Some Google employees made a site where you can send a form letter email with links to videos to help your parents or other family member learn how to use computers.
A lot of the stuff is pretty basic. Your parents may already know it. I think my grandparents know quite a bit of it. But, who knows? maybe you’ll learn something yourself.
Here is the link http://www.teachparentstech.org/
I learned about this watching Tekzilla
Author: Nathan Steffenson
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E-waste link
Here is a link to an e-waste page at the Minnesota Polution Control Website: http://www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/living-green/living-green-citizen/reduce-reuse-recycle/e-waste-electronic-trash.html
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Web Site About Fraud
I recently received a pamphlet about fraud from the US Postal Inspection Service in the mail. In case you may have missed it they have set up a web site http://www.deliveringtrust.com/ .
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Avoiding Dust with Computers
Dust can cause your computer to overheat, cause scratches on hard drives, and other problems that will stop your computer from working properly.
Here are some tips to avoid dust with computers.
- Keep your computer off the floor and as high as possible
- Make sure all expansion slots and drive bays are covered
- Avoid smoking by the computer
- If possible have in a room/area that is less dusty – well ventilated
- Use a dust cover when not in use
- Wipe outside with an antistatic wipe, also dust out the area around the computer.
- Keep it in an area away from pets.
- It’s a good idea to have your desktop computer opened up and cleaned out every 2-3 months – make sure power is off and unplugged. It can be blown out or vacuumed. A vacuum is probably best to avoid breathing in – although you need to be careful not to touch parts because of static. If you don’t know how to do this or are uncomfortable doing this, have a technician do it for you.
An additional fan may also help, but this is a last resort. (I don’t recommend an additional fan)
Warning: breathing in the dust from computers and electronics can be dangerous, especially with older models because of the fire retardant.
Always wash hands after dusting.
One other thing to keep your computer clean is to avoid eating or drinking around it.
See also http://www.ehow.com/how_5275211_keep-dust-out-computer.html
Update 12/13/2018: solid state drives or flash based storage can reduce noise, less heat, less movement to attract dust and are less prone to be wrecked by dust.
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Thoughts on Forwards
There is one thing that bothers me more than junk email (spam) when it comes to email. Misuse of forwards FWD FW.
- Email Forwards are usually sent by people you know and trust. However many times the information in forwards is not trustworthy and may not even be what your friend or relative actually thinks.
- Many forwards I get have completely made up information, that can be easily be found to be false or partially false with just a little fact checking.
- I have found an interesting and useful urban legends web site that deals with some of these http://www.snopes.com
- Even though an email may be true at one time, parts can be changed to make it at least partially untrue.
- Some forwards have very controversial information or opinions – many anonymous or miscredited.
- Some forwards say you have to forward to so many people or say that you have to give it back to show you’re really a friend. This can be a good way to spread annoying emails. Do you really have to reply to a forward, that they didn’t write, to show you are a friend? Some of these emails say you’ll get something free for sending so many – I have never found that to be true.
- Some forwards are fill in the blank and forward. This might be giving too much information out.
- Some forwards have copyrighted text and images that might be illegally redistributed.
- One misuse of forwards is redistributing a private conversation. This can be very hurtful to some people.
- Another misuse related to forwarding is telling everyone to write to one particular person, which can overwhelm someone.
- Many forwards are basically chain letters. Chain letters are of course illegal to send in the US Mail. Email is still fairly unregulated (or hard to regulate) and unsecured. I would advise people to avoid sending these forwarded emails.
- After a while the people that send me forwards, I usually ask them to stop sending it.
We all are told to wash our hands often.
So I know we get told this a lot. Even I forget or can’t sometimes, but here are some more thoughts.
Reasons to wash hands with computers, phones, electronics:
- Wash before to keep equipment clean for you and other users.
- More importantly Wash afterward – to keep yourself healthy from the germs and hazardous chemicals that may be on the equipment.
The chemicals and germs may be another reason not to eat by the computer if possible.
Here are some general power saving tips (many that you may already know)
- Unplug USB Devices when not using them (make sure to eject/remove properly if it stores data)
- Unplug charges and other devices when turned off and not being used from electric outlet.
- Have your monitor turn off automatically when computer is not in use.
- Have your computer go to sleep.
- Automatically have your computer turn off and on at a certain time if the computer is not used during certain hours.
- These settings are in the control panel in windows usually under power options
- These settings are in the system preferences in Mac OS X under energy saver
- Usually when people ask if they should power their computer off, I say they can but only at night or the time they are not using it. The computer should only be powered on once per day at the most. It is OK to do a soft restart to clear the memory and run start up scripts. Remember to shut down properly if possible. Sometimes people will leave their computer on at night or off hours to do anti-virus/anti-malware scans, updates, backups, and run other utilities.
- Hopefully you aren’t printing all the time unless printing is necessary part of your business. Unless you print all the time printers are usually a good thing to leave off, or turn off during off hours if there are no printing jobs. Or eliminate having a printer all together.
- Use energy efficient equipment.
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What to do with Shredded paper
Do you shred old papers?
Here are some uses I have seen for it:
Recyclable Packing Material
Recyclable Confetti
Rabbit Bedding
or just recycle shredded paper in paper recycling.
Have you seen another use? add your comment.
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Recommended Monitor Type
I recommend LED back-lit LCDs for monitor types.
They are free of mercury and lead. They are slim and power efficient. They have good coloring and are easier on the eyes than florescent or CRTs.
OLEDs are also an upcoming type of monitors to look into, however they may have more of a limited lifespan.
Should I through out my old monitor (CRT or florescent)?
No. If you want to get rid of it you need to recycle it.
Pros of replacing it – save power, less heat, more room, better for eyes
Pros of keeping it – save money on buying a new one and hauling old one out, less waste
March 29 Sen. Klobuchar introduced legislation concerning online file sharing software such as LimeWire, BitTorrent, and uTorrent. I have personally seen many computers files and software damaged because uses of these programs. It can also overwhelm networks. Also thieves can sometimes retrieve private data from your computer. Many times these programs are installed by kids of the owners of the computers to download music, video, and games from other computers. This software may also possibly get you in copyright trouble, even if used correctly due to flaws in the software. I advise NOT to use most peer to peer file sharing software. I’m not sure how much the legislation can do, but I don’t think it will hurt.