18 July 2009 | Computers |
That's one SASSY laptop!
Back in the day, it was easy to select a portable computer. There was only one size: big suitcase. At that time, Apple’s portable computer was called the Macintosh Boulder, and it only weighed 1,264 ounces. Running through the airport with one of these “portable” devices was a lot of fun. Yes, life was good.
Fast forward a few decades, and laptops were just lower-powered portable computers. Then, a few years ago, something odd happened: everyone started demanding “desktop replacement laptops”. In short, everyone wanted a laptop that could do everything their desktop machine could do. The end result was a wide variety of laptops which were very powerful, but they suffered from poor battery life given the myriad of high-powered features packed inside them, like graphics chips that could let you play games on your laptop.
Enter the netbook: small, light, with up to 10 hours of battery life. But, they’re a bit on the slow side.
And today? Well, today we are on the verge of seeing a whole slew of new laptops with CULV processors. They’re going to be thin and light and have “long” battery lives… or so we’re told.
So, what the heck are you supposed to buy? Well, that depends on what you need and want. But hopefully, it will all be a bit more clear in a few minutes…
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4 July 2009 | Computers |
Let’s say you’ve just installed Windows 7, and you notice that Windows Photo Gallery is now missing. That’s because it was pulled out of the OS and plopped into the Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite.
Well, that’s not so bad, because Windows Live is free. You need to download the Live installer, which will then allow you to download only the apps you want. The problem comes when you have to do this on multiple machines with a limited internet connection.
Windows updates can be downloaded in standalone form, so why not Windows Live? It’s just not very convenient. Surely there is a standalone installer that you can download once and install later on multiple machines??
In fact, there is. It’s just a huge pain in the arse to find it, especially on Microsoft’s web site.
Not to worry! I found it for you. Watch out, though: it’s 138MB! You can still install only the apps you want, but no internet connection is required and it’s perfectly friendly for low-bandwidth connections.
UPDATE: It’s now called Windows Essentials 2012. Click the button below to download!
Have fun!
13 June 2009 | Computers |
©2009 Microsoft Corp.
Okay, I’ve just about had it. Once again, I have just read some comments on a blog post about the restrictions on OEM vs Retail copies of Windows. And once again, people are obviously just regurgitating what they have read somewhere else.
I, on the other hand, base my comments on my own experience installing various versions of Windows (XP, Vista, OEM, Retail, etc.) on a whole boatload of computers over a period of many, many years.
So, can you move a copy of Vista OEM to another computer? Can you move an upgrade copy of XP to a different computer? Can you do a clean install with an upgrade copy of Vista?
The short answer is this: you can do anything you damn well please with any legal copy of Windows.
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6 June 2009 | Computers |
So, let’s say you’ve taken the plunge and installed 64-bit Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7. All is going well, until you try to install your printers.
It’s at that point that you discover that Windows doesn’t have a 64-bit driver for your printer. Worse yet, the manufacturer may not provide one, either!
What the heck are you supposed to do now?
Fortunately, there IS a way. And, strangely enough, you have Mac OS X to thank for this solution!
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31 May 2009 | Computers |
I use Mozilla’s Thunderbird e-mail client, and their Firefox web browser. Every now and then, I would need to transfer all my settings from one computer to another, or from one OS install to another. Recently, I was once again faced with this little problem.
In Thunderbird, I used to copy the Mail folder over, the prefs.js file, and some other odds and ends – but that meant I had to reinstall all my extensions and everything. The same was true for Firefox – minus the Mail folder.
So, the other day, I finally figured out how to transfer ALL the settings over in one ridiculously, stupidly easy step. Why I was unable to find any information about this on the web before is beyond me. Everything I’ve found says to copy files from inside your profile directory as I have been doing, which is entirely unnecessary.
Read on to see how to do it…
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23 May 2009 | Computers |
I’m going to assume that you know how to do some basic stuff in Linux. In other words, if you don’t know what a command line is, or how to traverse directories, this might not help you much.
I should also note that my preferred flavor of Linux is Ubuntu. These commands will work on Ubuntu, but I can’t make any guarantees for other distributions. Best to just try them out and see what happens!
Without further ado, here are some of the top linux tips and tricks that I have gathered over the years…
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2 May 2009 | Computers |
I’m sure you’ve all heard some hype about 64-bit this and 64-bit that. The thing I read the most is that a 64-bit operating system or piece of software is automagically twice as fast as a 32-bit one. Not so. Worse yet, some operating system vendors market their product as having an “advanced 64-bit architecture”, when the truth of the matter is that their OS is not fully 64-bit.
In any case, most people today are using a 32-bit operating system, but a surprising number have already switched to a 64-bit OS. Or in some cases, a quasi-64-bit OS…
There is one true reason though why you will actually want to switch to a 64-bit OS in the near future: the infamous 3GB barrier. Just what the heck is this mystical barrier, and why should you care?
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6 April 2009 | Computers, Networking |
Many people these days use a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) router, or they have a broadband modem with built-in wireless. It’s amazing to me that in this supposedly “high-tech” and “high-security” age, many people still are completely unaware just how wide open their home network really is.
With a Wi-Fi modem, usually your provider will be smart enough to lock down your wireless connection for you. But if you bought a wireless router or access point and set it up yourself, there are a few things you should know to keep others from “stealing” your connection and using it for nefarious purposes…
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31 March 2009 | Computers |
So you’re merrily marching along, happy as a clam because you just set up a glorious new web site that uses, say, a PHP-based content management system like Joomla or WordPress running on a Unix or Linux server.
Everything is going well until suddenly, you start to get feedback from users that they can’t access certain pages or actions on your site. Worse yet, some people seem to be completely blocked from your site entirely.
The problem your users are seeing is a 500 Error, aka “Internal Server Error”. Most of the time, for most people, your site works great… But this is becoming a serious issue for some users.
What to do?
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26 March 2009 | Computers |
Everyone is totally crazy about security these days – especially computer security. We’ve all got antivirus software, a firewall, spyware scanners, and god knows what else loaded up on our PCs to protect ourselves from the “evils” of a networked world.
Some of us choose to use certain operating systems that we believe are inherently secure, while the reality is quite different. I remember hearing all about how “ultra-secure” OS X Tiger was in comparison to Windows XP. I know a lot of people who believed this, and who even went out of their way to harp on XP and how insecure it was. Well, there have been numerous updates for Tiger and Leopard that were sent out from Apple HQ. Guess what? There were scores of security vulnerabilities in OS X. What really might shock you is that the vulnerabilities in OS X read like a list of XP security holes (see here and here and here). That’s right, just because Apple tells you OS X is safer doesn’t mean that it’s actually true! Go figure!
Of course, there’s also Linux. In some respects, Linux is safer. In others, it’s no different than XP and OS X. Personally, I prefer Ubuntu and Vista at the moment. But the bottom line is that when it comes to security, it’s up to you to keep your data safe. The first and best way you can do that is to create and use strong passwords!
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