With Fences you can group your files and programs to your liking. You can change the name and size of your boxes as well as hide them from the desktop completely by double clicking. Double click again to have it re-appear. If you fill up a box with files or programs a scroll bar appears for those you can’t see. So if you aren’t using a file or program often you can keep it on the desktop but not have it showing all the time. It is easy to use and in only a few minutes you can have your desktop organized and looking much less cluttered.

Check it out at http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/ and make your desktop manageable and free from clutter. It’s free for personal use!

Where things start to get more interesting is when you begin to follow other people and keep up to date on what they are posting.  A number of my family members are on twitter and it’s a really handy way to keep up to date with each other’s every day lives.

If you are concerned about your privacy (by default, everything you post is viewable by the general public) you are given the option to lock down your account so that only people you authorize may view your updates.

If you are curious and want to try it out, go to www.twitter.com and create an account. Feel free to follow me, or check out the twitter advanced search page to find people with similar interests, or people in your area.

Here are some main ways to keep your data safe:

1-Log out of your email accounts, facebook, banking etc rather than just closing the browser.

2-Make your passwords safe and strong. Keepass is an incredibly useful password manager that will keep all your passwords organized and let you test the strength of your old ones, as well as any future ones you may use.  We’ll post another article on password security in the near future.

3-Change your passwords on a regular basis.

4-If you have a personal blog you may want to lock it down which limits who has access to your blog. This does have its benefits and drawbacks. Some blog readers may not be able to pick up new posts and users will have to enter a username and password. The positive part is that your family’s pictures and information are kept private.

5-If you are posting pictures of other people especially children try to ask permission if possible and use your discretion. If you aren’t sure don’t put them up.

6- If you are purchasing or donating on the web make sure you #1 Trust who you are carrying out the transaction with and #2 check that the url is https:// not just the regular http:// The s stands for secure.

7-Download only from sites you trust. If you are unsure don’t do it.

8-If you aren’t expecting an attachment from someone who sends an email don’t open it … it’s better just to send them an email and ask if that’s what they intended.

If you would like to read more … and there is a lot more on this subject…check out the article on lifehacker.

Now that you have the program installed open it up and you should see a screen similar to this one:

Main Window of Filezilla

This may look overwhelming at first so we’ll point out some of the main features.

• The left side of the screen shows files on your computer
• The right side will show files that are on the remote server
• The bottom pane will show the files that are waiting to be transfered
• and the top pane will show a log of what has happened

If you are just needing to connect to an ftp once and either upload or download a few files, the quick connect bar at the very top will be the easiest option. If this is a site you will be connecting to frequently, you will want to add a bookmark though (more on that later).

Quick Connect

The quick connect bar is at the very top of the window and has 4 fields. One for the Host, Username, Password, and Port. In 99% of cases you can leave the port blank and it will use the default setting (21). Once you have filled in your information hit ‘quick connect’ to connect to the server. If you have the right host, username and password, you should see a list of files now show up in the right pane. If not, double check that you have entered the correct login credentials.

Connected to a server

The right side will show you the files on the server and any folders you have access to. Before downloading anything, take a look at the left side. This will show you where you are are about to download the files to. You’ll want to put the files in an easy to remember place.

Once you have everything ready to go, you can click on a folder, or file in the right pane to select it (hold down shift to select a range of folders or files). Then right click on the selected items and choose download. This will start the process of downloading all the files you have selected. If there are many large files, this may take a fair amount of time so be patient while it works through the list. In the bottom you will see a queue which shows you what file it is currently working on.

Queue Transfer Status

The process for uploading is very similar, except you choose the files from the left pane, and then right click and choose ‘upload’.

After you have finished downloading (or uploading) your files, be sure to click the ‘disconnect’ button in the top navigation bar.

Disconnect from FTP Server

Since there are quite a few steps, here’s a quick summary of what you need to do:

1. Download and install FileZilla
2. Enter the host, username, and password
3. Choose the files you wish to transfer
   • To download choose the files from the right pane, right click and choose download
   • To upload, choose the files from the left pane, right click them and choose upload
4. Wait for the files to finish transferring
5. Click the disconnect button when everything is done

That should do it for most cases. In a future post we’ll talk about setting up bookmarked sites, as well as dealing with conflicting file names. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions at all.

Motherboard: Click on the image to enlarge and see the labelled components

Motherboard: This is the main hub of the computer, not only does it connect all of the components of the computer together it also contains the sound card, network connections, USB connectors, possibly firewire which is like a USB connector but faster (a place to hook up your video camera or external hard drives), as well as slots for RAM, added Video and wireless cards. In the computer the motherboard sits on small metal risers to prevent  the motherboard from touching the sides of the case.

Antec 500 Power Supply with its large number of cords

Power Supply: This part which is located in the computer takes the power from your wall and splits it up giving a nice even supply of power to all the parts in the computer. You still need a good surge protection bar between the power source and the computer as the power supply cannot protect the computer from any surges of power. This is the easiest part to install but the messiest as it has various cords which are to be connected to the various parts in the computer. We are using an Antec Earthwatts 500- which is suppose to be more energy efficient and quiet. The 500 means 500 Watts… the number of parts you have will determine how much power you need.

Top Left: The processor itself Right: Fan BottomLeft: Close up of the processor showing the connecting pins.

Processor: This is the computers main brain performing all of the calculations and computer functions. We’ve used an Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0GHZ (speed of the processor) which is the best bang for buck at this time. You may have heard of the Intel Core i7 which is the latest line of processors from Intel. AMD is another familiar brand. The processor is a small square, the largest part is the fan which keeps it cool.

RAM: 4 sticks of 2GB Ram each

RAM: The Random Access Memory (RAM) is a temporary place for programs to store information giving them quick access to it. The information will still need to be saved to the hard-drive if a program needs to access it at a later date. We have put in 8GB (4 sticks of 2GB) and we have four slots to put them in. This is a large amount of RAM but is useful for those running Windows 64bit and have large programs such as Creative Suite 4 if not 4GB is a good amount to have. The ram has slots which makes it go in only one way (always helpful when putting together a computer).

Top down View of the Video Card

Video card: This component displays the graphics. Some motherboards may have them built in while others are added to the motherboard. The built in versions are usually not very fast. If you want to do any gaming or graphics/video editing you will want a faster video card. When putting in a separate video card it goes into the PCI express slot (blue slot in the first picture) located on the Motherboard. The size of video cards range from 128 mb to 1GB (we’ve used one that is 512mb).

Video Card Connections:The white one on the right is a DVI connection (newer), the blue one is a VGA connection (older). Not all video cards will have both connections so you'll need to check that you have the right ones.

You will want to make sure you have the right connection for your particular monitor either VGA (Video Graphics Array) or DVI (Digital Video Interface).

A look at the bottom of the hard drive where the circuitry and connecting pins are located.

Hard Drive: The hard drive is where the computer stores all the information (photos, documents… everything!). This is the part you want to back up or at least some of the valuable pictures etc that you have on it should be backed up. We will do a post in the near future on ways to back up your valuable possessions stored on your computer as unfortunately hard drives will die eventually. It’s not a matter of if rather of when. But I digress… the computer case came with rubberized mounts which makes it quieter in the computer and this hard drive will hold up to 1TB worth of information. It is ideal to have a hard drive that stores at least 500GB (1TB=1000GB).

The empty computer case with the boxes of components ready to be installed.

The computer with its numerous parts installed and almost ready to go!

Pheww… We made it! Those are the main components in a computer. Please email or leave a comment if you have any questions or would like further information. We’ve included a before and after picture of the computer.

Choosing a task manager in many ways comes down to personal preference. Remember the Milk is a popular Free online task manager solution. You have to create an account and then you can log in and begin adding tasks, colour coding them, setting due dates as well as adding tasks that repeat on a regular basis. You can also make task lists under different categories such as work, home etc. and the great feature of it being online means you can access it from anywhere, your iPhone, work computer, home computer etc. The downfall for someone like myself is that I forget to sign into the program.  There is a seperate application called Remember the Task that you can download from Adobe Air which will let you have a task list that sits on your computer and you can add and remove tasks. This is helpful for those of us who don’t want to have to log into yet another application. Many people find Remember the Milk quite handy.

I use a Free (donations accepted) downloadable program called Mini-task. I find it extremely easy to use and for those of us who take satisfaction in seeing a bunch of check marks at the end of the day it turns your “done” tasks green. In Remember The Task you can only delete the task. You can easily add/remove headings (the ones in the image are just the ones that work for me) so you can customize your list into your own sections. All you have to do is right click and you can add/remove headings, add/remove tasks and you can also remove all completed tasks at the same time.  You can easily print off your tasks or even copy & paste them into an email if you want to look it up on your mobile device while your at the grocery store etc. One handy feature I’ve appreciated is the ability to drag & drop tasks between categories and re-organize them as needed.

I appreciate the simplicity of MiniTask and by using it during the past few months it kept me organized with school, our newly started business (Triple I Web Solutions) and household needs including preparing for Christmas.

However, there are always new applications being developed and I have just heard that in the last two weeks Google has added a task manager to gmail so I will be trying that out shortly… I am a big fan of Gmail and it’s Calendar system so I am eager to try the task manager out.

If you have any questions related to the above post feel free to send them to questions@theuntechblog.com We’ll try to reply to all emails received or write a blog post if there are many of the same questions popping up.

Check back soon for our first post. We hope to add something new once a week. For those looking for a great blog that takes a look at the more complex technical aspects of computing and programming check out www.danklassen.com

Please feel free to send any questions or topics you would like us to cover to questions@theuntechblog.com