by David Hakala
A memory card is essentially portable RAM, electronic memory that you can put in your pocket and plug into various devices to use as storage. A USB flash drive is a type of memory card. So are the wafer-thin cards you slide into digital cameras, game consoles, etc. There are different types of memory cards made for different purposes.
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by David Hakala
We discussed Setting Up a Web Cam For Video Chats in a previous article. But there are other uses for Web cameras.
You can turn your Web cam into a motion-sensing surveillance system. It will start recording when anything moves in its field of view. This can be a handy security system or a way to get into “lifestreaming,” the bizarre practice of streaming video of everything you do to the entire Web. Yawcam is a free program that does motion-sensing recordings, and it can automatically upload video files to a Web site where the whole world can watch you drink coffee while you check email.
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by David Hakala
When you go to update Windows on the Microsoft update Web site, you have the option to select which specific updates you want to download and install. One update you may see is “Microsoft .NET Framework.” As of this writing, it is a whopping 284 MB package. Should you download and install it?
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by David Hakala
It’s all too easy to get lost in your computer and the Web, totally ignoring the real world. Writers and programmers do it all the time; so do gamers. But sooner or later you have to get up and go outside. It would be nice to know what’s going on out there. A number of online weather services can put the current weather report for your area right on your desktop so you don’t even have to look out the window.
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by David Hakala
You go to a Web site and start reading it. But immediately, another browser window opens and displays something you probably didn’t want to see, hiding what you came to see. That second window is a pop up window, also called a popup or pop-up.
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by David Hakala
I bought a Thinkpad T61 notebook recently, retiring a vintage 2001Toshiba Tecra 8100 laptop. (Go ahead and snigger, but we made lots of money together.) The new machine, like most others made in recent years, has a small touch-sensitive cursor-moving pad in the center of its front edge – right where I like to rest the balls of my thumbs when I am typing. As a result, the cursor sometimes jumped around unexpectedly and the characters I was typing ended up in the middle of previously written words.
I learned this nuisance is called a touchpad. It is useless, too small to give me good control of the cursor. I use a USB mouse with a self-retracting cord. The touchpad had to go.
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by David Hakala
When you install Windows or format a disk, you are asked to select a “file system.” The options are FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS. Which file system you choose depends on the size of the disk and what you intend to do with it.
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by David Hakala
A digital camera is almost a necessity these days. When you are checking out digital cameras keep in mind your intended uses for one. Here are some typical uses for digital cameras and the camera features suited to them.
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by David Hakala
On the Tools menu of Outlook you will find “Rules and Alerts.” This option lets you create mail-handling rules that Outlook follows when it sends and receives email. For example, it can move or copy any message from your boss’ email address into a “High Priority” subfolder (rule) and/or notify you that such a message has arrived (alert). You can create rules that forward copies of messages to one or more destinations. Generally, rules are set to run automatically every time new messages come in, sorting and moving your mail around without your effort to run rules one at a time.
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by David Hakala
Removing unused fonts from your computer can speed up system reboots and help keep Windows running smoothly. But you don’t want to remove the fonts that Windows and your application programs need. Here is how to remove fonts safely.
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