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

I answer questions about Palm handheld computers, custom XP & Ubuntu computers, the AVG update outage (relax, you are protected), resizing photos for email, freeing up disk space and more. This episode is brought to you by: Gail, Gene, Salma, Jason, Jean, Elizabeth, Greg, Rajesh, Laurie, J, and Joe. Oh, and I also reveal who I voted for in Tuesday’s presidential election…but you have to watch! ...

Treo, what Treo?

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...

You can do what I do

I love learning. My goal is to learn something new every single day I open my eyes. Luckily, I learn multiple new ideas, techniques, or facts every single day. When it comes to my job troubleshooting computers, I believe anyone can do it if they follow the formula I use. You need to be able to be able to learn and learn quickly. Computers, software, peripherals and the infinite combinations of them change at a rapid pace....

Participating and/or Moderating Email Discussion G...

Last month, John, a GJ User Group regular, suggested I lead a discussion about email discussion groups, sometimes known as mailing lists. I thought it was such a good idea, that I made it this month’s User Group topic. Email discussion groups allow emailers with a particular passion for a hobby, political leaning, medical infliction, educational purpose or any other common thread to share ideas, debate, and dialogue via...

What kind of computer do 3 teenagers use?

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...

Internet Explorer 7 – Tabbed Browsing –...

I posted this article nearly 2 years ago, but with the release of Google’s Chrome browser yesterday, I thought it was appropriate to bring this important tip back to the forefront again. Also, read my tip on the new Firefox 3 browser released earlier this summer. I have downloaded and tried out the new Google Chrome browser and look for a video and more comment about it coming up soon.  Windows XP users will all...

AVG stumbles again

Admittedly, Grisoft has not had a great summer with the roll out of their newest product, AVG 8. They tried to force the upgrade on users a little too quickly with quick deadlines. However, almost five months after the release of the new version, I still find users who haven’t upgraded yet, but Grisoft is still updating the older version. The installation of the new version included some new features that are designed...

AVG .bin error

Sunday morning update 8/17/08:  Grisosft has already corrected the .bin problem and the panic is over. You can RIGHT click your AVG icon by your clock and click Check for Updates, then update on the screen that appears and all will be well again. This was a perfect example demonstrating that when something goes awry with your computer, the best thing to do is to remain calm and patient. The problem will get resolved...

Windows XP Service Pack 3

Microsoft released the 3rd service pack for Windows XP about three months ago. Microsoft packages many operating system updates and fixes into one large package and then releases it as a service pack. Because these are extremely large files that apply many updates and changes to our systems, they can sometimes have trouble. Initially Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) did have some issues that seemed to be mostly resolved....

Adobe Reader 9 update – DON’T DO IT!

Adobe released version 9 of their PDF (Portable Document Format) Reader program. Once the king and almost sole PDF reader on the market, it, like so many other mainstream programs, has become bloated beyond recognition. This software bloat slows down the performance of even the fastest computers, and for this reason, I firmly stand against software bloat. I added Adobe Reader to my do not use list almost two years ago....

Are Macintosh computers poised to make a run?

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...

Widescreen and the intel 8286g graphics chip ̵...

I have faced this problem several times now. I have read every post on the Internet and there are no fixes. The Intel 85865g integrated graphics chip does not support wide screen resolutions. There is no update to the drivers, there is not working hack and there is no hope. The only solution is to either buy a standard (square) monitor or a different graphics card. Any graphics card on the shelf will handle widescreen...

Remove .NET Framework and solve Quickbooks startup...

Microsoft Framework .NET consists of a set of tools that allow programmers to tap into some web related technologies for creating rich, interactive applications for our computers and web sites. Unfortunately, it sometimes causes problems as well. This week alone, I helped 3 Quickbooks users overcome problems with their programs hanging or failing to start by uninstalling and reinstalling the .NET Framework. Unfortunately,...

Gmail update

I started using Gmail exclusively as my email program of choice almost eight weeks ago and haven’t opened Microsoft Outlook since. I wrote about it three weeks into the process, and decided to give another update today. As I mentioned in my first installment, I do have a Gmail address, but don’t use it hardly at all. Instead, I utilize a wonderful feature built into Gmail that allows folks with their own domain...

Zoho Spreadsheet Update

My favorite online application suite, Zoho, just got a little more powerful today for spreadsheet users. The Zoho spreadsheet, known as Zoho Sheet, added two huge features today; Macros and Pivot Tables. Power spreadsheet users use these two features often and will appreciate Zoho Sheet’s new found power. For an overview, watch this video from Zoho: ...