Spring Cleaning your PC and other gadgets

Here is a series of articles that give some helpful tips to do some spring cleaning on your PC and other tech gadgets.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343264,00.asp

How To Buy a Cheap Desktop PC

Here is an article from pcmag.com that discusses how to buy a new PC for $500 or less. They also review some promising candiates.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343538,00.asp

Youngstown Computer Show Notes for Mar 14, 2009

Youngstown Computer Show
March 14, 2009


Segment 1

Story on NYC 24-hour crackdown on driving while on cell phone, 9000 tickets
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03132009/news/regionalnews/nypd_cell_phone_crackdown_yields_thousan_159415.htm

Last week's poll: http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/027

This week's poll: http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/028 Are you interested in giving Linux a try?

Are white pages still needed?
http://www.slate.com/id/2187035/

Super-charging batteries
http://techblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/03/fast-charging-battery-2-3-year.html

Taking calls about Linux with Ian today.


Segment 2

Special guest today: Ian talks about Linux
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux


Segment 3

Question from Adam: What is your favorite Distro?
Ian: runs 3 distros, rccommends Umbuntu

Do we need printed phonebooks anymore?

New updates for the iPhone: tethering available (rumored), MMS, copy/paste

Caller 1
Q: there is a program called newcatch that will open up quicken files
A: yes, there are lots of replacements for PC programs

Google is revitalizing their Grand Central product it bought. https://www.google.com/voice/about


Segment 4

Question from Adam: I'm running out of room on my windows partition, how can I get more room?
You will need to resize some partitions and move things around

Caller 2
Q: how much to fix a power jack on a laptop?
A: we will have to complely break down the laptop, usually costs about $200

Caller 3
Q: my computer does not seem to be able to handle video editing of home videos to get them from a hi-8 camera to DVD, what can I do to make this easier?
A: try saving smaller clips from the camer, that will make it easier to work with. You got a dazzle external capture device, try to get a PCI card or firewire device, try pinnacle products

Looking at a new space in Niles, looking at having a home theater seminar, operation Java is still coming.

Next Meeting March 17 2009

The next meeting will be on March 17, at 7:00 pm at the Canfield Prebyterian chrurch.

Some things we will talk about:

• Vice President Dick Wilson will show off his new Flip Video camera.
• I'm going to talk about using Google more effectively. More than any time before, the Google search page is usually the first place to look for stuff on the Internet. I think it is worth it to go back and look at how you are using Google, and how you can use it better. We'll look at simple things you can do to search better, then we will look at the more advanced things you can do with Google search.

Check our web site at http://mahccc.blogspot.com for additional items that are posted between meetings.

As always, we will also try and answer any other computer questions you may have. I hope to see you there!

Youngstown Computer Show Notes for Mar 7, 2009

Youngstown Computer Show
March 7, 2009

Segment 1

Last Week's poll: http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/026

This Week's poll: http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/027
You pet peeves for tech support calls.

Poker tournament tonight.

Tech support tips:
1. pick your times -- pick the time you think that it is less busy
2. do all the logical things on your side first
3. gather up the info for the computer
4. make sure your important stuff is already backed up!
5. get your computer connected to the internet before you call
6. pay attention to where you are in the phone menu trees
7. verify that you are indeed talking to the right department
8. share all the troubleshooting steps you have done already
9. as they are doing stuff, if you object with what they are doing, LET THEM KNOW!
10. if you have to ship stuff back, make sure you back up data, and don't send stuff like cables or external devices unless they specifically ask for them.


Segment 2

Caller 1
Q: got two computers, but how do I get the wireless internet on both?
A: you do have to set up the wireless routers before they work, you will have to get the settings correct first.

Caller 2
Q: how to password a folder so that someone would have to enter in a password?
A: you could use the different windows accounts to create separate users and they have their own set of folders

Caller 3
Q: what should I look for in a laptop? for just small business use
A: you don't need a quad tier, just go for a dual core, get enough memory, for vista get at least 2 GB of ram. a core 2 duo, 4GB of RAM, 500 GB of hard disk is great

Windows update restarting your computer without your permission? We will cover this next.


Segment 3

Tech support call this morning was to just send in a laptop to replace the touchpad.
Article in CNET about testing Norton 360. They were offered to have a symantec professional install the software correctly for and additional charge of $80. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2342634,00.asp {Actually the article was from PC Magazine. They were trying to install Norton 360 on an already infected machine. --JoeM}

Caller 4
Q: when playing an online game, it says to clear out the browser cache. is that safe?
A: yes, that is a normal thing to do. you shouldn't have to re-install the browser except in very bad situations

Caller 5
Q: skype is starting up automatically on mac os
A: check the on-line knowledge base, or maybe uninstall it {Let me Google that for you: http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/2008/07/disable-skype-auto-start-on-mac.html -- JoeM}
Q: open office was re-installed and now it is slow starting up
A: there might be a bigger problem, like a hard drive or memory problems, download a test program

Kumo is a new search service by Microsoft that is in testing right now. Only available inside of microsoft. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10186108-56.html


Segment 4

Hulu.com to see Nick Burns the computer guy. http://www.hulu.com/watch/19050/saturday-night-live-nick-burns

Windows Update settings: you have four options, I reccommend the setting to automatically download but let you choose when to install them so that they don't interrupt your work.

Outlook Express and Windows Mail cannot handle mail files bigger than 2GB, so make sure you clean those out.

Youngstown Computer Show Notes for Feb 28 2009

Youngstown Computer Show
February 28, 2009

Segment 1

Last two weeks' poll: http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/025

New game server at youngstown Computer: counterstrike server

New poll: keyboarding: What is your level of typing skill? http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/026

Caller 1
Q: Chrome is crashing when trying to install flash
A: it might take several times, but it will eventually install, try to install the latest version of Chrome too

Amnesty Weekend: grab your computer and bring it into the shop today, there will be pizza too, and a Q&A session. Two sessions: 2:30-3:30 covering Windows, and 4:00-5:00 covering the internet.


Segment 2

More about the session: $75 for the session and cleaning

Magic Jack, how much is power is consumed because you have to keep your computer on all the time. $28 a year for a laptop, or $96 a year for a desktop.

FinallyFast.com, if you can't connect to the internet, then how can you get to finallyFast.com?

Poker night: http://youngstowncomputer.com/pokerhelp.htm

Caller 2
Q: got wireless, but it only seems to work fine at home, seems flakey at other hotspots
A: the best things to do is to remove all the stored profiles, except your home settings, so that there not a chance of having conflicting settings because other hot spots could be named the same.

Caller 3
Q: if the power goes out, do you need a UPS to keep 911 access?
A: yes, plus you have to power all your cable modem, router, etc to make sure your internet stays up

News articles on 4G rollout. 50-60Mpbs. Will be coming out in a few years.


Segment 3

SSID = the name of the wireless network

Tale of a hard drive seizing up, the platter would not spin, so they had to send away the drive to another place that has a clean room for about $800

Solid state hard drives: no moving parts. much more expensive

Caller 4
Q: gets a window that there is an execution engine error, how do i get rid of it
A: take a look at the event logs to see what program is causing that error

Caller 5
Q: is there a way to save your favorites from chrome so you can keep them for a reinstall
A: don't know off-hand, check google

Caller 6
Q: outlook express had a message that it needed to compact files
A: if you want to get the archive files back, try the import function {JoeM: I think that this is just normal message, no mails will be lost, there is nothing to import, it is just cleaning up unused space}


Segment 4

Caller 7
Q: any good free anti-spyware?
A: if you have good discipline, then the free ones are ok

Caller 8
Q: screen keeps scrolling/jumping
A: the problem might be with your monitor or video card, try another monitor

Caller 9
Q: laptop will not charge the battery, it won't recognize the battery
A: sounds like the battery needs to be replaced

Caller 10
Q: how to make a wireless network secure?
A: log into the router over the network, and set up a password on the wireles network setup section, each brand of router has slightly different set up screens.

Best Bang for the Buck PC with a Core i7

If you didn't know, the latest Intel CPU is call the i7. It is the successor to the very popular Core 2 chips. The guys at Extreme Tech tried to make a best bang-for-the-buck PC with the i7 CPU for under $1,200. They almost succeeded.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2341244,00.asp

Next Meeting February 17 2009

Next: This meeting we will try to operate with out our President he is taking some additional training out of town to help him do a better job at his work.

We will go a little deeper into a program that Joe talked about once before, but I find out this is one of those programs that is really great.

I will go into a little more in detail to show you how to really use this to your advantage: Windows Movie Maker.

See you Tuesday
Dick Wilson

Youngstown Computer Show Notes for Feb 14 2009

Youngstown Computer Show
February 14 2009

Valentine's day backgrounds:
http://youngstowncomputer.com/images/vd1.jpg
http://youngstowncomputer.com/images/vd2.jpg
http://youngstowncomputer.com/images/vd3.jpg

This week's poll: What would you like to know more about: http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/025

Poker during the breaks today:
http://74.219.220.138:8087/
choose head-to-head to play JoeD.
password = 570

Caller 1
Q: I have a computer that has Fat32 on the hard disk, but XP is running on there
A: XP can run on both. it was probably upgraded from WinME.
There can be some problems upgrading, but there are some built-in tools to help you convert.

Caller 2
Q: Can you make MP3s into a regular audio CD?
A: very simple, just tell your burning software to make an audio CD

Caller 3
Q: Question about google earth, put my address in and it came up very good, then I put in my neighbor's address about a quarter of a mile away, and it keeps coming up to my address. Is there something I can delete?
A: it is possible that the mapping software is mapping two address that are close enough to the same point on the map


Segment 2

For the caller from last week, there is now an article about how to make better google searches: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861

Caller 4
Q: Running XP, I have a word document in Microsoft office word, and I went to "save as" and I put it there, and then I went to "My Computer" , and then when I click on the D: drive, where I normally store stuff, I get a message the says "The selected drive is not in use, check to make sure a disk is in the drive" even if there is a disk is in there it is not letting me record to the disk.
A: sounds like something has changes in the way the packets are sent to that CD drive, I'm wondering if something else is linking to the D: drive like a flash drive or a card reader or something like that. I usually try to make a test folder on the drive to make sure that the drive is receiving data. I would check and see that another removable drive is not kicking the CD-rom drive to another letter that Word does not recognize.

What is RSS? Really Simple syndication: It is a way for web sites to publish new items, like articles, or pictures, or audio files (podcasts) or videos (video podcasts or vlogs). You just use an RSS reader to subscribe to these feeds which will let you know when something new is available without you having to view the site directly.

Everyone make a blog. We will collect the feeds and show them on the youngstown computer site.

Caller 5
Q: got the virtuMonde virus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vundo
A: this is the one of the toughest to get rid of. you will have to bring it into the shop to have it cleaned up.

Caller 6
Q: any reccommedations for a new laptop? do tax work, spreadsheets, etc. no gaming, but like a fast computer
A: Alienware has great, top of the line laptops. look at dell, HP, and alienware, compare what you get for the money.

Caller 7
Q: problem with an external hard drive. have about 850Gb of data, but I can't see any folders, but in DOS I can
A: don't know, please call the office


Segment 3

Bad advice from salespeople and tech support people:
Looking for video driver from Dell was told: you will have to replace your motherboard
running the restore disk, and they lost all of their stuff

Caller 8
Q: put in a new motherboard, but the restore disk will not get windows started
A: you will need to install windows from the windows install disk and get the correct drivers for the new motherboard, try different memory chips

Caller 9
Q: I tried to change the ink in a cannon printer, is there someone that could fix it?
A: it is possible to fix, but it is probably better to buy a new one


Segment 4

To improve your clicking speed, improve your mousing skills, try playing games, like this diner game on Yahoo games.

Soon to have a branch of Youngstown Computer in Austintown.

Caller 10
Q: converted my old movies to DVD, is there software to take an image from a DVD movie and just turn it into a picture that I can use for like a cd cover?
A: most capture software can do this, search download.com for programs that capture images from video. Adam recommends using Alt-printscreen to capture the image {however this might not work because video players usually use directX to play video, and those images will not show when you use the printscreen button -- JoeM}

Internet Cache - most internet browsers save pictures and all parts of web pages on your local computer to make loading of the web page faster the next time. Sometimes, if the site changes its pictures very often, to force your browser to ignore your cached data, use Ctrl-F5 to refresh from the internet.

The Ruckus service, which served lots of university campuses, has closed its doors.
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-college-online-music-service-ruckus-closes-down/

Bargain All-In-One Printers (via PCMag.com)

PC magazine has a list of some great savings on some all-in-one printers, if you are looking for a new one:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2340851,00.asp?kc=BG021209N-2

The 20 Best Free PC Games (via ExtremeTech.com)

Looking for some cheap entertainment? ExtremeTech has a list of 20 free games for your PC. I'm going to have to give some a try.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2340696,00.asp

MCCC Next Meeting: February 17 2009

I tried to get a local person to come to our meeting and speak to us: Joe Danyi, he has a local radio program on Saturday afternoon. I called him 3 times and sent him an email. The result: he did not even call or say he didn't want to do it.

So if this is the way he answers his trouble calls I guess we don't need his help.

Next: This meeting we will try to operate with out our President he is taking some additional training out of town to help him do a better job at his work.

We will go a little deeper into a program that Joe talked about once before, but I find out this is one of those programs that is really great.

I will go into a little more in detail to show you how to really use this to your advantage: Windows Movie Maker.

See you Tuesday

Dick Wilson

Youngstown Computer Show Notes for Feb 7 2009

Segment 1

Last week's poll: http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/018
This week's poll: Your Safety Zone, how much do you do online
http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/019
Joe D had a bad week: car, furnace, GPS, laptop screen all failed
Joe D talks about his adventures about buying a new power cord for his GPS on bestbuy.com.

Youngstown Computer 330-259-7278, 71 Terrace St. Suite 104

Caller 1
Q: I can't play the eAudio books from the library on his iPod
A: try http://download.com , search for DRM stripper.

Segment 2
We don't advocate the use of DRM stripping software, however, that stuff is out there.

Caller 2
Q: how can I search better, for more focused searches?
A: there is an article about that we posted a while back, we will post it later.

Caller 3
Q: where is my email stored? locally or on the server? when I get a crash, I lose all my emails
A: you will have to see where msn stores your local mail folders and make sure you back those up

Caller 4
Q: when I copy my resume from Word to an online job application, all the formatting is messed up
A: try paste it into Notepad first, then copy and paste that into the web application. web apps usually cannot take bold, underlining, etc.

Caller 5
Q: he wants to take files from one computer to another
A: try using a flash drive, copy the stuff you want onto the flash drive, then put the flash drive into the new computer and copy the files to the new computer
All of your personal stuff is stored under "Documents and Settings\[username]" on XP, "users\[username]" on vista.

Weekly poker game: http://www.youngstowncomputer.com/pokerhelp.htm

Segment 3
Adam had a karaoke debut.

News:
Magic jack has had a lot of good reviews, but...as more people are getting into it, there are more problems. There is no call-in tech support. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2340417,00.asp
Joe D does not look at beta software, so he has not looked at Win 7 beta. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx
IE 8 release candidate is out though, and he does seem to like it. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/default.aspx

Caller 6
Q: my ISP says that I need a new driver, or uninstall/install it
A: this is a tough thing to troubleshoot, try another ISP to see if that is the problem

Caller 7
Q: your history thing? what were you saying about it?
A: yes, IE 8 has a privacy mode that turns off the history

Caller 8
Q: vista recovered to an earlier restore point, and now norton won't update itself, and the microphone won't turn on
A: Joe D thinks that there might be more than one problem, you should bring it into the shop


Segment 4

Apps on the iPhone.
http://pmsbuddy.com/
ipod stungun: Stun-O-Matic http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=301317579&mt=8
google latitude http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html
http://supportyoungstown.com

Caller 9
Q: can't find an worksheet that I got as an attachment and worked on and saved, but I can't find it
A: go to the start ment and choose search or find, then search for the name or part of the name, you can also look in the contents, so look for something that you know is in the file and not in others. it is probably in the temporary files folder

External Hard Drive Reviews

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

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

The Best PCs for everyone (from PCMag.com)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2336500,00.asp

Bargain Hunt: Mainstream PCs (from PCmag.com)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2338981,00.asp

The Best Free Software for 2009 (via PC Magazine)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2338803,00.asp

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

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?