What you should know about 'The Cloud'

When computer people and marketing people talk about 'the cloud', they are talking about doing or storing something on a computer that is only reachable through the Internet.

When diagrams of computer networks are drawn out, the Internet has always been represented by a "cloud", because it would be impossible to diagram all of the computers and other hardware that comprise the Internet.

So, now that you know that all of the 'cloud' stuff means that your stuff is now outside of your computer, what should you know?
First, anything of yours that exists outside of your computer or your control, no longer belongs to you. You may tell your cloud storage or service provider that it does, and they may agree with you, but really, it doesnt. Whoever has control over it, owns it.

Second, there may be hidden costs or frustrations dealing with cloud services. What happens if your cloud service or storage provider goes out of business? There goes your stuff.
Also, if you store controversial material online, such as your music collection, then if the record companies decide to sue your storage provider for "abetting piracy" and get a court order to delete all "pirated" music unless the owners of that music can prove that none of it is pirated; what do you do? (In case you are wondering, the record companies believe that any and all music that exists outside of a CD is pirated, even music copied from a CD to a computer.)

So you see, there are a couple of considerations to think about before storing anything online, in the "cloud". Because the cloud might rain on your parade.

How-to: Adjust your monitor resolution

Are the icons and writing on your computer screen too small, or to large?
You need to change the resolution of your screen.
Resolution means how many pixels can fit into your screen. You have probably heard of or read somewhere numbers like 800x600 or 1024x768 or something like that. Those numbers are the resolution of the screen.

To change the resolution (in Windows XP), right-click on an empty area of the Desktop and click on Properties.
Then click on the Settings tab, and down at the bottom left, there will be a slider which will alow you to change your screens resolution.
When you are finished, click on Apply and then OK.
The screen will go black for a moment, and the re-appear in its new size. When it does, there will be a Dialog Box asking if you want to keep the new resolution. If you are happy with it, click yes.

How-to: Get your printer printing again

We've all been there; one moment you're printing and everything's fine, and the next moment the printer is stuck, and even after you clear the paper jam and reset the printer so the light isnt blinking anymore and everything looks fine, the darn thing wont print.

You tell it to print over and over again and you just give up in frustration. Why wont it print?

If you click on the Start button, sometimes there is a link on the right side of the Start Menu labeled 'Printers', if not, go to the Control Panel and double-click on Printers.
Once you are in the Printers window, go up to File and click on 'Cancel All Documents'.
Windows will ask you if you are sure, say yes.

This should clear most of the print jobs that are jamming up the Print Spooler. If they all go away, you should be able to print. If there is one print job left behind, close all of your windows, making to save any unfinished work, and restart the computer.

Once the computer is back up and ready to go, you should be able to print.

How-to: Boot into Safe Mode

A lot of my customers ask "how do you boot into safe mode?"

Here is the procedure: If the computer is off, push the power and as soon as there is any sort of writing on the screen, repeatedly tap the F8 key until the computer beeps or until the Windows Advanced Options Menu appears.

When you arrive at the Advanced Options menu, there will be a list of options which will start with Safe Mode, then Safe Mode with Networking and several others. If you have Windows Vista or Seven, the list will begin with Repair Your Computer.

Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, move down to Safe Mode with Networking, and press Enter.

After 30 seconds or so, you will see the Windows login screen. Click on your user name and wait. You will then see a dialog box that ask if you want to use System Restore or work with Windows. Choose the one appropriate to you need, and you are in Safe Mode.

If you are restarting your computer, the same steps apply once the computer has started up.

Microsoft helps prevent attacks on older Office

Most people have an older version of Microsoft Office. Computer attackers know this, so they attempt to attack computers through known loopholes in protection, called "exploits".

So Microsoft has a program, called EMET, that helps ward off attacks made through older versions of Office.

A PC World contributor has a short description of this program that you can read about and a download link to the program here.

Pros and Cons of At&t buyout of Tmobile

PC World has a short article on what the buyout will mean for you. Here.

Android Security Woes

Life for the Android is just getting tougher all the time. First there is a researcher who finds a way to infect Android phones through the Marketplace(and tells Google about it).
Then some enterprising hackers (some of them Chinese) found a way to virus 50 different already existing and popular apps on the Marketplace.
Now, it has been reported that Google has a remote kill switch for anything running on the phone, including the OS. Wherever there is a remote anything switch, there can also be remote surveillance. I, for one, do not welcome our new Google overlords...

Or maybe I just like my iPhone better.

Here is an article on why maybe the Apple approach is better. http://tinyurl.com/4lk6tr9

The iPhone may be a walled garden, but its a safer place to be than outside. Once you've "broken out of jail," the world can be scary.