We will take a look at the "Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire" program. We will also look at headers and footers
in MS-Word and possibly talk about layers.
Basic Computer Terminology
CPU The "brain" of the computer.
The CPU (central processing unit) is inside the system. It interprets
and carries out instructions, performs numeric computations, and controls
the accessories connected to it.
RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY RAM is an acronym
for random access memeory. It is a special type of temporary computer
memory. If you type a letter, the typing is held in RAM until you save
it. Then the letter is removed from RAM and placed in its permanent storage
location. Everything held in RAM is temporary; if you turn off your computer
without saving your work, it is lost. Because programs and files are increasingly
complicated, larger amounts of RAM are needed to handle the load. Generally,
the more RAM a system has, the faster it can perform requested functions
and the more programs you can work with at once.
Headers and Footers in MS-Word
To create headers and footers
in Microsoft Word, choose VIEW – HEADERS AND FOOTERS. This will place a
gray dotted rectangle at the top of every page and the bottom of every
page. Your cursor will be flashing in the first header box and the HEADER
AND FOOTER TOOLBAR will be visible. By using this toolbar, you can insert
page numbers, date and time.
If you want a different
header on the first page – or if you want different headers on the even
pages and odd pages – click on the PAGE SETUP icon on the HEADER AND FOOTER
TOOLBAR.
More New Computer Chips
Although 1 GHz Pentium III chips
made their debut a few months ago, faster models are on the way.
Intel’s new Pentium 4
chip running at 1.4 GHz is expected to make its appearance before the end
of the year. This chip is a redesign of the Pentium line and will include
more built-in cache memory.
A rival chip maker, Transmeta,
has demonstrated a new, energy-efficient chip, called Crusoe, that
should benefit laptop users. They say the chip’s design could result in
laptops that run up to eight hours without being recharged.
Working With Windows
Moving a Window Quite often you will have
more than one window open on the screen at once. When you have several
windows open at once, one window may cover information you want to see
in another window. You can easily move a window.
Place your mouse cursor
on the TITLE BAR, depress the left mouse button and drag the window around
the screen. The window moves with the mouse movement. Release the mouse
button. The window stays where you place it.
Resizing a Window You can resize both the
height and width of most windows. Sometimes a window will not display all
of its contents until you enlarge it.
Position the mouse cursor
on one of the borders of the window. The pointer changes to a double arrow.
Depress the left mouse button and drag the window smaller or larger. The
window is resized in the direction you drag.
Position the pointer on
any corner border. The pointer changes to a diagonal double arrow. Depress
the left mouse button and drag the window smaller, then larger. Notice
that the width and the height of the window is changed.
Switching Between Applications
Even though you can have many
windows open, only one can be active at a time. The active window
is the window which any commands you give will affect. The title bar of
an active window appears its usual color; the title bar of an inactive
window appears dim.
You can easily change the
active window while keeping other applications running. Activating a window
brings it to the front of the screen ready to be worked with.
To switch between the applications,
click on the appropriate icon on the taskbar where all your open programs
are listed. If you can see the application you want to activate, you can
click any portion of its window to bring it to the front. Use the taskbar
method if the window you want to activate is covered by another window.
Before You Donate That PC, Be Sure To Wash It
Clean
Most people wouldn’t box up
their wallet, address book and perhaps a few files of old tax returns,
ship them to Goodwill and still be able to sleep at night. But they will
deliver their old computer (which contains much personal information) to
Goodwill.
A year ago, a Minneapolis
TV station bought several old computers at thrift shops and decided to
see what information was on them. They fired up one machine, "and here
we found all their finances, all their credit card numbers and wills for
their parents".
Delete a file and you think
it’s gone – but a computer forensics expert or maybe a determined colleague
or your teenager – can pull that file up faster than it takes to boot up
your system in the first place.
But there are ways to protect
yourself with a little cleaning as you go along and a thorough scrub before
you give your computer away.
Remember that when you delete
a file, you are not actually making it go away. Instead, your computer
just notes that the space where the file is stored is available to reuse.
Whether it gets reused or not depends on how full your hard drive is. If
the files don’t get overwritten, it’s a simple matter for anyone to use
an unerase program to bring them back.
If you are going to donate
or sell your computer and want to be completely sure that no information
is left on it, there are several commercial products that will permanently
wipe all data, including programs and the operating system, from a computer.
Programs such as SANITIZER or DATAERASE will overwrite the entire hard
drive. You then have to reformat it and reinstall the operating system.
The VBS.KakWorm spreads
using Microsoft Outlook Express. It attaches itself to all outgoing messages
via the Signature feature of Outlook Express and Internet Explorer newsgroup
reader.
The worm utilizes a known
Microsoft Outlook Express security hole so that a viral file is created
on the system without having to run any attachment. Simply reading the
received email message will cause the virus to be placed on the system.
Microsoft has patched this
security hole. The patch is available from Microsoft's website. If you
have a patched version of Outlook Express, this worm will not work automatically.
The target of infection
is Microsoft Outlook Express, Internet Explorer and Usenet Newsreader
The Security Update from
Microsoft, issused September 7, 1999, eliminates the security vulnerabilities
in two ActiveX controls: Scriptlet.typlib and Eyedog. Without this update,
these controls can be maliciously used to perform unauthorized actions,
like creating, deleting, or modifying files on a user's computer.