Thames Computer Consulting - Tech News/Blog

SPRING CLEANING FOR YOUR COMPUTER

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:15:13 -0800

Spring has sprung and it's time to dust the cobwebs off of your computer! So, what can the average user do to spring clean a computer? You can clean inside and out and this post will show you how.

Start by using a barely damp rag to remove dust from the case. To clean your LCD monitor, buy a cleaner specifcially meant for HD televisions. These types of cleaners work well on LCD monitors and are made for this purpose. Do not use home cleaners like Windex or Fantastic on your delicate monitor.

To remove dust from inside your computer, purchase a can of compressed air at an office supply store. Turn off your computer, open the case and blow out the dust by positioning the can of air inside the computer case and pointing towards the outside of the case. You'll be surprised at how much dust accumulates inside a computer and it's great to get rid of it! Computers do not like to get hot and dust can cause the electronic parts to overheat.

After you've closed up the case and powered the computer back on, download CCleaner, a free program that will eliminate all sorts of temporary files, delete recycle bin files, and gvarious other unnecessary files that are left on your computer.

For further information, PC Magazine has a great article here on spring cleaning your electronic gadgets.

MAKING YOUR PASSWORD MORE SECURE

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:05:28 -0800

A study of 32 million passwords finds the number one password is "123456". That changed from years ago when the number one password was "12345". Looks like the minimum characters for passwords has increased!

Read the article here.

WINDOWS 7 RELEASE

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:28:09 -0800

Windows 7 is here! Here are something to know before upgrading:

If you upgrade from Vista or purchase a new PC with Windows 7 preloaded, be aware that Windows 7 does not come with Windows Mail, Movie Maker, Calendar, Contacts and Photo Gallery. During the upgrade from Vista process, these programs will be deleted from your computer. Your data will not be deleted.

You can easily download these programs from Microsoft at no charge. The reason for removing these programs from the operating system has to do with anti-trust issues.

BACKUP UPDATE

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:13:21 -0800

I neglected to discuss what to back up in my March 16 post. So here goes:

1. The folder "My Documents". Everything in here gets copied to another source. In this folder is the "My Pictures" and the "My Music" folder. If you use all the Windows defaults, all your pictures and iTunes music should be in this folder. If you use programs that put your picture and/or music in folders other than "My Documents", you are going to need to figure out in what folder(s) that information lives.

2. The folders "Favorites" and "Desktop". To find these folders, open up your "C" drive. Click on Documents and Settings/(Your user name). Copy the Favorites and Desktop folders to an external source.

3. Email. This is where is gets tricky. If you use internet-based webmail, you are in luck. No backup is necessary. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express, backup becomes a bit harder.
Outlook: All of Outlook's information is contained in a PST file. To find it, open the C drive, click on Documents and Settings/(User name)/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook. Copy this whole folder to an external source.
Outlook Express: To find the databases that make up Outlook Express, open the C drive. Click on Documents and Settings/(User name)/Local Settings/Application Data/Identities. In this folder are weirdly names folders with lots of letters and numbers. Copy these folders to an external source. See this link on more info about backing up Outlook Express email and contacts.

4. Programs cannot be backed up in Windows unless you do a full image copy. To do this, you need a program like Norton Ghost or Acronis True-Image.
MAC Backup:If you are using OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or above, you can use Apple's nifty Time Machine program. Just plug in an external drive, go to the System Preferences panel and initiate Time Machine. The program will automatically back up your documents, pictures, emails, programs.

If you have an older version of OS X (10.4 or lower), you'll have to manually copy the documents, music, pictures, video folders in your Home folder to an external source. See this link for how to back up your email and contacts.

IPHONE ENVY

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:46:54 -0800

I want an iPhone. Badly. My brother and I talk about this all the time. He wants an iPhone too. Why can't we get one? Because the service stinks! We both are former Cingular (At&T) customers and will not go back to dropped calls and spotty service. Verizon cell phone service is so much better. Almost every person I talk to with an iPhone loves the gadget but admits that the phone service is terrible. So, for now, I use my trusty Blackberry Pearl and wait for the iPhone to come to another carrier....

UPDATE 1/25/2010 - Got a Motorola Droid from Verizon in November, 2009 and I love it. iPhone envy - OVER!

Backup, Backup, Backup

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:36:27 -0800

I cannot say this enough. You MUST backup your data. Hard drives fail and they usually fail at inconvenient times. Like when you have a project due for work or school. Maybe you'll have a flood in your house. The bathroom upstairs could leak all over the computer downstairs. A power outage could cause a surge that fries your hard drive.
A plan:

1. Backup all your electronic devices daily. That means your PDA, Blackberry, and iPhone with all your contacts and calendar entries. These devices can plug into a computer and automatically back up or sync.

2. Backup data on your computer daily. Either invest in an external hard drive and backup software or an online backup service. Some external hard drives plug into your router and will allow you to backup all the computers in your home.

Think about backing up on-site and off-site. An external hard drive is great but what if your house floods? Then you lose your computer AND your backup. That's why you need to consider off-site backup in addition to your on-site backup.

Great tools for the above solutions:

1. Off-site backup - www.carbonite.com. For $50/year, get unlimited storage space. Carbonite downloads software that runs quietly in the background that keeps your data backed up. Incredibly easy to use. The first backup can take awhile but after that, Carbonite just backs up changed data.

2. Genie-Soft Backup Sofware - use with an external hard drive for easy, complete backup of your data. You can pick and choose what to back up or let Genie Backup Manager suggest data to be saved.

3. My Book World Edition -Backup and storage for all the computers in your house.

First Post!

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:43:32 -0800

This is my first entry. I am going to use this blog to discuss new technologies or gadgets. We'll see how it goes.

I have recently downloaded and installed VirtualBox which is a free virtualization program for Mac OS X. It allows you to run another operating system in a Window within Mac's Leopard operating system. The program is easy to install and use and allows you to use all the system peripherals in your virtual OS.

I downloaded and installed the Beta of Windows 7 in this virtual box. I am very excited about the upcoming version of Windows. I think Microsoft has "fixed" Vista with this version. It doesn't need any new drivers, runs with less resources than Vista and hasn't caused me any problems.

I forgot to link to VirtualBox. Here is the link: http://www.virtualbox.org/
Microsoft is no longer offering the beta version of Windows 7 for download.