smart computer use?

You should get to know a good computer technician, they will make your life of computer use less stressful. After having worked with and having dealt with good computer technicians and bad computer technicians, here’s what I consider to be the important qualities of a good computer tech.

Speaking in layman’s terms. Not everybody can “talk the talk” when it comes to computers. Even the more tech savvy computer users may be boggled by certain computer concepts and need their computer problems, and computer solutions, conveyed to them in a way they can understand.

If you get the sense that your computer tech is trying to confuse you, or looks down on you because you don’t seem to know what you’re talking about, find another tech to help you with your computer problems.

Not looking to nickel-and-dime you to death. It’s easy to give in to all kinds of suggestions or to pay for something that you are unsure of when you are desperate to get your computer working. Just ask questions about what you are actually paying for and if you are routinely left confused and feeling like you don’t understand why to payed for what, start looking for another tech.

Willing to give you quick, free advice about your issues. I always like a computer tech who likes to answer a few quick questions to help me determine if my issues are beyond what I am able to handle. For example, if I’m dealing with a computer that wants to randomly restart or crash a lot, I might ask them what they think is causing the problem.

If they give some good quick advice for some things to try on my own, I appreciate that. I have received the input of an experienced pro and I can maybe try some more troubleshooting at home before finally deciding that the issue is beyond my capabilities to fix. If I can’t fix the issue, I’ll then usually take the machine into the same tech and pay to have diagnose the problems, and maybe fix it too.

Also, on your side of the spectrum, don’t take advantage of a tech that likes to give free advice. Always respect the fact that they have to get back to their job. Always thank them. They’ll like to work with you.

What specifically has turned me on or off

I can typically fix my own computers. I do, however, run into situations where I need to refer to a professional tech to fix an issue. I usally decide to use a computer tech because I either don’t have time to deal with hours of troubleshooting and research, or because I just have no idea what the issue is.

Here’s some specific things that made me like a particular computer tech:

• I walked into a shop expecting to pay $10-$15 for IDE cables, and they just gave them to me because they “had tons of them laying around”.
• I convinced myself I needed to buy some heatsink gel, but they convinced me I didn’t, even though they could have just sold me some either way. Turns out I didn’t actually need the gel and they did legitimately save me from buying something I didn’t need.
• I had a quick conversation about what was crashing my PC. The tech gave me ideas of about 4 things I should take a look at and didn’t even suggest that I bring in the PC.

Here’s a specific moment that made me not like a particular tech:

• I was looking for a heatsink for a not-that-hard-to-find AMD chip/motherboard combo, and the tech tried to sell me a new motherboard/cpu/heatsink combo after telling me I wouldn’t be able to find one. I’m not that stupid.

And in addition to those there have been lots of middle-ground instances where the tech either just seemed inept, seemed unenthusiastic, seemed pretentious, was just not helpful or able to fix the problem, or was just a jackass. Those kinds of instances will drive a person to want to find better computer support.

Getting to know a good computer tech will make your life of computer use that much more enjoyable and that much less stressful. There’s lots of good ones out there. Make sure you maintain a good relationship with the tech when you find a good one. You’ll be glad to have a good tech that you can rely on when you run into the inevitable problems that a computer can have.

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If you’ve used a laptop to any extent in your career as a computer user, you understand how much it pretty much sucks that laptops batteries need to be charged A LOT.

The day when you have a laptop that can run without charging for up to a month may be near.

Puiu Tiberius from Digitpedia.com writes:

Samsung SDI has presented, at one of their own shows, a new notebook prototype feeded by a “fuel cell” system, which apparently would have a autonomy of no less then one month(yeah, as in 30 days!).

Of course, being a fuel cell, there is re-fueling involved. This wouldn’t be a simple “plug into the wall to recharge” type of scenario.

Read the article here.

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If you use Windows, you either already know or now should know that your computer likes to start up all sorts of applications and run them in the background.

AutoRuns for Windows will help you to get a better grasp on all these automatically starting applications. From an article published by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell:

This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.

The download link is on the bottom of that page as well. Try it out it you want to better manage all the auto-running stuff on your Windows computer.

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I see it all the time. A wireless network named “motorola” or “linksys”, with no authentication required to access it. This is common in residential areas. Sometimes even in office buildings. People or business set up a wireless network and leave it at all the default settings and don’t add any sort of authentication.

You might notice, if you already have a wireless enabled computer and a wireless internet connection, that there are many other networks besides yours that show up when you check the available wireless networks. When I connect to my wireless network at home, I also see a couple of unsecured networks. This makes me chuckle every time I see it.

The first things you should do when getting your new wireless modem or router hooked up are the following:

• Change your SSID from the default to some other name. Don’t use a name that directly links the network to you (such as “ralphswirelezz”). Even turn off broadcasting of the SSID if you want to take it a step further, or are able to with your equipment.
• Change the admin password to log onto your wireless modem or router.
• Enable at the very least WEP authentication

Why do you see so many unprotected networks?

Usually the reason that a wireless network is unprotected is that the person that runs the network is oblivious to the fact that they should probably secure their network.

Most cable companies don’t configure your wireless network for you when you sign up for high-speed cable internet services. They just give you the wireless router and plug it in for you at the most. Configuring your network to use some sort of authentication is a different story altogether.

What if you don’t secure your wireless network?

If you don’t secure your wireless network, chances are that you will probably at some point have somebody using your wireless network to browse the net or do other harmless things without you even knowing. There also is a chance that you could encounter somebody with the ability to decipher information that is being passed around on your wireless network, eventually compromising the security of password protected accounts and such.

There are a few ways to attack a wireless network. Some are passive and some are much more aggressive. Some people might just want to sniff around the network for kicks, some might want to actually try to steal information or use your network to perform other attacks anonymously. Not a good thing in any situation, really.

How do you secure your network?

It largely depends on specifically what type of equipment you are using to set up your network. Each type of wireless modem or router will have different ways to go about accomplishing the same thing: securing your network.

Here’s some good articles I found regarding how to set up secure wireless networks:

• How to Secure Your Wireless Network Using WEP and WPA - A good article about getting started with WEP and WPA
  
• How do I secure my Wireless Wi-Fi Network using WEP? - A quick overview of how to set up WEP
  
• Securing your Wireless Network - Good tips about what do to to make your network more secure.

Get to reading some of these links, read the documentation for your wireless devices, and you’ll have your network secured in no time.

Remember, even using just WEP authentication is better than no authentication at all.

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A hot laptop computer is not a good idea. Keeping your laptop cool is smart. Keeping a laptop cooler is easy with a laptop cooler and/or a gas duster.

There are plenty of laptop computer horror stories out there, many involving overheating machines. I have had a particular laptop computer that for about three years has now developed a severe overheating disorder. I have figured out ways to keep the laptop from overheating, without spending too much money. You can make your own laptop coolers if you are up to the challenge.

When you think about it, there isn’t much to a laptop cooler. It’s either a base with fans, or a base that simply gives more air-space to the bottom of the laptop.

Purchasing a cheap laptop cooler base is the easiest way to go

The most effectively cheap way, and the most time-effective way (you won’t have to build your own) to keep your laptop from overheating is by going out a picking up an fan-based laptop cooler. There are many options on the internet available for purchase:

• Here’s a laptop cooler for cheap
• Here’s a laptop cooler for a little less cheap, yet still very cheap
• Here’s a laptop cooler that has a multi-port USB hub, and it’s still really cheap
• Here’s a laptop cooler that doesn’t use fans

And then I ran across QuadCooler.com

• The Original Quad Cooler
• The Tri-Cooler
• The AOP Cooler (using Aluminum)
• The Big Brian

The stuff at quadcooler.com looked pretty sweet. And for kicks I also found a review site that looked promising as far as providing reviews of the quadcooler, but it degraded pretty quickly into a bunch of arguing about laptop coolers.

Are you thinking to yourself, “wait, these things look pretty simple, I want to make one”?

If you are you might want to check out this Instructables page about making your own laptop cooler. Or you might want to check out how to make a laptop cooler in about an hour and a half. Even if you don’t follow these instructions to make your own laptop cooler, these page might give you a good idea about what some other people have done to make their own. They might help you to get started on your adventures of trying to cool your overheating laptop, on the cheap.

My overheating story, it’s not that interesting

I have used a simple 2 fan device, powered by USB. It has worked fine, and kept my laptop from overheating. One of the fans eventually got clogged up with dust and needed to be cleaned. Then after that the fan did eventually just wear out. Now it makes all kinds of noise while it tries to spin. I’ll need to replace the fan or buy another. I’ll be looking into a fan-less unit this time around, mainly for power consumption reasons.

Even as much as the 2-fan laptop cooler was important to keeping the heat levels down on my laptop, using compressed air to clean out the air channels in the unit was just as much important.

Try this out: buy and use a can of compressed air, or more correctly a gas duster. Yep, they’re actually called gas dusters. Check it out at that link if you have some extra time.

So, it comes down to 2 things

2 things, that is, to help keep your laptop cool:

• Use an under-laptop cooling unit, either fan or non-fan based
• Use a gas duster to clean out your machine and allow for better air flow
• Turn up the air conditioning (gratuitous 3rd unnecessary item)

Yep.

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