Safely remove your USB flash drive

I remember when USB flash drives first came out - I thought "what a gimmick - who would use that?". How wrong I was! Now just about everyone has one, because they are one of the easiest ways to carry computer files with you. And like everything else related to computers, they are getting better - and cheaper - all the time.

There is something important to remember when you are using your flash drive. When you are finished with whatever you are doing, you cannot just pull it out. Well, you can, but you are risking damaging the data if you do it that way. If you just pull the drive out of the USB port without the proper preparation, you are sort of "surprising" the computer by its removal. The computer doesn't like surprises.

Before you physically remove the flash drive, open My Computer and see what drive letter the flash drive is using (once you know that, you can close the My Computer window).

Then, look in the System Tray (the lower right corner of your screen). Move your mouse over the icons until you see one that displays the words "Safely Remove Hardware". Double click on that icon.

In the new window that appears, you should see some drives listed (and some other things that are plugged into USB ports, such as your printer or mouse or keyboard). Your flash drive probably is listed like "USB Mass Storage Device" or something similar. There should be a box near the bottom of the window that says "Display device components" and you will see exactly what drives are connected to your computer. Click once to highlight the flash drive, then click on the Stop button.

When you see the message appear in the lower right that says you can now safely remove the device, that's when you can actually pull the drive out of the USB port.

This week's video - apparently this boy had been in the hospital for a while, and this is his first birthday after recovering from his illness. His parents got him a new X-Box. What makes this video so remarkable is his excitement and gratefulness.

Another reason to use Gmail

I have recommended several times that you NOT use the email address that comes with your internet account. Here's another reason.

Is your computer screen dirty?

Just click here and get it cleaned right through the internet!

January 30th - say good bye to MySpace!

It's a fact: MySpace is just awful. It's full of spam, obnoxious ads, and bots that pretend to be human and send you requests to be their friend. If you want to be on a social network, get on Facebook. It's free, and it's where your friends are.

January 30 is International Delete Your MySpace Account Day. I'll be deleting my account that day (I never look at it anyway). Check the list below - if you have experienced any of these, it may be time to delete your account:

1. You spend five minutes writing a wall post only to hit an error message when you try to post it because of all the website glitches.

2. You’re a girl who constantly gets marriage proposals from random men in the middle east.

3. You visit someone’s Myspace profile only to suddenly have music start blasting out of your speakers.

4. You have to make redundant clicks to perform simple tasks because Myspace keeps taking you to advertisement pages where you have to click on “return to myspace profile” in order to continue what you’re doing.

5. You visit someone’s profile only to have your eyes bleed because of terrible page layout with non-matching designs and font colors.

6. Your experience is hindered because of intrusive banner ads that either talk to you or try to reach out and block your view of what you’re trying to look at.

7. You read yet another news account about how some child predator using Myspace has abducted a little girl or that some hoax myspace account has caused a teenager to commit suicide.

8. You’re frustrated with the fact that Myspace doesn’t allow you to post your contact info, meaning to contact someone you can only use Myspace’s glitchy Instant Messenger, message/email system, or wall commenting.

Good bye MySpace, and good riddance.

Get the quickest access to a website

There may be a website that you want to check sometimes, and you just want to look at that website right away. What is the quickest way to do that? Of course, you could just add the site to your Favorites or Bookmarks list, but there is a way that will give you even faster access.

First, open your web browser (should be Firefox, but I know there are some people still using Internet Explorer). Go to the web page that you want to check quickly. Look at the top of the window, in the address bar. You should see a little icon, and then the address that starts with "http". It looks like this:

Now click and drag that little icon to your desktop (that's the main screen on your computer with all the various program icons). You might have to move some windows around so that you can see the desktop area to be able to drag to it.

Now close all of your open windows. You should see your desktop, and you should see a new icon with the Firefox logo, or the Internet Explorer logo, depending on which one you use. To get to your website, just double click that icon and in a few seconds, there you are!

This week's video is a couple of little British boys. The younger of the two is named Charlie, and he is learning to use his new teeth. And enjoying it.

View your System Tray - all the time

The System Tray is that little row of icons in the lower right corner of your screen. It is one of the best indicators of what programs are running at any given time. However, in Windows "default" mode, most of those icons are hidden. That's why you see this:

You can click that little blue circle on the left end to see the rest of the icons for a second or so. Windows thinks you don't really want to see that row of icons. But you do! The more programs you have running, the slower they all run. So if there is a program running and you don't need it at the time, you can just close it for the time being. A common example is MSN Messenger - when you install it, it automatically sets itself to run every time you turn on the computer. And if you can't see your System Tray icons, you don't even know it is running.

Here's how you can always see your whole System Tray:

The taskbar is the bottom of your screen. In fact, the System Tray is the right-end of the taskbar itself. Somewhere in a blank area of the task bar, do a right-click and choose Properties. In the new window that comes up, UNcheck the box that says "Hide Inactive icons". Click Apply and OK. Now the little blue circle disappears, and your System Tray is fully visible at all times.

This week's video is a clip of just a man, singing a simple song that we all know. Can you guess what the song is, before the halfway mark of the video?

Use the free Waker-Upper service

There is an easy way to remind yourself to do something. You can use this free service to:

Set a wake-up call at a specific time
Remind yourself of important events
Remember to take medication on time
Escape from a boring date or meeting
Remind child or spouse to do chores
Set reminders for tasks and follow-ups

Using this couldn't be easier. Just go to www.wakerupper.com and set the date and time for your reminder. You can have your reminder sent as a text message to your cell phone, or your home phone, or it can be sent as an email.

This week's video is a pretty amazing demonstration of precision rollerblading: