Your Computer Minute with Peter Kay

Psst..I just got the inside scoop from our sponsors that you’ll be able to view trailers and previews of Movies on Demand on your Road Runner page. Word is that you’ll be able to go to www.rr.com and click on buttons to preview what’s available on demand.

I think this is a cool feature. Lots of times when I’m having lunch at my desk I like to see a short movie or two. And if I can click through and watch the previews, well, that gives me something entertaining to watch and I know that I can go back home at night and actually buy the movie.

This article in the Advertiser was brought to my attention and if you’re a Verizon user you may want to look into it a little closer:

Subscribers of Verizon Hawaii’s digital high-speed Internet service will lose free firewall and virus protection services on May 15, unless they register for the service.

MSN Premium, which now is provided free of charge, will remain free for another six months to those who register, after which regular monthly charges of $9.95 a month will apply.

Well, I guess we’ll all find out how valuable MSN Premium was. My suggestion is that if you weren’t taking advantage of the free firewall and virus services, don’t bother. And even if you were, I’d consider buying something like Norton Internet Security from Symantec which is showing on their online store for $49.95. Subsequent years will cost you about $20 (based on the rebate they’re giving this year for existing users)

Disclosure: Your Computer Minute is sponsored by Road Runner so you’ll have to excuse the shameless (but true) plug that follows.

Of course the folks over at Road Runner are ready to take you under their wing and give you free firewall and anti-spam software so if you’re mad-as-hell this might be a good time to switch.

Listen to this Tip

Are you still slogging through a thick yellow page book every time you need to find a business? If you have a high-speed, always on connection, finding the business you’re looking for is faster, easier, and only a mouseclick away if you use an online yellow page service. I personally use the one at Yahoo and its really awesome as it also gives me driving directions to the listing. The local phone company also has an online version. Its takes a little bit of getting used to the new habit, but trust me when I say that once you’ve switched to using the online yellow pages instead of the fat yellow books, you’ll never go back. Of course this won’t work well if you have dialup because you have to take the time to connect but if you have a high speed, always online connection, using electronic yellow pages is faster and easier than ever before. But you gotta try it to feel it and believe it.

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Listen to this Tip

Aloha, I’m Peter Kay with Your Computer Minute. Everyone likes to use motivational “thought of the day” type of things around their desk right? Some people use calendars, others use posters, and some people use post-it notes to capture meaningful little thoughts that help remind us of what is really important in our life. Have you ever thought about using that computer screen you stare for hours at a time? That’s right! Your computer can become a motivational tool! Bet you never thought of that, didja? Well that’s why I’m here. You see, you probably already have a screensaver installed on your computer that allows you to display text messages as well as graphics on the screen. Use the screensaver’s feature that lets you type in a personal text message. Make this message your little thought for the day and voila! The next time your screensaver kicks in you get the motivational message. Try it! It really works!

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Listen to this Tip

Did you know that Microsoft Word has an awesome tool to help you create and organize new ideas? Most people use Word for typical word processing, but do you use its powerful outlining features? Hit the F1 key, look up “outlining”, and you’ll find a powerful tool that I use for a whole bunch of different reasons. Outlines help me create great documents by helping me transform raw ideas into well-structured thoughts. Anytime I need to take notes in a conversation, instead of using paper, I fire up a copy of Word in outline mode. I find that I can easily capture lots of ideas yet have the flexibility later to organize them into action plans. The best part is that since I entered my notes in Word to begin with I don’t have to worry about filing or losing paper! I know that if you check out outlining in Word, you’ll find a great tool waiting to help you work better and faster.

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