I use a Mac, therefore I am

Ya, don’t ask me to elaborate too much on the title of this post, I didn’t mean anything too deep by it. I picked up my new/old Mac that a reader gave me. It is an older system, but It does a great job. It’s a dual 867mhz G4 with a gig of RAM, 10GB hard drive and Leopard OS. While it may seem a little dated by Mac standards, it is every bit as fast as my dual core Pentium that I typically run XP on. I...

Picasa class coming this Tuesday!

See below to pre-order my new Picasa tutorial CD. I will ship it out on Tuesday. Click on the "Buy Now" button and follow the directions. Note the link for non-PayPal users. After month’s of requests, I am finally doing an entire class on Picasa. On Tuesday, November 27 from 7-9pm in conjunction with our regular digital photography user group, I will be teaching about Picasa for the entire two hours. The class...

Get “Experimental” with Picasa –...

Picasa offers so many cool tools for anyone who loves digital photography or just owns a digital camera. Most of the features are extremely useful and fun, but there are some very cool, yet obscure, features found under Picasa’s Experimental section. Go to Tools – Experimental Publish via FTP – sends photos to an FTP account – if you don’t know what that is then you won’t find it...

Brand New Computer for $199

I am getting really excited!! Ubuntu Linux, Splashtop motherboards, fast Internet connections, and Web 2.0 are all starting to bring us to the next generation of Microsoft-free, cheap computing. At least 80% of the computer users I help in their homes or offices do not really need or utilize the power of a full blown Windows (or Mac) computer. You’ve heard this soap box from me before; computer users who only use word...

New computer recommendations

At least once a year, I write a short article about my current computer recommendations. The holiday season is upon us, and I haven’t written an article like this in awhile, so here goes. In the past six months, I ask more questions than I give when approached with this question. Scenario 1 If I find that the person has a 2-4 year old computer with Windows XP, and just thinks the computer is slow, I go with this...

Updated gimmick feature list 2007

My list of gimmick features continues to grow. Gimmick features are features that companies add to technology to sell a product but don’t do what they claim to do in the way you expect them to do it. One of of the first gimmick features I began discussing years ago were gimmick buttons on a scanner. These are buttons that say “email” or “scan and save”, etc. All these buttons do is activate the...

Ubuntu – Day 7

Today marks the one week mark that I quit using my Windows Vista machine and started using Ubuntu exclusively. I pledged to use Ubuntu only for two straight weeks to really put the operating system through the paces of daily use. After a rough start with email and fighting spam, I am almost in a groove of using this free and robust operating system. I think that Microsoft has the work cut out for themselves over the next few...

Creating a Life Poster with Windows

In yesterday’s computer users group, a question came up about printing photos, and after answering the question somehow the conversation came around to a project I embarked on a few weeks ago. I stumbled on a popular web site blog for Mac users called “Creating a Life Poster” by Mike Matas. I immediately became enamored with the idea of creating a “Life Poster” for my home. The thought of...

I want to be a computer teacher on a cruise ship

I love my job as a computer guy. Especially tutoring and teaching average people (seniors, parents, non-geeks) how too use computers. Everyday I meet interesting people, see new challenges and play with new toys. Today I was thinking about what could possibly make my job more fun and I had a great idea. I would love to be a computer guy on a cruise ship. Not to maintain the ship's computers but to teach tourists and help...

How much would you pay for a “simple” ...

This will be our poll question in the newsletter tomorrow, but I wanted to give you time to consider the question. Like Rick, I am constantly on a mission to make computers easier to use. I don't believe it is necessary to upgrade computers every few years if the system you are using now is working well. I hate (strong word, but accurate) the direction Microsoft has taken with Windows. Most people never use all of the...

Photoshop Elements 5

Adobe Photoshop Elements is the standard photo editing software for consumers and many professionals. The latest edition offers many new features, but are those features worth upgrading from previous versions of the program? First, there is no upgrade version but since the program can easily be found online for under $70, it won't hurt too bad if you do want to upgrade. Photoshop Elements has been a solid program since...

Getting Better Prints from Digital Photos

One of the disadvantages to digital photography (if you can call it that) is that you don't get prints as often. Photos tend to sit on disk or on your computer's hard drive and never get shared. The photo album is sadly becoming extinct. If you would like to start printing out some of those digital photos, here are some pointers. Install Picasa: We talk about it a lot, but not often enough. Picasa will make selecting,...

Web Appliances revisited

I wrote a number of months ago about the need for a new web appliance. A web appliance is a device that only accesses the Internet. Web TV (now MSN TV) is the only device that sort of falls in this category. What I envision (and wish I had the knowledge to build) is a flat screen monitor with built-in speakers and a cordless bluetooth connection to talk to a mouse, keyboard, and a printer. It would also have a card...

Windows Vista: Is it worse than we thought?

I have not made any secret of the fact that I am afraid of Windows Vista. Tomorrow Vista hits shelves and I an dreading the rush of calls from people who don't read our website and newsletter. Here is a short list of what I know about Windows Vista so far. Please use the link at the bottom to email this article to anyone you know who may be considering the move to Vista who doesn't read our website and...

How to send an email attachment

We have a few program specific tips on our website about how to send email attachments. Each step is broken down step-by-step.  I am writing this more as a general guide for emailing attachments. I have seen a few mistakes lately that have caused problems for first-time attachment senders. Here are a few tips to help you avoid problems. 1. If you are emailing photos and you use Outlook, Outlook Express or gmail, download...