by David Hakala
If you work on a laptop computer in low lighting conditions, you may wish you could see the keyboard better. In fact, many people want a laptop keyboard light. That’s why a keyboard light is built into some modern laptops.
Read your laptop’s documentation. If there is a keyboard light built into the machine, you will probably need special software from your laptop’s manufacturer to activate it.
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by David Hakala
You may have seen images that move on Web sites or in emails.
They’re called “animated GIF” images. You can make them too with a bit of work. Actually, there are a few tools that eliminate much of the work.
An animated GIF image actually consists of several images contained in a single file. Each image depicts is subject in different position. The images are displayed in sequence automatically, creating the illusion of motion. You probably did something similar as a child, drawing pictures of a running figure on successive pages of a notepad and then riffling through the pages rapidly with your thumb. Animated GIF images are the same thing done digitally.
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by David Hakala
People are taking greater interest in and control of their health care these days. The Web enables people to research medical conditions and treatments thoroughly, ask doctors the right questions, and find treatments that work when traditional medicine fails.
The greatest medical science advancement in modern times is the placement of drug information on the Web in font sizes big enough to be read without a microscope. RxList.com is the premier site for drug information. Its databases contain all the standard information printed illegibly on “patient information brochures” included with prescriptions, plus current and archived news about drug recalls, FDA actions against particular drugs, research on the efficacy of different drugs, and much more.
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by David Hakala
Laptop batteries require a bit more attention than flashlight batteries to extend their lives and maximize the power you get out of them. Most notebook computers come with battery and power consumption management software. Windows has a few tools built into it, too. Go to Start > Control Panel > Power Options.
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by David Hakala
CD and DVD recording media are simple plastic things that should be easy to buy. But there is quite a bit to know about blank discs before you purchase.
First, there’s spelling. ‘Disk’ refers to magnetic media such as hard drives and floppies (if you remember floppies). “Disc” refers to optical media such as CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray.
Next, there are discs that can be recorded only once and discs that are “re-writable”, that can be erased and recorded again just like magnetic disks. A CD-R disc is record-once, a CD-RW is re-writable. A DVD-R or DVD+R is record-once, and a DVD-RW or DVD+RW is re-writable.
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by David Hakala
You may want to remove unused fonts from your Windows or Mac computer as Tina Gasperson suggested in her Tiplet article, How to Make Windows XP Boot Faster. Or you may want to organize and manage an ever-growing collection of fonts. Either way, here are some tips and tools to manage fonts.
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by David Hakala
Encryption is the scrambling of digital data in such a way that it can be read only by its creator and intended recipients. It may be advisable to encrypt the data on your hard drives; your email during transmission; the information you send or receive via a Web browser; or any other digital information that you don’t want just anyone to read.
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by David Hakala
Six in 10 Americans own pets of some sort, according to a 2006 Gallup poll. Dogs and cats are the runaway favorites. (Turtles don’t “run” away.) Among pet owners, 73 percent own a dog and 49 percent own a cat. Among all Americans, 27 percent own a dog but not a cat, 12 percent own a cat but not a dog, 17 percent own both, and 3 percent own pets other than cats or dogs. So it’s not surprising that there are lots of places online to talk about pets, pet supplies, and pets for sale.
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by David Hakala
Adobe Flash is a multimedia format that presents movie-like animations. You may find Flash files embedded in TV news Web sites and other visually oriented sites. To view Flash presentations you need special software.
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by David Hakala
After buying a laptop computer, you need something to carry it in. Laptop bags come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and configurations. If you answer a few questions, you can quickly narrow down the choices to the right laptop bag for you.
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