Wow, lots of laptop questions ranging from heat problems, to college student recommendations, installing Flash player and much more. A jam packed edition this week with questions brought to you by: Marcia, Brian, Kristina, Theola, Larry, Phil, Gloria, Pat, Charles, Ron, Jonny, Helen, Tom, Steve, David, and Jean! Take a look!
While counseling a customer on buying a new computer recently, the customer asked if a 500 gigabyte drive was ok compared to another a computer that had a 640 GB hard drive. Other than hard drive capacity, the machines were pretty equal. Unless the person plans to store their 2000 album music collection, edit feature length movies, or are designing the next skyscraper for Dubai, I have them go through this simple exercise:
When the pie chart appears, I ask them to tell me what the total capacity of the drive is (in the woman’s case I was helping today, it was 20 GB), then I ask them to tell me how much of the drive is being used (the blue part of the chart and in this woman’s case it was 8 GB). Then I ask them how long they have used the computer and in her case it was 6 or 7 years.
The demonstration solidifies the answer for them and will for you too if you need to decide what kind of hard drive capacity is needed when buying a new computer.
Questions about converting to Firefox, malfunctioning keyboards, Wordpress consulting, Norton 360 problems, video editing, the Magic Jack phone, and more are brought to you by Dixie, Kitty, Jill, Anne, Diane, Elaine, Amber, Norma, Rich and Mike! Have a look!!
Last spring I introduced you to Mozy Online Backup. I have been using the service for more than a year now and couldn’t be happier. In that time, I helped many clients (individuals and businesses) sign up as well. The service works great, offers peace of mind, and is extremely affordable. If you haven’t read my original article about Mozy, make sure to read it and then watch the video on how to set it up. Like insurance, you hope to never use it, but you will be awfully happy when need it.
Some wide ranging questions this week about strange AVG and keyboard problems, Ubuntu, transferring files to a new computer, a Kim Komando mention??, AOL high speed, and much more. Brought to you by questions from Joan, Janet, Jon, Karen, James, Charley, Mike, Joe, Geri, Don, Papa C, Howard and Anne.
Brought to you by questions from Paul, Pat, John, Luke, Jose, Pam, Gloria, Mark, Jon, Nicole, James, Laureen, Anne, Larry, Don, and Papa C. They asked questions about web editing, web surfing on a Mac with OS9, installing AVG, installing Windows Vista SP 1, creating a shortcut to the Clipboard Viewer and much more.
I answer questions about Palm handheld computers, custom XP & Ubuntu computers, the AVG update outage (relax, you are protected), resizing photos for email, freeing up disk space and more. This episode is brought to you by: Gail, Gene, Salma, Jason, Jean, Elizabeth, Greg, Rajesh, Laurie, J, and Joe.
Oh, and I also reveal who I voted for in Tuesday’s presidential election…but you have to watch!
What a week! For some reason, my scheduling went a little awry this week and made for some long days. In addition to my scheduling problems, however, I could have saved a ton of time (thus the 3 day hiatus of new posts) and my clients could have saved a lot of money if they were more diligent about backing up their data and keeping track of passwords and software.
This web site is exactly the same age as my business…almost 13 years old. In those thirteen years, I can emphatically claim that customers who read my site daily and follow the advice and tips have far less problems and trouble with their computers than those who never visit. And when regular readers of HelpMeRick.com do need an on site consultation from me, they rarely last longer than an hour and usually involve more instruction that troubleshooting. After building this site for 13 years and adding to it almost daily, I can answer at least eighty percent of the most common computer questions with articles found right here at HelpMeRick.com.
I pose the question to you, the faithful HelpMeRick.com visitor: What can
Many good questions this week ranging from Cameroon Pet Scams to using Outlook vs. Outlook Express, Picasa printing, sound card problems, and much more. Questions this are brought to you by: Don, Irv, Margie, Rosie, David, Dave, Dave, Marcel, and Tom. Take a look!
My old cordless mouse quit on me this week. It was a simple Logitech 2 button scroll mouse (optical). I’m not a big fan, actually I’m not a fan at all of mice with all the extra buttons and features. I want a simple 2 button mouse with a scroll wheel. As I was shopping, I noticed that the only simple mice were either cheap crap, corded (I wanted cordless), or came bundled with a keyboard. Since I didn’t need a keyboard, I thought I was out of luck. There are simple 2 button laptop mice, but for everyday use that’s a little too small for me. After almost giving up, I spotted and tried out the Microsoft Arc Mouse. It’s a futuristic looking rodent, cordless, has a micro USB adapter, and has only one extra button (a back button on the left side that is easy to avoid). I tried it side-by-side with one of the simple mice bundled with the keyboards and it felt good.
The arc seems to provide three functional purposes:
I’m on day 3 with the Microsoft Arc Mouse and am extremely pleased with the purchase. At around $50-60, the Microsoft Arc Mouse costs about 20-40% more than other good mice, but for the 
comfort, unique and functional design, and lack of too many extra buttons, I think the cost is justified.