What is a Product Key?

This one by special request: "[Please] explain what a product key is and why you [shouldn't] throw them out or delete them." If you've purchased an expensive piece of software, you may have to enter in a product key when you install it. This is to prove that you genuinely purchased the software and didn't just borrow the disc from your friend or steal a copy from the Internet. Product keys are becoming increasingly popular, and are mostly standard on software worth more than $100. Here's an example of product keys for Microsoft's Windows XP:

These examples have X's, but you'd typically see a combination of letters and numbers there. These codes are generated in a (theoretically) random fashion so people can't guess codes. Think of product codes as the keys to your car- they're specific to your car, and you need them to be able to use it. Now, would you ever throw away your car keys? Of course not! Now, this isn't a perfect example since you don't need to enter in your product code every time you use the software (the computer remembers it and gives it to the software whenever you start that program up,) but what if you get a new computer or you have to wipe your computer and reload all the programs?

It would be terrible if you had to buy the program all over again just because you got a new computer, so that's where product codes come in. If you get a new computer (or wipe your old one) and need to reinstall the software, you can usually reuse the same product code. This does change a bit depending on the company, but typically product codes are good for one computer at a time. Here's where things can get messy though. What if you accidentally threw away your product key? Just like if you threw away the keys to your car, you'll be in a tough spot. It's possible that you could speak to the manufacturer of the software and they'd be able to assist you, but unless you have your original receipt, you have no proof that you actually bought the program.

Practical Tip of the Day:

Since loosing product keys is somewhat common, I usually tell people to make a single spot- usually a plastic container of some sort- that they keep all their computer discs, papers and boxes. By consolidating everything to one area, it will be easier to find things in the rare occasions that you need them.

How Can I Get My Old Photos Onto My Computer?

Ah, the old photo albums! Or maybe it's more like the the old box-of-photos-that-really-should-go-in-an-album-someday. A significant number of households still have a a lot of printed photos and/or slides stored away. With he digital age, though, there's more and more pressure to digitize the photos as well so they can be saved on the computer and even go on the Internet if you so desire. This can seem like a daunting task though, especially if you don't know where to start...

The best place to start is with a rough approximation of how many photos you have that you want to put on your computer. This matters because while 50 photos might be easy enough to do yourself in an afternoon, 5,000 is a whole other ball game. If you fall into the later category and have thousands of photos, hiring a service that specializes in digitizing photos and videos might be worth it, but if you fall into the former, it might not. For this article, let's assume you've chosen to do it yourself.

An example of a digital negatives scanner.

How are you going to get the photos into the computer? With a scanner. If you only have a small number of photos and/or don't care about getting optimal quality, using a scanner that's built into a printer can work just fine; check your owner's manual for instructions on using the scanner.  If you have a large number, or do want the best possible quality, a stand alone photo scanner might be better for you. These can range in size, price and features so dramatically that it's difficult to give much guidance here except to look for "photo digital converters" and do lots of research before buying anything. What about slides and negatives you ask? Doing that same search will also yield results for devices that can scan those too!

Practical Tip of the Day:
Still not sure if it'd be cheaper to do it yourself or hire a company? Price out the cost of hiring someone, and compare it to the cost of any equipment you may need to buy + how much your time is worth. Whichever is cheaper is our answer! (Keep in mind that professionals will often get it done faster and have higher quality results though.)

How Can I Protect My Laptop from Theft?

Have a new laptop or planning on getting one in the new future? While laptop computers can be great for the extra portability, that can also pose problems if your laptop "walks away" from you. Whether you're a college student, traveling professional, or somewhere in between, there are three basic ways to help prevent laptop theft.

The first is laptop locks. These are very much like bike locks in that it's a durable cable that you wrap around something that can't be moved and then lock into your computer. The one pictured here is from Kensington and uses a combination. There are locks that use keys, but I usually recommend combination locks since you can't loose a combination. Also note that it's plugged directly into the computer. Most laptop computers nowadays have a slot specifically for use with laptop locks. Check the specifics of your computer to verify whether you have one or not.

Another step against laptop theft is anti-theft software. Companies like LoJack (the car anti-theft company) are starting to branch out into the computer field, but there are also new start-ups and even free anti-theft software out on the market now. They all work slightly differently, so be sure to read carefully before you get any of them, but my personal favorite for Mac laptops is called Undercover by a company called Orbicule that specializes in technology security.

Lastly, and most effectively, if you don't want your laptop to get stolen, don't leave it laying around! Far too often I've heard college students crying because their laptop with all their finals got stolen at the library when the student got up to get a book. Leaving your laptop on your table while you use the bathroom at Starbucks? Just as bad. Having a house party where you don't personally know everyone in attendance? Put the computer away in a room people won't go into.

Practical Tip of the Day:

Most frequently, people will use a combination of the three of these methods to protect their laptop. Personally, I don't frequent public places so I use an anti-theft program and keep my computer on my person when I am out and about with it. Consider your lifestyle when looking at anti-theft options, and remember that while having a complete and recent backup of your computer doesn't make the monetary loss any less, it will make it easier to start up where you left off if you end up needing a new computer.

What's the Difference Between Noise Cancelling & Noise Isolating?

In the market for a nice set of headphones? Not sure which type to get? It's usually pretty easy to decide whether you want small headphones that go in your ear, or bigger ones that go on or over your ears. Similarly, finding good quality sound is as simple as either trying them out in-store or finding a review of them online. The one thing that I've found people get confused about though is the difference between noise isolating and noise cancelling headphones.

They sound practically identical, and they can have similar effects, but the way these two technologies work is completely different. Noise isolating headphones are generally in-ear headphones; These are the small buds that actually go inside your ear canal. They work just like ear plugs by filling your ear canal so no outside sound can come in. If you imagine ear plugs that have tiny speakers in them, that's exactly what noise isolating is. They physically block out sound while piping in your audio through the same plugs.

Noise cancelling is a lot more complicated and thus usually a lot more expensive than noise isolating. As you may know, sound travels in waves. Noise cancelling headphones actually produce sound waves that cancel out the most common "noises." Here's a quick diagram from mediacollege.com that shows what happens:

Noise cancelling is the middle example. You have two waves that are complete opposites and when they hit each other they cancel out-- hence noise cancelling. At this point you may be asking how the headphones can make such a sound to do this. Not nearly as easily as noise isolating, that's for sure. Noise cancelling headphones are going to be over the ear headphones, meaning they're actually little cups that go over your entire ear, and in those cups it's going to have the hardware that makes those sound waves and the extra batteries required to make them. That's right, noise cancelling headphones usually require their own separate batteries.

Practical Tip of the Day:

If you're looking for noise reduction during your gym visit, I generally recommend getting noise isolating in-ear headphones. Their smaller design and smaller price point makes them good gym buddies since you won't be walking around the gym floor with big $300 headphones on. If you travel a lot, especially by plane or train, noise cancelling might be better as they can reduce noise more, and generally people find them more comfortable for long-term wear since they don't actually enter your ears.

What Does Airplane Mode Do?

Heard the horror stories of people who go on a vacation or travel for work only to find a massive phone bill waiting for them when they get home? Sometimes the people don't even actually leave the country, but get close enough to a border that their phone connects to a cellphone tower on the other side. This happened recently when I took my family to see Niagara Falls. We were close enough to Canada, and far away enough from any cell towers on the US side that our phones connected to Rogers, a Canadian cell phone provider.

What if you don't want to turn your phone totally off, but want to ensure that you don't use the phone or data services? Maybe you're travelling abroad, going into a hospital, or boarding a plane. Simply go to the settings in your smartphone (airplane mode is for smartphones only), and, usually on the main settings screen, you'll see a little switch for Airplane Mode. Just turn it on and voila! It's like turning the phone part of your smartphone off. For iPhone users, I describe Airplane Mode as turning your iPhone into an iPod Touch.

You'll still be able to connect to wifi, but no calls, texts or voice-mails will be sent to your phone while in this mode. As soon as you turn it off, all the above mentioned things you missed will flood in, so don't worry!

Practical Tip of the Day:
When traveling, be careful which wifi networks you connect to. While most are legitimate, some may be monitored by hackers who can watch what you do and even connect to your computer through their network. If you see multiple possible networks, ask an employee of where you are which network is theirs. It's not uncommon to see fake wifi networks with seemingly proper names.

What Does KB, MB and GB Mean?

In Tuesday's article on What Size Flash Drive You Need, we discussed the different sizes a digital file could be and what their average is. Some files were measured in KB (kilobytes) while others were in MB (megabytes) and still otheres were in GB (gigabtes). This digital capacity measuring system can seem intimidating at first, but once the basics are understood, it's quite simple.

If you're already familiar with the metric system, you have a head start as that is where the prefixes for these measurements comes from. For example, kilometer and kilobyte. The metric system does things in multiples of 100's, but for technology, you'll see it used in multiples of 1,000. Brain hurt yet? Here's a simple breakdown:

• Kilobyte- 1,000 bytes
• Megabyte- 1,000 kilobytes
• Gigabyte- 1,000 megabytes

There are measurements above and below the three measurements given there, but these three will be the ones you primarily see in computers and technology today. Think you've got it? Here's where things get a bit messy; These measurements are really metric and aren't really multiples of 1,000. If you're familiar with how computers work on a basic level and use binary (click here if you aren't) you know you know that they count by 8's, this is called a byte, and therefor instead of a kilobyte being 1,000 bytes, it's actually 1,024 bytes. Will you need to know this? Not unless you want to show off, but it's still good to know and there are nerds out there that will correct you on it.

Practical Tip of the Day:
The 1000 vs 1024 difference doesn't make much an impact on a small scale, but as you start storing more and more data, the impact becomes more and more pronounced. Check out this helpful chart from Wikipedia for a quick reference.

What Size Flash Drive Should I Get?

The other day a friend of mine was mentioning that they needed to go to the store and buy a flash drive, but when they were there earlier in the week they were overwhelmed by the vast differences in style and capacity flash drives come in nowadays. (Click here if you don't know what a flash drive is.) While style is completely personal, there are a few tips that can make picking a capacity (or more commonly called "size") of flash drive easier.

The first thing to consider is what you'll be putting on the drive. Are you using it to backup photos? Transferring songs between your computers? Or are you storing important documents and PDFs on it? Different files tend to be larger or smaller than others. For example, a good average size for a word document (1-3 pages of text) is about 20-30 KB (kilobytes). Audio (music, spoken word, etc) is about 1 MB (megabyte) per minute, and photos can vary wildly depending on resolution and file type but tend to be 1 MB or less per photo. (If you don't understand "megabyte" or "kilobyte" check back on Thursday when I'll be covering that topic.)

That being said, a 4 GB flash drive will hold roughly 4,000 photos, 4,000 minutes of audio, or more word documents than any one person would probably ever have for personal use at any one time. When stated like that, most people usually lean more towards getting a smaller (again, we're talking about capacity, not physical size) flash drive. Consider though if you're storing a home video. If you have a nice HD camera, it can take up to- or sometimes surpass- 2 GB (gigabytes) per hour of video. This is because videos contain both an audio track and thousands of pictures to make up the video.

Practical Tip of the Day:
If you're planning on using a flash drive to back up your files, I recommend reconsidering and getting an external hard drive instead. Far too often I've seen clients that have a drawer filled with flash drives that have photos on them, but because of this method, they have to search through the drawer looking for the correct drive if they need it and that's if they had the forethought to label the drives as they filled them. An external hard drive gives you one place to find all of them, making it much easier to locate your files if you need to recover them.

What is VOIP?

As previously mentioned in the article entitled "What is Skype?" an increasing popular way to make long distance telephone calls, especially out of country, is using a VOIP service like Skype. VOIP stands for "voice over IP," which means that yes, it's an acronym that holds another acronym. "IP" means "Internet Protocol," so to break down "Voice Over Internet Protocol" it simply means that you can talk over the Internet like it's a phone.

To understand why this is impressive, one must first understand the difference between "analog" and "digital." If something is analog, it travels along a continuum. Think of this as the way someone can count between 1 and 2, using a seemingly infinite number of decimals between them. If something is digital, it's more like counting between 1 and 2 (well, 0 and 1 actually), but there are no decimals. It's either one or two. Sound is something that is analog, we can make a wide range of sounds, but computers and other electronic devices only understand digital (click here if you don't know why) so the trick is getting something to sound analog when in fact it's digital. I'll spare you the long explanation as to how that happens.

Once the sound is converted into a digital signal, it can then be sent over the Internet to anywhere you want it to go. When you use a service like Skype, you can "call" people to direct where your digitized voice will be sent to. The nice thing about the Internet is that whether your voice is going across town or across the world hardly changes the delay in conversation so it can simulate a phone very well, and since most countries have a decent connection to the Internet, it can usually also save you money versus using an actual telephone.

Practical Tip of the Day:
If you're travelling abroad, using a VOIP service can save you money versus calling long-distance, but be careful if you're using an "Internet anywhere" card or a smartphone to access the Internet for that purpose as roaming fees for data are often much heftier than roaming fees for voice, and a conversation over VOIP can use a significant amount of data. When travelling abroad, I usually recommend turning off data roaming and using Wifi only if possible to save you from surprise several hundred dollar phone bills when you return.

What is Skype?

It's hard being away from the people you love. Grandparents thousands of miles away from grandchildren, a spouse travelling for work, or even just friends scattered to the wind after college. Yes, there's mail, phone, email and a list of other options available, but when you really just want to SEE the person, Skype is often the first program that comes to mind.

Now, mind you, Skype is not just for video chatting (talking to someone over video a la The Jetsons), but also does normal instant messaging, voice calling and is coming out with new and improved features every day. Its bread and butter though, what it's most known for, is video chatting. Both people need to have a Skype account, which is free and easy to set up, and when they're both using the Skype program, they can click a video camera button to start up the cameras on their respective machines and they'll be able to see each other in pretty-darn-close-to-real-time.

A good example of this is actually one of my own stories. When my husband and I were getting married, my mother couldn't come because she had knee surgery and couldn't travel. She had her computer connected to her TV, invited all the family and friends who couldn't make it over, popped popcorn and found comfy chairs. I simply logged into Skype on my smartphone, connected to her, said "Hi," and had one of my cousins hold the phone from the front row so my family thousands of miles away could watch the entire ceremony!


Practical Tip of the Day:
The next biggest thing Skype is known for is called VOIP, which stands for "voice over IP", which, in plain English means, using the Internet like a phone. This is popular because it means that you can make calls between computers instead of having to pay hefty international calling fees. VOIP calls aren't free, mind you, but they are usually significantly cheaper than through the phone companies. Check out Skype's webpage for more information about the costs associated with calling the various countries.