Yes!!! We have a winner: Derek is the winner.

We will get information from Derek and get him his memory.

I spoke with Amanda directly, and she understood that we were just giving her a hard time. Actually, she was surprised that we were that easy on her. I know we really didn’t answer her question per say. The inter-operability of Windows, Mac, and Linux(UNIX variants in general) is not all that complicated. However, it is way more than we can normally get into on the show. Send us a note and we would be happy to talk with anyone on how you can integrate all of this stuff.

We had a bit of a discussion about music players. This seems to be a recurring topic. More so, because Mike and I both have a bit of music in our lives. Anyway we mentioned a couple programs that you may want to try out.

• EJukeBox – http://www.audiosoft.net: I haven’t used this, but Mike thought it was really good. May have to give this one a try.
  
• Winamp – http://www.winamp.com: I have to admit that after mucking about with iTunes, and have reinstalled winamp. There are a number of things that I just don’t like about iTunes. Winamp is just really simple to use.
  The last thing we talked about was whether to turn off or not. This has probably been one of the longest running arguments in the computer biz. I thought we did a pretty good job of doing the short and sweet routine on both sides of the argument.

Let us know what you want to know. Email us! Let us know how you think we’re doing and what you’d like to hear about. We want to talk about the computer stuff you’re interested in!

Check us out on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast.

Thanks for listening and don’t forget to write!

Harold Pulcher

The other guy on the show – Computer 101 On KLAKE, 97.7

 

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Posted: May 26th, 2008 under After Show.
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Yes, Yes, and Yes the memory giveaway is still on. No one has capitalized on the great opportunity to refresh an old machine for a few more month or years. So send us an email. Use the Email Us! Link on the left-hand column.

There was a terrible fight all week long. Not between me and the Mrs., but between me and my inner geek. Unfortunately, the cruise lines no longer give Mechanical or Bridge Tours to the average type people. I was able to get a quick tour of the kitchen and some information on how much food stuff a ship the size of the Conquest will consume. According to the head food type person, the ship gets restocked every 7 days with 40,000 liters of booze. This is not counting beer or wine. This is alcohol. I am not that big of a drinker, even when I was in fighting shape.

I don’t know these people, but if you wondered what it was like on a cruise ship here is a clip. It seems the sea were a bit rough, but it is still better than a great day at work. If you ever go on this cruise you must use these guys as guide on Grand Cayman.

We talked a bit about jumping on the internet for free. There are a ton of great places if you just look for them. To help in the search check out http://www.wififreespot.com/. If you look around, you may be surprised at were you can find a Hotspot.

Our next topic was about Blogs and why do you care. No really, I didn’t care about blogs at all until a client said he wanted one on his site and wanted it customized. Let just say I am no expert, but the client is happy. Happy clients are always good.

If you are interested in blogging yourself here are few places to start. Most are free for the basic stuff, and low cost for the high end features.

• http://www.livejournal.com/
• http://wordpress.com/
• https://www.blogger.com/start

If you have your own server where you can load software, here are a couple of sites that offer up software packages that you can install and make your blog do whatever you are capable of making it do.

• http://wordpress.com/ <- this is the software we use hosted on our own UNIX servers
• http://www.dasblog.info/<- for you .NET guys

That is about all for this time. We do on occasion mention acronyms and other shorthand words on the show. I figured it was time to throw up a link to them, so you ya go:

• http://www.mmorpgcafe.com/full_article.php?article_id=47
• http://www.noeman.org/gsm/free-discussion-off-topic/49422-no0bz-guide-internet-slang-phrases.html

Let us know what you want to know. Email us! Let us know how you think we’re doing and what you’d like to hear about. We want to talk about the computer stuff you’re interested in!

Check us out on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast.

Thanks for listening and don’t forget to write!

Harold Pulcher

The other guy on the show – Computer 101 On KLAKE, 97.7

 

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Posted: May 22nd, 2008 under After Show.
Comments: 1

This week Mike and I got into a bit a discussion about where to store documents and files that you created. I may not have the nicest things to say about Microsoft(even though Colvin & Associates is a Partner), but their formalizing of the “My Documents” concept in the base install of the operating system is really good.

By no means am I saying that the “My Documents” folder was a creation of Microsoft. People have been asking the “Where is my stuff?” question for as long as they have been using computers. A number of people had already adopted the concept. For instance, as long as I can remember I have had “software” directory on every computer that I setup. Whether that is Windows, Apple, or some form of UNIX. It is where I put all the software/drivers/etc that I do not have media for. Microsoft just formalized it for Windows, so even the brand new user will get the idea that putting stuff into one location is a good idea. I am not sure what the Mac equivalent is, but I know they have it.

In case you were wondering here is a bit of information on filename and folders:

• The following characters are invalid in a windows filename:” * : < > ? \ |
• A single filename can have up to 255 characters. Good luck if the string gets that long.
• There is no limit to the number of folders within folders within folders. However, some programs may have a problem when the length of the full folder path gets above 255. As an example full path to logoff.exe(a program) is \windows\system32\find.exe. When the number of characters gets just above the 255 number, weird things will happen. The filesystem will actaully go to 32000 or characters. Windows however, doesn’t like paths near that large.

We had a bit of a discussion about management of Music and Picture files. Here is a list in no particular order of free programs that should help with that problem:

• iTunes: I put this first to make Mike happy. It is widely used and a lot of people like. I have a couple of problems with it, but it is one of the best out there.
• winamp: Been around a long time, has a large community base and a ton of plugin.
• Windows Media Player:This should be included with your windows installation. I would recommend to perform an update on you computer, select the “Customize” button and make sure that you have latest version on your machine.
• RealPlayer: This has been around a long time as well. It is now hooked up with Rhapsody. I do have a bit of a problem with this player as it trys to sell you stuff all over the place.
• songbird: This is for the more adventurous of you guys. A cool music manager, but it takes a bit of work as it is a work in progress.

And now for some Picture management:

• Picasa: This google sponsered app does just about everything you need to local management. It even will plug into the Google Web Albums.
• Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition: They are gonna wanna try to make you upgrade. You can if you like, but the starter edition gets you a long way to where most folks want to be.

Let us know what you want to know. Email us! Let us know how you think we’re doing and what you’d like to hear about. We want to talk about the computer stuff you’re interested in!

We’re on iTunes now! Check us out and subscribe to the podcast.

Thanks for listening and don’t forget to write!

Harold Pulcher

The other guy on the show – Computer 101 On KLAKE, 97.7

 

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Posted: May 12th, 2008 under After Show.
Comments: none

This week we pretty much talked the entire show about Computer Hygiene and how a person should go about making your computer less toxic. I am one of the worst people about this. I clean things as i need, but I really need a cleaner keyboard. I just can’t find one that I really like. I guess I am getting picky in my old age.

I think we did a pretty good job of going over most of the stuff in the show, so I am just gonna throw some links your way this week.

• A couple of sites that back up my keyboard toxic claim:
  • cbsnews.com – Yep, they did a piece, but I am sure that most people missed it. If you look at the date, this is from 2005.
  • clitheroelancs.co.uk – Seems that AOL went around an collected keyboard “stuff” for a month and this is what they found.
  • There are lots more out there just like these….
• A few keyboards that might strike your fancy:
  • daskeyboard.com – The keyboard of geeks everywher, or so they would have you believe. The blanks keys are a feature. The claim this helps you type faster.
  • pfusystems.com – These guys are all about the hack and no nosense keyboard use.
  • apple.com -The slickness that is apple, always shines through.
• A couple of places that you can grab up a domain or two:
  • networksolutions.com – The source baby!!!
  • godaddy.com – They do a good job, lots of people use them, and you get a picture of Danica every visit.
• Incase you don’t know what “Chocolate Rain” is, you may need to watch this so you can use it yourself in polite conversation.

Let us know what you want to know. Email us! Let us know how you think we’re doing and what you’d like to hear about. We want to talk about the computer stuff you’re interested in!

Check us out on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast.

Thanks for listening and don’t forget to write!

Harold Pulcher
The other guy on the show- Computer 101 On KLAKE, 97.7

 

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Posted: May 5th, 2008 under After Show.
Comments: none