Listen to music online customized for your tastes&...

This past week I learned about an incredibly convenient and useful web site that allows you to listen to unlimited online music for free. The site is Pandora Radio. Sure there are other web sites and radio stations that let you do the same thing, but this one also customizes your station based on your musical tastes…for free (requires listening to a commercial occasionally). Or you could do like I did, and pay the...

How to use multiple signatures in Gmail without ad...

This week I helped a client start the transition to Gmail from Microsoft Outlook. Turns out that although he used the same email address, he did have different signatures setup for various uses (personal, business, charity, etc). With Gmail, it is possible to setup a separate signature for different email addresses (which not many people do with Gmail), but not choose from different signatures. As I thought about his problem,...

Customizing Apple’s Mac OSX Finder Tool R...

Since I’ve been featuring tips on file management this week, I thought I would demonstrate how to work with and customize the Mac OSX file management tool known as Finder. The finder is quite powerful as is, but sometimes having quicker access to tools you use often is helpful. Watch this short video to learn how to do just that.

Create Your OWN Personalized Newspaper Online R...

In this month’s group, we talked about and demonstrated how to set up a web page that can be personalized. I like to use a customized web page (portal) as my home page (first page that shows up when I start my browser). We looked at the Yahoo portal (My Yahoo) and the newer Google customized home page. Both services require that you register and setup a user name and password. Once you register, you can customize your...

How to install, customize, & delete Windows 7...

Last week I was showing a client how to use Windows 7 gadgets to give him updated weather information for cities where friends and family lived. He was extremely appreciative and it reminded me that I don’t always post fun things to do with our computers and gadgets would be a fun how-to to post. So here it is! Windows Vista also had gadget capability, but as with almost everything else it had, it was not well...

9 Tweaks I perform for a new client’s comput...

When I meet a client’s computer for the first time, I go through a little routine to check for problems, improve performance, and speed up boot times. You can do it to your own computer too. Use Task Manager to see how many processes are running and determine how much tweaking I have to do to startup. Use msconfig to streamline the startup process Install CCleaner to cleanup temporary files Check on the amount of RAM...

7 ways to become a more efficient web user –...

This is a reintroduction and retitling of a previous video/tip because of a copyright infringement complaint fromFranklin Covey. Hopefully, the new title and verbiage will satisfy their legal staff. All week long I help computer users of all ages and experience levels. Too often, I see that many computer users (beginners and experienced alike) do not utilize or know about some basic web browsing skills that will speed their...

7 Google services you have never tried

Google started as a college project 12 years ago, then as a startup search engine just 10 years ago. Today, Google owns more than 60% of all web search traffic and employs close to 22,000 employees worldwide. You probably interact with Google via their search engine primarily. However, you are missing out on some truly great services that Google also provides in addition to their fast and accurate search engine. In this...

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.

Customizing your iPhone home screen – Video ...

This is a pretty specific tip for a relatively new device, but with WalMart now carrying iPhones more and more people will want and need to learn how to take advantage of their investment. The iPhone is a wonderful little tool…IF you learn how to use it and make it work for you. One of the first things you can do with any piece of technology is customize it to fit your needs. With the iPhone, learning to customize the...

Change your Bullets – Video Tip

Bullets, in Microsoft Word and other word processors, allow users to bring attention to a list of items as seen here: Bullets are fun Bullets are customizable Bullets make documents easier to read Unlike my boring ‘dot’ bullets above, you can use this week’s tip to customize your Microsoft Word bullets to suit your style and document’s purpose. First, to create a bulleted list follow these...

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...

Customizing the Ubuntu Login screen – Video ...

I personally don’t mind the orange and black themes of Ubuntu. If you do, however, you can quickly change the look of the Ubuntu login them by downloading new ones from the Internet or using some of the extra options in Ubuntu. To download new themes, I suggest starting at Gnome Look. Gnome Look offers hundreds of new themes you can use at no cost to customize Ubuntu to look the way you want it. Once at the Gnome Look...

Google News Alerts

Would you like to get targeted news/web searches delivered to your email? Google Alerts can do that for you. Google Alerts allow you to get automated, customized news and web searches delivered to your email daily, weekly, or as breaking news alerts based on the criteria you provide. The service can be used without a Google account, but if you start using the service more, and you will, having an account will allow you to...

More Firefox 3.0 Features – Video Tip

I’ve posted some tips already demonstrating some of the power of Firefox 3.0. In today’s tip, I demonstrate how Mozilla has improved Firefox’s tabbed browsing, improved the ability to find and manage 3rd party add-ons, customize your address and search bar box lengths and more. Take a look at the video and learn why Firefox 3.0 remains at the top of the Internet browsing mountain. ...