WHAT IS “DEFRAGGING”?

Have you ever noticed how your computer seems to run slower, and slower each week? You where probably thinking this is normal for a computer,well it is, but you can do something about it. Your computer is getting slower because your hard drive needs to be "Defragged" or defragmentation of your hard drive, to sound fancy.

WHAT IS CYBER BULLYING?
Cyber bullying is a form of bullying, which is carried out through an internet service such as email, chat room, discussion group, online social networking, instant messaging or web pages. It can also include bullying through mobile phone technologies such as SMS

Examples of cyber bullying behaviour are:

• Teasing and being made fun of;

IN the past week I have heard of two people locally getting "skimmed" at ATM machines and having their accounts cleared. So I said it would be good time to let people know about ATM skimming, the dangers of it, and how it's done.

WIRELESS access to your broadband at home or at work can be of great benefit, having access to the internet anywhere around the house or work place can make working on the internet a breeze. But there is also a side of the great wireless signal that everyone should know about, and that's the security side.

SECURITY AT HOME

SOMETHING that has always bothered me is people throwing away their old PC's, I see it all the time. Any time I can stop this happening I do, if a friend or relative is throwing away an old computer, I'll take it off their hands and refurbish it, they make great servers! I have often got fast PC's to add to my server farm. This is a room I have with a group of PC's running as servers. All running together to power all of my websites, e-mail services, you name it!, There's a PC in that room doing it.

Making money online, words that are going to put a smile on anyone's face, but also put a hint of suspicion on their minds. Most people might think it's only a myth,that money can't be made online from home. But the truth is it can, there's no big red button that you can press and start the money flowing in. But with a little time and effort you can end up with a nice income from the internet.

The Fiction

HAVE you ever searched for a certain topic using Google, or Yahoo and follow the No. 1 result only to end up on a site that has nothing got to do with the topic you're looking for? Then just to rub salt on the wound you're smothered with pop-ups and dialogues? We've all been there, I know I have. It's something that makes me want to just unplug that router and go read a book!

SEARCH ENGINES

Adware is free software that is supported by advertisements, sometimes an annoyance to the user.

Bandwidth refers to how much data you can send through a network or modem connection.

Bebo, Myspace, Facebook...all words we are sure to hear almost everyday. That's because social interaction on the web is at sky high levels at present. It's gone more from something you do on the internet for a short while when you have time, to something that needs to be done in many peoples daily routine. Most people have more friends online now than in 'real' life.

WHAT IS SOCIAL NETWORKING?

You've all seen what happens when you leave your computer idle for a short while, the screensaver kicks in. These days there's no real need for a screensaver, it's just a decoration. It came about in the days of the big old cathode ray tube (CRT) screens, remember the ones with the big pane of glass on the front?

Office applications play a part in almost everyones day to day routine, Spreadsheets for accounts, Presentations for teachers/lecturers, and Word Processing for almost all uses. What if you could get all this in one place, with access to all your documents no matter where you are? With Google Docs,(docs.google.com) an online office suite from Google, all you need is a computer and a fast internet connection to get access to all the right tools, and your documents.

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who has commented to me about my first column in the Kilkenny Voice this week, In person and by e-mail, and a special thanks to everyone who has submitted their questions!

I have added a block to the top right of the home page, this will be like my Kilkenny Voice corner, where you can follow the columns in the paper here too, and also subscribe to them via RSS, so you can have them delivered straight to you.

Keep an eye out for this weeks column this Wednesday, and keep them questions coming in.

Why pay for software when you can get it for free?

There is a free alternative for just about any application you use on your computer, such as Open Office to replace Microsoft Office, GIMP to replace Adobe Photoshop, and even free operating systems to replace your Windows OS on your PC, such as Linux.

Free Software can be mainly put under 3 different headings: