Computer Secrets Unleashed!

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Hi, my name is Rich Pryor. After 20+ years in the IT industry, I'm coming clean - I can only help a few people a day one-on-one, but now....I'm sharing my knowledge with the world! For years I've kept these closely held secrets to myself and made big bucks doing so. But that is all changing as of right now!


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Hyperlinks In Word

On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 12:06 PM, Claire wrote:

Hi Ed,

My name is Claire. Sorry I'm messaging you prior to us meeting in person. I received your email from Claudia when she cc'd me on a blog question to you. She is out of town until tomorrow and I was wondering if you could help answer a problem I've been having. Basically I've been writing a "news flash" blog for Claudia in Word. In the news flash I am to include a link to her website and a link to video footage.

For some reason when I paste the links in my Word they don't open up as direct links. You instead have to copy and paste them into a browser in order for them to open up. Is there something I need to change on my computer to allow me to create direct links? I want to figure out this issue asap so I can finish my work. Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

I'm attaching my news flash so you can see what I'm talking about.

Thank you so much Ed! I hope to meet you soon

Best wishes,

Claire

Hi Claire, you need to use the hyperlink option to make the links work. On most versions of Word it looks like a globe with a chain link beneath it. You first highlight the text you want to turn into a link. Then click on the hyperlink tool button. Then make sure the text you want to display is correct (you can change the display text without affecting the link). Click OK. I've attached your previous document with the hyperlinks created.

Computer Recycling?

Angela Asks:

What is the best way to erase a computer before recycling?

Ed Answered:

Take out the Hard Drive and store it in the back of your closet in a shoebox for 40 years. Then take the drive and bury it in the backyard. If you don't have a backyard, drop it in the middle of the ocean or into a deep river. It contains all of the old data that could be used for identity theft (if there's any data of value on there). If you have an original Windows XP disk or Mac OS disk you could boot up from the disk and remove the partition and reformat the drive (in Mac lingo it's reinitialize it). This clears out the drive but it can still be rebuilt if someone is persistent enough. If you're ultra-paranoid you could hire a geek to come to your home and wipe it using one of several utilities that scramble all the data so that the drive won't ever be able to be recovered. How much valuable data do most people have on their computers anyways? A few passwords which you should change anyways. A few account number cookies that should be changed as well.

Most companies will charge a fee for recycling now unless there is an organization that is doing a fund raiser (the city of New York has electronic recycling days from time to time, when they feel like it in different locations). They give you an order number to place on your UPS shipping label for your old equipment and all you have to do is box it and get it to UPS (they might even pick it up, I have a UPS store downstairs from me so I just hall it downstairs). They recycle phones and other electronic items too. Type Computer Recycling and your area for companies. Oh yes, and if they deem that your equipment has value they give you credits and rewards for it sometimes.

Happy recycling,
Ed Smit
Questions@JustAskEd.net

Can't put up the blog!

Question:

On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 8:39 PM, Deanne wrote:

This is the message I get when I try to put it up

ERROR

Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tag is not allowed: <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

Answer:

Are you typing on the Blog interface or are you cutting and pasting? If you are cutting and pasting you need to use basic text instead of pre-formatted text. To do this copy your text from word and paste it into Notepad (you'll find it under Start/Accessories/Notepad). This makes all the funky formatting that causes these errors go away. After you've pasted into Notepad you can copy and paste from notepad directly into the blog and it shouldn't come up with any errors. You can also try selecting all in Word (Ctrl+A) and choosing Edit/Clear/Formats from the menu. Then try copying and pasting. This gets rid of a lot of junk formatting that Word embeds in your docs but sometimes you have to go back to raw text to make it work. The easiest thing is to type it on the blogger interface and save it as a draft until you're finished creating (Save often or you could lose data). This avoids all outside formatting from creeping in.

external drive problem

Question submitted by Loree on Wednesday, July 9, 2009 at 07:45:48
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Question: All of my photos from iphoto have been sent to my Digital Western External drive, along with itunes and a few other files. All of a sudden my photos are not loading when I click on iphoto even though the external drive shows that that there are 29GB of info on those files. What happened to my photos? Yesterday they were there.

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Answer: When you move files from one drive to another your managing program needs to rediscover the files in the new location. Usually this is done from the File menu of the program. In that menu choose Add Folder to Library. Then you need to choose your external drive to tell it to look at your external drive for pictures and it will create a library of the contents.

Buying A New Computer

It always feels like an apples and oranges comparison. When buying a computer I always ask myself:
What is it going to be used for?
What's the price range?
What to look for in comparing one to another:
Size
Weight (for laptops)
Processor type
Processor speed
Memory RAM (Max it out if you can afford it 4GB minimum currently)
Hard Drive Capacity
Always check the chatter about the specific model and brand (only current chatter) if there is any.

And always remember, they are obsolete before you buy it so don't get stuck on latest and greatest thinking (unless price is no object). If you're a real variety junkie than buy a Costoco computer replacement deal. Then you can get a new one every 6 months.

Hope this answers the majority of buying questions.

Ed Smit
Questions@JustAskEd.net

Memory Installation

Question submitted by Eston on Friday, June 20, 2009 at 16:05:27
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Question: How to install 1 mg chip of memory into a dell D520 laptop

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Answer: There is usually a little flap on the underside of laptops
that have a screw holding them in place. Remove the screw and you can
open the flap and you will see a place to insert the memory (or there
may be a memory card in there already). If you already have a memory
upgrade in the laptop you will have to remove it to put in the new
chip (sorry laptops can usually only accomodate one memory chip). To
find out the specific location of the flap you can check support on
the dell.com website for a diagram of the laptop using the service tag
number on the bottom of the laptop to identify the correct make and
model.

Before touching any part of your laptop insides make sure that you
have discharged any static electricity from yourself. I usually do
this by touching something metal. This will make sure you don't fry
the inside of your computer or your new chip. If you feel a shock you
did the right thing. No shock just means that you're not overly
electrified :o)