Question(s)
1. How do I send you a new question that is not related to one of your posts? I couldn't find a 'generic' link on your blog.
2. What's the best free music download service? I've heard that LimeWire is the worst for viruses, and I can attest to that. I suspect that's the reason I've had to haul my computer into the repair shop 4 times in the past year. Grrrr.
Thanks for the advice.
Answer(s)
1) Just like you did. I allow anyone to post comments, but moderate all so as to not miss any potential questions.
I have also added a nice little link over there ------>
This button will open up a form for you to submit questions as well!
2) Although there are many ways to download music on the Internet, the end user must remember that most of the time the methods of downloading music are not legal. Peer to Peer softwares (such as Limewire) typically are not legal to download "free music" of any kind that contain copyrights of the materials.
An alternative to this are services that are subscription-based. This means you pay a monthly fee and you get to download X number of of songs or you install their software and you pay X amount of money for each song (like iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, etc.). You get the rights to have a copy of the song, which you can then use in much any way you would like as far as listening is concerned (on the PC, MP3 Player, CD, etc.). The downfall to this is that it's not free, right?! :) Well, there ARE free alternatives on the web that are totally legal. The way these ARE legal are because the artists/publishers provide specific songs for free download. One of the most useful sites for this seems to be music.download.com where you can download some songs that have been provided by the copyright owners for free MP3 download. There are others out there, but you have to be careful that you are indeed downloading FREE music and not just pirated music (after all, I cannot condone theft of property, intellectual or otherwise).
To find other free music download sites that are legal, I have done a Google search for "Free Legal Music Downloads." Follow the link to find more! Hope that helps.
Take care.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
iPod Issues - Lost power before disconnect
Question
OK, so my daughter mistakenly shut down the computer while her iPod was still charging. We tried to restart the computer but it wouldn't even load the Windows screen. It got stuck on a dark blue screen. After a couple repeat attempts, we decided to shut down and just unplug the iPod. She hasn't been here to test it yet. What's likely happened to the iPod? (The computer started up fine once we unplugged the iPod.) I get nervous about these iPods cuz I never buy the protection plan.
Answer
You are correct in the assumption that the USB device (in this case, the iPod) was causing the computer to not boot correctly. It's not a frequent issue; however, sometimes when USB devices are plugged into the computer that are active (meaning they are actively attempting to send/receive data to/from the computer) they can cause the computer to function a bit haywire. Whether this is because the USB drivers aren't loaded until after the POST (Power On Self Test) or not, I do not know. What I do know is that commonly removing the item until the Windows Start Screen has shown will allow you to plug them in and function normally again. If you are using an older computer, the hardware drivers seem to load later in the boot process (some of us tech guys remember having USB mice/keyboards that were useless until the machine booted which lead to us having to use USB-PS2 adapters to be able to control the devices during the boot process).
Note that the actually fact that the device was charging versus transmitting data should not affect the answer. USB devices charge over the cable much like a trickle-charger charges nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries. Not all USB ports are powered (many new computers come with the full four ports powered; however, if you are using an older computer/MB it was common for 2 of the four to be powered and 2 of them to not be powered). No need to worry. There shouldn't have any lasting effects on battery memory either that wouldn't have been there already should this have happened more frequently (partial chargings, that is).
As far as the iPod itself, there shouldn't have been any damage done to the hardware whatsoever. If the iPod was in the process of uploading, downloading or updating there could be glitches with whatever data it was processing (i.e. If it was uploading songs to the computer, likely the song(s) being transferred at the time would become corrupted as far as the files on the computer are concerned. Vice Versa for the downloading of songs onto the iPod from the computer. As for updating, this could cause an issue with the software that runs the device, called the Operating System (much like Windows, but the iPod Touch specifically runs a derivative of Apple's Mac OSX from my understanding) If this occurs, a device reset is usually in order if the device is functioning incorrectly (there is a description of how to do a reset on an iPod within the documentation if this is necessary).
Hope that helps answer your questions. :)
Take care.
OK, so my daughter mistakenly shut down the computer while her iPod was still charging. We tried to restart the computer but it wouldn't even load the Windows screen. It got stuck on a dark blue screen. After a couple repeat attempts, we decided to shut down and just unplug the iPod. She hasn't been here to test it yet. What's likely happened to the iPod? (The computer started up fine once we unplugged the iPod.) I get nervous about these iPods cuz I never buy the protection plan.
Answer
You are correct in the assumption that the USB device (in this case, the iPod) was causing the computer to not boot correctly. It's not a frequent issue; however, sometimes when USB devices are plugged into the computer that are active (meaning they are actively attempting to send/receive data to/from the computer) they can cause the computer to function a bit haywire. Whether this is because the USB drivers aren't loaded until after the POST (Power On Self Test) or not, I do not know. What I do know is that commonly removing the item until the Windows Start Screen has shown will allow you to plug them in and function normally again. If you are using an older computer, the hardware drivers seem to load later in the boot process (some of us tech guys remember having USB mice/keyboards that were useless until the machine booted which lead to us having to use USB-PS2 adapters to be able to control the devices during the boot process).
Note that the actually fact that the device was charging versus transmitting data should not affect the answer. USB devices charge over the cable much like a trickle-charger charges nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries. Not all USB ports are powered (many new computers come with the full four ports powered; however, if you are using an older computer/MB it was common for 2 of the four to be powered and 2 of them to not be powered). No need to worry. There shouldn't have any lasting effects on battery memory either that wouldn't have been there already should this have happened more frequently (partial chargings, that is).
As far as the iPod itself, there shouldn't have been any damage done to the hardware whatsoever. If the iPod was in the process of uploading, downloading or updating there could be glitches with whatever data it was processing (i.e. If it was uploading songs to the computer, likely the song(s) being transferred at the time would become corrupted as far as the files on the computer are concerned. Vice Versa for the downloading of songs onto the iPod from the computer. As for updating, this could cause an issue with the software that runs the device, called the Operating System (much like Windows, but the iPod Touch specifically runs a derivative of Apple's Mac OSX from my understanding) If this occurs, a device reset is usually in order if the device is functioning incorrectly (there is a description of how to do a reset on an iPod within the documentation if this is necessary).
Hope that helps answer your questions. :)
Take care.
Friday, November 21, 2008
What I Hope to Accomplish
Hello there. I'm creating a second blog location here in order to provide (hopefully) some answers to the nagging tech questions that some of the visitors might have in addition to sharing some really cool and interesting IT-based stuff. If I haven't received any questions between posts, I will try to find some new technology information to share with you. If I can't find something to babble about I'd be surprised and saddened. :)
A little bit about my technology background:
I've spent the last 10 years both learning and implementing technology in general. I've been in the IT/IS business for 8 of those 10 years. I don't know EVERYTHING there is to know, but I know a lot and the things I don't know I love to look up! :) Part of being the ever-ready learner I suppose.
A little bit about my technology background:
I've spent the last 10 years both learning and implementing technology in general. I've been in the IT/IS business for 8 of those 10 years. I don't know EVERYTHING there is to know, but I know a lot and the things I don't know I love to look up! :) Part of being the ever-ready learner I suppose.
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