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Page 15
As stated on the preceeding page, I just got through a teaching/learning experience by giving a course on computer basics to a group of students here on Manitoulin through Cambrian College.
I have to admit that it was my first time at the front of a classroom other than years and years ago when Christian Brothers called me up to the front of the class for a demonstration of corporal punishment. It was rather refreshing not having to bend over and have a goaltenders hockey stick applied to my bottomside.
So, .......to continue on...
Extend The Life Of Your Ink:
Printers usually have a setting that controls the ink quality of documents you print. If you are printing a graphic, you'll probably want it done at the best setting. However, if you are printing simple logs or whatever whose print quality is not important, you'll want to set the print to "draft".
But you'll have to remember to get it back to "best setting" each time you print something where print quality is important.
Depending on your make of printer there are a few ways to change these settings. Some printers put an icon in your systray (beside the clock) and you can manage the settings there. Probably your best bet is Start Button / Control Panel / Printers and Faxes.
The graphic shows a HP Desktop Printer example. Newbies are reminded that it not necessary to print every single document you come across. Modern computers are intended to make us less paper-bound. If you print all that stuff, you're going to need several filing cabinets and a filing system. Smart users will just find the document in their My Documents folder and review it on their computer screen.
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Say GoodBye To Netscape:
Bad news for Netscape users - their browser
will not be supported effective February 1, 2008.
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Picture This:
Have you ever wished you were on a first name basis with someone important? Want to really impress people that come into your office or home?
Download
Group Shot from Microsoft - it's free. This little jewel takes two photos and merges parts from one to the other. Imagine a picture on your office desk with you and Frank Sinatra. Doesn't do it for you? Okay, anyone else you have a picture of then.
Your co-workers at the office will think you're pretty hot when they see that pic of you and whatshsiname together.
The program is only 1.3 megs and easy to operate:
- Select a number of images and drag into the Group Shot window: Images have to be the same size (which they will be if they are taken by the same camera in the same place in succession). If images aren’t aligned Group Shot contains a number of tools that can help you align them.
- Go to each one of the images (which at this point will be displayed as tabs), and select (draw a rectangle) around each of the good faces that you want to include in your final groupshot.
- Once that is done, click on ’view composite’ and you will most likely get a very good composite image where the ’best’ features you outlined are merged into te composite.
- Save the results, in either low or high resolution. Export options include TIFF and layered PSD.
I dunno, I used this pic of Goldie Hawn and a pic of me laying on the couch.
I musta done something wrong 'cause the pic that was produced cannot be shown here. Really strange - it had me stretched out looking real proud of myself while I was enjoying a smoke, and Goldie - well, she was under the sheets and those tight jeans and designer top were tossed on the floor.
Damn - I love computers!
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Microsoft Office:
If you are running an older version of Office and someone sends you a .doc created by the latest version of Microsoft Office, you will be greeted by a popup telling you that you cannot read the file. Not to worry - a link is provided in the popup that will send you to a site where you can
download a workaround.
Download Microsoft's new Silverlight, then open a new tab and run Windows Update looking for any fixes to Microsoft Office that your system calls for. Then close this tab and download the converter program called FileFormatConverter.
Now that new version .doc file loads on your old version of Office. Yes, a PITA considering Silverlight is 1.4 megs and the converter fix is 28 megs big - Thanks Bill Gates for making life just that little bit more difficult.
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Giveaway of the Day:
Do you like getting something for free - here's your chance to grab some free software.
Clicking on the thingie to the side will take you to their site. Visit there often to see what's being offered
- the catch? You have a 24 hour period to grab stuff and you probably have to register for a password.
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Did I mention? - they give away games as well.
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There Goes A Good One:
The fine folks at Lavasoft have been at the forefront in the war against spyware, but unfortunately as of Dec 31st they are not supplying updated definitions for their Adaware SE anti spyware freeware. You may as well just uninstall it now if you run it.
Start Button/Settings/Control Panel/Add & Remove
When the uninstall begins, pick Custom and on each window click on All to ensure that you remove all folders and registry entries.
Lavasoft has another freeware called
Adaware 2007, but I will not recommend it - it is considered by many as bloatware and far from the excellent product that it replaced.
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There's Gonna Be A Wedding:
A friend wrote that his daughter is getting married this month and he wanted to put together a video presentation with background music.
I told him about
Slide Show Movie Maker and then it was suggested by a cyber friend in newsgroups that
Irfanview and
VueSlide would work as well.
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Unbelievable Weather:
Manitoulin Island and indeed the whole of Ontario are experiencing exceptionally warm weather and the farmer's pasture behind this webmaster's shack is green with no sign of snow.
You are reminded to be very careful near open water, especially those of you with ice-fishing fetishes. For your consideration and edification I list the following from a blog I happened upon:
In the event of an anaconda attack
The following excerpt is from the US Government Peace Corps Manual for volunteers working in the Amazon Jungle (about 20 years ago, I think, when volunteers were a tough lot). It details what to do if an anaconda attacks you.
"Related to the boa constrictor, the anaconda is the largest snake species in the world. It grows to thirty-five feet in length and weighs 300 to 400 pounds."
- If you are attacked by an anaconda, do not run. The snake is faster than you are.
- Lie flat on the ground. Put your arms tight against your sides, your legs tight against one another.
- Tuck your chin in.
- The snake will begin to nudge and climb over your body.
- Do not panic.
- After the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from the feet end - always from the feet end. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles. Do not panic!
- The snake will now begin to suck your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time.
- When the snake has reached your knees slowly and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake's mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg, then suddenly rip upwards, severing the snake's head.
- Be sure you have your knife.
- Be sure your knife is sharp.
I often wondered, being a city boy from down south, why Islanders always carry a pocket knife and - now I know.
And now you know why they carry those rather large weapons in the jungle.
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" in my dreams "
I would've had this company do a web page, but Marie wasn't too keen on it.
Go ahead and call me henpecked. You weren't the guy who had to sleep with her.
We could have wiped out the Nazis in eight weeks if only we had this guy in our IT department.
I asked him but he had the idea that I was connected to a porn site.
Tony Curtis was hot, but I would never had sung to the President if this guy was born twenty years earlier.
I bet I'd still be alive too!
Yes, it's true
I sleep very soundly and when I do I am prone to talking with dead people and sponges. Don't let that scare you away - you can depend on a well-designed website and it is guaranteed not to be spooky.
I'm just a cartoon character from
Day by Day but I know a whiner winner when I see one. Visit us on our web page.
And Please...
If it's past your bedtime and you can't sleep, please think of your good friends around the world who just may or may not be in bed.
Being Indispensable
Sometime, when you are feeling important,
Sometime, when your ego's in full bloom,
Sometime, when you take it for granted,
You're the only qualified one in the room...
Sometime, when you feel that your going,
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these few simple instructions
And see how it humbles your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up tio your wrist,
Pull it out, and the hole that is remaining,
Is the measure of how you'll be missed!
You may splash all you please when you enter,
You can stir up the water galore ~
But stop and you'll find in a minute,
That it looks quite the same as before.
The moral of this quaint observation,
Is to do the very best that you can,
Be proud of yourself, but remember,
There is only one indispensable man.
This above Is Dedicatated To The Memory Of Correctional Sergeant Hal Burchfield
12/16/47 - 6/8/85
Killed In The Line Of Duty
San Quentin State Prison, California Department of Corrections
Dang,
Looks like I gotta find some content to fill this thing up more...
'You know Bert, that POKO
sure is opinionated !'
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