Archive for October, 2005
Watch out for differently formatted diskettes
If you have ever tried to use an A: drive diskette formatted in Windows 98/Me to boot into Windows 2000/XP, or vice versa, you will have encountered the fact that the boot sectors of a formatted diskette are not the same for all Windows systems. The boot code of a DOS/Win9x/ME diskette loads and executes [...]
Movie search engine
Although the major search engines like Google and Yahoo are terrific resources for finding things in general, there are also numerous specialized search engines that make it easier to look up information on a particular subject. One of these is the Internet Movie Database and the SearchEngineWatch newsletter has an item on it. Here is [...]
How clueless PC users hurt everyone
Dutch authorities have uncovered a ring that was using infected computers to carry out extortion and other nefarious activities. Three (and maybe more) young men had at least 1.5 million computers at their control. Here is an excerpt from Internet Week.
Dutch prosecutors who last month arrested a trio of young men for creating a large [...]
Configuring Firefox
One of the things that attracts experienced computer users to the browser Firefox is the many ways it can be configured. Because it is OpenSource, anyone can write an extension and new extensions are constantly being made available. The individual user can also configure the browser in a number of ways. In addition to the [...]
The trouble with trying to define spyware
A group called the Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) is putting together a document on how to define spyware. This is how they define their efforts:
The Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) is a group dedicated to building a consensus about definitions and best practices in the debate surrounding spyware and other potentially unwanted technologies.
Although the group includes [...]
OpenOffice 2.0
The free open-source suite OpenOffice 2.0 is now available. Here is the description:
OpenOffice.org 2.0 is an open, feature-rich multi-platform office productivity suite. The user interface and the functionality is very similar to other products in the market like Microsoft Office or Lotus SmartSuite, but in contrast to these commercial products OpenOffice.org is absolutely free.
A full [...]
Weird and unusual Web sites
My SeniorNet colleague, Joel May, is one busy guy with a host of varied interests but somehow he found time to collect a list full of links to some very strange Web sites. If you have a few minutes to spare and want to be amused by the peculiar antics and idiosyncrasies of your [...]
Troubleshoot slow startups
Ed Bott has started a series on troubleshooting computers that take a long time to start up. You can also read more on the subject here. One system tool that is involved in troubleshooting is the System Configuration Utility, more often known as msconfig. There is an article on how to use msconfig at my [...]
Ten steps to security
PC World has an article outlining 10 steps to take to make your computer more secure. There is nothing new here and all of this has been covered many times in many places but it may be helpful to some to have a concise list of the things you need to do.
Looking for a book on searching?
Chris Sherman at Search Engine Watch has recently compiled a list of reviews on Internet searching and search engines. As would be expected, Google is a main topic. Here are books that are reviewed:
Find It Online: The Complete Guide to Online Research, Alan Schlein
Google Hacks, Tara Calishain
Google Hacks (2nd Edition), Tara Calishain
How to do Everything [...]
Screen captures or screenshots
Sometimes you might like to make a snapshot of what appears on your computer screen. Maybe you want a picture of a complicated error message to send to a technician. Or maybe you want to show someone a picture of a particular feature of a program. Whatever your reason, there is a readily available built-in [...]