Email Choices

Posted on April 19, 2010 by darryl nicholas

There are two, basic, methods of handling Email.
#1) You can log onto the internet and then go to some web site (Comcast, Verizon, Google, etc) and conduct your Email activities on that web site. With this method, your Email messages and address book remain on the web site where you are. They are NOT on your own computer.
#2) You can turn on your computer and open your Email browser (Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Live Mail, etc) and conduct your Email activities. With this method, your Email messages and address book remain on your computer.
With method No. 2, you should always set your “accounts” to leave a copy of your messages on the “server” for 4 – 5 days. This gives you several days in which you can always re-download your messages in case anything goes wrong with your computer.
For example, I do most of my Email activity on my desktop computer. But, every now and then, I will be out of town with my laptop and will want to check my Email using my laptop.
Since my laptop and my desktop are both set to tell the Email server to hold a copy of all of my messages for 5 days, after they are first downloaded to either computer, I can always download the same messages on the other computer as long as I do it within 5 days.
Both methods have their strengths and weaknesses. The best one for you depends on you and the way you want to handle things.
If you travel a lot and have to keep up with your Email while you are on the road, maybe #1 is best for you, since with your laptop, and you safely tucked into almost any motel room with Wi-Fi, you can log in to the internet and handle your Email.
Of course, you can have your laptop set up to handle all of your Email.
But, if you don’t travel all that much, maybe #2 would be a better choice, since it allows you to have more direct control over your messages and address book. Also, there are times when you are on a web site and would like to send an Email directly to their customer support from their web site. If you have an Email browser set up on your computer, then it is easy to do. But, if you have all of your Email set up on a computer other than your own, then you cannot.
If you have several different Email accounts, ie, Comcast, Gmail, Yahoo, etc, it is easy to check them all at the same time if you are using your own browser (Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Live Mail, etc) and have it correctly set up on your own computer. Maybe that’s why I prefer this second method best.
In any event, there are lots of different ways to do things. You’ll have to decide which is best for you and the way you like to work.
If you want more information on these two methods of handling Email write to me at colorbat@colorbat.com and I’ll try to help.

Posted in Email | 4 Comments

Keep A Cool Tool, Daddy-O

Posted on April 8, 2010 by darryl nicholas

Yea, I grew up a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away. That was a favorite bit of advice offered in that day. Amazingly, it’s still pretty good advice!
Summer will soon be upon us and over heated computers will soon be crashing everywhere with infrequent regularity. (That means, sometimes occasionally, maybe)
I’ve always known that my wife is a fresh air nut. In the summer she likes to have all the doors and windows open and simply hates such artificial things as air conditioning.
As a result, on hot summer days, with the ceiling fans using perspiration evaporation to keep us humans cool, our computers used to struggle to keep themselves cool by blowing 80 degree+ air across their CPU and other assorted hot things inside the box. You can bet that they’re going to lose the struggle.
If the computer is new, it might survive the first summer. But by the second summer, the heat-sink cooling fins on the CPU will be clogged with assembled dust bunnies reducing the cooling efficiency by double digit percentage points. To protect itself from a certain over heated death, the ol’ CPU will simply shut down a few minutes after you turn it on. Unfortunately, the self-protecting shut-down will, while saving the life of the CPU, eventually result in the corruption of operating system files.
After a couple of days of over heated shut-downs, the files will become so corrupted, that the poor thing will just give up the ghost and refuse to play the game any more. Figure a couple hundred dollars plus for the service technician to tell you that your computer was over heated and to go on and fix the problem. A monstor CPU cooling fan from Zalman is probably the cheapest fix for over heated computers.
Zalman CNPS9900ALED Cooler.jpg
Zalman CPU Fan
Or, you can occasionally, open the side of the computer case, and use a can of pressurized air to blow the dust out of the cooling fins on the heat sink that protects the CPU. Opening the side of the computer case shouldn’t be any scarier than lifting the hood on your automobile. You do check your oil and water every now and then don’t you?
Or, maybe just leaving the air conditioner turned on will keep the ambient air in your house cool enough to keep the computer happy.
In my case, having given up ever convincing my wife to run the central air, I simply installed liquid cooling on our computers. We’ve been using liquid cooling for about 5 years now with never a leak. Even if a leak were to occur, the liquid that we use is a special, non-conductive, liquid. A leak might mean a mess to clean up, but nothing electrical would be shorted out. So, we’ wouldn’t have any damage other than mopping up the mess.
Zalman_Liquid_Cooling.jpg
Liquid cooling will lower the temperature of your CPU about 25°F over what fan cooling is capable of on its best day. This greatly helps to extend the total life expectancy of your CPU and improves performance during heavy usage operations.
By the way, the particular type of liquid that I use is “non-conductive” so if any leaks were to ever occur (so far, I’ve had NONE in 5 years) they will not short out anything electrical. There might be a mess to mop up, but at least nothing electrical will be damaged! A good source for non-conductive fluid is www.xoxide.com
Non-Conductive_Fluid.jpg
Over heated computers are real bad news. Cool computers are happy computers that will be fun to play with!

Posted in Computer Cooling, Trouble Shooting | Leave a comment

Katy, Bar the Door

Posted on April 1, 2010 by darryl nicholas

Before you went to bed last night, did you lock the door? Just how many doors to your house do you have? Maybe a front door and a back door? Do you have a side door? How ’bout a door from the garage? Are you sure that you locked all of them before going to bed?
What about the windows? When was the last time that you checked the windows to see if they, also, are locked? Have you ever gone to bed with a window unlocked? Just how many doors and windows are there in your house for you to keep track of – 10? 15?
Well, if you go to bed, and become unconscious with sleep, and leave a door or window unlocked, you have left yourself vulnerable to having your home invaded by thieves, burgles and other assorted bad guys. Once they’re in, it’s a lot harder to get them out than it would have been to keep them out in the first place.
Are you aware that your computer also has some “doors” and “windows” that can let some bad guys into your computer? On your computer those entry places are called “ports” instead of doors & windows. Wanna take a guess as to how many ports are on your computer?
Would you believe there are over 65,000 ports on your computer! That’s right, Bunkie. And, you probably thought the 10–15 doors & windows on your house was a bunch to keep track of!
Once you connect your computer up to the internet, that single, little, connection opens up over 65,000 ports, any one of which, if left un-locked, can provide a convenient way for a bad guy to crawl inside your computer and start playing with your stuff!
So, while you’re having fun surfing the web of sending your Email, are you sure that your computer’s back door is securely locked?
Microsoft tries to help you by providing a special software utility called a Firewall. It comes free with your computer’s operating system and gets installed automatically when the operating system is installed. That’s nice. Trouble is, it’s about the computer equivalent of putting a screen door hook on the back door and thinking you’ve actually locked the door.
screendoorhock.jpg
What you really need is the equivalent of a good, solid, dead bolt! And, that is what a “hardware version” of a Firewall is all about. The software version of a Firewall that comes free with your computer is nice, but to really put some pressure on the bad guys, you need a good, solid, hardware version of a Firewall. This type of a Firewall is commonly found in a device called a Router.
deadbolt.jpg
Routers do a lot of neat things for the home computer user, but maybe the least appreciated thing that they do is lock the door on all 65,000 of those open ports!
If you’d like to see how many doors & windows are open on your computer go to this web site and enter in your IP address: http://www.auditmypc.com/security-scan.asp
If you don’t know what your IP address is, go to this web site to find out: http://whatismyipaddress.com/
And, remember, “Katy, bar the door”!

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New Eggs For Easter

Posted on March 30, 2010 by darryl nicholas

Don’t you just love Easter? Chocolate candy, colored eggs, little kids having fun, bunnies all over the place, etc.
Oh, yea, Easter is also a religious holiday. Too bad more of us don’t think of that first. I hope the Lord will forgive us and someday judge us kindly. Even if we don’t deserve it.
From a computer point of view, eggs and computers go very well together. Didn’t know that, did you?
It’s true. If you are interested in buying almost anything for your computer, there is a place that you just must know about and check out. It’s called NewEgg.com
That’s right! With a goofy name like that, it is currently the best single-source place to go for almost anything remotely related to computers! They even sell digital cameras! At www.newegg.com you’ll find the largest inventory, and the lowest prices of any place that I know of on the internet.
As a professional computer geek, I have access to several wholesale companies that offer products to us at so-called discount prices. The truth is, I can frequently beat my wholesalers prices at NewEgg.com!
Now, with such great selection and prices, don’t expect a lot of hand holding. You pretty much have to know what you want, because you aren’t likely to find many folks at NewEgg to talk to and ask dumb questions of. That kind of stuff isn’t what they offer.
For question asking, and other related hand holding, try finding a nice computer club near where you live and join it! Here in York, there’s a great group of folks called the York Computer Institute (YCI) that meets once a month and offers tons of hand holding! You can also sign up for classes in various computer topics, meet new people and generally get to know you computer on a deep, personal, level. And, (small drum roll, please), you can even get to meet (humble) me! I’ll be the guy in the corner stuffing his face with Humble Pie, delivered fresh from the Stoltzfus Humble Pie Factory over in Intercourse Pennsylvania!
If you will send an Email to me at colorbat@colorbat.com, I’ll send you back some information about YCI and when their next meeting will be held.
Don’t be shy. Suck it up and go to the next YCI meeting and see if there isn’t a tad more you can learn about you machine! I’ll share my pie with you!

Posted in Sources for Parts | 4 Comments

College Students Rejoice!

Posted on March 29, 2010 by darryl nicholas

At long last, your noble status as a college student is finally being recognized and in a very tangible way.
Microsoft has finally decided to cough up some benefits to students and teachers. Of course, you’ll have to be able to prove that you “are one” in order to receive these benefits!
For some time now, Microsoft has been working on their next version of Microsoft Office. It will be called Microsoft Office 2010. The current version is called Microsoft Office 2007. There is no such thing as Office 2009.
You can expect Office 2010 to look a little different from Office 2007. Microsoft has modified the “tab” design at the top of each application – a little.
And, if you can satisfy Microsoft that you are really a student or teacher, you can buy Microsoft Office 2007 (and then download a free copy of Office 2010 Ultimate) for 91% off the regular retail price. That brings your cost down to only $59.95! The Ultimate version of Office 2010 is the top-of-the-line version that includes ALL of the Microsoft Office programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Grove, Publisher, Access, and InfoPath.
Office_Discount.jpg
And, say “Hey”, Bunkie, if you aren’t sure what some of those programs do or just how to use them, no sweat! The friendly folks at York Computer Institute are now offering classes that can get you up to speed real fast! Call 717-718-5266 for all the details.
While you’re on the Microsoft web site ordering your (almost free) copy of Office, you can also get a copy of Win-7 Professional UpGrade for only $64.95. You can use that to upgrade your current version of Win-XP or Vista to the new, Win-7 Professional.
My best guess is that about 90% of all computers that are running Win-XP can be successfully upgraded to Win-7. And about 100% of all computers that are currently running Vista can be successfully upgraded to Win-7.
Anyway, to take advantage of this deal, surf on over to:
http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx
And start filling out the form.
What a goodie for Spring Break!

Posted in Microsoft Office, Win-7 & Vista Features | Leave a comment

And, The Days Dwindle Down to a Precious Few

Posted on March 26, 2010 by darryl nicholas

Too bad. Too bad. Things keep changing and not always for the better.
I, like many of you, have been using a computer that runs in the 32-bit mode for lo these many years. But, old fashioned, 32-bit, CPU’s and motherboards that support them are on the way out. Yes, you can still get a few, but they are now being rapidly replaced by the newer (and much faster) 64-bit CPU’s and motherboards. It’s called progress.
Unfortunately, like a lot of other progressive things, not all of the old stuff will continue to work with the newer stuff – as I am discovering about 64-bit CPU’s and motherboards.
My latest disappointment is learning that my beloved scanners will no longer work from within the Adobe Photoshop application when running under 64-bit mode.
Oh, the scanners will still work. It’s just that they can no longer hand off their captured file directly to the Photoshop application. You now have to perform the scan and save it to the hard drive; then “open” it in Photoshop from the hard drive – several extra steps that I’m loath to perform.
It seems that Adobe has dropped the TWAIN driver, that previously allowed Photoshop to “import” the scanner application, from their 64-bit code. Apparently, the TWAIN thingy was never too righteous in the first place and has been causing some problems for Adobe in recent years. (It always worked fine for me!) So, when they released their new 64-bit code for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, they simply dropped TWAIN all together with no intentions of ever going back. Ahh, for the good ol’ days.
For those of you who are wondering (or should I say wandering?), in order to switch to the faster, and inevitably soon-to-be, the only, 64-bit mode on your computer, you must first have a motherboard that can accommodate a CPU that has been manufactured to run in 64-bit mode. Up until recently all CPU’s ran only in 32-bit mode. Then, once the CPU is capable of the faster mode, you next have to have an operating system that will run (correctly–not buggy) in the 64-bit mode. Both VISTA and Win-7 will operate correctly in 64-bit mode. Of course, you have to intentionally install the 64-bit version of the operating system code. After that, you have an official 64-bit computer!
Fortunately most programs will run nicely under the 64-bit CPU mode. Most, that is, except for the TWAIN part of Photoshop!
You can read Adobe’s side of the matter at: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405072.html

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My Gigabytes are Faster than Your Gigabytes

Posted on March 25, 2010 by darryl nicholas

For several years the poor-man’s method of performing computer backups has been to use external hard drives connected to the computer with a USB 2.0 cable.
And, it works – if you don’t fall asleep waiting on it to finish up! USB 2.0 cables transfer data at a blazing 480 megabytes per second (Mbps). That’s nice, until you have a 500 GB hard drive that is about half full and you need to back it up! I’ve seen Amos’ buggy going faster than that!
Well, Bunkie, your Long Winter of Discontent is over! Cheer, clap, scream & celebrate! USB 3.0 is here!
You can now buy external hard drives that connect to your computer with a USB 3.0 cable.
USB 3.0 promises a theoretical maximum rate of about 5Gbps, meaning it’s 10 times faster than USB 2.0. USB 3.0 is also full duplex, meaning it can upload and download simultaneously (it’s bi-directional); USB 2.0 is only half duplex.
Put side by side with eSATA and FireWire 800, USB 3.0 is far superior. eSATA, an external connection that runs at the same speed as the internal SATA 1.0 bus, has a maximum theoretical transfer rate of 3Gbps. This makes USB 3.0 faster than eSATA and about six times faster than FireWire 800 (full duplex at 800Mbps).
USB 3.0 also provides another advantage; while eSATA is faster than FireWire 800, unlike FireWire it cannot supply power. USB 3.0 has the advantage of being faster than both, even while supplying power.
Finally, USB 3.0 has improved power management, meaning that devices can move into idle, suspend, and sleep states. This could mean more battery life out of laptops and other battery-based USB-supporting devices like cameras and mobile phones.
And you thought USB 3.0 was just another pretty face! For shame, Bunkie!
By the way, if your external hard drive is a SATA II drive (that’s about all they’re making these days) it will be capable of read/write transfers of about 300 Gbps. That is way faster than the USB 3.0 or any other method of external connection. So, in the end, backing up data on an external drive is still sorta slow compared to moving the hard drive inside the case, and doing your backups to an INTERNAL hard drive!
There is one catch, however to using the new USB 3.0 method of connection. You have to have a computer that can handle USB 3.0. That means either a new motherboard for that old piece of junk you embarrassingly call a computer, or, a PCI controller card to adapt your old relic to the USB 3.0 standard. Plan on shelling out about $45 to get with the program!
Oh, one last thing. As if USB 3.0 wasn’t reason enough for up-grading to a new, honking, computer, if you up-grade now, you can move up to Intel i7 and DDR4 RAM! Unless of course, you just want me to tell everyone that I know a sissy who is still using DDR3 with an old fashioned Core 2 Duo processor!

Posted in USB 3.0 | Leave a comment

The Harvey Head Cleaner

Posted on March 22, 2010 by darryl nicholas

Not to be confused with The Harvey Wallbanger, which really does not clean your head at all, the Harvey Head Cleaner is one slick lil’ application for all of you Epson ink jet printer users.
Epson printers are probably the printer of choice among most photo-printing professionals because of the archival ink that Epson makes available. Images are said to have 100 – 200 years of archival stability. Photographers just love that stuff!
Unfortunately, if you don’t turn the machine on and print something about every other day, the little nozzles will dry out and clog up. That wouldn’t be so bad, except that because of the chemical nature of the archival ink, once it dries out, it doesn’t like to re-dissolve and go back into solution from simple head-cleaning processes. The archival (pigmented) ink is a bit like acrylic paint that you might use in your home – your rollers and brushes clean up with water very nicely if they are still wet. But, once the acrylic paint dries on your walls, you can wash the wall with water and you don’t wash the paint off – because it doesn’t like to re-dissolve and go back into solution once it has dried. Don’t bother trying to understand it, it’s a chemical thing that only a Nurd could love.
The answer to all clogged ink jet printers is to USE THEM! If you use them at least every other day, they will be gloriously happy and server your bidding for years. However, the minute they feel unloved and unnecessary (from lack of adequate happy-time with you) they get real cranky – not unlike some girl friends that I have known.
I get Email from folks who go away for a couple of weeks on vacation only to come home to a dried out printer. What can be done?
Harvey Head Cleaner to the rescue! Go to: http://www.harveyheadcleaner.com to add this bit of magic to your stash.
This neat utility utilizes the operating system’s Scheduler to send a little test pattern to your printer on a schedule that you determine. Just load your printer up with junk paper and tell Harvey Head Cleaner to print a test pattern every night at 2:00am!
Yes, Dufus, you have to leave your computer and printer turned on. Go into Control Panel and set your computer’s Power Settings to turn the monitor & hard drives off after about 30 minutes of non-use. Do not set the power settings to put your computer to “sleep” or to go into “hibernate mode”. With the Power Settings properly adjusted, Harvey Head Cleaner will be able to wake the computer up when it is time to print the test patterns. After that, the computer will go back into the Power Saving mode so as not to wear anything out or use too much electricity.
Now, that you have Harvey Head Cleaner working for you, you can go get that Harvey Wallbanger and give your head a real treat!

Posted in Ink Jet Printers | Leave a comment

Let There Be Light!

Posted on March 20, 2010 by darryl nicholas

And, behold, I moved my hand and a great light fell upon the box called “computer”! And, the monitor glowed and gave fourth pretty colors. And, it was good. And, I rested.
WOW! Don’t you just love playing God!
I sure do. And, now with the help of Mrs. Gates little boy, Billy, There is a God Mode built into Windows-7! You, too, can enter the God Mode and be omnipotent!
Here’s how it works. The Win-7 interface is intentionally designed to be sort of clean and minimalist – no clutter, just the bare essentials.
However, in fact, there’s even more adjustments and doo-dads in Win-7 then any operating system before it! They’re just sort of stored out of sight so as to not confuse the smiling, happy, geekless ones among us. All you have to do is to go into Control Panel (it still is part of the operating system) and then dig through several hundred layers of confusing nested folders to finally find the one thing that you might want.
But, wait! If you know how to do it, there is a built-in God Mode in Win-7 (and Vista) that will put everything at your fingertips with only a double click of the mouse!
In order to open this magical door to the Pearly Gates here’s what you must do.
First, go to church on Sunday. Eat your vegetables and take your vitamins. And finally, right click on your desktop.
From the fly out menum, click on NEW and create a New Folder.
Rename the folder as follows:
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
You might want to Copy & Paste that Folder Title to avoid typing mistakes. Be sure to include the curly brackets and the period after the word GodMode.
Then, simply double click on the folder and it will open up like the Gates of Heaven and display such a plethora of things that only the Blessed Ones can imagine!
Be careful if you try this on Vista 64-bit or Win-7 64-bit computers. On some (64-bit) computers (God only knows why) the computer will crash. Others work just fine. Go figure! If you try it and your computer crashes, just reboot and delete the folder and don’t do it again!
This simple command, will create a shortcut to the God Mode option letting you access all of the operating system’s hidden and secret functions via a handy GUI (Graphic User Interface… for those eger learners among us)!
No need to thank me, just send your tithes to me, care of the Church of the Holy Geek, 3rd Planet from the Sun, Via Lactea Galaxy.

Posted in Win-7 & Vista Features | 1 Comment

Your Do-Hinky Did What?

Posted on March 19, 2010 by darryl nicholas

Look, if your do-hinky rubs against the watch-a-ma-call-it for too long, you can be sure that the lil’ widget will run wild! Of course, I’m right, and you know it!
Or, do you? In fact, do you have the foggiest idea what I’m talking about?
When we talk to each other, words are important. They help us to clearly express ourselves and communicate what we really want the other person to know. You-know!
So, if you ever expect to be able to deal with computer stuff, you’ve just got to learn a few key words and know what they mean.
Hard Drive, for example. That is the thing in your computer where lots of stuff is stored. Think of it as a giant file cabinet. Actually, it is a lot like a 45RPM record player, in that there is a stack spinning disks and a play-back (and record) arm for each disk inside the device. You can record information on the hard drive and you can erase stuff and replace the old stuff with new stuff. The bigger the hard drive’s storage capacity, the more room you have in the file cabinet to store stuff. Today, a C: drive (the main hard drive in a computer) might be capable of storing a couple of hundred gigabytes of data.
That’s another good word, gigabyte (GB). A single GB is equal to a thousand megabytes (MB). And, a single megabyte is equal to a thousand kilobytes (KB). If you were to type out a single page letter, it would take up about 2-300 kilobytes. A single 8×10 photograph takes up about 20 megabytes.
Then, there’s the RAM. That stands for Random Access Memory. It is where the computer stores information on a very temporary basis. Recording into, or reading back from, RAM is extremely fast and just what the computer needs to keep up with all the stuff that you do. However, when you turn your computer off, everything that was stored in RAM is lost. That’s why it isn’t good when your computer crashes (shuts down unexpectedly). Stuff that you might be working on, but not yet saved to the hard drive, gets lost when a crash occurs. The more RAM you have the faster and easier the computer can do things for you. With the Windows-XP operating system, we used to recommend about 4 GB of RAM. Now, with the Windows-7 operating system, we are recommending about 6 – 12 GB of RAM.
Of course, there’s several hundred other catchy words that are nice to scatter through your conversation with non-geeky folks. If you’ve heard a new word and aren’t sure what it means, let me know. If it’s a computer word, maybe I can help.

Posted in Word Definitions | Leave a comment