Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners » ubuntu

How to print labels the EASY way! – Video Tip

Rick — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:54:11 +0000

I know I'm late for this year's Christmas season, but you can learn and start using this tip TODAY to make next year's Christmas card 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.

Early thoughts on Windows 7

Rick — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:18:48 +0000

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 [...]

Print Preview

Rick — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:34:56 +0000

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. However, if you need to tweak margins, find the extra line that is creating an extra page, or determine whether a document (like a spreadsheet) will look better in Landscape or Portrait mode, there is no substitute for the Print Preview command.

Set Firefox to recognize web mail for mailto links – Video Tip

Rick — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:27:25 +0000

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 [...]

Senior uses Ubuntu system 14 months trouble free

Rick — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:01:23 +0000

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 [...]

Email of the Week – 007 – Why choose a Mac?

Rick — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:22:25 +0000

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 [...]

Comparison of Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu 9.04 install

Rick — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:19:02 +0000

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 [...]

Make reading the web easier than ever – Video Tip

Rick — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:33:54 +0000

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 week's tip, you can easily and quickly enlarge the text of any web page using only your keyboard and mouse. This tip will work with any web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc) and any operating system (Windows, Ubuntu, Mac OS X). All you need is a mouse with a scroll wheel and your keyboard. This tip can be performed without the mouse as well, but I'll touch on that later. First, when you are reading a web site, particularly news web sites and blog type sites like mine, look for an indication of a printer friendly page. Often designated as Printer Friendly, Print this article, or simply Print, clicking this link brings up a version of the article you are reading that is much less busy and cleaner than how the article presents on the web page itself. This alone may make enough difference for readability. However, you can quickly increase the size of the text you are reading by holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and spinning your mouse scroll wheel away from your body (towards the computer monitor). Amazing, no? Holding down the Ctrl key and spinning towards your body (away from the monitor) will shrink the text again. The same result can be achieved by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the "+" or "-" keys as well. I think the mouse method is a little more intuitive and elegant. Watch the short video below to see this tip in action and see the web as never before!

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.

Portable Ubuntu lets you try out Ubuntu Linux

Rick — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:37:59 +0000

For a little over two years, I have been yammering on about Linux and Ubuntu. To get started using it, you need to either order a free Linux CD from the distribution of your choice or download a copy then learn how to burn a bootable CD from it. For many, this just isn’t going [...]