I just talked about getting on a backup schedule, and a good idea is to get an external hard drive and use it for backups. Here are some links to reviews of external hard drives from PCmag.com:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2339037,00.asp?kc=BG012909N-1
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2294019,00.asp?kc=BG012909N-2
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Youngstown Computer Show Notes for Jan 31 2009
Youngstown Computer Show
January 31, 2009
Segment 1
Talking about the state of the roads this week.
Poll from last week: most people get music illegally
New poll this week: annoying things people do on smart phones
http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/018
Neat app for iPhone: Trapster - share where speed traps are
http://www.trapster.com
Segment 2
list of most ticketed vehicle types
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/which-drivers-get-the-most-tickets.aspx
SMS - protocol to send text messages on phones
http://youngstowncomputer.com/images/charmap.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service
Caller 1
Q: getting black bars on the sides of video from cable
A: you have a widescreen monitor, those are normal, try changing the monitor resolutions
Segment 3
Weekly poker tounament: http://youngstowncomputer.com/pokerhelp.htm
News:
Microsoft will be launching IE 8 very soon
Caller 2
Q: how can you tell what programs are running?
A: use Ctrl-Alt-Del to choose the task manager
Q: we see it say that "1 program running" when I come back from shutdown
A: that is a normal message.
Caller 3
Q: getting a installer message says that the install media is not available, file name is ISUS.MSI. how do I get rid of it?
A: do a search on the files to see what program is causing it, use google
[From JoeM: ISUS is the InstallShield Update Service, it is usually bundled with a bigger program and used to download updates for the bigger program. A very common company that uses ISUS is Corel and their products include WordPerfect, PaintShop Pro, and WindDVD. If you have recently uninstalled any of these, that might have caused that installer error. Try looking at the site http://consumer.installshield.com for more information.]
GDrive from Google -- http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/01/first-official-description-of-gdrive.html
Segment 4
special paint from Japan blocks wi-fi
http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/01/21/New_paint_promises_highspeed_WiFi_shielding_1.html
Caller 4
Q: not there
Caller 5
Q: the computer and refrigerator are on the same circuit, is this harmful?
A: it can be, try to put computer on another circuit or use a battery-based UPS to protect the PC
Caller 6
Q: how much more money does it cost to run your computer all the time for magic jack?
A: look at the ratings of all the components
Caller 7
Q: is my copy of xp legit?
A: you can go to microsoft to check
Q: it looks like it is not, i have updates turned off, is this safe?
A: not really, you need to get a legal copy to get updates and be safe
January 31, 2009
Segment 1
Talking about the state of the roads this week.
Poll from last week: most people get music illegally
New poll this week: annoying things people do on smart phones
http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/018
Neat app for iPhone: Trapster - share where speed traps are
http://www.trapster.com
Segment 2
list of most ticketed vehicle types
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/which-drivers-get-the-most-tickets.aspx
SMS - protocol to send text messages on phones
http://youngstowncomputer.com/images/charmap.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service
Caller 1
Q: getting black bars on the sides of video from cable
A: you have a widescreen monitor, those are normal, try changing the monitor resolutions
Segment 3
Weekly poker tounament: http://youngstowncomputer.com/pokerhelp.htm
News:
Microsoft will be launching IE 8 very soon
Caller 2
Q: how can you tell what programs are running?
A: use Ctrl-Alt-Del to choose the task manager
Q: we see it say that "1 program running" when I come back from shutdown
A: that is a normal message.
Caller 3
Q: getting a installer message says that the install media is not available, file name is ISUS.MSI. how do I get rid of it?
A: do a search on the files to see what program is causing it, use google
[From JoeM: ISUS is the InstallShield Update Service, it is usually bundled with a bigger program and used to download updates for the bigger program. A very common company that uses ISUS is Corel and their products include WordPerfect, PaintShop Pro, and WindDVD. If you have recently uninstalled any of these, that might have caused that installer error. Try looking at the site http://consumer.installshield.com for more information.]
GDrive from Google -- http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/01/first-official-description-of-gdrive.html
Segment 4
special paint from Japan blocks wi-fi
http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/01/21/New_paint_promises_highspeed_WiFi_shielding_1.html
Caller 4
Q: not there
Caller 5
Q: the computer and refrigerator are on the same circuit, is this harmful?
A: it can be, try to put computer on another circuit or use a battery-based UPS to protect the PC
Caller 6
Q: how much more money does it cost to run your computer all the time for magic jack?
A: look at the ratings of all the components
Caller 7
Q: is my copy of xp legit?
A: you can go to microsoft to check
Q: it looks like it is not, i have updates turned off, is this safe?
A: not really, you need to get a legal copy to get updates and be safe
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Youngstown Computer Show Notes for Jan 24 2009
Segment 1
New poll: how do you get music?
Discussion of DRM
2nd weekly poker tournament tonight at 8pm
Perhaps another tech training class starting in March
Segment 2
Caller 1
Q: problem with email, outlook express, it crashes if I open it after a week or so, then when I get it running, there are multiple copies of things
A: it seems like it is crashing as it is copying down emails, but before it erases them off the server, check if the data files are not too big
cables and wires and keeping them neat
use cable anchors and velcro ties to gather up cables
Caller 2
Q: changing motherboard, seems to be ok, machine won't recognize cd drive, bios won't boot to the CD-ROM
A: sounds like you are doing everything right, but we don't know what could be going on
Segment 3
Obama keeps his blackberry
Caller 3
Q: have to power-off and power-on router to get back on the internet
A: sometimes the router forgets its settings, try updating the firmare
Caller 4
Q: should I upgrade to firefox 3?
A: joe does not like 3
Q: got a older version of norton firewall, it is not supported, should I upgrade it?
A: no good reason to change it
Q: what do you think about pandora.com
A: Joe does not know about it, though Adam likes it
Segment 4
News on the Internet Cafe
News on Room 626: Joe did not like it
Reminder of the upcoming class in March
Discussion about upcoming video games
madworld for Wii --
ghostbusters for all platforms on June 16
Resident evil 5
condiut for Wii
GTA chinatown
Infamous
New poll: how do you get music?
Discussion of DRM
2nd weekly poker tournament tonight at 8pm
Perhaps another tech training class starting in March
Segment 2
Caller 1
Q: problem with email, outlook express, it crashes if I open it after a week or so, then when I get it running, there are multiple copies of things
A: it seems like it is crashing as it is copying down emails, but before it erases them off the server, check if the data files are not too big
cables and wires and keeping them neat
use cable anchors and velcro ties to gather up cables
Caller 2
Q: changing motherboard, seems to be ok, machine won't recognize cd drive, bios won't boot to the CD-ROM
A: sounds like you are doing everything right, but we don't know what could be going on
Segment 3
Obama keeps his blackberry
Caller 3
Q: have to power-off and power-on router to get back on the internet
A: sometimes the router forgets its settings, try updating the firmare
Caller 4
Q: should I upgrade to firefox 3?
A: joe does not like 3
Q: got a older version of norton firewall, it is not supported, should I upgrade it?
A: no good reason to change it
Q: what do you think about pandora.com
A: Joe does not know about it, though Adam likes it
Segment 4
News on the Internet Cafe
News on Room 626: Joe did not like it
Reminder of the upcoming class in March
Discussion about upcoming video games
madworld for Wii --
ghostbusters for all platforms on June 16
Resident evil 5
condiut for Wii
GTA chinatown
Infamous
Thursday, January 01, 2009
You might not like Windows 7
An author of many Windows books, Ed Bott has an article about why you might not like Windows 7 (and Vista for that matter) if you are pretty much set in your ways. Some users don't like anything new, they want to use the exact same steps they learned back in 1998. Read the article here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=630
People always ask me if there was some class I took a book I read to learn what I know about computers and Windows. The truth is that it just takes time. I have been using computers for a long time, from my first VIC-20 computer, through Apple IIs, and TRS-80s, and an IBM PCjr, and so on.
I also love to read instructions and manuals. Some peolpe like to just jump right in and and start messing with thing and figure things out by using them. I like to read about it, then use it. For example, this article that I pointed out above. Even though I don't have Windows 7 yet, I'm already reading about it. So by the time I actually do use it, I am familiar with a lot of the new features already.
That's probably why I found Vista so enjoyable; because I had already read about how it works and its features and how it is different. Some people just jump into using Vista and expect it to work just like XP or Windows 95. They don't realize all the new features that make things easier to use, and they get frustrated.
Should Microsoft have kept the interface to Vista and Windows 7 the same as XP or 95? Should they have had a XP or 95 mode so that all the old ways of doing things still worked? I think they might have been criticized for not making the new versions different enough. What do you think?
People always ask me if there was some class I took a book I read to learn what I know about computers and Windows. The truth is that it just takes time. I have been using computers for a long time, from my first VIC-20 computer, through Apple IIs, and TRS-80s, and an IBM PCjr, and so on.
I also love to read instructions and manuals. Some peolpe like to just jump right in and and start messing with thing and figure things out by using them. I like to read about it, then use it. For example, this article that I pointed out above. Even though I don't have Windows 7 yet, I'm already reading about it. So by the time I actually do use it, I am familiar with a lot of the new features already.
That's probably why I found Vista so enjoyable; because I had already read about how it works and its features and how it is different. Some people just jump into using Vista and expect it to work just like XP or Windows 95. They don't realize all the new features that make things easier to use, and they get frustrated.
Should Microsoft have kept the interface to Vista and Windows 7 the same as XP or 95? Should they have had a XP or 95 mode so that all the old ways of doing things still worked? I think they might have been criticized for not making the new versions different enough. What do you think?
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