Eagle Test Systems IPO & S-1 EGLT

Microsoft added a feature called ‘anti aliasing’ to Windows, but on most computers it’s not turned on. Turning it on causes nearly all the text you see to be smoothed and rounded, making it much easier to look at, especially on laptops. It will make your eyes go ‘ahhhhh’. For full instructions on how to turn it on, click here.

2) Backup your stuff. Easily, for free, and without thinking about it. No excuses!
Some nice people at www.mozy.com will backup your important stuff for free. Their program goes on your computer and a long as your Internet connection is working, it securely backs up the folders you’ve chosen to mozy.com’s backup service. If you computer goes wrong, you can access your backup account from any other computer to get your stuff back. They do have a limit of 2Gb of data, but many people will not have more data than that, and those who do hopefully have it organised and could use this service as a great way to backup their most important stuff again, without having to think about it. It’s free because they get to email you ‘offers from select partners’. I haven’t noticed any spam from them at all, and a couple more spams isn’t a bad deal for a free 2Gb backup service.

3) Use the Firefox Web Browser.

NASA just switched to it, so it can’t be bad. Firefox is a web browser, like Internet Explorer, but free, and has more functionality. It’s more secure, faster, and has tabbed browsing - allowing you to view many web pages in one window, which is a must if you spend much time in your web browser. www.getfirefox.com

4) Use Hosted Microsoft Exchange and Outlook 2003 for email.

If you spend a lot of time looking at your email, do it right. If you haven’t heard of Outlook, it’s an email program that runs in Windows and on Mac OS X that allows you to work with email on your computer, instead of on the web inside a web browser as you do with service like hotmail. Compared to using webmail, using an email program on your PC will make your email faster, more reliable and easier to use, once you’ve learned the basics of the program.

Outlook can talk to any ISP, but if your ISP uses Microsoft Exchange, or you purchase service from a ‘Hosted Microsoft Exchange’ provider, you get some great benefits. Your email will be
more secure, allways backed up, and all your email including sent, drafts and received is available to you through any web browser on any PC. If your computer crashes, Exchange allows you to restore all your saved email to your new computer or any other. The Outlook program also includes a Calendar, To Do and Contacts list, and those too are available from any computer with web access and are also backed up along with your email.
Oh, and all the also applies to your Calendar, Contacts and Tasks. That’s a lot of peace of mind for a few dollars a month.

Hosted Exchange costs around $5-$10 per month, but if your email is important to you, that’s a lot of peace of mind, security, and accessibility. Outlook 2003 is free from most places that will provide you with Hosted Exchange service, or can be purchased separately.

I (comissionlessly) recommend 1and1.com’s Hosted Exchange service.

5) Upgrade the RAM in your computer

Adding RAM (aka ‘memory’) is a quick, easy and these days cheap way to make your computer go faster. If you have less than 512Mb of memory, upgrade to 512Mb. If you have 512Mb and your computer’s slow sometimes, upgrade to 1Gb. A good start is www.crucial.com to find the memory you need. Buy from them, or try to find it cheaper elsewhere. Fitting can be done by anyone with experience inside a computer in less than half an hour.

6) Learn to search.

Take 5 minutes to read http://www.google.com/help/basics.html . Use the search box on Google, Ebay & Amazon more to quickly find stuff you want. If searches don’t seem to work right for you take a few minutes to experiment in Google. Try different search words, start with general words and slowly get more specific and add words to refine the search, use the -minus -sign -to -take -out words you know you don’t want, and put phrases “in quotes” for where you want a specific phrase but not those words on their own. To get more advanced, start with Google’s Advanced Search page.
6) Buy stuff online.

Use www.Ebay.com and www.Froogle.com to find cheap stuff. Use www.epinions.com and www.Amazon.com’s reviews to read about products and vendors before you buy. Spending an hour learning how to quickly find things on Ebay and Froogle by jumping to their home pages and locating items using their search facilities will give you a great resource for pricing and buying many many items.

7) Web2.0 = Lots of cool, fun, usually free and usually easy web based tools.

Web2.0 is the Internet buzz word of the day. But what it means is that their are loads of cool new ways you can use the Internet to do useful things. If you’re feeling explorative, check out Emily Chang’s Web2.0 list, for links to loads of sites that do things like …

Extratasty - Share, search, and indulge in drink recipes.

Quimble - Create and share easy online polls to get opinions from your friends, colleagues or anyone else.

ILoveTravelStories - New web site for readers and travel writers to share online travel stories and vote for favorites.

8) Consider a Mac, for a more pleasant computing experience.

Macs are now more of a viable alternative to PCs. Previously Mac Software was generally focused on graphics, publishing and media applications. But now a Mac can do most of the same stuff that your PC can do, but without 90% of the headaches that you get from Windows. Using Macs is just a more pleasant, smoother and relaxing experience all round. Mac Minis are great value for a basic home or office PC at under $500. Worth a look at your local computer or Apple store or at www.apple.com.

9) Make phone calls over the Internet

If you have broadband at home, think about a service like www.vonage.com (or www.vonage.co.uk in the UK). It’s a normal phone service that works through your high speed Internet connecton. It’s very easy to setup and works just like a regular phone line, except you get much cheaper phone calls - many of your calls will be free inside the mothly subscription, International calls will be cheaper and calls will allways be free to other people using the same service and on international calls. You also get lots of free features like call waiting and voicemail that other phone companies generally charge more for. Other companies to check out include Skype, who have a service that works through your PC and is slightly more complicated, or SipGate for the more technical user.
10) Get cheap music, share photos online or sell something.

There’s allways more you can do online. If you’ve never downloaded music online, go and look at www.allofmp3.com, where you can download music for around $2 per album. If you have a lot of pictures you’d like to share with other people, check out www.flickr.com a really nice service that makes it easy to share all your photos with anyone. If you’ve done a bit of Ebaying why not sell something? Selling stuff is a great way to recoup costs when you upgrade computer stuff, sell old CDs and DVDs, or get some cash for that junk in your attic. If you make stuff or like arts and crafts, check out www.etsy.com, a great site for buying and selling handmade items.
10 Ways To Do More And Have More Fun With Your PC

JL

jl | Uncategorized | No Comments

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