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Rick

Don’t run more than one antivirus program

I ran across too many computers this week that had multiple anti-virus programs installed. My advice has always been and still is that you should only be running one anti-virus product at a time. Multiple anti-spyware products are ok, and sometimes necessary, but running multiple anti-virus products will drastically slow down your computer and cause many more problems than they solve.

My top 3 anti-virus products as of today are:

1. AVG
2. Avast
3. Trend Micro (antivirus only, not the security suite)

What I like about Windows Vista

Please read the headline of this article correctly – it does not say, "Reasons why you should upgrade to Windows Vista." Windows Vista is still a nasty operating system that hogs resources and hides or eliminates important features, but there are some cool features hidden within and I feel that I must list them here so that I can be fair to Microsoft.

If Microsoft had added any or all of these features to XP, it would have been an upgrade worth the price. Instead they had to add all of the other junk to confuse users too.

Good bye pay phones – one more thing our children will never understand

Eighty percent of people now own cell phones and the other 20 percent are standing next to eight people holding a cell phone.

Remember pay phones? Remember stuff that made you ask, “What is that?” on the receiver of the pay phone? Remember having to insert more money to continue the call? Remember being at the airport or mall and searching like mad for a pay phone that wasn’t in use?

AT&T announced this week that those days will be happy memories by the end of 2008. The company plans to end the pay phone business.

I will be first in line for a vintage phone to put with my 8-track player, phonograph, rotary phone, cassette tape, CB radio, typewriter and film camera.

Some guys stop and ask for directions

I constantly get asked if I mind being asked stupid questions. My answer is always the same, “No. The only stupid questions are the ones that aren’t asked.” I believe and live that statement every single day.

When it comes to computers, I love researching and hunting down solutions to problems or questions I’m trying to solve. However, I also know when to say when and ask for help. Tonight is one of those points. My daughter received a MacBook from her grandparents for her birthday and it works great. However, I have a shared printer hooked to a Windows XP machine that I print to from my Vista machine and XP laptop just fine, but the MacBook won’t see the network or the printer.

Using Check boxes to Select Files and Folders – Video Tip

Some computer users have trouble remembering or using the keyboard and mouse shortcuts to select multiple files and folders. Windows Vista offers an option to allow users to check boxes instead of using the keyboard/mouse combos to select multiple files. To enable this option, again in Windows Vista only, follow these steps:

  1. Open in folder (My Computer, Documents, Windows Explorer, etc)
  2. Click Organize from the menus
  3. Click Folder and Search Options
  4. Click the View tab
  5. Scroll through the Advanced settings and check the Use check boxes to select items option
  6. Click Apply
  7. Click OK 

Watch the short 2 minute video below to see a demonstration of this feature and how to enable it.

Department store fix it people

I encountered another department store computer fix-it horror story today. The client called me because they had the proverbial slow computer. I show up and the owner proceeds to tell me that they just got it returned from a big box electronic store with the initials CC whose computer experts work under the initials of FD. Incidentally, I could tell similar stories of woe with another store whose initials are BB and their resident experts work under the initials of GS.

No great holiday computer sales

I was pretty disappointed with the lack of good computer sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Prices for computer have been pretty low since mid-summer, but I was hoping to see some 2GB RAM laptops under $450 and desktops with 2GB of RAM for less than that. Maybe we will see some lower prices before Christmas Eve.

Adam didn’t post any outstanding deals on digital cameras either, so I’m assuming that the camera market was equally as flat as PC’s.

Sleepy Tryptophan effect is a Thanksgiving myth!

Most people will not read this post in time to help this Thanksgiving, but hopefully it will come in handy for next Thanksgiving and future poultry dinners to come.

The tryptophan effect is a myth.

That’s right. Every Thanksgiving after the big meal I hear family members complain that the tryptophan is kicking in as they feel a sudden sleepiness.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that is in turkey and does cause sleepiness. However, there is not enough tryptophan in turkey to cause sleepiness – and even if there was – the tryptophan would only kick in on an empty stomach with no protien present. Not likely at Thanksgiving dinner.

How do I know all this? I read it on Snopes.com.