Use Your Digital Camera to Take Inventory
Planning for a disaster seems almost pessimistic to some, but in the long run, planning for the worst can save you. I talk about backup of your important digital data all the time, and this week’s tip takes the term backup a little closer to home.
One great, practical use of your digital camera is to take inventory of your personal belongings. Use your camera to photograph your heir loom china, your classic car, your stereo and TV equipment, your video collection, appliances, and furniture. Because you don’t have to worry about film, take pictures of anything and everything of value to you in and around your home.
Print your Digital Photos with a Developer
Digital camera owners typically take three to four times as many photos than their film counterparts. And why not…there are no developing or film costs. However, the printer industry would love for you to print out all those photos you are taking.
With digital, the potential savings can be huge IF you approach the printing process as I outline below:
- Backup all your photos to a CD (preferably make at least two backups) as these files are your ‘digital negatives’
- Not every photo needs to be printed
- Only print the photos you will frame, scrapbook, hang on the fridge, or send to friends or family
- Print them at the size appropriate for the occasion
- Use your home printer to print just the fridge and occasional scrap book photos Yes, do not use your home printer to print the majority of your shots. Instead, carefully pick out the photos you want printed, copy them to a CD, and take them to a local film developer.
Most photo labs today will print your digital memories. Using a photo lab to print your digital pics offers many advantages: * Cheaper (less than 20 cents per photo vs. well over a dollar per photo for prints from your ink jet)
Flash Memory Drives
A flash memory drive (a.k.a. thumb drive or USB drive) consists of a chip of memory (flash) mounted in a plastic case with a USB interface on one end (see the illustration for some examples). With Windows Me, 2000, XP and Macintosh computers, flash memory drives automatically get recognized as another storage drive on your computer. No installation CD’s, no formatting, just fast, safe removable storage.
In addition to their instant recognition and portability, flash drives offer the BEST way to backup day-to-day information like financial data, address books, genealogy, word processing documents, and spreadsheet documents.
Two other great advantages of flash drives are their speed and durability. You can copy 200 megabytes worth of data (literally thousands of word processing documents), in less than a minute! And because there are NO moving parts, the memory is quite stable and long lasting.
To use a flash memory drive, follow these steps:
1. Insert the drive into a USB port on your computer.
2. Wait approximately a minute (first time only) for the computer to recognize and install the device (Windows 98 need to install a driver)
3. Double-Click your My Computer icon to verify that another drive shows up (usually the first letter after your CD-ROM
4. In Windows XP, you can now RIGHT click on any folder or file and then Click Send To —> Removable Drive. This will instantly make a copy of the document or folder on your flash drive.
5. In Windows Me or 2000, you can copy and paste a folder or file to the flash drive or open the flash drive in a new window and drag your files to it
6. If you use a financial program, simply use the program’s built-in backup function and have it back up to your flash drive
7. To delete information from a flash memory drive, open up its icon in My Computer, then click on the file or folder you want to delete, and push DELETE on your keyboard
Computer Add-ons and
Adding a few computer components or peripherals to your computer can breathe new life into your system and make you more productive at the same time. In this week’s tip, you will find some easy ‘do-it-yourself’ ideas for your computer.
Cordless Mouse and/or Keyboard
Lose the wires! Cordless mice make a great gift for a computing friend, and certainly for yourself. When shopping for one, make sure to get an optical mouse…unlike their predecessors with the little ball in the body, optical mice never get dirty or ‘sticky’ when moving them on your desk. Cordless keyboards help you optimally position your keyboard without having to stretch or strain the cords.