Don't forget our Scanner!

Like the basic four food groups, some people forget about one of the basic needs for the computer. I speak about our good old friend, the scanner.

You don’t have to spend so much for a scanner now. The price ranges from $70 to the most expensive $400 models. There are some scanners that has it own printer built into the unit, but people ignored the scanner part.

Here are some good usages for your scanner:

• Scanning pictures to your computers, you can not manipulate or share pictures without a scanner


• Preserving documents and letters, even kid drawing that you hung on the fridge can be your next desktop.


• Preserving collectables like cards, comics, animation cells, etc.

Here is your chance to remove the dust off that old scanner and use it or thinking about getting a scanner, this is the right time to get one.

Memorial Day Message

I think the picture speaks for itself. To my family and friends that fought and serve in the military, my prayers go out to them.

Vintage Tech - Our fallen comrades

Technology is greatly moving very fast, some of the income-controlled people can not catch up with the new in thing. That is why I say that some old tech is not dead, but on life support because of us critters. I would like to pay tribute to these products;


The VCR – Before Tivos and DVRs, there were VCRs. When VCR came out, it changed the way we watched TV and movies. Of course there were the problem of the video degrading, broken tapes and the tape being messed up by the VCR. It was still the most reliable tech tool at this time and with the prices for a VCR can be less than 100 dollars; the tapes can be priced at 2 dollars depending on the manufacture. For a brief history on the VCR, click here.

Portable CDs player – With everyone having a hard drive media player for music and downloading music online, most of the people would not consider having a portable CD player. The ratio of seeing a CD player is one of five person still owns a CD player but it is one of every three person owns a digital player. That means the CD is not going to fade away anytime soon.

Cassette Players – Not taking away from the CDs, cassettes are really on life support. Finding cassette player can be hard, but the price can start at 20 dollars. The cassettes can start at 50 cents per tape. If you still have one in your home, cherish it, it done it job for media tech. Check out the history at pocketcalculatorshow.com/walkman/history.html

Drop a comment here on any old and vintage tech we should pay some respect for and even a comment on the old tech that I was talking about here.

The Need of Flipalbum

Do you have problem with family and friends taking your pictures and not giving them back? Are you an IT worker with so many programs on many different CDs that it takes a long time to finish? Are you a salesperson who has so many things to sell but do not want to carry all the stuff or being there because you are busy? Then you need flipalbum for all your needs.

I know what you are thinking; what will this program do for me? For the picture-hungry people, flipalbum can be seen on a website or it can be burned on a CD, I trying to burn contents on a DVD. IT workers can put the important files and programs on CDs for cataloguing. Flipalbum can play videos as well as showing images, but the only formats it would play are AVI and MPEG-1. If you get the flipalbum professional, there is a security mode, you can program the cd to give permission to print and save and have a password built in.

These are the things I like, including the flipping action and it is no program to install, but I think there is something that can show improvement. When you buy the program, they should have instant patches and updates on their site. Have add-on and plug-in to download for flipalbum. They use to have a free hosting site to have people com and see their books but, now there is a fee. I think the free web hosting was better.

Hey, I am just one person with thoughts running wild. Download the free trial version of flipalbum here and send me any comments about it. There might be something I might have overlook.

Laptop Cleaning part two

Where we last left off, we have just re installed Windows XP onto the laptop and just put on the critical updates. Before all of the programs come on his laptop, I setup some of the stuff to protect the computer. Just like a person getting ready to leave the house, you must get your computer ready to go online and offline.
When a person catches a cold or a virus, they must treat it with the right medicine. The computer is the same thing, when it catches a virus from an email attachment from an unknown source, an infected friend from their address book or corrupted program. Using the commercial Anti-virus such as McAffee or Norton could help your system but when you need an update for the new virus, they will be limited with the time. Also, there are some holes in the system that an outside hacker can turn off and leave you vulnerable. There is some excellent free antivirus software but the one I like is AntiVir. It is simple and the updates come every two weeks. I suggest that using the antivirus every month to check for foreign agents on your computer.
Windows XP SP2 has a good firewall for the protection that you may need but you might have to update your Windows if you are working with SP1 at their website or pressing Windows Update.
For a good spyware program; I chosen Ad-Aware. Ad-Aware provides advanced protection from known data-mining, aggressive advertising, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components.
Disk fragmentation causes crashes, slowdowns, freeze-ups and even total system failures. The number one reason for performance bottlenecks is fragmentation. Even the best hardware will eventually slow down unless the drive is defragmented daily. Diskeeper, from Executive Software, could be the best third party disk defrag program. Comparing it to the regular bundle with Windows XP, this is far superior.
I went to Snap-Files website to download a great disk cleaner because, the one bundle with Windows is good but slow.
Finally, with pop up ads on the rise, I completely change my browser to Mozilla Firefox. Besides it has a built in pop up blocker (doesn’t work on aggressive pop up banner), it does tab browsing. In short, you can open up many websites on one browser. I still have to keep IE, cause of the updates and certain websites that can not conform to Firefox.
After all the updates and fixes to his laptop, the only thing he would have to worry is getting off dial up and go to DSL or Broadband for his internet actions, but that’s another problem all together.

Laptop Cleaning part one

Well it is about to get rid of the old and bring in the new. From house cleaning to cleaning your computer, it must be done soon. My friends needed his laptop cleaned and reinstall Windows XP Home. I thought he would knew most of the basis but for his sake and other “critters” out there, I am there with some help and tips.

This first and important thing to do is to backup all your saved projects. If you have a DVD burner, CD burner, external hard drive, flash drive, IPOD or thousands of floppy drive (and a whole weekend), this is a priority to do first. From music, documents, videos, saved games and other stuff, you must preserve these precious things. My rule of thumb is to backup your backups. You will never know that you might lose it on your drive, scratch or shattered the CD or you might lose it. Take some time and pick up some extra CDs or DVDs to clone your saved stuff.
Now it is time to tackle your hard drive with a clean wipe of the system. There are two ways to clean your hard drive; one, you can load your Windows install CD and delete the partition first and then reinstall Windows. Two; I use a hard drive utility CD, such as Maxtor. Instead of using the quick clean, I let it write in all zeroes to ensure that the drive is a clean slate.
Finally, the most important installation, putting on Windows on your system; I have noticed if you purchase your system such as a HP, Compaq or Gateway, they will have their own install CD in the box. Most of them do not have the 30 days until shutdown clock. Well don’t look gift horses in the mouth, use their CD and then customize it to work with your needs.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

New Year on earthcam.com

The ball in Times Square is about to drop and you want that feeling you are there celebrating among the New Yorkers. Well, with webcams and “big brothers” out there, I found a web site for webcam watching. Earthcam.com is a great way to tour around without leaving your living room.

On earthcam, you can be at Times Square looking from different cameras when the ball drops. How about seeing New Years in London or Moscow? You can do that on this site. You can even see if anyone is getting married in the wedding chapel in Las Vegas.

So, you can watch the New Year on television or you can track the New Year using earthcam.com. Just enjoy yourself and drink in moderation so that the hangover don’t hit you so bad. Happy New Year.

Right now I am looking for the best project to hook up for this blog. Right now I would like to take this time to wish everyone the best during the holiday season.

DVD Authoring Help

Christmas is coming and someone asked me about transferring their camcorder video to DVD and what software to use. I needed some more information before answering this question.

This is what I know;

• The camcorder the person uses is DV format, not the 8mm format. It also has a firewire or I-Link port as well as a RCA output ports and USB 2.0 port.


• Their computer was compatible for downloading music, playing games, office suite and surfing the internet.


• They have a 200gb hard drive as their second hard drive


• The computer has all the ports, USB and Firewire

The DV camcorder has some software with it but that person wants to use something different. Besides the Pinnacle Studio that I use, I talk about the Ulead Videostudio and the Roxio Videowave to do the editing as well as burning the DVD movie. With most of these editors, you can add a sideshow to your work as a extra project to impress the viewers.

The only thing that would take long would be the process. My personal experience with editing, encoding and burning would take me up to two hours. Inexperience videographers would take longer to know what they are doing.

Maybe your family gathering maybe droll, spice it up with a Q&A session, Having them to wish a happy holiday or you might want to add narration to make special documentry.

Hot Spots - Gamehouse.com

People have always asked, “Where do you get those great games from?” There are so many places to play online and to download to your computer. If you have a email account such as Yahoo or MSN, there is a section to play games online and even download a free trial or a complete free game.

Try www.Gamehouse.com for some of the popular games such as Super Bounce Out, Super Collapse 2 and Bejeweled 2. From word puzzles to action games, this is the spot for you.

What I like about this site is when you want to purchase the game from their online store, you can choose to buy your games using Paypal, credit cards or check and money order. I think you might want to call the company to see if they have the game on CD to purchase or to download it online.

Try it out online before you purchase it. One game can be popular for some people and not for you. Plus there are games people would not touch and you would fall head over heels for it.

My experence making wallpaper with Photshop

Wallpaper for the desktop is the most popular thing to have on your computer. It is like graffiti on your screen. The reason to have wallpaper on the screen is to;

1. Decorate your screen and give it that personal touch.

1. When you have more than one user on your computer, it shows which user screen is on or have access to the computer.


2. Just to show off your photos.

You can find different kinds of wallpapers out on the web for free or a fee. I have seen some of these works and I wondered to myself; “Can I do this, too?”

As I searched for doing wallpaper from online tutorials, there were different kind of wallpaper and many styles. From abstract to 3D, my head started to get that “brain freeze” effect when you eat a very cold ice cream bar. I made up my mind to do a basic photo manipulation wallpaper for my friend computer with his family.

When I first started this, I used MGI Photosuite 8.0 and Photosuite 2 (now under Roxio bundle package), to cut and move pictures to other canvases and make them more interesting. The problem is when you look at the picture, you can see the “scissors” effect around the picture. I need more power.

My former computer teacher introduced me to Adobe Photoshop and I was astonished just by the interface alone. Using layer and masks for my pictures took a good two months to getting use to. After seven months, I did my first wallpaper for my computer. Compared to everyone on the net, mine was like something from head start, but I am still learning.

There are other photo tools out there to do wallpaper, some of them are free and some comes with a fee. Here is a sample of my new wallpaper.

Confused about DVD? Me Too!

You say po-ta-to, I say pot-a-to. It is still a vegetable. This is the problem with DVD today. Some people use DVD+R (RW) and others use DVD-R (RW). People think all DVDs works in all DVD players and computer. That is not the case. Recording CD do not have any format to complicate but some there are some old CD players will not play those CDs. The DVD is totally different;

• DVD-R is the closest thing to be compatible to DVD players for entertainment and DVD rom.


• DVD+R will work in the newest DVD players and DVD rom and they will not work in older models.

To learn more go to http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/110 for a complete lowdown.

Before computers was my favorite hobby, I was a connoisseur in photograhy and videography. During a long period of time, my skills was less than good. Now with technology and digital media, I just did my first baby shower in a seven months. Here how it went:

• My brother and I was invited to a former co-worker baby shower, it was a last minute invite and I was not prepared for it. They know that the only baby shower gift they wanted was a video done by me. I just scramble a new digital camera from Samsung. It was on sale and I wasn't going to wait.
  
• Three days before the shower, I played with the camera without putting any tape inside. I needed to get a feel for it. I want to know that my fingers can touch the recording button, the zoom button and try out all the special features.
• Because it was a weekend, there were a few delays. Sometimes we must check transit conditions and destinations before leaving. I lost about five minutes of shooting, but we was in time for the unwrapping of the presents.
• One thing for sure, getting the right spot is important. I didn't have time to set up my tripod, so I switch on the stabilizer to stop the camera from shaking wildly. There were some children running in front of the camera and people passing by me. I had to stop and start recording each time an interuption comes and plagued my work.
• Some after shots with the mother and father to be waving at the camera, singing and extra shots of the family. I gain a some extra time on the video to work with.

At home, I review the video and we needed some more video to make it better than the other videos that their family and friends. First I needed a backdrop for my DVD. So I figured a picture of the family. Then I needed some video to put for the title. I went out to Times Square and grabbed some footage. It was time to edit the video. I used my Pinnacle Studio 9 program to cut out what I didn't need and to spuce my final production. It was my gift to them and it was my first step getting into the digital world of photography and videography.

You have an ipod but don't know what to do?

1. You can download music to listen on the go. If you have the ipod Photo, you can download your pictures and display them as a slideshow from itunes.
2. You can create two different kind of playlists: A playlist that you can drag and drop music from within your ipod using itunes to create and rearrange your playlist. A smart playlist would have you tweak the setting and define the name that you want to group.
   
3. You can use your ipod as a portable hard drive. You can transport any files and folders to one computer to another provided that you still have room from all of the songs you downloaded.
4. You also have a clock on your ipod. You can display the time above the menu board on your ipod. You have a sleep timer also. You can select how long you want to listen, from 30 minutes to 120 minutes. You can set your ipod as a alarm clock, having it to beep or your playlist to play. (This do not concern the ipod shuffle)
5. Using Outlook or Outlook Express, you can add address contacts to your ipod.
6. For more support go to www.apple.com for downloads and support.
   

We started this blog for our friends and families who have questions about using their computers. Plus we would blog about our favorite sites and software from the web. There are many other things you can use your computer to do, we are just here to open the door to it. We are Computer Critters, B.M.D & the Aceman and we are here to help, one step at a time.

So, we like to welcome you to Computer Critters.