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My
PC Guy'd
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July 2002
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Summer time
is great! The Summer season brings barbeques with
friends and family, relaxing days by the pool
and vacations to the beach to unwind. There is
just one thing we're missing....
A beach house right there ----->
This newsletter
is filled with computer tips to help save your
computer resources and protect you from Internet
predators, along with some funny jokes and inspirational
stories. I hope you enjoy!
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Featured
Service - Computer
Policies
All of us want our
computer to run faster and last longer. So, what can we
do to help? Your going to hate this but get rid of your
Screen Savers and Desktop Wallpaper.
I know what you heard ....Screen
Savers save your monitor from burning out. Well, it does
save phosphorus but that's about it. For your Screen Saver
to run, your hard drive has to run to supply the information
to the CPU and the CPU must supply the information to
the monitor. And the monitor (which you were trying to
save) ends up running at full power to display those fancy
screens. The 3D screen savers are the worst. They cause
excessive wear and tear on the entire system and often
cause problems when exiting. 3D Screen saver fragments
stay in memory when exiting, leaving your applications
locked, your computer running slow, and your likely to
discover the "BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH". To turn
off your Screen Saver, go to Start>>Control Panel>>Display>>Screen
Saver>>Select Blank Screen or None. For now on,
just turn off your monitor when you leave it for an extended
period of time.
Ok, now to get rid of those
Desktop Wallpapers. I know, I know. They are so pretty.
I use to change mine once a day to reflect my mood. But
Wallpaper is memory resilient, which means that, whatever
wallpaper you choose runs in memory, the more sophisticated
the wallpaper, the more memory you need. If you PC has
less than 64MG of Ram, there will be problems with performance.
Wallpapers use Ram, therefore they slow the PC down by
forcing it to use swap files for memory, which are even
slower. The only wallpaper to use is Windows default.
To change your wallpaper, go to Start>>Control Panel>>Display>>Desktop>>Select
None. Then, select the Appearances tab>>Select use
Windows Default. If it makes you feel any better, you
can still change the color of your desktop.
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News Headlines
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Ask
The Technician - Privacy On The Internet
Q: I have heard numerous
stories about people who steal your personal information
off of the Internet. What can I do to protect myself? Thank
you for all your help. Benjamin with Top Propane
A: Someone else could easily
pretend to be you. It happens all the time. If someone gets
ahold of any bit of your personal information, who knows
what they'll do with it. You could wind up with all sorts
of problems. When you fill out a Web form which asks for
specific personal details, (1) make sure you trust the site
and have read its privacy policy; and (2) make sure you
see a padlock in your browser's status bar. Double-click
that padlock to make sure the security certificate is trustworthy.
If you're not purchasing something, you could always "fake"
some of those personal details. On the Internet, I'm a eighty
year-old retired schoolteacher named Bertha, and I pull
in under $10,000 a year. As far as account passwords, I
strongly recommend using a different ones on every site.
Yeah, it may stress your memory, but at least you can keep
perpetrators guessing. One last thing, but most important.
Never, and I mean never, send your account name and/or password
to anyone! Even if they seem to be from a trusted site.
Good Luck!
Have a question for the Technician?
Email us at newsletter@mypcguy.com.
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Office
Humor - Kids Say The Funniest Things
A Sunday school teacher asked
her little children, as they were on the way to church service,
"And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"
One bright little girl replied, "Because people are
sleeping."
A three-year-old went with
his dad to see a litter of kittens. On returning home, he
breathlessly informed his mother there were two boy kittens
and two girl kittens. "How did you know," his
mother asked. "Daddy picked them up and looked underneath,"
he replied. "I think it's printed on the bottom,"
A mother was preparing pancakes
for her sons, Kevin, 5, and Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue
over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the
opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting
here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake.
I can wait." Kevin turned to his younger brother and
said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"
A little boy got lost at
the YMCA and found himself in the women's locker room.
When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with
ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little
boy watched in amazement and then asked, "What's
the matter --haven't you ever seen a little boy before?"
On the first day of school,
a first grader handed his teacher a note from his mother.
The note read, "The opinions expressed by this child
are not necessarily those of his parents."
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Thought
For The Month - The Trouble
Tree
The
carpenter I hired to help restore my old farmhouse had a
pretty rough first day on the job. A flat tire made him
lose an hour of work in the morning. In the afternoon, his
electric saw quit. At the end of the day, his ancient pick-up
truck refused to start. As I drove him home, he sat next
to me in stony silence.
When we arrived at his house,
the carpenter invited me in to meet the family. As we walked
toward the front door, he paused briefly in front of a small
tree and touched the tips of its branches with both hands.
He then opened the door and underwent an amazing transformation.
His face was wreathed with smiles, and his voice was filled
with laughter. He hugged his two small children and gave
his wife a kiss.
When my visit was over, the
carpenter walked me to my car. When we passed the tree,
my curiosity got the better of me. So I asked him about
what he had done earlier.
"Oh," the carpenter
replied, "that's just my Trouble Tree. I know I can't
help having troubles on the job," he continued, "but
one thing's for sure--those troubles don't belong in my
house. That's why every night when I come home, I just leave
them outside by hanging them on the Trouble Tree.
"In the morning when
I head off to work, I just pick my troubles up again."
Smiling, the carpenter added, "The funny thing is,
the troubles I pick up in the morning are not nearly as
many as I remember hanging on the tree the night before."
-Author Unknown
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Windows
Tips & Tricks
Taming the Toolbars
Many people are not aware of the convenience of toolbars
on your desktop. Not only do they stay out of the way, but
adding frequently-used shortcuts will save you time. You
can drag & drop any folder or file to the top or side
of your screen and a new toolbar will be created. Right-click
on your Taskbar, select 'Toolbars,' then 'Desktop.' You
should see a new toolbar appear in your Taskbar; left-click
where it says 'Desktop' and drag it all the way to the right
(towards your Clock) until you see just the word 'Desktop'
and a couple of small right-pointing arrows. Left-click
on those arrows, and you'll get a menu of all the items
currently sitting on your Desktop, plus cascading menus
for every drive and folder on your computer.
When you need a quick way
to access data, you can create a new tool, rather, toolbar.
Right-click on your Taskbar and select 'Toolbars' and 'New
Toolbar.' The dialog will ask you to choose a folder or
type an Internet address. Enter your favorite URL and it
could create a toolbar containing that page. Try out the
'Address' toolbar (allows you to enter URLs on-the-fly).
Just drag & drop the websites onto the toolbar and you
have bookmarks of every internet site you use frequently
on your desktop. Can it get any better than that?
Stationary In Outlook
Why not spice up your email messages? You
must be sending your mail in HTML (if your not sure, follow
the directions below; option to change to HTML is on "Mail
Format" tab.) Connect to the Internet and open Outlook.
--Click Tools>>Options>>Mail Format>>Stationery
Picker. You can choose from the list provided or --Click
Get More Stationery. Microsoft occasionally offers free
stationery for Outlook, which you can use to pep up your
messages. Choose from the free stationery on Microsoft's
site.
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Contact
Information
For More Information on My
PC Guy, contact:
Phone: 410-975-9060
E-mail: info@mypcguy.com
Web Pages: http://www.mypcguy.com
Editor: Jennifer Cox
jenc@mypcguy.com
The Editor would love to hear from you!
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do you have with your computer?
Email us with any ideas, questions and/or comments about
the eLetter.
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2002 except where indicated otherwise.
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