Welcome to
the first edition, year 2, of Presidio Computer's Newsletter.
Vol
2. No. 1
A. General
Audience
1. One of the
service offered by Presidio Computers, www.presidiocomputers.com , is
technical support. We have no contracts
with major computer manufacturers such as Dell, Gateway, IBM, etc. The tech support provided by Presidio
Computers is intended to be personable and technically accurate. These are similar goals of the large computer
manufactures. To read how 30,000 readers
of PC World magazine rated the tech support the readers received, read: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,105854,00.asp
. Also included in this article are the
results of the reader’s survey for the best newsletters.
2. Spam is
generally defined as unwanted email. The
most recent issue of PC Magazine [25 Feb 2003] has some excellent information
re: spam. Anti-spam products are reviewed, as are
popular ISPs [internet service providers], such as AOL & MSN, which have
incorporated anti-spam tools into their programs. It costs ISPs a lot of money to transmit
& store spam. When an email message
is sent to us, the message is stored on one of the big computers [servers] that
delivers our mail to us [incoming email server]. These servers have storage limits just like
our home computers have storage limits.
The size of your hard drive[s] is the storage limit of your
computer.
Here’s a link
to the PC Magazine article. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,849402,00.asp .
Here’s a link
to a PC World magazine article that discusses the supporters of spam. http://www.pcworld.com/features/article/0,aid,101769,00.asp
3. Tucson’s
weather has been extremely mild. If you
want to learn about Tucson’s weather, for any day, since Jan 1996, see: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/tucson/climate/reports.html .
4. Do you
want to know the time, to within 0.3 seconds?
If yes, see: www.time.gov . If
you click on the map of the United States, you will see an interesting world
map, depicting the areas of darkness and the areas illuminated by the sun.
5. Windows XP
report. Recently, I installed Windows XP
for a customer, at his request. To my
surprise, the installation of XP, and various programs went well. I was very cautious. Before installing a program, I created a
“system restore point” [a feature Microsoft introduced with Windows Millennium]. I also searched the internet for hints and
program updates, before I installed a program.
The last program I installed was the antivirus [AV] program.
6. Program
installation. During program
installation, changes are often made to sensitive parts of our computer’s file
structure. AV programs are trained to
look for changes to these sensitive areas.
Before I install a program, I disable the AV program’s activity. Just how this is done depends upon your AV
program. Be sure to re-enable the AV
program after the installation has completed.
7. If you
have an HP computer, or a Compaq computer, and you run Windows XP, please
read: http://www.hp.com/cposupport/personal_computing/support_doc/bph07866.html before you install the service pack
[SP]. A service pack is a group of
patches designed to fix faults [bugs] in computer programs.
8. Shortly
after the release of XP SP1, a major problem was noted. Another patch has been issued by
Microsoft. Just when you thought it was
safe to come out of the woods, wham! For
information, see: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-072.asp .
Because
Microsoft issues patches so frequently [One has to give Microsoft credit for
trying to stay on top of these security issues.], it is probably a good idea to
invest in a high speed internet connection, if your PC uses Windows XP.
9. AOL seems
to have come upon difficult financial times.
As reported @ msnbc, a significant # of subscribers are
dissatisfied with AOL. The story states
that some customers, who threaten to leave AOL, are given 2 or 3 months of free
service, as an incentive to remain with AOL.
This practice short-changes AOL shareholders [of which I am NOT
one]. Ref: http://www.msnbc.com/news/852209.asp and http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=46&u_sid=637602 .
10. Have you
ever received an email message that has been sent to many other
individuals? In the “to:” or “cc:”
[carbon copy] sections, the sender has placed multiple email addresses,
separated by a comma or semicolon [the punctuation mark used is determined by
one’s email utility]. The email
addresses and corresponding names are sent to all recipients. This recently happened to me. One of the other recipients then harvested the
addresses of everyone in the “to:” and “cc:” sections. Viola, I was now the recipient of unwanted
email; SPAM!
You can avoid
this discourtesy by placing all the addresses in the “bcc:” section. BCC stands for blind carbon copy. If you include addresses in the “bcc”
section, other recipients do not see that person’s address or name. Thus, the recipient sees only her/his email
address.
AOL email
composition utility lacks a “bcc” area.
One can, however, blind recipients to the identities of the other
recipients by enclosing the addresses in parentheses. For example,
(joe@jxxno.com, sue@hxixxail.net,
company@bpm.com ) .
For more information,
see: http://www.cosmicat.com/aol/email_bcc.htm and
http://www.hamra.net/fun/bcc.htm .
11. After a
certain number of years, obtaining technical support for one’s automobile,
toaster, television or computer becomes difficult. Each product has a “life cycle”. Locating replacement parts can be very
challenging. Finding a knowledgeable
technician can be equally difficult.
Microsoft has developed guidelines regarding official tech support from
Microsoft. For example, Microsoft no
long officially provides tech support on Windows 95. Tech support for Windows ME [Millennium] will
end 31 Dec 2005. Windows 98 and 98 SE [2nd
edition] tech support will cease 30 Jun 2004.
For more details, see: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycleconsumer.mspx
.
B.
Intermediate Users
1. We would
like to think that one germ causes a particular illness, or that the failure of
a computer can be attributed to a single component. I recently encountered 2 situations in which
this was not the case. One PC would not
connect to the internet. The
reasons: files on the PC were corrupt
[messed up]; the cable connecting the PC to the internet connection was broken;
and the cable was plugged into the wrong port.
Another PC
would not boot to the desk top, except in safe mode. The causes:
a computer virus corrupted multiple files; a program recently installed
corrupted additional files; the motherboard was failing.
Murphy was
correct: If something can go wrong, it
will, @ the worst possible time.
2. You may
have noticed the price of hand-held computers, aka personal computers, aka
personal data assistants [PDAs] to be falling.
That’s because the next generation of PDAs will include wireless phone
service. Or, the next generation of
wireless telephones will include PDA functions.
C. Advanced
Users
1. Computer
security. There is no security without
physical security. Computers running
Windows 3.1 [I hope none of your are using, a PC with 3.1],
95, 98, 98 2nd Edition, and Millennium cannot be secured. You may have a login screen that appears,
after the windows logo, but before the desktop.
Try clicking “cancel”, or pressing “esc” on your keyboard. Poof. The login screen vanishes, and the desktop
appears. If you try this maneuver on
many PCs running Windows NT 4.0, 2000, or XP [home or professional], you will
see a message informing you that your efforts have been rejected. NOTE:
do not try this too many times.
If you reach Window’s maximum attempt limit, you can only logon as an
Administrator.
These tools
are intended to be used ONLY by authorized users of a computer. They are not designed to be used by people
who want to gain unauthorized access to a computer.
You can
access a 2000 or XP computer that is password protected, by using a Linux Boot
disk, which can be configured to allow you to change any user’s password.
Here are some
links:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
http://www.pc-pipeline.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=15 . PC Pipeline is an excellent source of tools
useful to advanced users.
2. Toshiba
has entered into a contract with Union Oil & Circle K, to provide wireless
internet connections, for free, @ Circle K stores. If you have a laptop PC with an 802.11b
wireless network card, or a PDA/cell phone that is 802.11b compliant, you can
check your email, find out the latest sports scores, or browse the internet in
many other ways. One problem is
privacy. The connection between your
laptop or hand-held device and the internet access point is open to the public. Eaves droppers can intercept your email and
track your internet surfing habits. You
probably wouldn’t want to place an order for an item that required you to enter
your credit card number, nor would you want to check the bank balance. Your user name and password could be
intercepted, and used by the interceptor to transfer all your funds to someone
else’s account. See: http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/pc/pc_news_display.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0156192887.1040512054@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccgadcgmmkfldkcgfkceghdgngdgli.0&comm=CS&newsType=Press%20Release&ruleSet=getPressRelease&newsID=3215114017
Starbucks
& Microsoft have a similar plan in place.
See: http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/pressdesc.asp?id=154 .
Reminder:
You can now access previous issues of the newsletter, from my website. When you visit www.presidiocomputers.com, no
cookies are placed on your computer.
As always,
Presidio Computers, is available to assist you with
any of the computer issues described above.
If you want
your name removed from this mailing list, please let me know. Your name is not
kept in an address book. Your name is neither shared with nor sold to anyone. You
will not receive any junk mail from Presidio Computers.
The
information contained in this newsletter is provided for informational purposes
only. No guarantees nor warranties are expressly given nor implied.
Best
of success.
Sincerely,
Ed Sloup
Presidio Computers, LLC
520 731 6446
www.presidiocomputers.com