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| steve@thecomputerpsychic.com | Phone: 360.607.4364 | |
Happy Holidays with Chrome and Fat FoodThe Computer Psychic would like to wish you and yours a very merry holiday season. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Hajj, or even Festivus, may the spirit of the season stay with you.This month, we'll discuss how to recycle your used computer equipment, and then take a look at Google's new operating system - Chrome. Will it be enough to topple Microsoft's domination of the OS market? And then, as usual, we'll have some fun with some rather offbeat web sites. Recycle your used computers It’s getting towards Christmas-time. Is there a new computer on your wish list? Maybe someone you love is getting one? Great! Just be sure to dispose of that old computer in a responsible manner. Yes, it’s easy to simply toss it in the trash can. But in doing so, you’re only contributing to the ever-growing amount of electronics in the waste stream. According to the EPA, approximately 2.5 million tons of consumer electronics – including televisions and computers – are sent to landfills every year. Only about 18% of all computers are recycled. There are some real environmental concerns connected with disposing of electronics in a landfill. Computers and monitors frequently contain toxic substances, such as lead, mercury and cadmium. These substances, if they leech into the ground water, can cause health concerns for both humans and animals. In addition, every community has people in need who would love electronics that you would otherwise dispose of. So, you don’t want to throw away your old computer. What do you do with it? First of all, since this author lives in Vancouver, Washington, I’ll talk about a wonderful program offered here. It’s call CREAM – Computer Reuse Education and Marketing. CREAM is a non-profit organization that accepts used computers and refurbishes them either for community reuse or resale in their thrift store. This not only provides computers for families in need, but local college students gain training in the refurbish process. CREAM is located in the Habitat for Humanity store at 5000 E Fourth Plain Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98661. Visit their website at http://www.upgradeyourcommunity.org. Now, let’s look at other computer disposal alternatives. Thrift stores are good donation outlets. Some of the major ones being Goodwill, Salvation Army and Deseret Industries. Many other non-profit organizations operate thrift stores as well. And donations to these organizations are tax-deductible! In addition, you can give away your old computer equipment on web sites, such as Freecycle (http://store.freecycle.org/) or CraigsList (http://www.craigslist.org/). Your local newspaper may also offer free classified ads for those wishing to give away items. One thing to keep in mind before donating (or even selling) your used computer. Along with the computer, you do not want to give someone all of your credit card and bank information, passwords and other personal data. If you simply hand over the computer, it may well be that this information is still on the system’s hard drive. Even if you delete the files, the data may still be there. Many people recommend that you physically remove the hard drive from the computer before disposing of it. Then destroy the hard drive and throw it away. This way you can be sure that no one can get your info. This will certainly work, but it still contributes slightly to the waste stream, plus leaves the recipient of the computer without a hard drive. Instead, I prefer to wipe the data from the system, but leave the hard drive in the computer. There are several free programs that will erase all of your data from a computer. A couple of my favorites are Eraser (http://eraser.heidi.ie/) and Disk Scrubber (http://mariussoft.com/products.aspx?Product=DiskScrubber). So, keep your data safe, recycle instead of throw away, and we’ll all rest a little easier. Read more articles here... A First look at Google’s Chrome operating system Google fired an opening salvo in their OS ware against Microsoft last week with the beta launch of their Chrome operating system. There has been much talk of a Google OS for quite some time, and many suspected that their mobile operating system titled Android would be ported to desktop applications. Instead, Google has turned their Chrome web browser into a full-fledged operating system. Google makes some grand promises for Chrome. A 10 second boot-up time, no security updates, no viruses and malware to mention a few. It all sounds great. But will Google deliver? The bottom line is, at this time it’s too early to tell. Google Chrome operating system isn’t due to be released until the second half of 2010. But the demo version that we downloaded from gdgt.com was intriguing to say the least. The operating system was running in a VMWare virtual machine. This in and of itself may have caused a few performance issues. For example, instead of the 10 second boot-up time, ours took closer to 25 seconds – close to our Microsoft Vista start time. And the Chrome browser itself didn’t perform any better than Chrome does in Vista. To be fair, it was running in a virtual machine, this is an early beta, and Google does have almost a year to improve on the OS. But the concept of Google Chrome operating system is a good one. The operating system is mostly based on their Chrome browser. When you log onto the OS, you use your Google account credentials. Data isn’t stored locally on the computer – instead it’s stored in “the cloud” – on Google’s servers. This allows you to log into any internet-connected Chrome operating system and have the same computing experience as you have on your home computer. Google claims that the OS has been designed from the ground up with security in mind. In fact, they have published a complete Security Overview that details Chrome’s security features. It’s too early to tell if they will accomplish these lofty goals, but it’s heartening to hear just how seriously Google is taking security. Chrome will have updates to its operating system. But these updates will install into a non-active system partition. Only once the update has fully installed will it then be migrated over to the active partition. This totally insulates the user from the update process. It will be virtually impossible for an update to crash and leave the system partially updated. Also, Google promises that the operating system will be “open source”. That means that virtually any developer will be able to contribute to the OS and related apps. In fact, Google says that open source developers will be critical to the success of their Chrome operating system. So, open source, cloud computing, fast, secure – what more could we want? OK, Google, now it’s time to make good on all those promises. We’ll be looking forward to further developments. If you want to see an entertaining overview of the Google Chrome operating system, click here. And by the way, you don’t need to wait for the operating system to experience Google Chrome. The Computer Psychic is recommending the Chrome browser as a replacement for your current browser. Go ahead – give it a try. Read more articles here... The World Wild Web Featuring the oddest, funniest and just plain freakiest websites we can find. This is Why You’re Fat http://thisiswhyyourefat.com Page after page of the most fattening, calorie-laden, glorious food you’ve ever seen. I’m ashamed to admit that on most pages I found at least one item that made me say “Yum!” The End of the Internet http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm I knew I’d find it sooner or later… The Darwin Awards http://www.darwinawards.com/ Dedicated to people who’ve removed themselves from the gene pool in the most creative ways imaginable. The Darwin Awards are proof that some of us haven’t quite evolved as much as the rest. Well, that's it for this month. As always, you can view more content, get tips and plenty of free software at www.thecomputerpsychic.com. And of course, quality, guaranteed computer support is just a phone call away. Steve Smith The Computer Psychic (360) 607-4364 |
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