Monthly Archive for February, 2006

Kelly’s Korner - Troubleshooting Windows XP

I have put together a lot of information from various sources, to help you find answers to the problems some users have with Windows XP. I have also put together some commonly requested tweaks and tips to make XP work the way you want it to.

Kelly Theriot Microsoft-MVP

This site has some great information! There is a great tweaks page where you can download REG and VBS files, as well a Windows XP From A to Z page.

Be sure to check out Kelly’s Korner

Online Firms Facing Questions About Censoring Internet Searches in China

From the New York Times:

For Internet companies doing business in China, a piece of a booming market has not come without compromises.

A series of episodes showing that the companies were bending to the restrictive demands of Beijing — filtering words like “democracy” or “human rights” from Chinese versions of a blog product, or censoring certain concepts from their China-based search engines — has leaked out from users inside China.

And as questions were raised after each new revelation, companies like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Cisco Systems invariably offered a variation on a common chorus.

Judge raps Microsoft for antitrust ‘foot-dragging’

From CNet News:

A federal judge criticized Microsoft on Tuesday for what she called “foot-dragging” in regard to the company’s compliance with an antitrust settlement.

At a quarterly status conference about the compliance mandates, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly echoed the U.S. Department of Justice’s latest concerns that the software giant isn’t moving fast enough to develop technical documentation for use by licensees of the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program.

The Secret Cause of Flame Wars

From Wired News:

“Don’t work too hard,” wrote a colleague in an e-mail today. Was she sincere or sarcastic? I think I know (sarcastic), but I’m probably wrong.

According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I’ve only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they’ve correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.

“That’s how flame wars get started,” says psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, who conducted the research with Justin Kruger of New York University. “People in our study were convinced they’ve accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance,” says Epley.

Finding files in Windows 2000 Pro with the Where.exe utility

From TechRepublic:

Everyone has to search for a file now and then, either on a local system or on a shared network. Windows 2000 Pro provides a reasonably good search feature within the user interface, but sometimes it is easier to search from a command console.

To help you accomplish these command-line searches, you can turn to the Where.exe utility included with the Windows 2000 Resource Kit. Where.exe can locate files on the local file system or on the network. You can direct Where.exe to search only the target folder or perform a recursive search through subfolders.

I’ve never tried the utility, so I don’t know how it compares to the built-in search, but it sounds interesting.

2 Workers Have Chips Embedded Into Them

From TBO.com:

Tiny silicon chips were embedded into two workers who volunteered to help test the tagging technology at a surveillance equipment company, an official said Monday.

The Mexico attorney general’s office implanted the so-called RFIDs - for radio frequency identification chips - in some employees in 2004 to restrict access to secure areas. Implanting them in the workers at CityWatcher.com is believed to be the first use of the technology in living humans in the United States.

Search Engine Traffic Soars

From PC World:

People in the U.S. use the Internet for more everyday research than any other medium, a fact proven by the 55 percent year-on-year surge in online searches in December, according to market researcher Nielsen/NetRatings. And Google remained the most popular place for Americans to search cyberspace in December.

The number of online searches in the U.S. soared to nearly 5.1 billion searches in December from 3.3 billion a year earlier, despite just a slight uptick in the total number of Americans connecting to the Internet, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

Mommy, Help Me Download ‘Farmer in the Dell’ to My MP3 Player

From the New York Times:

As digital electronics have invaded Toyland, putting video projectors and cellphones into the hands of 7- year-olds, companies that cater to preschoolers have deliberately sat on the sidelines, determined to hold up the wall between adult technology and children’s play.

But the wall is about to come crashing down.

At least that is how it will look from the floor of the America International Toy Fair, the industry’s biggest annual trade show in the United States, which begins tomorrow at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

Fisher-Price, synonymous with Elmo and Power Wheels, will introduce a digital music player and digital camera for children ages 3 and older that will be sold during the 2006 holiday season.

The best of the Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Chris is off on vacation this week, so I’ve chosen 5 of his tips that have been very popular. You can read those tips by clicking the links below, or you can view the entire Digital Photography Tips category on the PCIN.net Update blog.

Shooting at Night, Part 2

Shooting At Night, Part 1

Curves and Diagonals

Photographing Snow

Rule of Thirds

Chris will be back next week with the third and final installment on the night photography series. He will talk about using flash at night, 2nd curtain sync (night mode), dragging the shutter, magic hour and he will have examples of some very nice night photography to share.

The digital photography tip of the week is written by the PCIN Assistant Editor, Chris Empey. Chris is a long time photographer and is currently the vice-president of the Niagara Falls Camera Club. You can see more of his photography at his Photo of the Day website.
If you have a tip to send Chris, or a question about digital photography he can address in the newsletter, send it to chris@pcin.net.

Windows XP Encryption

I recently had someone email me asking for help with the built-in Windows XP encryption options. This lets you encrypt a file so that only you as the logged in user can see it. Another user, including an administrator, can’t read the file. The Encrypted File System (EFS) is not available in Windows XP Home. It is only part of Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003.

Here are some helpful links if you want to learn more about EFS:

Windows XP Pro: Using File Encryption – part 1
http://www.practicalpc.co.uk/computing/windows/xpencrypt1.htm
note there are 4 other parts that you can find from the 1st part

Free file encryption with the Windows XP Encrypted File System (EFS)
http://www.iopus.com/guides/efs.htm

How To Encrypt a Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308989/

How To Encrypt a File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307877

Google Search for windows xp encryption