IT NEWS, TIPS AND ADVICE
In this newsletter I discuss my latest support issues, some useful sites and software amongst others.
Latest Support Issues {What I have fixed lately!}
In the past month I have been to a couple of client's homes to deal with problems starting their PC or laptop that were hard disk related. The hard disk is where all the documents, photos, videos, music and programs are stored. Programs can be re-installed but the information is unique and needs to be looked after.
In both cases I was able to access the hard disk and recover the valuable (priceless!) and irreplaceable information. However, I would say that they were lucky because they didn't have a backup of this important information.
A backup can be made by simply copying the data to a CD or DVD (I wouldn't recommend using USB flash drives/sticks for long term storage). There is software that makes this easy and automatic but you still need to put the disk in the drive!
If you are not convinced that you need to backup your information then consider this: what would you do if your PC was stolen or never started again? Any information on the computer is now gone forever: how much time have you spent creating the files? How will you retake your photographs? How much will it cost to replace those files that can be replaced?
Web Sites Worth Seeing {Insights on Sites}
Site One
http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr Free Text Translation
Although most of you will already have this in your favourites, I include it for those who have lost the link or have not heard of it. It is simply a free site where you can translate between English and a number of key languages.
Site Two
http://www.zamzar.com Free File Conversion
Another totally free site this time for converting documents and files from one format to another. You can convert any document or video to any other format on this site. The file can be on a website (YouTube etc) or on your pc. You simply point the site to your file and, when it is converted, you will be sent a link to download the converted file.
It converts to all the usual document, audio and video files.For example, it converts to the following video formats: 3gp, avi, flv,gvi, iphone, ipod, m4v, mov, mp4, mpg, ogg, rm, rmvb, rob and wmv. I have to admit that most of these mean nothing to me! However, I am sure that for the aficionados it is an impressive list!
If you do a lot of file conversion go to tools on the web site to install a button on your browser toolbar to convert files on web pages as required.
I received an error 102 when converting a pdf file to doc but the conversion worked anyway!
Free Software (Worth Every Penny)
http://earth.google.com/sky/skyedu.html
 If you have ever looked up into the beautifully clear skies in Spain you may have wondered about what you can see. Well now you can download the latest Google Earth to automatically install Google Sky. This will provide the view from the current location in Google Earth but looking up not down. You click the icon on the right hand side of the toolbar to change from Earth to Sky.
Click on the link above to download the latest version of Google Earth which includes this free add-on to Google Earth.
There are many interesting features and extra information about the stars, galaxies etc - just as there is in google Earth.
Vista News - Service Pack 1
There have been a number of rumours that Microsoft will release a Service Pack (SP) for Vista in the same way that they did for XP. Until recently these were just that - rumours. I can now reveal that there WILL be a SP. A SP is simply an update to a program to fix problems with the original software and/or provide additional functionality.
When is it due? March 2008.
How much does it cost? Free to download but a nominal fee for the DVD version.
How big is it? The Express update should be only a 50MB download. The full version is around 1Gb!
What does it fix? There are numerous fixes (I will publish a full list on my web site when I have it). These will improve usability, performance, stability and hardware compatibility.
Must Have Things {How have I survived without a ... USB Flash Drive?}
A USB Flash Drive is a small (the size of your little finger) portable storage device which plugs into your USB port and behaves like a mini hard drive. These have been around for many years but are now very affordable and have capacities of up to 16GB. I would recommend a 1 or 2GB drive which cost less than 20 Euros.
They are very useful for moving information from one PC to another and can even be set up so that you can run programs directly from the 'stick'. There is a limit to the number of times you can write to the Flash Drive so I would restrict its use to temporary storage rather than as additional hard disk space and certainly wouldn't rely on them for data storage.
The Future is Here - at Last!
 I always like to see computers helping and being useful instead of the way I normally get to see them: misbehaving and useless! I saw this the other day and it reminded me of the world I thought we'd all be living in by the year 2000. This is an automatic vacuum cleaner (which is not too unusual these days) but I like this one because of the neat corner brushes that you can see at the top of the picture.
This is the Roomba 500 series and it comes with a price tag of around 250 Euros.
Final Word
Each month I will write about anything that I think you will be interested in or need to know. However, this is YOUR column as much as mine: I want to write about what you ARE interested in, not what I THINK you will be interested in!
I encourage anyone with a comment, suggestion, question, idea, criticism or inspiration to contact me at
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.
Please see The Inland Magazine Computer Problems Forum if you have a specific IT problem.
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