Attachments and Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail....

With client based email like Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird and yes, a variety of other email clients or applications that have integral mail handlers,  when you try to send a link, a picture or a document using the "send to mail recipient" feature of any Windows operating system, the email client opens a new email for you and the link or attachment is already embedded. You put an email address, some explanatory text and off you go.  Try that with any of the web-based email addresses like the aforementioned and you fall right your face. Good luck with that. Here are some solutions:

• Gmail users:  Gmail provides a little piece of software that you install on your computer and which subsequently resides in the system tray appropriately named  Gmail Notifier. It's a simple install and configure. Once installed you can automatically check for new messages every two minutes, see a snippet of text from up to 30 unread messages, select a sound to indicate when you have new mail And... (Drum roll!) Make Gmail your default email application thereby allowing you to click on "send to ...." from any application that supports that feature and be taken directly to Gmail  along with your designated item to be sent, be it a picture, link or a New York Times article.

• Hotmail:  In concurrence with Microsoft Outlook 2003, Microsoft released the Outlook Hotmail Connector which seamlessly integrates Hotmail accounts into Outlook. After installation and a pretty simple configuration you will be able to pick up mail through Outlook and of course send attachments with the same ease as with any other email host service.

If Outlook Express is your tool of choice (or you're using a release of Outlook prior to 2003), try converting to  Windows Live which like Outlook Express is an email client that is installed on your computer and works with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Windows Vista does not support Outlook Express and relies upon Windows Mail, Express' Vista replacement. Windows 7 is delivered with Windows Live on board and supports neither of the aforementioned clients.           Click here for more info.

• Yahoo mail: works wonderfully with a product by Affixa. Actually, this product which is cost and nag free will work with any web based email. Try it; you'll like it.....

Do you Need a ram upgrade?

While it's still not possible to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, you can make most computers run faster with a memory upgrade. This priori holds true, presuming you have no malware on your computer eating up all available resources.

If you're running Windows XP with less than 1 GIG of ram, adding up to 2 GIG will do you well, Windows Vista and Windows 7 32 bit do fine with 4 GIG (and crawl with less) and the 64 bit version of either product, though supporting up to 64 GIG of ram, will run fine with 8 GIG.  Ram comes in a variety of "stick sizes" ranging from 256 Meg to 2 GIG per stick. Further, computers come with 2 and sometimes 4 slots to put these sticks in. Your machine might have 1 GIG of ram occupying 2 of only two available slots, each with a half Meg stick. If you want to upgrade to 2 GIG you will have to replace one stick with a 2 GIG piece or replace both, each with a 1 GIG stick. You should do this with price being the sole consideration.

So how much ram do you have? How many slots? What kind of ram is it? Here's a tool that will not only reveal all of that but give you an analysis of your entire computer without ever having to open the box. Get this tool free at Crucial Memory  and after accepting the license agreement download and run the scanner. You're not installing any software (BTW), the scanner does its thing and reports back to you with the number of slots, the amount of ram as well as the speed of the ram you have now and offer of course to sell you additional memory. Crucial actually is a great company and they have good prices. The software will also report back the CPU type and speed.

Need more info from a computer? Here's an application that will run from a flash drive and give you a detailed report of the PC's configuration down to the very last detail. It also does not install making it a great tool to take with you when going to shop for a new unit, telling you more about the prospective purchase than the salesman actually knows. Here's the Link.

Hard drive full up?

If your hard drive is getting full up and you're not sure with what, try this handy free utility. It will give you a both a detailed and graphical analysis of any drive on your system and let you pinpoint those 4 GIG per pop movies your number one offspring  downloaded. Link Here! I've purchases similar applications for business clients with lots of users all dumping stuff on the company's drive and none work better than this free product.

HDMI is that all in one cable that is state of the art and replaces the cables used to connect those HD cable boxes and DVD/Blue-ray players to that new TV. That HDMI cable at Best Buy that costs in excess of $100 will provide no better performance or connectivity than the one BJ's warehouse sells for $20. So save your money and use price as a gauge unless the cable has to transmit data over a very long distance.

Verizon Wireless? AT&T? Sprint, Nextel, T-Mobile? Those bars only reflect the signal strength between you and the tower not the number of other users trying to connect or having already connected to that same tower. Like any network (and that is what Cell service is, a network) there is a limit on the number of users that can share the bandwidth available from that tower, at any one time. The good news is that most of these people are probably in cars (like you?) and as they move along the road their signal will transfer to another tower leaving room for you.

Have you ever "Elf-ed" Yourself ?

Office Max may not one of the top ten discount places to buy Computer related stuff but their Elf-Yourself gimmick is a winner. You can upload a picture and integrate it into one of several elf videos. The elf does one of several dances, your choice (My Elf LOL), in time with a Christmas Jig. You can email your elf too. Here's the Link to Make your own Elf.