By Eddie L Hines…Founder of ComputerMan!  PC Services

By the time you read this article, Windows 7, the successor to Windows XP and replacement for Windows Vista will be going to be 2 years old. People, however are still humming along with their Windows XP machine saying “Why should I upgrade? XP is working ok for me”!  The truth is, people are going to be skeptical to want to because of all the growing pains it took to learn Windows XP. In fact, people still don’t know how to use XP without a book or a geek by their side showing them what to do.  For businesses, it does take 2-3 years to migrate their entire company from one Operating system to another, with lots of testing and compatibility checks.  But you have at most what? 3 computers? With the price breaks Microsoft is now offering for multiple computer households, you wont have to break the back to upgrade.  But maybe you fall into one of the three categories below which is contributing to your hesitation…

Let’s break down first what I believe to be the computer knowledge percentage theory, and then I will let you know how Windows XP and “7” fit into that theory. Let’s say 100% knowledge represents everything there is to know about computers (computer genius). These people probably work for a computer company already or hacking into another one. Now let’s go in the other direction…

33 percenter (Computer illiterate) – This person only knows how to turn on the computer (sometimes), run a few applications they use most often, go to a website, and maybe push the start button. They are not capable of most things beyond the basics, modifying their PC environment, troubleshoot simple problems, or get into safe mode if needed. In fact a way to tell a 33 percenter is to ask them where the desktop is. They may even say the computer is sitting on it. These people are more likely to swallow their pride and have a pc tech come and do all the maintenance and repairs on the PC.

66 percenter (Computer Savvy) - This person is a little bit better. They can do light troubleshooting, install or uninstall applications, modify their settings themselves, and go into safe mode to diagnose a startup issue. They sometimes do their own maintenance but some of the more sophisticated problems are over their heads. Some of this group can actually get into the control panel, but only understand about 5 of the 20 icons that are on the screen. Don’t trust these people with advanced topics, like network troubleshooting or the event viewer. They are more than happy to call a tech for that!

85 percenter (Computer Guru) – Now we are getting into my territory. These people know how to repair simple to difficult computer issues as well as creating solutions to problems that are uncommon. They can setup networks, troubleshoot BSOD issues, hardware errors and advanced internet setups. These people, when they have the power, are able to teach the 33 percenters how to use their computer more efficiently, and the 66 percenters how to have more confidence in what they already know. By allowing the less fortunate people are the people they serve. The 85 percenters are a godsend to this new world of technology.

Now getting back to my main topic, Windows XP was designed for the 66 percenters and up. The so called wizards in the computer settings were not designed for the simple minds of the 33 percenters to grasp. In order to change your wallpaper, there are 3 ways to do so, but XP never shows you exactly how to do it. You would have to know to right click an empty area of the desktop, and click properties. 33 percenters don’t even have a chance! And forget it if you do get an error…the instructions on how to diagnose it might as well be Japanese to you.

Which is why Microsoft corrected this problem by creating…
Windows 7. The OS WAS designed finally for the computer illiterate in mind. Now when you want to change the wallpaper, right click the wallpaper itself and select personalize. There you can change it to whatever you want using the easy to see and understand menu that’s provided. And let’s say you wanted to connect a remote printer to your computer. In XP you have to be a genius to manually set the IP address along with the advanced settings on how the printer will print once it gets the data from your computer. With “7”, you have 3 steps…select PRINTERS from the NEW start panel, select ADD PRINTER, and yes connect it from a network. The PC automatically searches your network for any printers it finds. That’s it! As long as you have the driver CD that came with the printer (with newer models that is no longer needed), then you are ready to print a test page and begin using your printer. This also goes for wireless adapters, mobile devices, and MP3 players.

Here is a bonus…if you purchase the business version on Windows 7; you get a free copy of XP that will run in emulation mode within Windows 7. This means that if you have any applications that only run on XP, you can still purchase Windows 7 and run those apps in an XP only environment!

So before you say poo poo to moving on to Windows 7 this fall, ask yourself, what percenter are you?

Have you ever worn a friend of yours outfit just to see what it would feel like to be them for a day? Well

the Touch Pro 2 owners are getting that experience now…with a unique opportunity to run the Android 2.1 OS on their Touch Pro 2 Windows Phone. Thanks to developers named XANDROID, they have developed a temporary way for you to actually run the Android OS on your Touch pro 2…an unfinished version of course…for you to see just how the other half lives.  http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=627997

To start off, you have to install an 86 MB cab file onto your storage card.  This will then create a folder on your card that has all the files needed to boot the Droid on your phone, including creating a shortcut to launch it. In the past the install was so primitive, you had to create your own shortcut of haret.exe yourself which was tedious and frustrating.  After you launch the software the first time (it takes about 3 minutes to boot) you will then get a chance to calibrate the screen. Be careful at this part because if you don’t do it right, you can’t navigate the screen at all and you will have to start all over! Since this is a one-time thing, you don’t have to worry about it after the first boot. After that, you will be presented with a setup screen similar to the Droid’s counterpart. Enter your Gmail info and setup wireless (which now works except for WEP connections) and you are now ready to run!

With this rendition of the Droid, there are some omissions the developers are still working on.  There is no sound…at all, but you can hear phone calls and speak very clearly into the microphone.  Dialing defiantly works fine, along with navigation of the Home screen.  Similar to the Droid, you get 3 home screens to add widgets or shortcuts onto, as well as the ability to download software from the Market (I would not download things you have to pay for just yet). The software load and movement is rather quick and the ability to customize it makes it shine very well.  However don’t try to charge the device—that still is flaky, or try to put the phone to sleep.  Even though there is an option to do so (just press the END key on the phone) it does not totally go to suspend mode, just screen off. This method still drains the battery so be careful.  There are other buttons on the TP2 that trigger the appropriate Android function, like the back key, the menu key and the dialer key.  There is even a task manager (executed my pressing the power button) and double functions for most of the buttons. The volume buttons would work if there was sound, and the ability to reset the phone back to Windows is now active by holding down the END key for 3 seconds.  Other things that are not ready for prime time yet are…

• BT
• GPS
• Camera
• Open gles: using software rendering for the time being.

All in all, they are doing a wonderful job so far.  They are far from finished, but soon you will join the likes of the MacBook Pro and have the unique power to dual boot your phone to Android…or Windows (Maybe a WinDroid???)

Until recently, if you wanted to make a telephone call in your house you needed either a home phone service with AT&T, or use your cell phone in your house (with a hit or miss signal). With AT&T you paid a monthly charge averaging $70 a month with limited services included in that price.  Next came VOIP services like Vonage and Lightyear, where the monthly services were at $24.99 which included popular services like Caller ID, 3-way calling and Call waiting. Not bad right?  Well today we now have a service where you get all those monthly services but only pat $19.99….a year!

MagicJack was introduced in early 2007 with the concept of paying a yearly charge for home phone service that is portable.  This means that you plug in a little box into your USB port on your computer, plug a phone cable from your MagicJack box into your home phone and voila! You have a dial tone.  Using this technology, you are able to not only save a ton of money but have decent home phone service to use.

Now there are ups and downs with this service. Lets go over the positives first.  First of all the service WORKS! Whether you have Windows XP or Vista (Sorry Mac People, no soup for you!), you plug in the box, register your box in the MagicJack service center, pay your $39.99 over the internet ($19.99 for the yearly service, and $20 for the box), and 1 hour later you pick up your phone and you get dial tone. I believe that is a very easy setup procedure with little hassle.

The GOOD

1.         Can plug it into any internet based computer anywhere in the world…If you go anywhere in the world you can plug the MagicJack into your USB port and plug a phone in. so if you are in Russia or Europe and you want to receive your phone calls, you can!

2.         Inexpensive…$20 a year, enough said. You save about $820 a year, so don’t spend that all in one place.

3.         Voicemail is included…if people leave you a message, you can get it online or through your email. That’s convenient.

4.         Digital call history and favorites list that is stored in the box. If you plug the box in anywhere it saves all of your call history, even if you are not online. Tell your Vonage to do that!

5.         Can plug it into a fax machine (recommend using a splitter). You can fax out using this service, although receiving is a little difficult to do

The BAD

1.         No humans to talk to…if you have any issues whatsoever, don’t bother using MagicJack to call anyone, there is no one there! All you have is an email and pray that someone gets back to you.

2.         Any computer usage beyond just using the phone will cause hiccups and poor reception for both parties.  This is a CPU hog so any activity you do on your computer while you are on the phone will severely compromise your phone conversation. In fact, your conversations will at most be 80% of landlines clearness simply because of the internet traffic.

3.         Pc must be on all the time…some people may have an issue with this one, especially if they have a laptop.  Once your pc goes off or crashes, good bye phone system.

4.         Fax support is limited…as I mentioned before, this will not work to receive faxes. That is because data that comes in as a fax gets lost in the internet traffic. Outgoing faxes do seem to work though.

5.         You can only use 1 phone that is near the pc (unless you have a multiple phone system)…yes this one is a doosie! If you own a traditional phone then it does not have any satellite phones. This means you must have the phone right next to your pc and no other room in the house can use it. That’s why I recommend either buying multiple MagicJacks or use the phone maybe for an office phone in your house.

6. Have to deal with advertising…yes they subsidize the cost by putting little advertisements in the MagicJack program software. A little annoying but it does not get in the way of your phone calls.

I give the service pretty good marks for financial savings, but it does not quite cut the mustard when it comes to phone quality, especially those who are used to using a landline phone service.  If a little hissing and “speak louder” requests are ok with you, then I recommend purchasing the last phone number you will ever have…for now.

Well the holiday season 2009 has come and gone and you may be thinking I love to take picture but my camera isn’t what I want or why do I have so many blurry pictures or what in the world do I do with them once I take them.

This article is going to break down the type of camera that you may want, how to take the best shots, what to do with them after you take the pictures and how to store them.

First let’s tackle the type of camera that works best.    There are many different cameras on the market that start at 1 mega pixel to 12 mega pixels, the ones that are 4 and 5 works well for the money.  You will want a nice size LCD screen; you should look for ones that are between 1.8” to 3.5”.   Are you like me and take blurry pictures?  If you get at camera with 3xs optical zoom or higher this will help take the blur out of the pictures.  So now that you have the basics, who is the best camera manufacturer?  Canon’s and Nikon’s are the best cameras on the market.  You can buy one of these cameras for less that $300.

Okay now that you have your dream camera you want to know what all these settings are about.  Please review the manufactures instruction guide for specific instruction but we will discuss some of the basics on settings.  First let’s decide what we are going to do with the pictures.  If you are just going to email the pictures to family and friends you can change the setting to mega pixels to 2 this will produce picture that are 640×480.  If you want to print the pictures, you will want to keep the mega pixels at the highest possible setting.  Setting tips:

1. i.      Make sure you remove the time and date from the pictures if you don’t want them showing up covering the picture.
2. ii.     If the object is standing still make sure you have the camera on a still setting. For moving objects make sure you select an action setting.
3. iii.     Set your flash to auto so the camera will know how much light is available before taking the picture.
4. iv.     If you are going to take moving video with your camera, remember there will be no flash so take daytime shots, and remember to turn off the video when you are done or it will eat up all your memory!

Did you buy additional memory?  Do you need additional memory? How much memory do you really need?  This all depends on the number of pictures you are going to take.  A 64 Mega Byte card will take about 100 pictures.  A 128 mega byte card will take about 150 pictures.  A 2 giga byte card will take about 2000 pictures.  If change your setting to a lower mega pixel you will be able to take additional pictures with the memory card.

So now that we have talked about the basic camera needs you want to know what to do with all of these wonderful pictures that you have taken?    I have taken some of the questions that I have received about saving pictures and put it in an easy to read version.

Q: Which folder should I keep my pictures in?

A:  If you are running Windows XP, you should save your pictures to the MY PICTURES in the MY DOCUMENTS folder.  To make it easier to find your pictures at a later time you should make a sub folder for each time you upload your pictures.

Q: I have Gmail and I want to save my pictures there.  Can I?

A: Yes you can.  If you have an X-Drive or Gmail you can load your pictures there.  This will help you reduce backing up your pictures.  The only down side to doing this is that you can only save about 300 pictures to these places.  The average camera user saves about 2000 pictures on their hard drive.

Q: Do I delete the pictures from the memory card after I upload them to my computer?

A: Yes.  You will want to delete the pictures so that you have the space on your memory care for additional pictures for future use.  Please be sure that you back up your system so that in case of computer failure that you have these stored.

Now that you have your dream camera, you know how to use it, you have loaded them on to your computer, you feel that you have done all that you need to do.  Well I suggest one more thing so that you will not lose those precious memories.   You will want to back your pictures up.  So you want to know how to back them up?  There are for types of backs up that you can do.

1.  A DVD or CD

Depending on the size of the pictures folder you can burn the folder directly onto a CD or DVD and store the disk away for safe keeping.  There are even programs that will turn your pictures into a slide show if you plan on giving a copy of the DVD or CD to others to view.

2.  An external hard drive

By storing them here if lowers the hassles of burning data and keeping track of the disk.  Plus if you get a 160 GB external hard drive you don’t have to worry about running out of space.

3.  A memory card

If you have under 1000 pictures, you save them to a memory card or even an IPod.  This way you can easily transfer the pictures to another computer or even print them out at a Wal-Mart or target store.

4. Online Storage

There are larger capacities online storage centers than X-Drive or Gmail.  Paying a monthly fee, you are able to store all your pictures online so if anything happens to your house that the computer is in, your pictures are always safe.  I would recommend either Iron Mountain (www.connected.com) or Pulkin Computer Services (www.pulkin.com).

Now that you have found a back up method that works for you, you know want to know how often that you need to back them up.  First, you should always do a back up when you up load new pictures to your hard drive.  You should also plan on doing a monthly back up just as a precaution.   Unfortunately, the unthinkable has happened and you now need to restore these pictures.  This is not has hard as you think.  First you go to your back up and reverse the steps that you had taken to back them up to begin with.  If you are using an on line service you can log in to the service and recopy the pictures to your My Pictures folder.    Please made sure that you wait until your computer is back up and running at full functionality before restoring any of your backed up data.   Last but not least what if you lost one of your pictures?  If you think that it is on your computer you can do a search for it by using Windows XP.  If you are not able to find it there, just check to make sure that you didn’t accidentally delete it and it is sitting in your recycle bin.

I hope that you found this information helpful.  Happy holidays to all of you and enjoy taking pictures this year. (And make sure you keep the naughty ones off Facebook!)