Technical
Consulting
June
2004
Greetings!
This newsletter
will provide short "techie" news items that are likely to
be of interest and use to small nonprofits, schools and community technology
centers. It will be sent out on an irregular schedule (no more than
once a month) whenever a sufficient number of items have accumulated.
If you
don't want to receive any more issues, do nothing - this is an "opt-in"
newsletter, so please let me know if you'd like to stay on the list.
Back issues will be archived at http://www.A2Zed.us/news.html
Please
forward to people you think may be interested in subscribing.
Thanks
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Automating
hard disk defrag in W2K
With Windows 98 and XP, scheduling a disk defragmentation process from
the command line is built into the operating system, but W2K doesn't
permit scheduling (for explanation, see TechRepublic article <http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6268-1048744.html>.
The solution is an open source program from MorphaSys called AutoDeFrag
that allows you to schedule defrag in Windows 2000 <http://www.morphasys.com/autodefrag/>.
------------
Alternative
method of defrag (courtesy of Steve Bass at PCWorld)
"Dig This: Years ago, in the '286 days, I wrote a parody suggesting
that spraying WD-40 could speed up floppy drive access. Here's something
fresh (if you're a novice, remember, this is satire): a site with handy
instructions for defragging your hard drive. [Thanks, David B.]"
http://snipurl.com/datadocktorn
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Make .PDF
files for free with any fax machine
Any fax sent to fax no. (+372) 611 991 214 8191 0524 will be automatically
converted into PDF-file <http://fax2pdf.mine.nu/>
and after few minutes the generated file is available for download.
The service is completely free. It is provided "as is" basis,
completely free - except for the price of normal call to Estonia!
-------------
More Google
Just when you thought the Google Toolbar <http://toolbar.google.com/>
was the greatest thing since sliced bread, along comes another invaluable
add-on to Google. MoreGoogle <http://www.moregoogle.com/>
adds features such as site preview images, site ranking indicators,
statistics and an Open-in-New-Window-button to Google.
--------------
What are
all those mysterious programs running in my Task Manager?
The invasion of Spybots and other Trojans has made us more aware of
the numerous background processes running on our Windows machines. In
Win2K, Ctrl-Alt-Del will bring up the Task Manager and show you a list
of those processes, but who knows whether "lsass" and "dllcmd32"
are goodies or baddies? Here's a website that will tell you all you
need to know about these programs: http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
--------------
Zip up
your backups
Zip Backup to CD <http://www.zip-backup.com/>.
It creates ZIP archives of your data. You can configure it to run on
a schedule, and save to any location (not just a CD). It skips locked
files.
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If you'd
like to continue receiving occasional news items from me, please let
me know. This is an "opt-in" e-newsletter, so you will not
hear from me again if I do not hear from you. Thanks.
----
Hilary
Naylor, Ph.D
<www.a2zed.us>
Technical Consulting, specializing in technology planning, trouble-shooting
and training, with an emphasis on the educational community.
5623 Oak Grove Avenue
Oakland, CA 94618
510.653.7194
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