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Riding Shotgun with Adam

Use YouTube to learn something new

I love YouTube. If I were asked to come up with one single reason why everyone should have broadband, YouTube would be my first though, although I may say something else out loud.

YouTube is known for it’s great home videos, goofy videos, terrible skateboarding accidents caught on tape and of course political commentaries. But, you can also use YouTube to better yourself as a person. I have had a lot of  Photoshop questions lately and most of them I have referred to YouTube.

Computer guys are like mechanics, but not really

For the past few days I have had my car in the shop. My Honda Civic is mostly repaired, but they are still waiting for a small part to come in.

Each day I give them a call to find out whether it is ready.

Yesterday, as I was waiting for them to check on the status of my car, I could hear the keyboard ticking away in the background. I was also working on a computer, and I guess my keyboard was just as audible.

“Sounds like you are using a computer too,” the mechanic said.

“Ya. That’s what I do all day, I’m a roving computer guy.”

He then gave me the information about my car. I said thanks and was going to hangup when he said, “Do you mind if I ask you a professional question?”

“Not at all.”

The mysterious expanding Outlook Express book!

I received an email this week from someone who had a mysterious address book problem.

Their Outlook Express address book had tons of email address for people they didn’t know. Pretty scary. If you are an Outlook Express user, you may want to take a look at your own address book, it is likely happening to you too.

There are two possible explanations for this.

1. Address book Gnomes. These weird little bearded men with pointy hats creep into your home late at night and add strangers to your address book using magical powers.

2. You have the “Automatically put people I replay to in my Address Book” box checked in Outlook Express.

What’s nice is that the solution for either problem is fairly simple.

Sadly, dial-up Internet is still alive and well

The majority of people I have seen this week have been dial-up Internet users. In every case the appointment lasted longer and cost more money than if they would have been on broadband. In other words, the appointment could have taken only a few minutes. Instead the appointment took so long that it cost as much as three month’s worth of broadband service.

I carry most of the tools for fixing computers on my flash drive but two of the computers were Windows 98 and several of the computers needed updates or other downloads that can only be acquired online.

E3 Excitement has begun!

I love a good trade show and this week is the big E3 video game conference. As I write this I am watching the live feed of Microsoft’s press conference. It is pretty amazing what the web allows you do do.

Several people have expressed their apologies that Rick and I will no longer be doing the show on the radio. Actually, we are choosing to move the show from a radio show to an online multimedia extravaganza! Radio is very limited and very limiting.

Our online program will only be limited by what we are able to do, and what we are able to do will continue to grow as we learn. In reality, we are only limited by the capabilities of the Internet. We are very excited.

Five reasons I’m not a geek

A geek, as I define it, is a person who lives and breathes computers. Geeks have no outside loves (outside of the computer or outside of their room). Once in a while I will get in a conversation with a geek who expects me to be like him since I work on computers all day. Alas, I he quickly discovers that I am not a geek and he is thoroughly confused.

Here are five reasons that I am not a geek:

New virus – what took them so long?

There is a new virus going around that pretends to be a postcard from a friend, family member, schoolmate, etc. Within the email are links to where you can download the "postcard."

In reality you will not be getting a postcard, you will be getting a virus. How sneaky.

While this method of spreading viruses usually doesn’t work well because the host site is taken down quickly, I thought this one was worth commenting on not because of the nastiness of the virus or the way it spreads.

The missing iPhone disclaimer

I am throwing this into the newsletter this week. But I will post it here because I spent too much time writing it.

The Apple iPhone came out this Friday. We have taken the opportunity to write up the disclaimer that should appear on the device, but does not.