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| Issue 10 - Spring Newsletter 2010 |
Welcome to Issue 10 of the Hillside Computer Services Newsletter.
Well who would have though it? Ten issues! So, what over the past 4 and a bit years has changed in the computer world? Actually, there haven't been that many changes, but I've put a small piece together which may be of interest. There's the usual joke towards the end and a piece about choosing a new computer and some hints and tips.
You can print this newsletter off to read at your leisure. Just press the print button on your web browser.
| Index - just click on a link below | ||||
| Hints N Tips | News | Choosing a new computer | Jokes | Endpiece |
Hints N Tips
In this section I'd like to concentrate on those useful web sites which make life so much easier.
First off the starting grid is Google. Most people have Google set as their home page but may not have clicked on the blue text which shows up when they move their mouse pointer towards the top of the screen.
If you do, you'll see the Google page change to something like this:
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So, a quick explanation as to what the various blue bits are at the top:
Images - if you are looking for an image for a particular project you are doing, such as making an invitation for a birthday party, and you are looking for a picture of a birthday cake to go on it. All you need do is click in the white search box below the Google logo and type for example birthday cake, then click Images and Search Images. You will be presented with a list of oodles of images of birthday cakes. I've just done the search myself and found 9.4 million references to birthday cake.
OK, so you have now found the image you like of a birthday cake within this 9.4 million references. You now want to be able to get the image off Google and onto your computer. To do this, click once on your chosen image.
This opens a window which shows the image and by it, it says "See full sixed image" in blue. Click on this link and you'll then see the image full size.
To get the image onto your PC you need to do the following: Click and drag the image onto your Windows backdrop, release the mouse button, and you can then file the image away on your computer in it's correct place.
You can find pictures of all sorts of things. My first car was a Triumph Spitfire 1500, and I've just typed that into Google Images and it's come up with 205,000 images of Spitfire 1500's.
As you can see, the possibilities are pretty much endless.
Videos - This works in the same way as searching Google Images, but this allows you to find videos. Normally they are of the You've Been Framed type, some are instructional. As in, How To Ice A Birthday Cake. You can't easily download the images from Google, but there are ways and means. If you'd like to know how to download videos from Google, then let me know.
Maps - It does what it says on the tin. You can plan journeys, find businesses within geographical areas, find houses by postcode, see satellite images of the world, there's the famous Google Streetmap you can look at. Just experiment and have a bit of fun of zooming in on your house. Maps and planned journey directions can be printed off. The world is your oyster, quite literally.
News - Shows you current news headlines, science and technology, entertainment and loads more.
Shopping - Find the best bargains from on-line suppliers. Type in what you're looking for and bingo.
Mail - If you have a gmail or google mail email account, you can log into your account from here
More - There's far too much to describe for you here, but have a look.
My get out clause - Images and Videos do contain material of an explicit nature - if you see something you don't want to or didn't expect, then use the back button on your web browser and modify your search. Shopping - only buy from well know on-line stores - if in doubt give me a shout. |
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My next favourite web site is Trip Advisor - www.tripadvisor.co.uk. This is a superb site for checking out hotel and resort reviews from independent travellers. I've used it oodles of times and have always found the reviews to be reliable and useful. We went to Istanbul for Christmas 2008 and had booked and paid for flights, but couldn't find any accommodation in the old part of the city without paying the proverbial arm and a leg. A quick visit to Trip Advisor gave us the name, reviews by star ratings and web addresses of hotels in the old part. An email or two later and we had booked a hotel 3 minutes walk from the Blue Mosque for something like £20.00 per night B&B.
To quote from the site "TripAdvisor is the world's largest travel community where you can get real information, advice, and opinions from millions of travellers to plan and take your perfect trip. TripAdvisor is a place you can go for insights and tips, a place that is literally alive with experiences and opinions. It's a place that feels like a local neighborhood coffee shop, a café, a pub. A friendly and relaxed community filled with unscripted and honest conversations between travelers like you."
Moluv is a site I love - . It's just a web site that shows award winning web sites, both in terms of content but more importantly the design. It never fails to show stunning and creative sites. I find it immensely useful when designing sites for customers. A lot of the features are far beyond my capabilities but I can always hope.
Finally, a site which is a real boon is wikipedia. Essentially it's a site that'll tell you everything you ever wanted to know about everything.
News
As I alluded to in the introduction there isn't much in the way of news. What I would like to say is that in the past four and a bit years of running Hillside Computer Services and producing these newsletters for you, the one thing which has changed beyond all comprehension is our total and utter reliance on the Internet.
It's not the Internet as such which has changed but the way in which we use it.
One cannot book a flight ticket with any of the budget airlines without Internet access and a valid email address. If you want to buy a book or CD, one normally heads over to the Amazon site and buys from them. More and more people are treating high street shopping merely as a way of "handling the goods". For example,if you decide you want to treat yourself and buy a new camera (digital of course) and you've got a budget of Z Pounds to spend. You then put in hours of exhaustive on-line research to find the best camera within your budget of Z Pounds and you eventually end up with a selection of three or four models which match your criteria.
You then go shopping. No, not to buy, but to look and handle your chosen selection. Once you've asked the assistant your list of pertinent questions and looked and handled your chosen selection you then head off home. The assistant has answered all of your questions. You know what your budget is. You know what camera you want to buy, so you fire up your computer and go and buy on-line, often making quite a saving and sometimes a fortune and feeling smug that you've grabbed yourself a bargain.
It's almost like shopping at Argos. I don't think that I've ever gone into Argos, scratched my head and thought "What shall I buy Anutie for her birthday?". What you do / did is shop around, get inspiration and then go to Argos because you know it will be cheaper there.
Don't worry about it. We all do it and guess what? We're all going to be doing it more and more until such times as shops just become showcases of products and they won't actually be able to sell you something in person. You'll have to buy it on-line.
On a similar vein, on the Apple iPhone there's an App which you can install which will let you know where the cheapest doo dah can be bought from in your location. For example if you are stood at Piccadilly Circus and you think to yourself "Mmm. Where can I buy a pair of cheap Levi 501 jeans from?". You type in "Cheap Levi 501 jeans" into your iPhone app and because it's got GPS capabilities (it knows where you are), it'll direct you to the shop selling the cheapest within your area. Spooky eh?
Choosing A New Computer
A lot of people ask me what specification computer do they need if they're either looking for a replacement. The answer is quite difficult to give because essentially there is no right answer. Everyone has a different need, a different work space and at the end of the day a different budget.
So I will try and make this as painless and easy to understand as possible. It is NOT exhaustive by any manner of means, but it will certainly help clarify matters for you. Firstly in this exercise let's differentiate three terms I'll be using:
PC: a computer running Microsoft Windows as an operating system. It doesn't matter at this stage what version of Windows.
Apple: any computer running Apple's OS X operating system.
Computer: used to describe both of the above.
Laptop or desktop
Really this is a personal preference. Do you have the space for a full size desktop PC with all the wires trailing across the floor? Do you want to sit and watch DVD's on a massive screen? Do you want to access your emails whilst on the hoof? And only you can answer this, though from experience you do get more (physically) for your money with a desktop than you do with a laptop. Desktops are easier to upgrade and if needs be repaired than laptops, though laptops do look as if they've been designed rather than just put together.
Make
Just as some people have a favourite make of car, preferring Ferrari over Lambourghini or Ford over Toyota, so people will have a favourite computer manufacturer. Some people like Dell, whilst others like Compaq or HP.
A computers' make is very important actually for a number of reasons. Generally the better the make, the better quality components are used. Also of importance is the level of support you will get from the manufacturer. If for example your computer disappears in a cloud of smoke are they able to supply the necessary replacement bits? What kind of warranty are they able to supply? Do they have a web site? If so, is it easy to find the support pages for your particular model?
Processor
There are several kinds of processor for a computer (i.e. a computer running Microsoft Windows). You should be looking for the fastest speed in MHz (megahertz) as you can afford. The higher the MHz the quicker the computer should be. They fall into about three categories - single core, dual core(Core 2 Duo) and quad core. This relates to the actual number of processors fitted to a processor chip. Single: one etc. Ideally you should be looking at dual core or if your needs require it, then quad core. However, if your needs do require a quad core then you should be writing this article and not me!
RAM
That's Random Access Memory - the amount of information a computer can "remember" at any one time. The higher the better, though there are a couple of caveats to consider - see Microsoft Operating Systems below
Hard Drive
This is the storage side of the computer, where the operating system, programs and user data (documents, music, photographs etc.) is stored. This is measured in either Gb (Gigabytes) or Tb (Terabytes). This is where things get a bit confusing, though anything above 500 Gb will certainly suffice. If you are looking at purchasing an Apple, then you initial choice is a little limiting, but you won't be left with too little storage space.
USB
Most computers today have innumerable USB ports fitted as standard. These allow you to connect printers, scanner and digital cameras to you computer. The only thing I'd say, is the more the merrier. Some computer manufactures use USB keyboards and mice. This method automatically loses you two valuable USB ports. However, the fitting of a USB expansion interface card will help - call me for a more detailed explanation.
DVD Drive
Pretty much all computers are fitted with a DVD drive. These allow you to watch / play (provided you have the necessary software) DVD movies, write (burn CD's and DVD's), once again provided you have the necessary software. Virtually all off the peg computers have this capability and have the software included. Blueray is the new DVD format for films, however as it is such a relatively new technology there are only a handful of computer manufacturers that supply suitable drives.
Operating System (OS)
This is the actual guts of the computer. The thing which allows you to install programs, surf the web and catch viruses with.
Really you've got two choices. You can go down the Microsoft route or the Apple route.
If you go down the Apple route then you have to buy an Apple computer. Only Apple make Apple computers and the Apple operating system OS X. If you go down the Microsoft route then you can buy a Dell, Compaq, Acer, HP or whatever make you'd like. The chances are that you'll have the choice of two Microsoft operating systems Windows 7: Windows 7 Home Premium 32 Bit or Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit. Microsoft stopped shipping Windows Vista last year, though they do still support it, If you are after a new PC with Vista installed on it, then you may still find one. Window XP is no longer around. Though as with Vista, you still may find a new PC with it installed.
Whats 32 Bit and 64 Bit then? To quote from Microsoft "The terms 32-bit and 64-bit refer to the way a computer's processor (also called a CPU), handles information. The 64-bit version of Windows handles large amounts of random access memory (RAM) more effectively than a 32-bit system". In a nutshell 32 Bit operating systems cannot access more than 4 GB RAM. It is a limitation in the OS. If you go for 64 Bit, then the operating system will see and use more than 4 GB RAM. The downside of 64 Bit Windows 7 is that there isn't a huge amount of software which takes advantage of the increased performance. To quote Microsoft once more " he benefits are most apparent when you have a large amount of random access memory (RAM) installed on your computer, typically 4 GB of RAM or more. In such cases, because a 64-bit operating system can handle large amounts of memory more efficiently than a 32-bit operating system can, a 64-bit system can be more responsive when running several programs at the same time and switching between them frequently."
So what do I get? Well by now you've got an idea of what you do on your computer and how much you've got to spend. The next question is "What will I be doing on my computer in two years time?" You buy a computer to grow in to. That way you're not being forced to upgrade it too often. Do bear in mind that the average useful life of a PC is about 3 years. After this period, you'll be running a PC two operating systems old and support may well be limited.
For the majority of people a PC with a 2.4 Ghz dual core processor, 3 GB RAM or greater, a 500 GB hard disk drive or larger, DVD drive and as many USB ports as possible, with the appropriate version of Windows (if the PC has more than 3 GB RAM fitted then it should come with the 64 Bit version - do check though) will be plenty powerful enough. If you are uncertain as to what to get, then please contact me.
If you decide that you are going to go down the Apple route. Your only real choices are desktop (Mac Pro or iMac) or laptop (MacBook or Mac Book Pro) and screen size. At the end of the day with Apple it's down to budget and I'm afraid to say; what it looks like.
Screens / Displays
With PC's I've not mentioned screens. They are such a contentious issue that it would take a whole newsletter to cover. The only thing you need to know is that the screen will be a flat TFT panel and the size will be more than 17" diagonal. With screens, big is good. Bigger is better.
With Apple iMac's, it's easier - either 21" or 27" depending on the model.
Software
All operating systems come with a programme that will let you connect to the Internet i.e. Internet Explorer or Safari. They also allow you to send and receive emails through Windows Mail or Mai on Apple's. So all you really need is some software to burn / copy CD's / DVD's for making backups( or an external hard disk drive as an alternative) and an office package: word processor, spreadsheet etc. The basic one for a PC is Microsoft Works, for an Apple it's iWork. A step up from these are the more advanced suites: Microsoft Office 2007 for the PC and Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh.
Other than that, it's really a matter of preference. If in doubt, please call me.
Jokes
| What Sound |
"Davey, what sound does a cow make?" "Alice, what sound does a cat make?" "Jamie, what sound does a lamb make?" "Jennifer, what sound does a mouse make?" |
| Dilbert by Scott Adams |
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Endpiece
Do make sure that your computer is backed up regularly. Make sure that your anti virus software is updated and make sure that you regularly run anti virus scans. I know I harp on about it in every edition, but people still do not backup their work or run virus scans or even have up to date anti virus software installed "Oh. It expired years ago, but I didn't bother to update it" is the typical response I get. They then wonder why they've potentially lost all their work and are faced with a large bill to put it all right again.
Well, that's about it for this time. I hope you enjoyed the read and picked up a few idea and tips. I aim to get the next issue out by the end of July. Watch this space
Don’t forget that back issues of the Newsletters are available to view and then be printed off from www.hillsidecomputers.co.uk
For more information and details on any of the issues mentioned in this missive or any computing problems / queries, please contact me, and don’t forget to send me your email address if you’d like to be kept in touch with what’s happening in the computer world. Your details will not be passed on to any third party.
Happy and safe computing.
Mike Hamilton Hillside Computer Services (01284) 830830 Hillside Computer Services |
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