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Riding Shotgun with Rick

Lazy computer users

Messy ComputerOver the past few days, the tech news sites and blogs have carried a story centered on a quote from a NetBook (tiny laptop) manufacturer stating that the company receives 4X the returns of Linux based systems versus Windows systems. The more often I saw this headline and read the articles, the more irritated I became.

Computers are still in their infancy compared to much of the technology we use today. Americans have had indoor plumbing for 75 years, electricity for almost 100 years, telephones for almost 100 years, televisions for 50+ years, and radios for 70 years. Computers, however, have been around just over 15 years en masse, and even today they only exist in about 70% of American households.

My point is that computer technology has not matured enough to

Is Skype quality getting worse?

Skype callSkype ranks as one of my all-time favorite web programs. For those who have never heard this name or weren’t sure what it is about, Skype allows you to make voice and or video calls from your computer to another Internet connected computer anywhere in the world for free. Skype also offers extremely low pricing for making computer to land line or cell phone calls as well.

I use Skype to communicate with my brother in Arizona, but over the past few months we have noticed a significant change in the quality of the calls. Neither of us has changed our Internet service or computer setups, so Skype is definitely the culprit. We both noted that Skype usage seems to be climbing. At almost any time we use Skype, we note that between 10 and 13 million other Skype users are online. Whether the vast number of users contributes to the problems we experience or not, it still makes a mind boggling statistic.

It used to be that we could make our video calls and talk for anywhere from 15 minutes to 90 minutes and not have any problems with call quality, dropped calls or video problems. However, over the past six months our calls are frequently dropped, suffer from extremely poor audio, or one of us will lose the audio from the other. Every fifth or sixth call, we will experience good quality again, but good quality calls are quickly becoming rare.

We both are using the current version of the Skype software and try not to run any other programs in the background as we talk…except maybe our browsers. We both fill out the How did we do? surveys after a failed call, but the problems continue to exacerbate.

I would love to hear from other Skype users out there:

How often do you use Skype? Are you experiencing good quality calls, poor quality calls or both? If poor, how often and what type of problems do you have? Are you a Mac Skyper, Linux Skyper, or Windows Skyper? How fast is your connection? Do you have any tips for making better use of Skype?

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of Skype and please answer some of these questions as well. I’m curious.

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 014

Some good questions this week, but some of them could be found already just by using the search engine right here at HelpMeRick.com.

Episode 14 of my email series is brought to you by questions from Darla, Rose, Anne, Barbara, Sharon, Jerry, Peter, Dick, Toni, Joe, and the number 700,000,000,000.

Choose how many recently opened files show in Microsoft Office

Office 2003 OptionsIn almost any program where you can create, save, and edit documents, clicking the File menu (or the Office orb in Office 2007) shows a list of your most recently used documents for that program. With Microsoft Office, you can control exactly how many recent documents are shown.

With Microsoft Office 2003 applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc) and all versions prior, you control this option by following these steps in any of the applications:

  1. Click Tools –> Options
  2. Click the General tab
  3. Under the Recently used file list option, enter a number between 0-9
  4. Click OK

 

Office 2007 Options

 

 

With Microsoft Office 2007 options, follow these steps to control how many recently used files show:

  1. Click the Office orb icon in the upper left of your screen
  2. Click Word (or Excel or PowerPoint) options at the bottom of the menu
  3. Click Advanced
  4. Scroll down under the Display category and enter a number between 0-50 in the Show this number of recent documents box
  5. Click OK

 

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 013

Here’s another installment of my email answers. Brought to you by the questions from Lesa, Maria, Oliver, Anne, Richard, Wilma, Dave, Don, Gary, Shannon, Bobbie, and Bill including questions about SCD (Slow Computer Disease), faxing, backing up email and believe it or not, not a single AVG question

Can your email be read like Sarah Palin’s?

Sarah PalinNot likely. In the Sarah Palin case, her Yahoo email account was not hacked…her password was hacked. That means the hackers guessed Sarah Palin’s password (maybe it was hockeymom). Seriously, it could have been that easy. More likely, however, the hackers used sophisticated programs that were used to crack the password.

The number one defense you possess to safeguard your email, bank account, or any other online account is a strong password.

  • A strong password contains a mix of upper and lower case letters, numerals, and special characters like (# @ ! * & _ – + ).
  • Never use the same password for all your accounts.
  • Never use words that can be found in a dictionary (these are the easiest to hack)
  • Change your important account passwords often.

I know, I know…”It’s too hard to remember.”. Write it down! No one said you have to memorize it. Write it down, but keep it in safe place and don’t forget where you put it. OR, you can use any number of password manager programs. Read my Password Mania tip for more info.

If you aren’t running for Vice President of the free world, you automatically reduce your chances of being hacked by almost 1 billion times. But, don’t get lazy and leave your account information open to the chance of being hacked.

Simple wireless password security

Thankfully, more and more home computer users are securing their wireless networks. Most newer wireless routers offer to automate the whole process which works pretty well. However, if you are wanting a little more control, I recommend the following advice for setting up a wireless router:

What kind of computer do 3 teenagers use?

An extremely slow and sick computer!

Today, again, I ran across a family who has multiple teenagers (3 in this case) who use a computer that has become polluted with spy and adware. I see this situation again and again, week after week. This computer was less than 2 months old!

Give the typical teenager a Windows based computer (doesn’t matter if it is XP or Vista) and within weeks (sometimes hours) the computer is almost useless. Parents always ask me the next logical question, “Why did it happen?”

Google Chrome Overview – Video Tip

Last week, Google released their own web browser, Chrome, to compete with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Many of you have asked my opinion and wondered what it all means. In a nutshell, I think that any competition is good competition. And with a name like Google behind the project, that adds even more fuel to the fire.

Google Chrome is fast, easy on the eyes, but offers few features that aren’t already available in Firefox, Opera, and other browsers. However, I think that more people are likely to use it because of the Google name, and they won’t be disappointed. Watch my video below for a quick introduction to Google Chrome and more commentary.

I would love to hear your comments about Google Chrome as well.

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 012

This week I answer some questions about faxing in Vista, email problems, security software, removing spyware and much more…brought to you by the questions from Guido, Shirley, Tina, Cindy, Ticia, James, Jo, Mariane, Margie, Sandra, Jackie, Nellie, DJ and John.