2008 July - Interrupt19

8 Myths and Facts about Properly cleaning a Laptop / LCD Display

Jul 14th, 2008

by David Balogh in Maintenance and Repairs

[10] by Rhobinn Photo courtesy of Rhobinn

Laptop screens like to attract lots of dust, dirt, fingerprints and other kinds of grime. So, how do you keep them clean? Should you just use any old cleaner or something special? What about the cloth? Paper towel or fancy wipe? Sure there’s people out there who swear they’ve used just about anything and their screen is just fine.. But do you really trust in that? Let’s examine the myths, legends and even the proper Apple recommended way to clean an LCD screen and get your laptop looking like new again.

How To Safely Use That Creepy Public PC

Jul 10th, 2008

by David Balogh in Basics for Beginners

Outdoor Internet Cafe by JDiggans Photo courtesy of JDiggans

As vacation season goes into full swing, chances are you will end up using a public computer for internet access. If you’ve left your Macbook at home, that public computer has a 99.9% chance of being a PC. Like using a public toilet seat, this PC gives the security minded user that same creepy feeling. While most will just happily type in usernames and passwords for their banks, email and everything else, this is big risk with public PCs. Has it been updated? Is it running Anti-Virus software? Is it infested with keyloggers and browser hijacks? You just don’t know.. Here’s what you can do to minimize the risk.

Five Interesting Books from Beginner to Expert Teaching You The Ins and Outs of OS X

Jul 7th, 2008

by David Balogh in Work and Organization

Interests by Drab Makyo Photo courtesy of Drab Makyo

OS X can be tricky to learn at times. Sure the simple interface that “just works” is fine for some. For others, delving into the depth of OS X can be a harrowing experience. Fortunately there are some well written books out there. Each of these books is aimed at different levels of expertise and interest. From the basic “just starting out” user to the advanced OS X Systems Administrator, here are five books that are well worth the read:

Forget Photoshop – How to Quickly Edit and Resize Images for Free with Preview

Jul 3rd, 2008

by David Balogh in Music, Photography, and Video

Apple On My Neck by Miss Karen Photo courtesy of Miss Karen

Sometimes all you need to do to a picture is rotate it, resize it, change the format or crop it. You don’t need a monster of an application like Photoshop for that. In fact, Apple includes all the tools you need for small tasks like this within Preview. Best of all, since Preview is included in OS X, its FREE.

For those of you who just want to quickly edit a photo or picture in Preview, let me show you how.