*CyberCoyote - February 21, 2008*

NEWS, NOTES and NOTICES

*Annual Meeting*
Treas. report: Start of fiscal year ~ $2,000, spent ~ $170, current balance ~ $3,095.
Officers elected: Prez. - Bryson Reardon, VP - George Jester, Scty. - Chuck Tomlinson, Treas. - Phil Costello

*Questions and Answers*
What can I do to make an old computer run faster? Answer(s): (1) You might reinstall Windows and just the programs you need. (2) Block programs that start automatically from starting (use the free Process Explorer and Autoruns utilities to do this). (3) Disable Windows services that you don't need. (4) Keep the hard drive defragged.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx -- Process Explorer and Autoruns
http://cybercoyote.org/security/services.shtml -- services
http://www.blackviper.com/ -- more advice on services

*Tutorials*
An RV couple who call themselves "Geeks on Tour" give computer tutorials at RV rallies, and they have a website where you can find videos of their tutorials. The subjects range from blogging, through using Picasa, to WiFi.
http://geeksontour.com/

*Speaking of WiFi*
Your security online at public venues -- hotspots, hotel broadband, etc. -- is highly problematic. There is an affordable solution however -- rent a VPN (virtual private network).
http://cybercoyote.org/classes/wifi/hotspots.shtml#vpn

TIPS, TOPICS and TWEAKS

*Free software*
Gizmo Richards is revamping his venerable lists of free software. He's no longer trying to do it all himself, and has enlisted a few dozen "editors" who are actively updating the entries. Eventually he will change the format too so that things will be easier to find. You just might find what you've always been looking for on one of those lists. I'm working on categories 73, 96 and 100 myself.
http://techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm -- 1-46
http://techsupportalert.com/more/extended.htm -- 47-119


*The rest of the story*
Andy Brice, a software developer, ran a simple experiment to see if "5 Star" ratings on software mean anything. He submitted a totally bogus program to 1033 sites. As you might expect, the only websites whose ratings mean anything at all are those where real humans are involved. ;-)
http://tinyurl.com/223mcd -- the experiment
http://tinyurl.com/38m7mt -- Tucows' response

WINDOWS VISTA TOPICS

*Find what marketing made them hide*
All versions of Vista automatically back up each version of documents and files as you save them. You can easily revert to any one of them if you have Vista Ultimate, but Vista Home Premium doesn't have that capability. You can add it back with File Hamster, which also adds other nice options. Download FileHamster free at Mogware.
http://tinyurl.com/3445k3
http://www.mogware.com/index.php

*Dual-boot Vista and XP*
UPDATE: Scotts instructions didn't go far enough. This retrograde installation of XP deletes Vista restore points and causes other backup problems. See the second link for the solution.
ORIGINAL: This question came up a while back. It's easy to add Vista to a computer that is already running XP (Google "dual boot vista"). It's harder -- a bit on the geek side -- to add XP to a computer running Vista. Scott Dunn has excellent instructions if you want to try it.
http://windowssecrets.com/comp/080214#story1 http://windowssecrets.com/comp/080221#known0

*Upgrading from Vista to Windows XP*
"I have finally decided to take the plunge. Last night I upgraded my Vista desktop machine to Windows XP, and this afternoon I will be doing the same to my laptop." --from a parody review of XP
http://tinyurl.com/2a8pxw -- the review
http://tinyurl.com/3cnvbb -- original source

ODDS and ENDS

*Who's on First?*
It's time to warm up for spring training. [Best with broadband.]

*Modern Miracles*
http://lburl.com/ju4df

*That's all, folks.*

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