For the show broadcast between July 26th and August 1st, 2008
As always, Benjamin was there to protect your computer, your wallet, and even the planet this week. One of the things that Benjamin covered was keeping your computer living and working longer so that you won’t have to buy a new one and trash the old one. His list of suggestions included replace the hard drive when it goes bad, or even before. You could keep your computer cool, and clean, as well as protecting it from heat, cold, and damage. You can also perform regular maintenance by defragging your hard drive and running cleaners, and keeping the kids away so they don’t break it. Naturally, you help the entire situation, by not downloading needless stuff on the internet
Benjamin also talked about downloading videos off of the internet. Four good websites he listed are: www.flixxy.com, www.GodTube.com, www.break.com, and the venerable www.YouTube.com.
BONUS INTERNET ONLY CONTENT!!! A couple of other Christian video sites that Benjamin found, include http://www.xianz.com/watch, and http://media.christiananswers.net/.
YouTube is the most popular video sharing site on the internet. It beats out the others in quantity and variety. Videos on YouTube are not supposed to be copyrighted, but don’t download anything you know is illegal to have. Probably the simplest way to download YouTube videos is by changing the URL to www.kissyoutube.com. This will take you to a new website that will help you to download it. You can also copy and paste the URL of the page that contains the video you want into www.youtubecatcher.com or www.tubeleecher.com. There is even a DownloadHelper tool for Firefox. This is Benjamin’s favorite way to do this. It even includes a conversion tool, though you might have to thinker with the settings. You can download the plug-in from the Firefox add-in page, and then a little swirling button allows you to click and download the file that you want.
Additionally, Benjamin gave a list of the states with the top download speeds in the country, and in this order, they were Delaware, Washington, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Virginia, Utah, Colorado, New York, and Illinois. Where’s California and Silicon Valley? What about Texas? Hmmmmm….
Benjamin even delved into the world of poker when he talked about the computer system Polaris, which beat humans at the game of Poker. It developed strategies after playing 2 BILLION games of Texas Hold’em against itself, which allowed it to beat the humans.
Another way that Benjamin protected your computer is by warning you about hackers. A study by the SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center (ISC) has shown that a Window’s computer without the latest security patches from Microsoft will only survive for about 5 minutes on the internet before it falls victim to some sort of a malware. However, the German Honeypot Project, which puts vulnerable systems on the internet to collect malware, measure the time at around 16 hours, which provides quite a discrepancy, which means they probably need to match their definitions of a computer’s “survival.” However, both projects agree that this is definitely something to be worried about and that you need to keep your computer protected.
Benjamin also covered Office Depot’s Tech recycling service. If you take your old tech to them and pay a small fee for the service and the box, then they will recycle your tech for you. Check out www.officedepot.com for more information. Additionally, Hewlett Packard and a few other companies have already offered free recycling for ink cartridges and toner cartridges to keep them out of landfills.
Another lifespan increaser that Benjamin talked about was increasing the lifespan of your Inkjet printer. Don’t turn off the printer improperly, including while it is working, but to make sure it’s off while not in use. Go easy on paper jams. Don’t force the paper out. Hit the latch, open the printer, and remove the paper. Lastly, don’t use cheap ink cartridges.
Benjamin also talked about Backing up data. Make sure you do this since if you don’t and your computer is stolen or it dies, you will lose all of your data. Data can easily be burnt on to a DVD. Once you have your backup, check it on a friend’s computer to make sure that the info is there, and then send it to your parents or someone who live far away so that if anything happens to your computer, the same thing probably won’t happen to your back up. Additionally, make sure that your backup is safe from theft so that no one can get a hold of your information.
Another green product that Benjamin covered is the EcoGreen F1 HDD from Samsung. This Hard Drive had a terabyte of memory and runs almost completely silent on very little energy. It should arrive for retail later this year for about $199.
Benjamin also gave advice on protecting your company and your job with his list of dangerous consumer technologies that can easily lead to a loss or theft of data or the transfer of a virus onto the network. Each of these seeming innocent items was noted as having potential danger to or at the office. USB drives, MP3 players, and memory cards, smart(er) phones like Treo’s Blackberry’s, iPhones, and other PDA’s, and even instant messaging and personal e-mail were not immune from Benjamin’s notes.
Benjamin also covered a green service that turns your postal mail into E-mail by taking pictures of envelopes and sending them to you, then taking and sending you pictures of the contents if you ask for further details. The people all have government security clearance and work under security camera to ensure privacy. More details can be found at www.earthclassmail.com.
Of course, Benjamin also got a few e-mails from his listeners. Mallory asked for details on putting video on her computer and editing it. He told her that she would need a video capture card and then she could load the video on to her computer, which already contains the editing program she would need. Additionally, Michael asked about Microsoft Frontpage 2003 and Benjamin explained that it is no longer in production but that it is now Microsoft Expression for Windows 2007. Lastly, Barbara asked about www.openoffice.org, and Benjamin told her that it is a great program.
Benjamin covered quite a lot this week and he would love to answer your questions next week. Please call at 888-NERD-888 or email through the webform here.
Remember to tune in next week and to listen to this week’s show right now by using the links below!
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