When traveling during the holidays or any time, it is extremely important to stay safe when using public wifi (Internet) at airports, coffee shops, hotels, etc. I recently came across a tool called Hotspot Shield that allows you to create a secure and private connection for all your browsing and email. It’s the same type of security that companies use… Read More »Stay safe when using public WiFi – Video Tip
Every year computer users using the Internet to check account balances, transactions, and even paying bills grows by nearly 30%. According to one Pew study, more than 50 million Americans use online banking services. 50 million sounds like a large number, but that still reflects less than 50% of online American adults. Bank web sites continue to evolve by becoming easier to use, more secure, and more helpful than ever before. In fact, many banks rather that their customers check their web site for answers rather than call or visit a branch. However, many people shy away from online banking because of security fears.
I?m going to outline, for you, five simple steps that you can take to keep yourself and your finances safe on the Internet.
Right now, I carry an iPhone, an Asus EeePC netbook (running Ubuntu 10.04 NBR) on a daily work day basis. When I travel, I carry the iPhone and usually the EeePC. I also own a 13″ Toshiba laptop that I dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7, but I only use the Toshiba only for teaching and presentations.
My thought process is:
As a traveling tech trainer and troubleshooter, my netbook is extremely handy to have with me when Read More »Re-thinking my mobile tech
I graduated from college almost 10 years before computers started being a main stream college accessory. I would love to be a student again not only because I enjoy learning, but I would love to have access to the technologies today’s students use every day.
The most advanced piece of tech I used in college was the HP 41 CV programmable calculator with the magnetic card strip reader attachment. I loved that calculator, and to this day, it is the only kind of machine I have truly programmed. Yikes, sorry for the geek flashback.
If I was going to college this fall, I would take and useRead More »7 Tech items I would take to college
I forgot to post the podcast from yesterday, but here it is now! We had yet another fun and informative show. In this month’s episode, we talked about laptops for college students, the upcoming Palm Pre smartphone from Sprint, and of course many other topics. Have a listen! And more importantly, remember to listen next month. The next show will… Read More »Computer Help Show Podcast – 05-20-09
Millions of high schoolers will be graduating soon and will be leaving for their respective campuses (campii?) at the end of the summer. These students will more than likely go to college with a computer…probably a laptop. I would like to suggest two possible laptops ideas for these students.
Both of my ideas involve good systems that will allow college kids to word process, chat, email, listen to music, watch DVD’s, browse the web wirelessly(for school research of course), create presentations, spreadsheets, download and edit photos and much more. Neither involve Windows and thus don’t require a degree in computer security and maintenance. One of the computers costs between $1200-1800 and the other costs less than $700.
My recommendations stem from first hand accounts from parents whose college kids call home frequently with tales of woe about a slow, non-functioning new computer. Students need to have their computers operational, and running around to the campus IT people or dropping the computer at a fix-it shop for expensive repairs. These two recommendations will keep calls home for repair money, tales of woe, and computer down time to a bare minimum.Read More »2 laptop suggestions for college students
Since laptops now out-sale desktops, I decided to bring this tip out of the archives.
We had a call last weekend, and I get the same question from many laptop users: “Why is the battery life on my laptop so poor?”. The biggest reason is that the battery doesn’t get enough exercise. Most rechargeable batteries today don’t have the memory problem like they did eight and ten years ago. However, unless the battery does get used on occasion, it tends to lose its ability to hold a charge.
Even if you don’t take your laptop outside of the home, I recommend that you run your laptop off of the battery at least twice per month. You don’t have to drain the battery all the way down (some battery experts say not to let it completely deplete ever), but use it until it’s pretty close to empty then plug it back in to recharge. Cycling the charging and depleting of the battery will give your laptop many more productive hours of battery time.
When running from the battery, your laptop will show a little blue battery icon by your clock that shows the approximate batter life remaining. The time shown isn’t 100% accurate, but gives you a quick place to eyeball the remaining time you have on your battery.
I just finished installing the Windows 7 Beta version released by Microsoft on Friday. I installed it on my Toshiba Intel dual-core processor with 4 GB of RAM. It was running Windows Vista which took more than 4 minutes to fully boot (I consider the boot up process to be finished when the hard drive stops spinning and I don’t have to compete with a still booting computer to do what I want to do), and running any applications was like walking through molasses. I can say that my expectations were pretty low, but I am pleasantly surprised…so far.
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!
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.