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Archive through March 12, 2005

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2005 Mar. ~ 2005 May: All Things Technical: The Help Desk (ARCHIVES): The Brief Q&A Thread (ARCHIVES): Archive through March 12, 2005 users admin

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Gigglesalot
Member

08-14-2003

Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 12:31 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I use IE 6 - with Windows XP.

The larger fonts do help see things better- but it also messes with the wrap arounds or not being able to see the full page width, etc.

Thanks so much!


Crossfire
Member

08-07-2001

Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 12:43 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Ok, lets see if we can't straighten this out.

Open up IE, then look on the menu for 'View', then move the mouse to open the 'Text Size' item.

That will bring up another menu with 6 size options. The one currently selected will have a '•' beside it. Medium is the default, if larger, or largest are currently selected, try taking medium for a spin by clicking on it.

HTH's. :-)

Babyruth
Member

07-19-2001

Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 12:54 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Giggles, I hope you find the solution to your problem.

I'm wondering if there is some font voodoo going around...

I took my computer in to have the power supply replaced, and the repair guy also removed an old image uploading program (zingspooler) from my startup, because he says it may have been using startup resources. Since the minute I brought the computer home, the fonts (style and size) have been very irregular and weird on any webpage I visit, no matter what browser I use. Changing the browser settings and monitor display settings did not help.

I finally discovered that if I simply open the fonts folder in the control panel, the fonts will suddenly change to the normal ones they have always been on this machine. They will stay correct until I turn the machine off or restart. So then I have to open the font folder again after that, and voila, it corrects without my doing anything else. It's an odd extra step, but it seems to work. I'm wondering if anyone knows why this occurred.



Crossfire
Member

08-07-2001

Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 1:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
That is odd Babyruth, I don't have any ideas off the top of my head, but I'm going to snoop around a bit. I'll post if I come across any promising ideas.

Gigglesalot
Member

08-14-2003

Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 1:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Lovely! I'm seeing things 'normal' again!!!!

Thanks Crossfire and Draheid!!!!!

Good luck Babyruth - even if it's font voodoo, the members here can rid the evil spirits!!!!

Thank you again!!!!!!!


Crossfire
Member

08-07-2001

Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 1:22 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Wonderful, glad to help Giggles. Your last description really helped, I was pretty certain when I read it, so a hat tip to you as well.

:-)

Babyruth
Member

07-19-2001

Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 3:09 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Yay, Giggles- glad you got your font fixed!

Thanks in advance for the new-view-voodoo-review, CF. The only thing I haven't mentioned is that the new power supply is more powerful than the original.

I'm not too concerned about having to live with this, it's more a puzzle than a big annoyance. I downloaded the new Netscape and also Mozilla Firefox during my quest for some explanation or relief, and I also downloaded AVG and exorcised two trojan horses I didn't know I had. None of this answered my quest for font normalcy, but it did upgrade my computer stuff. :-)

Whoami
Member

08-03-2001

Saturday, November 20, 2004 - 10:54 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Don't know if this is really "technical," but I'll put my Q here....

I have a wall clock. You know the type that are generally in work place cafeterias and such. A rather simple looking and cheap battery operated clock (mine does have the feature of updating automatically with the Atomic clock).

I noticed it stopped the other day, so I changed the battery, reset it and hung it back on the wall. A few hours later I noticed it was 2 hours off. After replacing and testing batteries, I know its not the battery.

When the clock is laying down, it works fine. But the minute I hang it up, the second hand gets stuck any time between the 8 and 10. Its sort of like it can't "climb uphill" so to speak.

I know its probably time for a new clock. But this is such a weird glitch. Usually I can figure out why something does what it does. But this one has me baffled. Anyone ever seen anything like that? Anyone know why it's suddenly doing this? The clock has never suffered any "trauma" (never been dropped or anything). Its always hung on the wall, and only taken down every few months to replace the battery.

Eeyoreslament
Member

07-20-2003

Monday, November 22, 2004 - 11:25 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I had the exact same problem with my old clock. Even though the clock had never experienced and sort of "trauma" it just stopped keeping time once the hour hand hit a certain hour. After a few times of resetting the time, and then realizing the clock would stop again, I took it down and inspected it.

Turns out (I DON'T KNOW HOW), the hour hand would come around to let's say the 8, and it's like it hit a warp, and the hand was raised, to sort of "get in the way" of the minute hand. So when the minute hand would swing around, it would be blocked by the warped hour hand. I threw the clock away, but I'm sure if I had the patience to take the face off of it, and fix the warp, it would have worked fine again.

I too wondered how it got a "warp" considering it just sits there, unaffected, on the wall.

Crossfire
Member

08-07-2001

Monday, November 22, 2004 - 11:34 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Had the same problem this week. Second hand couldn't get up hill, replaced the battery with a new Eveready, same prob, grabbed an ancient Energizer from the back of a drawer, and off it went, good as new.

I guess those commercials are true. `'

Whoami
Member

08-03-2001

Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - 2:57 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I replaced with Energizer too. No luck. Had nothing to do with the hour or minute hand. No matter where those two were, the poor old second hand just couldn't climb that hill.

Got a new clock today. Its digital. Let's see if that "second" hand can come up with an excuse now!

Julieboo
Member

02-05-2002

Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 8:55 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Can you "reuse" a CD? Let's say you have 5 pictures you've edited on your computer, you burn to a CD and then bring to Walgreen's to get pictures printed. Can you bring that CD back home and download additional pictures on it later?

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 12:02 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Julieboo: Short answer: No, probably not.

Long answer: If you are using a re-writable CD (CD-RW) or you do not 'close' and/or 'finalize' the CD-R, it may be possible to add to it. However, it is unlikely that the Walgreen's computer (photo printing kiosk) would be able to read the CD if it is not closed/finalized during the burning process. I do not know if they might be able to read rewritable discs but that is more likely than the 'open' disc. All I could suggest is to give it a try. (Or ask and hope someone there knows the right answer! lol)

Hope this helps.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 5:20 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Julieboo - Yay!!! Here is one I know! Yay!!

Get a rewritable CD (CD-RW) - Put your pictures you want printed at Walgreens on there. After you get the pictures printed, when you get home, put the CD in the CD writer and choose "erase entire CD." There should be an option on there to do a quick erase (where the files are still on the CD but don't show up) or complete erase. Choose complete erase. It may take about 20 minutes, but your CD will then be blank and you can re-write it to take to Walgreens for your next batch of prints.

I have been doing this for the past month for a neighbor here who wants prints of the pictures I am taking here.

Lobster
Member

04-13-2001

Monday, January 17, 2005 - 6:15 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
This is a home page question.

Currently, this is my homepage

I would like to change it to THIS

Can I do this? Is it as simple as going to Internet Properties and typing in the url? I hate to try these things without checking with someone who knows what they are doing. Cuz I sure as hell don't! LOL

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Monday, January 17, 2005 - 6:34 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Lobster: In Internet Explorer, open the page you would like to have as your home page then click 'Tools - Internet Options' and click on 'Use Current' in the top 'Home Page' section. That should enter the current page you are viewing into the window and make that your default home page. (In Netscae 7.x, click 'Edit - Preferences' and click 'Use Current Page' in the 'Home Page' area also.)

Hope this helps.

Julieboo
Member

02-05-2002

Monday, January 17, 2005 - 7:31 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
JUJU-Thank YUYU!!!!

Lobster
Member

04-13-2001

Monday, January 17, 2005 - 8:29 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thank you, Dra!! That helps a lot!

Whoami
Member

08-03-2001

Thursday, March 03, 2005 - 10:08 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Two questions....

1. With a DVR, I understand its like a computer hard drive. So, lets say I record 3 shows, and watch/delete the middle one. But I need to save the other two to watch at another more convenient time. Does the DVR defragment itself eventually? Or is there an option to do so manually? Just wondering how it fills up space, especially if you end up with it getting sort of full, and maybe there's blank/deleted spaces somewhere in the middle of it's storage area.

2. I've heard about tv tuners for the computer. Are they expensive, and are they reliable? I'm wanting a tv for the kitchen, but am very limited for space. Maybe getting a tv tuner for the 'puter would be a better option. And can I have cable attached to it?

I'll ask here in case any experts already know the answer. In the meantime I'll head off to Google Land to see if I can find any info myself.

Thanks in advance!

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Thursday, March 03, 2005 - 10:21 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Whoami:

1. Most DVRs are based on the Linux operating system which does a pretty good job of maintaining the filesystem with minimal fragmentation in the first place.

2. There are a few variations on adding TV reception to your computer. The easiest would probably be a USB device, the others are internal cards you can install inside the computer. With any type of capture/tuner device, you should be able to easily hook cable to it and view the signal on your computer screen, either fullscreen or in a resizeable window. The different variations run from about $70 and up - WinTV-USB is available at Best Buy for around $100.

Hope this helps.


Whoami
Member

08-03-2001

Friday, March 04, 2005 - 12:11 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks Dra! Wow, that was a quick response!

Eeyoreslament
Member

07-20-2003

Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 3:05 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Is there any way one can TRULY clear a hard drive, say if you were going to sell, or return a computer? You always hear about how people THINK they are clearing the hard drive, but computer savvy people know how to "find" stuff that was supposed to be deleted.

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 7:40 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Eeyoreslament: When you delete a file under Windows, the system removes the first character of the name from the directory and marks the first sector location for that file as unused. Formatting a drive often only clears out the main file allocation table and never touches the actual data area of a drive. In either of these cases, it is fairly easy for someone with some knowledge of technology to scan and recover all sorts of data.

There are many utilities on the net and for sale that will actually 'wipe' the drive by writing patterns of characters over the entire hard drive, often several times with a different pattern each time, in order to achieve a 'Government Wipe', which eliminates the possibility of recovering information almost completely. There are forensic techniques that even then may be able to recover traces of information, which is why the government specifies any hard drive which has contained top secret information must be physically destroyed.

Visit google.com and enter the keywords 'free hard disk wipe' for your search and you should see several tools available. TheFreeCountry.com lists several for downloading, however I have not tried any of them so I do not know how effective they are.

Hope this helps.

Eeyoreslament
Member

07-20-2003

Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 8:09 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Very interesting Dra! Thanks for the answer! I really was just curious. I watched Runaway Jury last week, and I was curious how they still found the stuff on John Cusack's hard drive, even though Cusack had cleared it. LOL

Bob2112
Member

06-12-2002

Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 9:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Clean the Hard Drive Before Dumping Your PC