Monthly Archives: February 2007
Deepburner
Last week I felt the need to burn some information on to DVD and having just recently formatted my hard drive and installed Vista I found that I didn’t have any recording software apart from the fairly basic functionality built in to Windows. Thinking this wasn’t a problem I headed to the Ahead website (www.ahead.de) to obtain the latest version of the popular CD/DVD burning software Nero only to be greeted with a fairly hefty 190mb download.
I do have a fairly fast connection so such a download wouldn’t have taken a particularly long period of time but despite what anyone may say 190mb is a stupidly large download for a piece of recording software, no matter how good it may be.When you add to the equation the cost of Nero I went off in search of a suitable alternative and found it in the form of the … Read the rest
Repetitive Strain Injury
Something which many IT people suffer from at one stage or another is Repetitive Strain Injury and although you wouldn’t have thought it could be very serious it can go on to cause a number of conditions from constant aches and discomfort through to permanent disabilities.
Whilst RSI which is a condition caused from repeatedly performing similar movements is not a new thing, it has become a great deal more common with the increasing use of computers.The symptoms of RSI can affect the neck, shoulders, back, arms, elbows and hands and vary from individual to individual.Pain is often encountered in any of these body areas and additionally the hands can be left with a feeling of weakness’ and fatigue along with numbness with loss of feeling and dexterity.
Luckily protecting yourself is relatively easy if you’re prepared to change your working patterns very slightly.As someone who has suffered pretty bad … Read the rest
Printer page yields
It was just a couple of weeks ago that I discussed looking at the on running costs of any printer you were looking to purchase as the initial purchase price should only be the smallest part of the equation when choosing what to buy.It seems somewhat coincidental therefore that today I heard news regarding a new standard allowing consumers to compare the potential ongoing running costs was being pushed through by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
I hear a collective sigh as it’s assumed this could turn in to a shameless plug for my cartridge business but honestly, I really won’t go there today!
Until now printermanufacturers have used a variety of ways to measure how many pages a cartridge will print but after the OFT criticised the four big players (Epson, Canon, HP, Lexmark) over an alleged lack of transparency, consumers should now find it easier to compare … Read the rest
Protecting yourself while shopping online #2
I’ve recently received a couple of questions regarding last weeks safe shopping article in which I discussed the bases that you could cover in order to protect yourself whilst shopping online.Below I have printed one such e-mail which raised a couple of unanswered questions:
I recently read your article supporting Internet shopping with interest as I have always feared shopping online because I have had friends whose cards have been “cloned”.You mentioned a couple of interesting points regarding the protection your credit card company will extend to you however I only have a debit card and so in your opinion would this be equally safe to use?
I am myself aware of checking that the site has padlock symbol on the bottom of the toolbar and that its website starts with ‘https’ but are there any other checks which would help?
Seán, Brixham
This is an interesting question and one … Read the rest
