How to print labels the EASY way! – Video Tip

You can learn and start using this tip TODAY to make Christmas card or group mailings a breeze. Too many computer users have no idea what a database is, how to use it, and how to merge it with another program to create labels. Since printing mailing labels is only a once per year activity for many of you, learning how to do it again every single year requires too much time and frustration. In this week’s tip, I take all...

Rick’s guide to trouble free computing

In January, this web site and my business turned 16 years old. In that time, I have worked on thousands of computers ranging from the oldest DOS machines to the newest gaming and Mac monsters. My youngest client in that time has been 5 years old and my oldest was a 94 year old author writing a book for the first time on a PC. When your work in any field for a certain period of time, you start to spot patterns and...

Burning CDs with Picasa for Linux

Unfortunately, Google has not updated Picasa for Linux in almost 18 months. However, it remains a solid product for Linux users who want to easily manage their photos. I’ve tried F-Spot, but it just doesn’t seem intuitive or robust enough for everyday use. Anyway, I was helping one of my many clients using Linux Mint as their only operating system, and he needed to know how to burn CDs from Picasa. Here’s...

Downsizing my tech

I repurposed my EeePC Netbook for my nephew with a copy of Qimo Linux for kids and it works great. Not only does my nephew now have a computer that is secure & virtually trouble-free, but it also comes packed with great learning resources & games. It also allowed me to reduce my computers by one. I now carry my Toshiba 13″ laptop that dual boots Ubuntu & Windows 7. The change required me to get a new laptop...

Ubuntu 10.04 released tomorrow, manual today

Microsoft released Windows Vista a little over three years ago, and it hit the market (and customers) like a rock right between the eyes. Hardware configurations were too underpowered, hardware support was horrid, and tons of third party software did not work with it (including some of Microsoft’s own). Supporting this abomination was even harder. Out of the clouds, however, came sunlight because being enormously...

Create Labels Online – Video Tip

Adam wrote about a new web service from Avery a few years ago. It’s called Create & Print labels. Avery developed this free service so that you can create quick, clean and flexible labels. The service is free and works inside your browser. Since it is a Web 2.0 application, any computer user can use it from any computer regardless of operating system. In addition to adding many customization features like personal...

Linux + Gmail = Computing Bliss

Last summer, I wrote an article about a senior citizen client of mine who constantly struggled with her older Windows XP machine. Updates would cause problems, the printer would stop working, security woes plagued her. She turned out to be my poster child for using Linux (in her case Ubuntu 8.10).  Check out the article (by the way, she is still doing fantastic with her computer and Ubuntu). Today, I visited another of my...

New Ubuntu Software Center – Video Tip

Ubuntu released their newest version this past October. In addition to cleaning up the code and making it boot faster, look better, and run faster, I think one of the nicest additions (particularly for beginners) is the Ubuntu Software Center. This tool allows users to easily search for and install programs and utilities with just a few clicks. Prior to the Software Center, the process was much more laborious. Here are the...

Early thoughts on Windows 7

Although I’ve been testing, using and writing about Windows 7 since last year, it has only been on the market 2 weeks. In those two weeks, I have setup 8 or 10 new machines already. The setup is much faster than Vista, but I’m already getting that same ‘ol, same ‘ol feeling about it as I did with Windows Vista and Office 2007. I don’t doubt that Microsoft went back to the drawing board and...

Print Preview

Sometimes the most helpful computer utilities elude us and stay hidden for years. One such utility that I find very helpful (and have taken for granted) is the Print Preview function found in almost any program that allows printing. Because Windows and Macintosh made the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment available to the masses, what we see on our screens is pretty close to what we see on our print outs....

Set Firefox to recognize web mail for mailto links...

If you use a web based email system like Gmail, HotMail, or Yahoo email or any derivative of these, you more than likely run into occasions where you want to email someone from a web site. However, when you click the link (known as a mailto link), you get presented with an email system you never heard of or used asking you to enter your email particulars to send the email. Most folks usually just snarl and forget about...

Senior uses Ubuntu system 14 months trouble free

Computers started making their way into homes, en masse, 15 years ago. After 15 years, computer users should not be afraid of using their computer. This case study tells the story about a customer of mine, Wanda, who happens to be in her 70s. Like most computer users she used a Windows based computer. In her case, it was a system put together by her grandson in 2002 or 2003 and has a 1.8ghz processor, 256mb of RAM and the XP...

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...

Comparison of Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu 9.04 install

I had the opportunity today to install both Windows 7  RC 1 and Ubuntu 9.04 on my Toshiba laptop today. The laptop has an Intel Core2Duo processor, 4 GB of RAM and 160 GB hard drive. Here are the results: Windows 7 RC1 Ubuntu 9.04 Install time 21 minutes including 2 reboots 19 minutes no reboots Boot time 54 seconds 36 seconds Shut down time 20 seconds 8 seconds Post install  work required Approximately an hour...

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...