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ARCHIVES: August 8-14, 2003

Coolest Screen Savers I Have Ever Seen

These are good - better than good - incredible! They blew me away. The demo versions alone are amazing and worth a try - they run fine with a nag message. I can't decide which is my favorite, Alchemy, ElectriCalm or Sea Storm. As far as screen savers go, I suspect there's nothing better out there (but if there is, somebody tell me!). Sound effects are optional, but very good, too.

Digital Minds Software

McAfee Found a Virus

With all the trouble over the MBlaster virus, I am glad that I keep myself updated. This morning, McAfee announced an update that I installed automatically through their program. It immediately found a virus worm. My first thought was that File Locator Pro must have been piggybacked with it.

The virus was found on my second drive which I had not accessed today. No warning was given as it was  downloaded. I think the worm was in an old inactive file that had been previously undetected -- I don't think it was File Locator Pro. At any rate, it is gone and I am about to rescan my whole system to make sure everything is clear.

Problems seem to come when I am googling around to hunt up clip art or trying to find a program to perform some obscure task. Those are apparently common ways to attach viruses. <Sigh>

Another Reason to Dislike Windows XP

I could upgrade to Windows XP and have considered it several times. I like being with the mainstream. But I can't quite do it. There are so many reasons to stay with Windows 2000. One is that most XP programs work with 2000 already.

The other reason was one I read in the newest issue of PC Magazine. Using the "search" feature in Windows XP will ONLY show registered file types. It ignores all else. How stuck-up can it get? What a backwards step for Microsoft! John Dvorak writes that there's a  registry fix, but he recommends buying a $13 program called File Locator Pro because it will produce more detailed searches, digging through ZIP and CAB files as well as showing a preview window for files with any kind of text in them. They offer a 30-day free trial which I have just started using. My first impressions are high. It is easy to understand and runs nicely in the background.

(Meanwhile my husband thinks Linux may take over the world someday. I am beginning to see why its gaining interest.)

You Know the Entire Family is Geeky when ...

... PC Magazine arrives and everybody fights over who gets to read it first, then someone takes off with it. We all have our own use for a computer. My daughter games. My husband programs and follows his favorite websites (one of them being the Straight Dope message boards which are often amusing). I don't game that much anymore (I used to). I'm too busy with my AOL job, a digital camera, volunteer work of various sorts, keeping up with my own genealogy research and three domains.

Best Free Genealogy Program

PAF (Personal Ancestral File) for Windows and Palm is pretty sophisticated, yet easy to use and prints great forms to help keep track of a family tree. PAF is well-known among genealogists. I especially like the Palm version. I carry around about 20,000 ancestor names wherever I go. If you know any family tree researchers, we are always asking folks about their ancestor names to see if we are related.

Downloading is a bit involved, but worth it:

1. Go to http://www.familysearch.org (a good, free site to do actual research, too)

2. Click on the words at the top left that say, "Order/Download Products."

3. Select "Software Downloads - Free."

4. Pick any version of PAF. (The top one is the basic Windows version.) Click the Download button, then click Continue when the next screen comes up.

5. Register before downloading. I've never gotten Spam from this source.

6. When you continue, you get a downloading screen. I just click on the first option, FTP Download. (I've downloaded some version of this several times for various reasons.)

Twelve-Hour Days

I thought I had it rough. I spent most of 12 hours yesterday sitting at this computer, trying to find all the programs I needed to reinstall. (By the way, does anyone know how to copy a contacts list from one Outlook Express to another if you can't open the first Outlook Express anymore? Which file has the contacts list? I think it is an entirely different file than the address book's wab file.)

My daughter came from a 12-hour work day at Huntsville Hospital. I made the mistake of saying, "Whew, I had a rough day. I was at this computer for 12 hours."

She then told me what a rough day was really about. I was humbled. I suppose getting chewed out by doctors ranks among the worse things a nurse has to put up with. I don't know how all you medical folks can handle it without tearing out your hair. And, how in heaven's name, do you stand doing a shift longer than 12 hours?!

Keyview Pro

Getting back up to speed, I reinstalled one of my favorite utilities, Keyview Pro. This powerful and well-integrated program can open and read files that no other program could handle. I've been able to read the AOL Filing Cabinet with this gem. It zips and unzips very well and is integrated right into the Windows Explorer file manager. Here's a description in their own words:

I have been able to get into files that I would not have been able to read otherwise.

Thunder and Lightning Outside on a Sunny Day

At first, I thought the sound came from an arsenal test. Although this happens from time to time, its still weird to hear loud thunder when the sun is shining over your house -- and there's lots of thunder. I am sure we'd be noticing lightning if it already was not so bright outside --- must be raining somewhere and I have to go run some errands. Figures.

Slowly Getting Back Up to Speed

I love this new computer, well, I know I will love it someday when I get things back up to speed. One of the biggest pains is setting my AOL Windows back to the size and positions I like. There are so many windows that it takes forever. I bet it will take a month just to track down and reinstall the various utilities I was running.

I know there are programs and ways to copy an old hard drive over, even copy installations, but the new drive is faster. I wanted it to be the bootable one and my registry was a mess. It needed to be cleaned out.

I have learned one valuable lesson, if you download a program online, be sure to make a copy of the original downloaded file so it can be installed again later. I did a pretty good job of saving registration numbers, fortunately.

Hair-Puller Weekend

So many things went wrong. First, my computer died. At least my hard drive was okay. I could use it as a second drive. I spent the weekend in "Reinstall Hades." Some programs were strictly downloads and it is a pain trying to find them again, especially obscure, but extremely useful ones. I am not even half done with all of the reinstalling. It is a BIG pain, but my registry was getting clogged up anyway. The way I like to experiment with new programs, I needed to start clean again.

My husband believes that we should wipe our hard drives (backing up data, of course) and reinstalling once a year in order to keep our systems running well. I was way overdue.

I had committed to printing programs for our church service, so I was anxious to get my printer drivers installed as well as the software needed. I did that and started printing. It was on special parchment paper which clogged my printer. I ended up going to Staples to finish the job.

Staples was impressive. They did the job in a fraction of the time using a printer that does two sides at once at high speed. I wish I had gone there in the first place. It took all of 5 minutes.

E-Bay to the Rescue

After all the trouble reinstalling, I found one of my favorite graphics programs no longer existed (Micrografx Picture Publisher). I had purchased it as a download, then it was bought by a bigger company and dissolved! I could have cried. I love this program because I know it intimately and can do wonders with it.

After much sorrow and online searching, I considered crawling on my knees to the big company and begging for a copy. (I was a registered user, at least.) Then I remembered how my daughter loves eBay. I never used eBay before. I did a search and found a new unopened box with my program! I was so happy I danced around the room.

Ta-da! I am now registered on eBay. Nice little place it is.

Computer Died

First, we heard rattling noises. One of the fans stopped working, so we found one to replace it. Then I added a firewire card which may or may not have caused problems, but shortly thereafter, the computer would shut itself off about once a week. After a few weeks, the problem happened more often until it was suddenly powering off twice a day.

We thought it was the power supply. My husband went Cable Mart in Madison to buy a new one. Turned out that it was cheaper to buy a case with a power supply inside than to just get the supply. Funny how things are priced.

So he brought home a shiny new cool-looking case with USB and firewire slots on the front. At any rate, he replaced my old power supply (it had rattling noises so we knew something was not right) with the new one. But the computer would not turn on.

We found what we think was an overheated chip. After it cooled down, it worked. We noticed that the fan we just bought did not work well, sometimes slowing down to nothing for a few seconds at a time.

We threw up our hands and decided to go get an entirely new motherboard and hard drive and use the new case. The board has an Intel Pentium 4 while the old board had an AMD. Guess what! The hard drive set for the AMD will not work as a boot drive for an Intel. I could not use the programs I had installed. I've been reinstalling all morning.

Many gray hairs later, I am here. I had so many things installed (that I was using) that it will take forever to get back up to speed. Sigh.

Robbery at Rosie's Last Saturday Night

The most popular Mexican restaurant in town was robbed of about $7,000 last Saturday night, according to a friend of a friend who was there. The robber came after all but the patio patrons were gone. He had planned the robbery carefully, hiding his car around a corner, out of site. The restaurant employees had left the patio open as they waited for some stragglers to finish eating.

The robber walked up to my friend's friend and said his family had been there earlier and had left behind his son's jacket. When they took him inside to look, he pulled a gun on them, rounded them up and made them open the safe. Since he was without a disguise, they thought he might be planning to kill them. Fortunately, he did not kill anyone. After he left, they had the police there in 2 minutes. The police had been close by since this was just off the Parkway. I don't know if the criminal was caught or not. How traumatic that must have been!

New Power Supply

Some time ago I installed a firewire cable. Ever since then, this computer dies suddenly about twice a day. I think the old power supply is the problem. Today, we are going to get a new one. I hope it will be easy to replace the old one. My husband is always saying how easy it is to add or exchange a computer part, but then something always go bad in the process and we end up buying more than planned.

Blog Makeover - Maybe

C.B. told me that this gray was hard to read on his computer. While gray is my favorite color, I can understand how a white or light background would be easier to read. I've been browsing different templates to see what would work for me, if any. Don't be surprised if there is a complete change here one day soon. I have several ideas in mind. Playing around with them is half the fun even if nothing comes of it.

Grocery Shopping this Morning

Right next to the walking part along Aldridge Creek is a Publix grocery store. In fact, they share some of the same parking lot. I needed a few things so I stopped by this morning as I walked home. I found myself apologizing to every clerk who came near me (for all the sweat after a 5-mile walk in this summer heat).

As I repeated my apology to the checkout clerk she said, "That's okay - we are used to it. Several walkers stop by to get donuts on their way home." I had to laugh and felt relieved that I was not buying donuts at the moment (although I had cheese and ice cream...)

Walking home, I chatted with a traffic lady who works the school area. I hadn't seen her all summer. She was 32 pounds thinner from following the L.A. Diet. It was was great for her, but it won't be easy this fall. About the time she's out directing traffic the grocery store on that corner is baking fresh bread -- heavenly torture.

But then I remember a past Reader's Digest article. An interview with several doctors showed that, given a choice, they felt that an overweight patient who exercised regularly was better off than a thin one who didn't get enough exercise.

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