I am excited because Macworld has an article on some streaming television resources you can find online. I imagine the sources are PC-friendly as well since a lot of the programs are playable in Media Player. I haven’t tested it out yet–probably will give it a go this weekend when I have free time. Has anyone tried this yet? I am hoping it will provide some entertainment to this TV-less, stereo-less, slow-internet-connected room.

- Design: Design and the Elastic Mind
- Technology: NetNewsWire Desktop RSS Reader
- Technology: Electronic Dictionary

If you use your computer a lot, you should treat it as you would a home: clean it, organize it, give it a good pat on the back some days.

If you use your computer without regular cleanings, scans, and getting rid of files you don’t use, your computer is going to be sad and build up all this junk and bite you in the ass with it next time you forget its birthday. It will slow down, crash, or give you constant errors.

Even if you DO clean your computer regularly, what about aesthetics? Do you have an awesome background wallpaper or is it cluttered with icons? What of widgets?

Some tips:
- Get rid of desktop clutter. Do you really need the icons for every program on your computer? Keep it minimal to only the programs you’re going to use. Or just delete them all and save your computer the trouble of loading them each time it starts up.
- Get rid of taskbar clutter. Just because it’s tiny or hidden doesn’t mean it’s any less of a burden on your computer. Again, keep only the essentials–often times programs that you’ve installed will, by default, install a taskbar icon to ensure branding.
- Get organized. Folders are free: create them and use them! There’s nothing more satisfying than knowing where everything is when you need it. If you use torrent clients such utorrent, often they will have an option where you can choose what folder to download files into. Take advantage of it.
- Clear cache, history, and cookies. This will also slow down your computer over time because it downloads a version of everything you see online for loading faster in the future. It’s also a good security measure because it will erase any information you’ve saved on online forms, preventing other users from accessing private information.
- Set a schedule. A lot of maintenance programs come with options to automatically run and check for spyware and so on. Scheduling maintenance will make things easier for you in the long run.

Here are some resources to help your computer feel less sorry for itself–PC or Mac, choose whatever (free!) suggestions you think will help beautify your computing experience:

Maintence
- Spybot Search and Destroy
- AdAware SE
- Defrag Your Computer With JkDefrag GUI (Lifehacker)
- Top OS X Tips (Macworld)
Wallpapers, Icons, etc.
- San-X Free Wallpaper Downloads
- Pixiegirl
- The Octonauts
- Yahoo! Widgets

Feel free to suggest your own in the comments~

- Design: Design and the Elastic Mind
- Technology: NetNewsWire Desktop RSS Reader
- Technology: Electronic Dictionary

Once in a while, my iPod will decide to play a joke on me.  It will work perfectly fine, only to freeze on occasion.  Holding down the menu button and the select button simultaneously will fix this.  However, yesterday my iPod decided it wanted to up the extremity by giving me a little picture, of itself, with a sad face.

I restarted it.

It booted!

…and then gave me the sad icon again.  It continued to restart itself and tell me in its own special way that it was sad.

I looked online, and found that this icon is actually quite infamous, and the cure for this is just as equally infamous, as it a.) channels the Fonz and b.) teaches your iPod who’s boss.

Now, slamming down a piece of expensive hardware is a hard concept to grasp.  Fortunately, my iPod was only a little bit of a bastard, and has not yet become a full-fedged non-functional asshole, and so I was able to make it work by charging directly into the wall.  The charge seemed to give it a little nudge that plugging it into the laptop could not provide.  But it’s good to know that giving your iPod a good smack might do the trick later on, when it decides it wants to be funny.

The moral of the story?  No matter how advanced technology will get, at least we know that hitting things will still be a legitimate form of troubleshooting.

- Learn a Language Faster By Slowing Down
- Using Bilingual Dictionaries
- Learning a Foreign Language for Beginners pt. 3: Main Resources
- How To: Use Chopsticks
- Learn Foreign Languages with Free Online Courses

A lot of jobs these days require you to know your WPM–the average amount of words you can type per minute. This nerdy but cool-looking flash game turns this into a game in which you can compete to see where you fall among the other players. See my score right–I think I averaged about 64 WPM. It’s a cool concept, but as you type, the letters fly away and hence are sort of a distraction when trying to type some of the more ridiculous words. It’s also randomized–I got “mediterraneousness” or something of the sort about three times. Give it a try if you’re nerdy or curious.

- Design: Design and the Elastic Mind
- Technology: NetNewsWire Desktop RSS Reader
- Technology: Electronic Dictionary

Working with computers for so long, sometimes I forget that not everybody knows about shortcuts that would make using computers easier. Here is a list of my most commonly used shortcuts! (For Mac, replace ctrl with the apple key next to the space bar)

General (these shortcuts will work in most programs, including graphic editing ones)
- Copy: ctrl+c
- Open: ctrl+o
- Paste: ctrl+v
- Save: ctrl+s (use this one often!)
- Undo: ctrl+z
- Select All: ctrl+a

Web Browsing (I only use Firefox so some of these might not work in Internet Explorer)
- Page down: space bar
- New Tab: ctrl+t
- Open link in new tab: There are three different ways to do this!

1. If you have a mouse with a scroll button between the two clicky-buttons, click the link with the scroll button. I found this by accident!
2. Right-click and select “open in new tab”
3. For Macs, hold down the function button while clicking the link

If you memorize these shortcuts, you won’t have to keep searching through all the options in the menu bars of whatever program you use–Microsoft Word has a ton of frivolous options and nowhere can I simply find “select all text.” Hopefully these tips will help you too!

- Learn a Language Faster By Slowing Down
- Using Bilingual Dictionaries
- Learning a Foreign Language for Beginners pt. 3: Main Resources
- How To: Use Chopsticks
- Learn Foreign Languages with Free Online Courses

This article voices a lot of complaints by new PC users who start up their shiny new system, only to be bombarded by software they don’t need:

The problem is a lack of respect for the consumer. The manufacturers don’t act as if the computer belongs to you. They act as if it is a billboard for restricted trial versions of software and ads for Web sites and services that they can sell to third-party companies who want you to buy these products.

The worst was a desktop icon called “Watch Hit Movies Now!” This turned out to be four full-length films from Sony’s movie studios, which the company had preloaded onto my computer at the cost of more than four gigabytes of precious hard-disk space. But they aren’t a gift. If you want to play them, you have to pay Sony.

My two cents:
Working at a privately owned PC company, I am all too familiar with this complaint. When I was monitoring some new system builds, I saw that one system had a search bar installed in the bottom left of the task bar. It turned out that it was a default add-on that is installed when you load Nero, the burning software. Luckily, our company prides itself on not pre-installing crap you’ll never need. I got rid of the search bar, knowing all too well that over time things like this “helpful” tool will slow down the computer. Why would burning software need a search bar? Or want to provide you with one? It’s really just a way for you to keep their logo on the screen at all times.

I’ve realized that these advertising tactics are a lot like SPAM. The more advanced users will know enough to get rid of them ASAP, while the more basic users will buy into them. It pains me everytime someone tells me they paid so-and-so amount for some software (that more than likely is available for free with some internet searching) because their computer told them to. It’s not the user’s fault–what would you do if your car told you it felt a flat tire coming on?

The trick is, you need to examine the programs on your computer critically. Do you have broadband? You don’t need AOL. You get all of your music from iTunes? You don’t need Napster. Know that you’re a safe internet browser and user? You don’t need Norton Antivirus. You can get rid of a lot of junk software this way, cleaning up your computer while making your way to becoming a smarter PC-user.

Or you could break down and get a Mac. That works too.

- Design: Design and the Elastic Mind
- Technology: NetNewsWire Desktop RSS Reader
- Technology: Electronic Dictionary

Nowadays, external hard drives are the most popular tool for people to back up their data easily. With the release of the Western Digital MyBook series, backing up data couldn’t be easier! Simply plug the USB drive in, then drag-and-drop your files onto the drive. No drivers to install, no messy interfaces. But if you’re using Windows XP, then your MyBook could be performing faster.

For compatibility issues, the Western Digital MyBook comes formatted as FAT32. If you re-format it to NTFS, it will transfer your files a lot faster. I am so very glad I had read up about this when I did, because it significantly increased the speed of transferring large folders and files (the very reason why I had bought the MyBook in the first place!)

(Note: Ideally, you’d want to do this right after you open the drive. Otherwise, re-formatting will erase all the data you’ve already transferred.)

Here’s how to re-format your MyBook:
1.) Open Windows > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management
2.) Click on Storage
3.) Click on Disk Management
4.) Right-Click your MyBook drive and select “Format”
5.) It’s recommended to do a quick format if you have little to no data on there already–the full format option is meant to correct bad sectors on the drive.

After that’s done, your files will transfer faster and your files will be safe!

- Learn a Language Faster By Slowing Down
- Using Bilingual Dictionaries
- Learning a Foreign Language for Beginners pt. 3: Main Resources
- How To: Use Chopsticks
- Learn Foreign Languages with Free Online Courses