Our lesson for today is BACKing up your files. We're going BACK to basics! We should expect na ang ating computer ay magka-crash, totoo yan, kahit anong gawin mong ingat eventually it will break down. So bakit pa natin hihintayin na mawala yung mga important files natin? Sasabihin nyo, tsaka na lang tapos kapag nasira na ang pc nyo iiyak-iyak kayo dyan. Kutos yun kid!

Ok, here it goes:

1. You will need to have a removable media, meaning pwede mo syang insert in and out sa pc (Gets? Kailangan pa bang sabihin yan?). Examples of this are:
a. floppy disks [hindi reliable because if you are storing MBs or GBs of files, well ano pa ba? Kailangan mo ng maraming ganito and you will spend lots of time backing up]
b. tape drives [cheap, huge capacities, businesses prefer this]
c. Zip Drive and Disks, I have here sa bahay 3 disks (1-250MB and 2-100MB) and I tell you reliable sya when it comes to storing files kaso konti lang ang gumagamit nito ngayon kasi mahal ang disk, you have to install of course yung software, then konti lang din kasi ang pwede mong i-istore. Unlike,
d. CD-R and DVD-R can hold up to 750MB (for CD) and 4.7GB (for DVD) at mura pa! Use this for long-term archival storage, meaning panghabang panahon, hehehehe...

2. Kailangan malaman din natin ano yung kailangan nating i-backup. One tip I got from an article is this: Make a copy of anything you can't otherwise replace. Meaning, copy all personal data like documents, pictures ng girlfriend and ex-girlfriends (too bad, binura ko na yung mga pics before I backed-up hehehe) music and videos (and other media files), email, favorites (IE), saved games, financial data, at iba pa pong mahahalaga.

Hindi po natin kailangang i-backup ang Windows or any software na pwede namang i-install ulit. Get that?

3. How often should we backup? That's a good question. Backup everytime, all the time. Kasi nga hindi mo alam kung kelan magka-crash/masisira ang pc mo.

4. Another tip for backing up, we should keep our documents in one folder. Why? Para kapag magba-backup tayo, madali, mabilis... eh kung hiwahiwalay eh di time consuming, hahanapin pa natin, diba? (Parang sa Windows yung My Documents, isang malaking folder para sa iyo kaya gamitin mo!) We should be organized, kaya nga may computer tayo eh.

5. Baka sabihin nyo sa My Documents nyo na lahat makikita yung emails, saved games, etc. For that, meron din silang specific folder. Here are some common foldernames: "Saved Games", for emails sa Outlook Express look for this files *.dbx, para naman sa Favorites - C:\Windows\Favorites or C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Favorites. Para naman sa ibang files, use the Search/ Find Files and Folders.

Well, that should do. Meron pa ba akong nakalimutan?

Quick Tip

Here's another alternative for restoring closed active window

ALT+Spacebar+R

Site of the Week

Bandwith Test Place
Test how fast or how slow is your connection. Whether you're using the super bagal Dial-Up or the speedy DSL or Cable. Kung magtest kayo, be sure na wala kayong dinadownload/upload, wala kayong kachat, yung browser lang na yun ang bukas para makita nyo yung maxmimum speed.

I just tested my connection speed, too bad ang rating nila is Slow kasi naman 39.2 kbps lang. Huhuhuhuh Pero ok lang libre naman ang internet connection ko!

Hanggang dito na lang po. Merry Christmas to everyone!

COMPUTER TIPS 19 (December 31, 2003)

What's Inside my PC?

Since, the year is coming to a close gusto ko sana mapa-iba naman kaya in this issue I would like to share to you kung anu-ano ang mga software na gamit ko. Interesting ba or hindi? Just take a peek. I'll try to review every program as brief as I can para magkaroon kayo ng idea. Ok? Here it goes:

Windows 2000 Professional Ba't hindi Windows XP? Halos pareho lang naman yun, XP is just more graphical than Win2000. Try to compare them, you'll see. Pero I'm still planning kung magupgrade ulit ako sa XP. Maybe next year! hehehe
Microsoft Office XP Customized, hindi ko na ininstall yung MS Outlook, meron naman akong OE eh.
Adobe Acrobat Reader 6* Kailangan ko po ito to view .pdf files sa internet. You should have this one. Download
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Para saan ba to? hehehe
Creative WebCam Some of my shots sa Photo Gallery are taken using this. Pwede rin magrecord ng video.
Winzip 8.1 Well, what can I say? Download
IrfanView* Free image/other media file viewer. It supports almost all media files with simple photo-editing tools. Masarap gamitin! You should try this one kung wala kayong Adobe Photoshop. Download

Internet/E-mail (browser and client)
Internet Explorer 6.0 and Mozilla Firebird* Oh bakit dalawa pa? May IE na may Mozilla pa. Isa lang po ang sagot ko: two is better than one. In this way, pwede kong macheck kung may error ba sa isang page or wala baka naman sa browser ko lang. And besides, Mozilla Firebird is one great browser with built-in popup-ad blocker and download manager!
Outlook Express 6.0 I use this to check my Hotmail and other accounts. As I have said sa previous tips, mas maganda to kasi pwede kang magbasa ng emails even when you're offline.
Google Toolbar* Good tool for browsing, built-in pop-up blocker, auto-fill text boxes, page ranking. Sarap gamitin! Download

Chat and Download
Yahoo Messenger Lahat sa pamilya, pinsan and kamag-anak ito ang gamit. And siempre, mga friends and classmates dito nagkikita-kita on the net. May audio conference, private messaging, offline messages, webcam, you can also check your email using this one. Great! Download
mIRC Kapag walang makachat sa YM, dito na lang muna. Download
Kazaa Lite K++* Better than Kazaa, walang mga advertisments, unlimited searching, may IP blocker, faster downloads kaya? Ano pa ba? Thanks nga pala D for suggesting this one to me.

Security
McAfee VirusScan Pro and McAfee Firewall I always update this one since I've installed it dito sa computer. To keep myself secure at all times.
ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall* Due to some compatibility problems ng McAfee sa Win2000, I am also using this one. Simple yet powerful. And free pa! Download
AVG AntiVirus* Another freeware, just started using this last night. Parang gusto ko nang magswitch from McAfee to this. Download

Utilities
Ace Utilities Good for freeing hard disk space, tweaking your pc, registry cleaner, etc. It's free! Download
Ad-aware 6.0* It removes adverstisements and spyware (mga potential hacking tools, cookies and other temporary internet files) inside your pc. Very cool UI, pwedeng i-update and cuztomizable. Download
RegSeeker* Registry cleaner, History files eraser, nice UI, easy to use. Para sa mga mahilig maglinis ng HD. Download
Space Odyssey Isa pang utility for freeing disk space, pwede rin maghanap ng duplicate files. It automatically searches useless files then you can decide kung i-delete mo ba or just archive it.
Spybot - Search and Destroy* This one is a good tool to search and delete spyware sa computer. Very useful! Download

There you are! As you can see, almost all ng gamit ko is freeware. Siempre... sino bang gusto ng may bayad? And besides, pareho lang naman ang ginagawa nila from the paid versions pati pwede ka rin namang magdownload ng cracks/keygens eh. Wala ding games... hindi na ako mahilig maglaro dito sa pc. Tinanggal ko na yung StarCraft wala naman akong makalaban online.

Saan yung computer tip? Here: Try to use yung mga software na nakapost especially yung may asterisk* pero hindi ko naman sinabing gayahin nyo ko, okies? You'll see what I mean. Ayos??? Ayos!!!

That's our show for today. I hope you enjoyed this issue.
Time to say goodbye sa 2003 and welcome 2004!
Oh what a year! Happy New Year everyone!