Just a quick note to announce my summer holiday plans. (more…)

Last summer a website that maps global surnames was launched. The project run by the University College London is designed to help people find the origins of their name and how far it may have spread. (more…)

It’s the last Sunday of March tomorrow and that means that British Summer Time (BST) begins tomorrow. This means your clocks should go forward an hour, meaning you loose an hour’s sleep if you feel like it. (more…)

It’s all starting to get a bit ‘doom and gloom’ in the energy sector. Last week British Gas knocked-up this prices by 35%! Which to say the least for the average home user is quite a bit. (more…)

Again, just as with last Tuesday’s posting, the usual warning is carried with all my postings on the Blogberry, particularly those (lazy readers) who may have missed out over time  – you may learn something!

This all about readers brushing-up on their techie-know-how, and it being quick and easy to do. It costs nothing to read but 15 minutes of your time. And just like last week, we cover just 3 articles, so it’s dead easy.
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Yes, it nearly is that time of year again. This Sunday the UK moves its clocks forward from Greenwich Mean Time by one hour (GMT+1).

Fortunately, your computer will already know this and will adjust itself. If the computer has the wrong time or date in its memory it won’t do it correctly.

To check if your computer has the correct time and date set, just right click over the clock in the bottom right of your screen and choose ‘adjust time and date’. Then look and see if the both time and date are correct in the window that appears.

Very surprisingly Microsoft has announced that doesn’t plan to issue any security updates next week. This is a most unusual break in what is quite the monthly ritual for Windows users.

They will, however, be issuing a number of non-security related high-priority updates as normal. (more…)

Unfortunately the list seems to be growing for notebook computer batteries being recalled by manufacturers. The batteries are originally from Sony.

It started at the end of the summer beginning with Dell, but now Apple, IBM, Gateway, Fujitsu and HP are all on the list.

For those of you who don’t know. The problem with the batteries is that they can overheat, and in some cases have been known to combust.

If you have children who own laptops it would be worth checking theirs too.

So the strong advice is to check your machine on the corresponding sites below (if you own a notebook from any of the companies). It will take only five minutes, but what price would you put on you laptop if you didn’t?

Dell: https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/

Apple: http://support.apple.com/batteryprogram

Gateway: http://www.gateway.com/battery

Fujitsu: http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com/www/news.shtml?aboutus/pressreleases/pr_093006

IBM & Lenovo: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=BATT-LENOVO

HP: http://www.hp.com/support/BatteryReplacement