February 18, 2009

Care For Your CDs

How often do you use CDs? Maybe you use a software CD every day or you listen to music CDs all the time. Whatever you may use a CD for, it's very important to take good care of them so they can perform at their best.

As you know, CDs are very fragile and they need to be handled with extreme care, or they could cialis professional generic instantly get dirty, get scratched or snap in half. You should only hold CDs by the outer edges or by the center hole with one finger.

To clean off any smudges, take a clean, soft and lint free cloth and wipe the backside surface of the CD. Start wiping from the center, moving outwards and wipe across the disc instead of in circles. Going in a circular motion can cause minor scratches, which will ruin the data on the CD.

If a simple once over doesn't do the job, you can use a slightly damp cloth to wipe over the CD again. You should always keep your CDs away from dust, liquids, household cleaners or any other corrosive products.

You should also try to keep your CD players clean by dusting them every so often. Always try to keep your CDs in their protective cases to try and combat any problems. CDs are a big part of the world today and if you use them often, you should do all you can to keep them safe and clean. Of course, this tip can also be used for DVDs.

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On the Side

Do you use the miniature slides in MS PowerPoint for navigation purposes?

I don't know about you, but I love them! I can quickly scroll through a long presentation, locate the slide I need to edit, select its miniature version and zoom! I'm there in an instant.

There's no scrolling slide by slide to find what I need. Nope, the miniature slides are just big enough to go right where I want, with a single click of the mouse.

In my opinion, transferring that idea elsewhere would be an awesome thing!

Also, along that train of thought, I'd like to talk about MS Word 2007's thumbnails.

Thumbnails?

Yes, thumbnails!

If you check the Thumbnails checkbox under the View tab on the ribbon, you'll find that something similar to the PowerPoint miniatures appears on the left hand side of your program window.

While it's not exactly like PowerPoint's slide miniatures (you can't duplicate pages or rearrange them the way you do with slides), it's a quick and easy way to navigate through a long document, without being forced to guess where something is located.

Also, while the pages are small, I can definitely see uses for laying out your documents. The thumbnails are updated as you work, so you can see the effect any insertion or deletion has on the overall appearance of several pages in the document at once, without the Print Preview feature or a whole lot of scrolling between pages.

So, there you have it. It's what I consider to be one of the fastest document navigation techniques available!

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Make a Point

What do I mean by the word point? Well, in this case, I'm referring to a system restore point. And yes, you should make one! I know we have covered this before in our newsletter, but I've been getting several e-mails about it lately and besides that, it's just a very important topic. I figured now would be a good time to go over it again. So, if you've never done this before, come with me and learn!

cialis prices align=”justify”>First of all, I want to make sure everyone understands what we're working with here. Both Windows XP and Windows Vista have a feature called the System Restore. What it does is revert your computer back to a previous time; back before you made a big mistake on your computer or before you installed a program that messed a lot of things up, etc. It's sort of like an easy button you can push to get your computer back to the way it was beforehand. So, to do that, go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. (Read here for all the Vista instructions).

Now, XP does automatically create restore points for some situations, but it's best to make them yourself as well. Check the button next to "Create a restore point" and then click Next. Then you just need to type in a description for your point. It could be anything from an installation to an update and so on. Just use a few common words so that your computer can recognize it. When you're done, click Create and you'll be all set. The date and time will be added to your restore point, so your computer will have all the information it needs to get your computer back to normal. You can't complain about that, now can you?!

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TrapCall exposes anonymous cellphone callers

A service launched on Tuesday lets cell phone users unmask the Caller ID on anonymous calls.

 

TrapCall, which is offered by TelTech Systems, reveals the phone numbers of and, in some cases, the names and addresses of blocked Caller IDs. Toms River, N.J.-based TelTech is also the company behind the controversial SpoofCard, an Internet calling-card service that allows users to place calls in which originating caller numbers appear to be something completely different–like the White House switchboard.

Cell phone users have long been able to shield their originating number from display by dialing *67 before placing a call. However, cell calls placed to 800-numbers have been immune to this technique because the toll-free number is paying to receive the call. TrapCall takes advantage of that arrangement.

TrapCall instructs new users to reprogram their cell phones to send all rejected, missed, and unanswered calls to TrapCall’s own number. When a blocked or restricted number appears on a cell display, the user presses a button on the cell that is normally used to send the call to voicemail. The call is then rerouted to TrapCall’s toll-free line, where the caller’s information is obtained and then sent back to the original call’s recipient. All this reportedly takes about six seconds while the caller is listening to a cialis price compare normal dial tone.

The service, which is currently available to AT&T and T-Mobile subscribers, is free and includes the option of blacklisting unwelcome callers. Additional premium features include the recording incoming calls (which TelTech notes may be illegal, depending on the users’ individual state laws), voicemail transcriptions via e-mail and text message, and the ability to listen to voicemail via the Web.

However, the service raises a couple of sticky privacy issues, especially for victims of domestic violence.

Cindy Southworth, director of technology at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, told Wired that the service raises “huge concerns” for her that abusers would use the service to locate victims fleeing abusive relationships, especially ones in which the victim and abuser share custody of a child.

However, TelTech President Meir Cohen responded to those charges by defending the service as merely utilizing a process that has long been available to anyone with access to an 800-number.

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