Digital Chaos Control

Tag: pc

  • If a Mac User, Are You More Hip? If PC, More Practical?

    If a Mac User, Are You More Hip? If PC, More Practical?

    Trendy Mac, Practical PC

    Are you Mac or PC? What does that say about your personality?

    Let’s look at a little history to see how we got here with this question. The Apple II was the first personal computer, released in 1977 after Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded the company – followed by the IBM PC in 1981, running Microsoft MS-DOS.

    Always one step ahead, Apple under Steve Jobs released the Macintosh in 1984 – its windows interface was a revelation at the time. Microsoft’s Bill Gates, no dummy to the potential of a graphical user interface, released Windows in 1985.

    Jobs accused Gates of stealing the idea, but Gates replied, “Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.”

    Microsoft far outpaced Apple in market share throughout the ‘90s and 2000s, but after Jobs’ return to Apple in 1997, the release of the iPhone & iPad, and the trend toward more remote workers and consultants, the Macintosh has seen a resurgence in popularity.

    Bill Gates is generally considered a “nice” man – cutthroat in business, yes, but philanthropic and generally respectful of others. He’s a brilliant engineer as well as a brilliant businessman. Steve Jobs is brilliant in other ways – a visionary and creative marketer.

    So if you’re a PC user, does it mean that you’re more practical (like me!) and a “nice” person? (I’m not talking to you gamers. I know that you love your gaming PCs!) If you’re a Mac user, are you more visionary and creative? More hip? Or just wealthier?

    Here’s a survey that suggests that it may be true. You Mac users may be more like Steve Jobs than Bill Gates: Mac and PC Users

    There’s actually a third category of users. You may own a Chromebook, or you may be someone who has a Mac or PC but mostly uses Gmail and/or Google Docs through a web browser. What kind of person are you?

    If you’re like Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, you may be younger, less aware of the history of the Mac vs PC debate, and just focused on the best way to get the job done.

    I’m bilingual, so I can help you learn how to make better use of your Mac or your PC.

    Contact Me

     

     

  • The Secret to Keeping Your Computer Speedy

    The Secret to Keeping Your Computer Speedy

    Slow Computer

    All computers slow down over time. As the months or years go by, and as more & more applications are installed and data fills the hard drive, you may find yourself looking at a spinning wheel more often than you’d like.

    If you’re running a software program such as Norton Utilities, or if you have a vendor-installed maintenance program, then you have a built-in, automated tool to keep your computer “tuned up”. But if you’re not running one of these software programs, then you need to have a regular maintenance routine for your computer. I suggest putting it on your calendar as a monthly task.

    Here are the steps to follow:

      1. Memory Usage: If you have less than 2GB of memory installed on your PC, then you don’t have enough. You need to see a computer repair technician to install more memory.

    Applications use memory to store data and run faster. When you install new applications, sometimes they are configured to run in the background every time that you re-start your computer. You can check this by doing the following:

        • Windows 7: You can look at which programs automatically run by typing “System Configuration” in the search bar from your Start Menu, and then clicking on the “Startup” tab. You will see a lot of applications that are associated with your computer hardware, but you may also see recently installed applications. You can uncheck the checkboxes beside those applications to stop them from running automatically.
        • Mac OS X: Go to “System Preferences” and select “User & Groups”. Click on “Login Items”. You can unselect installed applications here.
      1. Disk Usage: Your computer will slow down as your hard disc fills up with data. If your disc is more than 50% full, then you may want to look at data that you can delete or move to external storage. (Just make sure that you still maintain at least two, and preferably three, copies of your data on different media, for back-up.) Also be sure that you empty Trash regularly.

    Windows 7 has a utility called “Disk Cleanup” that you should run regularly.

    1. Disk Fragmentation: Your hard disk drive becomes “fragmented” over time. This means that files get broken up because of the way that they’re stored by the file system. It slows down your system to have to search for all of the pieces of a file.
      • On Windows 7, type “Disk Defragmenter” in the search bar and set up a regular schedule for the program to run.
      • On the Macintosh, open the “Disk Utilities” application, select “First Aid”, then “Verify Disk”, and follow the instructions if needed.
    2. Finally, make sure that you have a anti-virus program running.