Home Computer Talk

Which is best for you? While some may own one of each, many people only have the budget for one. With prices on both desktop systems and laptops getting lower everyday, price isn’t much of a factor these days, as you can get either type of system for well under $1000. I personally hate being chained to a desk, so I chose to purchase a laptop. I love that I can curl up in my favorite chair in the living room and write, surf the net, etc. (My husband prefers the larger screen and high quality speakers our desktop system has). Laptops do have some drawbacks-they can be quite heavy, and the battery life is often lacking, especially in models with large screens. Also important: If you spill something on your desktop’s keyboard, you go out, buy another and get on with things. Spill something on your laptop’s keyboard and your system will probably be toasted. Laptops also are prone to overheating, so if you get one, be sure to purchase a cooling pad for it, and never operate your laptop on a soft surface such as a bed as they need good ventilation to stay cool. Always put it on a hard surface.

Don’t get me wrong, you can’t beat the mobility of a laptop, and with a wireless network you can surf the net from anywhere. Laptops just need a bit more care that desktops. If you’re more of a low maintenance person, go with a desktop. If you don’t mind having to baby your computer a bit and love having freedom and mobility, go with a laptop. Either way you won’t be disappointed. Today’s systems are well priced, powerful, and fully equipped with everything you need!

laptops, desktop systems, computers, mobility, keyboards, cooling pads, battery life

Yahoo! Photos will be shut down on September 20th. The company has decided to focus on the other photo service it owns, Flickr. It says it will move user photos to the service of their choice-Flickr, Shutterfly,Snapfish, Kodak Gallery, or Photobucket. If you don’t tell them where you want your photos sent by September 20th, they’ll be deleted. The closure will also affect users of Yahoo! Mail and Y! Messenger, but not Yahoo! Groups. If you have photos on Yahoo Photos be sure to move them!

Yahoo, Flickr, Shutterfly, Snapfish, Photobucket, Kodak Gallery

If you noticed your internet connection was slow earlier this week, you have some really stupid criminals to thank. According to PCWorld.com. Cogent Communications reported that a major fiber optic cable in the Cleveland Ohio area was cut by thieves who thought the line was copper. Copper is rising in value thanks to an increasing demand for the metal in China. Unfortuately for the would be thieves, fiber optic cable is made from glass fibers not copper! In an even more bizarre twist, the replacement line was damaged by gunshots!

home computing, internet service providers, internet outage, Cogent Communications

Today Google introduced a Beta version of Google Earth that does for the sky what Google Earth did for well..the earth. Google Sky contains hundreds of stitched together images of space and allows anyone to explore the heavens. Users can explore everything from constellations to galaxies. Google says the images they’ve collected cover over 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies! All you have to do is download the latest version of Google Earth, which is absolutely free.

google, astronomy, space exploration, constellations, Google Earth, Google Sky

Skype is back online today after being crippled by a massive outage beginning August 16th. In it’s official statement the service is blaming Microsoft for the meltdown, specifically the massive amount of updates it released that day. Skype says that the forced rebooting of millions of it’s users computers after downloading the updates caused its P2P to collapse, and then when those millions of users tried to log back in, it compounded the problem by overloading the already unstable network. However, many Skype users don’t buy the explaination and Microsoft itself said it has determined the updates did not cause the 36 hour outage, it’s worst in its 5 year history. Looks like they have a lot more explaining to do, especially to their business partners! Read more here and here.

skype, microsoft, skype outage, computers

I have to give kudos to HP. I have an HP Pavillion 9000 series laptop that’s just about a month old. Well yesterday as I was removing it from its case, every laptop owner’s worst nightmare occurred-it slipped from my hand and hit the floor! Fortunately it was my living room carpet and not the tile floor in my kitchen. The battery popped out and the corner of the lid was scratched slightly, but the computer still works just fine. A scandisk confirmed there was no damage. I am impressed!

home computers, notebook computers, laptops, HP, Pavillion, dropping your laptop

Do you use the Skype service? It went down late Wednesday night and the company says it needs at least 24hrs to get the problem fixed. Read more about the issue here

computers, home computers, Skype

Microsoft released its latest batch of patches yesterday, including critical patches for Excel, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player. The patches fix the newest security holes found in the programs. Another patch addresses a security issue found in Windows Gadgets, a popular feature in Windows Vista. Here’s their summary:

“This important security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in addition to other vulnerabilities identified during the course of the investigation. These vulnerabilities could allow an anonymous remote attacker to run code with the privileges of the logged on user. If a user subscribed to a malicious RSS feed in the Feed Headlines Gadget or added a malicious contacts file in the Contacts Gadget or a user clicked on a malicious link in the Weather Gadget an attacker could potentially run code on the system. In all attack vectors, users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.”

Today’s batch of patches and fixes is the largest since February. You can get them here.

computers, internet explorer, windows media player, windows vista, excel, microsoft

Tired of that plain black, beige or gray computer case? Try case modding! You can turn your computer into a work of art. Check out some amazing mods here.

Here’s my favorite:

computers, home computers, case mods, PC World

Hi everyone,
Sorry for the silence. 451’s network provider is suffering a major outage and there has been a lot of downtime as a result. They are working feverishly to repair it and things should be back to normal soon!

I downloaded the Firefox browser today and I have to say I found it to be very impressive. It was a quick download, loads fast, has lots of very useful security features, and even has some cool themes you can use to personalize your browser. It even imports your favorites from IE! One thing I really like is that if the browser is forced to close for any reason, it’ll restart and put you right back where you were! I’ve used IE and Netscape for years but I think I’ve found myself a new browser. Give it a try! The boys at Microsoft could learn a lot from this little gem.

computers, microsoft, web browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Microsoft

Microsoft has announced that it will have to push back the release date of Office 2008 for Mac. The company originally promised a holiday season release but now says due to quality control issues the release date is now set for January 2008. This will mark the second year in a row that Microsoft has had to delay a major software release until after the holiday season. Last year the same issues arose with the Vista OS, which was pushed from a Fall 2006 release to January of this year.

computers, home computers, microsoft, macintosh, microsoft office, OS X, apple

Good Morning!

Have you noticed your computer is talking longer to boot up than it should? There are several things you can try to speed things up. First, click on the start button and go to Run and type msconfig and hit enter (for Vista users, click on the Windows Globe and then on Search and type it in the search box). Click the start up tab and look at the list. There are probably quite a few programs there you don’t really need to load upon start up. Uncheck them and click okay.

Another thing you can do is go into the settings for your antivirus program and set it not to scan your system at boot up. It’s really not necessary as long as you are doing regular scans and keeping your definitions up to date.

Finally, run your antispyware program. Spyware is a very common cause of a slow system. You may even want to download HiJackThis and run it, then post the log to one of the many forums available for that purpose. The experts there can tell you if you have any malware clogging your system.

Following these three steps should give you a speedier system in no time!

slow boot up, spyware, Windows, Vista, Microsoft

What kinds of things would you buy for your home computer system if you had $300? The latest software? A new monitor? Enter the 451 Press Comment Contest and let us know! Simply post a comment to this blog telling us what you would buy if you had $300. 3 comments will be choosen at random to win $300, $200, and $100! Good luck!

computers, comment contest, win money, 451 Press

PC World is reporting that several Hotfix Packs have been found on the internet after being released to some Windows Server 2008 beta testers. This is leading to speculation that they may be the foundation of the future SP1 for Vista. Called “Vista Performance and Reliability Pack” and “Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack” they include fixes for a long list of bugs. Read more about it here

Microsoft, Vista, Vista SP!, Hotfix Packs, Windows Server 2008