This is one of those easy tips for people to remember. I currently run PCPrime on evenings and weekends and still maintain my day job as an underwriter for SBA loans. Well, this afternoon I decided to try and fix our printer/copier. It’s a copier with a networking card. The networking portion hasn’t worked for sometime.
I was told that our outsourced IT didn’t know what was wrong and that the copier repair person stated that it just needed to be replaced.
The first thing I did was look at the copier to see if there was an external module or if the network cord just plugged directly into the machines. It turns out it plugs directly into the machine. I followed the cord to make sure the cord was plugged in. (we’ll come back to this)
I found the drivers on the internet and proceeded to download them and install them. Most printers have drivers issues due to the wrong ones being installed. This is actually the case in this situation however, this problem wasn’t cause we are using the wrong drivers.
I couldn’t find the printer via the network even though I had the IP address. After unsuccessfully finding the printer via the IP address I decided to check the network cable. This is what I should have just checked in the first place. I replaced the cable with a spare one I found lying around and viola! Works like a charm.
The simplest answer is usually the correct answer.
I’m a huge fan of Skype. We use it at PC-Prime as a regular phone and I use the video portion on a weekly basis. When Skype 4.0 came out I was a little nervous about it due to its full screen. I decided to install it after a hard drive crash wiped out my main computer sytem (don’t be cheap like me and fail to replace an important fan.)
I gotta tell you, Skype 4.0 was just atrocious. The fullscreen didn’t bother me as much I thought it would. I see where they are going but there was still plenty of wasted space too me. What really bothered me was the actualy phone calls. I used Skype 4.0 several times to make sure it wasn’t just a ‘bad internet’ night.
- I have SkypeIn and SkypeOut. Incoming calls from cellphones were really full of static. Hard to hear the individual.
- I had assumed that they would have maintained the same technology for the video as well. I was flat wrong. Picture very fuzzy and choppy. No matter what I did, myself nor the other individual on the call, could get a clear pic for more than a few seconds.
- Dropped calls. I would occasionally get a dropped call on Skype 3.x which includes last night. However, Skype 4.0 would give me multiple dropped calls in the same night. That is just unacceptable.
- The fullscreen is an interesting concept that should be an OPTION and not mandatory. Everytime I reboot the computer Skype loads up. Which is what I want, but I shouldn’t have to minimize it every single time. The small footprint Skype 3.x had was great to leave on the screen.
Overall, stay away until they get the bugs worked out. One of the prevailing issues that Skype has had against it is the lack of support. Fortunately, I know enough about computers that I don’t need customer service. Plus, I’m not really sure what kind of support they could give me if I have a staticy call? I’m sure it’s a bandwidth issue that needs to be addressed. In any event, Skpye 3.x is excellent but they need to regroup with Skype 4.0 Beta.
Happy Saturday! It is week 2 of college football for those that follow that. Unfortunately my team, (UW Badgers) isn’t shown in Big 12 Country.
With that in mind, lets take a brief look at some of the football games that have come out over the years. Granted, many are console only but a gamepad is much easier to use for sports games than a keyboard/mouse combo.
- Super Tecmo Bowl
- Madden Series
- NFL2k Series
- NCAA Football Series
There are others like John Elway’s Quarterback and a Joe Montana game but those listed above are the big four. Personally, I spent more time with the NCAA series than the other 3. I don’t think anyone can dispute that Super Tecmo Bowl is a classic. I didn’t grow up with a Nintendo so the first time I got to play the game was in 1995, my first year of dorm life. The graphics were obviously dated but it was just a fun game to play.
NFL2k was produced by Sega and first debuted on the Dreamcast system. Many people considered it superior to Madden. Personally, I don’t think there was any comparison. NFL2k had the best graphics and best gameplay. EA Sports shined with their NCAA football franchise. Initially, NCAA football was running off the same engine as Madden but over the years they have evovled into different games. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent playing NCAA Football but I can assure you I really enjoyed myself. 
There are hundreds of articles out there on video games so I just wanted to keep this short and very little depth at this time. Now, back to some real work.
There are several ways to cut and paste items in Windows. My favorite way and personally, probably the fastest for me, is to use the Ctrl-C to cut and Ctrl-V to paste.
Being in a business environment for many years I am still suprised at the amount of people that still prefer to use the menu commands under “Edit”. I find that I usually have the left hand sitting on the keyboard so it makes it easy for me to reach to the Control key.
Here is a list of the many ways to Cut and Paste in Windows:
- Keyboard shortcuts – Ctrl-C to cut and Ctrl-V to paste
- Menu Commands – Click on Edit on the menu bar which is usually at the top of the screen (file, edit, view, etc.) and then choose Cut followed by Paste
- Use the cut and paste buttons in Microsoft Office. They are usually a default for the toolbars. They are pictures of a scissors and a clipboard.
- Right-Click with the mouse and choose the cut and paste options
These are just some simple suggestions.
Hello,
I plan on using this blog as a means of posting simple tidbits of info. I help people on a daily basis with items that could be corrected without going to a specialist. I want to start this blog off with one (maybe two) of those instances that occurred yesterday.
Resetting a Linksys Router
1. On the back of the router there will be a small pinhole. Depending on the version of the router it should be on the left or right side of the router.
2. Using a pen or the end of a paper clip, push a small object into the pinhole to depress the button located inside. Do this for 30 SECONDS.
3. Once the 30 seconds is up the lights on the front of the router should flash.
4. This will bring your router back to its original factory settings.
5. Depending on the version of the router your default username should be “admin” and the password is left blank.
6. To access the router’s admin menu all you need to do is open up your browser (internet explorer or firefox as examples) and type 192.168.1.1 and hit enter on the keyboard.
That’s it!
