Computer Maintenance for Dummies

Blu-ray Technology

2009-12-28T22:07:00.002-05:00

New technology is now making it possible for viewers to record and store high definition programming onto DVDs. Blu-ray Disc is one method of recording HD content onto an optical disc. A blue-laser optical disc (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4) is used. Systems that use this technology will be able to play traditional DVDs, but the goal of Blu-ray is to create an image that's as close to the HD format as possible. The name Blu-ray comes from the blue laser that decodes and copies information to each disk. Blu-ray technology may very well revolutionize the world of high definition programming. The Blu-ray disc format offers greater potential for storage, usually 25 gigabytes, which exceeds that of a standard DVD (15 gigabytes). One single-layer Blu-ray disk can hold about four hours of high definition content. A two-layer disk can contain eight hours of HD content. Four- and eight-layer disks are now in the works. These disks would have storage capabilities of 100 and 200 gigabytes. The Blu-ray recording system utilizes a shorter wavelength for recording information than traditional CDs and DVD s, and this is part of what allows it to hold more content on a single disk.

Blu-ray has also influenced the computer industry, specifically in terms of data storage capability. A number of major companies have come out in support of Blu-ray, including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, Pioneer, and Sony. Hewlett Packard plans to market desktop computers and laptops that utilize Blu-ray technology. Sony has announced that it will introduce a Blu-ray component in PlayStation 3, which is expected to appear in November of this year. Microsoft has also said that it may add a Blu-ray component to its Xbox 360. Currently, Blu-ray is only available in Japan, but it will appear in the United States in May, in video games and a DVD system that recreates a high definition effect on a viewer's TV.

Many movie studios have Blu-ray films planned for future release. In 2005, Sony Pictures cornered the market on the first Blu-ray feature-length movie disk, which was none other than Charlies Angels: Full Throttle. Studios that support the technology include Walt Disney and Twentieth Century Fox.

Competing with Blu-ray in the area of HD storage is HD DVD. HD DVD disks have less storage capability, but they're cheaper to produce. Other big-name companies are showing their support for this option, including Microsoft, Intel and Toshiba, as well as Universal Studios. In what may be the smartest move, some companies are backing both types of technology, ensuring that their products support both Blu-ray and HD DVD. These companies include Samsung, Paramount and Warner Brothers.

Blu-ray is facing challenges from other competitors in the HD market: the Enhanced Versatile disk, the Digital Multilayer disk, and the Holographic Versatile disk are a few alternatives to Blu-ray. But at the moment, Blu-ray has a strong lead in the HD race. I personally think your PS3 is the best value game console,blue ray player with awesome storage.

Watch Movies On Iphone

2009-12-22T20:10:00.003-05:00

If you'd like to watch movies on your Iphone, you've come to the right place. In order to do this, you have a few different choices and ways to go about it.

free Iphone movies, download free movies for Iphone

If you'd like to watch movies on your Iphone, you've come to the right place. In order to do this, you have a few different choices and ways to go about it. This is due to the Iphone needing the movies to be stored as MP4s. If you'd like to find out exactly how it's done, check out this article.

In order to be able to watch movies on an Iphone, they need to be saved onto the Iphone itself in the MP4 format. This makes it much easier to download movies to watch rather than transfer them from your DVDs, as many downloadable movies will be in MP4 format already. If you do want watch your existing movies (DVDs) on your Iphone, it can still be done, it will just mean you need to obtain some ripping software to rip the movie from the DVD and convert it into the necessary kind of file.

Ripping software varies in price, you can get some decent software for free or you may need to pay up to $50 or so for the better stuff. Run a few simple google searches to find some examples, and you may want to search for “freeware dvd ripper” or something like that to help you find the less expensive stuff. Once you have the ripped files saved as MP4s on your computer, you can transfer them across using Itunes, the way you would any other file.

As we said before, it's a little easier to watch downloaded movies on your Iphone, as quite often they will already be in the correct format, so you don't have to fool around with different software etc. In order to download the movies, all you need is a decent speed internet connection and a good idea of where to download the files from. It may seem that you can download movies from all kinds of places on the internet, but always try to avoid the torrent/P2P style sites, as they are illegal and can cause huge problems with viruses etc and things like that. In general, it's always better to stay as far from these kinds of sites as possible, and if you do go near them try to make sure your security and antivirus programs are fully updated and in good working order.

Thankfully there are a few legitimate download sites springing up on the net these days, and these are a much safer bet than all the torrent sites. Basically they work by charging you a one off fee to get your membership, which lasts for life, and then giving you unlimited download access to their huge databases. Quite often the selections at places like this have to be seen to be believed. It's more than just movies too, you can expect all the movies you can think of, plus millions of music files and games and TV shows too. It can be quite mind boggling the first time you visit. These sites are the most recommended for anyone wanting to download movies to their Iphone

Most of the movie files will come in MP4 format, and so you can just use Itunes to transfer them to your Iphone.

As you've seen, downloading stuff to your Iphone isn't as straight forward as you may think, so I'm hoping this article has helped you get a better understanding.

Anti Virus, Protect Yourself!

2009-12-21T17:24:00.000-05:00

There are so many great things about the internet you know that there is going to be problems. And there are! Identity theft, fraud, and maybe the largest most problematic is the epidemic of computer viruses that are wreaking havoc. These viruses are different scripts (if you can call them that) written for purposes of destruction. It is the classic "minority of trouble makers ruining it for the vast majority of the rest of us." So what sorts of viruses do we worry about and get anti virus programs for.

Well, there are all sorts of different kinds of virus-type things traveling around in cyber space and require the protection of an anti virus tool. Examples include worms, spiders, spyware, and adware. They have a variety of effects ranging from pure destruction to actually taking sensitive information off of a computer's hard drive.

Spyware is an example of the latter effect. It is designed to come in via the internet (usually involves a download of some sort) and to search through the hard drive looking for sensitive and profitable information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, and online preferences, and search or surf histories. The potential for badness with these is very real and very worth getting protection in the form of anti virus software tool for.

Anyway, as you may or may not know, there has been a new revolution of security (anti virus) software in response to this new demand for online security. This software ranges widely in both price and effectiveness. The software also generally offers both "treatment" and prevention of computer viral infections. That is to say that there is usually a scanning feature offered that is able to detect old infestations and to either quarantine them or sometimes it can actually repair the damage. The other feature then is to disallow new infestations. This prevention is accomplished with daily scanning of anything new, for example downloads or email, and warning user of anything suspicious and recommending action.

My recommendation is to get a more well known software package and be willing to spend a bit, because after all "you pay for what you get." Good bets are the anti virus software tools that are sold in computer, office supply, or electronic stores. You want to look and make sure that it has an automatic on line updates that allow your protection to stay as up-to-date as possible.

I personally use a free service, just type into Google AVG free.

Backing Up Outlook Express And Other Files

2009-12-17T22:28:00.001-05:00

Has your computer ever crashed on you? I don’t mean the normal everyday, “I’m a Microsoft Product so I must shutdown” crashes, I mean really crashed where you cannot boot back up. Where your hard drive just quit working or some other major problem made you lose all of your data.

It’s like losing your wallet. Losing your money isn’t so bad, but all that time getting new ID, credit cards, and other important papers is aggravating. On your computer there is a lot of data we take for granted every day.

Documents we have created, music we have downloaded, pictures we have saved, and so much more. Most people know its wise to back up those items onto a CD-ROM or onto storage space somewhere on the web, but what are some of the other things you should be backing up?

Do you allow cookies to be stored on your computer to remember your login information for websites that you visit a lot? Then you also need to find the “cookies” folder on your computer and back that up as well. In Windows 98 its in C:\windows\cookies. In Windows XP, its in C:\documents and settings\username\cookies.

Do you know all of your passwords by heart? Do you use a program to manage passwords? If you use a program, find it, probably in program files, and back up the files inside that folder that related to your saved password files. If you ever have to reinstall that program you can re-add those files into the new folder and have all of your old password files.

If you do not use a program, you need to have a system of recovering those passwords if your computer ever quits on you. If you do not have one, create one and add all of your new passwords you create to it. Don’t put it in your wallet.

Hit F3 on your computer and select search for files on C Drive. Type in (*).PWL(*) without the parenthesis. It’s the asterisk dot pwl asterisk with no spaces. Hit search and windows will find all of the password files for you. To find them manually, check C:\windows. Back up those files if you want your computer logins to remain the same.

What about your email? Not just the saved email, but the entire folder structure you spent time creating, your address book, and your account information with all of the right settings to send and receive email. You will want to back these up whenever you do all of your other backups.

First, how to backup all of the email and folder structure in Outlook Express. Open Outlook Express. Go to tools, options, maintenance. There will be a button there that says “store folder”. Click on that. Highlight the entire path that comes up in the little text box. Now hit cancel and cancel to close all popups.

Click on “start” in your task bar. Go to run. Paste the path you just copied into the text box and hit enter. A folder will open. Go to edit, select all, then go to edit again and select “copy”. Now close that folder. Right click on your computer desktop, select new, folder.Rename that folder “mailbackup”. Open that folder. Go to edit, paste.

Leave that folder open so you can backup your mail account settings and information. Now go back to Outlook Express. Go to tools, accounts, mail. You will do the following for each mail account you have. Highlight one account, Click Export. Browse to where the mailbackup file is on your desktop and export it into there. Once you do that with each account, you can cancel out of the open dialog boxes.

Now, for your address book. Go to Outlook Express one more time. Go to export. Choose address book. Choose text file. Browse again to the mailbackup folder and export it to there.

Now using winzip or other file compression utility, you can zip the mailbackup folder up and back it up to CD-ROM or to an online storage place. Make a schedule of backing these things I have included in the article. Consider it insurance against a hard drive crash. Believe me, if you use the web a lot, you’d almost rather lose your wallet than lose all of your computer data.

Repairing a damaged CD

2009-12-15T14:34:00.000-05:00

Why compact discs get damaged. Compact discs are all plastic. Compact discs are even not sensitive to magnetic fields as in case floppy disks, which never used to retain data when even a slight magnetic field is crossed with floppies. Then what is the reason why CDs get corrupted?

CDs work on the principle of reflection of light. CD drives have a built in laser that is used to read data. When laser is focused on to the CD the beam get reflected to a point when there is some data on that are i.e. 0 or 1 the points where light beam lands back is different which symbolizes the bit value.

When something on the CD breaks the path of the laser light, something like dust particle or something else like a FINGER PRINT!!!. Finger prints are nothing but natural oil from skin that sticks to the surface in contact with the skin in a pattern of skin cells. This oil or say fingerprint helps in refraction of light and loss of data to the reading source i.e. laser.

When CDs don't run the reason is because something is interrupting the laser to read the shinny side of the CD. But I have important data what should I do now?

Most of the times it is because of dust or fingerprints, you need to clean the CD.
You can clean your CDs with plain water or a bit soapy water. And it is better to clean the CDs after some time. But this doesn't mean you should start putting your CDs in dishwasher or washing machine every week.

All you need to do is to wipe the shinny side of the CD with a clean moist cloth and try running it again make sure the CD is dry before you run it.

People say about using all different sorts of things to clean CDs like toothpastes, wax polish etc. but I would recommend you to buy some CD cleaning kit. But if you still want to go try, do let me know the results.

And one thing I must add is that DVD work on the same principle and are bit more sensitive to dust and fingerprints. You can also use the above mentioned procedure for DVDs. But you need to be careful with DVDs

Electronics Stores

2009-11-02T13:19:00.004-05:00

Electronic stores are becoming more and more popular. With the introduction of new technology every day it’s easy to see why stores that cater to the electronics fan are popping up steadily on the retail horizon.

Electronics stores sell many different products. One of the most common items found in electronics stores are televisions. Years ago you could just take a trip down to your neighborhood department store to purchase a television but that has all changed with the introduction of newer designs of televisions.

Now people go to sites like this.
http://allsolutionsnetwork.com/cgi-bin/d.cgi/PM32397/electronics.htm

Most electronics stores display dozens of models of television. You’ll often see an entire wall of the electronics store filled with television sets of different sizes and designs. A very popular choice in television sets today are the flat screen models. These come in different sizes and you can usually find one that will fit into your room perfectly.

Electronics stores have other televisions as well including wide screen models. These have a high definition feature which enables the viewer to see a truly brilliant image. Many DVDs being sold today are specifically manufactured for viewing on wide screen televisions.

Televisions aren’t the only thing being sold in electronics stores. Another item that you’ll find there are home theater systems. If you want theater quality sound in your home you’ll want to browse this department whenever you visit electronics stores. The variety of products offered is expansive and regardless of the size of your room you can achieve audio that makes you really feel as though you are sitting in a theater viewing either the movie you are watching or the television program.

Some people visit electronics stores because they want to find an audio system that is a bit more portable. This includes items like MP3 players and personal CD players. These are great gadgets that afford the user the convenience of being able to take their music selections with them. Prices vary on these devices and it’s a good idea to consider the features you want before you decide to purchase.

One of the favorite departments of electronics stores for young people is the video games. Video games have grown leaps and bounds since the days of Pong. The video game systems being manufactured and sold today allow the user the ability to play a game with graphics that in many cases look very real.

Each gaming system has its own positive features and sells games that are often times unique only to them. Many young people and even some adults find this kind of play exciting and exhilarating; they wait anxiously for the release of new games.

Electronics stores also sell many accessories for video game systems including extra controllers, steering wheels and joysticks. They also sell the cables necessary to connect the game console to the internet for tournament play. This is an additional feature on selected game consoles and is a great way for people to challenge others to their favorite games.

You’ll find the staff at most electronics stores to be courteous and very helpful. They are trained in the use of the electronics they are selling. It’s also quite common for electronics stores to have a service counter. You can bring any products that aren’t functioning properly in for troubleshooting and repair.

Hard Disk Failure and Data Recovery

2009-10-30T13:11:00.001-04:00

Hard Disk: An Introduction

Hard disk is a non-volatile data storage device that stores electronic data on a magnetic surface layered onto hard disk platters. Word Hard is use to differentiate it from a soft, or floppy disk. Hard disks hold more data and can store from 10 to more than 100 gigabytes, whereas most floppies have a maximum storage capacity of 1.4 megabytes and in addition are faster too.
Normally term hard disk is much familiar with computers only but it is widely used as network attached storage for large volume storage. Furthermore, appliance of hard disk drives spread out to video recorders, audio players, digital organizers, digital cameras, and even in latest cellular telephones.

Reynold Johnson invented the first hard disk in 1955 for IBM 305 computer with fifty 24 inch platters and total capacity of five million characters, and in 1956 - first commercial hard disk was launched with 5 megabyte capacity, the IBM 350 RAMAC disk drive. Within time frame of 50 years and rapid progress in technical enhancement, we have now reached to latest 2006 - First 750 GB hard drive from (Seagate) and First 200 GB 2.5" Hard Drive utilizing Perpendicular recording (Toshiba).

Heart of hard disk consists of four basic components:
The Platters: Platters are the actual disks inside the drive that store the magnetized data. Conventional platters are made of a light aluminum alloy and coated with magnetize-able material but latest technology uses glass or ceramic platters as they are thinner and also heat resisting. Most drives have at least two platters and the larger the storage capacity of the drive, the more platters there are.

The Spindle Motor: Hard disk drive consists of a spindle on which the platters spin at a constant RPM. Moving along and between the platters on a common arm are read-write heads. The platters in a drive are divided by disk spacers and are clamped to a revolving spindle that turns all the platters in a uniform motion. The spindle motor is built right into the spindle and rotates the platters at a constant set rate ranging from 3,600 to 7,200 RPM.

The Read/Write Heads: Read/write heads read and write data to the platters, and each head is fixed to a single actuator shaft so that all the heads move in harmony. Typically, only one of the heads is active at a time either reading or writing data. When not in use, the heads are inactive, but when in motion the spinning of the platters generate air pressure that lifts the heads off the platters. The space between the platter and the head is so minute that even one dust particle or a fingerprint could disable the spin. When the platters cease spinning the heads come to rest, at a preset position on the heads, called the landing zone.

The Head Actuator: All the heads are attached to a single head actuator arm, which moves the heads around the platters. The Actuator arm moves the heads on an arc across the platters as they spin, allowing each head to access almost the entire surface of the platter. Contemporary hard drives use a voice coil actuator, which controls the movement of a coil toward or away from a permanent magnet based on the amount of current flowing through it. Fundamental structures of all hard disk are same, and are composed of the same physical features, but their performance depends on the quality of their inner components.

Hard Disk Failure:
Hard Disk Failure occurs when a hard disk drive malfunctions and the accumulate data cannot be accessed. It may happen in the course of normal operation due to an internal or external factor.
Disk failure varies and the most common is “Head Crash” where the internal read and write head of a device touches a platter or magnetic storage surface often grinding away the magnetic surface. Head hover just micrometers from the platters plane which makes such collision a common one.

This sort of crash usually invites severe data loss and unprofessional data recovery attempts results further damage to the remaining data.
Hard drive also includes other controller electronics i.e., semiconductors, valves or electronic circuits, and major components such as Platters, Spindle Motor and Head Actuator. Failure of any these devices may cause a hard disk failure. Factors causes disk failure are numerous, yet most common are power surges, voltage fluctuations, electronic malfunction, physical shock, wear and tear, corrosion, exposure to high magnetic waves, sharp impact, high temperature exposure etc.

The phenomena of hard disk failure is raising higher and higher; as to increase the read and write speed, today we have latest hard disk rotating amazingly faster and this immense revolving speed generates massive centrifugal force, a single adverse cause in the course of normal operation can cause severe hard disk failure.

Hard Disk Data Recovery:
Hard disk data recovery is the process of recovering the trapped data from the damage hard disk device, when it can not be accessed in normal circumstance.

Several Techniques are used to retrieving data from damaged hard disk and techniques vary accordingly. It can be done by moving disk drive to a working CPU, or may have to open the disk drive and replace parts such as read/write heads, arms and chips and sometime the platters have to be removed and placed into another drive.

Physical damage can not be repaired by the general users, as it requires clean and dust free lab environment, in addition proper hardware and technical expertise; where under microscopic examination with proper tool and techniques, the damage drive is put on to observation for data salvaging.

In case of worse happening, do consult Data Recovery Service for saving your important data trapped within the damage device.

Setting Up Your Bluetooth Network.

2009-10-12T00:29:00.002-04:00

If you are unfamiliar with the term Personal Area Network, it simply refers to your computer and the devices it is connected to. Normally, this could include devices like a PDA, a cell phone, a digital camera, and maybe a scanner and a printer if you are not connected to a larger network. Your keyboard and your mouse are also on your PAN. Basically, it is everything in and around your desk that you connect to your computer.

Add to this the fact that you may need to add a USB hub into the equation and you are looking at a pretty messy workspace. In fact, it will probably look like a spaghetti junction of wires and cables by the time you get everything connected.

So, if it is all getting too much for you it may be time to think about setting up a Bluetooth Personal Area Network. For a little extra you can buy the equipment you need so that your workspace is completely free of wires and your peripherals connect easily with your computer and with each other without the need to plug anything in.

If you are setting up a Personal Area Network from scratch you may may want to set up a fully Bluetooth-enabled workspace. If you already have a workspace, you probably just want to introduce Bluetooth devices as and when they are needed.

Either way, the first thing you need is a computer with Bluetooth capabilities. By now, most new computers will come with built in Bluetooth so make sure of this if you are buying new. If you have an older computer you may have to invest in a Bluetooth dongle. However, these are available for as little as $20 so it doesn't cost that much to get started.

Now that you have a Bluetooth-enabled computer, you can start to think about about what Bluetooth peripherals you will want to use on your Personal Area Network.

Keyboard and mouse

The two essentials of any Personal Area Network. Without these you won't be getting too much done. These will be permanent fixtures on your desk so Bluetooth options mainly offer the advantage of reducing clutter by cutting out cables. Bluetooth keyboards start around the $50 mark while a Bluetooth mouse will cost $30 and up.

If you spend a lot of time on the road these are an excellent option as they can allow you to work quickly and easily on your PDA. You can also get Bluetooth folding keyboards to take with you on the road.

Cell phones and PDAs

For many people, this is where a Bluetooth Personal Area Network will really come into its own. If you work out of the office a lot you will gather contacts, arrange meetings and gather other data on the go. If your network is Bluetooth enabled, you can synch your cell phone or PDA with your computer so that you can update your calendar and address book at the touch of a button, or even automatically. These are just some basic capabilities. New technologies such as the iPhone are taking this to a much higher level.

Headsets

A Bluetooth headset is almost an essential these days, especially if you spend a lot of time in the car. Simply hook it up to your cell phone to keep your hands free. This is also handy if you use VoIP at the office or at home as you can take and make calls and still wander around the room freely. Good Bluetooth headsets are available for about $50.

Other peripherals

There are any number of other gadgets and peripherals you can add to your Bluetooth network. You may want to check out a Bluetooth MP3 player or camera. Although bear in mind that transfer speeds remain limited so you could be waiting a long time for high res photos to transfer from one device to another. However, this is improving.

There are also plenty of weird and wonderful Bluetooth peripherals for you gadget fans. For example, you can get a Bluetooth watch that tells you about incoming calls on your mobile phone when it's out of reach. Hardly essential, but kind of cool all the same.

So, whether you want to boost your productivity and improve your working environment, or you just want to play with some fun gadgets, Bluetooth is the way to go.

Manage Your PC Files Easily!

2009-10-10T01:37:00.001-04:00

Have you ever been so busy on the internet going from page to page, saving this and that signing up for this program and that leads you to another and so on and so on?

It gets a bit confusing and all too often you lose vital links and bits of information. This article will show you in simple terms, how I organize my files and stuff, it may even give you some ideas that you can use with your current system.

This is just what I do, and it's written for those of us that aren't
super wizz internet geeks.

A Directory is something in your computer that looks like a manila envelope. It's often called a folder.
You use these as you would a huge manila folder (in real life), because you can put so many pages 'Files' in them, you can also put other 'Folders/Directories' in them, this makes a 'sub directory' or 'sub folder'.
First, I'll assume you can do the basics or else you wouldn't be reading this.
So in 'my documents'
Click on 'Make a new folder' and call it 'Internet Business' this folder is now a sub folder of 'my documents'.

SAVE EVERYTHING TO DO WITH YOUR INTERNET BUSINESS IN 'internet business' according to the sub folders we are about to make.

Second, Open 'Internet business' and click on 'new folder' as you just did in 'my documents'. Now you will be making sub folders of 'Internet business' go ahead and make as many as you can think of!
These will get you started!
'Mailing lists', 'Loginsfo', 'web building Stuff', Affiliate referral urls', 'Click ex referral urls', 'Affiliate Banners', 'Click banners', 'Draft articles', 'Email letters'.

In each of these folders you're going to place 'files', I use note book for everything now. When I started I was using excel and word.
But the problem with using them is that they are too big and too slow, especially when you are trying to do 10 different things at once.
Using 'notebook' will save space on your hard drive and is a lot more 'light weight' so it's faster and speed is everything!
It also gives you some experience that will come in handy later when you start writing 'html code'.
That's probably a good subject for another article.

Finally, now you should have a directory set up with lots of empty folders, and files.
Simply save everything you come across in one of the sub folders of 'Internet business' and if you need to you can create more sub folders of 'internet business' or sub folders of the sub folders, etc.

That's one simple way to keep all your important information.

A Better Workflow for Digital Photographers

2009-10-04T23:37:00.000-04:00

Achieve the most from digital photography and enhance digital pictures with SnapTouch.

A digital camera is only as good as the pictures it takes. Experienced photographers spend hours touching-up images to achieve the best visual results and preparing the pictures for printing. Digital photographers make countless choices deciding which camera and settings to use to take a picture, and what software and which tools to use to enhance the picture afterwards. At each post-processing step, the tools you use to enhance the picture affect the image, enhancing or degrading the result.

Regardless of your choice of photographic software, one thing is certain. The computer and image editing software are an essential part of the digital workflow. Computer-edited digital pictures appear in newspapers and glossy magazines, billboards and advertisements. If you have just one image, spending an hour in Adobe Photoshop to get the perfect print makes sense. If you take hundreds of images, however, taking care to enhance each individual image consumes so much time and effort that many prefer to forget the whole idea. But what if you had a proper tool to make your digital workflow simple, quick and effective?

SnapTouch (www.snaptouch.com) takes care of the entire digital workflow quickly and efficiently. SnapTouch takes care of every step after you take a picture from helping you transfer pictures from the camera into the computer to preparing already enhanced images for printing.

Transferring images from a digital camera might be easy, but SnapTouch also makes it smart. It can automatically sort pictures depending on the day they were shot, naming and placing them into folders accordingly. Specify your own transfer scenario, and your digital pictures will be sorted, named and placed depending on your very own criteria.

Correcting and enhancing images is the second step of your digital workflow. During this step, you compensate and correct gamma and exposure, adjust brightness and contrast, rotate and flip pictures, remove red-eye and resize your pictures for Web viewing or printing. SnapTouch is designed to handle jobs to enhance bunches of multiple images while maintaining the highest quality through the entire workflow.

The third step of your digital workflow depends on what you're planning to do with the image. If you're up to making a Web album or archiving images on a disk, use SnapTouch to stamp your pictures by imprinting the date they were shot, naming the pictures or embedding your signature. You can specify your own font and color for the stamp, making your digital pictures appear as works of art.

If you're going to print a multitude of images, consider the different aspect ratios of your digital pictures and the paper they will be printed on. The two common aspect ratios are 4:3 and 3:2. Why gamble on what will be cut out of your photographs in the printing lab when you can specify your own crop in no time? SnapTouch allows you to specify the aspect ratio of the paper you're printing on, and processes your images with a moving fixed-aspect frame. By specifying the frame position you are making crops showing your main subject without cutting out important features.

SnapTouch is a digital photographer's workhorse allowing you to process batches of hundreds of digital pictures in a straightforward workflow. Combining advanced features and unique automation with unprecedented ease of use, SnapTouch is a must-have tool for advanced amateurs and digital photo professionals.

Iphone Software Downloads

2009-10-03T00:01:00.000-04:00

Apple have continued along the lines of the Ipod, this time with the Iphone. This latest evolution of Apple technology works as a cellphone, music player, movie player and will even give you internet access. The Iphone really has given people a taste of the technology of the future, especially taken into account the software downloads.

Apple have recently decreed that they will not be allowing any third party organisations produce software for the Iphone. Instead they intend to create all software themselves, and the third party guys are going to be limited to the production of peripherals. Be that as it may, the Iphone software has already been compromised by enterprising hackers, and it's now possible to buy software over the net which will allow the Iphone to be used on cell networks other than the ones intended by Apple. This is a mixed blessing for Iphone owners, as it does allow greater freedom with price plans etc, but Apple have already unequivocally stated that these adjustments will instantly invalidate the warranty on your Iphone.

Apple are expected to announce an update to the Iphone software over the next few month. It is thought that the main purpose of this update is to close the backdoor which the hackers have been using to unlock the firmware on these early versions. The other main feature of the update is expected to be compatibility with the Itunes software, enabling Iphone owners to download media directly from the internet, something that has been possible with other cellphones for some years now.

Apple have announced plans to continually update the Iphone software and interface, and to make these updated available regularly, as a free download over the internet. It's thought that the main reason for these frequent updates is to keep the hackers out of the system, but in all likelihood it will only result in a similar situation to Sony's PSP, with certain models being more sought after due to having hackable firmware. This has resulted in a game of back and forth between Sony and the hackers, and is probably the kind of scenario Apple will find themselves in over the coming months.

For any Iphone owner, life will only get more exciting as more and more exciting software developments are announced and implemented for this amazing piece of technology.

Download Free Games & Movies For Iphone

2009-10-02T00:21:00.000-04:00

Yes, you really can get free downloads of games and movies for your Iphone. If you're one of the lucky folks that has got in early and nabbed an Iphone already, you are definitely going to want to know how to get your hands on some of this free media.

Before you can download anything at all for your Iphone however, there are a few things you will need. You can't currently download directly to the Iphone, for one reason or another, so these items are a must.

The most obvious is a computer. It's pretty hard to access the internet without one and also you will need to store the downloaded stuff somewhere before you transfer it to the Iphone, right?

Secondly, you guessed it, some form of internet connection. This is probably the easiest part, as if you have a notebook or a laptop you can probably just sit in your local Starbucks and piggyback their wireless connection or something. As always, the faster the connection you can get, the better.

Lastly, and this is the thing most people forget about – you need to have the space to store all the stuff. The iphone may be pretty advanced but it's not bottomless – and it sure fills up fast once you have access to some free downloads.

Once you have all this stuff, (and let's face it if you are reading this article the chances are you already do) you'll need to find somewhere to download the free games and movies from. Most people at one point or another have used a file sharing or bit torrent site to get downloads, but it may surprise you to know that this is against the law – it's illegal to download things from websites like that in the most case, unless you already own a copy of whatever you download. Odd but true. Always check the laws and regulations in your own area.

There are a whole host of download sites for you to choose from these days, and they mainly work by charging you a one-off admin fee which then gives you lifetime access to their download libraries. The libraries are huge, with some having over 100 million files for you to look through. This makes it very easy to find your favorite TV show, or pretty much anything else you may be looking for. These sites are definitely recommended to get your free game and movie downloads from.

This article should give you a great idea of how to safely go about download free stuff for your I phone.

Advancements In Computer Technology

2009-09-30T15:24:00.002-04:00

With technology progressing as fast as it is at the present, it is a wonder we do not have a new mass-marketed gadget appearing every few minutes. Personal computers, once predicted to be owned by a mere handful of individuals, are everywhere nowadays. If you are a student a personal computer is virtually a necessity. Accompanying the ever-increasing popularity of the personal computer is a plethora of gadgets and technological advancements. Though it may not be every few minutes, it seems as though every couple of months we hear about a computer with more storage space or a new device that one can connect to their computer.

Some devices that appear on the market are either completely superfluous or not so accessible to the entirety of the population, whether it is because of their cost or their limited supply. The costly devices are reserved to those who can afford them, until some new gadget replaces them and the price of these machines decreases, much like any new technology that appears on the market. Those gadgets, which are unnecessary, are not overly practical and the market for these creations is comprised mainly of those with an affinity for such devices. Inventions like web cams, while they are certainly fun to play with, are essentially unnecessary as they have no bearing on the actual operation of the computer and are used largely for leisure computer activities.

The more purposeful advancements in computer technology revolve around those, which increase the computers ability to manage certain tasks and those, which increase the storage space of the computer. Many personal computer owners find themselves craving more space to store songs or various other files and often wishing that their computer were faster. Though many computers produced today have a excessive storage space, that is, it is nearly impossible to fill a personal computer to capacity, these types of advancements permit a much speedier and more efficient functioning computer.

A Review of PC Satellite TV 2009 Elite Edition – The New and PC Way to Watch Satellite TV

2009-07-17T20:55:00.005-04:00

The entertainment industry has recovered from the “shock” and now the software developers are taking action. Internet satellite TV is a great way for watching Internet TV and PC satellite TV is here to stay. Developers are finally able to design high quality software which allows you to access thousands of free television channels via satellite for free. The software is not free of course but there are no monthly costs, this deal is absolutely affordable for most of us.
http://tinyurl.com/kvwlyw

I bought several software packs and tested with them for about 2 months. PC Satellite TV 2009 Elite Edition seemed to be the only one living up to my standards. This site really offered the best price and quality that I have seen so far. This pack comes with over 12,000 channels at a onetime fee of $49.95.

I also tested among others a different brand PC Satellite TV with a price of $39.95 but not only the picture quality was significantly less but he had also less channels and fewer interesting bonuses. This 2009 Elite Edition is the cheapest for the best quality that I have yet to see for PC satellite TV. I looked at this deal very doubtful; according the website the retail price was $350.00 and now with this “special limited offer” I would only pay for this PC satellite TV software pack $49.95. Although this price difference made me very skeptical I decided to buy the software. If I didn’t liked the quality I could easily return it within 8 weeks from the date of purchase.

I ordered it online with immediate download and I had it set up within 5 minutes. This PC satellite TV 2009 software pack really did what it claimed and was very easy to use. I was amazed with the quality since I’ve tested several others with a higher price tag. Now you see money isn’t everything.
http://tinyurl.com/kvwlyw

PC satellite TV 2009 Elite Edition costing a onetime fee of $49.95; what do you get for this? They offer more than 3,000 channels from around the world. This pack includes among others more than 60 movie channels, over 70 Sports channels and more than 120 premium channels with MTV overdrive, the Broadway Network, the Game Network but also many HDTV channels and many many others. The PC satellite TV Elite Edition software is sold with several bonuses of which one is additional access to 1,500 radio stations from around the world!

PC satellite TV allows you to capture the channels from any location in the world. All you need is an internet connection and you can watch it anywhere you like. When it comes to PC satellite TV 2009 Elite Edition this one truly stands out from the rest. They offer a money back guarantee if you’re not satisfied. I would give this offer a nine out of ten and that’s because of the mentioning of the ridiculous discount otherwise I would have given it a perfect ten.

You can visit my site mentioned in the Author field for more details about this PC satellite TV 2009 Elite review.
http://tinyurl.com/kvwlyw

How to get 48,280 followers on Twitter

2009-07-03T22:40:00.005-04:00

Derrick VanDyke just released this amazing software
that will automatically add 1,000s of new followers
to your Twitter account... And it's 100% FREE!
http://tinyurl.com/nkyo73

He's also giving away a free report that shows you
how to generate clicks, leads, and sales from your
Twitter account.

This is very cool...

http://tinyurl.com/nkyo73

Advancements In Computer Technology

2009-04-13T22:28:00.002-04:00

An Ugly MySpace or Facebook Profile can Ruin Your Reputation

2009-04-11T21:03:00.002-04:00

All users on social net works will know that there are millions of people out there. Every day besides so many people joining this community, there are many others who will be looking out for friends. This will mean that they are naturally looking out for good people who are interesting enough. For this, the profile has to be very interesting.

To make the profile unique, you can use good social net works layouts. This will make a world of a difference to the profile. Imagine that someone visits your profile, and they find it without any good information or pictures. They would not spend another minute looking at it, and you will quickly lose your reputation.

You will also lose the chance to make a whole new bunch of friends. You cannot expect them to take a second look at your profile. Thus before you lose the chance to make new friends, you should customize the profile as best as you can. You can choose from a great variety, as there are plenty of sites, which are dedicated to social net works layouts.

You can even make the profile theme based, depending on what you have in mind. For example you could be a fan of a popular actor, and you could use his image for your profile. It is definitely more exciting than looking at some boring default settings on the profile. By having good social net works layouts on the profile, you will get a lot of curious visitors.

The number of friends and acquaintances will grow in a large number. This is what you should be looking for on this community. Thus it is not worth if you compromise on the profile. It is a very good idea to make the profile based on your interests. Thus you can very creatively talk about yourself without words.

This would even be more appealing, as there would be a variety of images as well as colors. This will be a great pleasure for all the members who are visiting your profile, as you really will be giving them a chance to experience something new. Word might also spread about your unique profile, and thus the list of friends will keep growing.

You need to ensure that you make the profile legible as well. You should not sue social net works layouts that do not suit your profile content. You should make it a point to make the information stand out clearly. People after all will make friends after reading about you. If you have an ugly profile, there is no way that anyone is even going to give it a second glance.
social net works layouts can do wonders to a profile, and they can give a complete face lift. What more could you want. Besides this, there are also plenty to choose from.

A Discount Toner Cartridge is Better Than Ever and...You Will Save 50% or More

2009-04-07T00:05:00.001-04:00

Having used discount toner cartridges for twenty years, there have been a lot of changes in the toner cartridge market. The market today is approximately a twenty billion dollar business. The savings today are significant. The quality of the discount cartridges is unsurpassed. To insure your complete satisfaction in purchasing discount toner, take a minute to make an informed choice.

Discount toner cartridges were originally sold as recycled toner cartridges. The basic recycling method consisted of drilling a hole in the cartridge and refilling it with toner. Once the cartridge was filled, the hole was plugged. This toner cartridge was then sold to the consumer as a great deal or a "discount toner cartridge".

The problem was that the drill and fill cartridges produced poor quality and printed fewer pages. They were very inconsistent from cartridge to cartridge. In short, there was no quality control. One discount toner cartridge might perform great and the next may not.

However, things have changed significantly. Today, discount toner cartridges are brand new cartridges made from brand new parts... the same parts specified in your OEM printer manual. The technology is the same as that used by major printer manufacturers. Today, a reputable discount toner company uses the same components as major printer companies. Their toner, drums and rollers are the same quality and specification.

Know What Type of Toner Cartridge You Are Purchasing

Discount toner cartridges sometimes has a dual meaning. When some companies use the term discount toner cartridge, they really mean “remanufactured” toner cartridges. When other companies use the term discount toner cartridge, they mean a “new” toner cartridge manufactured by a third party merchant. Both types of cartridges could be a good buy.

Learn About the Toner Company

Be sure you learn about the company you buy toner from. All companies are not the same. Remember, a remanufactured toner cartridge can be as good of quality as a new discount toner cartridge. Both types of toner cartridges will save you a significant amount of money.

The best suppliers of discount toner cartridges have a quality control process in place. They insure that their toner cartridges are checked and double-checked so that you get high quality printing and the same number of pages or more. If a cartridge is remanufactured, any parts that do not meet their standards are replaced. You should be satisfied with the first and last page of printing.

You may not know everything about a printer company before you purchase, but you can find out exactly what type of discount toner cartridge you are buying. Look at our section on purchasing discount toner cartridges online. This will give you some basic information on what to look for in a toner cartridge merchant.

Good companies offer good warranties. You should always get a strong money back guarantee. If a company does not warranty their toner cartridges for one year, you haven't found the right company.

Do your homework. Visit the websites of several reputable toner companies. Find your exact toner cartridge. Compare prices, warranties, shipping, service, etc. If you can talk with someone that has purchased from the company, do it. Once you've done your part, purchase a discount toner cartridge and test it out. Discount toner cartridges are better than ever and will reduce your printing cost by half or more.

HUGE VIRUS COMING !!! PLEASE READ & FORWARD !!!

2009-04-04T13:47:00.002-04:00

Norton Anti-Virus is gearing up for this virus! You should be alert during the
next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled
'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,' regardless of who sent it to you. It is a
virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C
of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in
his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this
e-mail to all your contacts It is better to receive this message 25
times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a mail
called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it!
Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced
by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.
This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the
vital information is kept. COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR
FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US...

Free Iphone Downloads Beware!

2009-03-31T00:12:00.002-04:00

If you own an I phone, the chances are that your are going to be interested in getting some free downloads for it. The I phone is already outstripping the early successes of the I pod, and looks like it may go on to become one of the most successful electronic devices we have yet seen. This article will show you how to make the most of your I phone.

I phones are a tremendously versatile piece of kit. Not only is it a cellphone, but it will also allow you to listen to music, much like an I pod would, and also watch movies and play games on the move-and if that wasn't enough, it can even access the internet. It really is quite an achievement. Like the I pod before it, you are able to transfer all your existing CDS and DVDS to the I phone, but perhaps the best part is that you can download media from the internet to use with your I phone. If you know where to look these downloads can often be found at no cost at all!

Most people simply use the torrent sites or peer to peer sites as they are known, to obtain their free downloads. This seems like a great idea at first, and they have been very popular for a number of years now. Did you know that using sites like that is illegal though? It's recommended that you check the law in your area and your own rights before downloading anything at all.

If that wasn't enough to put you off for life, torrent sites can be very very dangerous for your computer. Many torrent sites are a popular place for hackers and identity thieves to hang out, so there's a good chance that your next download will contain a lot more than you bargain for. It's not unheard of for hackers to use torrent sites to enable them to get innocent web users to download their viruses and trojans etc. Scary stuff.

Thankfully, as technology progresses, there is now a wonderful alternative to the peer to peer and torrent sites. The way these new sites work is by asking you to pay a one off fee, and then allowing you access to their huge database. The downloads are usually unlimited, so once you are a member, you will be downloading there for the rest of your life. As well as that, you usually find that the servers etc are very fast, and these sites can offer tremendous value for money. Sites like these are definitely the way to go if you are looking for free I phone downloads.

Downloading free stuff for your I phone can be tricky, and can land you in jail or kill your computer if you aren't careful-hopefully this article will help you find out what way to go.

Has Someone Stolen Your Identity? Here Are 8 Ways to Tell

2009-03-26T14:55:00.004-04:00

Free software to protect your computer!

Right now, someone could be using your identity to start a new credit card, to get a loan, to drain your checking or savings account. In some cases, you might not find out about the theft for weeks, sometimes even months. Unfortunately, the longer it takes to discover the crime, the more damage will be done and the harder it will be to rectify that damage.

Thankfully, there are some ways for you to detect identity theft before the problems progress too far. Below are some of those methods.

1. Errors on your credit report – By checking your credit report yearly, you'll be able to determine if anyone is opening up accounts in your name without your permission. Otherwise, you may not learn there is a problem until you need to take out credit.

2. Mail problems – One of the least-technological ways to commit identity theft is stealing mail. If you aren't receiving mail or if you aren't getting items in the mail that you are expecting, such as credit card bills, then you may be a victim of identity theft.

3. Being rejected for credit you didn't request – As you may already know, if a creditor rejects your request for credit, he or she must send you a letter in the mail explaining the reason for the rejection. If you begin getting these letters, but you haven't been requesting credit, then that's a good sign someone is using your identity.

4. Being the victim of pretexting – Pretexting is a scheme involving the Internet or the telephone. Someone contacts you claiming to be a legitimate organization's representative, then they'll ask for your personal information, possibly a PIN number or a checking account number. If that has happened to you and you've given out that information, then there's a good chance you'll be a victim in the near future.

5. Changes in your credit balances or checking account amounts – Unexplained changes in any of your financial accounts should be a big signal to you that something is not right. That's why it's a good idea to check all of your balances weekly and compare them to your estimates. As soon as you spot a discrepancy, you need to follow up with your financial institution.

6. Being denied credit – Sadly, some people don't discover they have been identity theft victims until they go to buy a car, get a second mortgage, or open a new credit card. If you thought you had good credit but are getting denied, then it's a good time to check your credit reports, even if you've already done your yearly check.

7. Being contacted by debt collectors – When you start getting calls or letters about unpaid debts, which you don't recall having, you should never automatically pay them. Instead, send a written request for more information about the debt. By law, the creditor must supply you with this information.

8. Having some types of spyware on your computer – While not all spyware leads to identity theft, you need to realize that it can pose a serious threat to your privacy. Your passwords, credit card information, and online activities could have been monitored by unknown third parties, which leave you vulnerable to an attack.

Make sure you download free version. You only need one of these links. I do not use Norton or Mcafee.

http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition

http://www.threatfire.com/?gclid=CMCM4sujwZkCFSUhDQodGScMug

The World of Internet

2009-03-25T00:46:00.001-04:00

Internet…. It entered our lives not so long ago, but made a revolutionary change in the lives of all the mankind. Internet brought a new quality of communication, information, services, etc into the world.

It helps to sell and buy, communicate and find soul mates; it provides you with essay help and entertains when you feel sad. Its missions are countless. It is our reliable companion in life. As students we order custom essays on the net, as grown ups we use it every hour in our work, older people use internet instead of books, guidebooks, maps, etc. We can’t ignore the influence of the internet on our lives. Some say it is negative, the others state it is positive. But it is not all black and white. In this article my aim is to discuss influence of the Internet on person’s mind. Internet is distinguished by a high speed of information exchange. That is why we have a completely new level of relations between a person and a computer, between two people with computer’s help.

We tend to perceive greater amount of information more quickly and we discover new capabilities of our brains, a completely new perception of the old information. Computer specialists have more logically structured mental processes. It enables them to express their ideas more clearly and with more precision, they are more self –organized. One of the most important functions of the Internet is personal communication on – line. On – line communication has its own peculiarities: it is not an epistolary genre, but it is not a real – to – life conversation. It is absolutely new kind of communication combining the both. An opportunity to have a talk with a remote interlocutor in real time mode affords to carry out individual psychotherapy. Virtual communication has its own specific characteristics. The exchange of written messages which substitutes verbal communication is a comparatively slow process. A person has time to ponder on his thoughts and to shape them appropriately. Thus he loses a lot of useful information while typing and editing the text. Though there is an opinion that the exchange of information becomes more intense as for its contents and size. Lately there has been a lot fuss about the so – called Internet addiction. Most of such discussions agree on the irretrievable harm of the Internet addiction. But we suggest not being hasty with conclusions. Let’s consider the issue. We can get used to anything: to warm rain, Mexican soap operas, essay writing every weekend. We also can get used to the Internet. You get used to neutral things with no encoding, zombing or programming qualities. They influence you in a natural way like a tasty home pie your mother baked for you and you got used to it. It is up to you whether you will get addicted to something or not. It depends on your personal tastes, world outlook, and your senses. Otherwise everyone will be drinking coffee, watching Mexican soap operas, writing essays every weekend or getting lost in the Internet. Even those who claim all this to be a kind of drugs will be doing the same things. That is why comparing Internet with drug addiction is groundless and people should be careful when drawing such parallels.

Can the place with many friends, with a lot of interesting news, where I can find a lot of sensational information do me harm? Can the place containing all the works of art, grand libraries, music, movies, thrilling games do me harm? Surely, not. Will I love this place? No doubt, I will. Will I aspire to visit this place as often as possible? Yes, I will want to come there again and again. Why then everyone gets agitated and worried, if this place is called Internet? What does it change? Internet is a whole world, where your dreams come true, where there are no borders between countries and continents, where you need neither a visa, no passport. I love this world. I got used to it and I miss when I am without it. And it is natural to aspire to everything what is dear to me.

Wireless Router & Security: A Step-By-Step Guide

2009-03-23T00:07:00.001-04:00

Setting up a wireless router is easy. Essentially you turn your cable or DSL modem off and your wireless router on. Then, you connect the router to the modem with a cable, and turn the modem back on. You are more or less done. The wireless network wizard on your computer will pick up the router and, if your ISP does not have any special requirements, away-you-go, you are on the Internet.

For ease of setup and configuration, manufacturers ship wireless routers with all security disabled. Therein lies the problem. If you do not take any further steps to secure your router, and a surprising number of people don’t, your network will be wide open to all passersby and strangers. It’s like you’ve hung out a sign, “The door is open. Please come in and help yourself.”

The problem is not that strangers will be able to use your router to access the Internet but that, without further protection, would-be intruders will be able monitor and sniff out information you send and receive on your network. Malicious intruders can even hop on to your internal network; access your hard drives; and, steal, edit, or delete files on your computer.

The good news is that it is relatively easy to secure your wireless router. Here are three basic steps you should take.

1. Password protect the access to your router’s internal configuration

To access your router’s internal setup, open a browser and enter the routers setup URL. The URL will be specified in the manual. The URLs for D-Link and Linksys routers, two major manufacturers of wireless routers, are http://192.168.0.1 and http://192.168.1.1, respectively.

For Linksys routers, leave the user name blank and type “admin” (without the quotes) in the password field and press enter. To change the password, simply click on the Password tab and enter your new password.

For other routers, please consult your manual. Alternately, you can search on the Internet with the term “default login for ”. Don’t be surprised to find quite a number of pages listing default login parameters for many different routers, even uncommon ones.

2. Change the default SSID (Service Set IDentifier)

The SSID is the name of a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). All wireless devices on a WLAN use SSIDs to communicate with each other.

Routers ship with standard default SSIDs. For example, the default SSID for Linksys routers is, not unsurprisingly, “Linksys”. As you can see, if you don’t change the default SSID of your router a would-be intruder armed with a few common SSIDs from major manufacturers will be able to find your wireless network quite easily.

To change the SSID, click on the Wireless tab. Look for an input item labeled SSID. It will be near the top. Enter a new name for network. Don’t use something like “My Network”. Use a name that is be hard to guess.

3. Disable SSID broadcast

Wireless enabled computers use network discovery software to automatically search for nearby SSIDs. Some of the more advanced software will query the SSIDs of nearby networks and even display their names. Therefore, changing the network name only helps partially to secure your network. To prevent your network name from being discovered, you must disable SSID broadcast.

In the same screen that you changed the name of your network, you will see options for SSID broadcast. Choose “Disable SSID” to make your network invisible. Now save all your settings and log out.

Since your wireless network is now invisible, you will have to configure your computers to connect to your wireless network using the new name. On Windows XP, start by clicking on the wireless icon in the Notification Area and proceed from there.

With these three steps, your network now has basic security. However, if you keep sensitive information on your computers, you may want to secure your wireless network even further. For example, you can

- Change the channel your router uses to transmit and receive data on a regularly basis.
- Restrict devices that can connect to the router by filtering out MAC (Media Access Control) addresses.
- Use encryption such as WEP and WPA.

As with most things in life, security is a trade off between cost (time, money, inconvenience) and benefit (ease of use). It is a personal decision you make. However for the majority of home uses, the three basic steps plus WEP/WPA encryption provides reasonably strong security.

Turning on encryption is a two-step process. First you configure your router to use encryption using an encryption key of your choice. And then, you configure your computer to use the encryption key. The actual process of configuring your router for encryption varies from router to router. Please consult the router’s manual.

There are even stronger methods for ensuring security. A strong and robust security method is RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service). Using RADIUS requires additional hardware and software. However, there are companies that offer RADIUS security as a subscription based service. The fees are reasonable and dropping.

Therefore for example, if you run a business on your wireless network, have sensitive data on your computers such as credit card information, and have a number of users who access your network, you should consider using RADIUS. Since the service sector for RADIUS is dynamic and growing, a search on the Internet with terms like “RADIUS subscription” or “RADIUS service” is probably the best way to locate one.

Computer Lingo

2009-03-18T22:57:00.002-04:00

When you use computers and the Internet in your business, it's all too easy to start feeling like you're drowning in a sea of nonsense. Computer-related things tend to have a language all their own, and while you don't need to know all of it, there are many confusing words and phrases that you're going to come across sooner or later. Here's a quick primer.

Bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of data that your website can send each second, as well as the amount of data that the visitor to your website can receive. If either one doesn't have enough bandwidth, then the website will appear slowly. For this reason, you should choose a host with plenty of bandwidth, as well as testing that your site doesn't take too long to download on slow connections.

Browser. A browser is the software (see below) that visitors to your site use to view it. The most popular browser is Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which comes with Windows.

Cookie. Cookies are data files that your site can save on the computer of someone who visits that site, to allow it to remember who they are if they return. You will find that problems people have in ordering from you will almost inevitably be related to cookies -- they will need to have them turned on.

Download. Transferring data from a website to a computer.

Favorite. A favorite is a website that a user has stored to look at again, by choosing 'Add to Favourites' in their browser's menu.

FTP. File Transfer Protocol. This is a common method of uploading (see below) files to your website.

Javascript. A common language for writing 'scripts' on websites, which are small programs that make the site more interactive. Another common cause of problems for visitors.

JPEG. Joint Photographic Experts Group. This is the name of the most popular format for pictures on the web, named after the group that came up with it. If you want to put pictures on your website, you should save them as JPEGs.

Hardware. Hardware is computer equipment that physically exists. It is the opposite of software.

Hosting. If you've got a website out there on the Internet, then you'll be paying someone for hosting. It is the service of making your site available for people to see.

HTML. HyperText Markup Language. A kind of code used to indicate how web pages should be displayed, using a system of small 'tags'. The 'b' tag, for example, causes text to appear in bold, and the 'img' tag displays a picture.

Hyperlink. A hyperlink is when a piece of text on a website can be clicked to take you to another site, or another page on the same site. For example, if clicking your email address on your website allows someone to email you, then your email address is a hyperlink.

Programming. This is when the computer is given instructions to tell it what to do, using one of many 'programming languages'. Programming languages for the web include PHP and Perl.

Server. The server is where your website is stored, and it is the server that people are connecting to when they visit the site. If someone tells you, for example, that your server is 'down', it means that your website is inaccessible. Note that server refers both to the hardware and software of this system.

Software. Programs that run on the computer, or that make your website work. Microsoft Word is software, for example, as is Apache (the most popular web server software). Opposite of hardware.

Spider. Don't be scared if a spider visits your website! Spiders are simply programs used by search engines to scan your site and help them decide where it should appear when people search. It is good to be visited by spiders, as it means you should start appearing in search engines soon.

Upload. Uploading is when you transfer data from your own computer to your website. For example, you might upload your logo, or an article you've written. Opposite of download.

URL. Uniform Resource Locator. This is just a short way of saying 'web address', meaning what you have to type in to get to your website. Sometimes pronounced as 'Earl'.

Accessory Computer!

2009-03-12T18:10:00.003-04:00

A home away from home is a great thing, so why not have an office away from the office too?The spare room or a quiet corner can be a perfect place for productivity. To outfit your workspace, you might need to invest in some new hardware like a second computer, a bigger monitor or a high-quality printer. Once you've got your home computer set-up, you'll need to connect it to the Internet or network it to other computers and peripherals in the house. With a good grasp of the facts and a firm idea of your work habits, you'll be ready to make sensible choices for your home-made office.

• The Computer. Not everyone needs the same level of performance in a home office computer. You might use your computer primarily for word processing and email which requires little processing power. On the other hand, you may want more power to run database analysis, large spreadsheets or graphics applications. The type of work you do and your work load will determine whether you need a computer with a lot of brawn or just a little.

• Processor. A computer's processor or central processing Unit (CPU) is the engine that powers the device. The speed of the processor is called the clock speed which measures how fast the processor can carry out instructions. Speed is measured in MegaHertz (MHz) and is one measure of a computer's power. A typical home office Windows PC should have at minimum a 500 MHz processor. A power user would probably prefer 800 MHz or higher. If you know your computing needs are modest, and you want to save some money, an older machine with a slower processor is worth considering. When looking at an Apple Macintosh, keep in mind that you can't simply compare processor speeds with Windows machines, as the two types of computers have different system designs. Macs generally have lower processor speeds in MHz but don't let that fool you. Newer Macs like the iMac can definitely keep pace with PCs.

• Random Access Memory (RAM). When the computer is turned on, RAM is used to hold the operating system, applications and data that you're currently running. Information in RAM is rapidly available to the processor. When RAM fills up, the computer slows down because it now has to retrieve information from the slower hard drive. Imagine documents on your desk in front of you, readily at hand when you need them. But when your desktop is full, you have to file and retrieve documents elsewhere, which takes more time. The amount of RAM you need is influenced by the type of applications you use. Graphics programs like Adobe PhotoShop or Illustrator use a fair bit of memory. Word processing and spreadsheet programs use somewhat less memory. Users who like to multi-task and prefer having multiple applications running simultaneously will definitely want plenty of memory. More memory gives you a larger "workspace" and makes your computer perform faster with fewer glitches. A typical user needs at least 64 MB of RAM with 128 MB becoming the norm. In virtually all computers, you can expand the memory as you need more.

• Hard Drive. This is the computer's filing cabinet where all your applications and data are permanently stored. Most users can fit many years of productivity into a 6 to 10 GB hard drive. If you need to store a lot of information like several years of business records or image catalogues, then you may want a more spacious hard drive. Luckily, a bigger hard drive won't cost you that much extra. Alternately, you could invest in a removable storage drive.

• Expansion. It never hurts to get a system with room to grow, especially if you foresee your home office needs evolving. Find out how many RAM slots a system has and what the maximum amount of RAM is. Adding expansion cards to your system for 3D graphics or ethernet will increase the functionality of your computer. Look for a system with two or three free expansion slots and room for additional disk drives.

10 Benefits Of Smarthphone Bluetooth

2009-03-11T22:41:00.001-04:00

10 Benefits Of Smarthphone Bluetooth Below, are 10 benefits and reasons to use Bluetooth technology.

1. Wireless As you probably already know, there are many benefits and advantages to using wireless devices. Along with improving safety as a result of eliminating wires you don't need, wireless also offers you plenty of other advantages. When traveling with your laptop or other wireless devices, you'll no longer have to worry about bringing connection cables.

2. Bluetooth is actually inexpensive The technology of Bluetooth is cheap for companies to implement, which results in lower costs for the company. These savings are then passed from the company on to you.

3. Bluetooth is automatic Bluetooth doesn't have you set up a connection or push any buttons. When two or more devices enter a range of up to 30 feet of each other, they will automatically begin to communicate without you having to do anything.

4. Standardized protocol Bluetooth is standardized wireless, meaning that a high level of compatibility among devices is guaranteed. Bluetooth will connect devices to each other, even if they aren't the same model.

5. Low interference Bluetooth devices almost always avoid interference from other wireless devices. Bluetooth uses a technique known as frequency hopping, and also low power wireless signals.

6. Low energy consumption As a result of Bluetooth using low power signals, the technology requires very little energy and will use less battery or electrical power as a result. This is an excellent benefit for mobile devices, as Bluetooth won't drain the battery.

7. Sharing voice and data The standard for Bluetooth will allow compatible devices to share data and voice communications. This is great for mobile phones and headsets, as Bluetooth simplifies driving and talking on your cell phone.

8. Instant PAN (Personal Area Network) You can connect up to seven Bluetooth devices to each other within a range of up to 30 feet, forming a piconet or PAN. For a single room, you can also set up multiple piconets.

9. Upgradeable Upgradeable is the standard for Bluetooth. There are newer versions of Bluetooth in the works, which offer many new advantages and backward compatible with older versions.

10. The technology stays Bluetooth technology is a world wide, universal wireless standard. With it being as popular as it is, you can count on it being around for years to come. As more and more devices start to use Bluetooth technology, more manufacturers will be eager to make their products compatible. A chain reaction will occur, making Bluetooth the standard for cutting edge wireless.

All-Computer-Brands

2009-03-10T00:35:00.002-04:00

There are many choices of all-computer-brands that are widely available. Dell, Toshiba, and Sony are among s the many, but which one do I choose from? Which is the one for me? All-computer-brands come in many ranges from types and models to prices and sizes and can be a daunting task in picking and choosing them, especially if your a first time buyer. To ease through the selections, it is highly recommended to first determine what your daily activities, needs and wants are when considering a computer. Do you need the computer only for school and work? Do you only want the computer for entertainment such as playing music and games and watching movies? Do you want a desktop computer to keep at home or a laptop computer to suit your lifestyle and daily travels? By already determining the major aspects of your computing, all-computer-brands hardware and specifications selections should be the next consideration.

All-computer-brands hardware and specifications components varies upon the one that fits and suites you. As a guideline, there are three vital hardware components to all-computer-brands. The CPU, the RAM, and the hard drive. The CPU will determine the speed of your computer. Avid computer gamers will need the highest CPU available as possible in all-computer-brands where as basic computer user using the computer only for surfing the internet and checking email can rely on basic CPU selections in all-computer-brands. The RAM is your computers memory. The higher the RAM the more applications and programs that could be installed and performed simultaneously. A high amount of Ram are most commonly utilized by multi taskers which like to run various applications such as surfing the internet and playing movies and music at the same time.

The hard drive is the storage of the computer. If planning on storing a lot of files such as media files do not hesitate to opt for a vast hard drive. Knowing your computing needs and wants and determining which hardware component specifications will best suit and ease your selections of all-computer-brands. There are also specific computer models suited just for gaming, entertainment, working, travel, or all purpose computing uses by all-computer-brands that encourages in picking the right one when considering a computer.

Anti Phishing Software

2009-03-08T22:09:00.002-04:00

If you use the internet and have an email address, there is no doubt that you have received a fraudulent email asking you to verify your account information. Many criminals will pose as your bank or credit card company, and will ask for your information in order "verify" your account. In reality, once this information is provided, you are likely to become the victim of a fraud called phishing. This is one of the most notorious forms of internet fraud, and has seen a growth in recent years with the increase in email usage.

Because it costs nothing to send out an email, it is possible to send out hundreds of thousands of emails within a short time. Criminals know that despite the fact that many people will ignore these emails, a small percentage of recipients will reply. Once this information has been received, criminals will use to it defraud customers, running up high bills or making expensive purchases. Some will even use this information for identity theft. To stop this fraud, a number of anti phishing services are available online.

These services offer software which will track fraudulent email and websites. Many people use this anti phishing software, and by joining them you will be able to fight back against phishing. Many anti phishing services will have a database in which they keep a list of fraudulent websites. They will help you avoid fraudulent emails sent by criminals who wish to take yout data to defraud you. If you have never received a fraudulent email, or have never been to a fake website, you are fortunate.

However, as use of the internet continues to increase, more people will become the victims of fraud unless they take steps to permit it. Despite the fact that there have been many media reports about phishing, and people have been warned never to give sensitive information via email, many still do. This is why it is important to use ant phishing software which will stop you from becoming a victim. Many large companies such as AOL plan to fight the problem by charging customers to send out emails.

This isn't the answer, and people shouldn't have to pay in order to be protected. Gralic Wrap is a online service which offers anti phishing software free of charge, and can be found at gralicwrap.com. They offer a phishing protection tool along with a large database of fraudulent sites which will keep you protected and informed. You have the right to use the internet without fear of being defrauded, and you shouldn't have to resort to paying for emails in order to avoid becoming the victim of fraud.

Phishing is a problem which is only expected to get worse. Criminals are discovering new tricks daily on how to defraud their victims. Though you don't have to understand how these tricks work, it is important to take the fundamental steps necessary to protect you and your family. Fraud is costly, and millions of dollars each year are lost due to internet fraud.

Are You Safe From Hackers?

2009-03-06T22:23:00.003-05:00

We don't use E-gold very often since most of our online business and customer sales are conducted through our online merchant account. However, we occasionally have someone who will request paying by E-gold so we keep an account there for this reason. Once a month or so we withdraw the funds and decided to do so yesterday. Imagine our dismay when we logged into our E-gold account yesterday and found our balance to be a big fat ZERO! We had checked the balance just a few days ago so we knew this was not correct. After investigating the history of the account, we found that a spend had been made to another e-gold account user WITHOUT our knowledge or authorization. We had been hacked!

Since we have up to date anti-virus and firewall software on our computer, we assumed we were safe. Not so! It seems this is not enough to keep away the hackers as the software does not prevent "Spyware" from being installed on your computer.

"Spyware" is software that gets onto your computer and literally "spies" on your activities. The spying can range from relatively harmless use of cookies tracking you across multiple websites... to extremely dangerous "keystroke loggers" which record passwords, credit cards, and other personal data. That data then gets relayed to the person who put the software on your computer.

Spyware gets on your computer in one of several different ways.

First, it rides along with software you download from the 'Net and install on your system.

Second, they come as email attachments (much like viruses) and automatically install themselves on your computer when you open the email message.

Third, hackers find an open port on your computer and use the "back door" to install basically anything they want.

And fourth, the more malicious types, like keystroke loggers, can even get installed by someone with direct physical access to your computer such as an employer, suspicious spouse, business competitor, or someone who wants to know exactly what you're doing.

So how do you protect yourself against these malicious hackers? You need a program that specifically scans your system for the tens-of-thousands of existing spyware programs along with the new ones appearing daily.

Below are two programs which specifically check for and remove spyware from your system:

"Spybot Search & Destroy" - http://www.safer-networking.org
"Ad Aware" - http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

You may have spyware lurking on your computer right now so protect yourself today by downloading one of the above programs!

As a point of reference, we contacted E-gold and informed them that we had been hacked. We provided them with the account number of the person who received the funds and asked for a contact e-mail address on the person. E-gold informed us that they could not provide that information without a "court order" and that basically there was no way of getting the money back!

Take action today to protect yourself from this growing threat! The bottom line is: - Keep your anti-virus program current

- Install a firewall
- Carefully screen software before installing it
- Scan specifically for spyware weekly
- Stay current on this growing threat.

Computer Maintenance for Dummies: Computer Viruses - the basics

2009-03-05T21:36:00.000-05:00

Computer Maintenance for Dummies: Computer Viruses - the basics

http://www.paysforever.com/system-cleaner-box.jpg

http://free.avg.com/

Computer Viruses - the basics

2009-03-05T21:16:00.004-05:00

In its simplest terms a virus is a disruptive computer code period!
A computer virus almost always repeats itself and spreads by attaching itself to other files. Viruses can be made to host a number of harmful things on any computer from disrupting files to crashing networks. It can even be laying dormant, without you knowing it's there and then attack when least expect it, like right in the middle of downloading a large file or typing a long report.

It can even be made to open at a certain date, sitting like a time bomb until it's time arrives. As you can see it can be annoying at the very least.
I do not want go into all the different types of viruses here because there are so many and more are being made everyday in some dank basement by the Dark Lord.
However, since so many viruses came from unknowingly opening e-mails I would like to mention some basics here:

Never open e-mail attachments unless you know for sure who it's from and that it's safe.
Some mail programs will even ask if you trust the attachment and if you’re sure this you want to do. Your computer software can also scan attachments for viruses.
The danger is that when the attachment is opened the virus can attach itself to your hard drive and damage files. Not only that, it can search your saved e-mail addresses and send itself out to your friends, business partners and whoever is on the list, masking the message to look like a legitimate one from you. It will probably have an attachment too and when opened will infect other computers.

Many people like to download music, video, games or other programs from different sites. If it is a site you dealt with before and trust it may be safe OK, but if you’re not sure you can always run a virus scan on the download before installation. (You will need to check the anti-virus program that came with your system on procedures). This security measure is necessary because some downloads may contain virtues, spyware or adware – these last two can collect personal information, note your browsing habits and spam your e-mail with unwanted ads. Some software sites will offer a read me file that shows technical information on the download (if you like tech talk) as well as contact info.
The better sites that offer downloads will test and scan all there software programs before going online with it. As a last resort you can do an internet search for reviews on that particular company to see if others got burned.

This may sound scary to some but the fact is in this world anyone who owns a computer will have to look over there shoulders for hidden attacks when working with online.
That said there are some things should do to prevent viruses from attacking your computer:

* Download the latest virus definition lists ( files that tell your computer what to scan for) that's used for your anti-virus program.

* Check to see if your internet service provider has tools to stop viruses before they can reach your mailbox.

* Always back-up your computer on CD-R disks or other media in case you loose some or all your data.

* You can scan software for viruses before installing it. (See system manual for procedure)

* Set your security settings at the highest level.

* Check your web browser and e-mail settings.

Doing these things at least every week will help keep your computer up to date on Virus protection and running safely.

Two great free sites if you don't have anti virus protection.

http://free.avg.com/

http://www.threatfire.com/?gclid=CKKkl5mfjZkCFSIeDQodMAOGbQ

My PC has adaware what should I do?

2009-03-01T23:07:00.001-05:00

I gotta tell ya, when I first got my computer when it was brand new, it worked like a charm! Then as I got a little bit more familiar with it, friends and family suggested I try some online applications. One was this cute purple ape that would help you surf the net.. or so I thought.

Turns out that damn application, along with a few others I installed, what were supposed to help increase my productivity, ended up doing exactly the opposite!

Sound familiar to you? Well, if so, then your not alone. Millions of computer users around the world have their PC’s infected with adware, and don’t even know it. What’s adware you say? Well, its any application that records what you do (or do not do) and reports that data back to third party vendors.

Now I know this sounds like covert ops stuff, but its really big business. See, the truth of the matter is these advertisers make a lot of money off of knowing your computer habits. Things like, where you go, what you do, how long your there, where you clicked, etc. Its kind of scary when you think about it.
They come up with the applications that are usually disguised as innocent toolbars or programs that will show you the weather, etc. Once you install these things, they leach and lurk throughout your machine, slowing it down to no end.

They don’t care that you may have work to do, a report for school, or if your playing a game. Their job is to report back to their vendors what your doing, and how you do it. This way, these advertisers can come up with better targeted ads that will be used to get you to click on this link, or buy this product.

There is hope though, and it can return your computer back to you, the rightful owner. You can download to your PC some adware removal tools that will take out all of the know adware off your machine, and in the process, speed it up too.

It’s usually a quick download and install, and the applications are easy to use. Usually you let it scan your machine for a list of known offenders, and it does the rest, scouring your machine looking for them. When it does find any, it makes a list of what adware you have, what it does, and flags it for removal.

All you need to do then is say yes, and it takes them out fast. Then you just reboot your machine, and waalaa! Fast and fun computing just like your used to.

So there is light at the end of the tunnel for your PC. Now you know, so go get your PC scanned and cleaned today.

2009-03-01T22:09:00.001-05:00

"A Free Advertising Service"

7 Top Tips for Microsoft Word Users

2009-02-27T20:22:00.002-05:00

Microsoft Word is an extremely easy tool to start using. However there are lots of interesting features “under the bonnet”. Some of these features can save you a lot of time when producing documents. I am amazed that they are not as well known as they should be. These top seven tips are my favourites and I cannot imagine life with Microsoft Word before I found them!

1. Oops. I left Caps lock on!

We all know that feeling. You are typing away merrily and then you look up at your screen to realise that you had hit the Caps Lock button. Now everything you just typed is in the wrong capitalisation. Don’t despair. Highlight the text and goto the Format menu and select Change Case from the drop down menu. Then just select your desired case from the list provided, which will probably be tOGGLE cASE.

2. While we are talking Cases.

Some useful shortcut keys:

Highlight your text and click Control Shift A to set it all to Upper Case.

Control Shift K will set it to Small capitals.

3. Moving quickly around your document.

Try these shortcuts to get around your document quickly.

Control Alt Page Down: Next Page
Control Alt Page Up: Previous Page
Control Home: Go to the top of your document
Control Alt End: Go to the end of your document

Also, with later versions of Word there is a clever little button beneath the vertical scroll bar called the Select Browse Object. Click on this and select one of its options to browse through your document going straight to the next table, graphic, heading etc.

4. I’m lost. Where was I?

Forgot where you just made a change in your document? Try pressing Shift + F5.
This will take you back to the last place you made a change. You can do this two more times to go back to the two previous changes.

5. One click find

One of the annoyances of the Find screen when you are looking for occurrence of text in your document is the fact that it always seems to appear right over the text your are looking for! However there is no need to keep the screen open. Once you have used the Find command to find the first entry, close the Find screen. You should notice that the small double arrows below the vertical scroll bar on the right of Word have changed to blue. Click on these to go up and down your document finding your text.

6. Numbering the rows in your tables

How many times have you created a table where you just want the first column to be a numbered list. It’s easy to do this quickly. Simply select the column and click on the Numbering button on your Word toolbar. The same thing works if you select a row and want to have numbering across your columns

7. Fast Page breaks

My final tip is really simple and is probably the one I use the most. To insert a page break quickly, simply use CTRL + Enter

Computer Repair

2009-02-25T18:14:00.002-05:00

Owing a computer is almost essential in today’s world. With the introduction of the internet and the convenience of email as a method of communication, it’s easy to see why most people want to have a computer in their home or office.

Computers are like anything else and there are times when they don’t operate as planned. It’s frustrating to be sitting at your desk ready to play a game or work on a document only to find that your computer isn’t being cooperative.

When it comes to computer repair it’s often wise to seek out professional help. A computer technician is specially trained to evaluate the problem and offer the best possible solution.

There are certain types of computer repair that you might want to undertake yourself. These are usually minor fixes that can be handled with a bit of instruction and attention to detail.

A computer repair that you might be able to take care of yourself is the replacement of the computer’s battery or fan. Every desktop computer has a fan inside of it. This fan is used to keep the computer’s components cool. It’s essential that the fan operates efficiently to ensure that the computer doesn’t become overheated.

The first sign that your computer’s fan might not be operating properly is that you’ll notice a different sound when you start or run your computer. Instead of immediately taking it to a computer repair shop, take a moment to test the fan.

Computers typically have two fans. One is used to cool the power supply and the other is used to cool the CPU. Open the cover of the computer and listen. If the sound does appear to be coming from the fan that cools the CPU you’ll want to replace it.

If the computer is still under warranty than this type of computer repair will be done free of charge. Follow the instructions you were given for repairs at the time of purchase. If the warranty period has elapsed you can either take it to a computer repair shop or do it yourself.

The very first and most important step when doing any computer repair is to unplug the computer from the electrical outlet. You’ll then need to examine the fan to see how it’s connected. It will probably be attached by a few small screws. Once these are loosened you’ll need to disconnect the fan from its power supply. This will be one or two small clips. Then take the fan to your computer repair shop and purchase a new one.

After replacing it, reattach the cover and plug the machine in. The fan should operate perfectly now and the noise that you were hearing will have disappeared.

Sometimes a computer will make noises because a piece of hardware isn’t attached properly. One of the likely culprits is the CD-Rom or DVD drive. Again for this type of computer repair, you’ll want to carefully remove the cover and listen for the source of the noise. After tightening the screws that hold the hardware in place and reattaching the cover, plug the machine in and listen if the offending noise is gone.

When it comes to computer repair it’s important to be safe and thorough. Computers are an expensive investment and keeping them running efficiently is crucial. If you are comfortable handling a small computer repair yourself, give it a try. If you’re not comfortable, take the machine to a local computer repair shop and allow the experts to do their job.

4 Necessary Steps You Should Take When You are Online

2009-02-22T23:04:00.003-05:00

When you connect to the internet you can harm your PC. That is a fact. The reason antivirus software and other similar products where created is to protect your PC.

It is not your fault that you got viruses, however you should take the precaution methods to stop this from happening again.

Keep PC Clean: It is important that your PC stays clean if you use the internet. Clean from the 'bad, harmful objects' that are also known as spy ware, adware or viruses.

There are many different types of harmful objects but luckily there exist also cure to keep your PC protected.

A must use Software: The two most important software you must have are an antivirus and an anti adware. There is no need to purchase 30 different kinds of anti spy ware software...

However you must choose two software which will protect your PC. These will work in the background automatically. Some anti adware products also heal spy ware not just adware.

Schedule Maintenance: The software will block spy ware and adware. However you should also use the software when you are offline. You should scan your
PC using both software at least once every three weeks. That will clean any harmful objects. These objects can make a lot of harm to your PC.

Safety Measurements: We already mentioned that you need two software to keep ongoing protection on your PC.

If you download software/movies/images/videos or any other thing from the internet it is recommended that you scan those items. Before opening them right click on them and use your antivirus to scan them.

Go to Control Panel to turn on Firewall. Firewall is also an ongoing protection which is very important.

Once you have your software installed these protect your PC and you get back the freedom you deserve. Remember that prevention is better than cure.

10 Simple Reasons To Remove Spyware From Your Computer

2009-02-20T22:43:00.005-05:00

Is your computer been running slower than normal? Are you worried someone may be able to access your computer and steal your private information and use it against you? If so, these are feelings I have shared with you in the past.

Some time back, my 3-year old computer was running so slow that I had to buy a new computer. Or at least I thought I needed a new computer. Then within a matter of weeks of surfing on the Internet, my new computer was also running so slowly. In addition, some programs did not run well on my computer, and I did not recognize some of the programs that were running on my computer. That scared me most. Were these programs that were tracking my keystrokes on my computer or programs I just not remember installing? I knew I had to find a answer and solution fast.

The truth is, we can all put up with a slow computer, but very few of us would want others to have access to the information on our computers, but that is exactly what can happen when spyware or malware is loaded on our computers without our knowledge.

According to Spyware Nuker’s web site, “Spyware applications are programs and files that hide on your PC's hard drive without your direct knowledge. These programs allow hackers and advertising companies to track your every move, both online and even when you work offline. They can track the websites you visit, the items that you buy online, the emails you send and receive, your Instant Message dialog, and worst of all they can even record your credit card number, personal identification numbers, and all of your passwords. If you use dial-up to connect to the Internet then spyware can be used to bill 900 numbers to your phone bill. This is just a short list of the harm that spyware can cause.”

The web site also provides statistics that show spyware is a huge problem effecting many people. "68.3 million North Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years, including 9.91 million people or 4.6% of the population in the last year alone."

In addition, it is very easy for your computer to become infected with spyware as "The majority of all down loadable games, music, screen savers, etc., can infect your computer with SpyWare or Ad Ware. Most people do not know that after simply clicking on a random "pop up" ad, their computers may have been infected with SpyWare or Ad Ware."

No matter how we get spyware, here are 10 very real reasons you don’t want spyware on your computer.

1. Your computer may start running slower
2. Some programs on your computer will not run correctly
3. You may not recognize programs that are now on your computer because they may have been installed there by a spyware related web site or program you loaded on your computer.

In addition, you might be worried that:

4. Someone might be able to read your e-mails
5. Someone might be able to access your e-mail list
6. Someone might be able to see you track the keystrokes you type
7. Someone might be able to access your credit card information on your pc
8. Someone might be able to access your passwords list on your computer
9. Someone might be able to steal your social security number
10. Someone might be able to track all the web sites you visit

As I mentioned, most of these programs get on your computer with out you even knowing, but another frustrating part is I recognized a few of these programs because I remember installing AND uninstalling them! So now I know that when we install some of these handy little utilities to track passwords online or programs to help with e-mail or keep track of the weather, even if we uninstall them, they may not be gone from our computers. They are still in our computers, waiting to spy on us, at the least.

A great way to find and remove spyware is to run a spyware detector and remover. Most spyware detection and removal software today offers a free scan to verify that you do or do not have spyware on your computer.

For free solutions to remove unwanted Spy ware and Ad aware go to the link at top of page. Free links for your computer!

6 Steps You Can Take To Speed Up Your Computer’s Performance

2009-02-19T14:47:00.001-05:00

We live in a fast paced world and we’re always looking for the fastest way to get things done. We barely have time to wait for our burger at the local fast food restaurant, our coffee to brew, our microwave popcorn to pop, so who has time to wait around for a slow computer?

Barring adding more RAM to your computer, there are 6 steps you can take to speed up your computer’s performance. Most of these steps will allow you to speed up your computer, free of charge since they are applications already installed on your computer.

One of the first steps you should take is to empty the Recycle Bin. It’s easy to do. Just point your cursor to the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, right-click, and choose “Empty Recycle Bin.”

Next, open up your Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options. Click on “Delete Cookies,” then on “Delete Files.” In the window that appears, check “Delete all offline content” and click OK. Once that’s done, click OK to close the Internet Options window, and close your Internet Explorer.

Those two are steps are the quickest, and simplest ones so that’s why we got them out of the way first. Next, we’ll be conducting a Disk Cleanup. To do this, click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. The disk cleanup function will now begin calculating how much space you will be able to free up. Once it finishes, it’ll give you a list of files to delete. It should already have some files checked, but you can go through the list and check off all the files you want to delete, then click OK.

Now it’s time to do a disk defragmentation. This can be a long process so you should probably set this up during a time when you’ve got other things going on. For example, set it up, then go watch your favorite TV show, or go mow the lawn, or go workout. You get the idea. To begin go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. Click Analyze. If you’re lucky, you’ll get the “You do not need to defragment this volume” call-out, but more than likely, you’ll have to click on “Defragment.” If so, click on it, go do something else and come back in an hour or two.

Once that’s done, it’s time to run a spyware scan. Most people don’t realize how easy it is to get infected with spyware, so running periodic scans is highly recommended. You can use any anti-spyware program you choose. Just be aware that no one program gets rid of everything. To play it safe, you should run at least three different programs. You might be surprised by what they find. You may have had spyware running on your computer and not even know it. Once the scans are complete, and all that spyware is taken care of, it’s time for the last step.

This last step is to run an anti-virus scan. Hopefully you have an anti-virus program installed on your computer. If not, I highly recommend you get one as soon as possible. Once the anti-virus program is set, go ahead and run it. This could take anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple hours depending on how many files you have on your hard drive so once again, set it, and then go do something else. Come back in about an hour.

Once all the steps are complete. Restart your computer and you’ll be surprised at how completely nimble it now feels. It’s a good idea to follow these 6 steps at least once per week (some steps you can even set up to be done automatically). By doing this, you will keep your computer performing almost like it did when you first bought it.

10 Tips For Using Adobe Photoshop

2009-02-18T23:42:00.003-05:00

Like a brush is to a painter an essential skill in the field of graphic design is Photoshop. The software offers increased productivity as well as flexibility. The features include aspects like file browser, vanishing point tool, smart sharpen filter, noise reduction filter, smart objects, as well as camera work flow enhancements. Photo shop offers professional photo editing features, digital imaging, as well as non destructive editing.

There are so many hidden features and insights to software, that it is often impossible to know them all.

1. There is a hidden option using which you can simulate bold and italic formatting styles for fonts that do not have these options. Click the button on the type tool option to bring up the character palette. Then select text and click the arrow in the upper right hand corner of the palette menu where faux bold and italics are present. However you will not be able to warp type when formatting has been applied.

2. One can quickly flip through blend modes while trying out effects by using the keys “shift+ to change to next mode and shift- to go to the previous mode.” When a painting tool is active this shortcut will change the blend mode of the painting tool. However, if anything is highlighted then the shortcut will not work. You will have press esc and then use the shortcut keys again.

3. The photomerge feature can be used to seamlessly combine multiple images to create a panorama. This feature can be accessed from the Automate menu. You can even refine the composition using tools like rotate, zoom, pan, and set vanishing point.

4. When re-sampling images one can use either Bicubic Smoother or Bicubic Sharper. You can use Bicubic smoother for up sampling and Bicubic sharper for down sampling. You can actually specify which interpolation method is to be used by going to general preferences and setting a default.

5. There are two features for printing. You can use contact sheet II or picture package. Use contact sheet when you want all images in the same size and you want to print the name below the image. Use printer package when you want different image sizes on the same page, or multiple copies of the same image, or a text overlay.

6. If you want to remove a glare on the eyeglasses of an image you should use a part of the lens that does not have a glare and use it to layer the lens with a glare. Use tools like rotate and skew and soft-tip eraser to soften the edges. Ensure the glare does not show through from below. Or, do some careful work using the clone tool.

7. The online services enable you to connect to online photo printing and sharing sites.

8. The Web Photo gallery can generate hyperlink pages that can be uploaded to a server.

9. The Picture Package option will help you prepare photos in layout with multiple size prints on one page.

10. You will never forget how you achieved a certain result because the History Log will detail every step taken by you as well as time-tracking, and a legal record. There are three choices wherein, you can create a sessions only record where, it will record only when Photoshop is opened or closed; or a concise record which will record each action including the text that appears in the history palette; or the complete editing history including the text that appears in the actions palette.

Adobe Photoshop is a dream tool for every designer and one can over time master every subtlety of the tool and crop, rotate, resize, create shapes, add layers, change text, and play with colors. It is a hands on software where the more you use it the more you will learn.

10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Your Windows XP

2009-02-17T22:16:00.000-05:00

1. Defrag Disk to Speed Up Access to Data

One of the factors that slow the performance of the computer is disk fragmentation. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. To speed up the response time, you should monthly run Disk Defragmenter, a Windows utility that defrags and consolidates fragmented files for quicker computer response.

* Follow Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
* Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze
* Click Defragment

2. Detect and Repair Disk Errors

Over time, your hard disk develops bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built-in tool called the Error Checking utility. It’ll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance.

* Follow Start > My Computer
* In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties
* Click the Tools tab
* Click Check Now
* Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box
* Click Start

3. Disable Indexing Services

Indexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won’t do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.

* Go to Start
* Click Settings
* Click Control Panel
* Double-click Add/Remove Programs
* Click the Add/Remove Window Components
* Uncheck the Indexing services
* Click Next
4. Optimize Display Settings

Windows XP is a looker. But it costs you system resources that are used to display all the visual items and effects. Windows looks fine if you disable most of the settings and leave the following:

* Show shadows under menus
* Show shadows under mouse pointer
* Show translucent selection rectangle
* Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
* Use visual styles on windows and buttons

5. Speedup Folder Browsing

You may have noticed that everytime you open My Computer to browse folders that there is a little delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing speed, you can disable the “Automatically search for network folders and printers” option.

6. Disable Performance Counters

Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.

* Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List(http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/exctrlst-o.asp)
* Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom button below

7. Optimize Your Pagefile

You can optimize your pagefile. Setting a fixed size to your pagefile saves the operating system from the need to resize the pagefile.

* Right click on My Computer and select Properties
* Select the Advanced tab
* Under Performance choose the Settings button
* Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
* Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.

8. Remove Fonts for Speed

Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.

* Open Control Panel
* Open Fonts folder
* Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.

9. Use a Flash Memory to Boost Performance

To improve performance, you need to install additional RAM memory. It’ll let you boot your OS much quicker and run many applications and access data quicker. There is no easiest and more technically elegant way to do it than use eBoostr (http://www.eboostr.com).

eBoostr is a little program that lets you improve a performance of any computer, powered by Windows XP in much the same way as Vista’s ReadyBoost. With eBoostr, if you have a flash drive, such as a USB flash thumb drive or an SD card, you can use it to make your computer run better. Simply plug in a flash drive through a USB socket and Windows XP will use eBoostr to utilize the flash memory to improve performance.

The product shows the best results for frequently used applications and data, which becomes a great feature for people who are using office programs, graphics applications or developer tools. It’ll surely attract a special attention of laptop owners as laptop upgrade is usually more complicated and laptop hard drives are by definition slower than those of desktops.

10. Perform a Boot Defragment

There's a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which will put all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.

On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defragment is enabled:

* Run the Registry Editor
* Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction
* Set the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y.
* Exit the Registry
* Reboot

Hope you find these 10 tips useful. Have a nice day!

10 reasons why Vista is much better with the bugs fixed!

2009-02-16T22:37:00.002-05:00

Every new operating system comes with advanced and much improved features. What is exciting to some is not so to others. Basically within a new system each user has his or her own individual preferences. Windows Vista or Longhorn as it was first known is a replacement for XP and is the “new” desk operating system scheduled to be launched by December 2006.

Descriptions of Vista are glowing; it is seen as a vision of the future. High definition graphics, the ‘z’ level in organization, greater clarity, unbelievable security, and boundless thinking power are what it is about. The operating system is set to fulfill all needs, it has a secure and speedy start up, not just when booting but also when returning to active status from standby mode; improved and strengthened driver design which protects the os from crashing when other things go wrong; and an antiphishing device or filter that identifies and confirms phishing sites by using a dynamically updated database. Technically, the Vista uses an image-based installation thereby facilitating deployments by IT professionals. An advanced event log simplifies administrative tasks.

The October 2005 new test build of Windows Vista has fulfilled expectations by incorporating several new IE 7.0 features, new networking and diagnostic functions. Of all the most significant is the incorporation of the core of Microsoft’s Antispyware product in Vista. A key feature of the Vista system is deployment, the inter-dependent modules permits easy customization of Vista to fit individual needs. The WIM format allows a single image to be used or accessed by different computer hardware irrespective of individual language requirements, you can easily add or remove drivers, include updates and windows components offline without having to boot the operating system image.

The system comes with features like:

1. A new graphics engine that has easy navigation, toolbars with inbuilt intuition, high resolution graphics, movie action that is better that real-life, and easy to learn tools.

2. Revamped Windows Explorer with a next generation navigation structure, tool bars, and icons. The user friendly design incorporates clear glowing buttons and an interface that can captivate a user for hours together.

3. Virtual folders offer permanent storage with dynamic interaction possibilities.

4. The user account protection features shield you from rouge programs and security risk.

5. The system ensures easy installation of programs with “Click Once.” This energizes an installation experience by lending the function speed and security.
6. Error messages are handled by “Task Dialogues” an integral diagnostics that warns of a problem and helps with a solution.

7. New and improved technologies include, PNRP, Peer Name Resolution Protocol, a brand new technological revolution that enables applications to find and connect to one another; WWAN, a router; WLAN, indoor connector; VLAN, allows LANS to communicate; Wi - Fi, deals with radio frequencies.

8. A system where snap-ins to MMC can be moved up or down as per convenience.

9. Has XImage which is non-destructive.

10. Improved up-time with an automatic Restart Manager.

According to computer experts, Vista conquers new horizons while it takes technology into a new realm. It introduces joys of working along with hum drums like increased productivity. Whether or not the features commented upon and tested by many techies across the world will be incorporated in the final version of Vista is not certain as it will be decided by Microsoft based on surveys, marketing projections, costs, and technical reasons.

5 Tips For Buying A Laptop.

2009-02-14T23:40:00.008-05:00

5 Tips for Buying a Laptop

Buying a laptop is a major investment decision. As such it is not one that you should make lightly. Below are 5 tips that will help prepare you for making the best and most well informed decision when buying a laptop.

Tip #1 Size Matters

Buying a laptop is a matter that requires some thought. Consider the size and weight of the laptop. How often will you be carrying your laptop? Your answer will help determine which size and weight will best suit your needs. If you will be carrying your laptop frequently, a lighter model will be preferable.

The keyboard is another area to consider when buying a laptop. Why is the size of the keyboard important? A larger laptop will have a slightly larger keyboard area. But keep in mind that if you worry about your fingers or wrists taking on too much stress from typing on a keyboard that is too small, you may want this to be a main factor in your purchasing decision,

Tip #2 Choose Your Mouse

A laptop it will come with a built in touch pad, an alternative to the mouse, whereby the pad is controlled by the user’s finger movement. For some people, this type of pad is uncomfortable and not easy to work with. Before purchasing a laptop, determine what mouse options are available. Test each one and determine which one best meets your needs.

Tip #3 Wireless Options

Today, when many people think laptop, they think “wireless”. No doubt people want to make sure that their laptop computer will be able to access the Internet with a wireless connection. Many try to account for this by ensuring that their laptop has potential upgrade options, such as room for an expandable PC card or a USB port. However, since so many laptop users are looking for wireless connections, many of today’s laptops come pre-wired for wireless Internet. All you need to do is activate your wireless Internet service, and your laptop will take it from there. So depending on your needs, choose your laptop whether it is capable of expanding or if it is already configured for wireless Internet.

Tip #4 Check for Ports

Peripheral equipment will be connected to your laptop through USB ports. You will make your life much less complicated by ensuring that your laptop has adequate ports. Connecting equipment such as printers, scanners, and digital cameras will be much simpler if you have the ports readily available. If you are not sure, thoroughly read the specs for any laptop that you are considering purchasing.

Tip #5 Check Your Budget First

Finally, when buying a laptop, beware that you do not overspend. First create your budget and stick to it. When you think that you have found the laptop that you want, do not rush into it. Wait a day and check over your budget, requirements, and see if you are still as excited about the laptop in the morning, as you were when the sales clerk was showing off its specs. If you still feel that it is the laptop that you want to purchase, then go for it.

To me ram is the best and cheapest way to upgrade any computer or laptop.

So be a ram lover! He he!

Review about Windows Vista Ultimate!

2009-02-13T22:58:00.000-05:00

Windows Vista is Microsoft's first new operating system in more than five years and the successor to Windows XP. However, it is not worth rushing out to purchase. If you desperately need to buy a new PC (if your old one died or you've been waiting and waiting for Vista to be released), then by all means do so; there's nothing wrong with Windows Vista. But there's no one compelling feature within Windows Vista that cries out to switch over, neither the enhanced graphic capabilities (Aero) nor the improved system performance features (truthfully, our Windows XP doesn't crash). As for security, Microsoft's biggest improvements in Windows Vista are within the Enterprise or 64-bit editions, editions most home users will not be running. Windows Vista is not the Apple Mac OS X 10.4 killer one hoped for (or feared). Nor are there specific big-name software packages written exclusively for Windows Vista--most software available today is compatible with both Windows XP and Windows Vista. But the extensive tie-ins to Microsoft.com and Live.com, and the many, many interdependences upon Internet Explorer 7 left us desperately wanting more (and often best-of-breed) alternatives. Hard core Microsofties who live and breathe within the MSN, Live.com, and Microsoft desktop software ecosystem will rejoice with the release of Windows Vista, but for the rest of us who are product agnostic, who use Firefox, Google Desktop, ZoneAlarm, GMail, and Corel WordPerfect, Windows XP SP2 will suffice nicely until some killer program necessitates that we all upgrade to Windows Vista.

There are six major editions of Windows Vista; we're reviewing four. We chose not to review Windows Vista Enterprise (available only to volume license customers) and Windows Vista Starter (available only outside the United States). Windows Vista Ultimate includes everything, and this is the edition getting the most promotion from Microsoft. It is not the edition most people will find packaged on their shiny new PCs or will end up with after an upgrade of existing hardware. See our feature comparison chart to know which edition is right for your specific needs, and check the following individual reviews for more details:

Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Home Basic

Setup and installation
The Windows Vista DVD disc includes a Windows Imaging (WIM) format of the code, so whether you buy the Home Basic edition or the Ultimate edition, the code remains the same; only the product key unlocks your specific set of features. This means users who opt for the lesser editions can always upgrade (assuming they have the proper hardware) by downloading some additional code and securing a new product key online. However, all features--even if you paid for them--are dependent on specific hardware configurations being present; if you don't have the proper graphics hardware, for example, you'll simply never see the Aero graphic effects on that old Dell computer in your basement.

Hardware requirements for Windows Vista should not be taken lightly. In a controversial move to garner positive reviews, Microsoft sent hundreds of bloggers (not including CNET) free copies of Windows Vista Ultimate; Microsoft did not send boxed copies, rather the software giant sent top-of-the-line Acer Ferrari laptops with the operating system preinstalled. So even Microsoft seems to admit that the best performance is only available on top-of-the-line machines manufactured within the last year or so.

That said, many people will still want to upgrade their current Windows XP SP2. This will keep all your current data and applications, importing them directly into the new operating system. To see which edition(s) of Windows Vista your current computer can handle, visit the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to find specific hardware recommendations so you don't buy the wrong edition. Most people will find either Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium to be their best choice. While Windows Vista does make a backup of your previous operating system before installing, it is always recommended that you backup your current Windows XP system yourself, just in case.

Rather than upgrade, we recommend you perform a clean installation. With a clean installation, you keep all your current on the Windows XP drive and install only the data and applications you want to run on Windows Vista. A clean install can be accomplished by buying a new PC with Windows Vista already installed, partitioning an existing Windows XP machine to dual-boot into Windows Vista, or adding a new hard drive to an existing Windows XP machine.

Our clean installations took anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on the hardware in the system. It's pretty much an automated process, with the installer first copying the WIM image onto the new hard drive or partition then expanding that image. Once again, we experienced an uncomfortably long plateau at "Expanding: 27 percent"; as with previous builds, we waited between two and five minutes before the expansion continued. About halfway through, the installer reboots and continues the installation in Windows Vista.

During the installation, Windows Vista will load the drivers included within the installation image, but it will also download additional drivers from a much larger database at Microsoft. This assumes, however, that one has an always-on Internet connection; dial-up users may find that upon completion of the installation process some drivers are missing.

Once fully installed, Windows Vista first asks for your country or region, then time and currency, and, finally, the desired keyboard layout. Next, you'll choose a username, a user icon, and a password. Then select your desktop wallpaper and security settings: Automatic, Install Important Updates Only, or Ask Me Later. After reviewing the computer's time and date settings, there's one more message: "Please wait while Windows checks your computer's performance." Here, Microsoft grades your computer on a five-point scale, with the overall rating based on your system's lowest score (in our case, that was for the video card).

Windows Vista includes new musical tones written by veteran musician Robert Fripp. Compared to the familiar start-up tones of Windows XP, Windows Vista's are lighter, almost spritely. The sounds for User Account Control and Log Off are also perkier than those found in similar security warnings within Windows XP.

New on the Windows Vista desktop is a Welcome Center which contains links to frequently asked questions such as, "How do you configure your printer?" and "How do you connect to your Internet service?" There is also room for some sales opportunities, either with manufacturer specials or online offers from Microsoft, such as the Windows Live OneCare service. Frankly, we think it is better for you to look beyond the Windows ecosystem for e-mail, Internet browsers, and security applications.

After closing the Welcome Center, you'll notice to the far right there is a shaded sidebar populated with three example Gadgets ("widgets" to everyone else), tiny desktop applets that display content, such as RSS feeds. In one Gadget, a slide show of images from the sample photo library display; in the next, the current time; finally, there's a Gadget for subscribed RSS feeds. We downloaded and installed Firefox 2, made Firefox our default browser, and quickly set up a few RSS feed subscriptions. Guess what? The Windows Vista Gadget was unresponsive to our efforts, displaying only the default MSN feeds from Microsoft. Microsoft says the default RSS Gadget feeds off a common store of RSS feeds within Windows Vista, and firefox hasn't yet adopted the API for that store. You have to use Internet Explorer 7 or choose a Firefox-friendly Gadget instead. By clicking the + symbol atop the sidebar, you'll see a panel of available Gadgets, with a link out to the Web to find even more. The Gadgets are not fixed to the sidebar; they can be dragged across the desktop. And even the sidebar itself can be disabled to allow for a full desktop view. An icon located within the taskbar will restore the sidebar at any time.

The familiar Start menu features some cosmetic changes for Windows Vista. Aside from the distinctive rounded icon, the Start menu now includes a built-in Search function. We would have preferred to have access to Search directly from the desktop rather than digging down a level or two. The All Programs list now displays as an expandable/collapsible directory tree, something Windows should have offered years ago. The new Start menu is divided in half, with access to documents, pictures, music, games, recent items, My Computer, network, Control Panel, default programs, and Help along the right-hand side.

Also new within Start is an Instant Off button. This button caches all your open files and processes, allowing you to turn off your laptop or desktop quickly without all the "cleaning up files" messages you see in previous versions. We like the feature, but on our Acer Travelmate 8200, Instant Off and closing the lid to hibernate sometimes produced limbo states where the laptop simply wouldn't wake up again, forcing us to reboot.

In Windows Vista, files become unmoored from the traditional directory tree structure--kind of. The more ambitious plan of including a whole new file system was scrapped early on; instead, Windows Vista relies on metatags, which are keywords linked to files to make them searchable. With metatags, you can create virtual file folders based on a variety of search terms. Say you're doing a report on mountains, any file that is keyword-enabled to include "mountains" will be grouped into a virtual folder without physically dragging that file to a new location. The downside is that older files (say you upgraded your system from Windows XP or imported data from an earlier version of Windows) will have to be retroactively metataged in order to be searched. Also different is the file path displayed within Windows Explorer. Gone are the backslashes, replaced with arrows that offer drop-down menus of alternative folders. We liked this efficient feature.

Finally, there's a compatibility wizard buried deep within Windows Vista. Most Windows XP applications we loaded performed just fine. Operating under the hood, Windows Vista convinces native Windows XP applications that they're running on Windows XP. Should you need to run an older application, say from Windows 95, the compatibility wizard allows you to tweak the display resolution and emulate Windows 95 for that program. For example, we were able to run a Windows 95-optimized game demo on our Windows Vista test system.

Features
There are too many individual features within Windows Vista Ultimate Edition to call out--seriously. However, our gut feeling is that most of the significant bells and whistles are designed for the Enterprise-level customers, not the home user. Having a large number of features should not be confused with actually providing significant value to all users across the board. We would have preferred fewer features executed extremely well rather than an uneven mix of this and that, a one-size-fits-all operating system. And we disagree with Microsoft's seemingly arbitrary division of features within individual editions.

Common to all editions of Windows Vista are ad hoc backup and recovery, instant Search, Internet Explorer 7 browser, Windows Media Player 11, Windows Mail e-mail client, Windows Calendar, Windows Photo Gallery, performance tuning and self-diagnostics, Internet protocol IPv6 and IPv4 support, Windows ReadyDrive, a maximum of 4GB RAM support on 32-bit editions (up to 128GB RAM on some 64-bit editions), Windows Sync Center for mobile devices, Windows Mobility Center for presentations on the road, User Account Control security protection, Windows Security Center, Windows Defender antispyware, Windows Firewall, Windows Meeting Space for ad hoc wireless meetings, Remote Desktop for working from home, XPS document support for PDF-like files, improved peer-to-peer networking, improved VPN support, and improved power management. Included within certain editions (and thus also included within the Ultimate edition) are Windows Media Center, Windows Tablet PC, Windows Movie Maker, Windows DVD Maker, Parental Controls, Windows SideShow for remote gadgets, domain join for Windows Small Business Server, Group Policy support, Client-side file caching, Roaming User Profiles for remote server access, Windows Fax and Scan, Windows ShadowCopy to create file backups, Windows Rights Management Services to protect documents, Windows BitLocker hard drive encryption, integrated smart card management, and various Windows Ultimate Extras to be named later. Despite many feature changes within Windows Vista, Microsoft has held onto its original marketing promise of providing users with Clear, Confident, and Connected solutions.

For Clear, Microsoft cites its new Aero graphics. Aero is part of the Windows Presentation Foundation, a subgroup of the .Net Foundation Framework, an underlying foundation for developers to build new applications. One applet is the New York Times Times Reader, the first of many products written exclusively for Windows Vista but hardly a compelling reason by itself to upgrade. Though video playback and, yes, even the tiny icons on Windows Vista are now crisp and colorful with Aero, unless you watch YouTube videos all day, you won't really need Aero, nor will you miss the tiny preview windows enabled on your desktop display. Also new is Microsoft's Adobe PDF-like file format called XPS (Extensible Page System); however, any Windows XP SP2 machine can view XPS-created pages with downloads of the .Net 3 Framework Foundation and the Internet Explorer 7 browser.

For Confident, Microsoft touts new security enhancements within Windows Vista. You shouldn't encounter User Account Control (UAC) except when changing system configurations or installing new software, and even then, wouldn't you--in this age of downloadable spyware--prefer to know when an executable file is about to run? While UAC notifies you of pending system changes, it doesn't always require a password. Microsoft's more controversial method to lock down the system kernel, PatchGuard, is only available in the 64-bit editions of Windows Vista; most home users will not run these editions. Another celebrated security feature works only within Windows Mail, which most people are unlikely to use. And finally, the jury is still out on whether Internet Explorer 7 is more secure than, say, Firefox 2. Windows Vista also includes a built-in but limited two-way firewall and free Windows Defender antispyware, which ranked poor in competitive testing done by Download.com.

For Connected, Microsoft points to the new peer-to-peer possibilities, some of which are the result of its acquisition of Groove several years ago. From within Windows Explorer (which displays different toolbar options for exploring documents, photos, or music) you can move any file into a Public Folder and then mark the file or folder for sharing on a network. Within the Business and Ultimate editions you can further mark individual files for remote access.

Performance
Upon installation, Windows Vista rates each system's overall hardware performance, with the final score reflecting your system's lowest individual score. This is handy. For example, if you suspect that everything's running a little slow, you might find that your hard drive is returning the lowest score. Windows Vista will then recommend a faster hard drive or a drive with larger compatibility. Mostly, though, the video card will be the sore spot for most users. There's also an event log viewer to show, for example, after a specific software install your system performance started to degrade, and that uninstalling the software may restore your overall performance.

Under the hood, Microsoft has moved device drivers for DVD burners and printers out of the system kernel; Microsoft says that a majority of system crashes can be traced to improperly installed third-party device drivers. Thus Windows Vista hopes to vanquish the dreaded Blue Screen of Death common to earlier releases of Windows. Indeed, after testing several early builds, we found Windows Vista to be remarkably stable and robust.

Support
Along with the performance monitors, Microsoft has improved the Help section considerably. There is a static FAQ, but it also links to Microsoft online and allows outreach to other users for help, either via a forum or direct PC-to-PC help. Of these, we really like a feature available on some, not all, FAQs that allows you to automate the solution by executing a script. This method doesn't teach you how to do it in the future, but it will accomplish the task at hand. For example, if you choose to update a device driver, Windows Vista will darken the desktop; highlight and open the Start menu, the Control Panel, and the Device Manager; then pause to ask you what device you want to update. It's like having a technician at your desktop, walking you though the process. There's an increasing reliance on user-generated support forums, which leads us to believe that Microsoft is shying away from its own live technical support. At press time, Microsoft's final support policy was unavailable.

Conclusion
Perhaps we're spoiled, but after more than five years of development, there's a definite "Is that all?" feeling about Windows Vista. Like cramming an info-dump into a book report the night before it's due, there certainly are a lot of individual features within the operating system, but the real value lies in their execution--how the user experiences (or doesn't experience) these--and like the info-dump, we came away shaking our heads, disappointed. Compared with Mac OS X 10.4, Windows Vista feels clunky and not very intuitive, almost as though it's still based on DOS (or at least the internal logic that made up DOS). Despite the addition of a system-wide, built-in Search, and various efforts to break away from staidly old directory trees, you still need to drill down one level to even access Search. And there are far too many dependencies on Microsoft products; this is not a very objective operating system, as preference is always given to Microsoft products (of which there are many), from MSN Search to RSS feeds only from Internet Explorer. But is Windows Vista a bad operating system? No. It's just a disappointment for PC users who hoped that Microsoft would deliver something truly exciting to finally leapfrog ahead of Apple. They failed. But stick around; this is just Windows Vista 1.0. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is due out sometime before theWindows, Vista, ulitmate, Review end of the year. Windows Vista SP1 promises to fix what's known to be wrong within Windows Vista and should offer a few concrete reasons to switch.

7 Great Computer User Tips - For Windows® Users Only

2009-02-12T19:22:00.000-05:00

An Easy Performance Enhancement

If you’re using the NTFS filing protocol on your system, instead of FAT32, you can get a bit more speed by disabling Windows® Indexing. The downside to this is that searching your drive for a specific file might take a moment or two longer, but everything else should run faster.

To disable this feature open My Computer and then right click on the drive you wish to reset – usually C-drive. Now click on Properties and then uncheck “Allow Indexing Service.” It will take Windows® a few moments to accomplish this task, based on your processor speed. If you have other hard drives, perform the same process for them. After this is done, it’s a good idea to empty the Recycle Bin and then Defragment your hard drive(s).

FREE Software

If you have a system and it does not have an office suite, such as Microsoft Office, and you don’t want to pay several hundred dollars to have one, try Open Office. This is a great alternative to other suites, and it’s free! Simply direct your browser to www.openoffice.org and follow the instructions for downloading and installation. Make no mistake, this free office suite is an extremely powerful set of software tools – easily a match for any competitor.

Internet Explorer (Microsoft’s Internet browser) is unarguably the standard in computers. This is why hackers develop so many malware applications to invade it. If you use a different browser, you have much less chance of an invasion by malicious software. There is a great alternative available, and it’s free. You can download a copy of Firefox at www.mozilla.org/products/firefox. You can even move your Internet Explorer settings into Firefox automatically – so you don’t lose your Favorites, etc.

Laptop Printer Fix

If you’re using a laptop that is running Windows® ME, and you’re having trouble printing through the USB, try this simple fix. Go to the website for the company that manufactures your printer. If you use a Hewlett-Packard, for example, go to www.HP.com and download the appropriate drivers and install them. ME has drivers that recognize the USB printer is present and attached, but not the drivers needed to make it print. Which drivers you download and install will be dependant on your printer. After installing new drivers, update the printer as necessary in the Control Panel.

Save $$$ When Shopping On-line

If you’re making a purchase on-line, and you know the item you want to buy, you can easily compare pricing all across the Internet. This can amount to a very substantial savings.

At this writing, I went to www.mysimon.com and typed in that I wanted to buy a printer: a Canon PIXMA iP4000. The service instantly checked the Internet and returned prices ranging from $62.00 up to $286.00. This kind of price spread is not at all unusual, especially for computers and electronics.

The My Simon website service only checks pricing, it does not provide a platform for purchasing anything, though it does link to such places. It also gives a rating for the sellers and other users’ input regarding their experiences with the company. You can order the results of the search for your product by price, so that you can quickly find the lowest price from the highest rated dealer.

Windows® XP Professional Only

A feature of Windows® XP Professional, that is not available in the Home Edition, is the ability to encrypt files. This encryption prevents others from opening the files in the folder you encrypt. To encrypt one or more a folders, follow these easy steps.

Click Start, then My Documents. Now locate the folder you wish to encrypt and right click on it and choose Properties.

On the General tab, click on Advanced. Put a tick mark in the box for Encrypt Contents to Secure Data. Click okay two times and the confirmation dialog box will appear allowing you to select the folder, the folder and all files, and/or the subfolders within it.

Now you'll be able to place files in this folder (or folders) and since they're encrypted, others will not be able to access them.

Internet Safety

You should never reveal your username or password to anyone who e-mails you and asks for it. This information is frequently asked for by an Internet scheme called “phishing.”

In a common phishing scam, you receive an e-mail that looks quite official. It usually appears to come from a bank or credit card company. A common title for these e-mails is “We need to verify your account information.” Another is “Please logon to your account and verify your settings.” If you do click where instructed, you’ll end up on a site that appears to be the real one. If you fill in the username and password for of your on-line banking account, you can expect serious problems within twenty-four hours.

If you believe that a company or business that you do on-line business with really does require your information, then simply contact them. This way, you will know where you are sending your information, and what it will be used for.

CD Burning Error Fix

Burning music, video, and data CDs has become quite popular over the past few years, and the evolution of the supporting technology has yielded hardware and software that is better than ever – and very reasonably priced. CDs offer a great place to store substantial amounts of data in a small, easily retained format. They also give us new control over aspects of our entertainment.

A relatively common error received during CD burning informs you that the CD cannot be burned, or that there was an error during burning. Of course, you could actually have a defective CD drive, but this is usually not the case.

If you receive a message indicating that your CD cannot be burned, go to the website of your CD drive manufacturer. Look for the list of CD types (manufacturers/numbers) that are compatible with your device. Most often, you’ll find that your CDs are not listed. The two types that seem to have the least difficulty being burned are manufactured by Sony and TDK. These cost a bit more, but they burn very reliably.

Along the same lines – H-P has introduced a new CD burner. This new burner requires the use of special CD blanks, but after you burn your data into the CD, you can flip it over and close the drive again. Then you can use the laser to burn a title for the CD directly onto the CD itself. It’s new technology, but perhaps it will catch on and we’ll see newer, better such devices in the near future.

Remove Spyware Programs – Getting Help

2009-02-11T18:39:00.003-05:00

Spyware are programs that automatically download to your computer when you enter an infected website. The files are downloaded in different ways. When you enter a web site that has these types of programs on them they will automatically download to your pc the minute you enter the site. Many times you don't know they are downloading onto your computer. In order to remove spyware, you will need spyware removal software.

Another way these programs get downloaded to your pc is when you are downloading files or software from a site that has these files. I spent the past 16 years as a systems analyst for a very large company. From this experience I have found that it is helpful to have some sort of spyware removal software on your computer.

It is quite common that many sites that offer free downloads infect your PC with spyware. Once a spyware file is downloaded to your PC it monitors your activity as well as were you go on the web, all your keystrokes, and many other things. The information that the spyware file gathers gets automatically sent off to its host site without your knowledge.

Adware infections are very similar and can slow your computer down the same as the spyware. You may suspect your infected by adware when you keep getting redirected to other sites and receive tons of pop ups.

Spyware programs, once loaded on your computer can really slow your pc down to a snails pace. Sometimes they cause such problems that you can no longer even use your pc. Proper removal of the spyware is crucial in order to clean up your pc.

It is important to choose reliable spyware removal software that will effectively remove spyware and these unwanted spyware files from you computer. It is also important to make sure you have the most up to date spyware removal software on the market.

When choosing what sites to go to on the web you should be safe and carefully choose what site you are directing yourself to. Popular big name companies and such are usually very safe sites to visit. Remember not all sites that offer free software are sites that will infect your computer. However I have noticed that many sites that do offer free stuff to download like games, movies, and free software are many times the source of these spyware files.

Surf the Internet safely and be careful what sites you surf and buy your self a good spyware protection program. One program I have had great success with over the years is NoAdware. The software will remove adware and spyware from your pc. I will post another article soon with a review of the NoAdware spyware removal software. If you would like to see the software please visit my website. If your computer is infected your only choice is to remove spyware files from you computer. If the spyware stays on your computer it will slow your pc right down and in some cases it will prevent you from surfing. Some of these programs make instant changes to your computer settings and also your browser settings.

This one is free I love it!

Please visit some of these sites ad aware or yahoo has a free one with tool bar anti spy.

Repair Your Computer For Free

2009-02-11T01:08:00.001-05:00

I just read an article about a lady whose computer was deluged by adware. It was such a problem that she spent thousands of dollars on computer repair fees to try to clean up her computer. The said thing is that she could have restored her computer by herself in less than a few hours and for free.

Somewhere down the line, there will be problems with your computer (adware, spyware, viruses, good software gone bad, etc,). Obviously, you should use protection software to prevent as much as possible. However, you will most likely eventually find yourself in a mess. Relax! Don't worry.

Don't spend thousands of dollars on a computer guy to fix your computer if it breaks down. The first rule of thumb is, don’t spend more than $300, which would buy you a new computer today. But don't throw away your computer yet -- there is another solution.

If you are unable to access programs like MS Office and Quicken you may have a hardware problem, or your data may be so corrupted that you may have to call in a computer expert to get to it – and he may not be able to access it in a cost effective way. Decide ahead of time how much your data is worth to you and find out how much you will pay the expert.

If you can still access your data, try the following:
First, back up all the saved data from programs like MS Office and Quicken. Make sure you have the original program discs because later you will need to reload these programs, and any backed up data. Then, just reload your Windows XP operating system (or upgrade to Windows XP). Bypass any warnings it gives you about your existing data. It will wipe your computer clean and you can start again. Go online and load the FREE security programs listed below. Then load the programs you wish to re-install and then their backed up data. Your computer will run like brand new (or better!). Warning! You will lose everything on your computer when you install Windows XP, and all the programs have to be re-loaded.

Here is the plan.

1) Starting now if it is not too late, you should be saving your important files and data to a disk or better yet to an online file folder. The online file folder sign-up can be found in the godaddy e-mail area. This way your files and data are safer. I enjoy accessing my files remotely from any computer as well. You should also neatly save and organize your important software so it is easy to reload.
2) Reload or load for the first time Windows XP Home edition or Professional.
3) Now download for FREE Microsoft Defender Anti-Spyware from microsoft.com.
4) Now download for FREE Avast Anti-virus.

These three work great together. You can find great information on in the free stuff forum at dealking.com. They list many of the above solutions.

I even suggest for older computers that are running sluggishly to load Windows XP right now to clean it up your system and make it work faster – before problems occur. Your computer will work like new. CAUTION: You will lose everything when you re-load the Windows XP on you computer, but that is good if you have a bunch of junk. SAVE YOUR IMPORTANT ITEMS FIRST.

I did the above on 2 older Dells. One was plagued by an overload of junk and adware that popped up constantly. The other was just old and slow. I loaded the new Windows XP and started from scratch, and they work even better than the brand new Dells at my office that are loaded with a paid McAfee security package. McAfee seems to try to trick you into paying twice for the subscription, but the above solution is free and does the same thing.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on any of the above, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night. For hardware problems or to restore data, you may need a computer guy (expert). Also, you may have a computer guy who is very cost effective and efficient (they are around), but there are just as many that spend to much time and money (yours) to fix something their way.