November 16th 2007
Back in August, I purchased a Gateway ML3109 laptop and it came with Vista (Basic, I believe). At first, I was upset because I’d heard only horrible things. I’d seen screenshots of the changes and new features and wasn’t impressed. I was even less impressed because I’d heard Vista was a memory hog so when I bought the laptop, I had them upgrade the RAM to 1.5GB instead of just 512MB.
I took the laptop home and first thing off, I reinstalled Vista, taking out the unnecessary software. I installed a few of my own programs and now I’m actually pretty satisfied. I turned off all the enhanced security features and don’t use any of the new stuff - not sure I actually have any though and it works pretty well. I mainly use it for word processing and simple surfing because I feel less distracted on it than on my Mac. Once you get passed all of that, it’s really not that bad of an OS. It certainly beats Windows 2000.
What I like about Vista
- Start search box (which you can turn off)
- New control panel - confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s better
- Not running all programs as administrator - helps with security
- Network and sharing center - same with control panel, confusing at first, but much better for novices
- It’s pretty - I like the new look, it’s simple, but nice
- It’s much, much better for non-geeks - everything is simple and it doesn’t let you mess with things unless you know what you’re doing
I don’t have anything negative to say about Vista now that I’ve used it. Good job Microsoft.
Posted in Computers with 3 comments
November 2nd 2007
My MacBook’s battery lasts ages, even when I’m running ten programs and watching a movie. But my Gateway laptop’s battery lasts about an hour, and it’s new. PCs generally have very limited battery life and here’s some tips I’ve gathered to help keep your battery lasting longer.
Make your battery last longer now
- Let your laptop control the battery. They usually have default settings that will minimize battery usage and when you need the battery to last through an entire flight, keeping it on those settings will help.
- Don’t multi task. Running just one program at a time can seriously help.
- Power down when necessary. If you’re waiting in line or otherwise can’t use your laptop, turn it off to avoid battery drain. It’s small, but it still helps.
- I know laptops are called that for a reason, but avoid putting it on your lap unless you have to. There’s plenty of tables and other flat surfaces that will help keep the heat down.
Extending battery life
- Don’t leave your laptop on a bed, couch, or pillow for long periods of time. Your computer is unable to breathe, which leads to higher temperatures, which lead to battery death.
- Don’t leave it in a car on a really hot day (90 degrees Fahrenheit or more), if it’s hot enough to kill a dog, it can kill your battery.
- Don’t expose most batteries to extreme cold temperatures either (Lithium Ion batteries, however, are best stored at freezing temperatures.)
- If you aren’t going to being using your laptop/cell phone/ipod for a month or longer, take out the battery and store it properly. If it’s a Lithium Ion battery, you can freeze it at a 50% charge.
For more battery related information, check out the Battery University.
Posted in Computers with 3 comments
October 28th 2007
I am a serious computer user and I slow mine down. No matter what the specs are, I always manage to somehow make even the fastest computer slow. I’ve had both PCs and Macs and both have needed to be fixed up a few times. I don’t know how to reformat hard drives and for what I’m trying to do, reinstalling the operating system works fine. This is the second time I’ve reinstalled OS X on this MacBook, which I got in January 2007. To make things easier this go around, I bought a Western Digital MyBook external hard drive at Circuit City.
It’s a 320GB Essential Edition, is plenty for me, especially because it was only $100. It doesn’t have a lot of fancy features, but I really just wanted something inexpensive and reliable to back up my files on. I’m going to store my enormous media collection on it, mostly filled with movies and TV shows, as well as keep backups of my very important website files.
So far I’m very happy with it, except it took me ages to move everything over last night, but I think that was because my computer has been incredibly slow lately. When I moved files back to the fresh OS, the transfer went much smoother. I’m going to leave Illustrator and Photoshop on MyBook because they take up a lot of resources and I don’t use them very much. I think I’ve used Photoshop once. Illustrator is more for when I’m actually feeling inspired, which hasn’t been lately.
Posted in Computers with 2 comments
September 18th 2007
I’ve had people come up to me when I’m on my Mac and ask questions. “Is it really much easier to use?” or “Are they worth it?” In short answer, it depends on who you are and how you plan on using your computer. The switching debate has been around for awhile and I want to put in my two cents because even though they aren’t worth that much, it might help someone out.
Before you decide whether or not to switch to a Mac, ask yourself this question: “What do you plan on doing with your computer?” If your answer is writing a paper here and there and checking your email, then stick with a PC. Why buy something expensive you’re barely going to use? It’s not going to make a difference what computer you’re on if you’re just using Microsoft Word anyway. If you’re going to play games, stick with a PC, obviously. But if you’re going to be spending a lot of time on your computer, especially if you’re designing, you might want to consider a Mac.
Why Apple? The Mac community will tell you a thousand times over that Macs just work. And they do, usually. There’s cases where they break, where their hard drives crash and so on. But the amount of those cases are significantly lower because they’re higher quality. Apple is an American company and while Dell is, too, tech support for Dell is in India. Apples are more expensive, but if your Apple lasts you ten years while your Dell lasts you two, what’s the better deal? Even if the Dell was only $500 and the Apple was $1500, you’re saving money.
Another thing Mac users will testify to is that they work right out of the box. And that’s true. You don’t have to customize anything. No tweaking all the settings, no uninstalling fifty trial programs you didn’t want in the first place. (Although Macs do come with trial software, such as iLife, you can simply delete it if necessary, and that’s only one trial, not twelve.)
Honestly, my favorite thing about Macs is the software. People can say what they want about the hardware, the GUI, but my favorite is the software. I’ve found so many freeware programs that do exactly what I need. I do have a PC also and when using it, I get sad that I don’t have my Quicksilver or my Cyberduck. Yes, Windows does have freeware, but the quality of those programs just isn’t the same. I’ve also yet to find a good Windows equivalent to Coda (yes, I know it’s not free, but it’s worth it.)
Another thing in the debate is the Mac community, or cult if you will. They’re right. If you have a Mac, you’re automatically in a secret society where members help each other out, simply because they own a Mac. I still don’t know why this is, but it’s true. I’ve instantly liked someone because they belong to the Apple fan club.
There are many reasons to choose a Mac, reliability, aesthetics, or even the community and many reasons not to, price and the fact that they aren’t as common (big effect on students) . But the bottom line is, the decision should be based on what you’re going to use the computer for because I can tell you it’s not worth it to pay $1500 for a Mac you’re just going to check your email on. If you’re going to be an amateur movie director, by all means, get a Mac. All that software comes with it. But if you’re not, spend the extra money on something more worth your time.
Posted in Computers with 2 comments
September 17th 2007
This post is a little off the topic of college, but since most of our readers are bloggers as well, this is still helpful. The biggest trend of Web 2.0 is the whole SEO thing. Optimizing your website for search engines and getting enough clout to have daily visitors that aren’t your best friends is tough.
One trend that I’m seeing is contests, and that is a trend that readers love. It’s great to get paid back for being a visitor and making the blogger money. It’s a reminder that bloggers aren’t just doing it for the money.
While reading through my long list of blogs, I came across a new one, Average Joe Blogger. He’s on a quest to become a problogger (who isn’t?) and is offering a sponsorship giveaway. There are different ways of entering, such as posting a summary of the sponsorship and linking back to it or posting a review of the website.
Amy of The Blog World is also thinking of creating a contest and is currently looking for ideas of what to give away. (I suggest advertising space myself.) I’m sure in the future, I’ll have a contest for readers, but until I actually have something to offer, I’m going to hold off.
Contests can also be a great way to get new visitors. If you have people link to your site to get an entry, you’ll have many new visitors and some (or most) of them will become regular readers. They also make me like the blogger so much more because they haven’t forgotten about their readers who make them all their money.
Posted in Computers with 2 comments
September 7th 2007
I was just browsing through Digg and came across an article called Ungoogle Yourself. Because social networking sites are increasing in popularity, reputations and behavior on the internet is no longer anonymous. A lot of students get into the problem of posting pictures of themselves on their Facebook or Myspace that they wouldn’t want anyone but their friends to see. Such pictures would include them partying, holding a beer, smoking a pipe, sucking a dick, you get the picture. But with the power of Google, your new boss can find you, or worse, your mom can find you.
Teachers are getting to where they lecture their students, particularly college students, about what they post on their Myspace or Facebook accounts. Now, there’s not as much of a problem for people who are like me and have been designing websites for years. We know how to keep our online and offline lives separated because we’ve been dreading our “IRL” friends from finding our blogs and finding out about the real us.
Make an alias. It can be the Japanese word for spring or it can be an actual name you’ve always wanted to have.
If you decide you don’t want to use an alias, don’t use your last name.
If you really want to use your last name, don’t post embarrassing photos or stories because they will be found.
When posting photos, don’t post anything where you’re doing something illegal or something you wouldn’t want to show your boss, mother, daughter, etc.
Avoid drama. Can’t stress this enough. Don’t get in a flame war with some idiot and have nasty comments back and forth on each other’s websites. That’s just more search results linking to your stupidity.
Add a privacy feature. This isn’t full proof, especially for websites you don’t own, but it helps. If it is your blog, password protect any posts you might not want everyone to see. Safeguard the password and give it to people you trust.
Always safeguard any credit card information. Don’t submit anything on an insecure website that you don’t know.
Free programs to help
Mac OS X and Vista both have nice firewall software built into their operating systems. Vista’s is a little over the top, but once you disable the user account feature (where it asks permission to do anything), the firewall is quite nice. Apple’s firewall is just fine, no necessary changes.
Posted in Computers, Software with 6 comments
September 6th 2007
Some schools give their students some space on their servers to store files, which is great because then when your professor loses your paper, you can just print it out again, no sweat. Unfortunately, most schools don’t give students any web space. My school didn’t even give student emails until this year, but that was only because they needed an easier way to get in touch with students in an emergency.
Personally, I use my gmail account. There are programs, such as GSpace or Gmail drive, but I just email myself files. I don’t need access to my music or photo collection, so this works out better for me. Also, there are rumors that gmail accounts have been frozen for turning it into storage.
Websites that provide free online storage
Posted in Computers with 2 comments
