Category: Technology

Effective Living > Technology Summary. The Fellowes Mighty 8 Surge Protector is one of the nicest and least expensive surge protectors available. Price. The suggested retail price is $17.84 according to the Fellowes product page. They are available for $14.99 at Iowa Book and Supply in Iowa City, or $8.80 at our online Amazon store. Whenever possible,… Continue reading Fellowes Mighty 8 Surge Protector – Review and Information

Effective Living > Technology > Apple Problem Summary. The hot corners are not working. Possible Solution. If a secondary display has been used as the primary display, it may be that the system doesn’t recognize the hot corners of the display currently in use. Click on the Detect Displays option under the display icon in the upper right toolbar.… Continue reading Apple Hot Corners Not Working

Effective Living > Technology Summary. I was recently price comparing and discovered PNY 4GB USB memory sticks for $39.48 at Wal-Mart. This surprised me since the 8GB version (twice as much storage) from the same manufacturer is available from Iowa Book and Supply for about the same price ($39.99). In fact, the 8GB memory sticks are advertised… Continue reading PNY 8GB USB Memory Sticks from Iowa Book and Supply

Effective Living > Technology > Apple Summary. When turning on the Apple PowerMac G4 Notebook with an external display connected, the system will probably want to mirror the displays or have the external display be an extension of the desktop area. It is possible to close the lid and have the external display be the primary display and turning… Continue reading Apple PowerMac G4 Notebook External Video Display Lid Closed Power On Procedure

Effective Living > Technology Summary. APC has always provided quality uninterruptible power supplies and surge protectors. This unit has the advantage of automatically switching off peripherals. From the product page on the APC website, “The Power-Saving SurgeArrest not only safeguards your equipment from damaging power transients, it also helps lower your electric bill. “Master/Controlled” outlets are designed to detect when your computer… Continue reading APC Power-Saving Essential SurgeArrest 7 Outlet W/TEL 120V – Review

  Effective Living > Technology Summary. To reduce the cost of external hard drive storage, it is possible to purchase a hard drive docking station such as the BlacX by Thermaltake. Cost. The drive is about $40 from our Amazon store. The unit we purchased for evaluation was from Best Buy. Advantages. An external hard drive docking… Continue reading Hard Drive External Docking Station for 2.5″ and 3.5″ SATA Drives BlacX by Thermaltake – Review

Effective Living > Technology Summary. When upgrading to a larger hard drive, it is possible to use the Complete PC Backup software included with some versions of Windows Vista to make the transition. An advantage of using the included utility is that SATA drives are more likely to be recognized than with older system image/backup programs. Procedure.… Continue reading Upgrade Windows Vista Computer to Larger Hard Drive using Complete PC Backup and Restore

Effective Living > Technology Summary. “Available in Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions, Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore is a comprehensive, image-based backup tool that will help you out of a tight spot if you need to recover your entire system.” [source] The backup utility software included with some versions of Windows Vista is similar to programs… Continue reading Backup Windows Vista User Files and Complete PC System Backup

Effective Living > Technology Summary. An external hard drive that is formatted as NTFS for Windows will be readable on an Apple computer, however it won’t be possible to save to the drive or make any changes to it. To have read/write access to the drive, it will be necessary to format it as MS DOS FAT… Continue reading External Hard Drive Partition and Format as FAT32 and NTFS for Apple and Windows Vista Use

Effective Living > Technology Summary. Camtasia Studio 5 by Techsmith is an excellent screen recording and video production program that makes it possible to create educational materials by recording from the computer screen along with voice narration. Installation. Installing Camtasia 5 does not automatically remove Camtasia 4, so manual removal of Camtasia 4 would be necessary prior… Continue reading Camtasia 5 by Techsmith – Installation

Technology Summary. Hard drive removal from a Dell Vostro 1400 notebook is different than other Dell notebooks. Follow these instructions for easy removal. Find the panel on the underside of the notebook with two screws and icons that look like a cylinder. These cylinder icons represent the hard drive. There may be a Windows software… Continue reading Dell Vostro 1400 Notebook Serial ATA (SATA) Hard Drive Removal