I believe that I’ve written about this before, but since I ran into this phenomenom at least three times over the past week, it bares mentioning again. Many dial-up Internet users using Windows 98 or Me buy a new computer and after taking it home setting it up and jumping online with their dial-up systems find that the Internet and email are just as slow as their hold systems. I then get the question, "Why?"
As Adam and I transition to a purely web based help site (except for our daily businesses providing on-site help in Grand Junction, CO of course), we will be experimenting a little with the look, feel and function of the site to make the sections more clear and the content even more readable and usable. Let us know what you think of this particular rendition of our site "theme" by leaving a comment below. It may or may not be permanent, but we wanted to test drive it for a few days.
Although I buy a few things per year on eBay, I haven't sold anything on eBay for a little more than two years. I had eight items that I needed to sell so I logged into my account today and found that posting an item for sale is much easier than it was two years ago. Creating the description (some items can be automatically built from a stock description) is easier, making your posting look professional and clean is easier, adding pictures is easier (first picture is free, then only fifteen cents per picture after that), and working through pricing your item (hint: always start at $.01 to lower your listing cost AND generate interest in your item).
I worked with a business client today who runs their cash register computers from a "server" computer in the back of the store. Their server is really a normal computer that just shares the data about the stores customer's and products. The actual program exists on each of the register's computers. In larger businesses like banks, Home Depot's, etc, true servers deliver the program and data to the cash registers and need to be very powerful. In the situation I described with my client's system, the "server" computer doesn't do a lot of work so it doesn't have to be too powerful.
I believe Adam or I have written on this topic before, but I worked with a situation yesterday that was disturbing enough that I needed to bring this topic up again. We continually talk about friends or family members who like working with computers and then like to help out your computer. IF the help revolves around something mundane like plugging the power into your power strip or maybe changing an ink cartridge, then by all means let them help you.
As I look back over the past few years, I am very proud of the progress Adam and I have put into the site. My goal from day 1 for our web site and show, and Adam adopted the goal when he joined me nearly 7 years ago, was to provide the easiest to understand and most practical computer advice on the web, radio, or anywhere. I believe that we have succeeded in meeting that goal and continue to improve upon that goal every single day.
After months of consideration, we agreed that we can do even MORE for our web site visitors, show listeners, and computer users yet to visit the site if we focus our energies on further enriching the site's content and offering new ways to interact with us and the site.
One more day left in our first annual "Ubuntu Week", and I have another great tip for all of us Ubuntu beginners. In Ubuntu, there is no "Start" button like Windows. Instead, I think the Ubuntu creators came up with a more elegant and intuitive format for accessing programs we use, navigating our saved files, networks and operating system options and preferences.
Watch the video below for a video and audio tour of Ubuntu's navigation options.
In our ongoing "Ubuntu Week" series of articles, today's tip focuses on computer safety. No matter what operating system you may use, the most important skills you can learn for your computer's safety is updating the operating system. All operating systems, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris, BeOS, etc. offer security and system updates from time-to-time. These updates fix problems found in the software and shore up security holes found through research or hackers.
Ubuntu Linux implementation of Automatic Updates works quite well and is painless to maintain. Today's video tip shows you the steps to take to make sure your Ubuntu system is running the latest in system and security updates.
This week, I will be posting and using only my Ubuntu laptop. Expect some short how-to videos from the Ubuntu world all week long culminating with our interview on Saturday with David Overcash from the Colorado LoCo Ubuntu team . An Ubuntu LoCo team is a regionally established group of Ubuntu experts who promote and support Ubuntu users in their region. We look forward to talking with David on Saturday, and the how-to videos for this week will give you further insight into the world of Ubuntu Linux.
If you missed my introductory video of Ubuntu Linux, click here to watch the video.
This is a three part video tip showing how to setup and use email in Ubuntu Linux using the included Evolution software. Evolution is a full fledged Personal Information Manager (PIM) that can perform calendaring, tasks, email, contact management and more. Think of it as Outlook for Linux, but easier.