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Riding Shotgun with Rick

“I want to go back to AOL”

This painful statement came from a customer of mine who made the leap to DSL (at the request of her kids, not me) a couple of months ago. She dumped dial-up and AOL and opted for DSL with a local Internet provider.

Changing from AOL is never easy and many ex-AOLers go through major withdrawls. However, once the shivers go away and a person gets settled with a real Internet provider, they are quite happy. AOL does things their own way and this keeps many a customer for them. Luckily, their high prices, slow connections, and abismal support has led millions away to a better place.

Picture Slideshows….take a cue from TV

My daughter ‘graduated’ from middle school today. During the ceremony, a group of ambitious students put together a 60-75 slides, using Microsoft PowerPoint, documenting their 8th grade year. PowerPoint and other slideshow making programs give us great flexibility in putting together our pictures like never before.

Does anyone use the old slide projectors anymore?

These students had a minimum slide time of 20 seconds and some slides were on screen for almost 30 seconds. Needless to say, the impact of the program was dramatically reduced because of the extremely long time the audience had to stare at the same picture. The students also put the slideshow to music. Being of the video and Internet age, I would have thought these students would have questioned the length of slides, but I also expected their tech teacher to point it out as they were putting it together. The kids showed some gumption in doing the slideshow, so I have no fault with them at all…I just wish the teachers would have helped guide them.

“My Dell computer is terrible”

That’s a quote from a customer I saw today. Actually, it was a quote from her friend at her work. She relayed the story that the friend had bought a new Dell computer and that it was running slow and had a lot of popups. I hear this same kind of statement day-after-day. The problem isn’t with the manufacturer (Dell’s computers work well). The problem is with the setup of the computer.
 
People are always amazed at how much goes into setting up a computer properly. If done correctly, any brand of computer will function extremely well for you for years to come.

Cell phone confession

There are two facts about my business:

  1. I could not do my job without a cell phone.
  2. I would not make much money to feed my family if I didn’t talk while driving.

Many cities and even states are looking at banning talking on cell phones while driving. Some want an all out ban, others say the driver must use a ‘hands-free’ setup. Unlike many drivers, I still keep a picture firmly planted in my head of the horrific crashes we were shown in Drivers Ed almost a quarter century ago. I also remind myself daily that my odds of getting in a fender-bender are higher than others because of the mileage I spend on the road (all my work is done on-site, so I travel from job-to-job all day long versus commuting to and from a central office).

Sending pictures via email

Computer users are always grateful to learn new tricks of the trade. One ‘trick’ that was implemented with Windows XP more than five years ago continues to escape many computer users…send pictures via email efficiently. Sure you might be sending digital photos as attachments, but can you send more than one at time? Are you resizing your photos before sending them so they don’t require horizontal and vertical scrolling? Do they travel quickly through the Internet or do they take a long time to transmit?

No matter now…this tip will get you sending multiple, appropriately sized photos quickly with Windows XP.

RSS – Really Simple Syndication

Admittedly, I’m always a little late to some technologies. Sometimes because of a time factor and other times because it takes me awhile to figure out a use for the technology. One technology that has been around a few years that I’m just starting to take advantage of is RSS.

RSS allows any web user to ‘subscribe’ (for free) to an automated feed from a web site. At first, I thought, "hmm, why not just visit the sites you are interested in instead of having the headlines (and summaries) delivered to me in an RSS program or email." Now, I can see that getting customized headlines delivered to me immeadiately is an extension of personalized portal pages like MSN and My Yahoo. In fact, one HUGE reason that Adam and I worked so hard in the fall to redesign and orgainze our site was to be able to offer a clean way of offering RSS on our site.

Is this the guy sending me viagra ads and stock tips?

I had to snap a photo of this with my Treo and post it to the web site. Whether it's the meat (can we call it that?) or the junk we get in our email box, I think it is a peculiar bumper sticker. What do you think?

 

I hate to beat a dead horse, but…

I talk about this almost continuously it seems and hope that I’m preaching to the choir, but the topic comes up constantly in my travels…backup. Backup is probably the least interesting, but certainly the MOST IMPORTANT topic that we can discuss regarding computers.

Today, I ran across yet another computer user whose computer wouldn’t boot up and he didn’t have a backup. Fortunately, he knows a smart guy who can help recover the data, but data recovery is risky, expensive business and the results aren’t always 100%.  I implore and beg you to start and maintain a backup program that will protect your precious digital data in the event of a meltdown. Search our site for the single word "backup" and you will be rewarded with many articles and tips covering backup.

Network Printers

One trend in printers that I am starting to see is the networked printer. Manufacturers are offering network (wired and wireless) options on many new ink jet and laser printers. Network options in a printer means that you can hook the printer directly to a router (device you may already be using to share your high speed Internet) instead of connecting to your computer.

By using a networked printer, the printer is accessible to anyone who is currently connected to the network either via Ethernet or wirelessly. Any new computers must install the printer’s driver before printing. But once configured, you no longer need to have any other computer turned on in order to access the printer. This feature eases the installation and use of a printer that needs to be accessed by many.

Know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em

This Shotgun is going out late because I’m still working on a couple of computer that I brought home with me to repair. Because of some kid commitments, I didn’t get started until after 9pm. Working on sick computers reminds me of my Dad listening to Kenny Rogers sing the card song. Sometimes it just makes sense to fold up the cards, backup data, and completely start over with a computer. It takes a little time, but often less than trying to troubleshoot a knarly problem.

A couple of benefits of starting over with a fresh system are that it forces you to backup and once finished, your system runs as good (or better) than new!