Tips & Tricks
PC Recycling
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Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99.
You bought a new computer and not sure what to do with your
old one. There are a few things to take into consideration:
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First and foremost, keep that old computer out of the
landfill. Computers contain hazardous materials that are bad for our
environment.
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Before making a decision to donate an old computer, be sure it
will be of value to the recipient. If your computer is 4 or 5 years old and
beyond, it may be more trouble than it's worth for them.
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Whether you donate your old computer or recycle it, it is very
important that your data had been removed from it. This entails more than just
deleting old files and folders. There is a lot of data that is stored on your
computer that you may not be aware of. For example, any time you have entered
your birthday, social security number, credit card, or other personal
information on a website it is stored deep on your hard drive. This information can easily be
found and used by others for the purpose of identity theft.
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Consider our PC Recycling and Data Destruction service to
destroy your personal data and keep your computer out of the landfill.
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Power Protection
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Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99.
In the event of power failure, it's important to have proper
power protection to avoid damaging your computer. Lightning strikes are more
commonly known for damaging electronics. However, a simple and quick drop in
power can not only damage your computer's hardware, but also corrupt software on
your computer. Here are a few points on power protection.
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A power strip does not provide any power protection. Power
strips are basically just extra power outlets.
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A surge protector will provide you with protection in the
event of a power surge, but will not provide all necessary protection in an
abrupt power shutdown. In these cases, open files and software, can become
corrupt.
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A UPS, or uninterrupted power supply, provides both surge
protection and battery backup. The battery backup provides 5 to 15 minutes of
battery time to properly shutdown your computer. Most UPS devices include
software that can automatically shutdown your computer in the event of a power
loss.
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Managing digital photos
Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99.
How many digital photos do you have? Since the onset of digital photography, the number of pictures the average person takes has exploded. Why not? You can just keep snapping away without having to worry about running out of film. This has caused a challenge though. Our computers are getting filled up with thousands and thousands of photos scattered all over the hard drive.
Managing all of your photos does not have to be difficult or expensive. There is a free application from Google called Picasa. This allows you to organize, edit, and share all your digital memories. Picasa does this and more:
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Automatically scans your hard drive for photos.
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Organizes them by folder.
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Tag photos with keywords for easy searching. For example, Summer Vacation 2009.
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Face recognition feature makes tagging photos by name easy.
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Wide variety of editing tools.
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Use Picasa Web Albums to share photos with family and friends.
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Lots of other features to print photos to your local photo processor, e-mail, create blogs, and more.
Learn more and download Google Picasa for free.
Years of memories could be wiped away if you don't have a backup. A couple weeks ago we spoke about the importance of backing up your computer in case of disaster. We spoke specifically about online backup. Click here to read and listen about this previous Tips & Tricks segment.
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Wireless Printing
Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99.
You can print wirelessly to a printer in your home or business
from your laptop. This makes it real easy so you don't have to carry the laptop
over to the printer to connect it each time you want to print.
Printing wirelessly can be done a few different ways:
Wireless printer
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More and more printers have wireless capabilities built right
into the printer. While the price of these printers vary greatly based upon the
feature set, there are entry level printers with wireless under $100. These are
easy to setup and let you print to it from any computer on the network (doesn't
just have to be the wireless laptop).
Non-Wireless printer connected to Desktop PC
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If you have a printer connected to your desktop computer,
you can turn on "print sharing" within the properties of the printer and
allow other computers on your network to print to it. These other computers
can be connected wirelessly or be hard wired into your network. It's
important to note that the desktop computer with the printer connected to it
needs to always be on.
Non-Wireless Printer not connected to another computer
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