Author: Karrie McLellan

SOPA / PIPA Threatens the Internet As We Know It.

You may or may not have heard of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) or PIPA (Protect – IP Act), but if either of these becomes law, the Internet will cease to be a free exchange of creativity and ideas.  [Insert personal opinion disclaimer here.  ;-)] While I will agree that piracy is an issue and it robs creators of deserved remuneration, the vague language used in these bills could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands.

I found this quote in an informational vide0 (below) particularly disturbing:

“…the government and corporations could block any site, foreign or domestic, just for one [copyright] infringing link.  Sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook would have to censor their users or get shut down since they become liable for everything users post.”

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

If you feel so moved, please let your representatives know what you think of these bills.

The Name Engine

I don’t know about you, but I have a really hard time remembering names.  If I have to read a complicated-looking name without having heard it?  Forget it!  Thankfully, I found a site called The Name Engine [link].  They have pre-recorded the correct pronounciations of the names of locations, brands, athletes, entertainers, politicians, newsmakers, and more!  If you saw the word “Kyrgyzstan“, how would you pronounce it?  Click the word to see if you were right.

Happy Computing!

Problem Steps Recorder

Recording signI just learned about a wonderful troubleshooting feature included  in all versions of Windows 7.  I can’t believe Microsoft hasn’t made a bigger deal about this tool!  It’s called Problem Steps Recorder.  If you encounter an issue that you can reproduce, but can’t easily show or explain to someone, this tool can help.

For example, if I found that clicking a link crashes my internet browser, I can just let the webmaster know the page address and which link caused the problem.  However, if I find that only a certain combination of clicks and other actions lead to a crash, that may be more difficult to explain accurately.

Enter Problem Steps Recorder.  If I click the “Start” orb, type “psr” (without quotes) and hit enter.  A control bar will appear.  After I click “start recording”, it will record all of the steps I take, including a text description of where I clicked and a picture of the screen during each click.  The text I’m typing will not be recorded.  If this information is important to the troubleshooting process, I can use the “Add Comment” feature to annotate the steps.  When I stop recording, the information can be saved to a zip file and emailed to support.

As a support professional, I can attest to how important it is to be able to see the screens people are talking about.  With so many possible variables on any given machine, a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

If you’d like to learn more about Problem Steps Recorder, see the dedicated Microsoft support page.

What Is My Computer Doing?

Have you ever used a computer that was running suspiciously slow?  This is a notoriously difficult problem to diagnose.  If you’ve been keeping up with your regular maintenance, then it’s probably not just a matter of a cluttered browser or hard drive.  Chances are, there is a program running behind the scenes that is consuming your resources.  It could be an anti-virus scan, or it could be something more sinister.  How can you tell for sure?

1.  Windows Task Manager:  If you are on a Windows PC, hit control-alt-delete (three keys at the same time).  On the resulting screen, select Task Manager.  The Process tab is the most telling.  If you click CPU (top of the column), it should put the process using the most memory at the top.  If not, click it again.  DO NOT stop a process without knowing what it does.  This can cause major damage if the process is necessary for normal computer operation.  Instead, look up the process name on a reliable site like ProcessLibrary.com.  The site will give you an idea which program is associated with the process, what it does, and whether it can be shut down safely.

2.  If the Task Manager doesn’t tell you what you need to know, try What’s My Computer Doing.  It’s free software that gets more in-depth than Task Manager.  The paid version will dig even deeper.

Happy hunting!