Monday, August 27, 2007

Another area to watch out

Think about this...if you receive an email that is designed to infect your computer with a virus, the worst thing you can do is to follow the instructions in the email. Sometimes that is easier said than done, because the creators of these virus emails can be very clever.

One method that they use is to pretend that the email is from a friend who has sent you an "e-card" - an electronic greeting card. Of course it all sounds very innocent - just click on the link in the email to get your e-card. However, what you don't realize is that clicking on that link is actually taking you to a malicious website, or downloading a virus or spyware to your computer.

Personally, I really don't like the whole e-card thing anyway. I certainly never click on a link that is embedded in one of them. If you really want to see what it is, open your web browser and type in the address of the e-card website manually, then find the area on the site where you can "retrieve" your card. Then, enter the retrieval code manually. If the email was legitimate, you will get your card that way. If it was a malicious email, the worst that will happen is that the code won't work.

This week's video shows what is great about all those beauty pageants. Not only do they show off the physical appearance and individual talents of the contestants, they also demonstrate the ability to answer a question coherently. Or the inability, as demonstrated by Miss Teen South Carolina.
Update: Miss Teen South Carolina appeared on the Today show, and explained what happened. She was actually an Honors Student in high school.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Wow

(click on the picture to view it full size)

Really, I only wonder...what does the owner of this place look like?

Monday, August 20, 2007

Windows update restart nag

Just about everyone that uses Windows has had this annoyance. Windows has some important updates to do, so you download them while you are working on something else. At some point the Windows Notification pops up and says that the updates have been installed, and you need to restart your computer for the updates to take effect. You have two options: Restart Now, or Restart Later. You choose "Later" because you have some work that you have to get done now.

A few minutes later, the reminder pops up again to see if you want to restart yet. Again, you choose "Later".

A few minutes later, guess what...the reminder again. Don't you wish you could just tell it to not remind you any more, and to trust you to do a restart at some point? You can.

To get rid of the Windows Restart Nag, click Start - Run and type "cmd" (without the quotes) in the box and hit Enter. In the next screen, type this:

sc stop wuauserv

and hit Enter. Then just close that window. No more nags! Now, don't worry - you will still get Windows Updates. You just won't be reminded to restart the computer afterward. So you have to remember to do a restart eventually. I'll bet you can handle that.


I think one of the funniest things about men getting older is when they go bald and try to hide it with the combover. Don't they realize they aren't fooling anyone? This week's video shows a guy who does a combover that actually might work - as long as no one takes a real close look.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Now that's a crowded pool

This is what it's like at the local public pool in Tokyo on a hot summer day. And watch the video below - that's the same pool, when they turn on the wave machine.



Monday, August 13, 2007

What are those F-keys for?

Sometimes I get asked, "What does the F1 key do? and the rest of those F keys?"

Well, it is hard to answer that question in a simple way. That's because the F keys (actually they are called Function keys) do different things in different programs. However, there are some consistencies in their usage. Here are some of the things you can do with them.

F1 - this is generally considered the button to hit when you want to open the Help dialogue box - this is fairly consistent with most programs

F2 - In Word, if you hold Ctrl and hit F2, you will see the Print Preview window

F3 - used to open a "Search" window in most programs

F4 - In Word, F4 will repeat the last action. If you just typed a long sentence or paragraph, and for some reason you want to type it again, just hit F4. Also, Alt+F4 will close whatever window is open and at the front of the other windows (this is the safest way to close a pop-up ad)

F5 - In most web browsers, F5 will refresh the content on the page. Go ahead and try it now - you will see this web page reload

F6 - In Firefox or Internet Explorer, this moves the cursor to the address bar and highlights the current address. So if you want to go to a different website, you don't have to move your mouse up to that line, drag to highlight the address and enter the new address. Just hit F6 and type the new address.

F7 - In Word, F7 automatically runs the Spellchecker

F8 - This key is often used at bootup, if you want to start the computer in Safe Mode

F9 - not many common uses

F10 - in most Windows programs, F10 activates the menu bar - that's the bar at the top of the screen that says File, Edit, View, etc. Hit the F10 key, and then hit the "Down" arrow on your keyboard, then the "Right" arrow, and you will see what it does. Just a way of accessing those menus with the keyboard instead of the mouse (handy if your wireless mouse battery dies in the middle of something and you have to get to those menus)

F11 - switches back and forth from Full Screen Mode in Firefox and Internet Explorer. Try it and see what changes. Just hit F11 again to get the screen back the way it was before.

F12 - Ctrl + Shift + F12 opens the Print window in Word. Of course, you could just do Ctrl + P

You really can't hurt anything by experimenting with the Function keys in different programs. And you might just find a keyboard shortcut that you will use forever!

This week's video is not funny, but it delivers an important message.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Photos of the bridge collapse

This site has some pretty impressive photos of the bridge tragedy in Minneapolis.

Monday, August 6, 2007

A wonderful backup program

Actually I have been using this program for years, but forgot how great it was until this week - when I installed it on three different computers. The program is called Karen's Replicator, and it is free. Here is the download site.

We all know we should be backing up our data, but most of us don't do it as often as we should - and in reality, most people don't back up their data at all, until a hard drive crash teaches them the painful lesson of why backing up is important. This program makes doing your backups a no-brainer, because you don't even have to think about it.

Ideally, you should have an external hard drive large enough to contain all of your backups. You can get one of these for less than $100, and it just plugs into a USB port so it is very easy to set up.

In the Replicator program, you set up a "job" for each folder of data that you want to back up. For example, most of your documents and pictures are contained somewhere in the My Documents folder. So you would tell the Replicator to do this: every day, at 3 am, copy the My Documents folder from your computer to the My Documents backup folder on the external drive. Of course, the computer has to be left on for this to happen. From that point on, your backups are done automatically for you every night. So if you create a new Word document, you don't have to worry about losing it if your computer crashes.

You can also have it back up your email messages and folders, but that is a little more complex and would depend on what program you are using for email. Of course, if you use Gmail as I have recommended for a long time, then all of your emails are always stored on the Gmail server so you really wouldn't have to back them up at all anyway.

Incidentally, Karen has a lot of other free programs available on her site. It's worth a look.

This week's video is about a high school football team who came up with an ingenious trick football play: