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Quote of the day:
I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But
I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog: "No good
in a bed, but fine against a wall. - Eleanor
Roosevelt (e-mail from Bernie McCabe )
The meeting opened at 10:00 AM with 28 members in attendance.
Announcements: The projector lamp will cost about $400 US plus
freight, duties and taxes. Motion by Bob Young to split cost 3
ways with ILR and the Astronomy club. Seconded and carried.
Bob Young mentioned that there is a free alternative to Bell's pay per
call 411 service at 1-800-free411.
John Barker then opened the floor to Questions:
Name |
Q&A |
Details |
OS |
| Joe W. |
Q |
Using IE, I went to www.sun.com to
download Java Runtime. I had to use the Manual download option
instead. Why? |
All |
| Bob |
A |
After a lawsuit between Microsoft and Sun, Windows no longer
includes Java and IE uses Active X controls to do downloads. Active
X controls are written by each web site's programmers. It's
possible that the Active X control at www.sun.com was
corrupted, so you had to use the manual download option.
Tomorrow, it may work properly, if Sun's programmers fix the Active
X script. |
|
| M.I.G.S |
Q |
When I tried to change the spell checker in Outlook from English
to French, I lost all spell checking. I use MS-Office and Word
Perfect. How do I get it back? |
All |
| Bob & Sturg |
A |
Outlook uses MS-Word to do spell checking. Try Start > All
Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore
to set your PC back to a date that was before you lost Spell Check
and see if that fixes the problem.
Then, read KB309358 to
learn how to enable multi-language support in Word.
Sturg suggested using the free Open
Office which can open both Word and Word Perfect documents
and lets you set Spell Checking in many languages for each document,
as shown below. In Open Office, click on the Tools tab > Options > and
click on “Languages” in the left pane:
Then, paste the French text from OO to your Email.
You could also use Google's “translate feature” (in
April 21st Minutes) to convert English text to French. |
|
| Stan |
Q |
In 98SE, a friend sent me a Word doc with embedded photos, but
when I try yo open the file with my Word 2000, they won't display
properly. What's up? |
All |
| Bob |
A |
The sender may have accidentally inserted the photos “as
Links” to his hard drive. Ask the sender to use “Save
As” and save & resend the file as a “web page
complete” instead. |
|
| Mary |
Q |
Should I buy a commercial Anti-Spyware program after the trial
expires? |
All |
| Sturg |
A |
This answer applies to any commercial application. Use
Google to look for “Antispyware reviews”. The
best review sites compare commercial programs and free tools without
bias. Here's a link to get you started:
spywarewarrior.com/asw-features.htm
Then, decide for yourself if you want to spend your money.
We recommend using more than one anti-spyware program. We
use MS-Antispyware (now called Defender), Spybot Search & Destroy,
Ad-Aware and Spyware Blaster, all free. Check our website
for links. |
|
| John Watts |
Q |
Does anyone know of a portable voice recorder that can send files
to a PC via USB? |
All |
| Bob |
A |
Go on the web and Google search for digital+voice+recorder+USB. |
|
Sturg demonstrated Windows x64 Pro (the Beta version of Vista) on an
AMD 64 bit PC. Because Microsoft will no longer support Windows
98 or Windows ME after July 2006, many of you may be thinking about buying
a new PC. Should you buy a Vista certified PC now, or wait?
When Vista is released early next year, it is rumoured that you will
need a very high-end computer to run it. Microsoft just posted
minimum hardware requirements for Vista at:
www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx or,
for more info:
www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/evaluate/hardware/vistahardware.mspx/
My tests show that the 32 bit versions of Windows XP Home and Pro run
well on an AMD 64. Windows x64 Pro 64 bit runs faster, but there
is almost no software that will run in 64 bit mode yet. It could
take years before most 32 bit apps are rewritten for Vista. Open
source programs like Open Office and Firefox ran well as did Avast Anti-Virus,
but AVG, Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware and Spyware Blaster
didn't. I didn't test the Beta version of Windows Defender
due to previous difficulties.
Recommendations:
Buy the best “Vista Approved” hardware you can afford now
(< $800), which should include Windows XP Home or Windows XP
Pro. Then, consider upgrading only when
your favourite programs are re-written for Windows Vista. If you
don't edit photos / video or play high-end games, you probably only need
the least expensive PC out there that includes XP Home (<> $400).
Marion Kennedy and Pat Scott offered to “do coffee” starting
next meeting. Thank you both!
Questions Continued:
Name |
Q&A |
Details |
OS |
| M.I.G.S. |
Q |
Recently, I was able to install and run Peanut Linux inside Windows
using the free Java Virtual Machine from Microsoft. What is
JVM and why do I need it? |
All |
| Sturg |
A |
VM stands for Virtual Machine. In simple terms,
VM allows one physical PC to run numerous operating systems
simultaneously under Windows.
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is Sun's Java version. Click here to
learn more. |
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