Castellini on Computers FREE Weekly Email NEWSLETTER
August 21, 2007

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In this week's issue. . .

*** TIP OF THE WEEK

*** GEEK SPEEK OF THE WEEK - (Simple definition of common computer terms)

*** COMPUTER NEWS...and comment

*** LAST WEEK'S POLL RESULTS

*** ADAM'S COMMENTS - Stuff from the digital world that is rolling around in Adam's head.

*** Email of the week

School has started for much of the US and we will celebrate with a special back to school edition of our show this Thursday.

We will discuss how to shop for a new computer, the best free software to load it with, how to keep your new computer running well and much more. Don't miss it.

We also have a new number for the show where you can call and talk with us live or leave a message during the week and we will answer it on the show.

Call us at 970-812-0135. Since the show is after 9pm, you can use some of your free night and weekend minutes.

Email  your questions to us and we will answer them live on the air or on our daily website updates!

CUSTOM COMPUTER HELP FROM RICK & ADAM

We have been posting a new how-to video every week since November and the feedback has been tremendous. Now YOU have the opportunity to get your own customized video tutorial about a topic that you are having trouble with or just want to learn.

To learn more, visit: www.HelpMeRick.com/videohelp

TIP OF THE WEEK
Pros and Cons of  External Hard Drives as Backup

Regular visitors to our site and listeners to our show know that we continually talk about the importance of backing up your computer. Many computer users rely on external hard drives these days for their primary backup. And, yes, external hard drives are quick and convenient, but because they are hard drives and subject to electrical or mechanical failure, I still highly recommend that all computer users backup their most precious data (pictures, address books, documents, etc) on external media like a DVD+R.

DVD+R media prices have dropped dramatically over the past few years and dual-layer DVD burners that can read and write any CD or DVD media cost less than $75 and sometimes under $50. Do yourself a favor, install a new DVD burner in your system if you don't already have one. The increased capacity and peace-of-mind of DVD backup puts you well ahead of computer users who have to fret if something goes wrong with their computer.

OK, the particulars are out of the way, watch this short video demonstrating how to install a DVD burner (or any optical drive).

GEEK SPEEK

Hard drives continue to fall in price. You can now get over 300 gigs for well under $100.

This makes external hard drives the most affordable backup option for large amounts of data such as pictures, music and movies. However, we recommend that you use caution and don't make your external hard drive your only method of backup.

External hard drives are a cheap, fast and easy to use backup technique. But, at the same time, they are one of the most fragile mediums to backup on to.

There are two properties of external hard drives that make them vulnerable to problems. They have moving parts and they are electronic.

In order for your hard drive to read and write data it uses tiny readers called heads to write and retrieve the data on the drive. If these tiny heads wear out, get knocked out of  place or malfunction, your data will be  difficult to retrieve at best, and will become completely corrupted at worst.  The worst case scenario is highly likely.

The disks inside also spin at thousands of revolutions per minute. If the motor stops working, the drive will not read or write.

Hard drives run on electricity and hard drives tend to be more fragile than many other devices when it comes to power surges and other electrical issues. A good jolt of lightning (even behind a surge protector) can knock out your hard drive in an instant.

Hard drives make a good routine backup method, but for archiving photos, music and large amounts of data DVDs and CDs are the most reliable way to go for long term storage.

As for programs like Quicken, genealogy software and your email address book, it is best to use a USB flash drive for backup. Better yet, get several and rotate them often.

HARD DRIVES as backup

COMPUTER NEWS...and comment

HP PRINTER NEWS
HP printer sales have been on a steady decline for a number of years. In an attempt to get some of the market back, HP is releasing a whole new printer lineup and adding some new software to the mix.

No one consulted us about this, we can easily tell HP why their sales are falling and the reasons are many.

1. Their software does too much. A printer driver should be a printer driver, not a suite of programs that takes 25 minutes to install and places five icons on the desktop.

2. Unnecessary consumables. All printers require ink or toner, but HP takes this nearly to the point of extortion by separating the inks, adding drums and heads that need replaced often and using a monitoring system that makes you change the consumables long before they are actually expired.
 
3. Complicated interface. Two years ago people would fall for features like a color LCD screen, media reader and lots of buttons, but by now most people have caught on to the fact that most of these features are gimmicks or go unused.

SPIDERMAN NEWS
Scientists are one step closer to bringing Spiderman's wall-climbing abilities into the real world.

Physicists at Polytech of Turin have drawn out a diagram of adhesive forces that will likely be strong enough to suspend full body weight against a wall or ceiling.

The development of a Spiderman suit is a long ways away as it would depend on nano technology which is still in theoretical stages.

Scientists have been studying the possibility of nano Velcro for a long time using the gecko lizard as a model. This is the first theory that defines materials and methods that can most likely be used.

SYMANTEC NEWS
Norton Antivirus and Norton Internet Security 2008 hit the shelves this week. DON'T BUY THEM!

Just as a reminder, viruses can cause your computer to run slow, cause obscure errors, and prevent you from connecting properly to the Internet. These are also common problems we see caused by Norton products. Only viruses are free. Norton costs between $50-$150.

Instead, use the security advice we have in many places at HelpMeRick.com

WINDOWS NEWS
Microsoft announced this week that they will be beta testing Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) in September. The final product is expected early next year (that means end of next year that the earliest). This is the earliest that Microsoft has ever released a service pack for one of its operating systems.

A service pack is a a large update that fixes glitches and adds important capabilities that were left out of the version available on the shelf. Draw your own conclusions.

POLL Results

Did you or will you buy a computer this "Back to School" season?

Next week's poll:
Do you spell check your email?

It was rough at first, but I really like it now    7%

It is too slow and I'm regretting ever getting it. 15%
 

I have had few or no problems with Vista    11%

I don't have Windows Vista     60%

What is Vista?    2%

Other...please leave a comment below! 5%

ADAM'S COMMENTS

Copying software, music or movies without paying for them is illegal. Anything that is illegal is wrong.

I was at the Goodwill this week and looking through their CD collection this week and it got me to wondering if buying a used CD was technically legal. The artist has collected the royalties from the original sale, but does that make it OK?

Are libraries legal? Every book I read from the library is a book that I will likely never buy. Same goes for magazines. I can go to the library and read any issue of any magazine without having to subscribe. Today most libraries even have music and movies available for checkout.

True, someone has paid for those items, but what about all of the lost sales and royalties from people who borrowed but didn't buy?

Back to my Goodwill analogy, if I buy a shirt from Goodwill that is still in new or near-new condition, am I stealing royalties from the designer?

If the fact that the library, thrift store or yard sale host has already paid for  these items, doesn't that weaken case against file sharing and illegal piracy.

If someone pays for a song then gives it to someone else, is that illegal? Yes.

If someone buys a Rolex then lets each of his neighbors wear it on alternating days, is that illegal? No.

If someone buys a fake Rolex, pirated copy of Windows or pirated movie, and they never would have purchased the item otherwise, are royalties lost?

I need to be clear, I am not writing in support of piracy. I am just trying to follow the logic behind the various anti-piracy laws. While it may sound crazy, I also wonder if it will be illegal a few years from now for libraries, thrift stores and yard sales to have certain items for sale.

EMAIL OF THE WEEK

Rick,

Is AVG downloadable for a mac?  Everything I read said pc.  For the greeting card virus, is their something for the mac?

Kim

----------------

Hi Kim,

Mac users, fortunately don't have to worry about spyware or virii. There are currently almost 100,000 known PC viruses that affect Windows users and countless amounts of spyware. Neither of these affect Mac or Linux users. In fact, the best number that I can find of Mac oriented viruses is 30. And those are very mundane for the most part and extremely difficult to contract.

To answer your questions; no, there is not a Mac version of AVG because there is no need. And no, there is nothing for the greeting card virus for Mac because it is a PC only virus.

Happy computing!

Rick

Castellini on Computers & HelpMeRick.com  ©2007
Rick Castellini and Adam Cochran