Customize the mouse to fit your needs – Vide...

Too many people start using a computer and don’t know how to customize its settings to best suit there needs. The mouse is one of the worst offenders…especially for low vision folks or computer users with other disabilities. This short video tutorial will help anyone get the mouse to work the best way possible for their own individual needs.

Digital Readers and E-books

Amazon released their version of a digital reader, called the Kindle, in late 2007. It received a lot of attention at the time, but not as much as its new version released this spring. Amazon states that more than 285,000 books are available for download and purchase, 50,000 audio books, and there are many magazine and newspaper articles also available for download (including my blog). A full text book can be downloaded in...

Device to Convert LPs to MP3

I’ve written about converting LPs to MP3 before, but I just stumbled on this new device from Denon that makes it even easier to convert LP music to digital music. Just plug a USB flash drive into the turntable, play your LP and off you go…mostly. Check out their site for more information. Denon USA | DP-200USB. ...

Save paper & ink – PrintWhatYouLike.com

If you haven’t taken advantage of my tip on how to print just what you select from a web site/email or my tip on finding printer friendly versions of articles you want to print (which can be combined with the first tip), then you might want to take a look at the Print what you like web site linked below. This Web 2.0 web site lets you enter the address of a web site you want to print then gives you tools to arrange its...

DSL Users – The line filters are important

I run into this issue a few times every month and don’t know why I haven’t written a tip about it yet. When a computer user signs up for DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), a DSL kit is delivered to their home. Like many of us, the instructions get pushed to the side or are left in the box, and the user starts plugging everything in to get online as quickly as possible. Or, they may call the neighborhood tech guru and...

Modems and Routers need air too

I talk and write a lot about making sure that your computer has plenty of ventilation around it so it won’t over heat. Computers suffer greatly when exposed to too much heat. That same principle, however, also applies to high speed cable and DSL modems and routers we use to share those high speed connections. If you examine one of these units, you will notice that they contain many vents on their cases. You will also...

Four techniques for erasing your old hard drive

When you replace an old computer, you need to take steps to protect the data that was on that computer prior to donating it, selling it or even throwing it out or recycling it. Too many computer degenerates use the data that can be found on old hard drives to try and steal your identity. You can avoid this by using one of the following four options: One free program that will completely cleanse a hard drive is called...

Stop a document from printing – Video Tip

We all run into a problem sooner or later where something we printed didn’t print correctly or we want to stop it from printing. In today’s tip, I explain how to stop the printer from printing and then clean the print job from your computer. Turn off your printer using its power switch Immediately watch for a message by your clock that has anything to do with your printer Click the little bubble message (if you...

Cell phone quick tip – How to quickly silenc...

We all inadvertently leave the cell phone ringer in the on position in situations where it would be courteous to be off. For those times when you don’t want the world staring at you and listening to your “Baby’s got back” ring tone, take a deep breath, then just push the volume button on the side of your phone. Almost every single cell phone on the market will immediately silence the ringer by pushing...

Laptop Battery Life

Since laptops now out-sale desktops, I decided to bring this tip out of the archives. We had a call last weekend, and I get the same question from many laptop users: “Why is the battery life on my laptop so poor?”. The biggest reason is that the battery doesn’t get enough exercise. Most rechargeable batteries today don’t have the memory problem like they did eight and ten years ago. However, unless...

Another dead hard drive

External hard drives are spacious, cheap and relatively easy to use, but… I resisted talking about backup this early in the year, but a phone conversation I had today illustrated my philosophy about backup perfectly. The gentleman I spoke with suffered an external hard drive failure, and he used it as the sole storage of his digital photos. Once again, my heart sank with his story of woe. He didn’t want to spend...

Netbooks – What are they really designed to ...

Today, I demo’d the original EeePC from Asus and the new Dell Mini 9. These Netbooks and all the others on the market from nearly a dozen companies have the following characteristics in common: 9″ or less screen size (there are some 10″ screens, but I start to put those in the category of ultra portable notebooks instead of netbooks) All cost less than $400 and some less than $300 Weigh less than 3.5...

Does that computer have enough hard drive space?

While counseling a customer on buying a new computer recently, the customer asked if a 500 gigabyte drive was ok compared to another a computer that had a 640 GB hard drive. Other than hard drive capacity, the machines were pretty equal. Unless the person plans to store their 2000 album music collection, edit feature length movies, or are designing the next skyscraper for Dubai, I have them go through this simple...

Netbooks are NOT made for Windows XP or Vista

One year ago, ASUS started a fire storm of new computers that now go by the name of netbooks with the release of their EeePC.  I wrote about this subject just a few months ago, but with the holidays approaching and netbooks are high on gift giver’s radar screens so I want to explore netbooks a little more in depth. Netbooks make attractive gift giving ideas for a few reasons: They are inexpensive; usually cost...

Microsoft Arc Mouse

My old cordless mouse quit on me this week. It was a simple Logitech 2 button scroll mouse (optical). I’m not a big fan, actually I’m not a fan at all of mice with all the extra buttons and features. I want a simple 2 button mouse with a scroll wheel. As I was shopping, I noticed that the only simple mice were either cheap crap, corded (I wanted cordless), or came bundled with a keyboard. Since I didn’t need...