averjoe's Articles In Personal Computing
June 14, 2007 by averjoe
I had a chance to mess around a little with Microsoft's Vista operating system over the weekend. I wasn't that impressed with what I saw. Microsoft claims Vista is selling very well, but I know of only one person who has Vista (Vista Basic). The only reason he has it is because he brought a new computer and it came with the Vista operating system. I guess Microsoft is selling Vista to new computer manufacturers. I haven't heard of any businesses rushing out to upgrade to Vista eithe...
January 31, 2007 by averjoe
I recently had the pleasure of troubleshooting an Apple computer Powerbook G4 (laptop computer). It had the Mac OS X operating system installed, running with a 1.33 Ghz CPU with 512 mb of DDR memory. The Powerbook was a twelve-inch screen machine with a DVD burner and GeForce FX video adapter. I had to crack an administrator account password, delete the account and charge the battery. The owner was having trouble re-charging the battery and deleting the account. While doing the assigned...
January 20, 2007 by averjoe
One of my micro star international mini atx motherboards seems to be going bad. The CMOS is unable to maintain time. One would notice this problem every time they logged into their system by the fact that the time would be wrong (time on operating system is usually based on motherboard time stored in the CMOS. Normally, when one’s computer looses time it is simply a matter of replacing the lithium board battery. A worn out battery will cause the computer to loose time. A motherboard batter...
December 7, 2006 by averjoe
I recently purchased two LCD computer monitors. There were two sales that I just could not pass up. One was at Staples on a 19inch (with speakers) Optiquest LCD monitor for 149 dollars pre tax (with a mail-in rebate). From what I’ve been seeing out there in LCD monitor prices this was a very good deal. I have been very disappointed in the prices of LCD monitors. The average cost should have fallen much more than they have. There has to be some price fixing going on within the indust...
October 13, 2006 by averjoe
Well, my recent change of operating systems from Windows 2000 Prof. to Windows XP Home Edition for online use has already run into problems. As I guess many already know eleven critical patches were released for most Windows operating systems this week. One critical (I emphasis critical) patch had to be rescinded by Microsoft because it didn’t meet their standards (what! Microsoft has standards?). Anyway, I have my Automatic Update settings on download all critical updates but let me ch...
September 17, 2006 by averjoe
I just brought a copy of Window XP Home Edition Upgrade. It was a step I had refused to take because of the online validation needed and the limited use of each copy of the operating system to one machine at a time. However, only using Windows 2000 was starting to put me too far behind the times, especially since Microsoft is preparing to release its new operating system named Vista next year. Windows Vista reportedly will make handling documents and media files even easier than with XP...
February 12, 2006 by averjoe
On the heels of a slew of patches due for Microsoft operating systems I figured it is as good a time as any to write (again) about an aspect of my computing experience. There has been a lot of software needing security patches in the last few months and not only Windows, but also the Mac and Linux operating systems. There have been security holes found in iTunes and Winamp software. There’s been holes found in firewalls and anti-virus products like Symantec’s Norton Anti-virus, and Zone A...
November 13, 2005 by averjoe
I rented the 1950s musical The Pajama Game the other day (I think I mentioned this film in past post calling it The Pajama Gang. As I’ve said on other blog post I have no editor or proofreader so mistakes happen). It was a pleasure to see this movie again after first being exposed to it at a high school play. It’s nice to be able to see movies from the past or my youth again on DVD. This is a luxury that wasn’t there before the early 1980s. I can buy movies now and back them up on a D...
October 9, 2005 by averjoe
In labeling music in my mp3 files sometime I find it difficult to figure out what name I should use in the artist category. This problem mainly occurs with classical, jazz, movie score, and Broadway show music. Things are pretty clear when it concerns pop and rock as long as you don’t worry about the writer of the lyrics and music, which is sometime different from the singer and/or musician. In labeling classical, jazz, movie score, and stage music the conflict is between giving credit to...
July 31, 2005 by averjoe
The latest game Microsoft is playing is using so-called validation software to rummage through your home computer to make sure it is using a legal copy of Microsoft before it allows you to update. This rummaging and tagging of your computer is suppose to happen only if you want your operating system to get the latest upgrades or tweaks to the Microsoft operating system in order to make it “function” better (is that possible?). Microsoft said it was not going to force one to go t...
June 28, 2005 by averjoe
I just read an article about someone being fired from his job for blogging. Who would blog from their job? I think blogging from your job or doing anything of a personal nature from your computer at work is kind of foolish. Anything you do on a computer at a place of employment is subject to the prying eyes of a boss or someone within the IT department. To write blogs that give away inside company information, talk about co-workers or bosses from that very job is asking for trouble. Ch...
March 30, 2005 by averjoe
Epson Printer: I now have an Epson Stylus CX4600 printer. It is one of those all-in-one wonders that copies, prints, and scans. The CX4600 also has slots for various digital camera memory cards (yes, it can print photos). I wasn’t even looking for the picture making ability but it is nice to know that I have it and got it for a pretty good price. The printer came in at about eighty-five dollars (with tax) from Target and this was not a sale price as was the case for a similar Hewlett-Packard ...
March 4, 2005 by averjoe
After using a Linksys Wireless B adapter for the last year or so I’ve finally decided to adopt the G standard. I purchased a NetGear USB adapter that uses the G standard. I was kind of hesitant to get a Netgear card because a bad experience I had and to some extent still am having with a PCI G standard NetGear wireless adapter presently being used by a family member. There seems to be some type of conflict between the drivers that come with the card and those built into the Windows XP H...
February 16, 2005 by averjoe
I read about the new mini Mac that cost 499.00 US. It comes without a monitor (which could add considerably to the cost), keyboard and mouse. I must admit it re-ignited my interest in the Mac. I know how to use a Mac (if the jaguar GUI operates the same as earlier versions of Mac operating systems) and took a computer course in college where the computer science/ computer-programming department preferred the Mac. The various labs on the various campuses however had PCs that had a versi...
January 19, 2005 by averjoe
My online hard hit the ground the other day. No, I didn’t do it. It was my sister. Anyway the drop caused the hard drive to break. I had recently got another forty-gig drive from my brother, which I was intending to use as a backup for my online hard drive (I have a hard drive that I only use offline). Unfortunately it doesn’t work. I have a warranty on the forty-gig Western Digital drive that I got from my brother and will be sending it back for a replacement. This problem would not...