Music | Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners

Posts Tagged: music

How to get music off of your iPod

The iPod has set the standard for media players. It’s ease of use and intuitive interface make it a device that media lovers of all ages and expertise can easily pickup and use.

However, the iPod has one disadvantage when compared with almost every other media player on the market. Once your music is stored on the system, there is no simple way of getting it back off again. If you switch computers or simply want to make a backup of your tunes, you must find a way around this system Apple has put in place to prevent you from pirating the music that has been purchased from iTunes.

I found this site that lists several ways of getting to your iPod’s stored music. I have only tried a couple of these programs. None of them were exactly easy to use, but they did the job when I followed the directions exactly.

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…and without commercials.

I typed in Steve Miller Band and within a few moments Jungle Love started playing followed by Stealers Wheel’s Stuck in the Middle wtih You, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Under the Bridge, Tom Petty’s Listen to her Heart, and the Spin Doctors singing Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong. All songs and groups that I enjoy. If it happens to miss with a prediction, you can click the next button and move on to the next song. After about an hour of listening tonight, I have yet to push the next button.

My experience is not unique either. The folks who told me about Pandora all related similar success stories. Based on a single artist or song name, the site uses years of music study and comparison to predict what you might like for other music. The results are remarkably accurate. To learn more about how they do this, be sure to read about their Music Genome Project.

If you have a high speed Internet connection and like music, be sure to give Pandora Radio a spin! If you are already a Pandora fan, leave a comment below with your experiences.

Riding Shotgun with Adam — 2 Comments
19
Mar 08

Where to buy a book manual for your computer

“Why didn’t my computer come with a manual?”

One of the most common complaints we hear is about how new computers don’t come with manuals. I am here to explain why this is the case.

The sad answer is that if the computer company came with a manual, it would weigh more than the computer.

“But my old computers used to come with manuals…,” Is the next comment.

Back in the old days of computers there weren’t many uses. You would use computers for word processing, finances, Internet and email. In each case there were only a handful of options.

Putting together a manual meant covering how to do email in AOL or Outlook Express. Word Processing was done in Word or WordPerfect. Finances were done with Quicken. Internet was AOL or Internet Explorer.

Today the options are endless. The method of attaching a file to email is different depending on whether you use AOL, Yahoo, Comcast, Yahoo, Juno, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Gmail, etc. Just covering how to read an email could take up 10 pages of a book because the book would have to explain how too do it on each system.

In every case the book would be more confusing than having no book and you would pay a premium for it because of the size.

Add to that the fact that we now use computers for phone calls, digital photography, movie editing, calenders, games, and holographic teleportation. Covering all of these processes in depth would mean including a manual that covered Picasa, Word, WordPerfect, Photoshop Elements, every email system, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Skype, iTunes, Windows Media Player, MusicMatch, Google…

In other words, once you turn on your computer, you actually never use your computer. You use the software.

If you want to learn how to use the computer, you need to learn the program that you are using. If you want to learn Quicken, buy a book on Quicken. If you want to learn email, buy a book on your specific email system.

If you don’t want to buy a bunch of books, simply buy one book on Google and that will take you into the world of free answers on the Internet.

Oh, and make sure to always check HelpMeRick.com first and we will point you in the right direction.

Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
7
Mar 08

Your hard drive is meant to hold stuff

Every week I’m out making my rounds, I hear this expression; “My computer is really slow it must have too much stuff in it and needs to be cleaned out.”

Your computer can never have have too much “stuff.” Your hard drive is designed to hold tens of thousands of documents, pictures, music and more. The number of files you store on your computer has next to nothing to do with your perceived speed of the computer.

Computer speed directly relates to how much RAM (temporary memory, not storage/hard drive memory) it has, how fast the processor is, and most importantly how clean your computer is. By clean, I’m referring to physically clean and what types of files are stored on the system.

Computers that accumulate too much dust and grime on the motherboard or vents will suffer from slow downs because the computer is battling heat problems and can’t perform to its maximum. Make sure you open your computer’s case and blow out the dust and grime periodically. Smokers…this goes triple for you because the filth that a cigarette generates is thicker and tarrier and coats electronics attracting even more dust and grime like fly paper. If you can’t quit smoking for your own health, at least do it for your computer’s health or smoke outside.

The second type of cleanliness is the type of files being saved on your computer. Every time; we use our computers for anything, small files are created behind the scenes that we can’t see. Sometimes programmers will write code that deletes these files when they are no longer needed, but often times not. These temporary files stack up over time and can affect performance because of their small size and voluminous nature. Use the Windows Disk Cleanup utility at least monthly to keep these files to a minimum. Better yet, download Steven Gould’s CleanUp utility and use it.

It might seem contradictory to my argument earlier that our computers were meant to hold stuff, but it has to be the right kind of stuff…your stuff.

The third type of cleanliness relates to whether or not viruses and spyware have attacked your system. If so, then you can have serious problems and computer slowness. If this might be the case, search this site for SCD (Slow Computer Disease) or spyware and follow the recommendations we outline.

Lastly, you might also need to consider increasing your temporary memory or RAM. Click here for a video tip that shows you exactly how to do this.

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 1 Comment
12
Feb 08

Zonbu is coming to Grand Junction!!

Today, I helped a new customer order a Zonbu computer. I first wrote about this interesting computer about two months ago. I offered to setup these machines up for free for the first three people in our area that buy one. After much deliberation and research, the customer (KC) and I decided that this computer was really the right decision for her needs.

She bought the laptop Zonbu, and I can’t think of anything that this computer won’t be able to do for her. She plans on doing some traveling with it (it has wi-fi built-in). She wants to possibly add a digital camera at some time (it has a good picture manager utility and editor already installed). Of course she plans on using the Internet for research, entertainment, and email (the Zonbu has arguably the best browser installed…Firefox and excellent email programs as well). She might want to play a few games (Zonbu has over 15 installed including Sudoku, Mahjongg, Solitaire, Freecell, and more). In addition to all these things, the Zonbu boasts a world-class word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, database, calendar program, web editor, desktop publishing software, DVD player, music player and organizer, and over 30 games and countless accessories. AND it includes 24/7 support via either telephone or email or chat. AND it includes program and operating system updates automatically maintained via the Internet and a built in web backup system. And this system does not require you be a security expert because it doesn’t require anti-virus or anti-spyware software.

Is this starting to sound good to you? It should, but wait how much does it cost? $1,000? No. $600? No. This full featured desktop system is only $479! If you opt for a complete two year service plan, you can get the laptop for $279, or $379 with a one year service plan. The $100 and $200 price drop up front is made up via the very reasonable $14.95/month that includes unlimited support and next day computer replacement if there are problems. A similarly configured mini-desktop computer can be bought for as low as $99!

Frankly, I think this is a helluva deal and will shake up the computer industry. I can’t wait to pull this computer out of its box and set it up. And of course, I will report back on my findings on setup day and as the customer uses it for her day-to-day computing needs.

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 1 Comment
5
Feb 08

Brain transplant

If I could impart one aspect of my computer knowledge to everyone who uses a computer, it would be the ability to understand file management.

File management, in the computer world, means how information (files) are stored and utilized on a computer system. Understanding file management, means understanding:

How to locate files (documents, pictures, spreadsheets, music, etc) on your computer.
How to move those files from one area (directory or folder) to another area on the computer.
How to delete those files.
How to backup those files so you never lose them.
How to send the files to another person via email.
How to manipulate the file in various programs and understand what programs can manipulate what files.
How to properly save an email attachment and how to find it any time you need it.
How to determine how much physical space a file uses and how much space is available on your hard drive, cd, flash drive, etc.

The answers to all these questions give a computer user so much more confidence and power than a person who doesn’t have this knowledge. With solid file management know-how, many aspects of computing that used to be a chore become routine. Questions that have been haunting a computer user for years, suddenly become clear with the knowledge of file management.

In my day-to-day dealings with computer users of all abilities, the lack of file management knowledge clearly stands out as being the largest hurdle for any computer user. Unfortunately, trying to explain file management in a short troubleshooting session is extremely difficult.

If you happen to be a computer user who struggles with the information I described above, I implore you to learn about file management. I created a video tutorial called THE Secret to Computing that describes in depth how to gain the knowledge of file management that will greatly enhance how you work with your computer. For just $25 + shipping, I will send you the video that will change your computing life.

If you dont have a PayPal account, click Continue Just click the Buy it Now button below and securely pay with a credit card or a PayPal account, and I will rush the video to your mail box.

To pay by credit card, click the continue link as pictured in the image on the left.

Announcements / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 2 Comments
17
Dec 07

Rick and Adam return to terrestrial radio on Wednesday, December 19!!

We are returning to the Grand Junction, Colorado air waves this Wednesday the 19th on KAFM 88.1 FM. KAFM is our local public radio station and has a fantastic line up of music and public service programs. We have been give the opportunity to appear once per month (third Wednesday of every month) from Noon to 12:30pm Mountain Time.

At this moment, we plan on talking mainly about newsy tech items and possibly end with a practical computer tip. We will be moderated by their public affairs host and be talking with him or her. It won’t be a call-in show, just informational.

We hope that with your support in listening to the program, writing to the station, and calling the station, we can get a weekly one hour call-in gig.

Anyone can listen to the show by visiting KAFM’s web site and tuning into their live stream. You will also find contact information for the station’s program director if you wish to call or write.

We look forward to this new opportunity and hope you get a chance to tune in this Wednesday from Noon-12:30pm Mountain time!

Riding Shotgun with Adam — 3 Comments
14
Nov 07

CDBurnerXP free CD burning and DVD burning software

It’s already Wednesday and I just noticed that I haven’t posted anything all week. I better make this one count.

I have helped a number of people do basic reformats lately and often they have old copies of Roxio EZ CD Creator. Any version older than 6.0 can cause some serious problems with Windows XP and AVG antivirus.

If you would like to create music or data CDs or data DVDs, CDBurnerXP is a free program that will let you do almost everything that the expensive programs from Roxio and Nero will let you do. I have been using it quite a bit and I have been pretty impressed with it so far.

The one feature it doesn’t have is the ability to copy CDs of any kind.

Other free CD burning and DVD burning software packages that allow you to burn cd’s or dvd’s include:

ImgBurn
Express Burn
StarBurn (thanks to Max and Ichiro below)

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 4 Comments
13
Nov 07

The Top 10 Free Porn and Poker Web Sites

Let’s all face it. We don’t have to agree with it or even like it, but the porn and gaming (poker) industry push the boundaries of the Internet and sometimes that translates to a better Internet experience for all of us.

From experience with my business, I can tell you that computer users who frequent free online gambling sites, porn sites, and free music downloading sites have the worst running computers. This is for two reasons, again in my experience:

This type of computer user is usually not smart enough to use sites like HelpMeRick.com to properly secure their computers.
Because of reason #1, proprietors of these types of sites count on computers like these and therefore dump large amounts of spyware and adware into them.

How does this make the Internet a better place for those of us who don’t frequent porn, gambling, and free music download sites? I can think of two ways:

The technologies that these types of sites use really can be bleeding edge (pushing the limits of what is possible). And in developing these new or bleeding edge technologies, the spill over into legit sites like news, blogs, video sharing sites like YouTube, etc. do make our Internet experience richer.
Watching others make mistakes solidifies in our minds why we are better off not doing those types of activities.

OK, I piled on the gambling and porn users quite a bit. Now, just in case any of them kept reading, here are 10 things you can do to actually keep your computer running at least at 50% of the power the rest of us have:

Keep all your Windows updates up-to-date
Search this site for the word “security” to get our advice on the best comptuer security software (Hint: AVG Anti-virus, AVG Anti-spyware or Super Anti-spyware are among them)
Stop using Internet Explorer and use Mozilla Firefox or Opera instead
Gamble with your friends using real cards.
If you must play cards online, don’t try and be tough and use the sites that are guaranteed to give you trouble (usually the ones that advertise on radio, late night TV and the back of men’s magazines).
Play cards on sites like Yahoo or MSN games…you will not be subjected to spyware with those sites.
If you must look at porn online, stick with the bigger sites that have been around for years and that you have to pay for: Playboy.com, for example
If all this seems to hard and laborious, you can buy a new computer every three months or,
Use Ubuntu Linux, which isn’t near as hard to upkeep because viruses and spyware aren’t designed to attack it.
Or, use an Apple computer, which also isn’t attacked like a Windows machine.

I ended up trying to write a semi-serious article, but actually I’m testing to see whether the title of this story gets more hits than some of my most recent ones. A little social engineering at work here at HelpMeRick.com.

Riding Shotgun with Adam — No Comments
9
Nov 07

Black Friday Shopping Spoiler

I kind of enjoy shopping. I don’t enjoy watching other people shop, but if I have some money to spend, I kind of enjoy the experience.

Black Friday is always fun. Typically my wife stands in one line while I stand in another before the sun comes up with a list of things that we want to rush in and grab for the kids.

Digging through the paper with all of the Black Friday ads is as much of a Thanksgiving tradition for us as the turkey, stuffing and polka music.

The Internet bargain sites have kind of ruined Black Friday for me this year because the ads are being leaked.

Two sites that are tracking leaked Black Friday ads are:

TGI BlackFriday.com

Black Friday at Gottadeal.com