some of the actual download links on the home page purposely take you to ad-ridden, pop-up crazy download sites—getting to the actual download is more than a little annoying.

Recovery from Freeware Home

2009-02-24T10:48:00.000-08:00

DiskDigger can recover files from any type of media that your computer can read. This includes USB flash drives, memory cards (SD, CompactFlash, Memory Stick, etc.), and of course your hard drive. The types of files that it recovers includes photos, videos, music, documents, and other formats. DiskDigger works by thoroughly scanning each sector of your media for traces of files.

Productivity, Shopping from Lifehacker

2009-02-24T09:13:00.000-08:00

CraigsList Reader Searches the Depths of Craigslist [Downloads]

from Lifehacker by Jason Fitzpatrick

Windows only: You can get amazing deals on Craigslist, but you won't save any cash if you can't find the bargains. CraigsList Reader lets you deep-search multiple Craigslist location to find the loot.

We've shown you ways to go beyond the basic Craigslist search, including searching all of Craigslist at one time. CraigsList Reader (their unnecessary capitalization, not ours) is, by far, the most thorough Craigslist tool for searching we've ever reviewed. You can search every listing in every city, fine-tuned by region, state, and city. You can drill down to search just for jobs, jobs by type, items for sale, items with pictures, price ranges—in other words, your OCD tendencies are amply rewarded. You can set up desktop notifications based on specific search variables. So if you're looking for freelance graphic design jobs or aquariums for sale in your region, here's the place to save time on doing so.

A bit of advice for searching: be specific and make sure to narrow your categories and location if applicable. CraigsList Reader is a very thorough program, and if you search for a generic term with the filter wide open, it'll take a chunk of time to return all 94,294 results for "garage sale".

CraigsList Reader is freeware, Windows only and requires the Microsoft .NET Framework. For strategies on getting the upper hand using this app, or just the website, check our in-depth guide to taking advantage of Craigslist during a recession.

Fun From Lifehacker

2009-02-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

Obamicon.Me Turns Snapshots Into Stylized Obama Posters [Fun]

from Lifehacker by Jason Fitzpatrick

The Obamicon.Me webapp turns your uploaded images into stylized pictures, modeled after the the distinct four-color campaign posters used by President Obama.

You can upload a picture or grab an instant capture from your webcam for the base of your HOPE-ish pictorial. Once it's loaded into Obamicon.Me, you can adjust the saturation of each of the four colors, zoom, and rotate the image. Then you select from several preset slogans, or insert your own. If you like the results, you can right-click and save them or keep them on the site for linking—and if it turns out good/funny/evil, you'd better share it in the comments! For more random picture fun, make sure to check out MorphThing and blend your face with a (non-elected) celebrity's.

Obamicon.Me

From Lifehacker

2009-02-24T08:40:00.000-08:00

DiskDigger Recovers Deleted Files [Downloads]

from Lifehacker by Jason Fitzpatrick

Windows only: If you've just deleted some important media files, DiskDigger is a straightforward file recovery tool geared specifically toward recovering multimedia and document files.

As we noted earlier this month in our feature on properly erasing your physical media, just because Windows says a file is gone doesn't mean it's lost forever. DiskDigger is a standalone application that scans the sectors of your physical media looking for complete or partial media files. Unlike other file recovery tools that look for any files, DiskDigger is focused on the ones that people most commonly accidentally delete and need to recover. In the options menu you can specify what kinds of files you want it to search for, including: images (JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF and GIF), documents (DOC and PDF), and multimedia files (MPG, MP3, WMV, MOV and more). DiskDigger has active preview, allowing you to view files as they are discovered in the recovery process. The preview feature is especially helpful when scanning large drives, which can be a lengthy and intensive process. It took nearly two hours to deeply scan a 120GB SATA drive, although for smaller media recovery the process is markedly quicker; it took just 10 minutes to scan and recover files from a 2GB SD card.

One of the more interesting things about the deep scan of a primary drive is the number of images that aren't written over yet, despite their advanced age. In the screenshot above, you can see a photograph of Marilyn Monroe from when my wife and I redecorated a guest room with a 1950s/Marilyn Monroe theme over a year ago. Despite heavy drive activity, the photograph occupied a sector that remained untouched in all that time and was completely recoverable—yet more reinforcement to practice safe data handling and make sure to securely overwrite critical files. If you need to go beyond DiskDigger's media resurrection, make sure to check out our feature on recovering deleted files with free software for a huge assortment of tips and tools for getting your files back. DiskDigger is freeware, Windows only.

DiskDigger [via Download Squad]

From Lifehacker

2009-02-24T07:46:00.000-08:00

100dof Wallpaper Rotator Switches Backgrounds at Boot-Up

By Jason Fitzpatrick, 12:00 PM on Mon Feb 23 2009, 4,757 views

Windows only: If you like mixing up your desktop wallpaper, but not enough to keep a dedicated application running and chewing up system resources, 100dof Wallpaper Rotator will shuffle your wallpaper at boot time.

You pick the directory of images to shuffle through and tweak the settings. You decide whether or not the image should be stretched and otherwise maniuplated, and every time you boot into Windows, 100dof Wallpaper Rotator will load a new image from that directory as your new desktop background. After it performs this function, it shuts itself down—much like previously reviewed Fleace, which grabs images from Flickr. You can use BMP, ICO, JPG, or PNG files as your source images. 100dof Wallpaper Rotator is freeware, Windows only.

Bad Computing Habits-Slayed!

2008-09-14T04:52:00.000-07:00

Good day, citizen. The Slayer has returned yet again to protect and show you how to protect yourself when the Slayer isn't near.

Today the Slayer will arm you with ancient weapons handed down to him from one of the original Slayers. His name is Leo LaPorte. He has a show called "The Tech Guy" that can be heard on weekends throughout this fair land. Do not let his innocuous moniker, "The Tech Guy", fool you. He is indeed one of the mightiest of Slayers.

The Slayer first heard Slayer Leo on a computer-based talk show on Saturday mornings on KNBR in San Francisco. Back then the Slayer was a mere innocent, like yourself. Slayer Leo spoke of many things the Slayer did not fully comprehend, but as time passed the Slayer began to understand more and more. The Slayer followed Slayer Leo to the TV screen. He had a show called "Call for Help" on a channel then known as TechTV. It has sadly evolved into the GAME network known as G4.

Slayer Leo has handed down a very powerful weapon. They are his rules for safer computing. An innocent such as yourself is expected to know these things. The evil mastermind, PC, lies in wait for innocents ready to unleash a tidal wave of spoofed websites, Nigerian money scams, and helpful-looking pop-ups saying "you have been infected! click here get your antivirus" and "click here to redeem a free $100 gift card for Red Lobster".

Without further adieu, here are:

Leo’s Six Rules for Safe Computing

1. Don’t open email attachments; even if it’s from someone you know. If you do get something from someone you know, make sure that they really sent it to you. Email attachments are the number one way viruses and trojan horses get into your email. You might also want to turn off HTML email in Outlook and other programs. HTML emails are just as dangerous as rogue web sites, and can spread infections just by previewing them.

2. Don’t click links in email. That link could lead you to a phishing site, or the link may lead you to install malicious software. Copy and paste links into your browser, or type them in by hand instead. Another reason to disable HTML email - the HTML hides the real destination of that seemingly innocuous link.

3. Don’t download files from places you aren’t absolutely sure are safe. Stick with the well known sites. Teeneagers who use filesharing software like BitTorrent, Azureus, Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, and Limewire, often unwittingly download spyware and trojans. If you must, quarantine all downloads then scan them a few days later with an updated anti-virus.

4. Update your OS regularly! Turn on automatic updates in OS X and Windows. Apply all critical updates immediately. Criminals often create hacks within 24 hours of Microsoft’s patches (these are called zero day exploits), so you need to protect yourself the day the patches appear.

5. Use a firewall. The best firewall is a hardware router - the kind you use to share an internet connection. Even if they’re not billed as firewalls, they are, and they’re quite effective. I also recommend turning on your operating system’s firewall - even if you have a router - but I don’t recommend third-party software firewalls. They cause more problems than they solve.

6. Never run as an administrator in any operating system. Administrators have way too many priveleges that malicious people/code can take advantage of. Run as a limited user as much as possible. Windows Vista, Linux, and Mac OSX allow you to run a majority of features, but with some additional safety, as a limited user.

Slayer Leo's wisdom can still be learned by visiting http://twit.tv. Slayer Leo has numerous podcasts available to listen to online or for download.

What's that, citizen? What's a podcast? Citizen, how much time do you think the Slayer has? Please make use of Slayer Leo's rules and wait patiently for the Slayer to return.

Until then citizens, be strong, be safe, and pass on what you have learned...

Google-Slayed!

2008-09-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

Tell us how you did it, Tech Slayer...

For simplicity's sake, everyone should have a Google account. There are now so many online tools that Google has to offer it's likely you'll use more than one on your path to slayerdom. Why not just have one login for all those tools.

The first thing everyone should use is Google's email service, Gmail. As of this writing Gmail makes over 7GB of storage available. Gmail will also work with a email client like Microsoft Outlook. Other popular free providers like Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail don't offer this ability without a paid upgrade.

"But wait, Tech Slayer, I already have email through my internet service provider (i.e., AT&T, Earthlink, Comcast, etc.)"

No, my friend. Don't. It's a trap!

It's a common novice mistake to use the email address provided by their internet provider (ISP for short) and make it their main address, the one everyone knows. The trap is that the novice becomes so tied to that address that they become tied to the ISP as well. The Slayer knows of many people who are still paying AOL because they fear they'll lose their AOL-based email address.

By using Gmail you'll be empowered to move freely from ISP to ISP and never have to give up your Gmail address. Sure, you could use another free email service like Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail, but you'll have to create separate logins for those. Why subject yourself to the hassle?

The Contacts folder in Gmail is also the best place to store all your addresses and phone numbers.

Google also owns the phenomenon known as YouTube. This is currently the most popular video sharing website on earth. From homemade videos to movie trailers to replays of news clips YouTube has the largest video library on the internet.

Google Maps is the best way to find driving directions. You can play around with alternate routes and multiple detours. It will also remember your home address, the addresses of other places you ask for directions to, give you estimated driving times, and give you a real-time view of traffic.

Google Earth is a program that utilizes satellite photos from all over the planet and has some integration with Google Maps. Using Google Earth you can see what your house, workplace, or local dog park all look like from space. The Tech Slayer even found the Hawaiian home of his late grandfather, The Rebar Slayer.

Google Calendar integrates easily with Gmail. It can send you a text message reminder to your cell phone of upcoming appointments. You can even subscribe to things that will automatically be added to your calendar like DVD releases or your favorite team's schedule.

Google Docs is a great substitute for those that cannot afford the full Microsoft Office suite. Docs offers a word processor, spreadsheet, and a presentation program, akin to PowerPoint. It's not as rich and full-featured as MS Office, but the everyday user will find it sufficient. Documents can be imported and exported to MS Office as well.

Google also happens to have one of the best photo sharing sites, known as Picasa Web Albums. A common novice mistake is attempting to email pictures. Email messages with photos attached often results in an email that takes up large amounts of the recipient’s storage space, not to mention it takes longer to download, and is almost impossibly too large for a recipient that doesn’t have broadband internet access.

Instead, you can just post your photos on Picasa Web Albums and rather than sending them a large email with photo files the recipient may not even want, simply send an email with a link to the website. The recipient can then review the pictures and have the freedom to pick and choose which ones to download. There are settings available that can make it so that only certain people may view the photos if privacy is a concern.

Hand-in-hand with Picasa Web Albums is a free downloadable offline program called Picasa. The Beta of version 3 was just released last week. This program will organize all your photos. It gives you the ability to add tags to each photo for easier organizing and indexing. There’s a built-in photo editor that’s powerful yet easy for novices to understand. You can also make slideshows, collages, and a customized screen saver. You can even select pictures to be professionally printed and sent directly to your home or for pickup at many local Wal-Marts or Walgreens.

Blogger is another Google franchise. This free service gives you enough tools for even novices to turn out very professional-looking blog sites.

One of the Slayer’s favorite Google features is Google Reader. Reader is a sort of Grand Central Station for all your favorite feeds.

“Feed? What’s a feed, Slayer? Oh, no, I’m confused,” I hear you saying.

Do not fear, citizen. The Slayer is here to protect you.

A “feed” refers to something known as an RSS feed. This master of confusion is commonly seen by its telltale orange symbol. You’ll frequently find this on sites that are updated often, like news sites, for example.

The feed itself is actually a tool. You can use it to have updates automatically sent to an RSS reader like Google Reader. This saves you from the hassle of having to navigate to those sites looking for what’s new. Instead of going to them, they come to you. Neat concept, isn’t it?

What’s that? Sounds confusing? Sounds like a hassle? Again, fear not. It’s actually quite easy. Simply click on either the “RSS” icon or that little orange symbol. You’ll be given to option to send to different readers, Google being a common option. Just click on the Google icon, then indicate that you want the feed to be sent to Google Reader. That’s it. Slayed!

From then on, updates to the site will automatically be sent to your Google Reader page. Even this site can be subscribed to via RSS feed.

At the Google Reader site itself a wealth of other feeds are listed giving you the option of seeing the latest in all of your different interests. Some of the feeds the Slayer subscribes to include Lifehacker, Instructibles (DIY sites), latest news from PC Magazine and PC World, and today’s Garfield cartoon strip (no, the Slayer really doesn’t subscribe to Garfield!).

The Slayer grows weary from all this typing and must leave you now. But he will never be far away. The Slayer dispenses with such antiquities like a Bat-signal or a hotline. Use the RSS feed.

Until next time, my friends, have faith, be strong, and pass on what you have learned…