How to Take Care of Your Lovely Laptop

There are a number of easy things that you can do to keep your laptop in great shape; following these easy steps will help to ensure that it lasts longer and will need less maintenance. As an added bonus, many of the steps will also maintain your laptop's speed.

1. Keep liquids away from your laptop. As tempting as it might be to drink coffee, soda, water or any other liquid near your laptop, accidents can happen all too easily. Spilled liquids may damage the internal components or cause electrical injury to the laptop. Short circuits can corrupt data or even permanently destroy parts. The solution is very simple: Keep your drinks away from your computer. Even if you're careful, someone else might bump into your desk or you. Or you can use a cup with a cover on it, so even if it does spill, the liquid doesn't go any where!
2. Having an available antivirus software would help. Even if you know what you download, it may contain a virus that can lead to a circuit error in your system hardware or slowness in the software.
3. Keep food away from your laptop. Don't eat over your laptop. The crumbs can go down between the keys in the keyboard and provide an invitation to small bugs. The crumbs can also irritate the circuitry. Worse, it makes the laptop look dirty if there are crumbs and food stains on it.
4. Always have clean hands when using your laptop. Clean hands make it easier to use your laptop touchpad and there will be less risk of leaving dirt and other stains on the computer. In addition, if you clean your hands before use, you will help reduce wear and tear on the coating of the laptop caused by contact with sweat and small particles that can act upon the laptop's exterior underneath your wrists and fingers.
5. Protect the LCD display monitor. When you shut your laptop, make sure there are no small items, such as a pencil or small ear-phones, on the keyboard. These can damage the display screen when shut; the screen will scratch if the item is rough. Close the lid gently and holding from the middle. Closing the lid using only one side causes pressure on that hinge, and over time can cause it to bend and snap.
6. Hold and lift the computer by its base, not by its LCD display (the screen). If you lift it by the screen part alone, you could damage the display or the hinges attaching it to the base. The display is also easily scratched or damaged by direct pressure – avoid placing pressure on it.
7.  Don't pull on the power cord. Tugging your power cord out from the power socket rather than putting your hand directly on the plug in the socket and pulling can break off the plug or damage the power socket. Also, if you have the power point near your feet, avoid constantly bumping into the plug or you could loosen it and eventually break it.
8. Don't roll your chair over the computer cord. Stick the cord onto your desk with tape or a special computer cord tie which can be easily undone when you've finished using the laptop. Always try to keep most of the cord away from the floor or your legs; sometimes you can be so engrossed in what you're doing that you move your legs and forget the cord is there.
9. Plug in accessory devices into their proper slots. Always look at the symbols on the laptop carefully before inserting devices. Jamming a phone line into an Ethernet port or vice versa could damage the sockets, making it impossible to use them again. It is very important to observe this step.
10. Handle any removable drives with care. Floppy drives or CD drives that have been removed from your laptop can easily get crushed, dropped or pressed if you are careless. Put them straight into a bag or a storage box/case for safe keeping if you are not putting them back into the laptop.
11. Insert drives into their slots carefully and at the correct angle. Pushing the wrong drive into a socket, or at an angle, or even upside down can jam it.
12. Check to see if labels are affixed securely before inserting media into your laptop computer. Media such as CDs, DVDs or floppy disks should not have any loose label parts that might jam inside the laptop drive. Never insert undersized CDs, as these can damage the disk player permanently.
13. Don't expose your laptop to rapid temperature fluctuations. When bringing your laptop indoors during winter, don't turn it on immediately. Instead, let it warm to room temperature first. This will avoid any potential for damage to the disk drive from condensation forming inside the machine. Avoid heat from sunlight as well.
14. Don't leave your laptop in a car. Not only do the insides of cars experience large temperature swings that could damage a laptop, but a laptop (or laptop bag) is an inviting target for a smash and grab thief.
15. Have the unit cleaned once a year to remove internal dust. Get this done by a computer professional. If dust accumulates, the system cannot cool itself correctly. Heat can destroy the motherboard.
16. Avoid placing heavy materials, such as books, on top of your laptop and keyboard. This can push the LCD screen into the keyboard, and will eventually damage it. Also, the CD-ROM insert will also be squished and, eventually, will break.
17. Use a properly-sized laptop case. Whatever you use to carry your laptop around in, be it a case, a bag or something you have made yourself, make sure that it it large enough to contain the laptop. This will avoid scratching, squeezing or even potentially dropping it.
18. Look into getting a laptop bag. Many breaks happen because of laptops being dropped or bumped. A bag greatly reduces the risk of damage.
19. Use and store in a well-circulated area. When you are using you r laptop, do so in a place that has a constant air-circulation. Lots of people ruin their laptop by using it in an enclosed area and thus making the laptop overheat. It also helps if you store it in a well circulated area.
20. Use an old tooth brush to clean the area around the exhaust fan screen. If that gets plugged up, air flow is diminished and overheating can most certainly occur.
21. Try and keep the laptop on a flat surface. This prevents damage to the laptop. This step can be hard, particularly if you are going out with your laptop, but if there is a flat surface available to put your laptop on then do so.
22. Don't use your laptop on the bed. Repeated use of the laptop on the bed will cause the fans to suck up the dust and further debris which lies in the bed, ultimately blocking the fan. Refrain from this by using the laptop somewhere else than the bed.

    Source : http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Good-Care-of-Your-Laptop-Computer

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11 Tips For Efficient And Effective Learning

Learning is a lifelong skill. From birth and throughout life, a person goes on a journey of acquiring knowledge. How this knowledge is gained varies from one individual to another because each one is created unique. There are some people who make little or no effort to learn and yet they do well in school. Others spend endless hours over their books but do not excel at all. Genes may have something to do with this, but more than the hereditary factor, it is the attitude towards learning that increases one’s ability to perform well. How one efficiently studies makes a capable learner. Here are a few tips to make the most out of learning:

1. Take care of your health,  People like machines also need downtimes. Stress and fatigue due to studying for long periods of time render the brain less effective to absorb data. Hence, adequate rest should be taken. A healthy mind needs a healthy body - see to it that proper nutrition and regular exercise is always maintained.
2. Develop a passion for learning, One should have a thirst for knowledge in order for learning to take place. Attending classes every day, reading and studying for hours, and accomplishing assignments do not guarantee positive results if you do not have that craving or focus to learn. Self-esteem somehow triggers this passion. The higher your self-confidence is, the more challenged you will become to learn faster.
3. Find a study environment that is conducive, Elements in the environment play an important role in one’s quest for learning. A specific study area with ample lighting, privacy, and complete supplies and reference materials are but some essentials for a smooth and stress-free study time. A set routine should also be imposed. Assign a specific time during the day for study. Don’t just "fit it in" your schedule or else you’ll have no time at all.
4. Set goals and targets, In order for each learning experience to be realistic, it is wise to set goals for yourself - goals that are measurable, achievable, time-bound, and flexible. Prepare weekly schedules, taking note of deadlines. For example, to get high grades, extra effort must be taken in studying and preparing for exams.
5. Take breaks in between study sessions, The brain needs to be recharged once in a while as this is when it absorbs all data obtained from studying. Overexertion causes it to repel information and makes studying futile. Do not go on a study marathon. Instead, study in short but frequent sessions and take breathers in between.
6. Engage in study groups, Two heads are better than one – so goes the cliché. Learning with a group is synergetic. You get to share your opinions, ideas, and views, and at the same time it is a venue for clarifying mind-boggling matters. It is also more interesting and challenging because you gain different perspectives or outlooks.
7. Understand concepts instead of memorizing details, Most of the time students pass exams and quizzes with flying colors. But after a while, their knowledge of the subject matter would already slip their minds. This is mainly due to a wrong approach to learning – that of memorization. Memorization is only short-term "disguised learning". If one develops the habit of understanding concepts rather than focusing on details, the learning process will flow smoothly and will have a long-term impact.
8. Use shortcuts, Applying shortcuts to your study habits maximize your learning skills. You accomplish more when you abbreviate in note-taking, when you focus your notes around ideas instead of taking them down verbatim, and when you put everything straight into your computer. In this day and age, we need to pack a lot of information into a very limited timeframe.
9. Manage your time wisely, Learning is an ongoing skill. Hand in hand with your goal-setting is allotting and managing your time for things to be done – projects to work on, homework to finish, and term papers and theses to submit. Time properly managed is time well spent. Even your time for socializing should be taken into consideration. Remember – all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!
10. Reward yourself, It is important to make the learning experience enjoyable whenever possible. Try out things that may spark that craving within you to learn – listening to music, perhaps, or engaging in a delightful snack – whatever may inspire you. Continuous hours of studying will not only make you weary but also make you lose interest. The above tips show that devoting long hours to study does not necessarily yield productive results. Studying efficientliny and effectively are the key factors to learning better.
11. Make Learning is Fun, like we enjoy playing games, we like that stuff and wanna always play that.. 

Source : http://techniquesoflearning.blogspot.com/2007/08/10-tips-for-efficient-learning.html

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