Castellini on Computers Free Weekly Email Newsletter
October 10, 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

Last week's show was our most well attended to date. We were very excited to see the activity in our chat area as we took a few calls, lots of emails and even discussed some news.

While the show is only an hour long, it is actually only a little more than an hour shorter than our old show once you count the fact that we don't do commercial breaks anymore.

We also had the website tweaked this week so it should look better with most browsers and a wider variety of resolutions. If you are running Mosaic on Windows 3.11 we can't make any guarantees that the problem has been fixed.

Tune in tomorrow for our best show yet. We are getting all greased up and ready to take on those computer questions that your kids are getting tired of answering.

Much of our newsletter problems have also been resolved. Make sure you add the following address to your accepted or non-spam list (without the spaces and use @ symbol instead of the word 'at') so that the email will get through to you: response26262629 at zinester.com.

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 and 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
OpenOffice Tip for Ubuntu, Mac & Windows Users - Video Tip

View the Video Here

With Microsoft putting out less-and-less usable software and better-and-better options becoming available online, there is no reason to shell out hard earned money for Microsoft Office. If you aren't quite ready to move your data and applications online (search our site for Web 2.0), then OpenOffice.org's free office software is a wonderful option.

If you are an OpenOffice user or plan on becoming one, you still want to be able to share documents with your work colleagues, friends and family, today's tip takes care of that for you. OpenOffice not only opens any Excel, Word, or PowerPoint file (except 2007 versions at the moment), but it can save in these formats as well. Watch the video above (less than 3 minutes) to learn how to create Microsoft Office compatible documents in the FREE OpenOffice software

Geek Speek

Believe it or not, the Internet is the future. It is also the present and a great replacement for the past.

In the old days of computers (before 2007) , if you wanted to do a job with your computer such as edit photos, manage finances, create greeting cards etc., you would have to have special software installed on your computer to help you with those jobs.

Today that has all changed. Since 99 percent of the US is on broadband (you aren't still using dial-up are you?) many jobs can be done on specialized websites that function as well as many standalone programs.

Picnik.com is a great example of this. It is a simple image editor that works extremely well and offers many powerful features.

Perhaps the best part of Picnik is the same thing that makes all online programs great - it is portable from one computer to another. Using any computer with a broadband connection you can log on to your free Picnik account and work on an image.

If you don't finish with the project, you can save it in your account and work on it more when you get to work. No need to save any files on portable drives or disks.

If you like Picnik.com read Adam's article below for some other great online alternatives to expensive standalone programs.

Picnik.com

Computer News...and comment

Automobile News

The AP reported this week that GM will likely add a new feature soon to its OnStar service. If you report your car stolen, OnStar will be able to stall the engine and prevent it from being started again.

Headline of the future: Man sues GM for millions after rear-ending a stolen GM vehicle on freeway.

XP-Vista News

Vista will be a year old in a few months, but demand for Windows XP is still so steady that Microsoft has been forced to extend the life of XP. Last month, they announced that they would support XP for five more months and agreed to sell businesses bulk licenses for the program.

Now, someone has leaked the details of Windows XP SP3, a massive free update that is due out next year.

This is a good indicator that Microsoft expects XP to be used for a long time to come. Or this update will shorten the life of XP and users will be forced to go to Vista. No, then they would be again be accused of stealing the idea from Apple and the iPhone.

Nobel News

And the Nobel Prize for Physics goes to.... Albert Fert and the German Peter Gr?nberg for inventing tiny hard drives that are now used in iPods and other portable memory devices.

Religous News
The blogs were abuzz this week as a story made the rounds about how many churches are now having Halo Nights.

In an attempt to bring more teen boys into the fold (as well as girls who like teen boys) churches are opening up their basements and furnishing them with big screens and XBoxes to host Halo Nights.

Dude! I fragged the pastor! What a noob.

Poll Results

How many episodes of the new Castellini on Computers have you listened to or watched?

Next week's poll:
How many remote controls do you have in your house?

Zero 27%

1-2 22%

3-4 23%

5-7 6%

ALL 8 of them! 22%

Adam's Comments

I will not be a bit surprised if no one is using Windows or Apple Operating Systems' (OS) in five years. In fact, I thing the OS as we know it could be strictly used for business and enterprise in a lot less time than that.

Imagine powering up a computer in a matter of seconds then going straight to the Internet where all of your programs are found. Your computer would have a massive amount of storage, but you probably wouldn't use much of it as most of your data would be kept in your online account.

Welcome to the future of Web 2.0.

Rather than simply using the Internet to read news and lookup recipes, the Internet is now an extension of your computer. Since it is online, that can mean that any computer can work just like your computer.

My wife does medical transcription. Every time she has to buy a new computer it means weeks of moving her customizations like dictionaries, spell check, and document settings from one computer to another as many of those can not easily be moved from an older system to a newer. Believe me we have tried - with mixed success over the years.

In the Web 2.0 world, she would use an online word processing program like ZoHo or GoogleDocs. Where she could get online and type in a username and password - suddenly a word processing program would open along with all of her customized settings. She could work from any Internet connected computer in the world.

Today if you have a massive hard drive crash, fire of theft of your computer, all of your data will go with it - unless you backup. Tomorrow such a disaster will be hardly a disaster at all as online storage services like AmazonS3 and OmniDrive provide affordable - if not free - online storage of files.

Why use Quicken to manage your finances when you can manage your bank accounts and online portfolio at sites like Expensr.

These are just the online applications, Web 2.0 will bring you maps, shopping guides, classified ads, market tracking and more. There are two primary differences between a standard website and a Web 2.0 site.

1. The site is customized to your needs and

2. The information can come to you wherever you are.

If you are watching the classifieds for a new tandem bike - you can receive an alert on your cell phone or email when one is posted. If you are waiting for a house to hit the market in a given neighborhood, you can be notified. If you need the phone number for the nearest tailor, simply text the word "tailor" and your zip code to a special number.

The more the Internet evolves, the more we realize that it is only in its infancy and every age becomes the golden age.

Email of the week

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

Hi Bud,

Unfortunately...well fortunately, dialup is a dead technology. IF you can get a higher speed Internet access, you should get it. In your case, since DSL is out of the question, as is cable I'm assuming, your next best option is satellite Internet.

Dish works with a company called Wild Blue to provide high speed Internet. The downside is the expense. You do have to get a second satellite dish installed on your roof specifically for Internet. The upside is a lot faster and better Internet experience WITHOUT tying up your phone line.

Good luck.

Rick

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