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 | What is ROM? Okay, so awhile back, we talked about RAM (random access memory), but have you ever wondered what ROM is? It's very easy to get the two confused, but they couldn't be more different. Let's check it out! First of all, ROM stands for Read Only Memory. Basically, ROM is the memory your computer uses to get the instructions it needs to boot up every time you hit the power button. ROM goes to work even before all of your system's software loads up completely. ROM also works closely with the BIOS or Basic Input/Output System. While ROM is mainly related to computers, it is also used in other electronic devices, such as flash drives and various music players. Now you know! ~ Erin You can't stop now! There's so much more to read about. Keep going to learn all about printer safety and how you can achieve it, find out what else the nifty little AutoSum button in MS Excel can do and learn all about how e-filing can benefit you this tax season. Also, be sure to check out this week's awesome download and as always, don't miss out on Amanda's Cool Site of the Day!
YIKES! This Is Shocking! Don't Throw Out That Old Hard Drive!! Don't Give Away Your Old Computer! You Gotta Read This - It'll Scare The Heck Outta Ya! Recent studies show that 74% of hard drives sold or given away contain data that can be easily read and recovered - and 36% of those hard drives had even been reformatted. You absolutely, positively, have to permanently get that data off of there!! Do you have an old computer you're thinking about giving away? Maybe an old hard drive that needs to be thrown out? Well, if you do, you MUST GET THAT DATA OFF THERE!!!! Well, we have some really easy to use software that will keep you safe called DriveScrubber. Just pop the CD into your computer (or make a floppy if you still have a drive for one of those) and reboot. Even if you can't boot to Windows, you can still erase that drive with this software! Think about it - you wouldn't toss paperwork with credit card, bank, or social security numbers in the trash without shredding the heck out of 'em would you? Of course not! However, day in and day out, people toss out old computers and think that just deleting or formatting a drive is going to get rid of all the personal info they had on it - not a chance! WARNING - When you delete a file, it's not really gone. You might want to read that last sentence again because it's really important. The area where the file lives on your hard drive simply gets tagged as free space, but until it's overwritten, that data is VERY recoverable. I formatted a test drive and ran recovery software on it awhile ago just to see what would happen. Nearly EVERYTHING was easily recoverable! No problem at all! If you've ever used your computer to check on your banking, buy a product online, or anything that involves your personal info, then that info might be easily available when you get rid of your old hardware! Yikes! Don't think it can happen to you? Well, two MIT students did a study. They went and purchased 158 used hard drives for less than $1000 from a web swap-meet type site. When they went through the drives, they found over 5,000 credit card numbers, medical reports, lots of personal and corporate financial information, and gigs of personal e-mail. And get this - 60% of the drives had been formatted!!! There are people who look for old computers at the curb or in the dumpster just to pull info off the hard drive or sell the drives to others! Plus, if you just "donate" an old computer you have no idea what really is going to happen to it! If this doesn't scare the heck out of you, then you shouldn't be using a computer! Once you insert the Drive Scrubber disk, your computer will boot to the CD or the floppy, and has an easy to use interface that makes wiping a drive a snap. Just select the drive and select the "erase" button. ALL the info on the drive will be gone - permanently and forever! You can still reformat the drive and install Windows again once this is done - but any info you had on the drive will be completely gone. No worries about anyone ever using your hard drive or old computer to steal you personal info! It's great! I personally have a couple of old hard drives sitting around that I just didn't want to throw out. Now I'll be able to completely erase them and toss them into the trash knowing that no one will EVER be able to recover any of my personal data from that drive. Your cost for all this protection? Just $10.97 and US shipping is FREE! Sure, it's not a program that you'll use every day, but everyone with a computer WILL need to use it someday! For this kind of money, it's insane not to be safe. Check it out: http://store.worldstart.com/product.php?productid=4175 PS - Yup, you guessed it- this is a limited quantity deal! Head to the site ASAP!!! Once these are gone, it's gonna be a LONG time before (maybe IF) we see them again! Q: A: The two reasons that go around this are electricity usage and ink cartridge print heads drying out. The bigger issue here may be the drying of the print heads, because printers really don't use that much electricity. The newer ones use even less, but older printers don't really use that much either. Most ink cartridges have some sort of a capping mechanism that saves the head from any outside air that may come through when the printer is turned off. If you leave your printer turned on all day when you're not using it, you're just setting yourself up to have to buy another cartridge much sooner than you normally would. If your print heads dry up, your printing quality will be poor as well. Make sure you always turn your printer off by the On/Off button and not by flipping your power strip device. When you use the On/Off button, the capping mechanism I mentioned above will fully engage and do its job correctly. Otherwise, it won't and your cartridge will still be at risk for drying out much too quickly. Here's to keeping your printer the best it can be! ~ Erin Have a question for the newsletter? Submit it at the link below: The AutoSum with More I'm sure you're all aware of MS Excel's handy little AutoSum button and the way it will quickly insert the formula to sum up any range of data you happen to have lying around, right? But, wouldn't it be nice if you could get it to do a little more than sums, without a lot of extra work? Good idea! Fortunately for all of us, AutoSum can be used for more than just sums. Interested? Yeah, I thought you might be! The key to getting more from your AutoSum is to notice the little down arrow just to the right of the button. Go ahead and give it a click. You should find that a list of common functions becomes available, allowing you to use the button for more than just sums! As usual, to get this to work for you, simply select a cell either below or to the right of your data range. Next, click the down arrow on the AutoSum button and choose a function from the list. Instantly, Excel creates the requested formula using the most obvious data range relative to the selected cell. If you accept the data range selected by Excel, simply hit the Enter key. If you need to adjust the data range for the formula, you can use the Shift key in combination with the arrow keys to enlarge or shrink the selection size. If you're looking to simply move the data range without adjusting its size, you can use your mouse. Slowly run the mouse pointer over the dotted rectangle until it becomes a four-way arrow. Next, click, hold and drag the selection to the correct location on the worksheet and then release the mouse button. There you have it. Who knew you had an AutoSum button with such talent?! ~ April
Don't Be Left Out! Share Your Printers! Share Files Between Computers! Create A Home Network In A Matter Of Mouse-Clicks! Price Reduced - Lowest Ever - $8.97! Last Chance - Inventory Getting Lower By The HOUR! We are still just buzzin' through our Network Magic inventory! Let me tell ya, it's by far the easiest way we've EVER seen to setup a home or small office network! We have sold literally THOUSANDS for these over the last year or so and let me tell ya - people absolutely LOVE it! It's easy to install, easy to use, and everyone is always amazed how simple it is to create a home or small office network with this! I know almost can't stand how impressed I am with it! We're talking about having two or more computers sharing files and printers in about 10 minutes! It makes it ridiculously easy to put a network together! I mean, in literally a few mouse clicks, you have a network setup! No calling for help, no expensive networking company to come to the rescue - it just plain WORKS! Plus, it's really EASY! I personally run this on my home computers and I'm still impressed with the ease of use. It includes fantastic wizards so all you need to know how to do is read and click! PLUS - NO confusing technical jargon at all. Everything is explained simply and easily along the way. You won't believe how easy this is! For example, just a few clicks and I have a folder or printer shared and on the network! WOW!
I have been so impressed with this - first time I used it I had a network set up in about 10 minutes! I've never seen anything this easy! Here's how it works - this'll amaze you! You just install the software on the computer you want to network. Next, run through the little wizard and answer a few questions / preferences (deciding what you want to share, what you don't). Once that computer is done, you go on to the next one. Run the software, follow the wizard, and just like that you're networked! Here's a cropped shot of my shiny new network: That's it! Seriously! The above network was really set up in all of ten minutes! Is that incredible or what??? Talk about super-simple! Now, I can print to her printer, she can print over to mine, we can share files - the whole shootin' match! I also love that if you've ever had problems connecting to the internet, slow web pages, or connecting to another computer, then this can help with that too: Just select the problem you're having and this will try to get things up and running for you again! I've been using this for about a year and let me tell ya, it always WORKS! My stupid cable connection is always dropping, and usually a few mouse clicks with this and things are refreshed and running again! Is that cool or what? Plus, it does everything automatically. It's like having a network tech right in your house! Oh, and get this - not only does it do networking like it's on steroids, but it also keeps you safe. It will check your network and wireless network and make sure everything is secure. If you have a hole, this will tell you about it and help you fix it (usually in about 2 clicks)! In fact, this once detected an intruder on my home network and helped me get rid of them! I think it was just a neighbor "borrowing" my network, but that doesn't happen anymore! It helped me get things really locked down and now we're the only ones who can use our network! I love it! Whew, I think that covers the main points. oh, and another cool thing - this is licensed for up to three computers, so you only need one copy for most home networks (if you have more than 3 computers, you'll need to buy more copies). PLUS this is Windows XP AND Vista compatible! Your cost? Get this - just $8.97 and US shipping is FREE! It's an amazing deal on what has to be one of the best ideas I've ever seen. I love mine, that's for sure! Here's the info, take a look: http://store.worldstart.com/product.php?productid=3303 PS - We started with a good number of these, but the way they are going, I'm not sure how much longer this is going to last! Make sure you RUN to the site before we sell out - for $8.97, it's one incredible deal!
E-Filing Another reader asks: I know in the last couple of years, they have come out with e-filing for taxes. Are there really any good benefits to doing it that way? If so, please enlighten us! I know this may not seem like the normal kind of tip we usually do, but I figured with tax time in high gear, it would be a good time to answer this question. Either way you look at it, the person who asked this is completely right. Filing taxes online has become very popular in the last few years and even the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) has been known to "push" people into filing their taxes this way. Of course, we can all figure out that e-filing is a big money saver for the government, but there really are some benefits for us too! First of all, I want to make sure everyone understands the terminology I am talking about. The whole thing is called e-filing. It's basically just a way for all the tax payers in the world to file their taxes electronically through the Web. To some, it's a more convenient and faster way to get their taxes done. If you don't agree yet, you may change your mind after hearing about the following benefits. Below are five of the most popular pros for e-filing. 1.) Fewer IRS Errors - You know, when you snail mail in your tax returns, IRS employees have to sit and enter in your amounts by hand. But, if you e-file, you get to do it all yourself and let's be honest, we probably trust ourselves more than any IRS employee. Knowing that your information is entered in as correctly as possible is a great benefit in itself. That way, you can check your work as many times as you deem necessary. No keypunch errors and no IRS notices that your information was entered incorrectly. You can't beat that! 2.) Fewer Taxpayer Errors - When you have to write out all of your information by hand, it's possible that you could make some mistakes pretty easily. For example, maybe you misprinted your social security number or you forgot to write in your last name. If anything like that happens on a paper form, you won't hear about it for several months, but with an e-file, the IRS lets you know about any common mistakes right away. The IRS computers will reject a return like that within seconds, so you won't have to sit around wondering if everything was right or not. This, of course, doesn't protect you completely from being audited, but in general, you will have a faster error return. 3.) Get a Faster Refund - It's stated by the IRS that tax payers who e-file get their refunds back within 14 days, which is much quicker than the six weeks you may wait to get your snail mail return back. The 14 days isn't a guarantee, but it is generally a faster method of doing things. So, how long would you like to wait for your check to come in the mail? Two weeks or six weeks? 4.) File Conveniently - One of the biggest benefits of e-filing is that you can do it from the comfort of your own computer chair. You get to use your own computer to file your taxes and you don't have to worry about using someone else's. Or, if you're filing taxes for your business, you can easily do it from any of those computers as well. Several people have already taken advantage of this, so what do you think? Should you do it too? 5.) Send Both at Once - In a sense, with e-filing, you can kill two birds with one stone. In most cases, you are able to e-file both your federal and state taxes at the exact same time. Even though the returns go to different places, the IRS will forward your state information to the appropriate state tax agency. That way, you don't have to worry about doing them separately and wasting more time. Now, all of these benefits may sound great and even though you might be more than ready to go e-file your taxes right now, it's best to look into it a little more to make sure e-filing is right for your tax purposes. There should be some information on e-filing at any of the places you pick up the paper tax forms (libraries, etc). These days, most everyone is able to take advantage of e-filing, but it's best to be completely certain yours will turn out okay if you do it this way. Once you learn more about it, you should be all set to go e-file your taxes and get your earned money back much faster. It's at least worth a try, don't you think?! ~ Erin If you enjoy our tips, tell your friends. That's what keeps this newsletter growing. Movie Organizer Well, I have some great news for everyone who regularly checks out these weekly download articles! This week's just so happens to be a program that helps you organize all of the movies you may have on disk (for example, CD/DVD-R/RW). To be honest, I never really thought about using a program like this until I took a phone call here at the office from someone looking for a piece of software that could organize their movie collection. My first thought was to just use MS Excel or even a text document program, but my thoughts were really basic in ways of organizing those records. I didn't realize there was software out there that does an outstanding job at this very thing. And better yet, it's all free! The program is called Movie Organizer and it's from a company called OXD. Basically, it's a database with tons of categories to help you organize your media. Movie Organizer gives you, the user, a mind blowing number of categories and fields in which to input information about your media. You can even go out to MOOD (Movie Organizer Online Database) and download information about your movies to include with it. You don't need to save the input data to the same database either. You can create a new database for any specific needs you have. All of the editable fields and databases also make the Movie Organizer very searchable. In fact, you can add search criteria to help you narrow down a search. Here's an example of how this tailored search works. Say you want to find all the movies with John Candy in them. You would start by opening the Search menu, go to Search, select "actor" from the pull down menu in the searchable field and type in Mr. Candy's name. The search will look through the category to find all of the John Candy movies and put them in a list. How cool is that?! And what kind of movie organizing software would this be if it didn't have good printing options? Well, Movie Organizer has you covered with enough printing options to keep even the most meticulous of users more than happy! The options and flexibility of Movie Organizer are really great and allow you to control the program to suit your specific needs. There is a great Help file located off the main interface as well. I suggest you read through it and do a couple of practice entries, searches and print jobs to get a feel for how the program works. I stress this, because this program uses databases and the saving and search components, in particular, are a little different than what you might be used to. Once you do it a couple of times though, it's a snap! You can download Movie Organizer for yourself right here. I hope this program helps you get your media organized and keep it that way! ~ Chad For stories, jokes, quotes and cartoons every day, sign up for our Just for Grins newsletter. I have loved Georges Seurat’s art since I was in high school French class! We studied all the major French artists as part of our course work one year. Seurat is best known for the painting "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" and as the inventor of pointillism, but there is so much more to his artwork that's often forgotten. This Web site explores his art, his techniques and his brief life. Simply click Enter the Site to begin. That will open a new page that should be defaulted to full screen. You’ll see an introduction and a side menu. If you click on the image to the side of the introduction, it will enlarge it so that you can see all the details. The side menu contains three areas you can explore: Sketchbooks, Conservation and Subjects. Sketchbooks – Here you will find four handheld sketchbooks filled with Seurat’s sketches. You can either click the image of the sketchbook you’d like to view or click the title of the sketchbook near the top of the page. Each sketchbook is interactive and you can click through it as though the book was right in front of you. Conservation – This section delves into the materials and techniques Seurat used in his work. It is divided into three sections: Materials, Techniques and Wood Panels and Textured Grounds. Use the numbers along the bottom of the page in each section to navigate forward through the topic. It was very fascinating to read how he used wood panels, paper with oils and conté crayons to create his art. Subjects – Now, we focus on the subjects of his work. This section is divided into four separate areas: Paris and its Environs, Asnières, La Grande Jatte and The Café-Concert. Again, use the numbers along the bottom of the page in each section to navigate forward through the topic. Each one discusses the people and places featured in Seurat's work. I hope you enjoy delving into Seurat’s art as much as I did! http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2007/seurat/ ~ Amanda Do you have a cool, non-commercial site that you want to share?
Vote here: March Wallpaper Here's March's wallpaper. It's all free, so enjoy!
All can be found here: http://www.worldstart.com/wallpaper/index.php Enjoy!
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Computer Tips [ Awesome Movie Organizer + Benefits of E-Filing + AutoSum Plus Some! ] 03/27/08
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