Saturday, July 31, 2010

Hot time in the computer tonight

Laptops are notorious for generating a lot of heat -- to the point where they slow down and shut down or have errors. Unless you live in a refrigerator (or at one of the Antarctic research stations), it happens in almost all environments. Some places are harder on laptops than others -- any dry dusty environment like West Texas or Arizona get hot enough to cause more frequent problems. Hidden dust in the household, such as from having a cat or dog -- or living in Arizona AND having cats and dogs) mean that you may need to deal with this problem quite a bit. And there are just some machines run hotter than others -- for example, the Apple Mac Book Aeros and the IBM T60.

So... you've noticed that things have heated up and are wondering what to do about it. First thing is to put your hand near the vents on the computer and see if the fan(s) are actually blowing air out of them. If the answer is, "yes but it's awfully hot", that's still a good sign. If your answer is "no, I can't feel any fans blowing" then take it to a repair shop (unless you happen to know how to build computers -- and in that case, go replace the fan.)

The next thing to try is seeing if you can fix it without taking the case off. There's a number of simple checks you can run to see if this cools your laptop down.

First, shut down some extra programs. I'm notorious for having 3-4 PDFs open plus a lot of web pages plus World of Warcraft and so forth. Do you watch lots of videos? Listen to streaming music? Try closing a few things down and see if your machine runs cooler. If this works, then consider getting more RAM for your computer.

This is also a good time to run a program to clean up your registry and your hard drive. Efficient computers run cooler.

Next, take a look at what you've got connected to your USB ports. Things like external hard drive and network dongles put a load on your CPU and can cause your system to run hot. Instead of leaving them permanently plugged in, try plugging them in only when you're using them. USB hard drives cause a lot of heat problems in laptops.

Luckily, your mouse won't contribute to this problem... but oddly enough, some of the laptop external cooling fans will cause the system to heat.

Now take a look at WHERE the laptop sits. It needs to be on a hard surface (like a lap tray. Many laptops have cooling vents underneath and flexible surfaces (like your legs) obstruct the vents and cause overheating. Check to see if any of the labels that they put on the computer have slipped and started covering a label.

Next thing to do is check and see if your laptop has the power saving functions enabled. To find out, use the search function on your computer to find out where your particular brand of computer has them hidden. Make sure that the power saving functions are enabled.

Finally, buy a can of compressed air and blow it through the vents and in between the spaces of your keyboard. You can also purchase a laptop cooler board -- basically a small board with one or more fans -- and maybe USB ports. They come as both USB versions and external power versions. The USB ones are more convenient to travel with, but external power versions are much easier on the laptop's boards.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Buying your first GPS for a car

Having written about GPS units, I thought that I might include a little review of several of them with tips for buying your first one if you've never had one before.

Many people, when buying a new device, go with whatever is heavily advertised. Sadly, the thing that's being advertised may NOT be the best choice for you. Several years ago, my brother bought my dad a TomTom GPS. Now, in spite of being 87 years old at that time, dad isn't technology fearful and does know how to use and buy technology such as the Wii. However, when my husband and I went to visit Dad three years ago, we found that he'd put his GPS in the car but didn't know how to make it do anything. In fact, the system had been password locked.

I reset the system and showed him how to use it, noting as I did how much of a struggle it was to actually get an address into that model of the TomTom. Our less expensive Garman Nuvi (which was about the same age) was much easier to use -- common search items were in the top level menu, available with just one touch, and screen options were easier to find.

You can find reviews of most models at http://www.gpsreview.net -- one of the first places I stop when looking for a new GPS. This site reviews all types of GPS units, including handhelds designed for use "in the field."


Things to look and listen for:

  • how LOUD is the unit? My husband has hearing aids, so having a unit that is loud enough for him to hear when his batteries start dying is very useful.
  • how well do you like the VOICES? There are ways to change the voice accent (and language) -- if you'd like a friendly Australian man giving you directions, you can set the directions to this option. Having other languages available (such as Spanish) may also be useful for you.
  • how BRIGHT is the unit? You'll be seeing it for the first time in a store with lots of light -- but that's less light than you will see when you're out in the sunlight. I use the Audubon Society's Magellan Explorist when I'm mapping their trails... but the display is impossible to read in sunlight. If you plan on using it outdoors as well as in the car, ask a salesperson if they'd walk the unit outside so you can see how it looks outdoors.
  • what OPTIONS are available? Can you set it to guide you as you take a walk? Most of them can play downloaded MP3 files or display pictures. Does it have a space for an SD card? Can you connect the unit to your computer to update the software? What kind of warranty does the company offer?
  • how INTUITIVE do the menus seem? While you're in the store, look at a demonstration unit and think about the common tasks you'd want to do on the unit. How fast can you enter a new address? When you ask it about types of things you're looking for (like "restaurants"), how easy is it to get a list? How quickly does it find the location of your favorite restaurant?
  • how many TASKS do you want it to do? Do you want to be able to take it with you when you leave the car in a big parking lot and then use the GPS to quickly find your car? Do you want traffic? (Traffic is really only useful if you travel to or through a lot of large cities. It's not worth it if you live in an area with smaller towns and only a few large cities... like West Texas.)
  • what kind of MOUNT does it have? You can buy different "generic mounts" for these, but I've not been happy with a lot of the mounts. Putting it on the windshield may or may not be a good idea for you -- the suction cups DO fall off if you live in a hot environment (like Texas) and it's really annoying to be driving along and have the thing fall off the window and end up between your feet near the gas and brake pedals.
  • REVIEWS. Look at a few reviews of this unit on Amazon.com. Do people love it or hate it? What problems are they having with it?
  • PRICE. There's some units that I think are sexy and I'd own in a minute -- but the $800 price tag is more than I'll pay for a GPS.


A final note:
When buying a new type of technology, buy the cheapest option that meets most of your needs. As you use the technology and see how it fits into your lifestyle, you will see other features that you want and like. It's better to underbuy the first time out than to get all the bells and whistles and find that they are so hard to use (or are just unnecessary) and end up leaving a very expensive object unused.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Getting There - GPS versus AT&T Navigator

Technology -- I usually don't leave home without it, but on our recent trip to Florida, I decided that one GPS was probably going to be enough. This is a bit of culture shock for me, because we usually travel with three -- the dashboard one for giving directions, my old trusty handheld Magellan (for when we want to do a little geocaching or record travel through "cookie crumbs" to fairly remote locations and a plug in version that attaches to our laptop so we can run Delorme's Street Atlas. The dashboard is good for giving directions to the driver, but Street Atlas is a lovely distraction for the passenger, enabling us to plan side trips and pointing out places of interest that we might never have known were there. We also had Delorme's Topological Maps, but I decided to leave all of it home and pack a book to read instead.

This turned out to not be the best decision ever. A simple process like "where's the next hotel" meant taking the Navagon off the dashboard cradle and hunting and pecking through the options to find a nearby hotel. Getting it back into the dashboard cradle and adjusting the thing so that Bruce could see was annoying, too. Since I had the option to use AT&T Navigator on my Smart Phone with a 30 day trial, I decided to try that. It also had the advantage of having traffic information, which seemed pretty useful since we were going to be traveling through some congested areas.

Compared to the normal GPS, Navigator was slow to find our location and didn't give a second by second location on the map. It was very good at giving traffic along the route, and if you wanted all the businesses nearby, it was better at giving that than the standard GPS units.

Its search function worked poorly, though. Hunting for Finz Restaurant in Stuart resulted in no hits (and a spammy list of everything within the entire area), although Finz has been in operation for well over five years.

Navigator can get pricey if you do a lot of different routes, since network charges apply for downloading lots of data (and the maps are generated from a lot of images.) If you can't buy a GPS unit, Navigator is good for a temporary "better than nothing" solution.

As for me, I canceled the Navigator and traffic subscription, and I'll be taking my trusty little Garman Nuvi (I have the 225W unit, which can be bought very cheaply) along when the two of us are taking another road trip.