Over the years, I have seen many different recommendations when it comes to taking care of your computer. Some people say that it’s good to leave your computer on all day and use the power saving features when you have to. Others say that you should just shut down your computer when you’re not using it. Which is correct though?

I used to keep my computer on all day since I used to jump on it many times throughout the day. I even kept it on overnight. Now since I only play on the computer for a few consecutive hours each day, I have started shutting the computer down. The new rule is: If I’m not going to be using the computer for 2 hours, I shut the computer down. This is the best rule to follow, as long as you’re not restarting the computer every 2 hours, 8 times a day.

You may ask about power saving features such as hibernate and standby. Well, experts say they don’t really save all that much energy. Standby mode still sends power through your processor and all of your hardware. Processors only have a certain amount of hours in them before they start to degrade. Hibernation is a good option because it powers down your components, but it also spends a lot of time writing the data in RAM to your hard drive. It’s about the same about of wear and tear on the drive as you’d get from restarting though. Why not just shut all the way down and have a nice, fresh computer when you start working again?

I have a confession to make regarding how I’ve been hosting my web sites. I have been creating new web hosting accounts for each web site I build. This has cost me $10 per month for each site. I wasn’t aware that you can actually put multiple sites on one hosting account. A co-worker of mine showed me the control panel of his Dreamhost account with hundreds of domains listed. “Do they charge extra for that?” I asked. “Of course not!”. All this time, I could’ve put multiple domains on any of my hosting accounts and saved hundreds of dollars. So now, I am in the process of putting all of my sites on my Dreamhost account. Fun stuff!

I thought I’d share this story, because I had a friend that wasn’t aware you could host multiple sites with one account either. I’m sure there are more people like us out there paying for hosting they don’t need.

Today I was helping a user that couldn’t read or write to files in a folder on the network. I figured something was set on the files that had them set to Read Only. So I ran the following DOS command on the folder containing the files:

attrib *.*  -r +a -s -h /s

Some of the files were changed fine, but others threw an access denied error message. At first I thought it was permissions on the files. I discovered that we had full control permissions on the file.

I then restarted the computer in Safe Mode, thinking that the some type of software had the files locked. I still couldn’t do anything with the files in this folder. I couldn’t even move them from the folder to another.

Finally I decided something was wrong with the file system or disk. I ran CHKDSK /F from a DOS command prompt on the hard drive.

Finally, after the scan was finished I tried running the ATTRIB command again. Success! Finally I could read and write to the files again.

Even computer techs such as myself get spyware and the occasional virus. I do a deep cleaning about once every 3 months. I try to get every possible thing cleaned off of my PC that might be reducing performance. I used software that does a tremendous job and is free. I thought I would share my regiment.

1. Remove programs that aren’t needed - Open Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs and get rid of anything you don’t need. You may actually find a few spyware applications listed that will need to be removed. My rule of thumb is that if I don’t know what it is or if I haven’t used it in over 6 months, it gets uninstalled.

2. Clean the junk off - CCleaner cleans the crap off your computer such as temp files, memory dumps and other useless files. Doing this step early will prevent antivirus and antispyware software from wasting time scanning them.

3. Spyware scan - I have Windows Defender, but it doesn’t get everything. Scan your PC with Adaware and make sure it’s a Full Scan to clean spyware off of your computer.

4. Antivirus scan - AVG Antivirus is a powerful and free antivirus program. Avast! is a nice alternative. Download and scan your PC with one of these programs if you don’t already own a commercial based antivirus program.

5. Check for rootkits - Some viruses and spyware can hide from antivirus programs and spyware scanners. Check for rootkits with the RootkitRevealer.

I used the old registry tweaks for speeding up your Internet connection on my Windows 2000 and Windows 98 machines. By default, the registry wasn’t optimized for high speed Internet connections. These old tweaks worked very well in speeding up my connection back then. These days under Windows XP, I was getting decent speed with my cable modem, but nothing mind-blowing. I used to think that Windows XP didn’t need any tweaking at all and was already optimized for high speed connections. It turns out that I was wrong. I came across TCP Optimizer and thought I would give it a try. To my amazement, it tripled my Internet download speed.

Greedy for more speed, I began playing with the advanced settings in the program, trying to squeeze every last byte out of my connection. It eventually got to the point where my download speeds were 5 times faster, but my computer started losing connection randomly, forcing me to restart my computer often. Luckily there was an option in the software that backed up my previous settings, so I was able to revert back to them.

Give the software a try and see what it does for you. Click here for TCP Optimizer.
There is also a guide available on how to use it if you need help.

Since Apple announced that they will be releasing new tools for the iPhone in June, people seem to be all excited about the iPhone again. I have read that the iPhone will replace the BlackBerry, and I couldn’t disagree more. Have we forgotten that the iPhone has a host of problems? The largest problems being that it’s very difficult for the average person to type a message using the touch screen. A BlackBerry has a keyboard with actual buttons. This disadvantage alone is enough for corporate America to just say no to iPhone.

At a time when the United States is headed into recession, I don’t think companies are going to be buying $400 devices for their sales teams when they can get a BlackBerry for a fraction of the cost. I don’t see why the rest of the world would either. It’s another classic case of people going ga-ga over every single Apple announcement. The same thing happened with the AirBook, where the press overlooked that it doesn’t have an Ethernet port or CD-ROM drive. You can buy a more powerful laptop with more features for $500 at Wal-Mart.

Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone is a fairly cool device. It’s a solid product for consumers. I look forward to seeing some of the games that come out. The ability to move your iPhone around and control objects on the screen gets me a little giddy. But, replace devices in the corporate world? I think the device needs to be redesigned before that will happen.

I downloaded TiVo Desktop because I wanted to be able to publish my videos from my desktop computer to my Tivo and watch them in my living room. After playing around with it a little bit, I was not able to get that feature to work. Also, I could transfer video from my TiVo to my PC, but it wouldn’t play at all.

I checked all my settings. I added my Media Access Key, and had the videos in the C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My TiVo Recordings folder. They were AVI and MPG format, so they were supposed to work. Why wasn’t it working?

I guess I didn’t see the fine print when I downloaded TiVo Desktop. I had to purchase and download TiVo Desktop Plus to enable these features. The software doesn’t tell you this when you try to use it. TiVo Desktop Plus costs $24.95 and I didn’t want to spend the money. I thought I could configure something else for free. After a month of thinking, I finally caved and bought it. As soon as I added the software key under Help > Upgrade to TiVo Desktop Plus, the features worked. I’m glad I decided to spend the money. It turned out to be well worth it.

I am very much looking forward to the possibility of Microsoft taking over Yahoo. Maybe it will bring some well needed competition to Google. Microsoft can replace the Yahoo Search with their own Live Search technology, which I have to say, is pretty darn good. It still has a while to go before it can find things like Google can.

Perhaps Microsoft will take away the ridiculous charges that are rampant with Yahoo such as the charges to upgrade email, or view certain articles. I love nothing more than seeing a link on my My Yahoo page with a little $ next to it indicating that I cannot view the entire article unless I wish to pay for it. This is just one of the many examples of Yahoo trying to charge for stuff consumers know they can get free. What I often end up doing is searching for the article on Google and reading it for free.

I never thought I would welcome Microsoft to a new arena, but Yahoo needs to be saved. The services they offer have so much potential, it’s just the people running the company are clueless.

I received a new iPod Nano over the holidays. I have carried it with me everywhere. It’s been in my pocket or in my bag most of the time. In under 3 weeks, the thing has many scratches all over it. Even on the back side where the metal part is. I have not exposed this iPod to too much that I thought could do this much damage. The most it has been up against is other fabric in my pocket or bag. I did start using the included pouch that comes with the iPod to protect it. I have still seen new scratch marks on the unit appear. I suspect that the outside is just plain cheap and non-resilient.

I highly recommend investing in a case. I wouldn’t recommend buying one at your local Apple Store or Best Buy though. Those places seem to charge way too much for a simple plastic case. I have found many cases on eBay and at dollar stores in my area for around $1. Of course it’s too late for me. My iPod is already beaten up and it doesn’t really matter how much protection I have at this point.

See also:
Keep your iPod scratch free

It’s official. Netscape Navigator is officially dead.  AOL is killing all further development of the browser. All support will be officially shut off on February 1, 2008. It’s hard to believe there once was a time when Magazine covers loved to have a Netscape logo next to an Internet Explorer logo pitting them against each other. We all wondered who would win the browser wars.

After AOL took over the Netscape company, things just headed downhill. I think version 5 was when Netscape started sucking. Version 6 made things worse and totally sucked. It crashed all the time and performed slow. Things got so bad, AOL even refused to bundle Netscape Navigator with their AOL dial-up service. Rest in peace Netscape Navigator. We won’t miss you.

Read more about the death of Netscape Navigator here.

This week I’ve experienced a problem with Firefox after the updated they have been pushing. I was unable to cut, copy and paste from Firefox. I couldn’t copy URL’s, text from web pages or anything. I started Firefox in Safe Mode and the problem was gone. It appears that my StumbleUpon Add-on was causing the issue. Once I disabled it, the problem went away when I started Firefox in normal mode.

I have been regularly running into these problems with Firefox lately. I would blame the add-on developers, but other plug-ins have stopped working with each Firefox update. It’s starting to influence me to switch back to IE.

The concept of doing away with your cell phone can be considered strange these days. Everybody has a cell phone and just can’t seem to live without them. Right now I am getting charged $80 a month by Verizon. This is for their Basic plan at $39.99 a month. That $39.99 fee doubles by the end of the month with all the surcharges, taxes, etc. I’m beginning to think that it’s not worth it to have a cell phone. Can’t I just use my Vonage account when I’m at home? The rest of the time I can use my phone at work. When I’m out, pay phones still exist at many gas stations.

Some may say I need a cell phone for emergencies. Well, if I need to dial 911, I don’t need a service. Any cell phone can dial 911. For emergencies not requiring 911, I could purchase a pay as you go plan. I would only use the phone when I absolutely need it, and I would never give the number to anybody. My friends have expressed that they would never be able to get in touch with me if I didn’t have a cell phone. This is true. It wouldn’t be as easy. But is the convenience for my friends being able to get in touch with me worth the extra $50 I pay over my Vonage service? I’m skeptical.

Dear Apple,

I was using iTunes today and found a song by Enrique Iglesias. Oh how I wanted to hear his lyrical mastery in the song Don’t Turn Out the Lights. However when I double-clicked the song, the classic exclamation mark appeared to tell me the song has somehow disappeared. My heart was so broken. I was so ready to lip sync to the song in my whitey tighties.

To prevent this from happening again, I have searched high and low for a solution to rid myself of songs that do not exist on my hard drive anymore, but still appear on my iTunes library list. This doesn’t appear to be a feature of your software at all.

When you find the time, do you think you can add a Rebuild Music Index feature or an option to remove songs that don’t exist into your software or something? Otherwise I will be forever cursed with having over 500 songs listed in iTunes that don’t exist because there is no way to sort them and delete them all at once.

Sincerely,

Mitch
Technipages.com

P.S. I chose to provide you a photo of my screen instead of me in my whitey tighties as I had intended. Let me know if you would like to see that instead.

I’m always preaching about people that call technical support lines. 90% of these callers can usually solve problems themselves if they either restart or reset the device they are using or play around with it a little bit. Instead they would prefer to dump it in the lap of somebody else and act helpless. Well, I am no longer able to preach about this as though I have never done such a thing myself.

Read more… »

Finally I have bit the bullet and migrated this site from PHPNuke to WordPress. PHPNuke has limited my ability on the quality of my posts, so I am really excited to be able to wrote posts using this system finally.

I’m sure there will be bugs, please bear with me as I try to work them out.