Another chance to recycle used computers for Vermonters

Free computer drop-off at new Goodwill store in South Burlington

Cleaning out your closets? Got an old, dusty computer to get rid of? Bring it all down to the new Goodwill store opening Friday, December 11, at 1080 Shelburne Road (on the site of the former Tuscan Kitchen). They'll take it all for free--including the computers! Regular hours are Monday-Saturday 9-9, Sunday 9-7.

The building itself is constructed partially from reused materials salvaged from the former Tuscan Kitchen building, embodying Goodwill's own mission for keeping usable goods in use. It is on track for Energy Star certification with energy efficient heating, air-conditioning, and insulation features. Best of all, their drive-through donation zone makes it a breeze to drop off your lava lamp, broken-in jeans, and that faithful, old Commodore computer!

The new store is in addition to the existing Goodwill location at 329 Harvest Lane in Williston, which also accepts computer equipment for free.

Refurbished and Clearance Apple Items

I think I have posted more than once that I would love to get into and learn the Apple family of, I'm not even sure what term to use, Macs. I am not sure if the term Macs includes all of their "PCs", but that is what I mean for it to indicate. Apple does have a web site where they sell refurbished machines, and there doesn't seem to be a lack of good machines available here:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals

There are also a lot of refurbished iPods at this site.

Hackers quick to exploit Tiger Woods crash

Interesting. Be wary of such sites. This comes from cbronline.com:

Cyber criminals are already exploiting the car crash involving golf superstar Tiger Woods by directing news-hungry surfers to malware-infested websites.

Both Symantec and Sophos have warned users to be on their guard when searching for news relating to the crash, which happened in the early hours of Friday morning at his home near Orlando, Florida.

Sophos has claimed that by early Saturday morning hackers had created webpages claiming to contain video footage related to the incident. Users visiting the infected sites are likely to see their PCs infected by a Trojan horse, which enablers hackers to use the PC to spread spam.

More on Windows 7

Windows 7 continues to impress. A real unexpected bonus is improved performance on this Acer laptop of mine. Even though I had dressed Vista down, using tips to make it more like XP, it was still quite slow. It now has new life, thanks to Windows 7, and is performing much better. I did not expect this at all, and have been pleasantly surprised.

If you are thinking of getting a new PC for Christmas, don't hesitate because of Windows 7. I am quite sure you will not be disappointed.

Like any new PC, it will need some customization, but this is not the fault of Windows 7 as much as it is the manufacturer's desire to generate a little more income by loading up your new PC with trialware and unnecessary programs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you and yours have a very happy day. Thank you for reading my blog.

Christmas Dreaming

I have to say, after only 2 days, that I still like Windows 7 a lot. Microsoft has done some good things with this new product. I just hope it's stable and I hope that its Security Essentials is high quality and keeps the Windows 7 machines well-protected. It would be nice to have a stable Windows environment, pretty much free of worry about being attacked by the bad guys out there. It does get a little tiring having to worry about installing and maintaining a plethora of programs just to keep my Windows XP machines clean and running smoothly. What say you, Microsoft? More on this as I gain experience with Windows 7.

I can't get my mind, however, off of that 27 inch iMac! While it wouldn't quite fit into a Christmas stocking, it sure would look nice under the tree! But, as indicated earlier, the way I configured "mine", it came in at $3200, so I guess it will remain a dream!

Windows 7 - at last!

I finally have Windows 7 installed. Instead of building up an old desktop to use for this, I sacrificed my Vista laptop. I ran out of patience, and using the Vista laptop was the easiest way to get the job done. Besides, I don't foresee a need to have a working Vista system anymore. I have worked on enough Vista systems to know that I can handle Vista problems without having my own system.

So, on to Windows 7. I never was able to use the first DVD that Amazon sent me, and they sent me a replacement set. Windows 7 comes with a 32 bit version DVD and a 64 bit version DVD. My laptop had the 32 bit version of Vista installed, and everything I have read told me that the 64 bit version is unnecessary at this time because there are so few programs that will take advantage of the technology. The 32 bit version is recommended.

So I tried, but failed. The installation did not at all go the way it was supposed to go. I could not get the 32 bit version installed, and mind you, all I wanted was a CLEAN install, meaning all I wanted to do was lay the new system down on the drive overwriting my old system and destroying all of the data. I did not want tp upgrade my Vista to Windows 7. This latter install is the toughest, I have read, and a CLEAN install is recommended whenever possible.

I then decided to try the 64 bit DVD, and, to my surprise, I was able to get through the install, although not terribly smoothly. There were problems along the way, but I somehow managed to get through it.

Then, and this comes as no surprise, I had to sit through hours of Windows Updates. The DVD set was dated, as I recall, July 2009. Microsoft has been very busy patching Windows 7 since then, and there were tens, maybe even a hundred, updates to apply. Then I had to install Microsoft Office 2007, and it too had many, many updates, some quite time-consuming.

This is the Microsoft way, isn't it? It always has been and probably always will be.

Eventually I had all of the fixes applied, and thought I would try the new Microsoft Security Essentials. I had promised in an earlier blog post that I would give it a try. Supposedly, this one free package will do it all, anti-virus and spyware. The download and install of this package went very smoothly and quickly. Can it be that Microsoft has done this one thing right? I sure hope so.

So there you have it. I have to admit that I LIKE Windows 7. This may surprise some of you after what I have written above. I can and will recommend Windows 7. Microsoft has done a very good job at improving what they had in Vista. They may even have listened to users!

I can recommend Windows 7 to you now mostly because I know you will most likely be buying a new computer that already has Windows 7 installed on it. It is a very nice and user-friendlier interface. I simply can't recommend the upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. I am glad I have gone through it, but I had so many problems that it was painful, and to be honest, I don't even know if the 64 bit version I had to install will run well with the software I want to run. Time will tell.

Bottom line: Windows 7 is a very good product. Make sure your next computer has it. I think you will like it a lot, especially when compared to Vista.

Micro Center

Have you ever heard of the Micro Center? Living a sheltered life as we do in Northern New England, we don't get much exposure to places like this. Micro Center is a chain of 22 stores, and the nearest one to us is in Cambridge, MA. Spending some time in the Boston area as I have lately, one of my sons put me on to this store.

If you are into PCs or Macs (they sell both, and supplies and accessories for both), you may love this store. It is really amazing. Limited as we are up here to Staples and Best Buy plus some other outlets like Radio Shack and maybe BJs or Costco or Sam's Club, this was like entering candyland for me!

I recommend you check it out online and if in the Cambridge area, stop in to see it. It's right on Memorial Drive along the Charles.

http://www.microcenter.com/at_the_stores/cambridge.html

Google rides Chrome OS onto Microsoft turf

In case you haven't heard, Google is planning an operating system, in diect competition with Microsoft. Some of you have tried Google's Chrome web browser, but this takes it further into a full-blown operating system, browser-based. So while we all struggle with having to learn Windows 7, or how to keep our good old Windows XP machines running, or with the Apple vs. PC makers, Google is plodding along with development of their own operating system. It is expected that general availability of the new Chrome OS will be a year from now (in time for Christmas 2010?). In the meantime, we will all be reading about early versions of the Chrome OS. Here is one, for those of you who may be interested, from Computerworld.com.

Google's Chrome OS

Microsoft Answers

Microsoft maintains many, many forums (we used to say fora, but now forums is acceptable?) on Windows 7, Vista, and XP. The categories are listed here on this one page. If you have a Windows Live id (Hotmail, for example) you can even login and post your own questions. But, even without that you'll find discussions on most any topic within the operating system of your choice. It's definitely worth a look and even an add to your Bookmarks (I assume by now that everyone is using Firefox as your default browser, and thus the Firefox terminology). Okay, Favorites, if you still insist on using Internet Explorer!

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/categories

Spam

These are actual subjects of e-mails in my Junk mail folder at my pcdoc address:

payment request from "Publix"
payment request from "Electric Boat" 
payment request from "Avnet"
payment request from "Nike" 

Unbelievable, but easy to see how one might get in trouble and wind up with a virus if you happened to get just one of these and from a company you do business with. These spammers are actually making money sending this junk out, and stealing from anyone who is gullible enough to open one of these e-mails. And if they don't steal from the gullible, who knows what virus they  may install on your system?

A word to the wise: check your spam settings, and if you get an e-mail such as one of these, be sure to mark it as spam - AND DON'T OPEN IT!

AVG Free Version 9

AVG is still free. I had a call earlier today from a customer who was having trouble entering his credit card information in the AVG ordering process. I was very upset. I am so upset with AVG for their aggressive marketing technique, scaring people into buying their product. Shame on them!

AVG is still free. Rather than risk getting to the wrong page on AVG's own web  site, download it at http://filehippo.com or http://download.com.

In both cases search for AVG FREE, with the emphasis on the word FREE! Do not be led into buying their for-a-fee version.

PLEASE do not ever pay for any version of AVG anti-virus. If/when the FREE version is withdrawn, you'll hear it from me here, and I will be quick to point you to another free anti-virus.

Not so fast: Look before you leap!

After marveling at the Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch notebook yesterday, and blogging about it, I measured my own Acer laptop's screen, and found that mine is 15 inches measured diagonally. I would have a hard time adjusting to a smaller screen. The older I get the larger the display I want. I recently bought a 22 inch display for my desktop PC.

I guess the moral of the story is that you should see in person what it is you want to buy before making any important (and expensive) decisions. Touch it, lift it, view it and try it out.

I previously blogged about the Acer Aspire One Netbook I purchased, could it be a year ago? I wanted to find out what the Netbook craze was all about. It's about size and weight. And cost! These tiny machines are real lightweights, and a joy for the traveler, especially someone like me who lugged an IBM ThinkPad around the world. That wasn't fun.

However, the weight, size, and convenience come at a price. The Acer Aspire One's screen is 8.9 inches measured diagonally. I could never use that, traveling or not. I gave the machine to my wife to test, and she is using it to this day as her fulltime computer. She goes nowhere without it, and the fact that it is such a lightweight is probably the single most important factor contributing to her satisfaction. She is in and out of airports and train stations the way I am in and out of Dunkin' Donuts! Oh, and it has Windows XP.

More about the Acer Aspire One Netbook

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch Notebook

From wired.com, a very nice review of the new MacBook Pro, makes me rethink the affordability issue (as in can I afford to buy one?).

"The littlest MacBook Pro finally gets all the features of its larger brethren, making it pound for pound one of the most impressive laptops on the market today. For starters, the aluminum unibody construction is solid to an extreme: There's no wiggle or shimmy when you lift up this laptop. It's a high-tech brick that, if you gathered enough of, you could probably pave your driveway with."

MORE....................

 

No e-mail prgram included in Windows 7

From Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal:

Q: I have just bought a new computer with Windows 7, and not only can’t I download Outlook Express, I can’t even find it. Is it there? Where?

A: Sadly, Microsoft killed Outlook Express—its free, fast and simple Windows email program—long before Windows 7 came out. In Vista, it was replaced by something called Windows Mail. Now, there’s no email program at all built into Windows 7, unless a PC maker chooses to include one. But Microsoft offers for download a free product called Windows Live Email that is the latest successor to Outlook Express. You can get it, alone or as part of a suite of free “Essentials” programs that used to be routinely part of Windows, at: windowslive.com/desktop.

Review: 3 Windows 7 touch-screen laptops

It will be interesting to see if touch-screen sales begin to climb and ultimately take off or if the concept will fall by the wayside. I have to say I'd like to try one out. Read this Computerworld article at the following link:

Review: 3 Windows 7 touch-screen laptops

New iMac

As I have stated before, I would love to own an Apple computer. I guess their laptops are called Macs and their desktops are called iMacs? I'm not even sure about that, I know so little about them. I have only always known that they are pricey.

Today I went to apple.com and configured myself a nice new iMac with the highly touted 27" display. It starts out at $1695 or close to that, and that's not bad. However, I went step by step through their very nice configurator and wound up with a desktop machine, and I might say a beauty that I would be proud to own, but it came in at over $3200!

Maybe next year.

Windows 7 Update

Unable to get the Windows 7 DVD setup.exe program to run, I decided, after many dead-end trials (I tried to load the program on multile machines and it failed), to return the product to Amazon. I did request a replacement as opposed to a return because I had purchased this at a pre-order price of $49.

My DVD package was sealed and therefore I blame Microsoft for providing a non-functioning product DVD to Amazon. Now I realize that Microsoft probably never came near these DVDs, but obviously they are responsible for ensuring quality controls are implemented.

In the meantime I have decided to install Windows 7, after I get my replacement, on an older desktop unit instead of sacrificing my only working Vista machine.

Nice note from Amazon:

Hello,

I'm so sorry about the problem you had with your Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade.

It is certainly not our intention to ship defective products to our customers, and we will investigate the origin of this problem as soon as possible.

We always appreciate customer input on how we can improve our store, and I've forwarded your message to our shipping department, as I know they'll want to read about your experience.

In order to compensate for the inconvenience caused, I've placed a new order for you at no charge.

Windows 7 Disappointment

Well, my first day playing with Windows 7 didn't go well. I decided to sacrifice my Vista machine to Windows 7, stuck the Windows 7 DVD in the drive, and immediately found that setup.exe didn't work. I couldn't get the program to even begin. 

I quickly went to the appropriate Microsoft support forum, posted my problem, and got one response - all day long - wherein the guy just asked me if I did this and that, and I explained that I did this and that and then even some more!

Day one is a total washout!

Finally!

Well, it finally arrived late last week. Windows 7. After all my complaining about the shipping delay, I have to confess that I am not yet quite ready for it. I have yet to decide the machine I will use for the installation. I had been thinking my Vista laptop, but I only have one Vista machine, and lately I have been spending a lot of time with customers on their Vista machines. It might be wise for me to hang on to my Vista machine so I can use mine as a lab machine to try to replicate or simply explain what has happened when a customer has a Vista problem.