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DVD Burners

Seeing all the blank DVD’s and CD’s in a store can confuse a computer user. And with most computers shipping with a DVD-ROM over the past four or so years, it is even more confusing. And to make matters even more difficult, many CD/DVD-ROM manufacturers have black fronts with black text! Yikes that’s hard to read.

One of my customer’s today assumed that his laptop had a DVD burner because it could play DVD’s. He is not alone as many people fall into the same category…it is not that clearly written. For many years, we used floppy disks and if a computer had a floppy drive, we knew we could read and write to a floppy. Unfortunately, that is not the case today. CD and DVD players come in two primary flavors (I won’t discuss all the hybrids here); ROM (Read Only Memory) and R/RW (Recordable / Re-writable).

Oops…I hate it when I make mistakes

I’m always the first to admit when I make a mistake, but damn I  hate making them! Especially when the mistakes affect a customer I’m working with at the time.

While uninstalling yet another copy of the bloated Norton Internet Security today, I ran into the Norton Password Manager. Unfortunately, some of my work (like anyone else involved in a business) becomes repetitive and robotic and that can lead to potential problems. I was getting "click happy" when I ran into this program (that I honestly had not seen anyone use yet) and before I thought to ask the customer if he used the program, I had already uninstalled the program. Fortunately, I saved the data, but the program was history…even System Restore couldn’t get it back and he didn’t have the CD for re-installation.

Give Picasa a try!

http://www.drwinn.com/graphics/quarter_hourse.gif

I just put that picture there to get your attention. 

I’m not trying to brag, but I know more about digital photography than the average computer user. This is partly due to the fact that I took Photoshop classes in college for about three years.

I love Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, but I can also appreciate that not everyone needs such a powerful program.

Read the bubbles

Computer software makers have tried to make software easier to interact with over the past ten years. The problem is us…not the software. I equate the problems with computers with the problems we have faced for ever in real life.

Doctors tell us not to smoke…it’ll kill you. What do we do? Smoking, although relegated to streets and alleys, remains insanely popular and kills millions every year. Don’t eat too much fat or sweets we are told. "Honey, where shall I pick up food tonight; Dairy Queen, McDonalds or Wendy’s?"

It’s disgusting, I know. We are creatures of habits and don’t like to be told what to do. The advice ALWAYS turns out to be helpful, but we usually find out too late how helpful it would have been. 

Warning: External Hard Drives

One of my mantra’s over the years is about backup. Over the past few days, I have been working for a newer customer who hasn’t heard my sermons.

He had a "computer expert" setup an extremely complex home network and a NAS (Network Attached Storage) backup system. None of this is out of the ordinary. However, unfortunately, this was the only backup the customer had. Last week, his external hard drive failed. All of his important data existed on that drive that was seemingly lost.

External hard drives use the same hard drives we have in our computers with an added few components to allow the drive to function independent of a computer. Problem is that a hard drive is a hard drive…moving parts and all. Moving parts eventually fail and power can quit as well. These increasingly inexpensive devices work fine as a secondary backup…but should never by your primary drive.

Shareware and Freeware – March 2006

We haven’t covered this topic since 1999!

Shareware is software that you can "try before you buy". The developer usually provides the program for free of charge with either some features disabled or a time limit on how long the product can be used. To unlock all the features or use the program past its expiration date, you must pay for a registration number. This type of marketing works quite well for developers who make good products.

Freeware is software that you can use for no cost at all. Developers providing this software usually create the program to either fill a niche or jus practice creating new programs.

Programs by small developers can be found for almost any purpose you need. Everything from organizing pictures to creating labels and from recording music to changing wallpaper. The only places I recommend hunting for and downloading freeware and shareware are:

Download.com
Tucows.com
Nonags.com
Palm Gear (for Palm Pilot users)

10 Things you can do with Broadband Internet

Thanks to lower prices and increased availability, broadband (high speed) Internet is starting to over take dial-up services in the United States. Dial-up Internet served us well for the first 10 years of the Internet, but to really take advantage of the Internet today, a broadband connection is a must.

Here are 10 things that you can do with a high speed connection today that you can’t do (as easily) with a dial-up service:

  1. Keep up to date with Windows and Internet security updates automatically
  2. Google Earth
  3. Download music (legally) at sites like Napster, iTunes, and Rhapsody
  4. Receive and make phone calls while on the Internet…without an extra line!
  5. Watch online news or information videos or listen to online music or news casts without waiting and without the choppiness and stuttering of a dial-up connection
  6. I know many people don’t think that speed matters…but with broadband, the Internet becomes much more of a resource tool than a novelty.
  7. Upload pictures to printing services to either be picked up or mailed to you.
  8. Watch movie trailers
  9. Save time…you can do four times as much research or work with a broadband connection in half the time.
  10. Make free or extremely inexpensive phone calls and video phone calls.

Admittedly, many of these functions can be carried out with a dial-up connection, but studies and my experience have shown that people don’t do these things. The reason? Time. For example, a broadband user can download a song in under 3 minutes. The same song takes nearly 25 minutes with a dial-up connection. Services like Google Earth can take up to 10 or more minutes to start with dial-up.