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Castellini on Computers Free Weekly
Email Newsletter
September 17, 2008
Visit HelpMeRick.com ANY time to learn about your computer!
I guarantee it will save your time, money, and sanity!!
Spelling and
punctuation guaranteed to be at least 88 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
*** Email of the week
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Tune in TODAY!!
Be sure to tune into your web browser (at KAFMradio.org)
or your radio in Grand Junction, CO (at 88.1 FM) from Noon-1pm Mountain
Time for another edition of the Castellini on Computers Radio Show. We
will be taking your tech questions at 970-241-8801 Ext. 1 during the
entire hour! So give us a ring!!
You will find a few more news
clips this week including an amazing set of photos of Hurricane Ike
from a unique perspective. Enjoy!
Did you visit HelpMeRick.com last week? Yesterday? Today? Did you refer
all your computer buddies to HelpMeRick.com? Remember, studies show
that computer users who visit HelpMeRick.com at least twice per week
are 36% smarter than those who don't and their computers are 88% safer
than those who don't visit!
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Email your
questions to us and we will answer them via a weekly YouTube video or on
our daily website updates!
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Custom
Computer Help from Rick
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We have been posting a new how-to video
every week since November 2006 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
The Magical Title Bar - Video Tip
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The
title bar is the long (usually blue) bar at the top of each program.
The title bar contains three familiar buttons on the right; the
minimize button (little bar), the maximize or resize button (middle
button) and the often used "X" button to close a program.
On the
left side of the title bar is a small icon in the far left corner that
matches that of the program. The name of the current file (or web page
on the web), and the name of the program also reside on the left side
of the title bar. And even though one half to two-thirds of the bar is
blank, it also has its functions.
Clicking on the little icon in
the far left (once) will produce a menu that allows you to minimize,
move, resize, maximize or close the window. This comes in handy when a
window is shoved to one side and the right hand buttons are not
visible. Double-clicking on the little icon closes the window/program.
Use
the blank part of the title bar to move and position the window. This
only works if the window is in the less than maximum position. Just
click and drag the title bar and the whole window follows. This
technique is helpful if you need to position two windows for dragging
and dropping files. Also, double-clicking your title bar will
automatically maximize the window.
Remember to use the minimize
button to 'shrink' the window to an icon on your desktop so that you
can access your desktop or a window/program behind the current window.
This keeps the program running and to restore it back to the original
position, simple click on it one time from the task bar.
The
middle button on the right side of a title bar changes between the
maximize button (one square) and the restore button (two overlapping
squares). The maximize button will fill the entire screen with the
program window. The restore button makes the program windows less than
maximum.
You many not necessarily use all these techniques every
day, but keep them in mind and they will come in handy from
time-to-time.
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Watch this week's tip of the week by clicking here.
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Geek
Speek
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Phishing
can best be defined as degenerates producing email or web sites (and in
some cases, snail mail) that pretends to represent a reputable company
asking you for your personal information. Typically, the phishing
attempts are littered with poor grammar and spelling (even worse than
this newsletter).
You will also be asked to share personal
information like mother's maiden name, social security number,
dependents names, job data, credit card and pin numbers and much more.
NEVER
click any links or respond to these emails. Simply delete them and
forget about them. If you want, you can forward them to the fraud
department of the institution they are posing as. |
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Phishing
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Computer
News...and comment
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Plane Porn
Airlines
are getting closer and closer to offering some type of wireless
in-flight Internet. America Airlines is piloting a system right now on
their flights and concerns have cropped up regarding Internet
pornography. The concerns are whether passengers will use the system to
access online porn sites and if so who should police that.
Will
it be the stewards and stewardesses who say something? Should they say
anything? Is it appropriate to filter porn and other potentially
objectionable sites from the service right up front? Or, does it become
the responsibility of the individuals using the service to practice
good social skills and respect their seat mates?
Hurricane Ike Photos
By
now, you have seen countless photos and videos of the devastation that
Ike caused on the ground. And you may have been exposed to many
satellite and radar photos of the now well known swirling comma of a
hurricane. However, I ran across this photo gallery of some unique
photos of Hurricane Ike taken by "Hurricane Hunters". In the name of
science and research, these brave souls fly a specially equipped plane
into the heart of a storm and come away with volumes of data and
amazing? pictures.? Have a look:
http://tinyurl.com/5cgtjx
Today's teens see cell phones as vital
In
a study sponsored by CTIA (International Wireless Phone association),
more than 2000 teens from the United States were surveyed about cell
phones. The most staggering result was the increase in the number of
teens using cell phones. In 2004, less than 40% of teens aged 13-18 had
their own cell phone. Today, just over 80% of all American teens own a
cell phone. 42% of the surveyed teens said they could send a text
message blindfolded. Not surprisingly, the teens considered cell phones
vital to their social functioning.
HP lays off nearly 27,000?
HP finished their acquisition of business consulting and tech giant
Electronic Data Systems (EDS) last month. This week, HP announced that
it will lay off 26,400 workers over the next 3 years. EDS has 47,000
employees in the U.S. and 137,000 world wide.
Best Buy to purchase Napster Napster's
history is a rich one...even after just 10 years on the scene. Napster
caused the huge court cases in the late 90's declaring that trading of
songs via the Internet was illegal. Just a few short years later,
Napster reinvented itself and became a powerhouse of legal music
downloads. Currently, they claim more than 700,000 members. Today, Best
Buy announced they will buy Napster and retain the Napster name and
brand for an estimated $121 million dollars.
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Poll
Results
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Is Google more powerful than Microsoft?
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Next
week's poll:
Do you use online bill payment?
Log on to HelpMeRick.com and VOTE!!
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Yes ? ? ? ? ?60%
No ? ? ?? ? ?40%
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Email of the week
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Hi Rick,
Any
opera users out there? If there is can you tell me why every time I use
opera it uses a lot of memory. I can have one tab open and my memory in
task manager will say 100K and continue to go up at one time with again
only one tab open on operas forums my memory was up to 400K.that is
ridiculously too high.
Ruben
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Hello Ruben,
First,
I wouldn't worry too much about the memory usage you are reporting.
Opera actually is pretty judicious at using memory. Firefox or Internet
Explorer can quickly balloon to more than 200 megabytes of memory.
Browsing takes a fair amount of memory with all the HTML, Java, and
flash code that have to be downloaded and processed. If your computer
is running with at least 2 GB of RAM, I wouldn't bother with monitoring
the memory usage of your browser.
If you want to make sure
memory usage doesn't get too crazy, simply close and re-open your
browser at least once per day. This will refresh the memory the browser
was using.
Thanks for writing.
Rick |
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Castellini
on Computers & HelpMeRick.com ?2008?
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