TECH TIPS AND HINTS 1

A tribute to lockergnome

AS mentioned in our previous page Google seems to be coming of age and has fast moved up the charts as the number 2 website but number 1 search engine across the internet. Lets now take a look in the Time machine back the way it was eight years ago before modern technology for computers was the banks only and was the best place to keep your money. It just goes to show that just like health foods and cheap luggage whicch are fads from the past the internet is here to stay and so is google and much of the software from last century. So we have more info for you on this page including more solutions to your problems with computers and more.

Coming from the "You Can't Escape My Clutches" department, Lockergnomaster Stephane Robiolle beefs up security on Windows 95 PCs. When the login dialog first pops up in Windows, users can hit the ESC key and bypass the routine. I suppose that is a solid tip, but what if you do not want anyone to do that? It will take a little registry hacking, my friend. Launch REGEDIT and navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Network \ Logon key. Now, in the right-hand panel, look for a key labelled "Must Be Validated" (its contents will be in hexadecimal format). To stop any escape attempts, change the value to "01 00 00 00" (sans quotes). To enable the escape "bug," simply delete that particular key. Be careful not to forget your Windows password!

Moving to the other side of town is bad enough; I can only imagine what it is like to move from one country to another. They say that you are supposed to leave a paper trail. Good idea; when you change e-mail addresses or get a new URL for your Web page, be sure to let people know. I will concede that it's not always easy to keep everybody in the loop. This is why it's good to keep many lines of communication open at all times; multiple e-mail addresses, Web mail accounts, instant messaging installations. Rule of thumb: share with your contacts at least THREE different ways to find you (electronically). As far as Web site relocations are concerned, you can upload a change of address page to your old URL. Simply create a hyperlink and tell your visitors where your new Web home happens to be. It is common courtesy; who likes hitting a 404.

Coming from the "Larger Than Large" department, Lockergnomaniac Vadim Schnoll helps eliminate wasted space. Some of us rely on Microsofts Office applications to get us through the day. I'm hooked on Outlook 2000 (Internet only), and Word is always a shortcut away. I have got more DOCs on my hard drive than I would care to count. Have you ever noticed that many Word documents edited with O97 or O2k are (perceivably unnecessarily) bloated? Yeah, take a look. Thats what happens when you have the "fast save" feature enabled. With each revision, the file size increases (no matter how much of it you delete). To put a DOC on a diet, open it, then use the Save As option. A new document is created, and its size may shrink considerably.

HTML e-mail messages are all the rage, but not everyone uses an HTML capable e-mail client. Remember that before you click the send button. Now, all formalities aside, let us have some fun! Sure, you could bog the message down with heavy graphics and sounds that will most likely annoy the recipient, but what about making the message a bit more personal? Allow me to illustrate. Type out your name in Notepad. Okay, now autograph a piece of paper. See the difference? Great! Now, take that signature and throw it into your scanner (or use your friends). Save the output as a tiny GIF image (legible, not too large), and use it in your default HTML mail signature. It is just one more way of putting a bit more of yourself into your electronic communications.

The world of Windows is wacky. Some say it stinks, and others cannot give it enough praise. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. When it is doing what we want it to do, we are happy. But the moment something crashes, we are screaming bloody murder. Outdated applications may be causing more problems than you think. Windows programs can be divided into two classes: 16-bit (older) and 32-bit. How can you tell the difference between the two types? If you are not adept at interpreting the UI, you have got a program that will help you ascertain a bit of info. Use Quick View lately? Try using it on an EXE file. Immediately, you will see the programs designation (plus the calls it makes to other system components). A 16-bitter? See if there is an update available, or perhaps a 32-bit alternative. Just wait until 64 hits the mainstream market! Long before the GUI was gooey, we stuck to the command prompt. Software compression, while not running rampant, was on the scene. In your travels, no doubt you have seen files with strange extensions. Does EX_ or TX_ ring a bell? Most likely, you have found these in ZIP archives and CAB files; each with two letters and an underscore character. What will unpack them? Drag the underscored file into WinZip, and when it prompts you to finish the extension, take a wild guess and you will probably be correct. Now drag that file back out of WinZip (onto your Desktop, for example). Shazam! This trick works for compressed files sitting inside archives, too. You can also use the old DOS utility, EXPAND.EXE -- if you still have a working version. It is amazing how far we have come. It seems like just yesterday I was unclogging my binary threshing machine. You younger folks might call it a word processor.