CyberCoyote - March 2, 2006

NEWS

Lee Otsubo put on a whirlwind digital photography workshop today. You might have found it difficult to capture all the concepts, but he does have a nice website where he offers "Products" that contain the same plus more information, along with shareware that you can use to try the techniques. You can get a user group discount if you want to order anything by entering "pcug" (without quotes) as the discount code.
http://www.thedigitalphotoguy.com/

TIPS and TOPICS

If you get an Excel spreadsheet or Word document, but you don't have Microsoft Office installed, you will have a problem reading the file. Microsoft Works may *work* :-) for you, but there are other solutions. If you only need to view the file, one of Microsoft's viewers will do the job. The free office suite from OpenOffice.org may do the job if you need to work with the file.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/CH011085901033.aspx -- free viewers
http://www.openoffice.org/ -- free open office suite

Firefox has a "shrink-to-fit" option in the "Preview Pane" that lets you fit the page to your printer before you print it. That lets you avoid chopping off one edge of the printed copy.
http://cybercoyote.org/software/firefox.shtml

WINDOWS

On Feb. 27, Microsoft revealed what versions Windows Vista will have. There are six core variations in the "Home" and "Enterprise" groups. I'm sure the idea is to extract the maximum money possible from the universe of buyers. :-) The files for all versions will be included in each group. If you decide you want to step up to the next version, all you'll need to do is go online (with your credit card, of course)
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_editions.asp<
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,2180,1931478,00.asp/p>

If only I had remembered this website before starting the Windows Registry classes. Kelly's Korner has a large number of registry fixes and tweaks for Windows XP.
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

SECURITY

No doubt you know about the invasion of killer bees from Brazil. We now face invasion by a more virulent form of online larceny that is widespread in Brazil. Silent keylogging programs are replacing more easily detected spyware as the preferred way to filch your credentials and make off with the money in your online accounts.

You may think you are protected against this kind of fraud by law. Not true: "In this country, victims of fraudulent money transfers are typically limited to $50 in liability under the Federal Reserve's Regulation E, so long as they report the crime quickly enough — within two days. If they report it within 60 days, their liability is capped at $500." There are good solutions to the problem, but government is too beholden to big business to require sensible measures. You're on your own.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/technology/27hack.html
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1931718,00.asp -- example
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/technology/27hackside.html -- some answers

INTERNET

Macromedia Flash is possibly the most irritating thing on the Web. While it can be used to very good effect, it's often abused to deliver flashing, jumping, impossible-to-ignore ads and such. If you kill it though, some important websites just won't work.

The easiest way to defeat garish Flash objects has been to use Firefox along with the Flashblock extension. There's now a utility that works with Internet Explorer to do something similar.
http://www.flashswitch.com/ -- FlashSwitch for IE
http://flashblock.mozdev.org/ -- Flashblock for Firefox

DIVERSION

Using your PC effectively.
http://www.ucomics.com/cathy/2006/02/24/

There's a whole universe of players and casual games on major Internet portals like Yahoo, MSN Zone and America Online, as well as special game sites. The most popular game on Yahoo Games is pool. That's just one of the casual online games that attract over 100 million regular players.
http://cybercoyote.org/url/167.html

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