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Riding Shotgun with Adam

Why I don’t like the bleeding edge

Cutting edge technology is great. I love to see the newest trends in technology.

Cutting edge is one thing, bleeding edge is a totally different story. Bleeding edge is a term used for techno test pilots, those who adopt a new technology before it is ever around long enough to be considered a new trend or standard.

For example, cutting edge people are just now adopting HD TVs, hybrid cars and websites like YouTube. Bleeding edge people are buying BluRay DVD players, computers with two dual core processors and buy their groceries on the Internet.

Some technology that I consider bleeding edge has been around for a long time.

Know your Internet options

Picking out an Internet provider in the good ol' days of the Internet was easy. All you had to do was pick a company that wasn't owned by AOL and you'd be OK.

Today the choice is much tougher because you must choose between dial-up and broadband. And if you choose broadband, you must choose which type of broadband is best for you.

Here is a handy guide to help you decide.

Dial-up – Dial-up Internet the slowest way to connect to the Internet, but it is usually the least expensive if you are comparing actual costs of service. However, there are other disadvantages besides lack of speed.

West Side Story Rumble Video

Before you vote on the poll this week, you may want to watch this video so you can see the gritty mess that is a real "down and dirty West Side Story rumble."

 

Fast forward the video to the 2:01 mark for the best rumble footage.

I am a man, I have needs

This article is a repeat from the newsletter last week, but I thought I would post it all by itself for two reasons. First, I have had a lot of comments on it this week. Second, all these tech names will create more yahoo search terms and we will make a few cents from it. Here it goes…

I bought a new computer last week. The new system is dual core, 1 GB of RAM, 200 GB hard drive and DVD burner and card reader.

I remember the first two or three computers I purchased. I remember how exciting it was to

A very strange coincidence

Today I was setting up a network at a client's house when their phone rang.

(I have changed the names here)

My client read her caller ID and said "Johnny Smithsky? I don't know any Johnny Smithsky."

I replied "I know Johnny Smithsky, he's a client of mine." I said.

"This must be a different Johnny Smithsky," she replied, "The number is from California."

"Ya, Johnny Smithsky spends the winters in California. That's where he would be calling from," I explained.

"I still don't know him, why is he calling here?"

Log out rather than reboot

This tip isn't for every situation, but it helps when you are short on time or to recover from a small crash (yes there is a such thing).

Rather than completely reboot your computer, instead go to Start -> Turn Off Computer. Instead of Turn Off or Restart, choose Log Off. This will close all of your running programs and stop anything attached to your account.

To get back in, just click on the user name and Windows will take you right back in.

This process is great for recovering from lockups. I don't recommend it to replace a standard reboot after you have installed a piece of software in hardware. Those types of restarts need to completely shutdown Windows so that changes can be made to the registry.

New ways to get more junk email

My comments today are directed toward those who are looking for more ways to get on junk email lists. Some common ways that we talk about on the show include the following:

  • Register any new project you buy.
  • Ask your friends to add you to their forwarded joke list (spammers love to harvest from forwarded email).
  • Reply to junk email asking that the sender take you off their list (spammers interpret this as "Thank you for the junk mail, I just wanted you to know that this is a valid address and I read anything you send me).
  • Post your email address all over Internet forums, web pages and other public Internet sites.

Now, there are some new ways or variations of the old ways to get added to junk mail lists, give these a try if you want more spam:

A short tip for LCD monitor users

If you use an LCD monitor and it seems a little fuzzy, there are two possible solutions.

Probably the biggest reason for fuzzy flat panel monitors is that the resolution is set too low. Most LCD monitors require at least 1024×768 and most are 1280×1024. If your monitor is set on 800×600, then the text is probably plenty large to read, but it will be fuzzy. The solution of increasing the resolution will make the image much sharper, but the text will be a lot smaller so there is a tradeoff.

Another cause of the problem may be that your monitor has never been setup correctly. I think every LCD monitor I have ever seen has an Auto button or Auto setting. Look for this word Auto. It might be in the monitor menu that you will find by pushing the indicated button on your monitor or it may be a button all by itself.

I don’t like call blocking

I'm not a big fan of caller ID or call blocking.

I stay busy all day and I only return calls while I'm on the road between appointments. Most of my time driving is used also to listen to voice mail on my hands-free headset. My voice mail gives me an option at the end of each call to press 8 to return the call. Since the call is made through the voice mail service my ID is blocked. If I can return the call by pressing 8, I can return a call easily. But, if I have 5 or 6 calls to return I would need to pull over and write each message down.

The problem with call blocking is that when I try to promptly return a call by pressing 8 to a caller with blocking on, all I get is…"we're sorry this party does not accept unidentified calls…" As a result, I skip that person's message and go on to the next message that I can return by pressing 8. Often it is the next morning before I am able to get to those who left messages but had call blocking. Caller ID comes mandatory with my cell phone service, but I don't use it on my home phone because I love surprises.

Why you shouldn’t use the same username and password for everything

I have had several clients tell me that they use the same username and password for everything so they don't forget.

While this is a personal decision, I just thought I would provide one good reason why it's not a good idea to only use one username and password.

Let's say that somehow a bad guy gets a job working for your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or perhaps he gets a job working for your newsletter about singles who collect stamps.

Typically these kinds of sites can't see your password, but they can reset your password. If this particular shady individual resets your password then you won't be able to get into the stuff related to that site that you want.