Ricky Says

Quick Response Codes - QR codes for short - are matrix style bar codes that can be linked to a variety of data types, such as identification for airline boarding passes, and more recently, browser URLs.

You could for example put a QR code on your business card so that when people scan it with a bar code reader on their smart phone it would take them right to your website. Most smart phones either come with a built-in bar code scanner or have free apps available that can scan QR codes.

You can create your own QR code that links to your website by shortening the URL and then adding .qr to the end of it.

Here are the step-by-step instructions:

1. Shorten your URL.

I use the free URL shortener from http://bit.ly but you can also use google's link shortening service http://goo.gl that's also free.

Just type in the URL and press the "Shorten URL" button, and then copy the URL.

2. Add .qr to the shortened URL.

Paste the copied URL into your web browser, and add .qr to the end of it.

When you press Enter, you'll see your newly created unique QR code, which you can print out, or copy and paste into an email or put on a business card, etc.

Just be sure to add the .qr to the URL before you press enter in your browser.

To scan a QR code from your iPhone, just download the free RedLaser app.

When you scan the QR code, it will automatically take you to the web page you linked to above.

Give it a try using the QR code above and it should take you to the home page at http://rickysays.com.

Last week I took my family to Cabo for vacation, and we did one of those snorkeling cruises where they take all kinds of great pictures and then let you purchase the DVD of all the photos (which I did). When we returned home, I wanted to upload those pictures to my facebook page so my friends and family could see them.

It's a 2-step process. First I imported the photos from the DVD to my computer, and then I uploaded those pictures from my computer to my facebook page.

Here's how to upload photos from a DVD to Facebook

1. Import the photos from your DVD to your computer.

Insert your DVD into your computer's DVD drive and wait for the Autoplay dialog to pop up.

Choose the "Import pictures and videos" option. You can tag your photos with something that'll help you find them later, and then click "Import" to copy them from the DVD to your computer.

The pictures will be uploaded to your Pictures folder, which is "C:\Users\Rick\Pictures" on my computer.

2. Upload the photos from your computer to your Facebook page.

Now that the photos have been imported to your computer, you're ready to upload them to Facebook.

Log into your Facebook account and click "Add Photo / Video" at the top of your homepage.

Click "Create Photo Album" and then click "Select Photos to Upload".

You'll be prompted for the location of your photos that are on your computer from Step 1 above. Find them, select the ones you want to upload, and that's all there is to it!

Here's another tip: hold the Ctrl key down while selecting photos. This will let you select individual photos on your computer.

Happy uploading, and I'm sure your friends will love seeing the new photos you'll be posting :-)

Whether you're switching from a Mac to a Windows PC, or the other way around (PC to Mac), you can easily copy your web browser bookmarks between the two computers. This will save you the time and hassle of manually re-creating the dozens of bookmarks you've saved over time.

Mac Instructions:

Let's start with exporting bookmarks from a Mac. Three easy steps:

1. Open Firefox and click the "Bookmarks" menu, and then click the "Show All Bookmarks" menu.

2. Click the Import and Backup button in the popup dialog, and then select "Export HTML".

3. Save the html file to your hard drive, and then email it to yourself or save it to a usb flash drive so you can get this file on your Windows PC.

Windows PC Instructions:

1. Open Firefox on your Windows PC and select the "Bookmarks" -- "Show All Bookmarks" menu like you did on the Mac.

2. Click the "Import and Backup" button and then select the "Import Bookmarks from HTML".

3. Browse to the file you sent to your email, or that you saved to your usb flash drive, and click "Open" to import the bookmarks.

You'll immediately see all of your bookmarks loaded into Firefox on your Windows PC.

These steps also work exactly the same the other way around - going from a PC to a Mac.

Question: I have some pictures I took with my Blackberry Curve that I'd like to copy over to my computer. How do I do this?

Answer: With Blackberry phones you have a few choices for copying photos to your computer, or for copying them from your computer to your Blackberry. These instructions also work for copying music files and videos.

1. Transfer via email.

This is the easiest way, and doesn't cost any money because data transfer is included in the Blackberry service. With the picture open on your Blackberry (Media -- Pictures -- My Pictures -- and then find your picture), press the menu button and select "Send As Email" (you have to scroll down a ways on the menu to find this option).

The email will show up on your computer with a file attachment containing your picture in jpg format, which is compatible with any photo imaging programs and will even open in Microsoft Paint (although I recommend a program like Paint.NET which is free and awesome).

The only drawback with the email approach is that you can only send one picture at a time, which gets a little tedious if you have several pictures you'd like to copy to your computer. In that case I recommend the USB data cable approach described below.

2. Transfer using bluetooth.

Open the Media application on your Blackberry to view your pictures, and open the picture that you want to transfer. Press the menu button and select "Send Using Bluetooth" (you'll have to scroll down the menu towards the bottom to see this option).

You have to have Bluetooth enabled on your BB, otherwise you'll see a warning message: