Hello everyone,

Many of my computer repair clients have laptops so I get many questions concerning laptop batteries. Everyone wants to prolong the life of their laptop battery but not everyone knows how to do it. There are many “old wives tales” out there concerning battery usage and much confusion on the issue. Some questions that I hear:

If I leave the laptop plugged in all the time will I ruin the battery? Can I damage the battery if I charge it for too long? What if I don’t charge the battery enough? If I’m not using my laptop for an extended period of time should I take the battery out of the computer? When should I replace my laptop battery?

There are many more questions but you get the idea. Here is the simple advice that I give to my clients:

1) The batteries in modern computers have built in circuitry that automatically prevents overcharging. You cannot overcharge a Lithium Ion battery – the built in circuitry prevents it. If you could manage to overcharge a Lithium Ion battery, it would explode!

2) The Lithium Ion battery in your laptop has approximately 500 discharge/charge cycles. Once you’ve charged it 500 times (about two years for the normal user), you’ll have to replace the battery.

3) You are not going to reduce the laptop battery life by leaving the computer plugged in all of the time.

4) Wireless Network Cards and USB devices will reduce the battery run time. If you’re not using a USB device, disconnect it. If you’re not using your wireless connection, turn it off.

5) It used to be (in older computers) that you had to fully charge and then fully discharge the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Modern computers with modern batteries (Li-Ion batteries) do not suffer from the memory effect and will take care of themselves automatically.

Professor Randy says: Simple huh? Don’t stress yourself out by thinking about how you can prolong the life of your laptop battery. Enjoy your laptop and use it as you so desire, the battery will serve you well, it’s life will eventually end, and you will then have to replace it. Nothing more and nothing less!

Hello everyone,

YouTube celebrated it’s fifth birthday back in February of this year (youtube.com was registered as a domain name on February 14, 2005). From those humble beginnings YouTube has become a household name and now streams over 1 billion videos a day! If you would like, you can check out YouTube’s top five videos (views) of all time here.

At that time (back in February), I showed you one of my all time favorites “Big Dog”. The first time I saw “Big Dog” I couldn’t believe my eyes!! I’ve shown this to many people and they simply “flip out!”

Now comes “Little Dog”! Can you even believe this? Is this awesome or what? Can you imagine what the future holds for further developed “Big Dog” and “Little Dog” types?

Professor Randy says: Internet video (especially YouTube) has opened us up to some amazing things. Seek out great video and you will benefit by it and be amazed too!!

Hello everyone,

Here are fifteen links that will take you to some of the most interesting tech news of the moment. I hope that you enjoy and profit from the great information!

1) Windows 7 Tip Of  The Week: “God Mode”

2) Vulnerability In Microsoft Windows (Exploited By Malicious People To Gain Escalated Privileges).

3) An Irresistible Benefit For Microsoft Developers At PDC10

4) Still Using A Blackberry? Why, Exactly?

5) Google CEO Schmidt: “People Aren’t Ready For The Technology Revolution”

6) Top 8 Best And Free Antivirus Software For Windows 7

7) Great Video: iPhone 4 Unlock Available Now

8) The New Hotmail Is Now Available To Everyone

9) Reformed Hacker Reveals “My Life As A Spyware Developer”

10) A New Competitor To Facebook And Twitter: Tumblr

11) Great Video: Hacker Shows How He Can Intercept Cell Phone Calls With $1,500 Device

12) Clive Thompson On The Death Of The Phone Call

13) 8 Feel-Good Websites To Brighten Your Day

14) How Long Should Your Hard Drive Last?

15) Android Sales Overtake iPhone In The U.S.

Professor Randy quotes Anna Quindlen: “Think of life as a terminal illness, because, if you do, you will live it with joy and passion, as it ought to be lived.”

Hello everyone,

As a computer technician I have to be prepared for anything and everything. Today I would like to tell you about something that happened to me this week:

A very nice lady called me and told me that she was trying to create an Audio CD with MP3 files that she had downloaded from LimeWire (these were not DRM protected files). She was burning the files using Windows Media Player and they would play on her computer but not in her car (which is what she was interested in).

I went to her house and installed CDBurnerXP (my favorite free application to burn CDs and DVDs). I thought it was going to be a “piece of cake” but every time I added an audio file to the burning list, I got an error message saying that “The audio file has an invalid format”.

I knew that the MP3 files in question were not of an invalid type so I was momentarily stumped. Then I went to school – Google School that is, (sometimes when clients ask me where I went to school I say to the “School of Google”).

While searching Google I found a post that suggested replacing the bass.dll in the CDBurnerXP program directory with the one from Un4seen Developments (latest version 2.4.6). The tiny bass.dll helps to encode audio files while allowing them to be written to an Audio CD.

I deleted the outdated version of the bass.dll in the CDBurnerXP program directory and pasted in the current 2.4.6 version, and VOILA!!

All of  the lady’s MP3 files burned “like a champ” and she now has her Audio CD. At this moment she is probably out cruising in her car and listening to Jackie Wilson! She also thinks I’m a genius for helping her out!

Professor Randy says: No one can know everything! When in doubt go to school – The School Of Google!! There you will find it all!

Hello everyone,

I was beginning to wonder but it has finally happened. Apple is finally putting out computers that use the new Arrandale-based chips (these chips come under the Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 brands). Ever since Apple changed it’s name from Apple Computer, Inc. to just plain Apple, Inc. in 2007, I’ve been wondering if they were going to gradually pull away from computer development and concentrate all of their effort on their extremely successful consumer creations (iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.). Read all about it:

“Apple today updated its all-in-one iMac line, widely praised as the world’s best desktop computers, with the latest Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors and powerful new graphics. Starting at $1,199, the new iMac line is the fastest ever with dual-core processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz, quad-core speeds up to 2.93 GHz and discrete graphics including the powerful ATI Radeon HD 5750. The new Magic Trackpad, with a smooth glass and aluminum design, gives iMac users the same intuitive Multi-Touch(TM) gestures that Mac® notebook customers have come to love and is available separately for $69.

“We took the world’s best all-in-one and made it even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With the latest processors, high-performance graphics and signature aluminum and glass design, customers are going to love the latest iMac.”

Dual-core Intel Core i3 and Core i5, and quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 processors set a new benchmark for iMac performance. The processors feature an integrated memory controller to access the system memory directly, allowing the new iMac to take full advantage of its faster 1333 MHz memory. New discrete ATI Radeon HD processors deliver incredibly smooth, crisp graphics for the most demanding 3D games, creative software and technical applications. iMac displays feature IPS technology to deliver a brilliant image across a wide 178 degree viewing angle. The SD card slot on the iMac now supports the SDXC format to handle the latest high-capacity storage cards. Customers of the 27-inch iMac have the option to order a 256GB solid state drive (SSD) as a primary or secondary drive. The iMac SSD supports up to 215 MB/s data transfer rates for faster startup and application launch times.

Every iMac comes with Apple’s innovative Magic Mouse and customers can also order the new Magic Trackpad as an option. The Magic Trackpad brings the intuitive Multi-Touch gestures of Mac notebook trackpads to the desktop. With its glass surface, the wireless Magic Trackpad enables users to scroll smoothly up and down a page with inertial scrolling, pinch to zoom in and out, rotate an image with their fingertips and swipe three fingers to flip through a collection of web pages or photos. The Magic Trackpad can be configured to support single button or two button commands and supports tap-to-click as well as a physical click.”

Professor Randy says: Apple’s mass consumer products are great for sure but I hope that these products don’t deter Apple from staying on the “cutting edge” of computer development.

Hello everyone,

Each week it is my pleasure to give you links to some great tech news. I try to vary the content so that there is something interesting for everyone, but I’m sure that I link to much news that is of interest to me personally. Enjoy the reading and have a great weekend!

1) If You Use Hotmail Or Messenger You Should Read This (Your Privacy Is At Stake!)

2) iPhone 4 Free Cases, Bumper Refunds Are Here (Updated)

3) I Confess: I Bought An iPad (And So Far I Love It!)

4) Dell To Pay $100M To Settle SEC Accounting Probe

5) San Francisco’s Unluckiest Thief

6) Netflix Says Subscribers Total Jumped 42 Percent

7) Video: The Robotic Butterfly That Flies Like The Real Thing

8) Interesting Video: First Look At “Revolutionary” Social News iPad App – Flipboard

9) Microsoft’s Latest Security Essentials Is Promising (Updated)

10) Watch Out For This Nasty Zero-Day Windows Exploit

11) Less Than 1 Year Until The Internet Runs Out Of Addresses

12) Good Video: Public WiFi Safety Tips

13) How Pandora Grew To Get 60 Million Listeners

14) Great Videos: Microsoft Phone 7 Technical Preview – A Definitive Guide

15) What’s The Minimum Amount Of Internet Security That I Need?

Professor Randy quotes Chinese Proverb: “If you want happiness for an hour – take a nap. If you want happiness for a day – go fishing. If you want happiness for a month – get married. If you want happiness for a year – inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime – help someone else.”

Hello everyone,

The other day I got a call from a Real Estate agent in town and he told me that he could not connect to (access) his GoToMyPC host computer. He told me that his My Computers page was showing his host computer as offline. He was in a panic as he used this program everyday and it was vital to his business.

I went to his office and began to check out his computer:

1) The DSL Internet connection was live but functioning very slowly.
2) The GoToMyPC system tray icon was showing that the host PC was Offline.
3) The GoToMyPC host PC software was running fine but the Host Preferences Option window would not appear (as if it didn’t exist).
4) I noticed that certain websites weren’t displaying properly (as if content was being blocked).
5) I tried to download something from FileHippo but the part of the page (right side) where you click to download the file was not visible (I tried this on two different browsers).
6) The computer was running the latest version of Adobe Flash (on all browsers).
7) I turned off the Firewall and Antivirus but the GoToMyPC icon still showed as Offline.
8) I ran a virus/spyware scan and everything came up clean.
9) The Real Estate agent mentioned that all of the computers on the network had been running slow lately.
10) I asked him to show me the DSL modem (Frontier Communications).

AND THEN I SAW IT!!

The DSL modem was sitting on top of a Linksys router in a stuffy, poorly ventilated closet and was incredibly hot! I separated the modem from the router, let it cool down, and pulled the power cord from the back of the modem. I left it unplugged for about 45 seconds before reconnecting the power to the modem. I waited until all of the modem lights came back on.

I went back to the computer and the Internet was coming in like crazy! My clients GoToMyPC was now showing as ‘Online’ and he was able to access the host computer perfectly!

Professor Randy says: When dealing with Internet connectivity problems, consider an overheated modem or one in need of “power cycling”.

Hello everyone,

This is pretty cool! A laser beam and infrared camera produce an invisible mouse! In the words of the inventor Pranav Mistry:

“Mouseless is an invisible computer mouse that provides the familiarity of interaction of a physical mouse without actually needing a real hardware mouse”.

Professor Randy says: I personally love the mouse that I am currently using (Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000), but I think that this concept is interesting and should develop into bigger and better things!

Hello everyone,

The latest tech news is “hot and heavy”! Here are fifteen great links that will take you there. Enjoy!

1) The iPhone 4 Redux: Analyzing Apple’s iOS 4.0.1 Signal Fix And Antenna Issue

2) Float Your Music To The Clouds With MP3 Tunes

3) Why Consumer Reports Won’t/Can’t Recommend The iPhone 4

4) How The Old Spice Videos Are Being Made

5) Is Your Router One Of ‘Millions’ Open To This Hack?

6) Twitter Starts Name Dropping In Search Results – Huge For User Discovery

7) Cool Gadget: The VuPoint Magic Wand Scanner

8) Windows XP Gets Another Reprieve From Microsoft

9) Cool Video: MIT Has Created A Phenomenal Replacement For The Mouse (Invisible!)

10) Ten Free Android Apps For Staying In The Know

11) Digital Domain: Computers At Home – Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality

12) Big-Name Windows Apps Neglect Security

13) Top 5 Laptop Repairs & How To Avoid Them!

14) With Microsoft Providing Microsoft Security Essentials Do I No Longer Need To Purchase Malware Protection?

15) Microsoft Launches Outlook Facebook Integration (Exclusive)

Professor Randy quotes Aristotle: “Anything that we have to learn to do we learn by the actual doing of it… We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate ones, brave by doing brave ones.”

Hello everyone,

Most people have heard about common browser cookies. A cookie is just one or more pieces of information stored as text strings (little text files) on your machine. A Web server sends you a cookie and the browser stores it. The browser then returns the cookie to the server the next time the page is referenced.

The most common use of a cookie is to store a user ID. For example, the cookie might contain the following text file string: ID=96352398. Cookies are very common, they are not harmful, they cannot transmit viruses, they cannot reveal personal information from your hard disk.

But then there is another type of cookie: Flash Cookies! Straight from Wired Magazine:

“Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.

Several services even use the surreptitious data storage to reinstate traditional cookies that a user deleted, which is called ‘re-spawning’ in homage to video games where zombies come back to life even after being “killed,” the report found. So even if a user gets rid of a website’s tracking cookie, that cookie’s unique ID will be assigned back to a new cookie again using the Flash data as the “backup”.

The study found that 54 of the top 100 set Flash cookies, which vary from simply setting audio preferences to tracking users by a unique identifier. Wired.com, for instance, placed on this writer’s work computer to set the volume of a video player.

Adobe’s Flash software is installed on an estimate 98 percent of personal computers, and has been a key component in the explosion of online video, powering video players for sites such as YouTube and Hulu.

Websites can store up to 100K of information in the plug-in, 25 times what a browser cookie can hold. Sites like Pandora.com also use Flash’s storage capability to preload portions of songs or videos to ensure smooth playback”.

How do you get rid of these sneaky Flash Cookies? Well, Adobe doesn’t make it easy for you because they don’t want you to get rid of them. Again straight from the same Wired magazine article.

“Flash cookies are handled differently. These are fixed through a web page on Adobe’s site, where the controls are not easily understood (There is a panel for Global Privacy Settings and another for Website Privacy Settings — the difference is unclear). In fact, the controls are so odd, the page has to tell you that it is the control, not just a tutorial on how to use the control”.

You can go to the Adobe site and try to figure out how to prevent/delete your Flash Cookies but there is a much easier and better way! Here it is:

Go to Softpedia and download Flash Cookies Cleaner 1.2. The program is incredibly easy to download, install, and use. “The Flash Cookies Cleaner application was developed to be a small tool that has been designed specifically to remove every Flash Cookie from your system”.

Now you can “lose your cookies” for real!

Professor Randy says: Don’t be duped! Don’t let any person or program invade your privacy and treat you like a naive fool! Get rid of your Flash Cookies on a regular basis by using a simple program like Flash Cookies Cleaner 1.2.