The Withings Body scale is not your mother's bathroom scale!

Although the phrase “home automation” has been around for over a decade, its meaning is still unclear for many who tend to think of it only in terms of large-scale green home projects, or whole-house entertainment systems and the like.  What most folks don’t realize is that a quiet revolution has been taking place as designers and manufacturers have begun connecting ordinary household objects from thermostats to refrigerators, to bathroom scales to the home wifi network, and more importantly, have been taking the power of the PC, Smartphone, and tablet, and turning these classic consumer products into dynamos of information and assistance.

One such object is the bathroom scale.  It wasn’t so long ago that most of us (meaning us middle-agers) can still remember when the bathroom scale was a creaking mechanical beast with a difficult-to-read weight chart and a little thumbwheel underneath for zeroing it.  Then sometime in the mid-eighties (mid nineties? it’s all such a jumble to this old geek), the bathroom scale went digital and, provided the batteries didn’t go dead, became self-zeroing and gave you a nice bright readout, easily visible from 4-6 feet away without having to stoop or squint.  And so it was until recently when a company called Withings introduced the wifi-connected bathroom scale.

Okay, so if you’re anything like me you might be thinking: Why do I need my scale to be wifi connected? So I can weigh myself in the bathroom then run to my computer to see how much I weigh? How is this progress? Oh wait, I see, I can see my weight on my smart phone or tablet?  Does the scale take into account the added weight of my Android or iPad?  Maybe that’s the kind of thinking that has me blogging about other people’s inventions instead of being the inventor myself…

Well so let’s talk about someone else’s invention for a minute  shall we?  Because the Withings Body scale is so much more than my simplistic imaginings would have lead to.  You see, the real value of having a wifi scale isn’t the scale itself. Although it is a sleek marvel of high-tech design, the real wow-factor in this product is the app behind the mechanism. You know what I mean when I say app right? That little program that’s designed for your smart phone, tablet, or PC. The brains behind the scale that does so much more than just tell you what you weigh today.

Charting weight and body mass index on PC, iphone, iPad, and Android makes the Withings Body scale an integral part of a fitness regimen

The Withings scale is complimented by apps for all major platforms, and provides sophisticated tools that show you your weight, Body Mass Index, and a bunch of other cool measurements in a graphical layout featuring performance over time and ties into weight management and fitness program goals that not only provide valuable data, milestones, and achievements to you, but can also be shared instantly with your doctor or your coach. Of course, if you just want to know your weight, it will tell you that too, but when it comes to home automation, it’s companies like Withings that are reshaping the future of interconnected devices.

for more info, check out Withings on the web at www.withings.com

_______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

This article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

If your email account is suddenly sending out spam to your contacts, your account may have been hacked by a spambot

If your email account has been sending spam messages to your contacts, chances are, your email account has been hacked.

One of the typical problems faced by our customers is the discovery that their email account has been sending spam email messages, often with very unsavory content, to everyone on their contacts list. Unfortunately, the problem usually goes undiscovered until you get a barrage of responses from your friends and other contacts, sometimes warning you that you’ve been infected, or maybe just wondering about why you would have sent them such a message.

The bad news is: Your email account has been hacked, and a spammer is using it, not only to send out spam emails, but often times, also is using your hacked account as a springboard for hacking the accounts of your friends and other contacts as well.

The good news is:  The problem is fairly simple to fix – no degree in rocket science required!

THE SOLUTION: Click Here for the free solution from Geek Housecalls as well as to learn techniques for preventing this from happening again in the future.

by Andy Trask

If your Hotmail account suddenly starts sending spam email messages, it's probably been hacked by a spambot.

If your HOTMAIL email account has been sending spam messages to your contacts, chances are, your HOTMAIL email account has been hacked.

One of the typical problems faced by our customers is the discovery that their HOTMAIL email account has been sending spam email messages, often with very unsavory content, to everyone on their contacts list. Unfortunately, the problem usually goes undiscovered until you get a barrage of responses from your friends and other contacts, sometimes warning you that you’ve been infected, or maybe just wondering about why you would have sent them such a message.

The bad news is: Your HOTMAIL email account has been hacked, and a spammer is using it, not only to send out spam emails, but often times, also is using your hacked account as a springboard for hacking the accounts of your contacts as well.

The good news is:  The problem is fairly simple to fix – no degree in rocket science required!

THE SOLUTION: Click Here for the free solution from Geek Housecalls as well as to learn techniques for preventing this from happening again in the future.

by Andy Trask

If your Yahoo email account is sending spam messages to your contacts, your account has probably been hacked by a spammer.

If your YAHOO email account has been sending spam messages to your contacts, chances are, your YAHOO email account has been hacked.

One of the typical problems faced by our customers is the discovery that their YAHOO email account has been sending spam email messages, often with very unsavory content, to everyone on their contacts list. Unfortunately, the problem usually goes undiscovered until you get a barrage of responses from your friends and other contacts, sometimes warning you that you’ve been infected, or maybe just wondering about why you would have sent them such a message.

The bad news is: Your YAHOO email account has been hacked, and a spammer is using it, not only to send out spam emails, but often times, also is using your hacked account as a springboard for hacking the accounts of your contacts as well.

The good news is:  The problem is fairly simple to fix – no degree in rocket science required!

THE SOLUTION: Click Here for the free solution from Geek Housecalls as well as to learn techniques for preventing this from happening again in the future.

by Andy Trask

If your AOL email account has been sending spam messages to your contacts, chances are, your AOL email account has been hacked.

One of the typical problems faced by our customers is the discovery that their AOL email account has been sending spam email messages, often with very unsavory content, to everyone on their contacts list. Unfortunately, the problem usually goes undiscovered until you get a barrage of responses from your friends and other contacts, sometimes warning you that you’ve been infected, or maybe just wondering about why you would have sent them such a message.

The bad news is: Your AOL email account has been hacked, and a spammer is using it, not only to send out spam emails, but often times, also is using your hacked account as a springboard for hacking the accounts of your contacts as well.

The good news is:  The problem is fairly simple to fix – no degree in rocket science required!

THE SOLUTION: Click Here for the free solution from Geek Housecalls as well as to learn techniques for preventing this from happening again in the future.

by Andy Trask

Windows Live Mail error 0x80041161 can be a puzzler if you don't know what to look for...

Don’t you just hate it when things are working perfectly well for months and then suddenly and inexplicably, they just quit working?  Well Windows Live Mail is no exception to this kind of behavior and in this case, the error you get when you try to launch Windows Live Mail says “Windows Live Mail could not be started, It may not be installed correctly. Make sure that your disk is not full or that you are not out of memory. (0×80041161)”.

Now what’s really frustrating about this (aside from the fact that you can’t get at your email), is that the error message sends you off on a wild goose chase to investigate things that are totally unrelated to the source of the error.  By now you’ve probably already confirmed that you’ve got gobs of disk space and so that’s not the problem, and who even knows how you’d determine if you were “out of memory” considering the fact that windows dynamically allocates hard disk space as a substitute for ram memory to increase memory capacity (but that’s a subject for another blog post). Suffice it to say, the likelihood of “running out of memory” on a modern pc running Windows Vista or Windows 7 falls somewhere on the scale between “slim” and “none.”

But I wax geeky, let’s move on to the real reason you’re here which is: How do you fix this error 0×80041161 and get Windows Live Mail running normally again?

No rocket science required! read on for the free step-by-step solution from Geek Housecalls

Solved: Windows Live Mail could not be started, It may not be installed correctly. Make sure that your disk is not full or that you are not out of memory. (0×80041161)

1. Click open the windows logo button (the artist formerly known as the Start Button)
2. In the search bar at the bottom of the start menu type services and hit enter
3. This will open the Component Services window (you may need to approve or give permission to proceed with this action)
4. The Component Services window has three columns.  At the bottom of the left-hand column, click Services and a long list of services will appear in the middle column.
5. Scroll down the list of services in the middle column until you find “Windows Live ID sign-in assistant” then double-click to open it.
6. Where it  offers Startup type, if you see “Disabled” or “Manual”, click on that field and choose “Automatic” (if it was already set to Automatic, then you are suffering a more complicated problem that’s not addressed by this article, sorry)
7. Click the Apply button then click OK and also close the Component Services window.
8. Now go ahead and fire up Windows Live Mail and you should be good!
9. And before you go, please take a moment to scroll down and leave a comment. Feedback is always welcome!

 _______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

This article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

This radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55 was obtained on Nov. 7, 2011, at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the space rock was at 3.6 lunar distances, which is about 860,000 miles, or 1.38 million kilometers, from Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Tonight at 6:28 ET, the recently discovered asteroid 2005 YU55 will make a close pass by earth, briefly passing inside the moon’s orbit.  Sounds dangerous doesn’t it?  All we need is for it to be bigger, flaming, sponsored by evil, and headed straight for earth and now you’ve got a real thriller- fodder for a sci-fi movie featuring tough-guy Bruce Willis, and supermodel Milla Jovovich and oh wait… that’s already been done.

The difference between today’s asteroid encounter and the flaming ball in The Fifth Element is, well, it’s not flaming, it’s not going to smash into earth, and possibly the biggest disappointment (besides the lack of flying cars) is that it won’t even really be a big enough cosmic event to be viewed by the naked eye…   sigh.  Kinda makes one yearn for the good old days when the comet Hale Bopp  (which has a much sexier name than 2005 yu55) hung around for months offering tantalizing views of her long tail to anyone who cared to gaze skyward.

On the other hand, for those of us geeky enough to want to see and know more about 2005 yu55, here are a few links of interest:

Nasa’s Asteroid and Comet Watch site features updates, charts, and cool radio-telescope images of 2005 yu55

Cal-tech’s Jet Propulsion Lab Asteroid Watch website

This turtle is faster, cuter, and definitely less aggravating than your slow computer!

Ever sit waiting forever for a web page to open wonder why your PC is so %#@#@* sluggish?!

Slow computer performance is easily the #1 complaint voiced by home computer users everywhere and spans the entire range of PC brands and vintages, that is to say, it doesn’t matter what brand of PC you have, or how old it is, most home computer users experience performance slowdowns within six months of getting a new computer or having a system cleanup performed.  Talk about aggravating!  Here’s a little info about what may be going on and what you can do about it…

- click for full article here -

“Don’t wait” What? That’s it?  How does that save money? In fact, what does that even mean??

Acting quickly to solve computer problems can make the difference between a free ride or an expensive repair!

Okay, here’s the scoop… Pretty much on a daily basis, your computer updates itself.  Programs like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox,  AOL, Microsoft Office, Java, Adobe Reader, Flash, and more – all sorts of programs running the gamut from games to email to photo software to antivirus,  and of course  including Microsoft Windows itself, all have built-in updaters that go online periodically and automatically download and install the latest tweaks, patches, and updates for your computer and the programs on it.

Getting the latest updates is usually a good thing and is highly recommended by geeks the world over.  These updates perform important functions like plugging security holes, enhancing functionality, and fixing bugs,  but there’s a hidden risk to updates that can cost you plenty if you wait too long to fix a problem.

Solving computer problems can be as simple as choosing a system restore point prior tto the onset of the problem.

Let’s start with the basic premise that 80% of computer problems can be solved immediately after they first occur thanks to the built-in System Restore tool that has been a standard feature of Windows since Millennium Edition and is included in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. I’m not going to go into detail about what System Restore is, or how it works, but suffice it to say, it is a quick, simple, and often effective first approach to solving problems ranging from virus and malware infections to driver glitches and corruption, to inexplicable errors or loss of functionality.  Mind you, System Restore is far from perfect, but for the average home pc user, it can often make the difference between a free self-repair and a costly professional repair.

But besides being aware of system restore or knowing how to use it, there is again, this matter of timing.  When you address a problem immediately (immediately by my standards being within hours or days, definitely not weeks or months), you are far more likely to see that problem simply solved as it has not had the chance to become buried under layers of updates and changes (ah yes… that’s why the explanation about automatic updates earlier!) that can complicate or even aggravate the issue making it a bigger problem than when it first occurred. As a professional geek,  I can tell you from personal experience with thousands of customer computers, that I can look at a job description and have a fair idea of how complex the issue is and how long it will take to resolve, but when I ask the customer how long they’ve had the problem and they reply “oh, a month or two” all bets are off.

So in conclusion, the lesson to take away here is that the quickest, least expensive and least aggravating, as well as voted-most-likely-to-succeed approach to take when you have a computer problem is DON’T WAIT!  Whether you plan to tackle the fix yourself or plan on hiring a professional, act within hours or at most, a day or two, and chances are your issue will be resolved more quickly, painlessly, and at minimum cost.

_______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

This article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

OMG These %&^*## toolbars are driving me %&^*## batty!

There was a time not long past when toolbars ran rampant across the browser landscape, showing up uninvited and urging you to search from any of a dozen different search engines or enticing you to head off into surfland with snippets of juicy headlines,  not to mention offering endless links to everything from shopping coupons to airline travel to alerts of upcoming weather. Those were the days when people were either totally infuriated by the seemingly endless browser encroachment, or worse yet, didn’t even seem to notice the accumulation of toolbar and searchbar clutter across the top of their web browsers. And when helping our customers, it was typical for us geeks to point out the various toolbars and ask “do you use this?” or “did you install this?” and the customer would say “oh no. that just showed up one day.”  Or, especially in multiuser environments like shared family computers, we’d find that each user thought one of the other users installed  it. The bottom line though, is that toolbar accumulation was a nuisance that ate up valuable screen space that left users with a shrunken area for viewing websites which generally equated to more scrolling and less enjoyment.

Enter the latest editions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (version 9) and Mozilla Firefox (version 7).  Both web browsers offer users the usual unassuming “time to do the upgrades” kind of messages that then launches the installation of the latest version, but what users don’t expect is that after the installation, they are left looking at a practically barren screen.

Internet Explorer 9 directly after installation offers a sparse, mostly tool-free landscape (click for full-screen view)

By default, both browsers now hide all toolbars and menu bars leaving the user to wonder where they went.  The only obvious options besides the address bar and tabs (now crammed into a single bar across the top) are forward and backward navigation buttons, a home button, a favorites button (bookmarks in FF) which, in case you’re scratching your head trying to find that little star icon, has been moved from the left side of the screen to the far right side of the screen, and in the case of IE, a gear-shaped icon called Tools.  The biggest change for most users, especially advanced users who may have been comfortable configuring tools and options themselves is that they now find missing the familiar “File Edit View Favorites Tools Help” menu bar that was previously used to access any configurable part of their web browser or browser options.

The good news for most users, particularly those who were being smothered and didn’t know what to do about uninvited and unwanted toolbars, is that those annoying screen real-estate hogs just plain go away (at least from view, they’re not actually uninstalled, that’s a completely different subject), and as a result those users are suddenly seeing entire web pages without having to scroll around to get at off-screen content.

The old familiar menu bar is available by clicking the ALT key

And the good news  for users who want more, and yearn for access to the old menus and options, pressing the ALT key while in either IE or FF will magically open the old familiar menu bar temporararily so any configuration changes you wish to make, including making the menu bar permanently display, are available for the taking.

In summary, while some may bemoan the forced changing of the browser layouts with laments like “why do they have to decide what I should see or not see?”, Most will find that within a matter of days, the new skinnier layout will become comfortable, and you’ll barely notice that you no longer have a search bar begging you to click for the latest gossip about Charlie Sheen or Lady Gaga. But if you do miss all that clutter, never fear, with your trusty ALT key by your side, all those menus, toolbars, and other junk are just a keystroke or two away.

_______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

This article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)