Category Archives: Technical Tips

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Computer Basics – What’s Inside a Computer? Motherboard

Glossary, Technical Tips

This is the first in a series of articles about the parts inside a computer. And what better part to start with than the motherboard, also called main board or system board (logic board for Apple computers). In the context of computers, if you ever see the term mobo being used, that is what is referring to (motherboard).

So what is a motherboard anyways? If you’ve ever seen the inside of many electronic devices, computers included, you’ve probably seen a thin plastic-looking green (although it can also be blue and red) board with copper color lines running through it. That is a printed circuit board. Thanks to our friend Eisler, it has been used in radios, TVs, etc., since the 1950’s. In computers, a motherboard is the main printed circuit board, to which normally all the other components inside a computer are attached, one way or another, thus populating it. All the other components that will be covered in future articles on this series are parts attached to it.

So what does it do? It provides electric connectivity to the various other parts of a computer. Think of it as a city, with streets that take you from one destination to another (or watch the movie Tron and you will see a perfect animated illustration for it). Obviously it also provides other components mechanical support (holds all other parts together).

That’s pretty much it. Perhaps the most basic and fundamental part inside a computer, the motherboard.

VoIP Communication

Technical Tips

First of all, what the blazes is VOIP? other than a funny sounding word, it’s an acronym that stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, an alternate method of voice communication similar in function to traditional phones, but instead of using normal telephone lines, uses an internet connection to allow for audio communications.

There are several levels of operation with this type of audio communication. In the first and most basic one, you have two computers, both with a high speed internet connection, and a program that handles the communication between them. Skype is one of the main and most known programs to do that. Others exist as well such as ooVoo, and it’s even embedded in some IM (Instant Messaging) programs. One additional advantage of these programs, even at this level is that they also allow for videoconferencing, so you can have audio and video, and in some cases, even multiple videoconferencing with several people at the same time. This of course requires a higher speed connection than what it requires to just make plain audio calls.

The next level is where you are able to  actually also call a normal landline or cell phone from your computer. For a small fee, Skype allows you to do that. You cannot however receive phone calls on your computer, you can only make outgoing calls. This setup is good when you have a phone that you use to receive phone calls and you want to keep it free for incoming calls.

The last level is where you can also make outgoing calls from your computer, or sometimes just through a device hooked to your internet connection. Vonage is an example of a VOIP service that doesn’t depend on a computer to operate, just needs the small device and a phone. Others, like MagicJack, require a phone connected to your computer. If you use Skype at this level, you can use your computer without any other devices (if your computer has a microphone) or simply by plugging a headset to your computer.

Cost is a factor when deciding which of these to choose. As far as I know, MagicJack offers the best bang for the buck.  $39.95 plus shipping and handling includes the phone to connect to your computer and one year of free local and long distance calling to the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. You can purchase an additional year of service for $19.95. While Skype might offer a similar cost plan, their “unlimited” calling is not really unlimited and there is a ceiling as to how many phone calls you can make in a day.

This emerging method of telecommunication is here to stay and will only get bigger. More and more people are considering as an alternative to traditional phone services and migrating to it.

Internet Browsing and Your Privacy

Computer Security, Technical Tips, ,

This is not about a crazy nut conspiracy theory. It’s about how your internet surfing activities are kept track of. Many of you know about “cookies”, small files that your internet browser saves in your computer as it visits websites, and that they can be used to keep track of what websites you visit.

A less known fact is that websites include code in them that keeps track and report specifics of all visitors. Then there’s companies that specialize in collecting, analyzing and selling such information, which your browser normally gives away when visiting a site.  Things like date and time of your visit, your computer’s operating system, your IP (Internet Protocol) address (which can pinpoint your geographical location within a few miles radio), your internet service provider, what link took you to the particular website you’re visiting, which browser and what version of it you’re using, even your screen resolution!

The biggest company in this activity of web tracking is, by far (no surprise), Google with Google Analytics. Many other smaller companies also engage in this type of “surveillance”.

What can you do? For the Firefox browser users, there is a free add-on called Ghostery, which you can get here: http://www.ghostery.com/ . What does it do? it alerts you if there are trackers in the website you are visiting and gives you the option to block them. There is also a way to pull a big list of known trackers and with one click choose to block them all, so you don’t have to continuously click to block individual trackers as you visit websites.

I thought you should know about this and what can be done about it.

The Future of Communication

Technical Tips

When it comes to computer related subjects, evolution seems hyperbolic. From the slow-start days of the computer in the 1940s, to the speed of evolution in the new millennium, this has become self-evident. It’s not easy to keep up with the new developments in the computers themselves, and the applications that are developed for them.

Such is the case with electronic communications. First used over 40 years ago, and originally modeled after traditional (snail) mail, it seems to have become obsolete in structure and function. Google took a shot at updating it based on tools available now that weren’t available 40 years ago, and recently came up with an attempt to answer the question: What would e-mail look like if it was invented today? The answer: Google Wave. Still in Preview and only obtainable by invitation, it is but a rough draft of what it can become, and I think it is already impressive.

It would take a really long article to explain everything Wave can do. But since a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is probably worth thousands of pictures, I leave you with a few million words worth in these videos below. I have arranged them in sequence, from short and simple to long and complex:

This first video is short and very graphic, and gives a basic notion of what Google Wave is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDu2A3WzQpo

This next video is a guy’s take on demonstrating what Wave can do, by “translating” a scene of Pulp Fiction into Wave:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcxF9oz9Cu0

These next two are from Google team members, first the abridged overview (less than 10 minutes version):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6pgxLaDdQw

And then the full version that is mentioned at the beginning of the above one. It is for you to watch if you are curious for more information from the above videos. It is 80 minutes long:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

So there you have it. In my opinion, this represents an evolution, and the future of communication.

Tips for Travelling with Laptops

Technical Tips,

An increasingly popular type of computer, laptops have seen a surge in demand over the last few years. Did you know that in 2008 and for the first time ever, the number of new laptops sold surpassed the number of new desktop computers sold? and now with the even lighter version of portable computers, the netbook, they are becoming more and more popular.

All trivia aside, since more and more people are jumping on the laptop bandwagon, I figured it’d be a good idea to write a couple of tips about how to go about them when one is on the go.

Since when you’re mobile you mostly depend on the laptop’s battery life, it’s a good idea to economize in what uses power the most. For example, if you are just using a word processor or watching a movie, you can turn off the wireless adapter. Also try to use a lower-than-maximum screen brightness when depending on battery power.

There are four main power states the laptop (or any computer for that matter) can be on. These are, in descending order when considering power consumption (1) Fully on, (2) Suspend/sleep, (3) Hibernation, (4) powered off. In sleep mode, several parts of the computer are turned off, but the computer is still capable of responding to user input, such as a key stroke or mouse click/motion. In hibernation, it’s a different story. All the running programs and opened files at the moment of starting hibernation are saved to the hard disk and the computer is effectively shut down. But while it is necessary to press the power button to resume normal operation, coming back from hibernation is much faster than starting the computer from scratch. This is therefore the preferred state in which a laptop should be transported – hibernating. The power consumption is at its minimum, the hard disk is not operating (important since moving a laptop around with its hard disk on can lead to damage to the hard disk) and yet turning it back on takes a minimum amount of time.

Since it is usual to close the lid of a laptop when carrying it around, you should know that what the laptop does when you close its lid is something you can change. The range of actions (when closing the lid) go from doing nothing, to putting the laptop to sleep, to hibernation, to shutting down. It is also possible to have different actions occur depending of whether or not the laptop is plugged in to a power supply when the lid closes. For example, you can set the laptop to go to sleep if the lid is closed when plugged in, but hibernate if the lid is closed when powered by the laptop’s battery.

One more thing you should also know in regards to the subject is about rechargeable batteries: They have a limited number of recharges before its ability to hold charge degrades.  After about the 60th recharge the battery will start to wear progressively and perceptibly, to the point where it holds only a few minutes worth of charge or no charge at all. So try to use the laptop’s battery power only when it’s needed.

Proper use of a laptop’s power settings will increase the time you can use it while on the go.

“Should I Turn Off my Computer at Night?”

Computer Security, Technical Tips

If I had a penny for every time I have been asked that question… I’d be writing this article from a bungalow in the Bahamas.

But I don’t. So, to the question at hand.

People in favor of turning the computer off at night bring up valid points, the main one being power consumption. But did you know that properly set power management settings reduces idle power consumption around 70%?

Others reason that with the computer off when not in use during the night the possibility of a hacker intrusion attack is reduced. True but if that is the concern, you can disconnect the computer from the internet (through disabling the network adapter, or a switch for many laptops with wireless, or disconnecting the network cable, or turning off the router, or…). And the truth is, it is relatively easy to repel hacker attacks if you have a sound computer security setup in place.

So now that we have those out of the way, let me tell you what is good about leaving your computer on at night.

There are several routines that traditionally computers are scheduled to perform after hours, when the computer is idle. These include: virus scans, hard disk defragmentation, system restore points, Windows updates, system backups, among others. When you turn your computer off at night, all these routines are not performed and to that degree your system is running in a non-optimum state.

And did you know that over time, it is more taxing for the electronic components of the computer to go from room temperature to operating temperature to room temperature to operating temperature than to remain in the same relative temperature range?

One last thing. Just about the only thing that is good about shutting your computer down at night and restarting it in the morning is that all memory errors and such are cleared up. The maxim “when in doubt, restart” applies here. So if you are one of those users that turned your computer off at night and decided to change to leaving it on, I recommend a restart at least every few days, to clear such errors accumulated over time. It will do for a smoother operating computer.

This subject has people that advocate for either of both possible answers and thus I expect some percentage of people to disagree with my position. If so it is your prerogative and I respect it. But the above is my take on the subject, based on over 25 years of experience with computers. Up to you to follow it or not.

Setting Up a Home Office

Technical Tips

A trend-in-the-rise in recent times, more and more people are starting businesses from home. Perhaps you and your spouse work together in the same business, from home. Regardless of what business category yours is in, it’s almost certain that part of the setup must include computer equipment. Permutations of the setup will depend on the type of business, but the basic elements are basically the same:

Small networks like a home network are usually setup as a workgroup. In this setup, there is no central computer and the existing computers are setup in a peer-to-peer networking setup. Yet with this setup printers and files can be shared between computers. Printers these days have multi-function capabilities, which means they can also send and receive faxes, something often needed in a home business setup. This function can also be shared among computers.

Normally this setup will have some sort of high-speed internet service, which typically goes modem–>router–>computer(s). Depending on how close the computers are to the router and whether or not it is therefore easy to do a wired networking setup, a wireless one can be done with relative ease. The wireless function can also include the printer if so desired.

Software installed in the computers will vary. But almost certainly you’ll have an email client program, some sort of accounting software for bookkeeping, and perhaps CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software to keep track of client prospects’ activities throughout the sales pipeline and to make sure the customer retention percentage remains high.

Investing the time in properly setting up your home business computer apparatus can help boost efficiency and thus productivity.

Spam and Links in E-mails

Computer Security, Technical Tips

The CAN-SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial emails, includes a requirement to tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from businesses. This is why, when you get a commercial email, it is supposed to give a way to stop receiving such emails. Methods can include replying to the email and putting a certain subject such as “unsubscribe” or have it in the body of the email itself when replying, etc. Some emails come with a link that you are supposed to click on to unsubscribe. While in the past this has been a legitimate way to unsubscribe to certain emails, this is now superseded by a more basic rule of email handling, DO NOT CLICK ON LINKS IN EMAILS FROM UNKNOWN SENDERS.

Why? because this is one of the easiest ways to infect your computer. All you have to do is click on that “unsubscribe” link and it takes you to a malicious website that will try to infect your computer just by virtue of accessing the webpage your web browser will land on.

So if you get an email that looks like spam, and you want to handle it, do it in some other way if unsubscribing means clicking on a link. I wouldn’t even bother sending an email asking the sender to stop sending those emails, as that is a known way to harvest valid email addresses for further spamming. Block the sender if you want, mark the email as spam so your spam filter will learn to better recognize it, report it if you wish, but that’s it. Don’t fall for the trick.

The Many Faces of Software Piracy

Technical Tips, ,

You’ve probably heard, one way or the other, about software piracy. It is the mislicensing, unauthorized reproduction and illegal distribution of software, whether for business or personal use. Generally speaking, it means illicit use of software that is normally sold to users. While I’m sure many can think about obviously flagrant examples of this – like walking to a computer store and shoplifting a copy of a program you’d normally pay for – there are more subtle ways of indulging in software piracy, and as it gets more and more into what is called the “gray area”, more and more people seem to justify it. I’ll cover some of these in this article.

Sharing Copies

Normally every software program is sold with a specific number of licenses – how many computers you can install it on. Different software companies have different mechanisms to prevent abuse in the form of installing software in more computers than the license covers. However they’re not perfect and some of them can be circumvented. That doesn’t mean it’s legal. Don’t install a program by “borrowing” a CD from a friend. And don’t allow for that to happen with the software you own and paid for.

OEM

The most often misunderstood term when it comes to software, it’s represents one of the most common forms of software piracy. OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer – For example, when you buy a new computer and get all those CDs with the programs already installed in it – that’s OEM software. It is sold to the company that sold you the computer by the companies that make the software, under specific licensing.  Said licensing has its terms.  For example, when it comes to Windows operating systems, it is supposed to be sold by the licensed reseller WITH a new computer, and it is irrevocably linked to that computer. What does this mean? It means the operating system cannot be sold by itself. It means it cannot be sold with a different computer, than the originally intended one.

In this scenario it is common practice for unscrupulous resellers to sell the operating system by itself. Why? because of the reseller license, they get it at a lower price and can sell it at a lower price than the retail version and still make a profit. It is also easier to install many more copies than one is supposed to.

One of the sleaziest “circumventions” I’ve seen on this happened to a client of mine recently. The client went to eBay to look for a copy of Microsoft Office 2003 to buy. A seller was offering OEM copies of it for about $60. To try and circumvent Microsoft and eBay’s policies on OEM software, the seller would include some generic piece of “hardware” with the OEM software he was selling, and with that interpretation of the policy he thought he was covered. In this specific case the piece of hardware turned out to be a data cable used inside computers. C’mon! How could that be compared to a full computer or hard disk, like it’s supposed to? I informed the client she needed to return the purchase and get a refund, and the seller got reported to eBay.

Key Cracking

This is the most obviously illegal form of software piracy. One of the mechanisms used by software companies to make sure you own an original copy of the software they sell is the use of product or activation keys, a sequence of numbers, letters, or numbers and letters that is to be input during the software installation to validate the installation – make sure it’s legit. This key is normally generated using an algorithm (formula) but it can be cracked by somebody who knows enough about the subject, or who gets a program that does exactly that, created by somebody who knows enough about it. Not only is this completely illegal, but also often times “key cracker” programs and “cracked” versions of programs are available from sources that more likely than not have malware embedded in them, and it’s one of the easiest ways to infect a computer. So if you buy a program from a reseller and you get a CD in the mail with a printout of a product key or a photocopy of the original product key sticker, most likely that key is not legit, whether illegally reproduced or generated with key cracking techniques.

The Maxim

When it comes to buying software (and other things), if it looks too good a deal… it’s probably not legit.

Conclusion

Most users use properly licensed software and are honest. For the minority that don’t, here’s my message to you: Beware. Don’t indulge in software piracy in any form, no matter how justifiable, attractive or tempting; discourage others from doing it and report those who don’t play by the rules. Otherwise it will come back and “byte” you you-know-where.

Choosing Your Next Computer – What to Look For

Technical Tips

So your faithful computer, which has been with you for years, is starting to show the signs of  age. You don’t particularly want to change to a new one because a) you don’t have a money tree you can just prune and get $900 out of, b) you don’t even want to think about the pain of migrating all your documents and applications c) you’re a hardcore XP user and have heard horrible things about Windows Vista plus d) you  don’t want to have to learn all the shortcuts and ways to do things in a totally new operating system after all the time you spent learning the ways of XP.

Well I’m here to make your transition less painful. Maybe even enjoyable!

Let me start by saying that if you are a total novice on computers I suggest you seek the advice of an expert who DOESN’T work for the company you’re trying to buy the computer from. He’ll help you suggest a system that dovetails your needs.

If you are an intermediate user and understand the basics of computers, this article is for you.

The first choice you need to make is whether to get a desktop or a laptop. Traditionally desktops are cheaper for the same performance, and are more configurable (things like an audio or video card, modem and other devices can be exchanged). Laptops on the other hand are mobile and don’t use as much space. It’s interesting however that with the advances in processor technology in recent years, laptop prices have gone down while performance and battery life have gone up, and for the first time last year (2008) there were more laptops than desktops sold worldwide. The reason for this is simple: a relatively economical laptop can now perform good enough for most users basics needs of browsing the web, handling email and documents, maybe watching the occasional movie, even to some degree graphic demanding software. So if for whatever reason you have to be able to take it with you – even to the occasional Starbucks to relax and write in peace, you might want to consider getting a laptop for your next computer. If mobility is not an issue at all, stick with the desktop.

Next choice is operating system. Since I’m a Windows type guy I will only cover all the different versions of Windows. As of this writing, and providing you pay extra, you can still get a new computer retrograded with Windows XP. But the most common current choice is Windows Vista. Vista brings 5 versions: Starter (not available in developed countries) Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. The basic thing to know about these is that home basic and premium are not designed for a company’s usual network setup. And I’d suggest between the home versions, choose the premium one – I’ll explain why in a moment.

The choice of operating systems expands as of October 22 with the release of the next operating system: Windows 7. From now and until then if you buy a new computer with Windows Vista Home Premium or higher you can upgrade to Windows 7 for free (Now you see why the choice between Basic and Home Premium). For those XP fans, you’ll be glad to know that many of the characteristics of XP that you came to love are present in the new Windows 7, while retaining the good points of Windows Vista. Reviews of the test versions have been positive, and I have myself tested it and was very pleased with how it performs.

Now the last set of choices, what processor, of what speed, how much memory, what size and speed hard disk, dedicated versus integrated graphics. I’m not going to go into details on each of these; otherwise this article will become a booklet. But there is one thing I want to mention on this, which is true whether you’re choosing a computer, a new stereo system, a new car, etc.:

The different components must complement harmoniously for the overall system to function best. Like I’ve mentioned in another article, the computer is only going to be as fast as its slowest component. So don’t waste your money in the fastest processor available in the market if you’re putting it in a computer with a low access speed hard disk drive.

So when choosing a new computer, if it comes pre-configured, learn to recognize poor choices made by the vendor and avoid those, and if it is configurable, know how to configure  all different components so there is a harmonious synergy that results in a powerful computer which increases efficiency and productivity.