Computers

Basic GUI Terminology

Knowing What You're Working With Helps Technicians Getting help with your computer software can be easier when you know the correct terms to use. One of the biggest problems that new computer users have with technical support is not knowing how to correctly describe the problem that they're having. And it isn't fair to expect a tech support person to automatically know what a "thing-a-ma-jingy," or "whatcha-ma-call-it" is. The following describes the correct names for common components of ...
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Understanding-Compression

Understanding Compression What It Is and What's Involved Downloading files from the Internet has always been one of the most popular activities on the Internet - third to sending email and browsing the web. We download files from software libraries, ftp directories, YouTube and Google Video, MP3 sites, and we download files sent to us as email attachments. Being so popular an activity, it's imperative that you compress the files destined for another computer. File compression combines a ...
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Using-Computers

Using Computers It's Not Rocket Science These days it's strange to hear people say, 'I'm just not computer literate,' as computers have evolved from archaic scientific calculators to simple point-and-click type machines. We suspect that today's 'computer illiterates' are people who haven't taken the time to experiment with such a machine. And we strongly believe that spending just twenty minutes with one could turn the most adamant technological caveman into any one of those who have fun wre...
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Smartphones

Smartphones What's the craze all about? If you haven't heard of smartphones, we'd like to learn where you've been hiding all this time. Smartphones have been all over the news and chances are, you do know what they are - only you know them under a different name. Smartphones are mobile phones with computer like capabilities. What's that? Aha! Yes, you've not only heard of them, you've probably seen them as well. Packed with Internet access, email capabilities, address books, and a whole...
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Accessorizing-Computers

Accessorizing Computers What Comes Out of the Box is a Really Just a Starter Kit Yesterday, we spent about three hours trying to convince a client of ours that brand new computers just don't come equipped with the all things that most computers need in a PC. We tried to convince him that a fully functional computer is one that is personalized with specially selected hardware and software accessories - and that the computer purchased at the store doesn't come with these things. Unfortunately,...
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Understanding-the-OS

Understanding Operating Systems Every new computer that's brought home from the store has an operating system installed onto it. But what most new computer users don't realize, is that without an operating system, that computer would be a simple shell of possibilities. A powered computer lacking an operating system wouldn't display anything more than a bunch of confusing text messages that describe the computer's boot process. At the very end of this process, the computer looks for an operati...
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Common-Computer-Errors

A Few Common Computer Errors (And What They Mean) Computer errors can pop up when least expected, they can cause the entire system to suddenly shut down, and they can inadvertently corrupt data to the point where it can't be deciphered. Although they can't always be avoided, it's important to remember that computer errors can be corrected. The key is to understand what computer errors are, understand what they mean when they show up, and understand how to minimize their occurrence in the fir...
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Protecting-Children-Online

Protecting Children Online Steps Toward Making Your Computer 'Weirdo-Proof' It's an unfortunate fact of reality, but children are the most victimized computer users on the Internet today. The good news is that there are some practical steps you can take to protect your children from sexual predators, hackers, and other seedy individuals who want to cause harm. This article will describe a few of them. The first step in protecting your children at the computer is to prevent their access to...
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Computer-Help

Computer Help Where and How to Get It Well there's no denying it - No matter how new or how well maintained our computers are, we all encounter computer problems sooner or later. The good news is that we don't have to face them alone. There are a ton of resources available to walk us through computer issues but it may take a little knowledge in knowing how to access them. This article will show you how. 1. Remember help files. It's funny, but people seem to forget that every computer and ...
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When-Less-Is-More

When Less Is More Clean Your Disk Drive of Unnecessary Files and Your Computer's Performance Will Improve When it comes to maintaining your computer, you've probably heard it all before. 'Run Defrag!' 'Scan Your Disk for Errors!' Although these two activities are important, there's more you can do to extend the life of your computer beyond today's predicted two-year span. In fact, by following the simple advice below, you can enjoy the use of your computer to up to five years or more - res...
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Included-Programs

Programs Included With a New Computer Are they good enough to stand on their own? The Windows operating systems already comes with a useful collection of pre-installed programs and even some games. But one of the first things that people do is download a butt-load of new programs as soon as a brand new system is plugged in the wall and connected to the Internet. This article looks at some of the programs that are included with most new systems and then asks the reader to consider if they're ...
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Computer-Security

Computer Security In Today's Society, Protecting Your Computer Is A Requirement Advances in computer technology is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it affords us quick and easy access to numerous conveniences such as bank statements, favorite shopping centers, school and health records, and more. On the other hand, it can also grant the same access to those who aren't supposed to get it. Although it's a rare occurrence, hacking has become the biggest criminal nuisance in computer history. ...
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Viruses

Viruses What They Are And One Reason Why People Make Them Over recent years, computers have become synonymous with viruses and viruses don't show any signs of disappearing any time soon. In recent news, LiveScience.com reported that 'Before the month is even done, April has set a record for virus e-mails.'1 In the past, we would be comfortable in telling new computer users not to worry about viruses and that catching a computer virus is rare. Today, that would be some of the worst advice we ...
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Open-Source

Open Source Software If you've spent any lengthy amount of time on the Internet, you've probably heard of open source software but might not have fully understood what it is and why it even exists. This article will describe this recent phenomenon and describe some of its benefits for the software using community. In a nutshell, open source software is software made by everyone - for everyone. The hopes behind its development is that through its open access, it will evolve into something ...
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Automating-Things-with-Batch-Files

Automating Things with Batch Files They Work on Today's Computers Too! If you're familiar with MS-DOS at all, you'll recall that it's a command-driven operating system that performs functions issued at the C:> prompt. The only way to get an MS-DOS computer to do something was to type a command at this prompt and if you can imagine, it was a rather cumbersome way to use a computer. As an example, to load up Microsoft's simple editing program, you had to type the name of the drive that the ...
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Introduction-to-Programming

Introduction to Programming Controlling Your Computer with a Programming Language In a previous article, we introduced automating some tasks with MS-DOS batch files. In this article, we're going to introduce programming and describe how it can be used to control the way your computer works. Normally, computer novices aren't interested in controlling the computer. New computer users are typically interested in learning more about how the thing works. However they may be surprised to learn tha...
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What’s-That-File

What's That File? An Introduction to File Extensions In an effort to be 'user-friendly,' Windows (and perhaps some other operating systems) hides the most important part of a file name from new computer users: the extension. Okay - we're assuming that the reasoning behind hiding extensions is a 'user-friendly' one because we just can't come up with any other reason for hiding them. No harm could ever come from seeing an extension, but plenty could be learned from it. Fortunately you have thi...
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Basic-GUI-Terminology

Basic GUI Terminology Knowing What You're Working With Helps Technicians Getting help with your computer software can be easier when you know the correct terms to use. One of the biggest problems that new computer users have with technical support is not knowing how to correctly describe the problem that they're having. And it isn't fair to expect a tech support person to automatically know what a 'thing-a-ma-jingy,' or 'whatcha-ma-call-it' is. The following describes the correct names fo...
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Dust-Kills

Dust Kills Cleaning the Unit Fan is Essential Computer Care Between taking care of the household, the kids, the pets, and the district PTA, computer care is probably one of the last things that you think of doing on a regular basis. Without a regular maintenance schedule however, you could find out (the hard way) that a neglected computer is an energy hog - one that works harder than it needs to and one that could be a financial burden to replace. Let's talk about maintaining hardware. ...
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Customizing-With-Preferences

Customizing Your Computer with Preferences Making Your Computer Work with You - Not Against You Although you did not design or build your computer, you can turn it into a device that responds to your way of using it as if you were its original engineer or programmer. This is because the computer is a mere platform - a blank canvas, if you will - waiting for you to direct its operation or paint the picture of the perfect machine. All this is possible from making just a few changes in your com...
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Buying-A-Computer

Buying a Computer What To Do And Why It isn't fair, but buying a computer is just plain easier for some than it is for others. Those who've purchased and used a computer in the past already have an idea of what they need in a new computer. But those who are new to the computer world could get lost in the myriad of choices available. The short answer to 'What should I buy?' is 'The best.' Of course that answer is extremely subjective because 'the best' to one person is certainly differen...
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Cheap-and-Fast-Software

Cheap and Fast Software An Introduction to Shareware Visit any computer store today and you'll find what seems like miles and miles of software on sale. Certainly enticing buys, there are a few problems with buying software off the shelves. On the shelf, software - otherwise known as 'commercial software' - can be expensive, and incompatible, and outdated when compared to what's available online. Fortunately, there's an alternative to commercial software and although it isn't new, it's one o...
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Working-With-Computers

Working With Computers In Today's Society, There's No Escape Well, we've been warned that this time would come - probably from the earlier eighties on. Yes, computers have finally taken over and if you doubt it, we're here to convince you - but not because we want to or because we can. We want to convince you that if you don't take the necessary steps to control that reign, you're going to be left behind further than you could have ever imagined. Computers are everywhere. Take a moment to...
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Software-Piracy

Software Piracy It's Best To Avoid It At All Costs Like electronic identity theft, computer viruses, and the spread of other computer crimes, software piracy is on the rise. The problem with software piracy is that software costs make this illegal activity appealing to the end user. After all, who is it going to hurt? Rich software companies?? This article investigates software piracy as a whole and the impact that it has on the computer using industry. The most vulnerable victims of soft...
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Networking-Home-Computers

Networking Home Computers Increasing Productivity With the Whole Family Have you ever thought about networking your computers at home? If you have a small collection of computers around the house (and a small collection of computer users), you can connect each one of those computers to one another and share data, software, and hardware including a single Internet connection. There are many creative uses for home networking, however it's an ideal situation when upgrading each computer to the ...
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