Tiplet expert tips & tech support

January 31, 2009

How to View PDF Files

Filed under: applications — Tags: , , , — admin @ 9:00 am

by David Hakala

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a standard file format seen everywhere on the Web, in software documentation, and in business. The “official” reader program for PDF files is the Acrobat Reader by Adobe Systems Inc., which invented the PDF format. However, Acrobat Reader is a rather large (33.5 MB download), cumbersome program. There are slimmer competitors that don’t slow your system down as much as Acrobat Reader. There are even ways to view PDF files without any software installed on your system.
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January 30, 2009

How to Load and Edit Digital Video on Your Computer

Filed under: applications,online computing,photos and video,Windows — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 2:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

Once you’ve shot all that great video on your DV recorder, what’s next? If you want to do more than just store the tape away or replay it on your video camera, you’ll need to upload the video to your hard drive. Digital video cameras come equipped with USB or Firewire connections that make it easy to transfer files. Follow the instructions for your particular camera, then open up your video editing software and get ready to become a movie producer.
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Customize Taskbar and Start Menu

Filed under: applications,computer performance,Windows — Tags: , , , — admin @ 9:00 am

by David Hakala

The Start menu and the Taskbar are two of the most frequently used features of Windows XP. You can customize how they look and operate to suit your personal tastes.

The Taskbar runs along the bottom of the Windows desktop by default. But you can move it to either side or the top of the screen. Just click and hold on any part of the Taskbar and drag it to where you want it. You can also click and hold on the edge of the Taskbar to stretch and shrink it.
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January 29, 2009

How to Back up and Restore a WordPress Blog

Filed under: blogging,data storage and recovery,Internet — Tags: , , , — admin @ 2:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

Whether you have a self-hosted WordPress blog or a free site hosted at WordPress.com, it’s a good idea to back up your blog’s content from time to time, in case an accident happens and your data is damaged or lost. You will also need a site backup if you want to transfer your blog to a new host. There is more than one way to go about the task of backing up and restoring your site, depending on your circumstances and hosting arrangements.

Fortunately, making a copy of your blog content is not difficult to do because WordPress software has automated the process of backing up your data.
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How to Speed Up Firefox

Filed under: Internet — Tags: , , — admin @ 1:59 am

by David Hakala

Speed up your Web surfing with these tricks that work with Mozilla Firefox! It’s actually easier to tweak Firefox than it is to soup up Internet Explorer. That’s because Firefox is a standalone program, not intimately dependent upon settings in other areas of Windows as Internet Explorer is. All the tools you need are right under Firefox’s hood.

Most of these tools are accessed through the “about:config” URL, which doesn’t look like a standard URL because it doesn’t begin with “http://”. But it is indeed a Universal Resource Locator that locates and displays a resource called “config” within the Firefox browser.
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January 28, 2009

How to Download Movies and TV Shows

Filed under: Internet — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 2:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

The television and movie-watching markets are expanding, right onto your computer desktop. It’s no longer necessary to even own a television or a DVD player to watch your favorite TV shows and movies, because online services such as the iTunes store, Netflix, and Hulu.com, as well as major networks such as CBS, NBC, and ABC, make entire episodes and full-length movies available online. It’s easy to access these programs and play them on your computer.
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How To Use The System Restore Feature

Filed under: data storage and recovery,Windows — Tags: , — admin @ 9:00 am

by David Hakala

Sometimes your computer begins to act strangely after you install new software or hardware. If you cannot figure out why and correct the problem, you can return the system to its pre-installation state using the System Restore utility.

System Restore periodically saves snapshots of critical system files and some applications. You can then restore the system to one of these previous configurations when it was working properly. You can also take your own snapshot right before making major changes like adding an office suite or a new scanner.
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January 27, 2009

What Is RSS and How Do I Use It?

Filed under: blogging,Internet — Tags: , , , — admin @ 2:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

You may have heard a lot about RSS and “readers” lately. RSS is a term that describes a document, encoded with XML, that lists a news feed of frequently updated information, such as that coming from blogs, news Web sites, or even videos from a site like YouTube.com. By publishing an RSS feed, site owners make it possible for their audience to subscribe to these updates. Most blogs have a place where you can sign up to receive updates.

The idea is that by subscribing, the audience gets an email notification, along with an excerpt from the post or the entire post. Great idea, unless you subscribe to a lot of frequently updated blogs, because your email inbox can get flooded with these notifications, and instead of being convenient, RSS subscriptions start being an irritation.
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USB Device Not Recognized by Windows XP

Filed under: computer hardware,Windows — Tags: , , , — admin @ 9:00 am

by David Hakala

When you plug a USB device into a computer that just “woke up” from hibernation or standby, you get the error message:

Unrecognized device has been found.

Basically, the computer’s USB driver has not yet fully awakened. There can be a five- to 10-second period after the computer comes out of hibernation or standby during which the USB driver is not operating properly.
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January 26, 2009

Twitter Is Easier with Clients and Add-ons

Filed under: social networking — Tags: , , — admin @ 2:00 pm

by Tina Gasperson

You’ve taken the plunge and signed up for Twitter, found some friends to follow, and you’ve bookmarked your profile page so you can remember to add regular status updates. Even so, sometimes it is hard to remember to visit yet another page frequently throughout the day, and if you’re out on the road, it may be impossible. What you may not have realized is that there are free tools available that make it even easier to use Twitter and make it a part of your daily routine.
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Using the Vista Sidebar and Gadgets

Filed under: Vista — Tags: , , — admin @ 9:00 am

by David Hakala

“Gadgets” are small programs that do useful things like tell you the weather at a glance; remind you of appointments or tasks to do; or quickly add up a few numbers like a pocket calculator. The cool thing about gadgets is that you don’t have to remember where they are or take time to open them. They are right there at your fingertips all the time, in the Windows Vista Sidebar.

The Sidebar is a pane at the side of the Vista screen where gadgets are kept and organized. The Sidebar makes great use of wide-screen monitors and also looks good on standard monitors. You can easily customize the Sidebar’s location and whether it is “always on top” of other applications or hides beneath a maximized application.
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