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Author Micah Cambre

Tag: computer

how my technology habits are changing

Five years ago, I owned a Pentium II 400MHz with 128MB RAM. Today, I own a Pentium IV 2.6GHz with 1GB RAM and a laptop with Pentium M 2.1GHz and 1.5GB RAM. Five years ago I had a huge 4GB hard drive. Today, I own five 120GB hard drives and a 160GB hard drive. Five years ago, I used a CD player for all my music needs. Today, I own an iPod and listen to everything on my computer. Five years ago, I was increasingly making my own CD mixes for my entertainment. Today, I download almost everything I want and have CDs and DVDs that I bought over a year ago just sitting around.

Times have changed. Every year comes out new technology, and every year I make at least one big technological change. In July of 2000, I bought a Qualcomm 2760 from Radio Shack and signed up for Sprint PCS. I wasn’t sure if I’d have the phone for more than a year since I could barely afford the monthly payments. But, as time went on and I used the phone more, I realized my needs had changed and using a cell phone was a necessity. To this day, I still use a Qualcomm 2760. Not the same exact phone I bought 5 years ago (I had to give it up last year because it was just falling apart) but one I bought off eBay last year for $15. But, I think the time has finally come that I need to spend the big bucks to upgrade. I can’t receive normal text messages. I can’t go online. I can’t turn my phone to vibrate. My battery life is only about an hour, if even that.

There comes a time when you have to realize and give in to the technology that overwhelms your life, and my time has come. I think my biggest fear about this change is that when I get the new phone I’ll be tempted to pay extra money for text messaging service, and possibly even Internet. Which raises my monthly bills. I already pay lots of money for other things, but the fact that I am so dependent on a cellular phone is scary. It’s my only means of vocal communication to the outside world which is not a PC. I do not directly pay for a landline and have no plans to anytime soon.

And now, I shall show you my lust.

PPC-6700

This beast allows you to do anything and everything. Not only can you connect to the phone network, you can take this phone and surf this web on your home wi-fi connection, just like a laptop! It has just about any feature I’ve ever wanted in a phone. Except for the price. It’s about $600. I’m almost willing to make that purchase because I know I’ll make it last for years. And I’m not willing to go with a cheaper phone with less features.

Merry Christmas to me… :o)

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The PC Christmas Wish List

UPDATE: You can now access this page by typing http://computer.asuh.com into your address bar in your web browser.

Ah.. ‘Tis another season to be jolly. Every year this season blows by with so much potential and thus we live out our joys by shopping for the perfect gift, for others and for ourselves. I might take a stab at posting my Christmas desires at another time, but I thought it would be the perfect time to post a similar, less selfish list. I present to you “Your Personal Computer’s Christmas wish list”.

  1. Firefox – You might or might not have heard or read about all the hype surrounding this amazing web browser for your computer (PC and Mac).this shows the Firefox browser Firefox, invented by the folks at Mozilla, is the hottest thing among the really geeky tech community this year, but is steadily increasing in popularity among the mainstream. In my opinion, this is the future of browsers and I highly recommend you using it (instead of using Internet Explorer). You can attach extensions such as Adblock which can get rid of annoying ads and flash ads. You can add search engines to the search window, such as searching through Amazon, Google, IMDB, eBay, and MANY other sites. Instead of going to the website to search for a product, just use the included search bar in Firefox to perform a quick search directly to the site! And many, many more functionalities that Internet Explorer doesn’t offer yet.

    For more information on essential extensions for Firefox, go visit my Firefox Reloaded writeup.

  2. AVG Antivirus (FREE) – Are you paying money for Antivirus services? Do you even HAVE antivirus software on your computer?? (You better!) Grisoft’s AVG, which is completely free to you, is a powerful and free software package to download and will keep your computer as virus free the same as Norton or McAfee can but for none of the cost!
  3. Spybot – Search and Destroy – In this world of evil programmers, spyware is rapidly becoming the number one threat to Internet users, even if you’re still using the slower dial-up! Dell even reported that spyware issues are becoming the number issue that callers complain about to their customer service! This software is an essential in today’s Internet environment. Make sure you check for new version. This means downloading a new Spybot file, uninstalling your current Spybot and installing a new version. Current version is 1.4.
  4. Adaware – Spybot does a wonderful job, but it’s completely necessary to run more than one program to help keep spyware and adware off of your computer. Adaware is another essential program that you should be running! Make sure you check for new version. This means downloading a new Adaware file, uninstalling your current Adaware and installing a new version. Current version is 1.06.
  5. SpywareBlaster – Again, an absolute must. Same as above. It’s like triple reinforcement to keep your computer clean and usable. Make sure you check for new version. This means downloading a new SpywareBlaster file, uninstalling your current SpywareBlaster and installing a new version. Current version is 3.5.1.
  6. Windows Defender – I just downloaded this recently, and guess what? Even after running Adaware AND Spybot, this program found even MORE adware on my computer! For real! So download it, NOW. You know you want to. Just remember that it’s only compatible on Windows 2000 and XP, not Windows ME or 98. Just remember that you must use Microsoft’s Genuine Advantage License checker (which is a complete hassle and wasteful step) before you can install Defender. Make sure you check for new version. This means downloading a new Defender file, uninstalling your current Defender and installing a new version. Current version is Beta 2.
  7. IE-SPYAD – And yet another way prevent all this crappy adware and spyware from appearing! IE-SPYAD goes into your registry and adds a bunch of sites to the block me list, so that whenever your browser points to a forbidden site, it won’t actually let you go.
  8. HijackThis – Not too long ago, as I explained in a previous post, this software saved me and my friend a lot of grief. What it does is searches your computer in special places for any spyware or malicious software that’s tagging on, usually hidden from Spybot or Adaware, and exposes it for you to take care of it. The absolutely wonderful thing about this software is the website I linked it to has a box where you can copy and paste a log of your scan and it will automatically analyze the results for you to make your own decision about whether something needs to be fixed or not. So, if you’ve run Adaware, Spybot, Spyware Blaster, and Windows Defender and still have some problems, HijackThis will probably be your final solution for stabilization. Either that or just reformat your computer. Make sure you check for new version. This means downloading a new Antispyware file, uninstalling your current Antispyware and installing a new version. Current version is 1.99.1.
  9. Click here for BloglinesBloglines – Do you use Livejournal as well as MySpace? What about Blogger? or another online blogging software out there? I even have my own website.Bloglines has changed my viewing habits for other people’s sites, and I don’t have to spend all my time visiting each homepage anymore. I can just go to Bloglines and see everyone’s new posts and entries all at once. Even if you update it, I know within minutes if it happened!
  10. Azureus – Have you ever heard of BitTorrent? If not, this might not apply to you. If you’re curious, BitTorrent is a new system of filesharing, similar to Napster and Kazaa, but different enough to be original. BitTorrent is likely to be the next biggest target for litigation among the overlords at the RIAA and MPAA. However, it’s probably one of the most innovative software packages out there to find what you need. Azureus is a BitTorrent software that I highly recommend if you want to try out the BitTorrent system.
  11. Trillian – Do you frequently use AOL, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ for means of communication? I know how involved and annoying it can be to have to download and install every single one of these software files. Trillian is awesome software that allows you to use every single one of these in one file. It’s such a time saver and is free, although you can purchase the Pro version for a minimal fee. I personally don’t use it because I’m sorta picky about a few things (being that I’m a big techie nerd), but I highly recommend it for your usage to save you time!
  12. Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) – Now, I know there’s been a lot of controversy since this service pack was introduced, but I can only speak for my experience. Once I installed a fresh copy of Windows with SP2 preloaded, virtually ALL the troubles I was having before disappeared. Seriously! I could not believe how stable my computer was after having installed this service pack. I mean, we’re talking rock solid because before the installation my PC was pretty fickle. And make sure once you install SP2 that you completely update your computer’s security updates at WindowsUpdate.com.

Most of the software that I have recommended here is either free or very cheap and mostly just for the PC. Sorry to any Mac users out there. There are so much other software that I could highly recommend to other PC users but just don’t wanna spend the time listing them on here. So, feel free to go to this website for everything I mentioned plus MUCH more. I’m not advocating every single piece of software that this website recommends but it at least is a good basis for free alternatives to keep your computer running very smoothly!

As usual, if you have any questions about any of the software that I’ve listed and described, if you see a typo or you think I should add something else not listed, let me know!! I think this Christmas we should all give our PCs some much needed help. This list is just a touch of great software available.

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weekly surprises

I’ve had a few nice, weekly surprises this week that I’ll share.

I’m surprised that the election finished as early as it did and that Kerry decided to concede rather than fight. I’m glad that he took it like a big man and conceded, but if the tables were turned, would Bush have conceded? My gut says Bush would have fought until the final count, just like what Gore did four years ago. But, either way, the popular vote and electoral vote was granted the W.

I’m surprised at how extremely well a software called HijackThis works. Last night I received an unexpected phone call from a really good friend who needed help with her computer. She accidentally, because she didn’t know, executed a program which turned out to be a trojan horse, and funny thing is that it was sent to her by e-mail and from the university to which she pays money for her education. I spent about 4-5 hours on the phone helping her immunize the viruses and send that trojan back into remission. I am not totally certain that it’s 100% gone, but I do know that we got her PC back to a condition which appeared as stable as before she was attacked.

I owe most of this success to AVG antivirus and HijackThis. HijackThis is a program which scans your computer in some special places that programs like spybot and adaware probably don’t. After scanning her computer and deleting files that were acting malicious, she had no more immediate problems. In fact, she has yet to tell me that anything else is wrong! So, go download HijackThis and run it today!

I’m surprised how much fun it can be to use a webcam and microphone with a friend online! We both have the same webcam and I bought a cheap microphone to use to talk to him over the Internet. It has been years since I’ve tried doing this, but amazingly, it’s a ton of fun! As much fun as it was, I’m also surprised that the delay in transmission between the two of us on our microphones really hasn’t changed since high speed Internet was implemented in most universities. That’s too bad because the quality is almost virtually the same as any phone you use. Many years ago there was a cool, free website called dialpad, which I believe now they charge to use their services, that would let you make phone calls over the Internet to any phone in the US. Way ahead of its time and it was increasingly popular among college students for many years.

That’s all for the surprises this week. I hope I receive just a few more good surprises because I love positive surprises!

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