CompuClever Blog

How Blue Light Affects Your Health and What to Do About It

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We’ve had some recent news on a study involving the effects of blue light and cancer.  We felt it was just what we needed to update an article we wrote previously.  Our focus at the time was primarily on monitor screens – this recent study expands on this to include outdoor LED exposure.  We’ll kick start it with an overview of the study and then segue into information about reduction of blue light in our home and work environments.

The Study

The conclusion of a recent study from the University of Exeter was that exposure to blue light from outdoor LEDs, as is emitted with smartphones and tablets, can increase your risk to cancer.  The study focused primarily on outdoor blue light exposure and while previous studies have used satellite imagery to calculate intensity of artificial light in large cities, this was the first to look specifically at blue light.

The researchers found that those exposed to high levels of outdoor blue light at night had around a 1.5-fold higher risk of developing breast cancer and a twofold higher risk of developing prostate cancer, compared with those who were less exposed.  Men exposed to high levels of indoor artificial light also had 2.8-fold higher risk of developing prostate cancer, according to the study. Continue reading...

Facing the Truth – Facebook & Privacy

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Feeling connected is fundamental to the human experience – feeling part of the whole.  What better way to do that then from the privacy of our home?  We pick and choose when and where and for how long we want to connect when using online social media.

In a previous article we examined Facebook and pointed out its allure.  We listed the aspects of this “free” service and we identified “Likes” and “Dislikes”.  Were we too quick to accept at face value, the company’s emphasis on the importance of privacy?

A Bit about Facebook

  • Facebook, launched in 2004, is the most popular online social media and social networking service. It is based in the U.S. and is the creation of Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow Harvard friends and roommates.
  • As of June 2017, Facebook reached 2 billion active users.
  • It is a giant in terms of net worth. According to Wikipedia, as of Mar 25, 2018, it is worth US$62.2 billion.
  • Recently the company has faced considerable scrutiny and public pressure in relation to hate speech, fake news, depictions of violence, and privacy.

Recent News

Facebook has been in the news multiple times of late.  With news related to privacy of data, we need to start with Aleksandr Kogan, a University of Cambridge professor, who created a survey filled out by 270,000 people.  Continue reading...

Speed up Your PC with ReadyBoost

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All PC users have likely experienced the frustration related to slow performance.  There’s something just not right about having to wait for your PC to switch from one application to another.  We want to multi-task and we want a PC system that does not suffer any delays.  And, we ask, why not?  It’s an extension of what we are capable of.  So what are the choices in dealing with slow performing systems?  We can keep our original PC just as it is with very few applications (not taking full advantage of its capabilities and not much fun).  We can live with frustration and wait for the PC to respond when it is slow.  We can look at the costs associated with adding more RAM or increasing other hardware.  Instead of these options, we suggest a fast, easy, free alternative offered by Microsoft called ReadyBoost.

In our previous article we provided information about USB technology including USB flash drives.  With that information in hand you are ready to speed up your PC with ReadyBoost.  Let’s start with an overview of the technology.

Who Will Benefit?

Using this technology is best for users with 8 GB of RAM or lower, using a traditional spinning platter hard drive (HDD), and an operating system of Windows Vista or higher. Continue reading...

How to Identify Your Windows Version and Edition

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Can you guess what version of Windows is the most popular among all PC users? Is it Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, or even Windows XP?

Answer: Windows 7. According to NetMarketShare.com, Windows 7 dominates over 45% of the entire desktop market.

Do you know how to identify the version and edition of your Windows Operating System (OS)? Sometimes, it is critical that you have all the necessary version and edition information, including the type of system, whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit. For instance, when you need to refresh, repair, or even reinstall your Windows OS, you must have all this data ready. This article instructs you how obtain it.

The System Properties Dialog Box

It turns out that you can find the complete set of Windows version and edition information from the System Properties dialog box. It provides an overview of your PC’s hardware and OS information including Windows OS version, edition, and system type.

For instance, the System Properties dialog box shown above provides us with the following information:

  • Windows OS version: Windows 7 (Windows Edition section)
  • Windows 7 edition: Windows 7 Professional (Windows Edition section)
  • System type: 64-bit OS (System | System type section)

To summarize this and to use the most technically correct format, we can say this PC is running: Windows 7 Professional (64-bit). Continue reading...

BloomSky Weather Sensor – Setup

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Welcome to the next installment of our series on BloomSky – the weather technology. In this article we review the BloomSky Weather sensor. We will be taking the device, as any new user would, out of the box. Then we will follow the instructions and put it together. Get ready for our first impressions offered by our Tech Support specialist as he unwraps and assembles the weather sensor device from BloomSky.

When the box from BloomSky arrived, Andy was quite excited about it. So, I was somewhat surprised when he asked me to set up the unit and document the proceedings. I’m Richard from the Technical Support team and I would think the assumption is that this should be a snap for me, right? The truth is I learn how to do things by repetition – doing them over and over. However, it’s not likely that I would be a good assembly line worker – my strength is working with computers! So, if I can succeed at setting this up… most anyone can.

An offer for our readers:
For those who are interested in joining the BloomSky network, BloomSky is currently offering an unprecedented special promotion to our readers. Simply follow the link and use coupon code: COMPUCLEVER to get up to $40 off when you purchase a solar powered BloomSky weather station. 
Continue reading...