Invest in Anti-Virus Software

Don't ever consider this as a waste of money, or don't get annoyed with the repetitious anti-virus software updates. This is the single most effective way of protecting your computer. Whenever you insert a USB drive, or go online, read an email, open a website etc., you are making your computer vulnerable to virus invasions. That's why it's important to keep your anti-virus software updated and your firewall always up. Don't overlook this.

Buy A Cooling Pad For Your Laptop

A cooling pad is a special gadget that you place under your laptop and it does just that -- cool your laptop. It is common knowledge that user electronics perform lesser and lesser when you frequently let them go overheat. With a cooling pad, you can keep your laptop cool and fully functional at all times.

Don't Just Install Any Software Just Because It's Free

There's lots of freeware and shareware online. These are types of software that you can download for free, or use a 7-Day Trial with. The problem with these types of downloadable programs is that lots of them contain malicious scripts, backdoor Trojans, worms, tracking cookies, and malware. All those terms mean one thing: Danger for your computer. Sometimes, these sneaky bugs and tracking scripts can steal your credit card information!

Unless You Have Sufficient Technical Knowledge, Leave Hardware Installation To The Experts

Don't try to reinstall hard drives, tweak the motherboard, or replace sound cards and video cards UNLESS you are confident that you know what you're doing. Don't take risks here. You can always solicit the help and opinion of Bill the Computer Whiz and Sam the Chip Master from next door. Or better yet, have your computer 'tampered' by a legitimate technical personnel from the computer shop.

Perform a Disk Clean Up And Defragmentation At Least Once Every Month

Disk clean up and defragmentation are all available options from your Windows Control Panel. Make sure you use these disk checking tools at least once each month so your computer can fix disk software errors. Usually, the computer will figure out what's wrong on its own. Disk clean up will delete unneeded 'cookies' and temporary files from your computer. Defragmentation, meanwhile, will rearrange file allocations and caches in your hard disk. Best of all, don't try to figure all of these things out. Just do it.

(Otherwise known as the GUI, or plainly, the interface.) After a clean installation of Leopard, I was greeted with a marvelous background reminiscent of the Northern Lights. There were no icons on the desktop, which made the first boot up have a crisp clean feeling, in contrast to my cluttered desktop in Windows XP. I also must say that, in contrast to the old Mac Dock, (that thing in the bottom of the screen that holds icons) this new dock is much prettier, and doesn't make you pull out your hair in frustration. The new dock, instead of making the icon bounce up, and down, and up, and down whenever you click on something, makes the icon bounce once. Whenever I see the icon bounce, I always laugh, because it looks exactly like a rabbit bouncing around. (This is just my view on the dock.)

This experience with Vista was not quite as smooth. From when I first booted up, the icons on my desktop were VERY good looking. (Especially the trash can.) The start menu, however, was, in my opinion, very poorly designed. First of all, if you click on the "all programs" part of the Windows XP start menu, the screen is flooded with all the programs. This new Vista start menu packs it all into one tiny little strip within the start menu, making it VERY hard to read. Secondly, who wants to click on a start menu icon that is only a small circle? I find that very annoying. The search on the start menu, however, is very intuitive and provides an easy-access place to find all of your files. However, the overall gloss of the black windows made it feel to tacky, which made the entire experience very poor.

Next Up: Usability

Everyone knows of how great Windows is for work, but is Mac finally ready to take on Windows with usability? I don't think so. Although the new Mac operating system has a lot of cool special effects and good looking windows and interface, nothing new that is included in the new Mac operating system is good. Nothing. The new dock incorporates this cool new mirrored effect that mirrors everything over it. Cool? Yes. Better for work? Not at all. The widgets are very fun to play with, but are there any ones that actually help you with your work and daily life? Nope. The newly redesigned finder is very cool, but does it really help with looking up files and folders? No, the new "My Computer" in Vista trumps this. With Vista, there are numerous things that do help, especially with school work.

Let's say that you are doing a report on lions. If you search the computer and the internet for "lions," Vista automatically creates a "virtual folder," so that you do not have to drag and drop everything you want into a newly created folder. Vista does it for you. Now, you have a folder jam-packed with information on Lions. Wow.

Vista- 1

Programs

Windows has many programs. Mac does not. In fact, Macs have less programs than another operating system group called Linux, which I personally use. Give it a search on google, and read up on Linux. (PS- once you know enough on Linux, and know what a Linux Distribution is, the best one is openSUSE, in my opinion. It even trumps Ubuntu!) Windows has so many programs, even more than the amount of words in every book in the WMS school library and the Wellesley free library combined! That's a lot!

Vista-1

Finally: Performance

Both systems performed VERY well, but Windows Vista had a definite win. The bootup time was amazing, trailing speeds of a bootup of 10 seconds. Macs bootup was about 30 seconds. Running programs on Leopard, however, easily beat Windows Vista. Vista took 5 seconds to load up Internet Explorer 7, it's web browser. Mac took 2 seconds to load up Safari, it's web browser. Overall, Vista was a lot faster.

Vista-1

Final score: Vista: 3 Mac:1

Although all the operating systems were a brilliantly refreshing alternate to their predecessors, Windows Vista proved triumphant over Mac Leopard because of the many new features it integrates, and the wealth of applications that it offers.

The R300 printer can print out various types of media. You can print on CDs and normal, glossy, or smaller photo paper(4X6). The maximum size paper that this printer supports is 8.5 inches by X11 inches. So you're still going to have to go to Kinko's or some other print shop if you want a poster sized image.

Complex:

The R300 printer is fairly complicated. The printer itself has eleven buttons on top of it that do various tasks when pressed. Some examples are stop, print, power, replace ink; etc. There is also a basic and advanced button, so if you're a beginner then you'll probably want to start off with basic mode.

Other Slots

The R300 printer also comes with several external slots for your memory cards and an extra USB slot. The memory cards slots are for CF cards, SD/MS Pro cards, and XD/SM cards. So whatever type of memory card your camera uses, you can simply take the card and place it in the printer.

Then you will use the small LCD screen on the printer to decide which pictures you would like to print. There is also another slot at the top of the printer for a larger type of LCD screen that you can purchase separately.

The Ink

The ink is by far the most annoying and costliest aspect of this printer. Basically, there are six different colors of ink that you have to buy. Whenever one of these colors runs out, the printer will stop working. That's right, so if you're out of one color and you want to print in black ink then you can just forget about it. You will have to purchase a replacement ink cartridge.

And it's a little pricey. For the color ink, each cartridge will cost between twelve and fifteen dollars. The black ink will cost you even more. Expect to pay between seventeen and twenty one dollars for the black ink cartridge.

Quality

The quality of the prints that come out of this printer are quite good. You can select the quality that you want your printer to print at as well, which will save you some ink. And it will save you some money. If you want high quality images then you should use high quality paper. Something with a glossy sheen to it should do the trick.

As you can see, the Epson Stylus R300 printer is a fairly good printer. But it does come with its drawbacks, just like anything. So if you want a printer that produces high-quality images, then buy the R300. But just remember about the ink.

E-waste is the fastest growing part of the waste stream today. It is estimated that 315-600 million desktops and laptops in the US will soon be obsolete. Not only that, but 75% of all computers ever sold in the US are sitting in peoples basements and the back of office closets. 1993 Bill Clinton issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to only buy computers that meet government Energy Star Program criteria. As a result 95% of monitors, 80% of computers, and 99% of printers now meet ESP requirements. It is not the US though that has taken the most recent measures on e-waste management; In 2002 The European Union adopted the Extend producer Responsibility Act. The Act requires all electronic manufacturers to phase out the use of hazardous materials and assume responsibility for taking back the e-waste they put out for recycling. Apple, Dell, and HP also have taken the incentive to take back their old machines for recycling.

There are plenty of ways to recycle your old computers and electronics. In most communities you can donate computers, cell phones, and other electronic equipment to schools and nonprofit organizations. In most cases the policy of accepting donated computers is that the computer may not be more than five years old. If you have a problem with organizations taking your donated computer I would recommend seeing if electronics is part of your cities hazardous waste collection program or trying to give the computer to a friend. There are plenty of recycling options you can use for your computer; one I personally have used recently is the “turn your old computer into a DVR” method. If your computer isn't ridiculously old and you can throw in a PCI video capture card, it's pretty easy to do and a great way to get use out of an otherwise useless paperweight.