Until the other day, we thought there were only two things to remember when buying a new computer: Get one with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and get at least eight gigabytes of RAM. Here's a third tip: Get one that's easy to restore to its original factory settings. We learned this lesson after attempting to replace Bob's 9-year-old HP machine with a Lenovo.
This is important. Nothing makes a computer as fast as bringing it back to the condition it was the day you bought it. With many brands, you hit a key during boot up to get to the restore page. Lenovo asked us to create a boot disc first. Since it was all solid state and has no disk drive, we had to plug in an external flash drive. That was easy enough, but we got nothing but error messages when we used it to bring the computer back to its original state.
Why did we buy it in the first place? Because a reader wrote us to say he had read (somewhere else) that the Lenovo computer with flash drive storage (no disk drive, just chips) was full of what is not so politely called "crapware." This is a common thing with new computers and a common phrase. It refers to inserting all kinds of ads and free trials that the makers hope you will end up buying. We never accept any of them. But to return to the point, in testing the reader's complaint we found no ads or free trials and everything worked fine.
We decided to return it only because we're going to wait for Windows 10 this summer. It turned out that the only real flaw we discovered with the Lenovo M73 (an impressive little box the size of an ordinary book) was the difficulty in returning it to its original factory state. It took Joy almost an hour to get this done. A quirky thing, since normally it would take just minutes.
We did this for the sake of the next buyer; there would be nothing untoward on the drive and no changes to the system. But this can also be a good thing to do even if it's your own computer and you're keeping it. For most people, who use a computer for Web surfing, email, photo editing and Office documents, restoring a computer to its original state is far better than repeatedly buying a new one. It will be lightning fast again and you can reload any software you really need. And, of course, it's free.
Windows 10 News
Windows 10, due out in July, has at least two things we like, besides an improved start button. It's going to take up 6.6 gigabytes less space. That doesn't sound like a lot, and isn't if you buy a computer with a typical hard drive today; they often have close to 1,000 gigabytes. But the new faster computers have solid state drives, also called flash drives. The response is almost instantaneous. It's a trend that will take over the market and the prices are reasonable. We found a refurbished Dell Latitude E6410, for $500 on Amazon, and if you go to Dell's own web site, Dell.com/outlet , you'll find lots of deals.
Windows 10 will also make it easier to get rid of "crapware." It's annoying to have your computer junked up with stuff you don't need and Windows 10 will get rid of it all by simply clicking "reset and refresh." As with Windows 8, Microsoft's free cloud storage, "OneDrive" will be built in. When you save a document, you'll see OneDrive as one of your folder choices.
Internuts
-- How-Old.net is a Microsoft site for guessing your age. It's quite the rage. We just saw a post of the Mona Lisa which the site pegged as a woman of 23. Joy was fit to be tied when she uploaded a photo of herself and it said she was 87! (She's one of those sensitive types.) The next time she took a new photo on the spot, and it guessed her age as 32. It got Barack Obama's age exactly right.
-- NutritionFacts.org has the best videos we've ever seen on health topics. Today we learned that while pesticides are found almost universally in the blood of people eating conventional foods from grocery stores, it's not clear whether this causes health problems. Surveys are difficult, because there are so many variables. Fruit flies are easier to study, for example, but not surprisingly, insects eating insecticides fare poorly. We also learned the most effective way to remove surface pesticides from fruit and veggies: put a little salt in the water when you wash them.
-- "List of Free Science Books" from physicsdatabase.com . This site has hundreds of free books in chemistry, physics, astronomy, math, physiology, etc., all online. Click on a title and the online version pops right up. We're intrigued by The Wonder Book of Knowledge. The table of contents lists topics like "Why do we Smile when we are pleased?" "How did the Dollar Sign originate?" "Why do some of us have freckles?"
Avoiding Germs
Whenever a retail clerk hands Bob a pen to sign with, he says, "Do you know where that pen has been?" and whips out his own pen. He's only partially kidding. If cellphones are as dirty as public restrooms, according to a recent study, we wonder about the pens stores hand you to sign credit card receipts?
A techie solution is gaining ground on the crowd-funding website, Indiegogo.com. You can pre-order a "Slivver" stylus for $10. It looks like a credit card sleeve but you can sign your name with one corner of it on those little screens you see at stores. It doesn't take up any extra room in your wallet and it's anti-bacterial.
By the way, it seems it doesn't matter what you sign to one of those receipts. After the card number has been approved, the receipt they want you to sign is a dead document. Bob usually signs them "Elvis," or sometimes "James Bond." None has ever been rejected.
SundayMonday Business on 05/18/2015