It has become a holiday tradition for me to go through an eBay selling phase. It all began when the XBox 360 was released and continued on with the PlayStation 3.
I was beginning to think that I would not have an opportunity to buy this year’s crazy in-demand toy and resell it on eBay. Then came Rock Band.
In a totally unexpected move, I purchased two Rock Band Special Edition kits. I saw that most stores only had a few in stock so I looked them up on eBay and read about the holiday supply in the news.
Our local cable Internet provider, Bresnan, starting sending out notices about their new security suite from Computer Associates. Computer Associates is one of the older technology companies and produces great software, and I haven’t seen the product yet, but based on the description in the email, I wouldn’t jump on board.
As with most suites, they are usually too big, too slow, and don’t protect you well enough. As of today, I recommend the Castellini on Computers Hybrid Security Suite:
1. AVG Anti-virus
2. Windows Defender
3. A router for your high speed connection
4. Windows Firewall
5. Monthly updates and scans with SypBot Search and Destroy and/or Super AntiSpyware
6. Cloudmark Desktop anti-spam
7. MOST IMPORTANT: ONLY browse the Internet with Mozilla Firefox
Windows Vista still doesn’t seem to be gaining any momentum in the fans department after 10 months. Today, I discovered this new feature (see the 53 second video below) that Microsoft took 7 years and billions of dollars to develop and implement in Vista. Once again, instead of Wow, I’m asking, “Why?”
The Internet is firmly a multimedia haven now. Video and audio make the Internet a much richer experience for everyone…providing you have a fast Internet connection OR learn the technique I describe in today’s tip.
When it comes to online audio and video, you need to know about streaming. Without a knowledge of streaming, you will continue to have choppy audio, stop and start video and overall be frustrated. Streaming means that a little of the audio and/or video is fed to us at a time.
Because audio and video make huge file sizes (10-20X that of photos), they cannot be sent via the Internet in one chunk. Instead, they are broken down into smaller pieces and fed down the Internet pipeline little pieces at a time (streaming). If our Internet connection can’t decode and play the little pieces of information fast enough, we interpret that as slow, jerky, choppy, and or stuttery (stuttering) audio and video.
The key to correcting this lies in this week’s video tip. You can thank me by leaving a nice comment or better yet, hit the donate button on our site. Either way, you WILL enjoy audio and video on the web more after learning this little trick.
After getting off the “grid” this year with our meetings and covering some very different territories, I decided to go with a mainstream topic today. In today’s meetings, we discussed some word processing and spreadsheet basics.
Our site has a plethora of word processing tips (mostly Microsoft Word), and you can find them all by clicking here.
For spreadsheets, you can just search for spreadsheets in our search engine.
Let’s all face it. We don’t have to agree with it or even like it, but the porn and gaming (poker) industry push the boundaries of the Internet and sometimes that translates to a better Internet experience for all of us.
I ran into a problem today with a Windows Vista machine that apparently isn’t unique. This tip only applies to Windows Vista users who use Windows mail.
Problem: Can’t delete any messages in Windows Mail…which also prevents new messages from being read.
Symptom: When you try and delete a message in Windows Mail, you get an “Internal Error” message then have to restart the program.
Computers are supposed to save us loads of time. In many cases, they do…or at least can save us time. However, I see too many people spinning their wheels for hours or days and in some cases months trying to figure out an answer to a problem with their computer.
Or some computer users spending the same amount of time trying to figure out how to accomplish a task they want to complete with no real direction of how to get there.
When it comes to just about anything, I learned many, many years ago that I like to know that I’m heading in the right direction. I may be one of the rare males who WILL pull over and ask for directions if I have the slightest inclination that I’m not going the right way.
I kind of enjoy shopping. I don’t enjoy watching other people shop, but if I have some money to spend, I kind of enjoy the experience.
Black Friday is always fun. Typically my wife stands in one line while I stand in another before the sun comes up with a list of things that we want to rush in and grab for the kids.
Digging through the paper with all of the Black Friday ads is as much of a Thanksgiving tradition for us as the turkey, stuffing and polka music.
The Internet bargain sites have kind of ruined Black Friday for me this year because the ads are being leaked.
Two sites that are tracking leaked Black Friday ads are:
If this tip doesn’t change your life, it can change your cube mates life or someone’s life who uses Excel a lot.
This short (4 minute) video demonstrates the power of knowing how to quickly navigate around a spreadsheet without using the vertical or horizontal scroll bars.
Even if you don’t use Excel, watch the video…it is like a magic show you might see in Las Vegas.
