Asheville Computer Services Tech Bench From Advanced Data   Computer Tips For Home Users

Did you know that most of today’s primetime television programming can be found online and watched for free?! Some only require MS Silverlight or Adobe Flash Player.

www.hulu.com (Mostly NBC Shows, ABC, USA Network, Fox, PBS, Comedy Central, G4, Disney,  Movies)

www.fox.com (Fox Shows)

abc.go.com (ABC Shows)

www.tv.com (CBS and various shows)

beta.sling.com (Various Shows & Movies)

http://www.universalsports.com/ Catch Olympic Sports streamed mainly Live or catch them whenever on Universal Sports. Very cool!

Even our own local Public Access Channel is in on the action, @ urtvweb.com *Currently down for the time being*

Customers with Verizon and ATT DSL can access live and delayed sporting events via espn360.com

Advantages:

1. No cable TV bill.
2. Can watch/pause/stop @ anytime.
3. Minimal commercials for the most part.
4. Some content you can’t find on TV anymore or was only shown internationally.

Disadvantages:

1. Not all TV programs are available online.
2. Most programs do not appear until the day after and some expire/dissapear after so many weeks.
3. Not all programs shown in entirety (for example, Saturday Night Live will generally have missing skits)
4. Not all shows in High Definition online.
5. Can’t do it on dialup.
6. Can’t do it on your big screen TV (Well you could if you have a newer PC and TV that had an HDMI/DVI/VGA connection but that’s another blog post!)

Firefox is my browser of choice at the moment and has been for the last 4 years…

One of my favorite reasons why, besides the fact that it is fast is it has easy to use/install plugins! According to Mozilla there are over 5,000 unique add-ons to customize your browsing experience.  Best of all, everything is free!
Here are my Top 5 Firefox Add-ons/Plugins:

Adblock Plus : Blocks adverts both graphical and text from websites, this can make webpage’s load faster as well since there is less to load.  You can even right click on something that isn’t blocked and add it to your filtered list.

Xmarks :  It will backup your bookmarks, allow you to sync them and your passwords if you want across multiple computers (think of having your favorites with you wherever you are in the world at any computer!)

Forecastfox: Forecastfox can provide you with multiple day weather/real time weather and imagery straight from the bottom of your browser. All forecasts are provided from Accuweather.com It will also pop-up alerts when the weather service has issued warnings in your area. Very cool!

Quick Translation:  Has your web browsing led you to go abroad? Fear not; simply select any word with your mouse and a translation box will pop-up.

Web Of Trust: If you are about to enter a risky website, WOT will warn you and save your computer before you interact with a harmful site. With safety ratings of 21 million websites, WOT combines evidence collected from multiple trusted sources, like phishing and spam blacklists, with the ratings provided by WOT users. The system uses sophisticated algorithms to produce reliable and up-to-date ratings. This is a new one to me, but definitely seems useful if you have others using your computer.

Windows 7: Sort of like Vista but better…

Retailers http://www.amazon.com/b/?&node=1286119011 are taking pre-orders on version 7 at discounted (50%) off prices at the moment.

And to make it just as confusing, there are multiple versions of Windows 7 like Vista. We have Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. We are going to disregard Enterprise as that won’t apply to us home and small business users. I’m tempted to say forget about Ultimate as well, unless you already have Vista Ultimate and want to upgrade.

What are the differences: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions#Comparison_chart

My recommendation is that if you are currently an indvidiual using Home Basic / Home Premium, that you’d purchase the Home Premium version of 7. If you need to take advantage of special software that only runs in an XP environment or you are going to join the computer to a domain you should pick up the Professional version. Ultimate no longer has any of those cheesy extras and is really only useful for the few of us who need to load our computer into a different language (35 to choose from).

One other excellent thing is any new (Dell/HP/Lenovo) PC purchased through us starting this week that currently come with Vista Home Premium/Business/Ultimate , are eligible for a free or almost free (might have to pay up to $10 for s&h) copy of Windows 7 sometime on or after Oct 22^nd.  So if you were putting off a new purchase until October, you don’t have to.

Microsoft has also made a Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see if your computer and peripherals are compatible and capable of running Windows 7. It’s a free download, check it out here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/upgrade-advisor.aspx

On the complete other side of the spectrum, we have Apple!

Apple just recently announced Snow Leopard Is coming in September (10.6). Early reports say it is much faster than 10.5 and will have full Microsoft Exchange support.  It will not support any non-Intel machines (this means if you have a G4/G5, you are out of luck!)

Apple system purchases prior to June 8^th of this year, you can get the upgraded OS for only $29.00 ($49 for the family pack)  and those who have purchased recently or up until the point of the release, can purchase it for $10 in shipping fees.

One of the other cool things for us Macbook users with 80 GB hard drives, is the new OS will actually free up 6 GB’s of Hard Drive space! Yes, that’s just how efficient it is.

Expect a hands-on blog for both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard this fall from me.

Q: “What kind of computer do you use at home?”

Answer:  I build a new desktop every 3-4 years. I am currently about 2+ years into this one. And yes I have a macbook core duo as well.

Q: “What are the specs?”

A: Intel Core 2 E6400 (2.13ghz), 4 GB RAM, a very fast hard drive (operating system) and a very slow hard drive (file storage),  8800GTS 640mb video card, DVD burner, and a Dell Ultra Sharp 20” Widescreen monitor that I’ve had for about 4 years now and still maintains the brightness it had on day one.

Q: “What about at work?”

A: Stock Dell Vostro 220. Intel Pentium Core Duo E2200 (2 GHz), 2 GB ram, 80 GB Hard Drive, onboard Intel video, with a dvd burner and a Dell Ultra Sharp 20” Widescreen.
And yes both desktop computers are running Vista Business Service Pack 2.

On June 23^rd, Microsoft releases a beta version of their anti-virus software called “Morro” which will do auto-updates, 1 click scans, no registration information to enter, and will protect against malware, Trojans, and root kits all outside the traditional virii we have seen in the past.

Other great free ones we like here in the office :

• Avast Antivirus (does require Free registration after 60 days), has automatic updates and a female voice to notify you that is has done an update, and sounds off an alarm if it finds something suspicious.

• Avira AntiVir Personal : Also does automatic updates, no registration information required. It will also send out an audible signal if it finds something suspicious.

• AVG Free Edition (8.5): Will also protect against bad websites if you have linkscanner enabled. Sometimes doesn’t install correctly on Vista machines or if you’ve had an older version sometimes doesn’t uninstall / install correctly either.

• Panda Security Cloud Antivirus (Beta): Still in beta, very fast,  updates automatically, doesn’t take up as much system resources as AVG does if you are low on system memory and CPU Speed.

Keep in mind, I still recommend having a separate Anti-Malware piece of software on your computer. My preferred choice right now is still MalwareBytes Anti-Malware.  The pay version gives you automatic updates and real-time scanning. The free version you have to do a few clicks to scan & update but it is still very straightforward to use.

All of these products can be found and downloaded @ http://www.filehippo.com

If you are on a Apple computer, while I wouldn’t worry much these days. There is a free one available, ClamXav  (www.clamxav.com) that we recommend.