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Sunday, June 13, 2004
Show #48
Tune in, call in (1–800–520–1KFI), and talk tech with me noon to 3p today.
toc | toc
Noon-1p
Sue in Victorville
is buying a laptop. She wants to know if she should buy used? I’m not a fan of used computers, especially laptops since they can get banged around a bit. I do recommend refurbished machines. Dell, for example, has great deals on machines that were returned barely used. They can’t be sold as new but they’re every bit as good as new. This is my favorite way to get a GREAT deal on a nearly new system.
Mike in Glendale
has problems printing some web pages. The margins go off the page and there’s nothing he can do to fix it. If the page you’re printing has a table or frames, this can cause problems, according to Microsoft. They say this behavior is by design. Try printing in Landscape mode (use the Page Setup… command to change that).
You may have better results using the free Firefox, the latest browser from the Mozilla people. I prefer Firefox for many reasons, including the shrink to fit printing command.
Christian in Wisconsin
notes that you can buy dual-layered DVD burners now. Iomega, Philips and Sony are expected to release drives this month. They store nearly twice as much information as a regular DVD (8.5 GB) by storing data on two layers. The problem is, you can’t buy the media for them yet, and when you can they’re expected to cost $10 per blank. The only compelling reason to get a dual-layer drive right now is if you plan to copy commercial DVD movies, since many of them are dual-layered and required two DVDs to copy on older burners. The dual drives (aka DVD-9) should debut at around $200 and the price should drop fast. I’d wait until you absolutely need a new DVD burner before buying.
Gretchen in Ventura
helps a neighbor with her computer. Lately it has been crashing when she accesses her Hotmail account with an RPC error. Uh oh. That’s almost always a symptom of an infection with MSBlast, lovsan, or variants. Job one is to get rid of the infection. A good up-to-date anti-virus should do the trick, or download a removal tool from SARC. Remove Blaster then make sure to run Windows Update to prevent further infections.
1–2p
Robin in Fallbrook
had a laundry list of requirements for a new laptop. I told her most of them (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Firewire/IEEE 1394/iLink, DVD/CD burner) would be satisfied by any Windows notebook, but when she said she also wanted to edit video and burn it to DVD, that’s when I told her to get a Mac Powerbook with a Superdrive. I also recommended Second Copy for Windows, a wonderful shareware program that keeps directories synchronized, and Sony’s Screenblast Movie Studio as the best inexpensive video editing software for Windows.
Jake in Fullerton
wanted to know whether he should buy a PDA with the Palm OS or Microsoft’s PocketPC. Palm is best for basic calendar and address book functions, but PocketPC integrates better with Windows applications, especially Outlook, Word, and Excel, and PocketPC PDAs tend to be faster and more powerful.
Mike in Chino
is having audio synch problems when he burns DVDs edited with Pinnacle System’s Studio 9. My recommendation: download the latest patches to fix synching problems. Pinnacle says that the 9.08 update fixed “many problems with burned DVDs, including video stuttering, audio dropouts and audio-video synchronization.”
Jim in Oakpark
wants to organize his photos better. I suggest starting with a program on your PC like Photoshop Album (try the free starter edition) or Lifescape’s Picasa (there’s a free 15-day trial). To share photos with friends use a service like Ofoto or Shutterfly. Both offer free software, too. Of course Macintosh users have iPhoto.
2–3p
Steve in Escondido
is looking for a smart phone. There are many good choices. I love my Sony Ericsson P900 but it ain’t cheap. It uses Symbian, and any of the Symbian 60 based phones like the Nokia 3650 will do you well. You should also look at the Samsung i600 and other Microsoft Smartphones. They’re very nice. As always, start with the carrier you’ll be using - not all phones work with all services. He’s Cingular so he has some good choices including the Handspring Treo 600 and Blackberries.
Josh in North Carolina
(our wonderful message board moderator and customizer) is helping his brother get rid of the Netsky.P virus. Best to get the removal tool from SARC. Check out Josh’s site ThreadsDev.
Linda in Oxnard
looking for an easy to use camera with no delay. I recommend the Kodak EasyShare cameras for their ease of use. Unfortunately only the priciest cameras like the Nikon D70 and the Canon Digital Rebel are delay free.
Suzy in Downey
wants router buying advice. She has a DSL connection and was told to use a router as a firewall. That’s good advice. I recommend routers from D-Link, Netgear, SMC, and, with the following caveat, Linksys.
To test a router or firewall visit Steve Gibson’s Shields Up. A properly configured router will show all ports in stealth mode - that is, invisible to hackers. Some Linksys routers do not stealth the IDENT port, 113. That’s because historically IRC and FTP servers have used that port to verify your IP address. This technique is seldom used these days, however, and port 113 should be stealthed as any other. For this reason, David Berlind and othersno longer recommend Linksys routers as firewalls. You can get the latest firmware updates from Linksys to fix problem.
Gary in La Crescenta
needs to clear his Internet Explorer history before his wife comes home. The normal process is to:
- Open Internet Explorer.
- On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
- Then click the Content tab.
- Next, choose the AutoComplete button.
- Check off Clear Forms and/or Clear Passwords to clear all saved items
from the AutoComplete history.
- You can also permanently turn off some or all of the options from
within this menu if you like.
- Click OK a couple of times to exit.
To clear individual items from the list of form or password suggestions, click the item in the list of suggestions for that field and then press DELETE.
To clear your AutoComplete history for Web addresses, do this:
- On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
- Click the General tab.
Click Clear History, and then click OK.
Thanks to Jeff Holifield and all the other folks who emailed me these steps. Unfortunately these don’t seem to work for Gary. I’m thinking he’s got something running that’s protecting the History and Autocomplete entries. Perhaps an anti-spyware package?
There are many programs that can clear this stuff for you. First and foremost, Microsoft’s TweakUI. The paranoia features can clear your autocomplete and history entries every time you login or logout. You might also want to try Free History Eraser.
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