S.J. Quinney College of Law : University of Utah : Salt Lake City, UT

What is Digsby, you ask? Digsby is a relatively new program designed to provide an all-in-one solution for the various Chat/IM programs that exist. I recently, i.e. yesterday, “flushed” my computer. By that, I mean that I deleted my old partition and reformatted my hard drive so that I could install Windows XP freshly. Before I did this, I had run across an article on Lifehacker that gave a brief introduction to Digsby, so I thought I would give it a try. I am pleased to say I am very impressed. Installation was easy, and setting it up exactly as I wanted took but a few minutes of playing around with the many varied preferences. I am able to be signed onto my MSN, AIM, and Facebook Chat from one program. I am also able to get email updates for my Hotmail accounts, although Digsby supports many more besides Hotmail. If any of you are heavy chatters, I recommend you give this program a look. It will streamline your computer and should make you more productive in your communication. It can be found here.

Michael @ The Help Desk

I have given you nine days to complete Phase One of Lean And Mean, and so we now move onto Phase Two.

In order to complete Phase Two, you should have made a list of all the tasks you want to be able to accomplish with your computer, and I am talking about a physical list, not just a mental one. You do not want guessing going into this process. You want to be precise and deliberate. Now, armed with your list, you are going to begin to remove the programs that you don’t need, i.e. the ones that are not on your list. To do this, you will go to: “Start,” “Settings,” “Control Panel,” ”Add Remove Programs.” This is of course assuming you are using Microsoft XP. Since many of you will be using Microsoft Vista, the directions are modified to: “Start,” “Control Panel,” “Classic View,” “Programs And Features.” This is where you begin to tidy up your computer. You should look for duplicate programs, spyware, extra toolbars, and other excess waste. Then you should uninstall everything you do not want, or need. You must be careful to not remove programs vital to you operating system (OS), but you should be able to identify the extraneous clutter. If you have questions about uninstalling specific programs, feel free to email me or come and visit me at The Help Desk.

In summary, your goal for Phase Two is to uninstall everything that is not on your list of needed applications and tools. In fact, if I were doing this I would probably uninstall even my needed tools and then reinstall them. This might be because I am slightly OCD about my computer, but it never hurts in the quest to keep things Lean and Mean. Next time we will examine a few choices you can use when installing programs to accomplish the tasks you decided upon in Phase One.

Michael @ The Help Desk

Most everyone knows that in 2009 we will be making the switch to digital TV. Which means that older analog TVs (of which I have) will no longer be able to show me my favorite shows, unless I get a converter. But the big question is WHY?

First of all, this is not new news. Talk of this large change has been going on for at least the last 10 years. I first heard of it in high school when I took a TV class. They want to free up space for broadcasting, and for use for instruction and communication among public safety organizations, such as the fire department, police, etc.
But how is the change to digital going to make more room?

I will show you!

In the world of broadcasting, we have broken up parts of the world into parts we call bandwidths. Most wireless systems operate inside of what we call radio frequencies.


So where we are looking to increase room is in the UHF area. This is where most of TV signals reside. If you could look at a analog signal it would look like this. 


Because analog signals are erratic, you need a buffer zone between signals. If you look at the older TVs they have a nob. And one would have to fine tune the nob to get the perfect signal.  
The buffer zone is a lot of wasted space.


Digital signals are larger then analog signals, but are much more precise. A digital signal would look something like this.


As you can see, the signals are much closer together. So even though each individual signal is larger, we have cut down the size of the buffer zone that each one requires, giving all the space that we need!

Now a few things to remember come 2009.

First:
THIS TRANSITION DOES NOT APPLY TO CABLE TV! If you have cable, you have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, despite what anyone tries to tell you. If your cable company says that you need to purchase extra equipment in 2009, or that you HAVE to switch to their more expensive digital package, then its time to switch providers! (they like to take advantage of the less informed.)

Second:
The Government has promised coupons worth up to $40 dollars to the purchase of a converter. Here is the website to get yours!

I hope that has clarified things for you.
For any technology questions, email the helpdesk: helpd@law.utah.edu

-Daniel Oldham@ the HelpDesk

This entry is not "Lean and Mean: Phase 2," but it can be consider intimately related to that series. Today, I want to list a few websites that offer excellent guides to making Microsoft Vista perform faster, and more efficiently.

The first site deals with speeding up Vista's boot, or start-up, time. It can be found here.

The second site deals with speeding up Vista's regular operation speed. It can be found here.

And lastly, the third site is essentially a reference guide to be used in conjunction with both of the above sites. It provides a list of features that can be disabled to speed up Vista, without sacrificing any of the features you plan on needing. It can be found here.

Michael @ The Help Desk

  

    I am a fan of the Nike iPod Sports Kit. Where one plugs in a device, puts a small sensor in ones shoe, and the device tells you how far you've run and how fast. The only trouble is that it only works with the iPod, and for all you non iPod users this gets annoying. It also may be that you are in a competition and cannot use an iPod but still want to track your progress.

    Nike heard your complaints and has created a solution. A USB device 'watch' is your interface. Plug it into your computer and download a run. It can store up to 28 hours of your running, which is easily downloaded to your computer. No batteries needed, this little baby gets its power from your computer. 2 hours of charge will give you 14 hours of running time; enough for even a marathon.  

Check out the review HERE.

-Daniel Oldham@ the HelpDesk

Over the weekend, I decided against writing the "Lean and Mean" article in one swoop. Instead I am going to write it in parts, or phases. This is Phase One.

The first step to having a "Lean and Mean" computer is to know your computer usage habits. So, I recommend that for a week you spend some time thinking about which features of your computer you use most. Do you listen to music? Do you watch DVDs? Do you surf the web? Do you word process? After you have figured out which features you use, you can then figure out which programs or utilities you use to accomplish them. By this, I mean that you should decide on ONE program to accomplish each task. Often times I see people who have three or four different programs for playing music files or burning CDs. Remember: less is more.

In summary, your goal for Phase One is to make a list of the features you use, and the programs you have at your disposal to accomplish each task. Next time we will examine the process of eliminating needless or redundant programs.

Michael @ The Help Desk

Ask nearly any "geek" and they will tell you that if one store could be considered the mecca of technology it would be Fry's. 

Fry's is a place where you can find a huge selection of electronics ranging from household appliances to individual PC components and every thing in between.  Now that CompUSA has gone under it has become even more obvious that we need a good electronics retailer in Utah.  If you want to get an idea about what Fry's is check out their website HERE, or their wikipedia entry HERE.

Scouring the web for information on the possibility of a Fry's store here in Utah, I ran across an article by Scott Lemon.  He has started a campaign to convince Fry's to put a store in Utah.  Check out his page HERE.  He has a link that will automatically write an email to Fry's for you that you can sign and send off.  Join the cause!

-wes @ the Help Desk

There have been many concerns recently about how cell phone use can increase your chances of getting certain kinds of brain cancers. I take a quote from a commentary from an article posted by a someone who goes by DracosGamer312:

"Sure, we all know it (cell phone) emits radiation. But radiation comes in all forms, for example, the light being emitted from your computer screen right now is radiation. To be frank, the radiation emitted by cell phones has a lower frequency than light, therefore making the radiation completely harmless.

Only radiation with higher frequencies than light, like U.V. rays, and nuclear radiation are dangerous to the human body."

-Daniel Oldham@ the Help Desk

I am writing this blog to announce I am working on a blog designed to teach people to keep their computer "lean and mean." What do I mean by that? I mean that your computer should be free of software that serves no purpose to you. I mean that it should be free of spyware and adware and spam. Over the weekend I will create a few guidelines that you can follow to keep things running smoothly.

Michael @HelpDesk

   
Traditional hard disks to this point haven't really changed much. They work like a record player using magnetic readers and writers to write information onto a platter looking kind of like a CD. Because the speed is limited to how fast the platter can spin, the hard disk has become the slowest piece of hardware in your computer. Often your super fast processor is taking coffee breaks waiting for the hard disk to find the information you've requested. Also, traditional hard disks are very fragile. One bang and the whole thing could be ruined.

Introducing solid state. Solid state uses flash memory to replace the platter. Flash memory is the USB device that you plug into your computer to store information. Here is an article that shows you how it works.

What makes a solid state hard drive so much better then a traditional hard drive? Faster. Flash memory can recall much faster then standard. Stronger. Flash memory can withstand a fall of 10 feet.

So if you are looking for a new laptop consider "Future Proofing" and upgrade to a Solid State hard Drive.

Daniel Oldham@ the Help Desk