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Why Do I Need Adobe Reader On My Computer?

Posted by best buy on Jan 16, 2012 in Tips and Technic

Well, you don’t need it, but you might want it in order to view many of the important files that you might find on the Web. Files that you will find in Adobe’s PDF format are common documents like IRS forms, product manuals, reports, business information, maps, e-books (electronic books) – which includes all formats like novels, plays, poetry, magazines and historic documents – and many other documents.

Let’s take an example: (sorry reader’s outside of the USA, you may not totally ‘get’ this reference!) It’s April and U. S. taxes are due. You start your paperwork and realize that you did something different last year and need another form that’s not in your regular packet.

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OK … what’s the procedure for this … you get in the car, drive to the local post office, park the car, go in and rummage around the piles of forms that are there and it isn’t there. Oh well, get back in the car and drive to the downtown federal buildings and again find a parking place … find the IRS office … look through the stacks of forms to find the right one … finally find it and proceed to make your way back to the car … fight the downtown traffic back home and now you are too tired to work on your taxes!

Whew!! That sounds like a lot of work! Well, I can tell you for certain that there is an easier way to get that form! Here’s the new procedure:

Connect to the internet (however you connect); open up a browser (where you view web pages: like Internet Explorer, Netscape, or AOL’s browser); go to the address bar (box) near the top of the window; type in [http://www.irs.gov;] press the Enter key or click on the ‘Go’ button to get you to the site.

Now, over to the left you’ll see a heading labeled “Most Requested Forms and Publications” and below it you’ll see a list of the most common forms that people request. If your form is not listed, then simply click on the last link in that section labeled “More Forms and Publications” which will bring you to a different page.

Now, this is the most difficult part of the whole procedure … remember now, this is a government web site, it’s not supposed to be easy! On the page there are about ‘500′ links – well, it seems like that many! Anyway, at this point – don’t give up now! – look at your situation – do you know the name and or number of the form that you need? If you do, then simply click on the very first link under the heading: “Download Forms and Publications by:” which will get you to another page with the listing of all the forms available on the site. It looks very confusing but don’t give up yet!

If you look at the first column to the left of the list it looks like there’s no rhyme or reason to it (oh, that’s right, it doesn’t have to! It’s the IRS after all!) – just kind of ignore that column and look at the next column of information. This column will contain the more familiar form name and number and it is in order! You will see the more common forms like Form 1040 and 1040A and when you do, you will notice that the ones that are before it are forms in the 900 range of numbers, so you can see that all you need to do is find the number for the form you need and then choose it.

You choose it by clicking on the line that the form is on and then go down a bit on the page and click on the button that says “Review Selected Files”. You will have a link on a new page for that particular form that you selected. Make sure that it is the correct form number and then go ahead and click on that link. If it isn’t correct, click on the back button and try again.

By clicking on that link, you are choosing a PDF formatted document – by the way PDF stands for Portable Document Format and is also the extension for each document. So if you see a file in your folders on your computer that looks like this: filename.pdf – that file can only be viewed by the Adobe Reader software.

Getting back to the IRS website, when you click on that link, you don’t have to do anything else other than to watch it come up in your Adobe Reader – that is, you will if you have it installed on your computer. Need to get it? Simply go to www.adobe.com where you will find a link to download the software for free!

Now, so you can find it and use it again, make sure that you click on the “Save a Copy” button in the left corner to save that form that you searched so hard for! Also, don’t forget to go back to the list after you save the form to get any instructions that go with the form. Bring it into your Adobe Reader software the same way and you’re ready to work on your taxes!

Now, even though it took a while to write out these instructions on how to get a form from the web site, it is actually a very quick procedure!

So, why do people and companies use PDF documents so extensively?

PDF files are enormously popular because of 2 main features: they retain the original formatting for the document and they are “portable”.

Formatting is the design – the look and ‘feel’ of the document. Easily represented by forms to fill out that need to look and print the same for each person, like the tax forms, it’s meant to be a standard ‘view’ no matter what ‘platform’ it’s viewed on – Windows computers, Macintosh computers, Unix computers or any portable device like a cell phone. Consistency is the key here and that is why people choose to create and transmit documents in PDF format.

Why Do I Need Adobe Reader On My Computer?

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4 Ways to Stop Computer Freezes and Game Lag

Posted by best buy on Jan 12, 2012 in Tips and Technic

If you are an avid online gamer, you most certainly have suffered from game lag and computer freezes. Many have spent hours trying to tweak in-game graphical settings in order to increase the frame rate and boost the performance of their favorite games. However, in more case than not, those efforts award the player with only a slight improvement in overall game play. Your system might even meet the recommend hardware specs for optimum performance but the game causes computer freezes when the action gets heavy. However, tweaking the in-game specs and upgrading hardware may not be the best way to overcome game lag and computer freezes.

This irritation may be attributed to conflicting software that is competing for your system’s resources or improper configuration. Most online games such as World of Warcraft should run smoothly on an average setup. Game manufacturers assure us that their recommended specs should run the game smoothly. However those recommendations are calculated when the games are tested on PCs that were optimized for those particular games. There are very few who are willing to dedicate a whole computer specifically for a single game. Nevertheless, there are a couple steps that you can take to free up more resources for your game play. These tips will allow you to better optimize your PC for smoother game play booth online and off-line. .

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Stop Game Lag and Computer Freezes Tip #1: Get more bang out of your bandwidth.

There are literally dozens of services running on your Windows operating system. These programs have no respect for your online play. They need bandwidth and system resources just as much as your online games. Many of the programs automatically startup when you log on to the net or at the moment Windows loads. Windows service programs can perform a host of operations from searching for updates, downloading, and even sharing applications with your games. The task is to cut down on the amount services running while your are playing the game in order to free up bandwidth and resources. This is a great tip to stop game lag and computer freezes. Here is how.

1. Click on “Start”

2. Click “Run”

3. Type services.msc

4. Select “Extended” from the Services Window to view a detailed description. Also note the status of the service in question.

5. To stop the service, select “Stop the service” or right click the service, choose “All task” then click “Stop”

6. Click “OK”

Stop Game Lag and Computer Freezes Tip #2: Turn off your Anti-virus/Anti-spyware programs during play.

I am sure the suggestion scares you. However, these programs are very taxing on your computer. They can cause game play lag and computer freezes by initiating a host of small applications and processes during game play. Turning these programs off during your game play is not entirely risk free but you will be amazed at the results by doing so.

Stop Game Lag and Computer Freezes Tip #3: Making sure hardware and software can “communicate”

This an extremely important step that many gamers tend to miss. DirectX is essential to most next generation Windows games. High multimedia graphics and sound cards require lighting fast APIs, application programming interfaces, to deliver high end graphics and sound. The API acts as a kind of bridge for the hardware and the software. In essence, APIs provide the language for hardware and software to “communicate” with each other. If there is some “miscommunication” caused by improper setup, you will suffer from game lag or computer freezes. The task here is to make sure that your audio and video hardware is properly configured with Windows DirectX technology by using DirectX diagnostics tools. Here is how:

1. Click “Start”

2. Click “Run.”

3. Type dxdiag and press enter to load the “Direct X Diagnostic Tool” menu.

4. Click the “Display” and “Sound” tabs.

5. Verify that DX features are enabled and there are no problems.

Perform the test were need. If there are any problems reinstall Direct X and update your hardware drivers. Also you can open the Task Manger by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete and viewing the process tab to gauge which services are taking up the majority of system resources. Visit the “Cause of High CPU Usage” page for more details

Stop Game Lag and Computer Freezes Tip #4: Clean and Organize your Hard Drive.

A simple yet overlooked necessity to stop game lag. The faster your game can find files the less you have to worry about game lag and computer freezes. By defragging you help to cut down on the amount work the hard-drive needs to find files. Cleaning your registry cuts down on the errors and will create more free space for your RAM and CPU to work more efficiently. These two steps are a necessity to stop computer freezes. The link “4 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer” will show you how to perform these steps.

Without a doubt the habit of upgrading your computer’s hardware for the next generation of games will allow take advantage new graphic and sound card technology. However, this act makes PC gaming a more expensive hobby than it really needs to be. Hopefully, the tips above rewarded you smoother game play and will help to end your days of computer freezes and game lag.

4 Ways to Stop Computer Freezes and Game Lag

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How to Choose a Mini Laptop Or Netbook Computer

Posted by best buy on Jan 2, 2012 in Tips and Technic

Mini laptops or netbooks are the new category of laptops, they are designed as a secondary system that you can carry anywhere you go. Their size is a little bigger than a paperback book, they weigh less than 3 pounds and have battery-saving features. Mini laptop displays are about 7 to 10 inches together with about 512MB to 1GB of RAM and a traditional hard drive. Unlike other laptops, netbooks have slower energy saving processors, so games won’t run as well.

If you are in the market for a netbook here are some things to look for and watch out for:

Tablet Netbook

First you have to know what you want to use it for and what your budget it. If you are looking for a full featured laptop computer then don’t buy a mini laptop or netbook. The processor of a netbook is less powerful than a common laptop, this is to provide longer battery life. Mini laptops are good for doing homework on a word processing program, surfing the internet, working on spreadsheets or other office work and presentations.

Buy a netbook with a screen size of 8.9 inch or larger, because if your screen is small the disadvantage is you won’t be able to read an entire web page. This is less of a problem if you have a larger screen.

Get a 6 cell battery for it will offer you a whole lot more running time compared to the standard 3 cell batter. Aside from the additional cost you may find it a little heavier, but I think the trade-offs are worth it.

Try out the keypad first, and see if you’re comfortable with it.

Also check the software that comes pre-installed. Is it everything you need?

Shop around, list all the prices you find and compare them.

Do not load heavy applications on your mini laptop, since they are mini they do not have as much memory compared to normal laptops. It is also important for you to know which operating system is best for your mini laptop. Here is some information of the two most commonly used operating systems on mini laptops.

Linux: It considerably lessens the chance of a malware attack because of its smaller user base. The makers also designed its interface to be as easy as windows. There is just one disadvantage, you might have a hard time installing new programs and may need to do some tinkering in the command line. On the whole Linux is getting easier to use all the time, but I would still say only more computer savvy people should choose it for now.

Windows: This is mainly the most common operating system for mini laptops. This OS is compatible with almost every accessory or software program in the market. But because of their massive market share, they are targeted by malware attacks. So you have to have a strong security program.

Mini laptops are much cheaper compared to a normal laptops. So it is easier for you top find a cheap mini laptop deal online. Today there are lots of trustworthy sites online, and if you are not sure if they can be trusted you could always check reviews of them online.

How to Choose a Mini Laptop Or Netbook Computer

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Mini Notebook Computer – Can You Use Word?

Posted by best buy on Dec 27, 2011 in Tips and Technic

Depends on if you have a license for it! Some people think mini notebook computers are slow and sluggish to work with and are only good for running a browser with a single tab, but that’s not true. When you take one in your hands you’ll quickly realize that they’re more than that, much more.

The question I’m facing the most often goes along the line ‘Okay okay, but how fast is it, can I use Word/Excel/Firefox/Photoshop on it’ and I have to go into great lengths citing benchmark results, personal experiences, even stories how I got a website together using one single netbook and nothing else to make them believe that these computers are indeed much more than some people make them out to be.

Tablet Netbook

When you have a copy of Microsoft Word you will have no problem running it and I’m talking from experience. I’ve had my mini notebook for six months now and I’ve got to say that if there is one thing you can do on them it’s word processing. I’m not using Word anymore because I found a piece of software that meets my needs better (Q10), but I used it extensively, especially because it was free.

This Asus 1005HA was sold with a 60 days trial license of Office 2007 and being the curious guy I am, I took the time and tried everything that came with it. Excel works wonderfully too, by the way, I tested it with a spreadsheet that had 45,000 rows and four columns. Doing filters, copying equations through all the way down didn’t take more than 2-3 seconds. It’s not the speed you’d be satisfied with on a desktop computer or a notebook that costs a thousand dollar, but don’t forget a netbook is only 0 or a little more.

The other factor of the final result is always the keyboard. When you have the software and it’s running fabulously, you need a peripheral to input data. It greatly differs on the exact model of the mini notebook computer, not even just one brand. The seashell design from Asus for example is exceptional in this question, 2-3 million keystrokes in 6 months say that you’ll have a netbook made to last if you choose this.

Another one I tried was the HP mini 210, and other minis along the line. They have a similar key design and are easy to operate by even a 6 feet tall male with proportionate hands and fingers.

Any netbook will run Word just fine but I strongly suggest taking a look at the keyboard that comes with them if you want one that fits your particular needs the best. I wouldn’t want you to buy one that doesn’t feel comfortable.

Mini Notebook Computer – Can You Use Word?

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