The past few days calls and emails started filtering in about the new AVG 8.0 version folks have seen appear on their free versions of AVG Antivirus. The common query is, “Should I upgrade?” No, home users of AVG Antvirus do not need to upgrade at all. The current free version of AVG will continue to be updated and as… Read More »AVG Antivirus 8.0 Upgrade Advice
“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 of computers there weren’t many uses. You would use computers for word processing, finances, Internet and email. In each case there were only a handful of options.
You may have noticed that HelpMeRick.com has something new. We have added ads, but not just any ads.
The ads you see on HelpMeRick.com are only for companies that we recommend strongly.
So far, we have ads for Hostgator – our favorite web hosting service.
Zonbu, an excellent laptop for those who want a laptop in a standard size package but alternative operating system. If you can’t afford Mac and the Eee PC is too big, take a serious look at the Zonbu.
Tonight we had our weekly family night and as the activity part of the evening we made the kids guess what we were doing.
We gave clues like “We (wii) think you will have a lot of fun tonight,” or “We (wii) bet you can’t guess what we are doing,” and “We have already given you the answer in the clues.” They went crazy trying to guess until my daughter said sarcastically, “Oh, I bet we are playing wii.”
They were shocked when we took out the wii.
It was fun to see even our youngest going nuts playing the game. I will join Vinny in posting a review of the wii in the coming days. So far it is a huge success with the kids.
You may wonder why I don’t capitalize wii. Simple, it’s one of those words that just doesn’t look right capitalized.
I’ve mentioned before that I think that laptops make a lot of sense for computer users who travel. With a great deal of our communication and information gathering tied up in the computer world, not having this tool when traveling is a definite minus. My family and I just returned from a short trip where having our laptop with us saved us a lot of time and aggravation.
While traveling, we used the computer and a wi-fi connection (which was easy to find) to :
I’m curious what other travelers use their laptops for on the road. Leave a comment and tell me your traveling laptop story or tip!
Creating a Better Password:
Mix it up – use number and letters in both upper and lower case
Spell words that you are familiar with such as p455w0rD (see how it kind of spells “password”)
Never use the word “password” as your password.
Creating that Secret Question:
Many services ask you to create a secret question incase you forget your password. This allows them to ask you for the answer to verify that you are who you say you are.
Choose a secret question that is true now and will be true five years from now – not, “what is your favorite movie?” or “what is your pet’s name?”
Choose a question that is very specific – not “Where did you meet your spouse?”
I saw two clients today with slow computer problems. Actually the problems weren’t slow, the computers were and that was the problem. But, I digress.
Both computers were Dells of the same age. As it turns out each machine only had 256MB of RAM – too little for XP to run at its full potential.
I added 512MB to each machine and suddenly the systems came alive and ran faster than most brand new machines I setup.
Don’t know how to check your RAM?
Here’s what to do:
1. Right-click on My Computer
2. Click on Properties in the menu that comes up
3. Look for the amount of RAM that’s installed
If it is less than 512MB for an XP machine or 2000MB for a Vista machine, you should add more.
“The only dumb question is the one you don’t ask.”
That’s my pat answer when approached with the question…and I hear that question a lot. I believe that by not asking questions you eventually end up costing yourself time, money, and/or knowledge.
When it comes to computers, it behooves you to ask as many questions as possible so that you can learn. Too often, I hear this phrase; “I don’t take your classes because I need to learn more first.”
Re-read that last sentence. If that phrase makes sense to you, re-read it again! If it still makes sense to you, don’t come to my classes.
Every week I’m out making my rounds, I hear this expression; “My computer is really slow it must have too much stuff in it and needs to be cleaned out.”
Your computer can never have have too much “stuff.” Your hard drive is designed to hold tens of thousands of documents, pictures, music and more. The number of files you store on your computer has next to nothing to do with your perceived speed of the computer.
Computer speed directly relates to how much RAM (temporary memory, not storage/hard drive memory) it has, how fast the processor is, and most importantly how clean your computer is. By clean, I’m referring to physically clean and what types of files are stored on the system.
Last week, I gave you a short video tour of Zoho.com’s Writer word processing application. This week the tour continues with the Sheet program (spreadsheet) from Zoho. Like the word processor program, Sheet offers all of the features that 90% of spreadsheet users need or use, including:
Watch the short video below to see how far online applications from Zoho.com can take you.