Imagine if your computer was stolen. What would you do? Forget about the cost of new one, what about the data on the laptop. No doubt having your computer stolen would be awful. Now what if you could find the location of your laptop and even a picture of who is currently operating the computer? That would be very helpful in recovering your precious laptop. Chis Prillo gives us a great tutorial and general overview of PreyProject.com.
Microsoft has improved upon the street views that currently exists on both Live Maps and Google Maps. Now moving around from “bubble” to bubble is more intuitive. Watch the short video on why this is a big improvement over the current way to navigate on street views.
Watch a quick video on why we recommend Norton as your main anti-virus solution.
From Symantec :
Norton AntiVirus 2012 defends your PC against viruses, spyware, bots, worms, and more without slowing you down or getting in your way. Intelligence-driven technology identifies and targets only files at risk, for faster, less frequent scans. Vulnerability Protection prevents threats from exploiting security holes in your PC’s software. Pulse Updates every 5 to 15 minutes and real-time online security checks help ensure continuous, up-to-the-minute protection against the latest threats.
Plus, unlike other antivirus solutions, Norton AntiVirus provides easy-to-understand threat explanations and information about CPU and memory resource usage to help you prevent future infections and keep your PC running fast.
You tube is coming out with TV like functionality. The new service is called Youtube Leanback. Leanback automatically plays your videos in HD when possible and maximizes the screen. You can have your personal feeds to watch in a “TV” like experience. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/leanback
Gmail finally ads custom signatures to its features list. We’ve all been waiting for this one. Now you can add images and links to create your own custom signature. Steps to follow when creating your own custom sig:
1. Log into Gmail and click settings
2. Scroll down until you see Signature
3. Add your custom signature and click save.
That’s it. Adding your custom signature is long over due, but we still love Gmail. Thanks Google!
The latest app I added to my Ipod is the Pandora app. Pandora is a great web application that plays music you like. You can create custom radio stations to your liking. Just enter a song or artist that you like and it will recommend other songs and artists based upon your music tastes.
Pandora’s claim to fame is the “music genome”. They have people who organize thousands of songs and catalog them by their “genome” . In other words if the song title you just entered has a lot of pianos in the song, it may recommend other songs with similar sounds.
Each song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 400 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. These attributes capture not only the musical identity of a song, but also the many significant qualities that are relevant to understanding the musical preferences of listeners. The typical music analyst working on the Music Genome Project has a four-year degree in music theory, composition or performance, has passed through a selective screening process and has completed intensive training in the Music Genome’s rigorous and precise methodology. To qualify for the work, analysts must have a firm grounding in music theory, including familiarity with a wide range of styles and sounds. All analysis is done on location.
They have apps for the ipod touch and iphone. This is one of my favorites for listening to music, check it out at Pandora.com
What do you do when your net book or laptop has no DVD/CD drive and you need to install software from a disk? The newest Netbooks and laptops are great but often do not have DVD drives installed. Don’t fret there are alternatives to get that information onto your Netbook.
- Go to www.isodisk.com and download and install this program on both computers
- Insert disk on computer A and open ISO Disk program , then click “create ISO image from cd rom”
- It will create a file with the extension ISO, i.e. school-program.ISO. Copy that file to a thumb drive or if possible email that CDfile to the other computer.
- Open the ISO Disk program on computer B and choose the “mount ISO image as virtual drive” this will cause the file to show up as a cd drive installed on computer B. Just go to “My Computer” and double click the cd drive as you would normally. When you’re done with the program, don’t forget to unmount the ISO image, or it will always show up as a drive on Computer B
The other alternative is to purchase a USB DVD rom player. This could be your external DVD player but I prefer the first option so you don’t have to tote around additional hardware.
Not sure if the power jack is bad? Try a power jack tester.
My latest laptop came in the shop with the customer reporting a bad power jack. After taking apart the the entire laptop and finally getting to the main board the jack looked fine. Often you can tell a bad jack just by looking at it. They may be loose or disconnected all together. They could look burnt around the motherboard or inside the actual jack. What happens when every thing looks good? This customer insisted the power jack was bad. I didn’t think so.
If you have ever replaced a power jack before you know it can be difficult on some models. This model was not too hard, but I didn’t want to do the job if I didn’t think that was the root cause. I suspected a failed main board.
What you can do to test the power jack is detailed in the following information. Go to Radio shack and get a size N adapter. Solder two leads onto the adapter, one for power and the other for ground. Attached the power lead to the power source end of the jack and the other end to the ground.
This allows you to hook up another working jack with out all the work of removing the old jack. Especially if it’s not bad.
Use a multimeter to identify which lead is the power lead and which lead is the ground. Power usually is the middle lead in the group of holes on the motherboard. If comes directly off of the main pin inside the jack. NOTE: Some jacks are switch like and use flexible peices of metal in the back, and the lead may not be the middle. Use a multimeter to check for continuity from the jack to the opposite side of the motherboard.
