Ask the Geek

Jenny Mackintosh over at the ITKE Community blog (the folks who host my Security Corner blog) announced a cool contest for anyone who wants to show their tech savvy. The only catch is that you have to register as a community member, but ITKE is reputable, so this isn’t a problem:

Now through the end of April, you can not only show off your IT skills by asking and answering questions on ITKnowledgeExchange.com, but you can earn the chance to spend some quality time honing your bad-guy-vaporizing skills on your very own Xbox 360.

From today (March 18th) through April 30th, you have a chance to win one of three Xbox 360 consoles. The winners will be the top 3 community members who have the most Knowledge Points earned and have asked 5 IT-related questions (you still earn Knowledge points for asking questions) during the contest period. So tell your friends and co-workers to post their IT questions on ITKnowledgeExchange.com so you can answer and rack up your Knowledge Points.

You can read my post about it here: http://cli.gs/WPeXGT.

Have fun and good luck!

Zonbu is poised to become the de facto standard for hassle-free, environmentally-friendy,  secure computing. I’ve been using the Zonbu desktop unit since August and I’ve fallen in love with it. I recommend it to everyone I know who’s looking for a home PC or one for their children.

With Zonbu’s announcement of their new notebook, manufactured by Everex (which I will be testing shortly), I asked Zonbu’s CEO, Mr. Gregoire Genil, a few questions.

ATG: Mr. Gentil, The Zonbu concept is like every good idea in computing rolled into one. Who first originated the idea?
Gentil:  I don’t think that anyone is the owner of the idea. It’s more a
trend that customers don’t want anymore to bear the hassle of managing
their PCs, especially as US households have more and more PCs. Fixing
your PC could be fun because you may like to do it, but doing [it] for your
wife, girl-friend, kids or the second PC in the kitchen or in the living
room becomes a real pain. And I’m not sure that customers want to buy
fat PCs with an OS that is, in itself, more expensive than our full-featured
zero-maintenance product. We want to be to the PC what Japanese cars have become to the automotive industry: reliable, simple and affordable
products.

ATG:  Did the problems inherent in Microsoft operating systems influence
the Zonbu concept in any way?
Gentil:  Definitely. Microsoft has done an amazing job in the 80s-90s but
much like the gas guzzlers of the 70s, the traditional PCs pursuit of
performance at all cost is having a negative impact on the environment and
is becoming a huge burn for customers. Our product holds on 700MB with
all the applications your need when Vista is already 30GB and you don’t
have everything you need.

ATG: Zonbu supports a wide range of hardware but only two MP3 players.
Are there plans to add more supported players?
Gentil: Actually, we support a lot of MP3 players, including all iPod, NJB
players and all players that store the music like a USB key chain.
Beyond this support, we intend to add more and more support for USB
accessories. We are constantly adding new drivers to increase the
support of our 1500 printers and 800 cameras. We have also just added
support for webcam.

ATG: Will Zonbu ever be available in retail stores or are you going with
a web-based sales model?
Gentil: For the moment, we are web-based sales only. We would like indeed to extend to retail next year.

ATG: What is the one best reason to buy you could give to a potential
Zonbu customer?
Gentil: One simple word: hassle-free. Aren’t you fed up to manage your
computer, finding the right plugin to watch such or such video, taking
care of your backup, fighting a malware? Fire yourself as IT
administrator of your home.

ATG: And go get a Zonbu and start enjoying computing again! Thank you very much, Gregoire, both for your excellent answers and the prompt response.
Gentil: No problem!

Cheers!
The Geek

I’m proud to announce that Dave Hartsock of Dave’s Computer Tips has graciously invited me to write the Security Focus section of his excellent newsletter. Dave has done a great job of putting together a wealth of content. Check out this lineup from the November 1, 2007 issue:

#1 - Newbies Nook - Information for those who are new to computers and computing.
#2 - Problems in Paradise - Answers to reader problems and questions.
#3 - Security Focus - Computer Security by Kenny Hart.
#4 - Getting Starting with Linux - David Kopp points the way.
#5 - Creating Nested Tables - Carol tells us how to do it in Word and OpenOffice Writer.
#6 - My Recommended Software - Need software? Check this list first!
#7 - Useful Freeware - Useful programs that you may find useful. Did I mention they’re free!
#8 - Useful web sites - Websites I’ve visited lately that you may find useful.
#9 - The Lighter Side - Some humor to lighten your load!
#10 - Odds and Ends - A little bit of this and a little bit of that!

Recently, I had a long conversation with Dave and I can tell you that besides just being an all-around nice guy, he definitely has your interests in mind. He’s committed to providing the best information he can on a regular schedule.

It would be great if all of you wonderful Ask the Geek fans would hop on over to his site and subscribe to his newsletter.

And while you’re at it, take a moment to sign up to get my latest posts via email. That way, if you forget to check the site, you won’t miss out on the latest info.

Cheers!
The Geek

I get this question often enough that it’s time for a detailed post. Today, I’m answering Valania’s question:

When you improperly shut down your computer does it harm your computer hardware, or anything else in your computer?

Valania, by “improperly shut down,” I assume you mean pressing the power button instead of clicking Start->Shut Down from Windows. This won’t harm any of your hardware. After all, Windows powers off the PC, too, when you do a “normal” shutdown. Think of it this way: Your computer is made from components similar to those in any other electronic device–like a stereo or TV–and you turn them on and off all the time without any bad effects. However, the data on your hard drive can be damaged by an improper shutdown.

This was a big problem back in the days of Windows 95 and 98. When you restarted after an improper shutdown, the operating system would come up asking you to run scandisk to correct hard disk errors. It’s not as big a problem with Windows XP, but it does happen. If you remove power from the system while data is being written to your hard disk, the data will be incomplete and appear corrupt. Usually, though, a system hang severe enough to warrant pushing the power button is the result of a problem reading or loading a file and your PC won’t suffer any ill effects if you power it down.

Cheers!
The Geek

Technorati tags: shutdown, system hang, data loss

When I started this blog a couple of years ago, I had no idea of the changes it would make in my life and the lives of many of my readers who have “asked the Geek.” Not a week goes by without my receiving comments or emails like these:

Yes, yes, Kenny Hart,

It works pretty good. And computer shuts down properly as it should, now !

You ARE THE Genius !
Andrew

———

Thanks for the help, it did the trick ! ! ! !

Awesome Geek - your new name lol
Doris

I’m always glad to see these of course, but I realized that since 99% of the questions I receive are about computer problems, most people associate Geeks with computers.

But, wait! Geeks are into everything, remember?

GEEK - (1) The name given to scientifically savvy folk; (2) A person who is interested in learning and becomes deeply involved in their interests.

Doesn’t say computers are the only thing Geek, does it? You have bowling Geeks, cooking Geeks, science Geeks, almost any kind of Geek you can think of if the person is really interested in something. I realize that the perception about this blog is my fault; most of what I write about here is computer related.

I’m going to change that. After all, my own interests extend far beyond computers and so do yours.

So, be prepared to see me embark upon finding out such things as what is the best curry powder blend, evaluating micro-fiber rags, how to build a tesla coil, anything and everything if it interests me–or you.

And I hope that we all learn something in the process; that’s what it’s about, after all.

Cheers!
The Geek

Technorati tags: geek, learning, interests, ask the Geek, Ken Harthun, Kenny Hart

Marcella asks:

Both my desktop computers have died (electrical surge), and I’m using my laptop. I need a device that I can hook my desktop hard drives to and access/retrieve the files. All the storage devices I’ve found operate from an existing computer setup and need an O/S to run. Does a device exist that I can just attach my hard drives to and retrieve/store/access my files? In short, I don’t care about the computers, only about retrieving my data.

As a matter of fact, you can convert your drives to USB drives with a relatively inexpensive kit. Then you can plug them into your laptop and access all the data and even use the external drives as backups for your laptop. Here’s one link: http://www.usb-ware.com/tt-firewire-400-usb-2-drive-kit.htm.

Cheers!
The Geek

Technorati tags: hard disk, USB, hard drive, convert, how to, IDE

Erin writes: I have a problem with my CD rom r/w drive. Suddenly it won’t eject any disks, except on a restart, and I have to hold the eject button in to do it. I’ve searched all the settings I can find in XP Home and can’t find why it’s doing this. The drive is working perfectly except for this issue. The button doesn’t seem to be a problem and I’ve watched the lights on the front when I hit eject-nothing no lights, but I can continue to use and write to the drive with no issues. Any ideas?

Erin, I have a pretty good idea that you are using drag-and-drop to burn files to the CD. If so, you probably have an open session that is keeping the drive in an active state. You can right click the application’s icon (such as Roxio DirectCD) in your system tray and select “close” or “eject” (don’t select “close” unless your disk is full, or you won’t be able to add any more files to it). Or you can open My Computer and right click on your CD drive and select “Eject”. Either of these options should let you swap out the disk. If not, and you are using Direct CD, check out this web site: http://www.roxio.com/en/support/dcdwin/livingdcd.html

Brook says: “My computer won’t shut down; I have to use the power button. I’m running Windows XP. Please help!”

The Geek replies: Brook, there are many possible causes for your problem, but the most common one I see on computers like yours is a thing called the “nVidia Driver Helper” service. Neither I, nor my fellow Geeks, know exactly what it is supposed to do, but it sure can cause shutdown problems. And turning it off doesn’t appear to hurt anything. Here’s how to disable it:

Go to Start > Run and type services.msc. Locate the nVidia Driver Helper item and right click it. Select Properties. Set the startup value of the service to “Manual” or “Disabled”.

Your computer should shut down normally now.

Q. When I save pictures received in email while using Outlook, they are always automatically saved as Bitmap files. I wish to save them as received, either JPG or Gif. This problem does not exist when I employ Outlook Express. I’m running Windows XP Home with SP2 and all updates are current. I have Microsoft Office 2003 Student & Teachers Edition installed. I have been unable to locate the setting(s) to enable pictures received in email using Outlook to be saved in JPG or GIF or the option to control what file type of they will be saved in.

A. The funny thing about Outlook is that it’s not Outlook causing your problem, it’s Internet Explorer. All of the picture and web display work for Outlook is done by IE, so it’s there we have go.

According to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 810978 there are several things that could cause your problem, but let’s address the most likely cause first: “a damaged program file…is downloaded to the Downloaded Program Files folder on your hard disk.” Here’s how to fix it:

1. Start Internet Explorer (if it is not already started).
2. Empty the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder. To do so:
a. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
b. Click the General tab.

c. Under Temporary Internet files, click Delete Files.
d. When you are prompted to delete all temporary Internet files, click OK.
3. In the Downloaded Program Files folder on your hard disk, remove the files that are listed as either Unknown or Damaged. To do so:
a. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
b. Click the General tab.
c. Under Temporary Internet files, click Settings.
d. Click View Objects.
The list of program files that are downloaded to the SystemRoot\Downloaded Program Files folder on your hard disk appears in the Downloaded Program Files window.
e. In the Status column, note the files that are listed as either Unknown or Damaged. Remove these files. To do so, right-click the file, and then click Remove.
f. When you are prompted to confirm the removal, click Yes.
g. Close the Downloaded Program Files window, and then click OK two times.

Curiosity got the best of you, eh? I knew that blurb about washing windows all day to find the best cleaner would make you wonder. People hate cleaning windows and I think it’s because you can never get them clean; that is, not if you use that stuff you buy at the store (begins with a W). It always leaves streaks, no matter what you do. That’s because it has a wax in it that’s supposed to make the windows sparkle, but really just forces you to wear your arms out trying to polish the glass. Forget that! I want to spray, spread, squeegee and be done with it.

The best window cleaner is 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. Dawn (regular) brand dish liquid per quart of water. Use the smaller amount for normal cleaning, the larger for tough, greasy or nicotine-stained windows. Believe me, it cuts through everything. It’s all I use. And you’ve probably heard this before, but newspaper IS the best thing to use on windows. If you spray the cleaner on, use newspaper to spread it. Then squeegee and touch up by polishing with a dry sheet. You’ll get some ink on your fingers, but you’ll have sparkling clean glass.