“Chipping” Away at Computer Jargon

By Bryan Lambert – Sunday, April 5, 2009

To know the computer, you need to be the computer; or at least know the jargon of the computer. If you’ve ever been looking for a computer or computer parts such as monitors or speakers, then it is certain that you've run across certain terms that can be collectively referred to as “computer jargon.” Many often wonder if some of these terms and phrases are meant to confuse rather than clarify your buying decision. We here at Tech Tips can assure that this is precisely the case; but knowing that an informed buyer is an empowered buyer we’ll endeavor to try to clear up some of the mystery of computer jargon.

In this Tech Tip, we’ll be specifically looking briefly at some of the jargon placed directly on a computer, computer monitor and computer speaker sets.

A Plethora of Stickers

One thing that you may notice is that there seems to be no end to the stickers affixed to a computer. Whether it is a run down of features that you’ll use, or simply a statement that a computer has “Intel inside”, there seems to be a sticker for everything. Well, one sticker may inform you that the computer contains a “Radeon HD” or “ATi” while another touts “nVidia PureVideo HD”. These pretty little stickers are simply trying to inform you that the computer (more than likely) has a discreet graphics chip rather than “integrated graphics” one built into the general chipset. 

Another thing a laptop computer sticker will proudly proclaim is the processor contained within the computer. It may say “Intel Core 2 Duo inside” or “AMD Turion X2 Ultra 64” or something similar. While it may look nice, really you need to get past this generality to dig into the specs to see precisely what processor the computer has in it (in a previous Tech Tip we covered some specific things to look for when choosing a processor). Some Intel based computers may also have a Centrino sticker of some sort, but the Centrino is not a processor, it is a marketing gimmick that Intel came up with to sell more parts. Centrino simply means that the computer has the parts needed to get the sticker (usually a type of Intel processor, an Intel motherboard chipset and an Intel wireless chipset – different versions of the Centrino have different requirements that they need to meet to get the Centrino sticker).

You may also see cheap female viagra a sticker listing the type of operating system the computer was “designed for” such as “Windows Vista” or “Windows XP”.  Note that some systems that have been downgraded from Windows Vista to Windows XP at the factory may still have a Windows Vista sticker on it.  Another sticker you can run across is on touting “lightScribe” which is simply letting you know that the computers optical drive can write a disc label directly to a lightscribe compatible disc.  Others may state that the computer is “Energy Star” compliant and maybe even an ergonomic warning about using the keyboard and mouse.  Sometimes manufacturers get carried away with these stickers but not to fret – they are easily removed.

When a “Watt” is not a Watt

Some other phrases you may run across are ones such as “High Def” and “Full HD.”  You may be familiar with what they kind of mean when speaking flat panel televisions, but what about computers?  High Def usually means that a screen can meet a minimum resolution of “1280 x 720” (many computer screens will exceed this) and Full HD means that it exceeds the 1080p specs (1920 x 1080).  While many computers screen will exceed the 720p spec and be called “Hi Def”, not too many will meet or exceed the 1080p spec.  If the screen is 1080p compatible, you may hear that (if it has a DVI or HDMI input) it is HDCP compliant.  If it does, it means that the screen can play protected content (think Blu-Ray discs) at their full resolution. Also when a monitor that touts it is “widescreen” is simply stating that it can display a picture in a widescreen format ratio (the most popular on computers being a 16:9 or a 16:10 ratio).

Also bandied about are some fantastic claims about the amount of power put out by a set of speakers.  You may see a tiny set of speakers boasting that it has “1000 Watts (PMPO) of Power!”  That PMPO moniker means that this is a “Peak Music Power Output” Wattage rating.  Really though, this type of rating always has to be taking with a grain of salt; a truer measure of the power output of a speaker set is the RMS Wattage rating.   You also may see “2.0”, “2.1” “4.1” etc on a speaker box as well.  This is simply telling you how many speakers that the set has (for example, a 2.1 speaker set has two satellite speakers and one sub-woofer).

Be Aware and Informed

It is our hope that this Tech Tip helped to clean up some of the marketing hype and confusion surrounding the various computer jargon tossed around that you may encounter when looking for a computer or computer component. By being “aware and informed” of the jargon used you can make a better, more informed buying decision.

Motherboard Basics,"The Remix"

By Bryan Lambert – Sunday, March 29, 2009

It’s been awhile since the last Tech Tip on motherboards, canadian generic viagra hence some readers have requested a refresh (as it were) on the topic of motherboards. In this Tech Tip, we’ll be looking at different aspects of that all important main circuit board in your computer known as the motherboard. Whether you are just looking for more information on motherboards in general, or perhaps looking into purchasing one, it is always better to get to know some things about the current generation of motherboards.

Track 1 – "Who Are You?"

The motherboard, as just mentioned, is the main circuit board of your computer. Much of how your computer works, how it runs, and its characteristics are determined by the motherboard. Just as CPUs can be classified as value, mainstream and performance, so too can motherboards. If you open up your computer, your motherboard (sometimes called a mainboard or simply “the board”) is the main circuit board that all other components (such as processors, memory, add-on cards, etc) are plugged into. A few popular branded motherboards are Intel, ASUS, MSI, Tyan, ECS, Gigabyte, etc. Often, you can visit a manufacturer’s website to get the lowdown on their latest motherboard offering.

One of the primary things that will determine the capabilities of what a motherboard will support is the chipset. Many persons when contemplating buying a motherboard will first look at that particular component. Popular chipset manufacturers are Intel, nVidia, VIA and SiS (the later two usually seen on more value oriented boards). Chipsets as well as CPUs are constantly changing, and thus they are hard to future-proof against – that is, the latest greatest chipset today, while it works with today’s processors, may have trouble supporting the processors of tomorrow.

Motherboards these days will usually havea ton of built-in features, such as integrated graphics, integrated sound, integrated Ethernet, etc. Believe it or not, at one time all these functions were handled by add-on cards. Motherboards will also offer expandability, usually by means of a number of internal slots (such as PCI, PCI-express (both 4x and 16x varieties) slots), as well as many external ports (such as USB, eSATA, FireWire, etc.) for adding cool gadgets to your computer. Some higher end boards will also offer capabilities such as RAID or the ability to use two linked PCI-express video cards (such as SLI enabled boards).

You can also expand your computer’s memory on the motherboard as well, (the most popular type of memory used today is known as DDR2 – other memory types are DDR and DDR3). The age and design of your motherboard (as well as the chipset used) will determine the type and how much system memory your motherboard will support.

Of course, one main aspect of the motherboard is what kind of CPU it will support. That brings up the question of CPU Sockets.

Track 2 – "Sockets of all Sorts"

The term CPU socket is almost a misnomer these days. For example, the very popular Socket 775 Motherboard used on many boards that support a wide array of Intel processors is not really a socket at all (since it has no socket holes), but instead has bent pins that touch contact points on the bottom of the processor. A CPU socket is simply the place where a CPU connects with the motherboard and most motherboards offer modest CPU upgrades via the CPU socket. As far as what CPUs will actually work, this is often determined by the chipset as well as the type of socket your computer has.

By far, the most popular socket these days (as it was when the last Tech Tip on this subject was written) is the Socket 775 used by Intel’s line of Celeron, Pentium, Pentium D, Pentium Dual Core, Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors. Socket 775 is actually named LGA775 (and sometimes also called Socket T), so if you see these terms bantered around, you'll know that they refer to the same thing. Before buying or upgrading your motherboard, you’d want to know what socket that board has and what type and speed processor it can handle (information that is also readily available on many motherboard manufacturers websites). With the advent of Intel’s new Core i7 line comes a new Socket: the Socket 1366. The Socket 1366 is also called LGA 1366 and Socket B. Older Intel sockets include Socket 370, Socket 423 and Socket 478 (also Socket 604 and Socket 771 which are used on server and work station computers).

For the AMD crowd, the most prevalent processor socket used by them is the Socket AM2+. Note that plus sign at the end of the name, which is used to distinguish it from the older Socket AM2. The AM2+ socket is backwards compatible with AM2 processors, but AM2+ processors will not necessarily work on Socket AM2 boards (technically, some may work but only in a more limited way). Examples of processors supported in the AM2+ socket are the Sempron, Athlon 64 , Opteron and the Phenom series. The newest processor socket for AMD-based boards is the socket AM3 used for the new Phenom II processors. Older AMD sockets include Socket A, Socket 754 and Socket 939 (also Socket 940 and Socket F (1366) which are used on server and workstation computers).

Track 3 – "Will it Fit?"

Another thing to consider with motherboards is whether it will fit in your current computer case. Computer cases come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but the shape of the motherboard that they will support has not varied much for awhile now. By far the most popular motherboard shape (also called a form factor) is microATX (also written mATX and uATX). Lesser used form factors are ATX (a bigger board than microATX, usually with more expansion slots), BTX, microBTX and micro-ITX. Before embarking on any kind of motherboard adventure (buying one to upgrade a computer you have, or building one from scratch), be sure you know what form factor motherboard your case will support.

Track 4 – "What About the Board I have?"

OK, all this info may be fine and dandy for someone buying a board, but what about the board in your computer RIGHT NOW? How can you find out what you have, what it supports (can you add more RAM or a faster CPU), or replace the board outright. One very simple way is to open up the case and find out the model number of the board you have and look it up on the Internet. An even simplier way to find the model without cracking the case is to use a utility to “sniff out” your board and give you all that info on a silver platter. It may still take looking up your board on the Internet for specifics, but this gives you a great place to start. One terrific utility I have been using for a long time is SiSandra. The Lite version of this program is free and it will give you loads of data about your motherboard.

Bonus Track – "In Conclusion"

While all the “thinking” on a computer may be done by the central processor, much of how a computer works and what its capabilities are tied up in the motherboard. It is our hope that this refresher Tech Tip on motherboards will help you not only learn a little more about motherboards, but also arm you with the knowledge to make motherboard buying decisions.

Building Your Slides Online

By Scott Nesbitt – Sunday, March 22, 2009

Over the last couple of years, I've been giving quite a few presentations. While some of those presentations have been solo efforts, I've done most of them with my business partner. And that's when a few wrinkles have crept into our grand plans.

"..these applications enable you to collaborate on your presentation slides without having to worry about whether or not you're stomping on someone else's edits"How? Well, an important (or at least useful) component of a presentation is a slide deck. Before plugging in a digital projector, you need to create your slides. It's easy enough to pass a PowerPoint, Keynote, or OpenOffice.org Impress file around. But it's just as easy to lose track of which file is the latest version. Or just lose the file.

Fortunately, some Web entrepreneurs have made strides in eliminating this problem by developing Web-based tools for creating slides. The four that this TechTip highlights have a number of things in common:

• They're free
• They're easy to use
• You can run your slide show from within the application
• They support sharing and collaborative editing
• They pack enough features to make attractive and functional slides

280Slides

On the surface, 280Slides looks like a stripped-down version of Apple's popular Keynote presentation software. Although 280Slides has a limited number of features in comparison to Keynote (or any other desktop presentation program), you'll be surprised at how quickly and easily you'll be able to create a solid slide deck with it.

Of all the applications that this TechTip discusses, 280Slides has the best import and export capabilities — it can pull in PowerPoint (97 through to 2004, and PowerPoint 2007) files and OpenOffice.org Impress files. It can output those formats as well as a PDF file. The import can be a bit rough. Text can be larger than in your source file, and the positioning of elements like images might be a bit off.

280Slides comes with a limited number of themes and slide layouts (nine and three, respectively). It also has basic text formatting functions — including bullets and numbers — along with the ability to insert images, movies, and basic shapes into slides.

On top of that, you can add presenter notes (also called speaker's notes). These are notes that are attached to a slide deck that a speaker uses as a reference. In case you're wondering, the audience can't see the notes.

On the other hand, the application can be a bit slow. That said, this situation has improved a bit over the last month or two. While you don't need an account to work with 280Slides, you'll need to register (for free) to save your files online.

Empressr

Empressr bills itself as a free online storytelling tool that allows you to create, manage, and share rich media presentations online. That's a mouthful, but it's pretty close to the truth. And Empressr is a lot easier to use than it sounds.

Slides are called empressrs, and you can start one from scratch, import a PowerPoint file, or upload multiple images to create an empressr.

The slide editor is simple, but packs a number of interesting features. Like what? The ability to create a library of background images and add those images to your slides, for one. You can attach audio files to act as a voice over or soundtrack. And you can specify transitions for slides. Some of the slides that Empressr users have made public use the latter feature to sometimes annoying effect.

In addition to that, Empressr allows you to add shapes, tables, and charts to your slides. The latter two options are missing from most online presentation tools.

There doesn't seem to be a way to export your slides. You can publish your slides on the Empressr site in Flash format. Empressr also generates code that you can use to embed the presentation in a Web site or a blog.

Preezo

Of the presentation applications that are featured in this TechTip, Preezo is probably the most bare bones of the bunch. That doesn't mean it's not usable, though. Preezo seems to be based on the 80/20 rule — 80% of users take advantage of only 20% of an application's features.

As with any other Web or desktop presentation application, you can start a presentation from scratch or import a PowerPoint file. While writing this TechTip, I wasn't able to get the import to work. The export function, which generates a PowerPoint file, did work though.

As I mentioned a moment ago, Preezo's features are a tad basic. You have the choice of half a dozen slide layouts, along with some basic text formatting functions. On top of that, you can add any of a handful of transitions to your slides. Nothing spectacular, but enough to build a solid slide deck.

Remember how Empressr enables you to create a library of images? Preezo does the same, but takes the feature one step further. You can actually create a library of slides which you can reuse. How is this useful? In the slide decks that I create, I have two stock slides at the end — one which asks if the audience has any questions, and a marketing slide. Instead of continually retyping or copying these slides, I can use the slide library to instantly insert them into a new deck.

And, like Empressr, Preezo enables you to publish your slides on the Preezo site and it generates HTML code that you can use to embed the presentation in a Web site or a blog.

Google Docs

Anyone who knows something about Web applications knows that Google Docs contains a good word processor and spreadsheet. But one component of Google Docs that some people miss is the presentation editor.

Like the other application discussed in this TechTip, Google Docs enables you to start a new slide deck from scratch or upload a PowerPoint file. That file can be a maximum of 10 MB in size. You can also clone an existing presentation, which is useful if you need to create a variation on a theme.

On top of that, there are about 87 slide templates (as of this writing) that you can use to build a slide deck. Most of the templates leave me a bit cold, but there's no reason why you can't modify one to suit your needs.

The options for Google Docs are simple and familiar: text formatting; adding images, video, and a handful of shapes; basic control over text (changing the size, font, and justification); and the ability to arrange objects on the slide. On top of that, you can add speaker's notes to each slide.

As you might have guessed, Google Docs supports Google Gears — you can learn more about Gears here. With Gears, canada viagra online you get the best of both worlds: you can work and collaborate on the Web, but use Google Docs offline as well.

Your download options are limited to PDF, PowerPoint, or text. You can also publish the slides for viewing online.

Sharing the finished product

As I mentioned in the introduction, you can share slide decks from within each of the applications that are discussed in this TechTip. However, you'll probably wind up exporting your slide deck (when possible) to your hard drive to do some final edits and tweaks. Once you've done that, you can share the slides with the wider Web using SlideShare and Scribd.

SlideShare is an online community for sharing presentations. You get your own little corner of SlideShare, called a Slidespace, where you can add and display your slide decks. You can also make your slides private so only select people can see them.

You can upload presentations made with Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org Impress, or Keynote; you can also upload PDF files. SlideShare then puts a Flash wrapper around the file to make it viewable on any desktop computer or laptop computer. Well, at least one with a Flash player installed. You can also use some HTML code to add your slide decks on SlideShare to a Web site or blog.

Scribd, on the other hand, has been described as YouTube for documents. The goal of the site is to let people upload original documents, and allow others to comment on them. Scribd allows you to upload a number of different kinds of files — from Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org files, to PDF, Postscript, and text documents. Scribd wraps your documents in iPaper, a Flash-based format for viewing documents on the Web.

As with Slideshare, you can make your slide decks (or any other document) public on the Scribd site. Or Scribd can generate HTML code for you to embed the document on a Web page or in a blog.

Final thoughts

This TechTip only covered a few of the available online slide tools. You can find more here and here. The great thing about these applications is that they enable you to collaborate on your presentation slides without having to worry about whether or not you're stomping on someone else's edits, or if you have the right software installed on your computer.

These tools may not have all the features of your favorite desktop presentation tool, but they can get you going quickly and easily.

Grinding the (Google) Gears

By Scott Nesbitt – Sunday, March 8, 2009

Cloud computing. It's a phrase that's been on the lips of many computer users over the last year or so. Imagine being able to work or to access your files from anywhere there's an Internet connection. And you don't have to be at your own desktop computer or laptop computer, either.

The main problem with cloud computing, though, is that you're not always online. You might be on an airplane or train without an Internet connection. You might be in a spot where a connection is spotty at best. So, what do you do?
Turn to Google Gears, that's what.

Gears: a brief introduction

"Imagine being able to work or to access your files from anywhere there's an Internet connection."Google Gears is an Open Source Web browser extension (from the folks at Google, obviously) that literally brings a Web application offline. Using Gears, you not only turn the Web application into a desktop shortcut, but you can also use that application when you aren't connected to the Web. Gears stores all of your data offline and synchronizes it when you reconnect. It more or less creates a copy of the Web application on your hard drive, and allows you to seamlessly work in that application. Once you reconnect to the Web, Gears will synchronize the data on your hard drive with the live Web application.

For the techie canada pharmacy viagra (or the techie wannabe), developers of Web applications integrate Gears with their applications using a set of APIs (application programming interface), which are a way to enable two bits of unrelated software to talk to each other). The APIs enable Gears to (among other things) save a copy of the Web application on your computer and to store your data locally using a small, fast database. You can read more about the Gears APIs here and here.

Note that Gears doesn't work with all Web applications. Some of the Web applications that do support Gears include:

• Most of Google's Web applications (like Google Docs, Gmail, and YouTube)
• Remember the Milk
• Passpack
• Paymo

As for others … well, it can be hit and miss to say the least.

Gears is available for several operating systems, including Windows, Windows Mobile, MacOS, Linux, and Google's Android mobile platform.

Getting Going with Gears

As I mentioned earlier, Gears is an add-on for a variety of Web browsers. These include Mozilla Firefox (version 1.5 or higher), Safari, and Internet Explorer (version 6.0 or newer). You can find a full list here.

It shouldn't be a surprise to learn that Google Chrome has Gears support baked in. To use this feature from within Chrome, navigate to a Gears-enabled Web application. Then, click on the Control the current page icon and the select Create application shortcuts. On the dialog box that appears, select where you want to put the shortcuts and then click OK.

The rest of this TechTip looks at using Google Gears with Mozilla Firefox. First off, go to the Google Gears Web site and install the Firefox extension. All you need to do is click the installation link, and then follow the instructions. From there, restart Firefox to complete the installation. Nowyou're ready to go.

Note: The installation process will differ for other browsers. Please leave a comment to discuss how you installed Gears in Internet Explorer or Safari.

Using Gears

Next, navigate to a Gears-enabled Web application and log in. You'll notice a link somewhere in the top-right corner of the application – it might read Offline or Go Offline. Some applications (like the online to-do list Remember the Milk or Google Docs) display a message when you log in.

The first time you sync your data using Gears, a message will appear. This message will prompt to click the option to allow Gears to save data to your hard drive. This option will vary from application to application – it could be, for example, OK or Allow. This only happens the first time you do this.

Once you give Gears and the application permission to save data to your desktop computer or laptop computer, the synchronization process starts. Depending on how much data you have saved in the online application, the process can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. For example, when I synchronized my Google Docs using Gears, the process took about four minutes. Yes, I have that many documents in Google Docs!

Now, if you go offline you'll be able to work with your files or other data in the same way you would as if you were connected to the Internet. When you reconnect to the Web application, click the link in the application to return that application to its online state. Again, this option may vary from application to application – for example, Go online. Gears will synchronize any changes that you made offline with the version of your data in the cloud.

Drawbacks

The biggest of these is that not every Web application out there works with Gears. Really, only a handful do at the moment. That's changing slowly, but not quickly enough for some.

If you're a Linux user (like me) and you're running a 64-bit version of the operating system, then you won't find an official version of Google Gears; there is an unofficial one, which is an extension for Mozilla Firefox, which you can find here. Whether or not Google will support 64-bit Linux in the near future isn't clear.

On the other hand, if you're using two computers – for example, two desktop computers at different locations, or a desktop computer and a laptop – then you'll run into a problem. When you use Google Gears with multiple computers, each computer syncs data independently of the other. So, you'll be forced to sync the data on each computer with the data from the Web-based application that you're using. You risk stomping on changes that were made on the other computer if you don't.

Final thoughts

Google Gears is an interesting and useful solution for bringing the cloud offline. It's easy to use and set up, and working with Gears-enabled Web sites offline is a seamless experience. When Google Gears is more widely supported, it could mean that cloud computing might just take off.