Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Monday, July 26th, 2010
Here’s a touchy question, are you good enough to run your machine as an administrator? I say no. And if you would have asked me that a year ago, I would have had a different answer. The owner of Solution Innovators challenged me to NOT run my machine with administrator rights at all times. Many people do and survive, but it’s a risk. What risk you ask?
If the phrase “running as an administrator” is greek to you, you should probably listen up. On your computer (doesn’t matter, Windows, Mac, or Linux) you have an user account. It’s probably named after you, after all, it is your computer. Well each user account has specific privileges, what we call rights, or permissions. If you operate your computer with administrative privileges, it means you can make changes to some very important system files as well perform what seem to be valid tasks as installing software or hardware. However whether you know it or not, the programs you run (and the ones you don’t) also have administrator access (generally speaking) and this creates an opportunity for bad things to happen.
Example 1: You accidentally make some changes or deleted important system files – now how do you get them back? Oops…
Example 2: A virus is downloaded without your knowledge and now has access to delete or infect the core files of your computer. It’s going to be very difficult to clean that computer and the safest bet is to reload the operating system which means time and money…Oops.
Example 3: Nothing tragic here, just some thinking. When you need administrator privileges for a task, installing software, hardware etc, you may be able to authenticate with your administrator account right then and there, or you simply have to logout, login as administrator, perform your tasks and log back in as yourself. This isn’t the end of the world and it actually got you to stop and think about why you have to put in your administrator password. “Do I really want to make these changes? Could there be any significant repercussions for my actions?”
So you’ll find a lot of people run as the administrator, however I do not and it hasn’t killed me yet. Think about it.
See you next time
Matt
Tags: Apple, Desktop, Linux, Security, Tips and Tricks, Windows
Posted in Desktop, Security, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, June 11th, 2010
Greetings -
So this a long over due post, work got busy and the blog got pushed to the back burners, something I’d rather not have to do again. Some of the latest breaking news in our industry is the new iPhone due out later this month. The iPhone 4 will feature a new operating system available to iPhone 3GS, and with limited features, 3G. Apple boasts of increased security among several other features. One of the “coolest” features is both a front and rear camera for use in their Facetime app, allowing video conferencing over WiFi. Check it out at Apple.com/iphone
To counter the iPhone, I’ve gotten my hands on some HTC phones running the Android operating system made by Google. Needless to say, I love my iPhone, but the Android OS was quite impressive.
Stay tuned for more posts, I plan to keep this a bit more updated!
See you next time,
Matt
Tags: Apple, Google, mobile devices, New Technology
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
This Website Wednesday brings you w3schools.com. W3Schools is the greatest reference for web designers and programmers. Their site gives great online tutorials in just about every web based language. They also have validation tools to check your website to see if it’s in compliance with the standards set for the world wide web.
Check it out at w3schools.com!
Tags: New Technology, Web
Posted in Uncategorized, Website Wednesday | No Comments »
Friday, May 28th, 2010
Today’s Freeware Friday brings you Paint.NET. (From their website:) Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It’s like Adobe Photoshop, but a lot cheaper! It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins. I’ve haven’t used it myself yet, but my coworkers claim it’s one of the best freeware programs they’ve found.
Check it out at Paint.NET
Tags: Windows
Posted in Freeware Friday, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Today’s Freeware Friday brings you Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a Linux operating system that is completely free. There are both desktop and server versions; the desktop version has the GUI (graphical user interface) where the server edition is strictly command prompt.
What is an operating system? The operating system is the Microsoft XP, Vista, 7 or Mac 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Pros and Cons
Some of the pro’s of Ubuntu are: it’s free, with patience and some learning you can do almost anything you can do in Windows. It also runs on low-end hardware, a good way to re-use a computer for the kids to play on.
On the other hand, it can be difficult to learn, it won’t run most business software (no .exe’s) and you’re pretty much on your own if it breaks.
Check it out, it’s something different. Here’s Ubuntu’s website.
Tags: Desktop, Linux, New Technology
Posted in Desktop, Freeware Friday, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Website Wednesday is late again…I’m apologize. Website Wednesday’s post brings you to Pandora.com. Pandora is a free service that provides an Internet based radio. The cool thing about Pandora is that there are endless possibilities when it comes to creating your own “station.” One may use one of the generic stations or setup an entirely custom station based on genre or artist. Pandora gives you the option to “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” and the option to skip a select number of songs. The thumbs up tells Pandora to play more like the current song where thumbs down will remove the song from ever being played on that station.
Check it out at Pandora.com
See ya next time,
Matt
Tags: Web
Posted in Uncategorized, Website Wednesday | No Comments »
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Last week Apple release the new and updated MacBook Pro’s with increased speed, performance, and battery life. Check it out at Apple.com
Here’s a great review too, click here
See ya next time
Matt
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Today’s “This day in technology” from wired.com featured the anniversary of Apple’s extremely successful operating system, OSX (pronounced “O-S-Ten”) Click here for their article. I think this is the product that put Apple back in the game of personal computers. This operating system had some early flaws, but now on it’s seventh edition, Snow Leopard, the success of Apple’s OSX is indisputable. Rumor sites are hinting to another substantial update coming this summer.
Tags: Apple, Desktop, New Technology
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, February 5th, 2010
Apple recently released the iPad (www.apple.com/ipad), a tablet type device. What does this mean to you? Well it’s a pretty neat product but it’s use will be determined by consumers. The iPad comes out in 2 months, visit Apple’s website to see if it’s for you!
Tags: Apple, Buzzwords, New Technology, Web
Posted in Desktop, Online, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Friday, January 15th, 2010
So everyone asks the question, “What’s the difference between a Mac and a PC?”
Without giving a history lesson, there was a stereotype that Mac’s were good for artists but not for business. And of course, EVERYONE uses Microsoft Windows so that’s the way to go…
Well I hope to set a few things straight without starting a war, I’ll do my best.
There are some key differences between Apple and Microsoft. First of all, Apple decided long ago that for the best outcome, their operating system (based off of Unix) would run best on hardware they made themselves. This makes sense to a degree, the code can be tested against known hardware configurations. Microsoft on the other hand, made their money on their operation system known as Microsoft Windows. Microsoft doesn’t sell hardware (desktops and laptops) but instead relies on many manufacturers to build hardware that will run Windows. With this business model, Microsoft could focus on Windows and software and not necessarily the corresponding hardware.
Needless to say, both companies made decisions to what abilities they would include in their operation systems. At different points in time, these decisions weren’t known as features, but limitations. “Oh I can’t do that on my Mac but I can my PC” and visa versa.
If we fast-forward to today’s computing world, to the average person, both Mac and PC’s are different yet comparable. Many of the visual features were first introduced from Apple and many of the networking/corporate structure were introduced by Microsoft.
The computing giants are still sticking to their business models and that answers the question, “Why are Macs so expensive?” For more detail, it could be said that Apple uses high quality hardware that they stand behind much better than their competitors. Apple’s has built a reputation that there products will work day in and day out. Now, there are many PC’s that will do the same, but Apple’s customer service is tough to beat.
Tags: Apple, Windows
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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