Castellini on Computers Free Weekly Email Newsletter
October 31, 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

After taking a week off, we are ready to get back to the show. Tune in tomorrow for a great catch-up edition of Castellini on Computers.

Keep an eye on HelpMeRick.com over the next few months as we increase our coverage of great new gadgets for the Holidays.

We are also headed to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Expect us to discuss cool future technologies as we hear about it in our pre-show updates.

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
Re-name your files and folders the easy way - Video Tip

View the Video Here

Renaming files and folders can be a tricky task with the mouse. However, using your keyboard, renaming your files or folders is simple!

1. Click ONE time on the file or folder that you want to rename
2. Press the F2 key on your keyboard
3. Type the new name (remember that you can use up to 255 characters...but no slashes)
4. Press Enter on your keyboard

There you have four easy steps to organizing your files. Also, remember that you can perform this same function from within the OPEN or SAVE dialog boxes in many programs.

The only time that you cannot use this techniques is when the file is open.

Don't add any extra mouse clicks or keyboard strokes to this tip and you should find instant success with this technique.

To rename multiple files at the same time, try this:

1. Select the files to be renamed
2. RIGHT Click on any ONE of the files
3. Type the new name for the file
4. Press Enter on your keyboard

The computer then renames the file you RIGHT clicked on and proceeds to rename all of the other selected files with the same name followed by a number in parenthesis. 

Geek Speek

Do you stay up late or watch TV in the morning so that you can see the weather report? Stop wasting time.

AccuWeather.com is one of the greatest weather sites on the web.

You know those cool animated maps with the clouds moving across, or those excellent satellite images that show where it's raining - ya, Accuweather has that.

Accuweather also lets you check 15-day forecasts, hour-by-hour forecasts, precipitation forecasts and dozens of other features.

Best of all you can look up anywhere, for example, here's a link to the weather forecast for Baghdad, Iraq.

Once you discover how to track the weather online, tell your friends and family. That TV news time would be much better suited for local news and sports.

AccuWeather

Computer News...and comment

Men Play "Bored Housewife Games" Too

Tetris, Collapse, Solitaire, Mahjong and BeJeweled are just a few of the popular computer games known in the industry as casual video games. However, video gamers often call them "bored housewife games."

A number of industry surveys have showed that not only are these games a major piece of the gaming market, but they are popular among both genders. However, women are more likely to buy the games. Men are more likely to find free alternatives or break the anti-piracy restrictions.

Mac OS Hacked

Apple released the latest edition of OS X this week, dubbed Leopard, it adds many new handy features.

Perhaps the coolest feature is one that was not intended. Geeks across the country are reporting success at getting the OS installed on PCs that should be running Windows.

While this may seem like exciting news, keep in mind that Apple is in no mood to play nice lately and future updates are sure to break any PCs that are running Mac OS. It's called pulling an iPhone - it's a new industry catch phrase.

New Gadget Adds WiFi to Digital Cameras

Eye-Fi is a new camera memory card that adds WiFi to almost any SD equipped digital camera. The card allows the user to upload pictures instantly to 20 different photo sharing services and a computer on your network.

If this works as well as early reviews let on, it may become a standard option for all memory cards. Especially since it doubles as a 2GB flash memory device.

$100 Laptop to Cost $200

The One Laptop Per Child project set out a few years ago to produce a small laptop that could be used in third world countries at a cost that was low enough to stretch donated dollars.

Late last year it was announced that the laptops would cost $150, $50 more than the target price. Later the amount was raised to $180 and recently the project announced that the laptops would cost $200 each.

Considering that these laptops are far more limited than fully functional laptops that can be purchased on sale or on eBay for under $500, the OLPC project's days may be numbered.

Poll Results

What Anti-virus system do you use?

Next week's poll:

What is your favorite Internet weather site?

Trend Micro            2%

Norton                    5%

AVG                    67%

McAfee                6%

Avast                    7%

I don't use antivirus software (tell us why)    3%

Other (tell us which one)        10%

Adam's Comments

I have thought a lot lately about writing a book about computers. I won't do it, of course, but I have thought a lot about it.

My computer book wouldn't be about how to use a computer or how to buy a computer It would be made up of short essays and articles centered around how computers impact our lives in ways we never expected.

I would include articles I have written about how being a computer guy with regular clients is not a far stretch from being a doctor or therapist with regular patience. You may think that my patients are the computers that I work on each day, but what I do has more to do with helping people than with helping machines.

I received a call the other day from a client I have been working with for five years. His call was short, "Adam, I just want you to know that I am going into an operation tomorrow. They found a hemorrhage in my brain and they need to work on it. In case I don't make it I need to make sure you know how to show my wife where the important stuff is in the computer."

He came out of it just fine and I have already seen him a couple of times since the surgery, but I doubt many repair men get a call from their customers explaining that they may be leaving the earth and it is up to them to make sure that those surviving members of the family can find the Thanksgiving turkey in the bottom of the freezer.

Intimate is not a word I would have associated with the job of being a computer guy before I started this, but over the years, I have helped families stay in touch with their sons and daughters serving over seas, I have helped mothers discover what their teenage sons have been looking at on the computer, I have even helped seniors setup online personal ads for dating sites.

Strange and uncomfortable as these things may seem, they are not unusual at all for me. My job isn't centered around repairing computers, I believe that computers are a tool and the more uses we find for them, the richer our lives can be.

The point of a computer is to use it in ways that free up more time so you don't have to be around the computer as much. Every aspect of  life has elements that are boring and mundane and elements that we love and live for. If a computer can do the former, we can devote more effort to the latter.

Email of the week

Hello Rick,

Occasionally, the wheel on my mouse will change font size in Firefox pages when it is spun.  I don't know what I did to turn this on, and I don't know how to turn it off without bailing out of Firefox and restarting it. How do I turn it on & off?

You have a great resource here.

Thanks for the help.

Bob

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

Hello Bob,

You stumbled on a feature that can actually be quite helpful. To make text larger or smaller in most browsers, not just Firefox, you need to hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard at the same time as you spin your mouse wheel. 

Some sites have extremely small text size, so using this technique can make reading the web more enjoyable.

Rick

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