technology – Sherri Ross

Tag: technology

12
Nov
2019

My Passion

I’ve always wondered exactly what my passion was/is. I know I’m passionate about many different things – I love to connect people to other people and resources, I love to lift people up and encourage them, I love to dance and get people grooving with me, I love to love people, I just love to make people smile, period. But today my true passion came out in full force and I wasn’t even looking for it.

I love to solve problems. That’s it. My husband was having an issue setting up an account for someone and kept running into problems. I immediately wanted help him (aka take over) and resolve the issue. He didn’t need my help (he’s super intelligent and capable), but my first instinct and desire were to grab that computer and fix that issue immediately, no matter what it took. It hit me right then, that’s what my passion is. That’s exactly what I love doing the most. I have many gifts, but THAT is what I love doing and what I want to do – FIX PROBLEMS. And I’m good at it. It doesn’t have to be technology, but I’m especially good at that. However, I’m constantly trying to help friends figure out resolutions to their issues or at least point them in the right direction. I’m a plethora of information and love to dig for information to help people find the answers to their questions if I can’t solve it for them.

So next time you need a problem solved hit me up and I’ll see if I can help. Apparently I LOVE IT. lol.

22
Feb
2016

Where My STEM Girls At?

categories: STEM, technology

Yes, I know that’s not proper grammar. No, I don’t care. 🙂 It’s my blog and I’ll write how I want to.

Saturday I was fortunate enough to present a few talks to 7th – 12th grade girls about STEM careers for the 3rd Annual Super Saturday STEM Summit. The Summit was started by Miss Leeds Area, Briana Kinsey, as part of her platform on her journey to the Miss Alabama stage. She’s an amazing, extremely intelligent young lady attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham and changing lives along the way through diabetes education, as well as getting young girls interested in STEM classes. If you don’t know STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics and women are woefully underrepresented in careers in this field.

This was my second year presenting and each year it’s more fun. This year I talked to the girls about coding and how so many things are run by codes and programs, including the Internet of Things, the latest trend. It was so rewarding to hear the girls talk about growing up to be dentists, chemical engineers, mathematicians, and more. I went over how important STEM classes and careers are for them and talked about everyone from Mae Jemison to Amandla Sternberg (Rue from The Hunger Games). I’m thankful to Briana and writers like Clair McLafferty who are trying to increase STEM awareness for girls and women alike.

The same thing I told the girls on Saturday goes for anyone who’s passionate about a career in STEM: you can do anything you set your mind to, you do belong at the table, and – like Sheryl Sandberg says – “lean in” because you’re just as smart as the guys at the table, if not smarter. You wouldn’t be there if you weren’t.

19
Jan
2016

Do you Periscope? You should Katch.

categories: #techtuesdays

It’s time again for #TechTuesdays with You Got Rossed!

A friend of mine recently started broadcasting on Periscope. If you don’t know what Periscope is, it’s basically live video streaming wherever you are while you’re doing or watching whatever. Anyone with a Twitter account can Periscope. Think of it as your own personal YouTube channel without a lot of the YouTube fuss. You download the app, you press a button, and viola – you’re live streaming to the world!

The good thing about Periscope is the ability to start sharing with anyone, anywhere, doing anything. The bad thing about Periscope is it doesn’t live on the internet indefinitely for people to watch later. Well, not on its own. When you start a Periscope broadcast you can choose whether to make it accessible after you finish the broadcast or not. If you choose to save it, people can open the app after you’ve finished and still watch your broadcast for up to 24 hours. If you don’t choose to save it, it’s deleted as soon as you’re done broadcasting. Until now…

Katch is a great application that integrates with Twitter to allow you to keep and share your Periscope (or Meerkat) broadcasts as you like. This is extremely beneficial for someone who has missed your ‘scope (as they’re called) and won’t be able to watch it for some time. With the Katch app, you can provide a link to it and they can watch it any time.

You can find out more about Katch at their web site here including learn how to use it and sign up for it.

Happy ‘scoping!

29
Sep
2015

#TechTuesdays: Data Plan, Money Saving Tip (+ BONUS) for iOS9

categories: #techtuesdays

Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 9, came out September 16th with a slew of new features and upgrades including improved Siri, Apple Maps, and expanded Apple Pay. Along with the upgrades came a few hidden features aimed at optimizing battery life and phone performance. One of the gems they slid into iOS 9 is the new “Wi-Fi Assist” feature designed to help stabilize your connection when on a wireless network. This option is turned on by default in the new iOS and allows your phone to silently switch over to your data plan if the wi-fi signal you’re on or near is less than stellar. If you have an unlimited data plan, this option really isn’t a problem and can be left alone. However, for the majority of us without unlimited data plans, having this feature on can quickly eat through our allocated data plan. Scroll down for instructions on how to disable “Wi-Fi Assist” on your mobile device in iOS 9.

Go to Settings
Choose the Cellular menu (usually the 4th option – see Screen Shot #1 above)
Scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN to the bottom of that menu, past the Cellular Data, Enable LTE, Roaming, SIM, etc., past all the applications listing cellular data use, to the very bottom of the page. It should look like Screen Shot #2 below. (And now you also know I’m addicted to Yatzy.)
Listed under the list of apps is the “Wi-Fi Assist” option.
Slide the button next to “Wi-Fi Assist” to turn it off – it should turn grey (from green) when you do, indicating it is off.

BONUS TIP: This is also a good place to review the apps listed above the “Wi-Fi Assist” button to see which ones are data hogs for your phone. If you consistently run out of or over your data plan, consider accessing some of those apps via their full sites on a computer (if applicable) or deleting them all together if not needed.

I hope this helps some of you and feel free to submit any #TechTuesdays question you’d like answered to sherri (at) yougotrossed (dot) com. Happy Tuesday!

11
Aug
2015

#TechTuesdays: Getting Alerted When You or Your Blog is on Google

categories: #techtuesdays

Time for #TechTuesdays with yours truly!

A few years ago I heard about a neat little tool that has helped me stay on top of my blog showing up anywhere online. The tool is a Google Alert and if you’re not using it yet, you likely will be the end of this post.

Alerts are online, FREE tools that Google created to allow you to get emails for any keyword(s) you like. I have Google Alerts set up for my blog name (YouGotRossed), my personal name (Sherri Ross), my organizations (Birmingham Girls Club, Birmingham Dance Walk), and many other things. I get an email in my Inbox each time those search terms show up in a result somewhere, along with the link to the source, and I can see if someone has mentioned me or is sharing my blog.

To set up your own Google Alerts:

Go to http://www.google.com/alerts in any web browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, etc.).
In the “Create Alert About” box type in your keyword or words that you want Google to search for.
Once you’ve typed in your criteria, you will see options underneath the search box that say “Create Alert” and “Show Options”.
Click the “Show Options” arrow to customize the alert for you and then click “Create Alert.” “Show Options” is where you can set the frequency of alerts you receive, where you received them and more.
You’re all done! Now when Google finds something matching your keywords, you will get an email.

Google offers some helpful tips for setting up your searches here. Feel free to reach out to me at sherri (at) yougotrossed (dot) com if you have any questions about this or any tech queries. Happy Teching, Blogloves!