Getting The Most from Your PC In a Recession Part 2

This month I’ll be giving you some tips on how you can use your pc to sell goods on the internet and also how you can use your pc to product cash budgets.

Selling Goods On The Internet
The internet, and in particular Ebay, offers you a quick and convenient way to sell your unwanted goods. Like any business there are a couple of key areas that you should be aware of before you start selling on the internet.

Getting Paid
You need a seller’s Paypal account to sell on eBay. Paypal is the preferred method for most people buying goods on eBay as it offers both the seller and buyer a degree of protection from fraud. (You’ll find a link to the Ebay seller requirements on the link page at the bottom of this article.)

Postage
Start small and avoid selling delicate items. Research what it will cost to ship your product and remember your buyer may be from anywhere in the world.
By starting with small items you will keep your first transactions simple and learn as you go. Delicate items can be easily damaged in transit so avoid then until you are confident that your packaging is up to snuff.

Packaging
This is a key point and you should pay particular attention to how you package your goods for shipping. Poorly packaged items will result in unhappy customers and this can cause problems and these include not being paid. Happy Selling!

Creating A Cash Budget On your PC
Your pc is the ideal tool for creating a budget to control and monitor your spending.
Don’t be intimidated by the thought of using your pc for budgeting. With the right software you can easily create your budget and get control of your spending. The software you will need may already be installed on your computer and if not you can download a free version from the internet. (Visit the links page at the bottom of this article to download the “free” software.)

Software You Will Need
Any of the following software packages is capable of creating your budget.:Microsoft Works , Microsoft Office Excel, and Sun Systems Open Office Spreadsheet. Open office is free for non-commercial use and if you are familiar with Microsoft Office you’ll have no trouble using Open Office. Even if you are not familiar with any of these programs virtually all contain templates for budgeting. If you use a template all that is required is for you to fill in the numbers and the template does the rest. Even if you’ve never used a spreadsheet before you will find it relatively easy to use the built-in budget templates. For a quick online budget visit www.itsyourmoney.ie and click on budgeting to use their simple online budgeting tool.


Don't Miss out subscribe to this blog. It's free and your email is confidential and will not be used,sold,or transferred to third parties. We won't annoy you with offers either.

Click Here To Subscribe To This Blog

Click Here To visit The Links Page

Free Blog Counter
Poker Blog

Getting The Most from Your PC In a Recession

This month I’ll be giving you some tips on how you can get “more bang for your buck” out of your pc.

Reduce Your Printing Costs
Printing costs money in both paper, ink and electricity but you don’t need to print if your pc has a pdf print driver installed. With PDF the computer captures a print image which can be viewed on screen and printed later if required. PDF stands for Portable Document format and it was developed to enable documents to be moved or printed between computers without the requirement for the original document. The PDF format is owned by Adobe but a variety of programmers have produced generic versions of the product. Drop me an email and I will point you to where you can download these free versions which can save you a bundle on your printing needs.

Saving On Electrical Costs
Leaving your desktop computer or laptop connected to power consumes electricity even when the computer is in sleep mode.The same is also obviously true for your printer scanner and speakers. Bottom line here is turn off the equipment if you are not using it. If you don’t have a switched socket disconnect the equipment from the power outlet. Remember if you are not going to use your scanner or printer for a particular computer session don’t turn them on.

Reduce Telephone/Mobile Costs
Most people are familiar with making calls over the internet. You can save a huge amount on making internet calls but I recommend you shop around as some of the more popular programs are now over subscribed and the quality is poor. If you call/text mobiles a lot you can use some of these programs to call mobiles at a reduced rate. To save on texting use the free web text service offered by many of the mobile providers. Vodafone as an example gives you 300 free web texts a month which would cost you around 60 euro if you sent them direct from your phone.


Shopping For Bargains
Most of us love a bargain and the internet is a handy way for you to save time by checking on prices before your visit the supermarket. Take advantage of the fact that those suppliers who offer online shopping publish their prices. You can check their prices before you go to store and build yourself a shopping list accordingly. When it comes to holidays and travel I am not convinced anymore that the internet offers you the best value but it is no harm to check.

Selling Products/Services Budgeting
Next month I will discuss how you can use your pc to sell goods on the internet and also how you can use your pc to product cash budgets.

Free Blog Counter
Poker Blog

Top Five Computer Problems - Part 2

Product Abuse
I see this mainly with laptops and the damage is totally avoidable. Laptops are delicate and should be treated as such. Follow these simple rules and you will significantly extend the life of your laptop.

Prevention: Never move your laptop while it is turned on. Do not leave your laptop turned on overnight. Do not drink or use liquids anywhere near your laptop. Purchase a solid laptop bag and, when not in use, store your laptop in the bag in a safe location.
Near leave your laptop on the floor where others may step on it or hit the screen accidentally.

Disk Failures
Often resulting from a combination of one or more of the problems outlined in this article disk failure is the most common cause of severe data loss. I am always amazed at the faith pc owners place in their hard disk.

Prevention: Avoid overloading your hard disk. Simply put these means don’t install every free internet program you come across and don’t store gobs and gobs of movies on your hard disk. An overloaded hard disk must work very hard to service the operating system and this puts excessive strain on the disk. Purchase, install and use a solid backup device capable of storing multiple copies of your data. Usb keys are handy for single copy backups but multiple copies of your data gives you a good chance of minimising the effect of a disk failure.

Heat Damage
The hidden killer of both laptops and desktops is overheating. Until recently overheating was most common on laptops but I have seen an increase in the amount of desktops with this problem. As with any electrical or mechanical device overheating can and does result in total system failure. Safeguarding against overheating is easily preventable and it will cost you nothing.

Prevention: If you hear excessive fan noise from your computer have it checked.
Ensure when placing your pc you do not block vents and avoid placement in an enclosed area. With laptops you should also take the additional precaution of disconnecting your laptop from the mains when not in use and if the laptop bottom becomes very warm to the touch turn it off, disconnect from the mains and allow to cool before using it again.

Top Five Computer Problems - Part 1

This month and next I will outline the top five problems I encounter in computers I repair. The old adage “Prevention is better than cure” applies to all these problems and you can, with a little care and a small investment, reduce the chances of you falling victim to them.

Electrical Damage

More common than you might imagine is damage due to electrical problems either within your home or when you use laptop while travelling. Most electrical damage is not obvious at the time it occurs. You won’t see sparks or smell burning but the damage is permanent. Quite often the electrical surge or power failure will result in what we technicians call “walking wounded”. By this we mean that the computer often continues to function for several days or weeks before finally failing.

Prevention: Purchase a solid dependable surge protector for your computer and always use it. With a desktop computer plug in your printer and monitor to the unit as well as these are equally at danger from electrical damage.

I recommend products by Belkin as I have yet to lose a machine protected by one to electrical damage. A Belkin model will cost you €20 for a laptop model and slightly more for a desktop pc model. Don’t skimp on your surge protector and don’t buy a “no name” brand.

Spyware/Virus Infection

One of the most common problems I see virus/spyware infection can not only disable your computer but can and does result in severe data loss. Spyware is increasingly common and more difficult to detect and remove. In severe cases there is no option but to erase the hard disk and this is costly as your data and operating system must be secured and restored during the process. Bottom line if you use Microsoft Windows and browse the web, unprotected and/or without due care, you pc will be infected by a virus or spyware. Viruses and spyware are very rare on Apple based computers due to the operating system used on these systems.

Prevention: Purchase a solid anti-virus program and seek professional advice on the best and most effective products before buying. Many commercial products are virtually useless as is witnessed by the amount of pc’s I see with these products installed but which are virus and spyware infected.

Avoid all illegal music, video, gaming, gambling and nefarious sites as they are riddled with spyware which in turn will pull viruses into your pc.

Backup Your Precious Data

Computers, for better or worse, are now integrated into our lives. In this article I will outline some of the devices available to backup your data so that when your pc fails you will not lose your precious data.

Purchasing A Backup Device.
This is the most obvious but seldom done step to ensuring you can recover from computer failure. Backup devices come in many flavours but the primary three I will deal with are : USB keys, USB external Hard drives, and Network attached Hard drives.

USB Keys.
USB keys can store up to 8 gigabytes of data. That’s about 8 cd’s worth of data. If you have a large music or video collection a usb key may not have enough space to store your data. USB keys are small and easily lost!

USB External Hard Drive.
There is a huge selection available starting at around €90. Be careful and don’t buy the cheapest model as you will be relying on this device when your computer fails. Avoid the large capacity models, 750 gigabyte and over, as these drives need proper cooling and I’ve found that many of the cheaper models have no fan and overheat and fail. You must connect the drive to each computer you wish to backup and this can be a disadvantage if you have more than one pc in the house.

Network Attached Hard Drive.
These Hard drives are designed to run continuously and are normally attached to your broadband router. They offer the ideal solution for backup as any networked computer in the home can access and store information on the drive. You can also use them to store music and videos and thus reduce bloat on your pc. Remember if you store data on the drive and nowhere else you need to backup the drive to another device.

Backup Software
You can simply copy your information to your backup device but if your device comes with backup software I advise you to take advantage of it. Backup software normally allows for both scheduled unattended backups and also allows you to keep multiple copies of your data. Thus if you accidentally delete a file you can retrieve it from one of copies stored on your external device. Most of the external backup drives come with backup software included.

Conclusion:
Take the time to secure your data and I can assure you that in the future you will be glad you did.

New Cheaper Computers For Christmas

Amid all the doom and gloom of the recession some solace can be found in the arrival of the new “netbook” computers priced at well under €500. This month’s article should help you understand the pros and cons of these new machines.

Netbook Overview
Netbooks are designed primarily for Internet related functions and are aimed at the light duty computer user. Their primary role is to provide internet browsing, email and light duty office functions. They are not suitable for ITunes or music users, nor are they capable of storing or playing dvds/cds.

Advantages Of Netbooks
Netbooks have the following advantages over traditional computers.
Speed: Netbooks typically boot and are available for use in less than 1 minute. Netbooks do not use traditional hard disk drives and the operating system and data are stored on the build-in non-volatile memory which is quicker than traditional hard drives.
Size/Weight: The Netbooks are much smaller and lighter than your traditional laptop. Screen sizes are 9” and 12” inch and they easily fit in a standard briefcase.
Durability: With no moving parts the Netbook can take much more punishment than a traditional laptop. The Achilles heal is the screen which is exactly the same as a traditional laptop so don’t be mislead into thinking you can throw these units around.
Cost: With prices starting at as low as 250 euro you can get yourself online and browsing quite cheaply.
Maintenance: Netbooks come in two flavours Windows XP Home or Linux. The Linux models are virtually impervious to virus attack so if you purchase one you will save on anti-virus software and are much less likely to be hit by spyware infections. The caveat with Linux is that Windows based programs will not work under Linux. The Linux models are cheaper than the Widows versions and if you just want to browse the internet and send some email then opt for the Linux version.

Disadvantages Of Netbooks
Screen Size: The 9” and 12” screen sizes may be too small for those of you with poor eyesight. Even those with good eyesight will find using the 9” models tiring.
Expandability: Netbooks use non-volatile memory to store both the operating system and your data and as such you do not have much capacity for storage of your data. You can add an external hard drive if you desire but these cost around 90-120 euro.
Functionality: Netbooks have neither the storage capacity nor the processing power to handle large volumes of music or video. Because they are not equipped with either a cd or dvd drive you’ll need to purchase an external CD/DVD player if you want to play or use cd/dvds on your netbook.

Make Calls For Free On The Internet

This month I will explain the process of using your pc to make free calls over the internet. With a little planning you could save a ton of money off your telephone bill using this technology.

Hardware You Will Need
Your computer must be equipped with sound output (Speakers or a headset) and a microphone to make calls. You can also purchase a special phone which hooks directly to your pc for around €30. Most webcams have a built-in microphone but the quality may not be the best. The quality of the telephone calls will be determined by the speed and reliability of both your and the called parties broadband and the quality of the sound hardware used. If you don’t have the necessary hardware the suppliers of the software will sell you the hardware but you will find you can get a better deal elsewhere.

Software You Will Need
There are many products now providing this service including Skype, Oovoo, Voipstunt and MSN. The most popular seems to be Skype but some of the less popular products may suit you better. Oovoo, for example, provides three way video conferencing which you may find more attractive but be aware this requires that all parties have good high speed broadband connections and webcams.

What it Costs
Calls made pc to pc are free. To call your friend they must have the same software installed as you. Thus you can’t use Skype to make a pc call to an Oovoo user. When you download and install the software you pick a unique id and this id serves to identify you and enable others to call you using the free service. With Skype and Oovoo there is no limit to the amount of time you can talk on the free pc to pc service. You are only charged when you make a call to a landline or mobile using the service. Be aware that the quality of calls made to landlines and mobiles can be very poor at times and in some cases you will hang up due to the poor quality. The cost for making non-free calls is very inexpensive. Skype for example charges 2 cent a minute to call USA phones from Ireland.

Conclusion
With little or no investment you can save yourself some serious money on your telephone bill but be aware that you should use these services as an additional option and not as a substitute for a regular landline or mobile phone. These products should never be relied on for emergency services.

Need Help Setting Up Your Sound Hardware ? Vist My Help Pages. Click Here

Oliver Reidy is a computer technician and has been in the industry since 1981.You can contact him via email at help.desk@reidyonline.com or at these telephone numbers 041.988.7526/087.797.0740.