Extend Your Laptop's Battery

1. Defrag regularly - The faster your hard drive does its work - less demand you are going to put on the hard drive and your battery. Make your hard drive as efficient as possible by defragging it regularly. (but not while it’s on battery of course!) Mac OSX is better built to handle fragmentation so it may not be very applicable for Apple systems.

2. Dim your screen - Most laptops come with the ability to dim your laptop screen. Some even come with ways to modify CPU and cooling performance. Cut them down to the lowest level you can tolerate to squeeze out some extra battery juice.

3. Cut down on programs running in the background. Itunes, Desktop Search, etc. All these add to the CPU load and cut down battery life. Shut down everything that isn’t crucial when you’re on battery.

4. Cut down external devices - USB devices (including your mouse) & WiFi drain down your laptop battery. Remove or shut them down when not in use. It goes without saying that charging other devices (like your iPod) with your laptop when on battery is a surefire way of quickly wiping out the charge on your laptop battery.

5. Add more RAM - This will allow you to process more with the memory your laptop has, rather than relying on virtual memory. Virtual memory results in hard drive use, and is much less power efficient. Note that adding more RAM will consume more energy, so this is most applicable if you do need to run memory intensive programs which actually require heavy usage of virtual memory.

6. Run off a hard drive rather than CD/DVD - As power consuming as hard drives are, CD and DVD drives are worse. Even having one in the drive can be power consuming. They spin, taking power, even when they?re not actively being used. Wherever possible, try to run on virtual drives using programs like Alcohol 120% rather than optical ones.

7. Keep the battery contacts clean: Clean your battery’s metal contacts every couple of months with a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol. This keeps the transfer of power from your battery more efficient.

8. Take care of your battery - Exercise the Battery. Do not leave a charged battery dormant for long periods of time. Once charged, you should at least use the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Also, do not let a Li-On battery completely discharge. (Discharing is only for older batteries with memory effects)

9. Hibernate not standby - Although placing a laptop in standby mode saves some power and you can instantly resume where you left off, it doesn’t save anywhere as much power as the hibernate function does. Hibernating a PC will actually save your PC’s state as it is, and completely shut itself down.

10. Keep operating temperature down - Your laptop operates more efficiently when it’s cooler. Clean out your air vents with a cloth or keyboard cleaner, or refer to some extra tips by LapTopMag.com.

11. Set up and optimize your power options - Go to ‘Power Options’ in your windows control panel and set it up so that power usage is optimized (Select the ‘max battery’ for maximum effect).

12. Don’t multitask - Do one thing at a time when you’re on battery. Rather than working on a spreadsheet, letting your email client run in the background and listening to your latest set of MP3’s, set your mind to one thing only. If you don’t you’ll only drain out your batteries before anything gets completed!

13. Go easy on the PC demands - The more you demand from your PC. Passive activities like email and word processing consume much less power than gaming or playing a DVD. If you’ve got a single battery charge - pick your priorities wisely.

14. Get yourself a more efficient laptop - Laptops are getting more and more efficient in nature to the point where some manufacturers are talking about all day long batteries. Picking up a newer more efficient laptop to replace an aging one is usually a quick fix.

15. Prevent the Memory Effect - If you’re using a very old laptop, you’ll want to prevent the ‘memory effect’ - Keep the battery healthy by fully charging and then fully discharging it at least once every two to three weeks. Exceptions to the rule are Li-Ion batteries (which most laptops have) which do not suffer from the memory effect.

Bonus Tip #1: Turn off the autosave function. MS-Word’s and Excel’s autosave functions are great but because they keep saving regular intervals, they work your hard driver harder than it may have to. If you plan to do this, you may want to turn it back on as the battery runs low. While it saves battery life in the beginning, you will want to make sure your work is saved when your battery dies.

Bonus Tip #2: Lower the graphics use. You can do this by changing the screen resolution and shutting off fancy graphic drivers. Graphics cards (video cards) use as much or more power today as hard disks


http://www.friedbeef.com/index.php?tag=notebook-battery

How to Delete A File That Won't Delete

Well, like a lot of blogs, I started out adding something regularly and then life and business crept in and before I knew it - a huge amount of time has lapsed since I last wrote. All I can say is I'll try to do better.

Have you ever wanted to delete a file, but Windows wouldn’t allow you to do it? These things happen to me all the time, especially when I’m at a client’s house trying to get their machine clean of spyware.

The main reason behind this is that the explorer.exe process locks files that are in use, effectively preventing you from deleting them. Usually, these files should not be touched, but sometimes, situations arise when you really need to get rid of some troublesome ones.

Fortunately, there are a few easy solutions around this problem.

Solution #1: Kill explorer.exe

• Open a command prompt
• Navigate to the location where the locked file is
• Press CTRL-ALT-DEL, click on “task manager”, select the Processes tab
• Kill the explorer.exe process via the “End Process” button
• Go back to the command prompt and delete the file
• Bring up the task manager windows again
• Select file->new task
• Type explorer.exe in the “create new task” field
• Press OK.

Solution #2: Use The Windows Recovery Console

Just stick your Windows CD in your CD tray, boot on it, and at the “Welcome to Setup” screen, press “R“. Once the recovery console has started, navigate to the location of your locked file, and delete it.

Solution #3: Use unlocker
Unlocker is a very useful freeware that will allow you to unlock any files that are currently in use by Windows. You’ll know if this is happening if you are getting any of these messages when trying to delete a file:

• Cannot delete file: Access is denied
• There has been a sharing violation
• The source or destination file may be in use
• The file is in use by another program or user
• Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use
  

Unlocker will make things right again for you.
You’ll notice that right after installing the software, a new option named “unlocker” will appear when right clicking any files or folders in Windows Explorer. To unlock a locked file, just right click it, select unlocker, and the unlocker software will start. Then, click “unlock all” and close the software. Now that your file is unlocked, just delete it in Windows Explorer, as you always do.

Personally, I find this a much easier solution than the first two options.

A New WI-FI HotSpot!

A big congratulations and thank you goes out to Dave Shepard's Rock 'n' Blues Academy of music. They became our first client to try out out new Wi-Fi HotSpot service for their business and they are now providing Internet Access for their clients and family members. Dave recognized that the parent's of the children he gives lessons to are waiting around with time on their hands. Time that could be used to check up on email or complete work and research via the Internet. Dave liked the fact that he could give his client's a secure and valuable service while on-site.

Secure? A public Internet HotSpot? Yes! When Dave's client's login into his hotspot they are using a proprietary layer 3 technology, this isolates the client's connection and ensures that no connection between guest computers can be established. If that weren't enough, client's computers are also protected from unauthorized access through the Internet, helping to prevent their computer from being attacked while connected to the Internet.

Also Dave gets great advertising through a customizable login screen with his own logo, welcome message and description of his school's services. All this for a price that's surprisingly affordable for small businesses. Any business with a high traffic volume or have customers that are waiting around can find benefits from a service offering like this. If you're interested in getting a hotspot for your business visit us at www.davtechsolutions.com and learn more.


Rock 'n' Blues Academy
rocknbluesacademy.com

1525 30th Ave. North
St.Petersburg, Fl. 33704

727-823-ROCK (7625)

Internet Explorer 7 Scam!

WARNING!

An official-looking graphic has been circulating around the Internet, soliciting users to download "Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2"--a release that is now quite outdated. Users who click on the ad are immediately prompted to download a file called "ie7.exe," which is in reality--you guessed it--a Trojan horse. Don't do it. The real IE7 update should be obtained by using Windows Updates.

Wireless Network Security

Drive around your neighborhood sometime with your wireless enabled laptop and see just how many unsecured wireless networks are available to log onto. In most cases you'll find a lot. Why is this? Some people don't know any better, they're just thrilled that they were able to set up their wireless network themselves. Some don't care, they feel that its not a big deal. Others know that they should and intend to get around to it, but like most things we should do, never do it. Bottom line if you don't mind your neighbors using your connection and possibly slowing yours down and the idea of strangers accessing your computer and network doesn't bother you then enabling wireless security is just not a concern. For the rest of you though if you have a wireless network you need to take the time, read the instructions in your manual and get it done.

There are two main ways to go with wireless security, WEP and WPA.

WEP (Wireless Encryption Protocol ) is "ok" for the average user. It keeps the neighbors out and most drive by stalkers looking for an unsecured connection. This protocol can be hacked though by hackers using free tools that are widely available if you know where to look.

WPA is a randomized pre-shared key of at least 10 characters and would take half-a-million years to crack. (Note: A random key means that it shouldn’t be a word that exists in any dictionary (hackers have extensive dictionaries that include all common passwords, English words, nicknames, and misspellings of words. This is called a “dictionary attack.”) A random key is a meaningless mix of lower- and uppercase letters and numbers, and sometimes special characters like punctuation, depending on whether your router supports it).

Never use words, birth dates or even misspelled common words or names.

Disable SSID broadcasting and set a password for accessing your router's configuration screens.

Encrypting your wireless network is not as complicated as it may seem on the surface and is an important step of your your wireless setup. If you just don't feel confident doing it yourself then you should call a knowledgeable installer to do the job for you.

Wireless network installations and securing is just one of the many services that we provide for our clients. Check us out at www.davtechsolutions.com and give us a call to set up your wireless network securely.

New Vulnerability in IE6

If you haven't upgraded to IE6 or switched to Firefox here is another reason to get with the program. A new hole has been found in IE6 making it vulnerable to hackers. New software has been published on the Internet that could be used to exploit a known flaw in Internet Explorer.
The code exploits a recently patched flaw in Internet Explorer. The code could be used to run unauthorized software on a computer that was not updated with the latest Microsoft patches. A patch for this has been released, but now that hackers know where the weakness is there will be more attention to it.

IE7 has been out for a while now and is a decent browser go ahead and update to it or try Firefox which is even better and very secure. You can download the Firefox browser from our web site, www.davtechsolutions.com

Our New Website

Well, our new site is finally up - as opposed to our former one page site that just listed who we were and our services. This one is bigger and more detailed. However, as luck would have it already one of the pages is not coming up when clicked on, typical.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't harbor any delusions of granduer when it comes to web building. I would say our site right now is --ok, it gets the job done. You may be wondering, if we offer web site design and have professional designers who do this work why am I bothering to do something like this myself when its just, ok. The reasons are simple, I'm a small business just like my target clients and if I can do something myself, without having to pay my own people to do it I can save the money. Also, I like working at it and plan to grow in this area and make better and better versions as I go along.

Does it make good business sense from a marketing point of view, probably not, but I'm stubborn and I'm going to do it myself. So bare with us and keep coming back, it will get better and better. Also, if you're considering our web design services - don't judge us by our web site :-] let our professional designers provide a consultation, you'll be more impressed. On that thought, we don't just build web sites, we provide Internet marketing as well. Interested in getting your site to the top of the search engines or getting better qualified leads to click on your site? Give us a call for a free consultation.

ENIAC PATENT CONFISCATED

On this day in 1946, the Moore School at the University of Pennsylvania said engineers must relinquish their patents for equipment developed on school premises. The creators of ENIAC, J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, refused to sign the agreement. The researchers resigned from Moore shortly thereafter and filed an imdependant patent application later that year. In 1973, a district court judge voided the patent and made the controversial ruling that John Atanasoff - not Eckert and Mauchly - developed the first electronic computer.

Is VISTA the way to go?

The big question I hear now when it comes to purchasing a new computer is: Should I go with VISTA? Sometimes its simply "yes I need VISTA, because its the latest and greatest." Well, here is our two cents on the matter. You are the client, if you insist on having VISTA we'll install it, but we don't recomend it at this time.

Its too early, Microsoft needs at least 6 months to a year to get the bugs worked out and the major security holes patched. Yes, there are security holes and they have already begun to surface. It a great step forward for Microsoft and in time will be the definite OS of choice, but for now we are still building systems with XP and marketing them.


Some examples of problems:

• You need a powerful PC to handle this OS. Even the Home Basic version requires some serious hardware. Check out Windows VISTA Upgrade Advisor www.windowsvista.com/upgradeadvisor
• A serious lack of driver support. Check with the manufacturer for your printer, scanner, camera etc... in many cases they don't have drivers for VISTA and are not planning on develping any except for their newest models. This means your old equipment will not work. Bummer. Check this now before you shell out the money for the new OS.
• Application compatibilty - make sure your current programs will work with VISTA.

Windows XP is a great Operating System and with some downloads available now you can even get some VISTA like features. Try the downloads out and give your XP a new look and functionality.

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/collid,1433-c,downloads/files.html

Using External Drives for Backup?

Using External Drives for Backup?

You're still not protected!

External hard drives are cheap, and can store lots of files. But they only protect against one type of data loss risk: hard drive crash and nothing else. Viruses and data corruption can quickly spread to an attached portable drive and render all your backup files completely useless.

External drives are also vulnerable to the same types of risk as your main hard drive -- lightning strikes, power surges, fire, flood, theft, sabotage. So even if you need to use an external drive to store large volumes of files, it is best business practice to make sure you protect your most mission critical files offsite every night with Remote Data Backups.

The best part is, it's easy, inexpensive and completely automatic, so you never have to burn your valuable time to back up, or take it offsite, again. When you consider the time you save, the convenience, rock-solid security and reliability, Remote Data Backups just makes sense.

Don't rely on USB drives to back up your critical data files. They are easily lost, stolen and damaged.

Take our FREE 30-Day Trial today!

Tip to Protect Against Identity Theft

When you stay at a hotel or resort have you ever wondered what was on the magnetic key card? Probably not, but I'll tell you anyway.

Answer:

a. Customer's name
b. Customer's partial home address
c. Hotel room number
d. Check-in date and out dates
e. Customer's credit card number and expiration date!
When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there
for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner.
An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device,
access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your
expense.

Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an
employee re-issues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new
guest's information is electronically "overwritten" on the card and the
previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process.

But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a
drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!

The bottom line is:

Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them.

NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn them
in to the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not charge you
for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of
valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any
simple scanning device card reader.

For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have
the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket. Take
it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic
information strip!

A Guide to Cutting Coaxial Cable

Do you have long lengths coaxial cable sticking out of the back of your cable modem or behind the TV? Thanks to this simple guide, you'll soon be able to cut down any coaxial cable to a more manageable size, just like the pros do.

New Day Light Savings Time - Panic?

The new Daylight Savings Time changes mandated this year seems to be creating an air of panic. However, just like the year 2000 bug, its not a big deal. For most users running Windows XP if you have automatic updates scheduled you should already have Microsoft's fix installed.

This article explains the problem in boring detail and provides links to the updates.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931836

What happens if you don't have the fix? You will be off on your system time by one hour.

Here is an easy solution. Disable the Automatic Daylight Savings Time feature in your system clock that runs in Windows. Double click the clock in your system tray. Then, click the "Time Zone" tab and at the bottom of the window. UN-Check the box that says "Automatically Adjust Clock for Daylight Savings Changes". Select "OK" to close the window. When the time comes just manually reset your system clock and all should be OK.