Dec 27, 2010 | Uncategorized
Here at Geek Choice we try to educate these people, teach them all about the basics to the complicated, and hope that it helps with the sometimes frustrating experience. This frustration can turn into anger which then might result into an Office Space scene smashing the computer with a baseball bat. Take a deep breath, relax, and know that this blog is here to help. When we get calls from people, they are stressed out and are at the point of screaming over the phone. This blog is designed for just such people.
File systems or filesystems are the way computers organize and store the?files that contain?data and?programs on a?hard disk drive or other?storage device. Every computer?operating system has a unique file system, Windows is so unique actually, that it confuses people trying to use it who might not be so computer literate.
If you click on?My Computer in any version of Windows, a list of all the storage devices on your computer will be shown.
This is the hard drive containing all your?data and?programs. Here the name is OS, a name chosen when the disk was created. On your computer the name could be any name you choose.
To view the contents, simply double click on the drive.
To change what is displayed see our Computer Help on File Types?here. The Windows default is not that useful.?The display uses Windows Explorer. It shows all the files and folders on your computer.?The folders are identified by a folder icon. The files are shown in the lower two rows. their icon varies depending on the type of file.?The view you are looking at is known as the?root of the?(C) drive. It is the highest level view of the drive and is represented in text by?C:
Windows uses the backslash? to separate folders. There are folders in folders, in folders etc.
If we now look at the?Documents and Settings folder on most Windows system we see the directory structure structure shown at the right.
This is another source of confusion in Windows. If we are looking for the?My Documents folder there is not a single folder, but a separate folder for each user user defined in the system. There may be one user or many users. All computers are different.
The same is true for Internet Downloads. Ever wonder where those downloads went after they have finished? It can be a pain trying to find them again. Try making a folder specifically made for downloads from the internet. This will cut down on all that confusion which can lead to more problems if you are not careful.
Organizing your computer is an easy task, it is also very important. Over the few years your laptop or desktop runs for you, tons of information is stored on them, where will you put it all. It comes in gradually so by making easy to find folders and putting the files in the corresponding folder, can make sure you do not lose or delete those files that are important but forgotten about because they were in the “Miscellaneous” folder.
Dec 23, 2010 | Uncategorized
As soon as you click on your internet browser and start going from site to site, you leave a trail of information stored in text files. These are used by the browser to remember you, like usernames, email addresses, history, and everything you download. Without them, some websites you would not be able to use. With them, anyone can track where you just were on the web. Cookies also leave the door open to spyware and malware, something that has plagued the web for a long time. Want to understand them so you will know a little more about how you use the internet? Read more.
Cookies, which used to be called “magic cookies”, are packets of data that are received by a program and sent back unchanged. The idea of cookies really came to be used for the internet from none other than an employee for Netscape. Lou Montulli, in June 1994, designed cookies so they could have a virtual shopping cart. In a year Montulli got a patent for cookies. Internet Explorer began using them in 1995, and no one really knew what they were, and more importantly that cookies were being used and people were unaware of it.
Not until a?magazine article came out in 1996 did computer users?realize that their privacy was at stake. People paid more attention to them back then, when it was new, today cookies are an old story no one wants to talk about. But we need to, without awareness of it how can we prevent problems in the future?
When you visit this site, cookies are sent to this server to determine whether you can have access or not. An example would be?personalizing??a website, or the number of search results on Google. Say you want to load a page and there are no cookies for the website, the server will create a random string of numbers, thinking it is the first time the user is visiting the site. After sending the data back, every time you visit a new site the server records the URL, the date and time, and stores the cookie in a log file. The log is a list of other cookies from websites the user has visited, and this brings up a problem.
browsers should protect user privacy and not allow third-party cookies by default. But most browsers, such as?Mozilla Firefox,Internet Explorer and?Opera, do allow third-party cookies by default, though they allow users to block them. Some Internet users disable them because they can be used to track a user browsing from one website to another. This tracking is most often done by on-line advertising companies to assist in targeting advertisements. For example: Suppose a user visits www.domain1.com and an advertiser sets a cookie in the user’s browser, and then the user later visits www.domain2.com. If the same company advertises on both sites, the advertiser knows that this particular user who is now viewing www.domain2.com also viewed www.domain1.com in the past and may thus more effectively target the user’s interests or avoid repeating advertisements. The advertiser can then build up profiles on users.
This how all those annoying people who keep pestering you on buying their product or signing you up for money. Now that you know what they are and what to do with them,your life on the internet will run faster, as well as keep tracking hackers from breaking in.
Dec 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
If you have not seen the futuristic movie with Tom Cruise acting as a police officer in a time like 2050, where the cars travel on a highway in the sky and the computers are not a touch screen, then picture the future with even better computers. In this movie the computers were used by hand motions.
Microsoft has come up with a way to use your hands to change the screen without touching it. This would be an amazing breakthrough for computer science, as the touch screen market is such a staple in today’s technology, and the new way to enjoy computers is just really cool.
Check out this YouTube! video.
The whole idea of the no-touch screen is to start a new trend in the market of computers. Right now, this works for the Microsoft Mobile Surface PC, which is supposed to ?one-up? the iPhone.
Back in 2007, a new age was dawning on the mobile devices, one that would not just replace the Palm Pilot, but make sure that fingertips instead of pointed stylus? would be used for clicking the screen. Microsoft was working on becoming the first to provide this to consumers.
But this touch screen was called Shift and it was to be used from the back of the device, not the front as it is now. It would make the handheld devices easier to use but had its drawbacks.
The announcement of this new development by Microsoft in May 2007 came a month before the iPhone was released in June, deflating any hopes Microsoft may have had to become better than Apple, Inc.
This is their chance. If Microsoft can implement this into mobile devices, the iPhone will take a back seat to this awesome concept of moving the screen without touching it.
In the video you see the researcher playing drums by tapping on a surface that a projector sees and send the message down to the phone. How they will be able to use this on mobile phones might be a tricky task, but the way technology is going I will not be surprised to see it happen.
Going beyond the touch screen is Microsoft?s main objective. You can easily see why, not just because they are bitter business rivals but because Apple smacked them in the face with the iPhone. Microsoft must be sick of seeing those ads on the computer for the new iPhone 4, so going even beyond the Windows Phone is a stretch.
Using the touch screen keyboards on the iPhone is a major pain sometimes, especially when it tries to correct your spelling of a word you want to use in a certain way. Microsoft has come up with a new screen, where “there would be no more reason for mobile keypads — they would simply be emulated when necessary,” said Patrick Baudisch, a display interaction expert at Germany’s University of Potsdam, in an interview with New Scientist magazine.
We will just have to wait and see what comes of this new technology. Stay tuned to Geek Choice Blog to find out new developments on this developing story.
Nov 15, 2010 | Computer technology, News, Uncategorized
It is a little known fact that laptops pose a risk to health. Toshiba helped to prove that fact when they sold dangerous laptops to customers around the world. On September 2, 2010 Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. found out that 129 people who bought their new laptop got injured from using. Built in China, someone over there messed up and did not take enough time to insure the laptop with the proper parts, resulting in 41,000 laptops being recalled because they burned things. Nice, a pyro-laptop-maniac!
This raises an interesting question: are laptops the best choice for your personal needs or business?
Yes, laptops are easy to access being portable so if you are always on the move, they are the right choice. That is the first advantage of laptops, because they beat desktops in the category of versatility. Portable means they can go anywhere, while the desktop stays on the desk, and in today’s world laptops are becoming the new desktop. But there are disadvantages that you might want to know about.
Ever heard of Repetitive Strain Injury? Most people have, it is when you type on the flat keyboard of a laptop for a long period of time and is like carpal tunnel syndrome. Be careful typing for long hours at the office or home on the laptop. In fact, I am on my laptop right now and I have been typing on this flat keyboard for over an hour. I feel some constricting pain in my wrists and short bursts of pain in my right arm, but that could be from anything.
When Toshiba recalled those laptops, the injuries were minor burns and property damage. A study done with men aged 21 to 25 revealed a scary fact: putting the laptop on the lap actually raises the temperature of your testicles in your scrotum. I know, I cringed too. Another fact, I had to move the laptop from my lap to a table while writing this blog, better safe than sterile!
To solve the problem of overheating get a cooling fan.
But this is often not enough, the durability of laptops is not up to par with desktops because they lack the necessary filtering of dust. After a while, so much dust collects in the cooling system that it overheats and becomes loud with bad noises over time. In order to clean the inside it requires a complete disassembly of the laptop. Quite a pain in the ass.
Another downer is the battery life in laptops. The way to preserve battery is to run the battery down all the way then recharge it to get the full life. But, most people do not do this resulting in batteries that last only an hour. Do not leave the battery in while the laptop is plugged in, take it out so you do not ruin the battery.
Laptops are easy to let fall into disrepair by not taking care of them. Laptops are a great invention and make life a lot easier since they allow any business to travel with you everywhere. But they are susceptible to easy mistakes and easy pitfalls which will turn your laptop into a craptop if you are not careful.
May 1, 2010 | Uncategorized
Like your car, your computer makes a variety of sounds that indicate both normal operation and impending failure. Knowing the difference can help you make smart decisions about when to call a professional, and can even make diagnosis go faster.
Good Sound: Whirring Periodocally
When your hard drive is working, it will make a low whirring noise. Hard drives consist of one or more round platters that spin and a reader arm that moves across the surface of the disks. The motion of the disks will make some noise at start up and whenever you’re opening a large file or program.
Bad Sound: Ticking
While “ticking time bomb” might sound cliche, that’s exactly what a ticking computer is. Ticking is often caused by a misaligned reader arm or hard disk platter. Even a slight problem with either can cause the arm to come into contact with the delicate surface as it turns, causing permanent damage and eventual data loss.
Good Sound: Humming
The single greatest threat to your computer is heat. That’s why laptops and desktops employ a number of fans to draw heat away from delicate components. All these fans should make a soft humming sound for the entire time your computer is on. A suspicious silence could mean that the fans are not working and your system is at risk.
Bad Sound: Rattling or Grinding
Most hardware failure happens silently, but luckily fans are not so quiet on their way out. A rattling, grinding, or even a ticking sound could indicate a fan on it’s last legs. Replacing fans before they fail can save your expensive hardware from heat damage, so it’s important to get these sounds checked out right away. Sometimes a rattle or a tick can be caused by a foreign object getting caught in a fan, making it a very easy fix.
Good Sound: One Beep
New bios standards require that all systems issue a single “all clear” beep before starting the operating system. While this standard does not go into effect for a while, some systems have done this as a default since the mid 90’s. If your computer has always made a single beep at start up, it’s probably an “all clear” beep and nothing to worry about. If your system has never done this, that’s fine too.
Bad Sound: Beep Codes
If your machine is making multiple beep sound at start up, that’s another matter entirely. Beep codes are your computers only way to notify you of hardware failure if the operating system will not boot, and as a result manufacturers have developed complicated systems of beeps and lights to describe different problems. Multiple beeps, beeps with different lengths, and beeps with different tones all mean that your computer is trying to warn you about something. Even if you computer still seems to be working fine, beep codes need to be taken seriously. Your Geek Choice tech can interpret what your computer has to say, which can mean the difference between a quick fix and total system failure.
Apr 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
Sun Systems released an uncharacteristic emergency update today after a vital security flaw was discovered by a Google researcher last week. While the release notes don’t specifically mention the flaw, Java 6 Update 20 does correct the security hole.
The vulnerability in question is a “drive-by download” flaw, which allows websites to download files onto your computer just by visiting the site. This means that viruses, spyware, and malware could be downloaded and installed on your system without so much as a click from you. Such holes in security often bypass important safety features in anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall software.
Upgrading to Java 6 Update 20 is fast, free, and highly recommended. Several websites have already been created to take advantage of this flaw, and as long as you are using the older version of Java you are vulnerable.
To download the new version of Java, visit http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp and click the download button for JRE. Java Run Environment is the software required to run Java applications on your computer. The JRE button is located below the button to download JDK, which you do not need unless you are a developer of Java applets. You then can choose either the online or offline installer. After you start running the installer, you will be asked if you would like to install the Yahoo or Bing toolbar as well. This product is not necessary to run Java and isn’t recommended for most users, so make sure to uncheck that box before you proceed with the installation process unless it’s something you’re particularly interested in having on your browser.
If that seems a little complicated to you, or if you want to get your system checked out to make sure you haven’t already become a victim of one of these drive-by downloads, you can make an appointment with a Geek Choice technician today. We can clean out any malware on your system, get the new version of Java installed, and even check for important security patches for other programs that you may have missed.
