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
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
Conscientious power management is a good idea whether your computer runs off line power or its battery. Avoiding unnecessary power consumption is good for your computer’s life span, the environment, and your wallet. Two ways in which Windows XP helps you conserve power are standby and hibernation modes.
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by David Hakala
When you buy a new computer the sales person will undoubtedly try to upsell you a RAM upgrade. It may seem that a whole gigabyte or two or RAM is plenty, but you could be in for surprises. Modern software is complex and uses lots of RAM. Software developers pitch their wares’ minimum RAM requirements to make them look lean and efficient, but in truth the software often needs much more RAM to run optimally. Having plenty of RAM means that software is not swapped out to disk as often, saving wear and tear on your hard drives. More RAM is usually a good investment. But how much RAM do you really need, and what kind of RAM should you buy?
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by David Hakala
A netbook is a physically small portable computer that relies on wireless Internet connectivity to access Web-based services that provide much of the functionality found in more powerful desktop machines. Netbooks typically run Windows XP or some flavor of the Linux operating system rather than the more resource-hungry Vista. Netbooks are significantly cheaper than desktop or notebook computers. But are they worth buying at all?
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by Tina Gasperson
Q: How can I make XP start up (boot) faster? — P. Taylor
There are many things you can do to nudge your Windows XP system into wakefulness a bit faster. Most of them only shave off a fraction of a second or so, but combine them and you can really make a difference. There are too many tweaks to list in one Tiplet, so let’s concentrate on just a few ways to kick it up a notch when it comes to getting your system up and running quicker.
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by Gabe Goldberg
Buying a new PC needn’t involve replacing all your older PC devices, no matter what the friendly store salesperson suggests. Though newer PCs often have only USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, an amazing assortment of adapters are available to connect older sorts of plugs to USB ports.
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by Tina Gasperson
A partition is a special separate place on your hard drive that has its own drive letter – if you only have one partition on your hard drive, then it is probably called C:, or the C drive. It’s handy sometimes to make a new partition on your hard drive – especially if you want to install a separate operating system such as Linux, or an older version of Windows. Another reason to partition your hard drive is to keep your data separate from your applications. That way if you need to reinstall your apps or your operating system, you won’t need to do anything with your data, since a partition is seen by the computer as a separate hard drive.
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by Tina Gasperson
Javascript is a very important programming language that, along with its cousin Java, makes it possible for most of the user-interactivity that happens when you’re using a browser application to navigate the World Wide Web. Without Javascript, your ability to experience the richness of some of your favorite Web sites is curtailed. However, it is still completely possible to browse online without Javascript enabled.
Most browsers have security settings that can disable Javascript, since it can pose a security threat when malicious coders write a program with Javascript that is designed to invade your system and take it over. And while this happens only when Javascript is given unfettered access to your computer and you aren’t using an antivirus program, many users, especially those running Internet Explorer, prefer to completely disable Javascript
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by Tina Gasperson
JavaScript is a very important programming language that, along with its cousin Java, makes it possible for most of the user-interactivity that happens when you’re using a browser application to navigate the World Wide Web. Without Javascript, your ability to experience the richness of some of your favorite Web sites is curtailed. It is still possible to browse online without Javascript enabled. Most browsers have security settings that can disable JavaScript, since it can pose a security threat when malicious coders write a program with Javascript that is designed to invade your system and take it over. This happens only when Javascript is given unfettered access to your computer and you aren’t using an antivirus program. A happy medium is to enable JavaScript, but to limit its application, and make sure you have a fully up to date antivirus running, as you always should any time you go online.
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