Geeks of Gotham®

Take Your Laptop

Written by Eric July 14th, 2010 1 Comment

Question: I may have to use my computer offsite in a client’s facility. Could you please tell me what to take and what to make sure of. I bought the carrying case when we first bought the computer. What about my backup hard drive, my modem and my router? How does internet access work while away? Do I have to bring those things with me and set them up somewhere else?

Answer: If you are going to move your laptop from its usual place on your desk and take it somewhere with you it is no problem at all, that is what it is designed for. The simplest way to do it is to shut the computer down first. Then disconnect the wires connected into it, this includes your ethernet cable for your internet connection, your external backup drive, your USB printer cable and your power cord.

If you do not shut the computer down before you disconnect the cords that is fine too. Just remember that before you unplug your external hard drive you need to “eject” it from the computer. You can do this by finding the icon on your desktop for the backup drive. Then drag and drop the icon onto your trash can icon in the dock. You will notice that the trash can icon will disappear and turn into an eject symbol. Although you are dragging the external hard drive to the trash it will not delete any of your files on it. You may unplug all of the other wires without doing anything special.

Once the computer is disconnected from all of the wires you can put it in your travel bag.

Remember to bring the power cord. Although you can use the laptop without the power connected you will eventually run out of battery power. Depending on your computer model and what you are using your computer for your battery will last between 1 and 10 hours. If you plan on using the computer for an extended period of time you will need to eventually plug the computer into power using your power cord.

When you travel with your computer you should NOT bring your DSL or Cable modem, router, wireless router or AirPort base station with you. This is because your modem (and other Internet connection equipment) only gives access to the Internet at your home. One way to say it is that the fee you pay for internet access each month is buying your home the ability to give an Internet connection to any computer in it. You are not buying the ability for your computer to have an Internet connection anywhere it goes. On this topic if you have wireless Internet access in your home you will not have wireless internet access anywhere you take your laptop. Home wireless Internet access works the way a cordless phone works. The further you get way from the base station, the worse the signal becomes until there is not signal left. Home wireless internet access does not work the way a cell phone does where you can get online anywhere you go.

That said, most places you will travel to will have their own internet connection that you will be able to connect to. They will have their own modem, wireless network or wired network that you can get on. As with all laptops, your laptop has the ability to connect to wireless networks and that will be the best way for you to get online when you are away from home. Each location you go to will have a different wireless network. Ask someone at the location what the name of the network is and if there is a password to access it. You can connect to the wireless network by selecting it from the AirPort menu in the upper right corner of your computer screen.

As for your backup drive, I recommend not bring it with you. Leave it at home incase you drop and break your computer, lose your computer, or your computer gets stolen while you are away. That way you know that your information is safe at home even if your computer is a goner.

Computer Science 101

Written by Seth July 14th, 2010 No Comments

The answers to many of the most common questions I’m asked about computers can become much clearer with a quick description of how a computer actually works. I don’t want to turn this into an encyclopedic breakdown of every part in a computer, but I want to provide an approximated, simplified explanation of what each major component does, and how it interacts with the rest to accomplish the end results displayed on your screen.

When you buy a new computer, there are typically three important specifications to consider; hard drive size, CPU speed, and amount of RAM.

Your hard drive is the physical spinning disk that’s housed somewhere in your computer. If you place your hand on your computer as it’s starting up or working hard, the whirring or vibration you feel is probably the hard drive. It’s much higher-capacity than any CD or DVD, but it’s fairly comparable in its function. It houses all the data on your entire computer, which is coded to this physical spinning disk with billions of little positive and negatively etched pits in its surface. This is why you NEVER put anything highly magnetic too close to your computer, because it will make the previously encoded data all uniform and any information on that section of the hard drive will be deleted.

Hard drive space is often confused with RAM (acronym for Random Access Memory), but both of them store data, just using completely different methods, for different purposes. RAM, unlike a hard drive, is solid-state memory. This means that it doesn’t rely on tiny magnetic readers to process information, but can access the transistors that store the data immediately and simultaneously. It doesn’t need to spin that disk around and locate the information it’s looking for, it can simply access it directly to feed it to whatever function is asking for it. If you own any modern iPod/iPhone/iPad (with the exception of the iPod classic) all of the memory in that device is also solid-state. Solid-state memory is faster, more durable, and uses less battery power than a normal hard drive, but it’s much more expensive.

So why does your computer need both RAM and hard drive space? Because they both have different strengths and shortcomings. Your hard drive can certainly store lots of data, but it can’t access all of it very quickly. RAM is exactly the opposite; it’s instantly accessible, but it’s not very high-capacity. So RAM temporarily caches any information that the hard drive has been accessing, or may need to access, before it feeds it through the processor. This makes for much faster performance if the same information needs to be accessed again.

The CPU (central processing unit) is the computer chip that actually interprets all the information being sent to it from the hard drive, through the RAM. The information can be present, moving through the hard drive and RAM, but the decisions about how the information is presented, and how the computer user interacts with it, are entirely up to the processor.

Getting back to my initial statement: those three most important numbers to know about your computer are hard drive size, amount of RAM, and processor speed. My favorite analogy for this whole system: If we can think of a computer as a highway for very small, very fast cars that carry information, these separate components can be thought of as follows- hard drive space equates to the total number of cars on the road. RAM is comparable to the number of lanes on the highway. And CPU speed is analogous to the maximum speed limit for any individual process.

To visually see this on a mac, go into your Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilites/Activity Monitor. Toward the bottom of the screen there are several different sections you can click through; these show you how hard each of these components are individually working.

iTunes Navigation

Written by Seth April 29th, 2010 No Comments

The iTunes ‘source’ menu is located on the left side of the iTunes window. This column is found on the left side throughout most of Apple’s native programs, such as iPhoto, iCal, Address Book, and Mail. This ‘source’ list contains all of the different locations from which the program in question can access the files that it uses.
The most important location for music in iTunes is your ‘Library’ section. The Library contains all of the music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, books, and apps that you have purchased from the iTunes Music Store, all of the music that you have copied onto your Mac from CDs, and all of other media you’ve copied onto your Mac from other sources.
The last item listed in your ‘Library’ section is ‘Radio.’ Most of the radio stations listed here are exclusive to the Internet but some of them also broadcast normal FM signals. When you click on the ‘Radio’ section on the left side, your main window will display all the available genres of radio stations currently available. Click on the triangle next to the genre names to show the individual stations within the genre, and then double-click the station you’d like to listen to.
The next item listed in your ‘source’ list, under the ‘Store’ section, is the ‘iTunes Store.’ The Music Store is where you purchase music and audiobooks to listen to in iTunes and on your iPod. See the explanation below for details on using the iTunes Store.
The next item listed in the ‘Store’ section is ‘Purchased.’ This section acts like a receipt for all the media you have bought from the iTunes Store. The items you’ve bought will appear in this list in the order you bought them. You can use them from your ‘Purchased’ list or your can access them through their corresponding sections in the iTunes library.
The next item listed in your ‘source’ list is will be any CDs you currently have in your Mac’s CD drive. If you don’t have a CD in the drive then either your iPod, Genius or Playlists will be listed next.
If you have your iPod/iPhone/iPad connected to your computer, it will be given its own section under the heading ‘Devices’. If you select your device from within this section, the main window displays a summary of the device itself and the media currently contained on it. For more information on how to sync certain items with your device, check out www.apple.com/findouthow and click on the ‘Music’ section, then on the ‘iTunes’ section further down the page. That area contains dozens of video tutorials on how to get the most out of your device.
The next section listed in your ‘source’ list is ‘Playlists’, which starts with ‘Party Shuffle’ or ‘iTunes DJ,’ depending on your version of iTunes. This is a great feature for parties and get-togethers, since it allows you to remotely control your iTunes from any iPhone or iPod touch your guests have available. For more info about creating and organizing the rest of your playlists, you can go once again to the video tutorial link I’ve posted above.

Any questions about performing a certain function can be left in a comment, I’ll respond at my earliest convenience.

Do you have your own website yet?

Written by Eric April 12th, 2010 No Comments

Question: How can I get my own website? How do I get “myname”.com? Do you have a recommendation for a website host?

Answer: I like FatCow.com. I use them for hosting all of my sites. They have great tech support and all of their stuff is easy to set up an use. I get to have an unlimited number of email address at my site and they give me a huge storage space for my email and website files. I am also an “affiliate”, so I get paid if you sign up because of me. To read more about FatCow or to sign up now click here.

Why can’t I add new information to a CD?

Written by Eric April 12th, 2010 No Comments

Question: If I burn the CD, can new files not be copied onto it? I burned one just to test it, but when I tried to copy another file onto it, it said that it couldn’t be altered.

Answer: CDs and DVDs are permanent. Once you burn a CD or a DVD you cannot delete information from it or add new information to it. This is where the term “CD ROM” comes from. “ROM” stands for Read Only Memory. “Read Only” means that for all of the information memorized onto the CD you are only able to look at that information. You cannot alter that information, add to it, or delete it. You can look but you can’t touch, so to speak. That being said, there are special CDs that you can buy called CD-RWs or CD Re-Writeables. These discs tend to cost a bit more but they are, as the name suggests, re-writable. In my experience CD-RWs are not as reliable (information can more easily be damaged or unexpectedly lost) and they rarely, if ever, work in CD players when you burn music to them. In my experience, since CD-R discs (the regular ones) are so inexpensive it makes more sense to just burn a new CD each time you make changes to your documents and need those changes on a CD.

External Hard Drives and Backup Software

Written by Seth April 12th, 2010 1 Comment

An external hard drive is the most common way to back up your computer. Anybody who’s ever had their hard drive crash and lost all of their data is typically interested in ensuring that it never happens again. This is why external backups to ensure data redundancy are a keystone of savvy computer use.

In addition to needing the drive itself, you should also look into a backup software program. Otherwise, you’ll need to do all your backups manually, and frequently, ergo inconveniently. There are two options that we recommend. The first is Apple’s “Time Machine” program that is built into Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It works really well and will keep an hourly, ongoing backup of your entire computer. Time Machine is most effective if you have a computer that you keep in one place and always leave the external hard drive plugged in.

The other program that we recommend is Intego’s “Personal Backup” program. It costs about $70, but includes a lot more features than Apple’s Time Machine. Personal Backup will back up any specific files or folders you select, and it’ll back them up either at regularly scheduled times, or (and this is the best part) right when you plug the external hard drive into the Mac. I recommend Personal Backup if you travel a lot and will not have your computer plugged into the external hard drive for longer than necessary.

Besides keeping an ongoing computer backup on your external hard drive, you can also store files on it that you just don’t have space to keep on your internal hard drive. Particularly media, like music or videos, which takes up a lot of space but doesn’t necessarily need to be accessible at all times.

The best external hard drive brand (in our experience) is G-Tech. Other options include Western Digital, LaCie, and Verbatim drives. G-Tech’s G-Drives are about %15 more expensive but extremely durable, as well as having the aesthetic properties most similar to your Mac. Western Digitals and LaCies are less expensive but not as durable, since plastic is more heavily utilized in their construction. This also means that they’ll be somewhat less effective at dissipating excess heat buildup. The Verbatim is fairly durable, reasonably priced and not a complete eyesore. Any of these options is a viable way to back up your computer, but the G-Drives consistently prove themselves the most dependable.

G-Tech’s product comparison site

Western Digital’s products page

LaCie’s main webpage

Verbatim’s main products site

Apple also makes their own backup solution; they call it the Time Capsule (shown at right). This is a backup solution unlike any of these others, because the backup can occur wirelessly. For this additional feature, there’s a significantly higher initial cost to the consumer. The backup itself is also VERY slow over a wireless network, exponentially slower than any of the drives that are plugged directly in. So for desktops, it’s not the best option. Since the computer is always going to be sitting in the same place on a desk or table, why not buy a cheaper, plug-in external and leave it there too? The backups will be much faster, allowing for less of an interruption in your workflow. For laptops, the Time Capsule proves more useful. Certainly, it regularly will back up your entire computer over the wireless network, as long as it’s in range. It’s still much slower, but you don’t need to devote any effort to it. It can be a good solution if there are multiple laptops within a household, since it can be configured to back up each of them individually. The Time Capsule, irrespective of its backup capabilities, can also easily replace your current wireless router, so your wireless internet signal is coming from the same piece of hardware that your laptops all get backed up to.

A key point to remember is to ensure you get one that has a FireWire connection, not just a USB or USB 2.0 connection. There are two kinds of FireWire, 400 and 800. FW 800 is up to twice as fast as FW 400 but your old computer can’t use it. Your best bet is to get a hard drive that has ports (or cables) for both FW 400 and FW 800 so that you can one day use that hard drive with a newer computer and the fast speed. Some low-end Apple computers no longer have FireWire of any kind, so it’s always good if USB is also an option, even if it’s slower. The newer computers are phasing out FireWire 400, so going forward you will find it useful to have the FW 800 port too. Do not buy a hard drive that only has FireWire 800 or a hard drive that only has USB.

All three of those brands make travel sized hard drives (here we’re referring to the physical size of the piece, not that data capacity) that are about the size of a wallet. They also do not require a power cord. This is particularly good because if you travel and want to bring the hard drive with you since there’s one less cord to get in the way, and you can do backups as necessary completely from a laptop’s battery power. The external hard drive actually receives its power from the FireWire or USB cord connecting it to the computer. These are the options most suited for people using laptops/portables.

As for the data capacity of the drive, you will want to buy something in about the 1 TB range if it is going to be used with a stationary desktop computer. You could probably go as low as 500 GB or as high as 2 TB (equal to 2000 GB). Anywhere in that range will be good for your purposes. The larger the better because that means it will be useful for more years into the future as it will get full less quickly. If you are going to buy one of the small travel-sized drives you can get one in the 250 GB to 500 GB range.

You can purchase these external hard drives at any Apple Store or at Tekserve. Try to find a sales rep with some experience working with them. Leave a comment if you’d like a deeper analysis of a particular make/model/setup.

The mind of a geek

Written by Seth April 8th, 2010 No Comments

It was clearly drawn with humor in mind, but even so, many computer problems can be solved using this flowchart. Click on it to zoom in.

You can find it in its original location at this link.

The iPad… Worth your money? (Updated)

Written by Seth April 6th, 2010 No Comments

Well… I’m going to seem a little biased, since I’m actually typing on one right now. But, having owned it now for about 48 hours, I can say truthfully that I’ll probably end up using it more for basic utilities (email and web browsing) than either my 13″ MacBook Pro or my iPhone. I had a hard time justifying this purchase, but it is without a doubt the coolest gadget I’ve ever owned. Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a bunch of other stuff I need to tap on.

Continuing on… Again from the iPad. There are innumerable members of the tech world that decry this device for its perceived shortcomings, e.g. lack of a camera or a more computer-like interface. But when you use the thing, it does superb job of shifting your focus away from these missing features. Those that can’t stomach a major purchase like this because they’re disgusted by the lack of these features are more than welcome to wait for a new generation, but I don’t feel like letting my inability to display my face to people take away from how cool this thing is.

If they had introduced a device with this hardware, running a much more complex operating system, it surely would have suffered in performance, as well as battery life. The applications open so quickly that the device’s inability to multitask becomes almost irrelevant. And certain native apps (almost) always work in the background, like the iPod.

I got the 32GB version, because I have a 16GB iPhone 3GS and I figured a larger capacity is important for something that’s this nice to watch movies on. No, really, it’s a gorgeous display, with a very accommodating viewing angle. And the battery life is incredible; I’ve yet to wear it down over the course of 10 hours, Apple’s stated max battery life.. If your main form of computer usage is email correspondence, this thing will let you go unplugged all day. That is, of course, if you can adapt your QUERTY keyboard skills to the much more delicate and sight- based input method provided by the on-screen keyboard. I’m personally planning to buy a Bluetooth keyboard for those carpal-tunnel-inducing typing sessions. A case is also not a bad investment, since the carved aluminum body of the device is quite susceptible to scratches.

Five hundred dollars plus is a lot to let go of in the current economy, no question. But I don’t regret this purchase, and as the galaxy of available apps improves, I doubt I ever will. The iPad apps are significantly more expensive than the ones for Apple’s lesser devices, usually double or triple the cost, so you’ll want to make sure you have enough left over in your impule-buy piggy bank to account for the commensurate app addiction that will likely follow the initial purchase.

Questions about the iPad? Leave a comment and I’ll try to do it justice.

Do Mac users need antivirus software?

Written by Seth April 5th, 2010 No Comments

Short answer: not yet.

While it’s true that no computer is completely invulnerable to malicious software, Mac OS X is the most secure platform commercially available. Geeks like to debate why it is that Macs don’t get most viruses; some will argue that it’s because Apple’s market share is so insignificant that the majority of hackers will try to exert as much influence as possible by writing their viruses for Windows computers. Others suggest that the security of the OS is based on its UNIX foundation, which is inherently more stable and compartmentalized.

Both of these arguments have merit; it’s definitely true that the majority of hackers are writing for Windows/DOS machines. But to me, this isn’t the complete answer. There are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of live viruses on Windows computers around the world. There are no actual viruses for Mac, only a few ‘trojans’ loose in the wild. Surely there would be some hackers out there that would write them if they knew how, right?

Both sides of the story have some truth to them. Yes, more hackers write for Windows. Yes, OS X is also more inherently secure (just an example, ANY PROGRAM that gets downloaded to your Mac, whether you’re aware of it or not, will not be able to run unless it gets permission from an administrative user, along with their password). There do exist some vulnerabilities in Apple’s system, but Apple is very good about issuing security updates for known problems.

Bottom Line: Antivirus software on a Mac will mostly not be scanning for Mac viruses, but it will check for Windows viruses that it might be possible to transfer from the Mac to a PC on the same network. Most Mac AV software will chew up your system resources and make things move very slowly. I don’t use any, and until there are some reported bugs out there on the internet that circumvent the security features OS X has in place, I’ll continue to be free of both viruses AND antivirus software.

Any questions/comments, let me know.

How to rebuild your iPhoto thumbnail cache- iLife ’09

Written by Seth April 2nd, 2010 No Comments

When your iPhoto library starts getting very large, or you transfer it from one computer to another (and these are just examples, there are other potential causes) you may need to rebuild your thumbnail cache. You can otherwise be prone to uncharacteristic sluggishness while scrolling, weird thumbnail duplication, or they might just be missing altogether.

It’s easily accomplished by first making sure iPhoto is not open, and holding down the Command and Option/Alt keys while you click on the iPhoto icon on the Dock at the bottom of the screen. You’ll then be prompted with the same options shown in the window below. Select the options you think most appropriate and click ‘Rebuild’. See, people? This is why multiple-choice tests exist… So we can learn to apply tedious logic to computer menus.

Click the iPhoto icon in the dock while holding down Command and Option/Alt to bring up these options

As usual, if you have any specific questions about which options may be best for a particular situation, feel free to leave a comment.

Geeks of Gotham®

Macintosh computer service and support for New York City.