Keep your Mac running clean & fast

Macintosh computers run remarkably quick and smooth when you first buy and set them up. However, over time, like any computer, they can begin to feel somewhat sluggish. To keep your Apple Macintosh computer running quick and smooth, try these hints: Leave your computer on overnight at least once every week or two. The Macintosh Operating System (which is based on Unix) will run maintenance and cleanup tasks in the wee hours...

Rick Answers his Email Videocast – 053

The summer has kept me busy and I let a few too many question stack up (remember that you can make a small donation when asking your question to get priority). I answered all the questions you asked the last 2 weeks in these two videos. The first video contains questions from Doris, Henry, Andrew, Jean, John, Rae Ann, Craig, Janet, Maurice, Leo, Ryan, Shirley, Jason, Donna, Jeannie, Dave, and Scott. They asked questions about...

Adding RAM to increase computer speed – Vide...

Since Service Pack 3 for Windows XP (security update) was released late last year, many of my XP clients started experiencing slower performance. This upgrade put an additional strain on systems with less than 512mb of RAM. Upgrading the RAM will make a big difference in speeding up the system again. RAM is the temporary memory that the computer uses to give us the feeling of programs opening and running with some pep....

Email of the Week – 007 – Why choose a...

Name:  Richard Doran From:  Battlement Mesa, CO OS: Windows XP ———————- I have a friend who is seriously considering a switch from her Dell PC to a Mac. On a couple of  occasions you have presented some really excellent “talking points” for people who should consider using a Mac. These deal mainly with their own personal computer usage, as I recall. I pulled up all Mac reference on your...

Easy Envelopes for Mac users

If you own an Apple computer running the Macintosh operating system, you will love this free application. You can’t print envelopes any easier with any computer or program. EasyEnvelopes | Ambrosia Software, Inc..

Make reading the web easier than ever – Vide...

Although we now have 19″ and larger monitors on most new desktop computers, the text seems to shrink. Why is that? It has to do with screen resolution (how much information can be displayed). Screen resolutions on today’s monitors are up to 3X that of monitors we used just 6-8 years ago. We can see a lot more information, but often the text is too small to view for some computer users. Never fear. Using this...

2 laptop suggestions for college students

Millions of high schoolers will be graduating soon and will be leaving for their respective campuses (campii?) at the end of the summer. These students will more than likely go to college with a computer…probably a laptop. I would like to suggest two possible laptops ideas for these students. Both of my ideas involve good systems that will allow college kids to word process, chat, email, listen to music, watch...

Have your Mac start a program when you start the c...

If you are a Mac user and want a program to start automatically, follow these steps: Click the Apple from the upper left hand corner Click System Preferences Click Accounts in the System section Click your user name Click the Login Items button. Click the “Add (+)” button underneath the listed items Find the program you want to automatically start at bootup, and double-click it Close all your open windows ...

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...

Using the Macintosh Dashboard – Video Tip

This week’s tip is for those of you who have taken my advice and moved over to the Macintosh world. The Mac has a nice feature that remains unused for many new Mac users. It’s called the Dashboard. The Mac Dashboard consists of literally hundreds of helpful or just plain fun, customizable widgets that can be instantly viewed or instantly pushed out of view. Mac computers ship with a couple of dozen widgets ranging...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

Brought to you by Harlene, Kristina, Sage, Herb, Crystal, Marion, Mariane, Donna, Dona, Chris, Barbara, and Rosie this week’s edition includes some AVG questions and frustrations, Macintosh advice, Microsoft Office 2007 problems, and of course much more! ...

Pandora Internet Radio – Video Tip

Pandora.com qualifies for yet another Web 2.0 application. Pandora started as a project to find the similarities in music and why we like certain music and why we don’t. The Pandora folks eventually made all their study of music into an amazingly customizable and accurate music service. To sign up is free although I recommend paying for the service if you use it a lot. Once you sign up, you start by building your own...

Acer Aspire One Netbook

Today, I had my first opportunity to get some hands-on time with Acer’s entry into the netbook craze, the Acer Aspire One. The young lady I helped bought a blue Aspire One on Black Friday for just over $300. Sporting a 120GB hard drive, an extremely nice 8.9″ screen, 1 GB of RAM, and Windows XP, this little unit was very impressive to look at and use. After some discussion with me, she decided that she...

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 0...

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. ...

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...