GaretHofer.com

Theres been a lot of speculation as to when i’m going to start up again so i will begin by clearing that up today. I’ve had a lot of trouble with my current equipment as my video camera is a bit out dated and my pc downstairs is in need of a hard drive replacement which i havent had time to do so that is holding me up there.

I made a tweet saying i was doing a review on the acer laptop and i still plan on doing that. It will be a video i will probably make available for viewing on youtube. Haven’t decided as far as that goes. I don’t really want to tell you all a date for the show and then not deliever so i will tell you that i probably will be back in June. I will no more as when may approaches the end.

Also as most of you know i am still a highschool student so the homework lately has been hitting me pretty hard. When i find time though i still post youtube tutorials. I will still send out tweets. As for the show you can expect resume date sometime around June 20. I will go for two weeks then take a break for summer then start up again.

There are many new topics to look foward to. I will be doing another review on Windows 7 telling you what i like and don’t like about it. I installed it on to my Dell XPS m1330 and forced myself to use it as the primary O/S.  So i will let you all know what i think of it then. Also i plan on showing you all how you can build your own pc very simple on camera. I will be filming myself installing a brand new motherboard. I also plan on doing reviews on several anti-virus and spyware programs. As well as i will be talking about is a mac or pc right for you ? So stay tuned … until next time.

     As i’ve been really busy lately i havent had the time to make any newer videos about new software products comming out. I’d really like though to share this with you. Ubuntu 9.04 has been released. Ubuntu can be installed under windows xp. Ubuntu itself is a continuation of the linux operating system, a series most will remember as the Free operating O/S system based off of the legendary unix kernel. As most know popular operating systems like osx used by apple. This operating system most will say is very secure and thus less prone to viruses as the Windows operating platforms are. 

     But what can we expect from Ubuntu in the future . The last time around the release included the gnome interface. You can find several examples of this on youtube.

http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/ubuntu-releases/jaunty/ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso

Along with several other mirrors you can find at http://www.ubuntu.com.

Most if not all of you saw my video on ustream.tv where i ripped on the earlier beta of windows 7 for being nothing more than a redone vista. Well that was beta 6519.

I have the latest beta 6801 and here’s what i thought of it:

Window Locking Feature:

Now the first feature i would like to highlight on is the window locking feature. When you have two windows open you have the ability to set them to where you can lock them in for easy comparison. I highlighted in my previous video that i really liked this feature. I thought it came in handy for those who don’t have that big of a screen or their monitor/display resolution is too low to have to many windows on.

This comes in handy when writing reports you can compare your notes and easily write your paper side-by-side.

Shake to go away

I didnt see this in the earlier beta i had. Basically an alternative to minimizing windows you now have the ability to shake them for them to go away.

I think this video highlights that feature pretty well.

I will make one of my own but for now you have this one here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4W_P_kqRf0

Sharing Features

So basically this means: you set up one dedicated printer plugged into a network cord through your router or have it shared out through your network all the members have the ability to print through your printer. Obviously the options have to be set in order for this to happen.

You have the ability of doing the same thing to folders on your pc as well. This will all be covered in further videos.

The Dock !!!

Alright most people i talk to say this is a rip-off of the osx dock that you will recieve if you are using the macintosh platform. I would have to disagree on this.

Windows way back in vista and xp had what was known as the quick launch. This worked the same way as the dock but the icons were a lot smaller. If you glance more closely at the windows 7 dock when you fill up the dock completely it goes to another page it does not resize the dock like the traditional osx user experience does.

Well i will leave this up to you to decide. The windows 7 dock seems to work fine with the tests i’ve ran.  If you want to view the windows open under the programs in your dock you just put your mouse over the icon and poof the windows pop-up right above it. A very genius feature in my opinion but definitely not unique.

These were the main things i highlighted on.

As i had issues with the dell xps m1330 and the touchpad in windows 7 i was unable to keep windows 7 on my machine. Partially because everytime i’d restart the touchpad would quit working until i restarted again and it would be fine.

Any questions about what i’ve said here just leave a comment below.

If you would like to highlight on some of the features yourself leave a comment and i will add them to the post.

Edit: Might i add i ran a few memory tests i was at minium able to get my dell xps m1330 with a 2.1 ghz intel core 2 duo  to run windows 7 all the way down at 512 mb installed natively on my system. It’s still a bit early to tell how windows 7 will behave when it’s released for the marketplace.

We will just have to wait and see.

Just wanted to say happy new year to all. Good bye 2008 and welcome 2009. Hope it’s a year filled with a lot of excitement.

Would liike to explain what we are going to be doing as 2009 comes around:

The TechieGuy show will be doing video game reviews on some of the major games out for pc right now this includes games such as Crysis, Assassin’s Creed, Neverwinter Nights, and many more.

Amongst this we will be doing more reviews on printers as the next year approaches.  After these video have been made they will be posted on viddler. We however still can’t post them on youtube due to how long they are.

Amongst other things i will be planning on building a pc right on camera. I will still remain doing tutorials on youtube those haven’t changed. I will be doing more tutorials on camera as the year comes. And then we will throw in here and there a movie review or two from the new movies out there in theaters. Will give detailed feedback as to the movie being approiate for the younger crowd.

Look foward to the things to come. This is not the only new things that i have in store for you all. But some of what we are planning. So stay tuned ….

First off some announcements before i get to talking about what happened during the last broadcast on Ustream.tv.

The broadcast for next friday November 28, 2008 will be canceled due to the holidays. However join us later this week for another broadcast from the coffee shop.

We discussed some of the features that you can expect in the newest release of windows 7. We watched a video from Microsoft as they gave a features list presentation at one of the WDC conferences.

You can check out the youtube video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8AqXaNr8ag

Some of the few notable features of windows 7 so far are:

OSX like dock in windows

Switch between windows and applications.

Taskbar for switching windows

Windows lock into place for easy comparison

Automatic wireless device connecting as seen on osx.

Watch the broadcast recorded at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/883779.

Gadgets can be moved around the desktop.

Windows mail, calendar, and other apps users were complaining about in the *bloated* vista will not be included in windows 7. Instead they will be offered as a seperate Windows Live essentials update.

This version focuses mainly on performance upgrades or getting the os to run faster at lower amounts of memory or to run more efficiently.

I also shared my ideas on Windows 7 Build 6801 which is not the current one they used at that conference. Build 6801 was the only released one i could beta test. As soon as it comes out in the microsoft technet pack i will post a review on it.

So with that all said i talked about how i thought the future versions they should’ve focused more on fixing the problem of why most people switch to mac. In my opinion people switched because of A. the bloated os. B. the Notion that macs don’t get viruses.

Macs may not get as many viruses as pcs but there still out there. As the apple marketshare goes up so will the amount of viruses for mac. There are viruses out there just the amount of them isn’t as great as the pc side. Doesnt mean you shouldn’t get virus protection on your mac and treat it like i can visit any site i want and not get any viruses. Its like walking outside naked in the winter. Your just opening youself up to getting sick or getting a *virus*.

Share your opinions with me here in the comments.

1. Getting yourself known. Meaning appealing to your target market or target audience. For example i am running a computer forum or computer poll of some kind. Whether most people use pc or mac ? I will appeal to the computer forums out there or advertising sites.

2. People telling people - I can’t tell you how much word of mouth advertising is so much better then google ad words. Easy way to get known liked and trusted by friends who are thereby known liked and trusted by others.

3. Use Myspace, twitter, facebook, and twitter to your advantage. Especially twitter because you start following people then they start following you. Thus your followers or the people who know, like, and trust you is built up.

4. Signatures - So your registered to here and other message board services or what ever service it may be that requires forums. So your registered on 5 different forums. Where their are 100+ members and you are an active poster. Think about it 500 + people are viewing your message you posted.

5. Facebook and myspace - Keep in mind what your posting. Like the old saying if you don’t want your momma to see it then you probably shouldn’t be posting it. ** Keep in mind universitys are now checking myspace and facebook profiles to see what your branding yourself as **

Written by me Garet Hofer

We started out with this and then got into talking more indepth about mac and pc. Really mac and pc are the same on the inside. They are both truely PCs or personal computers as once defined as. They’ve begin to be split into two different categories of windows and mac really. The only keen difference between a pc and a mac is software. Software is it. You purchase a mac because you like osx or want to use iphoto, imovie, or final cut pro.

Business professional - Mac would have to be my recommmendation. A lot more reliable really because if your the business professional and you get apple care warranty you can take it to any authorized apple retail store. Get your files off or the computer repaired absolutely free. Since the apple centers get reimbursed for their labor on every apple care warranty mac they work on.

College student - Your a college student and you want a reliable computer. I would recommend again a mac. The college student has access to time machine which is only available on a mac. If they back up their hard drive they can recover a lost document for class.

Family or personal computer - You can pick up a mac mini or a pc desktop for around $500-$600 sure you can get computers at $400 but why ? Why would you want to spend that little on a computer. The saying you get what you pay for applies here. All about opinion really.

Lower income family - I understand not everyone has money to go buy a mac and that is fine. PC i would recommend for this. You can put together a decent machine around $500 with a decent graphics card on a pc.

Gamer - Pc for sure. The market changes so much you don’t know if microsoft is going to make further restrictions in the future on running games. PC’s you can make the graphics cards better where as a mac you are locked down. I think though a mac is every which capable of running the higher end games as a pc is.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/865016

We had a discussion today in the live stream. Various different websites were mentioned so i will list them below
So much went on i talked about the upcomming announcements we have. Talked about the car accident i got into last friday. We welcomed our latest guest. Talked about windows vista and windows 7. Talked about the difference between intel core duo and the intel core 2 duo.

pretty good explanation i can’t seem to find the http://tomshardware.com one i used.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2808&p=4

http://www.box.net

Free online storage up to 1GB for all. No demonstration was done but will be done in later shows.

http://www.logmein.com

Access your computer from home. Will do demonstration in next tuesdays show.

http://www.simple-share.com

sending files bigger then 5 mb to your friends. Did infact do a demonstration using my email account through gmail.com

http://www.playlist.com

Create your own free online music playlist for all to hear. Share it with your friends or post your playlist on your public social media site.

Thats about it

the stream can be found here at

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/828601

A shoutout to our latest guest pcnovice91 and thanks for comming to the show.

So i thought this was interesting, Yesterday at church which for those of you who dont know i run a get your computer fixed evening to where if people in the church cannot afford to get their computers fixed they can bring it to us. We then take and clean them out. As you can see in the past ustream live vids we do that and manage to have fun at the same time.

But i was working on a machine last wednesday where the user had made a claim that the machine was slowing down periodically. We did a number of cleanups on the machine for both viruses and spyware and found absolutely nothing. We do these scans periodically in an application called linux. Runs the apps that we need from a third party disc.

We started up xp and it must’ve been over 20 min it took the machine to start up. The machine itself was an intel core duo 2.4ghz or something like that. So my thought was the machine itself was powerful enough to start up quicker then this. By the time it got into xp i noticed the machine was loaded down and i mean just packed with scanners. It had avg, norton, macaffe, spyware doctor, spybot, adaware, and more. Wow so i called them up and we began removing the ones not needed. Everytime you load a computer down with a scanner i dont care whether its a pc or a mac it eats up ram and causes your machine to slow down. FYI guys they make norton for mac to. But anyways my point is max you only need one scanner maybe two but dont load your pc or mac down with a bunch of scanner apps.

When you do a virus scan or spyware scan it is always best to have it going when you are not using the computer. If you use the computer and try a scan expect the computer itself to slow down. Unless you have a significant amount of memory. For example a lot of my computer support customers tell me that spyware doctor is a major resource hog. Honestly its simple, leave the scan going when you go to the supermarket or run an errand somewhere and by the time you get home the scan is done.

Well thats my thoughts on virus and spyware resource hogs. Tell me people if you have any input just leave a comment below …..

We covered a lot of topics in this stream. The video itself the first part you might notice a bit of lag time in the first video. I apologize about that the problem wasnt corrected until i began the second part of the video.

Anyways we heard from paul cooley who talked about his experience loosing all of his information on his laptop computer. He explained to us exactly what he lost and how i was able to help him recover some of that information.

We next went on to http://www.cyberguys.com and looked at harddrive enclosures. You can get 2.5″ enclosures for laptop HDs or 3.5″ for desktop HDs. We found both enclosures to be around $20-$40.

We then looked at http://www.frys.com and looked at a $79.99 for a 500GB external HD.

We looked at how to back up your HD at either the paid product Norton Ghost at http://www.norton.com or the free Windows Backup software that comes with some new windows machines.

Windows backup: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/backupfiles.mspx
Watch the videos to see for yourself.

Click here for part 1

Click here for part 2

Domain brainstorming session. Look how hard we work at it haha.

If you need help this is the video to watch.

Check it out here