Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, March 21, 2010
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Beware of Disaster Charity Scams
Tips & Tricks: The Top Ten Alternative Search Engines
This Week's Topic: Speed Up a Slow Computer – Optimize Display Settings
Question: Backing Up Your Files
Websites of Interest: Food Gardening Guide; What Should I Read Next?; Skin Care Guide; DiscoveryNews
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Special Feature: Beware of Disaster Charity Scams
The following article is from scambusters.org
In the wake of the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti, we wanted to remind you that whenever there is a major natural or other disaster, scammers begin sending out charity relief scams and other scams almost immediately. We have created special updates on what scams abound and how to protect yourself from them.
Three common tricks -- and some useful resources -- to help you stay clear of Chile earthquake scams
Beware of Chile earthquake scams! Following hot on the heels of the Haiti quake tragedy, which saw hundreds of fraud attempts, law enforcement and charities say Chile earthquake scams are sure to follow.
The three most common tricks are:
Bogus charities calling for donations. The scammers will seek you online, on the phone and by mail. Play safe by only donating to known legitimate charities.
Bogus news stories. Scammers know how to get these stories near the top of online search engines. If you visit their websites you're in danger of infecting your computer. In fact, within hours of the quake, hackers started manipulating the tsunami search results by infecting some webpages when people searched for breaking news. Instead, use well-known media sites for updates.
Chile quake photos. Email attachments claiming to be photos of the quake, sent from people you don't know, will almost certainly be malware. Do not click on these attachments!
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Tips & Tricks: The Top Ten Alternative Search Engines
The following article is from Wendy Boswell of about.com
http://websearch.about.com/bio/Wendy-Boswell-13134.htm
Looking for a new search engine? There are literally hundreds of really great niche search engines on the Internet that focus on specific topics: images, jobs, blogs, etc. You can find all sorts of great stuff using these alternative search engines that you might not be able to find on the more well-known search engines; plus, many of these niche search engines have really interesting features that are fun to play with.
Blinkx
http://www.blinkx.com/
Blinkx TV is a search engine that helps you find audio, video, and podcasts using not only keywords and phrases, but also content in the actual clips that you are looking for. For example, if you wanted to find Kermit the Frog's "It's Not Easy Being Green", you could type in "having to spend each day the color of the leaves", and Blinkx would be able to fetch what you're looking for using not only your content, but the concept behind your content - the spoken word (or in this case, the lyrics).
IMDB
http://www.imdb.com
The Internet Movie Database is the biggest movie database on the Web. Featuring top movies, movie news, movie reviews, movie trailers, movie showtimes, DVD movie reviews,celebrity profiles,etc., the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) truly is a mammoth depository of movie information.
AuctionMapper
http://www.auctionmapper.com/
AuctionMapper is an extremely cool search engine that focuses only on eBay listings. Sure, eBay has its own site search; but AuctionMapper takes that site search and goes a few steps further. There are all sorts of geeky (yet useful) fun to be had with AuctionMapper; the whole site is full of maps, animated fun things that fly around, and Star Trekky sounds. AuctionMapper is just a really well done search engine that is not only fun to play with, but also actually useful.
USA.gov
http://www.usa.gov/
USA.gov, formerly known as FirstGov.gov, is an absolutely mammoth search engine/portal that gives the searcher direct access to searchable information from the United States government, state governments, and local governments.
Healthline
http://www.healthline.com/
Healthline.com is a medical information search engine. Healthline is solely dedicated to finding medical information online, and it offers medically filtered results developed by trained medical personnel. It's really an excellent tool for finding all kinds of medical information.
BrainBoost
http://www.answers.com/bb/
BrainBoost is an automated question-answering search engine. Here's how it works: you type in a question, any question, and instead of merely matching your search query in page text and titles like other search engines, BrainBoost actually goes the next logical step and sorts through the search results for you, then extracts the answer to your question.
National Geographic's Map Search Engine
http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/map-machine
National Geographic's Map Machine is a gigantic collection of all the National Geographic maps in a searchable online database. There is so much to the Map Machine that it's best to look at it piece by piece. Start with the Map Machine categories to get a big picture view of all that National Geographic map search has to offer. There's a lot here, and it's all searchable: world maps, satellite maps of Mars, Globe Explorer aerial imagery, and much, much more.
Technorati
http://technorati.com/
Technorati is a real-time search engine dedicated to the blogosphere. It only searches through blogs to find exactly what you're looking for. At the time of this writing, Technorati was tracking over 22 million sites and over a billion links, a mind-boggling amount.
Clusty
http://clusty.com/
Clusty is a meta search engine, meaning it combines results from a variety of different sources. However, Clusty adds a bit of extra search engine goodness in the mix by giving you clustered results. Basically, Clusty uses clusters to help your search become better, helping you cast your net wider, and sometimes coming up with search queries that you might not have thought of without the clustering feature.
Dogpile
http://www.dogpile.com/
Dogpile is a meta search engine, meaning that it gets results from multiple search engines and directories and then presents them combined to the user. Dogpile currently gets its results from Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, Ask , About, MIVA, LookSmart, and more.
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Today's Topic: Speed Up a Slow Computer – Optimize Display Settings
As your Windows computer ages, its speed can decrease. You will notice an increase in response time when you give commands to open programs, files or folders, use the Internet and other tasks. There are several things you can do to speed up your computer.
In our ongoing series, Speed Up a Slow Computer, we will present articles discussing some of the steps you can take to speed up your slow computer.
Important: Before making any changes to your system, always create a Restore Point. If anything goes wrong with the changes you make, this will allow you to revert back to a point when the computer was operating correctly. Please visit our Newsletter Archives to read our article, All About Restore Points:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/040509.html
Optimize Display Settings
Windows uses many resources to show visual items. You can disable some of these effects. Your display may not look as good, but you should to get more speed out of your computer.
Windows XP:
Click the Start button and open Control Panel
Open System and click the Advanced tab at the top.
Click the Performance tab at the top and then click Settings.
If it is not already selected, click the circle to the left of Custom. This will allow you to enable or disable any of the settings listed below. To disable, click the checkbox to the left of the setting. If a box does not have a checkmark in it, it is already disabled.
All items except the following, can be disabled:
- Show shadows under menus
- Show shadows under mouse pointer
- Show translucent selection rectangle
- Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
- Use visual styles on windows and buttons
Click the OK button and close any open windows.
It is recommended that you disable one or two of these features and then use your computer for a while. With only one or two disabled, you may not see an increase in speed, but you will be able to tell whether you like the look of the display or not.
Windows Vista / 7:
Click the Start Orb (the circle with the Windows logo, bottom left).
Open Control Panel.
Click Classic View on the left.
Open System.
Click Advanced system settings on the left.
The System Properties window will open. Click the Advanced tab at the top.
In the Performance area, click the Settings button.
If it is not already selected, click the circle to the left of Custom. This will allow you to enable or disable any of the settings listed below. To disable, click the checkbox to the left of the setting. If a box does not have a checkmark in it, it is already disabled.
All items except the following, can be disabled:
- Show shadows under menus
- Show shadows under mouse pointer
- Show translucent selection rectangle
- Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
- Use visual styles on windows and buttons
Click the OK button and close any open windows.
It is recommended that you disable one or two of these features and then use your computer for a while. With only one or two disabled, you may not see an increase in speed, but you will be able to tell whether you like the look of the display or not.
In our next edition, Detect and Repair Disk Errors
Please visit our Newsletter Archives for previous articles in our Speed Up a Slow Computer series:
Speed Up a Slow Computer - Clean the Desktop
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/040509.html
Speed Up a Slow Computer - Uninstall Unused Programs
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/041909.html
Speed Up a Slow Computer – Turn Off Auto Start Programs
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/042609.html
Speed Up a Slow Computer – Turn Off Auto Start Programs - MSCONFIG
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/050309.html
Speed Up a Slow Computer – Disable Unnecessary Windows Services
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/051009.html
Speed Up a Slow Computer – Defrag
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/051709.html
Speed Up a Slow Computer – Disable Indexing Services
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/053109.html
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Question: Backing Up Your Files
My children tell me that I should put all of my important files on a USB drive for safe keeping. Can you tell me which one to buy and how to do this?
Answer:
First of all, you need a USB drive, also known as a flash drive, data stick, or thumb drive, big enough to fit all of the files you want to store on it. Here are the steps to determine what size drive you will need:
If you are using Windows XP
Since most people save their files in My Documents, you will have to find out the size of that folder.
You may have a My Documents icon on the desktop. If you do, right click on it; a menu will open. Left click on Properties. It may take a few moments for the computer to calculate the information. When it is done, it will display the size of the documents in the folder, the amount of space it is using on the disk, and the number of files and folders contained in the folder. Click OK or the X button when you are done noting the file size.
If you do not have the My Documents icon on the desktop, right click the Start button; a menu will open. Left click on Explore. This will open Windows Explorer. The window will be split in two parts. Look for My Documents on the left (you may have to scroll up or down to find it).
Right click on My Documents; a menu will open. Left click on Properties. It may take a few moments for the computer to calculate the information. When it is done, it will display the size of the documents in the folder, the amount of space it is using on the disk, and the number of files and folders contained in the folder. Click OK or the X button when you are done noting the file size.
If you are using Windows Vista
You may have an icon for the Documents folder on your desktop. If you named your computer, for example, with your name, you will see an icon with your name right under it. If you did not name it, look for an icon that says User’s Files.
When you find the icon, double click on it. A window will open, split in two parts. You should see Favorite Links with a list under it, including Documents, Pictures, Music and more. Look for the word Folders, at the bottom left. To the right of Folders is a small up arrow. Click on the arrow.
You will now see a list with the word Desktop on the top. Beneath that you will see your name (if you named your computer) or User’s Files. Double click on that. A list will display; Documents will be one of the items on the list.
Right click on Documents; a menu will open. Left click on Properties. Click the General tab at the top. It may take a few moments for the computer to calculate the information. When it is done, it will display the size of the documents in the folder, the amount of space it is using on the disk, and the number of files and folders contained in the folder. Click OK or the X button when you are done noting the file size.
If you do not have the icon on the desktop, right click the Start Orb; a menu will open. Left click on Explore. A window will open, split in two parts. You should see Favorite Links with a list under it, including Documents, Pictures, Music and more. Look for the word Folders, at the bottom left. To the right of Folders is a small up arrow. Click on the arrow.
You will now see a list with the word Desktop on the top. Beneath that you will see your name (if you named your computer) or User’s Files. Double click on that. A list will display; Documents will be one of the items on the list.
Right click on Documents; a menu will open. Left click on Properties. Click the General tab at the top. It may take a few moments for the computer to calculate the information. When it is done, it will display the size of the documents in the folder, the amount of space it is using on the disk, and the number of files and folders contained in the folder. Click OK or the X button when you are done noting the file size.
Now that you know the size of your files, you can determine the capacity of the USB drive that you need. If the size of the files is measured in MB, then everything will fit on a 1GB drive. If, for example, the size is 3.6 GB, then you will need a 4 GB drive.
Since the price of storage has decreased so significantly over the last few years, you may want to buy a USB drive larger than you need right now. This will give you room for files created in the future.
If you are using Windows 7
Double click the Computer icon on the desktop. A Window will open; in the left pane, click Libraries.
Documents will display in the right pane. Right click on it. You will see a small menu; left click on Properties.
The Document Properties dialog box will open. About two thirds of the way down, you will see Size of files in library: Calculating. This will eventually tell you the size of the files (this step may take awhile if there are a lot of files).
In the next newsletter, we will learn how to save all of your files to your new USB drive.
Visit our newsletter archives to learn what a USB drive is:
http://www.computerkindergarten.com/html/092307.html
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Websites of Interest:
Food Gardening Guide
The source for information on growing your favorite vegetables, fruits, and herbs.
http://www.garden.org/foodguide/
What Should I Read Next?
Enjoyed a particular book or writer and want to find something similar? This site can help.
http://whatshouldireadnext.com/
Skin Care Guide
Skin care information that will help you identify and treat a wide range of skin conditions.
http://www.skincareguide.com/
DiscoveryNews
Breaking news and in-depth articles related to the Earth, Space, Tech, Animals, Dinosaurs, Archaeology, and much more.
http://news.discovery.com/