Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
November 4, 2007

Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.

Volume 3, Number 21 — Sunday, November 4, 2007

Part 1  | Part 2

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IN THIS WEEK'S ON-LINE ISSUE:
   1.   The Tiny New Asus Eee PC
   2.   Updates Last Week
   3.   Same Email Received Again and Again
   4.   HowTo: Screen Print - Print Your Computer Screen
   5.   My Computer Security Software Recommendations
   6.   Lojack for Laptops
   7.   Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends

Welcome to the on-line edition of my Terry's Computer Tips newsletter.

My emailed newsletter is sent weekly to individuals who have subscribed to the newsletter. Click here to subscribe. It's free!

Are you subscribed to my weekly email newsletter? If you are, and are not getting it, check your Bulk Mail and your Spam folders. If you find my newsletter there, please reclassify it to normal email.

Yahoo, in particular, is doing a bad job of classifying my newsletters. Other free, online email systems are also having the problem.

If you find an email in your Spam folder or Bulk Mail folder that you really want to receive -- be sure to click on their button to reclassify the email in their system. It will help you and it will help others.

1.  The Tiny New Asus Eee PC

Big news this week in the world of PC's. Asus, the maker of many motherboards for enthusiasts and a longtime maker of notebooks, released their highly anticipated Eee PC in the U.S. The official "global" release was in mid-October, but that was apparently limited to Taiwan.

Why was this so significant? The new Eee PC is tiny, fast, AND cheap. Unlike its bigger brothers and sisters, though, the Eee PC's processor is not its "fast" component — it is the Eee PC's solid state drive that provides a big speed increase over conventional notebook hard drives.

At this point, the only version that's available is $399 (USD) for the Eee PC 4G, which has 512MB RAM and a 4 GB solid state drive. Add built-in wireless (802.11 b/g, of course) and 10/100 Mbps Ethernet and you've got communications opportunities. There's a jack for a modem, but review models apparently didn't have a modem installed — I'll see whether there really is one when I get my Eee PC this week.

The 4G also has 3 USB ports so you can hook up your favorite peripherals, such as printers, flash drives and an external DVD drive. Got that -- external.

The unit comes with a DVD to restore the operating system, but it doesn't have any built-in CD or DVD drive, so you'll need an external one. You can either buy an external DVD drive or get an external case and a DVD drive to install in it — that's the option I'll choose.

I've got a 60 GB Western Digital Passport drive that powers from the USB port. I'll be able to use it with my 4G. I can also use a SDHC (SD High Capacity) card to add another "drive."

The 4G runs a special version of Xandros Linux and defaults to an "Easy" mode; however, users can switch to the advanced mode if they like.

Look for my review in next week's issue.

ASUS Eee PC 4G - Pearl White Intel processor 7" Wide VGA Integrated Graphics Eee PC ASUS Eee PC 4G - Pearl White Eee PC Intel processor 7" Wide VGA 512MB 4GB Integrated Graphics

 

2.  Updates Last Week

Microsoft (operating systems, email, web browser, office suites):
Microsoft releases almost all updates once per month, on the second Tuesday. This week did not include Patch Tuesday.

Firefox (web browser, http://www.mozilla.com, free):
New Version! Version 2.0.0.9 was released on Thursday, November 1, 2007. This release corrected some stability problems in the previous release.

Opera (web browser, http://www.opera.com, free):
No new version this week. Version 9.23 was released on October 17th. This release is a recommended security upgrade.

Opera 9.50 beta 1 became available on October 25th. Based on the changelog, there are a lot of changes coming to Opera. But, bewware, if you're using OperaMail, this is a one-way upgrade as it will change your mail storage system.

Netscape (web browser, http://browser.netscape.com, free):
New version this week! Version 9.0.0.3 was released this week. If you're using Netscape 8, the automatic update will not update to 9.0.0.3. You'll need to download and install version 9.0.0.3 manually.

SeaMonkey (web browser, email, HTML editor, newsreader; http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey; free): New version! Version 1.1.5 was released during the week ending October 20, 2007.

Eudora (email, http://www.eudora.com):
No update last week. Version 7.1.0.9 was released October 11, 2006. Eudora is now free, with no ads and no "paid mode" option.

The first beta version of v8 (v8.0.0.b1) was released several weeks ago and is available from http://wiki.mozilla.org/Penelope_Releases .

Mozilla Thunderbird (email, http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird, free):
No new version this week. Thunderbird version 2.0.0.6 was released on August 1, 2007. This is primarily a security update.

OpenOffice (office suite — spreadsheet, word processor, presentations, graphics, web design; http://www.openoffice.org; free): Version 2.3 was released during the week ending September 22nd. This version includes new features as well as bug fixes.

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3.  Same Email Received Again and Again

Cosby wrote this week about an email problem he was having. Not only did the same email keep showing up again and again in his incoming email, it was a spam email!

Terry, I have this email that's advertising Rolex watches et al, that constantly is being sent to me. Every time my email client checks the server, this email is downloaded.
What's interesting to me is that it has the same original date and time. PC Cillin or ad aware can't locate anything.
Of course I have created filters so that I don't have to be troubled with it, and I assume that if it's not a bot or something else on my machine that it'll eventually cease.
I'm just wondering if you have a comment on this.

Thanks,

Cosby
Mathews, LA.

I wrote back to Cosby to say that I thought that the email had somehow become hung up in his ISP's email server, rather than being sent multiple times.

I suggested that he log into your email account via webmail (most ISP's offer webmail access to email accounts on their system, using a URL such as http://webmail.charter.net). I told him that, once he logs into the webmail, he should delete the email from there.

Cosby wrote back to say he had checked with his ISP's tech support, who told him to do the same thing — and it solved the problem.