Rogue Valley Computing » Useful tips

Surfing for Digital Savings

John — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:44:11 +0000

My father-in-law and I are birds of feather when it comes to gadgets and technology. Trading stories, debating Apple vs. Windows (he’s a mac guy, I go both ways) and marveling at the latest iphone app keeps our conversations lively and fun. On a recent visit to southern Oregon, he tactfully inquired once again about our lack of cable TV at home and how we managed to get by with over-the-air broadcast channels. I patiently reminded him that cable TV would be coming to southern Oregon in due time, as soon as we finished laying the pipes for indoor plumbing.

Almost four decades have passed since HBO first beamed made-for-tv movies and raunchy stand-up comedy into our homes. HBO’s offerings may not have changed much in 40 years, but our choices for multimedia content have grown dramatically since those early days of cable.. Today, with some creative decision-making and willingness to venture into the wilds of the internet, it is possible to take advantage of excellent services, while saving a bundle of money. From internet radio to online movies, banking to long-distance phone calling, there’s something for everyone. The following is a selection of some of the better known, top-rated services available:

Music – Perhaps the best free online radio service is pandora.com. Pandora is a personalized radio service that plays music based on your preferences. Select an artist, album or genre and pandora will broadcast music that has been “genome typed” to your selection. Very clever. There are literally thousands of other online radio stations, yet pandora does an excellent job of providing free, quality content. Worthy of mention is another top-notch station, shoutcast.com.

Video / TV – Look beyond youtube. Everything from live newscasts to new feature length movies are available and easily accessible. Most cable channels offer free online programming similar to their fee-based offerings, oftentimes without commercials. Check out sites like hulu.com and boxee.tv for a wide variety of programming. For new release movies, amazon’s video-on-demand can be streamed right to your television set for a few dollars per movie.

Telephone Services – If you aren’t using Skype, what are you waiting for? The granddaddy of VOIP (voice over internet protocol) calling is still free and offers crystal clear voice and video chat services. Sign up for an account and your conversations with other skype members anywhere on the planet won’t cost you a nickel. Others companies have jumped into the VOIP arena, notably some of the major cable providers. Many subscribers save on phone bills by combining cable/internet/telephone services into a single monthly package.

Banking – As an alternative to pen and paper bookkeeping, Mint.com provides an excellent method of keeping track of all one’s financial accounts in a free, easy to use, feature-rich environment. Recently acquired by Quicken, Mint helps users manage accounts, prepare budgets and reports, and find savings. Rock solid and secure, Mint has set the standard for online financial services.

The list goes on and on……educational games, photo processing, shopping. For ease of use, accessibility, and cost savings, internet-based services can be a great value. Fortunately, making the most of these services (like pandora and amazon video) won’t necessarily require additional hardware costs as newer computers come with built-in output connectivity to stereo systems and flat screens. So, sit back, relax and enjoy the movie. Oh, and the plumbing’s on its way.

Taming the Dust Bunnies

John — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:03:32 +0000

Ahh, springtime. The garden. The cluttered garage. The gutters that never got cleaned last fall. Alas, tucked away in a dark corner underneath your desk, or perhaps buried under a pile of magazines and bills sits a metal box that is calling for your attention. You’ve most likely never ventured inside this box. Now may be a good time to add it to the spring cleaning checklist.

Regular cleaning is good for computer gear. Taking a few minutes to remove the dust, crumbs, smudges and other unwelcome guests from your computing devices will make for a better experience and potentially help avoid hardware failure resulting from dust buildup. Let’s take a look at some common inroads to computer clutter and ways to clean them up, starting with THE TOWER.

Inside the tower is located all of the computer’s hardware that springs to life when the power button is pushed. ALL computers generate heat. As a system’s cooling fan draws air through the tower, so to goes the dust. Years of accumulated dust acts as an insulator. This can raise the temperature of a computer above its operating capacity and cause hardware failure. The solution – remove the dust. Here are some simple DO’s and DON’TS that need to be followed when cleaning dust from a computer:

1. All power cords, cables and devices need to be unplugged and removed.
2. Dusting should take place outside in a dry, clean and ventilated area.
3. Remove only the removable side of the tower’s outer case, typically held in place by a hinge or locking screw.
4. Do not touch any of the internal parts as they can be sensitive to the static discharge from your body.
5. Using only canned or compressed air, apply short puffs directed at a distance of 2-6 inches from computer parts.
6. Never use a vacuum cleaner or dusting device to remove dust from your computer.

Bravado and a big blast from the lungs is not a good idea for cleaning the tower. You’re liable to get a face full of old, fine dust.

THE PRINTER can also benefit from a regular cleaning. A gentle wipe down of the outside of the printer with a damp, lint-free cloth will do the job. As for the “guts” of the printer, methods of cleaning can vary depending on the printer type. Fortunately, most newer printers have built-in cleaning utilities accessible from the printer software installed on the computer or from the settings on the printer itself. The built-in utility will typically take care of cleaning and aligning the printhead or print cartridges. This will help cut down on waste in both paper and ink. Older printers may require removal of these items for manual cleaning.

Cleaning THE MONITOR is a straight shot. Newer LCD monitors are more sensitive to scratches and abrasions compared to the glass screens found on older CRT monitors. Consequently, a softer touch and non-abrasive materials are key. Always use a clean, micro-fiber cloth such as the type for cleaning eye glasses. NEVER use paper products (tissue, towels, newspaper) or other cloth types. Plain water or a water/vinegar solution sprayed onto the cloth will help remove smudges on the screen. Slow and gentle is the way to go while cleaning an LCD monitor.

As for THE KEYBOARD, don’t let it become your personal petri dish. A little patience and light elbow grease will expose those smudged-over keys in no time. First, take care of the dust and crumbs with some compressed air (like with the tower) blown between the keys. A vacuum with a brush attachment will also work, but use caution and avoid “popping-off” a key. A cotton swab or lint-free cloth dampened with isopropyl alcohol will remove smudges and sanitize your keyboard. Periodic sanitizing of a keyboard can be done with household cloth-sanitizing products or a cloth lightly dampened with alcohol.

These few simple tasks will help keep your devices humming along.

Additional resources:

Lifehacker – Just the basics for a quick once over of your computer and peripherals

Bleepingcomputer.com – An in-depth look at cleaning the computer tower

Computerhope.com – General cleaning tips for computers and peripherals.

ehow.com – Links to numerous articles on a variety of cleaning information, including laptops

Crunchgear – A video overview of cleaning your computer

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Windows Maintenance- What and How Much?

John — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:41:57 +0000

With all of the thousands of tips, tricks, and hidden methods for keeping the Windows operating system performing at its best, it can be tough getting sound advice on what works and what doesn’t. The folks at Lifehacker have put together a handy reference for weeding through much of what’s out there for some practical guidance and how-to’s. Check out the article here.

Quick Tip – Use caution with multiple year subscriptions

John — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:37:39 +0000

Purchasing a yearly subscription for a solid, well performing piece of software can be a good investment. Wouldn’t it then be a better investment to purchase a multiple year license at a discounted price and reap the savings? Not always and here’s why: Within the span of an extended 2-3 year subscription period your software may become outdated by more effective, better performing and sometimes free products. What works well today, may not two years from now. Software products can become “bloated” or buggy in the pursuit of more bundled services, or poor implementation. Cutting edge may become bleeding edge. Norton products, case in point (in this writer’s humble opinion).

New players are continually coming onto the scene offering a product or service with an eye on simplicity and innovation, as in the case of many cloud based offerings. Even the behemoth Microsoft has stepped up to the plate with its free security essentials software which does a better job than many subscription-based anti-virus products. Ultimately, well developed software paired with good customer support will stand the scrutiny of an increasingly tech-savvy consumer market. But when in doubt about your money’s value when purchasing a 3 year subscription, go for one year. There’s always the chance to renew.

It’s Getting Cloudy in Cyberspace

John — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:54:18 +0000

Last November, Mom declared that she had reached her limit. After making peace with her ailing six year old desktop computer, she became the proud owner of a shiny new laptop. Strutting her stuff, happily sending emails from every corner of the house, Mom was once again back in cyberspace. And on one grim evening in January, it all came crashing down. Literally. Known as the soymilk incident, Mom had dumped a hot, frothy mug of the stuff all over her new machine. It was a quick, painless death.

Enter the cloud. “Cloud computing” is a term that is gaining traction in the ever changing world of computers and technology. In a nutshell, cloud computing refers to the process of storing and accessing personal data over the internet rather than from the hard drive on a personal computer. Put simply, the cloud = online data. Fortunately for Mom, she had been using an online backup service that had been keeping her valuable information and files synced in the cloud. All of her photos, documents and backup files were immediately accessible from the new laptop, which never goes near soymilk.

Shifting data to the cloud has some distinct advantages:

Mobility – For both business and personal use many people rely on cell phones, “smartphones”, iPhones and other similar devices to access appointment calendars, contacts and email. Being able to add someone to a contact list or create an appointment on a phone and have it sync immediately with a computer’s address book and calendar (and vice versa) can be a huge time saver. No more fumbling for scribbled notes stuffed into pockets and backpacks.

Collaboration – I’m writing this article using Google Docs, a free online suite of office applications (think Microsoft Office). Let’s say that my co-authors, scattered around the globe want to tweak and revise this otherwise shining example of tech journalism. They could do so simply by accessing it online and making changes, in real time. No more email attachments getting lost in the shuffle.

Security - Online backup has evolved into a seamless, efficient method for storing and accessing data from a single online source. Services such as the free Windows Sky Drive and Dropbox offer a way to store large amounts of data while making it accessible to a variety of devices. If any one device gets lost, damaged or stolen all of the data resides online in the cloud. No more frantic searches for misplaced flash drives or out-dated backup CDs.

Stability – We’ve all experienced the sudden computer freeze or the dreaded windows “blue screen of death”. We’re all aware of lurking viruses, spyware and the other shadowy files that find their way onto our computers. Fortunately the numerous cloud-based applications like Google Docs, Flickr, and Mint.com are more immune to these various threats simply because they don’t exist as applications installed on the computer. They are managed, updated and backed up online and typically accessed through a web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari…). No more trying to figure out if the old software is compatible with the newest operating system.

Cloud computing isn’t a cure all for backing up, accessing and storing personal information. It does however add an element of ease and simplicity, especially for those of us who are as disciplined about data backup as we are about changing the oil in the car.

Mom might be old school when it comes to the hazards of soymilk and computing. But she is so 21st century when it comes to her digital stuff.

Revisiting the System Restore – Windows 7

John — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:35:32 +0000

Right before the last sighs of frustration and mumbled expletives, the system restore option usually comes into the picture. Often times it will do the job. And there are other times when it seems to make a bigger mess of things. As with many changes and improvements incorporated into Windows 7, the system restore received its fare share of makeover. Lifehacker describes in detail some of these changes and why it might be a good idea to get acquainted once again with this handy utility. Check out the article here.

How Secure are your Passwords?

John — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:35:58 +0000

Fumbling for the post-it notes of scribbled passwords? How secure and robust are the passwords that you use to access personal information? Zdnet.com reports on commonly used passwords and the ease of hacking them.

Check out the article.

Courtesy of Zdnet.com

Reminders and Scribble Notes Simplified

John — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:38:41 +0000

A flash of brilliance and nowhere to write it? Need to remember to pick-up the dry cleaning on the way home? If you are seated in front of the computer during these occurrences, Scribbly has got you covered. This handy little utility sits in your system tray when not in use. When double-clicked, a notepad appears on the desktop, awaiting your message. After completing your note and clicking the email icon, the message has been whisked to your email inbox. Easy. (courtesy of lifehacker)

A Jackpot of Free Applications

John — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:10:52 +0000

Top-ten lists of free applications are aplenty here in the internets. Perhaps a bit over the top, Lifehacker has produced a list of 61 free applications that will do everything from mend your torn jeans to make a delicious latte. All seriousness aside, this list could just about complete each and every task done with a computer. Check it out here.

Upgrading device drivers? Not a problem

John — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:46:19 +0000

The task of upgrading device drivers can be tricky and time consuming. Sure, windows update will catch some of the hardware devices in your computer. But chances are good that many will be missed. Enter the Device Doctor. This handy, free utility will scan your computer’s drivers with one mouse click and then churn out a list of available updates which then can be selectively installed. Comes in a portable version as well.