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It’s not goodbye, but I am moving
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This blog will go away soon. There hasn’t been enough traffic here to justify the bandwidth (and I agree with that, by the way).
But I’m not going away and neither is the column. You’ll still find the column as a link off the AJC.COM business page (scroll down until you find the only bald guy on the page).
I’ve truly enjoyed the experience. And I do hope you’ll continue to read the column online and in print. As always there will be an e-mail link on the column, so we’ll still be able to continue our conversation that way.
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I hear you. Well, sort of.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m blessed to have poor hearing. It’s made my life easier.
I have no trouble hearing honking horns or having a conversation. So I have it good compared to many. But my hearing loss is real enough that I can credibly ignore my wife when she hands out unpleasant chores.
If you dread chores, this would be a good time to be hard of hearing yourself. Today I’m going to hand out eight easy chores - each one can be done in minutes - that will make your computing experience better.
Crawl under your desk (Lord, I love giving orders) and untangle that mass of wires. Then label each one. Here’s what I mean: the line that goes from your router to your main computer might be labeled Main 1, the line from the phone jack to your phone is Phone 1, the identical cable to your DSL modem is DSL. You get the idea. Once you’re done, things will be neater. Trip over one of these lines and you’ll probably break it, or pull some hunk of equipment off the desk. Even if you’re not clumsy, you’ll be able to find the right cable fast next time something goes wrong.
Defrag your hard disk. XP users can just run the built-in defragmenting program. Vista also has a defrag program but I think it’s worse than XP’s. I recommend a $30 program called Diskeeper located at http://www.diskeeper.com. XP’s defragger is a dumbed down version of this excellent program. Even XP users might want to consider it. Maybe you’ve been told that defragmenting the hard disk isn’t important in Vista. That’s not true. If you are unsure how to use defrag, type “defragment” into the Windows help menu.
If you have a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) then test it. Unplug it from the wall so it’s forced to switch to battery power. First check to see if any critical device (monitor, computer, router or DSL modem) goes off. You’ll quickly see if you’ve plugged in your devices incorrectly. Most UPS devices have outlets on one side for devices you want to keep running during a power failure and outlets on the other side for devices that simply get surge protection (but don’t get juice in an outage). It’s easy to mistakenly plug something into the wrong side. I’ve done it. Next, leisurely shut down your computer. If the UPS’ backup power plays out before you can do that, it’s time to either replace the UPS or its battery.
If you don’t have a UPS, get one.
Check to see that your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are up to date. If you don’t have one or both of these programs, then get them (you can check my technology blog at ajc.com for free ones).
Optimize Windows so that it runs faster and more efficiently. Since there are several steps to this, including some I’ve already mentioned, I’ll give you a Web page that tells Vista users how to do everything from check your hard disk to get rid of unneeded files. Here’s the link. If you use XP, go to this link.
If you don’t have this program - Belarc Advisor - download it now at http://www.belarc.com. It’ll inventory your computer and hardware and provide the sort of answers a tech support guy might ask. It also will show activiation codes for your installed programs, which can come in handy if you ever lose them.
Make sure you’ll be able to use your computer if you forget the password. That involves making a password reset disk. For Windows XP, go to this Web site to learn how. For Windows Vista, go to this Web site.
If just one of these tips saves your neck some day, you’ll be glad you were able to hear me out.
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Framed by Chinese hackers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Do you have a digital picture frame - used to display your photos without the use of a computer? If you do, you may have a big problem.
Chinese hackers have planted a stealthy program in some of the frames made there. The purpose: To steal your passwords.
The frames in question seem to have been sold at Sam’s Club, Best Buy, Target and Costco.
Not a pretty picture.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Viruses, spam, adware, etc.
Save everything - except squirrels
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I blame my recent poverty on squirrels.
You never want to find out how much it costs to squirrel-proof a house. Unfortunately I did. The bill, combined with general worries about the economy, has had me nervously glancing at my main savings account - stored in a popcorn tin with a picture of a cowboy on the front.
Maybe you’re in the same boat. And maybe you’re also a tech enthusiast like me. So today I’ll offer some ways we can save money - and ease our economic anxieties - by trimming tech expenses.
Television
Until recently I paid about $83 a month for cable television service. That included a premium channel and a wide selection of programming. I downsized to a package that costs about $50 a month. For that money, I still get HDTV service and a digital video recorder built into the cable box.
It was a painless switch. I don’t miss the premium channel (I can use video on demand or rent a DVD and watch what I want, rather than what happens to be offered). If I needed to save even more, there are even cheaper cable packages. For the real bottom dollar, I could drop cable, use an antenna and still get over-the-air HDTV.
I’m not going to get into specific cable packages that may or may not be available to you, but the bottom line is: Take a hard look at your current package and explore cheaper alternatives.
Savings: In my case, anywhere from an easy $33 a month, to a more painful $83 a month if I dropped it altogether.
Internet service
I use a DSL service that costs $38 a month. That’s for the extra fast connection I need for my job. There are other two options from the same provider, offering slower speeds for $33 and $20.
Most people could get by fine with the $33 package, or even the slowest DSL connection at $20. And some people, like my mom, could check e-mail just fine with a $10 a month dial-up connection.
Savings: $5 to $28 a month.
Computers
It’s been my habit to replace my main machine every year and a half or so, again with excuse that I write about computing.
This year I’ll drop that habit - at least until my budget balances. I need to follow some of my own advice: Only replace your computer when it can no longer do what you need it to do in a satisfactory manner.
Savings: If the average user could postpone a computer purchase for just one year, that’s anywhere from an expense of $600 to $2,000 postponed. That’s an expense postponed, not avoided, so I won’t include it in my final savings total. But it will reduce your expenses.
Telephones
We have two land lines and two cell phones. For various reasons, including my job and my wife’s work-from-home job, we’ll stick with that.
But many families have a second line that isn’t needed anymore. Maybe the kids have grown and no longer use the second line. Or that line may have been installed in the days of dial-up Internet service.
Take a hard look at your own situation. The money saving choices range from simply dropping an unneeded second line to doing as my stepdaughter does - using a cell phone and no land line at all.
When it comes to long distance service, we use our cellular phones when we can. But some of our friends use Voice over Internet Service such as that from Speak Easy (http://www.speakeasy.net/) and Skype (http://www.skype.com). That comes in especially handy for people who make frequent overseas calls.
It’s hard to put a hard dollar amount on it, but most folks could save $5 to $30 tightening phone expenses.
Energy consumption
Your technology pulls some watts. One plasma TV I’ve seen draws nearly 600. Most I checked were in the 150 to 250 watt range. But, when you consider that some small electric heaters draw 500 watts, that’s still quite a load.
Add in another 187 watts for an xBox360, 100 to 250 watts for a desktop computer and you get the idea.
The fix here is simple: Turn off your gadgets when you aren’t using them. You’ll be lucky if the savings here tote up to much more than $5 a month, but you’re also helping the environment.
The savings here if you follow all my tips - even if you take the easy savings and avoid major sacrifices - amount to about $50 a month. That’s not enough to rent a villa in the south of France, but it will start a nice fund to prepare you for the horrible day when squirrels invade your attic.
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Plug in your shirt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some day you may plug your iPod into your favorite plaid shirt, or use the power of your khaki pants to recharge your computer.
A professor at Georgia Tech has helped develop clothing that generates electricity as you move about. That technology is still in a very early stage, but the military - for obvious reasons - is interested too. After all, the modern army uses a lot of high tech helpers that draw power. But, the battlefield isn’t the best place in the world to find an AC outlet.
For civilians, it could mean that business travellers wouldn’t have to worry about finding a way to recharge a laptop computer, or cellular phone. And if it was no longer necessary to depend on the battery life of your gadgets, then the day of truly mobile computing and communicating would be here.
You can read about the development here.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: General
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