Personal Technology Tips in Plain English
Windows
GhostBuster: Norton Ghost Price Disappears (Free!)
Nov 28th
Norton Ghost is the industry standard for back-up utilities. It’s a robust program that does what is says it will do and can restore every last bit of data you had on your drive when you need it.
But at $70+, you might question if it’s worth the money for something that’s so transparent (sorry, I couldn’t resist!).
Right now, you can jump on the opportunity to get it for free, albeit, you’ll have to 2 little hoops to jump through – the classic rebate form.
It’s on sale for $50 from Buy.com right now and there’s a $30 straight-forward rebate and then another $20 rebate which requires you to send in a CD, proof or purchase or first page of manual of ANY previous version of antivirus, spyware, internet security tools, back-up, utility, etc from ANY manufacturer…pretty easy — time to dig through your tech dust at the back of the shelf!
LINK TO DISCOUNT ON NORTON GHOST
How to Resize Photo Files In Bulk
Jun 20th
Did you buy that shiny new digital camera because it had a whopping 8 megapixels or more on the feature list in the store? What are you going to do with all those pixels?
If you are posting your photos to the web or sending them via email, you certainly don’t need the bloated file size of all the pictures you took with your camera. Resizing them manually can be a pain in the neck – because you need a photo editing software application as well as the knowledge and time to do it. Yuck – who wants to do all that?
What do to? I have the perfect solution for quick resizing of photo files in Windows XP: Read the rest of this entry »
CompUSA Store Closings Mean Windows Vista Is Really Cheap
May 8th
My local CompUSA is closing down for good. One of the 126 casualties across the country for CompUSA.
They’re selling everything. I mean everything. Even the employee BBQ Grill that they apparently used in the back somewhere (?!?!?). There’s a bunch of stuff left this last week, and while the sign says “up to” 70% off, most things are still at 40% off. I got a great 6 foot wide dry-erase marker board for my office for only $5.50 (see below where the $0.50 came from).
WARNING: THEY HAVE A LITTLE TRICK TO MAKE YOU PAY 10% MORE.
The one little catch that you don’t find out about until you hit the register is that the clearance sale is being run by a liquidator which charges an extra 10% “liquidation fee” to your bill — which is NOT advertised anywhere, so just be aware. If this isn’t illegal, it sure reeks of something super slimy.
SOME REAL DEALS ARE FOUND.
There are some deals to be found though. Projectors are one of them. There were a couple of presentation projectors on sale for $300 that was a great value. There was the Samsung 510N Color Laser Printer that’s network-ready and does auto-duplexing (prints on 2 sides) for $130. The then there’s the cage of Microsoft Windows Vista software on sale.
WINDOWS VISTA ISN’T FLYING OFF THE SHELVES.
The Windows Vista Cage had pretty much all flavors available for 40% off retail. From Home Basic, Home Premium all the way to Vista Ultimate. The price of the Home Premium Upgrade was at $59 which was pretty good. The full-version of Vista Home Premium was $149, which I just saw over at Office Depot for $239.
But there’s a bunch of these left. Which from my view means that the mass market isn’t really buying Windows Vista for their older machines. Although most people can get legal FULL versions of Vista Home Premium for as low as $129 ($69 for upgrade), Windows Vista doesn’t seem to be flying off the shelves from the looks of the stock at the store. However, the spin-meisters at Microsoft seem report otherwise in the news.
SEE YA COMPUSA.
Although there are a couple of deals to be found, the store closing clearance deals are nothing earth shattering. The best opportunities are if you’re already currently considering buying a larger non-routine item like a laptop, projector, plasma screen tv, color laser printer, etc. The smaller items are definitely discounted, but not to much that you’ll be wondering how to bring it all home.
5 Most Common Keyboard Shortcuts for Internet Explorer 7 & Beyond
Apr 21st
Today, I’m sharing 5 keyboard shortcuts that use all the time when surfing the web through Internet Explorer 7 (with tabs like Firefox). Hope you can benefit from them…
Windows Tip: How To View Folder Sizes in Windows Explorer
Apr 18th
Sometimes when I’m using the computer, there are times where I stop and just think, WHY DIDN’T THEY ADD THIS FEATURE? It’s so obvious to the user, but for Microsoft and other developers, it must NOT be that obvious…clearly a times where you can see that programs are designed by engineers…without the users they’re programming for in mind.
Here’s a great example: When you’re using Windows Explorer in the DETAILED VIEW, you’ll see a column called “SIZE” which displayed the size of FILES that are in any given folder you are viewing. But if there’s a FOLDER in the list, it neglects to calculate that folder size and instead displays a blank. Why wouldn’t the Microsoft programmers that made Windows add that information? C’mon! Read the rest of this entry »
Make sure you have the latest version of Active Sync for the Samsung Blackjack i607
Mar 30th
Samsung Blackjack owners on the AT&T / Cingular network should be happy that the user experience is evolving – first they gave us better extended batteries for free, and now the ActiveSync program has been updated by Microsoft for Windows Mobile 5 devices.
You can download the latest version 4.5 from the Microsoft site… Read the rest of this entry »
I love tech, gadgets and the web. Hope you pick-up a useful tip or two here today that helps you use technology to your advantage! Better yet, why not share your own expertise in a comment on a post today to help the other readers that land here for answers!