The Computer Tutor

This week, some fun stuff. It’s good to have computer tips and security alerts and warnings to back up your important data, but sometimes we need to take a break and check out some things that can amuse and entertain us. And really, some of these things can be considered computer-related or technical in some [...] Read more »

Marissa DeMercurio lives in Arvada, Colorado. On December 6, 2014 she finished the North Face Endurance Challenge 50k in San Francisco, California and became an ultramarathon finisher. Congratulations Marissa!

Fun fact: Marissa carries her favorite hydration fuel with her, because it's highly unlikely she would ever see it at an aid station. It's iced tea and lemonade - an Arnold Palmer!

I recently got an email from my friend Preston, who had this question: “I’m wondering why, when you get a new hard drive, you don’t get the full amount of space that it says on the box? When I got my PC a few years ago, it said I had that 500 GB hard drive, but [...] Read more »

Joel Smith lives in Indiana. On December 20, 2014 he finished the Huff 50k Trail Run in Albion, Indiana and became an ultramarathon finisher. Congratulations Joel!

Fun fact: Joel is an ultrafinisher and he's just 17 years old!

After last week’s post and podcast about the dangers of sharing your wifi signal with your neighbor, I had several people contact me about how to keep a computer safe “the other way around”. Meaning, if you are using your neighbor’s wifi signal (with permission of course), what type of precautions should you be taking [...] Read more »

Tony Hanneken lives in Jacksonville, Florida. On December 7, 2014 he completed the Guana Back to Nature 50k Trail Run at the Guana Research Reserve in South Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Congratulations Tony!

Recently I got an email from Barbara in Maine, with an interesting question. She wrote: “I have a next door neighbor who wants to hook into my internet and share expenses. Is that not legal to do? What do I need to know about it?” Great question, Barbara!   I’ll tell you right up [...] Read more »

There used to be a traditional set of guidelines that you could go by, and by doing so you could be reasonably sure that your computer was safe from being attacked or infected by a virus or malware. Use a good antivirus, don’t open email attachments, don’t click on a link unless you know for [...] Read more »

Years ago, hard drive space was an issue that I dealt with more often. Back in the days of 40 gb and 80 gb hard drives, it didn’t take a whole lot to fill one up. Then you started getting the warnings “Drive C is getting low on space”. These days, with hard drives more [...] Read more »

I have 3 mysterious questions for you this week. Don’t worry, there will be a computer-related tip before we’re done here.   Mystery number 1: Why can’t I add simple numbers in my head? This is just a simple addition problem. But you cannot use a calculator or a pencil and paper. This must [...] Read more »