A couple of months ago I reviewed a couple of the online backup services and really liked (and continue to use) the Mozy Backup service. Today, Mozy announced the release of their online backup system for Macintosh users. You can read more about it and try it out by clicking this link.
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.
Starting with Windows 95 all the way through today’s Windows Vista, Microsoft supplied computer users with a great tool listing the different hardware devices attached to and residing in our computers. This tool is called the Device Manager.
Today’s tip focuses on how to use the Device Manager to troubleshoot a video card, sound card or other internal hardware problem. If you suddenly lose sound or your monitor’s picture lacks the quality it had before, or you can’t connect your high speed modem to your computer, this tip will solve the problem a high percentage of the time.
1. RIGHT Click on My Computer from your desktop or Start menu (XP & Vista)
2. Click Properties (or use the Windows key + Pause/Break key to replace these two steps)
3. Click Device Manager (Windows 95-Me, Vista). or in WindowsVista Click the Hardware tab –> then click Device Manager (XP)
4. Click the “+” sign next to the device having the problem
5. RIGHT Click the device itself
6. Click Remove (Windows 95-Me) or Uninstall (XP & Vista)
7. Close any open screens and shut down your computer (don’t just restart, shut it all the way off)
8. When Windows restarts, it should re-recognize your hardware and function properly again.
If these steps don’t work, then you get some extra computer help.
Watch the short (2 minutes) video below to see these steps in action!
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.
If you live in Denver, Portland or countless other larger cities then you likely have discovered Craigslist.
On the other hand, if you are in a smaller area or suburb, Craigslist is a secret that you should know about.
Craigslist is an online classified ads site that anyone can post to for free. There are few rules so you must be careful, but in general Craigslist is more fun than any print classifieds because it is in real time. No waiting for it to hit the stands.
Most newspapers and print classifieds publishers don’t want you to know about Craigslist because it tends to take away business.
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 more, I explained my idea bout an Ubuntu Linux machine. He asked, “Does it do Internet? Email?” I said, “Yes.” He agreed that it sounded fine to him.
As often as once per day I recommend to someone that they invest in a USB flash drive for backup of regular files. The most common response I get back is, “I have one, I just don’t know how to use it.”
Here’s how to do it. Keep in mind that USB flash drives do not work well with Windows 98 so these instructions are for Windows XP and up.
1. Open My Computer and make a note (mental or otherwise) what letters appear next to the drives. You should see C:, D: etc. Chances are that the flash drive will occupy the next available letter, but keep My Computer open just to be sure.
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:
We love getting your feedback on our articles and tips. Unfortunately, too few of you participate. Our most commented articles are our Cameroon Pet Scams and desktop wallpaper articles. I did get a few comments on my annual plea for tax reform, but I’m always surprised at how few comments we get compared to the number of visitors to our site.
We do have the ReCaptcha system to thwart automated robot spammers on our site, but the words are generally easy to decipher (plus they help the Library of Congress digitize their library). If you have a tough time reading the cipher, you can hit the refresh button to get two new words (see picture). You can hit the refresh button as many times as you want. Also, keep in mind that the cipher’s are not case sensitive. I would recommend clicking the little speaker which gives you an auditory cipher to decode, but they generally are much harder than figuring out the two words.
There you have it…I’m on my knees groveling for comments. We love reading the comments and encourage you to leave them often…and invite all your tech friends and family to visit the site and do the same! Thanks.
Organizing your digital photos is so important. Too often I see people who have major computer problems and think that everything is backed up only to find that their digital photos were so spread out on their computer that the only had a portion of them backed up.
Many people simply copy their digital photos onto their computer wherever a given piece of software puts them and they have no idea where that is. These notes will help you setup a system for managing your digital photos so they will be easy to find and backup even without programs like Picasa.
Here are a few links that will help you: