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Monday, April 2, 2012

Online Fad


Contributed by Milford Woods

All of my friends have been telling me I should get on Pinterest, but I am resisting. I know it’s the newest online fad, but I have looked around the site on some of my friends’ accounts, and I don’t think it’s that great. Most people pin stuff that I am not even interested in. How many fashion trends and recipes do I need to look at on a daily basis? I know it would be nice to have something to do when I am bored, but do I really need a new online obsession? One of my friends has clear wireless and she carries her computer everywhere just so she can check out what other people are pinning. I think she takes it too far. Sometimes when we meet to hang out she doesn’t even pay attention to me. I am already on Facebook more than I would like to admit. I also like to read a lot of blogs, and I am just not sure that I can take on another online hobby. When will I have time for anything else?

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Typing Spanish Accent Marks On A Computer

Ever needed to type something in Spanish on your computer or in a word document file? Or in a vast number of programs? Some examples of these accents are:

  • Niño
  • Mañana
  • ¿Como Estas?
These are simple Spanish words/phrases that carry accents in them...
A tedious way of achieving these characters are by copy pasting them in. A smarter way of doing this is by installing a Spanish Keyboard which will allow you to use accent marks in any program... this is available for Windows only though. Fortunately for MACs, accented characters are embedded into the operating systems. This is very good.

Here is the webpage that you may use as your guide and reference to achieve Spanish accent characters:

http://faculty.weber.edu/tmathews/grammar/Compmark.html

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Saturday, March 3, 2012

Mountain Upgrade


Post contributed by Hilton Miranda

Although I enjoy visiting our vacation home in the mountains, I can never stay there for long without feeling out of touch. It’s nice to go up there and unplug and unwind but after a few days I begin to worry that something important may have happened and I missed it. We don’t have television service or internet there but I’m thinking of changing that. I went to www.satellitestarinternet.com/ to look at internet options and found that I can get internet service at the mountain house. I don’t need much, I just want to be able to check my e-mail and look at the newspaper to make sure I don’t miss anything life changing! I’m sure the kids will appreciate having it as well. It’s like pulling teethto get them to go up there with me but maybe now that they don’t have to totally disconnect from the real world they’ll be a little more excited to come along! I’m still holding off on television service. I think for now the internet will be enough!

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Mac vs Pc

The famous endless debate of which platform exceeds which platform has been going forever and will probably not end anytime soon. Both are competitive and outdo themselves every time they upgrade, at least sometimes. Now before you read on, keep in mind that it is very biased and I do favor one over the other, and yes, I am probably basing this opinionated post on irrelevant observations and a time frame that is limited, but hey, everyone has their own opinion. I have used both Pc and MAC for many years. So... this is what I think about the Mac vs Pc issue.

Asking pure Mac citizens about Macs won't get you anywhere... they only know Mac and no other, so do not expect them to even care for PC, in fact, expect insults. I remember Windows (at one point) was behind in terms of operating systems... Mac did have some features that was ahead of its time from as early as 2005. Mac has a feature called "spotlight" where anyone can type in a file name or file type and instantly get a list. Now I can't be sure when exactly this feature was introduced, but I have noticed that it was available in Mac's latest OS during 2006. XP had a search function that in my opinion was often annoying to use during that time and was still annoying even after the service packs were been released.

I will say however, that I did not like the way Mac was so closed doors with the open source world. Windows was always compatible with many programs. Or maybe I should say it the other way around, programs were and are more in tune with Windows because Mac always had to be so "special". There was a time I wanted to go 100% Mac. I was convinced that Mac was the power horse that PC could never be. I was wrong. What drove me to know Windows, was the fact that I could not afford a Mac at the time. The prices were ridiculous. Around 2006 I began to research on computers in general and began a journey to build my own machine. I learned that for less than a 3rd of the price for the latest Mac, I could build a far more powerful PC machine with XP as the operating system. I eventually assembled my PC (it is the same machine I am using today at home). After doing so, I began to distinguish the idea of even getting a Mac at home because of its sky-high prices.

After seeing a little preview of Windows 7, I am convinced that Mac has met its match and is probably now behind W7. The spotlight feature Mac has, W7 has an equivalent built unto the taskbar.... it is fast and it is flexible to most programs. Mac astonished me with its simplicity and look. XP was more on function (and I have no problem with that- which is why I am using it to this day) ...W7 however, has function, style, and is intuitive... you can lock windows into place and maximize screen space between different programs, it recognizes mouse gestures and has a built in notepad that recognizes your handwriting when using a pen tablet for notes.... it can recognize (some) older software made for XP.... it installs as 32 or 64 bit, whichever tickles you. It does so much.

I am a practical person who loves function... W7 and a PC computer will give me that. Mac will always look awesome, but they are just priced way too high in my opinion. You can buy and/or make 2 high-end Pc computers for the price of one Mac desktop which would beat the Mac desktop in graphics, speed etc. Before you call me a Mac hater, I have one last thing to say, even after using both machines and deciding to use a Pc at home. I recently decided to invest in a Not-So-High-Priced Mac for the purpose of familiarizing myself with the latest in both environments so that I may have the continued ability to use both machines without doubt if a situation ever calls for it. So as much as I love to hate Macs, they are no doubt in the market and staying competitive, therefore I must not let pride get in the way of reality. I am in a business that uses computers, and no matter what, computers are computers regardless of brand. They all have their uses.

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More Than HGTV


Guest post from: Jerald Hammond

When HGTV first aired many years ago, who knew it would be such a popular network? I’ve watched it for years and enjoyed many of the shows and specials. Because I enjoyed it so much I never really looked at what else was on, at least not about similar topics. Recently I upgraded my service through www.giveadish.com and while on the site noticed advertisements not only for other home improvement type networks like DIY but a whole host of shows on networks not home related. For example, A&E has a whole list of shows that are home related. I never would have thought to look to that network for this type of programming. It makes me wonder what I’ve been missing! I guess I need to take the time to take a good look at the program guide and not skip networks that I assume don’t have programming to interest me or start doing some research online to see what else is out there!

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Identifying File Extensions

Ever come across a situation where you received a file that you weren't familiar with? There are many different file formats in this day and age and it continues to grow gradually because of branding, standardization, and improvements. So what do you do when you need to identify a file format so that you can take the necessary steps to open it? You can ask the person who sent the mentioned file to you... google it... or you can use the search box below to help you identify your mystery file extension, simply enter your file extension in the search box provided and click search or hit enter on your keyboard.

This search engine currently searches:

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Restore Missing Menu Bar And Address Bar In XP

It finally happened on my personal computer and I honestly did not know what to do. Every window I opened, whether it was 'my documents' or 'my computer', I just wasn't getting my menu bar and my address bar which I found so useful. I realized their importance when they weren't present anymore. So I googled a few sites here and there and finally stopped at a forum discussion which helped me restore both bars:

www.techsupportforum.com

The helpful folks at the forum recommended a few things to try out which resulted to the restore. I will list them here along with my suggestions (numbers 4 and 5):

  1. What happens when you hold alt+ press 'f'? Does that bring you a toolbar? If so, go to 'View' and select the toolbar and address bar.
  2. Press F11
  3. After restoring the bar/s, right click on any bar and make sure "Standard Buttons" and "Address Bar" are checked.
  4. You may have to re-arrange your bars to make them look how they were before they disappeared on you. To do this, right click again on the menu bar and uncheck "Lock The Toolbars". Move your mouse over the address bar and/or menu bar and hold down the left click button on your mouse while shifting the bar until you bring it to your desired position.
  5. Right click on the menu bar again and make sure "Lock The Toolbars" is checked to avoid accidental movement on your menu bar and address bar.
I have no idea if this works on Vista but it definitely does on XP.

6/22/10 Update:

Should all else fail:
Check out the following links below which suggest to delete a certain file called "ITBarLayout". Though I highly recommend you proceed with CAUTION as the suggested methods require you to tweak with the registry. It is further explained here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/962963
also someone did something similar here:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/837411-post27.html

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