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Castellini on Computers Free Weekly
Email Newsletter
April 2, 2008
Hear
(and see) our show LIVE
Every Thursday night at 9:30 PM MST
or
Visit HelpMeRick.com ANY time to download or hear
any of our shows.
Spelling and
punctuation guaranteed to be at least 78 percent accurate
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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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How about a great big ol' helping of computer help this Thursday night at 9:30pm MST?
It is official, we have gained a following and the snowball continues to
roll. Make sure you tune in live this Thursday night for the only
computer talk show designed for the average computer user.
We have a great online team of folks too who join us each week to support the show and help us out.
Don't forget you can also listen to past shows and read past editions of the newsletter at HelpMeRick.com. |
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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 2007 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
Microsoft Office function without the MS price - on a Mac! - Video Tip and How to add the print and other buttons to Firefox toolbar - Video Tip
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This is the first of what we hope to be many Macintosh video tips here at HelpMeRick.com. We posted a similar tip to this one a few months back for Windows and Ubuntu users, but this one applies to Mac users only.
In this tip, I describe to you how you can use the free NeoOffice product from neooffice.org
to seamlessly create Microsoft Office compatible documents. Of course,
the software also allows Mac users to open any Office document as well.
NeoOffice gives Mac users complete abilities to share documents with
any Windows user or fellow Mac user.
This short video demonstrates how to set your copy of NeoOffice so
that it automatically saves your documents in the Microsoft Office
format.
Tip 2:
We love the Mozilla Firefox browser,
but out-of-the-box it doesn't show the print button. Also, some people
like to have the Bookmark and History buttons available as well. This
tip shows you how to add any or all of these buttons as well as others
you might want.
- In Firefox, RIGHT click on a blank part of the toolbar (or Click View --> Toolbars --> Customize from the menus)
- Click and drag the buttons you want to the toolbar (you can also
drag buttons you don't need back into the customize box to delete them)
- Click Done
To see this tip in action, watch this short video tip! |
Geek
Speek |
That's right! Our term this week is:
systempropertiesperformance.
Don't divide it into three words or it won't work it's magic.
This term is only for those of you who use Windows Vista.
Along with "msconfig" (look it up at HelpMeRick.com), this week's term
will help you increase the day-to-day performance of your computer.
Windows Vista is full of eye candy. Most of this eye candy (dare we say
all of it) is unnecessary and causes your computer to act sluggish.
Go to START-RUN and type, "systempropertiesperformance" and run it.
A checklist will come up providing you the ability to turn off any of the undesirable eye candy.
The ones that slow the computer down the most are the features with
terms like, animate and slide. These are animated features that take
system power to apply special effects.
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SYSTEMPROPERTIESPERFORMANCE
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Computer
News...and comment
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One Millionth Centro sells this week
Palm announced this week that the one millionth Centro had been sold.
While it isn't the hottest selling smartphone, it is worth noting
because it puts the Centro up there with the iPhone which sold it's
first million about two month's after release. It took the Centro six
months to reach the million mark.
Bear Stearns items sell big on eBay
Items that were once tossed out as SWAG at conventions and as
promotional items are selling big on eBay. This week a Bear Stearns
T-shirt sold for over $150.
A similar phenomenon occurred with Enron merchandise in the days
following that company's downfall. See, there are ways to make money in
a bear market.
National Archives brings Vietnam memorial online
The National Archives and Footnote.com have put together an interactive Vietnam memorial centered around the famous memorial wall in Washington D.C.
The ambitious project allows families and veterans to upload stories, memorial notes and even photos and video.
The wall is also searchable and offers many features to help visitors remember the sacrifices made in Vietnam
Rick changes his mind about Norton Antivirus
After years of trying to steer people away from Norton Antivirus, Rick has changed his mind.
While the program does slow most systems down by at least 30
percent, Rick has decided that it is worth leaving Norton on your
system for the pretty yellow icons.
Most programs don't have such awesome menu icons nor do they
place so many hidden programs and services in your computer's startup.
He as even gone so far as to say that Norton 360 rivals Windows Vista
in beauty, use and function.
Rick calls Vista and Norton 360 the perfect combination that
can only be made better by topping it all off with System Mechanic and an enterprise grade software firewall.
Rick also says April Fools.
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Poll
Results
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Have you ever accessed the Internet with your cell phone?
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Next
week's poll:
Has your computer use ever been the subject of a marital spat?
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Yes, all the time 13%
Yes, but only occasionally 14%
I would if my phone could do it 7%
No 53%
I don't own a cell phone 14%
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Adam's Comments
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The
following is a transcript from a recent town meeting I held on an
important college campus. Attendees were not screened and the floor
mics were open for anyone who wished to ask questions. All participants
were limited to a single question and no multi-part or follow-up
questions were permitted.
ADAM: I would like to thank everyone for coming to this town hall
meeting. This is a very significant time for our country. We face some
of the greatest challenges that the technology world has ever seen.
Etc., Etc., Now let's get to the questions...
QUESTION #1: Hi, my name is Mark and I am a first year actor.
ADAM: Hi Mark.
MARK: I've been a long time fan of the the Castellini on Computers
show and newsletter and I never miss a day without visiting
HelpMeRick.com. I was wondering where you guys get your advice from?
ADAM: Oh, gosh Mark, our advice comes from somewhere deep inside. I
didn't grow up a computer expert. In fact, I didn't even own my first
computer until I had been married for nearly a year. My wife even had
to put it together more me because I was so afraid of it.
QUESTION #2: Hi, my name is Nancy and I am a computer novice.
EVERYONE: Hi Nancy!
NANCY: I have been listening to you talk about your platform a lot
lately and it seems that you are really hard on some products.
Specifically Windows Vista and Norton Antivirus. Does that have
anything to do with the fact that you are on the AVG affiliate program
or that you are quoted on popular Ubuntu websites?
ADAM: No. I dislike Norton and Vista because they are bad for the
country, bad for the middle and lower class economy and worse for your
computer. In fact, the latest polls show that a computer with Windows
Vista and Norton 360 will run as much as 50 percent slower than a
computer running XP and AVG on an identical hardware configuration.
NANCY: Can you cite the source where you got those statistics?
ADAM: That's none of your business.
QUESTION #3: How come you let Nancy ask a follow-up question?
ADAM: I didn't she butted in with it. Besides, I dodged the question anyway, so it didn't really count.
QUESTION #4: Hi, my name is Steve the Valiant. I am of the guild of the
red condor. Me and my guild were wondering what's your thing about
limiting our ...er ...people's freedom to look at porn online.
ADAM: Great question. I think that you can almost completely control
access to porn online without limiting free speech and freedom of
expression.
STEVE THE VALIANT OF THE GUILD OF THE RED CONDOR: How?
ADAM: I will answer that follow-up question, but only because I was going to do it anyway.
I think me need a mandatory .xxx or .sex extension. Any and all sites
that are exclusively designed to excite erotic imaginations must keep
their site under the .xxx or .sex extension.
Now, since we don't allow follow-up questions, I will ask the question for you...
ADAM/QUESTION #5: Won't that make it easier to find porn sites online if they all have the same extension?
ADAM: Yes, but that is the very point. If these sites are easier to get
to, they are easier to filter. A parent, school or business can simply
filter all sites ending in .xxx or .sex. Such a solution would allow
freaks to build porn sites, but it would also be controllable if
necessary.
QUESTION #6: What do you believe is the difference between a CD and a DVD?
ADAM: A CD holds 700MB and a DVD holds either 4,700MB or 8,400MB.
QUESTION #7: Skull and Bones! Skull and Bones! Building number 7 was an inside job! Illuminate!
Hey, don't... Hey... Get your hands off me.... No! Don't taze me bro! AGGHHHHHH!
At this point the meeting was over as I was rushed to my limo by the guys with bulletproof underpants.
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Email of the week
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Hello
Rick,
I
can't get spell check to work when I'm in Outlook Express & trying
to answer or create e-mail. The (spelling) box @ the top is ghost like
& not dark so I know it is not active. How do I make it active?
Dave
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Hello Dave,
Outlook
Express does not have a built-in spell checker. Instead, it relies on
the presence of Microsoft Word (not Works) to enable the spell check
feature. If you don't have Microsoft Word installed, you can download a
free spell checker for Outlook Express (and Windows Mail in Vista) from our web site by clicking here. Have a good week and we hope you join us tomorrow night for our Thursday night show!
Have a good day.
Rick
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Castellini
on Computers & HelpMeRick.com ©2008
Rick Castellini and Adam Cochran
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