Category: Technology

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

Effective Living > Technology Product Summary. The Western Digital Passport portable hard drive is a self-powered external USB shirt-pocket size hard drive available in 120, 160, 250, and 320 GB storage capacities. These drives are available from the Resources for Life.com online Amazon store. Problem Summary. When used on some older computers, such as the… Continue reading Western Digital Passport Portable Hard Drive Insufficient Power on Apple PowerBook G4 Notebook Computer

Effective Living > Technology Problem Summary. When attempting to view an RSS Feed from Apple Safari or Apple Mail, an error is produced stating: “The feed could not be loaded because the content is not in a known feed format.” Problem Solution. Follow these steps to resolve the problem. Apple Mail seems to rely upon Safari. When Apple… Continue reading Apple Mail or Safari RSS Feed Error from WordPress

Effective Living > Technology Summary. For most people desiring a Windows notebook, for about $700 (after $328 instant rebate) the 15″ Dell Vostro 1500 should work just fine. The $700 configuration is what Dell refers to as “Enhanced Graphics & Services.” High Performance Configuration – $1,970. For greater performance and a longer warranty, consider the following… Continue reading Recommended Windows Notebook – Dell Vostro 1500

Effective Living > Technology Summary. The current recommended desktop computer is the Dell Vostro 420 Mini Tower. The configuration package called “Extreme Performance Package” is about $1300 once configured. The price includes includes a 20″ display. Although the “Extreme Performance Package” configuration is probably fine for most users, some users may need additional power. Below is a… Continue reading Recommended Windows Desktop Computer – Dell Vostro 420 Mini Tower