Gdovin.net

Since we are now in a new year, I thought it would be a cool idea to make technology New Years resolutions and post them and then follow up with them at the end of the year to see how I did.

1. Use more Cloud Computing

I have been a strong advocate of Cloud computing for a while and although, I use many Cloud services, I plan on using more in my daily life and I will continue to update all of you with my articles of services that I begin to use and tell you what changes I will make during the year.

2. Responsibly Dispose of Old Electronics

As you can imagine, being a technology enthusiast, I have collected many old electroncis that no longer are useful for me and just take up space sitting around. I plan to take them to places that will recycle them and dispose of my old gadgets in a responile way that will not be harmful to the environment. This will be also covered with a blog article once I have completed this so that everyone can do this with their broken and unwanted gadgets.

3. Reduce papers and use more Digital Documents

As I have mentioned in a previous article, I am trying to reduce my papers and replace them with digital copies so that I can have access to the data and not have papers lying around.

I will follow up with these goals as things happen and post advice if you are interested in these as well!

Well, this year and this decade is almost over! As I do every year, I am going to write my predictions for what big technologies will be coming out in 2010!

1.    Apple Tablet
This device has been rumored for over a year now, and I think the rumors are pointing to the January 26th Apple event for the release of the Apple Tablet!
2.    More Set top Boxes
Set-top boxes that allow users to access internet content on their living room television sets. This is going to be more common because more people have stopped using cable and just use the internet to watch the TV shows they want to see.
3.    iPhone on a New Carrier
All iPhone users know the pain for having AT&T service. Apple has been exclusive with AT&T since the iPhone was released but that exclusivity expires in this June and I think at the very least, Apple will be adding an additional carrier if not replacing AT&T, rumors suggest Verizon which I think would be awesome!
4.    More 4G Coverage
Although 3G internet is just starting to roll out, it is still not finished but, the next generation of cellular internet, 4G is coming out and is being rolled out in major cities. In 2010, I think 4G will become much more common and will continue to roll-out into

This past decade, will be known for the massive growth of Technology and I wanted to highlight the biggest developments this past decade!

1. iPod
2. Mp3 Music
3. High Definition Video
4. Youtube
5. Streaming Video
6. iPhone
7. Android
8. Google
9. Social Networking
10. Cell Phones

At the end of every year, I predict what are the big Technology developments for the next year. I will be putting out my predictions for 2010 soon but, let’s review how accurate my predictions from last year.

1.    More Ultraportable Laptops
Definitely happened, netbooks exploded this year and every major computer manufacturer, except for Apple!
2.    More Android Phones
This year showed major growth for Android with the introduction of the amazing Droid from Verizon and many other Android Phones.
3.    New Nokia Internet Tablet
The Nokia N900 which is not only a tablet, but a phone as well was released this year! Although it is not as good as the iPhone or even an Android phone it is out and has some potential.
4.    Affordable 3G Modems
Modems have become cheaper and sometimes free with a contract but, contracts are still ridiculously expensive.
5.    All-In-One Desktops become standard
This was a little too much forward thinking! Maybe in the next 5 years!
6.    Nationwide Wifi
Hopefully, this is still in the works!

Copying or ripping your DVDs to your computers is something everyone should do not only for backing up, but also for a copy that you can take with you anywhere you take your computer. Back-ups is the biggest thing for me, because what if a fire destroys all my DVDs, that would be awful. So, one of the first things I do when I buy a DVD is rip it to my computer using Handbrake and keep it on my external hard drive. This way I can watch it on my computer if I choose or just make sure I have a copy of my movies if disaster strikes. Also, as a extra precaution, I have the external hard drive backed up using Backblaze so my movies are safe even if my hard drive breaks. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act permits you to make a digital copy of your movies for “Personal Use” so I recommend getting a external hard drive and ripping all your DVDs so, you know your movies are safe. I actually don’t take any DVDs to school and just use the digital copies to watch movies when I am at college.

There are so many pieces of software available for personal computers and there are so many useful pieces of software with so many features it is hard to learn. I am currently learning how to use Final Cut Express and although I have taught myself how to basically use it, as I have done for many pieces of software before, I decided it was such an important program for me to learn that, I should fully learn it and learn everything so I can get the most use out of it! Here are some tips on how to master software.

1. Buy a Book

Books are probably the best way of learning so you have a tool that is organized in a logical fashion and make sense to learn from. It also gives you a reference to look back at if  you have any questions later on . One of my favorite series of these books is the Visual Quickstart Guides however, if you want to learn any Apple Software, then your best bet is the Apple Training Series because they are approved by Apple and have consulted with Apple when they were writing the books.

2. Get Online Video Tutorials

Search around for tutorials on the web, some may be free while others require you to pay for them. However when learning something visual, video tutorials are very helpful. I know that when I found these great, free Final Cut Express tutorials, they helped me tremendously in learning Final Cut because I can watch them do the work in real time and see the techniques so I can learn them better.
Podcasts/li>
Similar to Video tutorials, podcasts both audio and video will also enhance your learning of the software and will help you better learn the software.

3. Forums and Community Sites

The final resources are just forums and other community sites where users can help each other as well as list problems that they may experience. Many software creators like Apple have offical forums on their website so theirusers can help each other and report problesm they experience.

Security for a personal computer has become essential because so many things have had to go digital. However, computers are still very new technology and have issues and one of the largest issues is keeping you information safe. Here are some tips so can keep you computer safe.

1. Change Your Passwords

With all the accounts you need to keep password protected, including your user account that you need to login. But it is a good idea to change your password regularly. When choosing a password, make sure it is not a word or something easy to guess. It is best to use: lower case letters, upper case letters, numbers and symbols in your password. If you don’t want to make your own password, then there are password generators like the one made by GRC. I recommend that you change a few letters in the password so that you can be sure the password is safe.

2. Encrypt Your Hard Drive

If you want to keep your data extremely safe then, you should encrypt your hard drive so even if your hard drive is stolen, your data will remain safe. Both Windows and Mac OS have encryption tools built-in to the operating system, even though it is only in the business versions of Windows. If you don’t want to spend more on your operating system, then you could use Truecrypt which can be used to make an encrypted volume or just encrypt the entire hard drive.

3. Disable The Guest account

To make sure unwanted guests don’t log into your computer, you should turn off the guest account and make sure all your user accounts require a password.

4. Enable the Firewall

Firewalls are essential for keeping hackers from being able to gain access to your system from the internet. The Firewall will, control who and what can access the internet and the computer.

Now that computers are standard in business and are used for presentations, in schools and other settings as well. However, there are certain things that should be thoguht of and certain things that should be avoided during a  presentation because they look bad and cause people to be uninterested in what you are presenting. These apply to both Microsoft Office’s Powerpoint as well as iWork’s Keynote software, and any other presentation software, it is just theories for computer slide shows.

1. Don’t Over Use Transitions/Effect
   

Although there are plenty of slide transitions and special effects that you could put into your slideshow, they should be used sparingly because they look extremely unprofessional and get annoying after a while. Only use them when you need to emphasize a point and make sure you do not use an effect each slide or item.

2. Limit your Words

When you use a slideshow, it is meant to accompany your presentation and not to have every word you plan to say. Just write key points or words on the slide and say everything else.

3. Make sure you have a Good Color Scheme

When giving a presentation, you need to make sure that you the background colors of the slide and the font text don’t clash with each other and that the words are easily read. Also, make sure you keep your colr theme consistent.

4. Never use Pictures as backgrounds

Pictures are great and should be used in any good presentation, but never have words over pictures because it is near impossible to read and looks horrible. Backgrounds are best left to either a solid color or a slight gradient, as long as it works with the text color.

5. Don’t open your presentation From Your Email

Never, ever open your presentation file from an email, that makes you appear to be unprepared and wastes time that should be spent giving your presentation. Use a thumb drive so you can just insert the drive into the USB port and open it up.

6. Make Sure Elements don’t overlap

Unless you are going for a collage appearance, the elements in you slide show should never overlap and instead or the presentation will look sloppy and will distract the viewers from the point of the presentation.

7. Never use a Plain White Background

Good Powerpoint presentations should have some kind of a background color but, never make it plain white because it will cause the viewers to loose interest in the topic.

8. Never end on content

When you are about to end make sure you don’t go from your final content side to the black end of show screen. You should either have a summary slide to wrap up your presentation or you could simpily have a  slide that says “The End” so it doesn’t just cut out to black.

Since the year is almost over, you might want to have a fresh start with your digital life and get rid of all the digital clutter that has been accumulated on your computer. The best way to do this is reinstalling your operating system and clearing off your entire machine. This is incredibly easy thing to do, but, very few people in my experience actually do it! Before doing anything, make sure you backup all your data and make sure you have your hardware drivers easily accessible, I like to keep them on a external hard drive or thumb drive so that I can just pop it in and install everything I need. You will also need to have either a Windows Installation Disk or a Restore disk that should have come with your system!

You might wonder why, you want to spend the time to do this. Well first, especially on Windows, the disk drive gets fragmented which causes the computer to run slower and make the read and write speeds with the hard drive much slower. There are also all those extra files from things you have downloaded, or programs you may have had installed and uninstalled. Buy reinstalling your operating system, you can get rid of all the junk on your computer. I try and do this at least once a year with my Windows computer, although I have yet to do it on my Mac! One tip, if you really want to get rid of all your just is to run a Hard drive wiping tool such as Darren’s Boot and Nuke to completely wipe the drive making sure nothing remains after the reinstall. This is just a great way to eliminate all the junk slowing down your computer and it really only takes about an hour and then however much time it takes you to restore all your data, The computer will definitely run better and you can have a fresh start for the new year!

In 1997, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy and probably would have gone under had Steve Jobs not returned! When he returned, the first thing that he did was kill off the excessive products Apple had at the time and created Apple’s simplifed product line-up that we see to this day! The other major thing Steve did was kill the licensing program, which allowed other computer manufacters ship computers running Mac OS. This was hurting Apple’s business and because of that they ended the program and Apple came back with a vengence in the late 90′s.

Fast forward to 2006, when Apple switched to Intel processors for their machines. People began to realize that through a minor hack they could install Mac OSX on their non-Apple hardware, thus bringing the birth of the “Hackintosh” phenomenon! Apple had tried to sue people and stop this but they were unable to contain the craze. Then, the next generation of clone manufactures arrived. Psystar attempted to sell computers that were significantly less expensive than Apple’s computers and they came pre-installed with Mac OS. Apple, immediately sued them for copyright infringment anda violation of the Digital Millenium Copy Right Act (DMCA). Last week, as I reported on The Weekly Spin episode 48 Apple won their judgment once again suppressing the clones. I know this won’t stop people from Hackintoshing their own machines, although Apple will try a peruse them for that as well.  In fact, Apple, has disable Atom processors, the processors used in many netbooks, from running Mac OS which stops Hacintosh Netbooks which is had become very common. However, if Psystar won this, which was highly doubted from  the start,  it would greatly harm Apple’s business and could cause a repast of many of the problems of the 1990′s! Luckily for Apple, poorly working clones won’t be sold and if you want a fully working Mac OS machine you will need to get a Apple computer.