Tech Tutor Mark

This scenario is a real eye-opener, but it is all too common.  What happens if your computer's hard drive has been wiped clean or your hard drive crashes and data cannot be restored?  If you're an iPod owner, you may think that because all of your music is on the iPod that it is safe and can easily be moved to the new hard drive.  Guess what?  If you do a Synch using Apple's iTunes software, you are actually synching to an empty drive, and therefore, your iPod's music will be erased - for good, and not synched at all.  So, how is this problem solved?  Here are some very useful articles that explain the solutions to this problem scenario: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-computer/P1 http://www.komando.com/tips/index.aspx?id=7277&page=2 http://www.digidna.net/ http://www.mp3buzz.net/index.php/2006/06/27/how-to-get-songs-off-your-ipod-w-itunes/

The Best Free Software of 2009

Here is one of the two most common questions I have been getting lately.  The other being "How to remove rogue security software from my computer."  I will cover that in a future article.  But first, how your kids can separate their vast music collections into their own personal libraries.  For instance, one kid might be a rap lover, while another kid might like boy bands.  Mom and Dad might prefer classic rock or oldies.  With this tip, you can keep them all separate without having to combine everything into one huge library. If you want to use more than one iPod with the same computer, you can.  In fact there are three different ways you can do it. 1st Method : If you share your computer with other people, you can maintain separate user accounts for each person who uses the computer.  This is useful especially if each user has different tastes in music; users can maintain separate, personalized iTunes music libraries a...

The Product of the Year: The LG BD390 Network Blu-Ray Player I have just bought what I feel is the Product of the Year. The reason why I say this is because all year I have been looking for a Blu-Ray player that does everything and plays everything. None have come close until this one. LG makes other Blu-Ray players, but this is the one with a Wi-Fi connection , and that is what makes all the difference. The Features So far I have not even tried using this Blu-Ray player to play Blu-Ray DVDs.  I have read many reviews that say this is one of the faster players around, loading and displaying DVDs quicker than almost any other player available.  But what I bought it for are the other features, which I have tested and can verify:  It has a built-in USB port on the front right side that allows you to plug in an external hard drive and play your DivX movies, MP3 music files, digital photos and a variety of other formats.   These media formats include f...

8 Ways to Watch TV and Movies Without Cable

When Microsoft launched Windows 7, many of the features users were used to in Windows Vista didn't make their way to the new edition . This eWEEK slide show highlights some Vista features that were dropped from Windows 7, a few features we wish Microsoft had included and even a couple of services that technically are in Windows 7 but that users have the option to remove. 10 Things Missing from Windows 7 By Don Reisinger Originally appeared in What's Hot Now with Stephen Wellman Posted using ShareThis

For my class on Basic Computer Skills, I did some research and found two excellent sources of information that we can use as jumping-off points. I plan to follow these two documents in class. Please download these documents and open them on your computer: 20 Basic Technology Skills http://www.thelearningdepot.org/20%20 basic %20technology%20 skills .doc This will be a very helpful guide for future classes. Also, browse the various tools and tips found in this blog from previous posts and you will find a lot more that you can use daily.

Playing Nice With Others Connect Gaming Devices To Your Network Your new home network is certainly capable of doing heavy data lifting and acting as a conduit for all the passive entertainment you can handle. But sometimes, you need to interact with your technology and with the people around you. Hence, the emergence of networked gaming and all the new tools for game consoles to take advantage of network and Internet connections. We’ll discuss the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii game systems in terms of tapping your network to enhance their gaming capabilities, as well as ways in which you can use the consoles as media extenders on your network. Though the systems have some similarities with regard to networking, there are also important differences when choosing which system to connect or when combining the systems on a network. Connect To Your Network We'll start with the Xbox. Connecting an Xbox to yo...

PC Maintenance & Internet Security Hard Drive Cleaners: Ways to Clean Up Your Hard Drive, Remove Excess Clutter & Junk Files CCLeaner ( www.ccleaner.com ): This free utility cleans up Internet temporary files, history, cookies, it is a registry cleaner, it removes temporary files from Windows and many other applications, as well as emptying your recycle bin and much more. Windows Disk Cleaner : This utility is built into every version of Windows. To find it, double-click on “My Computer,” then right-click on your “C” drive and choose Properties. Then, click on the Disk Cleanup button. Windows Clean-Up : ( www.stevengould.org ): The famous toilet flush sound initiates this rather famous free utility from programmer Steven Gould. It does pretty much the same things as CCLeaner above, but removes even more, and can be dangerous to use for that reason. Anti-Malware (includes Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware) Remove Bots -- Try Trend MicroTM RUBotted (Beta) Google Pack – A Google se...