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Please Recycle Your Computers
SWACO in conjunction with Tech Disposal holds periodic computer recycling drives in the Columbus, Ohio
metro area. See their website at www.swaco.org
for details. Also visit this link for on-demand drop-off locations. Please do your part
to keep computer hardware out of our local landfills, which will help keep their heavy metals out of our local water
supply. SWACO doesn't currently recycle other hardware such as televisions, stereo equipment, or household electronics other than
computers, but future recycling drives may include such items.
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"Idling computer monitors across the United States waste approximately $900 million in energy costs each year. If every U.S. business followed the advice
published by The University of Pittsburg, the country could reduce air pollution equivalent to removing 1.5 million cars from the road for one year. Ultimately, the country
could save enough electricity each year to power Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine."
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Help Save Energy!
We all need to do our part, and it can be pretty simple to get started. Visit the Energy Star website
at www.energystar.gov for some ideas. Here's my quick list:
Turn off PC's at night. Simple but effective.
Create batch files to auto-shutdown computers forgotten to be turned off.
Use Control Panel to set power schemes to use STANDBY and SLEEP modes.
Unplug power bricks when not in use.
Absolutely turn off pc's over non-working weekends.
Recycle your computers (see my previous article).
Use rechargeable batteries. They cost less in the long-term plus they reduce waste.
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Essential Software
The vast majority of us run some flavor of Windows as our business PC operating system, and the vast majority of de facto business applications
are written for the Windows platform. But Microsoft doesn't include everything you need, and some of what they do include is substandard. As a core operating system
it's stable and tends to meet our needs as an operating system. But some of what Microsoft includes with Windows is lacking at best. For
example, the built-in hard drive defragmenter is still based on 2001 technology, and their embedded unzipping code is mediocre at best, with no native support for 7-Zip, Zip64, RAR,
or BZip2 archive types. If you're not a power user, you can probably get away without a better archiving app.
But three of the essential add-ons that are must-haves in any Windows environment are Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe Shockwave Player. If you haven't
stumbled into content that requires these three add-ons, you wil. Here are those links, along with a few more. These are all free, of course.
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