For resizing the photos I use a utility called FastStone Photo Resizer. This software can be obtained from:

www.Faststone.org

Downloading the Software

To download the file click on the link above and then find the section of the website titled “FastStone Photo Resizer” and click the download button in that section.

You will again be prompted for which type of file to download. The site explains what the different types of files are. I recommend downloading an “exe”.

Running the Setup and Install

Now that the file is downloaded you will have to install it. Most Internet browsers will default the download to your desktop, so find the file that you just downloaded (it should be named “FSResizerSetup26.exe”) and double click it.

If you get a Microsoft Security warning, click the “Run” button.

Now the setup will begin:

1. On the first screen click the “Next >” button.
2. Read the license agreement and click “I Agree”.
3. Choose a destination folder to install the software to. Usually the default will work just fine.
4. Click the “Install” button.
5. The program will install on your system and then bring up a completion window.
6. Click the “Finish” button.

Using the Software to Shrink Your Pictures

1. Right click on your desktop and go to “New” –> “Folder”.
2. Give the folder a name such as “resized pictures”.
3. Double click on the FastStone Photo Resizer icon on your desktop.
4. In the left hand pane of the program use the drop down menu on the top to browse to where your current pictures are stored.
5. Highlight all of the pictures that you would like to resize by holding down the “Ctrl” key on your keyboard and clicking on each of the photos.
6. Click on the “Add” button in the middle of the window.
7. On the right hand side of the screen you can see a list of all of the photos that you are going to resize.
8. Below that list you will see a box that says “Output Format”, below that box you will see another input box that says “Output Folder. Click on the “Select” button.
9. A new window will pop up.
10. In the “Select a folder” window, at the very top of the list, you should see “Desktop”. Look below where it says “Desktop” and find the folder that we created in steps 1 and 2. Click on that folder and then click the “OK” button.
11. Underneath the “Select” button that we clicked on in step 8 you will see a button that says “Advanced Options”. Click that button.
12. On the “Resize” tab (the default place that you go to when you click the “Advanced Options” button), look for the drop down that says “<Pick a Standard Size>.
13. Click on the arrows for the Drop Down and choose your size. The sizes are listed from smallest to largest. Generally the default 800×600 that is set will greatly decrease the size of your digital pictures.
14. Click the “OK” button.
15. Still with me?… Good. Now the easy part… Click on the button below the “Advanced Options” button that says “Convert”.
16. The program will resize all of your folders and output a copy of the resized pictures to the folder we created in steps 1 and 2.

Going the Extra Mile and Zipping Up Your Pictures

These next steps will take all of your resized photos and compress them so that their file size is even smaller, making them easier to email and store.

First we need to download a zipping utility. I prefer WinRAR which can be downloaded here:

http://www.rarlab.com/rar/wrar371.exe

Once the file has downloaded you will have to install it in a similar fashion to the way you installed the photo resizer utility.

Once it is installed use the following instructions to zip up your photos.

1. Right click on the folder that you created in the last set of instructions.
2. Click on “Add to Archive”.
3. In the “Archive name and parameters” window that pops up, look for the box that says “Archive Format” and select the “ZIP” radio button.
4. Click the “OK” button.
5. You will now have a file with the same name as your folder but it will have an icon that looks like a stack of books. You can now attach this to your email and send all of those pictures at once (Of course this can still be limited because email servers can only handle file sizes that are so big).

If you live in the North Atlanta Area and would like to setup a private computer lesson to learn about sending multiple pictures or any other computer related topics, contact us and schedule your in-home private lesson today.

We’ve all seen the To Catch A Predator specials on Dateline NBC and know that the existence of child predators are all too real. Many of these internet dangers can be avoided and I would like to offer some tips to the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, however you are that may have a child that uses your computer.

All of the suggestions below are recommended to be used together, not individually. Any kind of security (home, business, computer) work best in layers.

Use an Internet Filter

Many companies offer an internet filter that can be used to allow only the websites you would like your child to view. These filters can also be setup to monitor keystrokes your child makes on the computer and keep an extensive history of internet browsing history on your pc.

Companies, such as bsafe online (who come highly recommended by several ‘family values’ personalities) even offer integrated anti-virus and specific report features.

Internet filters are a great tool, however, kids are getting smarter with computers and may eventually figure out how to get around the filters (there is always a way to get the cheese from the mousetrap without getting caught). This is why I recommend other tactics for keeping your child safe online such as -

Location, Location, Location

Keep your computer in a “high traffic” area of your house. These areas could be

• The family room
• The living room
• The kitchen
• An office that is in an open location

Although a computer in a child’s bedroom may be okay for playing games or doing homework, this computer should not be connected to the internet.

If you have a child that is surfing the net, you should be able to see their computer screen with a quick glance. If you can’t, then it may be time to move your computer to another location of the house.

Laying Down The Law

Write up a list of rules for computer use and keep a copy of it next to the computer. Make sure you have read the rules over with your child and that they fully understand them, and the consequences for braking the rules. Also, have them sign a copy of the agreement to reinforce the importance of it (a good example of this agreement can be found on CNN’s website here).

You also will want to know who your children’s on-line friends are. You want to know who they are hanging out with in real life, why would this be any different on the computer?

Google Their Name

Google is a great tool for finding all sorts of things on the internet, including information about your child. Since social networking sites like myspace and facebook rank highly on search engines, there is a good chance you may be able to see your child’s personal page. By searching for their name, you might also see what type of personal information they may have gave out (you would be surprised at how much information you can get about someone if you have only their phone number).

Go ahead and play private-eye for a bit, the time spent may well be worth it.

As a side note about personal information on the internet:

If a site is specifically child oriented it must meet Federal Trade Commission guidelines. Find out if the sites they visit comply and what rules are in place. Under law, if a child is under 13, Web sites have to get parental permission to get personal information.

Who To Contact If You Think Your Child Might Have Been or Is Being Victimized.

• The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center
• The National Center For Missing & Exploited Children’s Cyber Tip Line [Can also be reached by phone: 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678)]

Keeping your child safe online is one of those parental responsibilities that is new and always evolving. If you have any good advice for keeping children safe online, please post it in the comments below.

Luckily, this issue is pretty easy! Just follow the steps below.

For Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0 -

1. Go to the top menu bar in Internet Explorer and click on the “Tools” menu and then click “Internet Options”.
2. In the Internet Options box, click on the “General” tab (this is usually the first tab you go to by default).
3. In the section titled “Home Page” you will see a box with a web address (this starts with http://www.), go ahead and replace this web address with your favorite website (might I suggest www.gigasphere.com).
4. Click “OK”

That’s it, you’re all done….. Who’s the computer guru now? Now you have something to brag to your grand kids about.

If you would like to learn more computer tips like this and live in the North Atlanta Georgia area, contact us and have one of our Gigasphere Geeks come out and show you more in a private one-on-one computer lesson.

If you are looking for information on how to back-up this data so that it is safe when your hard drive does keel over, check out my article on “Backing It Up”.

I guess the first thing we should address is why a hard drive would fail. I mean this is a computer right? All of these parts are electronic and electronics rarely fail (outside of power dips or spikes) right?

Wrong! Computer hard drives use moving parts. They have a spinning metal disk (hard disk - now you know where this comes from) and a head that moves back and for reading from this disk. Many things can happen due to the speed and motion of the disk such as the motor wearing out on either the head or the spindle that spins the hard disk. This is seen even more in laptop computers where hard drives are easily bounced around.

So what are some of the warning signs that your hard drive is failing?

Well the major signs come from sound -

• A metal scratching metal sound, think fork and knife on a plate.
• A constant ticking sound, think that pull cord on your ceiling fan that keeps hitting the light.

Other things that you may notice (these aren’t always related to strictly hard drive issues).

• System Slowness
• Blue Screen Of Death
• Random System Reboots
• Saved Files Not Opening Correctly
• Programs Consistantly Failing to Open and Run

If you think you may have a hard drive issue and live in the North Atlanta Georgia Area, contact us and have one of our Gigasphere Geeks come and take a look. We can run the proper diagnostic utilities and our mobile computer technicians will be able to replace your hard drive if needed.

**Note: These instructions are for those who may be a little more comfortable with computers then most. If you have any questions at all about any of the steps please let us know in the comments down below and we will try our best to address them.**

Before we start we need to know a few things about the computers you are using. First we need to know the IP address of the computer that you will be using to store the file on (this computer will share the file with any of the other computers on your network). To do this follow the instructions below:

1. Click on the Start Button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.
2. Click where it says “Run”
3. In the Run dialog box type “cmd” without the quotation marks
4. Now the Windows command line will open. In the command line type the following “ipconfig” - again without the quotation marks.
5. This will display something that looks like this:

IP Address …… 192.168.2.100
Subnet Mask …… 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway ….. 192.168.2.1

6. The number that you are after “IP Address” in this case it is “192.168.2.100″

Next we will setup the shared folder. This is where your shared files will be stored. To do this follow the instructions below:

1. On the same computer that you found the IP Address for above, right click on your desk top.
2. Go to “New” and then “Folder”
3. Give the new folder any name you wish (pictures for example) <– Remember this name
4. Right click on your new folder and then click “properties”
5. In the folder’s properties dialog box, click on the tab that says “sharing”.
6. Check the box next to “Share this folder on the network” and the box next to “Allow network users to change my files”.
7. Click “OK”

Now you have a shared folder. Any files that you put in this folder will be accessable through any other computer on your network. In order to get to these shared files on your network, do the following from any other computer on your network:

1. Click on the start button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.
2. Click where it says “Run”
3. In the Run dialog box type the following:

\\ipaddress\foldername

to use our examples from above, this would look like:
\\192.168.2.100\pictures

If you would like to create a shortcut to the shared folder on another one of your computers, do the following:

1. Click on the start button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.
2. Click where it says “Run”
3. In the Run dialog box type the following:

\\ipaddress\

to use our examples from above, this would look like:
\\192.168.2.100\

4. Right click on your shared folder (”pictures” in this example)
5. Click on “Send To” and then click on “Desktop (create shortcut)”

If you have multiple computers, live in the North Atlanta Georgia area, and still might not be sure how to setup a network share, contact us and have one of our Gigasphere Geeks come out and teach you how to do it in a private one-on-one computer lesson.

Good News! There are several things that you can do to keep your important data safe. I have listed a few of these methods below.

Copy to an external source:

An external source could be a CD or DVD, it could be an external hard drive, or it could be a usb drive .

This method only requires that drag and drop your files from their current location to the external drive (for an external hard drive or usb drive) or use CD/DVD burning software to burn the files on to optical media (CD’s and DVD’s).

Use imaging software:

This software is used to take a “snap-shot” of your system. It will make a replicated copy of your entire hard drive or specific folders and in most cases, automatically save the image to a location specified by you (preferably on one of the external sources named above).

I’m not going to get into the different types of imaging software in this post because I would prefer to give you an in-depth review of individual pieces of software. For this post, I just want to make sure that you are aware of the existence of imaging software.

Setup RAID:

There are several different types of RAID, but for the purposes of this post we will only be discussing RAID level 1. The Wikipedia definition of RAID is :

RAID — which stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives (as named by the inventor) or Redundant Array of Independent Disks (a name which later developed within the computing industry) — is a technology that employs the simultaneous use of two or more hard disk drives to achieve greater levels of performance, reliability, and/or larger data volume sizes.

RAID 1 is basically two or more hard drives, setup to create a mirror of each other. When looking at this on the computer it will only appear that you have one hard drive, however there are two hard drives that are exact replicas. This way if one hard drive ever dies you have all the information automatically saved, on the fly, to the other hard drive. Even with RAID setup, other forms of backup are still a good idea.

Use an online backup service:

Companies such as carbonite.com can be used to back up your data, securely online. I have never used any of these services (including carbonite) so I cannot atest to which one is the best. These companies generally have their own software that you install on your computer and all the different types of software will have their own configuration settings in which you can decide what gets backed up to the services secure site across the internet.

The most important thing to verify with these companies is that you are sending your data through encrypted channels. And it would also be good to know what their license agreement is with you (Do they really gaurantee your data will not be lost on their servers? What do you get if something happens to your data?).

Backups are even more important for the self employed or business owners. We all know how important those customer lists and book keeping records are. However, backing up is not just limited to business anymore. So backup your data now before it’s gone forever.

If you live in the North Atlanta area and think you might already have hard drive issues or would like to speak to a professional about the right back-up solution for you, contact us and speak with a Gigasphere Geek today.

The number one thing you can do to protect your computer is to install anti virus software. Anti virus software is kind of like the booster shot you got as a kid in the sense that it will protect your computer from viruses before it was hit.

Although, in a lot of cases, good anti virus software can even clean up a computer that is already infected.

Alot of people don’t want to install anti virus for several reasons:

• Cost - anti virus software can cost you money and some people see it as an unneeded expense.
• Slows down the computer - a lot of “bloated” anti virus software can decrease the speed of your computer, taking even the best high octane computing machine to a pocket calculator being powered by a hamster.
• Hassel - some anti virus software can be a hassle. To install, to manage, to update …. it just becomes more of a hindrance then a help.

With all of this in mind, what if I told you that I have a product that costs nothing (for home users), has very little impact on performance, and is nearly hassel free?

This is a product that I don’t make any money for mentioning, but any customer that I have recommended it to has had great success!

The software that I’m referring to is AVAST! anti virus. AVAST! is offered free for home users. Just register the product on their site and they will give you a license key good for one year.

What do you do after that year is up? …. That’s easy, just re-register and you will get another year. I’ve been running AVAST! for 3 years on all of my machines and haven’t had to pay a dime.

OK, enough of the sales pitch… like I said, I’m not making any money off of this anyways.

So what are some of the things that can happen if you don’t have anti-virus software installed?

• Decreased performance - spyware and viruses can take over your system while running in the background. This ties up all of your system resources for something you’re not even using.
• Loss of personal information - some viruses come with key loggers and other ways of tracking all of the information you type on your computer, this information is sent off to the creator of the virus to do with what they please.
• Pop Ups - this can be especially bad if you have children since often these pop up contain graphic adult images.

By the way, you can get AVAST! from their website by clicking here.

If you live in the North Atlanta Area and think that you may alread be infected with a virus or spyware, or if you are uncomfortable with installing anti virus software, contact us today and setup an appointment with a Gigasphere Geek.