Tyler Church's Blog

Tip for the day

2009-01-30T18:31:00.001-08:00

Computer tip for the day:

Make sure that you have all of your windows updates. There is a virus going around called the "Conficker" virus, and has infected as many as 1/16 persons computers.

Make sure that your virus scanner is updated, and that you are scanning regularly.

Busy...

2008-09-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

Things have been pretty busy around here, but I will find time soon to be able to post new things.

Flashdrive Stress-Test

2008-08-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Today I decided to test the durability of a flash drive, and I found my tests to be quite interesting.

Well, to start out with, I must tell you that this is a Kingston DataTraveler 1GB, (I just upgraded) and this little thing has already gone through the washer once or twice. So I decided to put this thing through abnormal flashdrive use.

Ok, the first thing that I did was take a plastic container and fill it with water, put the flashdrive in, and seal the container and shook it up a bit. I left it in there for about 10-15 minutes.

2. Then I put tap water into the microwave for 2 minutes, (it was really hot) put the flashdrive in a glass tupperware container, poured the water in, and sealed it up and shook things up a bit. I left it in there for about 10 minutes.

3. Next, I put a cup of coffee in the microwave for 2 minutes, and did the same thing with the water for 10 minutes.

4. In the meantime, I was boiling some water in a tea kettle. So I did the same thing again, only with boiling water.

5. Then I took it out, and got ready to dry it off. I took our hair dryer and opened the flashdrive to the core, put a glove on, and toasted the thing until it was dry.

So I did all of this, cooled it off, and stuck it into my computer. Amazingly, the flashdrive still worked! I was able to do everything that I was normally able to do, and it worked just great.

So then I decided to do even more extreme tests.

6. The next thing I did was put the flashdrive on the roof (it is 105 degrees ferenheight outside) and left it there for more than an hour. When I went out to get the flashdrive, the thing was really bendable.

7. So I took it inside to let it cool off, and in the meantime, I threw it really hard at the ceiling. It broke into 3 pieces, but I was able to put it back together easily. Ok, then it was time to put it into my computer. This time (not surprisingly) it was still working!

8. So then I filled a cup full of water, put the flashdrive in, and stuck it into the freezer. When I got it out, the whole thing was frozen. So I stuck it on a plate out in the sun to dry out, (the thing was stuck in an icecube) After it was dried off, I plugged it in, and it still worked. By now I am running out of ideas to use on it.

I am going to do a few more tests, like the dishwasher. I will update this list of tests when I do.

The point is that these things are pretty hardy. You could not do this with a hard drive and still expect it to live, (though I may try)

I think that I am going to get a large 16-32 GB flashdrive for backup sometime in the future.

Please post your flashdrive (or hard drive) experiences.

Google acknowledges NASA

2008-07-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

Today, if you go to google.com, you will notice that the google logo has changed to look like some sort of space scene. I will attach a picture below if you do not get the chance to view it today.

15 Mircrosoft Ideas

2008-06-28T10:26:00.001-07:00

In this PcWorld article, you will find 15 things that Microsoft could do to enhance their company. I think that they are great ideas. Microsoft, on the other hand, would probably reject them outright.

Click here to go to the article.

New Blog! - www.tylerchurch.com

2008-06-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

Check back soon for updates on my new.....well, I have not decided what I am going to put up there, but whatever will be there, it should be good. The URL is www.tylerchurch.com, I was lucky to get that domain name. Anyways, check back soon!

www.tylerchurch.com

UPDATE:

There is some content on the site, but now much. Between now and the next month, I should have a good amount of content.

Skype-a great way to stay in touch with family and friends

2008-05-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Skype is a great program to communicate with friends and family. I personally use Skype to chat or talk with family or friends out of town or state, even out of the country!

Skype is free, you can get a version that you pay for, which I will talk about in a minute.

Skype is easy to use, and has a lot of features. You install the program on your computer, and have your friends and family install it on their computers too. After you install the program, you create an account. (They don't ask for too much info either).

After you create the account, you can add your friends and family to your contacts list. then you can talk with them, chat (type) with them, or even have a video conference! (Seeing them face-to-face).

Skype will automatically recognizes your webcam after you install it.

The pay-for version which lets you call to landline phones and cell phones, pay even more and you can get your own number so that people can call you from their cell phones and landline phones!

And it is not even terribly expensive, it is quite resonable.

To get more information about Skype, go to: www.skype.com.

Happy Mothers Day!

2008-05-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

Have a happy mothers day all you moms!

Windows XP SP3 Availible

2008-05-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 has finally been released. After months of waiting and errors, they have finally gotten their service pack to work stably and properly. The average user might notice but a few changes, but Microsoft has included all of the hotfixes and security updates that have been previously released, and more. If you would like to learn more about sp3 or where to download sp3, click on this link.

Before you install , make sure that you read this article before you do. It explains all of the questions and answers that you might have before installing, ensuring that you do not have any problems with your installation.

12Wonder Web Hosting Review

2008-03-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

12wonderwebservices.com review.
Since I have set up my website, I have been very happy with the service that I chose to host it with. 1-2-Wonder Web Hosting Services offers great hosting prices, packages, and unbeatable customer support. When I had to contact customer support, I got an email reply in less than 15 minutes, and it wasn't just a "copy-and-pasted" reply, I could tell that it was a response from real person.

If you are hosing a website, I would highly recommend 1-2-Wonder Web Hosting Services, you will really be satisfied with their service.

Click here to visit their site.

My New Website - www.salemcomputerpro.com

2008-03-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

I have just recently set up a new website advertising my services. You can take a look at it by clicking here.

I offer computer and graphics services.

I just changed my domain name, my main domain name is: www.salemcomputerpro.com.

Computer repair, graphics jobs, and slidshows are some of the services I offer.

Vista Polls

2008-03-22T16:31:00.001-07:00

These are some polls taken by PC World on Microsoft Windows Vista. I found them quite interesting......

Click here to go to the webpage.

Get Free Office Software: Open Office

2008-03-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

Hello. Today I will explain to you the benefits of Open Office and how to obtain it. Open Office is a free office software suite in which you can make PowerPoints, word documents, and FlowCharts. Open Office, in some areas, is better than Micro-soft Off-ice for several reasons. One: you can export documents directly as a PDF file, which is not available in Office. Two: there are a lot more options/Features with Open Office. It may take a little while to get used to the software, but once you do get used to it, you will be glad you took the time to learn it. I really, highly recommend it.

You can get Open Office here.

Anti Virus recomendation: Avast

2008-03-06T16:40:00.000-08:00

I was just at a persons house the other day, and they said that they had a virus that needed to be removed. I came as soon as I could, and when I took a look at the computer, all of the documents and pictures were missing, and they did not even have a backup for most of them. The main user account was deleted, so when the computer started up Windows had to create a temporary user account, and also said that the registry was permanently. And, when I tried to install anti virus software, the installation failed because the program couldn't install the registry entrys. Then I ran a scan of the currently running processes on the computer, in there, I found what I was looking for, a Trojan downloader. The damage was already done though, so there was nothing that could be done for the computer.

Computer users get into the mode of, "It wont happen to me" or "I have a good anti virus program, I don't need to backup". It is always very important to backup regularly, and run anti-virus scans regularly. This same nightmare can happen to you, it is best to prevent it before it happens.

A good anti-virus and anti-malware programs are a good place to start. I highly recommend Avast anti-virus because it has real-time anti-virus monitoring, telling you when a virus or Trojan is trying to install itself. If you are looking for a good free anti virus program, Grisoft AVG will do the job. Another good anti-virus program is Spyware Terminator, which offers real-time scanning too. But if you are looking for top of the line anti-virus scanning, I would still go with Avast. Make sure that you update your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs regularly so that you can keep up-to-date on the latest viruses and Trojans.

You can get Avast v. 4.7 here.

You can get Grisoft AVG here.

You can get Spyware Terminator here.

Upload files to Media Fire for free!

2008-03-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

Media Fire is a website that allows you to upload files to their website for free. It is very easy to use and you can even create a free account so for more features. You can upload files up to 100MB each. You can also embed the photos in a blog or website using HTML.

Click here to go to the website.

After Effects video

2008-03-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

This is one of my Adobe After Effects videos that I have made. The audio is a little off, but I will fix that.

All sounds in video were open source sounds. Please do not claim ownership of the video nor sell it.

11 Amazing PCs!

2008-03-05T12:38:00.000-08:00

Here are some absolutely Amazing PCs! Click on the link to view them, and if you want, leave a comment on your favorite!

Click Here.

Jazz your Windows computer to look like a Mac!

2008-03-04T12:15:00.001-08:00

The other day, I was thinking that it would look pretty cool if I could make my Windows XP computer like a Mac. So I searched the internet to see what options I had. I found one web page which gave a list of programs to install, none of which told me how to get the taskbar, (the thing with the Finder button, the view button, ect.) I installed some of the things, and I found the Mac wallpaper, (which was very hard to find) and got it to look a bit more like a Mac. But a lot of elements were missing. And some of the stuff, I found out, had to be bought. Everything that I was looking for I wanted to be free. So I finally gave up, not finding what I was looking for. Then, after using a different search term, I found exactly what I was looking for! I found a freeware program called FlyKiteOSX that gave me everything, the wallpaper, the Mac mouse, the taskbar, and the dock. It was very easy to install, and didn't require much user input. After I installed, I rebooted the computer, and low and behold, my Windows XP computer looked like a replica of a Mac! I have been playing around with it, and I have to tell you, it is a lot nicer to have a different view. You might want a different view if you use your computer for hours every dayJ. Anyways, here is the link to the website where you can download it. I am not responsible for any mishaps that might come over your computer. Post your comments and let me know what you think! Unfortunately, FlyKiteOSX is not compatible with Windows Vista.

Click here to go to the website for the program.

Vista Service Pack 1 Leaked Out

2008-02-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has accidentally leaked out Vista SP1. Some Vista users have found Vista SP1 in Windows update this week, even though Vista SP1 is not supposed to be officially released until next month.

Microsoft acknowledged the error: "Yesterday, a build of SP1 was posted to Windows Update and it was inadvertently made available to a broad group. The build was intended only for our more technically advanced testers, and was meant to only be offered to those with a specific registry key set on their PC," Microsoft said in a statement. It also reiterated plans to make SP1 broadly available in mid-March.

Some users reported that they successfully downloaded SP1 from Windows Update, but most others said that the download didn't work for them.

You can read the full article here.

Watch out for Valentines Day E-Cards

2008-02-14T08:18:00.000-08:00

Watch out for those E-cards that are going to be going around today. It is Valentines day, and attached to some of these e cards are viruses called the “Storm Virus”. It allows your computer to work for computer hackers. Hackers will be able to control your machine, doing things including: Spam, Identity Theft, denial of service attacks and a lot more.

My policy is that I will not open any E-cards, no matter what the sender or subject line says. If you do not have any virus protection, now is the time to install and scan for viruses and Trojans. But you don't have to pay for good protection. Grisoft AVG offers a great virus scanner. I use it every day, it does a great job at detecting and dealing with viruses. And best of all, it's free! You can get it here.
Look toward the middle of the page, where it gives a list of products. Click the download button under the word that says “Free”.

New Microsoft Updates Today

2008-02-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

Time to update your computers! Eleven security updates are released today that fix a number of critical flaws in Microsoft products, including Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer. Read the full article here. Click here to go to the Microsoft update site.

Yahoo has declined Microsofts offer to 44.6 billion dollars for the Yahoo company

2008-02-11T16:47:00.000-08:00

Yahoo has declined Microsoft's bid of 44.6 Billion dollars for the Yahoo company. They said that it was Yahoo says the offer undervalues company. Yahoo said that its board would continue to evaluate other "strategic options."

Does "Restoration" work on a Mac?

2008-02-11T16:44:00.000-08:00

In a previous post, I explained how to recover deleted files. Someone posted the comment "Is Restoration compatible with Macs. The answer is no, "Restoration" is not compatible with Macs. However, there are other restoration programs out there that are compatible with Macs. I will look into it and report back.

Valentines Hearts

2008-02-10T16:34:00.000-08:00

Here are some Valentines Hearts for Valentines video or card projects. They are in the .ai format for Illustrator or After Effects. Everything is transparent except for the heart. They're are several colors to chose from. Feel free to use these for commercial and personal use. Right-Click on the photo you want to use, and click "Save as" and select the destination to save the file to.

My favorite picture

2008-02-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

This is my one of the best pictures I have taken.
Black and White:

They both are 5 picture panoramas.

Please do not sell or claim ownership of photos.

The Importance of Backup

2008-02-08T14:06:00.000-08:00

Everyone should learn the importance of backup. Because without backup you can lose your data any time due to any virus, power failure and hard disk problem. This has happened to many people. In extreme cases, it has put companies out of business. Computers are becoming more and more reliable. This creates a false sense of security - we begin to think all our data are safe and secure and will never go away. It's not true - and never will be. If you don't back up your computer system regularly.

Backups are really a necessity, and you are responsible for making backups of your files. I have had many cases where the persons computer just so suddenly fails. Sometimes, they are able to get some of the data back, but other time, if the problem is due to a hard drive failure, none of the data can be retrieved.

I backup regularly to DVDs, but perhaps the most cost effective way is to buy a mini external hard drive, (not a flash or jump drive) and tell your computer to backup your data at night. You can tell the program that you use to backup to overwrite the previous backup, so that if you delete a file on your computer, it is not taking up space on the hard drive after it is deleted. Let me know if you want
more info on how to do all this.

Remove Unused Programs

2008-02-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

If you no longer use a program, uninstall it. Go to “Start>Control Panel”. Click “Add or Remove Programs”. A list will populate and you can remove unneeded programs at will.

Computer Questions

2008-02-07T12:15:00.001-08:00

If you have any computer questions, I would be happy to answer them. But, if you would loke to get help from numerous people, go to www.computing.net. it is a great place to get answers to your questions. And if you are a pro, you can even answer other peoples questions.

Data Recovery

2008-02-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

Have you ever deleted a file accidentally, and then felt sick after you did it? Well, there is a way to get the file back, Free! I use a program called Restoration to recover my files. Restoration is best done as soon as you find out that the file is deleted. Restoration can be used to recover files deleted from your computer(Recycle Bin), a digital camera, or your USB flash drive, (thumb drive). Just open the software, and tell it where to look for deleted files. It will start searching, and give you a long list of files. Select the file you want to restore, and copy the file over to a different drive. Restoration is available for free here.

Photo Editing

2008-02-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of tips for photo editing. There are a lot of free options that you can use for photo editing. One of them is Picasa. Picasa is available free from Google, and has a lot of neat features. You can search photos by date, instantly, which is really handy. Picasa also lets you organize and name your photos for easy searching. For instance, you could name a photo Hawaii vacation 2007, and when you go to search for "Hawaii" vacation 2007, you can find that special photo easily.

There are other photo editing programs out there to. I am not a huge fan of Kodak, but I have used the software before. For the pros, there is Adobe Photoshop CS2 or CS3. I currently have the CS2 version, but I want to upgrade soon. Adobe Photoshop CS3 gives you a wealth of options, including DVD menu editing for Adobe DVD maker 2.0. It may look intimidating at first look, but once you get used to the software, it is well worth it. But don't go spend $650.00 to $1000.00 on software just to edit family photos.

A couple of Photoshop alternatives are Paint.Net and The Gimp, which is free software. If any of you out there have any favorite photo editing software, post a comment and let us know. I would be happy to answer any questions you have.

Video Editing

2008-02-07T07:45:00.001-08:00

If you own a video camera and still don't have all of those tapes on your commuter or a DVD, then now is the time to do it. The most popular recording medium now is Mini-DV. Mini_DV allows you to transfer video to your computer for editing via FireWire. FireWire is also referred to as Ilink or IEEE 1993. Firewire makes transferring video easy: connect the camera to the computer, turn the camera on, and then use your favorite editing software to edit the video. If you do not have video editing software, you can use the built in Windows Movie maker. But in my opinion, it was not the best video editing software ever made. There is lots of software out there that give you more advanced options. I personally use Adobe Premiere 2.0 Pro, although Adobe has come out with a new CS3 version. If you have the 2.0 version of the software, it is a lot cheaper to upgrade. You can check the program out here.
But, if you do not want to pay $800.00 for editing software, there are plenty other options that will work. A lot of people have their favorites, so please comment if you have any suggestions.

Here are a couple of suggestions as to software that you might consider for video editing.

Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus

Vegas Movie Studio+DVD Platinum Edition

Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 Suite

Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0

A lot of the pro use two monitors, (screens) when video editing. This is so that you can have more space when working with video. Not any computer can do this though. Your graphics card has to be capable of two monitors. If you card can support the feature, there will be two spots to plug monitors in at the back of the computer. Some cards, will have one VGA output and one DVI output. New monitors give you the option of using DVI or VGA. My graphics card has one VGA and one DVI. I have two VGA monitors so I could not use the dual monitor feature. But if you search on Ebay, you can find little adapters that will convert DVI to VGA. They are real cheap too. Just search on Ebay for "DVI to VGA". In order to take full advantage of dual monitors, I had to update the graphics card Drivers.
Here are some pictures of my setup in my computer room.

How to defragment your hard drive

2008-02-07T07:27:00.001-08:00

De-fragmenting a hard drive is a good thing to do on a regular basis. If you install programs on your computer, and then go to delete a program or file, it takes that section out of the hard drive. And then when you add a program or save a file to your computer, it sticks that program/file to wherever it can find a place. So, one program could be scattered over different places on a hard drive. In order to defragment, go to "Start>My Computer" right click on the hard drive you want to defragement, usually the "C:" Hard drive, and select "Properties". Go to the tools tab, and click the button that says "Defragment Now". A new window will come up, and then just click the button that says "Defragment".

Looking for the latest comuter news?

2008-02-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for the latest computer news, surf on over to http://www.pcworld.com/news/ it is the best place I have found to get the latest and greatest on computer and relating news.

Nikon Coolscan V ED (LS-5) Review

2008-02-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

The Nikon Coolscan V ED (LS-5) scanner has done wonders for me. It scans 35mm film and 2x2" slides. It scans at really high quality, up to 4000DPI. One thing I have noticed to, is that no matter what resolution you scan at, it does not affect the scan duration. The 35mm film adapter that comes with it auto feeds the film. which makes it very easy to use. You can also change the settings for the scanner so that when you insert film, it will automatically preview the film. It scans at pretty good speed to. I used to scan film and slides with my photo scanner, an Epson V100, which had a transparency adapter. But it took forever, just to scan one-four frame strip of film. The 35mm adapter can scan up to 6 frames per batch. When scanning 2x2" slides, you can only do them one at a time with the supplied adapter, which is OK. Overall, the scanner has good scanning speeds and nice features and is easy to use, after you get the hang of it. It has some really nice photo restoration and enhancing features. I think that the scanner is running at about $700.00 now.

My first blog entry

2008-02-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog entry. I am a real computer fanatic, and I love electronics. I love working with with the Adobe creative Suite, it is very versatile, and has lots of options. I love tinkering with my computer, and helping other people with their computers as well. In my blog I will write reviews about the new electronics I get, and some stuff about me.

I just bought the Logitech MX610 wireless laser mouse, I am very glad I bought it. One thing you have to remember though, is that the email button is not very compatible with email programs. I have Mozilla Firefox and it would not work, even though Mozilla Firefox show up as the default mail client for my computer. The IM button only works with Windows Love IM. The volume and Back/forth internet buttons work really work really well, I use them all the time. Overall, it is a very comfortable mouse with lots of features and functions.

I also have the Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 webcam. It gives pretty nice quality video and can take still photos up to 1.3MP. I use it for IM and I sometimes use it for video recording. It has a built in microphone, which is really convenient and has good sound. It can clip onto a laptop screen, or flat panel desktop computer screen, and can sit on any surface or large CRT computer screen. There is a power toy that Microsoft offers for free that lets you turn your webcam into sort of a securety camera. You can tell the software to take a picture however often you want. I point it at my door before I leave for a trip, and use remote access software for my PC to view a live picture of what is going on in my room.

I will be adding more posts often; I have a lot of things I could comment on. I will upload videos and pictures of my latest projects soon.