The $399 Power Computer

Last week, I was charged with finding a computer for a customer who only wanted it for Internet, email, and word processing. He didn’t want to add any games, extra programs, or anything else to it. My first thought, as I was listening to his needs, was Ubuntu. One other request was not to break the bank on cost. Lastly, he told me that he would be hooked up to a high speed cable Internet service. Upon talking a little...

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...

5 Web 2.0 Sites to Watch

I have been blathering on about Web 2.0 sites for some time. Web 2.0 means many things, but can be boiled down to web sites that allow you to be productive within your web browser. Pre-2004ish, the Web was mostly an information gathering tool. Around 2004 and especially from 2005 forward, many web sites started to mature and sprout up that allowed us to perform actual work on the web that was previously only accomplished...

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....

Delete your email twice

No, I’m not so obsessive-compulsive that I do things twice. What I’m referring to in the title of today’s Shotgun/Email Tip is that almost all email programs require you to delete your email twice. Whether you use Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, or any of the myriad of other email services, when you delete your email, the email isn’t gone. Deleted email ends up...

All Q&A Session – July 2007

I don’t do it too often, but this month I decided to hold an all Q&A (2 hours) user group meeting. It truly is amazing how many questions 30 or 40 ravenous computer users can generate. Sometimes one question leads to another, and an entire “topic” can take up a half hour. You have to be at one of the meetings to truly experience the type of knowledge and information that gets shared and explored. Some of...

Windows Vista Integrated Search – Video Tip

As you know, I am not thrilled will Windows Vista. However, one feature I did find helpful since Day 1 is the integrated search. Vista constantly indexes your hard drive…probably one reason it feels slower than XP. Indexing means that Windows looks through all user generated files like word processing documents, email, spreadsheets and other user files. It then analyzes the file names and the content of these documents...

Compare online map services

I was home sick for the day so I had a lot of time to stumble around the Internet. I found this great site that lets you compare all of the big online mapping services like Yahoo, Google, Ask.com and NASA. I think Google won every time but the site is interesting.

Yahoo delivers profound haymaker to Gmail and Micr...

Yahoo announced today that they will be removing all size limits to email storage on free Yahoo email accounts. The service will begin rolling out unlimited storage in May. Yahoo is also debating a lift on storage limits for Fliker.com photo sharing accounts. Yahoo hopes that lifting the storage limits will lead lock customers in for good. Even if Google does match the offer, the real loser in this battle is Microsoft and...

Is your computer ready for Windows Vista? Do you c...

We are less than a week away from the consumer launch of Windows Vista…the next generation of Microsoft's operating system that runs on 95% of the world's computer. Do you need the upgrade? The short answer is "NO". Will you have a choice if you buy a new computer? No, unless you choose to buy an Apple computer. Is the new Windows Vista that much better than Windows XP? No. In fact there are very...

Save yourself two or three steps

Too often I see computer users of all experiences taking too many steps to visit a web site. If they know a web site address, they first go to a search engine like Yahoo! or Google and type the address there. Then they click Search, wait for the results and click the site they want to visit. Instead of going through all those steps, type known addresses in the long white address bar at the top of the screen and press...

Captcha?

Technology has spawned many strange new words from blog to podcast to spyware. Captcha is a new term that you will be seeing more of in the coming months. In fact, chances are good that you have already dealt with captchas. A captcha is a scrambled mess of characters (like the ones pictured in this article) that we have to reproduce in a box before submitting a web form. The purpose of captchas is to thwart bad guys from...

Know your Internet options

Picking out an Internet provider in the good ol' days of the Internet was easy. All you had to do was pick a company that wasn't owned by AOL and you'd be OK. Today the choice is much tougher because you must choose between dial-up and broadband. And if you choose broadband, you must choose which type of broadband is best for you. Here is a handy guide to help you decide. Dial-up – Dial-up Internet the...

I am a man, I have needs

This article is a repeat from the newsletter last week, but I thought I would post it all by itself for two reasons. First, I have had a lot of comments on it this week. Second, all these tech names will create more yahoo search terms and we will make a few cents from it. Here it goes… I bought a new computer last week. The new system is dual core, 1 GB of RAM, 200 GB hard drive and DVD burner and card reader. I...

Setting up Outlook for Earthlink and other POP ser...

Here is a site explaining how to setup Outlook Express to read your POP email account. Keep in mind that Outlook Express will not handle Yahoo (without paying for it), Hotmail/MSN (unless all the stars are aligned properly), or AOL email. But it will work with most other services including Earthlink, Bresnan, Comcast, Gmail and most local ISPs. ...