Before You Ask Friends and Family for Technical Assistance:

Do you require any technical assistance? If so, and you are willing to read an interesting article (just click the image below), please get to the end before you accuse me of 'whining'.

Fixing your Friend's or Family's Computer

TWiT Network

No 'er' about it. 

It occurred to me recently, after a long conversation with a friend about Android, that I had never promoted my favorite technology news website +TWiT.   (twit.tv)

On their robust network of shows, I have never missed an episode of +All About Android (AAA) or This Week in Google (TWiG), but sadly admit that there just are not enough hours in the day to catch all of the other 30+ themed shows from security, law and daily news through to HAMM radios and home entertainment. All while, of course, covering Android, Google, Microsoft, Apple and a bunch more in between. 

Chromecast, or Not to Chromecast?

That is the... er, let's call it... a question.

For a very affordable $35, you can get your hands on Google's entry into the 'tiny-pc-for-your-tv' market, the Google Chromecast. You may be asking yourself where this stands versus GoogleTV, this is smaller. For those that have not heard of it yet, it is a USB stick sized unit that plugs into the HDMI input on your tv, is powered by usb (from your tv, or the supplied power unit) and let's you play online, and some offline, content on your television.

The primary use-case would be to fire a YouTube video from your Android Tablet up to your TV so you can continue to surf on your tablet. Sounds magical so far, but is it? Depending on your needs and expectations, yes, it is magic. If, however, you just wanted to play content you already own, maybe not so much.

Let me explain. Right on the box it advertises that it can handle YouTube, Netflix, Google Play content (video and music) and pass a tab from your Chrome browser. The first thing you'll notice is that the first three items are streaming services, if your home internet regularly leaves you buffering, don't expect the Chromecast to speed things up. If you are lucky enough to live in a Gigabit world, where buffering is not an issue, you will love the Chromecast for these services. Luckily, audio is a little easier to tackle, so popping your music to the tv, via Google Play Music, is a snap.

System Update

I previously posted that I was using an all Windows environment, and that I was about to install Windows 7 on most of my machines. I had done that, I ran the Windows 7 beta from start to finish, but I never did make a full install after that.

I moved to the world of Linux!

I messed with a few main distros, but landed on Ubuntu. As I came to learn later on, the distro didn't matter to me so much, I really fell for Gnome and Nautilus. Today, my main machine (is actually my Android Tablet, but let's ignore that a moment...) is dual booting Ubuntu 12.04 and Mint 13. Both fully fitted with Gnome. I do have a secondary machine that is running Windows 7, but I don't like it, it is for work purposes and all that.

Microsoft Security Essentials

     For those still using a Microsoft Operating System, the world of computer viruses is becoming more and more sophisticated and robust on a daily basis. We all try to use best practice to keep ourselves and our computers safe from harm, but nothing works better than a solid antivirus program. There are many on the market ranging from simple and free to super-complicated and way too expensive. 

   Across our machines and through personal experience, we have tested over a dozen different antivirus programs, most of them free, and have found our favorites. For the category of "Ease Of Use," nothing we tested compares to Microsoft Security Essentials. It is a wonderful set it and forget it program that does everything it needs to keep you safe. Just look for the Green House in your task tray and you know you are covered. 

  We recommend this program for anyone that isn't sure if they have antivirus already and don't want to be bothered with performing any tasks to ensure security. 

  For those that want to take hands on control of their antivirus security, check back next month when we will be announcing our favorite for the category of "Advanced Options."