Word Trick Makes Letters Merrier

It is the Holiday time of year. (Is it just me, or did 2008 pass-by rather quickly?) Today I'm going to demonstrate some tricks to make your Season's Greetings letters more joyous, and your docs more visually interesting.

Tip of the day: Add some festivity to your documents with fonts and color. MS Word has a lot of features and options built into it that allows for some very creative elements to be added to your correspondence, and is not at all limited to cold, "professional" documents. I'll use Word for this demo, but you can do this in most text editors, and e-mail composers.

Today I'm going to use a hypothetical holiday greeting letter to show how to add some fun. By default, Word sets the font to Times New Roman at 12 "points" in height. I have typed in my text, to get things started, and will demonstrate using this letter's "opener". As it is a header, I have "centered" the text. As you can see, this font and text does not quite convey the joy and cheer and "best wishes" I am hoping to express. In fact, this may as well say, "Memo from Giganti Corp." Yawn! So first thing I'm going to do is 'tweak' the font style, and make some word bigger (louder), to express a less formal tone. I "highlighted" Season's Greetings, and used the Font drop-down arrow and selected a cursive font-- Lucida Handwriting (explore Words various fonts, and find the one you like best). I set the point size to 36. I repeated the process on the second sentence, but set the type smaller.. only 18. I think you'll agree, this is much more "friendly" than the default's look. But this is just not Festive enough! Let's use some color and improve things some more. I have again "highlighted" season's greetings to select this font, and then clicked the Font Color button on the Formatting toolbar (If this is not showing, click here to read how to customize your toolbars). I then clicked on the little red box in the color-picker. Now season's greetings is red. I want to alternate letters in green, so I hold down the Ctrl key and use my mouse to "select" every other letter. I didn't really like the greens available on the color-picker, so I clicked on "More Colors".... ... and selected a green that contrasted nicely with the red-- as the box in the lower right corner shows. This is the result of these steps. Much more jolly! But, something's missing... Let's add one more thing-- a picture of a candy cane. I went on the Internet and found a Royalty-free graphic (though a piece of Clip Art would do just as nicely) and...Voila!I could 'go crazy', and get carried away with adding things here... but I hope you will be able to see by this little demonstration -- using only two of Word's functions -- that you are limited only by your own creativity, and that it's easy to personalize and 'spice up' your documents.Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Inserting Special Characters

Today's quick and easy computing tip works no matter what program I am in.

Occasionally I have to insert a special character into my documents - such as the Copyright symbol in my articles, or and upside down question mark when representing Spanish, or an umlaut or tilde in an ancestor's name.
And I think we can all agree that ¼ certainly looks better than 1/4, and is easier to read.

When I am working in Word (which is never, anymore) or working in an HTML editor (for the Internet), there are shortcuts I can use to quickly insert those unique (aka "oddball") symbols. But in other situations and applications - such as webmail - it is a little trickier.
[note: a nice listing of those ASCII/HTML codes can be found here.]

For those occasions when I need a symbol for which there is no key on my keyboard, I have created a shortcut in my Quick Launch area to the Windows Character Map tool.

Character Map is a font 'data base' which can display all the characters in the fonts on your PC. (shown left)

In each font there are multiple dozens 'special characters' and symbols, and weird letters from foreign languages like Latin. I simply select my font, and scroll through the assortment until I find what I need; then Copy > Paste it into my document.

In demo screenshot, I have selected Times as the font, and I found my symbol without any scrolling. I clicked on the "©" to "select" it (as you can see, it enlarged when selected), and then clicked the "Copy" button.
The copyright symbol is now on my "clipboard", so I move to document and press Ctrl+V (or, "Edit" menu > "Paste") to Paste it in. Simple!

The Character Map tool is located in the Programs >Accessories >System Tools folder.. which is kind of a pain to navigate to, so I right-clicked on the icon, and dragged it down to the QuickLaunch area and hovered my cursor between two existing shortcuts until I saw a black vertical bar appear, and let go. Then I choose "Create shortcut here".. as shown above, there's now handy launcher always ready for me.

Today's free download: The Chrome web browser from Google is now out of Beta, which generally means that it is "ready for Prime Time". You can read one of my reader's RL reviews of Chrome here, and you can download this speed demon here.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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"Did you know that by using a “FREE” DNS (”Domain Name System”) service called OpenDNS you can make your internet browsing experience faster, reliable and safer?"
Click to  read more..

More Answers: System Restore, Startup Programs, and Address Spoofing

“System Restore won’t work”, “I’m worried about ID Theft, how do I know if an email is legit?”, “I can’t get this #$*& program out of my Startup folder” — these are examples of some of the questions I have received since posting my articles on these topics. Today I’m going to review, and provide more solutions and answers.

Tip of the day: Since I’m going to cover the questions above, there is not going to be a single “Tip of the day” today. Instead, there will be “Today’s three questions”…

More on System Restore: What to do when System Restore just refuses to work. As I mentioned in my first System Restore post, SR simply is not a failsafe miracle worker. There are troubles that can occur that it simply does not repair — such as a corrupted SAM database. It is however a good place to start. It does undo a lot of the damage you can accidentally do to your machine. This fact is why you should always make a back up of your system — either a “disk image” made with a 3rd-party utility like Acronis True Image, or Norton Ghost, and/or Windows Backup Utility (Start >Programs >Accessories >System tools >Backup).
** My illustrated tutorial for that is here.**

I stated in the prior article, and will repeat here, that you may have to repeat the System Restore process several times before one “snapshot” finally takes. When you use SR, you will see a calendar with available snapshots in bold dates. You should see several. Start with the most recent date and time, and work your way backwards. If you have done this with no luck, you probably have one of those troubles System Restore is not designed for. Either look elsewhere for solutions, or call for some Tech Support (we Tech Support folks need to make a living too, you know).

Legit vs. Phishing: “how do I know if an email is legit?” In my post about the rocket scientist, I discussed phishing and recommended an anti-phishing site toolbar, which combats a form of phishing called “pharming“.
I suggest you take no chances with emails.

* Simply do not click on links in emails.
* Also, realize that your bank will not send you links. They know about phishing, and they figure you already know their url (you should have it bookmarked, so use that…or call them directly).
* Also be aware that just because an email claims to be from a friend or relative, doesn’t mean that it is. If you are not expecting an “executable” (application) or “you gotta see this!” .jpeg from Uncle Fred, by all means don’t open it! Contact him and ask him, “did you send me a..?” It is an easy thing for an Evil Doer to 'spoof' an address.
* And finally, make sure your antivirus definitions are up to date. If it is not already on by default, open your antivirus’ Options and look in “Update Options” for “Download and install new definitions automatically” (or words to that effect) and make sure it’s selected. If available, have it set to scan email and email attachments as well. (And, if your AV cannot scan incoming e-mail.. think about switching to one that does!)

Removing stubborn start up programs: If the methods I described in “My Startup folder is a clown car” proved insufficient for getting rid of a really determined program, there are more methods you can try. The first is using the msconfig tool.

Start by opening the msconfig utility. Click Start >Run and type in “msconfig” (no quotes), and then click on the Startup tab. Here you will see a list of the programs scheduled to start when Windows boots. Uncheck the checkbox next to the program you are having the troubles with. You will need to restart your system for the changes to take effect.
**Vista users: Manage Startup programs in Vista**

If you have already tried the aforementioned methods and simply cannot kill the autolaunch, please consider simply using Add/Remove Programs to “retire” the troublesome program altogether…or install a startup manager program like StartUp Cop.

Today’s free link:  GIMP Open Source digital image manipulating tool. This completely free application is a bit tricky to install but is well worth it as it offers a full range of tools for adjusting your digital images, and it does that in an interface that’s comfortable to folks with Photoshop experience.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

Parental Monitoring And Cellular Phones

If you are a parent concerned about what your child is doing with their mobile phone-- whether or not they're talking to strangers, for example-- you may want to keep reading. This topic was spawned by a question from such a parent.

And if you're the kind of person who's easily agitated about technology and the erosion of privacy, a Luddite, a Big Brother Conspiracy Theorist, or anyone else who hasn't quite come to terms with the modern age we're living in-- you might want to stop reading here.
You've been warned. I will not respond to your e-mail.

Regular readers (and tech-savvy people in general) know that your computer use at work is monitored. And you've probably heard of "spyware" and "keyloggers" that record what you type (my readers have, and that's fer sher). And you know that GPS devices can pinpoint your location.

And you know that cameras (usually hidden) are being installed everywhere-- as a crime and terrorism preventative, and to stop red-light runners. Cities compete to have the highest percentage of camera coverage.

And you know that modern phones allow text messaging, the sending of photos and movies, and surfing the Internet. (They are becoming more like little laptops everyday.)

And you know that the Internet can be a dangerous place. Especially for kids.

And thus the parent's dilemma. If you have a child, the day will come when they want a phone. I think that happens around the ages of 7-9, these days.
And being kids, they won't want just any old phone, but they will want a "kewl" phone; one with all the bell's and whistles. (Your hands are kind of tied on this.. nobody makes a "plain old cellphone" anymore. Haven't for years.)

"But Mom, everybody's got one!"

The answer, for you, may be to give your child a phone that allows you to see what they text and IM, control who their "contacts" are, and, maybe, even record their calls. It's called "parental monitoring", and the extent to which you use it is up to you.
[note: if reading that made your blood pressure go up a notch, refer now to the second paragraph.]

You don't need to buy a special phone.. or even a new phone, to monitor your child's activity.
* There is commercial software that can be installed on every type of phone-- such as RADAR and MobileSpy. These can notify you in "real time" if a parameter you set is being broken.
[note: did your employer give you your cellphone? Think, people. Think. Let's add two and two here.]

* There are USB dongles that read a phone's SIM chip --even if your child's erased their messages-- for $50.

So, if you're a concerned parent, you have several options that will allow you to find some middle ground. And if you're a Big Brother Conspiracy Theorist.. well, friend, it's twice as bad as you dare to realize and it's only going to get worse.

Today's free link: Concerned parents who have a child reaching the driving age (and Big Brother Conspiracy Theorists) might read my article "What Your Car Is Saying About You."

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

The Power of the (Virtual) Machine

One of the hot topics in the IT industry is virtualization. Basically what this is, is software that creates an environment -- on an existing PC -- into which you can install (and run) another operating system [OS]; in short, running a PC on top of your PC.. which gives you two PCs. This "on top of" machine is called a "virtual machine".

Tip of the day: Get more out of your PC by using a virtual environment.
(I must take a moment to state that it is the power of the newer generations of PCs that allow us to take advantage of machine virtualization. VM "shares" resources (CPU, RAM) with the existing install... so if you're barely clunking along as it is, forget about VMs and click here to read my article(s) on when it's time for a new machine.)

How can this benefit you? One of the main advantages is when you are thinking about a dual-boot install, or would like to do away with an existing dual-boot set up -- say, for security reasons. Instead of partitioning your hard drive, and using FAT32 to run (boot to) either Windows 98 or XP, format your drive in NTFS, install XP, and run 98 inside the virtual environment. (I am using Windows 98 as an example. You may want to run a Linux distro, and learn about Open Source. The fact is you can run any OS that you have a license for... except Vista.)
If you do this, and create a shared folder for the VM on XP, you will be able to switch back and forth between the two and share files with both OS's.

Another advantage of using a VM is, it loads much like "mounting" a disk image. You can make multiple 'snapshots' of your VM, and load the one of your choosing. This is an absolutely fantastic method for dealing with security issues. I know several geeks who run an XP VM on their XP machine-- they use the VM version for their daily surfing and usage, and as a "sandbox" for testing downloaded programs and patches/Updates. At the end of the day, they just close the VM, and when they open it again (unless they take a 'snapshot' and Save those changes to the VM) their pristine VM loads: no browsing history, no spyware, no trace of yesterday's activity... just a brand-new XP machine.
By keeping a copy of the VM snapshot in another location, they always have a full system backup on hand. (And all my readers know about the importance of recovery backups!)

These are just two uses and applications for virtual machines (VMs). You may be able to think of others. You are not just limited to one VM, either -- but each VM (unless it is an Open Source OS, like Linux) does require a valid Product Key/license. This is not a way to cheat.

Today's free link(s): The most popular virtual machine software is put out by VMware. The free offerings are VMware Server (don't worry about the use of the word "server") and VMware Player (which is a web browsing sandbox). Not only is this a flexible (highly compatible with your particular hardware) program, but VMware offers several pre-configured Open Source 'snapshots', called "appliances", that you can download and run without going through an OS install process.

Microsoft also offers free virtual machine software, that some people argue works better with Microsoft OS's. From website: "Virtual PC 2007 is a powerful software virtualization solution that allows you to run multiple PC-based operating systems simultaneously on one workstation."

Either way you decide, you are not making fundamental changes to your hard drive or currently installed operating system. This is just a program, like Excel or Word is a program. Simply uninstall it if you find you don't like or need it.. but I doubt very much that you ever will-- it's just too useful and safe.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It*

There is something wonderful in this simple philosophy. It certainly is an aggravation saver, and I believe it is a good, honest, tip for a happier life. It is applicable in all aspects of our daily lives -- including our tech gadgets.

Some people (me), though, have some malformed gene, or mis-wired section in their brain which renders them constitutionally incapable of keeping their mischievous little fingers off of a perfectly functioning device. These people have a strange compulsion to try to "make it better". They just have to open it up and look at what's inside...
A highly Scientific Study (that I just made up) has proven that a full 9-out-of-10 of these personality-types not only fail to "improve" the device, they fail to get all the pieces back inside, much less back in their proper places.

The modern name for these people is "tweaker". The most 'famous' tweaker was probably Tim ["the tool man"] Taylor, a character made famous by Tim Allen on Home Improvement. (I loved it when he "improved" the kitchen garbage disposal by powering it with a chainsaw engine.) His motto: More power!

Yes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a very good Rule. For that 90% of tweakers who only succeed in disassembling the object of their interest, it ought to be a Law. However (you, Dear Reader, were expecting a "however", right?), tweaking can be a good thing. Tweaking sometimes leads to Invention. Successful and repeatable tweaks are called "optimizing". And who can argue against optimizing? Not me. A great deal of Tech--for Everyone is about optimizing your PC.. such as today's tip.

Tip of the day: Optimize your computer with the latest device drivers. Most of my readers should be aware of the existence of the small programs that allow the software on our machines (primarily the OS) to interact with the hardware, which are called "device drivers". If you've ever added a new device, you (typically) had to put in a CD and install the "driver" to get it operational. My readers probably also know that, like other programs, drivers get "updated", and improved, occasionally. Did you also know that by seeking out, and installing the latest drivers, you can have a faster machine? Or, that your device may suddenly have more "features" and capabilities? Today I'm going to show you a method to use that I consider the first step, and tomorrow I'll describe the more aggressive and effective approach, as well as how to "undo" a driver update if things should go wrong.

The first step is to create a System Restore point, to give yourself a fallback position. I reco doing this whenever you make significant changes to your machine. (To see my series on the System Restore tool, click here.)

Then you need to access your Device Manager tool. There are a couple of ways to do this, but I use Start >right-click My Computer >Properties >Hardware tab >Device Manager. Now you will see a list of the components on your machine, as shown in the example below.
Some, in fact most, of these items you do not need to worry about updating. The items that typically will give you the most improvement are: graphics, sound, printer, network (or modem) adapter, and (sometimes) monitor.

Begin by selecting the device you want to update the driver for -- I am going to use for demonstration the sound on a laptop computer -- and 'expand' the hardware list by clicking on the "+" sign next to the proper category, in my example that will be the "Sound, video, and game controllers" category.

Next, double-click on the device name to open its Properties dialogue window. In my case that's "ESS Maestro PCI Audio", and then click on the Drivers tab, which will now open a window that looks like this.

Now click on the Update driver button, which launches an automated process called the "Hardware Update Wizard". Accept the default radio button setting ("Automatically") and click "next".

Now Windows will go out and "search" for a "better" driver than the current version, and when it finds one, will help you install it via a couple of "Next" clicks. Do this for all the devices (device types) that I listed above.
Unfortunately, the  most common result of the search returns this window.

This is because Microsoft has built into the search parameters a complex formula of what constitutes "better". To them, better does not just mean "newer" (ie, a more recent version number), but whether or not the driver has been tested and approved in the Microsoft labs (for a fee), and whether or not the driver's author has shelled out the dough to buy a digital "certificate" (for another fee).
Since this is a simple driver, and not a new miracle accounting program, or other retail piece of code, most authors skip these expensive steps... and so the Update search will disregard these drivers as if they didn't exist. Tomorrows post will deal with this issue.

But doing this process can and does produce results, and it is the method I reco as the first step in a faster/better PC. New drivers are released all the time, so I do this every so often.

To read Part 2, click here.

Today's free link: I have reco'd the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser here before, and I think it's only fair to tell you of another -- Avant uses the IE 7 rendering engine, but advertises itself as the "fastest browser on earth". I like it for its built-in security features, such as tracks erasing, and its rss reader. Take a look at the Avant homepage, and then give it a try.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

Getting Rid Of Malware, Step 1*

What do you do when your PC is displaying all the signs of having been infected, but your antivirus and anti-spyware scan reports come back clean?

This was the case for a fella who called me for advice recently. He had done things 'right' -- and by that I mean he has a firewall, he keeps his antivirus definitions up to date, and he runs a couple of anti-spyware applications -- but suspected his machine had been hacked anyway.

He couldn't do things he was used to doing (like deleting a file) and his machine was "really slow."
But according to his scanners, his machine is in perfect shape.

Tip of the day: If you should find yourself in a similar situation there are several steps you can take to help resolve your questions and (hopefully) fix your machine without taking the drastic step of wiping your hard drive, formatting, and reinstalling Windows.

The first step is to use a scanner that isn't installed on your machine. Here's two ways to do that: one, if your antivirus allows it (and most of them do these days), follow its instructions and make an antivirus recovery disk. This is a bootable disk that scans your system before Windows loads.

To use one, put it in your CD tray and restart your machine. A plain-text sentence will appear telling you to "press any key to boot from CD..." (if you don't see this, click here.) When you see it, hit your spacebar or, well, any other key, and then follow the instructions. When it's finished, remove the CD and restart your machine again.
[note: you may also use a properly prepared USB thumb drive. Click here to read my article on how to do that.]

A second method is to use an online scanner. I have a list, with links, of several good online scans on my Website, here. Quite a few of the online scanning tools will try to sell you their full application, but you're under no obligation to buy. The big advantage to these two methods lies in the fact that they have not been compromised, or altered, and the files and scanners on your machine may be-- the modification being done by the virus or hacker.

Another thing to do is scroll down to my "Today's free link" and download HiJack This! Run it and dump the result into a .txt file (there's instructions for this) and then register on one of the HiJack This! forums (there's instructions for this too) and post your results there. Before too long, an expert anti-malwareologist [don't bother looking: I just now made that word up] will have looked over the intricacies, and will post his analysis and instructions. These guys (and gals) are really, really good at what they do, and you can trust their answers.

Also run CheckDisk with the "r" "f" switches (this probably will require a reboot) to make sure the problem is not your hard drive.
Click on Start >Programs >Accessories >Command prompt. In the white-on-black window type "chkdsk /r /f" (no quotes, and be sure to include the spaces). You may be told that certain files are in use, and asked if you want to "schedule this at the next reboot Y/N?" Type in a "y" and restart your machine.

Hopefully these efforts will be rewarded with a rejuvenation of your machine, and you will be back in business again.  If not, you have my sympathy. You may have a rootkit and then your best solution is to re-format your hard drive and reinstall everything, or enlist the aid of a professional

Today's free link: HijackThis™ is a free utility which quickly scans your Windows computer to find settings that may have been changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis does not clean infections, but creates a report, or log file, with the results of the scan. A large community of users participates in online forums, where experts help interpret the scan results to clean up infected computers.

Copyright © 2007-8 Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

Will System Recovery Delete My Programs?

Most computers today come with manufacturer software and a partition on the hard-drive to provide the ability to do a "System Recovery", oftentimes accessed through a program called "Recovery Center".

I have received several inquiries recently as to whether or not running a "recovery" will remove ("delete") installed programs and files.

A: Well.. Yes and no. It will "delete" your installed programs, and no, it probably won't "delete" your files.

Huh?

What the recovery software -- when launched -- will do is offer to copy the files on your machine to a backup location,{usually, it depends on the manufacturer, but most do} and them restore them again after it wipes out your C:\ drive and re-Installs Windows.
(Actually, a factory "image" of your machine taken right before it left for market.)

[note: you already have a copy of your files.. right? You do make backups.. right?!? If you answered, "uh.. no, not yet.." please read this.]

Your computer will basically be "restored" to factory defaults, and you'll have to reinstall all your programs, and visit Windows Update, and tweak your Desktop.. deja vu all over again. But, the contents of your Documents folder will be copied back.

Because of this, you should consider this type of recovery a method of last resort, not to be tried until other methods -- such as the built-in Windows' System Restore -- have been tried first. http://techpaul.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/how-to-use-system-restore-to-fix-windows/
Maybe.. call a Pro first?

Today's free download: Digsby helps you manage all your IM, e-mail, and social network accounts from one easy-to-use application.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

How To Solve Buffer Errors When Burning Discs

If you are having problems burning files to optical discs (CD's and DVD's) you may see an Error Message that says something like "Buffer overrun. Try writing at a slower speed".
(And you might not.. you might just get jittery video or garbled music.)

Optical disc are "burned" with a laser, and due to highly complicated scientific something-or-others (probably something having to do with "Physics") the burning device in your machine needs to have the 'data' fed to it at a constant rate.
This is accomplished by "compiling" the files into a memory area called a "buffer".. which then 'feeds' the CD/DVD writer in a steady stream.

Problems can occur when the software creating the burn puts too much data into the buffer (an "overrun") too quickly, or not enough data in quickly enough (an "underrun").

Tip of the day: Cure your bad burns by telling your burning device to write at at a slower burn rate. (It will {should} tell the software.)

In Windows XP:
1) Open "My Computer" (Start >My Computer, or double-click the Desktop icon.)
2) Right-click on the CD/DVD drive icon and select (click) "Properties".
3) At the top are a series of tabs, click on "Recording"
4) Use the the drop-down arrow labeled "Select a write speed" to progressively slow down your burn until the problem disappears.

In Vista:
In Vista you need to open Windows Media Player to set the burn rate. Start >Programs

1) Click on the little arrow underneath the "Burn" menu, and select "More Options..."
2) On the Burn tab you will see the Burn speed drop-down arrow-- progressively slow down your burn until the problem disappears.

[Note: If you are using an authoring program, such as Nero or Roxio, you will find similar options in similar places (menus).]

Today's free download: When you need to copy discs, or deal with "disc images", you no longer talking about "burn files to disc", and you've entered into the realm of the "dot iso" (file type= .iso) and you need a program that offers the "Copy" option. I use a light-weight program that integrates into your Context Menus.
ISO Recorder is a tool (power toy) for Windows XP, 2003 and now Windows Vista, that allows (depending on the Windows version) to burn CD and DVD images (DVD support is only available on Windows Vista), copy disks, make images of the existing data CDs and DVDs and create ISO images from a content of a disk folder.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix