But how would you stay connected if you suddenly found yourself without Facebook? Here are 7 suggestions in no particular order.

1. Email – it’s not limited to a certain number of characters, and you can attach pictures, link to videos, etc. to your heart’s content.
2. Texting – a great way to stay connected on the go. But I’ve seen people texting each other while standing side-by-side. Lame!
3. Instant Messaging – Live Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! IM, etc. They’re like Facebook chat. But better.
4. VoIP – services like Skype have allowed us to  interact like never before. You can have a voice call or video chat with any other Skype user for free. The Skype client also has built in instant messaging.
5. Phone call – call someone on your cell phone or your home phone (if you still have one) and just talk. It’s fun to call friends or family you haven’t talked with in a long time, catch up, and share your memories.
6. Write a letter – a real one. Or send a postcard. There’s nothing quite like getting a hand-written note in the mail from someone you love. Try it sometime. It’s actually pretty fun to write letters back and forth, especially to family or friends that may not be into the Internet or texting.
7. Face to face – turn off the computer, your internet-connected gadgets, and your cell phones. Connect “offline” with your family and friends. Go to them or invite them over. Visit, talk, interact in the “real world” instead of cyberspace. Play boardgames (remember those?). Go for a walk. Have a BBQ. Or just sit around and enjoy one another’s company. That, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to really stay connected.

The big processor manufacturers – Intel and AMD – are constantly releasing chips that do more with less. The Intel Atom platform, for example, is designed with power efficiency in mind.

Lately, I’ve wanted a computer that I could leave on 24/7 without worrying about it cranking up my electric bill. This past week I built a custom Atom box. I bought a ZOTAC ION series ITX motherboard and a RaidMax 0907BP ITX case with a 300 watt PSU. Together they only cost $200. I already had a 500 GB SATA hard drive, SATA DVD-RW drive, and RAM at home, which I used to complete the machine.

The CPU is an Intel Atom 330 – a dual core with HT that only consumes 29 watts at idle! 29 watts – that’s just under half of what a standard 60 watt light bulb uses! It also gives off little heat, and the stock CPU fan seems to do an excellent job at keeping it around 46 C – well within recommended operating temps.

Everyday computing tasks, such as surfing the net, checking email, watching YouTube vids, or typing a document are a breeze. It even handles light gaming pretty well – it’s not going to give you insane FPS, but it’s adequate.

The nVidia ION chipset does an excellent job with video. Although I have not yet tested it, it has HDMI out and is capable of rendering full 1080p high definition video.

At present, I intend to use it as a media/file server and streaming machine, which it is more than capable of doing. And I have no qualms about leaving it on all the time because it sips power.

The next item on my wish list is a Mac Mini which, according to Apple’s website, only consumes 10 watts at idle! It also has a more powerful Core 2 Duo processor, which can crank through tasks more efficiently than an Atom processor, thus allowing it to idle for longer periods of time and produce a much higher performance per watt.

But if you’re on a budget like me, building a custom Intel Atom machine will only cost you around $300 to $400 – less than half what a new Mac Mini costs.

He tries to describe the problem he’s having via IM and over the phone, but in spite of your questions, you just can’t seem to get to the bottom of the issue.

You could use a screen sharing app like GoToMeeting or Webex to view his screen, take control of his keyboard and mouse, and help him troubleshoot. But you have to pay for a subscription to use their services.

Enter Mikogo, a robust screen sharing and web meeting app with all the great features of those other guys that is ABSOLUTELY FREE for home and business use.

It has quite an impressive list of features, among them:

• Desktop sharing
• Support for up to 10 meeting participants
• Switch presenter
• Remote keyboard and mouse control

For a computer geek like myself who is always troubleshooting computer issues at work and home, Mikogo has been an extremely useful tool. The fact that it is free and easy to use makes it the perfect addition to my own “arsenal” of preferred apps.

What’s the catch? No catch. The company behind Mikogo, BeamYourScreen, offers a wide variety of products, and they launched Mikogo to help fill a very real need for a free screen sharing app, as well as help get the word out about their other offerings.

Worried about security? Don’t be. Mikogo utilizes all the latest security standards and comes with several features that allow you to control who has access to what.

Did I mention it runs on Windows, Mac, and even has a portable version you can run from a USB thumb drive?

Mikogo really is a great, free screen sharing and online collaboration app, and I highly recommend it.

(Originally published on my Lockergnome blog 8/28/10)

1. Defragment your hard drive at least once a month. Over time, different pieces of files can get scattered over different places in your hard drive. This can make your computer slow down as it works harder to load applications and open files. You can use the built-in Windows utility called Disk Defragmenter, or you can use a 3rd party tool. I prefer to use Defraggler. It’s easy to install and run, and you can even schedule it to defrag automatically on a regular basis. It also seems to do a more thorough job than the Windows tool.
2. Clean up your hard drive at least once a month. Temporary files, logs, and other unnecessary files can clutter up your hard drive and take up space that could be put to better use. Windows has a built-in utility called Disk Cleanup. There are also 3rd party apps that are more thorough and offer more features. I prefer to use CCleaner.
3. Run a manual, full virus scan at least once a month. Even if you already have a anti-virus software installed that runs automatic scans, it never hurts to run a full scan manually once in a while. There are several good, free anti-virus apps out there. See my post “Immunize Your Computer” for information on a few of them. Personally, I use Microsoft Security Essentials.
4. Avoid using Internet Explorer whenever possible. There are several other good web browsers you can use instead of IE that offer more features and are more secure. IE has made strides in the area of security with the release of IE 8, but it is still vulnerable to adware, spyware, and malware attacks that other browsers aren’t. Whenever I talk to someone who says their computer has been infected, the first thing I ask them is what web browser they use. Almost every time, it’s IE. Use Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, or Safari instead.
5. Be cautious about opening suspicious links or email attachments. These are common ways computers become infected. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.  Even emails that appear to come from someone you trust can have infected email attachments. Do not run or install any programs unless you are sure of their source.
6. Make sure you have the latest Windows security updates and patches installed. Check at least once a month. If you’re Using Windows XP, go to http://update.microsoft.com (you will have to use IE for that). Vista and Windows 7 users can open and run the Windows Update utility. Even if you have updates set to automatically download and install, it never hurts to double-check. This will ensure you are as protected as possible against vulnerabilities in Windows itself that might be exploited by an attacker.

There are certainly other things you can do to enhance and optimize your Windows computer experience, but these 6 seem to be among the most important…and the most overlooked.

Or…you could get a Mac and not have to worry about most of these things. But that’s a topic for another post. Happy computing!

Recently, I acquired a Dual Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz Server/Workstation machine. That’s dual processor, not dual core. 2 separate CPUs on the motherboard! with 1 GB of SDRAM and a 128 MB video card, this thing is a little workhorse. Considering it’s 8+ years old, I’m pretty impressed with the performance I can get out of it.

That said, there are some things it just can’t do very well. Full-screen flash video, for example. You also probably wouldn’t want to do any video encoding on one of these babies, as you would be waiting a crazy long time.

It can do just about everything else the average home computer user would need – internet, office computing, listening to music, watching videos. And you can watch YouTube with a decent video card (although as I mentioned, it’s choppy full screen).

So in the era of multi-core processing, super-fast bus speeds, DDR3, SATA, etc. what could you possibly use a computer like this for?

One of my favorite uses for such computers is as home file servers.

Just attach a couple of beefy internal or external drives to this guy, hook him up to my home network, and I’ve got a central location for my movies, files, music, documents, etc. and access from any of my computers (I’ve got 4 machines I use on a pretty regular basis at home: HTPC, wife’s laptop, my main desktop, and my Streaming/Development/Project/Whatever machine). It’s also a great way to make sure that all your important files are backed up.

For a file server, you can use virtually any operating system you want. As long as you can hook it up to your home network and share your drives, you’re good to go. Keep in mind that on an older machine, you’ll want to use an operating system that won’t hog resources and bog it down. I currently have Windows XP installed on my dual PIII, which is really easy to set up as a file server (just share the drives). But I will likely install a light Linux distro on it such as Xubuntu, which will use even less resources and which I can configure for optimum file server efficiency using SAMBA and similar utilities.

Another good use for older machines is classic gaming. Sure, you can play most old games on newer systems, but there’s just something nostalgic about playing Final Fantasy VII on a Pentium III.

If you don’t care about not being able to do full-screen flash, you can use an old computer as a basic HTPC. This dual PIII can play DVDs, MPEGs, etc. without breaking a sweat. And some older computers can actually handle full-screen flash with a good video card. The HTPC I have out in our living room is an old Athlon XP 3200+ with a 256MB Nvidia card in it. It handles full-screen flash (non-HD) fabulously. It works fine for my needs, since I don’t have an HDTV (yet).

With a little creativity, you can extend the life of that ancient box and have a little fun in the process.

What are some good uses you’ve found for older computers?

(Originally published on my Lockergnome Blog 7/3/2010)

Now let’s face it, the iPhone is old and outdated by modern smartphone standards. Yes, it should get a nice refresh with the iPhone 4G, as well as iPhone OS 4.0 (hooray for multi-tasking!). But as it stands now, it’s not the latest and greatest out there.

At first glance I thought to myself that surely these results had been skewed by international iPhone owners, like those in Europe and Asia where the iPhone has been selling like hotcakes … or whatever their preferred snack bread is over there.

But the survey was conducted in North America, mostly in the United States, where Android-based smartphones have overtaken the iPhone in sales. Yet, iPhone owners are still the happiest with their smartphones.

So, why do iPhone owners love it so much? I honestly have no idea. Is it the Apple name? Do people just like to own a gadget or device with that cool Apple logo on it? Is it the ease of use? The exclusive access to iTunes and the App Store?

I personally don’t own an iPhone, but I do own an iPod Touch 3G which is basically an iPhone 3Gs without the phone functionality. And I absolutely love it. I am able to do so much with it, in fact, that I rarely use my netbook anymore. And if I could justify paying what I consider to be a ridiculous amount of money for a phone and data plan, I’d buy an iPhone in a heartbeat.

So, why do you think such a high percentage of iPhone owners love it so much? Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts!

(Originally published on my Lockergnome blog on 5/29/10)

Up until today I was using Twitterrific as my preferred Twitter app. As good as Twitterrific is, Twitter’s Official iPhone App is that much better!

It has most of the same features I am used to: support for multiple Twitter accounts, light and quick interface, search features, etc. But Twitter has really done an excellent job to set their app apart from the rest.

Unlike most other free Twitter apps out there, the Official app has no ads (yay!). It also more fully integrates with the features of the Twitter website, such as your saved searches. Another feature I really like is that it displays your tweets back and forth between a particular person/account in the form of a conversation – so you can see their tweets and your replies in order on the same screen.

It’s also easier to know when you have unread tweets, and to get information on individual Twitterers and such.

It really is a more fluid and robust Twitter app than Twitteriffic, in my opinion, and I can’t see myself going back. Well done, Twitter!

They offer an impressive selection of free online apps and services, including word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation apps just like you’re used to.

But those are only the beginning. They offer an email service, calendar, chat, and planner among other things, as well as a whole array of business oriented apps from project management software to a report generator. Many of their business apps are free to try, and if you like them well enough you can pay a reasonable price to enable all features or continue using them beyond the trial period.

The free apps alone are just as good – if not better – than Google’s.  I’ve used Zoho Writer and I find it to actually be a bit more robust, with more features and visual appeal than its Google Docs counterpart. And get this – you can easily import your documents from Google Docs into Zoho!

You even have your own dashboard (http://personal.zoho.com) that lets you see your e-mails, docs, calendar, and whatever else you want all in one place. It’s similar in function to iGoogle.

As far as free online office, productivity, and collaboration services go, Zoho is one of the better ones I’ve seen in some time.

It’s not that I had never heard of it before.  It’s usually included in articles about web browsers, but I’ve always regarded it as the “red headed step child” of web browsers – probably for no good reason other than my own vague familiarity with it.

Until recently, I had been using Firefox pretty steadily. Before that I had actually switched from Firefox to Google Chrome.  I stopped using Google Chrome when I decided to distance myself from Google due to the way they handled the roll-out of Google Buzz and the ensuing privacy issues (tangent alert! I’ll cover that in a future post.).

I’m not really sure what enticed me to finally try Opera, but I’m glad I did. For me, it has been noticeably quicker than Firefox and seems to be generally more responsive. It seems to have all sorts of little features that I didn’t know I was missing. For instance, if you have multiple tabs open, you can simply mouse over a tab and see a small preview of what is on the tab.

Features I have not yet tried but that look downright awesome include Opera Unite, which allows you to share content directly with others without having to have a website. That’s right, you can stream music, share files, even host your own website directly from your Opera browser.

You can also synchronize Opera on all your computers and devices, so that your bookmarks, notes, and other info are the same across all your gadgets!

These and more features make for a secure, fast, and feature-rich browsing experience. Give Opera a try and see what you think. I, for one, am becoming hooked.