Computer Info – March 12, 2003

This Week’s Meeting

There is no meeting this week. Also, there has been a change in the schedule of meetings for April. There will be a meeting on April 2nd and on the 23rd. The library has something scheduled for the 16th – so by changing that date, we will have a meeting on the 23rd (John Watkins will be back in Florida then).

Also, for those who would like a copy of the article that John presented last week entitled “The Last 25 Years of Computing”, I will place it on a CD (as a Word document) and bring 5 or 6 copies to next week’s meeting and then they can be shared between the group. It will also be available in the Fun Stuff folder on John’s site

( http://www.hdprint.co.uk/ftp/fun stuff ) – but it is a very large file.

No Sales Solicitation Calls

http://www.800helpfla.com/tmkinstruct.html

If you wish to subscribe to the No Sales Solicitation list, check out this website to obtain the form. It is $10 to subscribe and $5 to keep it renewed every year. But, please read the exceptions – who can still call you.

Storage Media

(Family History – January/February 2002 issue)

CD’s and DVD’s are a long term method of storage. In the CD world – there are three types of media – CD-R’s, CD-RW’s, and stamped CD’s. The lifetime estimate for stamped CD’s run from 20 to 100 years or more. The lifetimes of CD-R’s and CD-RW’s are not that long – they range from 10 to 25 years. They are like a photograph – because the recording is done with light and a chemical emulsion. CD blanks respond to either the existence or lack of light from a laser beam. Photos and CD-R’s (also (CD-RW’s) lifetimes are based upon the chemical nature of the surface upon which the image is recorded. Both lose their recorded information with exposure to heat and light.

CD-RW’s won’t last as long as CD-Rs. CD-RWs are made to be ReWritable. A high intensity laser beam writes or changes the recorded information on CD-RW discs. CD-RW blanks are designed to be updated up to 1000 times and are for short-term storage.

CD-Rs and CD-RWs are not the storage medium for a century, at least not yet.

Problems With Email

Have you ever had a problem retrieving your email because of an extremely large message coming in --- you can use your web mail to delete the offending message and therefore allow the others to come in.

Most providers today are offering web mail. Go to your providers homepage and look for a tab for web mail or email. You will have to login. But by doing this, you will be able to see what messages there are for you that are still on your server. And if you wish to delete one, you can do this with or without reading it. All of the messages that you do not delete will still be retrieved by your normal email program (Outlook Express, Netscape, etc.).

A number of providers are now starting to use Spam Filters (such as Mail-Block or Mail-Guard) to help reduce the amount of spam that is coming into our email accounts. This part is good --- but, what many may not know, is that these Spam Filters are automatically set ON – therefore, it would be a good idea to review what settings the providers has set for you and make whatever changes you would like. You do this by visiting your providers web page and logging in to your email account. Many of them will create a folder to store your spam mail in, so that you can review it before it is permanently deleted.