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Download
WinSnap -
http://www.ntwind.com/download/WinSnap-current.exe I've tried
many free image capture alternatives and I still come back to SnagIt
as my ultimate screen capture solution. WinSnap is the latest in a
long series of apps that has some of the features I love, but lacks
a key ingredient here and there to really save me time. WinSnap does
a great job with still image capture of everything from standard
square windows, to the more unconventional skinned windows common to
media player apps. Support for drop shadowing, watermarking, color
alteration and background customization make WinSnap a useful
solution for making screen captures look pretty. I'd like to see a
few more editing options built in, because it's still easier to edit
and output a screen capture in the same app, rather than launching
an external editor to finish the job. Output formats include JPG,
PNG, GIF, TIF and BMP. You'll also need a solution for recording
movies of your desktop, like CamStudio, in addition to WinSnap.
[Windows 2k/XP $0.00] #
Windows
marks files for deletion and removes them from the file system
database when you delete them. This doesn't mean they are
immediately gone. In fact, all that initially happens when you
delete a file is Windows makes note that the space occupied by the
file is listed as available space for storing new information. Until
something new is written to the part of the drive where that old
file was stored, your file is still there. Depending on how many
sectors that file occupies, pieces of the file could exist on your
drive for a very long time. If you very recently deleted the file,
there's an excellent chance you will recover it, especially if you
haven't downloaded a bunch of new files or created several gigabytes
of data. The trick is finding the right tool to get them back.
For simple recovery of deleted files, one of the easiest
solutions I've found is Restoration. The app works by
scanning your hard drive for sectors containing files marked for
deletion and then copying the files to space on your hard drive the
operating system has marked as available disk space. In my tests
with Restoration, most data recovery is successful. This is
especially true when recovering small files like Word documents.
When using the app to recover larger audio or video files, my
success rate is a little lower because sectors of the file often get
overwritten by something else. When you run a scan with Restoration,
it will find thousands of files on your hard drive, most of which
are temporary files deleted when your browser cache is emptied. A
few sort options make it easy to identify files by either file size
or alphabetically by filename if you already know what you're
looking for. Restoration is free.
http://www.topdrawerdownloads.com/files/rest2514.zip #
 [Left]
CD storage/carousel:
http://tinyurl.com/klwc4
Holds and retrieves via software/USB port, one-hundred CDs/DVDs,
etc. Not a player. You can stack these and chain them together
to hold thousands of CDs More:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/04/21/imation_disc_stakka/
See the carousel that holds 150:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?ProductID=4667
Another alternative:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?productID=3949
One more:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?productID=10670
TRACEROUTE (trās´rowt) (n.) A utility that traces a packet
from your computer to an Internet host, showing how many hops the
packet requires to reach the host and how long each hop takes. If
you're visiting a Web site and pages are appearing slowly, you can
use traceroute to figure out where the longest delays are occurring.
Trace the route of your data from source to your "destination."
For instance, I traced the route from my IP to my friend's web site
in Arizona. I start with START | RUN | CMD and at the DOS
prompt type: tracert mindymac.com -w 5000
tracert is the Windows command, while mindymac.com is
the destination, and -w 5000 is a five second wait between
replies so I can read the information in the dos window. (5000
milliseconds, or 5 seconds) If you need help with tracert
commands, type: tracert /? to get the commands. Here is the
result [My comments in RED]:
Tracing route to mindymac.com [66.235.193.155]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 6 ms 4 ms 4 ms my router [xxx.xxx.xxx.xx]
{hidden deliberately}
2 61 ms 4 ms 4 ms [xxx.xxx.xxx.xx] {hidden
deliberately}
3 57 ms 6 ms 4 ms gateway.nikola.com [64.146.180.225]
<- This "gateway" allows my host to "talk" to
NOA net.
4 56 ms 7 ms 6 ms fa6-4.138.oly-cor0.noanet.net [66.119.205.245]
5 68 ms 9 ms 8 ms srp2-0.wtn-cor0.noanet.net [66.119.192.17]
6 61 ms 8 ms 9 ms six.above.net [198.32.180.19]
7 77 ms 26 ms 26 ms so-3-2-0.mpr3.sjc2.us.above.net [64.125.28.182]
8 34 ms 27 ms 27 ms so-0-0-0.mpr4.sjc2.us.above.net [64.125.30.2]
9 34 ms 34 ms 35 ms so-5-1-0.mpr1.lax9.us.above.net [64.125.27.1]
10 34 ms 34 ms 34 ms 216.200.249.141.available.ipowerweb.com
[216.200.249.141]
11 61 ms 38 ms 36 ms st14.startlogic.com [66.235.193.155
Startlogic.com is the hosting site of Mindy's
domain.
Trace complete.
What do the numbers mean? For example, in the first line:
6 ms 4 ms 4 ms is the time in ms (milliseconds) of
three round trip times in milliseconds. The round trip times (or
RTTs) tell us how long it took a datpacket to get from me to
that system and back again, called the latency between the
two systems. By default, three packets are sent to each system along
the route, so we get three RTTs.
If you would like to know more about TRACEROUTE, see:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/T/traceroute.html and
If you want to know what/who the IP address is, use
Karen
Kenworthy's tool, WHOIS to Query the 200+
top-level domain registries and Regional Internet Registries around
the world. The proggie returns information about Internet
sites. Information available includes owner of domain name, and
often owner's mailing address, email address, phone number, and fax
number. Search by domain name or IP address. It's a nice
little, FREE tool from Karen.
(Above: Word Cloud for this site.) A Word Cloud
is a grouping of words from a blog or site (usually tags) with
the most-frequently-used words in the larger, bolder font. the
visual effect of the grouping is that of a cloud.
Word Cloud Keyword Density Tool - View the keyword density of your web site using a word cloud. - FREE!
FREE proggies from ANALOGX. I use the proggie,
Script Defender from them. Check it out, as well as the
other freebies at:
http://www.analogx.com/CONTENTS/download/system.htm
* Toool.de <http://toool.de/>, a German site, clearly groups search
engines into categories, making it easy to find one that will give
you the best results for your query.
* Trexy <http://trexy.com/> is a new research tool that remembers your
searches on more than 3000 search engines, including Google and
Yahoo. It also allows users to follow in the footsteps of other
searchers.
* Universiteitsbibliotheek
<http://www.leidenuniv.nl/ub/biv/specials.htm> is a collection of
search engine links, specially designed to assist students in
research on the Internet. The search engines listed is mostly
subject- and discipline-specific.
* Metacrawler <http://www.metacrawler.com/> allows you to query the
top search engines at once. Results are shown on the same page,
making it easy to find exactly what you're looking for.
* Complete Planet <http://aip.completeplanet.com> is a listing of
dynamic searchable databases. It allows you to search deeper than
the surface to find web pages and documents that cannot be crawled
or indexed. [source: FreePint -
(c) Free Pint Limited 1997-2006 <http://www.freepint.com/>
DISASTER RECOVERY USING A USB DRIVE
Robert Vamosi Senior editor, CNET Reviews
June 16, 2006
Nobody likes to think about disaster, but as the resident security
guy, I'm frequently involved with disaster planning around the home
and the office. Preparedness is the key, so get ready now while the
threat is still low. Obviously, tending to family and pets takes a
higher priority than mere hardware, but as we found out after
Katrina, sometimes you won't be able to get back home right away,
yet you'll need certain critical data to move on with your life.
Many Gulf Coast residents learned valuable lessons after last year;
here are some of their suggestions with regard to computer data and
personal information, as well as several steps you can take to make
an emergency evacuation and recovery less painful.
Online services
Many of those relocated outside of the Gulf Coast last fall
found themselves with the opportunity to use Internet-connected
computers--but they had no idea how to get the information they
needed. Those who had moved their banking and bill-paying online
were able to quickly put back together their financial lives after
Katrina. Now might be a good time for the rest of us to sign up for
these online services.
Paperwork
Create a small Notepad file or a spreadsheet with all of your
personal information on it--everything. Doctor information,
prescription drugs, pharmacies, school information, e-mail
addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers. The essence here is to
have a backup of your banking information (include bank account
numbers, stocks, and anything you access online), insurance (policy,
agent, and such), and ISP (you might need to reestablish your
account). If you run a small business, copy lists of your customers,
vendors, account numbers, and payroll contact information (if you
have a staff) into a separate folder. Later, burn the contents of
that folder to a disc or a flash drive for safekeeping. Those who
had moved their banking and bill-paying online were able to quickly
put back together their financial lives after Katrina.
Why not also make digital copies of important papers? If you have a
scanner, scan important documents--birth certificates, mortgages (at
least the first couple of pages), tax forms, anything you think will
be important. Save them as PDF files and copy them to a folder on
your hard drive. PDF readers are free to download, and accessing
these documents after a disaster could speed the process of applying
for aid.
Photos
While you're at it, take the time to make CD or DVD copies of
all your digital photos and music. Because the file sizes are
larger, you'll need to burn several discs. The personal text files,
spreadsheets, and PDF files mentioned above should also be burned to
a disc. Store these discs in a safety deposit box. Another option is
to mail the photograph discs to relatives in another state (ideally,
a state unlikely to suffer from the same natural disaster). Your
relatives will not only enjoy the photos, but their home will
provide a safe backup for the data.
Hardware
Before evacuating, copy any updated personal file data to a USB
flash drive. These drives are handy and can be part of your
evacuation kit. Then, whenever you next get computer access, you can
plug in the USB drive and print out the info. I'd go the additional
step of recommending that you encrypt this data. ZDNet has a blog
about encrypted USB drives <
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=14 >; you can use
WinZip and other common applications, such as PGP, to encrypt the
data. When you need to extract the data, both WinZip and PGP have
free downloads to install on the new computer. If you want, you can
wear the USB drive with your personal files on your key ring. That
way, in a moment's notice, you can dash off to the evacuation
center.
If you want, you can wear the USB drive with your personal files on
your key ring. That way, in a moment's notice, you can dash off to
the evacuation center; while you may have only the clothes on your
back, you'll also have some of the data you'll need to reconstruct
your life. [Source:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6543361-1.html?tag=nl.e497
Last accessed, 28 June, 2006. ]
I am a big fan and user of on line
video and audio -- especially
on line music sites and on line radio. If you are interested
in capturing and recording music, you should grab a plug-in for
WinAmp, or get a copy of Audacity. There are several
on line music sources. Among them: Pandora is a
music discovery service designed to help you find and enjoy music
that you'll love. It's powered by the Music Genome Project, the most
comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Just tell us one of
your favorite songs or artists and we'll launch a streaming station
to explore that part of the music universe.
http://www.pandora.com
Play music in your media player, track what you have been playing
and generate your music charts automatically. Share your profile
with your friends and get recommendations.
Live 365 <
http://www.live365.com > offers some 7,500 user-generated radio
stations, and MusicStrands (
http://www.musicstrands.com/
), a comprehensive music recommendation and community Web site.
Live Plasma draws graphical maps that show the
overlapping relationships between artists.
http://www.liveplasma.com
Grab a FREE copy of Audacity. Audacity is a fast multi-track
audio editor and recorder for Linux, BSD, Mac OS, and Windows.
Supports WAV, AIFF, Ogg, and MP3 formats. Save to MP3 with another
FREE download. Features include envelope editing, mixing, built-in
effects and plug-ins, all with unlimited undo.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/ Audacity cannot encode
MP3 files by itself, because the MP3 encoding algorithm is patented
and cannot legally be used in free programs. However, Audacity has
been programmed to recognize other existing MP3 encoders that you
can download separately. All you have to do is obtain the
appropriate MP3 encoder for your computer and then show Audacity
where it is located. If you use Audacity, you will need a copy of
LAME in order to save/export Audacity files as
MP3s. Get a Windows Download of LAME at
http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/lame.html
Download it, unzip the file, then look for the file called
lame_enc.dll.
The first time you try to export an MP3
file, Audacity will ask you to locate your MP3 encoder. Locate the
file indicated above. From then on, Audacity will not need to ask
you again and you will be able to export MP3 files easily.
You can find LAME on the net by
Google searching for "lame compile download binary" or visiting this
list of mirrors. < Reference:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/exportmp3.html
> Alternatively, I will put a copy of LAME 3.96.1 on our password
protected web page so you may download the ZIPPED file there.
POSTURE AT THE COMPUTER: Use a good chair with a dynamic
chair back and sit back in this. The top of monitor casing should be
2-3" above eye level. There should be no glare on screen, use an
optical glass anti-glare filter where needed. Sit at arms length
from monitor with feet on floor or stable footrest. Use a document
holder, preferably in-line with the computer screen. Keep wrists
flat and straight in relation to forearms to use
keyboard/mouse/input device. The arms and elbows should be relaxed
and close to body center. The monitor and keyboard should be
directly in front of you. Use a negative tilt keyboard tray with an
upper mouse platform or downward tilt table platform adjacent to
keyboard. Use a stable work surface and stable (no bounce) keyboard
tray. Take frequent short breaks (microbreaks). Lastly,
far-focus your eyes every 15 minutes or so. Look across the
room and focus on something else. Of course, take off those
special "computer specs" first. I am lucky to have a pair of
glasses ONLY for computer use. They are ground to my
prescription, fitted very well, and are optimally focused on my eye
to screen distance. They also have a non-glare coating, which helps.
-tp ##
Yesterday, a club officer and I met a gentleman that had
impaired sight. He is a computer user, and he called our
attention to these products: Jordy II
http://www.eyeassociates.com/jordy2.htm
Zoomtext:
http://www.synapseadaptive.com/aisquared/zoomtext_9/zoomtext_9_home_page.htm
With the new NeoSpeech synthesizers, ZoomText reads all of your
applications, documents, email, and web pages with voices that are
clear and enjoyable to listen to. The expressive, human-like quality
of NeoSpeech allows you to effortlessly and accurately absorb what’s
being spoken by ZoomText.
NeoSpeech is currently available in male and female voices – Paul
and Kate. Click the links below to hear a sample of each voice. Get
a free trial on the site.
#
PROBLEM. YOUR ERROR MESSAGE SAYS: "Unmountable Boot Volume".
This is due to your boot.ini file being corrupted. Solution: 1.
Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD / DVD drive and restart the
computer. 2. Type R to enter the Recovery Console. 3. If given an
option "Which Windows Installation would you like to log on to" type
1 and hit enter. 4. At the prompt [C:\WINDOWS>] type chkdsk /r and
hit enter. 5. Type fixboot and hit enter. 6. Type y and hit enter.
7. Type "exit" and hit enter 8. The system will now reboot into
Windows
#
Google Notebook * Clip useful information. You can add
clippings of text, images and links from web pages to your Google
Notebook without ever leaving your browser window. * Organize your
notes. You can create multiple notebooks, divide them into sections,
and drag-and-drop your notes to stay organized. * Get access from
anywhere. You can access your Google Notebooks from any computer by
using your Google Accounts login. * Publish your notebook. You can
share your Google Notebook with the world by making it public. My
public notebook: TinyUrl
http://tinyurl.com/nmkpk
Surf
Anonymously. Substitute the site you want to visit with the URL,
below.
Example:
http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://sequim-web.net
This URL will take you, anonymously to the Sequim Web site. Try
it.
Live WEB CAM, Spain:
http://www.opentopia.com/showcam.php?camid=3869 or click->
Cuenca,
Spain
Set up a Proxy and cloak your IP:
1. In IE -> Choose Tools -> Choose Internet Options -> Go to Connections (tab)
-> Press LAN Settings (button) -> mark the “Use a proxy server for your LAN…” ->
In the IP Address field, enter the IP (use 206.107.155.137 for US services,
62.171.219.179 for UK services) -> In the Port field, enter the port (US - 8080,
UK - 80) -> Press OK (button) -> Press OK again (button). 207.29.224.155 Port 80
Copy one of the IPs and remember the port. In Firefox open Tools –> Options.
Select Connection Settings and select Manual Proxy Configuration. Add the IP to
the HTTP Proxy Row and enter the Port in the field next to it. Click Use this
proxy server for all protocols and test it by navigating to the
whatismyproxy.com website
2. You can set up a proxy in Firefox, too, and it works fine.
Here is a big list of public proxies: <
http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html >
The WhatIsMyProxy < http://whatismyproxy.com
> List of Proxy Lists:
The following websites all maintain lists of public proxy servers. Their
security or legality is left as an exercise to the reader. Never trust an
important password to any proxy that you find listed on any of these sites. This
works with email, of course. When you are finished navigating, change
things back to what they were.
Go to TOP
Verify by visiting <
http://www.whatismyproxy.com >.
<
http://www.anonymitychecker.com/page1.html >
<
http://www.atomintersoft.com/products/alive-proxy/proxy-list/ >
< http://www.bismark.it/proxylist/
>
<
http://www.checker.freeproxy.ru/checker/last_checked_proxies.php >
<
http://www.freeproxy.ru/download/lists/goodproxy.txt >
<
http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_proxy.htm >
<
http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html >
< http://www.proxz.com/ >
<
http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html >
< http://www.samair.ru/proxy/ >
<
http://tools.rosinstrument.com/proxy/ >
< http://www.cybersyndrome.net/ >
<
http://www.searchlores.org/proxlist.htm >
<
http://home6.swipnet.se/~w-61609/Proxies.htm >
<
http://members.tripod.com/burn77/proxies.html >
http://www.dummysoftware.com/gzapper.html Zap your GOOGLE searches cookie.
FREEBIE.
A Flash Player is required. Most browser's can handle this site.
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Speakeasy Speed Test - Our internet connection at The
Lucky Gentleman Nail Salon and Electric Bicycle Shop - download speed: 7620
kbps (952.5 KB/sec transfer rate) upload speed: 4894 kbps (611.8 KB/sec transfer
rate)
Security Software from About.com:
Lots of LINUX
resources - < here
>
If you want to check the validity of an email, there are some web
sites that provide information about hoaxes and urban legends:
* Urban Legends and Folklore - http://urbanlegends.about.com/
* Urban Legends Reference Pages - http://www.snopes.com/
* Hoaxbusters - http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
* Stiller Research Virus Hoax News - http://www.stiller.com/hoaxes.htm
* TruthOrFiction.com - http://www.truthorfiction.com/
* Symantec Security Response Hoaxes - http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
* McAfee Security Virus Hoaxes - http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp
Myths and Facts about Remanufactured INK Cartridges
http://download.101com.com/rec/Quality_and_Cost_Savings.pdf
Go to TOP
Lots of
Links to Computer Information and HELP:
computerlinks.htm
Internet
Etiquette: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/
[All of you should be familiar with the contents of this site so you
may act and respond as a good net citizen.]
Eric Wards' URL WIRE:
http://www.urlwire.com/headlines/index.html
Mindshare Tips and Trick for Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/mindshare/tips.mspx
Visit CHOICES AND VOICES' BLOG @
http://sequimmagazine.blogspot.com
Keep your PC running safer and working better by making sure you have
the latest driver and software versions installed
http://www.radarsync.com/installers/RS2007.exe
Old Pictures: Theme index at:
http://www.old-picture.com/theme-index-001.htm
Google Trends:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=Vista
What word and
where are the searches from? Try some of your own searches.
See what folks in KANSAS or UTAH are looking for.
Just the Links page from Mark Donaldson:
http://luem42.googlepages.com/links.html - Lots of FRESH links
from Donaldson's web site. I consider Donaldson's links as ONE of my
number one resources for this site.
Corporate claptrap:
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=stock_photos
The
never-ending two-step defragmenting process of Vista can soon become a
thing of the past. With certain tools, we were able to cut
defragmentation time of 25 GBs of files with Vista Ultimate from 82
minutes to 6 minutes!!! That is defragmenting 10X faster than the
built-in Vista defragmenter! The tutorial also works with Windows 2000
and XP. FREE.
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Power-Defragmenter-Download-20185.html
Some
more FREE software to try:
http://www.harmlesslion.com/cgi-bin/showprog.cgi?Windows
Share
files on line, FREE:
http://s15.quicksharing.com/ 500MB limit per file, upload
and share as many as you want. We only delete if the file is not
accessed within the past 30 days.
More
FREEBIES:
http://baliganikhil.googlepages.com/home Uses
quicksharing.com to download files.
Pedometer
using Google maps for you walkers, hikers, joggers -
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/
http://www.googlism.com
- Try it.
Interactive
WEB radio:
http://www.musicovery.com/ Great music...choose your mood.
If you can't
connect using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) which automatically assigns IP addresses, there are two possible
problems. Your laptop may be holding on to an old IP address or other
configuration assigned from a connection you made earlier, OR your
laptop cannot find the DHCP server and is using a self-assigned IP
address. To can force your laptop to release and renew the
configuration. I use one of two methods that I know. This was is
more graphically oriented. In XP, right click on My Network Places,
either on the Desktop or in the Start Menu. Select Properties from the
pop-up menu. Right click the Local Area Connection Icon and select
Status from the pop up menu. Select the Support tab and click REPAIR.
This will release and renew your IP "lease" and flush your DNS cache
as it registers your connection with the DNS, anew, etc.
A loose or bad Ehternet cable is often the cause of a lost Ethernet
connection. Carry a spare, or recheck your connection. A friend
recently had her ISP tech come to her place of business to properly
plug in her Ethernet cable. She was highly embarrassed, but she won't
make that same mistake again, I'm sure.
101 Freebies
from PC World Magazine...by category:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130045-page,12-c,freeware/article.html
JDVoiceMail
generates compressed .wav or .mp3 files reducing the size from 16 to
10 times:
http://www.lagolento.com/
http://www.snapfiles.com/php/download.php?id=109873&a=7129378&tag=1445023&loc=2
The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to
host names, including a whole lot of naughty ones.
This file is loaded into cache memory at startup, then
Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS
servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS.
This will prevent access to the sites by redirecting any
connection attempts back to the local machine. Another
feature of the HOSTS file is its ability to block other
applications from connecting to the Internet, providing the
entry exists.
* Note: the below locations are for the typical default
paths of YOUR HOSTS file. Copy the old one before you
replace it with the new one, JIC.
Windows Vista =
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Windows XP = C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Windows 2K =
C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
In the future when you wish to update the HOSTS file,
download the "hosts.zip" <
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip >,
extract the included files and copy it into the directory
which held YOUR original hosts file. I downloaded the latest hosts.zip file
and extracted to it's proper place in my windows sub
directory (above). Everything worked fine.
Macintosh
User Groups going the way of the Newton
Originally published by Justin Berka | Published:
April 24, 2007.
Sadly, user groups and computer clubs are slowly fading away, due in
large part to the rise of the Internet. Bulletin boards, and later
forums, have replaced classrooms and libraries as the meeting places for
technology enthusiasts. As BBSes and forums have grown, so has the
amount of information that they provide. Need to know how to install
RAM? Do a quick Google search or check on the online manual rather
than wait for next week's meeting. Instead of going to meetings, just
log on to the forums and find whatever information or discussion you
want. The Internet is now serving as a knowledge repository, meeting
place, and discussion forum for enthusiasts, rendering user groups
largely obsolete.
The Internet isn't the only thing to blame, though. Changing attitudes
towards technology have also played a role in the decline of user
groups. Before computers were widespread, the only reason to have a PC
or a Mac was if you needed it for business or were a computer
enthusiast. As the above-linked article opines, the "younger
generation" cares far more about what they can do with computers,
rather than worrying about how they work. You used to have to know at
least something of how computers worked to make them do anything
useful, but nowadays you can take a Mac out of the box, plug it in,
and be on AIM in a few minutes. There are still plenty of people
interested in knowing how computers work, but they're a much smaller
fraction of the population of computer owners. As a result, the
younger generation is worrying more about utilizing their computers
instead of fixing them (or at least Googling when they do need to fix
them), leading to declining membership in user groups. Comments?
Drop me a line.
Ed sent this info our way:
 Note: Radio Shack, Sequim, listed as LYCORP
##
30% discount for
SPCUG, paid members:
The O'Reilly School of Technology has officially opened
its virtual
doors with educational offerings for students looking to further or
launch their IT careers, whether they aspire to become alpha geeks
or
not. The school is a unique partnership between O'Reilly Media and
the
University of Illinois.
Students can earn a Certificate for Professional Development from the
University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education upon completion of
a selected series of courses. Certificates are currently offered in
Client-Side Web Programming, Linux/Unix System Administration, Web
Programming, Open Source Programming, and .NET Programming.
Courses are offered at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Whether students take the courses individually or with a certificate in
mind, the completion of each course earns Continuing Education Units
from the University of Illinois, and count toward the certificates that
include that course.
For more information about the O'Reilly School of Technology, including
a current list of certificate and courses, see:
<http://www.oreillyschool.com/?CMP=BAC-ostug>
Watch the video to see how it works:
<http://www.oreillyschool.com/why/theostmovie.mp4>
##
Google's Gmail débuted almost three years ago, but
it's been "invitation only" during all that time. In most cases, it
wasn't too difficult to get invited since members regularly received a
number of free invitations to send to their friends. However, there
were still some people who wanted accounts and couldn't get them.
Well, now Gmail is open to everyone who wants a free web mail
account, with no invitation required.
Read more here:
http://www.wxpnews.com/0WJMWV/070220-Gmail-Open
To sign up for a Gmail account, go here:
http://www.wxpnews.com/0WJMWV/070220-Gmail
Gmail
Craze 30 + Tools and Hacks for Gmail " MakeUseOf.com:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/gmail-craze-30-tools-to-make-your-gmail-better
Gmail Tips
- The Complete Collection:
http://g04.com/misc/GmailTipsComplete.html
See OUR
NEW gmail TIPS page - full of links to TIPS>
gmailTipsPage.htm
.Olympic Peaks Camera Club --
Almost everyone today with a PC has or is moving to digital
photography. Yet one cannot assume that the art of
photography is automatically endowed by purchasing a digital
camera. What is assured, however, after the initial outlay
of bucks, is that one can take as many photos as time and
circumstance allow without the additional cost of film and
developing, thereby making it easy and cost-free to hone
one's photographic skills. Reading about photography is not
usually a good way to learn the art of excellent
photo-taking. But seeing the pictorial essays of one's
fellow photography enthusiasts and hearing "expert"
commentary on these about what is good and bad and how to
improve on their various works makes for great learning
experiences. The local Olympic Peaks Camera Club offers an
opportunity for all who want to learn how to improve one's
photographic skills. There are two meetings monthly, on the
2nd and 4th Thursdays, held from 7pm till around 9pm. The
first of the monthly meetings is usually focused on
member-submitted photos in three categories: slides, printed
and digital photos. These are displayed and/or projected for
all to study, while a commentator gives his "experienced"
perspective on each photo. At the same time three judges
weight the technical and artistic merits of each, resulting
in First, Second and Third Place finishes in each category.
This is a tremendous learning experience for all, whether
one enters his/her own photos or not into the open
competition. At the second of the monthly meetings we
usually have guests speakers of renown or photographic
workshops in which we can learn and practice useful
techniques in the art of photography. And mixing with
like-minded photographers is a wonderful way to exchange
ideas and pick up useful tips to improve your own photo
essays. The club meets at the Dungeness Community Church
at 45 Eberle Lane, about 4 miles north of Washington St.
in Sequim, off Sequim-Dungeness Rd. The club meets in the
activities room behind the church and closest to its large
parking lot. You might want to view the camera club's web
site at
olympicpeaks.org.
For more information, call Bill Black at 360-681-4422. Or
just show up at one of the meetings. You can decide if you
want to join after a few meetings. [Thanks to
Ed, our Project Manager and SPCUG Member.]
Ed
reminded me of this: Get Human
http://gethuman.com/us/
finding a toll-free phone number
To find the toll-free phone number for any US-based company,
try calling 1-800-555-1212 or search Google for company name
plus "phone numbers". Or maybe even searching for the
company name and "president office" or "investor relations".
Tip: did you know that your phone company charges $1.49 or
more each time you call 411? Instead, try using
1-800-FREE-411.
For companies who try to hide their phone numbers, many
times the Google search will find a page from a disgruntled customer
who exposes the phone numbers for that company.
For a public company, you could also try searching EDGAR.
The "10K" report includes information about corporate
officers and the official company mailing address.
You could also try looking up their contact information via
a "whois" database: internic, godaddy, whois.net, etc.
##
Getting to a human
Once you have a phone number, here are some tips to try to
get through the computer to get to a live human:
1. Interrupt. Press 0 (or 0# or #0 or 0* or *0) repeatedly,
sometimes quickly. Unfortunately the same keystroke does not
always work for each company. Many IVRs (Interactive Voice
Response) will connect to a human after a few "invalid
entries", although some IVRs will hang up.
2. Talk. Say "get human" (or "agent" or "representative") or
raise your voice, or just mumble. :) The IVR might connect
you to a human after one of these key or unknown phrases.
3. Just hold, pretending you have only an old rotary phone.
4. Connect to account collections or sales or account
cancellation; they always seem to answer quickly. First ask
them for their name and rep number (so they know you are
writing it down, and thus so they are more likely to help
you.) Then ask them to transfer you to the department you
need. Sometimes they will put you ahead of the queue,
although sometimes they will send you to the end (and thus
in those cases this tip is useless).
5. Toll call. For credit cards, if the expected wait time is
too long, hang up and try to call back on their
non-toll-free number, as they often have shorter queues.
6. Selecting the option for Spanish will sometimes get you a
bilingual human more quickly than if you just waited for an
English-only operator.
When you do finally find a human, ask them how to connect
directly the next time (in case your call gets disconnected
etc. ## -tp.
If you need to backup your DVDs, get a copy of AnyDVD
AND CloneDVD <
http://www.slysoft.com/en/ > You need both.
After you archive your DVD, you can
print
covers and disk images by grabbing them at:
http://www.cdcovers.cc
. Get printable DVDs if your inkjet can print on DVDS.
I encourage you to support the CD covers site by donating a
dollar or two.
You can buy both software packages as a bundle for $52.48.
You can download them and TRY them, FREE, for three weeks.
Just don't try to sell your copies on eBay or on a street
corner (as
our friends in New York and other places do). ##
Saving Bacon
The system restore (SR) has saved my bacon a few
times, (and so has clearing the cache in Internet Explorer).
[More about IE at some future date.] Today's piece is on the
WIN XP System Restore service.
First, you should know how to turn and and off System
Restore:
To manually turn off System Restore:
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click
Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Click to select the Turn off System Restore check box (or
the Turn off System Restore on all drives check box), and
then click OK.
4. Click Yes when you receive the prompt to the turn off
System Restore.
Manual steps to turn on System Restore
To turn on System Restore, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click
Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Click to clear the Turn off System Restore check box (or
the Turn off System Restore on all drives check box), and
then click OK.
SR comes with Windows XP, Home and Pro and with Windows
ME. SR lets you recover from a failed software
installation, a software conflict, or some other problems.
You should be aware of the limitations of SR:
1. It doesn't back up your files and documents. System
Restore works on system-level files. If you delete an
important document, SR can't help. System Restore doesn't
take the place of backing up your important data--like
documents and spreadsheets, for example.
2. System Restore is not a true, ROLL BACK tool like
Symantec's Go Back, for instance. If you
install new software that crashes or causes a serious
problem, SR may get Windows to run, but it may not erase the
program or portions thereof, that caused the problem.
3. The default settings let SR take up a lot of hard disk
space.
4. System Restore is processor and disk-intensive when it
runs, which is often. It runs: At first boot, every 10
hours of continuous system operation, every 24 hours of real
time, every time Windows Update installs something and every
time you install any software using an installer program
that System Restore recognizes.
My recommendations are to use SR, but adjust it. You can
set the restore cache area. Here's how: In XP: Right
click on My Computer, then Properties, and then the System
Restore tab. Select the hard drive you wish to adjust and
click the Settings button.
In WinME: Right click My Computer, then select Properties,
then Performance/File System/Hard Disk.
Next, whether XP or ME, move the slider to choose a
reasonable amount of disk space for the System Restore
files. Start with 200-250 megabytes by moving the slider to
the left. I use 500M, and it gives me a week of
restore points, which is enough for me.
Over the next few weeks you can check to see if you have
enough Restore Points available for your needs. Here's how:
In XP: Click Start/All Programs/Accessories/System
Tools/System Restore.
In WinME: Click Start/Programs/Accessories/System
Tools/System Restore.
In both operating systems, select "Restore my computer to an
earlier time" and click next. You'll see a calendar with
some dates in bold; those are the days with one or more
available Restore Points. Note how far back the bold dates
go. Next, click Cancel to exit the Restore tool. Don't go on
to the next step and perform a System Restore. You are just
checking at this point.
You can also disable SR. If you're making regular, full
backups you don't need System Restore. If you decide to
disable SR altogether: In XP: Right click on My Computer,
select Properties, and select the System Restore tab. Select
the checkbox labeled Turn off System Restore on all drives.
In WinME: Right click My Computer, select Properties, then
Performance/File System/Troubleshooting. Then check the box
marked "Disable System Restore." Unlike XP, WinME does not
allow per-drive settings.
With System Restore disabled, you'll reclaim wasted disk
space, and avoid the automatic CPU and hard disk tasks that
SR would automatically do. You can turn SR on when you feel
you need it. For example, turn it on and make a restore
point just before you install some big program or radical
change of some kind. Once you know everything is OK, you can
shut it off again.
In XP: Right click on My Computer, select Properties, and
select the System Restore tab. Deselect (uncheck) the
checkbox labeled "Turn off System Restore on all drives."
Or, if you used per-drive settings, select the drive you
wish to adjust, click the Settings button, and then deselect
the checkbox marked "Turn off System Restore for this
drive."
It is recommended that you SHUT OFF SR any time you discover
a virus or worm. Clean the virus and worm, restart your
computer and make sure all is OK, THEN turn SR on again if
you use it on a regular basis. Most virus removal procedures
will say the same thing. -tp, et. al.
Steve writes: "... the windows patch files. C:\Windows\
they start with a $ and end with a $ they should be safe to
remove after the patch or update is applied. I found I had
over 3600 of these files totalling 892MB of wasted space."
WhatsRunning.net - This application helps you investigate
what applications, processes, services, modules, drivers and
IP connections are running on your computer. See
extensive system information in a simple graphical user
interface. Version 2.2
http://www.download.com%2F3001-2094_4-10526910.html
[Thanks, Pete.]
Small Applications:
http://portableapps.com and
http://www.tinyapps.org
List of education resources:
http://www.eliteskills.com/free_education/
If Programmers built airplanes. Video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq55R7R-qfw
Impressions of Windows Vista after one month of use:
http://www.philoking.com/2007/01/13/windows-vista-one-month-in/
Passwords in plain sight:
Let's
suppose your password is: Mf497ree1 To write it down and to put it in plain view for you and for
anyone that sees it stuck to your monitor, you write it down
as M497wree1
Mf497ree1 is the password, but you write:
Mfw497ree1. w is your secret letter. You add a w to
the real password, anywhere in the password. Don't use
your initials. Too easy to guess. Use any character and add
it anywhere to the password. Make sure the letter you choose
is NOT already in the password, of course.
You can always ADD an extra character in the fifth
position for example. Let's say your secret character is
an x. Again, Suppose your password is Mf497ree1 You
would add a "x" in the fifth position, thus:
Mf49x7ree1 is your obfuscated password. You use the same
scheme. An x in the fifth position. ##
A few days ago, a friend and I got into a discussion about
the pros and cons of using the tiff versus the RAW format
when taking digital photos. Most medium to high-end
digital cameras will offer a choice of file formats. The
most popular formats are JPEG, TIFF and RAW.
Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed
and ready to use with a bitmap graphics editor <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitmap_graphics_editor >,
printed <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing >, or displayed by
a typical web browser. The RAW file format is digital
photography's equivalent of a negative in film photography
as it contains untouched, "raw" pixel information straight
from the digital camera's sensor - the heart of the camera.
RAW isn't an acronym, it doesn't stand for anything, it just
means raw, unprocessed, data.
Normally, the RAW image must be processed and converted to
an RGB <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB > format such as TIFF <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIFF > or JPEG <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG > before it can be
manipulated. RAW files contain the most information (like
capturing 4096 shades of gray instead of only 256) and allow
for the most versatility when you use Photoshop to edit your
files. The downside is that RAW files also take the most
work to get a great looking image and there is a different
RAW format for each manufacturer, so you may have to use the
manufacturer's software to view the images. Some graphics
applications can read some manufacturer's RAW formats.
Not all digital cameras offer TIFF as a choice, but when you
have both TIFF and JPG available, consider that TIFF files
will always be higher quality than JPEGs, and JPEG files
will always be smaller than TIFFs. The main problem with
TIFF files is that they are very big. This will cause your
camera to slow down when writing your images to the flash
memory card. If you're going for the highest quality image
you can capture, the RAW format is a better choice than
TIFF, because it is much more versatile and smaller.
TIFF is a very portable format as it is supported by a wide
variety of photographic and publishing applications. If you
want to maximize storage capacity stick with JPEG. In the
Nikon, D100, typical TIFF files are over 17 megabytes each.
RAW permits much greater control than JPEG for several
reasons:
For example, the white point can be set to any value, not
just discrete values like "daylight" or "incandescent". The
settings can be previewed and tweaked to for the best
quality image or effect. RAW files have 12 or 14 bits of
brightness information.
Other Drawbacks
Camera raw files are typically 2-6 times larger than JPEG
files. Some raw formats do not use compression, some
implement lossless data compression to reduce the size of
the files without affecting image quality and others use
“lossy” data compression. This avoids or reduces the
compression artifacts inherent in JPEG, but means that fewer
images can fit on your memory card. It also takes longer for
the camera to write raw images to the card, so fewer
pictures can be taken in quick succession (affecting the
ability to take, for example, a sports sequence). My friends
Nikon D100, for instance takes about 25 seconds to write a
RAW file to his card. This would prevent him from shooting
sports events and other action shots, of course.
Cameras that support raw files typically come with
proprietary software for conversion of their raw format to
TIFF or JPEG. Other conversion programs and plugins are
available from vendors that have either licensed the
technology from the camera manufacturer or
reverse-engineered the raw format.
A portable open source program, dcraw,
supports most raw formats and can be made to run on
operating systems such as Unix not supported by most
commercial software. Get dcraw, but first see an example of
dcraw images at: <
http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/digicam/dcraw/ >
[Incidentally, RAW can be easily used from many image
viewers such as the excellent freeware software IrfanView
by Irfan Skiljan <
http://www.irfanview.com / > Get Irfan View at: <
http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm >
] You can download the tool, dcdraw, from <
http://www.insflug.org/raw/ >
In 2005, Apple Computer introduced several products which
offered RAW file support. In January, Apple released iPhoto
5, which offered basic support for viewing and editing RAW
files. Picasa, a free image editing and cataloguing program
from Google, supports many RAW formats.
RAW files typically are slightly processed in the camera. In
general, this processing is limited to algorithms that
require direct access to the camera's hardware. It includes
rudimentary noise reduction. Noise reduces the effectiveness
of compression algorithms, so files are compressed more
efficiently when noise reduction is applied before
compression.
Give RAW a spin. -tp, 1/7/07
[ See my article on LENS BASICS in
the library. ] ##
Common Passwords:
The top 20 passwords are (in order): password1, abc123, myspace1,
password, blink182, qwerty1, f--you, 123abc, baseball1, football1,
123456, soccer, monkey1, liverpool1, princess1, jordan23, slipknot1,
superman1, iloveyou1 and monkey. ##
I have been having fun playing around with NationMaster
(
http://www.nationmaster.com ), a cool site developed by Luke
Metcalfe,
an Australian who was frustrated at his inability to mine the data
within the CIA World Factbook. NationMaster now includes data from the
World Bank, various United Nations entities, OECD (Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development), World Trade Organization, and
so on. See, also, STATE MASTER at:
http://www.statemaster.com/index.php
Computer Hope dictionary - Browse through our complete listing
of over 6,000 computer definitions and terms either by using the below
search or browse by letter or number by clicking one of the below
links.
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a new term for those people that come to your door: Wet Spam.
A live person spamming you with religious tracts and other, verbal
nonsense. Wet Spammers are just as bad as those cretins that text
message your cell phone.
##
Tokyo Computer Club newsgroups:
http://www.tokyopc.org/tpc/newsgroups.html Membership is
5000 Yen! That's a little over 42$.
##
Get the best commercial software titles - for
free. Every day we offer licensed software you'd
have to buy otherwise, for free! Yes, we are giving
away software, and you can download it from our site, right now and
right here and our goal is to give away every good piece of
software, sooner or later. You have to INSTALL IT THE DAY YOU
DOWNLOAD IT.
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/
~~~
- What is Password Safe? Password Safe is an Open Source <
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license.php
> (free) tool that allows you to have a different password
for all the different programs and websites that you deal
with, without actually having to remember all those
usernames and passwords. Password Safe runs on PCs under
Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP). An older (but fully functional)
version is available <
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=41019&release_id=191101
> for PocketPC. Linux/Unix clones that use the same database
format have also been written (see Related Projects).
http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/
##
-Want to download some music? All you have to do is search
using Google. Enter this:
"Band or Artist name here" last modified mp3 "index of"
-html -htm -php -asp Here is a verbatim example, including
all the correct punctuation, etc., that you would enter into
a Google search box to find Pink Floyd music: "Pink Floyd"
last modified mp3 "index of" -html -htm -php -asp
Let's say you want to search indices related to technology
for PowerPoint files: use this search:
"Technology " last modified ppt "index of" -html -htm -php
-asp ##
 ChangeMacAddress Released.
http://amac.paqtool.com/ Mini Quick mac address
changer released! Download to Try <
http://amac.paqtool.com/quickamac.exe > Grab this little
proggie and try it out. It quickly changes your MAC address
as reported by running ipconfig /all from a command prompt.
-tp. Quickemac
http://secure.emetrix.com/order/product.asp?PID=97017115&DID=84674642&ID=&Q=1&DC=&CUR=
$15.00
-Searching for inexpensive USB thumb drives? Use this search
string in Google to find USB drives costing between five and
ten dollars. The search string must look EXACTLY like what
is shown, here: USB drive $5..$10 You might want to modify
your search to eliminate any mention of REBATES by adding
-rebate, as in: USB drive $5..$10 -rebate
-Phish Tracking at DSLreports:
http://www.dslreports.com/phishtrack
Some
Google Search Tips:
If you want to improve your Google searching tenfold, try some of
these tips to narrow or enhance your searches.
If you want to search for one or the other items, use OR between the
search terms, as in car OR plane. Be sure to capitalize OR. Since I
used to do some programming, I use the split-pipe symbol "|" as a
substitute for typing OR. It looks like this in the search box: cat |
dog This would search for cat OR dog.
If you want to be sure you INCLUDE a word in your search, put a + sign
in front of it. For example, to include the word "how" in your query,
you’d enter +how. Be sure to include A SPACE BEFORE + sign, but not
after it.
Sometimes you want to refine your results by excluding pages that
include a specific word. You can exclude words from your search by
using the - operator; any word in your query preceded by the - sign is
automatically excluded from the search results. Remember to always
include a space before the - sign, and none after. For example, if you
search for game, you could get pages about the game and hunting. If
you want to search for games and nothing to do with big game or
hunting, enter a query that looks like this: game -hunt This will
EXCLUDE anything to do with hunting.
Google lets you search for synonyms by using the ~ operator. Just
include the ~ character before the word in question, and Google will
search for all pages that include that word and all appropriate
synonyms. To search for anything to do with houses, use ~house. This
returns things to do with housing, homes, etc., and even The House of
Representatives. To list only synonyms, without returning a lot of
matches for the original word, combine the ~ operator with the -
operator, like this: ~keyword -keyword. This excludes the original
word from the synonymous results.
The other use for the tilde "~" is to search for different word
suffixes. Use auto~ to search for automobiles, autos, automatic, etc.
Try using the tilde in a search. Of course, you can combine terms in
searching. Try experimenting.
## -tp
Note
ADSL
(Asynchronous DSL use {Different speeds up and down}) in US
during 2006 - 21.5%, while cable use in US was close to 30%
and other (wireless, satellite, fiber,
powerline, etc., was 1.3%)
The list below is a list of PC CLUBS
registered with O'Reilly
USER GROUPS. I added our club to the list yesterday. I suggest that
members and officers see what other clubs are doing, what services
they offer members, what they publish on their site, and what SIGs
(Special Interest Groups) they have within their group. :
B
BBCC Big Bear Computer Club, Big Bear Lake, CA <
http://www.bigbearcc.org
>
BCUG Brookdale Computer Users Group, Lincroft, NJ <
http://www.bcug.com >
C
CCC Chautauqua Cyber Club, Inc. DeFuniak Springs, FL -
< http://www.waltonccc.org>
D
DVPC Diablo Valley PC Users Group, Concord, California serving
the East Bay and Contra Costa County <
http://www.dvpc.org >
G
GTBPCUG Greater Tampa Bay PC User Group, Inc., Tampa, FL USA
< http://gtbpcug.org>
I
IPCC Indian Prairie Computer Club, Hinsdale, IL
< http://ipcc.eboard.com >
L
LVPCUG Las Vegas PC Users Group, Las Vegas NV, USA.
< http://www.lvpcug.org>
M
MelbPC < http://www.melbpc.org.au
> Melbourne PC User Group, the world's largest PC user group,
Melbourne, Australia
N
NWCUG New Wave Computer User Group, Inc., Chicago, IL -
< http://www.nwcug.org>
O
OCIPUG Orange Coast IBM User Group, Costa Mesa California
< http://www.ocipug.org >
ORCOPUG Orange County IBM PC Users' Group, Brea, CA. (Located in
Southern California) <
http://www.orcopug.org >
P
PCCC Personal Computer Club of Charlotte, Charlotte NC -
< http://www.pc3.org>
PCS Prescott Computer Society, Prescott, Arizona, USA.
<
http://www.prescottcomputersociety.org>
PPCompAS Pikes Peak Computer Application Society, Colorado Springs, CO
< http://ppcompas.apcug.org>
S
SCUG Sarnia Computer Users Group, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
serving Southwestern Ontario and bordering on Michigan. <
http://www.scug.ca >
South Walton Computer Club in Destin, Florida
<
http://www.southwaltoncomputerclub.org >
SWIPCUG SW Indiana PC Users Group, Evansville, IN serving
IN-KY-IL tristate area < http://swipcug.apcug.org >
T
TC/PC Twin Cities PC User Group, Bloomington, MN -
< http://www.tcpc.com >
Tokyo PC Users Group <
http://www.tokyopc.org/ >, Tokyo, Japan
W
WACUG Washington Area Computer User Group, Alexandria, VA
< http://www.wacug.org>
WVPCUG Warwick Valley PC Users Group Warwick, NY
< http://www.wvpcug.org >
##
Some
background on phishing @ Indiana:
http://www.indiana.edu/~phishing/
Root kits: A stealthy set of software tools used by
cyberslimers to gain control of the “root” or core of a remote
computer. A root kit often goes undetected by security software, and
can introduce a Trojan horse that opens an unused port on your
computer that crackers can exploit.
Prevention is key. Windows XP includes a firewall, but it’s a
weak one that monitors inbound traffic only, not outbound. It can
block spyware from entering your computer, but it can’t stop a worm
that’s already on your system from accessing the Internet.
I recommend disabling the Windows XP firewall and installing one
that monitors both inbound and outbound traffic. I use Zone
Alarm. Get YOUR FREE copy, here: <
http://tinyurl.com/ygecq3 >
To disable the Windows XP firewall, go to Start, Control Panel,
Security Center. Click on Windows Firewall, and then the Off button.
Windows Vista is expected to have a two-way firewall.
Before you can install a new firewall program, you must turn off the
Windows firewall.
If someone has a good recommendation for
detecting/removing Root Kits, let me know your favorites. Some info,
here:
http://www.pcsupportadvisor.com/rootkits.htm
## -tp
What is
an ISO and how do you create a disk image? The term comes from
the International Organization for Standardization
as is an IMAGE file of a DISK. All of information (file structures,
data, etc.) is contained in a single file. These properties make it
an attractive alternative to physical media for the distribution of
software . [Note:
Because "International Organization
for Standardization" would have different abbreviations in
different languages ("IOS" in English, "OIN" in French for
Organisation internationale de normalisation), it
was decided at the outset to use a word derived from the
Greek isos, meaning "equal". Therefore, whatever the
country, whatever the language, the short form of the
organization's name is always ISO.]
Remember that you can't create a functional ISO from copy protected
discs such as movie DVDs. You can build an ISO from files on your
hard drive, or you can convert an existing disc, CD or DVD to an ISO
file.
How to create an ISO from a CD:
The simplest tool for creating an ISO from an existing CD or DVD
also is free. It's called ISO Recorder. It is listed in the
background info at the bottom of this tutorial.
To create your ISO, insert your disc, right-click on the drive and
choose 'Copy CD to image file'. Type in a file name for your ISO and
click Next. A couple of minutes later, your image will be ready. The
only drawback is that the program runs only on Windows XP.
Building an ISO
The process for constructing your own ISO is much the same as
producing a normal CD. Where it differs is instead of burning to
disc, you pick Create Disc Image' or something that is worded
similarly. If you want to make the CD/DVD bootable, most programs
will require you to select the bootable option in your program,
rather than the normal data CD/DVD.
Nero is a little better than Easy CD Creator for generating ISOs
from existing discs, but still has its own foibles. Drag the
contents of your disc into the project area (or copy the files from
your hard drive if you're building an ISO from existing files). To
create your ISO, go to the menu and select Recorder-Choose Recorder.
Click Image Recorder. Next, follow the normal burn process. When you
click on write, you'll be prompted for a file name. Nero tries to
create its own file type (NRG), but for compatibility with other
programs, choose ISO.
Next. Burning your image file to a disc
Converting an ISO back to a normal CD or DVD is easy. Start your CD
burning package and select File-Burn Image (Nero). All ISOs are not
the same, even though they are supposed to follow a standard. I've
been lucky, however.
ISO Recorder is a Windows XP freeware utility that uses native
Windows XP functions to write images to a CD. You can download this
utility from the author’s Web page. When the program is installed,
it is automatically associated with the ISO file extension in
Windows Explorer.
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm
Another burner:
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/free-iso-burn.html
http://www.winimage.com/download.htm Win Image
and lastly: Free Deep Burner:
http://www.deepburner.com/?r=products&pr=provsfree
## -tp.
What's
happening with computer/electronics recycling in California?
See: recycleCalifornia.pdf
from the Peninsula Daily News of 5 March.
Open
Directory Project. Topic: Technology:
http://dmoz.org/Science/Technology/
Getting
an Education Online for Free - This article will teach you how to
get a top notch education for free online. Ctrl+Click any link to
open it in a new window.
http://www.jimmyr.com/blog/Online_Education_Free_201_2006.php
Webcasts and Podcasts from Berkeley:
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/ #
David
Pogue is the personal technology columnist for The New York Times ,
an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News, and one of
the world's bestselling how-to authors. In this unconventional talk,
he offers a sweeping (and unusual) view on the state of software,
partially set to music. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=david_pogue #
A
wiki is an excellent tool for communication and collaboration in
any organisation. But, as Leigh Dodds points out, creating
successful social software system isn't an exact science. He uses
his own experience at academic publisher Ingenta to explain
efficient use and management of a corporate wiki. Read the full
article (free) >>
http://www.freepint.com/issues/270706.htm#issue #
Download
WinSnap -
http://www.ntwind.com/download/WinSnap-current.exe I've tried
many free image capture alternatives and I still come back to SnagIt
as my ultimate screen capture solution. WinSnap is the latest in a
long series of apps that has some of the features I love, but lacks
a key ingredient here and there to really save me time. WinSnap does
a great job with still image capture of everything from standard
square windows, to the more unconventional skinned windows common to
media player apps. Support for drop shadowing, watermarking, color
alteration and background customization make WinSnap a useful
solution for making screen captures look pretty. I'd like to see a
few more editing options built in, because it's still easier to edit
and output a screen capture in the same app, rather than launching
an external editor to finish the job. Output formats include JPG,
PNG, GIF, TIF and BMP. You'll also need a solution for recording
movies of your desktop, like CamStudio, in addition to WinSnap.
[Windows 2k/XP $0.00] #
Windows
marks files for deletion and removes them from the file system
database when you delete them. This doesn't mean they are
immediately gone. In fact, all that initially happens when you
delete a file is Windows makes note that the space occupied by the
file is listed as available space for storing new information. Until
something new is written to the part of the drive where that old
file was stored, your file is still there. Depending on how many
sectors that file occupies, pieces of the file could exist on your
drive for a very long time. If you very recently deleted the file,
there's an excellent chance you will recover it, especially if you
haven't downloaded a bunch of new files or created several gigabytes
of data. The trick is finding the right tool to get them back.
For simple recovery of deleted files, one of the easiest
solutions I've found is Restoration. The app works by
scanning your hard drive for sectors containing files marked for
deletion and then copying the files to space on your hard drive the
operating system has marked as available disk space. In my tests
with Restoration, most data recovery is successful. This is
especially true when recovering small files like Word documents.
When using the app to recover larger audio or video files, my
success rate is a little lower because sectors of the file often get
overwritten by something else. When you run a scan with Restoration,
it will find thousands of files on your hard drive, most of which
are temporary files deleted when your browser cache is emptied. A
few sort options make it easy to identify files by either file size
or alphabetically by filename if you already know what you're
looking for. Restoration is free.
http://www.topdrawerdownloads.com/files/rest2514.zip #
The Future?
Some day, it is entirely possible that we
will carry all of our applications on a keychain, and which
computer we use will have little importance.
In
addition to flash drives, in the future, portable hard disks
may also be used for this purpose.
[Left]
[5-24
I am testing one of these in the next few days. -tp ] CD storage/carousel:
http://tinyurl.com/klwc4
Holds and retrieves via software/USB port, one-hundred CDs/DVDs,
etc. Not a player. You can stack these and chain them together
to hold thousands of CDs More:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/04/21/imation_disc_stakka/
[My price was 99$ from buy.com]
See the carousel that holds 150:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?ProductID=4667
Another alternative:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?productID=3949
One more:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?productID=10670
TRACEROUTE (trās´rowt) (n.) A utility that traces a packet
from your computer to an Internet host, showing how many hops the
packet requires to reach the host and how long each hop takes. If
you're visiting a Web site and pages are appearing slowly, you can
use traceroute to figure out where the longest delays are occurring.
Trace the route of your data from source to your "destination."
For instance, I traced the route from my IP to my friend's web site
in Arizona. I start with START | RUN | CMD and at the DOS
prompt type: tracert mindymac.com -w 5000
tracert is the Windows command, while mindymac.com is
the destination, and -w 5000 is a five second wait between
replies so I can read the information in the dos window. (5000
milliseconds, or 5 seconds) If you need help with tracert
commands, type: tracert /? to get the commands. Here is the
result [My comments in RED]:
Tracing route to mindymac.com [66.235.193.155]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 6 ms 4 ms 4 ms my router [xxx.xxx.xxx.xx]
{hidden deliberately}
2 61 ms 4 ms 4 ms [xxx.xxx.xxx.xx] {hidden
deliberately}
3 57 ms 6 ms 4 ms gateway.nikola.com [64.146.180.225]
<- This "gateway" allows my host to "talk" to
NOA net.
4 56 ms 7 ms 6 ms fa6-4.138.oly-cor0.noanet.net [66.119.205.245]
5 68 ms 9 ms 8 ms srp2-0.wtn-cor0.noanet.net [66.119.192.17]
6 61 ms 8 ms 9 ms six.above.net [198.32.180.19]
7 77 ms 26 ms 26 ms so-3-2-0.mpr3.sjc2.us.above.net [64.125.28.182]
8 34 ms 27 ms 27 ms so-0-0-0.mpr4.sjc2.us.above.net [64.125.30.2]
9 34 ms 34 ms 35 ms so-5-1-0.mpr1.lax9.us.above.net [64.125.27.1]
10 34 ms 34 ms 34 ms 216.200.249.141.available.ipowerweb.com
[216.200.249.141]
11 61 ms 38 ms 36 ms st14.startlogic.com [66.235.193.155
Startlogic.com is the hosting site of Mindy's
domain.
Trace complete.
What do the numbers mean? For example, in the first line:
6 ms 4 ms 4 ms is the time in ms (milliseconds) of
three round trip times in milliseconds. The round trip times (or
RTTs) tell us how long it took a datpacket to get from me to
that system and back again, called the latency between the
two systems. By default, three packets are sent to each system along
the route, so we get three RTTs.
If you would like to know more about TRACEROUTE, see:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/T/traceroute.html and
If you want to know what/who the IP address is, use
Karen
Kenworthy's tool, WHOIS to Query the 200+
top-level domain registries and Regional Internet Registries around
the world. The proggie returns information about Internet
sites. Information available includes owner of domain name, and
often owner's mailing address, email address, phone number, and fax
number. Search by domain name or IP address. It's a nice
little, FREE tool from Karen.
(Above: Word Cloud for this site.) A Word Cloud
is a grouping of words from a blog or site (usually tags) with
the most-frequently-used words in the larger, bolder font. the
visual effect of the grouping is that of a cloud.
Word Cloud Keyword Density Tool - View the keyword density of your web site using a word cloud. - FREE!
FREE proggies from ANALOGX. I use the proggie,
Script Defender from them. Check it out, as well as the
other freebies at:
http://www.analogx.com/CONTENTS/download/system.htm
* Toool.de <http://toool.de/>, a German site, clearly groups search
engines into categories, making it easy to find one that will give
you the best results for your query.
* Trexy <http://trexy.com/> is a new research tool that remembers your
searches on more than 3000 search engines, including Google and
Yahoo. It also allows users to follow in the footsteps of other
searchers.
* Universiteitsbibliotheek
<http://www.leidenuniv.nl/ub/biv/specials.htm> is a collection of
search engine links, specially designed to assist students in
research on the Internet. The search engines listed is mostly
subject- and discipline-specific.
* Metacrawler <http://www.metacrawler.com/> allows you to query the
top search engines at once. Results are shown on the same page,
making it easy to find exactly what you're looking for.
* Complete Planet <http://aip.completeplanet.com> is a listing of
dynamic searchable databases. It allows you to search deeper than
the surface to find web pages and documents that cannot be crawled
or indexed. [source: FreePint -
(c) Free Pint Limited 1997-2006 <http://www.freepint.com/>
DISASTER RECOVERY USING A USB DRIVE
Robert Vamosi Senior editor, CNET Reviews
June 16, 2006
Nobody likes to think about disaster, but as the resident security
guy, I'm frequently involved with disaster planning around the home
and the office. Preparedness is the key, so get ready now while the
threat is still low. Obviously, tending to family and pets takes a
higher priority than mere hardware, but as we found out after
Katrina, sometimes you won't be able to get back home right away,
yet you'll need certain critical data to move on with your life.
Many Gulf Coast residents learned valuable lessons after last year;
here are some of their suggestions with regard to computer data and
personal information, as well as several steps you can take to make
an emergency evacuation and recovery less painful.
Online services
Many of those relocated outside of the Gulf Coast last fall
found themselves with the opportunity to use Internet-connected
computers--but they had no idea how to get the information they
needed. Those who had moved their banking and bill-paying online
were able to quickly put back together their financial lives after
Katrina. Now might be a good time for the rest of us to sign up for
these online services.
Paperwork
Create a small Notepad file or a spreadsheet with all of your
personal information on it--everything. Doctor information,
prescription drugs, pharmacies, school information, e-mail
addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers. The essence here is to
have a backup of your banking information (include bank account
numbers, stocks, and anything you access online), insurance (policy,
agent, and such), and ISP (you might need to reestablish your
account). If you run a small business, copy lists of your customers,
vendors, account numbers, and payroll contact information (if you
have a staff) into a separate folder. Later, burn the contents of
that folder to a disc or a flash drive for safekeeping. Those who
had moved their banking and bill-paying online were able to quickly
put back together their financial lives after Katrina.
Why not also make digital copies of important papers? If you have a
scanner, scan important documents--birth certificates, mortgages (at
least the first couple of pages), tax forms, anything you think will
be important. Save them as PDF files and copy them to a folder on
your hard drive. PDF readers are free to download, and accessing
these documents after a disaster could speed the process of applying
for aid.
Photos
While you're at it, take the time to make CD or DVD copies of
all your digital photos and music. Because the file sizes are
larger, you'll need to burn several discs. The personal text files,
spreadsheets, and PDF files mentioned above should also be burned to
a disc. Store these discs in a safety deposit box. Another option is
to mail the photograph discs to relatives in another state (ideally,
a state unlikely to suffer from the same natural disaster). Your
relatives will not only enjoy the photos, but their home will
provide a safe backup for the data.
Hardware
Before evacuating, copy any updated personal file data to a USB
flash drive. These drives are handy and can be part of your
evacuation kit. Then, whenever you next get computer access, you can
plug in the USB drive and print out the info. I'd go the additional
step of recommending that you encrypt this data. ZDNet has a blog
about encrypted USB drives <
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=14 >; you can use
WinZip and other common applications, such as PGP, to encrypt the
data. When you need to extract the data, both WinZip and PGP have
free downloads to install on the new computer. If you want, you can
wear the USB drive with your personal files on your key ring. That
way, in a moment's notice, you can dash off to the evacuation
center.
If you want, you can wear the USB drive with your personal files on
your key ring. That way, in a moment's notice, you can dash off to
the evacuation center; while you may have only the clothes on your
back, you'll also have some of the data you'll need to reconstruct
your life. [Source:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6543361-1.html?tag=nl.e497
Last accessed, 28 June, 2006. ]
I am a big fan and user of on line
video and audio -- especially
on line music sites and on line radio. If you are interested
in capturing and recording music, you should grab a plug-in for
WinAmp, or get a copy of Audacity. There are several
on line music sources. Among them: Pandora is a
music discovery service designed to help you find and enjoy music
that you'll love. It's powered by the Music Genome Project, the most
comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Just tell us one of
your favorite songs or artists and we'll launch a streaming station
to explore that part of the music universe.
http://www.pandora.com
Play music in your media player, track what you have been playing
and generate your music charts automatically. Share your profile
with your friends and get recommendations.
Live 365 <
http://www.live365.com > offers some 7,500 user-generated radio
stations, and MusicStrands (
http://www.musicstrands.com/
), a comprehensive music recommendation and community Web site.
Live Plasma draws graphical maps that show the
overlapping relationships between artists.
http://www.liveplasma.com
Grab a FREE copy of Audacity. Audacity is a fast multi-track
audio editor and recorder for Linux, BSD, Mac OS, and Windows.
Supports WAV, AIFF, Ogg, and MP3 formats. Save to MP3 with another
FREE download. Features include envelope editing, mixing, built-in
effects and plug-ins, all with unlimited undo.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/ Audacity cannot encode
MP3 files by itself, because the MP3 encoding algorithm is patented
and cannot legally be used in free programs. However, Audacity has
been programmed to recognize other existing MP3 encoders that you
can download separately. All you have to do is obtain the
appropriate MP3 encoder for your computer and then show Audacity
where it is located. If you use Audacity, you will need a copy of
LAME in order to save/export Audacity files as
MP3s. Get a Windows Download of LAME at
http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/lame.html
Download it, unzip the file, then look for the file called
lame_enc.dll.
The first time you try to export an MP3
file, Audacity will ask you to locate your MP3 encoder. Locate the
file indicated above. From then on, Audacity will not need to ask
you again and you will be able to export MP3 files easily.
You can find LAME on the net by
Google searching for "lame compile download binary" or visiting this
list of mirrors. < Reference:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/exportmp3.html
> Alternatively, I will put a copy of LAME 3.96.1 on our password
protected web page so you may download the ZIPPED file there.
POSTURE AT THE COMPUTER: Use a good chair with a dynamic
chair back and sit back in this. The top of monitor casing should be
2-3" above eye level. There should be no glare on screen, use an
optical glass anti-glare filter where needed. Sit at arms length
from monitor with feet on floor or stable footrest. Use a document
holder, preferably in-line with the computer screen. Keep wrists
flat and straight in relation to forearms to use
keyboard/mouse/input device. The arms and elbows should be relaxed
and close to body center. The monitor and keyboard should be
directly in front of you. Use a negative tilt keyboard tray with an
upper mouse platform or downward tilt table platform adjacent to
keyboard. Use a stable work surface and stable (no bounce) keyboard
tray. Take frequent short breaks (microbreaks). Lastly,
far-focus your eyes every 15 minutes or so. Look across the
room and focus on something else. Of course, take off those
special "computer specs" first. I am lucky to have a pair of
glasses ONLY for computer use. They are ground to my
prescription, fitted very well, and are optimally focused on my eye
to screen distance. They also have a non-glare coating, which helps.
-tp ##
Yesterday, a club officer and I met a gentleman that had
impaired sight. He is a computer user, and he called our
attention to these products: Jordy II
http://www.eyeassociates.com/jordy2.htm
Zoomtext:
http://www.synapseadaptive.com/aisquared/zoomtext_9/zoomtext_9_home_page.htm
With the new NeoSpeech synthesizers, ZoomText reads all of your
applications, documents, email, and web pages with voices that are
clear and enjoyable to listen to. The expressive, human-like quality
of NeoSpeech allows you to effortlessly and accurately absorb what’s
being spoken by ZoomText.
NeoSpeech is currently available in male and female voices – Paul
and Kate. Click the links below to hear a sample of each voice. Get
a free trial on the site.
#
PROBLEM. YOUR ERROR MESSAGE SAYS: "Unmountable Boot Volume".
This is due to your boot.ini file being corrupted. Solution: 1.
Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD / DVD drive and restart the
computer. 2. Type R to enter the Recovery Console. 3. If given an
option "Which Windows Installation would you like to log on to" type
1 and hit enter. 4. At the prompt [C:\WINDOWS>] type chkdsk /r and
hit enter. 5. Type fixboot and hit enter. 6. Type y and hit enter.
7. Type "exit" and hit enter 8. The system will now reboot into
Windows
#
Google Notebook * Clip useful information. You can add
clippings of text, images and links from web pages to your Google
Notebook without ever leaving your browser window. * Organize your
notes. You can create multiple notebooks, divide them into sections,
and drag-and-drop your notes to stay organized. * Get access from
anywhere. You can access your Google Notebooks from any computer by
using your Google Accounts login. * Publish your notebook. You can
share your Google Notebook with the world by making it public. My
public notebook: TinyUrl
http://tinyurl.com/nmkpk
Surf
Anonymously. Substitute the site you want to visit with the URL,
below.
Example:
http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://sequim-web.net
This URL will take you, anonymously to the Sequim Web site. Try
it.
Live WEB CAM, Spain:
http://www.opentopia.com/showcam.php?camid=3869 or click->
Cuenca,
Spain
Set up a Proxy and cloak your IP:
1. In IE -> Choose Tools -> Choose Internet Options -> Go to Connections (tab)
-> Press LAN Settings (button) -> mark the “Use a proxy server for your LAN…” ->
In the IP Address field, enter the IP (use 206.107.155.137 for US services,
62.171.219.179 for UK services) -> In the Port field, enter the port (US - 8080,
UK - 80) -> Press OK (button) -> Press OK again (button). 207.29.224.155 Port 80
Copy one of the IPs and remember the port. In Firefox open Tools –> Options.
Select Connection Settings and select Manual Proxy Configuration. Add the IP to
the HTTP Proxy Row and enter the Port in the field next to it. Click Use this
proxy server for all protocols and test it by navigating to the
whatismyproxy.com website
2. You can set up a proxy in Firefox, too, and it works fine.
Here is a big list of public proxies: <
http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html >
The WhatIsMyProxy < http://whatismyproxy.com
> List of Proxy Lists:
The following websites all maintain lists of public proxy servers. Their
security or legality is left as an exercise to the reader. Never trust an
important password to any proxy that you find listed on any of these sites. This
works with email, of course. When you are finished navigating, change
things back to what they were.
Go to TOP
Verify by visiting <
http://www.whatismyproxy.com >.
<
http://www.anonymitychecker.com/page1.html >
<
http://www.atomintersoft.com/products/alive-proxy/proxy-list/ >
< http://www.bismark.it/proxylist/
>
<
http://www.checker.freeproxy.ru/checker/last_checked_proxies.php >
<
http://www.freeproxy.ru/download/lists/goodproxy.txt >
<
http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_proxy.htm >
<
http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html >
< http://www.proxz.com/ >
<
http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html >
< http://www.samair.ru/proxy/ >
<
http://tools.rosinstrument.com/proxy/ >
< http://www.cybersyndrome.net/ >
<
http://www.searchlores.org/proxlist.htm >
<
http://home6.swipnet.se/~w-61609/Proxies.htm >
<
http://members.tripod.com/burn77/proxies.html >
http://www.dummysoftware.com/gzapper.html Zap your GOOGLE searches cookie.
FREEBIE.
A Flash Player is required. Most browser's can handle this site.
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Speakeasy Speed Test - Our internet connection at The
Lucky Gentleman Nail Salon and Electric Bicycle Shop - download speed: 7620
kbps (952.5 KB/sec transfer rate) upload speed: 4894 kbps (611.8 KB/sec transfer
rate)
Search for
BitTorrent Files - videos, iso's, programs, etc. I use Azureus
as my BitTorrent client:
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/
Security Software from About.com:
Lots of LINUX
resources - < here
>
If you want to check the validity of an email, there are some web
sites that provide information about hoaxes and urban legends:
* Urban Legends and Folklore - http://urbanlegends.about.com/
* Urban Legends Reference Pages - http://www.snopes.com/
* Hoaxbusters - http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
* Stiller Research Virus Hoax News - http://www.stiller.com/hoaxes.htm
* TruthOrFiction.com - http://www.truthorfiction.com/
* Symantec Security Response Hoaxes - http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
* McAfee Security Virus Hoaxes - http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp
Myths and Facts about Remanufactured INK Cartridges
http://download.101com.com/rec/Quality_and_Cost_Savings.pdf
Go to TOP
Lots of
Links to Computer Information and HELP:
computerlinks.htm
Internet
Etiquette: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/
[All of you should be familiar with the contents of this site so you
may act and respond as a good net citizen.]
Eric Wards' URL WIRE:
http://www.urlwire.com/headlines/index.html
Mindshare Tips and Trick for Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/mindshare/tips.mspx
Visit CHOICES AND VOICES' BLOG @
http://sequimmagazine.blogspot.com
Keep your PC running safer and working better by making sure you have
the latest driver and software versions installed
http://www.radarsync.com/installers/RS2007.exe
Old Pictures: Theme index at:
http://www.old-picture.com/theme-index-001.htm
Google Trends:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=Vista
What word and
where are the searches from? Try some of your own searches.
See what folks in KANSAS or UTAH are looking for.
Just the Links page from Mark Donaldson:
http://luem42.googlepages.com/links.html - Lots of FRESH links
from Donaldson's web site. I consider Donaldson's links as ONE of my
number one resources for this site.
Corporate claptrap:
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=stock_photos
The
never-ending two-step defragmenting process of Vista can soon become a
thing of the past. With certain tools, we were able to cut
defragmentation time of 25 GBs of files with Vista Ultimate from 82
minutes to 6 minutes!!! That is defragmenting 10X faster than the
built-in Vista defragmenter! The tutorial also works with Windows 2000
and XP. FREE.
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Power-Defragmenter-Download-20185.html
Some
more FREE software to try:
http://www.harmlesslion.com/cgi-bin/showprog.cgi?Windows
Share
files on line, FREE:
http://s15.quicksharing.com/ 500MB limit per file, upload
and share as many as you want. We only delete if the file is not
accessed within the past 30 days.
More
FREEBIES:
http://baliganikhil.googlepages.com/home Uses
quicksharing.com to download files.
Pedometer
using Google maps for you walkers, hikers, joggers -
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/
http://www.googlism.com
- Try it.
Interactive
WEB radio:
http://www.musicovery.com/ Great music...choose your mood.
If you can't
connect using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) which automatically assigns IP addresses, there are two possible
problems. Your laptop may be holding on to an old IP address or other
configuration assigned from a connection you made earlier, OR your
laptop cannot find the DHCP server and is using a self-assigned IP
address. To can force your laptop to release and renew the
configuration. I use one of two methods that I know. This was is
more graphically oriented. In XP, right click on My Network Places,
either on the Desktop or in the Start Menu. Select Properties from the
pop-up menu. Right click the Local Area Connection Icon and select
Status from the pop up menu. Select the Support tab and click REPAIR.
This will release and renew your IP "lease" and flush your DNS cache
as it registers your connection with the DNS, anew, etc.
A loose or bad Ehternet cable is often the cause of a lost Ethernet
connection. Carry a spare, or recheck your connection. A friend
recently had her ISP tech come to her place of business to properly
plug in her Ethernet cable. She was highly embarrassed, but she won't
make that same mistake again, I'm sure.
101 Freebies
from PC World Magazine...by category:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130045-page,12-c,freeware/article.html
JDVoiceMail
generates compressed .wav or .mp3 files reducing the size from 16 to
10 times:
http://www.lagolento.com/
http://www.snapfiles.com/php/download.php?id=109873&a=7129378&tag=1445023&loc=2
The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to
host names, including a whole lot of naughty ones.
This file is loaded into cache memory at startup, then
Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS
servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS.
This will prevent access to the sites by redirecting any
connection attempts back to the local machine. Another
feature of the HOSTS file is its ability to block other
applications from connecting to the Internet, providing the
entry exists.
* Note: the below locations are for the typical default
paths of YOUR HOSTS file. Copy the old one before you
replace it with the new one, JIC.
Windows Vista =
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Windows XP = C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Windows 2K =
C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
In the future when you wish to update the HOSTS file,
download the "hosts.zip" <
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip >,
extract the included files and copy it into the directory
which held YOUR original hosts file. I downloaded the latest hosts.zip file
and extracted to it's proper place in my windows sub
directory (above). Everything worked fine.
Macintosh
User Groups going the way of the Newton
Originally published by Justin Berka | Published:
April 24, 2007.
Sadly, user groups and computer clubs are slowly fading away, due in
large part to the rise of the Internet. Bulletin boards, and later
forums, have replaced classrooms and libraries as the meeting places for
technology enthusiasts. As BBSes and forums have grown, so has the
amount of information that they provide. Need to know how to install
RAM? Do a quick Google search or check on the online manual rather
than wait for next week's meeting. Instead of going to meetings, just
log on to the forums and find whatever information or discussion you
want. The Internet is now serving as a knowledge repository, meeting
place, and discussion forum for enthusiasts, rendering user groups
largely obsolete.
The Internet isn't the only thing to blame, though. Changing attitudes
towards technology have also played a role in the decline of user
groups. Before computers were widespread, the only reason to have a PC
or a Mac was if you needed it for business or were a computer
enthusiast. As the above-linked article opines, the "younger
generation" cares far more about what they can do with computers,
rather than worrying about how they work. You used to have to know at
least something of how computers worked to make them do anything
useful, but nowadays you can take a Mac out of the box, plug it in,
and be on AIM in a few minutes. There are still plenty of people
interested in knowing how computers work, but they're a much smaller
fraction of the population of computer owners. As a result, the
younger generation is worrying more about utilizing their computers
instead of fixing them (or at least Googling when they do need to fix
them), leading to declining membership in user groups. Comments?
Drop me a line.
Ed sent this info our way:
Note: Radio Shack, Sequim, listed as LYCORP
##
30% discount for
SPCUG, paid members:
The O'Reilly School of Technology has officially opened
its virtual
doors with educational offerings for students looking to further or
launch their IT careers, whether they aspire to become alpha geeks
or
not. The school is a unique partnership between O'Reilly Media and
the
University of Illinois.
Students can earn a Certificate for Professional Development from the
University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education upon completion of
a selected series of courses. Certificates are currently offered in
Client-Side Web Programming, Linux/Unix System Administration, Web
Programming, Open Source Programming, and .NET Programming.
Courses are offered at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Whether students take the courses individually or with a certificate in
mind, the completion of each course earns Continuing Education Units
from the University of Illinois, and count toward the certificates that
include that course.
For more information about the O'Reilly School of Technology, including
a current list of certificate and courses, see:
<http://www.oreillyschool.com/?CMP=BAC-ostug>
Watch the video to see how it works:
<http://www.oreillyschool.com/why/theostmovie.mp4>
##
Google's Gmail débuted almost three years ago, but
it's been "invitation only" during all that time. In most cases, it
wasn't too difficult to get invited since members regularly received a
number of free invitations to send to their friends. However, there
were still some people who wanted accounts and couldn't get them.
Well, now Gmail is open to everyone who wants a free web mail
account, with no invitation required.
Read more here:
http://www.wxpnews.com/0WJMWV/070220-Gmail-Open
To sign up for a Gmail account, go here:
http://www.wxpnews.com/0WJMWV/070220-Gmail
Gmail
Craze 30 + Tools and Hacks for Gmail " MakeUseOf.com:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/gmail-craze-30-tools-to-make-your-gmail-better
Gmail Tips
- The Complete Collection:
http://g04.com/misc/GmailTipsComplete.html
See OUR
NEW gmail TIPS page - full of links to TIPS>
gmailTipsPage.htm
.Olympic Peaks Camera Club --
Almost everyone today with a PC has or is moving to digital
photography. Yet one cannot assume that the art of
photography is automatically endowed by purchasing a digital
camera. What is assured, however, after the initial outlay
of bucks, is that one can take as many photos as time and
circumstance allow without the additional cost of film and
developing, thereby making it easy and cost-free to hone
one's photographic skills. Reading about photography is not
usually a good way to learn the art of excellent
photo-taking. But seeing the pictorial essays of one's
fellow photography enthusiasts and hearing "expert"
commentary on these about what is good and bad and how to
improve on their various works makes for great learning
experiences. The local Olympic Peaks Camera Club offers an
opportunity for all who want to learn how to improve one's
photographic skills. There are two meetings monthly, on the
2nd and 4th Thursdays, held from 7pm till around 9pm. The
first of the monthly meetings is usually focused on
member-submitted photos in three categories: slides, printed
and digital photos. These are displayed and/or projected for
all to study, while a commentator gives his "experienced"
perspective on each photo. At the same time three judges
weight the technical and artistic merits of each, resulting
in First, Second and Third Place finishes in each category.
This is a tremendous learning experience for all, whether
one enters his/her own photos or not into the open
competition. At the second of the monthly meetings we
usually have guests speakers of renown or photographic
workshops in which we can learn and practice useful
techniques in the art of photography. And mixing with
like-minded photographers is a wonderful way to exchange
ideas and pick up useful tips to improve your own photo
essays. The club meets at the Dungeness Community Church
at 45 Eberle Lane, about 4 miles north of Washington St.
in Sequim, off Sequim-Dungeness Rd. The club meets in the
activities room behind the church and closest to its large
parking lot. You might want to view the camera club's web
site at
olympicpeaks.org.
For more information, call Bill Black at 360-681-4422. Or
just show up at one of the meetings. You can decide if you
want to join after a few meetings. [Thanks to
Ed, our Project Manager and SPCUG Member.]
Ed
reminded me of this: Get Human
http://gethuman.com/us/
finding a toll-free phone number
To find the toll-free phone number for any US-based company,
try calling 1-800-555-1212 or search Google for company name
plus "phone numbers". Or maybe even searching for the
company name and "president office" or "investor relations".
Tip: did you know that your phone company charges $1.49 or
more each time you call 411? Instead, try using
1-800-FREE-411.
For companies who try to hide their phone numbers, many
times the Google search will find a page from a disgruntled customer
who exposes the phone numbers for that company.
For a public company, you could also try searching EDGAR.
The "10K" report includes information about corporate
officers and the official company mailing address.
You could also try looking up their contact information via
a "whois" database: internic, godaddy, whois.net, etc.
##
Getting to a human
Once you have a phone number, here are some tips to try to
get through the computer to get to a live human:
1. Interrupt. Press 0 (or 0# or #0 or 0* or *0) repeatedly,
sometimes quickly. Unfortunately the same keystroke does not
always work for each company. Many IVRs (Interactive Voice
Response) will connect to a human after a few "invalid
entries", although some IVRs will hang up.
2. Talk. Say "get human" (or "agent" or "representative") or
raise your voice, or just mumble. :) The IVR might connect
you to a human after one of these key or unknown phrases.
3. Just hold, pretending you have only an old rotary phone.
4. Connect to account collections or sales or account
cancellation; they always seem to answer quickly. First ask
them for their name and rep number (so they know you are
writing it down, and thus so they are more likely to help
you.) Then ask them to transfer you to the department you
need. Sometimes they will put you ahead of the queue,
although sometimes they will send you to the end (and thus
in those cases this tip is useless).
5. Toll call. For credit cards, if the expected wait time is
too long, hang up and try to call back on their
non-toll-free number, as they often have shorter queues.
6. Selecting the option for Spanish will sometimes get you a
bilingual human more quickly than if you just waited for an
English-only operator.
When you do finally find a human, ask them how to connect
directly the next time (in case your call gets disconnected
etc. ## -tp.
If you need to backup your DVDs, get a copy of AnyDVD
AND CloneDVD <
http://www.slysoft.com/en/ > You need both.
After you archive your DVD, you can
print
covers and disk images by grabbing them at:
http://www.cdcovers.cc
. Get printable DVDs if your inkjet can print on DVDS.
I encourage you to support the CD covers site by donating a
dollar or two.
You can buy both software packages as a bundle for $52.48.
You can download them and TRY them, FREE, for three weeks.
Just don't try to sell your copies on eBay or on a street
corner (as
our friends in New York and other places do). ##
Saving Bacon
The system restore (SR) has saved my bacon a few
times, (and so has clearing the cache in Internet Explorer).
[More about IE at some future date.] Today's piece is on the
WIN XP System Restore service.
First, you should know how to turn and and off System
Restore:
To manually turn off System Restore:
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click
Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Click to select the Turn off System Restore check box (or
the Turn off System Restore on all drives check box), and
then click OK.
4. Click Yes when you receive the prompt to the turn off
System Restore.
Manual steps to turn on System Restore
To turn on System Restore, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click
Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Click to clear the Turn off System Restore check box (or
the Turn off System Restore on all drives check box), and
then click OK.
SR comes with Windows XP, Home and Pro and with Windows
ME. SR lets you recover from a failed software
installation, a software conflict, or some other problems.
You should be aware of the limitations of SR:
1. It doesn't back up your files and documents. System
Restore works on system-level files. If you delete an
important document, SR can't help. System Restore doesn't
take the place of backing up your important data--like
documents and spreadsheets, for example.
2. System Restore is not a true, ROLL BACK tool like
Symantec's Go Back, for instance. If you
install new software that crashes or causes a serious
problem, SR may get Windows to run, but it may not erase the
program or portions thereof, that caused the problem.
3. The default settings let SR take up a lot of hard disk
space.
4. System Restore is processor and disk-intensive when it
runs, which is often. It runs: At first boot, every 10
hours of continuous system operation, every 24 hours of real
time, every time Windows Update installs something and every
time you install any software using an installer program
that System Restore recognizes.
My recommendations are to use SR, but adjust it. You can
set the restore cache area. Here's how: In XP: Right
click on My Computer, then Properties, and then the System
Restore tab. Select the hard drive you wish to adjust and
click the Settings button.
In WinME: Right click My Computer, then select Properties,
then Performance/File System/Hard Disk.
Next, whether XP or ME, move the slider to choose a
reasonable amount of disk space for the System Restore
files. Start with 200-250 megabytes by moving the slider to
the left. I use 500M, and it gives me a week of
restore points, which is enough for me.
Over the next few weeks you can check to see if you have
enough Restore Points available for your needs. Here's how:
In XP: Click Start/All Programs/Accessories/System
Tools/System Restore.
In WinME: Click Start/Programs/Accessories/System
Tools/System Restore.
In both operating systems, select "Restore my computer to an
earlier time" and click next. You'll see a calendar with
some dates in bold; those are the days with one or more
available Restore Points. Note how far back the bold dates
go. Next, click Cancel to exit the Restore tool. Don't go on
to the next step and perform a System Restore. You are just
checking at this point.
You can also disable SR. If you're making regular, full
backups you don't need System Restore. If you decide to
disable SR altogether: In XP: Right click on My Computer,
select Properties, and select the System Restore tab. Select
the checkbox labeled Turn off System Restore on all drives.
In WinME: Right click My Computer, select Properties, then
Performance/File System/Troubleshooting. Then check the box
marked "Disable System Restore." Unlike XP, WinME does not
allow per-drive settings.
With System Restore disabled, you'll reclaim wasted disk
space, and avoid the automatic CPU and hard disk tasks that
SR would automatically do. You can turn SR on when you feel
you need it. For example, turn it on and make a restore
point just before you install some big program or radical
change of some kind. Once you know everything is OK, you can
shut it off again.
In XP: Right click on My Computer, select Properties, and
select the System Restore tab. Deselect (uncheck) the
checkbox labeled "Turn off System Restore on all drives."
Or, if you used per-drive settings, select the drive you
wish to adjust, click the Settings button, and then deselect
the checkbox marked "Turn off System Restore for this
drive."
It is recommended that you SHUT OFF SR any time you discover
a virus or worm. Clean the virus and worm, restart your
computer and make sure all is OK, THEN turn SR on again if
you use it on a regular basis. Most virus removal procedures
will say the same thing. -tp, et. al.
Steve writes: "... the windows patch files. C:\Windows\
they start with a $ and end with a $ they should be safe to
remove after the patch or update is applied. I found I had
over 3600 of these files totalling 892MB of wasted space."
WhatsRunning.net - This application helps you investigate
what applications, processes, services, modules, drivers and
IP connections are running on your computer. See
extensive system information in a simple graphical user
interface. Version 2.2
http://www.download.com%2F3001-2094_4-10526910.html
[Thanks, Pete.]
Small Applications:
http://portableapps.com and
http://www.tinyapps.org
List of education resources:
http://www.eliteskills.com/free_education/
If Programmers built airplanes. Video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq55R7R-qfw
Impressions of Windows Vista after one month of use:
http://www.philoking.com/2007/01/13/windows-vista-one-month-in/
Passwords in plain sight:
Let's
suppose your password is: Mf497ree1 To write it down and to put it in plain view for you and for
anyone that sees it stuck to your monitor, you write it down
as M497wree1
Mf497ree1 is the password, but you write:
Mfw497ree1. w is your secret letter. You add a w to
the real password, anywhere in the password. Don't use
your initials. Too easy to guess. Use any character and add
it anywhere to the password. Make sure the letter you choose
is NOT already in the password, of course.
You can always ADD an extra character in the fifth
position for example. Let's say your secret character is
an x. Again, Suppose your password is Mf497ree1 You
would add a "x" in the fifth position, thus:
Mf49x7ree1 is your obfuscated password. You use the same
scheme. An x in the fifth position. ##
A few days ago, a friend and I got into a discussion about
the pros and cons of using the tiff versus the RAW format
when taking digital photos. Most medium to high-end
digital cameras will offer a choice of file formats. The
most popular formats are JPEG, TIFF and RAW.
Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed
and ready to use with a bitmap graphics editor <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitmap_graphics_editor >,
printed <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing >, or displayed by
a typical web browser. The RAW file format is digital
photography's equivalent of a negative in film photography
as it contains untouched, "raw" pixel information straight
from the digital camera's sensor - the heart of the camera.
RAW isn't an acronym, it doesn't stand for anything, it just
means raw, unprocessed, data.
Normally, the RAW image must be processed and converted to
an RGB <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB > format such as TIFF <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIFF > or JPEG <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG > before it can be
manipulated. RAW files contain the most information (like
capturing 4096 shades of gray instead of only 256) and allow
for the most versatility when you use Photoshop to edit your
files. The downside is that RAW files also take the most
work to get a great looking image and there is a different
RAW format for each manufacturer, so you may have to use the
manufacturer's software to view the images. Some graphics
applications can read some manufacturer's RAW formats.
Not all digital cameras offer TIFF as a choice, but when you
have both TIFF and JPG available, consider that TIFF files
will always be higher quality than JPEGs, and JPEG files
will always be smaller than TIFFs. The main problem with
TIFF files is that they are very big. This will cause your
camera to slow down when writing your images to the flash
memory card. If you're going for the highest quality image
you can capture, the RAW format is a better choice than
TIFF, because it is much more versatile and smaller.
TIFF is a very portable format as it is supported by a wide
variety of photographic and publishing applications. If you
want to maximize storage capacity stick with JPEG. In the
Nikon, D100, typical TIFF files are over 17 megabytes each.
RAW permits much greater control than JPEG for several
reasons:
For example, the white point can be set to any value, not
just discrete values like "daylight" or "incandescent". The
settings can be previewed and tweaked to for the best
quality image or effect. RAW files have 12 or 14 bits of
brightness information.
Other Drawbacks
Camera raw files are typically 2-6 times larger than JPEG
files. Some raw formats do not use compression, some
implement lossless data compression to reduce the size of
the files without affecting image quality and others use
“lossy” data compression. This avoids or reduces the
compression artifacts inherent in JPEG, but means that fewer
images can fit on your memory card. It also takes longer for
the camera to write raw images to the card, so fewer
pictures can be taken in quick succession (affecting the
ability to take, for example, a sports sequence). My friends
Nikon D100, for instance takes about 25 seconds to write a
RAW file to his card. This would prevent him from shooting
sports events and other action shots, of course.
Cameras that support raw files typically come with
proprietary software for conversion of their raw format to
TIFF or JPEG. Other conversion programs and plugins are
available from vendors that have either licensed the
technology from the camera manufacturer or
reverse-engineered the raw format.
A portable open source program, dcraw,
supports most raw formats and can be made to run on
operating systems such as Unix not supported by most
commercial software. Get dcraw, but first see an example of
dcraw images at: <
http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/digicam/dcraw/ >
[Incidentally, RAW can be easily used from many image
viewers such as the excellent freeware software IrfanView
by Irfan Skiljan <
http://www.irfanview.com / > Get Irfan View at: <
http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm >
] You can download the tool, dcdraw, from <
http://www.insflug.org/raw/ >
In 2005, Apple Computer introduced several products which
offered RAW file support. In January, Apple released iPhoto
5, which offered basic support for viewing and editing RAW
files. Picasa, a free image editing and cataloguing program
from Google, supports many RAW formats.
RAW files typically are slightly processed in the camera. In
general, this processing is limited to algorithms that
require direct access to the camera's hardware. It includes
rudimentary noise reduction. Noise reduces the effectiveness
of compression algorithms, so files are compressed more
efficiently when noise reduction is applied before
compression.
Give RAW a spin. -tp, 1/7/07
[ See my article on LENS BASICS in
the library. ] ##
Common Passwords:
The top 20 passwords are (in order): password1, abc123, myspace1,
password, blink182, qwerty1, f--you, 123abc, baseball1, football1,
123456, soccer, monkey1, liverpool1, princess1, jordan23, slipknot1,
superman1, iloveyou1 and monkey. ##
I have been having fun playing around with NationMaster
(
http://www.nationmaster.com ), a cool site developed by Luke
Metcalfe,
an Australian who was frustrated at his inability to mine the data
within the CIA World Factbook. NationMaster now includes data from the
World Bank, various United Nations entities, OECD (Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development), World Trade Organization, and
so on. See, also, STATE MASTER at:
http://www.statemaster.com/index.php
Computer Hope dictionary - Browse through our complete listing
of over 6,000 computer definitions and terms either by using the below
search or browse by letter or number by clicking one of the below
links.
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a new term for those people that come to your door: Wet Spam.
A live person spamming you with religious tracts and other, verbal
nonsense. Wet Spammers are just as bad as those cretins that text
message your cell phone.
##
Tokyo Computer Club newsgroups:
http://www.tokyopc.org/tpc/newsgroups.html Membership is
5000 Yen! That's a little over 42$.
##
Get the best commercial software titles - for
free. Every day we offer licensed software you'd
have to buy otherwise, for free! Yes, we are giving
away software, and you can download it from our site, right now and
right here and our goal is to give away every good piece of
software, sooner or later. You have to INSTALL IT THE DAY YOU
DOWNLOAD IT.
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/
~~~
- What is Password Safe? Password Safe is an Open Source <
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license.php
> (free) tool that allows you to have a different password
for all the different programs and websites that you deal
with, without actually having to remember all those
usernames and passwords. Password Safe runs on PCs under
Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP). An older (but fully functional)
version is available <
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=41019&release_id=191101
> for PocketPC. Linux/Unix clones that use the same database
format have also been written (see Related Projects).
http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/
##
-Want to download some music? All you have to do is search
using Google. Enter this:
"Band or Artist name here" last modified mp3 "index of"
-html -htm -php -asp Here is a verbatim example, including
all the correct punctuation, etc., that you would enter into
a Google search box to find Pink Floyd music: "Pink Floyd"
last modified mp3 "index of" -html -htm -php -asp
Let's say you want to search indices related to technology
for PowerPoint files: use this search:
"Technology " last modified ppt "index of" -html -htm -php
-asp ##
ChangeMacAddress Released.
http://amac.paqtool.com/ Mini Quick mac address
changer released! Download to Try <
http://amac.paqtool.com/quickamac.exe > Grab this little
proggie and try it out. It quickly changes your MAC address
as reported by running ipconfig /all from a command prompt.
-tp. Quickemac
http://secure.emetrix.com/order/product.asp?PID=97017115&DID=84674642&ID=&Q=1&DC=&CUR=
$15.00
-Searching for inexpensive USB thumb drives? Use this search
string in Google to find USB drives costing between five and
ten dollars. The search string must look EXACTLY like what
is shown, here: USB drive $5..$10 You might want to modify
your search to eliminate any mention of REBATES by adding
-rebate, as in: USB drive $5..$10 -rebate
-Phish Tracking at DSLreports:
http://www.dslreports.com/phishtrack
Some
Google Search Tips:
If you want to improve your Google searching tenfold, try some of
these tips to narrow or enhance your searches.
If you want to search for one or the other items, use OR between the
search terms, as in car OR plane. Be sure to capitalize OR. Since I
used to do some programming, I use the split-pipe symbol "|" as a
substitute for typing OR. It looks like this in the search box: cat |
dog This would search for cat OR dog.
If you want to be sure you INCLUDE a word in your search, put a + sign
in front of it. For example, to include the word "how" in your query,
you’d enter +how. Be sure to include A SPACE BEFORE + sign, but not
after it.
Sometimes you want to refine your results by excluding pages that
include a specific word. You can exclude words from your search by
using the - operator; any word in your query preceded by the - sign is
automatically excluded from the search results. Remember to always
include a space before the - sign, and none after. For example, if you
search for game, you could get pages about the game and hunting. If
you want to search for games and nothing to do with big game or
hunting, enter a query that looks like this: game -hunt This will
EXCLUDE anything to do with hunting.
Google lets you search for synonyms by using the ~ operator. Just
include the ~ character before the word in question, and Google will
search for all pages that include that word and all appropriate
synonyms. To search for anything to do with houses, use ~house. This
returns things to do with housing, homes, etc., and even The House of
Representatives. To list only synonyms, without returning a lot of
matches for the original word, combine the ~ operator with the -
operator, like this: ~keyword -keyword. This excludes the original
word from the synonymous results.
The other use for the tilde "~" is to search for different word
suffixes. Use auto~ to search for automobiles, autos, automatic, etc.
Try using the tilde in a search. Of course, you can combine terms in
searching. Try experimenting.
## -tp
Note
ADSL
(Asynchronous DSL use {Different speeds up and down}) in US
during 2006 - 21.5%, while cable use in US was close to 30%
and other (wireless, satellite, fiber,
powerline, etc., was 1.3%)
The list below is a list of PC CLUBS
registered with O'Reilly
USER GROUPS. I added our club to the list yesterday. I suggest that
members and officers see what other clubs are doing, what services
they offer members, what they publish on their site, and what SIGs
(Special Interest Groups) they have within their group. :
B
BBCC Big Bear Computer Club, Big Bear Lake, CA <
http://www.bigbearcc.org
>
BCUG Brookdale Computer Users Group, Lincroft, NJ <
http://www.bcug.com >
C
CCC Chautauqua Cyber Club, Inc. DeFuniak Springs, FL -
< http://www.waltonccc.org>
D
DVPC Diablo Valley PC Users Group, Concord, California serving
the East Bay and Contra Costa County <
http://www.dvpc.org >
G
GTBPCUG Greater Tampa Bay PC User Group, Inc., Tampa, FL USA
< http://gtbpcug.org>
I
IPCC Indian Prairie Computer Club, Hinsdale, IL
< http://ipcc.eboard.com >
L
LVPCUG Las Vegas PC Users Group, Las Vegas NV, USA.
< http://www.lvpcug.org>
M
MelbPC < http://www.melbpc.org.au
> Melbourne PC User Group, the world's largest PC user group,
Melbourne, Australia
N
NWCUG New Wave Computer User Group, Inc., Chicago, IL -
< http://www.nwcug.org>
O
OCIPUG Orange Coast IBM User Group, Costa Mesa California
< http://www.ocipug.org >
ORCOPUG Orange County IBM PC Users' Group, Brea, CA. (Located in
Southern California) <
http://www.orcopug.org >
P
PCCC Personal Computer Club of Charlotte, Charlotte NC -
< http://www.pc3.org>
PCS Prescott Computer Society, Prescott, Arizona, USA.
<
http://www.prescottcomputersociety.org>
PPCompAS Pikes Peak Computer Application Society, Colorado Springs, CO
< http://ppcompas.apcug.org>
S
SCUG Sarnia Computer Users Group, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
serving Southwestern Ontario and bordering on Michigan. <
http://www.scug.ca >
South Walton Computer Club in Destin, Florida
<
http://www.southwaltoncomputerclub.org >
SWIPCUG SW Indiana PC Users Group, Evansville, IN serving
IN-KY-IL tristate area < http://swipcug.apcug.org >
T
TC/PC Twin Cities PC User Group, Bloomington, MN -
< http://www.tcpc.com >
Tokyo PC Users Group <
http://www.tokyopc.org/ >, Tokyo, Japan
W
WACUG Washington Area Computer User Group, Alexandria, VA
< http://www.wacug.org>
WVPCUG Warwick Valley PC Users Group Warwick, NY
< http://www.wvpcug.org >
##
Some
background on phishing @ Indiana:
http://www.indiana.edu/~phishing/
Root kits: A stealthy set of software tools used by
cyberslimers to gain control of the “root” or core of a remote
computer. A root kit often goes undetected by security software, and
can introduce a Trojan horse that opens an unused port on your
computer that crackers can exploit.
Prevention is key. Windows XP includes a firewall, but it’s a
weak one that monitors inbound traffic only, not outbound. It can
block spyware from entering your computer, but it can’t stop a worm
that’s already on your system from accessing the Internet.
I recommend disabling the Windows XP firewall and installing one
that monitors both inbound and outbound traffic. I use Zone
Alarm. Get YOUR FREE copy, here: <
http://tinyurl.com/ygecq3 >
To disable the Windows XP firewall, go to Start, Control Panel,
Security Center. Click on Windows Firewall, and then the Off button.
Windows Vista is expected to have a two-way firewall.
Before you can install a new firewall program, you must turn off the
Windows firewall.
If someone has a good recommendation for
detecting/removing Root Kits, let me know your favorites. Some info,
here:
http://www.pcsupportadvisor.com/rootkits.htm
## -tp
What is
an ISO and how do you create a disk image? The term comes from
the International Organization for Standardization
as is an IMAGE file of a DISK. All of information (file structures,
data, etc.) is contained in a single file. These properties make it
an attractive alternative to physical media for the distribution of
software . [Note:
Because "International Organization
for Standardization" would have different abbreviations in
different languages ("IOS" in English, "OIN" in French for
Organisation internationale de normalisation), it
was decided at the outset to use a word derived from the
Greek isos, meaning "equal". Therefore, whatever the
country, whatever the language, the short form of the
organization's name is always ISO.]
Remember that you can't create a functional ISO from copy protected
discs such as movie DVDs. You can build an ISO from files on your
hard drive, or you can convert an existing disc, CD or DVD to an ISO
file.
How to create an ISO from a CD:
The simplest tool for creating an ISO from an existing CD or DVD
also is free. It's called ISO Recorder. It is listed in the
background info at the bottom of this tutorial.
To create your ISO, insert your disc, right-click on the drive and
choose 'Copy CD to image file'. Type in a file name for your ISO and
click Next. A couple of minutes later, your image will be ready. The
only drawback is that the program runs only on Windows XP.
Building an ISO
The process for constructing your own ISO is much the same as
producing a normal CD. Where it differs is instead of burning to
disc, you pick Create Disc Image' or something that is worded
similarly. If you want to make the CD/DVD bootable, most programs
will require you to select the bootable option in your program,
rather than the normal data CD/DVD.
Nero is a little better than Easy CD Creator for generating ISOs
from existing discs, but still has its own foibles. Drag the
contents of your disc into the project area (or copy the files from
your hard drive if you're building an ISO from existing files). To
create your ISO, go to the menu and select Recorder-Choose Recorder.
Click Image Recorder. Next, follow the normal burn process. When you
click on write, you'll be prompted for a file name. Nero tries to
create its own file type (NRG), but for compatibility with other
programs, choose ISO.
Next. Burning your image file to a disc
Converting an ISO back to a normal CD or DVD is easy. Start your CD
burning package and select File-Burn Image (Nero). All ISOs are not
the same, even though they are supposed to follow a standard. I've
been lucky, however.
ISO Recorder is a Windows XP freeware utility that uses native
Windows XP functions to write images to a CD. You can download this
utility from the author’s Web page. When the program is installed,
it is automatically associated with the ISO file extension in
Windows Explorer.
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm
Another burner:
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/free-iso-burn.html
http://www.winimage.com/download.htm Win Image
and lastly: Free Deep Burner:
http://www.deepburner.com/?r=products&pr=provsfree
## -tp.
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