read before you click
THE HABIT OF JUST CLICKING…..
Are you beginning to notice that when you go to a website, you can’t see as much of the page because of numerous toolbars? Do you have a program that keeps appearing and warning you about viruses? Have you found a few programs on your computer you don’t recall installing?
If you have experienced any of the above, then you’ve missed the ‘additional’ products that come along with a lot of downloads nowadays. It has become more important than ever that you take the time and read every window, every screen that you go through when downloading a program, music, ebooks…anything to make sure that you have not opted to accept ‘additional’ offers.
Yes, it does take more time to read each screen. Yes, sometimes the additional offers are a bit confusing to understand what they are. And yes, if you don’t take the time, you could end up with more than just a toolbar that takes up room inside your browser.
Spend a little more time, save your computer and yourself the expense of cleaning up the problems that quick and excessive clicking can cause.
why is my computer so slow
So you’ve had your computer a year or so now and you’ve noticed it’s not that lightning fast computer you first turned on…why? 
There are several things in play here, since you noticed that the speed isn’t what it used to be. Perception, hardware, software to name the obvious. When you first bought your computer, it was so much faster than your old one. Hence the term “old”, maybe not a dinosaur, but by current hardware standards it is definitely “old”.
The hardware itself, is the latest…greatest…fastest and that may seem light years faster than your last computer. Processors are much more powerful, no longer a singe core, but up to six and even eight core processors. And the code is no longer transferred in little 32bit chunks it’s now moved around in 64bit chunks. Hence – faster.
Your old computer more than likely, had additional programs you found and downloaded off the Internet or bought somewhere. And then down the road, you either removed them or attempted to remove them leaving behind remnants of information that can also cause your computer to choke. Some of those really cool programs were nothing more than computer resource hogs creating another drag on computer speed. (ie. weatherbug) Then there are all the constant updates by Microsoft for your operating system, updates from quickbooks, antivirus and any other program you may have, being added onto your computer, many of them extremely large and requiring more power. Those updates haven’t started on your new computer…yet.
And then there is the change in what you are currently using your computer for and what you said you were going to use it for in the first place. With the introduction of facebook, and youtube and streaming music you’ve now discovered a new world, which also now demands more power, more speed, and more storage space. None of which your old computer has.
This is a cycle you may as well get use to. Technology is growing faster than even a lot of software developers can keep up with, so don’t feel left behind. Just know that whatever you decide to buy tomorrow….will be almost worthless in about 4-5 years.
By the way…if you’re looking for a new computer, you might want to consider a custom built one instead of the “cookie cutter, kleenex” computers out there. Yes, you can get one of those cheaper, but that’s because they are more compact, which leads to more over heating and your ability to expand your system in an effort to thwart off the next major computer investment will be next to impossible.
so you want a website
You may or may not have a website yet. But if you are considering one or even have one and are not quite sure of what’s involved, let’s cover what a website will usually consist of.
There are basically three parts that all work together and yet separately. Just what you thought…confusing right? Well let’s try and make it as simple as possible and only stick to some basics, because it can become very involved very fast.
The first part to getting a website up and going is the ‘Domain Name’ you are going to need. And you can only purchase a Domain Name from a “Registrar” on the Internet and of which there are quite a few. For the most part, domain names run close to the same price. But you can find cheaper ‘Domain Names’, just understand that the reason for such a price difference is because that price is usually associated with a special offer or is part of the hosting package you are expected to sign up for and for a specific amount of time. Probably the most important part you need to remember if someone else registers the Domain for you, is that the information for the “Registrant/Owner” is either you or your company’s information. I have had to help others reclaim their Domain Name, who thought they owned their domain, but came to find out that an old employee or their IT company had used their personal information as the “Registrant/Owner” of the domain and now those people were gone. And trying to reclaim a domain is not all that much fun. There’s more we could cover, but that’s the more involved stuff.
The second part, now that you have a domain name, is finding someone to create a website for you, if you don’t want to learn how to do it yourself. We won’t go into all the aspects of websites there are way to many to deal with, but a simple single page (and yes that is still considered a website) or a website with a shopping cart or just multiple pages is going to require a server that displays that site to the world. This is called “hosting”. As you recall, if you purchased your domain name from a registrar that includes the cheap domain with a hosting package, then you will need to use them for that service. If you had a company design your site for you, they will most likely have their own servers and the ability to host your site. Either way, hosting fees can be a recurring monthly charge or yearly fee.
The third part would be email. Now just because you have a domain and a website, there is nothing to say you can’t use a third-party source for your email, such as gmail, yahoo, hotmail and so on. But most professional businesses utilize their domain for their email as well. Like your website, email requires “hosting”. This requires a server that will accept email from the world, has huge drives to store it for you then allows you to have access to it. Some email providers may offer spam checking and/or virus checking, while others may leave it up to you to filter out the spam. And even if they do offer virus protection, you need to have an antivirus program on your computer running at all times, since a lot of viruses are gotten while just surfing the Internet.
So while you need a domain to have a website and/or email, you do not need to have every aspect located at the same place. You can register your domain at one place, have a different company host your website and still another company host your email.
What makes things confusing for some is that you can have separate charges for each part. The Domain Name purchase is a separate payment than the hosting fee, for those not using one company for everything. The website hosting fee may or may not include email. And if it does include email, then there may be additional fees should you exceed storage or bandwidth expectations. So whether you are intending on getting a website or already have one, just make sure you know what your fees are and what they cover.
digital image provided by: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My Documents
My Documents. Maybe you are already familiar with this folder and its location on your computer. If not you should be, because by default that is where all your photos and music and letters and downloads and documents all end up. It’s a convenience, you know. Already setup and waiting for you on your new computer to store anything and everything of importance to you. Just click…’Save’.
Are you aware that when your computer crashes (and if it hasn’t, it will) that it’s the operating system that most likely failed? Something got corrupted, a virus wreaked some havoc or that old hard drive just bit the dust. And if you allowed your computer to dictate where you save everything (i.e. My Documents) it could all be gone.
Convenience is not your friend nor your safest course of action. If you want to have a better chance of not losing precious data, then you must make the decision of where YOU save your files. And that is NOT in a folder that is “PART” of your operating system.
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A great idea would be to have a second hard drive just for storing all your files. Next best thing, would be to have a second partition on your drive (if you only have one hard drive) where you can save all your files. Finally, if either of those options are not available, then by all means “BACK UP THE MY DOCUMENTS FOLDER”.
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Of course, even though your computer repairman may not be able to access or even see your files, those files might just still exist. A specialty recovery company may still be able to recover your files. They will physically take your hard drive apart, remove the disks and attempt recovery. Not necessarily an inexpensive resolve.
Your least expensive route – save your files to a location not associated with your operating system or the “C” drive. Purchase a thumb drive, a tape drive, another hard drive, anything – but don’t allow yourself to be lulled into a convenience that could cost you your sanity.
Simple and Free Online PDF Editor
Have you ever wanted to just ‘whiteout’ some copy on a pdf? Sounds like it should be so simple to do, right? Well guess what, it is with the right program.
I struggled with an Acrobat Pro version of my own attempting to simply remove some handwritten copy throughout a pdf file. Needless to say, what I thought would and should be a cinch, became a royal pain. So I decided to do a little research into anything that would do what I wanted, ‘whiteout’ the unwanted notations.
And after some looking into several pdf program options other than Adobe, I stumbled across a simple editor. It functions as a normal pdf reader with zoom and rotating ability, selects and copies pdf content to your clipboard, searches for keywords and saves, downloads and prints.
As an editor you can add text and shapes. You can ‘whiteout’ what you don’t want, then re-enter new copy. Create links to other pdf pages or to web content. And much more.
With the form filler you fill out your pdf forms and with the form designer you can add and modify form fields to any pdf file.
Need to comment and markup a pdf document, add or edit annotations or even just want to highlight some content in the file, this program will do it.
Now the best part…no downloading of any software – no installing anything. No requirement of Flash or Active X or anything else. Simply upload your pdf file and that’s it. Only caveat is the file size limit, which is 10Mb, along with a 100 page limit. Don’t think that is to much to ask for simple and free.
The name of the program – PDFescape. And you will find it at pdfescape.com.
They do offer a ‘premium’ service, removing ads from the interface you work with, if it bothers you that much.