Quick Question:

Have you ever owned a Windows-based computer that didn’t act like it was possessed sometimes?

Didn’t think so.  Computer problems are a way of life.

Crashes, freeze ups, slow performance — it’s almost normal when it comes to the daily use of a computer.    But where there is a problem – there is a solution.   Here are our top picks for tools and websites that will fix the most common problems with your computer.

Problem Number One — Programs Keep Crashing

Programs crash for a variety of reasons — just like your car can have a variety of problems.    Assuming the program you are running is a properly coded program from a reputable company and not a student project from Riverview Junior High — the program most likely is crashing because of conflicts in what is called the dynamic link libary, or “DLL” for short.  The DLL library is the part of your computer that lets several programs share files and run simultaneously.   Back in the old days — well, the 90′s anyway — computers used to have singular resources.  In other words, if a program needed a specific Windows file in order to run — it required exclusive use of that file.  If another program needed the same file for its operation — it either had to wait, or it had to find another copy of it.   So the smarter nerds at Microsoft came up with the idea of a shared library idea — where several programs could access the same files at the same time.

Read More

Are You a Legacy Customer?

There was a story in the news recently about a woman who was paying for email on AOL.  Email is free, which I suppose might be news to some people.  You know, people like your elderly aunt who hasn’t given much thought to what her internet provider is supposed to provide since she signed the contract back in the ‘90s. As you may recall, way back in those days internet came through telephone lines and required ‘dial up’.  Cable and phone companies battled it out much the way VHS and Beta formats did, and most consumers (with shaking hand and trembling bottom lip) just signed the baffling multi-page legal contract and hoped they backed the winner.

The article referred to the woman as a legacy customer.  Sounds like something you’d want to be, something sort of respectable.  But it isn’t.

In the gentle, kind-hearted manner of social media exchanges, a legacy customer—at least in this situation—is an idiot of a calibre that would offer to pay for the portion of the air she breathes.  The threat of such a public shaming may be keeping others from investigating whether they, too, are handing their cash over unnecessarily.

Know the Facts

If you are concerned, here are some things to consider.

1. In the AOL case, the charge was apparently not for email per se, but for the dial-up service to access the internet.  This may also be the case for you. Go check.
2. Although information about new delivery formats was released, for some reason the consumer in question did not take them up on it. Maybe she saw the option but chose not to amend her original contract.  Maybe she just tossed the information aside without looking: one more sales pitch stuffed in an envelope or buried under an icon on the web page. Most companies communicate with us so often about so many significant and insignificant items it’s difficult to tell the wheat from the chaff.  They may be quite literally counting on that.  Millions of dollars are made from misinformed consumers.  Read all the mail from your service providers. Feel free to challenge the relevance.  If it seems unimportant, maybe it is. Ask them why they sent it to you.
3. It is very possible that America Online (AOL) is not the only company in the history of the world to allow people to pay for services they no longer need or use.  Many corporations may be holding people to contracts that are empty, for the simple reason that individuals let them. Do not rely on any service provider to go out of their way to protect you from your inclination to trust them. Check all your bills, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. There are people paid to answer you.  You’ll be doing your part to keep them employed.

The technically slick in our society may sneer at someone for paying for services they didn’t know weren’t necessary, but most people accept that there is just too information out there for anyone to be able to know everything about. While it is not necessary to be ‘up’ on every new technological application or trend, it is important stay alert or you may also become that sleeping gold mine—a legacy customer.

Clean and Organize Your iTunes Library With “Rinse”

If your iTunes library is starting to look like the virtual version of CDs scattered all over the floor, clean it up with “Rinse,” a software download that knows your music better than you do.

Rinse literally takes the majority of the work out of what can be a daunting task.  It doesn’t matter how much music you have, how poorly categorized it is, or how much information you’re missing.  Rinse employs an intelligent database technology that is able to identify tracks even when the artist’s name is misspelled or the album details are incorrect.  Other organizing programs rely on you having all the correct information to begin with.  Not Rinse.  It will remove duplicates, repair mistakes, find album art, and sort out your music genres with impressive accuracy – even if you have a penchant for obscure tunes.

If it makes you nervous to have a program sort out your music and make changes automatically, don’t worry.  Rinse lets you be as hands-on as you like.  No matter what function you’re performing, you have the choice to click either “automatic” or “one by one” – which allows you to preview every revision prior to saving it.  That puts you in complete control – but once you see how efficient and accurate Rinse is, you’ll probably be willing to click on “automatic,” and let the program sort out your iTunes library while you take a nice nap.

How Rinse Works

So – how exactly does Rinse tidy your music?

1. It removes all duplicate songs in your collection.  You’re probably wasting some valuable storage space by having identical tracks on, say, an original album, a greatest hits collection, and maybe a compilation.  Rinse finds your duplicates, let’s you keep the one you want, and erases the rest.  Or, if you prefer, you can keep the extra versions of the song, but have them marked as being duplicates.
2. It repairs mistakes.  Spelling errors, misinformation, incorrect album details – Rinse will find them and fix them.  Guaranteed.
3. It fills in missing iTunes info.  No more guessing what “Track 01” is, or wondering if “Unknown Artist” is the one you’re looking for.
4. It will find and add missing album art.  Tired of looking at that boring musical-note icon for every album cover that you don’t have in your collection?  Rinse will fix that.  It automatically finds high-resolution album art and imports it into your iTunes library.
5. It will organize your genres.  There’s no point in browsing by genre when you have nearly as many genres as you do songs.  Rinse will organize similar music into combined categories that make more sense.

The bottom line is that Rinse is a fantastic clean-up tool and an effective solution to the many organizational problems associated with iTunes.   The program runs with push-button ease but, if you do have a question or require customer support, help is available 24/7 on the company’s Facebook page.

Download the program for Mac or Windows, at www.rinsemymusic.com.

Do I buy a tablet with a data plan? Or do I just use Wi-Fi? Those seem to be the questions a lot of people are asking themselves these days when considering the purchase of a tablet.

Most tablets on the market today offer both 3G/4G and Wi-Fi capabilities as well as a version that only uses Wi-Fi (or hotspots). The 3G/4G tablets require you to purchase some sort of data plan, much like the ones you have for your cellphones. If you purchase a plan, tablets usually run in the $100-$200 range. If you buy the same tablet outright without the plan, the cost can run as high as $600 or more. You can understand why people often choose the data-plan route.

However, if you factor in the monthly cost of the plan over the course of two to three years (the average length of the most basic plans), you can quickly do the math and see that the tablet that cost you $100-$200 will end up costing you in the neighborhood of $700-$800. Pay now or pay later, the tablet with the 3G/4G plan is costing you a mint.

Go Wi-Fi

There are many Android tablets on the market that are very inexpensive (for example, the Le Pan TC970 Google Android tablet, which can be purchased online at Walmart for under $200). Because of the ubiquity of hotspots at most coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, and airports, there is a diminishing need to have 3G/4G capabilities for your mobile device and/or tablets. This means that you can browse the Internet, shop online, or work anywhere there is a hotspot or Wi-Fi (including your home, presumably).

Unless you have a need to be connected at all times, the Wi-Fi/hotspot route is the way to go, especially if you want to save some money. As with all other electronic devices, it comes down to need and desire. Who wouldn’t want Panasonic’s new Toughpad (to be released in the Spring of 2012 at a cost of approximately $1200), which can apparently be sandblasted and submitted to powerful jets of water? But unless you are planning to participate in the annual footrace across the Gobi desert, chances are you will be okay with something a little less rugged.