smart computer use?

Image*After is a great place to find images and textures for use in graphics projects. The site organized by images and textures, allowing you to easily find elements for your projects. The images and textures are free, and the license is very reasonable.

It’s easy to navigate through the site to find what your looking for. There’s a ton of good photos, or at least there would be if digital images had physical weight.

Check out the random image search feature to get an idea of the overall range of imagery available.

del.icio.us Digg Reddit blogmarks Help

I have found the online stopwatch page to be particularly useful.

There are many reasons a computer user could need a quick, free and basic (straight to the point) stopwatch. There are many time tracking applications out there, and there are countless other ways to keep track of time outside the computer, but this online stopwatch is just flat out handy at times.

What uses to I find the online stopwatch helpful for? I find it to be most useful for when I need to track time on projects at the office. I’ve tried numerous other time tracking applications, but I hate to say that that even some of the most basic had too many options and distracted me.

No distractions is a good thing.

I like the online stopwatch because it’s simple and there’s really nothing distracting about it. When I’m using a time tracker, I probably am in a situation where I can’t afford distractions, and this pretty much doesn’t offer any distractions.

I’ve spent up to a half hour tinkering with options and wasting time with other time tracking applications when I really just needed to hit start/stop and write down time.

It’s online, not offline.

Plus it’s online. I like that it’s online cause then I can bring it up quickly on any machine that I’m using if I need to track time. At home, at work, on a co-workers machine, on my parents machine, you get the idea. It’s always available if I don’t forget the web address.

del.icio.us Digg Reddit blogmarks Help

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.

del.icio.us Digg Reddit blogmarks Help

If so, you better go here.

That’s right, do you feel humbled now? If not, I can’t blame you, maybe you got one of the lame insults.

An example of what you might find:

Your son is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.

Good stuff.

del.icio.us Digg Reddit blogmarks Help

PCmag.com has a nice article, and slideshow about setting up a free and safe network based on a public Wi-Fi hotspot. The article is by David A. Karp, a quick excerpt.

Odds are you’re within spitting distance of a public Wi-Fi hot spot. Whether it’s in a coffee shop or an airport—heck, entire cities are starting to get in on the action-free Wi-Fi is a rising trend, and one fantastic convenience. The idea of ditching expensive ISP access is pretty compelling, too. But is it safe? Nope.

Learn how to set up a secure home network based off a public Wi-Fi, how convenient and cheap is that? If you happen to have one in range, why not?

The funny thing is that I see more and more articles condoning, or at least not criticizing, use of a neighbors Wi-Fi when they leave their connection unsecured.

I really don’t like the idea of unknowingly using a neighbors Wi-Fi, but if they’re gonna be oblivious and leave it accessible, what’s the difference?

Either way, now you have the tools to set up a secure, private network from a public Wi-Fi hot spot. Pretty nice, eh?

del.icio.us Digg Reddit blogmarks Help