Editing | Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners

Posts Tagged: editing

Type first. Edit last.

photo credit: mpclemens

Most of us 40+ learned how to type letters and documents using a typewriter.

Word processing reigns as then new king of document creation, and most typewriters are relegated to attics, back rooms and antique shops.

However, the majority of computer users use their word processors (MS Word, Word Perfect, etc) like a typewriter.

The first rule to remember when using a word processor is to forget your typewriting rules.

When we sat down to our typewriters to create a document (whether a simple letter to Mom or a 100 page novelette), we had to have a clear picture in our head of what the document should look like. Otherwise, crumpled typing paper dominated our floors!

With word processing, the most efficient way to create a document is to Continue reading →

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 17 Comments
8
Dec 08

What do you really do with your computer?

In my travels, it seems that most home computer users primarily use email. I would love to see 100-200 comments attached to this short article so you can tell me what you use your computer for from day-to-day. You don’t have to be statistically accurate or detailed, I’m just curious and this topic is too broad and detailed for a poll.

Here’s how I use my main computer:

Internet (web browsing, pay bills, web site maintenance, etc) – 60%
Email – 15%
Instructional videos – 10%
Word Processing – 8%
Desktop publishing (creating newsletters, flyers, calendars, etc) – 2%
Skype video calls – 1%
Digital Photography (including ordering, editing, and downloading photos) – 1%
Games – .33%
Other – 2.67%

YOUR TURN! Leave a comment and share what you use your primary computer for on average. Thanks!

5 Reasons why YOU should be moving to the cloud

Over the past two or there years, I have written many articles about Web 2.0 or cloud computing. Cloud computing means that you work with programs and/or data that are not installed or saved on your computer. Instead, the programs and/or data live on an Internet connected computer (server) somewhere else in the world. These computers provide security via the password and user name that you choose. Five reason come immediately to mind on why you should start moving your data and computing power to the cloud.

1. Although more powerful than ever before, computers have become more unreliable than ever.

In particular, Windows computers require more expertise to keep them safe, updated, and problem free than at any time in the short history of home computers. Macintosh and Linux operating systems certainly require less technical expertise from the security standpoint, but still rely on desktop applications to create, save and edit data. Web based (cloud) applications provide plenty of power and flexibility for the vast majority of computer users while also presenting a simpler interface.

2. You already spend 90% of your time in the cloud already.

Non-business computer users spend the majority of their computer time emailing, surfing and researching the web and playing online games. Transitioning to web based mail and web based word processing, spreadsheets and more is easy and free with products like Zoho Office, Google Docs and ThinkFree.

3. Digital photography is easier in the cloud…and cheaper.

Too many computer users do not know how to properly resize and attach photos to email or gauge how many photos to attach to email. You spend way too much money and time on ink cartridges and paper trying to print good quality pictures. All these problems are solved in the cloud by helping you organize your photos better, share them easier, and print them in higher quality in more formats professionally. Flickr, Picasa Albums, and albums and services from Shutterfly, Snapfish, Winkflash, and others help you do all these things much easier than any desktop application. For those who like to edit their photos, these services offer some limited editing, but Pixlr, Picnik, Fotoflexer, Snipshot, Photoshop Online, and many others provide more than enough power for almost any digital photographer.

4. You either don’t know how or are too lazy to backup your important data.

I admit that I’m putting a lot of faith in Web 2.0 companies, but I know they will do a better and more regular job of backing up your data than you currently do. These companies have their reputations and big bank rolls on the line to take backing up your data lightly. If your data is truly important to you, learn to back it up. In the interim, your data will be much safer online than it is right now on your unprotected computer with no backup plan at all. If I’ve stirred you a little to think about backing up your current data, read my tips about online backup services that truly do make backing up your data easier and safer than learning to burn DVD’s, setup and configure backup programs and then maintain them.

5. Using cloud computing strategies sets you free from any computer.

Since your data and applications live on the web and are accessed through a web browser, you no longer are tied to any one computer or operating system. As long as you have an Internet connection (high speed only) and a browser, you can work and play from any computer!

I keep urging you to learn about and use these services because they are coming down the pike and becoming more mainstream every day. Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and other stalwarts of the desktop continue to make their own plans to finally come on board and offer more and more cloud computing options.

What do you think? Leave me a comment below to tell me about your cloud computing experiences and questions.

Photo by ewen and donabel

Riding Shotgun with Rick / Videocasts — 6 Comments
30
Nov 08

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 022

Questions about converting to Firefox, malfunctioning keyboards, Wordpress consulting, Norton 360 problems, video editing, the Magic Jack phone, and more are brought to you by Dixie, Kitty, Jill, Anne, Diane, Elaine, Amber, Norma, Rich and Mike! Have a look!!

Riding Shotgun with Rick / Videocasts — 1 Comment
15
Nov 08

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 020

Brought to you by questions from Paul, Pat, John, Luke, Jose, Pam, Gloria, Mark, Jon, Nicole, James, Laureen, Anne, Larry, Don, and Papa C. They asked questions about web editing, web surfing on a Mac with OS9, installing AVG, installing Windows Vista SP 1, creating a shortcut to the Clipboard Viewer and much more.

Hardware Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 18 Comments
14
Nov 08

Netbooks are NOT made for Windows XP or Vista

EeePC 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 less than $400.
They are extremely portable (2-3 pounds).
They are cute.

Here are some facts you need to know about netbooks:

Netbooks run on an Intel Atom processor that has roughly half the power of a typical laptop Intel or AMD processor.
Netbooks utilize a very basic graphics system.
Maximum RAM is 1 GB (very few exceptions)
Hard drives are usually solid state flash memory ranging from 4-16GB. More expensive models have small hard drives with up 160 GB of space)
Screens are no larger than 10″
Keyboards are 80-90% of a typical laptop keyboard.
They do not have CD or DVD ROMs.
Prices range from $300-700
Most have built-in web cams
All have wi-fi capability and Ethernet as well
Some models run a Linux operating system, some Windows XP, and a few attempt to run Vista.

Netbooks are in no way meant to replace a desktop computer or even a laptop. Instead, netbooks are designed to be used as a second or third computer for traveling, Internet or email access in another room of your home, light word processing or document creating/editing, making Internet phone and video calls, instant messaging, and even listening to music.

Because netbooks run on tiny batteries and less powerful processors, trying to run a large operating system like Windows XP and especially Vista is completely impractical. Windows XP with all its updates and service packs and security software requires a strong processor and a minimum of 512mb of RAM or 1 GB of RAM on a slightly older processor. Also, Windows XP, and especially Vista) require above average graphics processing to function with any oomph. Vista barely crawls on dual core processor with 1 GB of RAM and is completely useless on a netbook.

Linux, on the other hand, can be completely customized for a less powerful computer like a netbook and doesn’t need to be burdened by excessive updates and security software. This makes Linux a perfect fit for the netbook Plus, Linux laptops come pre-installed with complete office compatibility, games, multimedia software and more…all things you need to spend extra for with a Windows install plus you need to have an external CDROM to install all of these things on a netbook since it has no CDROM.

If you are in the market for a netbook for yourself or to give as gift this Christmas, by all means go for it. I love my little Asus EeePC and think they make the best travel companions and work great for getting a small amount of work or email done while watching TV or sitting outside. But know up front their purpose and don’t expect more from them. Here are my recommendations when shopping for a netbook:

Do NOT spend more than $400.
Get one with a Linux operating system, NOT WINDOWS.
Make sure it has a built-in web cam. You will like having the ability to make video calls while on the road.
Purchase a 4-16GB extra SD Card for storage, but realize that it isn’t meant to be storage machine.

If all this still makes your head swim a little, here are my top 5 netbook suggestions (in no particular order):

Again, keep in mind that netbooks are not meant to be a replacement for a desktop or a full-time laptop, but an adjunct to them for traveling and quick access to a computer. If you already own a netbook, leave a comment below sharing how you use yours and what your experience has been with it.

Digital Photography / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 1 Comment
11
Sep 08

Dr.Pic Online Photo Editing and Batch Resizing

Earlier this week, I posted a story about Web 2.0. Just today, I found another Web 2.0 application that works extremely well. It’s called Dr.Pic and offers online basic photo editing and touch up in a fast and intuitive layout. In addition to the nice editing and touch-up tools offered by Dr. Pic, they offer a fantastic batch (multiple) image resizing utility.

Like all Web 2.0 applications, a high speed Internet connection is essential. Having tools like this available on the web make getting your work done pretty easily and from any computer.

Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
14
Aug 08

Dell goes deeper into Linux

Dell announced that they will release a line of laptop computers this fall with an instant on technology called Latitude On. Early indications are that it will closely mimic the Splashtop technology I wrote about last year and during CES 2008. And like Splashtop, the Dell technology involves using a light version of Linux to produce an extremely fast boot up (30 seconds or less) time and can access the Internet through Firefox and a wireless signal.

What is the appeal or advantage of these instant on technologies? Think about how you use your computer. What percentage of time are you using email and Internet versus editing digital photos or creating complex word processing documents or spreadsheets? If you are like many computer users, much of your time is spent online browsing the web and answering email. Having the ability to turn on your computer quickly to get to these activities is a huge convenience. And above that, the instant on environments are almost completely devoid of the security problems that plague Windows.

Riding Shotgun with Adam — 2 Comments
9
Jun 08

Defrag, scan disk, and deleting cookies don’t do much

In the computer world, there are hot rodders – people who will tweak their computers to get every last bit of horse power out of their systems.

Just as with automobiles, techniques used by hot rodders were once necessary in the early days when horse power was hard to come by.

Today, most computers come with all the horsepower most people need. Important tasks like defragmenting the hard drive, running scan disk and deleting cookies no longer do anything spectacular to the performance of the average computer.

Cookies are harmless – even the shady ones. Defragging does little on a 250 gig hard drive and scandisk is take care of by utility features in Windows that run every time you boot up or shut down.

If you have had your computer for six years and it has been used extensively for editing photos, listening to music and playing games, you may need to clean up that 10 percent fragmentation on your hard drive so that you can increase the performance by 3 percent.

If that sounds like too much work for too little performance increase, behold, my point.

Anyone who tries to tell you that such procedures are necessary and helpful either is trying to sell a utility program or is offering advice based on information they gathered in 1999.

Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
8
Apr 08

Living online with your applications and data

Here I go again talking about online applications and data storage. I keep bringing it up because the idea makes more sense to me everyday.

In just my first two days of work this week, I found multiple examples of how computing online instead of on your desktop makes sense for so many people. It will be a long time before serious photographers, movie makers, engineers, and graphic designers can make do with online applications because their programs require a great deal of computer speed, power, and storage. However, for the bulk of computer users at home and many in small businesses, migrating data online and utilizing online applications can save a great deal of time and money.

Many households today now have multiple computers. Unfortunately, computers don’t always last as long as we would like due to mechanical failure or security breeches and often we would like to be able to access data or programs that exist on one computer from another. For these reasons and more, working with online applications makes perfect sense. Online applications and data storage gives you a lot of flexibility and security. Here is a quick list of my advantages and disadvantages of online computing:

Advantages

Data is always backed up
Data is secure
Data is available from any computer, anywhere
Applications for editing and creating data is available from any computer, anywhere
Buying the latest and greatest computer is no longer a factor
Buying expensive applications is no longer necessary
Compatibility with other applications is now easier
All basic computing needs from light digital photo editing, word processing, spreadsheets to checkbook management, basic genealogy and more can be done with just a browser and an Internet connection

Disadvantages

Some computing needs can’t be met online yet (engineering, high end movie or photo editing, desktop publishing, etc)
A high speed Internet connection is required
A small learning curve and paradigm shift is necessary.
Search our web site for Web 2.0 to learn even more.