Views from the Coop On-the-Air March 14, 2007

March 17, 2007

I hope everyone has taken the time to visit Sandi Gaddy’s blog. She has been living quite a challenge over the past four years and it’s not over for her yet. Sandi, for those of you who don’t know, is the daughter of Roger and Carol Creighton. Roger was on KTTR for 11 years with PC Primer. Roger was the voice of tech experience for many PC newbies in the listening area. I had the privilege of being on the air with him for a couple of years. Kristi, also his daughter, is my co-host on the online version of Views from the Coop. Sandi is currently in the hospital in Springfield, Missouri in very serious condition. You have the opportunity to voice prayers and words of encouragement for Sandi and her family by visiting her blog at http://eachdaynew.blogspot.com and leaving a comment. You will be touched by the many messages you will find there from friends, family and the many students, past and present, who have been touched by this wonderful woman.

I finally made the announcement today on-the-air about the upcoming visit from Derek DeVette of Diskeeper. He will be calling us live from the west coast (and it’s early out there when we’re on-the-air here in the midwest) on the March 28th show so don’t miss it. Leave your comment on this blog so you’ll be eligible for one of the three copies of Diskeeper Pro Premier he’ll be giving away during the show. Tell me who you are and where you are when you listen to Views from the Coop.

Just like Y2K, the Daylight Savings Time change this past weekend produced numerous irritants across the nation. To learn more about what happened to some businesses and individuals, visit Chron.com for a summary of the little problems.

How do you feel about using information gained from illegal activities to help prosecute someone who is accused of a horrific crime like child pornography? It looks like our government has been doing just that by using information from known hackers who have gathered the information by using illegal software programs planted on a suspects computer. You can read the details at eWeek.com and decide for yourself.

I ran across a couple of Cool Tools this past week that I shared with the radio listeners. One of them came from my buddy, Harold “The Jellyman” who knows more than just how to make the best pepper jelly on Earth. Harold’s always looking for tools that keep his computer running smoothly and in particular that keep an eye on his registry. Fooling around in the registry is not for the faint of heart and MOST definitely not for computer users who aren’t exactly sure what they’re doing. CCleaner takes the guesswork out of deciding which files to clean up and does it for you. Harold swears by it and I also found an article by computer journalist, John Barnett (who also happens to be a Micrsoft Most Valuable Professional) that puts CCleaner on his list of things he can’t do without. Check it out for yourself on John’s Windows Vista Support site.

I found a tool that’s been very useful for me as a web designer this past week. When I had moved to Vista Land, I had to leave some of my programs behind. I’ve used Adobe Photoshop 7 for a long time and frequently used the feature that allowed me to open .pdf file and edit them as graphics. Now that I can’t use Photoshop anymore and have started using Fireworks, I had to find another way to edit those files. You’d think that since Macromedia, the maker of Fireworks, is not an Adobe company that you’d be able to open .pdf files from within that application but that’s not the way it is. I searched and searched and was about to give up after finding numerous converters that did a lot more than what I needed when I ran across a FREE utility called PDF Image Extraction Wizard by RL Vision. Very simply, it allows me to open any .pdf and extract/save the images in a variety of graphic formats. It’s a small download and since it’s a wizard, it’s easy to use and it works FAST, too. Even if you’re not a web designer, you may want to “grab” an image from a .pdf file to use as a graphic. My thumbs up goes to RL Vision and PDF Image Extraction Wizard so check it out and see if it’s a Cool Tool that you might like. The price is sure right!

I’d planned another tip of the week, but Byron from Rolla called with one that I used instead (I’ll save the other one for another show). If you’re getting ready to install a program, make sure you close other programs first to avoid any conflicts with the installation application. Thanks, Byron!

Byron was calling in reponse to the word (or in this case words) of the week: Operating System. We’ve all heard of them but do we really understand what they are? Windows is an OS and so is Linux or Mac OS. If you aren’t sure what an Operating System does, there’s a great definition on Webopedia. If you’d like to hear Byron’s great analogy, you’ll have to listen to the podcast (I’ll have it posted next week).

Speaking of Operating Systems, one that’s been gaining in popularity not only with users but with computer manufacturers is Linux. There are about a zillion (that’s a slight exaggeration, I’m sure) flavors and you can download them from the Internet for FREE. You can also buy some versions in a box for a lot less than what you’d pay for a boxed copy of Windows. Needless to say, manufacturers are starting to look at the cost savings of preinstalling Linux on consumer PCs. That means in the future you may have a choice of Operating System when you buy an HP or Dell. If you’re interested in reading more, go to Red Herring and find out if Linux is ready for Primetime!

If you’re still thinking about joining me in Vista Land, take advantage of Microsoft’s Virtual Test Drive. Visit the Vista Business Test Drive website and take it for a spin before you buy that new PC. You can even test drive Microsoft Office 2007!

Don’t forget to leave your comment so you can be entered into the drawing for your own copy of Diskeeper 2007 Premier Pro!

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