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French police force save millions by using Ubuntu

This might be one of the largest government agencies making a whole sale change to Ubuntu and leaving Microsoft behind. Ubuntu Linux is a free open source operating system that can very capably replace a Microsoft Windows operating system. This article describes how France’s national police force will change all 90,000 of their computers to Ubuntu by 2015, and they… Read More »French police force save millions by using Ubuntu

Stop a document from printing – Video Tip

We all run into a problem sooner or later where something we printed didn’t print correctly or we want to stop it from printing. In today’s tip, I explain how to stop the printer from printing and then clean the print job from your computer.

  1. Turn off your printer using its power switch
  2. Immediately watch for a message by your clock that has anything to do with your printer
  3. Click the little bubble message (if you see it)
  4. If you don’t see the options in steps 2 & 3, then:
    1. Click Start –> Control Panel
    2. Double-click Printers
    3. Double-click your printer
  5. When the printer queue dialog box appears, click one time on the document you want to delete
  6. Click Document from the menus, then Cancel (If you have multiple documents, click Printer –> Cancel all documents from the menus)
  7. Once the documents disappear (should be just a few moments), you can close all open windows and turn your printer on again.

I have a few more little tips and you can see this technique in action by watching the video below (2 1/2 minutes):

Improved Site Searching

I worked on the searching situation here at the new HelpMerick.com, and I think you will find it much more responsive to your needs. Use these tips to help find the information you need out of the nearly 2000 articles on the site: Use multiple words (ex: home networking, or email attachments) Always check your spelling Try different forms of… Read More »Improved Site Searching

New computer users

Today alone, I ran across two brand new computer users. It irritates me when I see commenters on some of my YouTube videos and elsewhere on the web make fun of the fact that some people can’t copy and paste or create a table in Microsoft Word or perform any number of computer tips I  teach through this site and… Read More »New computer users

Google Docs privacy leak

Headlines garner attention, but do people then read the article. This week an article is making the rounds about a Google Docs security problem. Turns out that the problem only affects an extremely minor number of users who already shared document and then happened to perform a very particular set of steps. In other words, the chances of a problem… Read More »Google Docs privacy leak

Social networking and blogs gaining popularity.

This report shows that social network sites, Facebook leading them all, are gaining popularity and quickly becoming more popular than even email! Social networking and blogs now more popular than email, says Nielsen | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

Add photos to Facebook quickly and easily – Video Tip

I helped a retired aged computer user today who was cajoled into using Facebook by his family. His Facebook friends hammered him daily about posting some pictures to his online profile. But like many computer users, he juggled time between three different photo management programs. One of them, luckily, was Google’s Picasa and I configured Picasa to locate all his… Read More »Add photos to Facebook quickly and easily – Video Tip

Keep track of your original computer documentation and make restore CDs

Lately too many customers have had to wait for repairs on their computers because I needed to order recovery CD sets from the manufacturer. This time and expense can be avoided if you do two simple things when you buy your new computer: 1.  Save all disks and/or documentation that comes in the box 2.  Since most manufacturers no longer… Read More »Keep track of your original computer documentation and make restore CDs

Important Newsletter Information!

If you are a weekly newsletter subscriber, please read this information. After two weeks of soul searching, research, and web browsing, I decided to move the email newsletter subscribers to my FeedBlitz service. Feedblitz picks out my newest articles and delivers them to you in an email. The service works great and I will be moving the address list into… Read More »Important Newsletter Information!