Yesterday I received a call from a lady who had been fighting an Internet problem for some time. She said that several people had tried to fix the problem but it had never been fully resolved.
She said that she was telling someone in California about the problem (she lives here in Grand Junction, CO) they told her that she should go to HelpMeRick.com.
It's a small world. Or HelpMeRick.com is a great website. Or both.
My first two clients this morning each had their monitor refresh rates set way to low.
If you use a CRT (Tube style – like an old TV) monitor and get headaches or notice a distracting flicker, you probably need to change your refresh rate.
IF YOU HAVE A FLAT PANEL MONITOR, YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THIS
Here's what to do:
1. Right-click on the desktop – anywhere that is NOT over an icon.
2. Choose Properties from the menu.
3. A window will come up – Click on the Settings tab.
4. Click on the Advanced button at the bottom of the window.
I think that Lee Harvey Oswald was frozen cryogenically by the Feds until the controversy died down. Ten years ago, he was thawed and released.
During this time the Goverment kept close tabs on him until they could use him as a scapegoat for yet another crime – the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.
I am at a concert this evening to see Nickel Creek. I forgot to post a shotgun article today. So, here it is directly from the front row of the concert.
That’s right! when they start smashing bluegrass instruments I will be right up front to catch the flying pieces!
I ran across this cool website tonight. It lets you browse the web in a window that looks like Microsoft word. That means if the boss looks over your shoulder at work, he/she is less likely to notice that you aren't really working.
Sometimes the best solutions for our digital problems can be found in the analog world. Today I had a client who used a great method to remember all of her passwords.
She used a little address book – the kind you keep next to your phone or in your car to keep track of important contact information.
For example, you can put your Visa.com user name and password under the V section. Best of all, it doesn't look like a password list so bad guys aren't likely to find it interesting enough to snoop through.
I decided a few weeks ago that I want a banjo.
Why? A few weeks ago I realized that everything I do is digital. I do a lot of digital photography, I spend my day working on computers, for relaxation I play XBox. I feel covered up in 1s and 0s.
Once in a while, I want to get away from the digital world and do something analog. I am not a guy without hobbies and interests, but I think I am ready to switch some gears with what I do with my free time.
What does this have to do with computers?
Well, when I guy decides to start something new, there is one place he should start… the Internet.
As I may have already mentioned once this week, Best Buy just opened its first store in our home town of Grand Junction, Co.
Folks in Grand Junction have been very excited about the new store and today was the Grand Opening. As much as I love Best Buy and gadgets, I must say that I was not very impressed.
There were no great specials and the prices were pretty much the same as you find anywhere else. I wasn't really suprised by this since Best Buys best prices are generally only sale items.
What did suprise me who how many people were buying stuff. Most computers, software and gadgets are all price fixed. This means that an XBox at Target, Circuit City and Best Buy is always going to coast $399.99. I don't know how or why this is legal, but it is how it works. Wal-mart breaks the rules by charging something like $399.88.
I noticed in the news that AOL has officially made all of its services free. They have also lowered their rates to $9.95 for dial-up service.
Their pitch is that all of their content including email is now free. They are really trying to get people to sign up for their free email.
So, I figured, what the heck. I will sign up for it if it's free. Just so I can review what a free AOL service is like.
If you haven't heard us say it before, AOL is not an Internet provider. Perhaps they were at one time, but today their specialty is advertising. They charge subscribers for a service that's primary purpose is to show those subscribers advertising. Every link in the AOL software is advertising based. Whether you click on shopping, weather, Internet security or news, every link in the AOL program is put their because someone paid for it to be there.
It seems that late summer is one of the busiest seasons for email forwarding. People forward jokes, photos, inspirational stories, and political content to their friends.
Before you send that forward on to a friend or family member make sure to check it out at www.Snopes.com . Snopes is a database of all email that gets forwarded around the world.
The folks and Snopes work extra hard to research the truth (or untruth) behind each story they are sent.
When someone sends me a forwarded story that I find suspicious such as how the government is going to start charging for email or about how kindergardens across the country are going to take the book "D is for Dog" out of their schools because "dog" spelled backwards is "god", I head directly to Snopes.