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February 2009 |
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People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly
work for all they get.
Frederick Douglass
A quick reminder...Steve will be unavailable the week of March first. Scheduled days off and other information available here. Adobe update --topThe latest release of the Adobe Acrobat or the Adobe Reader may cause printing problems where only the first page of a multiple page document prints correctly. If you are experiencing this problem, try this:
Printer (Copy1) --topIf you have unexpected printer problems or upon boot see Windows reinstall a printer that should already be there, look in the Printers folder for "copies" of your printer. This is a common problem when a USB connected printer is unplugged and then plugged into a different USB port. Normally it's easy to correct this problem by assigning the newly discovered printer "copy" as the default. To do so, simply right click and from the menu, select Set as default. Once done, test the printer and if it works delete the other printer. However, sometimes it becomes necessary to disconnect the printer, completely uninstall the software then reinstall from the printer manufacturer's CD. Note: If that printer is shared to the network you must (re)share the newly discovered device. If you use the exact same share name, other computers should see it just fine. Windows Defender --topDefender is a free malware cleanup application from Microsoft. It can detect and remove some of the malware applications that sneak by antivirus applications. If you have Defender already installed on your computer and then install or upgrade an antivirus application, the antivirus may disable it. After you are done installing and updating the antivirus, we recommend re-enabling Defender. So far we have seen no problems doing so. To see if Defender is working properly, simply open the application from Start > All Programs. If it's disabled, you will receive a message stating so and that message will have an option to turn it back on... If you do not yet have Defender, it's available here or by searching download.microsoft.com for "defender." IE8 --top
Heed the warnings! Once installed, IE8 may be uninstallable! The article.JIBilling fraud --topWatch your credit card statements closely! Last month we had two different fraudulent credit card charges. One was rejected by the credit card company after calling us to inquire about airline tickets out of Chile. The second incident was actually three separate charges by some company called JIBilling. Doing a search on that name resulted in two pages of results and almost all were the same fraudulent charge complaint. We are very careful with our cards, so just how do they get the information??? No more hard drive failures? --topWe have hounded everyone for years about backing up data because hard drives are mechanical devices that will eventually fail! But technology is moving forward with one possible solution. Dell and Mac are now offering laptops with a solid-state hard drive, i.e., no moving parts. Additionally, SSD technology is much faster than current mechanical drives, but at a cost. A solid-state drive will add some $400-$500 to the price of a computer... The article. These solid-state drives are available for many current machines, but are equally as expensive. Will this new technology exempt you from backing up? - NO! Even though the drive cannot fail due to mechanical failure, there are still many other factors that could cause data loss, including viruses and corruption of the operating system. Yet more email scams --top
And email viruses...Just about every month last year we had articles or warnings about viruses. More recently, there were email messages about "airline tickets purchased on your credit card" and "UPS delivery notifications," which both came as a zipped file. Upon unzipping, they would run an executable file infecting your computer. So again, unless you are expecting something specific in email, delete emails containing attachments and be especially cognizant of zipped files. Zipped files... --top"Zipping" compresses files and is very useful when sending very large or multiple files. Windows XP and Vista have zipping/unzipping capabilities built-in so there is no need to install a third party application.
* Email providers may limit the size of an email message and/or account mailbox, so if you are sending large or multiple attachments, be aware of the total size.Vista video issue --topPerhaps an esoteric problem, but Vista fails to play video when certain decompressors are not registered. If you see "...decompressor vidc.iv32 not found" in place of the expected image, try this easy fix... From the Start menu, type regedit in the search box. Click Continue on that stupid Vista prompt then navigate to: Local Machine > Software > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > Drivers32. In the left window pane, click on the Drivers32 key then in the right pane, Right click > New > String Value. Name that new string vidc.iv32 then press enter to accept the change. Press enter again to modify the value and type ir32_32.dll as the new value. Accept that change and exit the editor. The video should work. If not, look in the Windows\System32 folder for ir32_32.dll. If not found, copy that file from another Vista or a Windows XP machine. Do not download one from the Internet unless you are sure the site offering it's trustworthy! As always, back up the registry before making changes. Norton 360 performance issues --topIf you have Norton 360 and the computer runs slow, you may be eligible for a free upgrade that could resolve the problem. Click here. More RAMThe upgrade alone may not resolve performance issues. If the computer is an older one, it may not have enough RAM (memory) to efficiently run Windows and an antivirus application. With all the updates and add-ons, computers these days should be running about 2GB of memory.
Check that Wireless security --topAfter seeing a vehicle with multiple antennas driving slowly down our road, we suspect there is some wardriving done in the area. And with plenty of free, publicly available networks, we can only assume someone looking for a private connection is up to no good. So a reminder... Secure those wireless networks!
Here you can see that these two are encrypted (secure) by both the verbiage and by the closed padlock. Above is the Windows XP WIFI connection window. Other connection manager applications will appear different, but will somehow show if the connection is secure. There are various methods of encrypting your network. The two most common are WEP and WPA, but WPA is considered the better choice. Note: WPA is not secure if you use an easy to guess passcode! Windows Vista seems to have some problems with certain WEP connections, so we recommend WPA with a gibberish code. Here are a few articles on WIFI: We have a few laser printer toners too old to sell at retail. They are new original HP in sealed boxes, but will be sold as is... There is one of each:
Opinion --topProminent Scientist Fired By Gore Says Warming Alarm ‘Mistaken’11 More Scientists Join Senate Report of More
Than 650 Dissenters The U.S. Senate on Environmental & Public Works article Thanks, Bob Obama stimulus plan, it looks like politics as usual... So where is the "change?"From Heritage Foundation and SelfInvestors articles:
And finally...Oregon, Once Again, Pursuing GPS Driving Tax Quick Links... --topHow are your driving skills? and the worst driver on earth... Year in review... Cute. Thanks, Guy How are you at "eyeballing" things? Try this... We will leave you with this from Al Lowe A man called his banker to check on his account. "Your finances are in terrible shape," said the banker. "Your checking account is overdrawn and your loan is overdue." "Yeah, I know," said the man. "It's my wife. She's out of control." "Well, why do you let her spend more than you have?" asked the banker. "Frankly," sighed the man, "because it's easier to argue with you than her!" |
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Along with the
many changes to the Internet Explorer, IE8 allows for deleting
of individual history items.
