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Rick

Optical Mice

Over the past few weeks, it seems that a large share of my clients were still using older, mechanical mice (the one’s with the ball underneath). I say older because almost all new mice are optical mice…either infrared or laser. These mice replaced the ball rolling against rollers in the mouse housing (that could quickly become dirty and cause erratic behavior of your pointer) with a light source that tracked your movements more accurately than the mechanical mouse ever could.

In addition to tracking better, never getting dirty, and having the ability to work on any surface (except glass), optical mice also allowed smaller chassis and helped propel a new plethora of cordless mice.

If you are in the market for a new mouse (and if you are usingRead More »Optical Mice

Computer Help Show Podcast 05-19-10

Wow, wall-to-wall calls today…and not just calls, but some great questions. Thanks for your participation. If you missed today’s how, click below to download or listen! Mark  your calendars now for June 16 from Noon-1pm Mountain Time. That’s the date of the next show, and you can listen online live from anywhere in the world, or here in Grand Junction,… Read More »Computer Help Show Podcast 05-19-10

3 Reasons NOT to upgrade or buy to Microsoft Office & 5 Alternatives

Microsoft has primarily moved to a subscription model for its Office suite…costing you recurring fees. After 25+ years of using Microsoft Office and watching others use Microsoft Office, I can say without hesitation that it is a waste of hard earned money for most people. Don’t be pressured or swayed into purchasing it.  Here’s why: 3 Reasons NOT to upgrade… Read More »3 Reasons NOT to upgrade or buy to Microsoft Office & 5 Alternatives

Apple Solitaire

Free Solitaire for Apple Macintosh users

After years of looking and trying different programs, I think I found a great, free program for new Apple users that will help ease the move from Windows. Yes, believe it or not, a huge stumbling block for many of my clients in making the move to Macintosh is Solitaire, Free Cell, and/or Spider Solitaire.

Prior to today, I guided folks to the web in search of a solitaire program available from Hoyle or playing online Solitaire from Yahoo and other online sites. All these ideas were not 100% satisfactory replacements for their Windows games.

Today, I discoveredRead More »Free Solitaire for Apple Macintosh users

Picasa Logo

How to use Picasa to backup ALL your photos to an external hard drive – Video Tip

One of my long time customers called me the other day with a question about not being able to backup his photos using Picasa without errors. Upon some research, I discovered that he was simply hitting the burn button to quick. To avoid repeating his problem, wait for Picasa to finish calculating the backup job before hitting the burn button.

While doing this research, I also discovered how to use Picasa to backup all your photos to an external hard drive or Read More »How to use Picasa to backup ALL your photos to an external hard drive – Video Tip

How to locate where your photos are saved – Video Tip

Many of us use photo management software (Picasa, Photoshop Elements, Corel, Kodak Easy Share, Canon Zoom Browser, etc) to manipulate, organize, and share our photos. Unfortunately, too many computer users think their photos exist in these programs. They don’t. Our digital photos are like any other piece of information on our computer…they exist in a folder somewhere on our hard drives.… Read More »How to locate where your photos are saved – Video Tip

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 frustrated with what users were stuck with, I looked into options. The best option I could come up with was Ubuntu. Ubuntu is an Open Source (click link to read definition) and free operating system. The first version I discovered in 2007 was Feisty Fawn (7.04). It impressed me immediately. It loaded fast, looked usable (simple), and didn’t try to wow you with too much fluff…it just worked, and worked well. Sure, it wasn’t as refined as Windows, but it also blew the doors off of Windows in performance andRead More »Ubuntu 10.04 released tomorrow, manual today

Picasa Logo

Picasa – Still the best

I get to see tons of software in my weekly travels, and that includes photo management software. Picasa, from Google, remains my favorite photo management and downloading system for Windows, Macintosh, AND Linux (Ubuntu). It offers:

  • Great flexibility in organizing and tagging photos
  • Easy to use download function
  • Good integration with online photo ordering services
  • Wonderful way to share photos via online albums, Facebook and of course email
  • Nice photo archiving backup function (although I wish they would add backup to external hard drive)
  • And it’s free!!

Over the years, I have put together a series of tips and videos demonstrating how toRead More »Picasa – Still the best

Computer Help Show Podcast 04-21-10

Calls were down this month, but we more than made up for it with some great high tech banter on topics including Norton’s pathetic antivirus, the iPad, the lost and found iPhone prototype, new grad laptop recommendations, and much more!! If you missed the live show, you can catch us next month…the live show will be Wednesday, May 19 from… Read More »Computer Help Show Podcast 04-21-10

How to start page numbers from a number other than 1 – Video Tip

My daughter needed to know how to start automatic page numbering in Microsoft Word 2007 with a number other than one for a school publication. She and her classmates couldn’t figure it out, so she asked me. I put together a quick video to demonstrate the technique for her, and decided to share it with you as well. Enjoy.