The usual answer to this question can be looked at two ways. The person who is sending your the attachment is sending one that is of a type you’re computer has never seen before or that a program that was previously on your PC hasn’t be loaded or reloaded on the PC.

Let’s look a little bit into how the computer operates. Your PC (or Mac) basically has two things in it programs and data. The data is the interesting stuff that you, or your friend, put together to do something interesting. Data can be an email you typed to a friend, pictures of the baby, music you downloaded, a spread sheet to keep track of household expenditures or an email, picture you received from someone. Anything you type into the computer, read, print or feed into your MP3 player is data.

Data by it self is useless. It is like a CD (or phonograph) without the player (record player). The music is there but without something to play it you can’t enjoy it. That is what programs do in the computer. The programs “play” the data.

When you double click on the icon for the picture of the baby the system looks to see what kind of data that icon has. Since its a picture it will bring up a program that will “play” the data in the picture file and show it on your screen. The same goes for all other types of data. Letters you typed could bring up the Microsoft Word program. Music data could start iTunes. Each type of data is “played” by a different program. The opposite is also true: each program “plays” certain types of data.

 Back to our original problem. The attachment in the email is just some data. If the computer doesn’t have the program to “play” that type of data it complains and ask you for help. The trick here is that you have to find out what program will “play” that data. You can do that by asking your friend or by right clicking on it and clicking on “properties.” The next step is to find a program that will “play” that type of data.

Most types of data you are likely to encounter can be played with free programs. These can be downloaded and installed from the vendor that created the program that your friend used to create the attachment. Don’t just search for a program to play your data. More likely than not you will get a program that has been tampered with to include viruses.

So if your attachments are not playing. Find the program that will play that type of data. Install it and you will be enjoying your computer even more.

Guru with PC Tips

some tips that have helped many of my clients.

 Put a program’s icon on the desktop – Some programs that you use may be reached through the “programs” in the “start” menu, then in a folder there, etc… If you want to put a program on your desktop go to it via the “programs” menu as usual. Right click the program and hold the click. While holding move the mouse pointer to anywhere on your desktop. Let go of the button. In the menu that pops up click on “copy.” Now to open that program just double click that new icon on your desktop.

 Make your Internet bigger – When on the web do you need a bigger screen. You can see more of the web page by this tip. Go to the Internet (web browser: IE, firefox…). Look above the number keys. Hit the key labeled “F11.” It will make your browser window a bit bigger. To get out of it hit “F11” again.

 Quick link to a web page – You can quickly go to a web page by using a bookmark (favorite). Just go the page you you want to access. Hold down the key labeled “Ctrl” and hit “D” (ctrl-d), let go. In the pop up that appears click “done” or “save.” Now look to the top of your window and click on the menu labeled “bookmarks”, “favorites” or possibly a star icon. You should see the web page listed there. Now whenever you want that web page you don’t need to search your history you can find it in your bookmarks.

 Quickest link to a web page – Put a web page link on your desktop that you go to often. Go to your web page. Click in the address bar (where it has “http://…., showing your web page’s address). Now click ctrl-a then click ctrl-c. Now right click on your desktop click on “new” then click “short cut.” Then click ctrl-v. Hit enter and give the short cut a name. Hit enter again. Now just click on recently created icon that is on your desktop and your Internet opens up to that web page.

 See more on your computer without going to a double screen – In the upper right click on the little box so that it looks like a stack of boxes. Make the window that results the size you want by putting your mouse pointer over any corner until it becomes a double arrow. Now click and hold. Move the mouse pointer around until it is the size you want then let go. Move the window by clicking and holding in the the wide area to the left of the three buttons on the right. Move the mouse pointer until the window is where you want it. You can then open another window and do the same. This allows you to refer to one thing while using another.

Questions? Ask at info@affinityCM.com or IM me at kurtrr on skype.

Shopping For Viruses

This Christmas more people a shopping on-line than ever before. The criminals of the Internet have their “presents” out there too. Remember to be safe. If a pop-up appears that is not one of your programs, tempts/frightens you to click a button or to hurry and get rid of the pop-up/window. DON’T! Don’t even move the window. Just shut off the computer. (Hold the off button for six seconds until it shuts down, if necessary.) You’ll have less problems with that than dealing with the viruses that are attacking now.

Computer Floods

You also may have noticed that computers are up in price. Be they Mac, Windows or Linux the hard disks that store your programs, pictures, word documents, etc. have risen in price from 150% to 300%. This is because of the recent flooding in Thailand. One of the largest manufacturers had it’s main factory submerged. All the vendors are attempting to fill the backlog. The shortages are expected to continue through most of 2012.

Happy Birthday PC

Dec. 19, 1974: The Altair 8800 microcomputer goes on sale… At its heart was the Intel 8080 microprocessor, with the remarkable capacity of 8 bits, or 1 byte. The kit offered a 256-byte memory, just about enough to contain one sentence of text. From Wired.com.

What’s Hot

The latest contender to Apple’s iPad is Amazon’s Kindle Fire. This $299 alternative is back in stock after an impressive launch. However, like the iPad, what can be loaded on it is restricted by the vendor. The Fire is more an e-reader than an e-tablet but certainly is more versatile than any previous reader. The Nook Tablet is another in this category. You can still get these for under the tree.

What’s Cool

A present from me to you. Here is a nice Christmas tree app for your android device. Scan this QR code. It will bring you to the download in the android market place.

Questions? Ask at info@affinityCM.com or IM me at kurtrr on skype. Your question may be in an upcoming blog/column.

So what does this mean? Well, any good IT person will tell you it means almost nothing to us average Joes and Josaphines. There are many factors that go into how fast a computer will behave for what you are doing. The scientist working on combustion simulations for a new rocket nosel may need the K computer. But, using that same computer to do a term paper could cause it to use a lot more processing power than your home PC would.

This is what many people find when they buy a PC. Lets say someone buys a PC that he thinks is fast: perhaps it has a big case, fast processor, lots of memory or hard disks space, what ever the feature is he keys on as making a computer fast. If that computer is not designed for his type of usage then for his usage the computer may be as slow as the one he previously had.

Also the raw speed of the computer is less a factor than our perception and expectations for the speed of a computer. I once developed a program to help analysts in a factory. This program did the work of some other programs and tedious evaluation by the analysts. My program produced a result ready for the analyst to use in five minutes. During training the main question was why was my program so slow?!

The perception was that my program had a big computer running it so that they should get results right away. The same goes for our computers. When we look at our phone, tablet and netbook computers we seem to expect performance in relation to their size. I see people patiently waiting for a response from their phone or tablet that would normally frustrate other people when they were on desktop PCs.

Then there is the confusion of what is the PC and what is the network. I remember a person who was looking for a faster computer. The computer was several years old, in good condition, just old. This person bought a new PC about ten times faster and ten times larger in every category. It had plenty to match the expressed goals: some typing, email and browsing the web and some longevity. A couple of days later this person complained about how slow it was. A house call solved the problem. The computer was slow only when using the web browser. The location only had dial-up capability. The computer could take 100 times the speed that it was getting but the network couldn’t provide it.

No mater how fast a computer is it can not force your cable or phone company to give you more data than for what you pay. Also, some people say their connection is slow even though they have high-speed Internet. They may be comparing their network to a neighbor’s. Not all high-speed connections are the same. If you have 1.5 mega-bits per second (Mbps) or even Kilo-bits you will not have the same performance as someone who has 10-20 Mbps. The difference is almost the same as the difference between dial-up and the 1.5 Mbps connection. The connection speed is usually on the phone or cable bill.

Expectation, perception and comparison can affect how you see the speed or your computer. When looking for improvements identify if it is the computer or the network that needs improvement. When buying be sure to know how you are going to use your computer and what kind of network you have.

Questions? Ask at info@affinityCM.com or IM me at kurtrr on skype. Your question may be in an upcoming blog/column.

Kurt, Susan, Matt

 People get frustrated when buying a Personal Computer / Mac / Laptop when the price for the PC ends up so much more than what is listed on the sticker. What are these sometimes hidden costs and what needs to be factored in to find out how much it will really cost in the end?

The price on the tag from the mass producers of PCs that you see on-line or on the store shelves is only for the hardware, either the Windows or Mac system and mostly superfluous software that advertise to you or extract information from you.

 The most confusing of these “free” or “preloaded” products are the office and Internet security products. Free software usually means that the product is available for you without loading it. In order to use it you give personal information via registration to a third party. The “preloaded” products are much the same. They merely ask to to buy the software right away.

 For the free and preloaded anti-virus and Office products eg. Word™ will stop working after a time. This either puts your computer at risk or holds what you have typed into the computer for ransom until you pay (or install something other product). The cost for these can be an additional $190 above the sticker price of the PC/Mac/Laptop.

 Don’t forget the protection from Oklahoma weather! Most people have outlets into which they plug their computer. They may be surge strips or just power strips with out any protection. Since surge strips’ protection tend to weaken over time and exposure to power problems it is a good idea to get new electrical protection when getting a new computer.

 For electrical protection in Oklahoma I recommend more than a surge strip. Many of our neighborhoods suffer from momentary blackouts and with Oklahoma storms often the power dips or browns-out. These dips can really take a toll on the PC hardware and can be disastrous for the system running the PC. A simple battery backup or UPS (Uninterpretable Power Source) fits the bill. These now can be had for little more than an adequate surge strip, about $60.

 Printers are a possible problem, too. With a new Windows or Mac system, often their software will not work with older printers. Let’s add $150 for a moderately low priced printer on a new system, though most will opt for better models.

 So far that has added $400 to the sticker price of your PC. Now there are optional items to get.

 You may want professional setup and updates. The first part is just setting up the PC: taking it out of the box and hooking up cables. Then following the tasks the manufacturer has set up for you, agreeing to all the terms to use the computer and choosing the options the programs offer. Also there are the recovery disks to be created when you first start your PC. Now connect to the Internet and do the Windows, Adobe, Java and other updates that have come out since the factory put together the system that is on your PC. These are needed to protect your computer from hackers.

 Now the computer can be personalized including setting up your mail and your printer. Don’t forget

all those pictures and typing you did on your old computer. If you backed up your data, great. If not you may want to get that data recovered. Then there is restoring the back up or recovered data to the new PC.

 So, besides the $400 hidden from the initial cost of the computer the price of a service call may be needed to be included to set up your purchase and even to customize it. Indeed that computer you eye in the store may cost more than you expect.

 Questions? Ask at info@affinityCM.com or IM me at kurtrr on skype. Your question may be in an upcoming blog/column.

Believe it or not I only recently obtained a smart phone. My only justification for not getting one sooner is that my PDA was still working. That’s a “Personal Digital Assistant” for those of you who don’t remember back that long ago. Now we’ve heard of texting and driving being a problem and the teens can no longer legally do that. We’ve also heard of distracted driving. Well the smart phone definitely causes that. This article is a bit more personal than most but I think my experiences with technology are as per tenant as the next guys.

I’ve always tried to not talk while driving. I’ve had a couple of close calls while driving and phoning with a regular cell phone and I’ve had difficulty in stopping that behavior. I attribute this to my using wireless phones before there were cell phones. Perhaps this is why teens may have difficulty in stopping their texting wile driving. They have been using, some from a young age, before they were driving and have become habituated to responding to the tone that indicates a text message has arrived.
I began to look at my text messages while driving (not responding) but I found this also too distracting and have ceased doing that. I don’t think adults are any better at texting and driving than kids.

Now my main purpose in writing this is not about texting. It is about using a smart phone. Just using it for phone calls can be challenging. And heaven forbid should you need to call a family member in an emergency. That can be an exercise in futility, especially with a new phone.

As with any new technology it is created in such a way that it’s use is “obvious.” There are no manuals except for FCC notifications, advertisements from the company you bought it from and maybe how to put the battery in. I didn’t even know how to answer my first phone call on the darned thing.

Answering calls and starting apps on the thing was quickly learned. The main trouble was calling numbers in my address book. It seemed to take half a dozen searches and clicks to get the phone to dial. In my fustration the phone almost became a dangerous projectile! I looked for an app to call a number with just one touch to no avail. Finally, I found out that I could simply create a link on the phone to call the number without picking from all the different options for making a call.

So, what does this have to do with distracted driving? Well new-bee (noob) users will, like me, look like they are texting and be just as distracted if they are trying to use their phone (not texting) while they are driving. The take-home from this is don’t try to use your phone in the car especially if it is new to you. Texting is not the only problem with smart phones while driving. It is all the other things the phones can do that just seems plain dumb when you only want to make a call. Stop distracted driving!

Questions? Ask at info@affinityCM.com or IM me at kurtrr on skype. Your question may be in an upcoming blog/column.

Image: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net