Is my Computer Functioning Properly?
Sasha | 6:30 pm | April 29, 2008 | Uncategorized
Everything turned upside down when the computer came into our life and became our family member. However, it has not always been a loved one – often perfectly normal and even wise people loose every trace of the common sense in front of a PC. There are millions of stories. Here are some examples of these computer legends.
Many people are confused about the location of the “any” key is on their keyboards when the “Press Any Key” message is displayed. The “OK” button has also never been found.
One man was not sure if it was safe to insert a CD in his computer because the disc had a hole in the middle.
An office technician got a call from a not too experienced user describing the problem with his computer. The tech concluded “It looks like the computer needs to be serviced. Please turn it off first, unplug the power cord and bring it in for inspection”. The guy showed up later with the power cord in his hands.
A tech received a call the other day: “I threw my mouse at a wall. Do you think I might have damaged it? It’s not working properly”
A man who had just bought a new desktop requested to change his computer cup holder as it broke down really fast. The service team were surprised to find out that what was described and used as a cup holder was a simple CD drive.
Technical Support received a phone call asking how to turn off a computer. They replied: “Click on start, then shutdown, then select shutdown from the list, and click on OK.”
About thirty minutes later they got a call back from the same customer. “I did what you said, and now my screen is all black and I can’t do anything on my computer!”
Here’s another problem, the system won’t boot up. The user had an enquiry “My Caps Lock indicator lights up when I boot the PC, Caps Lock must be on, can this be the problem?”
And if you have a smile on your face it rather means it’s been a while since you acted in a similar way with your first computer.
Seal Your Air Nicely
Christine | 2:29 am | April 23, 2008 | Laptop Bags
Thin body often means fragile nature – both metaphorically and literally. Macbook Air has been designed to look very light, and although this airy design catches the eye, the body of the laptop seems to be a bit too slim – so slim that it always makes me think of all kinds of damage that it may be prone to. And when there’s something to be protected, there will always be something to protect it. In case of Macbook Air a strong, cleverly designed laptop bag can be a life-saver.
There are not many bags to fit this graceful laptop at the moment, and Orbino bags with their truly Italian design and hand-crafted leather are bound for success. The only thing that may put the owners of precious Airbooks off is the price, but they really don’t have much choice now (in fact, they will probably not have much choice in the future either, as Macbook Air is very unlikely to become as popular as basic Macbooks).
Via Shiny Shiny
The Green That Makes Trees Scream
Christine | 10:05 pm | April 16, 2008 | Green Laptops, Uncategorized
The voices telling us about eco-friendly laptops are getting louder, but so far they sound, to put it mildly, boring and unimaginative. Certainly, with winter temperatures getting closer to summer ones each year it is silly not to consider environment these days. However, it seems that “eco-friendly” developers experience some kind of a creative thinking crisis.
Most of new nature-oriented concepts of laptops or actual products are based on wood (examples include Micro-Star International GX-620, Swedx monitor, Thallbach USB-drive, Asus Eco Book, followed by new WoodShell concept). And it looks as if one designer came up with the idea and herds of others took it up.
These devices scream “I am ecology-friendly!”, but are they really? One wooden laptop born means one tree dead. With so many wooden designs today it’s high time that some other options are considered.
And again, here comes Fujitsu. First they used corn to produce plastic for their laptops, and now they have developed new bio-based plastic for their FMV-BIBLO NX95Y/D. Which is definitely a welcome change for those hungry for new ideas.
Virus Fun
Sasha | 8:52 pm | April 11, 2008 | Security
The name Virus or Worm itself bears the symbol of danger. But there was a time not so long ago when viruses were written just for the fun of it – not to create any real harm, but rather to see if they worked. One of the first virus ever created was a pure joke, it only displayed a message on the computer screen “I’m hungry!! Please insert a burger into the floppy drive”.
Even now we come across this relatively harmless unusual software. Here are some examples.
A Trojan – Burglar.A – besides stealing passwords and doing other malicious actions, gives the user of the computer his/her exact location using Google Maps. The computer is infected, but at least you are not lost. Might be of some use after a Friday night out.
The Caric-A Worm: Former US president Bill Clinton provided a lot of fodder for the gossip mills and so this famous worm proved. This malicious program was activated after opening an email’s attachment and displayed a cartoon of Clinton playing the saxophone equipped with a bra popping out of the sax’s mouth. The writers of this worm tried to be clever by adding a line to the end of the email, presumably from anti-virus vendor McAfee, which claimed the email contained no viruses.
Undercover agent aka perfect surveillance tool – the XPCSpy – saved each button pressed, made screen shots, made a log of visited web-pages, opened windows, launched applications and read e-mail and chat messages. Nothing can be kept to oneself.
Ketawa.A became the joker of the year. While doing its dirty tricks, the Trojan displayed a joke to entertain the user. Unfortunately users where not quite eased with the joke, as it was in Indonesian. Let’s hope at least Indonesians had a laugh.
Next worm – BotVoice.A can be also called a polite swindler, because after the dirty job was done, it said: “Your computer has been infected, I repeat, you computer has been infected and your system files have been erased. I’m sorry! Have a nice day!”.
However, we only find this software creative and ingenious when other people experience it. Even though many of the above make us smile it’s better to keep away from this kind of threats.
Your Personal Cocrouch
Christine | 10:18 pm | April 9, 2008 | Laptop Accessories
“Small” is today’s technology’s favourite word. “Small” is almost a synonym to “captivating”; you manage to turn an already small thing into a tiny one and you are the man of the hour, the hero, the genius. Looks like the fame of these “minimizers” keeps designers awake at night. Otherwise it’s hard to explain why 2 ultra-small pointing devices have appeared lately.
Swiftpoint SLIDER fits around the thumb and is claimed to fulfill all functions of the mouse. It is however doubtful that this slider will be able to replace a standard mouse. If it does, you’ll have to hit the space button with you forefinger or your long finger which will remind of playing the piano rather than typing.
“I-T” Click, Click is controlled with the index finger and again – the thumb. The upper button is supposed to function as the left key and the left one – as the right key, which is indeed confusing. Besides, it is so small that a poodle can swallow it.
Conclusion: “small” does not always go side-by-side with “sensible” or “convenient”. Small cars do not survive in accidents, tiny cell-phones have buttons that only Thumbelina can push, and thin laptops can be accidentally thrown out with a pile of old magazines.