Total Computing.ca

A recent article from Tom’s Hardware breaks down the advantages and disadvantages of upgrading to the new Windows 7 operating system.

Click Here to read the full article

I am always warning my customers to only use their laptop computers where there is plenty of ventilation. Although leaving your laptop on the couch might seem like a harmless action, please keep in mind that its high powered battery needs lots of constant air flow to keep cool!

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/08/26/bc-overheating-laptop-fire-death-vancouver.html

“The plan will address four key issues outlined by the commissioner last month. Along with Stoddart’s recommended actions, they are:

* Facebook doesn’t have enough safeguards to prevent 950,000 third-party developers around the world from getting unauthorized access to users’ personal information, nor does it ensure users have given “meaningful consent” to allow their personal information to be disclosed to the developers. Recommendation: Developers should only get the information needed to run the application. Users would have to specifically consent to the release of that information after being told why it is needed. Information about anyone other than the user would not be disclosed.
* Facebook keeps information from accounts deactivated by users indefinitely. Recommendation: Facebook should have a policy to delete the information after a reasonable length of time, and users should be informed of the policy.
* Facebook keeps the profiles of deceased users for “memorial purposes” but does not make this clear. Recommendation: Information about use for memorial purposes should be in Facebook’s privacy policy.
* Facebook allows users to provide personal information about non-users without their consent. For example, it allows them to tag photos and videos of non-users with their names, and provide Facebook with their email addresses to invite them to join the site. It keeps the addresses indefinitely. Recommendation: Facebook should only keep non-users’ email addresses for a reasonable, specific length of time and should make its users aware that they need to seek consent of non-users before posting information about them.”

Full article here:
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/08/17/facebook-privacy-settlement.html

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Sherm’s Tips on Helping Senior Citizens

NEW! IMPROVED! This tutorial is much more than a revised version of the original. It is over three times longer and includes information from many of the columns on helping seniors to become computer literate.

What is a senior? What is computer literacy?

What makes seniors different from other people such that they require a special tutorial? Attempting to isolate any group from the total of humanity and assigning characteristics to that group is risky at best. The book is clear right from the start: there is no such thing as a well-defined set of computer-illiterate seniors. The author happens to know people who are mature and who are not comfortable using computers. Some of these do not even appreciate that they have the intelligence to use a computer as more than a conduit for e-mail and writing letters.

(click here to read the full article)

Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos
March 26, 2007 06:47

AMD’s Athlon 64 family used to dominate the processor market. This reign ended when Intel introduced its Core 2 Duo processor in the middle of 2006. It ended painfully for AMD, because the Core 2 Duo processors are faster, more efficient and more overclockable than Athlon 64 X2 processors. But AMD CPUs should still be taken into consideration, because recent pricing adjustments have helped to make them an attractive buy.

(click here to read the article)

by Lockergnome on March 16, 2007 at 5:44 am

A number of evolving social changes highlight the importance of making computer technology accessible and usable for older adults. For instance, older adults are using email increasingly to keep up their social contact with others and are using the Internet to look up health information.
(click here to read the full article)

Welcome! We will be posting the most relevant home computing articles here for your benefit! Enjoy!