Technical Consulting

September 2004

Greetings!

I hope you had an enjoyable summer and that the return to work or school routine has not been too stressful. Thank you for subscribing to my occasional e-Newsletter. Please forward it to friends and colleagues who might find it useful.
Best wishes,
Hilary

Suspected Malware or Spyware?
The following is a blueprint for removing any and all malicious software from an infected Windows computer. This is not customized for a particular malware program, but applies to any and all malicious software. <http://www.michaelhorowitz.com/removespyware.html>

Printer not working?
Did you know: "You must disable Windows XP's Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) on a local area network connection to other computers. If it's enabled on a LAN, ICF will block File and Printer Sharing." <http://www.duxcw.com/faq/network/xpnet.htm>
See also: <http://www.techsoup.org/howto/articlepage.cfm?ArticleId=555>

How do you know if your Pop-Up killer is working or not?
PopupTest.com provides a simple and independent source for popup window testing. Whether you are developing a popup killer software or you are thinking about purchasing one, you can use our sample popups to test the effectiveness of the application. <http://www.popuptest.com/>

Confused about USB?
They allowed "USB 2.0" to also mean the 12Mbps standard as well as the 400Mbps. Manufacturers are supposed to use "high speed" and "full speed" labels to distinguish between the "original 2.0" (where 'original' is defined by me to mean supporting 400Mbps (as well as backwards compatible for 12Mbps)), and the "new 2.0" (which means 12Mbps). The reason they allowed this "nomenclature change" was because people were asking for "USB 2.0" and leaving all the "1.1" behind because it was 12Mbps (whereas "2.0" was 400Mbps). Of course now people are being ripped-off / confused because it's difficult to tell the difference between the two.

How do I clean my LCD screen?
Distilled water and a lint-free cloth (such as an old T-shirt) is your best bet. On the road, Kiwi Endust for Electronics Wipes are an excellent way to clean all the surfaces of the machine. Whatever you do, never dry-wipe the display, since this can cause scratching. Also have a look at Document Number: FA1011125 in the Dell Knowledge Base.

AOL email "reply-include"
Many AOL subscribers are unaware of how to include some or all of the message they are responding to in their reply. The way to do it is to highlight the part of the message you want to respond to before you click "reply". Then the highlighted text will appear in the new message. Sometimes this helps facilitate communications!

Shrinking
A very useful (free, shareware) program, for "shrinking" big (1.5 Megabyte) JPG photos down to about 200Kbyte, for e-mailing or posting. It's called "Graphics Workshop Professional": www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/gwspro.html

Read the June 2004 edition of "News from A-to-Zed"