Tech Tips
Before Your PC Stops Working or You Get The BSOD
Oct 22nd
- Image via Wikipedia
Yesterday a friend of mine was talking with me when he got the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on his PC. That made me think that others might want a few tips on how to optimize your computers before they slow to a crawl or, you get the B.S.O.D. on your computer.
But, before you think of bringing your computer to the repair shop to have it optimized, you should try doing a few simple steps first. Using a computer shop to have your computer optimized so it runs as fast as possible can set you back a couple of hundred dollars for really what you can learn how to do.
Remember, even if you feel uncomfortable with computers, many times you can undo what you just did without any ill side effects. Just be sure to enable the Restore function on your PC before you start to work on it.
First, get rid of all the malware, spyware and anything in between.
Often times when you download peer-to-peer file sharing programs, you unknowingly allow little tiny pieces of software to get installed on your computer. And this sucks the speed right down on it. These little pieces of software can send back information that could be confidential. But most of the time they just slow down the computer.
You can download free spyware removal programs such as Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware or SpyBot Search and Destroy. You might also look at AntiSpyWare Bot, which is the one I use on my Sony Vaio running Vista Home Premium.
They work great for PC. Mac users will need to check their system requirements. Just simply do a quick Google search using the program names as you search phrase. Or you can also go to download.com and get the program there as well.
Both are quick to install and very friendly to use. They update often which is nice so it keeps your computer protected all the time.
Another simple method you can do is to help your computer is shutting down many of the unnecessary Window’s services. There are many different kinds of services that Window’s thinks it needs in order to operate and honestly, this isn’t the case. Again, do a simple Google search for ’services to shut down’ in order to get the best results and a faster computer.
If you go to the performance tab under the System option in Control Panel, you can actually optimized Windows there as well. As fancy as the graphical user interface (known also as GUI) can be in a Windows environment, it’s incredibly resource intensive when many different effects and colors are being used. This is completely harmless and will allow for best performance if you turn these non-essential features off.
And lastly, be sure you do update Windows often. You can easily update Windows while you sleep as the operating system allows you to auto-update so you don’t have to do anything.
With these few simple tips that a PC tech would do, you can save yourself some serious money with just a little bit of time invested in your learning and PC improvement.
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What Are Widgets On Websites
May 13th
A widget is just a small piece of computer code or a small application that can be inserted into a web page that performs a certain function or leads to a much larger application. It makes it easier for us non-tech types to get something done on our web sites without a lot of hassle.
You see them and use them all the time.
A widget can be: buttons, dialog boxes, pop-up windows, selection boxes, toggle switches, forms, stock quotes, news, search boxes for Google, clocks, counters, games, feeds and many many more.
If you are a Word Press user, you hear the term widget all the time. A widget in Word Press allows you to add tools or content to the side bars of you blog. One caution however, you must make sure you have a widget enabled theme. If you read the specifications of a theme it will tell you if it is widget enabled. This article is not going to go into all the details here about installing and using widgets. You should go to this web site: http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page to learn more.
Some people also get widgets and plugins confused when talking about their blogs. A widget is not a plugin and a plugin is not a widget. Think of it this way: a widget does something in your sidebar, a plugin affects your whole blog. So placing an auto responder sign up form in your side bar is done with a widget. A product such as “All In One SEO” is a plugin because it affects the SEO of your whole site.
If you go to this web page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ and look on the left side column you will find many widgets and plugins with ratings from other Word Press users. If there is something you want to do to your blog you will find a widget or a plugin to do it.
Most bloggers use widgets, but there is a lot of discussion about if you should or not, how many, and of course which ones. This decision really comes down to what are you trying to do with your blog?
You have to think about form, function and who is your audience. If you have a blog that is giving investment advice then a widget that shows what the Dow and the Nasdaq is trading at is a good thing.
It’s really common sense. What fits with your blog objectives? However, you will see there are many options out there and it’s wise not to get too much going on in the side bars, because it can be very busy and distracting for your visitors and they may click away before you can communicate your message.
Year 2012 Linux Dominates Desktops and Jared Graduates High School
Aug 22nd
I don’t use a crystal ball but those are my predictions for the desktop/server operating system know as Linux and for our son, the last of our 5 kids, Jared who will graduate from High School here in Elk River in 2012.
As a matter of fact, I’m thinking that Linux just may be the solution that Jared needs for his PC problems on his old Windows ME system Gateway that his oldest brother Jaimie gave him last year. You do remember Windows ME don’t you? That was another of the Microsoft operating systems which had “issues” not unlike my laptop with Vista.
I just read an article in Information Week titled, “What Will Linux Look Like in 2012” that got me thinking about how this operating system might just be the answer for Jared’s PC and many other people who find themselves with older but still usable hardware.
Information Week says, “In the time it takes most college students to earn an undergraduate degree — or party through their college savings — Linux will continue to mature and evolve into an operating system that non-technical users can fully embrace.”
They go on to say, “The single biggest change you’ll see is the way Linux evolves to meet the growing market of users who are not themselves Linux-savvy, but are looking for a low-cost alternative to Microsoft (or even the Mac). That alone will stimulate enormous changes across the board, but there are many other things coming down the pike in the next four years, all well worth looking forward to.”
Have you used Linux? Please post a comment about your thoughts on this article, your experience with Linux desktop or server applications.
Linux is named after it’s creator Linus Torvalds who, along with help from developers from countries all over the world, has built a system that many people now use.
You can learn more about Linux at the official Linux website, www.linux.org
Google News Alert for Henry Griner Finds Griner on Police Blotter!
Aug 19th
No, It Can’t Be! Please say it isn’t so. My name on a Police Blotter!
Google News Alert is an interesting tool for online business and Internet Marketers in particular. You can use the Google News Alert, which is free like many other Google Tools, to monitor activity on keywords of your own, a competitor, keywords in a niche area or as some employers have started doing, monitor the names of staff members.
Another useful way to use Google News Alerts, according to my friend Jeff Mills, is to have your outsource team monitor certain keywords via Google Alerts to see what the competition is doing to get traffic to their websites and build your SEO work from those clues.
As you can see in my little example from above, it does take a little research to look at the data returned from Google Alerts to make sure it is valid. Griner is not as common as Larson or Peterson in most areas of the United States anyway, but further checking of the results is often needed.
By the way, that is not about me in this Google News Alert. It says, Cornelius W. Griner, 25, of North Pearl Street, was arrested Saturday on a failure to appear warrant… That is NOT ME!
Google provides Internet Marketers with lots of really cool tools and many are free. I use the Google Alerts to track when someone has linked a blog posting, article, video or other content of mine to a website. I also use it to track how fast the search engines list my content.
If you want to build a “real” Home Based Business using the Internet, you need to learn how to test and track what your are doing. Google News Alerts is just one tool out of many that you can use and it cost you nothing.
You should also look at purchasing a few other products or reference materials for your own education. There are many to pick from and some are better than others.
One that I’m looking into now as a reference is called Google Snatch 2. Apart from all the hype in the sales letter, it looks like a good tool to learn about how to drive traffic to my websites. I’m not endorsing this as I have yet to study it myself, I give it as one more example of how people are using Google and other tricks to get traffic to their websites.
I would like to get feedback on what tools you are using to test and track your websites and what the results are. Please post your reply in my comments area.
Bogus CNN Custom Alerts and MSNBC.com “BREAKING NEWS” are SCAMS!
Aug 14th
Have you been getting a ton of emails that look to be from CNN Custom Alerts or MSNBC.com BREAKING NEWS?
DELETE THESE EMAILS AND DO NOT OPEN
I have been getting both of these for the past week or more. Be sure to delete and NOT OPEN them.
No, you can not unsubscribe from them at with CNN or MSNBC because these emails are coming from hackers and not these news organizations.
These emails are designed to encourage users to download a malicious application posing as a video codec. The site tries to download adobe_flash.exe to the users machine, which according to a string of security reports is used to infect trojans and/or worms to the user’s machine.
You do not want to have anything to do with emails like these. ALWAYS delete emails that look like this. If you don’t remember subscribing to something, never open, always delete these emails.
Here are links to additional websites with security information:
Remember to never open attachments from emails that you are not sure about. Surf safe and be safe online. If you have questions or need help cleaning up a PC with problems let me know. I have some other resources that may help you.
