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Page 16
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...
Back To Computer Stuff - Considering Linux ?:
For you newbies out there running a Windows Operating System, you should be aware that there is a movement ongoing towards a different operating system called Linux.
I've touched on this before, but having found a great tutorial site, I insert this fyi. MAKE SURE you read the instructions on the page you link to as it is important that you know how to control the movie you are about to see by using the controls at the bottom of the window below "Watch The Movie".
It's best you set yourself up some time and a good full mug of coffee when you start this as the files that have to be downloaded and loaded to show the movie are long - some files will not load before the narration relating to them so you have to be patient. (move the "loading bar" back to the left until the graphics appear in the movie box)
I have a satellite connection to the internet and had to struggle a bit with the above so a dialup user will really see a timing problem - just be patient with it and use the controls so you see it all.
The Linux distro that will be discussed is Mepis - it's not the distro I have installed on a spare box of mine at the moment, but I'm sure that it will be of good use in my "learning Linux" and hopefully you will give it a go as well.
Here's
the link to the tutorial - enjoy!
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File Compression - The .zip File Format:
I had two of my neighbors pop by the other evening with a computer problem and after they had left I got to thinking that maybe I didn't explain their problem to them in a way they could easly understand. I told them about this Help Page so they'll get the proper explanation now:
What in the world do you mean by file compression?
A good analogy of file compression is this. You took a half dozen pictures with your digital camera of your family and you want to e-mail them as an attachment to their Grandmother who lives far away.
The list of pictures follows:
Bob and Frank eating a hot dog - 100 kb's
Ted and Bob putting their go carts onto the track - 235 kb's
Wide angle shot of the speedway - 245 kb's
Sun low in the sky over Bob's head - 167 kb's
Ted sleeping in the back seat on the trip home - 99 kb's
Highway marker welcome sign - 145 kb's
Those six photos add up to 991 kb's - almost a full meg. Can you imagine if Granny tried to download an e-mail with a one meg attachment? She's on dialup and it would take forever and it could fail and even jam up her pop3 account with her internet provider.
Yes that's right - an overloaded pop3 e-mail could clog up the Isp's server and the only way Granny would be able to use her Outlook Express program again is by telephoning the ISP and telling them that a large download has her tied up and she can't unclog the line. Her ISP would then have to actually delete the file manually on their server and if this whole ordeal happened Sunday night after business hours, your computer would be dead in the water until Monday morning.
That's a bummer you say. Correct, but the boys and girls that make life good on the internet came up with a solution for just that situation. You take those six files and put them through a compression program such as Winzip, or WinRar, or PkZip. (there are many out there to choose from) And what this program does is create a container - let's call it bobandfrank.zip which contains the six pics only the files are compressed. The size of the container file will vary with the types of files you are trying to compress, but it is possible to get to a compression rate up to 90 percent smaller.
So instead of six attachments totalling 991 kb's you attach bobandfrank.zip which might be 100 kb's in size. Old Grandma will be smiling when she gets that file, but WAIT....
Grandma needs a
program at her end to uncompress the bobandfrank.zip file. So being the good son you are you make sure her computer has a compression program loaded so when she double clicks the file, the compression program loads and Granny simply uses the tool that extracts the zipped photos. Voila - Granny can now see your three sons in all their glory making fools of themselves at the Go Cart track.
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Which Browser To Use:
There are many factors which decide the browser you will use to view the internet. If you were weaned on Internet Explorer then you may just stick with it. If you are into security in a big way, you may go with another. For some, the speed that pages render is most important.
Below is a table of browser use as of Dec. 2007 as provided by
W3Counter:
| Web Browsers |
| 1 |
Internet Explorer 6.0 |
42.79% |
| 2 |
Firefox 2.0 |
20.82% |
| 3 |
Internet Explorer 7.0 |
19.57% |
| 4 |
Firefox 1.5 |
5.92% |
| 5 |
Safari 2.0 |
1.84% |
| 6 |
Firefox 1.0 |
1.03% |
| 7 |
Opera 9.2 |
0.91% |
| 8 |
Mozilla 1.8 |
0.56% |
| 9 |
Opera 9.0 |
0.50% |
| 10 |
AOL 6.0 |
0.47% |
W3Counter goes on to say that Windows XP has 80.62% of the marketshare for operating systems. Not surprising considering the sad state of Windows Vista, but strange that more than half of the IE users are using an old version of the browser. (version 6.0 VS version 7.0)
There are many "experienced users" who consider version 6 to be a better browser and are reluctant to upgrade. Well, if you are one of those you may choose to try
IE7Pro. Upgrade to IE7 then install IE7Pro - give it a try.
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Have You Tried Opera?:
While were talking about browsers, there has been a recent upgrade to the Opera Browser. I don't use it but I have it loaded so I can see how my web pages render in it.
If you want to give it a try, here's
the download link.
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Is It Safe To Surf:
You are all aware that the internet is full of scammers and thieves trying to get the money out of your wallets and bank accounts - if you weren't aware of it, I'm surprised you are still sitting there reading this and someone hasn't stolen the shirt off your back.
Don't go screaming out of the room and call 911 - there are things you can do to stop this from happening to you. Just being aware of it is a great beginning.
The following is directly off a
security forum that you should probably visit.
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With 90% of U.S. consumers using search engines and 80% of Web site visits originating from search queries, search engines have a meaningful impact on the Web sites which Internet users visit. However, our May 2006 Search Engine Safety study revealed that search engines expose users to dangerous sites posing security risks including spyware, spam, and scams. While the level of risk depends on the degree of dangerous online activity, it also depends on the extent to which search engines keep risky sites out of search results. As the leading search engines compete for market share by tweaking their search algorithms and updating their search advertising platforms, the safety of search results is likely to change over time. Our current analysis finds that, on average, search engine results have become safer within the last year. In particular, the improvement in safety is primarily due to decreased prevalence of risky sites in sponsored results at Google, AOL, and Ask. Still, these sponsored results remain riskier on average than non-sponsored results, indicating that there remains room for further improvement.
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Happens Every Three Days:
Something I was unaware of and all the more reason why defragging your harddrive is important. I'll be honest with you, I defrag and optimize my registry about once a week. For the great percent of you out there reading this, a weekly optimizing routine is overkill.
Read the
article by Windows XP Tips & Tricks.
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Your Internet Speed:
The speed that your internet connection provides fluctuates greatly causing web pages to render slowly at times. You are aware that when you visit a site a second time your computer loads the page from the temporary internet files saved in your computer - commonly referred to as "your cache". Your operating system does this to make your speed acceptable, but visiting a site for the first time, each and every bit of code (graphics, text, scripts, stylesheets) has to be downloaded from the internet. This means a lot of work is going on inside that box of yours and the page you are trying to load is dependant on the internet speed your internet provider is allowing you.
Naturally, your speed depends on the service you have paid for. The slowest connection is dialup and speed is further influenced by the particular modem you have connected to your system. Older boxes may contain slow modems whereas the newer ones probably contain 56k modems. Not to get too technical to confuse you, there are varying levels of connections available out there and you pay accordingly for it.
There is a simple test that you can run online that will tell you your speed - broken down by download and upload speeds. To run this test you must have Java loaded on your computer. Click on the graphic below and follow the instructions.
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You A Slob Like Me ?:
My God, I just took a good look at my keyboard. I gotta stop smoking while I use this thing. It's a dirty world out there and some places are dirtier than others. We all know that dust is attracted to the monitor and when it gets bad enough they are easy to wipe off, but have you taken a close look at the condition of this thing you type on?
There is a detailed tutorial on how to clean your keyboard to get it back into pristine condition, which can be read
here, but when you go there and read it you may just choose to give it a good blow with some canned air and replace it when it finally dies - keyboards are not that expensive.
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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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