Vassar Technology Today | Useful tips for achieving peace with your PC

Matthew Leung Managing Editor

At this point in the semester, with midterms looming and thesis projects in early stages of development, we are reminded each day of how much we depend on hassle-free, harmonious relationships with our personal computers. Here are a few common sense (yet necessary) tips for getting along with the machines that are so important to our daily lives:

Web content is (mostly) free

While surfing the Internet, certain articles or pages are often blocked because registration or a subscription is required. Before you take the time to pay or register, remember that the Web is so content-rich that what one site blocks you from viewing, another will gladly offer for free.

The trick is to find that other generous Web site. For example, surfing The New York Times Web site, we often come across articles labeled as “archive” that only let us see a few lines of it and require a purchase of $4.95 to view. But another Web site might already feature that article, having purchased it from the Times to display on their Web site. To check, go to a search engine and search exact quotes from the article to see if it appears on another Web site. Chances are that the Times is not the only site in possession of the contents of that article, especially if it is popular.

Log off vs. restart

Oftentimes when a computer exhibits strange behavior, restarting it is good enough to get it working again. But sometimes using a shortcut—logging off as a user and then logging back on—also works.

Restarting and logging on again refreshes the computer in several ways: if an application like Microsoft Word or Firefox is frozen or stuck, logging off and then back on will force the troubled application to close, as well as other applications that might be interfering with it. This method is often a better choice than using the “force quit” option in Macs or “end task” option in Windows because all applications close and reopen, and sometimes closing just one application isn’t enough because you don’t know which one is causing the trouble.

Restarting the computer is required for the more severe errors that occur at the level of the Operating System (OS) as opposed to errors in the applications that are just running on top of the OS. These OS processes support and allow applications like Word or Firefox to run. If an error occurs with a driver or one of the OS’s processes fails, applications might not even be able to start in the first place. A restart in this case is necessary because logging out only closes applications and not the OS processes that, for example, allow you to see graphics on your screen or use input devices. Also, changing major settings on your computer usually requires a restart for them to take effect.

Free up space in your e-mail account

The Google Gmail service’s much-advertised claim of never having to delete inbox messages is a not feature that Vassar’s Webmail shares. But managing old e-mails is possible in a Webmail account if you move messages from your account to your hard drive. To do this in Webmail, select the messages, and then click on the “archive” button located on the lower right. The messages will then be downloaded, along with their attachments, as a file onto your computer. The file can be viewed with e-mail clients like Outlook or Eudora.

Alternatively, to avoid filling up your Vassar mailbox, you can have a copy of all e-mails you receive saved onto a spacious account like Gmail by using the forwarding option in the control panel (controlpanel.vassar.edu). That way, when you have to delete messages to free up space, you know a copy is safe somewhere in Google land.