200.21 - Creative Videos

Well we all get the urge to be creative once in awhile. Sometimes we just get intimidated and assume that only a massive amount of expensive software is needed to produce such professional presentations.

Not so..... Check out this sample Remix produced by Jimm Wagner. It's simple, Nifty, and Sweet. And the best part he welcomes all to his website where you can sources for all the software needed. Even better yet....All the software is either FREE or has some type of FREE TRIAL.

Jimm Wagner is the Vice President and co-founder of Phenomblue (www.phenomblue.com), a digital design and technology collective focused on building brands through immersive interactive experiences. With offices in the US and Canada, Phenomblue’s clients include some of the biggest advertising and marketing agencies in the world providing websites, digital applications, 3D modeling and animation, interactive presentations, content management tools, and other strategic technology services. As Vice President of Phenomblue, he oversees daily operations and production.

Go Here To View the "SuperBowl Shuffle" Remix Video and then follow the links to view some nifty stuff.
http://jimmwagner.com/

200.21
Contributing Source
Jimm Wagner
1/17/09

200.20 - Online Chat Lingo

LOL = Laugh Out Loud
BRB = Be Right Back
TTYL = Talk To You Later
GTG = Got To Go
AFK = Away From Keyboard
JK = Just Kidding
THX = Thanks
TY = Thank You
YW = You're Welcome
ROFL = Rolling on the Floor Laughing
L8R = Later


There Are Many more that you will learn as you use the various Chat Lines. Most Parents already know POS (Parents Over Shoulder).



200.20
Contributing Source:
Kim
12/20/08

200.19 - Low Battery Alarm

Windows XP has an alarm to warn you when your battery is low. Best of all, it can be adjusted to suite your needs.

Go to Start/Control Panel/Power Options and look for the "Alarms" tab.

Check the box "Activate low battery alarm when power level reaches..." then adjust the slider. You can keep it around 10%, if you're paranoid keep it higher, or for you daring types, go lower.It's your call.

Next, click the "Alarm Action" button. Here you can choose to have just a display message or an actual sound alarm.

You'll also notice the "Critical battery alarm". This should be at a lower setting than the Low Battery Alarm so you'll know to save your data and get to the nearest wall outlet immediately.

200.19

Contributing Source:

World Start

12-4-08

200.18 - Scan Disk or De Frag ???

What is file fragmentation?

Sometimes when you install a program or create a data file, the file ends up chopped up into chunks and stored in multiple locations on the disk. This is called fragmentation.

What makes this happen?

When you first install your operating system and programs on your hard disk, they are written to the disk, for the most part, in one contiguous block without any gaps. The exceptions are certain system files that must be stored in specific locations. Over time, as you create and then delete documents or uninstall programs, once-filled locations are left empty and you end up with files dotted all over the disk.

Now, when Windows is writing a file to the disk, it looks for a suitable piece of free space in which to store it. What happens, then, when you copy a 40M database or audio file to the disk and the biggest slice of free space is only 30M? Or say you modify an existing file, appending a whole bunch of data so the file now takes up more space on the disk. To accommodate the files, Windows writes the first part of the file in one section of the disk and then scouts around for other places to store the rest of the file. The end result is that a single file may be stored in several chunks scattered about the disk.

I always run the scan first. Here is why:

When you run scandisk on your computer, you are actually scanning
the hard drive looking for problems or defects. If the scan program
finds a problem, it will try to fix it. If the problem is a broken
or list file, it is usually fixed. If the problem is a bad section
of your hard drive, scandisk will attempt to fix it, but in the
event it cannot be fixed, that section of the drive will be marked
so that the computer will not attempt to put information in that
bad section.

When you run defrag, each bit of data is read by the computer and
then usually moved so that the data is in order. If you have a bad
section, and it has not been marked as non-useable, the computer
will try to write some of your data in that bad section and the
data could be lost.

Running scandisk before defrag will prevent this type of problem.

If you are using Windows XP or Vista, you really don't need to run
defrag because XP and Vista will automatically defragment files when
the computer is idle. Not only does it defragment, but it also arranges
the files so that the ones that are used the most are the easiest
to access.

200.18

Contributing Sources:

Geek Girls

Elizabeth Boston

12-1-08

200.17 - Power Supply Problems

Power supply problems can be difficult to diagnose if you don't know what to look for. Here are some suggestions on how to quickly spot a faulty supply and how to replace it.

If you have a noisy fan, you smell something burning or you see smoke or flames shooting out the back of your computer, you may very well have a problem with your power supply. And I assure you, that's a whole lot worse than a dead fan if you don't catch it right away. Keep reading for more on this!

There are many different things that could cause your power supply to go bad. For instance, the fan that runs next to your power supply could get clogged up with dust and dirt and start to run much slower or the fan's bearings could start to wear off. When those things happen, your power supply is at risk of overheating and it will eventually fail. Or, it could have nothing to do with your fan. Perhaps the power supply itself was faulty from the get go and it only took a matter of time before it failed completely.

Even more so, if you're having trouble with your computer shutting down and restarting itself at random times, that could be another indicator that your power supply is going bad. And since your motherboard, CPU, disk drives, etc. all work off of the power supply, it's not a good idea to take a chance on it getting any better. If you do, you'll just have more trouble down the road. Don't worry though, replacing a power supply is rather easy to do and it's fairly cost friendly. So, if your computer is experiencing any of the symptoms I mentioned above, you'll want to check into getting a new power supply. It's a small price to pay for the safety of your computer!

Common power-related symptoms include:

• Any power-on or system startup failures or lockups
• Spontaneous rebooting or intermittent lockups during normal operation
• Intermittent parity check or other memory-type errors
• HDD and fan simultaneously failing to spin (no +12V)
• Overheating due to fan failure
• Small brownouts that cause the system to restart
• Electric shocks that are felt when the case is touched

200.17
Contributing Sources:
World Start
Tech Republic
12-1-05

200-16 - CUIL - New Search Engine

The Internet has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years but search engines have not kept up—until now. Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.

Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance. When we find a page with your keywords, we stay on that page and analyze the rest of its content, its concepts, their inter-relationships and the page’s coherency.

Then we offer you helpful choices and suggestions until you find the page you want and that you know is out there. We believe that analyzing the Web rather than our users is a more useful approach, so we don’t collect data about you and your habits, lest we are tempted to peek. With Cuil, your search history is always private.

200-16

Contributing Source:

CUIL.com

12-1-08

Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge. For knowledge, ask Cuil.

200-15 - Lost Administrator Password

Now, I'm not encouraging anyone to hack into another's computer. But people do lose passwords. It can happen to anyone. And being stuck in a limited account isn't fun. Your computer loses a lot of functionality in that mode.

Also, you'll see that a password is no panacea in Windows. Anybody who knows much at all can break it.

You can reset the Administrator password without knowing the current password. There are methods for both XP and Vista.

Windows XP is easy

Windows XP has a hidden Administrator account. It can be used to troubleshoot the computer's other accounts. That includes changing passwords. To get to it, you'll have to boot your computer in Safe Mode.

First, restart the computer. As it starts, repeatedly press the F8 key. Instead of the familiar Windows screen, you'll see a text-only Advanced Options Menu. Use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode. Then press Enter.

Select the Administrator account. By default on most computers, it requires no password. Once logged in, you can change the password of the account you normally use.

To make the change, click Start>>Run. In the box, type "control userpasswords2" (without the quotes) and click OK. Select your normal account name in the list. Click the Reset Password button. You'll be prompted for a new password. You can restart the computer and use the new password on the Administrator account.

200.15

Contributing Source:

Komando

12/1/08