Random Jottings July 2006

I uploaded an existing file and found that the margins had changed. The top and left hand side margins were half an inch down and in from what they were supposed to be, but the settings had not changed. So I uninstalled Word and reinstalled it. No change. So I got another copy and tried that. Same thing.

Hunting through old cover discs from magazines I buy, I installed the only word type program I found. Did not like it. So I bit the bullet and installed a backup of C:\.

Each week, usually Saturday, I spend the morning making sure my computer has no nasties then do a complete backup so that the most I can lose is one week's work. Acronis True Image is my backup program of choice after Norton’s Ghost shot itself in the foot. The backups go onto a removeable 80gig hard drive, which is stored away from the computer, so that in the event of theft or fire I may be able to recover everything.

Why Word97 did what it did I have no idea. At this week's C&C when I told of my mishap, it was remarked that Word97 has had two revisions which may have prevented it. I was not aware of the revisions and troglodyte as I am, shall keep on using the versions I have. However, since writing the above I looked through my “Files to keep” list and installed the SR1 upgrade patch, the Word Font list and Word Thesaurus.

Liquid Crystal Displays
My 19-inch cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor gave up the ghost after years of faithful service and I had to get a new monitor. CRT monitors are now a thing of the past. Go into a computer shop and the chances are you will not see one though they can be had, possibly restored second hand ones, if you search around.

A typical 17-inch CRT monitor consumes 80 watts of electricity per hour, while a typical LCD TFT monitor of the same size consumes a mere 35 watts. LCD monitors place less strain on your eyes, too.

Usually I would go to Hardly Normal, as they appear to have the greatest range of computer items. This time I went to Domayne at Fyshwick. Their range was not great and I selected a Philips 19-inch with inbuilt speakers. Even though I am satisfied with my purchase, with hindsight I wish I had gone to Hardly Normal for who knows, I may have selected another brand.

The display is good. The speakers are tinny, which is to be expected from their tiny size. However, should I wish to play music I can use my Sharp all in one, which has good external speakers.

I do have one bitch, the manual, which is on disc and I printed out.

It seems a good example of how not to write a manual. There is no index. It is verbose and there does not seem to have any order in which items appear.

In a previous incarnation I worked for the Sydney County Council Electricity Undertaking as a Sales Engineer and part of my duties was to write instructions for housewives who bought household appliances. It is an axiom that you cannot check your own work. The girl on the switchboard in the office was a lovely girl but was not at the front of the queue when brains were given out, so I used to get her to read what I had written. If she could understand it, the average housewife certainly could.

Philips did not have a lovely girl in their office.

Brain Sensor Allows Mind-Control

From BBC News 13/07/2006
A sensor implanted in a paralysed man’s brain has enabled him to control objects through the power of thought. The experimental setup allowed the man, who has no limb movement at all, to open e-mail, play a computer game, and pinch a prosthetic hand’s fingers. He could do this simply by using his thoughts.

Mathew Nagle, 25 at the time of the trial, was left paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair after a knife attack in 2001. A team of scientists inserted the device, called a neuromotor prosthesis (NMP), into an area of the brain known as the motor cortex, which is responsible for voluntary movement. The NMP comprises an internal sensor that detects brain cell activity, and external processors that convert the activity into signals that can be recognised by a computer.

The group’s study is published in the journal Nature.

From Windows XP, June 2006: Media Player Gets an Update

The first feature of Windows Vista to hit Windows XP will soon be with us. Like its predecessor, Windows Media Player 11 is a key part of the music-management features in the next version of Windows – it’ll make it easier to manage big music collections, view your collection by album art rather than boring text lists, and treat your MP3 player as your main music repository. A beta version is out now and the final version is expected to be available by Christmas.

It has not had a very good press, though.

Careful Where You Shop Online

A survey suggests that people who buy from online ‘e-tailers’ might not be getting the right level of security. Most companies, especially larger ones, remain perfectly secure, but the finding suggest that over two thirds of smaller companies don’t encrypt customers data.

Don’t stop shopping online, just take precautions. Make sure Windows XP is kept up to date and you have fully updated antivirus and anti-malware software. Also, make sure you have a firewall, be it a software firewall or a hardware solution in your router. The most important things to do, however, are making sure you see the small padlock icon in the bottom right of Internet Explorer when buying online, and checking that the website address begins https:// rather than http://. Both of these mean your connection is secure.