Race down the information highway

If you’re on the road a lot, and need a reliable, mobile, high speed internet connection, try the Kyocera KPC 650 from Verizon. This cellular card lets you surf at speeds of up to 700 kbps on Verizon’s network.

At our last check, the network covered more than 170 cities in the US and Canada, so you’re likely to have access in any major city in these two countries.

The card costs $99.99, plus $79.99 per month with a two-year contract.

"Preview Before You Print” is Excel-lent Advice

Sometimes when you print an Excel document, the data is just a little bit too wide for the printing area. This usually causes your printer to spit out a bunch of blank pages.

This is easy to fix.

Click on Print Preview and you’ll know in advance if you’re going to get blank pages. If this is the case, here are a few things to try:

First, select File | Print Area | Clear Print Area. Then go back to Print Preview to see if the problem has been solved.

If this doesn’t work, you probably have an empty cell somewhere that is causing Excel to create new pages. To fix this, highlight your data, and select Insert | Worksheet. A new worksheet will come up. Copy your data into the new worksheet, and delete the old one. This should get rid of the empty spaces, and prevent Excel from creating blank pages.



Set Your Priorities

When your application starts lagging, it is most likely because a less important application, such as anti-virus, is running in the background, eating up your Windows resources.

You can change this by giving more resources to the important application in the Task Manager applet. Change the priorities by clicking the Processes tab and right-click the file of the ‘heavy’ application. Click Set Priority, and choose a level. When you see the warning, click Yes. It is not recommended that you chose Realtime choice, the highest priority, as it will result in a completely stalled system.

But if you’re having problems such as burning CDs, increase the priority of the CD-burning software. Also, non-important applications can be set to a lower priority, giving the remaining applications a little boost.

You can get a group viewing of the priorities for all processes running on your system by choosing View | Select Columns in the Task Manager window. Check Base Priority and click OK. Each process’s priority information will be listed.

How Long Will My CD-RW and DVD-RW Discs Work?

You may have heard about the recent contention that the information you store on a CD or DVD can only last 2-5 years. While it’s true that a burned disc won’t last as long as an original pressed CD, the situation might not be as dire as you think.

In theory, a CD or DVD could fail after a few years, but in practice it doesn’t seem to be happening very often. These discs have been around for over a decade, and we’re just not hearing a lot of stories about failure.

Still, under the worst conditions your discs could fail over time, so it’s a good idea to take precautions.

First of all, be sure to buy the best quality CDs and DVDs you can get, preferably ones made with stable dyes and gold backings. It’s worth paying a few extra pennies per disc to know that your data will be there when you need it. These are available from KMP Media (sold as Kodak) and Delkin Devices.

Handle your discs with care. Always use a felt tip pen that’s meant for CDs when you label your discs, and be sure to keep them in good quality cases. You should always protect your discs from light, moisture, and heat.

Check your discs at least every two years. Copy a file from an old disc and see if you can still read it.

Don’t settle for one disc. Make multiple copies, store them in different locations, and duplicate old data onto new discs from time to time.

Finally, you should never rely on CDs alone as your only source of data backup. Aside from the risk of eventual disc failure, your data would be destroyed in the event of a fire or other disaster. You should always have some sort of remote back up. Check out our Dependable Safe STOR.

Writable DVDs and CDs are one of the easiest and most economical ways to store, back-up, and transport data locally. But it never hurts to listen to the pessimistic view. A little bit of caution will go a long way in preserving your data.

Vista is worth the wait

At last. Microsoft is finally going to launch their long-awaited Windows Vista on January 30, 2007.

Some of you may already be using Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 7, which resolves many of the security issues that have plagued Windows for years, and offers features that have made Firefox popular, such as tabbed browsing.

Vista will have all these features and more. Windows will take these features beyond Internet Explorer and make them system wide. To experience some of these new features, click here for an online demo.

Microsoft has created a Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor RC and you can check if your Windows XP-based PC can run Windows Vista by downloading this program.

If you buy a new PC within the next few months, chances are you’ll be offered a coupon redeemable for an upgrade to Vista when it becomes available. Pay close attention to the version you’re being offered.

Microsoft has three consumer versions of Vista. Only the Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate have the flashy new visual tricks, such as semitransparent window frames. If your upgrade coupon is only good for the Vista Home Basic version, you may be disappointed.

Business versions of Vista are also available as Vista Ultimate and Vista Business.

To get the most out of Vista, you’ll ultimately need a computer that’s built to work smoothly with the system. The best you can do right now is buy a computer that will be upgradeable to Windows Vista.

So the bottom line is this: If you want a Vista computer, you’re better off waiting for the real thing.

Stop "mouse-ing around" and try these keyboard shortcuts

If you aren’t using keyboard shortcuts already, make the standard universal Windows speed key combinations habitual. Using the speed key combinations (instead of the mouse) will be four times faster. The ability to cut and paste between programs will save time and effort.

Print out this chart of shortcuts and keep it handy. You'll be glad you did.