Tech Tip Friday

Episode 131: Question: Glen asks, "I use Wildblue and Gmail. When I send an email, the reply is chained/linked back to the original that was sent. For instance, when you reply to this email, the reply will not come back to me as a new stand alone email in my inbox. It will come back as a new email but will combine with the original that was sent. We could reply to each other multiple times and my inbox will only have one email in it. How can I turn this setting off?"Answer: Great question, Glen. I'm not sure you can do what you're wanting to - using GMail alone. I checked everything under Settings in GMail, and couldn't find anything that looked particularly relevant. On the other hand, using GMail's POP or IMAP access and a program on your computer (Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, etc.), replies you receive will all appear as separate messages. The reason for GMail doing this is that it's creating threads. The idea is to keep conversations together, but it can be a bit disconcerting, especially if you're used to email software that works as you've indicated you'd like this to work. I personally prefer it that way, too. To enable POP or IMAP access: 1. Make sure you have an email program installed on your computer.2. Sign into GMail.3. Click Settings at the top of the page.4. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP5. Choose your settings.6. Click Configuration instructions under Configure your email client.7. Follow those instructions. That should get you going. Cool Site: Constituting America.org: I heard about this week's cool site from the Huckabee show. The site is run by Janine Turner and her daughter Juliette. The site's mission is "to reach, educate and inform America's youth and her citizens about the importance of the U.S. Constitution and the foundation it sets forth regarding our freedoms and rights." That's really cool. The site sponsors contests for young people, and that's why they were on Huckabee. This site has links to our founding documents and the Federalist Papers, a store, a newsletter you can sign up for, and a blog where you can have your say about what's going on. There's a reading schedule called "90 in 90 = 180" where you can in 90 days read the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. There's a link where you can donate to help the site’s mission, and links to several of their videos on YouTube.Cool Gadget: Nokia Star Trek Communicator Flip Phone: Last year, Nokia worked with Paramount on the Star Trek reboot. They put out a Star Trek-themed version of one of their phones that had a few sound effects, a wallpaper or two and such. But now we find out on Gearlog and YouTube that they went so far as to make a prototype flip phone that looks just like one of the communicators from the original series. It has a large screen on the inside, a black body with the Starfleet logo on the back, and the flip lid looks like the metal antenna from the original Star Trek. The bad thing is that while this phone is cool, it seems never to have gotten past the prototype stage because Nokia only made 14 of them. That's too bad, because I know a few folks that would have one tomorrow if it were available today. Every flip phone made is a nod to Star Trek anyway: remember the Motorola StarTAC? Check out the show notes for the link with video.It's All "Geek" To Me: Trackback: If you read news sites or blogs, you've probably seen this week's term: trackback, and wondered what it meant. Let's say I find a blog article I like and want to respond to it on my blog. If I just put a normal link in my article, only search engines will know I wrote that follow-up. But if I use a trackback, my blog will tell the other blog about the link and the original may even show the link to my blog. So a trackback is a way for one blog to tell another blog you linked to it. It's a webmaster thing.LinksGmail:http://www.gmail.comConstituting America:http://www.constitutingamerica.org/Nokia Star Trek Communicator Flip Phone at Gearlog:http://www.gearlog.com/2010/09/nokias_star_trek_communicator.phpTrackback on TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/trackback

Episode 130: Question: Paula asks, "In Gmail, if I want to read a message, but still keep it new, how can I do that?"Answer: Great question, Paula. In all the email programs I'm familiar with and Gmail is no exception, your unread messages are shown in bold. Once you read the message, of course, its bold formatting goes away. Sometimes, though, you start reading a message, but don't get to finish it. The thing that happens still, is that the message is marked as though you’ve read it. In many programs, you can right-click on a message and choose to mark it as unread again, but Gmail is web based, so right-clicking won't do any good. Instead, click the check box next to the message you've started reading, but not finished. Click More Actions, which will pull down a list. Choose "Mark as unread" from that list, and Voila! The message shows as unread again. Cool Site: ConstitutionDay.com: Today is Constitution Day, the 223rd anniversary of the signing of our current Constitution. So I thought it only fitting that our cool site of the week would revolve around our Constitution. It's constitutionday.com. From the main page of the site, you can get at the free webcasts Hillsdale College is doing/has done for today. You'll find the full text of the Constitution there, as you might expect. Also the text of the amendments is available there. Additionally, the site contains articles on each of the Constitution’s signers. So, go there today and check it out. The site isn't large. What I've mentioned is all that's there, but that's great if you want to then slide over to the Hillsdale site because the speeches take a while to watch.Cool Gadget: Toshiba 3D TV System: As promised last week, we've got another 3D gadget for you. At the CEDEC 2010 conference, Toshiba showed a digital display that does 3D without the need for special glasses. Now, I've seen 3D displays that didn't need glasses before, but it had a kind of grid on it and the effect wasn't all that great. This display is awesome! It has a technology that Toshiba calls "integral imaging" that allows you to see the 3D content from up to 9 different angles. The display uses lenses to project a slightly different image in each of those 9 angles, allowing your eyes to create the 3D effect in a way that mimics what happens naturally. They'll be used for advertising and games first, but later as TVs and PC monitors.It's All "Geek" To Me: Core: This week’s term is Core. When you're looking at computer specifications, you see terms like dual core, triple, quad core, and now six-core, and maybe you've wondered just what a core is. Well, from the time computers started until just a few years ago, a CPU chip, a processor, only had one processor core. That core does all the computing that happens inside the processor. It's made up of two parts, the ALU (arithmetic logic unit), and the control unit. The ALU performs math and comparisons, and the control unit moves data around and keeps the ALU busy. If two numbers have to be added, for instance, the control unit gets the numbers to add, then tells the ALU to add them, then it puts the answer wherever it belongs. A single core can only run one program at a time. It can switch very quickly from one program to another, but at any instant in time, only one program is actually being worked on. When you see terms like dual core, it means that there are two ALUs and two Control Units in that processor. That lets the processor truly work on two programs simultaneously, so it can get almost twice as much work done. So, the core does all the processing work, and more cores means more processing.LinksMarking messages "read" or "unread":http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=12516Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts:https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6594ConstitutionDay.comhttp://www.constitutionday.comToshiba 3D TV System on Ubergizmo:http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2010/09/toshiba_glasses-free_tv_system_on_display.htmlProcessor Core at PC Magazine:http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=processor+core&i=49765,00.aspALU definition at PC Magazine:http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=ALU&i=37691,00.aspControl Unit definition at PC Magazine:http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=control+unit&i=40319,00.aspDual core at TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/dualcore

Episode 129: Question: Violeti asks, "How do you change the computer's language to Spanish?" Answer: Great question Violeti. Your computer has the capability of operating with multiple languages, but there are limitations. You can enter text in different languages with any version of Windows, but making things on the screen appear in Spanish requires either a corporate version of Windows, or a Spanish version. But if you have the licensing version of Windows XP Pro, you can install the Multilingual User Interface pack. For Vista and I suppose Windows 7, these are built into the Ultimate and Enterprise versions. The only other way to do it is to buy a Spanish version of Vista or Windows 7 and install that. This is one of those questions that comes up whenever people have to prepare a computer in one country for use in another where the language spoken isn't the same. For example, a computer donated to a missionary. If the off-the-shelf English version of Windows is donated, then while the missionary can use the computer, he'll almost have to buy another copy of Windows in the country he's been called to if he wants to use it as a teaching tool. Cool Site: Instructables: Did you ever want to know how to do something? Well, at instructables.com, you can find out how to do almost anything; from making homemade buttermilk biscuits to an air-powered pirate cannon. Each how-to article is illustrated with photos and are generally written in a step-by-step format that allows you to get a good idea of what you need to do. The site has an Answers section, which is like a search engine that lets you ask how to do something, and if there's an article on it, you'll be directed there. They have lots of contests going on, like "Make it Stick" - a Gorilla Glue contest, an LED contest, a Back-To-School contest, and many more. Each contest has a deadline and you can see how many entries have already been submitted. You'll find forums on their various topics, so that you can discuss your projects with others. You can submit your own articles for others to use and learn from, but you have to sign up as a site member first. As with most websites, membership is free. You can also upgrade that membership to a Pro membership for a fee, and then you can download PDF versions of the instructables articles. You can spend a lot of time there, but the best thing about it is that it's all educational - mostly all, that is.Cool Gadget: 3D Shot Cam: 3D is all the rage now: 3D movies, videos, TV's, monitors, and now cameras. The Takara Tomy company is releasing a simple 3D digital camera next spring in Japan. I hope it comes here soon after. The camera has two lenses which allows its 0.3 megapixel sensor to capture a 3D digital image. It uses SD memory cards up to 8GB. The big drawback is that there's no way to view the pictures you took without printing them out. But when you do, and then insert the pictures into one of the two included stereoscopic viewers, you'll get a full 3D image. Of course, at only a third of a megapixel, those images won't be terribly detailed. The camera is slated to run about $70. More on 3D next week.It's All "Geek" To Me: Permalink: This week's term is "permalink". You'll see this one in blogs, and it's just a combination of "permanent" and "link" the same way permafrost is permanent frost. In blogs specifically, a given post or article can appear on a main page, but may move around later. If I want to be able to get back to the article in the future, I need a link that will always work. That's the function of the Permalink.LinksGet the MUI Pack Update:http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/2/e/62e61f10-e106-4f4c-a862-63eec2b41efb/readme.htmChange Vista's Display Language:http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Change-the-display-languageInstructables:http://www.instructables.com3D Shot Cam on Ubergizmo:http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2010/09/70_3d_shot_cam_takes_simple_3d_pictures.htmlPermalink on TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/permalink

Episode 128: Question: Ellen asks, "I put a CD in my computer the other day and MusicMatch Jukebox came up to play it. It said I needed to be connected to the Internet first. Why?"Answer: Great question Ellen. I don't really use MusicMatch Jukebox, but if this behavior isn't OK, then switch to another program like Windows Media Player. You can set it to play most every type of media file and also CDs and DVDs. To do that, just open Windows Media Player and then on the Tools Menu, choose Options. Click the File Types tab, then click the Select All button to choose all media types. When you click OK, that will switch your default media player to Windows Media Player. After that, you should uninstall MusicMatch, which may not deactivate completely. We'll have a link in the show notes to a step-by-step type article to uninstalling and deactivating the MusicMatch Jukebox. Cool Site: Zooniverse.org: Last week, we had GalaxyZoo:Hubble. Two weeks ago, we had MoonZoo. This week's cool site is Zooniverse.org. This is the third in the Zoo series of sites, and the site itself is three years old. "The Zooniverse’s aim is to provide a home for a whole suite of projects which will enable anyone with a web browser to contribute to science." The Zooniverse is your portal to all these projects: GalaxyZoo:The Hunt for Supernovae, GalaxyZoo:Understanding Cosmic Mergers, Solar Stormwatch, GalaxyZoo:Hubble, and MoonZoo. The site's activities are on Twitter, and the site features an online store, the ZooShop. You'll also find a blog and a forum at the site, which has over 315,000 volunteers. You can sign up and take part in any or all of the projects going on at the site. It's run by the Citizen Science Alliance, and as a result, many education resources have been made available. By the way, if you want to go to the site and participate in making good science better, just sign up for an account. It's free.Cool Gadget: Zoll PocketCPR: This week's gadget is a lifesaver - literally. Zoll's PocketCPR device is intended to be used by someone who's already trained in CPR. During an emergency where CPR might be called for, it's easy to get flustered and forget what to do, even if you know. This device reminds you what to do with visual and audio instructions. You put this on the victim's chest before you get started, and you'll be given feedback as to whether you're doing it right. While the PocketCPR is FDA approved, Zoll also makes an iPhone app that isn't and should be used for training and practice only. The PocketCPR runs $149 and the iPhone app is $3.99 at iTunes. It runs on batteries that will last about 12 hours and the batteries have a 5 year shelf life. If they're low, the unit will say "change batteries", but you'll have about a half hour of battery left. You can use it with both CPR techniques: with and without mouth-to-mouth. Pretty cool.It's All "Geek" To Me: Portal: A bit ago, I said that the Zooniverse site is a portal to their projects. But what in the world is a portal? Besides a door, I mean. A portal is really nothing more than a good page to start browsing the web from. The more general-purpose a portal is, the more it will resemble a search engine, but the search engine will be a feature of the site, not its whole reason for being. You'll also find some more limited scope portals out there, like the Zooniverse, that are dedicated to one or a few topics. So, a portal is really just a good jumping off point.LinksHow do I disable MusicMatch Jukebox? On AskDaveTaylor.com:http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_disable_musicmatch_jukebox.htmlZooniverse:http://www.zooniverse.orgZoll PocketCPR at Gearlog:http://www.gearlog.com/2010/09/perform_cpr_correctly_with_poc.phpPortal on TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/portal

Episode 127: Question: Sandra asks, "How do I know if I have 32 or 64-bit Windows 7?"Answer: Great question Sandra. This is a question that comes up a lot when you are setting up a new computer using your old printers, cameras, and other devices. Remember that if you have 32-bit Windows, you need 32-bit drivers. If you have 64-bit Windows, you need 64-bit drivers. They've got to match. If you find yourself having to download a driver from a website like HP.com, you'll have to know what your Windows bit size is. To find out, click the Start button, then right-click Computer and left-click the Properties option. Another way to get there is to click Start, then click Control Panel, then System and Security, then System. From there, look for the words "System Type." Whatever follows those words answers the 32 or 64 bit question. Cool Site: GalaxyZoo: This week's cool site is GalaxyZoo. Want to see some really awesome pictures from the Hubble telescope? Check out this site. Hubble has generated so many pictures, Astronomers need your help. The site has Hubble Space Telescope pictures that include pictures of many galaxies. These galaxies each have a characteristic shape, which tells a lot about star formation within the galaxy. People are better at discovering strange things and classifying galaxy shapes than computers are; and they've noticed that your classifications of the galaxy shapes are just as good as those completed by professional astronomers. You can help by classifying the galaxy pictures, and in the meantime you'll find out what things are important to astronomers. You'll find a blog at the site, a forum, a media section which links to press releases and articles related to the site, and a couple of sections on "the story so far" and "the science". Finally, there’s a "How To Take Part" section that tells you how you can be a part of the classification effort. Check it out, see if you can help.Cool Gadget: DAK PC Interface Mixer: Do you remember the DAK catalog? I used to get that thing all the time. In fact, my first CD player and a tape deck I still have came from that catalog. Well, that catalog has gone online, at dak.com and while I was looking for a good USB turntable for the gadget, I ran across "13 reasons not to buy a USB turntable" and had to check it out. See, vinyl LPs are back, and in a big way! But whatever old albums you have are full of pops and scratches. The Interface Mixer lets you connect a record player to your computer to record your albums to MP3 files. While you're at it, you can remove pops and scratches in the music, separate the tracks, do a timed recording, burn CD's with no pauses between songs, tag the MP3 files as a batch, and remove talking and applause from the recordings you make. It seems pretty awesome. Besides that, you can use the interface mixer to make MP3s from cassette tapes too. Just connect a tape deck instead of a turntable. Anyway, it's pretty cool and you can get it in a package with a turntable, too for around $70.00.It's All "Geek" To Me: Piracy: This week's word is Piracy. This happens whenever someone installs and uses commercial software that they haven't paid for. Copying music or games to disc and then giving it to friends to install is a form of stealing. Now, some types of software: freeware, shareware for instance, can be copied and shared freely, but commercial software shouldn't. But by far, the most common type of piracy is buying one copy of a program and installing it on all the computers you own.LinksAnswering the 32 or 64 bit question:http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02033168&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us⟨=en&product=3811075GalaxyZoo:http://www.galaxyzoo.orgDAK PC Interface Mixer:http://www.dak.com/reviews/2020story.cfm?Ref=G&PM=LPCD&type=GSrch&Srh=usb_turntable&gclid=CM67nOvmxaMCFQuenAodx1LDYwPiracy on TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/piracy

Episode 126: Question: Elza asks, "I want to add two laptops to my High-Speed Internet. I already have a wireless router, but these computers will be in another room, so is that all I need?"Answer: Good question Elza. Whenever you need to connect another computer to your high speed Internet, you need a router, like you already have. The router has four ports for wired connections and wireless connections for as many computers as can receive the signal. Now, that "receive the signal" can be the tricky part. If you can, locate your router as near to the center of the house as possible. Or if you only use your computers in one area of the house, then locate it near there. In most houses, you can get an acceptable signal to go about 50 feet or so. The actual range you get will depend on the composition of the walls between the router and the computers. Your footage will vary, but the closer the better. Going between floors of in a multi-story house is another issue. The computers that are on a different floor from the router may have problems connecting, and will generally be less reliable, but it should work. What happens sometimes is that people forget the information they used to set up their routers initially. The things you need to know or remember are: Your SSID – this is the name of your wireless network. If you don't have security set up on your wireless network, this is all you need and Windows can tell you that. If you do have security set up on your wireless network, then you also need to know your security key. The security key will be long and cryptic if you let the software that came with your router set it. If you set it up, you should know what it is. I can't be too much more specific because you find several security protocols in use out there, each with its own standard for the key. The newest of the Linksys routers save or offer to save that information in a file on your computer. If you saved the information, you can just open that file and find the information you need. We'll have a link in the show notes for default router passwords. Cool Site: MoonZoo: This week’s site is MoonZoo.org. It's a site where you can explore the moon as never before. NASA has a satellite in orbit around the moon called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It has been sending images of the moon's surface back for a while and these images have been put online at Moon Zoo. The images from the satellite's camera have enough resolution to enable you to see, if you're careful, the Apollo landing sites and other space exploration stuff that's been left there over the years. You can even see Neil Armstrong's footprints as he explored the Little West crater, which gave us our first look into a lunar crater. There's a tutorial where you can see how you can help NASA analyze the orbiter's photos. There's a forum and a blog - common features of many websites now. You can also find a timeline of moon exploration, how the moon has been seen in culture and history, just about anything you might want to know about the moon will be here. Great for homeschoolers.Cool Gadget: Verbatim Insight 500GB External Hard Drive: Over at PC Mag.com we have a great back-to-school gadget: the Verbatim Insight 500GB External Hard Drive. External hard drives are great for college or high school students who often have big papers to write. Sometimes these papers have pictures and even videos attached to add to the bulk. The thing about this drive that makes it cool is an exterior display that tells you how much free space is left on the drive, even when the drive is off. Now, the display only updates when you plug or unplug the drive. It fits in a shirt pocket and has only one mini-USB plug for the included cable. It has a 5 year warranty and unlike some other external drives that have a free space meter, this one doesn't require drivers to make the display work. They run from $85-125. We'll link to PC Mag's review in the show notes.It's All "Geek" To Me: Trojan Horse: This week's term is Trojan horse. In Greek mythology, the city of Troy was besieged for years and had always been impenetrable. So, the Greek soldiers, apparently admitting their inability to breach the city, left a large wooden horse outside the city gate and withdrew. The citizens believed it to be a peace offering and brought it inside the gate. That night, Greek soldiers hiding within the horse came out and opened the gates so their comrades outside could conquer the city. In your computer, a Trojan horse program works similarly. It masquerades as something that's not harmful, but hides its intentions. Once installed on your computer, usually with your permission, it begins to download and install other software without your permission. Trojan horse programs won't replicate themselves like viruses do but then again, they don't have to.LinksDefault Router Passwords:http://www.routerpasswords.com/MoonZoo:http://www.moonzoo.org/Verbatim Insight 500GB External Hard Drive on PC Mag:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355980,00.aspTrojan Horse on TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/trojanhorse

Episode 125: Question: My desktop icons are missing, but I can open my desktop folder and see them. What's wrong?Answer: Great question. I can think of a couple of possibilities here. Some people are like me. I put everything on my desktop. Others like for their desktops to be empty or very nearly so. Because of this, Windows has a switch that turns off the desktop icons. Right-click the desktop, point to "arrange icons by". Check to be sure that "show desktop icons" is checked. In your case, this is probably going to be the answer because you said you can open the folder and see the icons. Another possibility is a corrupted profile folder. Your Documents and Settings (Users in Vista and Windows 7) folder has all or most all your stuff. It calls that your profile. If Windows notices that your profile is broken in some way, it can log you on using a temporary profile, which will be based on the default profile. That default profile won't have much in it so it will look like your icons are missing. Cool Site: VirusTotal: Have you ever wondered whether or not a file is a virus? Or, have you ever wondered if a website might infect your computer with a virus? Well, this week's site will help you detect these threats. Virustotal.com is a web service that gives you the opportunity to upload a suspect file or submit a web address. Files sent are scanned with several up-to-date antivirus engines to quickly detect whether or not a file is infected. Now, you shouldn't use the site to just check that your antivirus is OK because the detections may vary between what you have and what they use. Besides, it's possible that an infection you have allows it to hide from your antivirus, which would otherwise detect it. No solution is 100% effective in finding all viruses and malware. It's too much of a moving target. But VirusTotal comes close because its virus signatures for all engines are updated in real time, so as soon as new signatures become available, they get used. The site cautions that, while results from multiple antivirus engines are far more reliable than those from a single engine, this is no absolute guarantee that a file is completely harmless. If in doubt I suggest scanning the file again tomorrow. The site allows you to send files by email for scanning, as well as using the website. Firefox users can get their browser add-on that scans every file you download and also checks URLs. The site has a community section, which is a forum for users of the service, and a search box that you can use if you can't find the file itself.Cool Gadget: Sharpie Liquid Pencil: Well, it's back-to-school time. Wow! Where did the summer go? This week's gadget is just the thing for folks who like the erasability of pencils, and the permanence of pens. Sharpie is making a new "liquid pencil". Do you remember erasable pens? I loved them. This is similar but the reverse. Sharpie's pencil uses a liquid graphite and you can erase it if necessary, but you need to erase quickly. After three days, the liquid graphite dries and can no longer be erased. While not technically available until September, you can find them on Office Depot's website, where for $4.99 you can get two pencils and 6 erasers.It's All "Geek" To Me: Netiquette: This week's term is Netiquette. Sounds like etiquette, doesn't it? Great, you get it. Netiquette, simply put, is Internet Etiquette. All social interactions have rules that define what "acceptable behavior" means. For instance, writing emails in all caps is bad netiquette because it's the equivalent of shouting. The main areas where good netiquette is hugely important are email, online chat, newsgroups: in other words, the areas where people interact with one another most directly. You want to make a good first impression, and not inadvertently doing things that annoy or frustrate others is part of that and that is the big thing that netiquette refers to, how not to annoy others on the Internet.LinksVirusTotal:http://www.virustotal.comSharpie Liquid Pencil at Engadget:http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/09/sharpie-liquid-pencil-writes-and-erases-like-a-pencil-dries-lik/Sharpie Liquid Pencil on GearLog:http://www.gearlog.com/2010/08/pen_or_pencil_sharpie_says_bot.phpSharpie Liquid Pencil at Office Depot:http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/730116/Sharpie-Liquid-Pencil-05-mm-Opaque/Netiquette on TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/netiquette

Episode 124: Question: Pam asks, "Where did the idea of ‘Easter eggs’ in programs come from?"Answer: Great question Pam. Regular listeners to the program will remember that we talked about the concept of Easter eggs back in April, but we didn't go into it much more than that. No one's really certain when Easter eggs began to appear in software, but we have seen them going back as far as 1971. Sometimes these can get elaborate. I've seen the "Hall of Tortured Souls" game in Excel 95. In Excel 97, this game gave way to a flight simulator. Try this one: Start a game of Solitaire. Hold down the Alt and Shift buttons, then press the number 2. You win! One of the things Easter eggs used to be used for is detecting copyright infringement. If someone were to copy your software and just change the names of things, then when you get in court, all you have to do is to activate the Easter egg to prove they did it. The name itself is said to be a reference to an Atari game from 1979 called "Adventure", where a secret message was left by the game's programmer. Cool Site: America Speaking Out: Lately it seems, nobody in Washington is listening to us and nothing we do matters. Well there's a website that will at least give you a way to sound off. That site is America-speaking-out.com. The site was set up by House Republicans to give the average citizen a place to share ideas. Ideas about how to fix the things that are broken in the country. You can sign up for an account, or sign in using your Facebook account. You get points for sharing ideas, for voting thumbs up or thumbs down for the ideas of others, or for posting a response to others' ideas. You might be surprised what other people think. I don't know what the points can be used for, but maybe they'll come up with something soon.Cool Gadget: Thought-Controlled Prosthetic Arm: SyFi's DVICE is the source of this week's gadget. Not really a gadget per se, it's a prosthetic arm. But whereas the best prosthetic arms we have now are controlled with your feet, this one is controlled by your thoughts. Surgeons will implant sensors on the patient's brain. The arm will read those signals and move accordingly. It's also supposed to be able to send signals back to the patient as well. Quadriplegics will be the first candidates for this new arm because they don't have the option of using their feet. If it works as advertised, it should begin to change everything.It's All "Geek" To Me: Kludge: This week's term is kludge. It refers to a means of solving a problem that's functional, but not terribly well-designed or thought out. It's similar to the term hack, in that both terms refer to nonstandard ways of solving problems. The difference is that whereas a hack can be considered elegant, a kludge is not. Kludges are generally temporary and tend to become unwieldy over time.LinksEaster Eggs on Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(virtual)America Speaking Out:http://www.americaspeakingout.com/Thought Controlled Prosthetic Arm:http://dvice.com/archives/2010/08/tought-controll.phpKludge on Webopedia:http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/K/kludge.htmlKludge on PC Magazine:http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,,t=&i=45831,00.asp

Episode 123: Question: Question from Class, "On Twitter, can you delete tweets? Is it like E-Mail? Do those messages take up space on my computer?" Answer: Great questions. For any of our listeners who aren't familiar with Twitter, it's a free "micro blogging" service. Twitter lets you send messages (called tweets) of up to 140 characters to other Twitter users who "follow" you. To follow someone means that you receive their tweets. When they post something, you get it, possibly as a text message on your cell phone. You are able to delete the tweets you have posted. You can't delete the tweets you've received from others, but you can choose to stop following them if they do something you don't like. You might get some spam from time to time, but you can report any spam tweets you've received right on your Twitter page. Tweets are all stored on Twitter's servers, so they don't take up any space on your computer at all. Cool Site: AttendVLS: Most or all of our listeners' local churches are having Vacation Bible School, really winding down at this point, I guess. Well, the Kentucky 9/12 group took a look at Vacation Bible School and wanted to do something similar to educate our kids on History, the Constitution, and our Founders. They came up with Vacation Liberty School and their site is at attendvls.org. First of all, I love the concept: if the schools won't teach the truth of our founding, we'll teach it ourselves. At this site, you'll find videos of VLS in action, you'll also find lots of resources to plan your own VLS: a detailed lesson plan, links pointing to many original sources of information like the Constitution, the Declaration, the Bill of Rights, the National Constitution Center, and many others. Vacation Liberty School is intended for kids Ages 10-15, and is intended to help them experience for themselves many of the things that make our nation great. One paragraph from their website says, quote: At a Vacation Liberty School your children will be sent on daily journey back to the founding of our nation and learn the truth about our history and the impact faith had on both the founding fathers and the foundation of our country. Learn the role of Faith in the Revolutionary War and discover the Black Robe Brigade See how faith influenced Samuel Adams and other founding fathers Learn the story of the Constitutional Convention Learn the story of the Constitutional Convention Understand what "equal justice" means Realize through activities the balance between liberty and tyranny. This is an awesome site to check out as we head into the election season, and the great thing is it's mostly faith-based. At every turn, the faith of our founders is emphasized; the values and principles they espoused are taught. Read their curriculum. I can almost guarantee you, you'll learn something you didn't know. Cool Gadget: iSafe Backpack: From Gearlog comes this week's cool gadget. It's almost back-to-school time and it'll be time to get a new backpack. Consider the iSafe backpack. At $60 it seems a bit pricey to me, but the great thing about this backpack is that it has a built-in panic alarm. If your son or daughter is being bullied or something, a quick yank on a strap activates the panic alarm. They offer several different models of backpack, all including the panic alarm and a replacement policy. When you buy an iSafe backpack and wear it out, you can send it back and get a new one at a 50% discount. The alarm will go off for up to 2 hours solid, or you can pull the alarm, replace the pin, and then pull it again later. This is useful if you're lost in the woods or something and need to make noise but you don't know for how long. It's All "Geek" To Me: Botnet: This week's term is Botnet. Certain viruses and malware have the ability to turn off your firewall, or open holes in it. Hackers use such malware to run programs on infected computers. The programs may simply send several hundred spam emails, or they may attempt to infect other computers with viruses. The programs the hacker executes on your computer are called bots. The computers controlled by the hacker's bots are called a botnet. Links Attend VLS: http://www.attendvls.org iSafe Backpack at Gearlog: http://www.gearlog.com/2010/07/keep_your_kids_safe_with_the_i.php iSafe Backpack: http://www.isafebags.org/@home.asp Botnet at TechTerms: http://www.techterms.com/definition/botnet Spotlighting the Botnet Business Model: http://blog.trendmicro.com/spotlighting-the-botnet-business-model/

Episode 122: Question: Sylvia writes, "I wrote you about a year ago and you were so gracious to help me with that problem. Now I have another situation and I don't know what is causing it. For several weeks my computer has been making humming or racing sounds while I'm on the internet. I can't really describe it but it is weird. It didn't do this in the past but it does it every time I'm on the internet and it even affects my printer. It does that racing noise and takes longer than usual to print something. I know this may sound vague or strange but have you heard of anyone's computer doing this? Thank you David for whatever info you can provide." Answer: Good question Sylvia. The sound you're hearing can be coming from three possible places. The first is the optical drive (CD or DVD). The second is a fan. Humming is usually a fan, especially if its a "bumpy" hum, but racing is usually the optical drive. When you hear that sound, look for a light on the CD/DVD drive; if it’s on or blinking, you might try putting a disc in the drive to see if that helps. Once we figure out where the sound is coming from, we'll know what, if anything, to replace. The third is a floppy drive if you have one. I've seen situations where for no apparent reason, the floppy drive light will come on and stay that way while the drive bumps and hums for a few seconds and then it stops. Cool Site: ReasonableFaith: Have you ever wondered how to answer the objections of atheists? If so, take a look at ReasonableFaith.org. This is the website of Dr. William Lane Craig. He's written several books, the latest being On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. I've read portions of that book and it's got great arguments that don't necessarily depend on first believing that the Bible is true, which atheists won't. If you haven't read it, you'll find the first chapter of the book on the site. There's an excellent Q&A archive that gets a little technical at times, but is great. You'll also find a newsletter, podcasts, a blog, a forum for discussions, and many different articles. If you register to use the site, much more material will be made available to you, like the forums for instance. Registration is free and doesn't require much time. For those who are interested, the site also has information on how to set up a Reasonable Faith chapter at your school or church. If you'd like to see Dr. Craig in person, his speaking calendar is also available at the site. ReasonableFaith.org Cool Gadget: Antenn-Aid: Their site says "Apple made a boo-boo. Make it all better". If you're not familiar with all the brouhaha, it turns out that Apple's new iPhone 4 has a design flaw. A week or so ago Apple CEO Steve Jobs came out and said that the problem was in software. It's not. What happens is that if you grip your iPhone 4 a certain way, your signal strength will fall off and calls will drop. Apple says they'll give free bumpers to any iPhone 4 user that wants one. This week's gadget isn't included in that giveaway, but Antenn-Aid is a bumper that's similar to the duct-tape remedy others have mentioned. It's little more than a piece of duct-tape dressed up as an adhesive bandage. As such, it claims to be for entertainment purposes only and may not work. But many people say that the duct tape thing works, and this looks better than that. You get 6 for about 5 bucks plus shipping. It's All "Geek" To Me: Metadata: This week's term is metadata. You often see this term around music files because when it comes to some kinds of files, you have data, and then you have the data about the data. By that, I mean that you have the music file, and that's the data. On the other hand, you also have information about the song. Information like Album Title, Artist, Track Number, Musical Genre, and even the Album Art are all data items about this file. That's the metadata. Pictures might have the date and time they were taken, the kind of camera used, even your GPS coordinates when the picture was snapped. That's metadata - the data describing the data. Links Reasonable Faith: http://www.reasonablefaith.org Antenn-Aid: http://antenn-aid.com/ Metadata on TechTerms: http://www.techterms.com/definition/metadata

Episode 121: Question: Jeff asks, "I'm trying to upgrade my hp laptop running Windows Vista to Windows 7. It says I need to remove something called Verisoft Access Manager, but I don't see it listed in control panel. Can you help?"Answer: Great question Jeff. Your problem is quite a common one. I've fixed it before, but it's a bit technical. I'll have a link in the show notes so that you can go to hp's website, download the Verisoft software and then install it. You'll also need another program, called Revo Uninstaller to help you out. Install both programs and reboot. Then use the Revo uninstaller to help take the Verisoft software off. Remove everything Revo finds. That may get you where you need to be. Let me know how that goes for you. Cool Site: EmulatorZone: This week, we've got a cool site that's seriously retro. At emulatorzone.com, you'll find downloadable emulator software to let your computer run everything from old Atari 2600 games to Xbox, Wii, and Playstation. All those old games we used to play as kids, can now be played on your computer again. I've been playing some of my old Commodore 64 games and some of the old Atari games. I know it sounds silly, but with all of the advances in games that are available now, I find myself playing Atari Space Invaders or Zork. The site has forums, a brand new blog which doesn't get updated often, an RSS feed, articles and links to other sites. But the main purpose of the site is to call attention to the emulators, and that's just cool.Cool Gadget: PSX64: In keeping with the retro theme our cool site begun, Synthetic Dreams has a card available that will let you connect Playstation controllers to a Commodore 64's joystick port. You do have to have a real Commodore 64 or any other of the older game systems that use a nine-pin joystick. This is cool because I didn't know that anyone was still making anything for the 64, much less something new. The PSX64 also comes with a game called Shredz64 that is a Guitar Hero clone. The game uses this interface connected to a real Playstation Guitar controller. The interface also supports 4 different macros up to 127 button presses each. It runs $39 and is available at the Synthetic Dreams website. Why do we care about all this old stuff? Because the Commodore 64 is (still, I think) the best selling computer system of all time.It's All "Geek" To Me: Mashup: This week's term is mashup. This term originally described a song that combined two different musical styles. For instance putting the words of one song to the tune of a song of a different style is a mashup. As time has gone by, it's become more the combination of two dissimilar styles of video, or web applications, or whatever. So a mashup is a combination of dissimilar things into something that works.LinksBioscrypt Verisoft Access Manager:http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-49006-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&os=2093&product=3185028&sw_lang=Revo Uninstaller:http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.htmlEmulatorzone:http://www.emulator-zone.comSynthetic Dreams PSX64:http://www.synthdreams.com/psx64.phpShredz64 in Action (Part 1) on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyCMM6e1LboShredz64 in Action (Part 2) on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52gcC3Sn-GwMashup on TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/mashup

Episode 120: Question: A listener asks, "I got a Facebook email from someone I know. It was a sob story about how they had taken a surprise vacation to London and got their luggage stolen. The thieves got almost everything they had and they were stranded there. I sent a message back saying I'd be praying for them and to let me know if there was anything I could do. I got a response asking for $1800 to be sent via Western Union. I didn't do it, but have I messed up? Have I exposed myself to any viruses, spyware, or identity theft?"Answer: Great question. OK, the first thing I'd say is that you're glad you didn't send the money, because this is an absolute scam. As I spoke to this listener, I was told that the Facebook friend's account had been compromised, the password had been changed and now the true person whose Facebook account this was couldn't even get into the account anymore to tell anyone this is a scam. Knowing that the account is compromised, you next want to verify that you don't have any malware, just to be sure. That way if there is something, you'll know where it came from. Update all your anti-malware software and run full scans. Then maybe try an online scanner like Trend Micro's Housecall, just to be sure you're in the clear. Most likely you don't have any exposure, but just be sure. To help the person who can't reclaim their account, go into Facebook. Click Account in the upper right hand corner of the page, then click Help Center. Once you get into the help center, look under Using Facebook and click Security. We'll have a direct link in the show notes directly to this page. From this page, you can report the breach. Cool Site: Earthcam.com: This week's cool site is earthcam.com. Lots of people have webcams. Most laptops today come with them already installed. But several places have set up webcams that just focus on one thing, like the entrance to Chicago's Wrigley Field, or the Sixth Floor at Dealey Plaza. At earthcam.com, you can take a look at the views of hundreds or thousands of webcams from all over the world. The site also puts together videos and slide shows like the one showing some stunning fireworks pictures from July 4th. You'll find a search box where you can look for whatever you're interested in: traffic cameras, cities, famous landmarks. Some people put webcams on their pets, others on their bosses, so some of them are kind of pointless, but if you'd like to take a trip around the world without ever leaving home, check out earthcam.com.Cool Gadget: Wetcircuits water resistant power strip: This is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. We need surge protection for our computers; even better, use an uninterruptible power supply. But what about places like garages or outdoors where a power strip might get wet? This power strip works even if you get it wet. I mean, you can turn it on and immerse it for up to two hours before there's any danger. You can also stick a pair of tweezers into the outlets and you won't get shocked, even when that outlet is wet. It won't short out, you can take a light and plug into the wet outlets and it'll turn on. This thing's awesome. I don't know if it does surge protection, but even if not, the waterproof aspect is cool.It's All "Geek" To Me: XML: Our last podcast-related term is XML. XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. It refers to a specially formatted text file that can be used to store and transport data. XML files use tags similar to web pages that define the layout of the data stored in the file. It's intended to be easy to learn and use. XML is the format that is used to write RSS feed files. You can create and edit these files with Notepad if you want, so you don't need some special program to work with them. It's easier if you just see XML, so check the show notes, where we'll have a link to a whole series teaching XML in detail.LinksSecurity Page on Facebook (may require logon first):http://www.facebook.com/help/?ref=drop#!/help/?page=420Earthcam:http://www.earthcam.comWetCircuits:http://www.wetcircuits.comXML on TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/xmlXML on W3Schools:http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

Episode 119: Question: Question from Kathy: "I accidentally backed my chair over my printer cable and it broke the USB port. When I tried to restart my computer, the power comes on, but it won't boot. What can be wrong?"Answer: Great question. Check that USB port very closely. It has a piece of plastic that keeps the contacts where they belong. The other thing that plastic does is to make sure you can't plug into it wrongly. If that breaks, you should make sure that the contacts don't touch each other or the sides of the USB port. If this happens, it creates a short and since USB is a bootable technology, your computer may not be able to boot. To fix it, you'll need to have that port repaired. If you have a USB hub, I suggest replacing it. If this is a port that is built into your computer, then you will have to have it serviced. It may mean the replacement of the motherboard, or it may mean the complete removal of that USB port. Removing the port will be less expensive than replacing the motherboard. Cool Site: : This week, we're taking a break from apologetics to look at a little something that's just for fun on this holiday weekend. Roblox.com is "a kid-friendly place on the internet where your children can exercise their creativity in a moderated online environment." What that means is that you and your kids sign up for accounts (there are both parent and kid accounts) and the site gives the kids a virtual online building game with moderated interactions. The site is designed for kids from 8-18, but is open to anyone. You choose an avatar and give it an identity. You can then start to create things in this almost infinite playground. Your avatar has an area and a toolbox. Using the tools, you build things just like you might with Lego or some of the other plastic building bricks. You can create games, places for others to explore, all kinds of stuff. Members can earn badges and ROBUX with which they can shop the online catalog for more tools, building materials, stuff like that. You can play alone, or with others, it's completely up to you. The site can be enjoyed completely free, or by joining the Builders Club for at most $6 per month, the ads go away, and the kids are able to get better stuff from the catalog. This is really the model that most sites are beginning to employ: free basic service, and paid premium service.Cool Gadget: Bringrr: A few weeks back we looked at the Zomm, which makes sure you keep your cell phone close by. What if you just want to be sure you've got it with you when you get in the car? Gearlog has an article about the Bringrr. Bringrr is a device that plugs into the car’s power outlet (we used to call them cigarette lighters). It pairs to your cell phone via Bluetooth, and when you start your car, it looks for the phone. If your phone is in your car, Bringrr will beep and light up in blue. If it doesn't find it, an alarm goes off and the light changes from blue to red to let you know you've forgotten your phone. It runs about $35, which is a lot more expensive than a note stuck on the back of the front door, but it's also a lot harder to ignore. They have a second model that incorporates a car charger for $10 more, called Bringrr Charge.It's All "Geek" To Me: RSS: This week, we're going to continue our terminology related to podcasting. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a specification for a file called an RSS Feed. An RSS Feed is a text file that your web browser or another program downloads periodically. The file follows a specific format, which we'll talk about next week, and contains articles. The articles can be about anything, and many news sites or blogs have this feature. Twitter has it also. You subscribe to the feed, and your feed reader lets you know whenever new stuff is available. An article can have an enclosure, similar to an attachment in an email, and this is how podcasts are distributed.LinksRoblox:http://www.roblox.com/Bringrr on Gearlog:http://www.gearlog.com/2010/06/bringrr_brings_you_a_helpful_r.phpBringrr on Bringrr.com:http://www.bringrr.com/RSS on TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/rssWhat is RSS? RSS Explained:http://www.whatisrss.com/RSS on Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSSYouTube Video: RSS in Plain English:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

Episode 118: Question: I'm replacing my computer. Do you recommend getting a desktop, laptop, or a netbook? Answer: Great question. The answer really depends on what you expect to do with it. If you want a computer that gives you high power at a lower cost, with maximum expandability, you want a desktop, especially if you're not planning on taking it places. On the other hand, if you want a computer that will go wherever you go, you don't want a desktop. Instead, you want one of the other, more mobile options. A netbook makes a good second computer. They're powerful, their batteries last forever, you know, but that's partly because they're small and don't have a built-in optical drive. The regular notebook system can replace a desktop and go with you. Because of that, they are currently the hottest selling class of computer. So, which should you get? It's up to you really, but use those guidelines to help you decide. Cool Site: Pizap: This week's cool website is Pizap.com. I can't pronounce it, but I can spell it. If you have Adobe Photoshop, you can do some really creative things with your photos. What if you don't? Well, there's pixlr, which we've looked at before, and several other sites, like Pizap. Pizap lets you upload your photos, then add stickers to them, change your hairstyle, put on a pair of glasses or some funky sunglasses, or any of a few dozen other things. One of the things that makes Pizap different is that it's designed to be used with social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook, Friendster, MySpace and several others. You can also download or email your creations. Even better, it's all free because the site is supported by advertisements. Cool Gadget: Playstation Move: The Wii has been a real game-changer in the gaming world. Last week, we had the Xbox's Wii act-alike. This week, we have Sony's Playstation Move. The Move is a couple of different controllers that work with the Playstation Eye, which is a camera, to allow you to either navigate the Playstation 3's interface or play games. The navigation controller will be $30, while the gaming controller will run $50. There will be a charger base that charges two controllers for $30. When the devices become available in mid-September, they'll be supported by up to 20 games. Sony will be making some bundles available that include the controllers, chargers, and games. Check out the show notes for videos showing the Move in action. It's All "Geek" To Me: Podcast: This week's geeky term is Podcast. Looking back at our previous show notes, I found that we have often used this term without really defining it. The term podcast comes from the combination of iPod and Broadcast, but don't feel left out if, like me, you don't have an iPod. A podcast is nothing more than an audio or increasingly, video file that's been placed on iTunes or a website for download. The audio or video files are generally, but not always, produced by amateurs. For instance, all or almost all previous Tech Tip Friday shows are available at daconsult.com as .MP3 files. Ideally, they should be episodes, and have a method for subscribing and automatically downloading new episodes. We'll look at that part next week. Links 28 Online Photo Editing Websites to Have Fun With: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/resources/28-online-photo-editing-websites-to-have-fun-with/ Pixlr: http://www.pixlr.com Pizap.com: http://www.pizap.com Playstation Move on Gearlog: http://www.gearlog.com/2010/06/sony_divulges_prices_for_the_p.php Hands on with the Move on PCMag: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361640,00.asp Podcast on TechTerms: http://www.techterms.com/definition/podcast

Episode 117: Question: Geraley asks, "All of a sudden, Windows has started saying it's not genuine. Why does it do that?"Answer: Good question Geraley. First of all, let me reassure you that this particular message is not a fake. That message in and of itself is not spyware. There are three reasons that I have seen why Windows would say it's not genuine. The first reason, and one you should always check first, is malware. See, the message is not malware but I've found that malicious software will often do things that break Windows Genuine Advantage, so I never trust this message until I check for and get rid of malware. One thing this means is that you won't be able to use Microsoft Security Essentials to get rid of the malware, as it requires you pass genuine-ness checks. Check out our AntiMalware Toolkit, and use one of the online scanners to check it out first. The second is if it's true. To be properly licensed, your computer needs to have three things: 1) An installation disc, 2) a Certificate of Authenticity which should be stuck to your computer's case somewhere, 3) A copy of the Manual; in many cases little more than a brochure. If you have all that, and you know you don't have any malware, then the third reason is if you have a pre-release edition of Windows 7. Those just recently timed out and are considered non-genuine. Cool Site: Apologetics.org: This week's website is apologetics.org. Regular listeners will notice that we've been concentrating on this kind of site for the past month now. This is partly because I've been looking for information lately on Intelligent Design, just exactly what it is, and what it isn't. Apologetics.org is the official website of the C.S. Lewis society. There's a blog, a list of resources, a listing of events, a small online store, and feedback and donate links. The site is almost entirely dedicated to debunking Darwinism, but what I read takes more of a logical and philosophical rather than scientific tone. The site appears to have recently undergone a redesign and all the menu links don't work quite right, but hey, it's the C.S. Lewis society. That's just cool all by itself.Cool Gadget: Microsoft Kinect: Microsoft goes through phases with their product names. The first phase was using version numbers just like everyone else. The next phase was using year numbers. That basically went away with Windows XP. There was the "Active" phase, where everything was called "Active"X, "Active"sync, "Active" something. Now, with the release of their phone, the Kin, they've started a new phase. This past week they unveiled something they call Kinect. It's like Wii for the Xbox 360, but it doesn't require controllers. Pricing details won't be available until its release in November, just in time for the Christmas rush, but there are already several games available that can take advantage of it. Just check out the show notes for links to all the details.It's All "Geek" To Me: Rootkit: This week's term refers to a type of malware. This week's term is rootkit. A rootkit is a type of malicious software that is designed to give an unauthorized individual full access to your computer. Rootkits are also designed to be hard to detect. It's a type of malware that is very akin to the old-school viruses we used to see because they started up before DOS did and they hid from us. The term is a compound word "root" meaning administrator; "kit" meaning the software that makes up the malware.LinksAntimalware Toolkit:http://www.daconsult.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=76Apologetics.Org:http://www.apologetics.org/Google Search Results for "Kinect":http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=kinect&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=CPpg_5BsaTNbDAofAzQS3rZWfAwAAAKoEBU_QClmL&fp=793ccc8bd068d8a9Kinect on Xbox.com:http://www.xbox.com/en-US/kinectKinect coverage from Gearlog/PCMag:http://www.gearlog.com/2010/06/microsoft_rechristens_project.php(Note: Check the YouTube related videos for some cool stuff from the show)Rootkit on TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/rootkit

Episode 116: Question: Karen asks, "Do you recommend that people get a real mouse for a laptop?" Answer: Great question, Karen. Laptops used to not come with any pointing device at all built-in. If you wanted one, you could buy a mouse, or Microsoft made a little trackball you operated with your thumb. Toshiba popularized the pointing stick, a little joystick between the G and H keys. Finally, the touchpad came out and it won the war of the pointers, as I like to say. With that said, the answer is really up to you. I personally have always loved the touchpad interface that laptops come with now. I think I'd like a touch-enabled screen, as well. But I find that many people are more comfortable working with a real mouse, whether it's an inexpensive wired one or a wireless model that costs a bit more. "Different strokes for different folks," as they say. Be aware of this if you do choose to buy a mouse for your laptop: you won't be able to work effectively with your computer sitting on your lap. You'll need a place to operate that mouse wherever you are. That may not be a big deal for your situation. Maybe you aren't looking at working on a plane or bus or something of that nature. I also suggest trying out several mice in a store where you can actually hold the mouse in your hand. You already know what a regular mouse feels like, but many of the mice that are sold as laptop companions are tiny and may take a little getting used to. So, do I recommend buying a mouse? Yes, if you want one or if you just don’t like using the touchpad. Cool Site: Evidence for God from Science: Our cool site this week is GodAndScience.org. It's a site run by Richard Deem who used to volunteer for Reasons To Believe that seems to be geared toward helping the atheist see the truth of scripture and that God exists. There are articles on Design vs. Evolution, Abortion, Common atheist myths, Criticisms of Christianity and much more. Some of the articles get pretty heavy into molecular biology, like one on the problem with the origin of homochirality. These were way outside the envelope of what I know, but fortunately the article had plenty of terms with "pop up" definitions available. A "pop up" definition is one you can access by pointing at a marked word. The definition pops up over the word on the page. But the site's not all pointy-headed science. You'll find movie reviews, a discussion forum, a humor section, and more. It looks like a great resource. Cool Gadget: WD TV Live Plus: This week, we've got a multimedia gadget from a company not normally associated with multimedia. That company is Western Digital, and this week's gadget is the WD TV Live Plus media player. It supports HD content in full 1080p. If you have Windows 7, this unit supports using the "play to" feature to send your media to the TV. It also supports Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, Pandora and others. You can play content stored on a USB drive or a network drive. While streaming a DVD to the TV, you can control the menus on the DVD with the included remote control. The biggest drawback to the unit is that it doesn't have wireless networking capability, but that's understandable. Wired is faster anyway. It runs about $150. It's All "Geek" To Me: Tethering: This week, we've got a word that you really may have heard and not known what it meant: Tethering. To "tether" means using your cell phone as a modem for your laptop or PDA. This gives you Internet access anywhere you can get a data-capable cell signal. Tethering got its name because it used to require a cable. Now, with Bluetooth technology, it can be done cordlessly, you just need tethering software. Just be sure to check your cellular service plan first. Some don't allow it, others charge an additional fee. Even if tethering is allowed on your phone and included in your bill, you often find limits on the amount of data you can transfer per month. Links Mobile Computing: Safer Pointing Devices from PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/article/112163/mobile_computing_safer_pointing_devices.html Evidence for God from Science: http://www.godandscience.org Evidence for God from Science on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Evidence-for-God-from-Science/66146097899 WD TV at GearLog: http://www.gearlog.com/2010/06/western_digital_unveils_new_se.php WD TV: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=832 Tethering at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethering What is tethering at About.com: http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/phonesformobileworkers/f/what-is-tethering.htm How to Tether at SmartDeviceCentral: http://www.smartdevicecentral.com/article/howto+roundup+modem+tethering/215961_1.aspx

Episode 115: Question: A listener asks, "Which antimalware package do you recommend?" Answer: This is a good question, for a number of reasons. The first thing to note is that I don't recommend just a single antimalware product. In fact, having a few is a good thing. You just don't want more than one of them scanning everything that you do because that would slow down even the fastest computers. You do, however, want one of them doing that. I've used Microsoft Security Essentials for a bit now, and find that I like it pretty well. It finds most everything I've thrown at it. The best thing is, it's free and doesn't try to do too much. Some programs like Norton 360 really try to do way more than just antivirus and antispyware. They wind up slowing your system way more than necessary. For home use, I really recommend checking out our antimalware toolkit where we have links to three free programs you can try out. Try them all if you want, but not all at once. Cool Site: 4Truth: This week, I've found another site with apologetics information: 4truth.net. 4truth is a site run by the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. It has information on evangelizing cults, about other denominations, new religions and world religions. Many of the articles on the site are in PDF form, so you'll need Adobe or Foxit reader to read these. The good thing about PDF's is that you can download and print these for use in Sunday school or evangelism classes. There's a big section for Youth and how to deal with the various belief systems they might encounter. The blog has answers to questions like, "Can God kill Himself?". This particular question was asked by a skeptic, and yet it's a question you might face. It's a good site to prepare to meet the outside world. The rapture's coming soon - it almost has to be. Even if not, we're commanded to be prepared. Cool Gadget: Zomm Bluetooth Alarm: This week's gadget is called the Zomm and is made by a company of the same name. It is a Bluetooth device that, when paired up with your cell phone, will make sure you have it close by. If you get over 30 feet away from your phone, the Zomm will start to vibrate, flash, and sound an alarm. It's a great gadget if you tend to set your phone down and then forget about it. Now, if that was all it did, that would be cool, but it wouldn't be worth $80. It also adds speakerphone capabilities to your phone, but this last feature is probably the most important. Let's say you find yourself in danger and need help. Press the button in the center of the Zomm for 9 seconds and it will sound a panic alarm. Keep holding the button down and it will automatically dial 911. If your situation doesn't allow you to speak, the Zomm will play a recording asking the operator to send help immediately. This way, you get many of the same features of that "I've fallen and I can't get up" device in a more portable form. It would be really great for seniors. They'll be available in July at Best Buy or we'll have a direct link to their website in the show notes. It's All "Geek" To Me: ASCII: You might have heard how a computer can only store 1's and 0's. You might have thought to yourself, "If that's true, how can computers store things like words or text?" This week's word begins to answer that question. The term is ASCII (pronounced ASK-key). It stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, and it defines how letters are encoded as numbers which can be stored in a computer. It defines 256 characters which run the gamut of most languages based on our alphabet. Remember how you used to do that cipher where the number 1 represented the letter A, 2 represented a B and so on? Well, this is the same idea, only a capital 'A' is represented by the number 65; a little 'a' by the number 97. Of those 256 codes, the first 128 are standardized. The second 128 aren’t and can be used by different computer makers in whatever way they see fit. Why 256? In binary, a single byte can only hold numbers from 0 to 255, or 256 possible values. Links AntiMalware Toolkit: http://www.daconsult.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=76 Foxit Software: http://www.foxitsoftware.com 4Truth: http://www.4truth.net Zomm on Gearlog: http://www.gearlog.com/2010/06/the_zomm_has_arrived.php Zomm: http://www.zomm.com ASCII at TechTerms: http://www.techterms.com/definition/ascii ASCII Table: http://www.asciitable.com

Episode 114: Question: A listener asks, "How do I remove entries from the 'My Recent Documents' list?" Answer: Good question. The My Recent Documents list is a menu item on the start button of Windows XP. In Vista and Windows 7 it's called Recent Items, but Windows 7 doesn't show it by default. The entries you find on that list are just shortcuts to the files they represent. If you delete one, you don’t delete the file it pointed to. On the other hand, if you've already deleted the file, there's no point in having a shortcut to it anymore. So, click the start button and point to the My Recent Documents (or Recent Items) list. When it opens, click your right mouse button on the shortcut you want to get rid of and choose Delete. It's really that simple. On the other hand, if you want to empty the list altogether, then go to the show notes for today and we'll have a link there to an article over at Microsoft's website that tells you how to do just that. Cool Site: Rational Christianity: If you have questions, your pastor should always be your first stop, but if he's unavailable, or if you're the pastor, check out this site. It's a good place to go when you get a question you're not sure how to deal with. At Rational Christianity dot Net, you'll find answers to about 200 questions that answer objections to Christianity, the resolutions of many supposed contradictions, reasons to believe, and other answers for skeptics. In stark contrast to most of the websites out there, this site's design is very simple and seems to be modeled on Google. No graphics, minimal text on the main page. There's a search box, but I found it more useful to just browse the articles. All the articles I read had a list of links at the bottom for more information and expansions of the views expressed there. As an example, one article called "Who are the sons of God and the Nephilim?" showed three different views (I only knew of two), the pros and cons of them and an assessment of their strength. This article had links at the bottom that point to more information by people who argue for the various interpretations. Cool Gadget: Smartti ION AC Charger: This week's gadget is for anyone who's ever run out of battery power in the middle of a phone call. We have the Smartti ION AC Charger. It is a credit card-size ultra slim power bank (USB type). 5V. It's designed to provide high-quality, power-on-the-go, backup power for your iPhones, iPods, cell-phones and all devices with 5V or less. The iON features a Li-ion rechargeable internal battery cell, built-in standard USB input for recharge, standard USB output (included), standard barrel connector (included), iPhone/iPod connector TIP (included), soft carrying case (included) and power-level indicator. It runs about $30, but is worth a whole lot more than that when your battery gets low. This is a Dad's day gadget he can really use. It's All "Geek" To Me: POP3: This week's term is POP3. With Father's Day coming up, POP's a good one, but this one is an acronym. POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol version 3. It's the language your email program uses to go out and get your email and deliver it to you if you use a program like Outlook Express to get your email. If you read your email with Internet Explorer or Firefox or some other web browser, you are using webmail, not POP3. While there are pros and cons to both methods, what happens is that your email comes into your Internet Provider's mail server, and the POP3 server takes that mail and puts it into your mailbox. Later, you start Outlook and it goes out to the mailbox and gets your mail so you can read it, and that process is called POP3. Links Clearing the 'My Recent Documents' list: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307875 Rational Christianity: http://www.rationalchristianity.net/ Smartti iON AC Charger at VirTech: http://www.virtech.ca/detailProduct.php?str=SM-19CHARGER&currency=USD POP3 on Techterms: http://www.techterms.com/definition/pop3

Episode 113: Question: A question from class: "What is the difference between Insert and Overstrike mode?" Answer: On your keyboard, you'll find a key labeled "INS" or "Insert". When you press the key, nothing seems to happen. But what happens is that the computer switches from Insert to Overstrike mode. When you use a word processor, or perhaps enter text into other kinds of programs, the difference will become apparent. The default is Insert mode. In this mode, you'll find that when you type new text in the middle of a sentence, the new letters you type cause the old text to move and spread out to make room for that new stuff. On the other hand, when you press Insert, you switch into overstrike mode. In this mode, typing new text in the middle of a sentence will cause the new letters to overwrite the old ones, letter by letter. This is most often not what you want to happen, and becomes an annoyance. The good thing is that this key is a toggle. Press Insert again, and the mode will change back. Microsoft Word has an indicator in the status bar at the bottom of the screen that tells you which mode you're in. It says OVR and is usually grayed out. This indicates Insert mode. If OVR appears in black, it indicates Overstrike mode. Cool Site: Cookin' For College: This week's site, Cookin' For College is the website of an Internet based cooking show done by a college sophomore in Georgia. The show's on YouTube, with Facebook, and Twitter pages also. The first paragraph on his opening page says, "A cooking show dedicated to helping college students and more make fast, affordable, and flavor packed meals." His name is Arthur King and of course, he knows all about college students that have no money. Arthur ultimately wants to get a cooking show on the Food Network and has pitched his show to Paula Deen's people, so maybe it'll happen. Anyway, you can find many good recipes here that are quick to fix. Because YouTube limits video submissions to ten minutes, the episodes are quick to watch and generally have around a $10 budget. Recipes include Roast Beef Melt, Chicken Parmesan, Spinach & Mushroom Quesadillas, Home Made Chicken Fingers & Sweet Potato Fries, and many more, including tips for some of the recipes. Cool Gadget: Robot USB Hub: From coolest-gadgets comes today's cool gadget. It's a USB Hub that looks like a robot. Great for a kid's computer, or anyone who likes robots. The arms and legs of the robot are the ports where you plug your USB devices. The arms and legs are articulated, which is nice because to plug something into one of the feet, you'll have to sit your robot down. It accepts an AC adapter but doesn't come with one. Several colors are available: black, red, pink, blue, yellow, and a sort of teal or turquoise. They're cute as all get out and run about $19. It's All "Geek" To Me: Modifier Key: Our 'All Geek To Me' term this week is Modifier Key. Now, this is just a fancy, but accurate, name for the Shift key on a typewriter. On a typewriter you only have one modifier key. On your computer, you have at least three: Shift, Ctrl, and Alt. Each of these keys does nothing on its own. But when you hold down one or more of the modifier keys and press another key, something can happen. That "something" may be as simple as typing a capital letter, or it may be as complex as restarting your computer. The most famous of all is Ctrl + Alt + Del. This uses two modifier keys, control and alt, which you press and hold while you press and then release the delete key. So that's what a modifier key is: a key that modifies the "normal" operation of another key. Links Turn on Overtype mode at Microsoft: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA101732591033.aspx Cookin' For College: http://www.cookinforcollege.com/Cookin_For_College/Welcome_To_Cookin_For_College.html Robot USB Hubs at Coolest-gadgets: http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20100518/lovable-robot-usb-hubs/#more-42024 Robot USB Hub at Neatoshop (Buy one here): http://www.neatoshop.com/product/Robot-USB-Hub Modifier Key at TechTerms: http://www.techterms.com/definition/modifierkey

Episode 112: Question: David asks, "Is there a particular registry cleaner you recommend?"Answer: Hi David, good name and better question! I'm personally not too fond of registry cleaners in general. You could use the one built into CCleaner, but make sure it makes a backup first. You don't want to get into a situation where the cleaner has broken your registry so that Windows won’t even boot. That's the reason I really am not fond of them. The registry is the database that holds Windows together. As such, its proper operation is very important. It's better to have entries in there you no longer need than to accidentally remove some that you do. A potentially more important factor is whether or not the files that make up the registry are fragmented. If so, there will definitely be a drag on system performance, because the registry is constantly being accessed. Your regular defragmenter won't defragment the registry, though, because its files are going to be in use. Check the show notes for links to CCleaner, and a Registry defragmenter. Cool Site: TowerWatch: Here's a site for anyone who's ever wanted to be a better witness. It is geared toward reaching those in the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, but since many cults deny essential doctrines of Christianity, the information could be useful with more than just this one belief system. Articles presented here speak on subjects such as defending the Deity of Jesus; proper interpretation of certain key verses, Hebrews 1:8's application to Jesus of a verse in Psalms that there referred to the Father, failed prophecies, and others. This site also is helpful because the goal is not to simply win a debate, but a soul, and done wrong, it is quite possible to win the debate but not the soul. In fact, since this is one topic of study I find interesting, I've found that when people leave a cultic belief system, they are just as likely to leave it as Christians as they are to leave it as atheists.Cool Gadget: IDAPT Charger: From gearlog.com comes the IDAPT Innovative Solutions charging station. If you've got more than one cell phone in the house, you've got more than one charger. If your kids have portable game machines, portable DVD players, portable gadgets of any kind, really, chances are you have a tangle of wires all over. Enter the i2 and i3 charging stations from IDAPT. The i2 simultaneously charges 2 devices, while the i3 charges 3. The chargers are universal, because they feature interchangeable adapters to plug into your devices. The adapters, called "tips" are labeled as to which device they are intended to charge so you don’t ruin your phone trying to plug it into the wrong tip. The tips themselves plug into the charger base using a common modular connection. To interchange them, simply push the buttons on either side of the tip and it pops out. Snap another tip in, and you're ready to go. The company even makes a tip that can recharge a single AAA and a single AA battery together. The i2 comes in 6 colors, the i3 in 9. The chargers run around $40 (give or take) and the tips start at about $10 each.It's All "Geek" To Me: Screenshot: This week's term is screenshot. Sometimes an error message comes up on your screen and you don't want to write it down, but you do want to show it to someone who might be able to help. Take a screenshot. A screenshot is nothing more than a picture of all or part of your computer screen. Pressing the Print Screen key on your keyboard will take a picture of that screen and put it on your Windows clipboard.LinksCCleaner:http://www.ccleaner.comPageDefrag at Sysinternals (defragment your registry, and other files):http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspxTowerWatch:http://www.towerwatch.comIDAPT at Gearlog:http://www.gearlog.com/2010/05/idapt_charges_all_comes_in_ran.phpIDAPT Innovative Solutions (My Daddy day!):http://www.idaptweb.com/index.htmlScreenshot at TechTerms:http://www.techterms.com/definition/screenshot