When Gmail first came out I started using it as an address for message board registrations and things like that. Since I’ve owned my own domains since about 1999, I’ve always used them for my primary email. My old method of backup was to use Outlook or Outlook Express and finally Thunderbird for POP3. Periodically, I would backup the appropriate …

I’ve been saying this for a long time too, but newspapers and the way we gather news are changing drastically. I’m not the only person who doesn’t really read a newspaper. There are a lot of other people that prefer “time shifting” content. Timeshifting content means viewing content when you want – not waiting for the radio or TV program …

Originally published 7-9-2008. All too often, I have clients whose computers crash. Fortunately, I can recover the data most of the time, but there are times when the hard drive physically fails. In those cases recovering the data becomes nearly impossible and very very expensive. Recently, I created a document for my clients on “The Importance of Backups”. Here is …

Back in 2005 I was hired by a customer in Sulphur Springs, TX (lived there for a couple of years) to network his daughter’s home using a HughesNet internet connection. This customer had been told by several people that it couldn’t be done. Fortunately, he had the forethought to pre-wire his daughter’s 2-story home with cat5e cable. That made it …

Recently, one of my customers had a question about losing bookmarks in Firefox. Here is the thread from that: —————No I was not saving them under there, I had Star or something that said My Favorites that I used to click on. FireFox upgraded and since then I can not locate my favorites.————— Ahh – that is actually good then! …

*The following advice is based on my experience over the years servicing thousands of computers, instructing users, and researching common-sense approaches to security for the average users. If your computer gets infected by a virus or spyware or malware, it is because you have asked for it. Period. You may not have intentionally asked for it, but at some point …

Recently, I had a potential client email me with some questions. I’m reposting my reply here. ————I really need pages to load faster.———— Having more RAM will help the pages load a little faster; however, the only way to get more “speed” for your pages is to have more bandwidth for your connection. Think of your internet connection as a …

The following post is from an email with a client. Since the issue of screen resolution versus font size, etc, comes up from time to time, I decided to post it on my blog: ——————————- The smiley faces and fonts, etc, are found when you use HTML formatting for email. You have to be careful when using HTML in email, …

Recently a client (and friend) asked me about backing up her computer prior to installing XP SP3. That’s a smart idea considering all the SP3 issues that are occurring. Most people don’t think about data backup, but it is very important even for home computer users. Think of all the information that we store – pictures, email, documents, tax files …

As most of you know, I am no fan of Windows Vista. Arguably, it is on par with Windows ME – which was a total flop. Almost every business customer that I have still runs XP or pays me to install XP on their new Vista pc’s. They can’t stand Vista’s lackluster performance, DRM overhead, absurd RAM requirements, and odd …