Computer Info – March 5, 2003
This Week’s Meeting
John Watkins with be hosting today’s meeting. He will start with a story about the cost to drive into London. He has also brought his latest device – a 1 gig drive (USB) attached to his keychain. He will finish up with a discussion about the last 25 years of computing. This should bring back memories for some of you.
Alphabetizing Your Programs
Have you notice that Windows 98 (and probably Windows ME) does not automatically alphabetize your Programs list when you add a new program.
To make this listing alphabetical – right-click on one of the folders and choose SORT BY NAME. What an easy way to do it. This is something I learn at the last meeting and wanted to make sure that I shared it with everyone.
AVG AntiVirus
This is a free anti-virus program that has an automatic update feature – is easy to use – includes an email scanner. There is no technical support with this program -- but they do have a trial version that is good for only 30 days which does come with technical support. I few of the members of our group are using it.
Genealogy Scam
Read this in the genealogy
newsletter that is sent out by the Central Florida Genealogy Society.
The old genealogy scam is back -- ( http://www.genseekers.com/ ).
Behind the password protection are links
to the free genealogy on-line. There is no content of their own. In order to get the "5-day free trial" you have to surrender
a credit card or bank account number. You have to cancel within 5 days or
you get dinged. Guess what? The cancellation e-mail bounces. Does this surprise
you?
LCD Monitors
LCD monitors produce very little heat and devour less power. They produce sharper images with no flicker, thus reducing eyestrain. They are more environmentally friendly than CRTs, which are banned from landfills because they contain hazardous substances, such as mercury, phosphorous, lead, barium, and cadmium.
There is evidence that LCDs last a lot longer than CRT monitors – but LCD monitor are much more expensive.
Firewall in Windows XP
Windows XP includes a built-in firewall for your Internet connections. To check on it, click on START and then click on CONTROL PANEL. Click on NETWORK CONNECTIONS. You will see a separate icon for any Dial-up, Cable or DSL connection you have installed. If you right click on your internet connection and choose PROPERTIES and then the ADVANCED tab – you can check to see if the firewall is enabled.
Protect Your Pictures From Viruses
If you want to protect your valuable photos – keep your computer safe from viruses. Install an anti-virus program (such as Norton or McAfee) and make sure that you keep it up-to-date by downloading the latest virus definitions.
Don’t open any e-mail attachments unless you are expecting them or you confirm that the sender meant to send it. Even your friends might unknowingly send you an attachment that has been infected. It could even have a subject in which you are interested.
Pay attention to files with a *.vbs or .exe extension. Make sure that your computer is set to display file extensions. Sometimes viruses add a phony extension before the real extension such as “important.jpg.vbs”. If your file extensions aren’t displayed, you might assume the file is an image.
When browsing the internet, if a website pops up a window asking you to download a file, think twice. Did you ask to download a file? Is it really that important?
So, why did we call this – protect your pictures from viruses?? The viruses (with a possible exception) do not infect your pictures – but a virus can destroy many of the computers necessary files and therefore, render your computer inoperable. This will mean that you will have to reformat your hard drive and re-install all of your programs. As soon as you reformat your hard drive, all of the information you had on it (and this includes your pictures) will be gone. Of course, this is ANOTHER reason for backing up all of your data.
Cheap Computers – are they worth
it?
(Info from Smart Computing – March 2003 issue)
You have probably seen the ads for complete desktop computer systems for less than $1,000 and slimmed-down systems for less than $500. Remember that old cliché, “you get what you pay for”. Are discount PCs a good deal or more trouble than they are worth?
The answer depends on what you want to do with your computer. If you want to touch up 20MB image files, play the latest 3D computer games, and author your own digital movies on DVD, bargain basement computers most likely won’t suffice. If, on the other hand, you need a system that will simply let you surf the Internet, write letters, and prepare your taxes, a low-priced PC will probably do the trick.
Think about the programs you intend to use and consider the requirements your computer must meet to run those programs are excellent steps toward deciding whether a discount computer is right for you. But there are other issues you should consider –
Processor and memory. As newer, faster CPUs and higher-capacity memory modules enter the market, the older, relatively slower CPUs and lower-capacity memory modules go down in price. But buying a PC with previous generation CPUs and memory puts you that much further behind the times. You may have to upgrade your computer’s memory to meet the system requirements for the latest video-editing program. Again, it all depends on what tasks you want to accomplish.
Hard drive. Capacity is the most obvious factor to consider when comparing hard drives, but there are other considerations such as spindle speed and reliability. Most low-priced hard drives spin at 5,4000rpm rather than 7,2000rpm. Check for a known manufacturer of quality hard drives, such as IBM, Maxtor, Seagate and Western Digital.
Video Performance. Graphics processor and video memory are vitally important. High performance systems contain a separate video card with 128 MB of video memeory. Low-priced systems typically have a microchip on the motherboard to do the video. This means that editing a large image might be an extremely slow ordeal and some computer games might not work at all.
Software. Computer systems from little known manufacturers, usually came with little or no software.