2014 On The Way....Great Ways To Give your Computer a Better Season Gifts and a Smooth 2014

Important computer tasks—like securing, cleaning, and backing up—are like any other resolution: we all say we're going to do them but rarely keep up with them all year. Here's our simple guide to staying on track in 2014

Keeping your computer in good shape gets to be tedious and annoying when you have to try to fit it in to your busy schedule. Rather than letting things slip through the cracks and watch your computer slow to a crawl, fall victim to a nasty virus, or crash and burn with no backups, we've put together everything you need to tackle to stay on top of all your computer maintenance tasks.
Here are the four things we're going to look at.

Back Up Automatically

Backing up our data is something we all know is important but many of us do not do. In the past you might've been able to get away with the excuse of inconvenience, but nowadays it's so effortless that if you're not backing up, you should make it your first order of business for the New Year.

A good backup system will duplicate your important data in three places. One of them can be your computer, another can be an external hard drive that you keep in your house, but one of those three places should exist outside of your home. Local backups (like backing up to an external USB drive) protect you if a hard drive dies, but not if your house is robbed, catches fire, or you fall victim to any other incredibly fun disaster you can imagine. While these are rare circumstances, the effects are devastating. Since backup is so easy, there's really no sense in taking the risk. First we'll take a look at backing up to the cloud, which requires essentially no effort at all, and then we'll consider your options for each specific operating system so you can have a local copy on an external drive as well.

Backing Up to the Cloud

As long as your work doesn't consist of serious data creation, I'm of the opinion that you can use Dropbox for all your backup needs, especially now that it includes selective sync. I used Dropbox to organize my home folder and sync my iTunes library to multiple computers and it works great. While Dropbox can take care of just about everything I want backed up and synced, it can't handle your applications and system files without causing problems. Also, for reasons I don't entirely understand (aside from the cost), not everyone wants to keep the majority of their stuff in their Dropbox. So, for those of you who aren't sold on Dropbox being the golden egg of cloud backup, your other best bet for off-site backup is Mozy.

Mozy has become a Life hacker favorite, especially with the speed boosts and its ability to also back up to external drives. In fact, its external drive backup options make it a cross-platform tool that can pretty much handle every one of your backup needs (cloud + local drive). While I wasn't in love with Mozy when it first came about, it's now considerably faster than it was in its early days and can handle everything from one application. That's pretty tough to beat.

While Mozy can back up to an external drive nicely, you may prefer a backup tool with a larger feature-set that's more tailored to your operating system. Fortunately, there is no shortage of backup software available for every operating system. We've narrowed down the pool and have a few options for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, that should cover all your local backup needs.

Windows

 

Built into Windows 7 and 8 is the Backup and Restore Center, which Microsoft debuted in Windows Vista and has since improved in Windows 7. While it'll take more than a few clicks to set up, you're given a good number of options to control how your data is backed up. You can choose what you want to backup, where you want to back it up (including network locations), and how often you want the backup to occur. While it may not be the perfect solution for all users, it's built into Windows and pretty easy to set up.
Alternatively, you have the classic SyncBack. The SE version is free but you can pay for additional features. Nearly five years ago, Gina used SyncBack SE to set up an automatic backup plan that still works today. If Windows Backup Center doesn't quite cut it for you, SyncBack SE is a great alternative.

 

 

 

Mac OS X

One nice feature of the almighty Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 is Time Machine, which lets you plug in a drive and just back up with no effort at all. Once it has a full copy of all your data, it will only backup the files that have changed since that original copy was made. If you want a file you lost, you can activate Time Machine and go back in time to retrieve an earlier copy of that file. Your Time Machine backup drive can also be used to restore lost data and set up a brand new Mac with all your files.

Time Machine pretty much does what it wants to do and that's that, so if you're looking for more control I'd suggest picking up Carbon Copy Cloner. It's a free backup utility that makes a bootable copy of your drive (which Time Machine does not). I use it all the time and love it. It can be as simple as selecting the drive you want to copy, but you can also selectively copy certain files. Carbon Copy Cloner is very straightforward backup software, so you're not going to find the bells and whistles you might with paid software, but if you want something simple that also offers quite a bit of control over your backup, it's an ideal choice.

 

Linux

Linux only: Back In Time, a Linux backup app inspired by Macs' Time Machine and offering the same kind of no-worry, space-saving snapshot.

For easy backups on Linux machines, Back In Time is a good solution. You can get your backup plan set up pretty quickly, and it backs up using space-saving snapshots (much like Apple's Time Machine). As far as Linux backup apps go, it's pretty easy to understand and runs great on GNOME and KDE-based Linux systems.

If you are like myself and find urself craving to always be online. Then i think you should also.....

 

Secure Your Computer and Your Life Online

There are a number of ways your computer can get into trouble. Whether you're dealing with viruses, online threats, or physical theft, here are some great tools to help keep you safe. And you can guess having a good Antivirus that provides Internet sercurity would be a brilliant step. Running regular mainteace not only keepsyour system in good shape, it keeps you happy.

Run Regular Maintenance

With your data backed up and protected, you're going to want a computer that runs smoothly. Performing regular maintenance can play a big role in keeping your machine in tip-top shape. Mac OS X and Windows 7/Vista will take care of defragmenting your drive for you—so no need to take care of it yourself. TuneUp Utilities does that automatically for me.

For Mac users, maintenance tasks are regularly scheduled by OS X and so, technically, you don't have to do anything yourself. Nonetheless, it's in your best interest to play a hand in your system's upkeep. If you want a look at every possible option you have, definitely check out our guide on top programs to make your system faster. Alternatively, if you want to do a bit less, you can just schedule maintenance tasks in the Terminal and repair disk permissions. If you're not familiar with repairing your disk permissions, all you have to do is go into your Applications —> Utilities folder and open up Disk Utility. Inside of Disk Utility, choose the First Aid tab and then click the Repair Disk Permissions button. It'll take a few minutes and slow down the system a bit, but running this operation will help prevent little errors here and there. Running this once a month (and after any major software installation) will keep your Mac a bit happier and less prone to preventable issues. By default, Mac OS X performs routine maintenance tasks when your computer is idle.

 

 

Create a Tidy, Attractive Desktop
Once your computer is backed up, safe, clean, and running smoothly, you ought to finish up with a little fun. Your machine is, ultimately, going to be more fun to use if it's easy to navigate and looks just the way you want it to look. I will be taking an extensive look at customizing your desktop, so be sure to check out these options later to take on some serious customizations. Need inspiration? If you're just looking for some simple customizations, however, you can find some excellent, distraction-free wallpaper over at Simple Desktops and great free icons at the Iconfactory.

Antivirus Software

For Windows, however, you don't have to look much further than Microsoft Security Essentials There once was a day when relying on third-party antivirus software was necessary, but Microsoft put those days behind us. MSE is great at ferreting out malware, performs very well, and is free.

List of Good Antivirus:

1. Norton Internet Security
2. Avast
3. AVG
4. Avira
5. Bull
6. Netquin Internet Security.

And lots more out there.

 Mac OS X and Linux users generally don't have to worry too much about viruses, so you get a pass on antivirus software. But you don't get a pass on the next category.

 

Online Security

I've taken a pretty extensive look at how to stay secure online, which I will feature here soon,read through it and you should be in pretty good shape. In light of recent events, security has been a serious priority for all of us. Although there is no 100% full-proof plan, there are ways to get there, many of you may be concerned about an onslaught of SPAM email. You can subscribe to receive updates on how to fight back and keep your inbox clean.

Come 2014 i sure don't want to be liberated of my Laptop, and am sure no one does. I have taken some measures, which i recommend you do.

 

Preventing (and Preparing for) Computer Theft

Laptops are lighter and more powerful than ever; they're also easier to steal. Luckily, a genuinely versatile and powerful track-and-recover has become available for all.

Prey is a wonderful, free, open-source tool that can help you track down and (potentially) recover your stolen Mac, Windows PC, or Smartphone If you're like me and you've had your laptop stolen before, you know how devastating it can be. When you lose technology with personal data, the thief doesn't only have access to your expensive hardware but a lot of information about you as well. Coming to this realization is not fun, so be smart and take the necessary steps to protect yourself from a potential theft.

Personally i track my laptop using Norton Anti Theft. Its easy, all you have to do is register and Norton does the Rest, it comes handy since you can command your laptop from any where once u log into your Anti theft account.

Hopefully now you've got a good plan to keep your computer in good shape come 2014. Is there anything you'd like to add to this list? Let's hear about it in the comments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Components of a Computer

a dell mordern laptop

motherboard of a CPU

CPU and its components

interior of a Desktop



full view of a CPU compoents



labelled diagram


Yesterday i promised to feature components of a system well i did and i hope i have broken it down enough.
Do feel free to notify me of my errors and please do comment, it gives me the sense someone out there likes what i do.

Microcomputer System Components and Their Functions

Computers are made up of thousands of electronic chips, resistors, capacitors, diodes, and other pieces that all work together to run your computer programs. To make it easier to grasp how a computer works, the pieces are grouped together into components. The components are the major building blocks of your PC.

System Components
Every make and model of PC has a slightly different layout for its components. Rather than trying to memorize details of one system, concentrate on the big picture of general computer organization so you can adapt to different situations with a variety of computers.

System Board

The system board is the main circuit board in a microcomputer. The system board is the principal printed circuit board in a computer. It is a very thin plate which has chips and other electrical components on it that make up the CPU (Central Processing Unit), the computer memory, and basic controllers for the system. Sometimes called the motherboard, the system board has some electrical components soldered directly to it, and slots and sockets where components can be added and removed easily. The wires that connect the soldered components, the slots, and the sockets are all permanently built into the system board. Usually the microprocessor, or CPU, is on a large chip that is held in a socket on the motherboard so you can upgrade the chip when a compatible, new chip comes out. The chips that control the flow of information to and from the CPU are usually soldered to the system board and are not replaceable. The jacks where you plug in the mouse and keyboard are usually soldered to the system board, but the network and modem connections are usually on interface cards that are easily inserted and removed from slots on the system board. Because features that are built into the design of the system board cannot be changed without replacing the whole system board, most system boards include only the standard features that most users want; that will not change much in the near future. By leaving off features that many users do not use, like SCSI and network connections, the cost of the board is kept down. By allowing the users to buy the modem with the speed and features they want, and letting the users attach the card to the motherboard, the designers build in flexibility that most users appreciate. Sometimes computer makers who sell complete systems find it is cheaper to build a system board with the modem, sound card, video and all other features built in, rather than add interface cards to a standard system board. The buyers of these complete systems get a low price but give up the freedom of easily upgrading and customizing the computer. Because system boards must be replaceable, they all come with certain standard features. Unfortunately, the standards for these features change over time. For example, the system board usually has slots that hold cards full of memory chips, rather than having the chips soldered directly to the board. You can increase the memory of your computer by replacing the memory cards with cards with more capacity. Every few years, though, a completely new style of memory card will appear that will not fit into the old-style slots. At that point, you either need to buy a new system board or miss out on the advantages of the new-style memory cards.
System boards are often described by their general physical characteristics. The original motherboard design was the AT, which was 12 inches wide. A smaller Baby AT board, 9 inches wide by 10 inches long, became popular after 1989 when the demand for small computers increased. New processor chips required a redesigned system board, and in 1996 the ATX design was introduced. This system board was 12 inches wide by 9.6 inches long, while the Baby ATX was about an inch shorter in both width and length. The ATX board design took into account the need to cool the CPU and memory chips, and the need to move highspeed components as close together as possible to reduce errors as the extremely high-speed signals move across the system board. The CPU must be mounted on a card which is inserted into a special slot on the ATX board, rather than inserted into a socket on the system board. Another way to classify system boards is by the set of chips on the board that support the CPU, or its chip set. When buying or working on a computer, you must know the general design of the system board, the make and model of the processor on the board, and the kind of chip set that is on the board.

Processor

The microprocessor, sometimes called just the processor or the CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the real brains of the computer where most of the calculations take place. On very large computers, the CPU may consist of many chips mounted on a series of printed circuit boards, but on personal computers, the CPU is housed in a single microprocessor chip. The microprocessor is divided into areas, the first of which retrieves programmed instructions from the computer’s memory, decodes, and executes the instructions. The second area is the arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) that does the math operations when need. The third area sends the results back out to the rest of the computer.
Many companies make microprocessors for IBM-compatible personal computers (PCs), but Intel CPUs are the ones against which the other companies’ CPUs are compared and rated. The original IBM PCs were based on Intel’s 8086 CPU. Other models followed over the years, including 80286 (commonly called the 286), the 386, and the 486. Each of these processors came in a variety of configurations. Because Intel couldn’t own the name 486 for a processor, it used a name it could trademark, Pentium, for its 586 processor and Pentium Pro for its 686 equivalent processor. Many of the microprocessors come in different varieties that run at various clock rates. New Intel chips can run all the programs written for earlier models, but old processors cannot run programs that make use of the special features found only in the newer processors. Cyrix and AMD are two of the companies that make Intel-compatible chips that are often less expensive than Intel and sometimes offer better performance. Intel Inside, however, is a selling point used by many computer manufacturers. Because Intel microprocessors and the Windows operating system are found together on so many machines, some people refer to those PCs as Wintel. Even though other operating systems can run on Intel processors, and some Windows operating systems run on non-Intel chips, the popularity of the combination is overwhelming.

Memory
Memory refers to the internal storage areas in the computer. In common usage, memory refers to actual chips that keep track of computer data, and not the information stored on tape or hard drives. Memory chips contain millions of transistors etched on one sliver of semiconductor. These transistors either conduct electricity and represent the binary number 1, or don’t conduct electricity and represent the binary number 0.

RAM (Random Access Memory) is the main memory. The computer can both read the data stored in RAM memory, and write different data into the same RAM memory. Any byte of data can be accessed without disturbing other data, so the computer has random access to the data in RAM memory. RAM memory requires a constant source of electricity to keep track of the data it is storing. If the electricity is cut off, RAM forgets everything. Because of this, RAM memory is described as volatile memory. DRAM (dynamic RAM) is the most common type of RAM. DRAM must be refreshed thousands of times per second. SRAM (static RAM) does not need to be refreshed. SRAM is faster, but more expensive, than DRAM, but both forms of RAM are volatile. ROM (Read-Only Memory) refers to special permanent memory used to store programs that boot the computer and perform diagnostics. ROM also allows the computer random access to data in its memory. More importantly, the computer cannot change any of the data stored on the ROM, so ROM is read-only memory. In the early personal computers, you added more memory by fillings empty sockets on the motherboard with more memory chips. A SIMM (Single In-line Memory Module) made adding memory easier because all the chips were soldered to a single, small printed circuit board that you inserted into a slot on the system board of your computer. SIMMs transfer information 32 bits at a time, while DIMMs (Dual In-line Memory Modules) transfer data 64 bits at a time. Pentium processors require a 64-bit path, so you must add either two SIMMs at a time or one DIMM to a Pentium computer. CMOS RAM is special memory that has its own battery to help it keep track of its data even when the power is turned off. CMOS memory stores information about the computer setup that the computer refers to each time it is turned on. Because you can write new information to CMOS RAM, you can store information about new disk drives that you add to your system. The computer will remember to look for the drive each time it is turned on.

Interfaces

An interface on a computer is a place where you can connect another device like a disk drive, keyboard, modem, or mouse. Sometimes the interface connection is built into the system board, like the mouse port and keyboard port. Sometimes the actual connector is on a printed circuit card that adapts the signals to and from the attached device so it can communicate with the computer. Modems, which are constantly improving, are generally on an interface card.
Interface cards are inserted into a slot on the system board that connects to the microprocessor. The collection of wires that make the connection, and the rules that describe how the data should flow through the wires, is called a bus. The ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus connects to ISA slots that accept only ISA cards. The ISA slots were used on early IBM computers and became the industry standard. As computers became faster, they needed buses that could transfer more data, more quickly, than the ISA bus could handle. The PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) local bus solved this problem, although only new PCI cards could be used in the PCI slots on the system board. Most computers have a combination of ISA and PCI slots on the system board.
Next time i would be picking this components singlely and feature its importance to the system

Where is my window button?

Have you used Windows xp or Windows 7 and
now you are Using Windows 8? if yes then very
first thing you will miss in windows 8 is the Start
button. for some good reason may be microsoft
Decided to drop the idea of Start button in
windows 8 like we had in earlier version. Many people kind of didn’t liked this change because
they were addiced to the habbit of start button, Get Back the Start button in Windows 8 Meanwhile there was a Recent upgrade to
windows 8, ie windows 8.1 and the Start button is back. this article is for windows 8 users who
have not upgraded or can’t upgrade and wish
to Get Back the Start button in Windows 8. So I
have Come up with interesting Solution which I
wish to share with you all which will help you
to Get Back the Start button in Windows 8. Steps to Get Back the Start button in Windows 8 I will Show you two Easy methods to Get Back
the Start button in Windows 8. call me to order 4a start button lol just playing with u.

1.Have a Windows Start Menu Toolbar: Yes , you can have or create a start Menu on the
toolbar, and this can be done by following below
mentioned easy steps. Firstly enable the Show hidden files
option. Now Create a New Folder, Now
Copyand paste all Files, Docs, Setups or
Programs that you Use Daily and Wish
to have it within seconds in this new
Folder. Now a right click on the Taskbar , Hover
your mouse on Toolbar then select a
new Toolbar from the Toolbar option. And finally browse to the New Folder you
Created and click select folder. With these above
mentioned steps you will see a new start menu
folder on the Right hand side of the task bar. this
is not your start button like we had in windows 7
and xp but this is very close to it.
2. Get Back the Start button in Windows 8
Using Softwares. You can also have few more softwares or options
by which start button or start menu can be
installed with more features to be enjoyed, and
without any defects/problems that you can face
after the installation.
1.Classic shell : This is an outstanding free software that you can have to add up a start
menu button to the Taskbar, and not only this
but you are lucky enough to get a few more
features that come with it.
2. ViStart 8 : This is another outstanding software which I personally recommend as I have
personally tried it out in my Windows 8 PC and
got a positive result from this with an amazing
Start button on my taskbar which made it easy
for me, and along with this I also got additional
features which are cool like the ability to change the skin and much more.
3. Pokki : Up to now we have seen Couple softwares to Get Back the Start button in
Windows 8 and trust me the best by far is Pokki, I
can say that because many of my Friends are
Using Pokki, they Never had any problem with it. With this it Concludes my list of Softwares to Get
Back the Start button in Windows 8, If you Know
any other good quality Software then feel free to
share with us in Comments.