Yes, I am a net book user, don’t laugh.  A lot of people do not understand why I would use a net book, as opposed to a full size lap top.  Let me explain my work.  I spend most of my day at home in my home office, with my net book on the desk, a second 22” screen, and a full keyboard and mouse plugged in.

Now, if I get a call from a client and have to run over there, I unplug everything from my net book, slip it into its small case, I don’t need a power adapter because of my net books 6 cell battery, and I truly have something portable.  If I am early to the clients I can pop open the net book in the car, plug in my 3G stick and do some work.  I had a full size laptop before my net book, but hated the size when I wanted to use in my car, or airplane, or sky train, and the battery barley lasted 1.5 hours.  I was on a plane trip a couple of months ago, and the guy next to me opened his laptop, and have of it was on my lap.  So yes, I love my net book.  By the way, I did beef up the ram in it a bit.

Now back to the purpose of this article.  I was obviously running XP, as Vista was not an option for net books, but really, XP is an 8 year old OS, and it was time for a change.  When I started hearing around the community that Windows 7 was going to work on net books I was really excited.  I had downloaded Windows 7 beta on to my desk top computer for testing and love it.

So, Microsoft releases Windows 7, and I was the first to purchase and download it from their site.  And the download included a great utility with prepared a 4 gig flash drive for you, to become the bootable drive that handled the install of Windows 7.

This was the big problem with net books; they do not have an optical drive, so how do you install Windows 7?  Well, Microsoft solved that problem with this utility included with your downloaded version of the program.

Now, if you happened to buy the CD version of Windows 7, and you want to install it on your web site, it can be done.  Spend some time on Google searching for “install Windows 7 on a net book” and you will find the answers on how to prepare a 4 gig flash card, to become a bootable device, and copy your Windows 7 CD on to the flash drive.  The procedure is a bit technical, but can be done.

Now, here is what I found with Windows 7 on my net book.  I have what I feel to be a 30% increase in overall speed and performance, which is great.  All the new cool features in Windows 7 are great and there are many time saving new features.  Windows 7 integrated seamlessly with my network and all my devices. I highly recommend all you net book users out there mozy on over to Microsoft’s sites, and get your download of Windows 7.

Technorati Tags: net book, windows 7

A little bit off my usual topic, but still related to this blog I would like to address this issue of web site design. In the late-1990s the issue of the times was “Do you have a web site?” A well-designed site was a fun and new self-promoting medium that companies and individuals alike saw as a wonderful and useful tool. Now, ten years later the “nice-to-have” web site has given way to an absolute requirement, and the issue of a web presence has given way to questions of web purpose.

A web site is a business’s face to the world; and as such, it must reflect the tone and style of the business in a professional and polished demeanor. So why, after ten years, are there still so many badly designed business Web Sites? Easy: Because they’re simple to build.

With all of the commercial and freeware WYSIWYG Web tools on the market – and the relative ease with which they may be used – everyone who knows how to turn on a computer considers themselves a Web designer. But websites are a lot more than the total of the bytes and bits that makes up its design.

Representing your business online needs preparation and a well thought out system. You shouldn’t adopt a quick-and-dirty solution simply because the advertisement for a specific Web tool boasts that it can get you successfully running in 20 minutes. The best web sites don’t come in a box – they need to be created, not uncovered.

Settling for a cheap and usually pathetic site will devalue your business and can do more harm to your professional image and reputation than not having a site at all. Remember: Building a web site might be easy, but building a good web site is not.

The site must be aesthetically pleasing, easy to navigate and also entertaining, in order to catch and keep the visitor’s attention. Your web site must convey a message about your business to possible clients. Unfortunately, many people place too much importance on the flash and not enough on the substance. The purpose of your web site’s design is to counterpoint its message, not overshadow it. Folks rarely go to a website solely to ooh and aah the design – and if they do, they’re not likely to return because non-functional design gimmicks can get old extremely fast.

When planning your site, it’s important to remember that what you can technically do with your site should never take precedence over what you must logically do with your web site. Try and observe a three-to-one proportion of functional content and design elements to non-functional, solely esthetic elements. People can be easily blinded by their enthusiasm for design because that is always the best part. Content and functionality appear too much like work in comparison. But a well-rounded web site must be equal quantities form and function; otherwise, it’ll appear a bit lopsided.

Anyways, that is my rant for today.  I just have seen so much junky web sites out there today, and the people or businesses just don not seem to know.
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Technorati Tags: web site design, web site set up

Web site backup is the most ignored task of webmasters simply because it poses no immediate threat to them until something worse happen to their hosting server. Many times, this job is put aside, delayed and even regarded as nuisance to the busy web site owner.

So before your site will be wiped out of the web by unexpected accidents like server breakdowns, hard disk failures, hacking and virus attacks among other bad things, let me share with you a few backup necessities you shouldn’t exist without on the internet.

Build your own backup schedule at the most handy time for you in the week. Sometimes, I must leave my computer overnight working on the backups. If you can make it not to clash with your busy schedule, you’ll be in a position to stay alongside of the demands of this job. In short, don’t complicate things. Backups are important, make time for them.

Patience is important to your backup jobs. When you have a schedule, stick with it. But the sooner you discipline yourself and make backing up your files a habit, the more you will benefit from a worry-free online environment. In short , get a regular habit of doing this.

Know which files to keep and not to keep. You need to do this to keep your backup process as short and as efficient as practicable. It also saves you irreplaceable resources like hard disk space and backup mediums.

There are many technologies and software you can use now to generate the swiftest and safest backup files you will need to restore in case of emergency without you lifting a finger. Automation is king in this lazy man’s world. With your own backup systems established, you can retire at night quietly knowing the day after, if you have a major computer crash, you know you can put everything back together within a day with very little downtime.

Nothing beats the feeling of being secured. But more importantly, your dedication to backup your files will not only save you from stress, shame, frustration, hate and guilt, and many other ugly feelings, but also lift your spirit and confidence as you know at the end of the day, your data is safe..

Technorati Tags: back up tips, how to back up

I found this great recourse that I wanted to share with all my “Newbie” computer friends.  When I started out with computer, I did not know what a lot of these words meant.

Bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of data that your website can send each second, as well as the amount of data that the visitor to your website can receive. If either one doesn’t have enough bandwidth, then the website will appear slowly. For this reason, you should choose a host with plenty of bandwidth, as well as testing that your site doesn’t take too long to download on slow connections.

Browser. A browser is the software (see below) that visitors to your site use to view it. The most popular browser is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which comes with Windows.

Cookie. Cookies are data files that your site can save on the computer of someone who visits that site, to allow it to remember who they are if they return. You will find that problems people have in ordering from you will almost inevitably be related to cookies — they will need to have them turned on.

Download. Transferring data from a website to a computer.

Favourite. A favourite is a website that a user has stored to look at again, by choosing ‘Add to Favourites’ in their browser’s menu.

FTP. File Transfer Protocol. This is a common method of uploading (see below) files to your website.

Javascript. A common language for writing ’scripts’ on websites, which are small programs that make the site more interactive. Another common cause of problems for visitors.

JPEG. Joint Photographic Experts Group. This is the name of the most popular format for pictures on the web, named after the group that came up with it. If you want to put pictures on your website, you should save them as JPEGs.

Hardware. Hardware is computer equipment that physically exists. It is the opposite of software.

Hosting. If you’ve got a website out there on the Internet, then you’ll be paying someone for hosting. It is the service of making your site available for people to see.

HTML. HyperText Markup Language. A kind of code used to indicate how web pages should be displayed, using a system of small ‘tags’. The ‘b’ tag, for example, causes text to appear in bold, and the ‘img’ tag displays a picture.

Hyperlink. A hyperlink is when a piece of text on a website can be clicked to take you to another site, or another page on the same site. For example, if clicking your email address on your website allows someone to email you, then your email address is a hyperlink.

Programming. This is when the computer is given instructions to tell it what to do, using one of many ‘programming languages’. Programming languages for the web include PHP and Perl.

Server. The server is where your website is stored, and it is the server that people are connecting to when they visit the site. If someone tells you, for example, that your server is ‘down’, it means that your website is inaccessible. Note that server refers both to the hardware and software of this system.

Software. Programs that run on the computer, or that make your website work. Microsoft Word is software, for example, as is Apache (the most popular web server software). Opposite of hardware.

Spider. Don’t be scared if a spider visits your website! Spiders are simply programs used by search engines to scan your site and help them decide where it should appear when people search. It is good to be visited by spiders, as it means you should start appearing in search engines soon.

Upload. Uploading is when you transfer data from your own computer to your website. For example, you might upload your logo, or an article you’ve written. Opposite of download.

URL. Uniform Resource Locator. This is just a short way of saying ‘web address’, meaning what you have to type in to get to your website. Sometimes pronounced as ‘Earl’.

Technorati Tags: computer glossary, computer terms, computer words

When it works well, email can be great for everything from staying in contact with family to requesting info from business or other organizations. Want to send the same message to several people? Communicate with somebody across the continent? Broadcast photos, manuscripts or other information? For speed and efficiency, this almost instantaneous medium is one of the handiest features of modern life.

But email is not without Problems. If you enter in the name of an intended recipient but your message keeps bouncing back, you won’t be singing e-mail’s praises for very long. This is also true for attachments that won’t open or other such problem.

Problem One – Email Bounces

After making the effort to create a message, you click the’send’ button and think about your task accomplished. But the very next thing you know, the message turns up in your in-box with a heading that it did not reach its intended recipient.

First, take the simple step of checking to see the address of your recipient has been entered in the right way. This may seem obvious, but sometimes the only thing wrong is a misplaced letter, entering of .com rather than .net, or some other mistake. If you know the correct address, this is an easy matter of double checking each character. If not, you might need to experiment by sending multiple messages, or by entering alternative addresses with slight variations. Under this approach, you simply keep an eye on which messages are bouncing back and match them with the overall list of addresses you used. If you sent four fluctuations but only three were returned, you have solved the difficulty by the method of elimination.

The cause may range between a brief problem with the recipient’s server to a switch to another email provider, to a full in box. Or a phone call or other communication could be needed on your side to get the proper e-mail address. If all your messages are being returned, you’ll have a connection problem. See below for more details.

Problem two – You Have Lost Your Connection

Sometimes a failure to send or receive email can be traced to a lost connection with your web service provider.

If you see a failure to connect or no response message or have otherwise determined that you have failed to connect, double check to make certain there are no physical problems.
First, take a look at your wires and connections. Locate the cord that runs from the back of your computer to the modem or router, and then ensure that each end is plugged in comfortably.

Check to see that all the lights on your modem and router seem to be working correctly. Sometimes if the lights on your modem are blinking, this can mean a problem with your internet service provider.  Give them a call and let them know the problems you are having.

Well that about it for reasons that you cannot send email.  Computers are a great thing . . .when they work

Technorati Tags: email bounces, email problems