Home Computing Questions

Answer:

You still have floppies! Are you still using a typewriter too?

Like the transistor radio first made popular by Sony in the late 1950s and the BetaMax VCR first marketed by Sony in 1975, the floppy disk first created in 1980 by Sony will too come to an end … just not quite yet!

The floppy disk has had a 30-year history and even though Sony will cease manufacturing them early next year, they will continue to be around for a while. The disks are still widely-used, especially in other countries. Sony holds 70 percent of the Japanese market for the disks (http://bit.ly/alBndp) and 40 percent worldwide. At the height of its use, Sony shipped around 47 million disks in 2000. By 2009, Sony sold around 8.5 million. That’s still a bunch of floppies by anyone’s standards.

So what’s “floppy” about the floppy disk? When first invented as a data storage device in 1971 by IBM, the floppy disk was an eight inch disk. It was deemed too big to be practical and was quickly replaced by the 5.25 inch floppy disk. That disk was truly “floppy”. It was a flexible material in a somewhat flexible outer covering. Still considered too big, the 3.5 inch floppy disk was created by Sony and first appeared in 1983 in the Apple Macintosh. The smaller disk enclosed in a hard plastic casing quickly became the standard for compact, portable data storage.

Those of you who’ve been around the block once or twice probably easily remember creating data or game files to share on the ubiquitous floppies. And who knows how many AOL sent out in the day, trying to entice the world to use its on-line services? And what will become of the cute little floppy "save" icon on programs' toolbars?

The jury is still out on that one. So what can you do with all those you have collecting dust on the shelf? Not much! When doing research for the article, I did come across some rather inventive uses. But ultimately the cute purses, pencil holders, and spatulas will likely end up in the landfill.

So here are two recommendations from this PropellerHead. They actually do make decent retro drink coasters, but who needs 187 of those? So the best way to get rid of them is to recycle them. Many localities hold annual "recycle" days. That’s a safe, cost-effective way to dispose of them. If you just missed yours, or your locality doesn’t offer one, you can order a “Technotrash Pack-IT Service” from GreenDisk (www.greendisk.com). For only $6.95 you can pack your own box of up to 20 pounds of old disks, drives, or whatever 20 pounds of techno-trash you want to get rid of, print a shipping label and send your junk on its way to be recycled.

That’s about it for this latest PropellerHead article. Now I just need to click that cute little floppy save icon and call it a day. But for those of you who want to know more about the history of the floppy disk, take a look at http://bit.ly/agCouo. I’m heading out to play floppy disk Frisbee with my dog. Oh … be sure to check out my upcoming articles on the death of the CD and DVD; I’m sure they will follow the path of the floppy soon!

Answer:

Many of us are in your same shoes. We PropellerHeads love our pets ALMOST as much as we love technology, but risking Fluffy’s health to save a buck … sounds a little risky to us!

There are numerous online pet pharmacies. They claim to sell the same products you would buy from your veterinarian, but for much less money. Given the economy, it’s no wonder many of us are at least considering buying from online sources.

Even the Food and Drug Administration has an opinion. For what it’s worth, they say buy with caution. Take a look at http://bit.ly/2Vmcjt to see the FDA’s warning on buying pet medicines from online pet pharmacies.

As with human drugs, there are counterfeits out there. They’re cleverly disguised to look almost exactly like the real thing, and they could harm your pet. The FDA warns to purchase medications for your pets only from online pharmacies that are Veterinary-Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites, or Vet-VIPPS. A listing of the pharmacies that are accredited by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy is available at www.nabp.net.

So how do you go about purchasing from an online pet pharmacy? This PropellerHead has figured that out for you.
I decided to buy heartworm medicine for my beloved Woody. I did a search for heartworm medicine on a few pet pharmacy websites.

I chose two pharmacies for comparison. Both sites are Vet-VIPPS pharmacies. Both sites required me to enter information about my pet: breed, weight, allergies, etc., and my veterinarian’s name and phone number. And as with any commerce site, I also had to enter my address and payment information.

The two sites I used were www.1800PetMeds.com and www.vetrxdirect.com. Both offer a "new customer" discount and free shipping on orders over $39. Their prices were very similar, only $1 separated them. By comparison, the same generic heartworm medicine would have been over $9 per dose from my veterinarian’s office and was under $6 per dose online.

Immediately after placing the order, I called my veterinarian’s office to let them know to expect a request for a prescription for Woody from the two sites. I also asked them to call me to report if/when the prescription was requested by the site. I wanted to make sure that I had ordered the correct dosage, and that the site wasn’t filling my order without confirmation from my veterinarian.

Both sites did send a prescription request as I had hoped. Each site states that their prescriptions are 100% guaranteed. As with any site, there will be folks who rave about how wonderful their products and service were. And there will also be folks who feel they’ve been shafted by the experience.

I found both of the sites to be easy to use and navigate. They both had the product I wanted for a very good price. The prescriptions have arrived and I’ve inspected them to make sure they look real and haven’t expired. My big old silly lab mix, Woody, was my guinea pig. He hasn’t croaked yet from the experience, so more online pet medicines are in his future!

Answer:

I feel your pain. Well, not literally, I still have all my limbs. You might want to watch more PBS.

But you are right, these services can get expensive. So, besides cutting yourself off from the world, digitally speaking, I have some ideas.

For the purpose of this answer, I am going to ignore some alternatives to traditional communication services like your cell phone, HiJack, Vonage, Aircards, and the like. That’s not to say they aren’t good alternatives. In fact, for many they are just as good and can save you money. For more on that, look here http://bit.ly/gKzQa.

I am just going to talk about old-fashioned TV, Internet, and phone. Okay, not that old-fashioned, but you get the idea.

First the basics: Cable companies (comcast.com, timewarnercable.com, cox.com, etc.) bring TV, Internet, and phone through a single wire to your home. They run the wire to a router/switch that connects to your phone and Internet and then split that again to provide your digital TV signal. Even the slowest cable Internet is crazy fast. Their phone (really Voice Over IP), is reliable, commonly is not metered, and sometimes includes domestic long distance. They offer way too many TV stations, many in HD. Most offer triple-play or similarly-named packages to coax you to get all three services. Introductory packages that begin for $99 a month are common. A year later, these packages typically escalate to closer to $200 per month. Also, the TV service is usually the basic package. That means for premium channels you will likely be spending another $50 or so a month. Lastly, multiple TV set-up boxes can cost extra to lease.

Your phone company (verizon.com, quest.com, att.com, etc.) offers similar packages using a fiber optic network. Verizon calls theirs FIOS and AT&T calls theirs U-verse. Fiber optic signals provide very fast Internet and usually most TV channels are in HD resolution. Unfortunately, fiber optic service is not available everywhere. As an alternative, many phone companies bundle their standard phone service and DSL (slower) Internet, with a satellite TV provider (directv.com or dishnetwork.com). Satellite TV can be a good alternative to cable and phone providers because of more flexible pricing and packaging.

So, how do you save money? Easy: you’ve got to be willing to run.

Switching services can be a pain, so the providers figure to get all of your business by luring you with some great introductory deals and then when the deals run out, normal good old American sloth will conspire to get you to pay more. You need to be diligent. Set yourself a calendar reminder when your savings package ends. Check for alternatives and get current pricing information. Call your current provider and tell them that you are seriously considering switching unless they can match the price. If you’re polite, yet insistent, they usually will. If they say no, hang up, call again, and try a different representative. I have gotten my best offer when I finally say something like, “Thanks for trying, but I can see you don’t have the flexibility to lower my payments enough. So I guess I need to close my account.” If they still say no, switch. Then a year later, rinse and repeat.

I have been doing this for years. So far, DirecTV has kept me as a customer because they pretty much always give me enough to hang around. I have had to switch my Internet and phone a couple of times, but for $100 a month, it’s worth the hassle.

As long as these companies are literally falling all over themselves for your business, this tactic should work and will eventually push regular prices down.

Answer:

The Internet is fantastic, but can also be dangerous. You are right to be concerned.

Although it’s hard to resist our usual sarcasm and irreverence, we feel that for this topic maybe it’s best if we just stick to giving good advice.

Many articles on the subject will treat this a little like preaching abstinence. While keeping your kids away from the Internet and chat rooms may be effective, it might make more sense to assume your kids are going to use the Internet and be proactive. For instance, your kids may have already set up a FaceBook, Twitter, or MySpace page without you even knowing about it.

It’s really tough to know what’s going on all the time with your kids. These days, between school, friends, the Internet, and cell phones, you can’t insulate them.

A little planning can go a long way towards securing their safety. So, we put together our own Top 10 list:

10 – Be a buddy
If your kids are using chat rooms or social networks, make yourself one of their buddies. It allows you to monitor their use or just hang around to see what they’re doing. Kids behave when they think you are close by.

9 – Adjust for age and maturity
You might decide that 10 is too early to let your kid use a chat room. But maybe 14 isn’t. Be prepared to adjust the rules for your kids based on their ages, just like you do for overnight stays or PG-13 movies.

8 - Right is right, wrong is wrong.
Teach them to be respectful of others and to avoid those who aren’t. If they have music or movies they didn’t pay for, talk to them. That’s what you would do if they came home with a new bike.

7 – Don’t lock…look
Site-blocking software is somewhat ineffective. Software that lets you see where they’ve been, what they’re keying, or better yet what they’ve seen is golden. Just don’t tell them about it.

6 – Set up their accounts
Don’t let them set up e-mail, blog, or any online accounts without you. Make this a rule. Ensure that they use anonymous names/nicknames/handles and don’t provide personal information. Then, occasionally sign-on as them. See what they’ve been up to. Only confront them to ensure their safety, just like you might do if you accidentally discovered their diary.

5 – Share the experience
Don’t let them use computers in isolation. Move the computer to the family room or kitchen. Then, give them ‘semi-privacy”, like you would if they were on the phone.

4 – Act as one
None of this works if their friends' parents undermine what you’ve done. For instance, are the parents of your kid’s friends home when they visit? Show this article to them. Try to get the PTA involved. Remember, there’s strength in numbers.

3 – Be in charge
Set up separate accounts for your family members. Give them limited capabilities so they can’t install software or change Internet settings.

2 - Set up ground rules
Decide what works for you and draw up an Internet contract that everyone signs, just like you might do for car privileges. If they cheat, don’t threaten; cut ‘em off.

1 – blah..blah..blah
Discuss the Internet with your kids. Tell them what’s good about it, and what isn’t. Make sure they know that a lot of what they read is not checked by anyone. Explain how predators operate. Make sure they stay anonymous. Get them to talk to you when something feels weird.

For more information, search for “protecting my kids on the Internet” or check out http://kids.yahoo.com/parents/online-safety.

Answer:

Absolutely. Although you might think all us PropellerHeads are dashing young geeks, several of us are on the downhill side of 50. Why, some of us still use a land-line phone! So we can certainly relate to older computer users.

You didn’t mention why you were buying a computer for Grandma, but hopefully you are not going to just drop one off, plug it in, and leave. If so, it will become an expensive dust collector. Don’t get me wrong – I think nearly everyone should own a computer. But older people may have to be sold on the advantages before they will use that newfangled thingamajig.

One of the most appealing uses of a computer for elders is keeping in touch with friends and family. So a broadband Internet connection should be part of the package. Explain to Grandma how easy it is to send a note to several people at the same time, or view photos in e-mail or browse a family member’s web site. This will give her yet another way to pester you about not calling her.

Internet resources are another great use of a computer for oldsters. Genealogy research, medical and fitness information, even dating services for lonely elders are just a mouse click away. Many seniors find online banking and shopping to be easy and safe. If she is still skeptical, tell her that some studies have shown that Internet use stimulates brain activity (http://tinyurl.com/4a2kkt). Of course, so does panic, but I am not sure that’s the way I would go.

Once the computer is in Grandma’s house, your involvement is just beginning. Make sure you configure the computer to make it easy for a senior to use. Microsoft Windows has many settings for people with vision or hearing impairment or limited mobility. In Windows Vista, most of these are collected together in the Ease of Use Center on the Menu Bar under Programs > Accessories > Ease of Use. Specifically, try setting the screen resolution to lower values, and use high contrast colors and large fonts.

You might want to consider software designed to simplify computer use for seniors, such as BigScreenLive (http://bigscreenlive.com), which provides a simple interface to e-mail, photo-sharing, and the Web.

Once you have the computer configured, put some thought into how you can make it “Granny-proof”. For example, ensure that auto-save features in word processors and such are enabled and set to short time frames so that if she accidentally closes a document she will not lose an hour’s worth of typing. Set system maintenance features like hard disk cleanup and defrag to run automatically.

Change her web browser home page to the web site she will most frequently visit, such as her e-mail application. Preload her browser favorites with www.AARP.org, www.CNN.com, www.ageofreason.com, www.seniornet.org, and any special interest web sites that she might like, and save them to the desktop as icons to make them easy to find. And make sure you set the “safe search filtering” options on her preferred Web search tool so that she will not accidentally get an eyeful during Internet searches. One wrong click and you could become the subject of the next family scandal.

Plan to invest some time in teaching Granny how to use her new gadget. Depending on her technical aptitude, you may have to be patient. Technology can be bewildering to older folks. Things you take for granted, like mouse pointers and dialogue pop-ups, take some getting used to if you have never seen them before.

Most computers include some basic games, like solitaire, as standard apps, and this can be a great way to help Granny learn how to use a mouse. If she racks up a huge score, consider taking her to Las Vegas on your next vacation.

Many older people are afraid they will “break” the computer, so you will need to reassure her that it is OK to poke around on her own. Although you should mention that spilling her Farina on the keyboard is a bad thing.

Finally, I want to congratulate you for doing a very nice thing for your grandmother. A gift like this may enrich her life. And tell her I look forward to seeing her on HotSeptuagenarians.com.

Answer:

It may surprise some of you to discover that we Propeller Heads can get caught off guard from time to time. I know, I know, sit down if you must to accept this crushing news.

Such a surprise unveiled itself to me just recently, and I felt all would benefit from its discovery. Hopefully, this will save everybody some time and frustration in the future.

The symptom: one of my computers at home (you do realize we Propeller Heads have more computers than the FBI, don’t you?) would just freeze up at random and it was getting worse by the day.

The nature of the lock-ups suggested to me that the video card was on the fritz and that it needed to be replaced. As this system was not a spring chicken, I couldn’t recall if the video card was PCI or AGP so I popped the hood to take a look.

What I discovered made my wife (yes, Propeller Heads sometimes do get married – sorry to spoil that illusion for you too) shriek in disgust. It was a Category 5 case of the Dust Bunnies!

In fact, there were so many dust bunnies frolicking inside the computer case that they prevented the cooling fan on the video card from spinning. The cooling fan was so warm it actually burned my finger!

So out came the Dust Buster and after a few minutes vacuuming the entire computer, all my problems disappeared. (Well, my computer problems, that is).

So class, what is the moral of the story? That I’m a slob who doesn’t clean the house very well? Possibly, but I’m pretty sure I can add that to the list of things I blame on the dog.

The real moral is that if you are having problems with your computer and they can’t be resolved no matter how many times you reinstall Windows, you might gingerly open up your computer and see if the Attack of the Dust Bunnies is underway.

Or, you might want to be pro-active and vacuum out the computer case every few months. Those little cans of compressed air are good for this too.

To see just how bad things can get, use your favorite image search tool (like images.google.com) and look for computer dust. Warning: these images are graphic in nature

Answer:

Those acronyms have meanings, FYI, but we'll get to that ASAP. If you have a new laptop or video game console, now's a great time to upgrade your wireless components. Even if you don't, newer uses like streaming High-Definition Television (HDTV) and Voice-over-IP (VoIP) calls could make the upgrades worth it.

Start by looking for compliance with the latest wireless standard, 802.11n. This specification isn't finalized, but products still advertise "Draft N" capabilities. When the spec is official in late 2009, you can download software from the vendor to upgrade the router.

If money's no object, upgrade your wireless cards too to get the most out of the new technology. Laptops with built-in support for older standards (802.11b/g) can be upgraded with Draft N-compliant USB adapters.

Reduce compatibility problems (and possibly increase performance) by getting all hardware from the same vendor, or stick to gadgets certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Look for a "Wi-Fi" logo on the box, or check wi-fi.org  for certified products.

Draft N routers work with older equipment, but for best results seek out dual-band routers. These operate on the slower, longer-range 2.4 GHz and the faster, shorter-range 5 GHz frequencies simultaneously, preventing older hardware from slowing down your faster traffic.

This also means faster streaming of audio and video, VoIP, HDTV, and gaming traffic. Even if you just use wireless for web browsing and e-mail, the additional cost of 5 GHz support will future-proof you for longer.

Costs range from $50 for lower-end models to over $200 for dual-band routers with more features. As for those TLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms), here goes...

WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) replaces onerous network configuration screens with push-button ease when adding new devices to your network, but requires the router and those new devices to support the feature.

WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia) and QoS (Quality-of-Service) tools boost streaming media and voice traffic. WMM prioritizes video and voice data over "regular data" like e-mail. Similarly, QoS provides finer-grained control so you can prevent games from stealing bandwidth away from your HDTV streams, for example.

Non-acronymmed features include gigabit Ethernet ports (for old-school wired access) and built-in firewalls. Some routers even boast web filters so you can prevent the kids from growing up too fast or prevent the wife from shopping on-line – until she realizes what you did and kicks you in the...

NAS (Network-Attached Storage) support lets you attach a hard drive to the router and access it wirelessly. Printer-sharing does that for printers: Plug one in, then go print documents wirelessly from your back yard. Why? Because you can.

For router reviews and recommendations, see Computer Shopper at http://bit.ly/bySt or PC World at http://bit.ly/9LFh.

BTW, for looking up TLAs, www.acronymfinder.com is a great resource.

Answer:

That’s sort of like asking “should I buy a Honda or a Chevrolet?” when a better question might be “should I buy a Fit or a Suburban?”

Since you don’t mention whether you want to save gas or haul a boat, I will assume some generalizations about what you might actually need in a computer and base my answer on that.

Laptop computers range in size and capability. In general, the smaller the laptop, the fewer features. An emerging market is the micro laptop or netbook starting at about $300. What they have going for them is portability. But essentially, they are dvd players with some email capabilities … certainly not a real comparison for your current desktop.

If you mostly attend to email, do a bit of web surfing, and need a small laptop that can travel with you, an ultraportable might be just the thing for you. The ultraportables are the smallest and lightest true laptops at between three and four pounds, but consequently you sacrifice screen and keyboard size and performance. The ultraportables also tend to be pricey, starting at around $1,000. You pay a premium to get everything to fit in that small package.

Up from the ultraportable is the thin-and-light laptop. This still gives the advantage of being small and easy to carry with some increased capabilities. This is probably the entry point for Propeller Heads who have no upper body strength except what can be gained from repeated keystrokes. Again, this is probably not your best bet since it’s still relatively expensive ($1,000 and up) and is still short on features; guess that eliminates this one from my Propeller Head wish list.

Maybe the midsize laptop is more appropriate. With that, you move into a decent screen size. Midsize laptops are more reasonably priced, starting at about $500 and increasing in price depending on screen style and quality and processor speed. They may also have more of the features you will want. But at 6 to 8 pounds, you won’t want to haul this one with you everywhere you go.

If you think you may still really want a laptop because all the cool kids have them, perhaps a desktop replacement laptop priced from around $1,000 is for you. The desktop replacement should approximate the features and power you’ve grown to expect from your PC. With the desktop replacement, screen sizes will range from 17 inches upward. Processor speed should also rival what you would find on your desktop. If you’re going to be carrying this along with you, you may want to build up your biceps. At 7 plus pounds, you will notice the weight.

Your best bet when making your purchase decision is to go to one or two of the big box retailers. Be sure to have your current specs with you to price out what would be comparable in a laptop. Then if you’re pretty sure given the price of gas that you’re going to be staying home more, save some money too and stick with the desktop. Feature for feature, desktop PCs will still be a better value, and will be much easier to upgrade in the future. You can quit worrying about having to bulk up because your desktop, like you, will be staying at home.

To learn more, take a look at http://reviews.cnet.com/laptop-buying-guide/.

Answer:

Wow, considering that hard drives don’t cost that much these days, I’m surprised you couldn’t dip into your allowance just a bit. Then again, with gas so expensive, it probably costs more for you to drive to Circuit City than the disk itself costs! Well, you’re in luck. Just recently a client sent us a zip file of their database that was so large, we needed to purge our disk just to install it. So hear it is, the Official PropellerHeads Clean your Disk Check List:

1) Run a Clean Disk Utility. There are quite a few of these, but Microsoft’s built-in Disk Cleanup is sufficient. To run, just right-click on the hard drive icon, select Properties and then click the Disk Cleanup button. You can check everything here except Compress old files. If you see something called Office Setup Files, feel free to check that if you have your Office installation disk handy, otherwise you might want to leave that one unchecked.

2) Reduce the Size of the Recycle Bin. By default, the Recycle Bin will consume up to 10% of your hard disk. On a 500GB disk, that would mean 50GB. That’s larger than my iTunes collection! Go ahead and lower this to a more appropriate setting by right-clicking the Recycle Bin icon and selecting Properties.

3) Reduce the Size of System Restore. Along the same lines as the Recycle Bin, Windows will use a hefty 5% of your hard disk for its System Restore feature. I think that is still bigger than my iTunes collection! This can be lowered by right clicking the My Computer icon and selecting Properties and then finally the System Restore tab.

4) Delete Unnecessary Programs. It happens to the best of us. Especially neurotic PropellerHeads who crave living on the edge. We install some obscure bit of shareware, use it for maybe a week, then forget all about it. Nuke those suckers! Go into your Control Panel, select Add or Remove Programs and start removing anything you haven’t used in the past year. If you don’t know what something is, there is usually a link to a web site for more info. But do me a favor and please don’t delete your hardware drivers. That would be bad. When in doubt, let sleeping dogs lie.

5) Delete Large Files. Search My Documents for files on your computer that are larger than perhaps 10MB. Look at the report generated and see if there are any files that can be deleted. Or perhaps you need the files, but don’t need them super-handy. Consider zipping up or otherwise compressing them.

6) Defragment. This step takes the longest and gets you the least, but don’t worry, just let it run overnight. Defragmenting reorganizes the information on your disk so there are fewer gaps between files. The end result is a little more disk space. To run, right-click on your hard disk icon, go to Properties and then to the Tools tab.

And now some advanced techniques. You should really know what you’re doing before you attempt these. I.e. deleting the wrong file might render your computer inoperable. That kind of advanced.

1) Delete Windows Update Backups. If you look at the contents of your Windows directory, you’ll see a bunch of directories that begin with a dollar sign. The bulk of these are backups that Windows makes when an update is installed from Windows or Microsoft Update. When was the last time you ever undid one of these updates? I thought so. Go ahead and delete those directories older than maybe six months.

2) Delete other Temporary and Backup Files. If you noticed way back in the first item, there was an option to delete temporary files. These were your personal temporary files. Unfortunately, not all programs elect to use that location. Those Bastards! First, start in \Windows\Temp and delete everything older than the last time you booted your computer. Then search your disk for any file ending in the TMP or the BAK extension. You’ll be surprised at what turns up. Again, delete anything older than the last time you booted.

This list should keep you busy until Christmas. Just remember, make a backup before you start!