Computers have certainly come a long way since I sat down at my Commodore 64 in 1983. That's especially true when it comes to laptops. Today, we can carry a laptop, either Mac or Windows PC, that has more power and abilities than those original computers that filled entire rooms. They are light and thin, …
Category: Info
What’s That Small Port On My New Computer?
Recently, when I've sold and delivered a new computer to a customer, I explain to them that their new device has a small port called a USB-C. As you can see in the picture above, the port and cable are rounded unlike the traditional USB which is more rectangular in shape. Also unlike the old …
Change Is Not Always Bad!
We've initiated three new blog-related changes. First, our entire blog is now secured with our SSL certificate. No matter what page of our blog you are on, you will see the locked padlock and the "s" as part of the https//. What this means is more security while you're on our site. Speaking of security, …
It Can Happen To Anyone!
Yes, even to computer companies! Yesterday, around 2:00 p.m., our Internet went down. This will happen from time to time and it usually comes back up in 5 minutes or so. Not yesterday! We were down, down, down! As you can see from the picture above, we had to resort to doing things without the …
Two Blog Email Items Of Interest
Last week, I told you about the edition of our chat box. (Mr. Watson, Come Here) In this post, I want to talk about two items related to our blog email. The first is a new feature that we've added - a blog post email signup in the right-hand column of our blog pages and …
Gus In The Backyard
If you live on Florida's Treasure Coast and have ever come to one of our live seminars, you probably recognize the Cairn Terrier in the picture above. He's Gus and he's a character! Gus is going to help us with our blog post today! One of the questions we get asked often is, "What photo …
Eject – A How 2
In yesterday's post (Old Wives' Tale), I explained the importance of properly ejecting USB drives and memory cards. I promised I'd explain how to do that in today's blog post. We actually have tutorials covering this procedure on our help page (4kcc.com/help) under Computer Hardware Issues. If you have Windows computing devices, learn how to …
Old Wives’ Tale?
For some of you, today's post will be new information. For others, it will be a friendly reminder! If you perform a Bing or a Google search on today's topic, you'll find varying opinions. But, I'm asking you to forget searching and, instead, rely on my almost thirty-six years of experience working on computers. USB …
FB? IG? Change Your Password
Facebook has discovered that millions of Facebook, Facebook Lite and Instagram account user passwords were being stored in plain text on Facebook servers. Just like we always tell you, our customers and friends, you should never store your passwords in plain text, without encryption. For a huge entity like Facebook to make this mistake is: …
Mr. Watson, Come Here
Today, I'm adding a new feature to the blog. It will appear on the blog Home page, Product Specials page and Privacy page. You'll see it in the lower right-hand corner if you sit on one of these pages for twenty seconds or longer. What is it? It's a chatbot (definition: a computer program designed …
This Is Not A Short Joke
Shortened URLs are no joking matter! Although there are plenty of jokes around about short people (and even a pop song), today I want to talk about shortened URL addresses. There are a number of great services that will allow you to shorten a web page's address (more technically known as its URL - Uniform …
Tag! You’re It!
You may not have given it much thought but, perhaps, you have noticed that your photos are often sorted by date-taken on your computing devices. This organization is made possible by something called metadata. Metadata is information that is attached to every picture you take with a camera, tablet, webcam or smartphone. The capability of …
Learning Differences
A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I used to be a high school vo-tech teacher. I taught Graphic Arts, Electronics and Appliance Repair. I learned many things while teaching just by observing my tenth, eleventh and twelve grade students. One such lesson was that people generally learn better by one …
Update Week!
This week we celebrated Patch Tuesday. That's the second Tuesday of the month when Microsoft (mainly) and other software companies release updates for the month. Your Windows PC should automatically download and install these updates but you can always check for yourself, if you like. If you're a Remote Technical Support customer (www.4kcc.com/rts), you can …
I Got The T-Shirt!
Yesterday, the world came crashing down for those addicted to Facebook and/or Instagram. The apps, both part of the Facebook Social Media family, stopped working correctly. The outage affected people differently. For instance, I didn't have any problems logging into either platform but I couldn't "Like" any posts and I couldn't comment. As soon as …
It’s A Never-ending Story
Today is International Pi Day! Why? Because Pi - which is an irrational number - starts out with 3.14. Thus, March 14th (3-14) became Pi Day. Actually, the exact time for celebration is 1:59 pm so that the exact number 3.14159 (the first 6 digits of Pi) can be reached. What does Pi Day have …
4KCC Shortcuts
Using a computer is all about saving time! Did you know that we have a ton of shortcuts to get to various areas of our website and that these shortcuts will help you navigate our site faster? Instead of first going to www.4kcc.com and then using the menu to find things, you can go directly …
That’s 1
As I've often related to my customers, it's not always easy to go after a computer scam company. You know, the ones that call you on the phone and tell you your computer is infected. Or, the ones that cause those pop-ups that tell you your machine is infected and you shouldn't shut it off. …
It’s That Time Again!
https://youtu.be/gMoTjTYBrqg
Jump Right To It!
Today's post is only for users of Microsoft Windows. I apologize to all my Apple users! One of the time-saving features that I see customers ignoring is something called "Jump Lists." Jump Lists allow you to quickly open something you've opened recently and you can even pin something to the Jump List that you use …
Laptop Surge Protection
A customer who had just purchased a new laptop from me a few weeks ago, called me and told me that laptop was dead. He had used it in the morning but in the afternoon, nothing - no lights, no sounds, no image on the screen. I immediately suspected that the unit was not charging …
Creepy or Cool?
One day last week, I was on my computer and I searched "Creating a podcast." I wanted to get information on what it takes to start a podcast, i.e., what equipment you need, how do you build your audience, etc. I clicked on a couple of search result pages and quickly skimmed some paragraphs. I …
Recycle?
Recycle, Recycle!Computers and More Yesterday, we sent almost one hundred computers, printers, monitors and battery backups to the recyclers. Because we are a computer company, we are mandated by the state of Florida to use a state-certified computer recycler. The nearest company is in North Miami. In years past, we always had to transport all …
It’s A Process…Or…
In this, the third and final blog post on processors, I'm going to talk about threads. Understanding threads is not an easy task and there's really no reason for us to delve into the technical details. In the simplest of terms, a processor thread is where the highest level of code execution takes place. A …
Sock It To Me…
In our second blog post about processors, I want to explain processor cores. Pictured above is a processor socket. Originally, one single processor would fit into a socket like this. The result was a single processor per computer. Processor manufacturers wanted to find a way of increasing the abilities of a processor without using more …
It’s A Generational Thing…
Today, let's talk computing hardware. Nothing happens in a computing device without the CPU. Oh, I know - another techie acronym. CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. For short, we just call it the processor. Please note that people sometimes refer to the tower of their computer as the CPU but that is incorrect. The …
The Secret Service…
Computers and the devices which have followed were never meant to be just fancy typewriters and searching machines. Right now, I'm reading the Clint Hill book, Mrs. Kennedy And Me. Well, not actually reading it - I'm listening to it. If you're like me, finding time to read books is tough. Climbing into bed at …
Xfinity Customers – Missing Emails?
Did you know you might be missing important emails because they are being deleted before they ever get to you? We all know about Spam emails, right? Did you know that all email providers have Spam filters running on their servers? What happens to the emails after they are caught in the Spam filter depends …
Hmmm Now What?
It's just an ordinary day in your email but something's not right! You've just opened an email with a link and when you click on the link, nothing happens. You try again...click, click, click on the link but to no avail. What the heck is wrong? Maybe something's not right with this particular email. You …
Video & Snapshot?
Today, I'm sharing a little trick with your Android or iPhone. Did you know that when you're shooting video with your smartphone, you can also take a snapshot - without stopping the video? You absolutely can take a single picture while shooting video and it's easy! Just make note of the camera shutter button to …