Monthly Archives: July 2012

Write a CD/DVD

Burn a CD – or DVD or BluRay

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We’re always on about backing up your computer here at Computers Made Simple. For some people, that’s probably easier said than done. Since CMS (Computers Made Simple) tries to simplify difficult things, we’re going to explain how to burn a CD.

TIP: Burn is a word that means write. There is no real burning done, no temperature change at all. A digital image is written to a blank piece of media (CD, DVD or BluRay disk) using a laser. You don’t have to know how it’s done, just that it’s easy to do.

1. You need blank media, of course. We tend to use DVDs here at CMS. They are cheap and each one holds over four gigabytes of data. We buy sleeves of them at around $20 for 100. BluRay disks, which require a different burner, hold twenty-five gigs and cost a bit more, around $1 per disk.

2. You need a burner of some kind. Every computer sold in the last five years or so has a CD/DVD burner already installed. That applies to all computers except the small notebooks. For a notebook, you’ll have to buy an external writer for around $35. The benefit of an external writer is that you can write to disks, of course, but you can also play DVDs or listen to CDs on your notebook. Win win!

3. Lastly, you need a piece of software that will take care of the burning for you. We love Burnaware and use it exclusively. It’s simple, reliable and, yay, free! Here’s the link to download Burnaware: http://www.burnaware.com/downloads.html

TIP: There are some unscrupulous sites that charge you to download free software. If you read about a piece of software on our site that we say is free, it is totally free. Free to use and free to download. Use our links to get the the correct sites. If you can’t find what you want, search TUCOWS to find it. TUCOWS has been around for years and doesn’t charge for the free software it hosts. (Not all of the software on TUCOWS is free, of course, but there is a ton of free stuff there.)

4. Install Burnaware. Run it. It should ask to run on the final installation screen.

4.5 Put a blank disk in the drive. This is obvious but maybe it isn’t to first time users. Also, the disk goes shiny side down. Any words that are on the disk should be facing up. Before the disks are written, they have a distinctive smoothness that disappears when data is written on them. Compare the before and after disks and you’ll see what we mean.

5. Here is the first screen you will see:

Photo of Burnaware main menu
This is where you choose what kind of disc you want to burn.

Choose whether you are burning a CD or a DVD, then choose what type. For most backups you would use the data choice. The choices here are quite straightforward, but you need to know the terms. For backups, just choose data CD or data DVD, depending on what disk you have in the drive.

6. There are two ways to get data into Burnaware so it can be written to the disk. You can ‘drag and drop items into this menu:

Photo of Add File Menu in Burnaware
Drag and drop files here or use the Browse button to locate them on your computer.

Or you can use the Add Files button which opens up Windows Explorer. Then you highlight the files and choose ‘Open’ to add them to Burnaware. The files are like ink in a pen. You need a pen with ink in it in order to write with it. The pen is the writer, the paper is your blank disk and the two can’t work together until you get some ink (files) to burn.

These days, you’ll probably be backing up photos. Make different folders by clicking on the Make Folder button shown here:

Photo of Burnaware New Folder menu
New Folder Button

Instead of having a thousand photos in the root directory (folder) of your disk, make new folders to arrange the photos in date or subject order. That will make finding the photos much easier later on.

7. Once you’ve got everything on the disk that you want to back up, and Burnaware will always tell you how much room you have left, change the default numerical name to something you will remember. Here we have typed Trial Disk so you can see where to change the name:

Photo of Disk Name Changed
Use dates or words that will let you know what’s on the disk.

If this is a backup disk, put the date where we have typed Trial Disk. Use your own system but be sure to change the name. The default numbers will mean nothing in a few months.

8. Once you’ve added the files and changed the name, press the red button to burn the disk. It’s better to stop using the computer at this point unless you have the latest and greatest model. Burning a disk takes a fair bit of computing power but, thankfully, it doesn’t take too long to complete. Go make a coffee or do some exercises while you wait.

9. The last step is the most important one so far. After Burnaware is finished, the CD/DVD tray will pop out. Push it back in and see if you can read what’s on the disk. Try it on another computer, if you have one, just to be sure that the disk is good and can be read. Once you’re sure that you can use the disk, you can either delete the files on your computer or put them in a folder that is marked ‘BURNED’ so that you know it’s already been backed-up.

10. If you are making duplicates for friends or families, take the burnt disk out, insert a new one, click ‘Advance” in Burnaware and burn the new disk. If your data is priceless photos of kids or pets or family or travel, make a few copies for your own peace of mind.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

Gaming, GT5

An Homage to Hommell – GT5

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What is the best 500PP car in GT5? We asked ourselves that just yesterday. Our answer? The Hommell Berlinette R/S Coupe ’99, at least in our opinion. We had some down time yesterday and decided to clean up some of the A-Spec Seasonal Events that we’d missed. They change the Seasonal Events every now and then, but in this set there were some races that we just couldn’t win. The London Reverse, for instance, was very difficult. We tried a few cars but got lost in the corners with the final back-angle one being the worst.

After sorting through our garage, we came upon the Hommell. We’d used it very effectively in the normal, non-seasonal races, but had forgotten about it when we started cleaning up there. Well, things changed rapidly. London was a breeze, Cape Ring whizzed by with the final lap all ours in first place and Tokyo was a snap.

The only thing we did that might be unusual was to put soft racing tires on our Hommell. That made it stick like glue. If there are no tire restrictions in a race, always spring for soft tires. The handling is very different with them, provided the race isn’t too long.

The best part of the Hommell is that it’s simply a lot of fun to drive. In some races we just want to get it over and move on. In the tough city races with the Hommell, we would enter races again and again just to savour the handling and the power. We’re aching to drive the real thing!

On the Cape Ring Peripheral track, you’re able to go full speed around the circle, and flat out on just about every corner. While the other cars may have more horsepower, the Hommell handles a lot better. Trust us, it’s a sweet ride for almost every 500PP event, unless you’re up against race cars, of course.

The Berlinette is a prize car. You win it in the A-Spec World Compact Car race. We’ve noticed that little improvements, such as adding the fully customizable transmission, make a difference, however slight, in the results. We use the Seasonal Events to finance our love of fast, fun cars. With the 200% bonus that you get for signing-in online every day for a week, the credits you win add up quickly. The Tokyo race put around 600,000 credits in our jeans, for example.

Besides being fast, the Hommell is a very good-looking car:

Photo of Hommell Berlinette
A screen cap from GT5
Photo of Hommell Berlinette
Silver seems to be the best color, we think.

If you’re looking for the best 500PP car in GranTurismo 5, give the Hommell Belinette a shot. We’ll bet you end up in first place very, very quickly.

Thanks for reading!

 

Domain Registration, Hosting, Internet

Register Your Domain Name – part of a series on setting up a new website

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Last time, we talked about some ideas you should mull over before setting up your new website. Since you need a domain name, that’s the first thing you should consider. As we mentioned, we’ve got this diary from WW1 that we’d like to share. Our considerations for a name involved the words diary, war, lion, navy, ww1 and so on. Here is how you search for a good domain name:

Photo of domain name search on GoDaddy
.com is the default name shown here but you can search and choose other letters.

As we mentioned, there are many types of domain. The TLD or Top Level Domains are the most popular and include: .com, .org, .net., .info, .gov and so on. The newest one, .xxx, is reserved for porn sites, in case you haven’t heard about that.

We searched and chose ‘ww1diary.com’. We felt that is was simple, effective and, because of the .com domain letters, it would be easy to remember. Everyone seems to know something something something.com as if that is the only domain out there and that’s the reason we like to stick to .com domains. In our case, it doesn’t really matter because we will depend on Google searches to develop an audience. If you want to develop a business, get a .com for sure unless you are willing and ready to work hard to develop an audience. Brand recognition and .com names go hand in hand.

Once you have selected a name and found that it’s available with the domain letters you want to use, you might want to think about the other variations of your name. If you’re trying to lock up your online identity, why not secure as many other domains that might piggyback on your fame. If you think that Microsoft or Apple doesn’t have every variation of their name locked up, you’re wrong. We still remember when ATI, the video card manufacturer that is now within AMD, didn’t lock up ati.com. They had atitech.com but who would search for that? If you searched for ati.com all you got was a photo of a pile of dog poop, believe it or not. This is a perfect example of why it’s important to lock up as many domains as you can afford if you’re worried about someone else benefiting from your site’s popularity. Here’s an example of a successful domain name search:

Photo of successful domain name search
The .com is available as well as other domain types.

Here you see that many other types of domains are available. GoDaddy offers the .info name for free with the .com name at this moment but don’t expect that all the time. GoDaddy has many revolving offers at any given moment.

After your successful search, continue on through the checkout process. GoDaddy will make offers all the way through, hoping to make a bigger sale than just the .com name but think about each choice carefully.  We just go for the domains, none of the extras. If you don’t want the hassle of renewing often, register your domain for more than one year.

TIP:  We don’t recommend hosting your domain from the same company that it is registered with. There isn’t much chance of GoDaddy going out of business any time soon but their hosting is expensive.  We’d rather spring for hosting with another company, knowing that our domains are safe with GoDaddy.

That’s it! You now own a domain. The next step is hosting your site and we’ll get to that next time.

Thanks for reading!

 

Domain Registration, Hosting, Internet

Set Up a New Website – from scratch!

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We’ve written about all of this before but many of our friends are interested in having their own websites so we’ll do it again. Over the next few posts we’ll give you a step by step how-to on developing your own website. Stick around. It’s not as hard, or as expensive, as you might think. Here are some details to consider:

1. You’ll need a name for your site, of course. We’re in the same boat, almost literally. We’ve inherited a diary from an English sailor which describes his complete military service in World War 1. What makes this diary interesting is that he served on the H.M.S. Lion, the flagship of Admiral Beatty, famous for his role in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. On our new site, the handwritten diary will be transcribed page by page. Each day, a new post will be written, complete with links to the ships and places described in the diary. Therefore, we need a name. We’re thinking of something along the lines of ‘A Diary of War’ but we’ll shorten that down to something more manageable.

2. When it comes to a name, you have to choose what kind of domain you want to use. Everyone is familiar with ‘.com’ (dot com) domains but there are others. This site is a ‘.ca’ site, meaning that the domain is controlled by the Canadian Internet manager, know as CIRA. You can choose .org. .net or any one of the dozens of domains available. Check out the prices at GoDaddy or some other registrar to see what the differences are. Price is always a factor, right?

Photo of GoDaddy page
GoDaddy is cheap and fast and fairly secure. $12.99 is a good deal.

3. Hosting is the next thing you need. You don’t need hosting to get a domain name. Get the domain name first, then look for hosting. We use FatCow. It’s cheap, fairly fast and quite reliable, at least from our experience. As they say, your mileage may very. Let’s see what they have to offer today:

Photo of FatCow website
Price per month is good, usually billed at a full year in one shot. Cheap!

FatCow uses shared hosting. At these prices, you can’t expect a dedicated server and, quite frankly, you don’t need one. When, and if, your website becomes really popular, you can move to a dedicated server. With FatCow, you can add more sites to the same account, as many as you want. If you want to use WordPress, FatCow is perfect for you. It’s very easy to get things up and running. Just because we use FatCow, don’t think that you have to do the same. There are other hosting companies out there but be careful with who you choose. Make sure they offer everything that FatCow offers and that they are a well-known company. Search for reviews on any company before you sign up.

That’s it for now. Next time we’ll go over some of the types of domains. We’re thinking of a .ca name for our new site or, possibly, a .org.

Thanks for reading!

 

Fake Profiles, Twitter

Fake Twitter Profiles – what’s the point?

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As most of you know, we’re on Twitter. We use Twitter to share links to our own posts plus links to other sites that match our interests and political leanings. If you use Twitter, you know that fake profiles abound on that particular social media outlet but we’re a bit confused about our latest discovery. One tiny company, a Canadian company unfortunately, is using Twitter to promote itself but, and this is the sad part, they are doing it in what seems to be a devious, smarmy, backhanded way. Here’s the scoop on what they are doing.

Someone followed us on Twitter. No big deal. We don’t have all that many followers but we manage to pick up a few here and there every week. Unlike some users, we actually try to read the tweets that come through, if not every day, then most days. Sure, we hide some very active users but even they share some good links. At this point, we have more followers than followees, if you know what we mean.

The person that followed us seemed to be OK on the surface but, after checking, we found out that ‘she’ represents a company that has a history of using fake profiles in order to drum up business. First, they create a profile using a photo of a pretty girl. Then they start to add friends or followers in order to promote their business website. This isn’t like BestBuy or Dell using Twitter effectively to promote their business, nothing like that. It’s a rather devious, and silly, attempt to promote a business that should know better.

We’ve seen this kind of thing in China quite frequently. A website will enable direct chats with a sales agent, let’s call her Ruby. There is a photo of Ruby and she looks quite nice, even somewhat hot, if you get our drift. The problem is that Ruby is actually some guy named Tom, no more a female than any of the people who work at this questionable company with the fake Twitter accounts. All the people listed on their site are men. It seems obvious where their heads are when they try to trick Twitter users by using an attractive girl’s photo to promote their business. So far, we’ve found two fake profiles but we’re sure there are more.

A word to the wise, check out who is following you before you blindly follow them back. Promoting your business with fake profiles is no different than spam. We don’t post the name of the website, that’s for sure but we will post photos of the two fake profiles:

Photo of fake Twitter profile
An example of what to look out for. Pretty girl, link to site, no different than spam.
Photo of another fake Twitter profile
They forgot to say ‘long walks on the beach’…

It’s obvious from the company’s site that their clients are dealing with amateurs. First, it’s a WordPress site. That in itself isn’t bad but for a promotion and design company, the slow load times are painful. We can only assume that they don’t have a dedicated server and/or their webmaster doesn’t know what they’re doing. Second, there are typos and bad English all over the site. That’s a vital clue to figuring this all out. If a company doesn’t take the time to edit their own website, you can bet that they won’t give you professional service.

This isn’t a huge problem but we want to make you aware of what’s out there. We’ve outlined the problems with Facebook already. Every now and then we’ll let let you know about scams on Twitter.

Thanks for reading!