From joegill at removethis Tue Dec 1 11:28:31 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Tue Dec 1 11:30:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need Ideas and informaton on back up and off site back up. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Frog Prince" wrote in message news:hf0ul4$2os$1@news.spamcop.net... > I've tried several off site data storage programs/services and no joy. > Which ones have you tried? and what where the results? > I'm interested in setting up duplicate hardware, one here on site and one > off site and likely out of state. > Based on the answer to the above, have you looked at the commercial ones avaialble? > Can I use old towers/cpu's with large HDD or do I need to go all new and > sophisticated equipment? (cost) > The real problem I see as bandwidth. Most of us have great download speeds, but the upload speed sucks(ie: 512-768K) > BTW while the data is mission critical it is not a security concern as the > data is all under copyright and on the web so anyone accessing is unlikely > to be able to use it. When you say 'misson critical', how long of an outage are your willing to endure to get data back? > What I do need is to prevent malicious hacking where the back ups are > damaged or deleted. I would suggest backup verification after backup is completed, and then removal from a connected systems. When you say 'backups are damaged or deleted', from what I understand, eletrical problems are more of a threat (Ie: surges, lightning strikes(does not even have to be a direct hit!) etc. > > TIA > All that said, have you considered ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE. It looks like a viable commerical software. Some backup scenarious I could envision are: 1) Weekly backups to a USB drive, with removal of the USB drive off premises, on a schedule like: N-backup stays on site N-1 backup goes to a local facility N-2 backup is sent out of area. 2) Another scenario might be Weekly full copies with daily incrementals. 3) Twice weekly backups with one staying onsite and the other offsite. How much data is Gigabytes, Terabytes ,etc are we talking.. Also, when you think about backup, have you planned the 'restoration' scenarios? Are you backing up software, etc. The restoration scenario may drive the backup scenario. Lastly, have you considered a 'hosting' solution? Or what about a backup service with onsite/offsite backup? I saw this one.. http://www.barracudanetworks.com/ns/?a=google-backup_backup&t=bbs&gclid=CN33qcbTtZ4CFQjyDAod5x66nQ&L=en From me at privacy.net Tue Dec 1 14:37:08 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Tue Dec 1 14:40:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need sugestions recommendations References: Message-ID: "Richard W" wrote in message news:hevl0i$j7o$1@news.spamcop.net... > Frog Prince wrote: > >>> Spamcop mail? It was claimed that it is unfiltered, at least if you also >>> view the spambox. >> >> Can't use spamcop name effectively for what I'm about. > > My understanding is Jeff does do mx hosting for outside domains. Or as I > do, when I set up my domains I just have the mail forwarded to my SpamCop > account. T-Bird lets you reply using the address the mail was sent to. > I may be misunderstanding the process but what I do now is get the inbound mail forwarded to my main collection account. If I reply using the domain name the recipient gets an email with a miss match between the domain name and the sending ISP in this case either Verizon or Charter. Due to the IP for VZN and Charter being dynamic every once in a while I get an IP that is block listed. Some recipient servers block automatically if there is a difference in account domain name and the sending IP address. I don't mind paying for the service I get but I do need to be able to send my email uncontaminated by association with my provides IP. I tried a commercial account and both Charter and VZN are still blocking messages as are recipients of messages with their IP ranges. It would be one thing is they were consistent with bounce and error messages but too frequently the message in and out are bit bucketed. From me at privacy.net Tue Dec 1 14:59:30 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Tue Dec 1 15:00:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need Ideas and informaton on back up and off site back up. References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:hf3g7q$v8u$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Frog Prince" wrote in message > news:hf0ul4$2os$1@news.spamcop.net... >> I've tried several off site data storage programs/services and no joy. >> > Which ones have you tried? and what where the results? More than I care to mention, POOR to VERY POOR. Frankly I'm tired of hearing recitations of scripted responses that have no bearing on what I'm doing or trying to do, with people that can neither comprehend nor articulate standard network/broadcast English. If they can't support making it work from the evaluation stage what are my prospects when I'm really in trouble? > >> I'm interested in setting up duplicate hardware, one here on site and one >> off site and likely out of state. >> > > Based on the answer to the above, have you looked at the commercial ones > available? Have kinda half fast. More interested in rolling my own for the knowledge/experiance. Second is to lower the cost. > >> Can I use old towers/cpu's with large HDD or do I need to go all new and >> sophisticated equipment? (cost) >> > The real problem I see as bandwidth. Most of us have great download > speeds, but the upload speed sucks(ie: 512-768K) We have 5M up here and 2M up at my kids place. Likely do the first back up on site and meter the transfer of updates. > >> BTW while the data is mission critical it is not a security concern as >> the data is all under copyright and on the web so anyone accessing is >> unlikely to be able to use it. > > When you say 'mission critical', how long of an outage are your willing to > endure to get data back?\ Most times 10 to 30 days. Might run into one eventually that will be needed sooner but since we don't do deadlines (If I find out I have one I GUARANTEE I'll miss it) I don't see much of a need for 'yesterday' Our contracts are clear on this and we've been known to resign an client/project if the project director gets into the I HAVE TO HAVE IT THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY!!! mode. Made for some amazing responses and a hell of a lot of a** kissing. Once he understood our business plan a second time we finished the project and then resigned the account permanently. >> What I do need is to prevent malicious hacking where the back ups are >> damaged or deleted. > > I would suggest backup verification after backup is completed, and then > removal from a connected systems. > > When you say 'backups are damaged or deleted', from what I understand, > electrical problems are more of a threat (Ie: surges, lightning > strikes(does not even have to be a direct hit!) etc. I've designed, construed and install communications systems along the Gulf Coast for years. I've had paint blistered off the walls and metal towers melted but my equipment still worked >> TIA >> > > All that said, have you considered ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE. It looks like a > viable commercial software. > > Some backup scenarios I could envision are: > 1) Weekly backups to a USB drive, with removal of the USB drive off > premises, on a schedule like: > N-backup stays on site > N-1 backup goes to a local facility > N-2 backup is sent out of area. Want to set it up to do it's thing automatically > > 2) Another scenario might be Weekly full copies with daily incremental. > > 3) Twice weekly backups with one staying onsite and the other offsite. > > How much data is Gigabytes, Terabytes ,etc are we talking.. All computers, 3-4 TB and that's a guess. My wife and daughter's work product is graphic/vidio/audio and BIG. > > Also, when you think about backup, have you planned the 'restoration' > scenarios? Are you backing up software, etc. The restoration scenario may > drive the backup scenario. > > Lastly, have you considered a 'hosting' solution? Open to that but not real comfortable with that as THINGS happen. We had off site backup in New Orleans and just happened to have redundant back up via tennis shoe modem in Dallas. took them 6 months to get the water out of the server farm (under ground and under sea level in a place that has a several hundred year history of flooding.) > Or what about a backup service with onsite/offsite backup? > I saw this one.. > http://www.barracudanetworks.com/ns/?a=google-backup_backup&t=bbs&gclid=CN33qcbTtZ4CFQjyDAod5x66nQ&L=en > Willing to look into this but not real impressed with the possibility of "Opps" (BTDT) or their prices. On site will do 99.99% of what I need. Since I have two sites backing one to the other makes the most sense. Added benefit either studio can have access to the other studio's work product should there be a need. From spamalyzer at isaluzer.net Wed Dec 2 10:26:44 2009 From: spamalyzer at isaluzer.net (Sylvesterthekat) Date: Wed Dec 2 10:30:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] outlook express dbx files have gone missing Message-ID: well kind of. i was in the process of backing them up when the DVD burner said there was a problem with the CD it was burning on and bombed out of the copy. so i went back to do it again and when going into the Identities folder, the next folder (the one with all the symbols and numbers etc) is empty. Yet my email is still loading and functioning as normal. So where the hell is it getting the data from and how can I copy the dbx files if I can't get to them? Very annoying! I rebooted but no dice, it made no difference. Any suggestions? From me at privacy.net Wed Dec 2 10:31:13 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Wed Dec 2 10:35:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: outlook express dbx files have gone missing References: Message-ID: "Sylvesterthekat" wrote in message news:hf60va$2kl$1@news.spamcop.net... > well kind of. i was in the process of backing them up when the DVD burner > said there was a problem with the CD it was burning on and bombed out of > the copy. so i went back to do it again and when going into the Identities > folder, the next folder (the one with all the symbols and numbers etc) is > empty. Yet my email is still loading and functioning as normal. So where > the hell is it getting the data from and how can I copy the dbx files if I > can't get to them? Very annoying! I rebooted but no dice, it made no > difference. Any suggestions? Do a file search on "dbx" with OE off, can be *.dbx but that a bit redundant. I usually copy to a folder OE BACK UP DATE then copy/move that folder to the archive place. From spamalyzer at isaluzer.net Wed Dec 2 11:24:34 2009 From: spamalyzer at isaluzer.net (Sylvesterthekat) Date: Wed Dec 2 11:25:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: outlook express dbx files have gone missing References: Message-ID: > Do a file search on "dbx" with OE off, can be *.dbx but that a bit > redundant. > > I usually copy to a folder OE BACK UP DATE then copy/move that folder to > the archive place. I may have accidentally replied just to you last time, no idea if that'll have gone thru or not. anyway, it didn't work, nothing was found when i searched for dbx. However, shortly after that it all reappared again (NO idea why) and I made a copy of it onto a local drive and am now backing it up onto a DVD. So no need to send out an individual copy of each email lol (the horror!). From me at privacy.net Wed Dec 2 12:23:40 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Wed Dec 2 12:25:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: outlook express dbx files have gone missing References: Message-ID: "Sylvesterthekat" wrote in message news:hf64bp$3s2$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Do a file search on "dbx" with OE off, can be *.dbx but that a bit >> redundant. >> >> I usually copy to a folder OE BACK UP DATE then copy/move that folder to >> the archive place. > > I may have accidentally replied just to you last time, no idea if that'll > have gone thru or not. anyway, it didn't work, nothing was found when i > searched for dbx. However, shortly after that it all reappared again (NO > idea why) and I made a copy of it onto a local drive and am now backing it > up onto a DVD. So no need to send out an individual copy of each email lol > (the horror!). I usually set up a different folder for the files to be stored in. tools, options, maintance, store folder. Makes finding and backing up the dbx files easy. From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Dec 2 13:48:46 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Dec 2 13:50:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] USB port issues Message-ID: Lately I've been having problems with some of my USB2.0 ports. The layout: HP Pavilion Touchsmart PC running Vista SP1, NOT updated with all the latest patches/hotfixes/etc, since some recent patches have continued to kill certain apps' operation and/or function, in particular IE8. One patch even prevent me from downloading "HiJack This" in FireFox, saying my security settings didn't allow it! (I had a what turned out to be false positive virus flag from AVG9 that said a Firefox PHP file was infected). I've permanently turned off Windows Updates as a result and removed all recently installed patches and was then able to download and install HT, which showed I was clean. The PC has 3 USB ports in the back plus one Firewire port, 2 USBs in a front panel, and I have a 4-port hub plugged into one of the rear USB ports for my USB keyboard and wireless Logitch mouse to use (too damn many USB peripherals!). I typically only use the front USB ports for uploading music to my MP3 player, but on occasion I also connect my digital camera to one of the two front ports to download new photos. Two days ago when I tried to upload photos of those antique Xmas tree ornaments I mentioned in .social, the camera wasn't recognized like usual (front USB port). I then plugged it into an empty port on the 4-port hub, and Vista discovered it as a "new" device and installed drivers for it, which is strange, since I've uploaded photos from that exact same camera many times, so the drivers _should_ have been installed already. Also, a month ago my HP Pocket Drive, a portable 320 GB NTFS HD that slides into a built-in USB port in the side of the computer, started to "disappear", meaning it wouldn't show up in My Computer as a disk drive, or in Hardware Manager. Running "scan for new hardware" turned up nothing. I tried plugging it into the front ports, no joy. Plugged into into the hub, Vista said it was an unrecognized and/or malfunctioning device (it's only 3 months old). The first time this happened, I took it downstairs and plugged it into my ancient Win2k machine and it worked fine, came back upstairs, put it back into the built-in USB slot for the drive, and it worked. Yesterday, it disappeared again, with no port recognizing it. Once again I took it to the downstairs PC, but this time I totally scrubbed the drive and ran chkdsk on it, which ultimately failed when it was about 99% finished, dunno what that's all about and if it's related to the drive problem. So back upstairs with it, but again no joy on any available USB port. As a last resort, I unplugged my old IoGear external HD from a USB port on the back of the PC, hooked it up via Firewire, then plugged the HP Pocket Drive into the now empty rear USB port. And it worked! So WTF is going on with the functionality of these different USB ports and hubs? They're all USB 2.0, so they *should* act identically, right? What should I check in Hardware Manager for these ports, as in are they all using the same driver and same driver version? Should I uninstall all of the USB ports and let Vista reconfigure them all automatically? This is a very vexing problem, and the way the various ports and hubs function on the (PCI?) bus are beyond my knowledge. I'd really prefer to get the Pocket Drive back into it's built in enclosure to free up that rear USB port, since they seem to be the only ones that work correctly for anything I plug into them. Help Please! From spamalyzer at isaluzer.net Wed Dec 2 16:33:13 2009 From: spamalyzer at isaluzer.net (Sylvesterthekat) Date: Wed Dec 2 16:35:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:hf6cqe$6od$1@news.spamcop.net... > This is a very vexing problem, and the way the various ports and hubs > function on the (PCI?) bus are beyond my knowledge. I'd really prefer to > get the Pocket Drive back into it's built in enclosure to free up that > rear USB port, since they seem to be the only ones that work correctly for > anything I plug into them. I'm not an expert, as you know (lol) but are all your USB ports powered to the same degree? Something like a drive will suck a lot of power compared with something like an MP3 player which shouldn't require much or any power from the USB. From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Dec 2 18:34:40 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Heidi) Date: Wed Dec 2 18:35:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: outlook express dbx files have gone missing References: Message-ID: "Sylvesterthekat" wrote in message news:hf64bp$3s2$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Do a file search on "dbx" with OE off, can be *.dbx but that a bit >> redundant. >> >> I usually copy to a folder OE BACK UP DATE then copy/move that folder to >> the archive place. > > I may have accidentally replied just to you last time, no idea if that'll > have gone thru or not. anyway, it didn't work, nothing was found when i > searched for dbx. However, shortly after that it all reappared again (NO > idea why) and I made a copy of it onto a local drive and am now backing it > up onto a DVD. So no need to send out an individual copy of each email lol > (the horror!). I do what FP says, I store my dbx folders to a NON Windows system folder on the C: drive that I create, that way if OE bombs or Windows needs to be repaired, my email folders don't get deleted with it. Same with documents, I never store anything important on My Documents, because if Windows goes, so does everything in it... From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Dec 2 21:52:17 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Dec 2 21:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Sylvesterthekat" wrote in message news:hf6meg$aag$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Indigo" wrote in message > news:hf6cqe$6od$1@news.spamcop.net... > > This is a very vexing problem, and the way the various ports and hubs >> function on the (PCI?) bus are beyond my knowledge. I'd really prefer to >> get the Pocket Drive back into it's built in enclosure to free up that >> rear USB port, since they seem to be the only ones that work correctly >> for anything I plug into them. > > I'm not an expert, as you know (lol) but are all your USB ports powered to > the same degree? Something like a drive will suck a lot of power compared > with something like an MP3 player which shouldn't require much or any > power from the USB. Well, all USB ports are powered, right? What does that have to do with it? I noticed one weird thing today -- I found the OEM USB cable that came with the Pocket drive and it has TWO USB connectors at one end instead of one! I have no clue why, and have been too busy researching other vexing problems today to look into it (my MMC console stopped working last week, can't load event viewer or task manager). But the two USB plugs *might* infer something about the power requirements of the drive, although the frankenstein USB cord I had been using previously to test out the drive only has one connector and it worked fine, albeit by plugging it into one of the rear MOBO ports of my old PC. There's nothing in the skimpy user's manual that even shows a cord with two USB connectors, rather it shows a single USB cord plus a power cord, which didn't come with my drive. So you may be onto something there.....but still, why did the built in slot for that exact model drive stop working all the sudden? From user at domain.invalid Wed Dec 2 22:40:58 2009 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Wed Dec 2 22:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > > > But the two USB plugs *might* infer something about the power > requirements of the drive, although the frankenstein USB cord I had been > using previously to test out the drive only has one connector and it > worked fine,... Yeah, could be something in that. I was using a USB port that ran very hot when an external drive was connected through it, I replaced it with another hub that has two USB connectors into it (the manual said to use the second one when there was high power demand) and all is cool. So, I had to give up 1 to 4 for 2 to 4 when the hub is powered only through the PC USB ports. Of course the first hub (or the port I was using) may have been defective but there has to be a reason the second hub has that extra connector (and the advice to use it). From loyal at spamcop.user Thu Dec 3 02:06:25 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Thu Dec 3 02:10:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > Well, all USB ports are powered, right? What does that have to do with > it? I noticed one weird thing today -- I found the OEM USB cable that > came with the Pocket drive and it has TWO USB connectors at one end > instead of one! I have no clue why, and have been too busy researching > other vexing problems today to look into it (my MMC console stopped > working last week, can't load event viewer or task manager). They are, but to a degree. If you have a device that sucks more juice than a USB device should, and if you have many devices on that USB bus, the bus might fault or not work correctly. Your motherboard probably has a single USB bus on it. It might have two though. You'd have to see if the motherboard specs indicate anything to having two USB buses. Most devices are ok. A normal USB keyboard or corded mouse are well behaved. A wireless mouse and/or wireless keyboard consume more energy. And it goes on from there to cameras, printers, mini USB disks, and beyond. I'm also curious if you live in a state that is subject to frequent lightning and thunderstorms. If so, do you have decent and adequate surge protectors and line filters? I recall reading an article over a year ago in a computer weekly mag (Computerworld or Infoworld or similar) that indicated that Florida has higher percentages of computer failures and bizarre computer problems that are suspected of spiky electric services. AndrewB From loyal at spamcop.user Thu Dec 3 02:10:50 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Thu Dec 3 02:15:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: outlook express dbx files have gone missing In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Heidi wrote: > I do what FP says, I store my dbx folders to a NON Windows system folder on > the C: drive that I create, that way if OE bombs or Windows needs to be > repaired, my email folders don't get deleted with it. Same with documents, > I never store anything important on My Documents, because if Windows goes, > so does everything in it... On the 'My Documents' issue, TweakUI (at least for Win2000 and WinXP) lets you change the location of 'My Documents' to something you specify. Proceed with caution though. FYI. AndrewB From user at domain.invalid Thu Dec 3 09:32:46 2009 From: user at domain.invalid (User) Date: Thu Dec 3 09:35:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Why, you're mad! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 12.11.2009 10:53, Charles wrote: --- Original Message --- > So everything is hosed. Sux to be me, huh? Yah, you fixed something that wasn't busted. :-( From borgholio at storymind.com Thu Dec 3 18:15:02 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Thu Dec 3 18:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Switching cell phones Message-ID: So yeah it's not entirely painless to switch from an LG CE-110 on AT&T to a Verizon Samsung Alias, but there has to be a better way to transfer all my contacts than by Bluetoothing each one individually. Oh and I wonder how I can transfer files to / from my Alias...on my LG it could be done via Bluetooth. With the Alias I need to use a Micro-SD card which seems a bit of a hassle. From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 3 20:49:18 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Dec 3 20:50:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: outlook express dbx files have gone missing In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:hf7o9p$man$2@news.spamcop.net... > Heidi wrote: > >> I do what FP says, I store my dbx folders to a NON Windows system folder >> on the C: drive that I create, that way if OE bombs or Windows needs to >> be repaired, my email folders don't get deleted with it. Same with >> documents, I never store anything important on My Documents, because if >> Windows goes, so does everything in it... > > On the 'My Documents' issue, TweakUI (at least for Win2000 and WinXP) lets > you change the location of 'My Documents' to something you specify. > > Proceed with caution though. Wise advice indeed.....I tried to change a couple of folder options using X-Setup Pro (nearly identical program to TweakUI, which doesn't run on Vista), and I ended up hosing my system in some very unintended ways.....although I don't recall changing any FF settings, I did change some IE folder locations and changed the homepage (that option was greyed out in IE so I had to use a tweaker to over-ride IE's protection), but it backfired big time. Even using X-Setup's restore function didn't resolve the issue, and I had to use system restore to get back my Firefox profile and favorites/bookmarks, but for some reason changing my IE default page to Google "stuck"!? The only reason I was tinkering with the tweaker at all was because in the last week I've run into this strange "black box over icons" issue, something I've had before but forgotten how to fix. Most online solutions were to use a tweaker to fix the reg settings, I couldn't find the exact reg entry to change by hand. Lots of folks also recommended downloading an app called FXVisor to fix the problem, but for some reason it wouldn't install, kept looking for a file or drive that didn't exist. After doing the sys restore, I was able to install FXVisor just a couple minutes ago , and checked the "don't add - shortcut" to new shortcuts, a bane upon my existence.....hopefully it will work.....oops, nope, it comes up with a .NET V2.00xxxx runtime error. Dammit, I USED to know exactly where to go in the reg file to stop that stupid "- shortcut" extension, but I searched my registry file using that exact search term and came up empty. Anyone know exactly where it's located? P.S. The "black box over icons" problem disappeared with the sys restore, which is very strange, because I just restored to yesterday morning's restore point and the icon problem has been around for about a week. It may have helped that I also uninstalled a bunch of unneeded Vista updates and hotfixes, like patches for Outlook, which isn't even installed on my PC! From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 3 20:55:13 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Dec 3 21:00:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Farelf" wrote in message news:hf7c0a$hut$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Yeah, could be something in that. I was using a USB port that ran very > hot when an external drive was connected through it, I replaced it with > another hub that has two USB connectors into it (the manual said to use > the second one when there was high power demand) and all is cool. > > So, I had to give up 1 to 4 for 2 to 4 when the hub is powered only > through the PC USB ports. Of course the first hub (or the port I was > using) may have been defective but there has to be a reason the second hub > has that extra connector (and the advice to use it). My 4-port hub is powered by AC, so lacking sufficient current/voltage to power the USB HD shouldn't have been an issue. The problem was that Vista couldn't/wouldn't recognize the drive. After running the drive off of that rear USB port for a day, I transferred it back to it's original built-in drive bay this afternoon and it's working fine again! So Weird......I wonder if there is actually an intermittent HD failure occuring.....I'd love to ship the thing back and get a new one, but I don't have enough disk space anywhere else to save everything that's on the drive -- a nasty Catch-22 if there ever was one! From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 3 21:05:13 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Dec 3 21:10:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:hf7o1g$man$1@news.spamcop.net... > I'm also curious if you live in a state that is subject to frequent > lightning and thunderstorms. If so, do you have decent and adequate surge > protectors and line filters? I recall reading an article over a year ago > in a computer weekly mag (Computerworld or Infoworld or similar) that > indicated that Florida has higher percentages of computer failures and > bizarre computer problems that are suspected of spiky electric services. > I've installed both an inline surge surpressor on the co-ax cable as it comes into my house and a ground isolator that solved some audio noise problems related to a ground loop issue. I also have a relatively new and expensive surge protector that *everything* PC related is plugged into, using various extension cords and Y-splitter power cords, because there's too damn many voltage converter blocks to fit onto the surge surpresser itself. So I'm protected against both local lightning strikes and any power surge coming thru the co-ax cable into the house, I don't know how I could protect things any better short of installing a UPS, which is a luxury I really can't afford right now (I'd buy a good one, not some cheapo that wouldn't offer any surge protection). From joegill at removethis Thu Dec 3 23:37:38 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Thu Dec 3 23:40:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:hf6cqe$6od$1@news.spamcop.net... > Lately I've been having problems with some of my USB2.0 ports. The layout: > HP Pavilion Touchsmart PC running Vista SP1, NOT updated with all the > latest patches/hotfixes/etc, since some recent patches have continued to > kill certain apps' operation and/or function, in particular IE8. One patch > even prevent me from downloading "HiJack This" in FireFox, saying my > security settings didn't allow it! (I had a what turned out to be false > positive virus flag from AVG9 that said a Firefox PHP file was infected). > I've permanently turned off Windows Updates as a result and removed all > recently installed patches and was then able to download and install HT, > which showed I was clean. > > The PC has 3 USB ports in the back plus one Firewire port, 2 USBs in a > front panel, and I have a 4-port hub plugged into one of the rear USB > ports for my USB keyboard and wireless Logitch mouse to use (too damn many > USB peripherals!). I typically only use the front USB ports for uploading > music to my MP3 player, but on occasion I also connect my digital camera > to one of the two front ports to download new photos. > > Two days ago when I tried to upload photos of those antique Xmas tree > ornaments I mentioned in .social, the camera wasn't recognized like usual > (front USB port). I then plugged it into an empty port on the 4-port hub, > and Vista discovered it as a "new" device and installed drivers for it, > which is strange, since I've uploaded photos from that exact same camera > many times, so the drivers _should_ have been installed already. > > Also, a month ago my HP Pocket Drive, a portable 320 GB NTFS HD that > slides into a built-in USB port in the side of the computer, started to > "disappear", meaning it wouldn't show up in My Computer as a disk drive, > or in Hardware Manager. Running "scan for new hardware" turned up nothing. > I tried plugging it into the front ports, no joy. Plugged into into the > hub, Vista said it was an unrecognized and/or malfunctioning device (it's > only 3 months old). The first time this happened, I took it downstairs and > plugged it into my ancient Win2k machine and it worked fine, came back > upstairs, put it back into the built-in USB slot for the drive, and it > worked. Yesterday, it disappeared again, with no port recognizing it. Once > again I took it to the downstairs PC, but this time I totally scrubbed the > drive and ran chkdsk on it, which ultimately failed when it was about 99% > finished, dunno what that's all about and if it's related to the drive > problem. > > So back upstairs with it, but again no joy on any available USB port. As a > last resort, I unplugged my old IoGear external HD from a USB port on the > back of the PC, hooked it up via Firewire, then plugged the HP Pocket > Drive into the now empty rear USB port. And it worked! > > So WTF is going on with the functionality of these different USB ports and > hubs? They're all USB 2.0, so they *should* act identically, right? What > should I check in Hardware Manager for these ports, as in are they all > using the same driver and same driver version? Should I uninstall all of > the USB ports and let Vista reconfigure them all automatically? > > This is a very vexing problem, and the way the various ports and hubs > function on the (PCI?) bus are beyond my knowledge. I'd really prefer to > get the Pocket Drive back into it's built in enclosure to free up that > rear USB port, since they seem to be the only ones that work correctly for > anything I plug into them. > > Help Please! At least for my device, an HP HDX 18, there was a download from HP, which for Vista SP1 and beyond. It contained some MS 'hotfixes' which fixed some USB issues, as well as IE8 issues. From joegill at removethis Thu Dec 3 23:39:49 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Thu Dec 3 23:45:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Why, you're mad! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9CD6632A08F1BTheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > It wasn't me! It was User ! > >> On 12.11.2009 10:53, Charles wrote: >> >> --- Original Message --- >> >>> So everything is hosed. Sux to be me, huh? >> >> Yah, you fixed something that wasn't busted. :-( > > Well, we're back in the land of the working. I've got my machine up, > several VMs running and a 4GB RAM disk. Now I just need to figure out > what > to do with it all! Remember there are only 2 types of 'code' - Broke code - Future broke code :) From me at privacy.net Thu Dec 3 23:49:06 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Thu Dec 3 23:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones References: Message-ID: "Borgholio" wrote in message news:hf9gpe$b1b$1@news.spamcop.net... > So yeah it's not entirely painless to switch from an LG CE-110 on AT&T to > a Verizon Samsung Alias, but there has to be a better way to transfer all > my contacts than by Bluetoothing each one individually. > > Oh and I wonder how I can transfer files to / from my Alias...on my LG it > could be done via Bluetooth. With the Alias I need to use a Micro-SD card > which seems a bit of a hassle. First thing that comes to mine is a SIM card. If both phones have them and the match you're in like flint. If not you can buy software and hardware that will access both and do the transfer. I'm told VZN will do the deed for $10 or $15. But don't know if they have the tools to access the competition. From me at privacy.net Thu Dec 3 23:51:24 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Thu Dec 3 23:55:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:hf7955$gul$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Sylvesterthekat" wrote in message > news:hf6meg$aag$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> "Indigo" wrote in message >> news:hf6cqe$6od$1@news.spamcop.net... >> > This is a very vexing problem, and the way the various ports and hubs >>> function on the (PCI?) bus are beyond my knowledge. I'd really prefer to >>> get the Pocket Drive back into it's built in enclosure to free up that >>> rear USB port, since they seem to be the only ones that work correctly >>> for anything I plug into them. >> >> I'm not an expert, as you know (lol) but are all your USB ports powered >> to the same degree? Something like a drive will suck a lot of power >> compared with something like an MP3 player which shouldn't require much >> or any power from the USB. > > Well, all USB ports are powered, right? What does that have to do with it? > I noticed one weird thing today -- I found the OEM USB cable that came > with the Pocket drive and it has TWO USB connectors at one end instead of > one! I have no clue why, and have been too busy researching other vexing > problems today to look into it (my MMC console stopped working last week, > can't load event viewer or task manager). > > But the two USB plugs *might* infer something about the power requirements > of the drive, although the frankenstein USB cord I had been using > previously to test out the drive only has one connector and it worked > fine, albeit by plugging it into one of the rear MOBO ports of my old PC. > There's nothing in the skimpy user's manual that even shows a cord with > two USB connectors, rather it shows a single USB cord plus a power cord, > which didn't come with my drive. So you may be onto something > there.....but still, why did the built in slot for that exact model drive > stop working all the sudden? Specifications say one thing real world is another. Which is why you sometimes need to play guessing game to get a port that will support the power load. Other times you can get a hub with a wall wart. From borgholio at storymind.com Fri Dec 4 00:12:08 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Fri Dec 4 00:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Frog Prince wrote: > "Borgholio" wrote in message > news:hf9gpe$b1b$1@news.spamcop.net... >> So yeah it's not entirely painless to switch from an LG CE-110 on AT&T to >> a Verizon Samsung Alias, but there has to be a better way to transfer all >> my contacts than by Bluetoothing each one individually. >> >> Oh and I wonder how I can transfer files to / from my Alias...on my LG it >> could be done via Bluetooth. With the Alias I need to use a Micro-SD card >> which seems a bit of a hassle. > > > First thing that comes to mine is a SIM card. If both phones have them and > the match you're in like flint. > > If not you can buy software and hardware that will access both and do the > transfer. > > I'm told VZN will do the deed for $10 or $15. But don't know if they have > the tools to access the competition. > > Ah yes the key word there is "buy". I can't even bear to buy a ringtone for 2 bucks. :-P From bert at iphouse.com Fri Dec 4 09:19:35 2009 From: bert at iphouse.com (Bert Hyman) Date: Fri Dec 4 09:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones References: Message-ID: In news:hfa4j6$itb$1@news.spamcop.net "Frog Prince" wrote: > First thing that comes to mine is a SIM card. If both phones have > them and the match you're in like flint. Verizon's phones don't use SIM cards. -- Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN bert@iphouse.com From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Dec 4 10:47:44 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Dec 4 10:50:10 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:hfa3n9$ilq$1@news.spamcop.net... > > At least for my device, an HP HDX 18, there was a download from HP, which > for Vista SP1 and beyond. It contained some MS 'hotfixes' which fixed some > USB issues, as well as IE8 issues. LOL....you know what I did that may or may not have made the drive work properly again? I rolled back a bunch of MS hotfixes and updates, including several ones for IE8 ;-) Actually, I just remembered something I came across on a web page while researching the problem the other day, it said something about not setting the drive down flat on your desk -- the built in drive slot is not totally vertical, since it's part of the tiltable/adjustable part of the screen and PC, but it's probably close to 75 degrees upright. Could the problem have been that the drive platter got stuck when using those other external ports because I laid the drive flat on my desk? If so, why did it work laying flat using my downstairs PC? Maybe there's a "good" flat side and a "bad" flat side? I'm visioning the guts of the drive as looking like an LP player, which obviously only works with the "right" flat side up. Whether that's a valid analogy or not, it would explain certain things. From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Dec 4 10:50:29 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Dec 4 10:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Frog Prince" wrote in message news:hfa4j6$itb$2@news.spamcop.net... > Specifications say one thing real world is another. Which is why you > sometimes need to play guessing game to get a port that will support the > power load. Other times you can get a hub with a wall wart. My 4 port hub *is* powered by it's own 120 VAC/DC converter. My PC would notice that something was plugged into one of those ports, but wouldn't recognize it as a valid device. See my reply to Joe Gill for a possible answer. From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Dec 4 10:55:37 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Dec 4 11:00:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Bert Hyman" wrote in message news:Xns9CD754B38E6CFVeebleFetzer@216.154.195.61... > In news:hfa4j6$itb$1@news.spamcop.net "Frog Prince" > wrote: > >> First thing that comes to mine is a SIM card. If both phones have >> them and the match you're in like flint. > > Verizon's phones don't use SIM cards. Really? That's quite stupid. I have had Cingular/AT&T for ages (various brands of phones), and when I got my new phone last year all I had to do was take the SIM card out of my old phone and plop it into the new one and Voila! -- all contacts instantly available, and now I have a spare card (the one that came with the new phone) in case I need it. I never save data to the phone memory in case the battery dies, everything goes to the card. From me at privacy.net Fri Dec 4 12:10:21 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Fri Dec 4 12:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones References: Message-ID: "Borgholio" wrote in message news:hfa5mv$heu$1@news.spamcop.net... > Frog Prince wrote: >> "Borgholio" wrote in message >> news:hf9gpe$b1b$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> So yeah it's not entirely painless to switch from an LG CE-110 on AT&T >>> to a Verizon Samsung Alias, but there has to be a better way to transfer >>> all my contacts than by Bluetoothing each one individually. >>> >>> Oh and I wonder how I can transfer files to / from my Alias...on my LG >>> it could be done via Bluetooth. With the Alias I need to use a Micro-SD >>> card which seems a bit of a hassle. >> >> >> First thing that comes to mine is a SIM card. If both phones have them >> and the match you're in like flint. >> >> If not you can buy software and hardware that will access both and do the >> transfer. >> >> I'm told VZN will do the deed for $10 or $15. But don't know if they >> have the tools to access the competition. > > > Ah yes the key word there is "buy". I can't even bear to buy a ringtone > for 2 bucks. :-P I'm sure there are free apps that work I just haven't seached for them. From me at privacy.net Fri Dec 4 12:11:39 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Fri Dec 4 12:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:hfbbdn$1c4$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Bert Hyman" wrote in message > news:Xns9CD754B38E6CFVeebleFetzer@216.154.195.61... >> In news:hfa4j6$itb$1@news.spamcop.net "Frog Prince" >> wrote: >> >>> First thing that comes to mine is a SIM card. If both phones have >>> them and the match you're in like flint. >> >> Verizon's phones don't use SIM cards. > > Really? That's quite stupid. I have had Cingular/AT&T for ages (various > brands of phones), and when I got my new phone last year all I had to do > was take the SIM card out of my old phone and plop it into the new one and > Voila! -- all contacts instantly available, and now I have a spare card > (the one that came with the new phone) in case I need it. I never save > data to the phone memory in case the battery dies, everything goes to the > card. Some phone will allow you to save to both the phone and the sim. In which case take your spair sim transfer your latest data and put it on the shelf. From joegill at removethis Fri Dec 4 13:39:04 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Fri Dec 4 13:40:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Borgholio" wrote in message news:hf9gpe$b1b$1@news.spamcop.net... > So yeah it's not entirely painless to switch from an LG CE-110 on AT&T to > a Verizon Samsung Alias, but there has to be a better way to transfer all > my contacts than by Bluetoothing each one individually. > > Oh and I wonder how I can transfer files to / from my Alias...on my LG it > could be done via Bluetooth. With the Alias I need to use a Micro-SD card > which seems a bit of a hassle. Some random thoughts.... Do you have Outlook or a compatible 'contact manager'? - If so, 'SYNC' the contacts from old to Outlook(or whatever) and then from Outlook to new phone/ - Or if you can sync contact to Outlook, export a CSV, copy CSV to microSD and then import? - Or, I beleive Verizon has a tool to backup contacts... - Do that and then use this http://www.cellphoneshop.net/datapilota990.html From bert at iphouse.com Fri Dec 4 17:05:29 2009 From: bert at iphouse.com (Bert Hyman) Date: Fri Dec 4 17:10:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones References: Message-ID: In news:hfbbdn$1c4$1@news.spamcop.net "Indigo" wrote: > "Bert Hyman" wrote in message > news:Xns9CD754B38E6CFVeebleFetzer@216.154.195.61... >> In news:hfa4j6$itb$1@news.spamcop.net "Frog Prince" >> wrote: >> >>> First thing that comes to mine is a SIM card. If both phones have >>> them and the match you're in like flint. >> >> Verizon's phones don't use SIM cards. > > Really? That's quite stupid. Verizon's not GSM. -- Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN bert@iphouse.com From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Dec 4 19:01:54 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Heidi) Date: Fri Dec 4 19:05:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: outlook express dbx files have gone missing References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:hf7o9p$man$2@news.spamcop.net... > Heidi wrote: > >> I do what FP says, I store my dbx folders to a NON Windows system folder >> on the C: drive that I create, that way if OE bombs or Windows needs to >> be repaired, my email folders don't get deleted with it. Same with >> documents, I never store anything important on My Documents, because if >> Windows goes, so does everything in it... > > On the 'My Documents' issue, TweakUI (at least for Win2000 and WinXP) lets > you change the location of 'My Documents' to something you specify. > > Proceed with caution though. > > > FYI. > > AndrewB It's not that complicated, I don't bother messing with Windows system files, I just go to Tools/Options and point the dbx storage file to a non-system folder that you create, Word stores my documents where I tell it to, and none of those folders are affected if windows bombs. From loyal at spamcop.user Sat Dec 5 01:26:55 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sat Dec 5 01:30:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > > Really? That's quite stupid. I have had Cingular/AT&T for ages (various > brands of phones), and when I got my new phone last year all I had to do > was take the SIM card out of my old phone and plop it into the new one > and Voila! -- all contacts instantly available, and now I have a spare > card (the one that came with the new phone) in case I need it. I never > save data to the phone memory in case the battery dies, everything goes > to the card. Your memory gets lost when the battery dies? Really? If so, you should get a better phone with flash memory. I'm not aware of a modern phone that doesn't have static flash memory. AndrewB From loyal at spamcop.user Sat Dec 5 13:50:25 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sat Dec 5 13:55:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > > Could the problem have been that the drive platter got stuck when using > those other external ports because I laid the drive flat on my desk? If > so, why did it work laying flat using my downstairs PC? Maybe there's a > "good" flat side and a "bad" flat side? I'm visioning the guts of the > drive as looking like an LP player, which obviously only works with the > "right" flat side up. Whether that's a valid analogy or not, it would > explain certain things. If so, time to think about a new drive. Should never happen. Run some tests, but be careful. AndrewB From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Dec 5 17:32:27 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Sat Dec 5 17:35:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:hfea1d$dad$1@news.spamcop.net... > > If so, time to think about a new drive. Should never happen. Run some > tests, but be careful. What kind of tests do you recommend? I've run chkdsk (no issues) and defragged the drive, which was pretty bad -- 36% fragmented. I have HP's PC 5 Hardware Manager that came with the machine, but there's so many bloody tests to pick from I'm not sure exactly what to run. Last week I checked out my memory and mobo performance using that app, and they were fine. From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Dec 5 18:15:54 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Sat Dec 5 18:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:hfcufd$j9l$1@news.spamcop.net... > Indigo wrote: >> Really? That's quite stupid. I have had Cingular/AT&T for ages (various >> brands of phones), and when I got my new phone last year all I had to do >> was take the SIM card out of my old phone and plop it into the new one >> and Voila! -- all contacts instantly available, and now I have a spare >> card (the one that came with the new phone) in case I need it. I never >> save data to the phone memory in case the battery dies, everything goes >> to the card. > > Your memory gets lost when the battery dies? Really? If so, you should > get a better phone with flash memory. I'm not aware of a modern phone > that doesn't have static flash memory. I mispoke, obviously. What I really meant to say was that I don't save data to the phone memory because it makes transferring the old data to a new phone difficult, if not impossible, especially if you're switching brands. Luckily, when I bought the phone previous to my current one Cingular was able to use some PC software to recover the data from the old phone memory and transfer it to the SIM card of the newer phone. From that point on, I started saving everything to the card instead of the phone, so all I have to do to upgrade to a better phone is to swap the SIM cards. Batteries had/have nothing to do with it, of course, brainfart on my part. From borgholio at storymind.com Sun Dec 6 10:35:03 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Sun Dec 6 10:35:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Switching cell phones In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Evan Platt wrote: > On Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:15:02 -0800, Borgholio > wrote: > >> So yeah it's not entirely painless to switch from an LG CE-110 on AT&T to >> a Verizon Samsung Alias, but there has to be a better way to transfer all >> my contacts than by Bluetoothing each one individually. >> >> Oh and I wonder how I can transfer files to / from my Alias...on my LG it >> could be done via Bluetooth. With the Alias I need to use a Micro-SD card >> which seems a bit of a hassle. > > The Verizon store should be able to do it for you. The key is do it > WHEN you buy the phone, and they'll do it for free. Phone I got was a hand-me-down from my sister so they'd probably charge me. It's ok really, I don't have many contacts at this point. When I upgrade (and I will be upgrading eventually), I'll see if they can do it for free when I purchase. From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Dec 8 21:16:10 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Tue Dec 8 21:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Whassup with Vista WinCal? Message-ID: I _swear_ that WinCalendar used to pop up a dialog box on top of all other apps to show me scheduled tasks and appts., but recently it hasn't been doing it. As a result, I've been late for several PT appts. in the last month or so. Researching the issue, it doesn't look like WinCal is even able to "take focus" and pop up in front of any other open apps. I may have tweaked a reg setting to not allow other tasks from stealing focus, like WinMail, because that was becoming an enormous PITA when it would snatch focus every 3 minutes when my PC polled the server. >From googling, it looks like WinCal is and was never capable of doing anything beyond making a beeping noise, which I frequently miss since I listen to music or streaming audio while online. I tried downloading a free app called "Efficient Calendar", which ran fine until I tried to import the entries from Wincal via a .txt file -- it locked up, and even after doing a thorough uninstall and re-install it won't run at all now. Anyone know of any free calendar apps that can over-ride the focus settings of Vista so I get a pop-up dialog box like I used to get? Or tell me how to "undo" locking out the focus for Wincal? From MikeE at ster.invalid Wed Dec 9 13:34:24 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Wed Dec 9 13:35:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Whassup with Vista WinCal? References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > I _swear_ that WinCalendar used to pop up a dialog box on top of all > other apps to show me scheduled tasks and appts., but recently it > hasn't been doing it. > Or > tell me how to "undo" locking out the focus for Wincal? I almost never use Vista, and I've never before now opened Vista's Windows Calendar.... BTW, 'WinCal' is mostly something else, according to googlewebsearch. TechSys makes an app called WinCal - shareware $25 - downloadable from BrotherSoft. Google websearch hits that app almost all of the first 40 hits that I looked at. MS also makes an app/exe called wincal.exe which is part of Vista, which is rarely referenced in the same search. ... so, I went into the other room to crank up the Vista machine. When I opened Vista's Windows Calendar and looked at Options, one option to check was to 'Show reminders even when Calendar isn't running' That seems like an important item to check; another option is for the sound. Is yours having trouble showing the reminders (when calendar isn't open/running) or playing the sound? -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Dec 9 22:05:37 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Wed Dec 9 22:10:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Whassup with Vista WinCal? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:hfoqj7$f4k$1@news.spamcop.net... > When I opened Vista's Windows Calendar and looked at Options, one option > to check was to 'Show reminders even when Calendar isn't running' > Have that option checked, for a long time > That seems like an important item to check; another option is for the > sound. Is yours having trouble showing the reminders (when calendar > isn't open/running) or playing the sound? > It plays a sound, but it's drowned out by the constant streaming audio I listen to nearly all day long. The only "notice" I get is that the Windows Calendar tab in the taskbar "blinks", but it's vey easy to miss since it doesn't change color or anything, it just kinds of "pulsates", if that makes any sense. My main (and serious) problem is that when an appt/task is triggered, I do NOT get a dialog box that pops in front of all applications. If I switch to the calendar tab, the dialog box is right there, but it won't "grab focus" like that irritating habit OE and WinMail have. There's something in the control panel that specifies whether to devote more resources to the current app or to background services, I recently reset it back to my preferred "current app" config.....perhaps that is the cause of the lack of the over-riding pop-up appt alert text box? Ok, I just took a look at my "Advanced System Settings", and noticed two things: I had recently switched the DEP setting from "custom apps list" to "just special Windows apps" or something like that because IE was not allowing me to do _anything_, quoting that my system security settings prevented that action (like trying to download an .exe file). Just right now, I also changed a couple of "view" settings that *might* allow the WinCal dialog box to pop to the forefront like it used to do. Guess we'll have to just wait and see what happens after I reboot.... From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 10 13:13:57 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Dec 10 13:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Whassup with Vista WinCal? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Indigo" wrote in message news:hfpoi0$sgo$1@news.spamcop.net... > > My main (and serious) problem is that when an appt/task is triggered, I do > NOT get a dialog box that pops in front of all applications. If I switch > to the calendar tab, the dialog box is right there, but it won't "grab > focus" like that irritating habit OE and WinMail have. The more I think about it the more I'm becoming convinced that the "don't let another app grap focus" setting is responsible for the WinCal issue.......so how do I allow WinCal to steal focus while preventing WinMail from doing so? From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Dec 10 14:15:21 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Dec 10 14:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Whassup with Vista WinCal? References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > so how do I allow WinCal to steal focus while preventing > WinMail from doing so? http://snipr.com/tn0ed Windows Calendar reminder does not pop up in front of all other open windows. -- Welcome to Microsoft Answers! - We do not have such option in Windows Calendar to set the reminder as a pop up in front of all other windows. However, you can put a check on the option "Play sound for reminders". - Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Snippages above from longer answer at link. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 10 18:43:25 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Dec 10 18:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need Ideas and informaton on back up and off site back up. References: Message-ID: In news:hf0ul4$2os$1@news.spamcop.net, Frog Prince typed: > I've tried several off site data storage programs/services and no joy. > > I'm interested in setting up duplicate hardware, one here on site and > one off site and likely out of state. > > Can I use old towers/cpu's with large HDD or do I need to go all new > and sophisticated equipment? (cost) > > BTW while the data is mission critical it is not a security concern > as the data is all under copyright and on the web so anyone accessing > is unlikely to be able to use it. What I do need is to prevent > malicious hacking where the back ups are damaged or deleted. > > TIA I would suggest you might want to start your own research effort, beginning at Wikipedia and spreading out from there using the usually accurate and germain links the service provides. While none of the advice so far is "bad" I think there is a bit more to it, plus your description is a little vague w/r to what you really want. e.g. "security" and "mission-critical". "Mission Critical" generally means no, or a minimum of, downtime can be allowed; usually none. That would drive you in the direction of RAID drive arrangements. If a RAID drive goes belly up, another drive takes over instantly and the user never sees more than a short pause at the most. RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks), a system of multiple hard drives for sharing or replicating data . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID describes the 5 RAID types. Note that RAID is NOT a backup mechanism! It's more redundant data mechanism. RAID has nothing to do with Security either. Your whole last paragraph about data being mission critical but not a security problem is very confusing and makes me think you misunderstand Security. Start at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_security So you probably should expand on what you meant about security: It's obviously important to you if you are after the things you seem to be after. No? Offsite Storage on another's computer array: There ARE some good ones out there, and there are MANY bad ones! Personally I don't like putting ANY critical data, financial, copyright, whatever, on anyone else's machines, plus the many nodes it must pass thru to get there. I don't care what their hype is, it's a location for my data that I do NOT have control over and thus I won't use it for those types of data. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_hosting_service Offsite Storage: Is good if it's of your own design and choosing, whether it's a safe deposit box that will hold your data for you or simply another building separate from the one where the computer and main activity goes on. Take a look at the various methods & best practices at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup#Data_repository_models If you have the extra disk drives, you might want to consider CLONE operations. IMO it takes too much effort but our situation are different: ymmv. Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_cloning There is a better link, but I can't find it right now. Cloning, if properly executed, is a way to always keep the OS instantly, or nearly so, replaceable. It's a problem to keep them updated for data, but for OS and quick return to operability, they can't be beat. Perhaps an example would help, too. I'm not perfect nor 100% properly protected for data loss, but below is my own setup. NOTE this is not the ONLY method by a long shot and many other methods exist. I find this one fits my needs the best and seems to work the way my own brain works, such as that is! Once implemented, you almost can't lose any data and data recovery is a snap compared to doing rebuilds and re-creating the lost data if it can even be re-created. So this is only my own "opinion" of a method that seems to work well for me over the last few years and I have yet to be unable to recover any data I've needed yet. -- I have 7 drive letters on four physical drives, two of which are externals: C is for the OS only D is for internet downloads of any type. E is my main data repository for data derived my me and not easily replaced and not downloadable since I created all of them. F is for development work. G is for pagefile, multiple-disk requirements of the more comples apps, and storage of development work stages in order to keep F cleaner. H and I are the external terabyte drives. -- I have a UPS, so if I'm around to hear it, there is time to protect any data or processes running from data loss. Depending, I get from 8 to 18 minutes of backup time with it. I'm down to 6 minutes max at the moment: The battery ($40) needs replacement. -- No RAID. I don't have mission-critical data online where being down for a short period of time would matter to anyone very much. -- Two 1 terabyte external drives for backing up to. On the odd months of the year, one drive is connected. On the even months of the year, the other drive is connected. Both drives are NEVER connected at the same time: Thus, virus, mobo failures, surges, lightning, etc., can never affect the one that isn't connected to anything. I'll always have the last completed backup available to me. While terabyte drives are cheap, if you can afford 2 terabyte drives, then each drive can also be backed up to the other one periodically. I don't do that. -- Whenever substantial changes have been made to the system, installs or uninstalls or important customizations, that backup also goes onto DVDs as "permanent" data storage. Then, if things go catastrophic, both external drives and the whole computer are trashed, then at least I have the DVDs to go back to to get the latest structure put back in place. A second DVD copy of the data is also made, and is stored off site: In another building not on my property. Some people use safety deposit boxes, others don't bother at all, and I have an agreement with my sister where we simply keep each other's "permanent" backups for each other. So this way I satisfy the offsite storage requirements for backups. -- I do a full backup monthly and incrementals in between, plus run another backup whenever a program is installed or uninstalled, or data added/deleted to any drive exceeds 500 Meg. The monthly backups are also stored offsite at my sister's. Should either of our houses burn to the ground, literally, at least our data is still preserved and available to us for if/when we get a replacement computer system set up. -- For those quickie, important backups of say developtment works and which imitates a versioning system, I use XXCopy.exe (www.xxcopy.com) in a batch file: Once click and the specified files in the batch file are nearly instantly backed up. It's fast, and very useful if, as I discovered, you have a power outage and don't want to lose your work before the uPS battery gives up. That all sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't. I use Norton Ghost to image all 5 of my hard drives separately, making each recoverable in a short period of time as long as I have a disk drive available. Ghost handles everything in its settings and scheduling operations with the exception of the PIA of making the DVDs. But once you get going, the DVDs needed decrease. e.g. you don't need to back up the OS drive if nothing has changed. Same for any other drive when nothing has changed. So it may only take a couple of DVDs to get the backups up to currency. Planning and the initial setups are the ONLY time-consuming possibly frustrating parts of this scheme. Once it's all set up and working, it's all automated and the most you have to do is check the external drives to be certain the data is being backed up as you expect. I lost my boot drive a few months ago and once I got a new drive installed, it took 23 minutes (stopwatch measured) to have my drive imaged and back to the same status it was at just before it gave up. Just one experience like that convinces one that this is at least a minimal way to handle backups. I've also used it to recover the odd file here & there that I deleted and then wished later I hadn't. It had aged off the external drives (they fill up fairly fast) but it was on one of the DVD sets I'd made, to it wasn't permanently lost files. I did get them back. I mentioned Norton Ghost as my disk imaging program, but there are or course others, too. Acronis True IMage is nearly as good IMO, others will say it's better and it is a little cheaper. Remember: The ONLY hassle is in the setup. After that, everything but copying to DVDs is automated and takes no to very little attention. I'm going on 3 years now with this method and for me at least it seems nearly perfect. HTH, Twayne` From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 10 18:58:22 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Dec 10 19:00:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: task manager problem References: Message-ID: In news:hdqgss$lt7$1@news.spamcop.net, anon typed: > when I highlight a task and click on 'end task', nothing happens - > task doesn't close. > > I can repeat this for more than a half-dozen times and the task still > doesn't close. > > Why? Good question: The only hint I've come across seems to be that before SP3, for me anyway, I never came across that. So it's something in SP3 IMO, probably something collateral to one of the other fixes. Are you at SP3? Do you know it if happened pre-SP3? I have a time or two, just left the task manager running and minimized it, and came back later to find the program now "running" and easily killed with the End Task click. It's like it'll run up to xx instructions to kill a task, but not xx+1, or the program comes back and will accept the end task. Doesn't seem right, or to make sense. Cheers, Twayne` From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 10 19:05:36 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Dec 10 19:10:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Whassup with Vista WinCal? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:hfrhbt$hlk$1@news.spamcop.net... > Indigo wrote: > >> so how do I allow WinCal to steal focus while preventing >> WinMail from doing so? > > http://snipr.com/tn0ed Windows Calendar reminder does not pop up in > front of all other open windows. -- Welcome to Microsoft Answers! - We > do not have such option in Windows Calendar to set the reminder as a pop > up in front of all other windows. However, you can put a check on the > option "Play sound for reminders". - Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Long and short of it is that I can't fix it? I swear to god it used to pop up in front of other open apps.....can my memory really be that bad? From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 10 19:28:52 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Dec 10 19:30:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: task manager problem In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:hfs1v0$ng9$1@news.spamcop.net... > In news:hdqgss$lt7$1@news.spamcop.net, > anon typed: >> when I highlight a task and click on 'end task', nothing happens - >> task doesn't close. >> >> I can repeat this for more than a half-dozen times and the task still >> doesn't close. >> >> Why? > > Good question: The only hint I've come across seems to be that before SP3, > for me anyway, I never came across that. So it's something in SP3 IMO, > probably something collateral to one of the other fixes. It might be caused by some other app or process that is still running and "has a hold" on the program you're trying to kill. I've run into that issue before, it takes some rooting around with some specialized (but free) software like SysInternals "Process Explorer" to see all the sub-processes and handles each running app is tied up with to discover (mostly by trial and error) what else you have to kill off to get that one app to die. From me at privacy.net Thu Dec 10 22:46:36 2009 From: me at privacy.net (anon) Date: Thu Dec 10 22:50:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need Ideas and informaton on back up and off site back up. References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:hfs12u$n92$1@news.spamcop.net... > In news:hf0ul4$2os$1@news.spamcop.net, > Frog Prince typed: >> I've tried several off site data storage programs/services and no joy. >> clip > > I mentioned Norton Ghost as my disk imaging program, but there are or > course others, too. Acronis True IMage is nearly as good IMO, others will > say it's better and it is a little cheaper. > > Remember: The ONLY hassle is in the setup. After that, everything but > copying to DVDs is automated and takes no to very little attention. I'm > going on 3 years now with this method and for me at least it seems nearly > perfect. > > HTH, > > Twayne` > > I use ghost for my c: drive - have had to restore it a couple of times for various reasons. This is great as it restores the OS perfectly. Ghost takes about 30 min for around 27 GB of storage (both image and restore.) Data storage -> xcopy - slow but it's all there. These 'copies' can be to anywhere you want - even on to DVDs if you don't care how long it takes or how many disks. From me at privacy.net Thu Dec 10 22:50:12 2009 From: me at privacy.net (anon) Date: Thu Dec 10 22:55:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: task manager problem References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:hfs1v0$ng9$1@news.spamcop.net... > In news:hdqgss$lt7$1@news.spamcop.net, > anon typed: >> when I highlight a task and click on 'end task', nothing happens - >> task doesn't close. >> >> I can repeat this for more than a half-dozen times and the task still >> doesn't close. >> >> Why? > > Good question: The only hint I've come across seems to be that before SP3, > for me anyway, I never came across that. So it's something in SP3 IMO, > probably something collateral to one of the other fixes. > Are you at SP3? Do you know it if happened pre-SP3? > I am still sp2. waiting 'till I install sp3 > I have a time or two, just left the task manager running and minimized it, > and came back later to find the program now "running" and easily killed > with the End Task click. It's like it'll run up to xx instructions to > kill a task, but not xx+1, or the program comes back and will accept the > end task. Doesn't seem right, or to make sense. > Cheers, > > Twayne` From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Dec 10 23:31:31 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Dec 10 23:35:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Whassup with Vista WinCal? References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > "Mike Easter" >> Indigo wrote: >> >>> so how do I allow WinCal to steal focus while preventing >>> WinMail from doing so? >> We >> do not have such option in Windows Calendar to set the reminder as a >> pop up in front of all other windows. > Long and short of it is that I can't fix it? I swear to god it used to > pop up in front of other open apps.....can my memory really be that bad? Alternatively, the MS answers support engineer just doesn't know how to rig it, ie is wrong with his answer. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From me at privacy.net Thu Dec 10 23:52:27 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Fri Dec 11 00:05:10 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Need Ideas and informaton on back up and off site back up. References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:hfs12u$n92$1@news.spamcop.net... > In news:hf0ul4$2os$1@news.spamcop.net, > Frog Prince typed: >> I've tried several off site data storage programs/services and no joy. >> >> I'm interested in setting up duplicate hardware, one here on site and >> one off site and likely out of state. >> >> Can I use old towers/cpu's with large HDD or do I need to go all new >> and sophisticated equipment? (cost) >> >> BTW while the data is mission critical it is not a security concern >> as the data is all under copyright and on the web so anyone accessing >> is unlikely to be able to use it. What I do need is to prevent >> malicious hacking where the back ups are damaged or deleted. >> >> TIA > > I would suggest you might want to start your own research effort, > beginning at Wikipedia and spreading out from there using the usually > accurate and germain links the service provides. While none of the advice > so far is "bad" I think there is a bit more to it, plus your description > is a little vague w/r to what you really want. e.g. "security" and > "mission-critical". > > "Mission Critical" generally means no, or a minimum of, downtime can be > allowed; usually none. That would drive you in the direction of RAID > drive arrangements. If a RAID drive goes belly up, another drive takes > over instantly and the user never sees more than a short pause at the > most. > > RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks), a system of multiple hard > drives for sharing or replicating data . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID > describes the 5 RAID types. Note that RAID is NOT a backup mechanism! > It's more redundant data mechanism. > > RAID has nothing to do with Security either. Your whole last paragraph > about data being mission critical but not a security problem is very > confusing and makes me think you misunderstand Security. Start at: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_security > So you probably should expand on what you meant about security: It's > obviously important to you if you are after the things you seem to be > after. No? > > Offsite Storage on another's computer array: > There ARE some good ones out there, and there are MANY bad ones! > Personally I don't like putting ANY critical data, financial, copyright, > whatever, on anyone else's machines, plus the many nodes it must pass thru > to get there. I don't care what their hype is, it's a location for my > data that I do NOT have control over and thus I won't use it for those > types of data. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_hosting_service > > Offsite Storage: > Is good if it's of your own design and choosing, whether it's a safe > deposit box that will hold your data for you or simply another building > separate from the one where the computer and main activity goes on. Take > a look at the various methods & best practices at: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup#Data_repository_models > > If you have the extra disk drives, you might want to consider CLONE > operations. IMO it takes too much effort but our situation are different: > ymmv. Check out: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_cloning > There is a better link, but I can't find it right now. > Cloning, if properly executed, is a way to always keep the OS instantly, > or nearly so, replaceable. It's a problem to keep them updated for data, > but for OS and quick return to operability, they can't be beat. > > > Perhaps an example would help, too. I'm not perfect nor 100% properly > protected for data loss, but below is my own setup. > NOTE this is not the ONLY method by a long shot and many other methods > exist. I find this one fits my needs the best and seems to work the way > my own brain works, such as that is! Once implemented, you almost > can't lose any data and data recovery is a snap compared to doing rebuilds > and re-creating the lost data if it can even be re-created. So this is > only my own "opinion" of a method that seems to work well for me over the > last few years and I have yet to be unable to recover any data I've needed > yet. > > -- I have 7 drive letters on four physical drives, two of which are > externals: > C is for the OS only > D is for internet downloads of any type. > > E is my main data repository for data derived my me and not easily > replaced and not downloadable since I created all of them. > F is for development work. > G is for pagefile, multiple-disk requirements of the more comples apps, > and storage of development work stages in order to keep F cleaner. > > H and I are the external terabyte drives. > > -- I have a UPS, so if I'm around to hear it, there is time to protect any > data or processes running from data loss. Depending, I get from 8 to 18 > minutes of backup time with it. I'm down to 6 minutes max at the moment: > The battery ($40) needs replacement. > -- No RAID. I don't have mission-critical data online where being down > for a short period of time would matter to anyone very much. > -- Two 1 terabyte external drives for backing up to. > On the odd months of the year, one drive is connected. On the even > months of the year, the other drive is connected. Both drives are NEVER > connected at the same time: Thus, virus, mobo failures, surges, lightning, > etc., can never affect the one that isn't connected to anything. I'll > always have the last completed backup available to me. > While terabyte drives are cheap, if you can afford 2 terabyte drives, > then each drive can also be backed up to the other one periodically. I > don't do that. > > -- Whenever substantial changes have been made to the system, installs or > uninstalls or important customizations, that backup also goes onto DVDs as > "permanent" data storage. Then, if things go catastrophic, both external > drives and the whole computer are trashed, then at least I have the DVDs > to go back to to get the latest structure put back in place. > A second DVD copy of the data is also made, and is stored off site: In > another building not on my property. Some people use safety deposit > boxes, others don't bother at all, and I have an agreement with my sister > where we simply keep each other's "permanent" backups for each other. So > this way I satisfy the offsite storage requirements for backups. > > -- I do a full backup monthly and incrementals in between, plus run > another backup whenever a program is installed or uninstalled, or data > added/deleted to any drive exceeds 500 Meg. The monthly backups are also > stored offsite at my sister's. Should either of our houses burn to the > ground, literally, at least our data is still preserved and available to > us for if/when we get a replacement computer system set up. > > -- For those quickie, important backups of say developtment works and > which imitates a versioning system, I use XXCopy.exe (www.xxcopy.com) in a > batch file: Once click and the specified files in the batch file are > nearly instantly backed up. It's fast, and very useful if, as I > discovered, you have a power outage and don't want to lose your work > before the uPS battery gives up. > > That all sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't. I use Norton Ghost to > image all 5 of my hard drives separately, making each recoverable in a > short period of time as long as I have a disk drive available. Ghost > handles everything in its settings and scheduling operations with the > exception of the PIA of making the DVDs. > But once you get going, the DVDs needed decrease. e.g. you don't need > to back up the OS drive if nothing has changed. Same for any other drive > when nothing has changed. So it may only take a couple of DVDs to get the > backups up to currency. > > Planning and the initial setups are the ONLY time-consuming possibly > frustrating parts of this scheme. Once it's all set up and working, it's > all automated and the most you have to do is check the external drives to > be certain the data is being backed up as you expect. > I lost my boot drive a few months ago and once I got a new drive > installed, it took 23 minutes (stopwatch measured) to have my drive imaged > and back to the same status it was at just before it gave up. Just one > experience like that convinces one that this is at least a minimal way to > handle backups. I've also used it to recover the odd file here & there > that I deleted and then wished later I hadn't. It had aged off the > external drives (they fill up fairly fast) but it was on one of the DVD > sets I'd made, to it wasn't permanently lost files. I did get them back. > > I mentioned Norton Ghost as my disk imaging program, but there are or > course others, too. Acronis True IMage is nearly as good IMO, others will > say it's better and it is a little cheaper. > > Remember: The ONLY hassle is in the setup. After that, everything but > copying to DVDs is automated and takes no to very little attention. I'm > going on 3 years now with this method and for me at least it seems nearly > perfect. > > HTH, > > Twayne` Thanks for the suggestions and comments, good information all. The data is NOT a security issue as most of the work product is openly published and all of it is registered with the US Copyright Office. It is not mission critical in that it's not needed real time or even urgently. As to being on site / off site. following is a link to our place on the Mississippi Gulf Coast shortly after Katrina. We lost 40+ years of hard copy work product. Fortunately we in the months prior we scanned/digitized most of that AND sent back up copies to Dallas TX. http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/katrina/24612773.jpg From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Dec 11 17:17:09 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Dec 11 17:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Whassup with Vista WinCal? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:hfshv3$taa$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Alternatively, the MS answers support engineer just doesn't know how to > rig it, ie is wrong with his answer. > Guess I'll have to install and try out of couple of the freeware calendar apps I downloaded then..... From loyal at spamcop.user Fri Dec 11 23:52:10 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Fri Dec 11 23:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > > "AndrewB" wrote in message > news:hfea1d$dad$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> If so, time to think about a new drive. Should never happen. Run >> some tests, but be careful. > > What kind of tests do you recommend? I've run chkdsk (no issues) and > defragged the drive, which was pretty bad -- 36% fragmented. I have HP's > PC 5 Hardware Manager that came with the machine, but there's so many > bloody tests to pick from I'm not sure exactly what to run. Last week I > checked out my memory and mobo performance using that app, and they were > fine. Assuming you can lose the drive contents, perhaps rotate it slowly through some positions while a long task is going on (copying a bunch of files to or fro) or something like that, or a test like SpinRite or similar. I'm suggesting tests beyond simple data tests of the integrity of the data stored on the drive. Hard drives are tough, rotating at 5400rpm or 7200rpm (or faster) for hours and hours and hours. Just a little wobble in the motor is enough to cause problems. For example, if the drive is a 7200rpm drive, but it dips down to 6800rpm, the head doing the reading still thinks it's getting data at the 7200rpm speed. Sooo thhhiinnggs ccaann loookkedd strreettched and fail a CRC check. Large hard drives are great, but they compact information into a smaller space. So even what might have been a small problem on a 40mb drive 15 years ago can be a multi-gigabyte problem on a modern drive. A hard drive that can't lie flat or vertical sounds pretty strange to me. Be careful, back it up. AndrewB From borgholio at storymind.com Sat Dec 12 01:47:54 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Sat Dec 12 01:50:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] IE won't connect to anything Message-ID: I've had this problem with IE 6, 7, and 8 and it's becoming increasingly frustrating, especially if I have to connect to Windows Update. The problem is that IE won't connect to anything. At all. It won't connect to any website, it won't even connect to my router (http://192.168.x.x). Internet connection is perfect in all other ways...I can use Firefox or Chrome, I can send / receive email and newsgroup messages (duh). Any ideas? From borgholio at storymind.com Sat Dec 12 01:50:29 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Sat Dec 12 01:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: IE won't connect to anything In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > I've had this problem with IE 6, 7, and 8 and it's becoming increasingly > frustrating, especially if I have to connect to Windows Update. The > problem is that IE won't connect to anything. At all. It won't connect > to any website, it won't even connect to my router (http://192.168.x.x). > Internet connection is perfect in all other ways...I can use Firefox or > Chrome, I can send / receive email and newsgroup messages (duh). Any > ideas? Nm, problem solved. Naturally after searching Google for half an hour I find nothing. The instant I post to the NG asking for help, I stumble upon the answer. Go figure. :) I had to go to IE's Internet Options, click on the "Advanced" tab, then click on "restore advanced settings". Worked like a charm. From borgholio at storymind.com Sat Dec 12 02:02:24 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Sat Dec 12 02:05:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: IE won't connect to anything In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > Borgholio wrote: >> I've had this problem with IE 6, 7, and 8 and it's becoming >> increasingly frustrating, especially if I have to connect to Windows >> Update. The problem is that IE won't connect to anything. At all. >> It won't connect to any website, it won't even connect to my router >> (http://192.168.x.x). Internet connection is perfect in all other >> ways...I can use Firefox or Chrome, I can send / receive email and >> newsgroup messages (duh). Any ideas? > > Nm, problem solved. Naturally after searching Google for half an hour I > find nothing. The instant I post to the NG asking for help, I stumble > upon the answer. Go figure. :) I had to go to IE's Internet Options, > click on the "Advanced" tab, then click on "restore advanced settings". > Worked like a charm. Bah, not solved. Ok it seems like I have to restart the browser a few times in a row to get the thing working. :-/ From MikeE at ster.invalid Sat Dec 12 05:00:03 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Sat Dec 12 05:00:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: IE won't connect to anything References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > I've had this problem with IE 6, 7, and 8 and it's becoming increasingly > frustrating, especially if I have to connect to Windows Update. The > problem is that IE won't connect to anything. At all. It won't connect > to any website, it won't even connect to my router (http://192.168.x.x). > Internet connection is perfect in all other ways...I can use Firefox or > Chrome, I can send / receive email and newsgroup messages (duh). Any > ideas? IE's connection is configured in (I'm looking at IE6) Tools menu/ Internet Options item/ Connections tab - then you can use the Setup wizard to setup the LAN and never dial a connection. Normally I don't use the 'Automatically detect settings' function in the LAN settings - nothing is checked in there for me. What happens when you try to connect to the router's IP url with IE? -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From borgholio at storymind.com Sat Dec 12 05:17:13 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Sat Dec 12 05:20:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: IE won't connect to anything In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Mike Easter wrote: > > What happens when you try to connect to the router's IP url with IE? > Same thing as when I try to connect to any website...nothing. Just says "Waiting for 192.168.x.x". Other browsers work just fine. From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Dec 12 15:14:59 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Sat Dec 12 15:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:hfv7hp$27u$1@news.spamcop.net... > > Assuming you can lose the drive contents, perhaps rotate it slowly through > some positions while a long task is going on (copying a bunch of files to > or fro) or something like that, or a test like SpinRite or similar. > Bad assumption - that drive is my primary backup. I backup all my critical data files online daily using the free IDrive service (2 GB limit, which gets eaten up pretty quickly when you add a few registry backups to the list), backup a larger bunch of files to my 120 GB external drive, and backup damn near everything to the HP drive. > > A hard drive that can't lie flat or vertical sounds pretty strange to me. > Be careful, back it up. > Don't recall exactly what I originally wrote, but the specs for the drive say "do not lay it down flat on your desk". It operates fine either vertically or at a moderate slant. My other external HD won't work "flat" either, surely it's because of the way the innards are configured. From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Dec 13 13:22:43 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Sun Dec 13 13:25:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] PD unpackers Message-ID: Folks, For the few times I need to unzip and even more rarely zip files at home I'm reluctant to buy Winzip or whatever. The "Evaluation" license is rather onerous also. Are there any practical alternatives for WinXP and beyond anyone can suggest? If necessary I could make do with a command line utility. I'd prefer if I could unpack at least the more common archives: zip, rar, gzip.z, compress.Z and related tarballs. From avoozl at spamcop.net Sun Dec 13 14:03:10 2009 From: avoozl at spamcop.net (Chris Willoughby) Date: Sun Dec 13 14:05:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: PD unpackers References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote in message news:hg3bdm$hjn$1@news.spamcop.net... > Folks, > > For the few times I need to unzip and even more rarely zip files at home > I'm reluctant to buy Winzip or whatever. The "Evaluation" license is > rather onerous also. > > Are there any practical alternatives for WinXP and beyond anyone can > suggest? > > If necessary I could make do with a command line utility. I'd prefer if I > could unpack at least the more common archives: zip, rar, gzip.z, > compress.Z and related tarballs. > Winrar isn't bad. :) From joegill at removethis Sun Dec 13 14:12:48 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sun Dec 13 14:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: PD unpackers In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote in message news:hg3bdm$hjn$1@news.spamcop.net... > Folks, > > For the few times I need to unzip and even more rarely zip files at home > I'm reluctant to buy Winzip or whatever. The "Evaluation" license is > rather onerous also. > > Are there any practical alternatives for WinXP and beyond anyone can > suggest? > > If necessary I could make do with a command line utility. I'd prefer if I > could unpack at least the more common archives: zip, rar, gzip.z, > compress.Z and related tarballs. > IIRC, If you open the zip file in Windows explorer, support if built in From me at privacy.net Sun Dec 13 15:27:01 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Sun Dec 13 15:30:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Problems with Adobe Acrobat 8 S/N Message-ID: I have a Dell desk top that has had a HDD crash. I've replace the HDD and reloaded almost all the software. All doing well. Except I have a Bundle version of Adobe Acrobat 8 that won't recognize the S/N (the rest of the bundle reinstalled and worked fine). Called Adobe and reached over the pond support. One says the S/N is not valid the next says it is but can't tell me how to make it work. (we have a comprehension/communications problem from the get go) This is a donated machine for one of my hospice patients. Any ideas how to get the program to reinstall? From loyal at spamcop.user Sun Dec 13 19:53:05 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sun Dec 13 19:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: PD unpackers In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: bar0 wrote: > Folks, > > For the few times I need to unzip and even more rarely zip files at home I'm > reluctant to buy Winzip or whatever. The "Evaluation" license is rather > onerous also. > > Are there any practical alternatives for WinXP and beyond anyone can > suggest? > > If necessary I could make do with a command line utility. I'd prefer if I > could unpack at least the more common archives: zip, rar, gzip.z, compress.Z > and related tarballs. The nice folks at Info-ZIP have been making command line versions for years. They even have a frills-free windows shell. http://www.info-zip.org/ Most of their code is used by the other third party products. AndrewB From not at home.today Sun Dec 13 20:42:17 2009 From: not at home.today (Ant) Date: Sun Dec 13 20:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: PD unpackers References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote: > Are there any practical alternatives for WinXP and beyond anyone can > suggest? Forget Winzip, there are much better alternatives. I use IZArc and 7-Zip, which together support a wide range of compression formats and are free. http://www.izarc.org/ http://www.7-zip.org/ From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Dec 13 20:45:40 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Sun Dec 13 20:50:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: PD unpackers References: Message-ID: "Several" kind folks wrote in various messages news:*@news.spamcop.net... > bar0 wrote: Thanks muchly for the kind suggestions. From kenbrody at spamcop.net Mon Dec 14 14:20:32 2009 From: kenbrody at spamcop.net (Kenneth Brody) Date: Mon Dec 14 14:25:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: PD unpackers In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: bar0 wrote: > Folks, > > For the few times I need to unzip and even more rarely zip files at home I'm > reluctant to buy Winzip or whatever. The "Evaluation" license is rather > onerous also. > > Are there any practical alternatives for WinXP and beyond anyone can > suggest? > > If necessary I could make do with a command line utility. I'd prefer if I > could unpack at least the more common archives: zip, rar, gzip.z, compress.Z > and related tarballs. On XP and later, basic support for zip files is built in. Microsoft calls them "compressed folders". You can create one by right-clicking the desktop or in Windows explorer (the one that shows you the "folders [subdirectories] and files in the GUI interface -- as opposed to IE), and selecting "new / compressed folder". Then, simply drag and drop things into it. (I always right-click to drag, since I'm never certain if Windows will copy, move, or create a shortcut as the default action.) To extract, simply drag-and-drop from the zip file to someplace else. -- Kenneth Brody From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Dec 14 21:27:05 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Mon Dec 14 21:30:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: USB port issues References: Message-ID: In news:hg0tk2$ltp$1@news.spamcop.net, Indigo typed: > "AndrewB" wrote in message > news:hfv7hp$27u$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> Assuming you can lose the drive contents, perhaps rotate it slowly >> through some positions while a long task is going on (copying a >> bunch of files to or fro) or something like that, or a test like >> SpinRite or similar. > > Bad assumption - that drive is my primary backup. I backup all my > critical data files online daily using the free IDrive service (2 GB > limit, which gets eaten up pretty quickly when you add a few registry > backups to the list), backup a larger bunch of files to my 120 GB > external drive, and backup damn near everything to the HP drive. > >> >> A hard drive that can't lie flat or vertical sounds pretty strange >> to me. Be careful, back it up. >> > > Don't recall exactly what I originally wrote, but the specs for the > drive say "do not lay it down flat on your desk". It operates fine > either vertically or at a moderate slant. My other external HD won't > work "flat" either, surely it's because of the way the innards are > configured. Yes; it depends on the internal structure of the head arrangement and what moves the heads, etc. It's not unusual for a drive to have to be one way or the other but not both. I have a WD terabyte external here that can only be vertical; but the case makes sure that gets enforced. It's wedge shaped plus the 1-touch button wouldn't be easily accessible ifyou laid it down. The terabyte Acom Data right next to it can go any way you want; even after formatting/data filling; according to the docs anyway. Twayne` From nobody at spamcop.net Mon Dec 14 23:00:56 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Mon Dec 14 23:05:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: PD unpackers In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Chris Willoughby" wrote in message news:hg3dq0$ieh$1@news.spamcop.net... >> > > Winrar isn't bad. :) > Dunno why the smiley face, but I use WinRar all the time, it's free and works great. From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Dec 16 23:11:34 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Richard W) Date: Wed Dec 16 23:15:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Cable modem/wireless router combo In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > > "Heidi" wrote in message > news:hev82j$eq2$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> LCD or Plasma? >> >> Plasma? Are you kidding? LCD... > > What's wrong with plasma TVs? I think they're brighter than LCDs and > have a wider viewer angle, and last time I looked the price difference > wasn't very much, if at all. They're also less prone to damage than LCDs > -- you can permanently kill LCD pixels by simply putting too much grip > pressure on the screen while installing them -- and I should know, > because I killed a bunch installing a 15" LCD monitor in my cramped > bedroom armoire. Luckily they're all near the top edge of the screen , > so it's not really noticeable while watching TV in bed, although it's > painfully obvious up close. Most of the anti-hype around early plasma TVs has been debunked now. The biggest fear was that they had to be 'recharged' every four years or so and besides nobody recharging them, it would be cheaper to replace. Plasma TVs now have a life cycle rating about the same as LCD. Of course LCD has the problem of pixels burning out or the back light burning out, which puts you in the same position of deciding whether fixing it is worth it. LCDs are available now with LED backlights, which theoretically should last indefinitely, but they are still two to four times the cost of fluorescent back lights. For the most discernible eye, the one thing with plasma is they need to receive the entire signal before displaying the picture. This results in a 40 millisecond delay on the best TVs to a 120 millisecond delay on the worst (1 to 3 frames). The result is lip sync being that little bit out. Richard From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 17 09:31:34 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Thu Dec 17 09:35:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Cable modem/wireless router combo References: Message-ID: "Richard W" wrote in message news:hgcb1i$tqa$1@news.spamcop.net... > Indigo wrote: >> ... > For the most discernible eye, the one thing with plasma is they need to > receive the entire signal before displaying the picture. .... Ummm, why would that be? I can't see any physical reason why the pixels can't be illuminated in scan order. Is it just an engineering decision? Further if this is a known problem, why don't reciever manufacturers build in a sound delay feature, or at least in the case of a TV (integrated reciever and screen) build in the necessary audio delays? From me at privacy.net Fri Dec 18 09:05:33 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Fri Dec 18 09:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Cable modem/wireless router combo References: Message-ID: "Heidi" wrote in message news:hencoq$ijk$1@news.spamcop.net... > OK...since effing Comcast has decided to jack the lease price on my modem > from $3 to$5 a month (they swapped out my old surfboard saying it was a > problem, I didn't ask for it), and this crappy $25 modem has been paid for > over and over again, I need to get my own, and also need a wireless router > for a mini netbook that I have. Slykat has said I should get a combo - > anyone have suggestions? Comcast has a list of models they approve, the > only one I can find is $150 on Amazon. Ouch..... I'm limited to Staples > and Best Buy otherwise, we have no electronics stores around here.... > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16825120003&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL121809&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL121809-_-Modems-_-L0B-_-25120003 Recertified: LINKSYS CM100-RM Ethernet Port Cable Modem with USB and Ethernet Connections Pros: The modem does what it is supposed to do. - My speeds through Comcast are excellent. No variations. - The connection is always there. Always fast. What more do you need? As the other commenter stated, I just needed to call Comcast and give them the MAC address and viola, internet! Cons: I'm expecting it to die any day now and start the house on fire because it is just working too well. I'm so used to things failing that I'm anticipating it. Other Thoughts: I was thinking about ordering a pizza tonight but I'm putting on a little too much 'holiday cheer' around my belly. Maybe I'll just have a salad instead... with extra cheese and pepperoni. From joegill at removethis Fri Dec 18 17:27:29 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Fri Dec 18 17:30:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Problems with Adobe Acrobat 8 S/N In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Frog Prince" wrote in message news:hg3imu$k73$1@news.spamcop.net... >I have a Dell desk top that has had a HDD crash. I've replace the HDD and >reloaded almost all the software. All doing well. > > Except I have a Bundle version of Adobe Acrobat 8 that won't recognize the > S/N (the rest of the bundle reinstalled and worked fine). > > Called Adobe and reached over the pond support. One says the S/N is not > valid the next says it is but can't tell me how to make it work. (we have > a comprehension/communications problem from the get go) > > This is a donated machine for one of my hospice patients. Any ideas how > to get the program to reinstall? > is this any help? http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/401/kb401677.html From user at domain.invalid Sat Dec 19 10:32:08 2009 From: user at domain.invalid (User) Date: Sat Dec 19 10:35:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Cable modem/wireless router combo In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 17.12.2009 08:31, bar0 wrote: --- Original Message --- > "Richard W" wrote in message > news:hgcb1i$tqa$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Indigo wrote: >>> > ... >> For the most discernible eye, the one thing with plasma is they need to >> receive the entire signal before displaying the picture. .... > > Ummm, why would that be? I can't see any physical reason why the pixels > can't be illuminated in scan order. Is it just an engineering decision? > > Further if this is a known problem, why don't reciever manufacturers build > in a sound delay feature, or at least in the case of a TV (integrated > reciever and screen) build in the necessary audio delays? > > My 42" Magnavox plasma has been quite acceptable for the last few years and I really didn't notice any difference whatsoever until I just got my LG 56" LED .. there IS a difference, believe me. :-) The 42 is in my computer room now and the 56 is in the den. Both have a 7.1 sound system with blu-ray player, etc. I have not noticed any degradation even tho it's 1080i and not p or lip-sync anomalies with the 42. No pixilation in the 56 (better not be!!!) .. From DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net Sat Dec 19 11:56:47 2009 From: DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net (DevilsPGD) Date: Sat Dec 19 12:00:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Cable modem/wireless router combo References: Message-ID: In message User was claimed to have wrote: >My 42" Magnavox plasma has been quite acceptable for the last few years >and I really didn't notice any difference whatsoever until I just got my >LG 56" LED .. there IS a difference, believe me. :-) What is the difference? From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Dec 19 12:08:58 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Sat Dec 19 12:10:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Cable modem/wireless router combo References: Message-ID: "DevilsPGD" wrote in message news:o51qi5d15qnpb0ujencu3qj44a5q3n7fod@4ax.com... > In message User > was claimed to have wrote: > >>My 42" Magnavox plasma has been quite acceptable for the last few years >>and I really didn't notice any difference whatsoever until I just got my >>LG 56" LED .. there IS a difference, believe me. :-) > > What is the difference? Size :) From DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net Sat Dec 19 13:18:39 2009 From: DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net (DevilsPGD) Date: Sat Dec 19 13:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Cable modem/wireless router combo References: Message-ID: In message "bar0" was claimed to have wrote: > >"DevilsPGD" wrote in message >news:o51qi5d15qnpb0ujencu3qj44a5q3n7fod@4ax.com... >> In message User >> was claimed to have wrote: >> >>>My 42" Magnavox plasma has been quite acceptable for the last few years >>>and I really didn't notice any difference whatsoever until I just got my >>>LG 56" LED .. there IS a difference, believe me. :-) >> >> What is the difference? > >Size :) > Sure, but I was hoping for more of a practical user Plasma vs LED comparison. I've yet to see either in practical (home) lighting conditions, although I'm happy with my DLP for the moment so I haven't made the effort to go to a professional shop (read: not Best Buy) to demo anything. From me at privacy.net Sat Dec 19 21:56:02 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Sat Dec 19 22:00:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Problems with Adobe Acrobat 8 S/N References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:hggvkn$jsr$1@news.spamcop.net... > > "Frog Prince" wrote in message > news:hg3imu$k73$1@news.spamcop.net... >>I have a Dell desk top that has had a HDD crash. I've replace the HDD and >>reloaded almost all the software. All doing well. >> >> Except I have a Bundle version of Adobe Acrobat 8 that won't recognize >> the S/N (the rest of the bundle reinstalled and worked fine). >> >> Called Adobe and reached over the pond support. One says the S/N is not >> valid the next says it is but can't tell me how to make it work. (we have >> a comprehension/communications problem from the get go) >> >> This is a donated machine for one of my hospice patients. Any ideas how >> to get the program to reinstall? >> > > is this any help? > http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/401/kb401677.html Thanks useful info but I'd (somehow) gotten it working the hard way. (I doubt I could repeat the process) From nobody at spamcop.net Sat Dec 19 22:44:25 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sat Dec 19 22:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Problems with Adobe Acrobat 8 S/N References: Message-ID: In news:hgk3of$ohq$3@news.spamcop.net, Frog Prince typed: > "Joe Gill" wrote in message > news:hggvkn$jsr$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> "Frog Prince" wrote in message >> news:hg3imu$k73$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> I have a Dell desk top that has had a HDD crash. I've replace the >>> HDD and reloaded almost all the software. All doing well. >>> >>> Except I have a Bundle version of Adobe Acrobat 8 that won't >>> recognize the S/N (the rest of the bundle reinstalled and worked >>> fine). >>> >>> Called Adobe and reached over the pond support. One says the S/N >>> is not valid the next says it is but can't tell me how to make it >>> work. (we have a comprehension/communications problem from the get >>> go) >>> >>> This is a donated machine for one of my hospice patients. Any >>> ideas how to get the program to reinstall? >>> >> >> is this any help? >> http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/401/kb401677.html > > Thanks useful info but I'd (somehow) gotten it working the hard way. > (I doubt I could repeat the process) lol, been there, done that! Twayne -- -- Live in the moment; be open to the possibilities that life has to offer. From DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net Sat Dec 19 23:21:00 2009 From: DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net (David H. Lipman) Date: Sat Dec 19 23:25:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Problems with Adobe Acrobat 8 S/N References: Message-ID: From: "Frog Prince" | I have a Dell desk top that has had a HDD crash. I've replace the HDD and | reloaded almost all the software. All doing well. | Except I have a Bundle version of Adobe Acrobat 8 that won't recognize the | S/N (the rest of the bundle reinstalled and worked fine). | Called Adobe and reached over the pond support. One says the S/N is not | valid the next says it is but can't tell me how to make it work. (we have a | comprehension/communications problem from the get go) | This is a donated machine for one of my hospice patients. Any ideas how to | get the program to reinstall? My recent Adobe support experience. http://forums.adobe.com/thread/535753?tstart=0 -- Dave http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp From me at privacy.net Sat Dec 19 23:33:26 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Sat Dec 19 23:35:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Problems with Adobe Acrobat 8 S/N References: Message-ID: "David H. Lipman" wrote in message news:hgk8nh$qca$1@news.spamcop.net... > From: "Frog Prince" > > | I have a Dell desk top that has had a HDD crash. I've replace the HDD > and > | reloaded almost all the software. All doing well. > > | Except I have a Bundle version of Adobe Acrobat 8 that won't recognize > the > | S/N (the rest of the bundle reinstalled and worked fine). > > | Called Adobe and reached over the pond support. One says the S/N is not > | valid the next says it is but can't tell me how to make it work. (we > have a > | comprehension/communications problem from the get go) > > | This is a donated machine for one of my hospice patients. Any ideas how > to > | get the program to reinstall? > > > My recent Adobe support experience. > > http://forums.adobe.com/thread/535753?tstart=0 > My wife has +/- $10K of Adobe software in her studio. No idea how much in her class room or in the hands for her students. Last attempt (out of total frustration) to deal with Adobe marble mumble Indian CS I used street level Japanese. There is NO WAY CS could have understood what I said. (if they did they would be looking for a meeting in a dark ally). Got the same rote run around and canned responses. From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Dec 20 15:31:04 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Antispam Knight) Date: Sun Dec 20 15:35:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Problems with Adobe Acrobat 8 S/N References: Message-ID: "Frog Prince" wrote in message news:hgk9fd$qj1$1@news.spamcop.net... > > > "David H. Lipman" wrote in message > news:hgk8nh$qca$1@news.spamcop.net... >> From: "Frog Prince" >> >> | I have a Dell desk top that has had a HDD crash. I've replace the HDD >> and >> | reloaded almost all the software. All doing well. >> >> | Except I have a Bundle version of Adobe Acrobat 8 that won't recognize >> the >> | S/N (the rest of the bundle reinstalled and worked fine). >> >> | Called Adobe and reached over the pond support. One says the S/N is >> not >> | valid the next says it is but can't tell me how to make it work. (we >> have a >> | comprehension/communications problem from the get go) >> >> | This is a donated machine for one of my hospice patients. Any ideas >> how to >> | get the program to reinstall? >> >> >> My recent Adobe support experience. >> >> http://forums.adobe.com/thread/535753?tstart=0 >> > > My wife has +/- $10K of Adobe software in her studio. No idea how much in > her class room or in the hands for her students. > > Last attempt (out of total frustration) to deal with Adobe marble mumble > Indian CS I used street level Japanese. There is NO WAY CS could have > understood what I said. (if they did they would be looking for a meeting > in a dark ally). > > Got the same rote run around and canned responses. > I haven't called Adobe support, but have utilized Dell support (which at one time was good), Symantec support, and a few others. I would have to say that your experience is now typical. I have concluded that where support is involved, you are on your own. Forums and other users are far more help than Tech. Support. Tech. Support will have you try a few cursory things, then recommend you reinstall the app., and/or windows. It is virtually impossible to reach a technical person. All you get are script readers, usually overseas. One of the reasons for purchasing genuine software, used to be the availability of Tech. Support, if you need it. That is no longer a consideration. AK AK From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Dec 20 20:27:42 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sun Dec 20 20:30:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Problems with Adobe Acrobat 8 S/N References: Message-ID: In news:hgk8nh$qca$1@news.spamcop.net, David H. Lipman typed: > From: "Frog Prince" > >> I have a Dell desk top that has had a HDD crash. I've replace the >> HDD and reloaded almost all the software. All doing well. > >> Except I have a Bundle version of Adobe Acrobat 8 that won't >> recognize the S/N (the rest of the bundle reinstalled and worked >> fine). > >> Called Adobe and reached over the pond support. One says the S/N is >> not valid the next says it is but can't tell me how to make it work. >> (we have a comprehension/communications problem from the get go) > >> This is a donated machine for one of my hospice patients. Any ideas >> how to get the program to reinstall? > > > My recent Adobe support experience. > > http://forums.adobe.com/thread/535753?tstart=0 It's not funny at all, but I still had to laugh a couple times as I read that whole thing. I've no intention of literally critiquing what you said but instead have some empathy for the whole crap-fest you went through. But ... you do know what you did wrong, right? ? You presented with a situation that their scripts didn't cover! Boy, that's a lot of nerve right there! How the heck do you expect them to help YOU when you can't at least have a problem in their "every possible problem's answer" script they have in front of them? You know, the scripts with the English to Indian to English translations in them? What're you, a troublemaker? LOL! Man, this crap of outsourcing support overseas to mouth-full-of-marbles, non-English speaking people reading translated translations of translated scripts just has to stop! I've always prided myself on being able to work with non-English speaking people, especially the Asians, and was often the one called when they had a particularly knurly one to work out. But I've never gotten a handle on listening to OR getting the meaning out of the cultural differences of what they are actually saying. These days if I go for support, whether it's email or chat or phone, and I end up in India call center, I've discovered it's best if at the third difficulty of understanding or insistance that I know isn't so, I ask for the supervisor as politely as I can. Usually it works, and quite often I've found that said supervisor will connect me with someone in "the lab" whatever that means. But once you're in "the lab" IME anyway, you begin to get some results or at least a feeling that you are being understood and actually listened to. There's no shuffling & shifting of turning pages, keys clicking madly in the background; just silence other than the person talking to you. One thing I found interesting about your experience was the quickness of getting "someone else" when you were passed on. No long waits, no callbacks, just what sounded like a quick access. That always makes me wonder WHY the long hold times then when I first call in, of all those people are so readily available? My most recent experience with a Support was with an APC UPS battery. My old battery crapped out just after the warranty expired, so I of course ordered another one. When I got it, the battery was was only "almost" a battery. My old runtimes with the same loads and same battery, actually 2 batteries as th is was my 3rd replacement, went from the previous 19 minutes to 6 minutes, which shortly became 5 minutes, and then the message the battery was shot & required replacement. I figured that would be a simple warranty call. Mohamed, the first tech, asked for and got all the info he needed; serials, order #, dates, names, addresses, etc.. But he only got "part of my mail" and would I resend it? Then he comes back with more questions, some totally irrelevant and silly. Like, the humidity and altitude I was operating the UPS at. Here in New York State. Then he said I sent him the battery serial and he wanted the UPS serial. I responded, indicating firmly but politely that I expected faster reaction and assistance. Then he comes back again and said there was something wrong with my zip code; it didn't match the city I used. I had supplied the right zip code and it would have been what, about a minute and a half for him to find it on his own? So I gave him the full 9 digits this time and asked again that me move things along as the runtime was down to 3 minutes now. At that point he became a black-hole. So I resubmitted and opened another case number. I get Murli now for a tech. Even though I provided an e-mail with FULL history, including all the serials, models, even SKUs, addresses, dates, etc., he still put together a list of specific questions I had to answer. Again. It's all via e-mail now, BTW. Well, at least everyting he asked would have been to verify I was the actual original purchaser, which he could have verified with nothing but the previous order numbers I supplied, so I filled it all in and sent it back. TWO days later I get an e-mail back saying I had used a different e-mail address than originally used, and the mail would go nowhere. I had to go to my account and add the email address (which I could find no way to do) as an alternate, or resend the mail from the proper account, but they never hinted which account it was. So I shotgunned 4 emails at them, covering all the accounts I might have used, and Murli got the mail. Plus, they opened two more accounts for me! Go figger! I fired off a nastygram using all 4 of my addresses again and figured to write them off. Murli disappears now too, and rather than wait it out I started researching, looking for another source for a UPS. But on the 3rd day I get a note from "Ronny" asking if my case had been resolved to my satisfaction? I politely resonded no, answered his questions, which wanted simply order #, serial and dates of the last battery purchase. He/she resonded, saying I should hear back in a day or two. Next day I get a mail saying the battery had been shipped and to expect a tracking number shortly. It came too. So I'm getting my battery; it's on the way. Good thing too because I had to remove the UPS yesterday; the battery was done for. But I don't think I'll stop my research looking into reps and histories of a few other UPS makers. The details might vary, but I think the stories are always the same; support sucks, especially when it's no in this country. APC isn't headquartered in N.A. so it was about the same as working with India except their English was a lot easier to understand. I know, it's a crapshoot changing companies for a UPS, but it at least feels good to think I'm going to take it away from APC permenently. They have enough of my money. And besides, I Like a lot of the features of the newer UPS's. Anyway, your'e not alone. Thanks for sharing. Twayne -- -- Live in the moment; be open to the possibilities that life has to offer. From nobody at spamcop.net Sun Dec 20 20:35:35 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Sun Dec 20 20:40:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Problems with Adobe Acrobat 8 S/N References: Message-ID: In news:hgm1i8$fve$1@news.spamcop.net, Antispam Knight typed: > "Frog Prince" wrote in message > news:hgk9fd$qj1$1@news.spamcop.net... >> >> >> "David H. Lipman" wrote in message >> news:hgk8nh$qca$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> From: "Frog Prince" >>> >>>> I have a Dell desk top that has had a HDD crash. I've replace the >>>> HDD and reloaded almost all the software. All doing well. >>> >>>> Except I have a Bundle version of Adobe Acrobat 8 that won't >>>> recognize the S/N (the rest of the bundle reinstalled and worked >>>> fine). >>> >>>> Called Adobe and reached over the pond support. One says the S/N >>>> is not valid the next says it is but can't tell me how to make it >>>> work. (we have a comprehension/communications problem from the get >>>> go) >>> >>>> This is a donated machine for one of my hospice patients. Any >>>> ideas how to get the program to reinstall? >>> >>> >>> My recent Adobe support experience. >>> >>> http://forums.adobe.com/thread/535753?tstart=0 >>> >> >> My wife has +/- $10K of Adobe software in her studio. No idea how >> much in her class room or in the hands for her students. >> >> Last attempt (out of total frustration) to deal with Adobe marble >> mumble Indian CS I used street level Japanese. There is NO WAY CS >> could have understood what I said. (if they did they would be >> looking for a meeting in a dark ally). >> >> Got the same rote run around and canned responses. >> > I haven't called Adobe support, but have utilized Dell support (which > at one time was good), Symantec support, and a few others. I would > have to say that your experience is now typical. I have concluded > that where support is involved, you are on your own. Forums and other > users are far more help than Tech. Support. > Tech. Support will have you try a few cursory things, then recommend > you reinstall the app., and/or windows. > It is virtually impossible to reach a technical person. All you get > are script readers, usually overseas. > One of the reasons for purchasing genuine software, used to be the > availability of Tech. Support, if you need it. > That is no longer a consideration. > AK > AK Interesting; I've used both Dell and Symantec support recently. Both used to be decent IMO and neither is now, although I see some improvement in Dell's technical support recently. At least the guy I got spoke proper English and had a measure of comprehension. It was just a simple warranty issue though. But it was all still far below any Quality level ever dreamed up. Besides the product, the only thing companies have to distinguish themselves from the rest these days is Quality, pro-activity and accuracy. It's amazing how many think it doesn't matter. And no one that outsources support to India or any other country than their own definitely don't care. I'm no longer shy about telling such support areas what I think about them; it's time someone spoke up with polite but firmly damning details. Twayne -- -- Live in the moment; be open to the possibilities that life has to offer. From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Dec 22 20:26:01 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Tue Dec 22 20:30:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Local Server experience? Message-ID: Hi, I seem to have a permanent brain-freeze here. I have a local Apache server (& PHP) installed, in conjunction with a program NoteTAB Pro version 6.2 (latest). I used to use the program NoteTAB Pro and its clip libraries to write my PHP pages and NoteTab would feed my pages to the server for me, without having to spell out the URI (http://localhost/ ... . I currently have installed the latest version of both XAMPP (server) and NoteTab Pro and PHP 5.2.2. But for the life of me, I can NOT figure out HOW to get NoteTabPro to feed the pages to the local server! IIRC there was an option in Options where you could tell it the address to use for the local server URI and it'd append the page name after it for me when I clicked on View In Browser, and voila, I had a working PHP page! It's not a case of "going back" to a previous image because this is a new machine and the old one has been wiped for selling already. Stoopid, eh? Does anyone know what I'm talking about? And how the heck do I get NoteTab to feed the local server? I've searched til I'm blue in the face and their forums are completely useless, as it seems my archives are too. Frustrating! Oviously I've Googled too, with no success but it's such a wide area to search I might just not have the right terms yet. Or might I have NoteTab Pro mixed up with some other similar program? I checked NotePAD++, but don't see any such capability there either. TIA, Twayne` -- -- Live in the moment; be open to the possibilities that life has to offer. From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Dec 23 19:40:37 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Wed Dec 23 19:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] RESOLVED: Re: Local Server experience? References: Message-ID: Resolved. It was staring me right in the face in the Option's HTML Pages tab! Just had to add localhost and the path to htdocs and done! Guess I was using my blind eye! A wasted mind is a terrible thing to use! Twayne In news:hgrrje$ki5$1@news.spamcop.net, Twayne typed: > Hi, > > I seem to have a permanent brain-freeze here. I have a local Apache > server (& PHP) installed, in conjunction with a program NoteTAB Pro > version 6.2 (latest). > I used to use the program NoteTAB Pro and its clip libraries to > write my PHP pages and NoteTab would feed my pages to the server for > me, without having to spell out the URI (http://localhost/ ... . I > currently have installed the latest version of both XAMPP (server) > and NoteTab Pro and PHP 5.2.2. > But for the life of me, I can NOT figure out HOW to get NoteTabPro > to feed the pages to the local server! > IIRC there was an option in Options where you could tell it the > address to use for the local server URI and it'd append the page name > after it for me when I clicked on View In Browser, and voila, I had a > working PHP page! It's not a case of "going back" to a previous > image because this is a new machine and the old one has been wiped > for selling already. Stoopid, eh? > Does anyone know what I'm talking about? > And how the heck do I get NoteTab to feed the local server? I've > searched til I'm blue in the face and their forums are completely > useless, as it seems my archives are too. Frustrating! Oviously > I've Googled too, with no success but it's such a wide area to search > I might just not have the right terms yet. > Or might I have NoteTab Pro mixed up with some other similar > program? I checked NotePAD++, but don't see any such capability > there either. > TIA, > > Twayne` > > > > > > > > -- -- -- We've already reached tomorrow's yesterday but we're still far away from yesterday's tomorrow. From me at privacy.net Thu Dec 24 11:11:27 2009 From: me at privacy.net (anon) Date: Thu Dec 24 11:15:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] screen saver Message-ID: When I open display properties the choice (which screen saver do I want) and the time (wait --- minutes) are grayed out. No choices are available. How do I turn these on? "settings" button did not give any choices for that. From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 24 13:50:42 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Dec 24 13:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: screen saver In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "anon" wrote in message news:hh03t4$bk4$1@news.spamcop.net... > When I open display properties the choice (which screen saver do I want) > and the time (wait --- minutes) are grayed out. > > No choices are available. > > How do I turn these on? "settings" button did not give any choices for > that. > Do you have the screensaver turned off somewhere in the Control Panel? Or from an aftermarket system tweaker? If I had the time, I could find the place in your registry file where you could check your setttings, but gotta run, potentially long and slow drive to my Dad's house for Xmas ahead...... From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Dec 24 14:42:27 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Dec 24 14:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: screen saver References: Message-ID: anon wrote: > When I open display properties the choice (which screen saver do I > want) and the time (wait --- minutes) are grayed out. Which operating system version are we talking about? I see your newsreader is WLM, but that range is XP-Win7. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Dec 24 14:55:02 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Dec 24 14:55:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: screen saver References: Message-ID: anon wrote: > When I open display properties the choice (which screen saver do I > want) and the time (wait --- minutes) are grayed out. There are a lot of hits on the terms - screensaver grayed out - Most of them refer to the regedit approach in MS kb 555506 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555506 When one tries to change the Screensaver he or she can not change it as the Screensaver drop down menu is greyed out. -- This happens if the Screensaver policy is set either via group policy or registry. -- To resolve this problem:- Start>Run>type Regedit -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From me at privacy.net Thu Dec 24 18:01:20 2009 From: me at privacy.net (anon) Date: Thu Dec 24 18:05:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: screen saver References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:hh0gum$g9o$1@news.spamcop.net... > anon wrote: >> When I open display properties the choice (which screen saver do I >> want) and the time (wait --- minutes) are grayed out. > > There are a lot of hits on the terms - screensaver grayed out - > > Most of them refer to the regedit approach in MS kb 555506 > > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555506 When one tries to change the > Screensaver he or she can not change it as the Screensaver drop down > menu is greyed out. -- This happens if the Screensaver policy is set > either via group policy or registry. -- To resolve this problem:- > Start>Run>type Regedit > > > > -- > Mike Easter > kibitzer, not SC admin > win xp home sp2 Half way there - now the 'choice' is OK but the 'time' is still grayed out. No way to set how long 'till the SC kicks in/ I suspected that something in the registry might be the problem, but didn't know where. From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Dec 29 14:01:07 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Tue Dec 29 14:05:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail Message-ID: I got a new Dell M6400 with Vista64. There's no newsreader. Well there is, sort of. If I go to "Help and Support" and search for wetlook express, and then click on the link that sez what "where is outlook express" I get taken to a page that has a "click here to open windows mail". It's the only way I can launch this proggy. Here is some of the source for the page: -----begin source

Outlook Express has been replaced by Windows Mail, an improved e-mail program with enhancements such as junk e-mail filtering and protection against phishing messages.

  • Click to open Windows Mail.

    • -----end source but when I actually look in programfiles/windows mail/ there is no exe, but a "winmail.exe.mui" which is not "runnable" I've tried the install/enable windows features but can't find winmail, and I'd prefer not to get into windows live. How can I make this facing thing executable from a program icon? Any ideas? From joegill at removethis Tue Dec 29 14:53:47 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Tue Dec 29 14:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "bar0" wrote in message news:hhdjlj$7jt$1@news.spamcop.net... >I got a new Dell M6400 with Vista64. There's no newsreader. Well there is, >sort of. > > If I go to "Help and Support" and search for wetlook express, and then > click on the link that sez what "where is outlook express" I get taken to > a page that has a "click here to open windows mail". It's the only way I > can launch this proggy. Here is some of the source for the page: > > -----begin source >

    Outlook Express has been replaced by class="notLocalizable">Windows Mail, an improved e-mail program > with enhancements such as href="mshelp://windows/?id=2fbade43-c8ac-40f8-b938-699efc0c3c38#gtmt_junk_e_mail_def" > title="View definition">junk e-mail filtering and protection against > href="mshelp://windows/?id=575cc566-83e4-40c0-8f39-14b1db245848#gtmt_phishing_def" > title="View definition">phishing messages.

    >
      >
    • >

      href="shortcut:"%25programfiles%25\windows mail\winmail.exe"" > title="Click to open Windows Mail"> src="mshelp://help/?id=Microsoft.Windows.Resources.ShellExecuteTopicIcon"> > Click to open Windows Mail.

      >
      • > -----end source > > but when I actually look in programfiles/windows mail/ there is no exe, > but a "winmail.exe.mui" which is not "runnable" I've tried the > install/enable windows features but can't find winmail, and I'd prefer not > to get into windows live. How can I make this facing thing executable from > a program icon? > > Any ideas? Has WINMAIL been installed? It may be a 'selectable' option.... From DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net Tue Dec 29 15:02:23 2009 From: DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net (DevilsPGD) Date: Tue Dec 29 15:05:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail References: Message-ID: In message "bar0" was claimed to have wrote: >I got a new Dell M6400 with Vista64. There's no newsreader. Well there is, >sort of. > >If I go to "Help and Support" and search for wetlook express, Learning to spell will help. >but when I actually look in programfiles/windows mail/ there is no exe, but >a "winmail.exe.mui" which is not "runnable" I've tried the install/enable >windows features but can't find winmail, and I'd prefer not to get into >windows live. How can I make this facing thing executable from a program >icon? > >Any ideas? Hit the "Start" orb, type "mail" and see what comes up. Unless you've uninstalled, disabled, or otherwise reconfigured something, this will find Windows Mail, or Windows Live Mail, whichever you have installed. From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Dec 29 15:11:05 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Tue Dec 29 15:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Joe Gill" wrote in message news:hhdmoh$8oo$1@news.spamcop.net... > ... >> >> but when I actually look in programfiles/windows mail/ there is no exe, >> but a "winmail.exe.mui" which is not "runnable" I've tried the >> install/enable windows features but can't find winmail, and I'd prefer >> not to get into windows live. How can I make this facing thing executable >> from a program icon? >> >> Any ideas? > > Has WINMAIL been installed? It may be a 'selectable' option.... > No, and I can't seem to find where to install it, adding programs/features doesn't mention it anywhere From nobody at spamcop.net Tue Dec 29 15:16:03 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Tue Dec 29 15:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "DevilsPGD" wrote in message news:clnkj5d3jd3uipivemin4v643ooiuuqrca@4ax.com... > In message "bar0" > was claimed to have wrote: > >>I got a new Dell M6400 with Vista64. There's no newsreader. Well there is, >>sort of. >> >>If I go to "Help and Support" and search for wetlook express, > > Learning to spell will help. > >>but when I actually look in programfiles/windows mail/ there is no exe, >>but >>a "winmail.exe.mui" which is not "runnable" I've tried the install/enable >>windows features but can't find winmail, and I'd prefer not to get into >>windows live. How can I make this facing thing executable from a program >>icon? >> >>Any ideas? > > Hit the "Start" orb, type "mail" and see what comes up. Unless you've > uninstalled, disabled, or otherwise reconfigured something, this will > find Windows Mail, or Windows Live Mail, whichever you have installed. Interesting, I suspect that winmail is not installed even though I can get it launched by the stated method. My mandated mailer is Office Outlook 2007, and also the "Default" Mail app. I only use winmail to read NG's. Typing "Mail" onto the Startmenu opens Yahoo Webmail on Exploder.! From MikeE at ster.invalid Tue Dec 29 18:06:02 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Tue Dec 29 18:10:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "bar0" >I got a new Dell M6400 with Vista64. There's no newsreader. Well there >is, sort of. Vista comes with Windows Mail which is like OE. It is not possible to install any version of OE in Vista; you can only accept Windows Mail or go to Windows Live Mail, unless you leave MS offerings. > If I go to "Help and Support" and search for wetlook express, and then > click on the link that sez what "where is outlook express" I get taken > to a page that has a "click here to open windows mail". It's the only > way I can launch this proggy. Here is some of the source for the page: I am currently posting this with Windows Mail in Vista. The name of the program is WinMail.exe and it is located in Program Files/ Windows Mail. Normally I don't use winmail or vista, but I made a spamcop news account just now. > but when I actually look in programfiles/windows mail/ there is no exe, > but a "winmail.exe.mui" which is not "runnable" I've tried the > install/enable windows features but can't find winmail, and I'd prefer > not to get into windows live. How can I make this facing thing > executable from a program icon? > > Any ideas? http://snipr.com/twr8a Launching windows mail microsoft.public.windows.vista.mail "Thanks Gary. There is no WinMail.exe. There is a WinMail.exe.mui in a file named en-US. When I click on a desktop shortcut for this it opens the "windows cannot open this file" box. Renaming it WinMail.exe doesn't help. Any suggestions?" I don't know if there is an answer in there; there is a lot of similar conversation to yours. -- Mike Easter -- Mike Easter From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Dec 30 00:49:58 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Richard W) Date: Wed Dec 30 00:50:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: bar0 wrote: > Interesting, I suspect that winmail is not installed even though I can > get it launched by the stated method. My mandated mailer is Office > Outlook 2007, and also the "Default" Mail app. I only use winmail to > read NG's. Typing "Mail" onto the Startmenu opens Yahoo Webmail on > Exploder.! Download and install Thunderbird. Much nicer for mail and newsgroups. Richard From DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net Wed Dec 30 17:48:49 2009 From: DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net (DevilsPGD) Date: Wed Dec 30 17:50:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail References: Message-ID: In message "bar0" was claimed to have wrote: > >"DevilsPGD" wrote in message >news:clnkj5d3jd3uipivemin4v643ooiuuqrca@4ax.com... >> In message "bar0" >> was claimed to have wrote: >> >>>I got a new Dell M6400 with Vista64. There's no newsreader. Well there is, >>>sort of. >>> >>>If I go to "Help and Support" and search for wetlook express, >> >> Learning to spell will help. >> >>>but when I actually look in programfiles/windows mail/ there is no exe, >>>but >>>a "winmail.exe.mui" which is not "runnable" I've tried the install/enable >>>windows features but can't find winmail, and I'd prefer not to get into >>>windows live. How can I make this facing thing executable from a program >>>icon? >>> >>>Any ideas? >> >> Hit the "Start" orb, type "mail" and see what comes up. Unless you've >> uninstalled, disabled, or otherwise reconfigured something, this will >> find Windows Mail, or Windows Live Mail, whichever you have installed. > >Interesting, I suspect that winmail is not installed even though I can get >it launched by the stated method. My mandated mailer is Office Outlook 2007, >and also the "Default" Mail app. I only use winmail to read NG's. Typing >"Mail" onto the Startmenu opens Yahoo Webmail on Exploder.! Vista installs Windows Mail by default, although if you've changed something you might have removed/crippled/disabled/hidden it. Go to Default Programs, then to "Set Program Access" or similar (I'm on W7, don't have Vista in front of me right now), look for "Default e-mail program" and see if Windows Mail is enabled or not? From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Dec 30 19:01:26 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Wed Dec 30 19:05:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "DevilsPGD" wrote in message news:nrknj51s9dlvs6qm68a2qj0077qrnrl96s@4ax.com... > In message "bar0" > was claimed to have wrote: > >> >>"DevilsPGD" wrote in message >>news:clnkj5d3jd3uipivemin4v643ooiuuqrca@4ax.com... >>> In message "bar0" >>> was claimed to have wrote: >>> >>>>I got a new Dell M6400 with Vista64. There's no newsreader. Well there >>>>is, >>>>sort of. >>>> >>>>If I go to "Help and Support" and search for wetlook express, >>> >>> Learning to spell will help. >>> >>>>but when I actually look in programfiles/windows mail/ there is no exe, >>>>but >>>>a "winmail.exe.mui" which is not "runnable" I've tried the >>>>install/enable >>>>windows features but can't find winmail, and I'd prefer not to get into >>>>windows live. How can I make this facing thing executable from a program >>>>icon? >>>> >>>>Any ideas? >>> >>> Hit the "Start" orb, type "mail" and see what comes up. Unless you've >>> uninstalled, disabled, or otherwise reconfigured something, this will >>> find Windows Mail, or Windows Live Mail, whichever you have installed. >> >>Interesting, I suspect that winmail is not installed even though I can get >>it launched by the stated method. My mandated mailer is Office Outlook >>2007, >>and also the "Default" Mail app. I only use winmail to read NG's. Typing >>"Mail" onto the Startmenu opens Yahoo Webmail on Exploder.! > > Vista installs Windows Mail by default, although if you've changed > something you might have removed/crippled/disabled/hidden it. > > Go to Default Programs, then to "Set Program Access" or similar (I'm on > W7, don't have Vista in front of me right now), look for "Default e-mail > program" and see if Windows Mail is enabled or not? More stuff, Can't seem to find the right Tosh Drivers for our fancy printers/copiers/scanners/faxes, Oh I get the Generic BS driver, but now I can't hole punch, staple, 2 sides or do other fancy stuff. I bet My version of the "Standard Image" is a lame one. I mean sheesh, I had to enable the games myself. Oddly my office neighbour was able to get the right driver going, same network/server/Laptop/OS everything, go figure. From DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net Thu Dec 31 13:37:32 2009 From: DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net (DevilsPGD) Date: Thu Dec 31 13:40:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail References: Message-ID: <5aqpj5d1a2ofbgkkf3krrj6v0ejenv7ecf@4ax.com> In message "bar0" was claimed to have wrote: >Oddly my office neighbour was able to get the right driver going, same >network/server/Laptop/OS everything, go figure. Go to Devices and Printers, make sure that Windows will at least look at Windows Update for updated drivers? I've been surprised how many devices that had limited support in Windows' supplied drivers in XP and Vista have more functionality in W7. From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 31 14:08:22 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (bar0) Date: Thu Dec 31 14:10:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail In-Reply-To: <5aqpj5d1a2ofbgkkf3krrj6v0ejenv7ecf@4ax.com> References: <5aqpj5d1a2ofbgkkf3krrj6v0ejenv7ecf@4ax.com> Message-ID: "DevilsPGD" wrote in message news:5aqpj5d1a2ofbgkkf3krrj6v0ejenv7ecf@4ax.com... > In message "bar0" > was claimed to have wrote: > >>Oddly my office neighbour was able to get the right driver going, same >>network/server/Laptop/OS everything, go figure. > > Go to Devices and Printers, make sure that Windows will at least look at > Windows Update for updated drivers? It does want to look at windows update, but it doesn't seem to want to look for drivers, just kb-updates. > > I've been surprised how many devices that had limited support in > Windows' supplied drivers in XP and Vista have more functionality in W7. The 32 bit XP driver worked just fine! (on my older laptop.) From DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net Thu Dec 31 16:12:30 2009 From: DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net (DevilsPGD) Date: Thu Dec 31 16:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Bloody new stuff, Vista and Winmail References: <5aqpj5d1a2ofbgkkf3krrj6v0ejenv7ecf@4ax.com> Message-ID: In message "bar0" was claimed to have wrote: > >"DevilsPGD" wrote in message >news:5aqpj5d1a2ofbgkkf3krrj6v0ejenv7ecf@4ax.com... >> In message "bar0" >> was claimed to have wrote: >> >>>Oddly my office neighbour was able to get the right driver going, same >>>network/server/Laptop/OS everything, go figure. >> >> Go to Devices and Printers, make sure that Windows will at least look at >> Windows Update for updated drivers? > >It does want to look at windows update, but it doesn't seem to want to look >for drivers, just kb-updates. By default W7's Update only looks for software updates, you need to enable driver updates before Windows looks for them. You'll get mixed responses whether WU source drivers can/should be used, personally I've had good luck for everything except video drivers, but I always install the correct video driver long before WU has it anyway, so I don't even get offered video drivers by WY. From borgholio at storymind.com Thu Dec 31 18:09:15 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Thu Dec 31 18:10:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Mixing memory sizes Message-ID: I have an Asus P5GC MX/1333 board that can support up to 4gb RAM. Problem is, XP Pro 32 bit will only see 3gb of that. So I don't want to buy a matched pair of 2gb chips if a whole gig will be unused. So my other option is to mix a 2gb chip and a 1gb chip. That'd mean I don't have any wasted memory. For compatibility's sake they'll be the same manufacturer (Kingston) and same speed, just different sizes. Would that work? From blacklist-me at davjam.org Thu Dec 31 18:52:47 2009 From: blacklist-me at davjam.org (David Bolt) Date: Thu Dec 31 18:55:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Mixing memory sizes References: Message-ID: <2805401.kQq0lBPeGt@dev.null.davjam.org> On Thursday 31 Dec 2009 23:09, while playing with a tin of spray paint, Borgholio painted this mural: > I have an Asus P5GC MX/1333 board that can support up to 4gb RAM. Problem > is, XP Pro 32 bit will only see 3gb of that. So I don't want to buy a > matched pair of 2gb chips if a whole gig will be unused. Unless you're planning to never upgrade to a 64bit OS, go for the full 4GB. Then you won't need to replace a memory stick if/when you do finally upgrade. > So my other option is to mix a 2gb chip and a 1gb chip. That'd mean I > don't have any wasted memory. For compatibility's sake they'll be the > same manufacturer (Kingston) and same speed, just different sizes. Would > that work? Check the motherboard specs. All the ones I've ever come across allowed mixed memory sizes. I've run systems with different sized sticks in the past, although I've not used that specific board, and didn't have any issues with them while doing so. Can't say any more now though as the only two systems that aren't fully loaded are an old G3 iMac and a 5yo laptop. The rest now have either 2x2GB or 4x1GB. Regards, David Bolt -- Team Acorn: www.distributed.net OGR-NG @ ~100Mnodes RC5-72 @ ~1Mkeys/s openSUSE 11.0 32b | | openSUSE 11.2 32b | openSUSE 11.0 64b | openSUSE 11.1 64b | openSUSE 11.2 64b | TOS 4.02 | openSUSE 11.1 PPC | RISC OS 4.02 | RISC OS 3.11 From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Dec 31 19:19:23 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Twayne) Date: Thu Dec 31 19:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Mixing memory sizes References: Message-ID: In news:hhjauf$8ph$1@news.spamcop.net, Borgholio typed: > I have an Asus P5GC MX/1333 board that can support up to 4gb RAM. Problem > is, XP Pro 32 bit will only see 3gb of that. So I don't want > to buy a matched pair of 2gb chips if a whole gig will be unused. > > So my other option is to mix a 2gb chip and a 1gb chip. That'd mean I > don't have any wasted memory. For compatibility's sake they'll be the > same manufacturer (Kingston) and same speed, just different sizes. Would > that work? You should check your documentation or with the mfr, but in most cases that's OK to do. I have a 1 Gig and a 512 stick in one machine (a Gateway) and it works just fine. As long as the other specs match, barring a mfr's note otherwise, you should have no problem. I keep weasling the "mfr" in there because I have seen the occasionl machine that require the same size RAM chip in both slots. If it's not readily available information, I'd just try it; it's very unlikely to mess anything up. Unless you have a strange brand PC, crucial.com can read your RAM slots and look up the details as a rule: which banks to fill, etc.; they're very good IME and useful to confirm that my own plans were correct. Or not :-(, lol. Install the larger of the two in the first slot and the smaller one in the other slot. There are sometimes rules on which slot/s to use too if you have more than two. e.g. this Dell here says to use them in even or odd numbered slots: 0 and 2 (up to 6, and then 1 & 3, etc. Strange, but ... .) if there are only two slots. This machine has extra sockets because it's Vista/win7 capable but I had them preinstall XP Pro for me per a special offer they had. HTH, Twayne -- Cats land on their feet. but Toast lands PB side down; A cat glued to some jelly toast will hover in quantum indecision forever. From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Dec 31 19:35:17 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Dec 31 19:40:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Mixing memory sizes In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > I have an Asus P5GC MX/1333 board that can support up to 4gb RAM. > Problem is, XP Pro 32 bit will only see 3gb of that. So I don't want to > buy a matched pair of 2gb chips if a whole gig will be unused. > > So my other option is to mix a 2gb chip and a 1gb chip. That'd mean I > don't have any wasted memory. For compatibility's sake they'll be the > same manufacturer (Kingston) and same speed, just different sizes. > Would that work? The business about which mobo/s require 'matching' ram slots is up to the mobo Asus info from the website conflicts with what it sez in the user manual http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=PYvbfOokwxUzJky3 Memory 2 x DIMM, max. 4GB, DDR2 667/533 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory Dual channel memory architecture * Refer to www.asus.com or user manual for Memory QVL (Qualify Vendor List) **When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, WindowsR 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended. (end website) Manual: P5GC-MX/1333 user?s manual(English) http://snipurl.com/txp1i page 27 section 1.7 1.7 System memory You may install 256 MB, 512 MB, and 1 GB unbuffered non-ECC DDR2 DIMMs into the DIMM sockets. (notice that doesn't say you can install 2 2G into the sockets) For dual-channel configuration, the total size of memory module(s) installed per channel must be the same (DIMM_A1 = DIMM_B1). (page 30) DIMM Support: A - supports one module inserted into either slot, in a Single-channel memory configuration. B - supports one pair of modules inserted into the yellow slots as one pair of Dual?channel memory configuration. (one module only; or one pair of modules, not mix and match sizes) The business about how much ram XP can support is more complicated than to just say 3G. If I had a mobo which would accommodate 2 2G ram sticks, that's what I would use. But I believe that your board only accommodates 2G of ram in the form of 2 1G sticks. -- Mike Easter From borgholio at storymind.com Thu Dec 31 21:19:23 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Thu Dec 31 21:20:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Mixing memory sizes In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Mike Easter wrote: > Borgholio wrote: >> I have an Asus P5GC MX/1333 board that can support up to 4gb RAM. >> Problem is, XP Pro 32 bit will only see 3gb of that. So I don't want >> to buy a matched pair of 2gb chips if a whole gig will be unused. >> >> So my other option is to mix a 2gb chip and a 1gb chip. That'd mean I >> don't have any wasted memory. For compatibility's sake they'll be the >> same manufacturer (Kingston) and same speed, just different sizes. >> Would that work? > > The business about which mobo/s require 'matching' ram slots is up to > the mobo > > Asus info from the website conflicts with what it sez in the user manual > > http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=PYvbfOokwxUzJky3 > > Memory > 2 x DIMM, max. 4GB, DDR2 667/533 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory > Dual channel memory architecture > * Refer to www.asus.com or user manual for Memory QVL (Qualify Vendor List) > **When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, WindowsR 32-bit > operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total > installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended. > > (end website) > > Manual: P5GC-MX/1333 user’s manual(English) > http://snipurl.com/txp1i page 27 section 1.7 > 1.7 System memory > You may install 256 MB, 512 MB, and 1 GB unbuffered non-ECC DDR2 DIMMs > into the DIMM sockets. > > (notice that doesn't say you can install 2 2G into the sockets) > > For dual-channel configuration, the total size of memory module(s) > installed per channel must be the same (DIMM_A1 = DIMM_B1). > > (page 30) > > DIMM Support: > A - supports one module inserted into either slot, in a > Single-channel memory configuration. > B - supports one pair of modules inserted into the yellow slots > as one pair of Dual‐channel memory configuration. > > (one module only; or one pair of modules, not mix and match sizes) > > > The business about how much ram XP can support is more complicated than > to just say 3G. If I had a mobo which would accommodate 2 2G ram > sticks, that's what I would use. But I believe that your board only > accommodates 2G of ram in the form of 2 1G sticks. > > > > Seems at this time it's a moot point. My neighbor just up and gave me two 2gb sticks of PC 6400 ram he had laying around. Motherboard recognizes all 4 gigs but 640mb are "reserved" for something...so the total ends up being about 3.4gb which Windows fully recognizes.