tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40682854013508245152008-10-09T02:09:41.813-10:00Easy plain English basic computer help, computer terminology & basic lessons by Worth Godwin. Easy to follow computer articles for both Mac and Windows.Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-78507459500407949542008-10-09T02:06:00.001-10:002008-10-09T02:09:41.825-10:00

What is DRM, and the Pros and Cons of Buying Music Online In this issue of my newsletter, I want to talk about something called DRM. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, and if you ever have purched music (or movies and TV shows for that matter) online, or are thinking about doing so in the future, it's important for you to know about DRM and understand how it affects you. Basically, DRM

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-23536407795026648592008-09-23T14:35:00.005-10:002008-09-23T16:55:01.792-10:00

Hawaii Senior Computer Classes - What's the Best Option for Senior Citizen Computer Instruction? A lot of seniors feel very challenged or even intimidated by their computers, both here in Hawaii, as well as elsewhere. It's important to realize, despite how you might feel about it, if you're a senior and you're struggling to learn computers, you're not alone, and most importantly: it's not your

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-49344660737917988942008-08-21T20:44:00.001-10:002008-08-21T20:45:55.607-10:00

From time to time I people ask me "Why is Internet safety important?" "Why should I worry about it? I've got nothing to hide." If you're not thinking that Internet safety is important, then you're making a mistake. There's a variety of reasons that people think Internet safety and security don't really matter for them -- maybe they don't think they keep anything important on their computer, so

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-3913290067298383432008-08-20T21:54:00.003-10:002008-08-20T22:03:08.709-10:00

A computer question from Carla about using Mozilla Firefox I got another email recently from a subscriber named Carla who asks a very good question: " Hi Worth, My computer in a Compaq. And just recently I downloaded the Microsoft 2007 to update for the computer course I'm taking online. What I was wondering was, would it be safe to download the Mozilla Firefox onto my computer you talked

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-52283360864356727592008-08-19T14:10:00.003-10:002008-08-19T14:21:12.523-10:00

In this article I will answer the questions "what does download mean", "what does install mean" and help you understand some commonly misunderstood computer terminology. I got an email a couple of days ago in response to my last computer tips newsletter where I talked about the importance of using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. A subscriber in Texas named James wrote me the next day and

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-12674755067344618682008-08-17T01:12:00.004-10:002008-08-17T01:22:48.060-10:00

Sometimes it doesn't pay to go on vacation. I took about a week off work for the first time in about a year and a half and I'm still trying to play catch-up with my backlog of emails and other work. Here's a computer question I got from a subscriber in the UK named Paul who wrote me a couple of days before I went on vacation. Paul wrote: "Dear sir...lately my computer has started to lock and

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-66554633284221148622008-07-15T11:56:00.004-10:002008-07-15T12:20:07.234-10:00

In this video computer lesson I continue my series of tips to make learning the computer easier. In this segment, I talk about some of the traditional ways to learn the computer, and why those traditional methods really don't work well.

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-20907589690401322042008-07-11T15:25:00.004-10:002008-07-15T12:06:01.742-10:00

In this video computer lesson I give the first of a series of tips on how to make it much easier to learn basic computer skills and more. These tips are based on one of my biggest non-computer-related interests: how the human mind works. Because I'm basing this series of lessons on fundamental principles of how the human mind works, the information I cover in this video lesson actually can help

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-53328147502710467302008-05-25T17:40:00.002-10:002008-05-25T17:43:21.354-10:00

Exploding hard drives and your privacy -- How to dispose of old hard drives I recently read an article about an amazing thing. We probably all remember the sad events of the Columbia Space Shuttle that tragically exploded upon reentry into the Earth's atmosphere back in 2003. I've been fascinated by space travel since I was a young boy, and what happened to Columbia as well as Challenger back

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-30377034761726245572008-05-14T23:10:00.003-10:002008-05-14T23:37:53.745-10:00

I recently got a question from a client named Anne Irene who sent me a two-part question about what to do on an upcoming trip to access the Internet. As a change of pace, I decided to try out giving a video response to her question. I've put the video up on my website for you to watch. You can watch it by clicking the image below: Please note: if you're using dialup or other slow Internet

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-18339518195406719822008-04-23T15:25:00.002-10:002008-04-23T15:29:36.405-10:00

I recently got a question from a newsletter subscriber named John who asks: "Hello Worth. I have a question. Do computers lose their memory? I had an old one stored for some time. I want to give it to someone but first I hooked it all up - but it gives me this message "Drive nor ready error Insert Boot diskette in A: Press any key when ready" Whats the problem.? {This has Windows 3.1 }

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-19048945275327188352008-04-17T21:15:00.004-10:002008-04-17T21:21:47.814-10:00

As you may know, I just had one of my monthly live computer question and answer call-ins a few days ago. I had friends coming in from the mainland that afternoon, and I ran out of time before I could get to all of the questions. To be notified about my monthly live call-ins, join my free computer tips newsletter. In this email I wanted to answer one of the questions I wasn't able to get to

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-80662145818899080892008-03-16T15:36:00.004-10:002008-03-16T16:21:45.449-10:00

Internet Service Providers For Mac OS 7 - A Word of Advice I recently learned, to my amazement, that there are people out there looking on search engines every day, trying to find Internet service providers that work with Mac OS 7 (which, if you want to get technical, is actually called Mac *System* 7 since Apple stopped using the name "System" many years ago and switched to "OS" starting with

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-5519458680349618502008-03-11T20:52:00.002-10:002008-03-16T14:32:45.365-10:00

In this article I'll help you understand the answer to a computer terminology question I find a lot of people asking: "How does wireless Internet work?". Before I can answer this question, I have to mention that there are two basic types of wireless Internet: a wireless Internet connection through a device called a router (this type of wireless Internet is called WiFi), and then there is

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-29207448845490426802008-03-02T19:22:00.006-10:002008-03-16T21:54:10.059-10:00

Connecting With People Through Computers Back in the eighties, it wasn't that usual to have a modem in your computer, if you even had one. These days, there are different kinds of modems - cable modems, DSL modems, and dialup modems like I used to have. Even though dialup modems seem incredibly slow these days, compared to "broadband" connections like DSL and cable, they are amazingly fast

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-81005662401170176932008-02-19T19:14:00.004-10:002008-09-18T22:57:39.680-10:00

I've been giving people basic computer help for a long time now – over thirteen years as a professional, and for years before that, I was the "computer genius" (their words, not mine) everybody came to when they got stuck. I've been paying attention to all those people over the years, and I've noticed something; for most people, the biggest problem they have with computers is actually very

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-86248812455064919212008-02-16T17:54:00.004-10:002008-03-16T20:43:54.859-10:00

What is an operating system? In this article I'm going to help you finally make sense of what for most people is one of the most confusing and least understood computer terms around: "operating system", or "OS". This is actually a pretty easy idea to get when it's explained right. Now what is an operating system, or OS? First off, it's is a type of software. To recap my explanation from my last

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-28785193006072872202008-02-15T20:18:00.010-10:002008-09-24T01:37:31.538-10:00

When it comes to a computer, there are so many computer terms like RAM, megahertz, gigabytes, etc. that people can find confusing. Having a better understanding of some of these terms can help you feel more comfortable using your computer, and ultimately get more out of it. A lot of people I talk to seem to be apologetic about their lack of knowledge. It's too bad people feel that way; they

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-20815725440277681462008-02-15T20:07:00.003-10:002008-03-16T14:36:58.294-10:00

Has your computer been been running more slowly recently? Has it been crashing? Do you get pop-up ads for no apparent reason? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have fallen victim to malicious types of programs called "malware", a term which includes both adware and spyware. Adware (advertising software) is a type of program which delivers ads to your computer screen. These

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-62055914269812966742008-02-15T19:59:00.003-10:002008-03-16T14:37:33.137-10:00

Most people who were following the news a few years back have heard of Napster, the music-trading network that was shut down as a result of legal action taken by the recording industry, and which has since been resurrected as a legal music download site. Not everyone knows that Napster spawned a host of similar programs such as Kazaa, Grokster, and Limewire, and more (many which have come and

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-89453555704190574212008-02-15T19:34:00.003-10:002008-03-16T14:38:09.215-10:00

There is a huge variety of software available to run on personal computers, from business applications, to games, to screensavers. Most people are aware of commercial software — software you buy in a box at a store — but many internet users have also heard of shareware and freeware programs. Freeware, as the name implies, is software you can use for free. It can usually be copied to anyone as

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-47134744793977217692008-02-15T19:17:00.008-10:002008-03-16T14:38:31.937-10:00

I find a lot of people asking me questions like "What is spam?" "What does spam stand for?" In this article, I'm going to explain the term spam where it comes from (what it stands for) and give you a few tips to avoid email spam. Do you hate spam? I’m not talking about the food, but the seemingly endless stream of annoying commercial emails that flood most people’s inboxes. The content of the

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-49051848125327045052008-02-15T19:00:00.005-10:002008-03-16T14:39:29.042-10:00

Not too long ago, most people hadn't heard of wireless Internet access, but these days, it's commonplace. There are two basic types of wireless Internet connections. The first is through a cell phone network, which is used by a growing number of people for browsing the web and checking email through smart phones and PDA devices such as a Blackberry or an iPhone. This works pretty much anywhere

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-61796647121443360722008-02-15T18:48:00.003-10:002008-03-16T14:40:58.930-10:00

It seems these days you can't go more than a week or two at most without hearing about a new worm or virus spreading on the internet. While you probably have a general idea what they are, you may wonder where they come from and what the difference between a virus and a worm is. Both viruses and worms are very similar, for the most part. They are malicious pieces of software which cause a variety

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4068285401350824515.post-32550505362536185802008-02-15T18:37:00.003-10:002008-03-16T14:42:05.471-10:00

Computers can develop problems for a variety of reasons, and it can sometimes be hard to isolate the cause. Problems come in two general types: hardware and software. Hardware refers to a physical part of your computer, including the keyboard, the hard drive, and the motherboard. Software refers to programs and documents stored on your computer, including the operating system (such as Windows or

Worth Godwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11844886524183945166noreply@blogger.com