Thread: It's Geek to me: Translating computereze Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
Here you go!

This is where we match up helpers and helpees for those times when you don't know what to do for that computing or programing problem, because we have Shipmates who know [* ]lots[/* ] of helpful things!

[ 21. September 2014, 08:13: Message edited by: Firenze ]
 

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Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Ooooh, shiny!

And look at all the specs! Centuple core! 1bn TB RAM! 2012 TB HDD! Graphics to show all them New Year fireworks in MegaMultipleHighestEverDefinition!

Welcome, all, and thank you, jj!



NB. The old thread goes into Oblivion, I hope? - Still useful stuff for reference meseems. Thanks.

[ 31. December 2011, 19:48: Message edited by: Wesley J ]
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
Here's a link to the old Geek Revival thread.

You're right, Wesley J. Lots of useful things there!
 

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Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 

 

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Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :
 
Evening, comrades.

My ancient laptop (Acer Aspire 5101) has subtly and mysteriously Done Something, and I don't know what it means.

Previously, when the power cable was in the back, the power LED on the front panel glowed green. When it was charging the battery, it glowed orange. When it's about to run out of battery juice, it goes red.

What does blinking orange when the power cable's in mean?

My googlefu seems to indicate that it might mean that the battery's not charging, but I've recently (6 months) replaced the battery, and currently it's on 2h40m charge, from a peak of 3h, which is as good as it gets on the old thing. I'm running the battery down to see if it'll recharge.

But in the meantime,
 

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Posted by The Kat in the Hat (# 2557) on :
 
Has anything happened in Windows land that will cause Outlook to stop communicating with my email service provider? It worked fine yesterday, but today keeps asking me to log in, but rejects the password.
 

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Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
Does the Internet work? If not, then your Internet service provider could be down, or your cable modem or hub could be unplugged.

If so, then your ISP's mail server may be down. A call to their support number would verify that. It is also possible that a virus may have changed your password on you.

Can you access e-mail via the Internet? (For example, I use Microsoft Outlook, but I can also log onto e-mail by browsing to my ISP's home page and clicking Mail.)
 

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Posted by The Kat in the Hat (# 2557) on :
 
Must have been a temporary blip, as it's working fine now. The internet was fine, I could access the emails via the web, it was only Outlook that was not happy (and only with that account, the others that I have worked fine). Must have been New Year gremlins.
Thanks anyway.
 

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Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Right, I am really making sure this does not exist. I am looking for an app/programme in Windows 7 that will do the following simple thing.

When a folder is opened in Window explorer along with the usual view there is also opened a space for writing notes. These notes are preserved between times the folder is open and only open when that folder opens.

Its for my thesis, all sections of chapters have their own folder, in these I end up with several files (different draft versions, copies from different proof readers and also sometimes a section is taken out to be redrafted). I am finding it increasingly needful that I keep notes so I know what is going on in each folder. I have a program that will attach notes to folders but I have to remember to open the notes, and I am good at not doing htat and therefore not updating the notes.

Jengie
 

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Posted by Talitha (# 5085) on :
 
How about the other way round: a note-taking program that also displays your files?

I think Microsoft OneNote does this. You could have a notebook page for each section of your thesis, and the page would contain your notes, plus links to each of the related files, which you could open from inside it, like you could from in Explorer. Your files are still in the same place on disk, but you work from within OneNote rather than Explorer. It comes with recent versions of Office - or you can probably get free equivalents.
 

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Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Not really that means I need to start up One Note to make the notes or to see what notes are made. Also as well as write and edit the files I have to tell one note about them.

The current note making system is easier as is the old fashioned have a note file in every folder approach.

Easy is important, I need to make it as easy and obvious as possible to reduce the chances I won't ignore this file, Oh I have lots of files in a folder before I have the final piece written.

Jengie
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
I have a Word document that I want to put some pictures in. I can insert the pictures, but how do I make the text flow round them, e.g. so the picture takes up one side of the page and the text continues down the other side?
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
Right click on the image and you will have a list of options. These vary depending on which version of Word you have, but one of them should say something like "position" or "format", and in one of those you'll have options to make the text go in front, behind, to the side, etc. Hope that helps.
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Thanks, that worked!
 

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Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :
 
Becoming extremely baffled here, so if I am lucky, one of you good people can tell me what I am missing.

Fact: Approximately once a week, my computer loses its ability to connect to the internet. It spouts an error message about not being able to get a DNS address.

Fact: I live in a house with many computers, and connect through a router. This issue never affects any computer besides my computer and Bullfrog's computer.

Fact: We always eventually solve the issue by turning off my computer, the computer with the router/modem attached, and the modem.

Fact: I have tried putting in 192.168.1.1 instead of getting my DNS address automatically, but that did not help.

Theories: Is my computer trying to get a DNS address directly instead of getting it from the modem as is appropriate? I'm not sure if that's really how things work though, or sure how it helps if that is what's happening.
 

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Posted by monkeylizard (# 952) on :
 
DNS is "Domain Name Service". It's what resolves the computer names to the IP address number. So "GwaisSuperAwesomePC" can be translated on your home network to 192.168.1.4 or whatever its IP address is.

Within your home on your own network, all the devices get an IP address from the router, not the modem. If the router assigns the same number to 2 or more devices, you'll get weird errors like what you're seeing.

Addresses for the devices in your home can either be assigned dynamically or be static.

Dynamic means the router hands them out as needed. Static means that you tell the router which devices will use which numbers, then tell those devices to use those numbers.

I'm going to guess that you use dynamic, as that's what most use. The conflicts happen when a device has received a number before, but doesn't check with the router to see if it needs a new one. So it keeps using 192.168.1.5 when that number has also been given to your shiny new iPhone.

The router is usually 192.168.1.1 so don't use that for anything else. In your router admin page, you may have a place for Static IPs. If you do, then you can assign one to your PC. The router will no longer pass that number out. then you have to change your TCP/IP network settings in Windows (don't know about Mac) to use that static IP address.

Another quick trick that will sometimes solve this without the need for static IPs is to refresh your ip address with the IPCONFIG command.

Open a command prompt (DOS window) by choosing "Run" from the Windows/Start menu and typing in "cmd" without the quotes.

Once you have the command prompt, you can type in "ipconfig" and press enter. This will show your current settings. "ipconfig /all" will show more details.

"ipconfig /renew" will force your PC to drop its IP address and go get a new one from the router. I'd try this first.

[ 11. January 2012, 18:10: Message edited by: monkeylizard ]
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
I am not an expert, still less on routers, but I've had what sounds like similar experience.

Are you running more than one OS?

We have had similar problems, which were a lot worse when we had a one computer running Vista alongside another running XP. We now run Windows 7 and XP concurrently and don't have (too many) problems. The computers all run off the same wifi but they are not networked together. The issue was usually solved by asking for a new IP address (or switching to our other wifi network for a while - we run two!).

[x-post with monkeylizard who sounds like he knows a lot more about this than me]

[ 11. January 2012, 18:14: Message edited by: Eutychus ]
 

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Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by monkeylizard:
"ipconfig /renew" will force your PC to drop its IP address and go get a new one from the router.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
But there's nothing to stop the router from giving the PC the same address it just dropped.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
Also, you can't have more than one DNS server on a network. Is it possible that you recently installed a new device that is also acting as a DNS server, in addition to your router?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Snags:

quote:

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Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
Also, you can't have more than one DNS server on a network.

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OH YES YOU CAN!

You can't have more than one DHCP server on a network.

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quote:

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Originally posted by St Everild:
It's a long shot, but...

My iPad 2 64 gb WiFi can "see" my computer via WiFi and will sync wirelessly.
So the WiFi is switched on, and is working.

So why won't it connect wirelessly to the Internet/go on-line? It ought to do it automatically, but Safari, Facebook and email all say that it is not connected. It is supposed to connect to known networks automatically....

I have checked my email address etc...and I don't think I have done anything untoward.

I have tried switching it off, and on again.

There must be a simple solution, and I am just not "seeing" it.

Any ideas? Please?

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quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Gwai,

Something to consider when configuring is your ISP. Some providers require your routers and computers to be set to dynamic rather than static. Especially true of cable.

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The router needs to get its external IP address dynamically from the ISP. However, each device connected to the router would get its internal IP address from the router, not the ISP. So in theory it shouldn't matter whether the router is handing out dynamic addresses or if the devices are configured with static addresses.

Since this sounds like a network with a relatively large number of devices connected, especially for a home network, I still would suspect that the router has simply run out of available addresses. My router, for example, can provide 99 addresses, but Gwai's may be configured to provide far fewer (perhaps this can be changed).

[ 13. January 2012, 22:15: Message edited by: Amanda B. Reckondwythe ]
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
So my plan was to turn off JavaScript on IEX and leave it on for Firefox.

For IEX9, I have followed tutorials in two languages, and none of them work. The options are not always the same on my French version of IEX as in the UK versions, but even a tutorial on the identical French version doesn't work (or at least, when I try to access Wikipedia today via IEX9 after supposedly disabling JavaScript, it's still blacked out).

I presume enabling JavaScript is browser-specific (ie I can have it enabled in one browser, Firefox, and not the other, IEX?). Am I just not turning off enough options?

[ 18. January 2012, 06:59: Message edited by: Eutychus ]
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Fairly sure it is browser specific.
I go one step further and run an addon to Firefox called NoScript. This blocks all scripts from running in Firefox unless individually allowed. A pain at times, but safer. You would not believe The amount of scripts, and nested scripts, running on some websites.
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
What sort of functionality does one lose by turning all scripts off anyway? And does your add-on enable you to allow scripts on a case-by-case basis?
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Everything between all function ( in the case of flash based sites, to the adverts not appearing.
Yes, you can allow on a case by case basis. And you can allow them for your current browser session only.
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
Thanks, I'll have to give it a try, although I suspect that by the time I get around to playing with it the immediate need will have passed...
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
(turns out easier solution was stopping the page loading before the javascript kicked in)

Now either a really dumb question or a really dumb feature:

Is there a way in Windows 7 to sort the bin solely by date of deletion?

I can't persuade it not to sort first by file type, which is maddening. Can anyone else?
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Eutychus,

In Windows Explorer, there is a sort by and a group by. Probably need both set to display the same way.
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
I can't see these options in my bin. Clicking on "file type" sorts the bin into alphabetical file types. Clicking on "date" only sorts within those groups. There is a left-click option to collapse the file type groups and a right-click option that says "delete", but it isn't clear if this deletes the group or all the documents in it.

The bin is the only one of my Windows folders to display arranged by type in this way. In all the others files are displayed, by default, by file name, irrespective of type, and I can toggle sorting for all the usual categories.


 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Alright, try this.
There should be a small button on the upper right of your recycle bin window. Click on it to cycle through the various view modes until the Details view appears. Go to this link to see what I am attempting to explain. Or right click on a blank space in the window and click on View then select Details.
Or, in the upper left, click on View then details.
No matter how you have your Windows Explorer set, one of these should get you there.
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
Here's a screenshot of my own (yours is not actually visible without a password!).

I have the window set to "Details" view. But it's still impossible to sort by date of deletion before file type. I have collapsed most of the file type groups for the sake of the screenshot, but of course this means you can't see the deleted files in these groups.

If you know what file type you are looking for, I suppose this is just about bearable, but if you're simply looking for a file you might have deleted in the last couple of days and for which you're not sure of the type, it's maddening. In particular, folders containing files count as a whole different group... so can I turn this "group" thing off somehow? I can't see where.
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
One thing that might help is to turn the menubar on. To do this click on Organiser, go to Layout then click to show the Menu Bar. then click view and you should see Group by as well as Sort by. Make certain both are set to date deleted.
 

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Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :
 
I have a couple of questions related to acquiring a website.

I think I've figured out how to register a domain name. Am I right in thinking that the next thing to look for is a web host? If so, who are the good ones?

Finally, I've seen some good reviews of the (free) web design software KompoZer. Does anyone have any experience / reviews / tips relating to it?
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Adeodatus:
I think I've figured out how to register a domain name. Am I right in thinking that the next thing to look for is a web host? If so, who are the good ones?

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quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:
One thing that might help is to turn the menubar on. To do this click on Organiser, go to Layout then click to show the Menu Bar. then click view and you should see Group by as well as Sort by. Make certain both are set to date deleted.

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Thanks. That was it

[ 02. February 2012, 20:19: Message edited by: Eutychus ]
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Adeodatus:
I have a couple of questions related to acquiring a website.

I think I've figured out how to register a domain name. Am I right in thinking that the next thing to look for is a web host? If so, who are the good ones?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Drifting Star:
[...] I have my domain names through them too, which does make life easier.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Drifting Star:
Forgot to say that you can get your details removed as long as you're a 'non-trading individual'.

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Excellent news. Listing your details is a spam magnet. Will enquire.
 

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Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :
 
Thanks for the tips, folks. I'm going to carry on researching for a while before I take the plunge, I think.

If I'm selling paintings, prints, etc., I assume that makes me a "trading individual"?
 

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Posted by Sarah G (# 11669) on :
 
I've researched this one, but I'm still confused. Microsoft ends mainstream support for Windows Vista SP2 in April, but is continuing extended support. Will they continue to send out vulnerability patches and other essentials?

Should I upgrade to Windows 7?

Thanks for your replies.
 

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Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Adeodatus: whether you can have the who-is opt-out on a domain depends on who the domain's registered to. So if you register to yourself as "UK Individual", you can opt-out. If you register it as "Limited Company" you can't. What you do with it afterwards is, to most practical extents, academic.

Sarah G: your Vista machine will continue to work fine when support ends; all it means is that there will be no automatic Windows Updates to fix bugs or security issues that may come to light. So it's really a choice based on how you use your PC, and how happy you are with it currently. For a machine with good antivirus, behind a decent and properly configured firewall (or even NATting router), operated by a responsible adult without an uncontrollable lust for porn or stupid joke sites, your risks are relatively minimal.

On the bigger question, Windows 7 is what Vista should have been if they'd done it properly, so given the choice, Windows 7 is preferrable. To counter that, in-place upgrades are always the worst way forward, so if your current machine is stable and doing what you want, I wouldn't bother unduly. If it's a bit of a bag of nails, it might be worth getting all your data off, wiping, and moving to Win 7 anyway (as long as the hardware's up to it), regardless of the support position
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
Susan G: upgrading from Vista to 7 is a no-brainer

Question for UK shipmates: I have heard that in some countries you can get a 3G dongle for internet access for not very much. I have an assignment in the UK next week for which I'm not very confident about having good internet access, and wondering if there's anything available for such a period. Suggestions welcome!
 

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Posted by Morlader (# 16040) on :
 
Depends on:

Where you are in the UK. Some areas have strong enough 3G signal to enable reasonable speeds, but...

What do you think of as "good"? No 3G signal competes on speed with ADSL/WiFi. If you need access to Cloud applications or large graphics/videos you are going to be waiting around. Email may be OK though. Also ...

Local obstacles can make 3G signals unusable in even nominally good signal areas. The ground floor of some buildings have no 3G coverage but first* floor up are fine (e.g. my 'local' big hospital ). Other buildings have meshes/foil which act as screening.

If you know there's WiFi in the places you are going to be, I would say try to fix up WiFi access in advance. Always assuming you've got WiFi now. Also WiFi may be free but 3G probably not, if that's a consideration.

HTH. Good luck!

* You know, of course, our Ground, 1st, 2nd ... = US 1st, 2nd, 3rd ...
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Consult a coverage map for 3G and wifi for the area(s) in which you will be. Avoid the mobile providers' claims as the label on the tin is not always reliable.
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
I can get away with 2G. I have a dongle which I use here (France) and am aware of its limitations, but I would like an alternative solution to wifi in case the latter turns out to be less than ideal. My question is whether such a product exists.

(For the way translators think about internet access, see here. This is very close to my home setup, apart from the pigeons.)
 

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Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Eutychus:
[...] (For the way translators think about internet access, see here. This is very close to my home setup, apart from the pigeons.)

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Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Do you mean something like these?

Jengie
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
Yes. The coverage doesn't look too good where I'm going to be, though (darkest Kent). Can you get them from bricks-and-mortar stores?
 

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Posted by St Everild (# 3626) on :
 
Yes you can.

Orange, T-Mobile, 3, and Vodafone all sell them, AFAIK. There may also be others...

It would be worth looking at each company on-line and putting in the postcode of where you are staying to get some idea of the coverage. Then visit the shop of your preferred provider and ask again before handing over your cash and actually getting hold of your dongle. If they say it will be iffy try another provider.

(This is what I did last year when my mum died and I had to stay with my father. I needed internet access, and only 1 of the "big 4" listed above showed that it could provide coverage where my dad lives. I bought a dongle and it worked fine, once I'd worked out how to use it.)
 

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Posted by Morlader (# 16040) on :
 
Apologies, Euty, for assuming you are in the US.

Yes, lilB's linked BBC report gives a better overview than operators' coverage maps (these are marketing claims, of course, and should be treated as such).

IMNSHO, WiFi should be regarded as the "main" access method for transportable terminals. There are public WiFi networks in some places, a company called "the Cloud" provide some*. True mobile use needs 2 or 3G, of course, and if 2G is familiar, suggest you negotiate a roaming arrangement with your current supplier.

* BT have something called BTFON which is some sort of community WiFi. But I have an allergy to BT - past dealings at the time of BT privatisation - and I can't tell you more.
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Morlader:
suggest you negotiate a roaming arrangement with your current supplier.

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that's of the order of £45 a day.

Maybe I'll just go for a more traditional solution. Or not.
 

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Posted by Sarah G (# 11669) on :
 
Thanks for the advice with the Vista -> Windows 7 upgrade.

What do I need to backup if I'm doing an upgrade, or will it all go smoothly without destroying anything?
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
BTFON hotspots are for BT customers, so I'm guessing that rules Euty out. Basically, you allow BT to use a bit of your signal to provide a hotspot for others, and you can then use hotspots all over the country. I haven't yet found one in a convenient place for us (although my phone has grasped at them whilst driving through towns), but to be fair we do tend to go to rather remote places.
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Sarah G:
Thanks for the advice with the Vista -> Windows 7 upgrade.

What do I need to backup if I'm doing an upgrade, or will it all go smoothly without destroying anything?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Drifting Star:
BTFON hotspots are for BT customers, so I'm guessing that rules Euty out. Basically, you allow BT to use a bit of your signal to provide a hotspot for others, and you can then use hotspots all over the country. I haven't yet found one in a convenient place for us (although my phone has grasped at them whilst driving through towns), but to be fair we do tend to go to rather remote places.

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quote:

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Originally posted by thomasm:

quote:

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Originally posted by Drifting Star:
BTFON hotspots are for BT customers, so I'm guessing that rules Euty out. Basically, you allow BT to use a bit of your signal to provide a hotspot for others, and you can then use hotspots all over the country. I haven't yet found one in a convenient place for us (although my phone has grasped at them whilst driving through towns), but to be fair we do tend to go to rather remote places.

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For a fee you can use them even if you are not a subscriber. Prices are about the same as say BT Openzone (their commercial version).

T

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1. A full virus scan, older people are less likely to get computer viruses but are also less likely to spot when they have in my experience.
2. Download Malwarebytes and let it scan for any malware not picked up by the anti virus.
3. I have found Piriform useful and they do ccleaner for free. So I would download that and run it so it pick up anything that is slowing the machine down due to programmes loading unnecessarily.
4. Once you have done that run a disk clean
5. then defrag (using the tools from Windows will do although there are plenty out there as well).

I can't guarantee that this will speed it up, I share people's view of Vista and if you can find someone with XP disks who will install (I believe legal as you are downgrading your license for Vista), then I would.

Jengie
 

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Posted by moonlitdoor (# 11707) on :
 
Thanks very much to everybody for their suggestions, I appreciate it.
 

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Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Vista really needs 2GB RAM to be responsive, but what Jengie said is good advice to get the best out of what you have.

If you use ccleaner to purge the registry, DO take the backup option Also DON'T let anything compress the drive, as this will slug it even more.
 

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Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
I'm having problems opening my MS Work 7.0 Calendar - which is strange, as all the other Works elements are fine (I only use the calendar much really).

I'm getting the classic

quote:

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Works cannot access one or more files it needs to run the Calendar. The files may have been renamed, deleted or moved. Try reinstalling Works, and then starting the program again.

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Which I did, alas to no avail. I also followed instructions to that purpose from MS and other expert fora. Result = nil.

Any suggestions? Even just the retrieval of the calendar data, and transfer to some other calendar application would be lovely. Would be silly to lose them.

Thank you.
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
You might try a restore point from before the calendar started giving trouble.
Caveat:you may lose data from between now and then.
 

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Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Ta. Will try later.

Sadly enough, on both my Win XP SP3 machines (this one is Pro, the other Home) the Restore Point seems to have died many eons ago: 'Cannot be restored to the time and date desired'. - Still works on the new Win 7 Ultimate though, luckily.

Will try nonetheless and report back. Thanks!
 

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Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
Whoops! This sounds like a virus to me.
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Miss Amanda may well be correct. Run a malware and a virus check.
 

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Posted by St Everild (# 3626) on :
 
Has anyone upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard? What are the pitfalls - and the good things? Have the early glitches been ironed out - or weren't there any in the first place? (I'm guessing that the already-announced Mountain Lion is an improvement - or maybe that's just cynicism born of too long with Microsoft!)

(I have a MacBook Pro which is just over 1 year old, and I'm thinking about upgrading to Lion. I use Office for Mac, and I sync to an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4S. I'd quite like to use iCloud...)

Lots of questions - sorry. I have tried to look elsewhere...
 

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Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Miss Amanda may well be correct. Run a malware and a virus check.

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Thanks for your concern. As I keep running several AV scans daily, and at least one full scan every week (Norton Internet Security, Spybot S&D, Windows Defender), I'm fairly confident it ain't one of the nasties. Nothing has shown up, neither now nor in the recent past, apart from the odd IE tracking cookie.

I have now read, however, that Norton IS/AV may block system restore, so may try turning it off for the occasion and see what happens.

I currently work around the lack of MS Works Calendar, and am once again backing up all files (which I'm doing anyway on a regular basis) and am looking into creating a bootable MS Win XP SP3 CD, as the harddrive seems to have problems starting very occasionnally. This may, or may not, be related. Luckily I've got several machines, so wouldn't be puter-less even in a worst case scenario, but fingers crossed...!

Watch this space. Thanks again.
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Norton is of the devil, but it is better than no virus protection. Barely, but....
 

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Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by moonlitdoor:
It is called Toshiba Satellite 1400, and has 1.33 ghz processor and 1 gb memory.

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• MD Quad-Core A6-3420M Accelerated Processor (2.4GHz/1.5GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2330M (2.2 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) (add $80)
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M Processor (2.4 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) Turbo Boost to 3.0 GHz (add $100)

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
Are you sure you have the printer's correct IP address? I wouldn't rely on querying it via Google. I would go to the printer itself and print a test sheet showing the network configuration, including IP address.

You do have to define it as a local printer and then create an IP port using the address in question. Of course, you must have administrative rights to the PC in order to do this.

---

Sorry, I wasn't clear, I googled how to interrogate the printer to find it, and that's the IP code I used - from the printout the printer gave me.

I suspect it's to do with how you install a network printer on a Win7 machine, but I have to organise access. There was a throwaway line on the link from lilBuddha that says in passing you have to do it in a certain way. But without the machine in question in front of me, I can't check if that's what I've done.
 

---

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
mousethief, I'd have to check with my tame geek, who is currently offline until her internet connection is set up, hopefully next week - but I'm pretty sure she'd go for Intel processors over MD - it's what she was choosing when she was advising on a new computer (the one that I'm now trying to set up - and not the one she suggested!) Not sure about the Turbo charging.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
MT, at the end of the day, any of them will probably do the job, but in the general case in my experience AMD chips always 'under perform' in laptops, and also tend to run hotter. Admittedly it's slightly old experience, as it put me off AMD in laptops so we've gone Intel for the last 6 years or so. Even when we were exclusively AMD in desktops and servers.

If you're upping the ante anyway, I'd suggest that the i5 is worth the extra over the i3, unless those additions are cumulative, not a single jump from the AMD baseline.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Here is where I might disagree with Snags. Or at least not be so certain.
Spec for spec, Intel out perform AMD.
However,the AMD is Quad core, the Intels dual core.
Here is an article which breaks things down pretty simply.
Here is one comparison.
This particular AMD is designed for the entry level market, so too is the i3.
The Intels have better cache, so that speeds things up.
Not a completely simple answer and enough of an argument to start a Geek fight.
You want performance? Try this. Only about 4K US.
 

---

Posted by Laxton's Superba (# 228) on :
 
I'm having some issues with my wireless broadband speed. Yesterday I tried to watch something on iplayer and the programme would only show in blips of about 5 seconds at a time, and eventually it gave up and came up with an error message about insufficient bandwith. The router is located about 6 feet from the laptop and as close as I can get it to the main BT socket. No other electrical items on nearby. I tested the speed with broadbandspeedchecker and this returned the frankly risible result of 0.063 mb/s. Plugging in an ethernet cable brought that up to a slightly more bearable 0.32 mb/s but it struck me that what I have here is not a top notch connection. My ISP says I should achieve between 2 and 5M ha ha.

Does anyone have any tips on improving this, is there something obvious I have overlooked. I can't afford to change ISP - the ISP is the good honest Yorkshire one (and their customer service is brilliant btw)
thanks
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Laxton Superba

It was not downloading something to another machine was it?

Oh my observation is that at specific times it is very poor usually just when I expect everyone local to be using it as well.

Jengie
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
I'm not fighting My real world experience of AMD in laptops is too out of date. However, if MT really does want high performance of the three it has to be the i5 and dedicated video. The core count will be a red herring unless the target software is explicitly written to take advantage, in the general case. (IME)
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
@ Laxton's Superba

Lack of bandwidth due to high contention is a highly likely reason for your problem. Time of day can often make a big difference.

Alternatively, wifi can have a local contention problem (or problems with interference). Changing the wifi channel can improve bandwidth (see link for a little app that can make this less of a blind shot in the dark):

http://tinyurl.com/6vbfhuk

Finally, your router could be on the ropes, but frankly I'd go with your conclusion, unless there is evidence to suggest otherwise: too many people all fighting for limited bandwidth.

[ 27. February 2012, 08:46: Message edited by: Alisdair ]
 

---

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
Current knowledge from the tame geek - her current laptop is using AMD and she's very rude about AMD even with massively improved spec from this laptop that's using Intel.
 

---

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
Answering a question on the question thread has generated a question of my own.

While I was composing that answer, I hit some key combination that highlighted only the text box, putting everything else in shaded grey. There were several menu tabs along the bottom of the screen. When I hit reply, it disappeared.

I'm using Firefox 7 with no relevant add-ons that I can think of. What key combination was that??
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I think I need a wizkid! In the last weeks, I made a film of a traditional African dance group. I just used my normal photo camera (which makes MPG files), and I added these files together with Windows Moviemaker, which saves films in a WMV format.

We want to have a party where I show the film to the group. The group has a projector, but no cable to connect it to a computer. Where we are in Africa, we can't get our hands on a cable easily. The only thing we can do, is to connect this projector to the dvd player that the group has.

The dvd player has a usb entrance, but when I put the film on a usb stick, the dvd player won't play it. This doesn't surprise me much, since the WMV format is pretty much Windows only.

I have VirtualDub, with which I can transform the film in an AVI format. I also have Handbrake, which can make a MP4. I used these to convert the film. The dvd player will play the AVI, but without sound. In fact, it says something like 'The right codec is unavailable to play audio for this film.'

Does anyone have an idea what I can do?
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
ISTM the easiest solution would be a DVD authoring software. This would put the movies into a DVD native format. There are free versions, I cannot vouch for any as I do not use them.
 

---

Posted by Ambivalence (# 16165) on :
 
You could try DVDFab - I've used that before as a slightly shady alternative when Handbrake hasn't worked.
 

---

Posted by wilson (# 37) on :
 
It's been a while since I used VirtualDub but you should be able to change the audio format at the same time as changing the video. If you can find the relevant menu then try setting it to mp3 and if that doesn't work mp2.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

lilBuddha: ISTM the easiest solution would be a DVD authoring software. This would put the movies into a DVD native format.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Doc Tor:
Evening, comrades.

My ancient laptop (Acer Aspire 5101) has subtly and mysteriously Done Something, and I don't know what it means.

Previously, when the power cable was in the back, the power LED on the front panel glowed green. When it was charging the battery, it glowed orange. When it's about to run out of battery juice, it goes red.

What does blinking orange when the power cable's in mean?

My googlefu seems to indicate that it might mean that the battery's not charging, but I've recently (6 months) replaced the battery, and currently it's on 2h40m charge, from a peak of 3h, which is as good as it gets on the old thing. I'm running the battery down to see if it'll recharge.

But in the meantime,

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Eutychus:
Answering a question on the question thread has generated a question of my own.

While I was composing that answer, I hit some key combination that highlighted only the text box, putting everything else in shaded grey. There were several menu tabs along the bottom of the screen. When I hit reply, it disappeared.

I'm using Firefox 7 with no relevant add-ons that I can think of. What key combination was that??

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Padre Joshua:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Doc Tor:
Evening, comrades.

My ancient laptop (Acer Aspire 5101) has subtly and mysteriously Done Something, and I don't know what it means.

Previously, when the power cable was in the back, the power LED on the front panel glowed green. When it was charging the battery, it glowed orange. When it's about to run out of battery juice, it goes red.

What does blinking orange when the power cable's in mean?

My googlefu seems to indicate that it might mean that the battery's not charging, but I've recently (6 months) replaced the battery, and currently it's on 2h40m charge, from a peak of 3h, which is as good as it gets on the old thing. I'm running the battery down to see if it'll recharge.

But in the meantime,

---

I'm experiencing the same problem with my new (to me) Dell Inspiron 5150. When I got it a couple weeks ago, it didn't have a battery included. A quick trip to Amazon fixed that, and it arrived a couple days ago. At first it was perfect. But yesterday and today it has stopped recognizing the battery. It'll run on battery, but it won't charge, and the battery light flashes orange (instead of the green/orange/red solid that you described above).

If I shut down the laptop and remove the battery, then reinstall it and turn the computer back on, it works like it should for a random amount of time, usually half an hour or so.

Bad battery? Bad software? (I'm runnning Ubuntu 11.10) Bad computer component?

Aggravating, because there are plenty of times when I need to be wireless!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Grits:
I have a Dell laptop and have had no trouble with it all. I liked being able to pick out the features I wanted. The only thing I'd change is to get longer battery life.

---

How long have you had yours?
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Dell are often unpopular in TrueGeek(TM) circles because of inconsistency, and for their part in the race to the bottom in terms of price/quality. If you can scrape together enough to go up into the middle of the pro/business range you should be OK.

Personally I would take a mid/high end ThinkPad over Dell any day, and indeed do for our 100+ laptop using clients. However, as with all things IT, all brands have fans and haters, and all one can generally do is ... generalise

If you really want awful after sales support, get a Sony
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Can anyone recommend a good and effective free anti-virus and firewall package?

I had Avast last year which was OK but the interface was sufficiently complicated for me to spend quite some time trying to configure it. Also, you now don't get the firewall without shelling out £40.

I had AVG before that and have downloaded that again, but the updates slow this system to almost a standstill for about 10-15 minutes each time, during which the computer can't really be used, so I'm looking for something quicker that will update itself unobtrusively in the background that I won't notice. This is why I changed from AVG last time.

And finally, should I use the Windows firewall or not?

Thank you in anticipation.
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
I use Comodo Free Internet Security on my father's machine. It had a lot of false positives initially but has settled down over the years.

Jengie
 

---

Posted by Morlader (# 16040) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddy O'Furniture:
I have a question about laptops. Specifically, DELL laptops. Does anyone own one? Can you tell me if they're reliable and last a while? I have heard some many awful stories about Dell's bitchy tech-support and lousy customer service but my sister owns both a laptop and a desktop and has had them both for years and years with nary an issue. I'm ditching my two broken-down Macs and dead PC desktop and attempting to get financing from Dell. Any advice?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by St Everild:
Anyone here using Lion? What has been your experience - I';d like to know before taking the plunge. (I've been quite happy with Snow Leopard, but...)

Thanks!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
I had AVG before that and have downloaded that again, but the updates slow this system to almost a standstill for about 10-15 minutes each time, during which the computer can't really be used, so I'm looking for something quicker that will update itself unobtrusively in the background that I won't notice. This is why I changed from AVG last time.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
I have had a similar experience, however I do wish to ask you one question: is your computer just updating the AVG data when you switch on, or is it performing an entire scan?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
I have had a similar experience, however I do wish to ask you one question: is your computer just updating the AVG data when you switch on, or is it performing an entire scan?

---

It is actually updating - this pc's about 15 years old so things run a bit more slowly. It already tried to do the initial scan, which I cancelled.

---

Ah.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Without wishing to start a fight, unless they've changed recently "Vostro" isn't the Dell business range (not in the UK, anyway). They slightly naughtily market it as for 'cost-conscious SMEs' and similar, but Vostro are generally the budget/entry level kit. Very cheap for what you get, and if you're the kind of person who's careful with stuff, could do you well.

The actual business class stuff is Lattitude/Precision (?) in the laptop ranges.

And I'd still get a ThinkPad
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
"Dell Vostro™ laptops are built specifically for small business"

That's from their UK website. The model I bought was only available through a business account at the time.

[ 09. April 2012, 21:50: Message edited by: Drifting Star ]
 

---

Posted by Paddy O'Furniture (# 12953) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Snags:
Without wishing to start a fight, unless they've changed recently "Vostro" isn't the Dell business range (not in the UK, anyway). They slightly naughtily market it as for 'cost-conscious SMEs' and similar, but Vostro are generally the budget/entry level kit. Very cheap for what you get, and if you're the kind of person who's careful with stuff, could do you well.

The actual business class stuff is Lattitude/Precision (?) in the laptop ranges.

And I'd still get a ThinkPad

---

Well, for us, we had to get a laptop that we could make payments on and Dell was the company for us. Hewlett Packard had financing deals but only if you paid off the whole kit and kaboodle in 6 months and no way could we have done that. I placed my order this afternoon and am eagerly awaiting our new 17" Dell Inspiron laptop. I was only planning on getting a 15" but Dell had a really great deal on a 17" so that's what I chose. And being able to pay $40/month isn't too shabby, either.
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
My desktop harddrive appears to have given up the ghost. It's 'only' 160GB, and came with my DELL Dimension 5000, from 2005 or 2006 I think. Interestingly, my DELL Dimension laptop from early 2004 keeps working very well (!), though of course that one's a bit slow now.

Luckily, I've backed up the entire machine shortly before it called it a day, so am bound not to lose too much data.

I'm planning to re-use the desktop machine, as I customised it with rather high specs - apparently with the exception of the HDD... !

Any suggestions on what type or brand of new HDD to purchase? I guess I might go for bigger storage, like 500 or 750GB, if compatible.

Thank you.
 

---

Posted by jbohn (# 8753) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:

Any suggestions on what type or brand of new HDD to purchase? I guess I might go for bigger storage, like 500 or 750GB, if compatible.

Thank you.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by St Everild:
I've just heard a clip on BBCradio 4 from Francis Wheen, whose shed burned down on Friday night, loosing books, papers, records and CDs...he said that he had backed up hs work, onto a memory stick, which he had put into the drawer of the desk upon which his computer stood, in the shed...as a consequence he has lost the back ups as well.

How, and where, do other people organise their back ups?

I have organised my MacBook to back up via Time Machine to a 1 terabyte Wedtern Digital thingy...which sits on my desk next to the laptop, so I would have the same issue as Francis Wheen.

---

I used to carry my Western Digital "Book" with me to work and kept it in my locked car in the separate garage at night. Am no longer working so am settling for different room than computer equipment kept in.

I used to have a back up system that had data cartridges that one could remove and keep elsewhere. With the Digital Books it's rather inconvenient to do that for an individual. There's also Cloud storage available, though I'm still not trusting of their security except for non important stuff. I'm thinking of getting a 2nd WD "Book" that I can keep elsewhere for the crucial stuff.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Wesley J - I'm not going to recommend specific brands, because that way madness lies (everyone has an opinion, and different experience to support it!).

However, if the machine does data from mid-2000s it would be worth popping the service tag into the Dell website and checking a couple of bits of info:

a) is the interface IDE or SATA? And if it's SATA, is it SATA or SATA2? Chances are it's SATA/SATA2 but it can save awkwardness to check ahead of time.

b) does the BIOS have a limit on the drive size it can recognise? If it does, there may be an update that will lift it, but your date estimate is roughly in a period where anything much over 500GB might give you trouble
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Thanks, all!

Snags, I've just purchased a 1TB Western Digital HDD - which the puter shop wizard chap said would still go with the motherboard; he checked on the DELL tech site. Although it's true what you're saying: I'll have to see about the BIOS. (I did check with the service tag myself.)

In the worst case, I'll slap the drive into an external HDD casing and so have extra storage, which I can always put to good use.

DELL have been helpful too - their European helpline is in Slovakia -, and are sending me a replacement Win XP Pro SP2 CD-ROM for a few quid, to I think about the same price as if I had ordered it together with the machine back then. This Windows is an OEM version and didn't come with a CD. - I can always upgrade to Win7 later, should I wish to, and had in fact already done the checks before.

As I was saying, the machine seems reasonably future-proof, and that's the way it was meant to be. I might buy a liddle upgraded graphics card at some point, which nowadays aren't that
expensive either.

Last, but not least: the puter shop chap doesn't sell canned air - much too expensive, he says - and he's certainly right! He suggested using a pump (bicycle pump?) from a sports shop, which he says does the trick just as well! That's really gonna save me a lot, if it works.

Will report back about progress of installation, cleaning and updating. Thanks for your encouraging words.

(Ya know, I'm glad I don't just have most of the deskie backups, but that I've also got 2 lappies to fall back on, the old 2004 Inspiron, and my nifty Alienware M11x from last year; though the later is more of a travelling machine for me. Some people may think you don't need 3 machines, but in a case like this, that's just the backup power you wish you had!)

[ 16. April 2012, 18:37: Message edited by: Wesley J ]
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by jbohn:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:

Any suggestions on what type or brand of new HDD to purchase? I guess I might go for bigger storage, like 500 or 750GB, if compatible.

Thank you.

---

I've always had good luck with Hitachi and Seagate. We had a rash of bad Western Digital drives at work about a year ago- although I've used plenty of their drives that were just fine. (The bad ones were in a batch of iMacs ordered at the same time, so it could have been just a bad run. We order machines in truckloads, so we're kind of susceptible to that problem.)

Good on you for keeping complete, up to date backups. It saves a lot of heartache down the road...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:
[Ta! Interestingly, the drive that died is a Seagate - somehow I always thought it was a Hitachi.

---

All hardware sucks. Any mechanical device will fail eventually. I've certainly pulled plenty of dead Seagates out of machines over the years.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:
Re backups, and poor Francis Wheen: good thinking to not physically having them in the same place. Must give this some thought myself!

---

Indeed. Offsite backups are our friends. Preferably several.
 

---

Posted by Niteowl2 (# 15841) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:

Last, but not least: the puter shop chap doesn't sell canned air - much too expensive, he says - and he's certainly right! He suggested using a pump (bicycle pump?) from a sports shop, which he says does the trick just as well! That's really gonna save me a lot, if it works.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Niteowl2:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:

Last, but not least: the puter shop chap doesn't sell canned air - much too expensive, he says - and he's certainly right! He suggested using a pump (bicycle pump?) from a sports shop, which he says does the trick just as well! That's really gonna save me a lot, if it works.

---

After spending way too much money on canned air I purchased one of these on Amazon. MicroVac/Dustblower Works well on a lot of things and I've stopped the cash hemorrhage.

---

That... just blows me away!
 

---

Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :
 
I understand that HDDs that are apparently of the same type can be produced in various factories in varius factories and with very varying reliability.

It is my Seagates that have failed, but that is not a statistically significant sample.
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Latchkey Kid:

It is my Seagates that have failed

---

There is help available, and I believe there are support groups out there
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Happy update: Ordered Win XP Pro OEM CD from DELL yesterday, got it today (!) by UPS, and it's XP SP3, which saves some time with the subsequent updates.

After some cleaning of the machine's somewhat dusty entrails, the new 1TB HDD was physically put into place (doesn't even need any screws!), recognised without any problems (!), and is being formatted as we speak!

Impressive!

Will keep you posted.
 

---

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:
Happy update: Ordered Win XP Pro OEM CD from DELL yesterday, got it today (!) by UPS, and it's XP SP3, which saves some time with the subsequent updates.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:
Happy update: Ordered Win XP Pro OEM CD from DELL yesterday, got it today (!) by UPS, and it's XP SP3, which saves some time with the subsequent updates.

---

You'll find, though, that there are well over 100 critical updates post-SP3 and that multiple reboots will be required. Congratulations, though, for deciding to stick with WinXP rather than going with Win7.

---

I'll live. With 2 other fully working machines, I'm not too much in a hurry - though the deskie has the most oomph.

Dunno about sticking with Win XP - the CD was cheap, and the support is still there for a few months. I don't see why I should spend a lot on Win7 (which is rather nice, I admit) if XP is still working, updated regularly and supported. But thanks anyway.
 

---

Posted by monkeylizard (# 952) on :
 
Win 8 will be out soon anyway......
 

---

Posted by jbohn (# 8753) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by monkeylizard:
Win 8 will be out soon anyway......

---

And may be a functioning OS by a year later...
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by jbohn:

quote:

---

Originally posted by monkeylizard:
Win 8 will be out soon anyway......

---

And may be a functioning OS by a year later...

---

Optimist.
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Yes

It is an even number, never a good sign with Microsoft.

Jengie
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Ah, but Windows 7 is just a marketing name for NT 6 - so those even numbers get you both ways.

(Windows 7 which works well is 6.1, Vista which didn't was NT 6.0, so presumably Windows 8 will be NT 6.2)

It has long been known that the first really working version of any operating system software is 2.2

When NT came out they called it 3.1 to make it look as if it was in step the with old-fashioned DOS-based Windows, rather than a completely different OS in some ways more similar to Unix.

So if we assume that the version 3 NTs were "really" version 0 (because they were incomplete, they did not yet have all the bells and whistles needed), then NT 4 is the first fully capable version which could have been called version 1, and NT 5.2 is the 2.2 of NT. NT 5.2 was sold as Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP 64-bit Edition. Yes, that's about right. They were probably the first seriously useful versions of Windows sold.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
XP 64-bit useful? Rare to catch you talking bollocks, ken

Granted it could have been useful, if there had been any driver/software support for it. As it was, it was more of a nod towards Win 7 coming good eventually.
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Driver software missing? Only if you wanted to play games. The only up-to-date drivers I needed for my servers were SCSI and network cards...
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
Driver software missing? Only if you wanted to play games. The only up-to-date drivers I needed for my servers were SCSI and network cards...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jengie Jon:

It is an even number, never a good sign with Microsoft.

---

It's made by Microsoft, never a good sign with an operating system.

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
I suppose what I really mean by "useful" was "robust". As in "If I go away for three weeks it'll still be running when I get back, nothing will be looping, and it won't have run out of memory".

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
Though, perhaps surprisingly, plain old DOS could be robust.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
I ended up being able to translate modem AT control codes in my head. From source code or the sound the bleeper made. Which as far as "translating compoutereze" goes is dam near as geeky as it gets.

---

 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
<Considers whistling innocently>

<Decides Heaven is not the place to induce flashbacks for ken>
 

---

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :
 
Just wondering if anyone has more information on this article that I saw in this morning's paper: Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July.

The Arizona Republic isn't my most trusted source of this sort of information. (I really do trust total strangers on the Ship more!)
 

---

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
My mom called me this morning worried about that very thing, Pigwidgeon. I am having email conversations with my friends about whether it's real, or a giant scam or what.

I'll be watching for our wise Shipmates' info along with you!
 

---

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
My uninformed take: if you are running up-to-date antivirus software you should have nothing to worry about.

Among those who think the site is legit, the consensus seems to be that you might still have more to worry about by visiting it than by not visiting it (depending on how evil and/or incompetent you think government agencies are)...
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
The FBI links the site directly, so legitimate in that regard. Whether or not your trust them is a separate issue.
 

---

Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
Though, perhaps surprisingly, plain old DOS could be robust....

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Just wondering if anyone has more information on this article that I saw in this morning's paper: Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
then you don't deserve to be on the Internet anyway. Its like driving cars without insurance or MOT. You would be a danger to others.

---

After the initial "Yes, yes! By all that is sacred YES!" I realized I would then need to tell my father he was no longer allowed a computer. That would be sad. Those "you will not believe what they are doing now" e-mails are not going to forward themselves.
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 
Okay. So I've downloaded Endnote, following all instructions. It's disappeared. What the hell do I do next?

(The same applied to Adobe Acrobatty Whatever ... which tells me daily I can download a new thingy, and i do, and i never see it again, and then it tells me the next day i can download a new thingy, and i do, and i never see it again, and ....)

[ 24. April 2012, 06:08: Message edited by: Zappa ]
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 
Oh - wait a minute ... Norton was blocking it (but didn't tell me)!
 

---

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :
 
Zappa, there are heaps of free programs much better than Norton. My computer guru sons have always called it crap, as do very many other compute people. Someone here can probably suggest what would be better for your machine as I'm out of touch with Windows computers. It doesn't do a good job of blocking rubbish and it does nasty things in the background of your computer.
 

---

Posted by jbohn (# 8753) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
[After the initial "Yes, yes! By all that is sacred YES!" I realized I would then need to tell my father he was no longer allowed a computer. That would be sad. Those "you will not believe what they are doing now" e-mails are not going to forward themselves.

---

 

---

Posted by WhateverTheySay (# 16598) on :
 
OK this is really annoying me. Firefox upgraded itself today, but I have a change that is absolutely driving me up the wall. I'm wondering if somebody can help me undo this one change.

I have an old laptop and my scroll wheel does not work any more. So I use the scroll bar on the right of the screen. It used to only move by about a line of text if I clicked on the downward scroll button at the bottom right of the screen. But since upgrading to the new Firefox it jumps a few lines when I just click once on the button. The result is that what I see is too jumpy and feels really out of control. Holding onto the blue bar in the middle of the scroll bar on the right is ok when it is big, but some sites I want to view (including SoF) the blue bar is so small that it is impossible for me to make really small movements.

So can anybody help me get my scrolling back in control and not jumpy. Because this is something that is really annoying me.
 

---

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
The following, gleaned (and edited) from a Mozilla forum, may or may not work:

1) In the location bar type about:config and hit enter.
2) Bypass the warning by clicking the button that says "I'll be careful, I promise!".

(At this point make sure you note down what the values you are about to change are. If the worst comes to the worst, simply return them to the original settings afterwards, in which case you'll be no worse off than you are now.)

3) In the Filter box, copy and paste the preferences below (this means the three-part code names) and change their respective values by right-clicking on each and selecting Modify:

mousewheel.withnokey.numlines to [x] (set "x" to a smaller number than it is when you get there and proceed by trial and error)

mousewheel.withnokey.sysnumlines to False (I'm not sure what this does but I think that setting it to False it stops the scrollbar jumping by a default number of lines)

No liability accepted, your warranty is void, your lifejacket is under your seat, please return your tray table to the upright position.
 

---

Posted by WhateverTheySay (# 16598) on :
 
OK thanks. I have tried that but it seems to make no difference, even if I close FF and restart it.

Maybe I will just have to get used to this?
 

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Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
The upgrade may be what caused probs at work. Assuming that you want a way to scroll more slowly, I often use the up and down arrow for scrolling through a page if I am reading.

If typing in like this one the tab button will take you to the next place on the form.

Jengie
 

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Posted by WhateverTheySay (# 16598) on :
 
Makes a lot of sense. Thank you. I am stupid when it comes to computers.
 

---

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Can anyone recommend a free, idiot-proof (ie simple to use) software package for applying different effects to photographs - e.g. watercolour, oil painting and so on? I've tried Gimp but I just can't get on with it. Any other suggestions?
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Serif's Photoplus does those things pretty well, and they offer a starter version as a free download here.

I should say that I have a full version, and I don't know whether the artistic effects are included in the starter version, but it's worth looking!
 

---

Posted by Ann (# 94) on :
 
Irfanview has various effects you can use.
 

---

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :
 
Serif Photoplus is good, but you need the manual to get effects right. Otherwise like GIMP it's all trial and error.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Not sure it's idiot-proof as such but the effects bit seems fairly straight forward: Paint.Net is a kind of "I wonder if we can write Photoshop from scratch" thing which is rather handy.
 

---

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by shamwari:
Anyone on the Ship invested in an Asus Transformer Prime?

Any good?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Balaam:
Serif Photoplus is good, but you need the manual to get effects right. Otherwise like GIMP it's all trial and error.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Balaam:
When I start up my netbook I have to wait for Skype and Spotify to load up.

I don't use either programme all the time, but want to keep them both, but I don't want to have to wait for a program to load if I'm not using it.

Is there a way to stop them loading when I boot the computer?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Snags:
So on (most) Windows machines you can type "msconfig" in the Run box (or the search box on Win 7), then go to the Startup tab and de-select whatever you don't want to run at Startup.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by shamwari:
Anyone on the Ship invested in an Asus Transformer Prime?

Any good?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by shamwari:
Anyone on the Ship invested in an Asus Transformer Prime?

---

No, I'm not really interested in Pokemon.
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
After my recent desktop HDD crash and successful recovery, I've reinstalled my e-mail software, via Outlook Express (looking into Thunderbird, though), and have retrieved all the previous messages from my back-ups.

My ISP seems to offer two ways of downloading my webmail now: like before, via POP, or new, with IMAP. The latter meaning that e-mails are primarily stored on the ISP server, and are regularily being synchronised between OE and webmail.

Personally, I still seem to prefer the POP e-mail system: Main e-mail storage on puter HDD (with backups, as above), and possibly leaving a copy on the webmail, for access on the road if needed.

Which system are you using? As you can access webmail (e.g. via lappie) in both, is it just a question of preference? - Thanks for your wise words.
 

---

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
I would stick with POP. My experience has been (others may disagree) that Microsoft Outlook does not play well with IMAP.
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
Someone better informed than I may have more to say, but basically IMAP uses your ISP's/domain name host's server to hold your mail, where you can create folders, sort, store and delete mail as you would on your own computer. The advantage being that you can access all your mail anywhere and any time you have an internet connection, and use the remote server as a backup (so long as you keep copies of wanted mail on your own computer). Personally I tend to only keep current mail on the IMAP server, and archive want I want to keep locally and to backups.

With POP, once you have downloaded the mail it is deleted from the POP server.

As for playing nicely with IMAP, don't know about Outlook Express, but I've never had any problems with Thunderbird.

[ 05. May 2012, 15:38: Message edited by: Alisdair ]
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Outlook is a fairly ropey IMAP client, but isn't too bad if you can live with the quirks.

Outlook Express is more even-handed, from memory, although that's a long time ago.

Thunderbird is fine as an IMAP client.

In terms of choosing IMAP v. POP, these days it's mostly down to how you access your email (always from one place, with the same device, or from various places on various devices) and how good you are with your local backups. And, I suppose, how much you trust your ISP/mail provider. Back in the day ISPs used to get the hump about too much mail on the server, but these days you tend to get scads of space bundled in, so there's not a lot to choose in the average situation.
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
As a mail provider we vastly prefer our users to use IMAP because there is far less trouble with users who download their mail, lose it, and then come bleating to us to restore it from backup.

Also IMAP can do everything that POP does anyway, so if you want to download everything in one go you still can - and you get to decide whether to delete the server copy at that time or not.

So the advantages of IMAP are that it is safer, faster, and gives more control to the user. As well as letting you see mail from pretty much anywhere you want.

Thunderbird is better than any Outlook version ever. Main reason for me is that it makes it much easier to use more than one email at the same time. You can add as many external email servers as you want. So I can simultaneoualy see my work email and personal email.

Second reason, which is a bit geeky, is that local folders and backups are kept in more-or-less plain text files, which are easy to read from or restore to other mailers. Or even to read ore modify without a mail client at all. Outlook has those crappy .PST files which get lost, break, slow things down, and generally cause no end of trouble.
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Just posted to say how cheesed off I am with AVG. Some of the updates have lasted c. 45 minutes, slowing the pc to a crawl, and removing the trial version once it had expired took a good 20m.

Any recommendations for a free firewall and anti-virus that isn't AVG, and doesn't hog resources on an old pc with Windows XP (SP3)? I'm thinking of going back to Avast, but if there is an alternative that's good and quick, and not resource-intensive, recommendations would be welcome.
 

---

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
No ideas, but I share the cheesed-offness. And it's not just with XP - my wife has the same problem and she's on Vista Home Basic.

She keeps saying "there's something wrong with the computer" and shouts at it. When I say that there isn't, it's just AVG, she shouts at me instead, and says, "Surely there's something you can do". Which there isn't.

PS This is with the "free" version - which are you on, Ariel?

[ 06. May 2012, 16:03: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I had the free trial version of AVG which then reverted to basic free. It used to be good.
 

---

Posted by Meerkat (# 16117) on :
 
I used to use ZoneAlarm before I paid for Norton 360. It worked ok for me. We use AVG at work without problems, though. YMMV
 

---

Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
Anyone here know much about YouTube? I've been using it to upload various homemade videos with no problem for several years. Since we got our newer, better, faster computer everything works better, except that I can't upload videos to YouTube anymore -- they get hung up partway through the uploading process. Anyone got any clues as to what we might be doing wrong?
 

---

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Question for the Kindle users out there: is it possible to "hide" a collection on Kindle so that it doesn't show to the casual user? I want to be able to lend mine to a friend who is interested in getting one, but I have a lot of personal stuff on there I would rather he didn't see!

I know I could always delete it all and put it back afterwards, but I'm lazy ...
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
The Kindle user in my life says "No"; apparently collections are really just tags, rather than actual containers, so it looks like you be stuffed :/
 

---

Posted by luvanddaisies (# 5761) on :
 
Another Kindle question...
There're a few old threads I'd like to read, but that are rather long, and I was thinking it'd be good to have a Ship of Fools file on my Kindle. I tried to put the Dead Horses 90-page epic about homosexuality & Christianity onto it earlier, using the USB connection between it and my MacBook, but it didn't format very well. What's the easiest way of popping Ship threads onto my kindle in a nice readable format?
 

---

Posted by Alex Cockell (# 7487) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by luvanddaisies:
Another Kindle question...
There're a few old threads I'd like to read, but that are rather long, and I was thinking it'd be good to have a Ship of Fools file on my Kindle. I tried to put the Dead Horses 90-page epic about homosexuality & Christianity onto it earlier, using the USB connection between it and my MacBook, but it didn't format very well. What's the easiest way of popping Ship threads onto my kindle in a nice readable format?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alex Cockell:

quote:

---

Originally posted by luvanddaisies:
Another Kindle question...
There're a few old threads I'd like to read, but that are rather long, and I was thinking it'd be good to have a Ship of Fools file on my Kindle. I tried to put the Dead Horses 90-page epic about homosexuality & Christianity onto it earlier, using the USB connection between it and my MacBook, but it didn't format very well. What's the easiest way of popping Ship threads onto my kindle in a nice readable format?

---

Can the Kindle read PDFs? If so - get a PDF Creator tool, go to the printer-friendly view, print to PDF then move that?

---

It can, but when I tell my mac to save the 'printer-friendly view' of that thread as a pdf it seems to lose the will to live by about thread-page 5, and all that remains afterwards is the smilies and lines between the post

Send to Kindle, the Mac version, needs a MacBook with newer OS than mine.

Maybe I need to resign myself to reading it online. Up to page 9 or 10 so far. It's interesting, but would be so much nicer to read on a kindle screen!
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Anyone know of a reliable, free calculator programme that displays all the intermediate steps? I'd occasionally like to do things where all the numbers entered remain visible, and don't just get to the end result.

The MS XP-own calculator, even if switched to advanced view, doesn't seem to display these. (In advanced mode, it does show the steps, but they get erased as soon as you get to a total.)

My mobile phone calculator, interestingly, shows it all, but it certainly would be handy to have on the puter too.

Thanks.

[ 06. June 2012, 05:29: Message edited by: Wesley J ]
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
Anyone here know much about YouTube? I've been using it to upload various homemade videos with no problem for several years. Since we got our newer, better, faster computer everything works better, except that I can't upload videos to YouTube anymore -- they get hung up partway through the uploading process. Anyone got any clues as to what we might be doing wrong?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:
Anyone know of a reliable, free calculator programme that displays all the intermediate steps? I'd occasionally like to do things where all the numbers entered remain visible, and don't just get to the end result.

The MS XP-own calculator, even if switched to advanced view, doesn't seem to display these. (In advanced mode, it does show the steps, but they get erased as soon as you get to a total.)

My mobile phone calculator, interestingly, shows it all, but it certainly would be handy to have on the puter too.

Thanks.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by passer:
I think that's probably all covered in this link Pete. Personally I wouldn't just trust just any old site requesting it, but I tend to err on the side of caution.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:
Anyone know of a reliable, free calculator programme that displays all the intermediate steps? [...]

---

Try the Dashboard widget PEMDAS if you're on a Mac.

Try http://www.dreamcalc.com/ if you're on Windows.

Or learn how to enter formulae in a spreadsheet program! Calc (OpenOffice), Numbers (iWork) and Excel (Microsoft Office) all work in roughly the same way for the basic stuff.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:
[...] Thanks.

---

 

---

Posted by ChaliceGirl (# 13656) on :
 
Hi, I have a question/issue and I hope someone knows an answer:

When I run a program- especially when I run a CD or DVD, and sometimes if I am watching You Tube you can hear what sounds like the motor (or fan?)speeding up. It gets louder. If it runs too long the computer shuts down. I suppose it's a safety feature to keep the motor from burning out. I then wait 5 minutes and restart the computer and its ok again. But this is mighty frustrating if I want to watch something!
Is there anything I can do about this? It is a sign that it may be time to think about a new computer? I got it when Vista was new (so I guess about 5 years ago) It is an Acer brand- tower type. Do you think opening it up and cleaning it will make a difference?
 

---

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
My guess would be it's overheating. Be sure the computer is well ventilated -- not resting on a carpet or in an area where air can't circulate freely around it. You can also open it up and blow out the insides with a can of compressed air -- be sure to blow out any vents in the case as well.
 

---

Posted by monkeylizard (# 952) on :
 
I'm with Amanda on this. The whirring you hear is probably a fan on the CPU that is increasing its speed to increase airflow, but it's insufficient to keep the temps down. The PC shuts down to prevent heat damage to the CPU.

I'd try to download something like Speed Fan that will give you your temps. If it's a heat problem, you'll see the temps start to climb. You want to be below 50C for sure. I keep mine in the low 30s.

If that 's the case (and your symptoms point to "YES"), you have 2 things to try if cleaning the dust out doesn't work. The good news is that doing the 1st one is not a waste of time, as it should be done anyway when doing the 2nd if you need to go that far.

You either have a problem with the fan, or with something called thermal grease. That metal block under the fan (the heatsink) can't go bad (no moving parts, it's just a block of copper or aluminum). It sits on top of the CPU and works like a car's radiator to keep the CPU cool while that fan blows fresh air over it. The problem is that heat doesn't conduct from the CPU to the heatsink very well by itself. So in between the two on the bottom of the heatsink is something called thermal grease or thermal paste.

Let's start with the easy fix.

1) Replace the CPU fan. Unplug everything from the back of the tower and pop open the case. Some people are sticklers about using an anti-static wrist strap when working inside a PC. I'm not, but get one if you want to. They're cheap and can be found online or at most electronics stores. You're looking for a fan on a block that will be silver of black. If there is more than one fan on a block, this will probably be the largest. Look at how the fan is attached to the metal block. It may be a simple clip, or there may be a couple of screws. Remove it and take it to your local computer/office supply/electronics store and get another one of the same size. Put it on. Don't forget to plug it in to the same place the old one was plugged in. Take a picture before removing the old one if you want. The plugs on the motherboard will probably be labeled "CPU FAN" or "CPU".

fire it back up and watch your temps again in Speed Fan. If that fixes things, you're good to go. The old fan just wasn't keeping up. It happens. I tend to replace all of mine every 3-4 years. Which reminds me....time to order some fans.

If that doesn't fix it, you're on to:

2) Replacing the thermal grease. This one's harder, but not terribly so. Still, you may want to bribe a nerdy friend with some baked goods or some beer to be consumed after the job is done.

Take the fan back off again, and gently remove the heatsink. Be careful with a flat head screw driver trying to pop the latches off. If it slips, you can drive that flathead into the board and you could be done, but not in a good way.

Search You tube for some vids on removing a heatsink and how to clean one and how to apply thermal paste. tons of em out there.

Don't forget to do the cleaning on the top of the CPU, not just the bottom of the heatsink. I'd recommend removing the CPU. That's easy. Pop the arm and it come out. When applying the paste again, don't use too much. Somewhere between the size of a grain of rice and a pea is the right amount. I like something called Arctic Silver.

Plug it all up, and check your temps again.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
To add to the fan comments, it may also be a dead Northbridge fan. That's a much smaller fan on a smaller chip, and they tend to gum up/die after a few years. Not all systems have them - better boards will have passive cooling for the Northbridge chip, but where present after 5 years it's another suspect.
 

---

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Is there a way of using an outside search engine to search Ship text?

Someone's sig came bursting out of my stereo last night, and I'd love to find out who, but can I remember where I've seen it...?

AG
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
If you put the text followed by site:http://forum.ship-of-fools.com into Google it will search for you.
 

---

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Brilliant - worked just like that. Thank you very much!

AG
 

---

Posted by monkeylizard (# 952) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Snags:
To add to the fan comments, it may also be a dead Northbridge fan. That's a much smaller fan on a smaller chip, and they tend to gum up/die after a few years. Not all systems have them - better boards will have passive cooling for the Northbridge chip, but where present after 5 years it's another suspect.

---

This.

The SpeedFan app that I mentioned earlier is a free download. It will help you understand what is overheating. Definitely start there.
 

---

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
Help!

My Google calendar is broken on my laptop (Windows XP). It won't display anything other than the current week. It will scroll through the months on the calendar on the left, but won't do anything else. All the menu buttons are inactive.

This appears to be a client-side problem, because it all works fine on my PC.

I was recently on a network that required a specific proxy setting. Could this have made a difference? And how can I resolve this??

[ 12. June 2012, 17:03: Message edited by: Eutychus ]
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Have you undone the proxy setting?

Also, have you tried it in different browsers, checked for updates etc.?
 

---

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
It's browser-related. Works in IEX and not in Firefox even after removing proxy settings.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
My Google-Fu must be getting rusty. Only thing I can find is a suggestion to clear your Google cookies. Seems to be the standard response to any FF/Google Calendar issue, but doesn't look wildly current ...
 

---

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
Didn't work, either
 

---

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
Disabling an extension - AVG security toolbar, which I don't use but which has long been installed and which has never caused problems before - has fixed it though. Thanks for looking!
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Eutychus:
Disabling an extension - AVG security toolbar, which I don't use but which has long been installed and which has never caused problems before - has fixed it though. Thanks for looking!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Think²:
Hi guys, I have - with the sainted Alex Cockell's help - worked out that my cafe access problem is down to my bt homehub 2.

I have found my admin password and managed to find out how to open ports. But. What are the ports I need to open for the cafe ?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alex Cockell:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Think²:
Hi guys, I have - with the sainted Alex Cockell's help - worked out that my cafe access problem is down to my bt homehub 2.

I have found my admin password and managed to find out how to open ports. But. What are the ports I need to open for the cafe ?

---

'Fraid I don't know what ports to open - but you could try opening UPNP ports on demand at the router...

---

Not the safest way to run a firewall...

I think the ports used can be configured on the chat server so the only way to be sure is to ask the admins.

Though if its using DigiChat, the default might be 8396 (I dont know for sure as I don't use the cafe)
 

---

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
It uses Faverolle and Java - not sure if that's helpful or not.

Not sure how to interrogate my BT Internet router from Linux to see which ports are being used. The obvious bits don't give me the information, so I probably need to download the right programme
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Not sure this is all of them but for JAVAW the remote port is 25424. This was done via my anti-virus

I can't see anything for Faverolle

Jengie

[ 16. June 2012, 18:44: Message edited by: Jengie Jon ]
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Local port is 61156 in case that is what is needed.

Jengie
 

---

Posted by Think² (# 1984) on :
 
Thanks, I'll try that.
 

---

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :
 
This one will probably drive you all mad...

The embedded video content on the BBC website mostly doesn't work for me any more. I'm running Firefox13 on the big computer. Flash and Java are up to date, there are no known issues with the firewall. The news video clips refuse to play - "content not available" and most iplayer programs, including the radio pop-out refuse to work.

When I check my connection speed to iplayer (on this page) I'm getting 10000kbps except on Streaming Speed 1 where I getting 0kps. I have no idea why this might be. The same thing happens on IE9 and Chrome.

I am running a reasonably old router/modem and I thought that might be the problem, but of course everything works fine on the laptop, working from the same connection but using older versions of Firefox and Flash.

Flash seems to work fine on other sites: I get itv.com and 4od.com without any problems at all.

What am I missing?
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Doc Tor:
(on this page)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Doc Tor:


What am I missing?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Doc Tor:


What am I missing?

---

You say its the same on all three browsers? If so its not the browser version.

You say the laptop works in the same connection? Is it exactly the same connection (pull cable from one machine and stick it in the other) or is one wireless and one not?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
Do laptop & the other machine have same operating system release and version? Networking settings? Same virus checking? Local firewall? Java runtime?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
Maybe something is blocking streaming traffic on one machine but not the other - I'm not saying its a firewall setting (though it could be) but if it was there might be some clues here.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
Have you installed any Microsoft "critical updates" lately? If so, try rolling them back one at a time until the problem is solved.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Doc Tor:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
Have you installed any Microsoft "critical updates" lately? If so, try rolling them back one at a time until the problem is solved.

---

Yes. Yes I have.

I'll try that, too, but tomorrow. Thanks.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
[Miss Amanda's face goes red, but she continues on after she's recovered her composure] You probably don't want any more advice from me, but try booting in safe mode and do a system restore to an earlier date when everything was working.

---

Don't fret. I malletted it back to life, and apart from the iplayer thing, it's fine.

I'm going to try and install an earlier version of flash next.
 

---

Posted by Think² (# 1984) on :
 
Having searched old geek threads, I have discovered he said in 2008 to open port 25424 in one's firewall. So I did this on both windows and router firewalls, no joy
 

---

Posted by Think² (# 1984) on :
 
(This thread.)
 

---

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Think²:
Having searched old geek threads, I have discovered he said in 2008 to open port 25424 in one's firewall.

---

Who is this "he" of which you speak?
 

---

Posted by Think² (# 1984) on :
 
Melon
 

---

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :
 
In other news...

Adobe and Mozilla unable to fix Flash video crash problem

And inexplicably, my iplayer is working again, without doing anything further to it.
 

---

Posted by Beethoven (# 114) on :
 
Mr Beets had a problem a couple of nights ago with iPlayer not playing most of the things he was wanting via his iPod, with the same error message you mentioned. Don't know if it's any better now, but it seems odd that it's the same error at the same time on different equipment...
 

---

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :
 
It looks like Flash 11.3 is borked. If you haven't updated an earlier version, don't.
 

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Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 
People are still using Flash?
 

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Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :
 
Everybody is using Flash.

It powers the BBC iplayer, youtube, vimeo, online games and a whole host of other applications.
 

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Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
My friend R. who is a professional web designer tells me that there are other, much better, ways of animating websites than via Flash, and that in fact Google will "punish" Flash websites by ranking them beneath sites that don't use Flash.

Here's a website that explains the pros and cons of Flash as best as any does.
 

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Posted by BessHiggs (# 15176) on :
 
I'm looking for some advice. I am interested in changing over to a point of sale system at the bar. What I've been seeing in my (limited) on-line research all seems geared towards a larger operation than mine.

Here's what I'm looking for:

-touch screen input (one terminal to start, but expandable if necessary)
-easily updated menus
-real-time inventory tracking
-able to communicate with my accounting software
-not a gazillion dollars.

Any pointers, tips, advice etc? PM me if y'all don't want to clutter up the thread.
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Try looking for iPad or android apps. There are some that claim realtime inventory tracking. Just type iPad point of sale realtime inventory into Google. Many small businesses are using these, even in a fixed retail location.
 

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Posted by monkeylizard (# 952) on :
 
What lilBuddha said. You can even get a card reader that will attach to the iPad (or even iPhone) for scanning credit/debit cards.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-03-05/square-register-ipad-app/53356522/1
 

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Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Almost all of the advertising blurb is geared towards MegaCorps, IME, but there are plenty of things out there that suit a single-till kind of operation.

Integration with accounts/stock control is going to depend on what existing software you use, to a large extent. We have a couple of retail clients (UK) and one leases their EPOS system (posh way of saying "till that talks to Sage") so that it comes with some support for when it inevitably screws up.

Our landlord operates on a much cheaper basis, bought an ancient till off Ebay and has kept it running ever since. Caused me some amusement when he had an issue with it recently, as I had to remember how the hell to do stuff in NT4, which is what it runs underneath the till interface!

[ETA]
Buggrit, meant to say it would probably be worth sussing out a couple of local suppliers and just giving them a ring. Anywhere half-decent will be used to people with modest needs - they're not fitting out department stores all the time, after all.

[ 22. June 2012, 14:49: Message edited by: Snags ]
 

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Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
I'm late to the party, but I was rather shocked that the sound of YouTube went out on me- picture and motion are fine- this morning. Obviously I was attacked by a nasty Flash download. And me in my wisdom checked "allow" to the thing last night. Why are they still downloading a problematic "upgrade" (hollow laugh) weeks later? Damn my trusting heart!

Having no confidence in my own fix-it abilities beyond rebooting, I think I'm off to the local geek shop.
 

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Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :
 
I just had work done on my computer, so of course all sorts of settings have been changed. Two things are particularly bugging me, and I can't find the answers. (And, yes, I use Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. I like them, and I have no plans to change then until I get a new computer and have to.)

In Internet Explorer (IE8) my tool bar -- the one with File, Edit, View, Favorites, etc.) is now black. If I hover my mouse in the correct spots, the words show in blue and white on black, but I'd like my old tool bar back.

In several programs and displays (e.g., Outlook Express, My Pictures, My Documents -- and even Solitaire -- the display is much smaller than it was and the fonts are almost too small to read. I went to Control Panel, Display, Appearance, but that didn't seem to make any difference when I chose Large Fonts.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

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Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :
 
Well, the tool bar is now back to normal.


But the fonts and displays are still too small.
 

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Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
Sounds as though your screen resolution may have been changed. I don't use Windows, so am a bit rusty, but back to Control Centre > Hardware > Display (or whatever the path is) and find where you can set the Screen Resolution. Try opting for the next step down from what it is set for. IIRC Windows will give you a few seconds on the new setting to let you decide if you want it. Unless you confirm your choice, it'll revert to whatever it was before you fiddled around. That's my best shot, but others may have other ideas.
 

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Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :
 
Thanks, Alisdair -- I'll try that.
 

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Posted by Morlader (# 16040) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alisdair:
Sounds as though your screen resolution may have been changed. I don't use Windows, so am a bit rusty, but back to Control Centre > Hardware > Display (or whatever the path is) and find where you can set the Screen Resolution. Try opting for the next step down from what it is set for. IIRC Windows will give you a few seconds on the new setting to let you decide if you want it. Unless you confirm your choice, it'll revert to whatever it was before you fiddled around. That's my best shot, but others may have other ideas.

---

Double clicking the desktop should enable you to see, and select a new, resolution. Yes, you should get a few seconds to confirm you like a new setting. Your desktop icons will all probably move about, though
 

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Posted by Alogon (# 5513) on :
 
This might be a strange place to ask, but so many Shipmates are multilingual that I bet my problem is not unique.

In the pre-computer days, typewriters with dead keys were standard equipment in academic libraries. These keyboards had about half a dozen keys that produced diacritics only. We typed the diacritic first (e.g. the grave or the umlaut) and the carriage did not advance. Then we typed the underlying letter normally. By this means, many languages using the Latin alphabet could be accommodated with only a few extra keys to remember.

By contrast, Microsoft's layouts are a mess. For any foreign language, many keys are re-mapped with some combination of a letter and an accent. While the flexibility that this coding provides for fonts is very understandable, it is a pity that there are so many combinations to remember and the normal meaning of keys is supplanted.

Yearning for the simplicity of the old dead-key system, I recently discovered Kbdedit.com, whose program looks highly configurable (perhaps so much that it is complex and overkill). Does anyone have experience with this software, or can you suggest an equivalent that you like better?
 

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Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :
 
We use VNI, which was originally for Vietnamese (roman alphabet with pitch marks) but now apparently covers an array of Asian etc. languages. I think their website is vnisoft.com or similar. It has a little add-on thingy that you can click on or off to make it work with Word, InDesign, and probably other programs, and I'm pretty sure you can set it to output Unicode rather than the proprietary coding we've always used. Basically you type the letter first, then one of the number keys, and the diacritical whatsit pops into existence above/beneath/as part of the letter (whichever is most appropriate).

I have to use Microsoft layers upon layers of keyboard maps to do Greek and Hebrew at work, and I loathe & detest it with a purple passion. What human being should have to deal with that crap?
 

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Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
This is an area I only have occasional need of, but I usually resort to 'Character Map' and a UTF8 font with an appropriate character set which usually supplies me with anything I need. This is in Linux, but presumably there are similar utilities available for Windows/OSX.

LaTeX, of course makes it all simple, in it's usual complicated way. ;-)
 

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Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 
Using Mac OSX, I can add an umlaut by pressing Option+U and then the vowel over which I want the umlaut placed. Other keys (mostly the vowels) work the same way with other marks. It's effectively a way of adding a typewriter-style dead key without adding an extra physical key, which I approve of since the Apple Wireless Keyboard is the perfect size already.

This is how it works in Mac OSX for standard US/Australian/Canadian keyboard layouts and British layouts where a pound symbol comes from pressing Shift+4 instead of a dollar symbol. It's a feature of the operating system that has been there ever since OS 10.1 which means it works in all applications, you don't need any special utilities.

Ironically, I can't do it right now because I use Boot Camp to run Windows 7 on my iMac for a number of programs I have which are Windows-only, and at the moment I'm in Windows!
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Embarrassingly stupid question coming up ... I've just replaced my old PC monitor with a new, widescreen one. I think I need to change the resolution or whatever, because pictures are now stretched across the width of the screen so, e.g. what should be a circle looks like an ellipse. What do I need to do?
 

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Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Control Panel > Display > Adjust Resolution then choose the one that works. If you don't know the resolution you may have to experiment. There's a bit of advice at the bottom of the screen if you click on 'What display settings should I choose' (or something like that).
 

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Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
What DS said. Generally the best resolution to use is the maximum the monitor is capable of, which it no doubt shouts proudly on the packaging.

If you find you don't have that option available it can be a couple of different things:

a) the system incorrectly identifying the monitor's capabilities

b) the video card/system not having enough oomph to drive high-res widescreen and/or needing a driver update to cope with newer resolutions if it's quite an old system
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Thanks, I think that has worked!
 

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Posted by Stejjie (# 13941) on :
 
File this problem under "should've backed up".

I was having problems last night with my new PC - it was being really slow at certain things, like (seemingly) connecting to the network, accessing my external hard drive and when I tried to shut it down, it just wouldn't, I just had the Win7 shutdown screen and my external HD clicking from time to time. I've tried it again today after unplugging the offending HD and it works fine - which strongly suggests that there's something wrong with that HD (which isn't surprising as it's quite a few years old).

Which is OK, at least my computer's working now. The trouble is, that had drive has got all my documents, photos, music - everything that's not program files etc. I'm loath to plug it back into the computer as is as I don't want all the old problems coming back - is there another way I can get the stuff of it and onto my computer?
 

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Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
@Stejjie -- I'm not really a technical guru, but here's some suggestions. You don't say how the hard drive is/was connected (SATA,USB,...), but you could try using an alternative interface and see if the system handles the hard-drive better.

If it's USB and the drive is normally a 'fixture', you could try only plugging it in once the system is fully booted. Some systems will set up an already attached drive differently to one that is hot-plugged.

You could try setting the drive up on a different machine and seeing if that deals with it more gracefully, then copy/backup all your stuff.

If the drive has recently begun making an odd ticking noise death may be immanent, so backup/replacement measures will be urgently required.

There is plenty more technical stuff that could be said and done, but maybe that'll do for a start.
 

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Posted by maryjones (# 13523) on :
 
Re Lion OS. I transferred to this with great caution after reading all the scare comments. It was a doddle to install (although it took ages) and everything works fine - all the apps, the printer, everything
 

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Posted by Wet Kipper (# 1654) on :
 
Our laptop is now suddenly telling us that the copy of Windows Vista is not genuine.
It's been genuine enough for the past 4 years, anyone heard of this suddenly happening or have any ideas ?
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
WK,

This might be scareware. Run your atni-virus and anti-spyware first.

Though it might be another issue. Have you changed hardware? Other people have had this problem, I have not. Here is a Google search which might help. I claim no certainty about the suggestions contained therein as I have not tried them.
 

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Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 
WK, can you copy in exactly what the message is saying word for word? And can you also check what the title at the top of the window shows?

[ 25. July 2012, 13:44: Message edited by: the giant cheeseburger ]
 

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Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Also, as well as the exact wording, when does it say it and in what window? At boot time? At login? Some minutes after login? When you start a browser?
 

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Posted by Wet Kipper (# 1654) on :
 
can't check the wording at the moment, but when you turn on, and choose your account (we have one for us and one for visitors/children with privileges revoked) it comes up with a screen for windows activation, asking you to chose between "activate now" and "activate later"
If you choose "activate now" it says the key supplied is invalid and gives you options to enter another key, or contact HP for help, which leads to a dead page on the HP support website.
If you choose activate later, everything continues as normal, except the background is black and in the bottom left hand corner it says
"Windows Vista (TM)
Build 6002
This copy of windows is not genuine"
 

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Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :
 
WK,

Have you tried 'phoning HP for support?

I had a similar problem with a friend's WinXP Home which directed me to Microsoft support. Their diagnosis was that the product id was, in fact, valid; but I would have to pay about $90 to them to eliminate the problem! Instead, I took off the data and had a clean install of WinXP Prof done instead.
 

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Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :
 
WK.

Another option to look into is whether you can restore the laptop to factory conditions. This sort of option may be found at boot, usually with a function key, but which one can vary with model.

You should back up your data before doing this. You will then have to do updates for the installed software and re-install any software you have added.
 

---

Posted by Wet Kipper (# 1654) on :
 
Thanks everyone for your comments.
Given that a week before this started happening , we had already bought what is to be the replacement for the reluctant laptop (so far the battery doesn't charge, the fan is permanently running at high speed, and more often than not it makes a strange ticky sound) it doesn't seem worth it to go to any hassle sorting it out. Everything still works, and I think the hardware part of the machine is going to die before long...
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
OK, a telecoms/IT convergence question.

My cable internet/VOIP connection has been playing up. I've swapped modems and had a technician change a splitter in my home, but it's still not working properly.

A few hours before the most recent failure, and not long before the previous one, I was in mid-conversation on the VOIP phone and got what sounded like an incoming fax/modem signal, following which the call was dropped.

Does anyone have any idea what might cause an incoming fax/modem signal and whether this might be related to my modem falling over and not being able to get back up?
 

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Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
Problem with my monitor: After I turn the machine on, my screen is filled with vertical ribbons of thin lines, grouped in colors. Its very pretty, but very hard to get rid of- I want to go to the sign on screen. We had a 12 hour electrical blackout on Saturday- is this connected? Is this monitor about to self destruct? I despise it anyway- It has 'touch controls on the right edge which only work once in a while. Thanks for any info.
 

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Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Pearl, is it an LCD or a CRT (flat or ye olden style)? Although either way it's probably knackered.

The only possible cause for doubt is that it might be the video card, not the screen. The usual "simple" check is to plug in another screen (or put that screen on another machine) and see if the problem goes or stays. Of course, that assumes you have multiple computers/screens to hand ...
 

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Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
Thanks snags. I looked around the place for another monitor- no go. Plenty of old keyboards tho, haha.
 

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Posted by monkeylizard (# 952) on :
 
Have you tried disconnecting the monitor from the PC, and then reconnecting it? Sometimes a loose pin connection can cause that.
 

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Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
Yes, MonLiz- TY - I've done that too. (its a Westinghouse flat screen, btw)- and its no better. Taking it to the fixit shop tomorrow morning. He wants the whole deal, tower & monitor. OOOh my back :-/
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
*Bump*
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Is there any way of recording and keeping a programme you have downloaded from BBC iPlayer?
 

---

Posted by Garasu (# 17152) on :
 
Um... don't you just save it when you download it? Am I missing something?
 

---

Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Garasu:
Um... don't you just save it when you download it? Am I missing something?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jay-Emm:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Garasu:
Um... don't you just save it when you download it? Am I missing something?

---

It's only valid for a limited time.
(I'm not quite sure how it enforces that, I suspect it has to send a request for a key, or it might just rely on the honesty of the viewer).

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
Has anyone installed an HP LaserJet 4100N on to a Win7 machine? I failed yesterday.

It's on a network cable rather than a USB. The printer drivers installed - as HP LaserJet 4100 PS? series drivers - manually requested. I installed it as a network printer and used the printer's IP address (after googling and interrogating the printer - the number is in the format 192.#.#.###). The error message was that IP number was not valid and the printer was not recognised.

<snip>

Any ideas as to ways of solving this one? When I googled one of the answers came up with coding strings, which is not something I'd want to do on something that isn't mine.

---

Digging this one up from the depths, because we now have a new team administrator who is most unhappy the laser jet doesn't work.

I am pretty certain (after digging around and talking to the tame geek) the problem with this is to do with the network cable not talking to the Win7 network socket, because Win7 is now using a different operating system. HP haven't got a whole lot of incentive to recode the printer to allow this interface because it's old and from their point of view it's more sensible to sell new ones set up to the new operating systems. And Windows are going to say it's HP's problem.

Has anyone got any idea if anyone has written any functioning coding to deal with this? The boards I tripped over looking were pretty much giving up, but some people had a lot of these printers to install.
 

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Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
CK, at what point does it fail? I'm seeing a lot of failures of HP installers to detect their own printers over a network, but you can usually work around it if you go old school on them. Obviously you do need to have the 64-bit driver if it's a 64-bit OS, but that aside the standard trick is:

- look in %temp% to find the folder that the installer extracted everything to (normally a *7z folder as I think they use 7-zip to create the self-extractor) and copy out the relevant drivers section

- go to Device & Printers and Add A Printer manually

- choose "Local" and "New port" then set up a Standard TCP/IP port on the IP address assigned to the printer (make sure this is reserved in DHCP on your DHCP server so it doesn't change in the future)

- carry on, and when prompted point the system at the drivers you liberated at the first step

That normally works. Of course, if the problem's something else ...
 

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
The problem in this one is that it uses a network cable not a USB cable. Installation gets a long way through - I did write it down back in February when I was trying.

The problem has gone away, the new team administrator bought a new laser jet printer.
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
I had the same problem with my nice (older) do-everything printer. When I got the new laptop (Windows 7) I fussed and fiddled with it and finally got it to print. No more scanning or other such tricks. And it was thus for almost a year.

So, this past weekend, I found a new (wireless!!!) printer for a decent price at Sam's Club. It installed nicely, and I took the old printer to w*rk and donated it to the music department. (My work computer!) Now my old XP computer there has a printer that actually works!!

This was my win-win solution to the problem.
 

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Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Sorry about that - searching back to February when posting in a rush from the phone is a little, er, challenging

If by any chance you still want to get it to work, then if the following description matches the problem, the details below will (probably) help. I'll post them here in case it helps anyone else as it's obviously not relevant to your immediate issue any more.

Scenario
- You have an HP network-ready printer.
- You have the correct installer.
- The printer is correctly joined to the network (via cable or wireless) and has an IP address (you can check this on your DHCP server, or on the printer itself via the screen or by pressing a special combo of keys to get a status sheet)
- you can "ping" the printer successfully (Start > Run "cmd"; type "ping <ip address>" e.g. "ping 192.168.1.10")

Symptom
You run the installer, you choose 'network' but when it comes to the installer finding the printer either it can't, or it errors and you get stuck in an endless retry loop.

Workaround
You can work around the issue by doing a manual install. Note that this will only work for printing - if it's a multi-function it won't sort out the scanning side of it.

If you have the CD, you can skip the first step below.

(1) If you downloaded the installer, when you first run it, it extracts all of the install files and drivers to your temporary directory. You'll need (some of) these to do the install, so go find where they are by typing "%temp%" into the address bar in Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer!) then looking for a folder ending in "7z" created on the day you run the installer. Poke about in those until you find the one that's obviously the HP install stuff (it is obvious) and copy it out to somewhere more memorable.

(2) Go into "Printers and Faxes" or "Devices and Printers" (XP/Vista & 7) and choose to "Add a printer"

(3) Choose "Local Printer" but de-select auto-detect

(4) When it asks for the port, choose "New Port", then "Standard TCP/IP port"

(5) Set the port's address to the IP address of the printer

(6) Continue with the installation and use "Have Disk" to point the wizard at the driver location (either the CD, or wherever you put the files at (1) above)

That ought to work, all other things being equal.

Note: assuming the printer is getting its address via DHCP you will want to go in to your DHCP server and reserve the address so that the printer always gets the same IP address, otherwise you may find it all stops working for no obvious reason. In a domestic/small office setup you are probably getting your addresses direct from your router; there will be a way to reserve address on it if this is the case, but it varies from model to model, so you'll have to do some research.

If you're running a proper DHCP server, or know enough to give the printer a decent host name and create appropriate local DNS records then you don't need me to be telling you any of the above in the first place
 

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
I did all of that down to step 5, by following the instructions I'd found by googling. I then, having done everything, got a message that said the printer wasn't recognised - no such IP address. So I tried again a couple of times, making sure I'd done it right, but googling further found that a lot of other people had had the same problem and were talking coding strings to resolve. As it really isn't my problem any more I gave up. I had been dragged in to deal with quite a lot of other things - set up the e-mail, sort out the other printers and had dealt with everything else on the list.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
That sounds suspiciously like the printer was on the fritz, then. You can normally do a quick test by browsing to it by IP - they all have little internal web servers, and if they don't respond/turn up errors than all bets are off.

Still, as you say, not your problem any more, and they're the best kind!
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
So I've bought a mini-PC running Android, basically because it was marked down from 100 EUR to 60 EUR and I thought it might be fun to play with.

The first thing I've discovered is that I need an SD card to do just about anything. Once I've got that, what else can I do with it?

256MB RAM, Android 2.2, 4GB internal memory.
 

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Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Regarding the SD card, try to go for the max it allows (see specs in the manual). This will basically serve as its extra harddrive; in this case, a solid state one.

I've just upgraded my own mobile phone memory card from the 8GB it came with to the maximum of 32 GB. Which is nice!
 

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Posted by Alex Cockell (# 7487) on :
 
CK - do you have a fileserver on that network? Or a machine running a server version of Windows designated as your print server?

On THAT machine, load the drivers, and add the printer on an LPR port. Depending on how the printer has its IP address assigned, you may need to get its MAC address and define it an IP address on your DHCP server.

I'm remembering the way I did it on XP on our work network - but you need to add an LPD or LPR port (TCP connection to the printer) and add the printer, pointing to that one, and give it a queue name. Assign rights accordingly, then give it a sharename.

Workstations then add the network printer as its UNC - aka "\\printserver\printername".

Also means the printer itself only needs to deal with data coming from one place - its print server.
 

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
Alex, it's no longer a problem for me - I was flagging it up to those who are interested. And I remembered, the reason I was convinced it was the network cable driver was that was what the error code I got translated to. But I don't have to deal with it any more ever again.
 

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Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
And the whole problem was that this printer worked on 98/XP and probably would on Vista, but not on Win7 - where the new DOS meant the network driver didn't work for this printer
 

---

Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :
 
I have a PC and an old ipod nano, and I've been getting itunes to do all the work of synching music and audiobooks for me. Since I've started recording my singing lessons I want itunes to keep hold of the recording, then stick it onto my i-gadget.

I've created an mp3 of yesterday's lesson, manually added it to itunes and then tried to view it in itunes. It won't show up there, but is in the folder when I look using the file explorer thingy in Windows 7. I've tried making it its very own folder, but it still won't show in itunes. Any suggestions?

Cattyish, humble novice.
 

---

Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :
 
Eureka! Managed to sort it out by adding the recording to a playlist. At least, I think that's what I did.

Cattyish.
 

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Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
Any recommendations for getting rid of a nasty popup piece of malware that opens Firefox secretly in the background and keeps popping ads up on it? My usual malware remover has not got rid of it
 

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Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Is this Windows?

Does it happen when you have never started Firefox at all since the last time you shut the machine down? If it does can you see Firefox in the Task Manager after restarting the machine?

Does it still happen if you delete all add-ons, cache, history, etc from Firefox?

Does it happen if you turn javascript off?
 

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Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Get the following add-ons for Firefox: Adblock Plus, Adblock Plus Pop-Up Addon, Element Hiding Helper for Adblock Plus; then also Flashblock

These are 4 of the best to block ads and pop-ups.
 

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Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :
 
Well, thanks for the advice, all you geeks! I removed McAfee from our new laptop, installed the free Microsoft program that was recommended and wow! I also ditched Google Chrome because it doesn't want to work properly and also Internet Explorer, which only works once in a while. I downloaded a PC version of Mozilla's Firefox and our laptop is so much quicker.

The only problem I'm noticing, right off the bat, is that without McAfee, all these pop-ups are suddenly warning me, "Your computer is at risk for a virus! Click this box to run a scan!" or, "We have detected a potential internet phishing and/or security threat! Please allow Blah Blah Blah company to run a complete diagnostic!". I figure, if Microsoft sends me alerts, that's one thing but if The Joe Blow company wants me to drop everything right this instant and do a complete security scan, it's more likely a scam.

Am I correct in thinking this? McAfee threw pop-up warnings at us every time we turned on the computer but Microsoft just sits in the background, doing its thing. When I first installed it, it took about thirty minutes to do a real intensive scan and then after that it seemed to be fine.
 

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Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:
Get the following add-ons for Firefox: Adblock Plus, Adblock Plus Pop-Up Addon, Element Hiding Helper for Adblock Plus; then also Flashblock

These are 4 of the best to block ads and pop-ups.

---

Oooooh! Goodies! Thanks for this tip. I'm gonna get all of these.
 

---

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
Well, I'm awfully late out of the gate on this one, but I'd like to buy the core edition of Sims 3 on dvd. (Never played any version of the Sims). I've been shopping online. It seems your straight pc platform on dvd generally costs about $60. But the same edition of pc/mac on dvd costs $20. I have a pc with Windows 7. Is this edition really for use on both pc and mac, or is it really just for mac? Or is it theoretically for both, but really a problem child for pc?

Thanks, folks.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Short answer, no difference.
Explanation: As PC* and Mac refer to different operating systems, therefore requiring different installers, the installers for windows on either disc should be identical.
A quick glance shows multiple variations, "special editions" and add-ons, so this could be the price difference.
BTW, the download version on Amazon is $12.

* Pedantic note: A Mac is a PC. Should be Windows vs. Mac. Or Linux.

[ 04. September 2012, 14:57: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
 

---

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
Thanks, lilBuddha. Yeah, I realize downloads are cheaper but I've had bad luck with downloads and I'm afraid a program this complex might give me problems.

So, would getting the Windows/Mac version mean I'd need to get the Windows/Mac versions for any add-ons? Or would Windows versions do?

Thanks again!
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
The only version issue you need worry about is the software being compatible with the version of Windows you are using.
 

---

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
So, if the program states it's compatible with Windows XP and Vista, do you think it would be compatible with Windows7 ? IIRC, you can't add a program to an earlier version than one specified eg such a program couldn't work with Windows98. But a later version like Windows7 should be alright. Do I have this correctly?

Thanks for your patience. I'm a computer doofus.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Most software that works on XP can be persuaded to work on 7; especially if it's Vista compatible. However, amongst the items I'd be cautious with are ... games. Games often use system features that don't necessarily translate across OS versions. Might be worth asking on a Sims forum just to be completely sure, unless there are Sims junkies on the Ship.
 

---

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
Tame geek was into SIMS for a while - mostly hacking and improving it, but she was using it on XP, I'll e-mail and ask about Win7.
 

---

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
That would be great, Ck... Much appreciated!

ETA: I'm wavering between Sims 2 and 3, so either of those would be fine. THX again

[ 05. September 2012, 04:04: Message edited by: Lyda*Rose ]
 

---

Posted by Jenny Ann (# 3131) on :
 
I use the sims3 on win7, it's fine.

You need decent graphics card tho, and memory.

Also - it will eat your life, are you prepared?
 

---

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
Tame geek says:

quote:

---

Sims2 is [Win7 compatible] provided you're using 1 expansion pack that isn't University. You have to set it to run as XP/Vista. Click on the icon, properties, compatibility, Run this program in compatibility mode for: then select XP service pack 3.

---

 

---

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
Jenny Ann- got lots of memory. Not sure about the graphics card. It's never been an issue. And time-sucking-addiction is my middle name.

Curiosity killed...- Those are definitely specifics which will help me immensely. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
 

---

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
Well, I'm awfully late out of the gate on this one, but I'd like to buy the core edition of Sims 3 on dvd. (Never played any version of the Sims). I've been shopping online. It seems your straight pc platform on dvd generally costs about $60. But the same edition of pc/mac on dvd costs $20. I have a pc with Windows 7. Is this edition really for use on both pc and mac, or is it really just for mac? Or is it theoretically for both, but really a problem child for pc?

Thanks, folks.

---

Heyyyyyyyy! One of my significant others bought Sims 3 for our new laptop about a month ago from Amazon.com and is just addicted to it. She buys all the add-on things whenever she can and had us drawing her all these rooms and stuff on graph paper... I can't get into it the way she does, I mean, she wants to make a town now of cat people! Cat people! And the cat people all have to have feline names! And they all have to be Gay!
anyway, this had nothing to do with your post but as soon as I saw the word Sims 3 I just had to throw this in.
 

---

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jenny Ann:
I use the sims3 on win7, it's fine.

You need decent graphics card tho, and memory.

Also - it will eat your life, are you prepared?

---

Yes. I can completely agree that it will eat your life. Significant other #2 is practically glued to this computer that I am currently using. She spends hours and hours dreaming up all the townspeople and their outfits, their names, their professions, etc. etc. I remember when "Everquest" was known as "Evercrack" and lived with a guy who played it for FIVE days straight! I think my s.o. #2 is so into it because she has major PTSD from being in combat during the first Gulf War and this helps her not think about it but it's kind of annoying to hear her just go on and on and on about Sims this, Sims that... I am a Sims widow!

 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
Win 7 sound problem here. I use the volume mixer to set the noise that Skype makes when somebody posts a comment to a running conversation. I set it to 8. Then I brought another window to the fore, and before long, the mixer had re-set the volume for skype to the maximum (i.e. same as the "Speakers and Headphones" level).

I've done this several times. My google-fu being what it isn't, I haven't been able to find a page online addressing this issue.

Anybody know how to make it stop doing that, or if it's even possible?
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Skype, IMHO, has become less and less helpful when taking their semi-geeky customers into account. The number of options you can fiddle with are very limited, and I can well imagine that they just don't bother with a case like yours. Meaning, their software may often try to override your own preferences.

I'll try and see if I encounter the same problem on my Win7 machine. I wouldn't be surprised. I'll report later.

ETA: Did you have the same problem on WinXP, too?

[ 15. September 2012, 05:48: Message edited by: Wesley J ]
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
I've only had the same problem since yesterday. I'm wondering if it's an update thing -- MS updated this week, and maybe Skype updated without informing me. As you pointed out earlier (off ship), they have this annoying window you can't get rid of without a third-party app. This may be part of the same upgrade.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I have one of these small Acer netbooks, running Windows 7. I often bring it along on work trips, where I link it up to the hotel's wireless network. On most of these networks you pay per megabyte, and here in Africa this can become quite expensive. That's why I normally turn pictures off in Firefox when I'm travelling like this, and only download documents that I need to. This already helps a lot to reduce costs.

However, what I would also like is one button that I could click that would temporarily turn off all automatic updates on my computer: those of Windows, my antivirus, my programs... I don't want them to update that day, because I can do that for free in my office 2–3 days later.

I know that I could probably go to each program and turn automatic updates off, but that would be quite cumbersome. Is there an easy way of doing this all at once?
 

---

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
I have a strange problem sometimes when I click on a link (not here on the ship). The same tab opens repeatedly and won't stop. I can't turn off the browser either. The only way I can stop it is to hit Ctrl, Alt, Delete.

I would suspect the website to which I am trying to link, but today I tried to send a reply to the author of a scientific paper, and it happened.

Can anyone tell me what's going on and what I can do? If you have advice for me, please make it step-by-step specific. I am computer illiterate.

Thanks.

Moo
 

---

Posted by monkeylizard (# 952) on :
 
Moo, what browser do you use?
 

---

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
Firefox.

Moo
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
I got some external HDDs for back-up and storage. They're all Iomega, came in entirely closed aluminium cases, and have worked quite well so far, never the slightest problem.

The latest HDD I bought, LaCie Porsche design, comes aluminium-clad as well, has however numerous air vents at the bottom, which I wasn't aware of when I bought it. (The model exposed in the shop was fixed on its display, so I couldn't look at it from all sides.)

I realise that a regular computer, deskie or lappie, needs air vents and a fan, but so far the external HDD all-alu casings have been sufficient to get rid of excess heat.

I don't like the thought of having a back-up drive's insides exposed to dust. Any comments on my new purchase? Shall I take it back to the shop and go for a closed one?

ETA: Upon closer inspection, some of the Iomega ones have very tiny air vents too, but definitely much smaller than the LaCie one, whose underbelly seems rather exposed...

Thanks.

[ 19. September 2012, 08:26: Message edited by: Wesley J ]
 

---

Posted by Haydee (# 14734) on :
 
Does anyone know how to modify the citation styles in Word 2010? I have to use a style that is almost but not quite Chicago in Word 2010 - I need to exchange a comma for a colon. (They are .xsl files)

I have tried to download other styles from bibword but they are not showing up. I tried 'extract to specified folder' from the zip file, but they didn't appear in the folder I specified. If I repeat then I get told that it's already there and am asked if I want to overwrite it. But it isn't visible in the folder and doesn't get added to the selection available in Word.

Any ideas, or do I need to carry on doing it manually ( )

[ 19. September 2012, 11:45: Message edited by: Haydee ]
 

---

Posted by monkeylizard (# 952) on :
 
Wes, don't worry about it. The aluminum part you see is just an outer shell. Inside that is the actual HDD that would look pretty much like a standard PC HDD if you opened up the aluminum body. You may find a small fan in there too. The HDD itself is sealed up tight. That's where the platters and heads are located. No dust will get inside there. Worst case from dust is that the fan blades would get a bit gunked up.
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Thanks, Monks. So it's more of an aesthetic thing really. I was just a bit surprised that a 'design' HDD seems of poorer layout than the ones I got so far.

The new one is a 3TB one, and we'll see how long that one lasts...
 

---

Posted by monkeylizard (# 952) on :
 
Correct. Here's a look inside. The vent slots are just to allow air to get into and out of the enclosure. A small fan inside to move the air would be uncommon, but not unheard of. Mostly it's just a natural movement of hot air to cool air circulating around the drive inside the enclosure.
 

---

Posted by jbohn (# 8753) on :
 
In any case- a quick pass with the vacuum cleaner will solve any dust contamination that can happen inside an external drive enclosure. Nothing to worry about.

[eta]

Incidentally, you can sometimes save a bit of money by buying enclosures and drives separately, and doing your own install. It's pretty basic stuff- no need for a great amount of geekery.

[ 20. September 2012, 20:16: Message edited by: jbohn ]
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Indeed. I'm sorely tempted.

Though I must have way over 6TB* external storage by now. Which should suffice for a while.

ETA: Make that way over 8TB.

[ 22. September 2012, 03:50: Message edited by: Wesley J ]
 

---

Posted by jbohn (# 8753) on :
 
Is there such a thing as too much storage?
 

---

Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by jbohn:
Is there such a thing as too much storage?

---

Yes

Windows and Games seem to grow faster than space
(in spirit of )

Also (kind of related) I suspect there is an uncanny valley where you have two much space to force organisation, but not enough to keep everything.
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 
holey moley I think I need an aspirin and a good lie down
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jay-Emm:

quote:

---

Originally posted by jbohn:
Is there such a thing as too much storage?

---

Yes

Windows and Games seem to grow faster than space
(in spirit of )

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jay-Emm:

Also (kind of related) I suspect there is an uncanny valley where you have two much space to force organisation, but not enough to keep everything.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sparrow:
I have a 2g USB memory stick which seems to be unusable at the moment, if I try to add anything to it or try to reformat it, I get the message saying the drive is write-protected. Is there any way of removing the write protection?

---

Either it's got a little switch on the side that you've inadvertently moved to the "protect" position, or it's got corrupted and needs reformatting.
 

---

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
There's no little switch on the side, but when I try to reformat I just get the same message about it being write protected.
 

---

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :
 
With the drive inserted, open up the file manager so you can see its drive letter (c will be your hard drive, d your CD-Rom etc). If you right click on that, you'll open up a menu that'll have an option of 'properties' at the bottom.

If you then click on 'tools', you'll have the option to check the drive for errors. There may also be (depending on your drive) a read-only check box you can untick.
 

---

Posted by Meerkat (# 16117) on :
 
In the depths of memory, I seem to remember right-clicking and going to 'Properties' There could be a 'Read-only' option which has been 'ticked'??
 

---

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
There's no read-only option to tick or untick. I tried checking for errors but it said it was unable to complete the check because the volume was write protected.
 

---

Posted by Morlader (# 16040) on :
 
Hm. Check shouldn't need to write to it

Have you ever written to it? Can you display its contents? Can you read the files on it?

If you can copy off anything vital, are you prepared to give up? 2G sticks are very cheap.
 

---

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Yes I think I have used it in the past, but come to think of it, it was always unreliable. I'll just ditch it.
 

---

Posted by Earwig (# 12057) on :
 
Aaargh! I need to convert some .mts files to .wmv files, ideally without paying any money. I can find free converters that will do that for me, but they only seem to be for converting them to ipods etc? I need to be able to save the files back on my computer.

Can anyone help?
 

---

Posted by Earwig (# 12057) on :
 
Answered my own question! Found it was easier to find an online site than download free software - www.convertfiles.com seems to be useful.
 

---

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :
 
Ok, here's the thing. Probably due to virus / spyware intrusion, I find myself in the unenviable position of having to do a full system restore on my laptop. In itself, not a technical problem. The problem is, last time I had to do this (February-ish), it took me about 3 days. It wasn't the reinstallation of all my acquired software that bothered me, so much as the fact that I'm still using the Vista* operating system and it took flaming well forever to download all the updates that had come about since my computer left the factory.

So, does anyone have any tips to minimise the time and effort of a full system restore? (I should add that to be on the safe side, it's going to be a full-restore-with-disc-format.)


*Footnote: "Change your operating system" is not an acceptable answer on this occasion. Anyone who suggests it will not only get ignored, I'll also add them to my very special prayer list.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Find out what service pack the restore will put you back to, and if it's not the most recent, pre-download it and stuff it on a spare disk/CD. Once you've done the restore, run the service pack from that, and it will take a huge chunk of updates out.

Failing that you could try slip-streaming the install, but if you're doing a factory restore process that's likely to be courageous.

Oh, and wherever/however you get the necessary updates, cables not wireless for the downloads. Chances are that your broadband connection is well below the wireless speed anyway, but you'll at least get subjectively better performance (and in real world experience, probably objectively too).
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 
Can someone tell me (and I am incredibly thick) how to get rid of the unbelievably stupid and annoying and persistent "incredibar" My Start thingy? I've googled answers but most seem to say oh dear we're not sure or oh dear that didn't work ...
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 
In the mean time I've eradicated something called Google Chrome
 

---

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
possible instructions from the removal of My Start Incredibar - looks as if it will need removing from a number of places
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 
so far, so good ... it is showing signs of death throes ...
 

---

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Snags:
Find out what service pack the restore will put you back to, and if it's not the most recent, pre-download it and stuff it on a spare disk/CD. Once you've done the restore, run the service pack from that, and it will take a huge chunk of updates out.

Failing that you could try slip-streaming the install, but if you're doing a factory restore process that's likely to be courageous.

Oh, and wherever/however you get the necessary updates, cables not wireless for the downloads. Chances are that your broadband connection is well below the wireless speed anyway, but you'll at least get subjectively better performance (and in real world experience, probably objectively too).

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Adeodatus:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Snags:
Find out what service pack the restore will put you back to, and if it's not the most recent, pre-download it and stuff it on a spare disk/CD. Once you've done the restore, run the service pack from that, and it will take a huge chunk of updates out.

Failing that you could try slip-streaming the install, but if you're doing a factory restore process that's likely to be courageous.

Oh, and wherever/however you get the necessary updates, cables not wireless for the downloads. Chances are that your broadband connection is well below the wireless speed anyway, but you'll at least get subjectively better performance (and in real world experience, probably objectively too).

---

Great advice, thank you, Snags - I've now downloaded SP2 and SP1. I reckon it'll save me about 8 hours of downloads chugging away in the background. And I've hunted out an old cable connection because you're right, Wi-fi just isn't up to the job.

I've taken the usual precautions of making notes of all the usernames and passwords I use, because they'll be lost. I'm pretty good at backing things up, so that won't be too onerous. And I'm also stocking up on some top quality coffee, Danish pastries, and sorting out my favourite music.

Has anyone any further recommendations?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Adeodatus:
Really? I didn't know that. That's a couple less Danishes and maybe skip a couple of Beethoven piano sonatas. Thanks, Karl.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Zappa:
so far, so good ... it is showing signs of death throes ...

---

Nope. It's back. And every day it tells me I really probably have won an ipad. And every day it PISSES. ME OFF.
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
This might be worth a thread on its own, but I will start it here.

My congregation is undergoing structural reform. Stage 1 (i.e. the changing of the committee structure) is complete

Stage 2: (i.e. implementing new governance methods is work in progress)

Now we want to implement open governance as far as possible and are willing to try to use computers/internet to do so. Many of the elderly members are using computers, and care will be taken to include those without computers.

What we want is basically a common store for documents which can be open to all members. I think one person would like open editing. I would be more cautious and give open editing to sub groups for specific documents but open viewing to all.

Being a small congregation the cost needs to be minimal but it also needs to be robust so not dependent solely on me.

Ideas welocome!

Jengie
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Does anyone have any idea why Opera takes so long to close down, and why, if you look at Task Manager, you can see the memory usage for Opera escalating over a period of minutes, instead of just decreasing quickly and vanishing? Sometimes it doesn't close down at all of its own volition and has to be helped along.
 

---

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
Because it can't finish until the fat lady sings?
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
JJ,
If I am understanding you, you wish a group(s) of people to be able to view documents from multiple locations? There are various "personal cloud" drives such as this one.* The software allows those you choose to log in from anywhere. There should be variable levels of permission, but be certain before purchase.


*Not a recommendation, pro or con, of this drive. Just an example.
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Intriguing as actually I own one of those already! I do not have the cloud software active on it as it is my first backup for my home computers but I may have a closer read of the manual.

Slight caution in that first I had to return my initial one under warranty fairly soon after I started using it. I think I got one back with double the capacity.

Jengie
 

---

Posted by jbohn (# 8753) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jengie Jon:

What we want is basically a common store for documents which can be open to all members. I think one person would like open editing. I would be more cautious and give open editing to sub groups for specific documents but open viewing to all.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Starbug:
I had to reboot our Sky Broadband router over the weekend, as my ipad had stopped talking to it. The ipad is now working, but now my Blackberry Curve won't connect to our home WIFI - it says 'failed to obtain an IP address'. The Blackberry is the only thing that won't connect. Everything else is ok - ipad, PC and my husband's laptop, so it isn't a router problem.

I've tried the old taking the battery put routine. Also tried deleting the WIFI connection on the Blackberry and searchig for a new connection, but nothing works. Can anyone advise, please?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dafyd:
I have a new Samsung laptop running Windows 7. Samsung have kindly installed three start up programs that need administrator rights to run. I want to run my computer from day to day use with a non-administrator account, strangely enough. This means that every time I log on I get three requests for the administrator password.

Is there a way to store the administrator password for the three programs in question, or should I just disable them altogether?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Any app requiring admin permissions to run is by definition a pile of shit.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by mousethief:
I'd like to be able to make shortcuts to the files so that I can have a song in two different directories without it actually being in two different directories

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
I'm puzzled. Why would you want to access a file from two different locations at the same time?

---

I might want to have a song in a directory with the album it came on (soundtrack to Forrest Gump, for example) as well as in a directory by the performer's name. So if someone says, "Do you have such-and-such a song by so-and-so" I can go to the so-and-so directory, and if someone says, "I can't remember the song or the performer, but it's on the soundtrack to Forrest Gump, do you have that?" I can look it up that way. A shortcut in the performer's directory back to the soundtrack directory, or vice versa, would allow me to do that.

Playlists are software-specific; I use Winamp but my friend might use something else.

[ 20. October 2012, 15:44: Message edited by: mousethief ]
 

---

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
But even if you could create a shortcut to do what you want, how would that shortcut get to your friend's computer in the first place? Wouldn't you have to "do something" to make it appear on his desktop?

Plus, your friend's computer would not have the c:\users\mousethief\music directory on it that you have on your computer unless both your computer and your friend's computer were members of the same domain, and you logged onto it using your domain account, and your account was configured to use roaming profiles.

In which case, both the c:\users\mousethief directory and the shortcut that pointed to it would be part of your profile and would automatically appear on your desktop when you logged in, regardless of which domain computer you logged into. Although I'd hate to be the administrator of a domain whose users were allowed to store music files in their roaming profile.

[ 20. October 2012, 15:55: Message edited by: Amanda B. Reckondwythe ]
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
@Alisdair the fault could well be with me; I still get my knickers in a twist over linuxy stuff
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
I wonder if it is there and all that has happened is with increased complexity of the system some of the old shortcuts have been forgotten.The old "cd" command in dos used to allow you to do cd \music which would change you to the music subdirectory of your current directory.

I think that is basically what you want.

In that case and I have not tried this, create a short cut, then edit off the front part of the command so it only has the relative subdirectory and the file bit.

I have no idea if this would work but suspect it might. It used to in dos days.

Jengie
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
But even if you could create a shortcut to do what you want, how would that shortcut get to your friend's computer in the first place? Wouldn't you have to "do something" to make it appear on his desktop?

---

quote:

---

Plus, your friend's computer would not have the c:\users\mousethief\music directory on it

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
In that case and I have not tried this, create a short cut, then edit off the front part of the command so it only has the relative subdirectory and the file bit.

---

Tried that, alas, didn't work.

[ 20. October 2012, 17:44: Message edited by: mousethief ]
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Having actually read what you want to do (always helpful!) you may find the following helpful:

Relative Shortcut utility

I haven't tried it, and the pre-requisites may render it useless, but it's the best I've found. There are also some kludges with environment variables, but I'm not convinced they'd work for what you want to achieve
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
I'll give it a go. Nothing to lose.
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
Alas and fooey, can't seem to make it work. It seems to recognize it as a shortcut (puts the little swoopy arrow in the icon), but when I click on it nothing happens. If I do an "open with" and choose winamp, it opens winamp and puts the file in the queue, but doesn't play the target.

Thanks though.

The search continues...
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
Report #2: Okay, I figured out how to make it create a shortcut, but when I copied it onto the G: drive, the length of the "shortcut" file was 5.4M -- the size of the target file. Which kind of defeats the purpose of having the shortcut in two different places pointing relatively to two different mp3 files.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
That might be down to how Explorer calculates file size. As in, it may be an untruth.

AIUI if you use the equivalent of a hard symbolic link then as far as Explorer is concerned the file is actually there, so when displaying file size info it displays that actual file info, not the shortcut info. But it isn't really taking up that much space.

The same issue occurs with the SXS stuff in Windows 7, where to avoid DLL Hell loads of hard links are used to refer to DLLs that exist elsewhere. This can lead to an almost doubling in the reported size of the Windows hierarchy against what it's actually using on disk.

I think the SysInternals "disk usage" utility can be told to give you the real size, not the hard link size.
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
A little testing determines that it is, in fact, an mp3 file -- I renamed both of the targets, and the "shortcut" still plays.
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
Got a nice letter back from the author of the software:

quote:

---

That's an interesting problem. It looks like the shortcut isn't relative at all.
First of all, are you running on XP, Vista, or later? (The XP version of Relative
is a totally different program.)

Let me know so I can figure out what to do next...

Thanks in advance for helping me get this fixed. What you're trying to do is exactly what relative should do correctly.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
Please can anyone help me understand about software updates on my new iMac?

I've finally had to upgrade to a new iMac after 6 happy years with my Macbook for the one and only reason that my old operating system will no longer run the current version of Firefox. I can't understand the method for offering software updates on my new machine. On my old operating system the "updates" app used to open automatically from time to time, and then I could download patch updates for free. On the new operating system a window pops up telling me that there are "Updates Available" but when I request details it tells me to log on to something called iTunes and put in my credit card number. Is Apple no longer providing free patch updates for its software? What is this iTunes site? Can anyone explain?

---

quote:

---

How to create an iTunes account for your iPod or iPad that is not associated with a credit card

Step 1 - Create an email account, such as gmail, to associate with an iPad

Step 2 - Create an iTunes account for your iPad that is not associated with a credit card

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2534

• Open iTunes on a computer
• Go to the iTunes store
• Click App Store
• Find a Free App to purchase
• Click Free
• Choose "Create New Account"
• Continue to go through the steps to set up a new iTunes account- your password must have at least one uppercase, one lowercase and one number
• You will have a choice to choose “None” on the “Provide a payment method screen”

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quote:

---

2.4 Portable or Home Computer Use. The primary user of the Computer on which the Software is installed may install a second copy of the Software for his or her exclusive use on either a portable Computer or a Computer located at his or her home, provided the Software on the portable or home Computer is not used at the same time as the Software on the primary Computer.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
Does anyone have any idea why from time to time a Word document will suddenly turn into Read-only (without my doing anything to it other than typing in it) and need to be saved under a new name?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Kat in the Hat:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
Does anyone have any idea why from time to time a Word document will suddenly turn into Read-only (without my doing anything to it other than typing in it) and need to be saved under a new name?

---

That happened to me - I was using an external hard disk and suddenly had to save as a new file. In the end I had about 5 versions of the same document. It was very annoying!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chamois:
Thanks very much for all the advice about iTunes.

As I'm not musical I don't have a personal music collection (apart from some old vinyl records which belonged to my father that I keep for sentimental reasons).

I'd better go away and mull this over quietly by myself. I don't like leaving details of my credit card all over the internet for no good reason.

Thanks again

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
iTunes is Satan's own way of organising your music collection and you will burn in Hell for all eternity if you tempt just one person to use it.

It's a worse sin than getting off your bike and pushing it up a hill.

---

It works for some people, doesn't for others. Just like most things in the computer world.

I must protest about your labelling of that practice in the world of cycling. It's perfectly acceptable to do that if you're on one of those rare hills where a 15% gradient sign comes as a relief because it means the 20% bit is over. That's about 1/7 and 1/5 for those of you thinking in the old money.
 

---

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
God's way of telling you you need lower gears. Or a different route. Or to MTFU. Everyone knows that.
 

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Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Can anyone suggest a relatively low-priced but physically sizeable data storage medium?

My terrible Luddite* mother has finally gone digital, and is using my brothers laptop for downloading photos and burning them to CD. Given the faff involved, and the high likelihood of losing said CDs, I thought of getting her a portable hard drive for Christmas to put them on. A memory stick is far too losable especially with grandchildren and a Jack Russell about, but I figured something like my Seagate Freeagent Go drive - sort of slim paperback size - would probably be about right.

So... the rub of the question (at last!). These seem to start price-wise in the £50-60 range, and I'd rather not spend much more than £30 if I can help it. Has anyone any suggestions that might fit the criteria?

Thanks,

AG

*ie worse than me - which is bad!
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 
I would suggest sticking with looking for a 2.5" external hard drive as you've pretty well ruled out other options.

Shop around, you'll be able to find a cheaper deal at some point. a word about Seagate products the - FreeAgent GoFlex drives are very much premium products with bells and whistles that 95% of users will never need (like swapping the interface for a different one) so you can afford to look for a lower-end Seagate drive like the Seagate Expansion. The equivalent lower Western Digital model would be the WD Elements - both WD and Seagate drives are of equally high quality (Seagate seem to have recovered after sitting on their laurels for a few years) and I wouldn't ever suggest anybody buy any other brand of hard drive.

I would suggest shopping around online over the rest of this weekend and buying from somebody reliable* - with Black Friday and Cyber Monday you will be unlikely to get a better deal until after Christmas.

The best tests for whether an online vendor is reliable I can suggest would be...
1. the site has a "select your location" button somewhere.
2. it can show pricing in your local currency with the applicable sales taxes like VAT or GST included.
3. the shipping address detail page has the correct options for your country's postal system, for example offering Australian customers a choice of Australian states/territories instead of US states and postcode instead of Zip Code.
4. they offer shipping options which name which real provider in your country will be used, not generic "standard," "express" or whatever.
5. if you're a very cautious person who would prefer to pass up some of the best prices and be more sure of what's going on, limit yourself to companies with a 'real' presence in your own country, whether that be an office, a business registration number or being the online operation of a company that has bricks-and-mortar stores.
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
You are limited to 500GB but just checking on Amazon and the do exist for around £40.

Jengie
 

---

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
500GB will last her out! I don't really want to use Amazon, but as with so many things they're just so much cheaper it's hard to resist...

AG
 

---

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
Sorted, and without using Amazon. It turns out after a great deal of rummaging (and trying to buy something from a firm whose web page would let you add it to the basket, but then refused to let you go to checkout... very sensible!) that Maplins* have an ebay store, and I've bought from there. I presume that they are selling surplus stock that way rather than in store.

Thanks, everyone!

AG

*UK chain of electronics, and DIY electronics, stores - who I've always had good experiences with. While I've found a page of shit reviews online, it took a lot more finding than any other firm's bad reviews.
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
Sorted, and without using Amazon. It turns out after a great deal of rummaging (and trying to buy something from a firm whose web page would let you add it to the basket, but then refused to let you go to checkout... very sensible!) that Maplins* have an ebay store, and I've bought from there. I presume that they are selling surplus stock that way rather than in store.

Thanks, everyone!

AG

*UK chain of electronics, and DIY electronics, stores - who I've always had good experiences with. While I've found a page of shit reviews online, it took a lot more finding than any other firm's bad reviews.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Doublethink:
What's wrong with avg ?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:

Any recommendations for a quick, light, friendly (preferably free) anti-virus software for an ageing computer running Windows XP SP3?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Funny thing, though. If all the Apple and Linux evangelists were successful, obscurity, a large component of their security would be rendered useless. Inherently, Apple is the most vulnerable, architecture wise. Linux is the most secure, but also requires the more knowledge in general.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
The difference between the AVG free edition and other internet security packages like Avast, Kaspersky is that the others include real-time monitoring to pick up the execution of malicious code, while AVG (the free edition at least) relies on doing a scan of files to pick up anything.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Latchkey Kid:

quote:

---

Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
The difference between the AVG free edition and other internet security packages like Avast, Kaspersky is that the others include real-time monitoring to pick up the execution of malicious code, while AVG (the free edition at least) relies on doing a scan of files to pick up anything.

---

I'm moving to avast because AVG keeps trying to make it the default search.

Avast has an annoying "your avast database has been updated" sound a few times a day, that I can't find how to turn off. Any clues?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Latchkey Kid:
Thanks. I missed it because it called it the silent/gaming mode.

---

Yep, that definitely rings a bell - primarily because the one time I forgot to leave it on that setting when I was actually gaming it announced "a threat has been detected" just as my opponent's army started rolling towards my base! Useful program, helping me in my pwnage and getting rid of tracking cookies.
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Open Avast. 'Settings' tab, 'sounds' from the left hand menu, un-tick 'Enable avast! sounds'.

Or you can choose which sounds you want to disable and keep some of them.
 

---

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :
 
Ohhhh, God! How I long for my Macintosh computers! Alas, both are unwell and I haven't the $$ to fix them... anyway, some PC laptop advice is needed pronto!

My wives are always playing games on the laptop (bought in April of 2012) and K. downloaded these games that Dell sells on their website. The collection is called Wild Tangent Games and she also plays all the Sims games too.

The other day I was trying to be helpful by cleaning up the hard drive and getting rid of duplicate applications and crap that is always showing up whenever we open Internet Explorer. Anyway, I accidentally got rid of the Wild Tangent application and all hell broke loose at home. You would've thought I killed one of our cats, the way K. went on and on, yelling and ranting and... CRYING! Yeah, she's emotional! Anyway, I tried to do the little trick where you go back to an earlier time to get the application/program back and it came back... but only the logo. When I try to open the damn thing it says it doesn't exist! K. paid for a lot of extras in these "Virtual Villagers" sim-type games and now can't get her account even to be recognized. What the hell can I do to fix this? She has the receipts for the games and extra items she purchased but I don't see anyplace on the Wild Tangent website where one can contact them should such a thing happen. I'm sure I'm not the only one that this has happened to... I hope, anyway! I already feel like an idiot.

We're using Windows 7-Premium Home Edition, if that helps. Please save me from more marital strife!
Geeks, you're my only hope!
 

---

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
I can only shut the stable door - create an admin account that only you know the password to, and demote all other accounts to standard user. Then they can't install rubbish that'll suddenly be your responsibility in the future.

In the short term, if system restore doesn't bring it back, then it's likely that nothing will.

[ 12. December 2012, 08:57: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Absolutely agree with K:LB

Although it should be noted that if your partner has an actual account with Wild Tangent then there ought to be a mechanism to re-install the software and restore the add-ons/enhancements.

Wild Tangent is just an online games company, part of the point of which is that you can install the game onto any old machine, log in with your credentials, and get all your crap back because it's all stored centrally.

So I'd be getting on to Wild Tangent customer support and saying "We had a whoops, I've reinstalled, WTF isn't it working?"
 

---

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Snags:
Absolutely agree with K:LB

Although it should be noted that if your partner has an actual account with Wild Tangent then there ought to be a mechanism to re-install the software and restore the add-ons/enhancements.

Wild Tangent is just an online games company, part of the point of which is that you can install the game onto any old machine, log in with your credentials, and get all your crap back because it's all stored centrally.

So I'd be getting on to Wild Tangent customer support and saying "We had a whoops, I've reinstalled, WTF isn't it working?"

---

Yeah... we tried to contact Wild Tangent about this but even though my wife is a registered user (hell, she gave them enough of her money, dammit!), the Wild Tangent website keeps saying "User Not Found" so we've given up with downloading games. This morning we found all her downloadable games are also on disks (discs?), so we're going to purge our laptop of ALL downloadable games and just buy the ones we want in a hard copy and then, in the future, back everything up to an external hard drive. Too many weird things seem to happen with buying downloadable content on the PC--it's just not worth the heartache.

Thanks for the advice, though! As soon as we discovered all her games were available on disk, happiness and tranquility replaced hours upon hours of hand-wringing and angst. Wife Kristine is a disabled veteran and has many PTSD issues, playing computer games really helps her deal with a lot of things, so not being able to access those games really took a toll on her. Sheesh! I hope I don't have to go through this again, any time soon!
 

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Posted by The Rogue (# 2275) on :
 
Discs for me. YMMV.

This Christmas I am keen to learn to touch type - at the moment I am staring at my keyboard and not spotting things like cAPS lOCK and reaching the end of a line (not everything I do has word wrap!). I will be off work and have some time.

When I Google touch typing courses about a zillion come up. So I am asking if anyone has any recommendations which have worked for you. I don't know how realistic my ambition to pick it up over a week or so is but hopefully I will learn enough to get me going. As they say: practice makes perfect.
 

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Back in the days when I learnt, it was not so much touch type as thump type, since it was on a manual typewriter. As I recall, we started with the letters under the index fingers plus the thumb for spacebar, then the middle fingers and so on. And it was just practice, practice, practice. And now of course I mainly use a virtual keyboard and it's back to one finger pecking....
 

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Posted by The Machine Elf (# 1622) on :
 
I failed to learn to touch type for years on qwerty and got fed up with trying.

So over the Christmas holidays one year, I switched my keyboard settings to Dvorak layout, and by the time I returned to work I wasn't much slower than I had been. Because the keys are not what is marked on the physical keyboards, I pretty well have to touch type.

I don't know whether I actually am faster than if I had learned to touch type on qwerty, but I didn't. It certainly made spelling 'manoeuvring' easier, which was useful when I worked writing aircraft simulations, and possibly explains why the tests done on military personnel are more positive than others.

On the other hand, I have worn out the pips on the home row of a couple of cheap Dell keyboards since.
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Can anyone recommend FREE photo editing software that enables you to batch resize photos? If possible not Picasa because I have tried that and just can't get on with it.
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
There's usually some kind of photo editing software that comes with your digital camera. It might be worth having a look at that to see what it can do, as some do offer batch operations.
 

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Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :
 
My stock editor is Irfanview. Download both it and its plug-ins. I use it because it manipulates my 125Mbyte slide scans easily and keeps them with 14 bit depth, whereas GIMP always converts them to 8 bit. Oh, Yes. It does work in batch-mode.

[ 20. December 2012, 09:14: Message edited by: Latchkey Kid ]
 

---

Posted by Mr. Spouse (# 3353) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sparrow:
Can anyone recommend FREE photo editing software that enables you to batch resize photos?

---

Faststone Image Viewer.
 

---

Posted by chive (# 208) on :
 
Complete non geek checking in here. I've just bought my first ever laptop. Will it damage the battery if I leave it plugged in most of the time? Also, is it ok to leave it on standby most of the time or should I turn it off when I'm not using it?
 

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Posted by chive (# 208) on :
 
Just got my first ever laptop. Will it damage the battery if I leave it plugged in most of the time and will it be a problem to leave it on standby instead of switching it off?
 

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Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :
 
I tend to use the battery power until it goes right down and then charge it up. Otherwise, I leave it plugged in. I try not to let it only partially charge and then unplug it. I have no idea if this is advisable or not for today's laptops but that is what I was told to do when I bought my first one and now it is a habit.

Standby or hibernate is fine. I think hibernate uses less power. Every so often it is a good idea to reboot.

Hope you enjoy your new level of portability!
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Lithium batteries, which I assume your laptop has, do best when stored at ~40% capacity. Since you do not need the battery to run the laptop* it is recommended by some that it be removed during normal operation. Leaving it plugged constantly will shorten the life of the battery, not sure how fast. FWIW, I leave my battery installed and the laptop plugged in.

I do not like standby. If you do not completely turn the computer off, small errors can accumulate, causing programs to not run efficiently. As long as you do not have too many thing running on startup, it should boot fairly quickly as it is new.

*unless you have power drops.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Lily Pad,

No! That advice is for nickel based batteries. Lithium based do not care to be run down all the way. And there is no benefit to doing so. This can actually
shorten the batteries life if run down too far.
 

---

Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :
 
I stand corrected! And will be the better for it. Thanks!
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
No worries.
More than nearly anyone wishes to know about batteries.
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
FWIW, my experience of lithium laptop batteries is that if you always use the laptop on mains power (and so never discharge the battery very much), the battery will have a much reduced lifespan. They like to be used, so if you fairly regularly run the laptop on battery only (no need to drain it to the dregs), it will be a happy battery for a lot longer.

Taking the battery out of the laptop may be okay on some models, but in my experience laptops don't like it and either won't run at all, or lose some functionality, i.e. the base system expects a battery to be present, even if it's dead, and won't run at all/fully if one is not in place.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
I have had several work with no battery present. Depend upon how the power is routed, I would guess.
If a battery in a plugged in laptop were not drawing and sending power, it would be akin to storing said battery at full charge. Not the best for maximum life, but not the worse.
Lithium batteries have a finite number of full cycles, regardless of the depth of the discharge. (Save for complete drain)
So, I think it likely your computers were constantly charging and discharging in tiny amounts.
 

---

Posted by Mr. Spouse (# 3353) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Lithium batteries, which I assume your laptop has, do best when stored at ~40% capacity. Since you do not need the battery to run the laptop* it is recommended by some that it be removed during normal operation.

---

Some manufacturers do not recommend this. Multi core and graphics processors require a lot of power, which the power adapter may not be able to supply on its own. Macs, for example, can run without a battery but slow down the processor speed to prevent excessive power drain. It's also not advisable to run a Macbook with a Magsafe adapter without a battery as the things can detach very easily so you risk losing work!

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2332?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

[ 22. December 2012, 09:39: Message edited by: Mr. Spouse ]
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
How can a battery supplement the power adaptor which is both keeping it charged and running the computer? By that logic, one could only operate the computer for short intervals. One would then need to shut down the computer and recharge the battery.
The potential for the power adaptor becoming disconnected is a real and valid point. I manage to knock mine loose occasionally.

ETA: I read the link on the Apple site. And, thinking about it, realise they are likely referring to short bursts of activity, rather than sustained. Which is rubbish if true as it means they have under-designed their power adapters. Cheap bastards.
My laptop is designed for gaming and does have a massive power adaptor.

[ 22. December 2012, 13:55: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
 

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Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 
It's a moot point anyway, Apple have not been selling computers with removable batteries for nearly four years now, that's work that needs to be done at a service centre.

What I'm struggling to work out is how many peripherals you would need to be running to draw more power than a 85W Magsafe charger could supply, and whether any MacBook or older-style MacBook Pro even has enough ports to do that. I suppose it might be theoretically possible with one of the old 17" MBP models with the first i7 processors, but the 85W Magsafe charger is more than adequate for 99% of the time. An MBP is not a gaming laptop like Dell's Alienware range, it's designed for portability which demands having a power supply that does not require a large truck to transport.
 

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Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
ISTM, their advice not to remove the battery, when that was possible, is to prevent "you did not tell us we could not remove both the batter and power adaptor and still run the computer." comments.

I believe in some systems, the battery can help condition the power. Not sure if laptop batteries work this way.

[ 22. December 2012, 14:50: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
 

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Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :
 
It's only USB that powers peripherals and the computer limits that power anyway. If you have many then the peripherals need their own power or a powered hub.
 

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Posted by Jahlove (# 10290) on :
 
Don't know if anyone has any ideas (I've tried googling various sites for answers but none works). I have a mac, running OSX Lion 10.7.5 - my skype allows video; I can see and hear my correspondents; they can see but not hear me - they can, however, hear any *tapping* noises (e.g. tapping a biro on the screen or on the desk my computer sits on but not my voice).


 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jahlove:
I can see and hear my correspondents; they can see but not hear me - they can, however, hear any *tapping* noises (e.g. tapping a biro on the screen or on the desk my computer sits on but not my voice).

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jahlove:
Don't know if anyone has any ideas (I've tried googling various sites for answers but none works). I have a mac, running OSX Lion 10.7.5 - my skype allows video; I can see and hear my correspondents; they can see but not hear me - they can, however, hear any *tapping* noises (e.g. tapping a biro on the screen or on the desk my computer sits on but not my voice).

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
If you have an external one and can change it for a spare maybe that might make a difference?

---

Just about everybody using a Mac less than six years old would be using a built-in mike. If this is not working it should be covered by Apple's standard warranty, but it's a relatively major service job that would need a large amount of disassembly to replace. In my experience a defective built-in mike is extremely rare, in the three years I worked at an Apple Authorised Service Centre we didn't even have one job with a dead microphone outside of user-caused damage from water or cigarette smoke* - and in those cases the microphone was of the least concern.


* just about the nastiest thing you can expose a computer to, and a great way to void your warranty.

[ 26. December 2012, 11:58: Message edited by: the giant cheeseburger ]
 

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Posted by Jahlove (# 10290) on :
 
Thanks Ariel & TGB - much appreciated. Even with the input setting up to 11, nothing happens Machine is a refurb and warranty is expired now. I have ordered a Logitech desk mic which I hope will resolve the problem.
 

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Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
Chaps and chapettes;

This may surprise you, as I'm a musician, so should have accurate fingers, and an IT pro, but fact is I struggle with mobile phones. I struggle with navigating their menus. I struggle with accurately using the silly little keys. I turn into a clumsy technophobe the moment one is in my grubby mitt.

Mine's up for renewal, which is just as well as it's knackered, but given my above inadequacies, what am I best going for? Touchscreen? Conventional buttons? Am I better with a big as screen as possible to get bigger buttons that I can actually press accurately? My particular bugbear is large multifunction buttons - you know the sort of thing, press the top to do one thing, the bottom to do something else, the middle to delete everything you've just entered into the text field...

Nothing pricey; I send about 50 texts a month and make/receive about half a dozen calls. Internet and camera functions I'm totally meh about.

[ 27. December 2012, 08:30: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
 

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Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Just a quick, first reply here: I've only had 2 mobile phone models in my life, so guess I'm somewhat of an exception.

I started with a SonyEricsson j300i, prepay, and only as it was on special sale back then. This is one of those you and me both hate: teenytiny keys, and very fiddly. No internet or camera. I still have it as a backup phone, but rarely use it.

The 2nd model is a SonyEricsson smartphone, with internet access, pressure-sensitive screen and a superb camera, the fabulous Vivaz, from 2010. I upgraded the microSD memory to the max of 32 GB (!), which is huge, and still 2/3 unused.

To your question: I chose mine after going to several phone shops, taking my time trying out and fiddling with the phones, and getting an impression of how they feel in my hand, and when making calls. This was, and still is, the only phone of those I looked at that perfectly fits my hand and has no sharp edges (quite unlike the current Sony Xperia range...!).

IMHO, if you're planning to use your phone reasonably often, and are perhaps less into all the latest gadgets and features, the most important thing seems to be the handling, which you can only find out if you go to a phone store and hold them in your hand and compare.

I'm very happy with my choice, as I can do as good as everything I want with it - and mainly it snuggles very nicely into my hand. Smartphones tend to get bigger and bigger, and I feel, thus strangely somehow less practical.
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
I struggle with navigating their menus. I struggle with accurately using the silly little keys.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
<snip>I send about 50 texts a month and make/receive about half a dozen calls. Internet and camera functions I'm totally meh about.

---

I have been very impressed with the Doro range of phones. (In the UK they are recommended by RNIB for those with sight impairment, and for this reason we looked at them for my M-in-law.) What impressed me about them, however, was the thought that had clearly gone into the arrangement of menus etc. to be intuitive and easy to use. If you are really only going to use your phone for telephony functions (voice calls and texts) then I wouldn't wast your money on paying for the capabilities of a smart phone which you will not use.

HTH
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
I second the Windows Phone recommendation, and am typing this on a WP7 device. I use most handsets through work, and for general purpose use I reckon Windows Phone has it cracked. It is worth getting the higher end handsets though.
 

---

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Snags:
I second the Windows Phone recommendation, and am typing this on a WP7 device. I use most handsets through work, and for general purpose use I reckon Windows Phone has it cracked. It is worth getting the higher end handsets though.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by BroJames:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
<snip>I send about 50 texts a month and make/receive about half a dozen calls. Internet and camera functions I'm totally meh about.

---

I have been very impressed with the Doro range of phones. (In the UK they are recommended by RNIB for those with sight impairment, and for this reason we looked at them for my M-in-law.) What impressed me about them, however, was the thought that had clearly gone into the arrangement of menus etc. to be intuitive and easy to use. If you are really only going to use your phone for telephony functions (voice calls and texts) then I wouldn't wast your money on paying for the capabilities of a smart phone which you will not use.

HTH

---

I know where you're coming from there, but I'm struggling with coming to the conclusion that I actually need something designed for the elderly, at least going by the testimonials.

Am I really that hamfisted?
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I have Pay As You Go. There wasn't much point in having a monthly contract for infrequent use - though the internet bit is useful for traffic/train alerts. I probably only need to top up with about £10 a month. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
 

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Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
My current contract is £8 a month and the new one I'm looking at would be £7.50. The only problem I have with PAYG is the upfront cost of the handset. Oh, and navigating the menu system to add credit to it, of course.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Perhaps, Karl, there is the perception that if you were not, ahem, challenged, you'd not be having an issue in the first.
 

---

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Perhaps, Karl, there is the perception that if you were not, ahem, challenged, you'd not be having an issue in the first.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
My current contract is £8 a month and the new one I'm looking at would be £7.50. The only problem I have with PAYG is the upfront cost of the handset. Oh, and navigating the menu system to add credit to it, of course.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
I know where you're coming from there, but I'm struggling with coming to the conclusion that I actually need something designed for the elderly, at least going by the testimonials.

Am I really that hamfisted?

---

Yes (meaning I know what you mean - not that you are hamfisted!), I can see the issue about the phone 'saying' that you need an 'old person's' phone. It wasn't so much the big buttons I was thinking of as the well-designed user interface. If I weren't, for other reasons committed to a smartphone, I would think of a Doro - not least because I might be able to use it without my glasses. Currently a SMS tone on my phone sends me reaching first for my reading glasses before I get the phone out. Likewise with sending texts.
 

---

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :
 
Has anyone any thoughts on currently available (in the UK) tablet computers?

The reason I'm asking is that I wouldn't be surprised if my laptop - currently my only computer - dies on me this year, as it's showing signs of advanced old age. I thought that I might then replace it either with a PC and a tablet, or just with a tablet.

Cost is a factor, especially if I'm going to be buying two machines. Also, as well as being somewhat Applephobic (okay, very Applephobic), I think I'd prefer an Android operating system as I also use an Android phone, and like it very much.

(If anyone's wondering why I'm thinking of two machines, it's because with the artwork I do now I do a fair bit of image processing, and the laptop is a bit limited on screen size and general clunkiness. Hence the PC. But of course, I also need something portable - not least because since David Hockney started doing it, everybody is using their tablets as a painting tool!)
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Depends on what programs you use and their availability on the platforms you are considering.
For myself, I purchased an ASUS Republic of Gamers 17 in laptop. Not amazingly high in the portability area, but still luggable. I tuck it and a Wacom into my rucksack and go. I did not wish to buy two systems, so this is a good balance for me.
The problem with most tablets is they are extremely underpowered. I do know people who use the Samsung Slate, but it is low on spec IMO. And fairly expensive for what you get. As an adjunct to a main computer, it is fairly nice, but a tad expensive for that.
I am looking at the Microsoft Surface Pro, when they finally launch, as a secondary computer as they appear to be more reasonably priced.
No real help on the android end, I am afraid.

Note for comparison: I use Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter, Premier,etc. quite heavily.
 

---

Posted by chive (# 208) on :
 
Another question from the one who knows nothing. Is there such a thing as a decent free word processing package that I can download from the interwebs?
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
I have not used it personally but I know of several people who have used Open Office quite effectively.

Jengie
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
I use Open Office and would say it is quite capable.
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
'Open Office' is currently somewhat in the doldrums and out of favour (long story -- see below). Much better trying the forked version known as 'Libre Office', which is 'Open Office' much improved, slimmed down, and attracting a lot of developer interest.

http://tinyurl.com/aw9p6d4


A good, and much lighter weight alternative, but focussing just on word processing is 'Abiword'.

http://abisource.com/


+ For those who want to know a 'fork' is what happens when a group of software developers get a bee in their bonnet over some application, or get fed up with the way the leadership is taking the project and decide to go off on their own, with the code, and develop it in the way that they think is best. This can happen with 'open source' software as no one technically 'owns' the code.

In Open Office's case a lot of the developers got so fed up with Oracle who had bought Sun, who historically controlled Open Office, that they forked the code, set up the 'Open Document Foundation' as an organising body, and created 'Libre Office'. The pace since has been pretty hot with a lot of long-standing bugs, etc. dealt with, redundant code ripped out, and long wanted features put in place. IMO LO is well worth the monetary price of 'free'!
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 
If you like it, it's also worth a donation to keep the project rolling on.
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
An excellent suggestion.
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 
Request for help here:

My sister has a Windows 7 laptop, and on the newest version of Firefox has tabs opening to advertising sites about every 15 minutes or so. Microsoft Security Essentials and AVG Free Edition both found nothing when full scans were run.

It's not something I want to experiment with on my iMac's Windows (Boot Camp) installation which I keep thoroughly locked down, so does anybody have any ideas on what I could do to get her machine sorted out? A general search has not been of much use, there are people claiming they've had it and fixed it by doing everything from changing DNS settings, deleting .dll files or fiddling about in the Registry.

Does anybody think that, given MSE and AVG* both found nothing even after full scans, that maybe there's nothing wrong and it's actually just that the new version of Firefox has advertising included? If so, I won't be updating from the version I run just for the purpose of reliably handling YouTube uploads, that's disgraceful.


* I'm no fan of AVG with its inability to do anything meaningful in the background, but I do recognise that a full system scan should work for a known infection.

[ 01. January 2013, 05:20: Message edited by: the giant cheeseburger ]
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
My version of Firefox is 17.0.1 and there are no unsolicited tabs/pages/adverts popping up here. Does it happen if she uses IE or Chrome?
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
Does anybody think that, given MSE and AVG* both found nothing even after full scans, that maybe there's nothing wrong and it's actually just that the new version of Firefox has advertising included?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
I use Open Office and would say it is quite capable.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
TGC,

Your experience may vary, but I have found installing massive amounts of updates in small batches to be more effective than all in one go.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
This experience is a great advertisement for me to stick with my Mac. Apple have at least learned how to do cumulative updates properly, if I restored my iMac to factory condition the process of getting it up and running would be far less painful.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by mousethief:
Have any of the Linuxheads made the leap to Ubuntu Precise Pangolin (12.04)? I'm moving from 10.04 to 12.04 and the new "Unity" GUI and bloody stupid and completely unpersonalizable "Launcher" and greatly complexified app menu are driving me to fits. It appears to be a zillion times less amenable to user-pleasing personalization than Lucid Lynx.

Is Canonical taking "fuck you, user" lessons from Microsoft?

I've read that if I just stick with it, I'll learn to like it, but I'm ready to jump back to Lynx, or completely jump ship to Mint, at the moment. Any reason I shouldn't?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Rosa Gallica officinalis:
Another request for help from friendly geeks.
I've just received an email from my boss which includes the word 'advertising' highlighted as a link- which goes to a site that she would not use (it's in a foreign language). I'm 99.99% certain she did not add the link herself. (I will check when I speak to her later) It was sent from an ipad using BT ISP. What is likely to be going on & does anything need to be done about it?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Rosa Gallica officinalis:
Another request for help from friendly geeks.
I've just received an email from my boss which includes the word 'advertising' highlighted as a link- which goes to a site that she would not use (it's in a foreign language). I'm 99.99% certain she did not add the link herself. (I will check when I speak to her later) It was sent from an ipad using BT ISP. What is likely to be going on & does anything need to be done about it?

---

She sent the email but the link has been added?

Are you picking up the email on a web client or a thick client on your PC (e.g. Outlook)?
 

---

Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :
 
Any ideas on how to cure an over sensitive mouse! I have a new PC that runs Windows 7, but the mouse I am using is the same one that I had before, and worked very successfully with my XP machine. Its a HP optical mouse. I am having lots of trouble using it, particular when I single click on a link or item it sometimes repeats the operation (eg click on back button in a browser and it goes back two screens not just one, or click on a digit in calculator and it enters that digit twice). But the biggest problem is in highlighting blocks of text to edit, it wont stay highlighted most of the time, or won't allow me to click the insertion point to where I want it. Any ideas? When editing text I more or less have to rely on the arrows rather than using the mouse, to mark where I want to type, reminds me of using a dumb terminal without a mouse, back in the 80's!
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
There should be a mouse settings under Hardware settings in the control panel
 

---

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :
 
[QUOT If not a 'system reset' may do the trick; [/QB][/QUOTE]

Looks like you were right, Alisdair - Celtic Knotweed did pretty much that when she got home in the evening, and we have the Beeb back. Quite why it wouldn't do it in the morning, who knows?

Thanks!

AG
 

---

Posted by Alicïa (# 7668) on :
 
My netbook is about 3 years old and has served me really well, but it is now getting a bit slow due to having too much software put on it. I really want to do a full system reset but the problem is that the serial number of xp which was pre-installed on it has partially rubbed off. AFAIK this is the only way. Does anyone know how to get my own serial number out of it?
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
@Alicia -- This may be what you need, but I offer the link without any assurances, however sourceforge is usually pretty reliable as a source of software:

http://tinyurl.com/7tkvk5a
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
Oops! Alicia, ignore the above---it's no longer being offered. Instead you could have a look at these choices and maybe take your pick:

http://tinyurl.com/7s2vnmt
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
ProduKey by Nirsoft is a staple tool at work. Be aware that most antivirus will shout about many Nirsoft tools, but they are safe - they just poke about in dubious looking places
 

---

Posted by Thyme (# 12360) on :
 
The product key finder works well, thanks for that info. Unfortunately if your original installation was by CD you probably need the CD to reinstall.

I decided to uninstall Microsoft Office XP which I don't need now. I lost the installation CD a long time ago. I didn't realise this would also uninstall Outlook which had a lot of my address book... on it.

Well, I did a system restore but it wants me to insert the CD to complete the process so I can use it. There isn't any way to just enter the product key without the CD.

I've had a quick google to see how to reinstall it but it is all too complicated for me and I suspect it's not possible.

Oh well, never mind. I have all the email addresses on the web mail contact list and I can survive without the other info. A lot of it is on various address label docs or paper systems.
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 
If you're missing the original XP install disc, I would suggest that installing Windows is one of the rare times it's acceptable to use a borrowed disc from somebody else. since there is a separate mechanism other than possession of the disc which regulates the licensing.

Technically speaking, it will work with your product activation code so long as it is the same version (i.e. XP with Service Pack 1, XP with SP2 etc) as yours came with.

Don't attempt to download a disk image off the internet, the risk of getting something nasty with it is huge.
 

---

Posted by Thyme (# 12360) on :
 
Just to clarify, my problem was with the XP Office not the Operating System.

Alicia, my laptop developed all sorts of glitches and got very slow and even taking it to a repair place and having it overhauled didn't improve things. I am sure it is older than yours.

I started uninstalling just about everything I didn't want, starting with browsers. Safari in particular kept freezing. I just saved a few important favourite site addresses just in case. I reckoned that with most things you can just download them again if it turns out you need them, and/or google them. Also most of them give you lots of warnings if uninstalling is a really bad idea.

And so it turned out. There were all sorts of toolbars had installed themselves which I never used.

One or two things turned out to be necessary and it was easy to reinstall them.

I also uninstalled and reinstalled some things on the basis that it wouldn't hurt to have a clean and up to date installation.

I have two programmes called Hardware Helper and Power Suite and these helped things, especially Hardware Helper which updated all my drivers. That improved things a lot even before I started uninstalling things. I've had these a while but the machine was too cluttered for them to work properly.

So now my computer is pretty fast, good enough for me anyway, and I rarely get crashes and freezes. When I do I know something has gone wrong and usually know what I have done to cause it and it is easy to uninstall.

So if an ignoramus like me can do this I am sure you could have a go. Doing a complete reset is pretty drastic. So have a go with this method and see how you get on.
 

---

Posted by Alicïa (# 7668) on :
 
Thanks for all the replies above. I will work through those until hopefully something will resolve this. I will report back although it might be a week or two yet.

[ 22. January 2013, 14:41: Message edited by: Alicïa ]
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
Be aware that Windows XP has almost no ability to do its own housekeeping. If left to itself it will, over time (usually c.4-5 years), get slower and slower until it becomes unusable; just the same as if you never did any cleaning and clearing around the house.

Later versions of Windows, and the various Unix type operating systems (Linux, OSX, etc.), are far more capable, and so need little to almost no hands on upkeep.

Windows XP older than c.4 years without being looked after is highly likely to be getting frustratingly slow, and/or glitchy.

By that stage it's usually better to wipe the hard drive clean, having backed up all your personal files, and re-install Windows from scratch. With XP, and even with later versions, that is not a trivial matter as you may find you have to also re-install (having first hunted around the house and internet to find), a number of device drivers for printers, scanners, wifi cards, etc. Fun if you're a geeky type, but possibly a road to the computer flying out the nearest window (sorry) if you're not.

Sorry, if anyone is now feeling depressed. I'll stop now.
 

---

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
But why, that's the question. Server 2003 uses the same kernel, and I've got W2K3 servers that are ten years old and have been running continuously for years and they're fine, responsive and generally OK.

I'd love to know what turns XP into a glue wading exercise. My personal suspicion is it's the constant changing of applications and settings; the distinctive thing about servers is that they are tend to be stable in configuration.
 

---

Posted by Smudgie (# 2716) on :
 
Good afternoon, geeky people. Can you give me some information in simple language for the poor old mother of a geeky son?

The Smudgelet - geek-in-the-making - has been given a rather good computer but it was running XP. Scathingly he installed Windows 7 onto it. Now he finds that it won't cooperate with him. He effusively explained why in long and complicated language which had me snoring by the time he got to the third bit of jargon - about three words into his tirade.

This, he says, makes it imperative that he buy Windows 8 now, while it is on special offer, as he can buy it for £30 now and it will cost over £100 after the end of the month.

He's very good at trying to give me geeky reasons why I should invest my hard earned money in his geekiness but recently he's had more than enough money spent on him and money is particularly tight (and I don't want him thinking that money grows on trees and he can have everything he yearns for immediately, even if I were rolling in the stuff).

So, my question is - is it possible that a Windows 7 upgrade is insufficient for his needs and is it an investment I should make to buy Windows 8 for him right now?

*tired mother sigh*
 

---

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
No, not really. Windows 8 is (under the bonnet) quite similar to Windows 7, so is unlikely to solve any problems. Nor does it introduce anything he's likely to need.

And it doesn't come with DVD playback out of the box.
 

---

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
I think I would have left it at XP.

Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to upgrade to new Windows operating systems over an old system. It is far better to wipe the computer clean and install the new operating system from scratch.

Of course, this will also wipe out all applications and data, but you'll hear very few people ever say that the Microsoft world is a friendly one -- and they're probably all employees of Microsoft.
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
Dear Smudgie, only slightly facetious answer: if he truly is a geek in the making, and the computer is his, i.e. not one you rely on, tell him 'No Windows 8' (I concur with comments above), but that he is welcome to install Linux Mint (downloadable for no money from the internet---although obviously he will need a working computer and internet connection to do that). The is plenty of straightforward instruction on-line about what to do, but it isn't difficult. This will do his geek credentials no end of good, seriously! :-D

[ 23. January 2013, 17:28: Message edited by: Alisdair ]
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
You know what happened the last time he decided to install Linux don't you Alisdair?


I would suggest if he went that route that he had an older geek to supervise. Actually I think this might be a case where an older geek might be very useful.


Jengie
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I don't know if it's possible to do System Restore and get XP back? Unfashionable it may be but it still works well.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
My advice would be a completely clean install of Windows 7. Upgrades are often problematic no matter the operating system. Copy photos, documents and any other personal information to an external sick, DVD or such and reformat the drive. Then install Windows 7 clean.
Windows 8's best features are meant for touch screens. And it is best to wait until the bugs have been corralled and reduced in number, this is true of any operating system.
 

---

Posted by Smudgie (# 2716) on :
 
An older geek would be very useful indeed - wish we had one to hand. He is actually getting better - though still thinking he knows more than he does, and very aware that he can now blind me with science. He explained it all again to me this evening. Apparently this PC has a processor which has four hyperdoodlies or something (I did listen, and I did try to remember what he said, but I sort of hazed over!) which was something they experimented with and which worked with XP. When they invented something better than hyperdoodlies, they didn't bother building it into Windows 7. But then when all the business people upgraded their machines with hyperdoodlies from XP straight to Windows 8, Microsoft designed it so that it would cope with hyperdoodlies even better than XP did.

Apparently it won't run flash with XP or 7, but he's tested it on a trial version of 8 and it works... and apparently he needs it for all the graphics stuff he does. And apparently XP doesn't support Office 10.
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Two computers here running Office 2010 on XP with no problems at all.
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
With Windows XP Service Pack 3 he should be able to run any version of Flash up to CS6 on the pc.

XP is unfashionable (I suspect this is probably where the heart of the matter lies) and won't be supported after 2014, but it's still good and usable.
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Smudgie

Having a guess what a hyperdoodlie is and a quick google. Answer is that moving to 8 will not fix it at least not the basic one which is what I suspect he is asking you to get.

Second and one very strong reason for not upgrading an XP machine to 8, is that it normally relies on old drivers for things like sound to work and it normally takes a while for non Microsoft companies who made things like the sound card to upgrade obsolete drivers.

Jengie

[ 23. January 2013, 19:03: Message edited by: Jengie Jon ]
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Smudgie,

My machine will run Photoshop, Premiere, 3DS Max, AutoCAD, etc. and I run Windows 7. Not certain what he is trying to run that won't on 7.
 

---

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :
 
Thank you so much to the geeks who helped me out of my last jam: The computer games that got accidentally erased and a wonky system. We finally decided to do an entire wipe of the computer and start over. One of the first things we did was jettison the dreadful MacAfee "security" program. That helped a lot. Next month we hope to buy a better security software program.

However, now we have a new (mild, but still annoying) problem. Whenever one of us starts up the laptop, we get this message: "Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately. Object reference not set to an instance of an object".
Underneath this text there's a box that says Details, a box that says Continue, and a box that says Quit.

Why is this happening, should I be concerned, and how do I get rid of it? We are using Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) on a Dell Inspiron laptop. Thanks in advance for any advice!
 

---

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariel:
With Windows XP Service Pack 3 he should be able to run any version of Flash up to CS6 on the pc.

XP is unfashionable (I suspect this is probably where the heart of the matter lies) and won't be supported after 2014, but it's still good and usable.

---

I rather liked Windows XP. When I was living in Seattle, one of my roommates worked at Microsoft, testing XP so I was able to fiddle around with it when he wasn't playing Unreal Tournament! I never buy new versions of operating systems for at least a year after they come out, although I got a chance to talk to programmers of Windows 7 and they raved about it, this was at least a year or more before 7 hit the market. It pays to hang out with computer geeks!
 

---

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by The5thMary:
Whenever one of us starts up the laptop, we get this message: "Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. << snip >> Why is this happening, should I be concerned, and how do I get rid of it?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
I think I would have left it at XP.

Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to upgrade to new Windows operating systems over an old system. It is far better to wipe the computer clean and install the new operating system from scratch.

Of course, this will also wipe out all applications and data, but you'll hear very few people ever say that the Microsoft world is a friendly one -- and they're probably all employees of Microsoft.

---

If I remember correctly, using an upgrade for Windows 7 from XP is a complete wipe, but the process needs to start while XP is still installed for the purpose of validating the licensing. It's all about preventing non-upgraders from using upgrade licenses.

As for the Smudgelet's machine, I would suggest staying with Windows 7 until he can afford to purchase the upgrade himself, he needs to understand that an operating system is a means to an end (most Linux installs excepted) and that having the latest and greatest OS is not the optimum path to geek cred.

If Flash isn't working and the conventional steps of reinstalling aren't getting the job done, that sounds more like a PEBKAC or ID-ten-T error than anything else.
 

---

Posted by Starbug (# 15917) on :
 
For The5thMary's problem, Would it be worth finding out which apps open at startup, to narrow it down a bit? According to Google, you go to C:\Users\(User-Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup - this is a hidden file, so you need to show hidden files and folders. Then you can stop unnecessary apps opening at startup and see if that gets rid of the message.

I recommend Avast for virus protection. It's free and frequently updated.

[ 24. January 2013, 21:51: Message edited by: Starbug ]
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
Just to be a bit controversial: there's a case to be made for saying that most anti-virus software meets the definition of 'malware' in terms of: handing off control of your machine to a largely unaccountable third party, to do who knows what to your computer, in a way that often seriously degrades performance, to provide a service that may well be only marginally effective, and to be opaque to almost impossible to remove without expert help.

To a significant degree the anti-virus industry thrives on 'FUD' (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) amongst users. It is in the anti-virus industry's interests to big up the risk and make sure their customers are in a constant state of anxiety over the safety of their machines and data. It's not that there isn't a risk, it's knowing exactly what the risk is, and then acting appropriately.

We currently have two Windows machines (and two Linux), in the house. Having got thoroughly ticked off over the quality (or lack of it) of anti-virus software over the years, I removed it completely from both machines; with a solemn warning to my sons that if they go cruising the less salubrious parts of the web and pick up something nasty, not to expect any sympathy from me! Although I will be happy to sort the infection/infestation.

One of these machines has now been without anti-virus software for three years---no infections. The other is more recent, but no problems so far. Which matches my experience of virus infection generally: about three infections over twenty years.

If you contemplate doing this you need to accept that your machine may/will, in due course, pick up a virus and be willing/able to deal with it. This basically involves:
1. keeping regular backups of your data, so that when disaster (of any kind) strikes you are sanguine over the safety of your precious files;
2. have the knowledge, or know someone, who can wipe clean a hard drive and re-install the operating system and personal files from a backup; OR at very least be able to use the 'Rescue Partition', if your machine has one.

OTOH, by all means stick with anti-virus software, accept the downsides of it, keep paying the money, and hope/trust that at least it probably does work---up to a point.

[ 25. January 2013, 05:41: Message edited by: Alisdair ]
 

---

Posted by Smudgie (# 2716) on :
 
Thank you all for your sage advice.
The Smudgelet laughed and thought it very unfair of me to bring in such weighty reinforcements.

He has admitted that there is a considerable amount of "want" mixed in with the small amount of "need".
He has also begun to understand that, while £30 is bargain if you were facing spending £100, it is not a bargain if you haven't got £30 to spare. It's just as inaccessible. And once that £30 is spent there's always going to be another "bargain" just waiting to leap out from behind the corner. He's been sent off to maximise what he has got. He has the capability to restore it to XP if that's his choice, and has another computer in his room (of lesser general capability) which runs Windows 7 fine and will do Flash and Word Processing which he reckons he needs for school

SO thank you, thank you, thank you.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
iPhone 5 user question.

Ever since upgrading to the newest iOS, the ship will not hold my login. Says I am logged in, but if I attempt to post, it tells me I am not and forces me to re-login.
Anyone else experience this?
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
BTW, this does not appear to happen on other websites.
 

---

Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alisdair:
One of these machines has now been without anti-virus software for three years---no infections. The other is more recent, but no problems so far. Which matches my experience of virus infection generally: about three infections over twenty years.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
iPhone 5 user question.

Ever since upgrading to the newest iOS, the ship will not hold my login. Says I am logged in, but if I attempt to post, it tells me I am not and forces me to re-login.
Anyone else experience this?

---

Looks like a mismatch between the brand new hardware and the ancient ship software.

As any fule kno iPhones don't have bugs
 

---

Posted by Thyme (# 12360) on :
 
Has all the fuss about Java died down? I uninstalled it but would like to reinstall it. I think the risks were probably small for my sort of usage and I have a good firewall and anti virus package.
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
Thyme, nothing's ever risk free, especially in computing, but for what it's worth we're probably no more at risk using Java now than we ever were---go for it, I'd say.

Keep a good and regular backup regime going and whatever happens---Java, or house burning down, flood, theft (Apocalypse excepted)...---you'll be back up and running in no time. Best make sure at least one copy of all your stuff is kept elsewhere, i.e. not at home. There's an old(ish) saying that digital data doesn't really exist until there are at least two copies, plus the original, and not all kept at the same location. You don't have to be a neurotic paranoid to run a computer, but it helps.
 

---

Posted by Thyme (# 12360) on :
 
Thank you!
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
Does anybody have experience in using master documents in MS Word? When I try, I find it strips the formatting in my slave documents, but it won't apply the formatting of the master documents to the slave data either.
 

---

Posted by Porridge (# 15405) on :
 
No. All I've learned from my own experiments is that MS Word is the work of Satan.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Ridiculous, porridge. Surely even Satan is not that evil.
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by mousethief:
Does anybody have experience in using master documents in MS Word? When I try, I find it strips the formatting in my slave documents, but it won't apply the formatting of the master documents to the slave data either.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Porridge:
No. All I've learned from my own experiments is that MS Word is the work of Satan.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Ridiculous, porridge. Surely even Satan is not that evil.

---

I would also expect something more competent from Satan.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
I used Master Documents waaaaaaaay back in Word 2 & 97, but haven't had any need since then. Back in the day they were fine as long as you avoided a couple of things (which now escape me - I think one involved resisting the temptation to sod about with the page numbering once you'd put it in).

If/when they did break, though, they broke with epic style and putting them back together again was an exercise in futility.

IIRC the trick is to get the Master setup with everything before you start adding Slaves, but it's a long time ago, and I would hope it had improved (ha-ha!).

What are you using the feature for? You could probably skin the cat a different way, either via cunning use of templates, or by using something totally different instead - e.g. Scrivener, which I only know about from reading Charles Stross' blog - article on Scrivener
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
To get all of the chapters of my novel, which are stored separately, to act like a single document, without having to cut and paste into a huge document each time I edit one of the chapters.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
If it's a novel, you may want to check Scrivener out, but I'm only passing on info gleaned from elsewhere, could be inappropriate.

Word Master Documents obviously still divide opinion somewhat:

Against

For - which may prove useful, or may be covering stuff you already know.
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 
I am a luddite ... but have had to replace a laptop that I dropped, so I have a brand new desk top (can't drop it).

It's operating Windows 8 ( ...ggrrrr .... I'd love to get rid of all those ugly little pictures on the open-up screen - do I really care what the temperature is in Mumbai, or want to read MSM's FOX-like version of the news?) which, incidentally flows off the side of the screen, seemingly irreparably, so I can't get to the peripheral menus or icons on the fringes of the screen ...

But the real problem is I am constantly getting hyper-text links randomly on any internet text, linking, if I accidentally cross* it with the mouse, to ads assuring me I'll win* a iphone. This looks nasty virussy to me, but I can't get rid of it and my new Norton hasn't splatted it yet.

Any suggestions?

* In preview, for example, the word "cross" suddenly grew a hyperlink. Then next preview it had shifted to "win" ... and so on, randomly
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
This seems to come up every few months (last to admit being caught was Smudgie)! Not quite sure how it got onto a new machine.

I suspect that somehow you have got a machine with Browse to save adware on it. If so thenthis site seems to give comprehensive instructions on removing it.

Jengie
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 
Thanks! The only problem is finding the Control Panel on Windows Eight
 

---

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 
Ah - found the control panel ... okay ... let's see
 

---

Posted by The Machine Elf (# 1622) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Zappa:
It's operating Windows 8 ( ...ggrrrr .... I'd love to get rid of all those ugly little pictures on the open-up screen

---

Assuming you have a mouse, right click to select the ones you want to bin, and then choose the 'unpin from start' option when it pops up. I don't know how it works in touch.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
If the touch interface is the same as Windows Phone then you tap+hold and you'll get the un-pin, move etc. options.
 

---

Posted by ToujoursDan (# 10578) on :
 
I upgraded to Windows 8 and found going back and forth between the desktop and "Metro" interface looking for applications, the control panel, etc. too annoying. There is a free application called Classic Shell which restores the Start Button and menu back to your desktop. I've used it for several months and find it stable and adware/spyware free.

It's an option if you find going back and forth between the "Metro" interface and Desktop too disruptive. I almost never touch the "Metro" side now.

[ 22. February 2013, 23:11: Message edited by: ToujoursDan ]
 

---

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
I have a HP netbook that I am cleaning up preparatory to advertising it for sale. I've cleaned off all my documents with Eraser and now I want to reinstall Windows 7. I don't have a disk, the software is on a partition. How do I do this? I've been looking on line for instructions but can't find anything.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
One way it to open the control panel and, in the upper right search window, type "recovery"
"Recovery" should be an option which appears in the main window. Click on that then select advanced options. After this, the choice to reset your computer to manufacturers original condition should be there.


Another method.
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
Why does it sometimes happen that I'll be typing away, fingers a thousand micrometers from the "Control" key, and all of a sudden it will get locked on, and all sorts of weird things will happen based on the Ctrl functions mapped to the keys on the words I am typing? (Open new windows, paste text, etc. etc.) What causes the Control function to decide out of nowhere to come on and lock in place?

Fortunately I'm a clever lad and have programmed ^F6 to shut it off, so if it happens, I just hit the F6 key, and it turns off. But still --- WHY?
 

---

Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on :
 
It sounds like you've somehow pressed whatever combination of keys is set to turn on StickyKeys.
 

---

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :
 
Any suggestions for decent, possibly free, live radio software for WinXP/Win7?

I've been using RealPlayer (which I know is Evil) for many years. The reason being that I find the sound fairly powerful without needing to fiddle a lot; it has radio and video bookmark capability - very important; it plays all BBC Radio, live or listen again, in Windows Media stream (via iPlayer converter addresses); it is generally quite reliable and hassle-free, even in its non-costly version.

RealPlayer has got negative press since at least the Noughties, as it apparently spies on you. I have since manually removed a number of its most annoying features (like automatic updates and other silly things) by placing several .exe files somewhere else. )

The most stupid thing however is that when I connect a USB stick, RealPlayer seems to think I want to play/store/edit things with it - which I don't. It is trying to act as a library manager, for which it is utterly useless. Anyone know how I can tweak this off? (I think I've turned off everything I could in the options.)

I'm using VLC player for all other audio and video, but not for streaming really. VLC player doesn't have bookmark capability either, AFAIK, and I'd like separate software for radio stream (with bookmarks and good sound) and all other audio/video playback.

Any thoughts? (Not Windows Media Player, please, which is even worse than RealPlayer.)

Thanks muchly.

[ 27. February 2013, 00:59: Message edited by: Wesley J ]
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ricardus:
It sounds like you've somehow pressed whatever combination of keys is set to turn on StickyKeys.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Machine Elf:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Zappa:
It's operating Windows 8 ( ...ggrrrr .... I'd love to get rid of all those ugly little pictures on the open-up screen

---

Assuming you have a mouse, right click to select the ones you want to bin, and then choose the 'unpin from start' option when it pops up. I don't know how it works in touch.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
Is there any way to still get apps for an iPhone 4 when the obvious app has gone over to iPhone 5?

These are apps I have recently wanted to download. First Twitter. Then the New York Times. Most recently, Kindle. No luck, must have iOS 5. Grrrrrr. My iPhone 4 is perfectly useful and shouldn't need replacing, but this app obstruction is annoying.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
The iPhone 4 is not obsolete, it does run up to iOS 6.1.2 - the current iOS version. You just need to update the software.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:

quote:

---

Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
The iPhone 4 is not obsolete, it does run up to iOS 6.1.2 - the current iOS version. You just need to update the software.

---

Oh my gosh! I had no idea! Thank you thank you thank you! Will it embarrass you if I fly to Australia immediately and give you 2 hugs and 6 kisses of thanks? Chaste kisses of Godly peace, of course. Thank you!

---

I am running iOS 5.1.1 - on my iPad 1 Dunno if it runs 6.1.2
 

---

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:

quote:

---

Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
The iPhone 4 is not obsolete, it does run up to iOS 6.1.2 - the current iOS version. You just need to update the software.

---

Oh my gosh! I had no idea! Thank you thank you thank you! Will it embarrass you if I fly to Australia immediately and give you 2 hugs and 6 kisses of thanks? Chaste kisses of Godly peace, of course. Thank you!

---

You don't have the gift of tongues then?
 

---

Posted by Autenrieth Road (# 10509) on :
 

 

---

Posted by Mrs Shrew (# 8635) on :
 
My attempts to upgrade anti virus software have completely broken, to the extent that complete operating system reinstall is the only thing we think will solve it.

Laptop is currently running Vista, which I loathe, so I am looking to upgrade at the same time.

Windows 8seems to be cheaper than windows 7.can anyone offer advice about which one is better. It is laptop of about five years ago, no touchscreen. I use it for word processing and similar, occasionally watching dvds, playing music and printing photos (with cropping but not proper editing), browsing web and like to play the odd very old and basic game (eg. Monkey island)
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Better is subjective. However, in your situation I would recommend windows 7 over 8. No driver issues and minimal learning curve.

How is the anti-virus failed to upgrade?
 

---

Posted by Mrs Shrew (# 8635) on :
 
Thanks lilbuddha,

It hit an error removing the old version in the upgrade process, following which I was unable to either remove the old version or install the new version.
A couple of blue screen of deaths and several hours later I lost my temper and deleted all the files, forgetting the magic registry... Safe to say it is quite broken, and my more techy friend sighed and told me to reinstall windows.

I'm leaning towards 7 as I am looking mostly for minimum hassle, but it looks to be more expensive which is making me think twice
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by balaam:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:

quote:

---

Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
The iPhone 4 is not obsolete, it does run up to iOS 6.1.2 - the current iOS version. You just need to update the software.

---

Oh my gosh! I had no idea! Thank you thank you thank you! Will it embarrass you if I fly to Australia immediately and give you 2 hugs and 6 kisses of thanks? Chaste kisses of Godly peace, of course. Thank you!

---

You don't have the gift of tongues then?

---

There's a very good reason I'm going out with a pentecostal girl

Glad the software tip worked AR, it's nice to have somebody expressing a little gratitude for the knowledge I gained over two years of being abused by customers attempting to get perfectly working iPods replaced under warranty.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Mrs Shrew,
Microsoft are offering Win 8 on the cheap to encourage adoption.

I rather like Windows 8, however I am in no rush to adopt it as I do not own a touchscreen computer. And it is not quite compatible with all my hardware yet.
 

---

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :
 
So I got a tablet for a Christmas gift, and although I am usually pretty comfortable with computers, this is making me feel remarkably dumb. I use fbreader to read my non-kindle books, but I touched its corner for too long and now it has gone almost black. No sort of stroking I can think of will make it do anything else including stroking it up the right side of the screen which is supposed to make it brighter.
So I figured I'd download calibre instead to read my epubs. However, it comes in an exe, which instead of being pleased with my reader responds to with open as audio video text or photo? Gaah. Someone advise me before I pull my hair out?
 

---

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :
 
I tipped the dregs of my mug og tea over the keyboard of my MacAir this morning which promptly went dead. Well it did mainly land on the power switch.

I inverted the laptop immediately which got some drips out & I dabbed some off with kitchen towel.

It's currently (12+ hours on) open, upside down and airing.

Any further advice or experience shippies? The Internet seems divided as to whether taking a hair dryer to it would be a good idea or not.

(Have appointment at Genius Bar on Sat.)
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Gwai,

Tablet or tablet computer? What OS?

Yantze,

Sorry, clueless here. Never done that.

[ 07. March 2013, 06:40: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Yangtze:
I tipped the dregs of my mug og tea over the keyboard of my MacAir this morning which promptly went dead. Well it did mainly land on the power switch.

I inverted the laptop immediately which got some drips out & I dabbed some off with kitchen towel.

It's currently (12+ hours on) open, upside down and airing.

Any further advice or experience shippies? The Internet seems divided as to whether taking a hair dryer to it would be a good idea or not.

(Have appointment at Genius Bar on Sat.)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Pearl B4 Swine:
What is with this Port25 problem in Windos Live Mail? I can receive mail, but not send it.
I've set up an email in Gmail, but cant find it except after a LOT of fishing around.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Gwai,

Tablet or tablet computer? What OS?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
That is a lower end card, so it does not qualify as better than the recommended.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hart:
I'm thinking about buying this game as a post-graduation reward for myself. I've checked whether my laptop meets the requirements, and it does for all of them except I'm not sure about the graphics card. I have an NVIDIA NVS 3100M, which isn't one of the cards listed, but it's lists "so and so, or better" and I don't know how to tell whether or not what I have counts as better. Anyone know?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gwai:

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Gwai,

Tablet or tablet computer? What OS?

---

Computer, it's an android.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gwai:

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Gwai,

Tablet or tablet computer? What OS?

---

Computer, it's an android.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gwai:

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Gwai,

Tablet or tablet computer? What OS?

---

Computer, it's an android.

---

There's your problem. .exe files are Microsoft (i.e. windows or MSDOS if you're old enough) executable files. They won't run on anything else (yes, all right, WINE)

You need to download the Android version, not the Windows version.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Snags:
I have a horrible feeling that Windows Movie Maker isn't on that machine for some reason.

---

It was included with WinXP SP2 and Vista, and is available for free download here for other versions. Movie Maker isn't required for playback, only Windows Media Player, which I think is included with all versions of Windows.

PowerPoint would work beautifully also, as pointed out above.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Ah, if WMP is required for playback it's a fail

Part of the requirement is playback through a standard DVD player into a TV. So Powerpoint is also a fail, not to mention an absolute POS to use for a 200+ image slideshow. That's why I think it has to be something that produces a VCD.
 

---

Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 
I would suggest trying the free non-commercial version of PhotoStage by NCH Software.

I haven't used that particular program, but I have used a number of other NCH products over time (before I switched to my Mac) and found that they are efficient, no-nonsense tools that get the job done every time.

It would also be worth checking to see if the TV to be used has a USB port where a flash drive or portable hard drive could be plugged in. The vast majority of modern flat screen TVs will have one included, and if you export as an MPEG-4 video you should get away without any "video cannot be played on this device" nightmares.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Thanks TCG, I'll check it out.

If that fails I'm half-minded to make him drop the "play on TV" request, which hugely simplifies things. Unfortunately he wants to knock one of these up and then send copies to various friends all over the place, so doing an end-user kit check is a little impractical. Most modern DVD players have slideshow stuff built in, but you can just guarantee one of his chums will have something ancient
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
PhotoStage is looking good. I've just run a test which shows promise, and have compiled some instructions for the FiL, so we shall see.

Thank you!
 

---

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I am having problems with page numbering a lengthy document in Word. I have been told the first 7 pages (contents etc) have to be numbered in roman numerals i-vii and then the body numbered 1-42. I initially printed them off as two documents so the hard copy was fine. I've been asked to combine them into one document but I can't figure out how to do the page numbers; I keep ending up with the whole thing numbered 1-49, or, even worse i-il.

What do I do?
 

---

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
The trick if I remember is to put a section break between the two parts of the Word document. Then you are able to get the numbering of the second part to be independent of the first part.

Jengie
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
JJ is right. Use a next page section break between the areas, and undo the link between the footers for the sections.

Note that when printing a subset of the document you will then need to use s1p3 format and the p value refers to the page within the section, not necessarily the displayed number.
 

---

Posted by Earwig (# 12057) on :
 
Help! When I go to Twitter on my iPhone, it won't show anything - no tweets, nothing! There's a little padlock icon next to the word 'Twitter' at the top of my screen - have I locked myself out or something stupid like that?
 

---

Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :
 
You may have been locked out. Some information is here.
 

---

Posted by Sarah G (# 11669) on :
 
My Yahoo email account was hacked yesterday. This has showed itself because every email that has ever had anything to do with the account has been sent a dodgy link email using my account name (not sent from the Yahoo account itself).

I've changed its password, and I'm going through finding the emails where various organisations have emailed me a password, to reset those.

What else would be a sensible but proportionate response?


Thanks for your help.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Go to any site on which you registered using that e-mail and change the passwords there as well.
 

---

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Circumventing Windows 'block images' - can it be circumvented?

I have a setting for a particular site, not to load the images. It's this one - jigidi - because I like to do a puzzle sight unseen. It used to work, but does no longer.

Anyone know why?
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Did not know Windows had a 'block images.' Are certain this is not a browser issue?
Which browser are you using, Internet Explorer?
 

---

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
Sorry, browser. Firefox. (The whole site doesn't work on the iPad, since it uses Flash).
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
It is a Firefox issue, I set Firefox to block images from that site and they still appeared. I set Chrome to block images from that site and it worked. Not sure why at the moment.
 

---

Posted by Earwig (# 12057) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lily pad:
You may have been locked out. Some information is here.

---

quote:

---

Brand Cloud9
Manufacturer reference npc3
Color pink
Screen Size 7 inches
Processor Type 8032
Processor Speed 1.60 GHz
Processor Socket DIP
Processor Count 1
RAM Size 512 MB
Computer Memory Type DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Size 4 GB
Hard Drive Interface ATA
Wireless Type 802.11bgn
Operating System Android

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Firenze:
Sorry, browser. Firefox. (The whole site doesn't work on the iPad, since it uses Flash).

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alisdair:
luvanddaisies,

Without diving into the technical details of the tablet your are looking at. I would suggest the simplest way of looking at it is that Android is NOT Windows. If you are happy to buy into the Googleverse: Googledocs, Gmail, etc. you will find there is a lot you can do, even with a basic tablet.

---

Thanks

I've been assimilated into the Googleverse already - my smartphone is an Android one, and my email is gmail.

Despite that, my ideal platform is Mac - it's just too expensive though.

I'm not really expecting to ickle budget tablet like a laptop - it's only me wondering whether it's even slightly viable to think about that sort of thing using an app if I need to - like if I'm needing to poke my CV around.

Most of what I'm going to want it to do is to sit in a pub/cafe/other wifi place with me to check gmail, to look at facebook, to look at The Ship and gCaptain, to browse the web, to listen to stuff on the radio on iplayer.

I'm more wondering about the exceptions to that, when I occasionally might want to do a bit more - while hoping its battery isn't too bad, and that its build quality is enough that it survives the season!
 

---

Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
luvanddaisies,

If you do some Googling you will find there are various apps that allow you to read and edit Office documents on Android (up to a point). Some are better than others, but I don't think any of them are a complete replacement, but enough to cover the basics.

Visit: https://play.google.com/store/apps and have a browse, then look up some reviews for the various apps.

A little bluetooth/wireless keyboard can also be a very pleasant complement to a tablet, if you are likely to do a lot of typing. The on-screen keyboard can get to be a bit of a pain for longer sessions as it takes up so much screen space and doesn't have the feel of a physical k'bd, though some folk seem to get on fine.
 

---

Posted by luvanddaisies (# 5761) on :
 
Cheers.

Well, it has arrived - pretty fast service from the Amazon seller - and it looks to be just what I need.

Once I've bought it a little case, it'll be fine to live on a boat with me and be taken to random pubs or whatever for wifi, and if it gets damaged it'll be a pity, but it's not like it's an iPad or an expensive top-of-the-range thing.

If I was looking for a brilliant screen resolution or amazing speakers, or bells and whistles, it probably wouldn't have been the right thing, but for what I want it looks very good indeed - and it does look like I've got myself a very good little bargain indeed.

I'd already checked out some Office-reader/editor apps on Google Play, and it does look like they should be pretty usable even on this little thing, should I need them - which is handy.

Anyway, thanks Alisdair
 

---

Posted by Wet Kipper (# 1654) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:
The most stupid thing however is that when I connect a USB stick, RealPlayer seems to think I want to play/store/edit things with it - which I don't. It is trying to act as a library manager, for which it is utterly useless. Anyone know how I can tweak this off? (I think I've turned off everything I could in the options.)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wet Kipper:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wesley J:
The most stupid thing however is that when I connect a USB stick, RealPlayer seems to think I want to play/store/edit things with it - which I don't. It is trying to act as a library manager, for which it is utterly useless. Anyone know how I can tweak this off? (I think I've turned off everything I could in the options.)

---

RealPlayer seems to have it in its head that it should be the deafult media player for everything, and as soon as it is presented with new files thinks "pick me, pick me, I'll hep you look at these" Can you access a "default programs" control panel and see what it says - changing it from RealPlayer if possible ?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alisdair:
@ Wesley J, re VLC bookmarks.

You might like to have a look at this site: http://tinyurl.com/668smmf

The bit on bookmarks is nearly two thirds of the way down.

---

Excellent! Misunderestimated good ole VLC. Thank you.

Still looking for a decent, free RealPlayer alternative for streaming. Hm...
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I was taken aback to discover how many entries Realplayer had left in the Registry after I uninstalled it.

Removing those and some other references to obsolete software has meant that my pc now boots up in half the time it used to take.
 

---

Posted by ElaineC (# 12244) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by mousethief:
Do any windows victims know how I can switch settings in such a way that when I double-click on a DVD, it opens it in the program I want it to, rather than starting Windows Media Player?

---

Try a right click and hopefully you should get an 'Open with' option that will allow you to choose a program. Downside - it's Windows that chooses the options that are available.
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
ElaineC, thanks for responding. Yeah, I can do the "open with." I was just hoping that there was some way to make the double-click use my preferred program.

[ 29. March 2013, 08:56: Message edited by: mousethief ]
 

---

Posted by ElaineC (# 12244) on :
 
You can associate a file type with a particular program but I can't remember exactly how to do it. The Control Panel comes into it somewhere I'm sure.
 

---

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
mousethief, the easiest way to do it will depend on the preferred application and on your version of windows, but ...

- some media players have a built in "Make it all mine" option that you can choose to apply (WMP, WinAmp etc. certainly do). Have a look in any Tools or Preferences section, or occasionally hiding off the File menu somewhere

- alternatively you can edit the file associations individually in the File Types dialog.

In XP open any Windows Explorer window and go to Tools > Folder Options > File Types where you can edit existing associations or create new ones.

In Vista and I think 7 (but the 7 machine is downstairs and I'm too lazy t move) you use the Default Programs option from the Start menu official go to guide here
 

---

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
Thanks Snags! Frustratingly, the "program defaults" allowed me to change the auto-play program for DVDs, but not the double-click program. PowerDVD doesn't have a "take control" feature. This seems destined to elude me.

Obnoxiously, the program defaults appears to lock some things to WMP and makes them un-re-assignable. Microsoft for you.
 

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Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
I'll try to have a look on the laptop tomorrow and suss it out. It ought to be possible - I certainly have Win7 machines that don't use WMP as the default.
 

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Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
OK, this from Windows 7:

Start > Default Programs (if it doesn't show up, type "default" into the search box)

Choose "Associate a file type or protocol with a program" (you may want to look at the option above, which sounds like a blunter instrument - "Set your default programs")

Potentially wait a long time for all the file associations to load.

Find the file extension that you're looking for (.avi, .mpg etc.), double-click and associate it with PowerDVD.

I have a feeling that in Win7 you can only do the above for actual extensions, so it won't affect behaviour on 'proper' DVDs. I'm not sure you can directly edit those primitives any more (it's called progress), but if that's the case then back in "Default Programs" choose the top option "Set your default programs" then pick PowerDVD from the list, and you can either have it seize everything it can do, or you can pick from a list of options.

I believe that will do it; I haven't tested it, because this machine doesn't have an optical drive ...
 

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
I’ve been clearing out cookies, manually, in Opera, through the Preferences -> Manage Cookies option, as there are a few that I want to keep so that I don't have to keep logging in to certain sites each time.

Deleting most of them is straightforward, just click on each individually and delete, however there are some that are resistant to this procedure. How do you get rid of cookies that won't go?

I suppose I could just delete the entire cookie4.dat file and start again but I'd be interested to know if there’s a way of getting rid of the ones that appear to be fixed and persistent.
 

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Posted by Alisdair (# 15837) on :
 
In Firefox there is an extension called BetterPrivacy which is designed specifically to deal with cookies that are hard to crumble---Flash cookies and others of that ilk. Hopefully it has an equivalent for Opera. Sorry, I can't be more helpful.
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Help needed please - my elderly PC running windows XP won't start. I get a black screen with the message: "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows root>\system 32\hal.dll." Any advice please?
 

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Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :
 
Sparrow, I hope you're reasonably techie as this could get messy

First, if you don't have recent backups, take the HDD out and put it as a slave in another box to get your data off.

Next, try this link here but do the non-destructive things first; it doesn't list them in the best order.

If the link is broken apologies, working on phone and having to remember the code.
 

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Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 
I would second that advice, get your data copied using an external hard drive enclosure before doing anything else.

When it comes to the link given above, I would suggest ignoring steps 2-6 as they are generic advice given for all problems on many DIY troubleshooting websites like this. I would recommend going straight to step 7 - run a repair installation of Windows XP.

Running a clean installation of Windows XP and copying back your data could be an even better solution. Windows XP doesn't take care of itself and accumulates lots of crap over time, so a clean installation could give you back a good amount of the performance lost to the system being clogged up.

[ 04. May 2013, 10:01: Message edited by: the giant cheeseburger ]
 

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Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
To re-echo the advice and to say that:

If you do not feel able to do that, get the techy to do it first, BEFORE he/she does anything else. Only let them try other bits of muddling around with the machine once you know your data is safe.

Jengie
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Thanks everyone, one question first, is there any way I can get my documents off the hard drive WITHOUT taking the drive out and putting it in an external hard drive enclosure - e.g. by connecting it to my laptop by cable?

I have nearly everything backed up except for about the last two weeks, but I do have several recent important documents I had not got round to backing up.

Otherwise I realise it is probably new PC time, the old one is well past its sell by date.
 

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Posted by the giant cheeseburger (# 10942) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Sparrow:
Thanks everyone, one question first, is there any way I can get my documents off the hard drive WITHOUT taking the drive out and putting it in an external hard drive enclosure - e.g. by connecting it to my laptop by cable?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
To re-echo the advice and to say that:

If you do not feel able to do that, get the techy to do it first, BEFORE he/she does anything else. Only let them try other bits of muddling around with the machine once you know your data is safe.

Jengie

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quote:

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Originally posted by Adeodatus:
I have a problem. I'm still running Windows Vista on my laptop.

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quote:

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Originally posted by balaam:
How can I print from Widows Mail which comes with Windows 8?

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quote:

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Originally posted by balaam:
How can I print from Windows Mail which comes with Windows 8?

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quote:

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Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

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Originally posted by Adeodatus:
I have a problem. I'm still running Windows Vista on my laptop.

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This is as much of the problem as you need to describe and the solution is the same: upgrade to Windows 7.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Alisdair:
Wait for 8.1 and upgrade to that.

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quote:

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Originally posted by moonlitdoor:
Does anyone know if you can block on Facebook things which are coming from Twitter ? Someone I know has started putting to Facebook all their Twitter activity which consists of repeating large numbers of posts of well known people. I don't want to remove this person as a friend if I can avoid it but I don't want all this clutter to scroll through to see if any friend has actually put something about themselves.

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quote:

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Originally posted by lily pad:
Could someone help me figure out how to save/back up things from one computer and move them to another computer that is, as yet, not bought and may not be before I have to give up the first? PM would be even better so I could explain more.

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quote:

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Originally posted by lily pad:
Could someone help me figure out how to save/back up things from one computer and move them to another computer that is, as yet, not bought and may not be before I have to give up the first? PM would be even better so I could explain more.

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