It is now possible for the first time to have on-demand TV and movies. The Internet has made this a reality, and best of all it's free. The time has come to connect your computer to your TV. This is an extremely easy thing to do. If you have purchased a TV in the last five years or in some cases even older they have the ability to accept a computer input. There is so much content available on the Internet now, that it really is practical to cancel your cable or satellite service. With sites like Hulu, YouTube, TV.com and just about all the networks you can watch your shows when you want to.
Many companies are trying to sell an add-on box such as Apple TV or Roku to name a few. These devices when connected to your TV allow for a very small collection of Internet content provided by these companies. They charge you not only for the actual device but also for a rental fee for the TV shows and movies you watch. With your computer connected to your TV no rental charges no fees and you have access to the entire Internet as well. With the addition of a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse set you can now relax on the couch with keyboard in hand.
When TiVo first arrive people raved how it changed their lives. The simple ability to watch a show when it was convenient for them. Since then most if not all of the cable and satellite providers offer the ability to record shows. You have to go into a set up screen, find the shows you want, then tell the system to record them. Pretty easy for most people but still kind of a pain. All of this disappears when your computer is connected to your TV. You now have the ability to watch what you want when you want. No programming, no setup no wondering if the recording worked or if you have enough hard drive space. The programs and episodes and movies are always available. This eliminates the need to keep your own backups.
If you're Internet connection from Comcast works fine when it is connected directly to your computer, but does not work when connected to your router Comcast will not help you. In order to set your router to correctly work with Comcast some changes are needed from the standard router setup. First thing you will need to do is log into router. If you own a Linksys you will log into it by typing into the address bar of your browser 168.192.1.1. For any other brand it is either the same or 168.192.1.0. Once you have the login screen for your particular router, you will type in your login and password. For most routers the default for both settings is admin. Comcast offers what is called a dynamic IP address. If you are following the setup wizard this is the choice you will make. The key for connecting with Comcast is the Mac address. You will have an option button clone Mac address. You must refresh that address in order to be recognized by the Comcast modem.
Your wiring setup goes from the Comcast modem, to the WAN port on the router, from one of the four out going ports to the back of your computer into your LAN card.
If you have changed service from DSL to cable you may have one of the older PPOE accounts. These required a login along with a password. You must reset the router from this account to dynamic IP. It is also a good idea to reset your modem, router and your computer to assure the IP address has been released. All of these are reset by simply turning them off, letting them sit for a minute and turning them back on. If your router and modem do not have a on-off switch, simply unplug them.7:11 PM GMT | Read comments(0)August 24Easy Free Auto Backup for Windows 7
I get calls all the time about my computer is dead can you get my stuff off it. The first thing I ask is are you backed up and do you have an external drive? The answer is always a resounding NO. It’s just not something most of you do so I thought it might help to have an easy automatic system to back up your stuff and as a bonus it’s free. I can’t say enough times how important it is to back up your stuff. Every computer will die at some point and it’s going to take all your pictures and music with it to the grave.
If you have other versions of Windows you can do this also it will involve a few more downloads and updates. For Windows 7 you want to start here.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C26EFA36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en
This is SyncToy 2 for Windows 7. A very small program that will sync your computer files to your external hard drive. Download and install the program. Check your computer to see which version of 7 your are running, 32 or 64 bit. Once installed you will start the program and create a sync pair. My suggestion is to sync your entire user name. This will include all music, pics and documents from all your programs. Choose the external drive for the device on the right and follow the instructions.
Now you have a back up but it’s not automatic and without that part it may never get done again. Go to your start button and type in task scheduler, it will appear on top of your list. Start it and choose create basic task. You will want to choose start program as the task. To find SyncToy open computer, c drive, program files, SyncToy. Once you have the main folder open you need to click the actual file name SyncToy. You can now set up a schedule for how often to run the backup. I suggest once a week. You will have 3 chooses for the kind of Sync choose the first one. That’s it, you can now be part of a very small group of computer users who can sleep well knowing the pictures of your cats are safe.
Several years ago a new client unbeknownst to me leaves a very positive review for me on Yelp. This is how I first discovered this business rating web site. Over the following years many of my clients also left very positive reviews. At one point there were 30 reviews wall with a five star rating. It was at this point I received a phone call from a Yelp if sales Rep. She was trying to persuade me that for a mere $300 a month she could increase my business. As with all paid advertising I refused. A day later I received a phony request in my e-mail from a supposedly yelp reader. Within days all of my positive reviews had disappeared leaving only two out of the 30. For my category business I had by far the most reviews. Where did my reviews go? Who had deleted them? It was at this time that I decided to do some investigation. It turns out that Yelp works in very mysterious ways. After refusing to purchase advertising, Yelp decided that the vast majority of my reviews were bogus. Either placed there by myself or by friends family or whoever.
It seems that I'm not the only one that feels this way. This has become such an obvious problem and garnered so much attention that it is now a major headline. I have received business from people who believe Yelp is a legitimate place of creditable reviews. Yelp.com set itself up as the premier social based review site and wields a great deal of power because of that. This website has punished myself and apparently tens of thousands of other businesses who refuse to be forced to pay. When a client takes the time to write a review for Google or Yellow pages those companies do not tamper with
I believe most people have no idea how yelp actually works. As an individual your review is only considered of value if you participate on a very regular basis. Taking the time to write a single review once a year constitutes you as worthless in the eyes of yelp. Yelp considers itself a social web site and it appears to have some kind of a pecking order. The more reviews you post the more power you have. It's not uncommon to see reviewers with 600 or more posts. These ego maniacs and apparently there quite a few can make or break a business.What has to happen in order to make Yelp trustworthy is a revolution by its customer base. If the revenue stream stops on yelp will have to change. All businesses must stop paying advertising fees immediately. And demand that yelp offers full transparency on how it does its business. Businesses must be allowed to respond in writing to negative reviews as it is quite clear many of these are generated falsely. To guarantee the validity of any review it can no longer be left anonymous. All reviewers must be confirmed just like Greg's list is attempting to do. It is not yelp's responsibility unless requested to be involved in any of the reviews. Best thing yet to be for yelp to disappear as it is clear it is corrupt on every single level.
I just spent several hours removing Norton antivirus software. Because of that I decided this would be a good time to update you on what's the best way to protect my computer. Some years ago, the real threat to computers were viruses. That is no longer the case. Let me repeat that, viruses are not a threat today. The need for virus software is really nonexistent. What is a very real threat are Mal ware intrusions. These are small programs that can infect your computer by way of e-mail, websites, and attachments. These types of problems occur when a unsuspecting user is tricked into doing something that then allows the infection. To protect yourself from these types of infections you must become a much more savvy computer user.
What will not help you are any and all of the major or minor software suites from Norton, McAfee, AVG or any of the others. In fact, the simple act of installing these programs causes far more problems than they help. Each of these programs so entwines itself as to require a separate computer just to run. In addition to the significant performance hit your computer will take, they offer no real protection.
Here is what I recommend in the real world. For e-mail use an online service such as Gmail or Hotmail. They offer far better scanning and protection than what is available to the individual. Today, the most common infections occur from Facebook. If you ever receive a request from one of your friends that requires you load a new webpage or follow any links DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT. Try and stay away from celebrity sites, these are notorious for being infected. I use a free product from Microsoft called Microsoft security essentials. This is a very small program with a tiny footprint. All versions of Windows since XP service pack two include a firewall. This is sufficient. If you have a broadband Internet connection I also recommend connecting a router in between your computer and modem. If you have a modem less than two years old more than likely it is a router also. If you have a wireless connection then you also already have a router.
What people don't understand, is that the vast majority of infections occur because of the user. No software has been designed to protect from that.
What do antivirus 2009, antivirus 2010 have in common? They are both fake. If you are still using any version of Windows XP you are extremely vulnerable. If you have not upgraded to IE8 and use Windows XP it is just a matter of time before some type of bullshit antivirus program takes over your computer. This type of intrusion can occur on almost any web page. They are created not by the web site, but by the advertising on that web page. I am sure you have noticed that each time you refresh a web page you see different ad's generated in the exact same spot. It is the company's that create those changing ad's that are infected. If you should happen upon a web page that generates one of these virus warnings, DON”T DO ANYTHING. And I am going to repeat that in bold don't do anything, don't do anything, don't do anything. Do not attempt to click anywhere on the page. The page is one giant yes button. If you follow these simple instructions you will not infect your computer. Turn off your computer. Go to the start button and shut the computer off.
When you have turned your computer back on you're safe to go back to normal browsing. Breathe a sigh of relief, and now decide what needs to be done to avoid this happening in the future. If you do not own and external backup drive you are to buy one immediately. If you own a external backup drive and have not made a recent backup, you are to make one immediately. I recommend you read my blog on backing up your computer, what are the best and safest ways to back up.
If you're coming across this blog after the fact. And are looking for ways to fix your infected computer I will attempt to pass on some real world experience. No paid or free program can reliably fix this. The only way to completely remove and prevent the malware from reappearing is to wipe your hard drive and reinstall. It is at this point you should consider very strongly making some changes. Windows XP is over 10 years old. In computer years it might as well be 1000. It is no longer a capable OS. No amount of patching or service packs is going to change that. The security features within the new Windows 7 OS in combination with IE8 are light years ahead. At some point you are going to upgrade this is the perfect opportunity.
Fake antivirus--false pop-up warnings designed to scare money out of computer users--represents 15 percent of all malware that Google detects on Web sites, according to 13-month analysis the company conducted between January 2009 and February 2010.
That's a five-fold increase from when the company first started its analysis, Niels Provos, a principal software engineer at Google, said in an interview.
Meanwhile, fake antivirus scams represent half of all malware delivered via advertisements, which is becoming a problem for high-profile sites that rely on their advertisers and ad networks to distribute clean ads.
Google analyzed 240 million Web pages and uncovered more than 11,000 domains involved in fake antivirus distribution for the study, which Google is set to unveil at the Usenix Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats Tuesday in San Jose, Calif.
If you are presented with any pop up window declaring you are infected with a virus DO NOT CLICK ANY WHERE ON THE SCREEN, by trying to cancel or close the window you will infect your computer. The key to this is to simply turn off the computer and restart it.
If you have been fooled you will need to contact me ASAP to fix your computer. 6:00 PM GMT | Read comments(1)February 13How to talk to your computer, and have it listen.
With both the Vista and now Windows 7 built into the operating system is voice recognition. With the simple addition of a microphone you can bring your computer into the future. In the back of just about every computer are some colored holes. The pink one is the one you plug in your microphone to. As soon as you do that your computer will recognize it and begin the tutorial for how to use it.
There are commands to control each and every aspect of your computer. That includes opening programs, using your web browser, starting a music program listening to all your songs or even an excel worksheet. The most common use for speech recognition is dictation. You can open up your E mail and dictate. This works for all word processing programs such as Microsoft Word, Wordpad or Notepad.
There are lots of reasons to use the speech recognition included. If you hate typing, are not very good at it or simply never learned you can still create documents. Obviously if you have a physical limitation this can completely compensate for that. I prefer using dictation for all my blogs. I like the ability to stream my thoughts verbally. If you've never tried it I strongly recommend you pick up a $20.00 Logitech headset and move into the future.
Windows 7 completely changes the playing field for PC computers. For the first time Microsoft has accomplished a real milestone. For years we have been promised a reliable secure computing experience. And all of us from real world experience know that that does not exist. If you were to believe Apples marketing they claim to have achieved this years ago. Unfortunately, the truth is very different than marketing. Apple computers have had more than their share of disasters. Windows 7 brings together all of the pieces of the puzzle. It is reliable, it is easy to use, it is secure and it offers unprecedented compatibility.
Reliability: Microsoft has made a rock solid operating system. They accomplished this first with Vista and now to a greater extent with Windows 7. The reason Apple computers don't crash as often is because they are a very closed system. Every Apple Computer is identical to every other Apple Computer. PC computers on the other hand have an infinite variety of systems and components that almost worked together. In previous versions of Microsoft operating systems companies that produced both hardware and software were allowed to make changes to the core components of the operating system. Windows 7 does not allow any changes to its core systems anymore. One of the biggest complaints with Vista was that lots of software and hardware didn't work with it. Microsoft took a huge gamble by making a fundamental change. It completely changed how everything interacted. In doing so it locked down Windows and stop the blue screen of .
Easy-to-use: Windows 7 has added common sense features that make using it a pleasure. The start button opens up a search window that allows to find anything on your computer. To start typing, it will find documents, pictures, e-mails, programs. The larger task bar located on the bottom of your screen now or for the wealth of information. You can add any icon for any and all of your programs without having to litter your desktop with them. When you hover your mouse over any of them it shows you a large preview pane. If you have more than one instance of a window open such as lots of webpages it groups them together. It now easily allows you to configure your window sizes by just moving them to either side or to the top of your screen. It has this thing called libraries. What this means is you can keep track of all of your pictures without having to have them in a single folder yet they all show up in the library, very handy.
Security: Microsoft has really done a fantastic job in this category. They include a very good set of features to keep your computer free from outside problems. Windows now includes for free Windows essentials. This is a very small yet very effective antivirus and Mal ware program. Microsoft also includes a very effective firewall. And believe it or not if you use Internet Explorer 8 you have the least chance of any infection. It is impossible to protect users from themselves. No software or computer program can't accomplish that. You must use common sense when surfing the web, downloading or accessing your e-mail.
Compatibility: This is a category that has no rivals. No other operating system comes remotely close. Windows 7 is the best gaming platform available, Windows 7 offers hundreds of thousands of compatible software packages. Windows 7 allows for the use of a vast array of hardware choices.
We have finally arrived at a place where the computer just works, and works in a way that's easy to use.
I could go into any number of personal examples of why this store is always a great disappointment, but why bother, when it's just as easy to do a simple Google search and find actual websites devoted to this very topic. Why do we discuss in this blog are two particular policies that seem to me both deceitful and illegal.
The first one, has to do with matching prices. In my experience this has proven to be outright fraud. It is clear that management has no intention of ever matching any products. There is always an excuse or made up random policy that excludes your particular request. Now I really don't give a shit if Best Buy ever matches a price, they can charge whatever they please for any product that they sell. The problem obviously occurs, when Best Buy makes a strong marketing claim that it does in fact happily match pricing.
Second on the hit list has to do with the famed Geek Squad of theirs. This wandering band of geeks are an insult to the industry. Best Buy offers virtually zero training in combination with poor pay. Guaranteed to add up to a bad expensive experience. Armed with no actual computer knowledge and a handful of so-called repair DVDs. If you should happen to need to bring your computer to the store for repair be prepared to have all of your personal information shared. This group of 20 some odd-year-olds have an internal computer network where they like to post your stuff for a laugh or worse. Best Buy has been accused of this on many occasions but does nothing.
Now let's talk about a few particulars at Best Buy sells. I cannot emphasize strongly enough to never buy a Best Buy gift card. How this is legal I have no idea because it just seems like theft to me. Best Buy has a policy that once a gift card has been purchased, under NO circumstances, none, zero, no exceptions can it be refunded. I have seen this policy in many other stores but every other store will, with some discussion, give cash for the card. Best Buy claims and I'm sure rightly so that no procedure exists to do that. So it's not anyone's fault, it's the system. They would love to be able to cash out the card for you it just isn't possible. What a crock of shit.
And finally, let's talk about how they appreciate their customers. This example can be good for lots of different electronics that require a small wire or cable to work. You just got your fancy new TV, but discover doesn't include that each HDMI cable. So you dash over a Best Buy. This cable which is available for $6-$12 in my stores, starts at $40 and go to several hundred at good old Best Buy. You need a USB cord, to make that new printer work for you. Again, Best Buy marks up that four dollar cord to $30 and beyond. This type of gouging for all sorts of items that Best Buy knows customers require in the moment. For lots of customers, they have actually no idea what these things should cost. Best Buy figures screw you for being ignorant. For customers who do know better Best Buy knows they got you, because they know you need the item now. Best Buy has a choice in how it conducts its business, how it treats and respects its customers, or the lack of. When a company attempt to take advantage of its customers, I say, we tell them otherwise.
Thousands of good hard-working people I'm sure work for Best Buy. And my hope is not to have them lose their jobs. I hope my lots of us talking with our wallets, that Best Buy does the right thing and changes its ways. That of course would be a win-win for everyone. If only that were the way
I have installed Windows 7 from scratch on dozens of computers. This includes early betas, the RC and the final release. For the first time I did an upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. The upgrade went perfectly. My desktop appeared fully intact. I was however unable to connect to the Internet. My network was working perfectly. After much research I found out that Apple was the culprit. Apple uses a program called Bonjour in its iTunes and QuickTime applications. It is also installed with Adobe Photoshop. In most cases you cannot uninstall Bonjour on its own. What needs to be done to stop the program involves stopping it within the Services. Here are the very simple steps to resolve this problem.
1. Open up task manager would control, alt, del keys.
2. Click the services tab.
3. On the bottom right of the screen you will see a services button, click.
4. You're looking for ##Id_String2.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##.
5. Right click it and choose properties.
6. Under startup type choose disable.
7. Close all the windows and restart your computer.
8. You will now have your Internet connection.
Computer cases can cost as little as $15 and as much as thousands. So what exactly do I get if I spend a lot of money? Let's examine what the computer case does. On its most basic level it holds the components for your computer. It has a mounting plate to install your motherboard, some type of a rail system to hold your drives and an area to install a power supply. Even the most inexpensive cases offer the option to install an additional fan. If one can accomplish all of this for the minimum, why would anyone bother spending more? What exactly do you get if you spend more money? In my experience the single biggest difference involves the inside edges of the case. Cheap cases are notorious for very sharp edges. If you were not extremely careful even the most experienced builders will cut themselves. The cases are usually very lightweight and require the actual computer components to add rigidity and strength. In theory the more expensive cases will offer better sound insulation for a quieter running computer. The fit and finish are also going to be of a higher quality. They will usually include an additional fan to help facilitate better air flow. Expensive cases always include some type of drive bay mounting kit. Usually including some type of a rail that installs to both sides of your drive and allows easy removal. If you are continually changing and updating drives this is a helpful feature.
What I have listed in the previous paragraph are facts, but people who buy expensive cases alone aren't concerned with facts alone. For some computer owners bragging rights are top of the list. For these buyers only the perceived best will do for them. For other users there is the cool factor. My son is nine and his computer case includes a variety of LED lights and an almost face like front. He and his friends get a kick out of it. But having lights and cutouts do not add any additional functionality. For my readers I recommend you spend $40 or less for your case. If you are looking to achieve a quiet computer the case will unfortunately offer little in accomplishing that.
The only instance that I feel justifies additional computer case cost, would be for a home theater setup. Here, you would want the computer to match your existing AV equipment. These types of cases offer a much higher end look with brushed aluminum faces and LED readouts. They generally use a proprietary power supply because of the size and shape of the case and are included in the additional cost. Typically these computers sit in a cabinet without the best airflow, so additional cooling fans are also included.
In keeping with my basic philosophy that computers are a terrible investment, don't feel pressured to spend more than is required. In a relatively short time your gleaming new computer is nothing but a worthless boat anchor. And I don't know anyone who takes pride in having a garage collection of expensive boat anchors.
It's that time of year again, time to decide what kind of computer to send the kids off to college with. This year you have a lot of great choices for not a whole lot of money. There will always be the Apple or PC question, which for this time I will discuss a little bit further on. First thing to ask is laptop or desktop? For most students going off to college laptop is the desired choice. In deciding what type of laptop to bring you have to be clear on what you're going to be doing with your laptop. For instance, will it stay in the room mostly and not be brought to class? What types of classes would it be used for and what are the software requirements? It is at this point that most often kills the Apple products. Many if not all critical software will not run on Apple Computers. In order to make an apple work you have to turn into a PC. Other than the operating system Apple's are standard PCs. You will need to install another operating system such as XP or Vista at additional cost. I personally don't get the Apple magic and have written several blogs explaining my opinion.
A very real option is to buy two computers. Getting a nicely configured desktop with a larger screen than the available on laptops allows for a few extra benefits. You can have a combination TV, movie player, music player and of course your workhorse computer. For the second machine you can get a net book. These are small portable lightweight lean laptops. They are perfect for bringing to class. They excel at browsing the web, taking notes and for webcamming. They are not designed or meant for any kind of heavy-duty use. But for about the same cost as a midrange laptop you can have two machines.
Laptops and desktops for that matter have come way down in price. A very nicely configured midrange laptop can be bought for $600. This will include dual core processors with the 6000 series chip, three or 4 GB of RAM, 320 GB hard drives, HDMI output, ESata port, 14 to 17 inch screens with a one-year warranty. All of the name brands, Dell, HP, Toshiba, and Gateway offer excellent models in this price range. I recommend keeping your eye on deals offered through FatWallet.com. I mentioned the 6000 series chip for a specific reason. Many made in low-cost laptops are configured with the Intel two or four series chips. These are nothing more than the Celeron series, and are never good performers. The two most common core two duo chips are the T. 6400 and the T. 6500.
Desktops should be purchased through Recom computers and only Recom computers. This ensures your best combination of expertise and value matched only by its high level of customer support.
If you were to listen to the companies that produce antivirus, malware and firewall software you would think we are fighting a war. Tens of thousands of viruses and infections are constantly bombarding our computers. You have to be crazy to not be running at least one if not more antivirus programs. If your computer is not protected for just a second you will lose control to a bot net. Fortunately for you, that is not the case. The truth of the matter is very different. The reality is if you are infected there is nothing any of these programs can do to stop it. This is the really really important part. In order to get infected the user, you, must give permission. There is nothing any software can do to protect yourself from yourself. The two most common types of infections today are from Facebook, and bogus anti virus software that pops up on your computer screen. Both of these rely on the user to click and accept what is being offered. This is where the Vista part comes in. Unlike windows XP, Vista has the ability to warn you if a program is trying to install something. This is the single most important security feature. This is the only way to protect yourself from the most likely infections. Even with this type of security, if the user accepts the installation you have lost.
I get lots of questions about hard drive defragging and wanted to put some sense to your concerns. All of the questions regarding defragging all end up the exact same response from me. Whether it's how often to defrag, what's the best time to do it, or is one program better that another. To all these and any other question you can think of the answer is NO, NEVER and NON. Defragging is a total geek waste of time. It does not reclaim hard drive space, it does not speed up your computer, it does not make applications load faster and shut down faster. If after all this you still feel the need to do this so called maintenance, use the defrag that comes in all Windows flavors. Under no circumstance should you pay for this kind of program. There are lots of useful things to spend money on for your computer, defragging is on the bottom of the list. Other total wastes include registry cleaners, computer optimizer programs, anything Norton, just to name a few.
In general, buying electronics is not a very good investment. Spending large amounts of money on your music system gives you some bragging rights and hopefully a very nice sounding music experience. The equipment you buy today will last you 20, 30 or even more years. It will still play the music just beautifully. Buying a computer on the other hand is not at all like that. The best example is buying an Apple computer. Let's take the Apple laptop costing $1500 and compare it to a $500 laptop. What do I get for my $1500? Based on most Apple buyers opinion, you get a very well-built laptop. One that taken care of should last for many years. In addition, it may have some resale value if you should ever want to sell it. And of course, you get the OSX software. That discussion I will leave for others. I am not going to include any other costs in this example. After three years, in computer terms, I have a very old laptop. Many new innovations are available that I would love to have. Because I am so heavily invested, $1500, I am very reticent to let go of my old laptop. In fact, I feel obligated to keep this until it dies. And that may not be for many more years. So I hold onto my old laptop well beyond its useful life.
Now let's take that $500 laptop. It is by no means of the highest quality. By the time three years comes around. It very well could be at the end of its life. What will be available, at that time, will be a far more powerful computer, lighter, with all the latest innovations for less money. Because I am not indebted to a large investment, I have no problem letting go of my old laptop. With the new computer, I am much more productive and have saved a substantial amount of money.
Let's take this example. I have $1500 to spend over three years on my laptop. I spent all of it upfront on a Apple laptop. After three years I have an old outdated computer. Even though it may physically still run, it is in computer terms an old computer. Instead, I spread that money over three years. Each year spending $500 on a brand-new laptop. At the end of each year I sell my laptop for 50% of what I paid, which in fact is probably very low. At the end of three years, I have a brand-new, latest and greatest laptop and $250 in my pocket. To me, the computer is just a bad investment. It doesn't matter what kind I buy, or how much I spend. At the end of the day they are boat anchors and I don't own a boat. I would much prefer to have a garage full of $500 boat anchors then $1500 ones.
How we listen to music today has dramatically changed. For most of us it involves strapping on some headphones or earbuds and listening in our private little world. The other option is to take our music player and somehow try and figure a way to connect it to an external speaker system. There are literally thousands of music docks available for most any kind of a music player. These can cost from under $100 to several hundred. What you end up listening to is a rather cheap inexpensive poor quality listening experience.
How do we get all of that digital music from our computers to the one really good sound system. For lots of people today the best sound is available in their home theater setup. Usually it is nowhere near the computer with all of those music files. I for example, in addition to a home theater setup, have a dedicated two channel stereo setup. I have taken the time to rip most of my music collection to the computer. Listening to that music, on the computer, is a very limiting experience.
With lots of research and some experimentation, I have found a remarkable, inexpensive product from Logitech. The Logitech Wireless Music System for PC. It cost under $30 and connects to any USB port on your computer. That transmitter sends a signal to a small receiver you plug directly into your stereo. It attaches with an included RCA jack to any available auxiliary jack. You set your receiver for that input. Now go back to the computer, and start up whichever media player you prefer. I am not a fan of iTunes, so I fire up Windows media player 11. It now allows all of that great convenient digital music, to be heard in all its glory. If you haven't listened to your music through your stereo in many years, you will be blown away. Earbuds in the gym, or on the train, or while you are casually walking down the street do not deliver the full listening experience. With this simple device you get the best of both worlds. You can set up long relaxing and enjoyable playlists, or just set the media player to randomly go through your music. I neglected to mention it also includes a remote, so you never have to get up from your Led Zeppelin, Santana listening fest. 12:21 PM GMT | Read comments(0)March 30The dangers of knowing a little bit about computers.You've heard the term ignorance is bliss, well with computers that is especially true. Unfortunately a little bit of knowledge is a sure recipe for disaster. And what I mean by disaster is usually a dysfunctional computer. If you are among the vast majority of computer users who are capable of doing more than simply pushing the button to turn the computer on you could find yourself in serious trouble. If the words defrag, optimization, registry, virus, malware are words you think you understand
this blog is for you. Working with computers is very much like doing brain surgery, you really want to leave it to the professionals. You would never consider doing any kind of invasive operation, no matter how much Discovery TV you watched. But unfortunately for the vast majority of computer users this is just not the case. Thinking you know something about computers makes it okay to download and install a variety worthless scams, because you have no idea what these programs do. But you know enough to recognize some buzzwords and that's all it takes.
I want to be extremely clear about this next statement. “There is no way to fix your computer with a software program.” If you are experiencing problems with your computer you need to contact a computer specialist. Whatever you think you're going to save by doing it yourself never works out. But this blog has more to do with the computer that’s running fine. You find yourself with a little extra time on your hands and decide, I wonder if I can make this machine better, faster, safer. And in the blink of an eye your journey begins, leading you into the inevitable computer HELL. Once you have arrived here, your time is no longer your own. Things in the real world take just a few minutes, in computer hell now take hours and even days. And you are stuck in it, no going back. I am sure for lots of people this ends up with a useless and worthless computer, destined to a dusty grave. When you finally acknowledge you're in way over your head your only option is to spend money, and lots more than you ever expected to. You curse the computer and yourself for being so stupid. What in the world was I thinking? And of course, OH SHIT.
I hope the next time you get the idea to do any work on your computer you will remember reading this article and choose not to do it. Saving yourself countless hours of frustration and of course wasting money.2:08 PM GMT | Read comments(0)April 03Feel the Love with Windows 7
The single biggest complaint about craigslist is the inability to search multiple cities at the same time. It gets very tiring having to click back and forth from city to city to city in order to locate what you're looking for. Why they have not made this a feature is a mystery to everyone. However, it has allowed dozens of sites dedicated to just this function. Depending on your particular needs one of the many free sites will work for you. Many sites offer a small downloadable plug-in, and charge up to $30 but offer some useful advanced features. I am going to recommend just one site and it's free, called http://www.crazedlist.org/.
The site only works with the Firefox browser and when you first travel to the page it requires you to change the configuration of the Firefox. It can be intimidating but the instructions are very simple. If you're familiar with using tabs in Firefox, I suggest you open a new one. That will allow you to keep both the instruction page and the configuration page open for easy viewing. Once you have made the needed change restart your browser and go back to the site. It will now be fully functional for you.
Some of the paid programs allow you to not only search for items but be notified when your particular item gets posted if you were unable to find it initially. This of course can be very helpful when searching for very rare or very popular items. This can give you the upper hand in getting to the buyer first to make your offer.
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