Home & Small Office Computer Guide

December 11 2008 marks a change of direction for the Home and Small Office Computer Guide. In the past the Guide has brought you some of the latest technical gadgets that are out there but from now on it will be your window into two computer related businesses in Hervey Bay.

Fraser Coast Computers is the first business. It’s a busy computer store in Hervey Bay that specialises in custom built computers and guaranteed computer repairs. The shop also stocks hard to get items motherboards and equipment that gamers love to add to their set up at home.

Geeky Gifts is the second business that you will be able to check out here at Home and Small Office Computer Guide. As the name implies Geeky Gifts is all about gifts that only a geek would love and you will find some crazy USB things here as well as some useful but quirky items too.

Fraser Coast Computers does not sell online although you can phone with your credit card details if you want to purchase something that is in stock. Geeky Gifts on the other hand is an online shop and if it’s in stock then you can purchase it online and have it delivered by Australia Post.

You may have noticed if you’ve been poking about that both businesses share the same address but we are two totally separate businesses owned by entirely different people. We just happen to share office space and this blog.

Now I have to admit that I’m a bit of geek when it comes to quirky USB gizmos … I guess that’s why I run Geeky Gifts … so this pair of USB batteries certainly caught my eye and I’m just going to have to get some.

The specs are:

• Built in SmartCharger
• Charge by powered USB
• NiMH - Nickel Metal Hyrdride
• 90%+ Charged after 5 Hours by powered USB
• Also rechargeable by approved NiMH charger at 250ma for 7 Hours
• Small blue light active when charging batteries

I’d love to be able to tell you that they’re available on Geeky Gifts but they’re not. However you can head over to Zazz.com.au and you’ll find them there … but hurry, their business model is “one day, one thingy, one chance” and they really mean it.

If you haven’t noticed let me tell you that laptops are getting bigger. They’re a bit like cars, a manufacturer introduces a small car and over the years the small car gradually gets bigger and bigger until suddenly the manufacturer finds that there’s room in their line-up for another small car.

That seems to be what some laptop manufacturers have just discovered and now we’re seeing the introduction of a genuinely small laptop. There are several manufacturers who are in the market but Asus seems to be the leader at the moment with their Eee range.

In case you’re wondering about where they got that unusual name then you’ll find tghe answer on Asus Eee home page.

This laptop is a genuine notebook sized computer. It’s just 7 inches or 17cm on it’s longest side and it weighs just 0.92kg.

There are several models in the Eee range but they all come with WiFi connectivity and a solid-state hard drive. Asus suggests that their Eee laptops are so user-friendly you don’t even need a technical manual.

Have you ever dreamed of owning a laptop with a battery that lasted longer than just a couple of hours?

How would you like a laptop battery that lasted for 40 hours?

A discovery by researchers at Stanford University could be the start of turning those dreams into reality. You can read more about it here.

Windows Vista is one year old this week and it hasn’t been a very happy birthday.

Take up of the new operating system has not been what Microsoft were expecting and they are still seeing plenty of resistance from business and educational institutions.

Here in Australia savvy buyers are still tracking down PCs and laptops that come loaded with Windows XP and in the United Kingdom the agency that governs educational technology has advised schools to keep Windows Vista and Office 2007 out of the classroom and the administration offices. You can read that story here.

Meanwhile major retailers here in Australia aren’t helping Microsoft much. One major chain is selling laptops loaded with Windows Vista but only half the RAM recommended for the operating system.

In the last week or so we’ve been coming across a number of people who have been having some serious problems with Internet Explorer … and usually Internet Explorer 7.

The problem has reared it’s ugly head when users with Internet Explorer 7 have tried to log on to their Gmail account. Instead of seeing the log-in screen it seems that most of them have been seeing a blank page.

One of our clients gave us a call during breakfast on Saturday morning when he found for the third day in row he couldn’t access Gmail at all. We went round and fixed the problem in a couple of minutes.

If you’re having that problem all you have to do is uninstall Internet Explorer 7 via the Control Panel and then reboot the computer. When the computer restarts it will pick up IE6 and that version of Internet Explorer sees Gmail with no problems at all.

If your still wondering whether or not you should switch from Windows XP to Windows Vista so new performance tests that compared the two systems may make you think again.

In tests conducted by Devil Mountain Software Vista was noticeably slower than XP when working through a benchmarking test on what could best be described as a slightly better than average desktop computer.

You can read the full report here.

Ever since the release of Vista there have been many businesses that have found that a lot of software problems came with the new operating system. Many programmes that small businesses in particular depend on simply don’t run under Vista.

That situation has seen an upsurge in the number of new computers being brought into computer repair shops to have Vista removed and XP installed. Now it seems that Microsoft has bowed to the inevitable and is allowing the big PC makers to offer XP once more … but only in certain circumstances.

You can read more about Microsoft’s shift here

We should all know by now that being exposed to cigarettes can have a very detrimental affect on our health but I don’t think that any of us realised that the office printer could be just as dangerous.

However, a recent study by the University of Queensland, here in Australia, has found that some brands of laser printer can emit particles in high enough amounts so as to be just as damaging to anyone nearby as a cigarette. The study is called ‘Particle Emission Characteristics of Office Printers’ and you can find it by following the link.

Like all university studies it can be rather heavy reading but if you want to cut to the chase then scroll to the bottom and you will find a list of those laser printers that were tested by the University and a report on how well they did in the test.

It seems that a growing shortage of major laptop components could impact on some laptop manufacturers over the coming months. Everything from screens to hard drives have been in short supply for some time.

You can read the full story here