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Castellini on Computers Free Weekly
Email Newsletter
April 30, 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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Last
week's show was one of the best yet. Although we have had to go to a
Stickam
members only show (sign up is free and can be completed any time), it
appears that the sign up process went smoothly
for most, and we had great participation for the show.
For those who didn't sign up to participate in chat, anyone can still
watch and listen to the show live even without signing up. Just visit
HelpMeRick.com on Thursday night at 9:30pm MST.
You can listen to - or download - any and
all of our previous shows here. |
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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
1-click
access to your favorite websites - Video Tip
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If
you are like me, you visit a handful of web sites every single day and
sometimes multiple times per day. Having bookmarks to these sites works
fine, but that requires a minimum of three clicks to reach your
favorite sites.
In this week's tip, I describe how to get 1-click access to your
favorites using the extremely underutilized Links toolbar (Internet
Explorer) and the Bookmarks toolbar (Mozilla Firefox).
This tip requires no downloading and no installation of extra software.
Everything is built-in to the browser and available to you right now.
So watch the video and learn how to take charge of these extremely
useful tools you never knew how to use!
Click this link and watch the video. |
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Geek
Speek |
Cell
phones today can be very complicated. Features like downloadable
ringtones, wallpaper, games and text messaging tend to overwhelm many
users.
However, there are some amazing things that today's cell phones can do
that many people never fully use.
Most cell phone carriers now offer a special wireless Internet
technology called EVDO (the fancy brand name they give it varies by the
carrier, but it stands for Evolution Data Optimized). EVDO moves data at broadband speeds.
Using EVDO you can do amazing things with your cell phone that you
likely never knew was possible such as lookup anything on Google,
lookup maps, check the weather and satellite data, listen to Internet
radio stations, surf the real Internet and find the nearest Pizza Hut.
EVDO typically costs between $15-$30 per month on top of your regular
cell plan, but it is very difficult to live without once you get used
to having it. |
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EVDO
(3G
NETWORK)
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Computer
News...and comment
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XP
SP3 Delayed again
Last week we ran the story about the planned release of Service Pack 3
for Windows XP later this month. We should have known better than to
fall for it. Microsoft never releases updates without delaying the
release date at least six or seven times. Service Pack 3 has only been
delayed about three times.
This week Microsoft announced that it will be a little longer before
Service Pack 3 is ready due to a newly discovered glitch. No date has
been announced for the rescheduling.
New
iMacs feature faster Intel chips than PCs
Apple released a new line of iMac computers this week. The beefed up
line features the fastest Intel Core2Duo chip to date. While the chip will be
used in PCs in the near future, Macs are the first machines to
incorporate the chip.
The new iMacs also feature faster video cards and a standard 2
gigabytes of RAM.
Google
improves image searching
There are few better ways to waste time
online than surfing for images using Google's
image search engine.
What's even better is that Google is about to improve the accuracy of
Google image search.
Using a special algorithm called VisualRank, Google will rank images on
popularity and relevance in much the same way that their web search
engine searches websites.
The end result will be more accurate results when searching for images
and better ability by web designers to make sure that their images show
up in search results.
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Poll
Results
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How do you best like to use eBay?
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Next
week's poll:
Do you have a GPS for your car?
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Buy
40%
Sell 6%
Just look around 33%
My town doesn't have eBay
2%
I've never visited eBay
19% |
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Adam's Comments
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Over
the past few months as my business has increased substantially I have
come to realize something about computers - they aren't cars.
We often try to compare computers to cars because they are the only
other piece of technology that we depend on as much for society to
function as we know it.
There are some very important differences that should be noted before
comparing computers to cars or almost anything else.
When you have problems with your car, you can throw parts at it and
make it as good as new. All it takes is the cost of labor and parts and
you can have the car fixed to be as good as new. This is not the case
with computers.
Some repairs on a computer can approach the cost of a new computer -
but once you bring that new computer home and set it up, your job is
only about 25 percent done.
The following hours are spent transferring data, setting up
customizations and getting to know the new machine.
Your car is used to get you from point A to point B. If you borrow a
friends car while yours is in the shop, you can make it just fine. Try
that with a friend's computer and you will be totally lost.
Only a small portion of your computer's value is in the cost of the
machine. Most of what makes your computer the tool you can't live with
out is found in the information and customizations.
Often people try to avoid a big repair bill by going out and buying a
new system. They don't figure in that they are going to pay me almost
the exact same amount (in some cases more)to get their new system working
they way they are used to. This doesn't include lessons on how to use
Vista, Ubuntu or Mac that they are changing to from there old system.
If you do make the comparison to cars, it is as though every time you
purchased a new car, you would have to move the seats, steering wheel,
and radio into the new car - a process that would take hours and a lot
of expertise that you may not have.
The decision on whether to buy a new computer or just get the old one
fixed should be based on much more than just the cost of a new system.
You must also figure in the headache factor in dealing with data
transfer, software installation and customization processes.
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Email of the week
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Hello
Rick,
I would like to know if you have had any experience with the Microsoft
plug-in they call Silverlight. It keeps coming up on my windows update
list, and I do not understand what it would do for me exactly. Thank
you for all of your wonderful, helpful advice.
Barb
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Hi Barb,
You are welcome and thank YOU for visiting and supporting our site.
Regarding
Silverlight, Microsoft rolled out a new system for delivering
interactive web content to compete with Adobe Flash (think YouTube
videos and online games) and other online interactive systems. They
seem to think that reinventing the wheel is going to somehow benefit
them...not necessarily us. That being said, yes, I
tried it for about five minutes and didn't see anything spectacular
about it on their web site. Virtually no one else has adopted this
technology yet, and they aren't likely to anytime soon. The only way
Silverligh would become helpful to you and I is if many web designers
adopt it as a new standard for delivering content that we want on the
web. You can keep skipping this update and you won't miss a beat. Have a good day.
Rick
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Castellini
on Computers & HelpMeRick.com ©2008
Rick Castellini and Adam Cochran
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