Computer Info – October 25 2000

This Week’s Program

        John Watkins will be hosting the meeting this week. His program will be Ping & WS_Ping --
what is it and how can it help me. Any time left over will be devoted to question and answers – our most popular topic.

Disabling Your Browser’s Back Button

Caught in a loop with your Back button
        Have you visited a web site only to find that when you press your browser’s Back button – it appears to be disabled: pressing it takes you back to the same site you are already at. There are no methods provided by either Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer to program the Back button – but web page creators are creative. They create their own workaround. When you visit their site, you load their web page which will immediately load a second page. This happens so quickly that you probably won’t even notice it. But when you click on the back button, you are taken back to their first page that you loaded – which will very quickly load the second page. And you will be caught in the loop.
Removing your Back button
        Some sites will remove the Back button entirely so that the user can not use it; this is usually done for security purposes. For example, you may find this on a banking site which opens the page in a new window that doesn’t have any of the standard buttons. If you right-click the page, you will still be able to move back, but hiding the back button is deemed to be a reasonable protection.
Crashes in Your Browser
        If you are experiencing numerous crashes in your browser, begin by dumping your browser’s history and cache files.
        In IE 5 – select TOOLS – INTERNET OPTIONS – and click DELETE FILES. Next click on CLEAR HISTORY.
        In Netscape – select EDIT – PREFERENCES – click NAVIGATOR – then CLEAR HISTORY. Next move down to ADVANCED – click CACHE – then CLEAR DISK CACHE.
Currency Converter
        A good web site to find the exchange rate for foreign currency.
                  http://www.lastminutetravel.com/lmtp/plsql/p_currencies_converter
Maximum Files in Root Directory
        Windows 95 (using FAT 16) allows a maximum of 512 directory entries, which are 32 bytes each.
        Windows 95 (using FAT 32) – Windows 98 and Windows ME have no limitations on the number of root directory entries.
Resume – Write it in Word 2000
        Many companies are now accepting resumes through their e-mail. So, if you need to write a resume, Word 2000 has a wizard to help you create it. Once you have written it in Word, you can then attach the document to your e-mail. Since the majority of businesses have the ability to read a Word document, this is becoming a very standard method of sending it.
        If you are doing your resume in a Resume program, then you must be sure that the outputted format is in a standard that can be read by the majority of businesses. Resume programs are very helpful in creating a resume for a printed copy (or output) – but Word will produce it in a format that is acceptable to be viewed by a company that is accepting resumes.