Tiplet expert tips & tech support

January 10, 2009

How Do I Make a Podcast?

Filed under: digital media — Tags: — admin @ 8:00 am

by Tina Gasperson

A podcast is a recording that you can download onto your computer hard drive. The name is based on the popular iPod mp3 players made by Apple, but podcasts play on many different devices, not just iPods. It is easy to make your own podcast and distribute it on the Internet for others who may be interested in what you have to say.

Once you’ve decided what subject you want to focus on for your podcast, the next thing you’ll need is a computer with empty hard drive space, or some other way to store your podcast files once you’re done recording them, such as a thumb drive. Make sure you have about one MB of storage space for every minute of recording you want to do. A 30-minute podcast takes up about 30MB of disk space.
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January 9, 2009

How to Send Large Files Over the Internet

Filed under: file transfer,Internet,online computing — Tags: , — admin @ 3:00 pm

by David Strom

Sending large files as email attachments is a big pain in the neck. Some email services place a limit on their size, and if you have a bunch of photos or a video or a large PowerPoint presentation, you will quickly find out what this limit is and get a message saying the file can’t be sent that way. So what are your choices?

If you own your own domain, you can transfer the file to your own Web site using something called FTP or SCP and have your correspondent transfer it back to their computer that way. You can make use of Google Docs or something similar that can share Office-type documents, including PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets and Word documents. If you and your recipient have accounts on the same Instant Message service you can send files that way too. These are all good methods, but your correspondent may not want to use them, and they require some coordination.
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CD or DVD Drive Not Recognized As Writable

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

by David Hakala

It’s frustrating to get an error message when you try to burn files to a new, blank CD or DVD disc: “There is no disc in the drive. Please insert a writable CD into drive.” You know your drive writes and you know the disc is good. Why Windows doesn’t “get it” sometimes is a mystery. But the fix is here.

The problem is mistaken identity. When your writable drive was installed, Windows created a registry entry noting, “This drive is writable.” Or maybe it didn’t, or the entry got corrupted somehow, or Windows is misreading the entry. In any case, you need to edit that entry so Windows recognizes your drive as writable. Here is how to do it:
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January 8, 2009

How to Choose the Right E-mail List Service Provider

Filed under: e-mail — Tags: , — admin @ 3:00 pm

by David Strom

Ever wanted to send out emails to a bunch of people at once and tried to use Outlook or some other desktop email program to do it? The process may seem simple, until you start get messages that are returned because the addresses are old, or worse when someone replies to your entire list by mistake. Plus, using your desktop email program means you have to assemble the various collections of email addresses manually, and sometimes you can mess up.

There are also situations where sometimes you forget and put your entire list in the “To” field of your message, and invariably one of your recipients hits “reply all” and sends their reply to your entire list. That isn’t good!
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Repartitioning a Drive With Vista

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

by David Hakala

Sometimes it is desirable to change the size of a drive partition. Perhaps you underestimated the amount of space that a partition needed, or you want to shrink a partition to make room for another one.

Windows XP lets you create new partitions using any unallocated space on a drive. But changing the size of existing partitions is a pain. You have to back up all your data and programs; boot from a DOS CD (or floppy, if you still have one of those); use the FDISK utility to change existing partitions; reformat the partitions; and reinstall all that data. There has to be a better way!
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January 7, 2009

Create a Bootable Customized Vista Install DVD

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

by David Hakala

The Windows Vista installation DVD comes with many enabled features and components that most users don’t need. Depending on how old your installation DVD is, it lacks important updates and service packs that you will have to download and install if you re-install Vista. Of course, it does not contain the latest third-party device drivers. You will have to download and re-install those, too.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an installation DVD that installs Vista exactly the way you want it? Here is how to make one.
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January 6, 2009

How Many Anti-Malware Apps Do You Need?

Filed under: privacy & security — Tags: , , , — admin @ 9:00 am

by David Hakala

When your computer becomes infected with “something,” you quickly learn that there are myriad applications that may identify and eliminate the threat – or may not. No single anti-malware application cures every ill, just as no one antibiotic is a panacea against all diseases.

Malware comes in as many species as biological bacteria and virii. Some varieties specialize in exploiting vulnerabilities in browsers, others in instant-messaging apps, still others in operating systems, and so on. Malware authors are constantly improving their wares in a never-ending arms race against authors of anti-malware apps. There is no One and Final defense against malware.
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January 5, 2009

Top 10 Vista Speed Tweaks

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

by David Hakala

1. Turn off Search Indexing. It constantly consumes significant resources just to make occasional searches a little faster.

Click Start, then Computer
Right-click on C: drive
On General tab, uncheck “Index this drive for faster searching”
On the resulting dialog box, check “Include subfolders and files”

2. Turn off Remote Differential Compression. It constantly monitors changes in files across a network to minimize bandwidth use by transferring only changed parts of a file instead of the whole thing. The constant monitoring slows system performance.

Open Control Panel
Switch to Classic View
Select Program Features
Choose Turn Windows Features On and Off
Scroll down and uncheck Remote Differential Compression

3. Turn off Automatic Windows Defender Operation. It is weak protection against malware; use a third-party defender.

Open Control Panel
Select Windows Defender
Choose Tools from the menu bar
Select Options
Uncheck Autostart
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January 4, 2009

Applications That Optimize Windows

Filed under: applications — Tags: , , — admin @ 8:00 am

by David Hakala

There are hundreds of ways to customize Windows and speed up system performance. Whether you should implement one method usually depends upon what hardware, software, and other Windows features you are using. Several third-party applications relieve you of these many decisions, scanning your system to see what it’s using and optimizing Windows settings automatically.

Many optimization apps also find and correct configuration errors that slow performance, shutdown, and startup. Some include performance-enhancing features such as file system optimization and RAM optimization.
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January 3, 2009

Avoiding Viruses and Trojans Browsing the Internet

Filed under: Internet,privacy & security — Tags: , , , — admin @ 10:00 am

by Tina Gasperson

The Microsoft Windows operating system dominates the computer market. Research shows that 90 percent of computers run some form of Windows. The popularity of this operating system means that there is an abundance of software available to make your computer more useful and powerful. Unfortunately, it also means that Windows is a prime target for people who create little software programs known as computer viruses and “Trojans.” These programs are designed to wreak havoc in your computer for the benefit of someone else. Their gain could be that these unsavory characters can now use your computer as their own spam server, gain access your credit accounts, or simply get the satisfaction of knowing they’ve brought your system to a screeching halt and you may have to spend lots of time and money getting it fixed.

So how can you avoid getting infected by one of these rogue programs? There are several precautions you can take to protect your computer while you’re out “surfing the ‘Net.”
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January 2, 2009

Online Versus Desktop Computing

Filed under: online computing — Tags: , — admin @ 7:46 pm

by David Hakala

“Desktop” computing means that your applications and data reside on the computer sitting on your desktop. “Online” computing means they reside somewhere else: on a server you can reach via a local area network, a private wide area network, or the public Internet.

The important thing is that you are connected to the resources you need. It doesn’t matter whether those resources are north or south of your physical location; nearby or far away; or what make and model of machine they reside on. So diagrams of online computing connections can be very vague, often just a “cloud” of resources.
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