My name is Randy Lawson, technology investigator, and when it comes to computers and other gadgets and associated wizardry, I sometimes get lost among all the wires and bytes and lines of data. That is why I work with Matt, Brent, Amy, and Justin of Joplin's Technology Center. And these are my adventures.
I love the internet. News when I want it and how I want it. Streaming services. Baseball. Football. Basketball. Music. But all of that can bog down the performance of your computer. Not like you would think though. But because it slows me down.
I have bookmarks for recipes, for news articles, for technology advances, for hundreds upon hundreds of things. Having so many sites bookmarked really slows me down. When it slows me down, my work rate suffers.
If you don’t keep them organized in some fashion, you end up scrolling through each one like looking through a rack of birthday cards at the bookstore for the perfect one. That takes time. For those of us that do a lot of work out of our home, time is money.
The crew at the Technology Center directed me how to make my bookmarks work best for me. I use Google Chrome for my web browser, and the crew taught me how to use the Bookmark Manager. I cleared the ones I didn’t use or want anymore. I hid some that I don’t use that often and made my bookmarks toolbar more compact and efficient. They also showed me how I could archive the actual webpage instead of bookmarking it, keeping my bookmarks designated for those things I use every day or every week.
Give them a call or send them a message to see what they can do for you.
My name is Randy Lawson, technology investigator, and when it comes to computers and other gadgets and associated wizardry, I sometimes get lost among all the wires and bytes and lines of data. That is why I work with Matt, Brent, Amy, and Justin of Joplin's Technology Center and these are my adventures.
Throughout my time investigating different aspects of technology, I have seen some pretty interesting and wide-ranging collections. But one of the oddest I discovered was in my own home office. A couple weeks ago, I had been washing the upstairs baseboards while I was running the Disk Cleanup tool in order that I might free up some space to help my computer operate more efficiently.
When I glanced over at the screen and saw that the whole process had bogged down, I decided to take the computer, keyboard, and monitor up to the Technology Center for a quick service. Be better to have the professionals do it anyway.
That appointment helped me understand that I needed to not only keep the furniture dusted in my office, it also would help if I kept the dust from taking up permanent residence in my computer. Matt opened the housing and gave it a quick burst of canned air. Who knew I had started an extensive collection of dust bunnies.
He told me dust can build up in the computer’s fan and cause it to have to work harder in order to keep the computer from overheating. And that could lead to a whole laundry list of troubles. He also pointed out to me that I should never use a vacuum for this task, only compressed air in a can.
As part of your spring cleaning endeavors, you can clean your screen with a microfiber cloth. This is a safe and effective method to clean the monitor without smearing or scratching it. Using the compressed air on the keyboards helps get rid of the accumulated debris and prevent further damage.
Be sure to stop by or contact the crew at Joplin’s Technology Center to help you get your computer spring cleaning tasks in order. Until next time.