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Castellini on Computers
Free Weekly Email Newsletter
January 2, 2008
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In this week's issue. .
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*** 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
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January
is officially here and that means another great Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas. The Castellini on Computers team will be covering
the show starting this Saturday.
Visit HelpMeRick.com at least once a day for photos, videos and updates
on everything we discover at the world's largest Consumer Electronics
Show and convention.
Our CES coverage this year will be done completely different, but will
likely be far more interesting than ever before. Rather than run back
and forth to the media area to write our stories, we hope to do
everything from the show floor.
Asus is providing us with Eee PCs to cover the show with. These are
tiny little laptops built especially for portability and Internet. It
is our goal to go the entire week without touching a single
Microsoft or Apple computer system.
Read this week's Geek Speek for more on CES. |
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Email your questions to us
and we will answer them live on the air or on our daily website
updates!
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Custom Computer Help from Rick and
Adam
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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
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Tip of the Week
How to make a desktop Web Site Shortcut - Video Tip
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View the Video Here
I had this question come up during a phone call today, and although I
described it the best I could, this is truly a visual tip.
Watch the
short video tip below to learn how to create a desktop icon that goes
directly to a web site. Hint: It's easy to follow and do. |
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Geek Speek
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The
Consumer Electronics Show is an annual event where the biggest names in
technology gather to present their products and prototypes
demonstrating what to expect in the coming year(s).
CES is held every January in Las Vegas and Castellini on Computers has covered it for the last six years.
We are always searching for new ways to cover the show and this year
will be one of the most unique approaches taken by anyone in the media.
Asus has been kind enough to provide us with Eee PCs, very tiny little
laptops that will allow us to cover the show in more real-time than
ever before.
We will use only our Palm Treos, a digital camera or two and these little
Linux-based laptops to cover the show as it happens. Expect more
frequent posts from the show than we have had in past years.
We are also taking along a third member of the Castellini on Computers
team this year. Adam's photographer brother Andy will be taking photos
and posting them to the site.
Andy is 19 and single but we have given him strict instructions to keep photos of pretty CES spokes models to a minimum. |
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CES
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Computer News...and
comment
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FCC approves phased switch to digital broadcasts
All TV networks and stations are to broadcast via digital signal
beginning in 2009. For those of you lost in the alphabet soup that
is today's television technology, digital TV is not necessarily HDTV.
There are two ways to broadcast a signal, analog and digital. Analog is
the old way of sending signals through space using waves. Digital uses
1s and 0s. This makes digital more efficient for broadcasting without
causing problems with radio spectrum and other stuff related to
communication that the government regulates.
When the shift occurs, everyone on Cable TV will have to have a
special converter box. Everyone on Satellite will not see any change as
the signal is already digital.
The FCC voted this week to allow stations to make a phased shift into
digital as well as allow stations ready to make the shift to stop
analog broadcasts prior to the deadline.
If you are confused, you may want to make the jump over to satellite TV service now and avoid the confusion completely.
Goodbye Netscape, we hardly recognize you
February 1, 2008 will be the end of Netscape browser.
Netscape could have been everything that Firefox is today, but AOL
bought Netscape in 1999.
With their Midas-like touch Netscape did what everything acquired by
AOL did, it turned to dust. Almost 10 years later AOL has given up on
Netscape's development.
Perhaps Microsoft should look into selling off Vista to AOL they can't do too much damage there.
FAA limits batteries in checked luggage
The FAA announced new restrictions on lithium
batteries allowed in checked luggage. These rules have nothing to do
with terrorist threats though.
Each year the airline industry sees more exploded and broken batteries
in luggage. The FAA hopes that these new guidelines will significantly
decrease such incidents.
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Poll
Results
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Who makes the best computer today?
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Next week's poll:
Who makes the best computer today?
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Apple 8%
Dell 24%
Acer/Gateway/Emachines 20%
HP/Compaq 16%
Toshiba 0%
Lenovo 4%
My local computer shop 8%
I do 16%
Other (tell us which company by leaving a comment on our website.) 4%
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Adam's
Comments
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Every
January I post my tech predictions for the coming year. In our last
newsletter, I reviewed my predictions for 2007 and pointed out that,
with a little justification, I was 100 percent correct.
Now for my tech predictions of 2008...
Ron Paul will not be elected and there will be riots. But, only on blog
sites that no one reads. CNN, FOX and other mainstream news sites will
be forced to shut off their comment feature when Ron Paul is not
invited as a third party candidate after the primary elections are over
and he fails to get the Republican nomination.
2008 will be Vista's last year. Microsoft will announce a new OS that
will appear in early 2009 that will not be called Vista. The new OS
will be targeted at consumers and will be designed to compete with OS X
and Ubuntu. I will not go so far as to say that it will be called
MSLinux, but it wouldn't surprise me.
2008 will be the last year that it really matters what kind of computer
you have. Adobe will introduce an online version of Photoshop and other
major titles will follow eliminating the need to commit to a single OS.
People will grow tired of smartphones and there will be a new surge in simple phones. Other manufacturers will compete with Jitterbug to create a whole new market of simple cell phones.
The spectrum auction will take place and many big companies will buy in
hoping to introduce the world to ubiquitous wireless Internet. Stock
prices of companies involved will rise sharply. Soon after the auctions
a judge will rule that the technology violates privacy and security
concerns - expect a sell off.
Palm will be all but dead as they drop plans to release a Linux powered
smartphone. Instead they will release one last generation of
Palm/Access powered phones based on the Centro design.
USB 3.0 or a similar connection type that allows massive transfer
speeds from external devices will begin to show up in high-end
computers.
Canon will release a 12 megapixel budget SLR to replace the Rebel XTi.
It will also shoot 4 fps and feature live preview mode.
GPS will show up in nearly all high-end cell phones and other devices.
Two-way GPS will be much more common allowing parents to track children
and bosses to track employees.
Non-tech predictions....
Scientists will discover what caused global warming the last 11 times it has happened in the world's history.
Bin Laden will be found alive in a Home Depot parking lot in southern California.
A long time celebrity marriage will end in divorce.
The world's attention will be turned to a young person's sudden, mysterious disappearance.
A high profile court case will take place involving a murder - Nancy
Grace will use it as the topic for her show on CNN Headline news for 16
straight weeks.
A well known celebrity will enter rehab multiple times but will continue their dangerous party life.
Perhaps in a related story, a celebrity will be arrested for drunk driving and The Smoking Gun will post their mug shot.
CBS will introduce a new crime drama with social awareness statistics hidden in 60 percent of the dialog. "Lieutenant ,
I just read in my research on this case that 60 percent of all CBS
crime dramas are made up of social awareness statistics!"
Someone will give Sean Connery one ping and one ping only. |
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Email of the
week
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Hello Rick,
How do you backup Outlook?
Pam
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Hello Pam, I'm
assuming that you are talking about Microsoft Office's Outlook that
contains email, calendaring, to-do lists, etc. Here's how to backup
that data: Click Start --> Search Type: *.pst in the search field In the "Look in" field choose the C drive (your hard drive) and make sure the search hidden folders and files box is checked Click Search The search results should turn up just two or three matching files with you data file most likely named: outlook.pst This file can be quite large, 300 megabytes and up. Back this file up to a CD or flash drive. Good luck and good job on thinking about backup!Rick
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Castellini on Computers &
HelpMeRick.com ©2008
Rick Castellini and Adam Cochran
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