Sue doesn’t understand why her computer is such a nuisance and asks: “Do you remember what it was like before computers?” Yes Sue I sure do remember and sometimes I think life would be better with fewer computers. I know, that’s an odd thing for a guy who makes his living from computers, but I do believe that.
I’m old enough to remember rotary phones and having to actually be home to receive a phone call. Prior to computers answering machines were cassette based and you couldn’t hear messages without rewinding the tape.
I remember when portable radios were either radio, cassette, or CD. It was only until a few years ago that MP3 players became popular. If 98% of the population didn’t have computer access then MP3 players wouldn’t have grown to where they are in popularity.
My fiancé is reading over my shoulder and mentioned typewriters and White Out. There was a time when everything had to be typed and sometimes retyped. Heaven help us if we made a mistake because we’d have to cover the mistake with White Out and type over it.
Finding time to visit the bank during ‘banker’s hours’ was not that easy. Everything had to be done at the branch and was hand written in a passbook by the teller. When computers became more popular in banks, passbooks were still used but were printed.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like without computers. Obviously my career would have taken a different course. I’m sure even yours would have been different – computers changed the way business runs. Computers changed the way everything runs. Cars, traffic lights, this newspaper, taxes, McDonalds all run off computers. Is it worth it?
Mike is building a home entertainment system and asked for my input. He asks, “Can you tell me the basic computer parts I would need to complete a home entertainment system?” Mike, I’m assuming from our conversation earlier that you already have a television and audio receiver. I’ll outline a few common components and maybe a few not-so-common.
I think every entertainment center should have a file server to house your audio and video files. File servers allow access from any computer in the house including your video player. An inexpensive server uses an old PC with a couple decent sized hard drives. FreeNAS is free operating system software specifically for this kind of setup.
My own media center uses a small Mini ITX computer which acts as this primary video and audio player. I have a fairly inexpensive Media Center remote control which has all the functions of a computer mouse and DVD remote control. With it I can play all my media files through both my TV and receiver.
Most people don’t think of media center extenders when they think of building a media center. Basically a media center extender does just that – it extends media files into other rooms in the house where you may not have (or want) a computer. The device ties into your wireless network and acts similarly to a DVD player in that it plays files located on your server.
An odd device which is quickly gaining popularity is the Roku box. With a Roku, movies from Netflix – among others – can be played on your TV without the need of a computer. I personally use a Roku box on my TV in the bedroom. It looks like a little set top box and comes with a remote control. To watch a Netflix movie all I need to do is load it from a computer and it plays on my TV.
Tech-Tip of the week: Ever lost pictures from a camera card? Recuva software is a free recovery utility you can use to get your files back.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can e-mail him at Jeromy@LocalComputerWiz.com or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)