A Cheap Way to Display Your Computer on Your TV

Your tv will need to have an RGB/VGA input. I used to stream my Mets games to my tv, but because they are horrible right now, I haven't had the need.

http://www.cablestogo.com/product_list.asp?cat%5Fid=3430

AT&T U-Verse

AT&T U-Verse and the end of Fiber Optic Internet (FIOS) – There’s a lot of buzz in some neighborhoods because AT&T is starting to rework some street cabling for a service they will be offering called U-Verse. U-Verse will allow AT&T to directly compete (yes, here we go again all you Americast / Bellsouth Entertainment customers who have Lorenzo and Curtis on speed dial) with Comcast and the Satellite companies. They will be able to provide high definition signals over your existing phone lines. There’s a lot of speculation where and what features will be rolled out but I might be an early adopter of the technology and I will be sure to provide a full report!

The following information comes from Jon in Wynterhall today, one of the three Dunwoody neighborhoods who were ‘lucky’ enough to be part of the BellSouth Entertainment test area, AT&T (Bellsouth)’s last attempt at competing with Comcast.

“It's official. Cable service (the fiber optic coming into the house) goes away by June 23 and cable modems supposedly went away in March (though ours is still working.) I have two letters (one about cable modem that I never received but that they faxed to me today) and one about the cable tv service going away. Basically the new offering to soon to be former customers is go to DSL over the copper phone line.”

I talked with the AT&T sales rep at the store in Dunwoody. Uverse will require 5-7 hours to install from AT&T. Good luck.

Windows XP - MARK THE DAY

On June 19th, Dell will supposedly stop selling computers preloaded with Windows XP.

Migrate from AVG 7.5 to 8.0

AVG has updated from version 7.5 to version 8.0. As usual, the panic has set in that people feel they have to pay for the new version. That is NOT the case. It is still free and I still recommend it. The only problem is that the email virus scanner only works for 30 days unless you pay for it. I don’t like that, so I am testing another antivirus (called Avast!). It’s a bit more confusing to use but it’s free and it gets rave reviews from others. As of right now, I don’t have a date that you need to stop using 7.5 but I am sure they will alert you through pop-up messages as they did when 8.0 first came out. If scanning for email viruses via Outlook or Outlook Express isn’t a requirement, then go for AVG.

You can go to http://filehippo.com/download_avg_antivirus/ and download it. Run what you've downloaded and it will automatically uninstall AVG 7.5 and install AVG 8.0.

How Much RAM for Windows XP?

RAM - I highly recommend at least 512 Meg of RAM in today’s computers. With programs like iTunes, AOL, HP printer software, and Norton, each update requires more space to stay in memory. You can easily find out the amount of memory in your computer by going to START \ RUN \ WINVER or go to the CONTROL PANEL \ SYSTEM. You can tell how much memory you’re using by clicking on hitting Control-Alt-Delete and look at the lower graph (in XP). If that number is greater than the amount of memory in your computer, you will need either to reduce the number of programs running in the background (no, pictures, videos, music doesn’t constitute running in the background) or add more memory. I like going to www.crucial.com and running their system scanner. FYI, if you were to buy a new computer today, I would recommend at least 2 Gigs of RAM, regardless of whether you choose XP or Vista.

Recycling Event - June 14th

Electronics Recycling Event #2 – June 14th, 8am – 3pm – Morgan Falls Athletic Park, Sandy Springs – Keep North Fulton Beautiful is sponsoring a computer / furniture / bicycles / tires / appliances / NO HOUSEHOLD GARBAGE recycling event. For more information, please call 770-551-7766.

Dekalb County Recycling Event - May 24th

Electronics Recycling Event #1 – May 24th, 9am – 1pm – Brook Run Park, Dunwoody - Keep DeKalb Beautiful will offer residents of DeKalb County and metro Atlanta another opportunity to recycle their old electronic items properly and reduce the environmental liability of hazardous material entering Seminole Landfill. It’s estimated that there are at least 4.4 million PCs and 8 million Televisions in 3 million households in Georgia. This e-waste will eventually become 334,800 tons of e-waste that will end up in our landfills. Their goal is to promote the recovery, reuse and recycling of obsolete electronic equipment, and to encourage the design, manufacture and purchase of environmentally responsible electronic equipment. (text stolen without permission from the Dunwoody North Web Blog, I don’t think they’ll mind.)

More Information Here: http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/beautiful/pdf/SpringWaste08.pdf

Critical Update for HP Desktop Users Running XP SP2

If you are running an HP Desktop Computer with an AMD Processor (you will have a sticker on the front of the CPU that will state AMD and not INTEL), do NOT install thr automatic update for Windows XP SP3. Doing so might cause your computer to go into an endless reboot cycle. The problem is that the image that HP used to install your initial computer’s XP installation is wrong and clashes with the Windows XP SP3 update. If your computer goes into an endless reboot loop, do the following:

Upon reboot, after the HP screen but before the Windows XP screen which will fail and start the process again, repeatedly tap your F8 key until the Safe Mode / Normal Mode menu comes up.

Choose Safe Mode

Once it boots, Click START, RUN, and type the following (without the quotes):

"sc config intelppm start= disabled" (and hit the enter key)

Reboot the computer. It will start in Normal Mode. Finished.

This should prevent a service call from Dunwoody PC or anyone else. I haven't gotten any calls on this yet, but I do have many users with HP computers (including 3 myself), so you need to be prepared. It is NOT a big deal to fix it the way I've described. You might want to turn off Automatic Updates until this issue is ironed out. If you have an HP desktop computer as described, you can do this yourself by going to CONTROL PANEL, AUTOMATIC UPDATES, and then Selecting TURN OFF AUTOMATIC UPDATES.