Who needs to pay for recovery disks if you got a MAC?

August 31, 2007 By - 2 Comments

question apple

It seems the PC world has another scam up there sleeves. To save them money they have the consumer make recovery disks. This just means the Manufacture is trying everything these days not to do their job. I always hated the concept of having a recovery partition and having to make your own disks, why can’t the machine work right out of the box? What this means is you have a choice of making the disks (an hour of your time before using the computer) or actually paying the computer company that you just bought the computer from for a CD. This of course doesn’t happen on a the Apple’s MAC computers. I also find that Dell doesn’t seem to charge anymore for the media, but I could be wrong. Are the computer companies trying to make things more difficult then they have to be? They seem to be able to package the AOL disks pretty well. This article in PC World really pissed me off — http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136496/article.html — Where it seems the large retails stores are profiting from the apparent Recovery Disk issues by forcing customers to buy the retails stores recovery disks, claiming it is the only way to recover your computer if something goes wrong.

Now I have dealt with both Apple and many PC vendors. Dell has been the only company that I haven’t seen the recovery disk issue come up with, but you have to check a box to get the disks. Why don’t do they give you the disks like Apple has for years? Why is Apple the only one that has stayed constant and gives a proper and simple restoration procces if things go wrong. For example I had two computers that the hard drives failed. An iMac and a Dell. The iMac took less then two hours to format, install the OS from recovery 1 disk and be back online with updates and all. The Dell took half the day and I had to put different disks in, plus find updates online. If I wasn’t as technical as I am, I would of given up and paid someone to figure it out.

It seems to me that the Microsoft Windows world maybe the basis of the Chaos for the recovery disk and getting back up and running quickly without spending a huge amount of money. Issues happen with computers, whether its a PC or a Mac, however what counts is how long it takes to recover and of course how much extra in time and money it takes to have those recovery disks available when that time comes. Always backup your data and if your on a Mac keep those original recovery disks in a safe place.

Filed Under: Advice Tagged With: , , , ,

Postal rates gone Postal

May 17, 2007 By - Leave a Comment

With more people mailing the USPS has been increasing the rates like crazy over the years. Now it isn’t about weight but size too. Cheaper to send a post card then a letter. Which brings me to the technology part of this interesting Postal topic — Email Postal Charges. We’ll call it EPC to keep with the growing trend of making up more ways to confuse people. Now if we implemented EPC and the USPS was in charge of it then we would need a USPS PM to that would be labeled as PMEPC who would probably need to increase the EPC every two days or so to keep up with the fast paced world of the Internet. Now that we have realized the Information Super Highway needs a couple of toll booths so it can be regulated, sensored and sealed up with read tape all of us Internet users can rest assure that we will be clicking in a safer place as our bank accounts get emptied out from the IT (Identity Thefters).

So before anyone complains about the snail mail interest rate increasing, sit back and pray that congress doesn’t put an email tax. Now some may believe this if fictional but just do a google search for Email Tax or Internet Tax…. I think its time to get back to tying little notes on pigeons.

Filed Under: Advice, Rant, Technically Foreign Tagged With: , ,

StumbleUpon to find what intrests you

May 16, 2007 By - Leave a Comment

We live in a complicated webbed world. The internet has brought us a ton of information and yet navigating through the sticky web is more like the poor fly who is about to be Charlotte’s  dinner. But wait! Now you have a true way to navigate the web without know what you really want to look at. Hmmm is that wrong. We do search for things using a search engine and it works if what your searching for is in the top two or three pages. However, we all have our own interests and that is where the stumbleupon.com site fits in.

Stumbleupon works like this. You download the Browser plugin (IE & Firefox compatible), create a login and then you just stumble. Stumbling is first telling the site what you like by choosing categories and pressing a button in your browser called Stumble! This button will take you to random pages that other Stumblers have added. The best part is that you just click a thumbs up or a thumbs down on any webpage. These “I like it” or “I don’t” thumbs are organized in your stumbleupon Favorites. Then you can add your review and comments. Since the site uses tags, its easy to go back to cool pages that you’ve stumbled upon.

Now like all web 2.0 sites there is a great community involved. Adding someone as a friend will place the pages they’ve liked into your stumbling activity. The community grows by more people adding pages. If you click on the ‘Thumbs Up’ icon and no one else has then you’ve discovered that page and get to give it a review.

Stumbleupon my page http://yfat32.stumbleupon.com/ to see how it looks. If you decide to enter into the wonderful world of stumbling, realize it’s like pulling down the arm of a slot machine. Sometimes you get crap, but when you hit that unique and interesting site that you’d never know about then you will realize the fun and usefulness of this tool. Send me a message on stumbleupon if you decide to stumble through the sticky web and lets build on this great community tool.

Filed Under: Advice, Internet Tools, Technically Foreign, Technology Tagged With: ,

How to find a book in a library anywhere in the world?

May 15, 2007 By - Leave a Comment

So you found the book you like on amazon but do you really need to buy it? Don’t forget about what you learned in school about Libraries. Now your local public library may not have what your looking for but it’s the Librarians job to help you find it. However there is a great site that taps into most of todays libraries across the country and even the world. That is www.Worldcat.org .

At worldcat.org you search for the book, music, video or even article your looking for then after selecting the item enter your location. You will be amazed of how easy it is to find the material your looking for. In the end if you have to buy it from Amazon, they’ve even got the link ready for you!

SITES: http://www.worldcat.org

Filed Under: Advice, Internet Tools Tagged With: ,

The Bad words of Computer Security Part 3 – Software Updates

March 8, 2007 By - Leave a Comment
There is a lot of words for Software updates including, Vulnerabilities, patches, versions and bugs. Software and your Operating system need to have the latest version, otherwise you risk your computer to cyber attacks. For example if your using an outdated version of Firefox (a web browser) and enter a site that attacks a certain bug which has been known and fixed in newer versions then even if you have an Anti-virus program you can get attacked. The simple rules:
  • Make sure your Operating system is always up to date. Schedule your machine to automatically update your software. Next make sure that all your applications are up to date. This use to be a very hard one but has gotten much easier. Before you would have to compare each verison of your software or goto each software and see if they have an upgrade button and click it once in a while. Today a lot of software like Firefox and Thunderbird will automatically install new updates and inform you when these have been done. Also There is a software inspector that inspects your computer for all out dated (vulnerable) software. This is the secunia inspector. Click the button below to inspect your computer and make sure all your software is up to date. This should be run every month.
  • Run the Secunia Software inspector to make sure your computer is safe.
If you follow the first part of the serious about passwords, the second part about Viruses and this part about updating your software there will be a 99% chance of your computer getting taken over, infected and your identity stolen over the Internet. These are simple rules and are equivalent to changing the oil in your car.
Filed Under: Advice, Internet Tools, Security, Technically Foreign Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Bad words of Computer Security Part 2 – Viruses

March 6, 2007 By - Leave a Comment

In the first Part of the “Bad” words of Computer Security I talked about Passwords. Now that you have a safe and secure password what about Viruses??? Since a computer was built by a human you will notice we take a lot of the same words when we talk about ourselves. If you get a virus, that’s not a good thing. The same goes for your computer. Now we protect ourselves from viruses, we don’t eat from the garbage, wear the right clothing when its cold and in general stay away from the things that will harm us. That is the same with computer viruses, be careful what you feed your computer. In the good old days that meant putting a disk in a drive, today that means going to a website, downloading a program or opening an email. Security experts use to say don’t open anything from strangers, but even that has changed.

Rules for protecting your computer from getting a virus:

  • Install an anti-virus program. Then make sure you have the up to date virus definitions each month. PLEASE READ, yes that four letter word, READ, the information on the anti-virus companies website. Most anti-virus software comes with a subscription, when that subscription runs out then you are no longer protected from the latest viruses since you will not be able to install the latest definitions. I list Anti-virus programs at the end of the article.
  • UPDATE, I know i mentioned it above but make sure that you are getting the updated definitions each day or at least each week. (Companies don’t always reales them each day.)
  • Make sure you have a firewall on. Most Operating Systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) have built-in firewalls.
  • Run an anti-virus scan at-least monthly with of course the newest definitions. You can schedule the scan. I run mine weekly.
  • That Is it…. now for those resources

Resources:

Filed Under: Advice, Internet Tools, Security, Technology Tagged With: , , ,
« Older Posts