by MichaelMarch 21, 2020 windows0 comments

Home internet use is spiking – here’s how that could become a problem for you

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MARCH 20, 2020

In these frightening times, we all need to do our part to make things better for everyone. That begins with taking advice from officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by practicing social distancing.

But what should you do if you start feeling ill and don’t want to leave the house? Easy, just see a doctor online through a telemedicine visit. Tap or click here to find out how to get a coronavirus assessment without leaving home.

Now, with so many people stuck at home, there is a new tech problem to start worrying about. The sheer number of people online could lead to instability with your internet connection. Thankfully, there is something we can do about it before it’s too late.

With tens of millions of Americans staying home from work due to COVID-19, there is more time to spend online binge-watching shows, streaming music and staying connected to family and friends through video chatting apps.

And don’t forget all the people who are now working from home and need that internet connection to do their jobs. One issue people might run into is going over their data limits.

Fortunately, most providers have signed the “Keep America Connected Pledge.” That means they won’t charge overage fees and have promised not to cut service off to those who can’t pay their internet bills for the next 60 days. Tap or click here for details on the pledge.

All of this online activity might lead to networks being overwhelmed, which could result in a really slow internet or no internet connection at all. This is actually happening in Europe right now due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Things have gotten so bad that officials with the European Union are asking streaming services like Netflix and YouTube to limit their content to standard definition, removing the option for HD altogether. Currently, this is only for those in Europe, but with more people in the U.S. staying home, it’s expected to happen here, too.

Government officials and health organizations have been asking everyone to pitch in to “flatten the curve.” That’s just a catchy term meaning to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Now, it’s time to start thinking about flattening the connectivity curve.

How to help flatten the connectivity curve

If enough people are online at the same time, it could result in slow internet or no connection at all. This is not a good time to be without the internet or have unreliable service, there is just too much valuable information online that people need access to.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg already eluded to spikes in usage becoming a problem with some of its services. He told news outlets, during a conference call concerning COVID-19, that the call volume on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp has doubled in recent days.

Zuckerberg went on to say these usage surges are becoming a challenge and, “We need to make sure we are on top of this from an infrastructure perspective.” Honestly, that’s the best idea he’s had in years.

The good news is that so far, broadband and mobile networks in the U.S. have been able to handle the spike in usage. But for how long?

With that in mind, here are some things we can all do to help flatten the connectivity curve:

Make calls the old fashioned way – Instead of using VOIP services or WhatsApp to make phone calls, use your landline if you still have one or turn off Wi-Fi calling on your smartphone. That just means you’ll connect through a cell tower when making a call instead of the internet.
Find other forms of entertainment – Instead of staying glued to your screen and binge-watching the entire Marvel catalog, spend some time enjoying other forms of entertainment that you don’t need to connect to the internet for — especially during peak hours. Play a board game with the kids, read your favorite novel that’s been collecting dust for years, take a walk to get some much-needed fresh air — these are all good ideas, even when we’re not battling a pandemic.
Use lower quality streaming – If you must use streaming services, go ahead and choose standard-definition videos instead of the higher quality HD versions. I know, I know. It doesn’t sound very appealing watching “The Matrix” unless it’s in HD, but it’s better than being without internet service at all, wouldn’t you say?

Following simple suggestions like these to help flatten the connectivity curve will help ease the burden put on networks and hopefully keep us from seeing outages altogether. Remember, every little bit helps and as long as we all pitch, in we’ll get through this just fine.

by Mark RugenDecember 11, 2019 windows72 comments

Fix for Windows 10 – JPG Files Download as JFIF

If Windows 10 is saving your JPG files as JFIF files, here’s how to fix the problem.

Sometimes Windows 10 saves JPG files as JFIF files. It seems to happen most often when saving images in browsers but doesn’t seem to be limited to them. The cause of the issue is an incorrect file association in the registry which appeared after the Windows 10 Creators update. This can be a hassle for those of us using programs that will not accept that format!

What is a JFIF file anyway? It’s the JPEG File Interchange Format. It seems to have been around since the early 1990’s, which proves once again there’s always something new to learn about computers.

The Fix

The fix is to edit the registry of Windows 10 and change the image association type. BUT….that can be dangerous for those who are not experienced, so I wrote a simple .reg file that will do it for you. Of course, it’s still wise to backup your reg file before using this, but it does work well.

Basically, we are changing the following entry in the Windows reg file. If your comfortable making changes in the registry, here’s the path:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT > MIME > Database > Content Type > image/jpeg > Extension > Modify > Edit string > change Value data to .jpg

To make this even easier, just download my jpgNOTjfif.reg file here, pace it on the desktop, double click on it and accept the changes. That’s it! Now when you try to download a file and it has a jfif extension, it will download as a jpg instead.

Enjoy!

For more information about MUTOH printer visit www.mutoh.com

by Mark RugenOctober 28, 2019 Google, Wide Format Printing, windows0 comments

Sending Large Files is Easy with Any Web Browser

Firefox Send: Use With Any Web Browser

Firefox Send is a useful option to transfer big files with people who don’t want to rely on Google, Microsoft, or Apple. It lets you upload and encrypt large files (up to 1GB) to share online. To use Firefox Send, you don’t have to install an add-on. Point your web browser to the Firefox Send homepage and click the Select a file to upload button.

upload files with firefox send

Once the uploading gets completed, Send creates a link that you can then send it via email. At a time, you can send a link to 20 recipients (one download per recipient). You can also set a password to encrypt the file. Each link created by Send will expire after 24 hours. The file also gets deleted from the Mozilla server and leaves no traces.

sharing files with firefox send

Be sure to visit www.mutoh.com for details on award-winning wide format printers.

Need more ways to send large files? Check out this article: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-ways-to-email-large-attachments/

A PC Tech’s PC Tech – Why Consider A Fast Computer from SignBurst

Hi, my name is Earl

One of the funniest things about the show “My Name is Earl” is that he never took a photo where his eyes weren’t shut.

This seemed fitting in talking about another of my industry friends. Let me introduce you to a guy who opened my eyes to optimized PCs for the design and sign industry.

Casey Yonemura

Casey Yonemura, the Graphic Design Computer Specialist at Signburst (http://signburst.com/).

Casey was working the SAI booth https://www.thinksai.com/) at ISA 2018.

The first time I met Casey was at a trade show, many years ago.

Mutoh was just focusing on car wraps and I had actually begun designing wraps for myself and Mutoh.

Mutoh is an industry leader in the car wrap field now and Mutoh sponsors Justin Pate’s Avery Wrap Classes around the country. (https://www.mutoh.com/company/events/)

Justin’s an old friend of mine and I like to think I helped get these training classes off the ground in the early days. (http://www.justinpate.net/)

What a Great Computer Can Do

So I was at a show and stopped by The Bad Wrap booth (https://thebadwrap.com/) where Casey was running a Photoshop demo using The Bad Wrap templates and full-size wrap designs.

It looked like a typical canned video commercial with images dragging in and being edited and popping up in the template. assumed this was all edited to look fast, because I had a pretty good PC at home and I knew my images took much, MUCH longer just to load, more to edit. was just about to keep walking when I overheard the conversation between Casey and the guy he was giving a demo to about loading another image, and I watched Casey load a full-size image into the template with a click of the mouse.

This was REAL TIME.

I had never seen anything quite like this.

And this was BEFORE SSDs and the like.

Yes, I built dozens of PCs over the years and thought I had pretty good insight on PCs, but nothing like Casey has. Stayed and watched the rest of his demo and quizzed him on how he was able to get this kind of performance out of a PC.

It boiled down to the ‘right’ quality components and his insights from contacts at Adobe and RIP companies that allowed him to optimize these PCs not only for design but for RIP performance as well.

What a Great Computer Can Do in Your Shop

I was impressed enough to do a testimonial for Casey:

Randy Anderson, Product Marketing Manager – Mutoh America Inc. – “I have to admit, when I first saw one of Signburst’s computers running Photoshop for vehicle wrap design at a trade show, I thought there was some trickery going on. I had never seen such large files open and process so quickly. I watched for about 20 minutes in awe as this system was working virtually in real time with huge files and many layers. We invited SignBurst to our demo room, and their computer RIP’ed files in seconds that took our in-house system minutes, truly impressive. The time savings and increased productivity for these systems can greatly benefit any production environment.”

His PCs are blazing fast, and can increase your productivity and Casey is a PC Tech’s PC Tech. Pair his computers with our already fast MUTOH printers and you just entered the good side of the Twilight Zone!

Think Mutoh

windows

Home internet use is spiking – here’s how that could become a problem for you

How to help flatten the connectivity curve

Fix for Windows 10 – JPG Files Download as JFIF

If Windows 10 is saving your JPG files as JFIF files, here’s how to fix the problem.

The Fix

Sending Large Files is Easy with Any Web Browser

Firefox Send: Use With Any Web Browser

A PC Tech’s PC Tech – Why Consider A Fast Computer from SignBurst

Hi, my name is Earl

What a Great Computer Can Do

What a Great Computer Can Do in Your Shop

Learn About Our Training Courses!