Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners » music

2 laptop suggestions for college students

Rick — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:46:12 +0000

Millions of new college students will be leaving for their respective campuses (campii?) soon. 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 DVD's, browse the web wirelessly(for school research of course), create presentations, spreadsheets, download and edit photos and much more. Neither involve Windows and thus don't require a degree in computer security and maintenance. One of the computers costs between $1200-1800 and the other costs less than $700.

Pandora Internet Radio – Video Tip

Rick — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:03:58 +0000

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 radio stations based on your favorite songs or artists. After you build your first station, Pandora starts to play songs related to the song or artist you started with when you built the radio station (which entails that you simply type the name of a musical artist or a song name and click Create).

As the songs play, if you tell Pandora whether you like the selection or not (via a click on a thumbs up or thumbs down icon), it will continue to more accurately pick music for you. You must see the short video below to see how it works, and better yet, give it a try to see why it is such an exciting and useful Web 2.0 application!

Netbooks are NOT made for Windows XP or Vista

Rick — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:50:18 +0000

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:

Treo, what Treo?

Rick — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:42:26 +0000

After two solid months of using my iPhone 3G, I decided it was time for a short update. As many of you know, I used a Palm device for many years, ending with the Treo from 2003 through this August. When the first iPhone came out, I was intrigued, but thought Apple missed the boat, for me, by not utilizing the fastest cellular data network and not allowing 3rd party applications. When they announced the new iPhone last January and finally released it this summer, they had added the fast cellular network service and opened the system for third party development. It caught my attention in a big way this as it has 7 million other new iPhone 3G owners since its release in July.

Overall, the iPhone has performed wonderfully and with the exception of no cut, copy and paste (when Apple? when?) it has performed admirably. I have been able to duplicate all the functions I used the Treo for, and added many new capabilities. I use the phone the most...after all, it is a cell phone. The visual voice mail system that lets you pick which message to listen to first or have the ability to visually pause, rewind or fast forward voice mail is stunningly implemented and makes managing voice mail much easier.

For extra applications, I settled on SplashID to manage my passwords, Grocery Zen to create shopping lists (I get through the store in at least 25% less time now), Now Playing to look up movie times, Pandora for listening to music (don't have much time to do this, but it works well), Woot On! to check the daily Woot, but especially helpful when there is a Woot Off, WeDict for a dictionary, Wikipanion for great mobile access to Wikipedia, SportsTap keeps me up to date on sports I follow, Units application for converting volume, length, weight, etc. I also downloaded and occasionally use Word Warp, Sudoku, Tris (tetris clone), reMovem, and Blocks Classic for quick games. For future travel, I downloaded the mobile versions of Yelp and Hotels.com.

The built-in email application works well, and I use it daily in addition to browsing the web. The iPhone truly has exceeded

What kind of computer do 3 teenagers use?

Rick — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:54:31 +0000

An extremely slow and sick computer! Today, again, I ran across a family who has multiple teenagers (3 in this case) who use a computer that has become polluted with spy and adware. I see this situation again and again, week after week. This computer was less than 2 months old! Give the typical teenager a Windows based computer (doesn't matter if it is XP or Vista) and within weeks (sometimes hours) the computer is almost useless. Parents always ask me the next logical question, "Why did it happen?"

Quick and easy photo slide show using Picasa – Video Tip

Rick — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:53:45 +0000

Last week, I demonstrated how to make a fantastic photo slide show using an online application. If you missed it, shame on you, but you can see it by clicking here.

In this week's tip, I'm going to show you a slightly hidden feature of Google's Picasa that lets you also create a quick and dirty slide show of your digital photos. Follow these steps and then watch the video below to see the steps in action and view a sample slide show:

Start Picasa and select some photos you want to make into a slide show. The more photos you choose, the longer it will take Picasa to make the movie and the larger the movie file will be. Start out with a dozen or so pictures to get the feel for it.

Click Create --> Movie from the menus
Choose how many seconds you want each picture to display
Choose the size of movie you want...probably the mid-size or largest size.
Click OK
Click OK again on the next screen
Wait for Picasa to complete the creation of the movie.
When Picasa finishes, it will open the folder where it saved the file. Double-click the file to view the slide show.
Use Microsoft's Movie Maker (or any other movie editor) to add music to the slide show then burn it to a CD/DVD, etc.

Watch the video below to see these steps in action and a sample movie that Picasa made from some of my pictures.

Create photo slide shows online in minutes! – Video Tip

Rick — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:11:55 +0000

Some may say I drank the Web 2.0 cool-aid, but I say bring me another glass! This week I bring you yet another astounding piece of online technology that gives you the power to create a professional photo slide show complete with music and transitions in minutes! I frequently get asked to make suggestions for creating a photo slide show, but I know that most programs require too much time and expertise to be useful. Enter Roxio's Photoshow.com. This online application creates great looking photo slide shows in literally just a

Are Macintosh computers poised to make a run?

Rick — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:19:29 +0000

JUNE 2008 UPDATE:

I wrote the article below two years ago, ran across it tonight and wanted to write an update to it. At the time I wrote it, I think the now famous Apple and PC guy commercials had just started ramping up and the ominous steps towards Windows Vista were getting closer. My words probably weren't unique at the time, and I don't claim to be a sage, but it is astonishing how much the market has really changed since 2006. Linux continues to make a bigger splash world wide, and I continue to install it on more computers here in Western Colorado. Apple's sales and stock price are literally going through the roof. My Macintosh service calls (mostly for ordering and training...rarely for troubleshooting) continue to escalate as well. Almost 18 months into Windows Vista, I see the machines on only about 10% of my appointment mostly because no one is buying them.

Today, Apple announced their new iPhone version 2.0 will be released in July. Three to four years ago, Microsoft was starting to increase market share of their mobile operating system with their mobile Windows in the smartphone arena. Palm and Blackberry used to dominate that market, but Microsoft was predicted to dominate. Then in June 2007, Apple released the iPhone to extremely positive reviews and cell phone consumers who couldn't get their hands on one fast enough.

Since then, all other smartphone operating systems have take a hit and iPhone users, largely, couldn't be happier. I personally have 5-6 clients who are pretty picky phone users and have owned literally dozens of phones over the years, but say they wouldn't trade their iPhone for anything at the moment. The new iPhone 3G (faster cell speeds) announced today improves on every facet of an already excellent product. The new iPhone 3G will be cheaper, faster, slightly smaller, have a longer battery and talk-time life, offer GPS navigation and incorporate a brand new platform that will allow developers to invent new ways to use this already versatile tool.

What are your thoughts on my older story below and this new story you just read? Also, what do you think of the new iPhone 3G...hype or substance? Leave me a comment below!!

Story below originally posted on 2006-05-09 16:40:45 -0600

I helped a customer configure a new Macintosh laptop today. This was the third time in a

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

Rick — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:56:17 +0000

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.

Think twice before your blame your computer’s manufacturer for problems

Rick — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:09:37 +0000

"What brand of computer do you recommend?" is one of the most common questions I get asked. My answer is usually, "It really doesn't matter as long as it is a name brand and has the specs that you need."

I often hear comments like, "Our first computer was a Dell and we constantly had problems with viruses and spam," or "I'm never going to get another HP, this one just locks up and crashes all the time."

Most computer problems I see every day have nothing to do with the parts they are made up of. Most home computer problems are software related - not hardware.