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The Digital Life, Houston We Have a Problem, 083 17/05/08
A Cute Little Tip
I’ve found a quick way
of putting an acute accent over the letter ‘e’. I type ‘café’ then delete the letters caf and insert ‘ros’ to make
rosé, or whatever!
Libby Armitage, by
email
Ingenious and I haven’t
seen that one before, but I think I'll stick to the quick and easy Word
shortcut of Ctrl + ' (apostrophe), then the letter. Unfortunately this
doesn’t work in Outlook Express or Windows Mail, but there is another equally
simple shortcut; press and hold Ctrl + Alt then the letter key. For more Word
accents see here: http://tinyurl.com/2d9tgt
Washing Windows
In a
recent answer to a query regarding slow start up etc., you advised clearing out
the clutter. This may be a rather basic question, but I would appreciate some
basic guidance on removing superfluous files to free up disc space. I am
running Windows XP.
David
Foster, by email
Clutter is anything you
no longer need or use. You can uninstall redundant software from Add/Remove
Programs in Control Panel (Programs and Features in Vista), data files and
downloads.
I suggest that you only
remove one thing at a time and reboot your PC to make sure there are no error
messages. Windows has a built-in utility to take care of its own detritus, in
both XP and Vista go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System
Tools > Disk Cleanup, and follow the prompts.
However, deleting files
is just a temporary fix if you are seriously short of drive space. A second
drive or a bigger main drive is the only practical solution and with HDD prices
at an all time low there’s no need to scramble around.
Old PALs Act
I recently sent a
DVD+RW disc containing a TV gardening programme, featuring my daughter, to my
cousin in America but she is unable to watch it on her DVD player. In the past
we have sent her VHS tapes and she has had them transferred to another tape,
due to differences in electricity. Is there a way that a DVD can be amended to
suit American electricity?
Sandra Barnes, by
email
It’s not American
electricity that causing the problems but an incompatibility between the colour
TV systems used in the UK and US. On
this side of the pond we use 625-line PAL (Phase Alternate Line) whilst they use
525-line NTSC (National Television Standards Committee, or Never Twice the same
Colour – old TV engineer joke…).
If you create the disc on
a PC you can usually choose between PAL and NTSC formatting but that option is
extremely rare on stand-alone DVD recorders. Several UK companies provide a
‘transcoding service for recordings, though they usually refuse to handle
copyright material. You cousin may be able to get the disc converted by a local
company. Otherwise they can watch it on a multi-system DVD player or a PC,
using suitable player software.
MonaRona Pest
My husband's computer has been infected with something
called 'Mona Rona'. The AVG did not detect it and various spy
checker programs he has run have come back negative. The virus (or
whatever it is) manifests itself by a frequent annoying high-pitched
squeak and a message to support Human Rights and Tibet. Have you come across
this problem before? In what way does it compromise the security of his
computer and what can he do, apart from re-installing Windows?
Renate Page, by email
MonaRonaDona, to give it
its full name is not a virus as such but a piece of ‘malware’ that messes
around with Internet Explorer, hijacking the home page, generating pop-ups that
threaten to erase files and it tries to scare you into paying for a useless
antivirus program called Unigray. It’s a crude scam, more of a pest than a
threat and it won’t affect your files but you should get rid of it and there’s
a free removal tool at: http://tinyurl.com/2xdp6p
Share Scandal
I have a dial-up
Internet connection and intend to upgrade to broadband. However, my neighbour,
who is only 50 metres away, is having wireless broadband installed. With his
permission, would I be able to use his connection? If so what extra kit would I
need?
Peter Cannon, by email
Signal strength is likely
to be a problem but in theory all you need is an 802.11b/g Wi-Fi adaptor for
your PC; prices for USB ‘dongles’ start at around £15. However, I strongly urge
you not to do it! It’s a contravention of your neighbour’s ISP license
agreement but more importantly, there are some very serious security and
privacy implications. Files on your PC may be visible on your neighbour’s
computer, and vice-versa, and in an extreme case it could make you vulnerable
to accusations of fraudulent or illegal use of the connection. What, for
example, would happen if it was found that the connection was being used to
download pirated material, child pornography or used to send spam messages, and
your neighbour blamed it on you?
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© R. Maybury 2008 2804
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