Some FAQs about PCs you wish you knew before you bought it!

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Q:What is Bluetooth? I heard it's some sort of wireless protocol. Can it access WiFi?
A:
Bluetooth is a standard to connect peripherals without wires. For example, a phone can talk to a headset without wires. A PDA can talk to a printer without wires, and so on. The bandwidth is relatively low and range is limited to maybe 50 feet or so.

WiFi, which is essentially wireless Ethernet, is designed as a full-fledged network standard. Thus, it really has NOTHING to do with Bluetooth other than they are both wireless, and they both can be used by PC.

So to answer the original question, Bluetooth CANNOT access WiFi access points.

Saturday, December 13, 2003

Q: Should I print my own photos with photo printer or let someone else do it? How much would it cost?
A:
There are some online sites that offer VERY competitive prices. Here's a sample:

Ofoto: 29 cents each
Shutterfly: 25 cents each (prepaid, lot of 400)
Walmart : 24 cents each
xpphoto.com : 17 cents each

These sites are pretty much upload the pictures, and voila, you get the prints back in a few days in a mailed envelope. For this price, it's cheaper to let THEM print it, esp. if you have large quantities.

For one or two shots at home, use photo printer. For large archives, use the vendors above.

See our discussion on Gone Gold Forum: Photo Imaging/Printer Question

Q: I have multiple optical drives (CD/CD-RW/DVD) in my system. I was updating the firmware on one of them when I realized the updater wrote to the wrong device. Now the device seems to be dead and Windows doesn't see it. Now what do I do?
A:
Try
MTKFLASH, as it seems to have rescued many drives from oblivion. However, it can be rather complicated to use. Advanced users only!