Tech Support

Does Cable Service Follow the Address or the Box?

January 21, 2008

Contrary to past tech-support posts, I'm asking you a question, rather than answering one. I have Comcast high-speed Internet service at my home. We recently moved, and so I called Comcast to transfer the service to the new address, which happens to be about 100 feet away from the old one. Of course Comcast wasn't able to make the transfer as quickly as I needed it done, so I was in a bit of a bind.

So on a whim, I took my cable box from the old address to the new one, and connected it to a coaxial cable coming into the new place, and what do you know, it works! The thing is, I don't know why it's working, or whether it might suddenly stop working at any moment.

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A Dummy's Guide to RSS Feeds

January 17, 2007

You're here because you've heard one of the following terms--RSS, RSS feeds, subscribing to RSS, subscribing to feeds, subscribing to blogs, blogs, blog feeds, etc.--and you're interested but don't know where to begin. Well, you've come to the right place and we're going to help you out.

Useless Lesson #1 - RSS stands for "really simple syndication," and now you can forget it. You don't need to remember that. What you do need to remember is that RSS feeds are a really easy way to get updates from your favorite websites.

Are you somebody who constantly goes to CNN to check the news? Just subscribe to CNN's RSS feed and you'll get updates as they happen. Do you have a favorite blog that you like to visit, but then you forget to and by the time you do again too much content has been posted and you don't want to sift through it? Subscribe to the blog's RSS feed, find out about content as it's posted, and only read what's interesting to you.

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How to Export from Palm to Outlook

January 5, 2007

Believe it or not, I like to use outdated technology. Why? Because it's good enough for what I do. My cellphone is a free Nokia giveaway that I've had for three years. I've been using Outlook Express for years rather than converting to Outlook. But enough is no longer enough, and I'm converting. This week I'm converting to Outlook, and next week I might even get a new phone.

But the task at hand today is that having upgraded to Outlook I'd like to move all the data from my datebook / calendar and contacts in Palm to Outlook, but guess what? Palm only exports .dba files for the datebook, and if you want to get your contacts over then it's no piece of cake either. You would think Outlook would have an easy way to import data from your Palm but if it exists I haven't found it. Enter PocketCopy, the easy way to export from Palm to Outlook.

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How to Set Up a Web Hosting Account

November 14, 2006

My last post told you how to register a domain name for your website. But a domain name, URL, or website address isn't a website any more than a street address is a piece of property. If your domain name is a street address in a phone book and your website is a house then your web host is the property the house sits on. In this post I'll tell you in torturous detail how to sign up for a web hosting account. Shall we get started?

1. Click this link to IX Web Hosting to get started.

Why IX Web Hosting? Because we've tested them out and they're cheap, reliable, established, have decent customer support (not stellar, but decent), offer both Linux and Windows 2003 Server virtual servers, make it easy to upgrade or downgrade, they have an easy to use control panel, and they have little perks, like dedicated IP addresses for every website, which is good for search engine optimization and other things.

Now, let's continue.

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How to Register a Domain Name for Your Website

In running a web design firm I find myself explaining some things so many times to our clients and then I thought "Why not just set up a page on the blog explaining in detail how to do it and then just send them the link?" Then I think "Why didn't I do this sooner?"

Thus, here is the first in what will probably be a number of upcoming tutorials that will explain in painful, step by step detail, exactly how to do things, such as register a domain name the right way. I will include screenshots and explanations that are so detailed that hopefully it will be impossible for you to get confused.

I recommend that before going through the steps of this how-to that you open a new browser window and read the instructions in one window while following the instructions in the other.

And thus it begins. How to register a domain name or url for your website.

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iTunes Freezing Up

November 11, 2006

I recently downloaded iTunes 7.0.2 for Windows XP because I got a new iPod and in order to use it you have to have 7.0.2. That was a few days ago. Yesterday iTunes started freezing up within ten seconds of starting, and although whatever was playing on it would continue playing, I couldn't access the program in any way unless I stopped it from the Task Manager. Today I'm happy to report that I found out what causes the problem and a solution that works, even if it's not ideal.

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Download Old Version of FireFox to Prevent Crashing, Freezing Up, Stalling in 2.0

October 30, 2006

FireFox Release 1.5.0.7 for Windows, English.

You, like me, were excited to upgrade to the FireFox 2.0 browser last week. You installed it, and then you quickly found out that it freezes up regularly. For me, it's so regular that I've been forced to make a decision--install the older version of Firefox, or switch to IE. Since I liked the latest build, namely FireFox 1.5.0.7, I decided to switch back to it. It took me a while to find the file, but find it I did, and the direct link to download the English version for Windows XP is above.

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How to Uninstall / Rollback Windows Media Player 10

October 20, 2005

So you've installed Windows Media Player 10, and now some of your video plays upside down, or doesn't play at all. You've realized you had it better with Windows Media Player 9, but you've tried everything to uninstall it, or reinstall 9, but you just can't get it to work. Yep, I was once like you. Until I found this site with instructions on how to rollback to WMP 9.

I've also copied the text here just in case it disappears from the original site somehow.

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