Wednesday Night KH Computer Help Desk Chatroom 10/18/06

[mommalina]

We were 3d and 4th in chatrooms again last night. Photolady and I
closed shop at about midnight. Al Dom tells us Paltalk has been making a lot of improvements--audio must be one of them. Quite an improvement!

WHO WAS THERE

KH members - Lina, Vivienne (bad cold, voice sexier than usual for
Lawrence;) ), Lawrence, Photolady (computer and mic finally working),
Rich M, Vince C, N3, rbob (kern), Fred Freehold, Al W98 Dom.

Vistors Who Chimed In - falconseeker, Oghei, dennyom, 40PinJim (router problem),
davenext_3 (keeps dropping in to insist he wants to be a moderator; this time he said he'd settle for administrator :boink:), falconseeker (new-computer problem).

TECHNICAL DISCUSSIONS

**Acronis

- Photolady has version 7. Ordered Acronis 9 for customer, hasn't arrived yet, so the promised indepth Acronis discussion will have to wait until next week.

- Question by Vince C: I just started using TrueImage 9, and I backed up a system, an accounting system. How does one restore a complete system backup from an image of the system???

- Does version 9 burn to a DVD? Rich made DVD, takes forever.

- Can you restore from the DVD Acronis backup? Use separate HD instead, much quicker. Make DVD in case system fails.

- Acronis 9 or 10 Options - image, files and data, email and ?? Use highest compression for Acronis (Rich)

- Ghost takes a long time, 6 hours (Vivienne). Acronis should take 8 minutes (Rich)

**Vista - Rich is fine with W-XP, not eager for Vista. Lina hopes Vista will not mimic politics--keep fixing and improving a program until you have destroyed it.

**Host File Problem Prevails (Al) - Go to AdMuncher.

**Drivers - There's a program available which will give you all your drivers.

**Dell Computers - Dell's market is business not computer. Buy their business computers.

**Router Problem (Visitor 40PinJim)

- New linksys router, cd runs to point where it says no
internet connection, but computer is connected. Setup will not run any further. It says to run the cd before connecting cables. Cables connected
correctly. No firewall, Windows firewall turned off. Tried it with cables
connected, nothing.
- Linksys has something on their website that walks you through the install
-Cable to modem then to wan and then to pc all need to be connected to check connectivity. Probably cable connected wrong.
- Did that, cable to modem, then cat5 to router, then cat5 to this comp
- It is possible for an older CDROM to have read errors, and the thing will just stop.
- It may need to reboot with everything properly connected and powered.
- Visitor left. (Hope he lets us know if/how problem resolved.)

**ATF and Ccleaner - Rich is going to try ATF as possible replacement for Space Ace and Ccleaner. We await the verdict!

**Proposed KH Lottery - We need to get a pool together. N3 reformat vs Al new HP pc. Who will take action first?

**KH Forum Suggestions, Comments - Want option to receive ALL posts, but not ability to reply via email. Too many categories. Adam and mods getting together to discuss changes, if any.

**Self-Built Computer (Visitor falconseeker)

- Problem after Windows.
- A8N Motherboard. Lousy motherboard? (see newegg for good motherboard)
- Video card. Defective? Reseat it, double check everything put in.
- Ram. 1G. Ram sticks hard to match. Could be the problem.

**The Silent Computer - Rich built computer for client, can't hear fans running, lights to know if it's on. (Same with Lina's Dell 4550, unless she's stone deaf. .... :) )

**Linux

- Lawrence using Puppy Linux 2-111. Rarely uses Windows, but fixes
them.
- Linux won't recognize wireless, needs hardware modems. Will
try dialup. (Rich)

**Laptops and Games - Laptops not good for games. You'd definitely need a dual core cpu and a pci-e vid card for gaming on a laptop. A good video card will add at least $100 more to cost of laptop. You need a card with a "dedicated" video memory, at least 128mb-256mb. Rbob posted a "graphics card guide" on KH forum a while back in the KH Gaming forum. Games usually list minimum hardware requirements.

**Receiving or Transmitting Video - Would a better video card be advantageous? (Asked by N3, good question, but I couldn't follow the verbal conversation. May be good topic for forum?)

**Web Sites Recommended during Discussions

-- Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool
www.memtest.org

-- BIOS TForce4SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138272

- H Overclock 5GHz com nitrogenio liquido
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A3vbV6oOmI&NR

- HP Shopping Site www.hpshopping.com

- Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

NON-TECHNICAL DISCUSSIONS

**Abbreviations

- tmi = too much information
- RTFM = read the F'n manual.:frusty:

**Magnetic Underlays for Beds (Magnetic Undersheet) - Lawrence finds them helpful for arthiritis, aches and pains.

**Belly Dancer Concert - Lawrence is organizing one, a multicultural one, and is taking blood pressure pills. LOL

Until next week, take care of yourself and your computer!

Lina

[rVidia]

**ATF and Ccleaner - Rich is going to try ATF as possible replacement for Space Ace and Ccleaner. We await the verdict!
Thanks for the summary, Lina. I'm looking forward to Rich's opinion on ATF-Cleaner.

[compusimple]

Lina
Really appreciate the summary even more since I was out of town last week.

regards

Elliott

[PeteF]

TECHNICAL DISCUSSIONS

**Acronis

- Photolady has version 7. Ordered Acronis 9 for customer, hasn't arrived yet, so the promised indepth Acronis discussion will have to wait until next week.



Ok good, I hope to make it there next week.

BTW: This week, the Email reminder for the KH Paltalk session was
a great improvement over past weeks reminders. The promise of a
special discussion on Acronis 9 was a definite motivator for attending.

Unfortunately, when 9pm rolled around I simply forgot to stop by.
About 1am, when I finally realized I missed the Paltalk session, it
made me think if the Emailed reminder was sent at 8pm instead of
12 noon I would have been reminded me in a more timely fashion.
At 8pm it would serve as kind of an alarm clock because my Email
client alerts by announcing new Email.

I'm wondering what other KH memebers feel would be the optimum
time to send the Email reminder of a KH Paltalk session?

---pete---

[rVidia]

I'm wondering what other KH memebers feel would be the optimum time to send the Email reminder of a KH Paltalk session?
Currently, Paltalk reminders are being sent to my neice's e-mail address rather than my own :crazy: Is there any way to resolve that?

[mommalina]

Unfortunately, when 9pm rolled around I simply forgot to stop by.
About 1am, when I finally realized I missed the Paltalk session, it
made me think if the Emailed reminder was sent at 8pm instead of
12 noon I would have been reminded me in a more timelyfashion.
At 8pm it would serve as kind of an alarm clock because my Email
client alerts by announcing new Email.

I'm wondering what other KH members feel would be the optimum
time to send the Email reminder of a KH Paltalk session?

---pete---

Pete, early for me is good. It reminds me that it's
Wednesday and to plan my day and evening.

Possible solutions for you:

1. On Wednesdays set an alarm clock for 8:45 pm.

2. Have me send you an email at 8:45 pm when I get
ready to open up the chatroom. Will be glad to do
it if I remember. :doh:

I think some members would rather receive that reminder
earlier in the day so that they can plan their evening (see
that the kids have homework done and are in bed before 9,
give the spouse the night off, set the coffeemaker :tea: to turn
on at 8:45 pm, make sure you can find the microphone,
set an alarm clock for 8:45 pm and take a nap, :sleep: etc.)

Two notices, one in the morning and the other at 8 p.m.,
may annoy some members. :mad:

Lina

[PeteF]

Pete, early for me is good. It reminds me that it's
Wednesday and to plan my day and evening.

Possible solutions for you:

1. On Wednesdays set an alarm clock for 8:45 pm.


Lina,
I have an alarm program I can setup here to remind me each
and every Wednesday but then the reminder Email is really
not needed and not an issue. Right?

The reason I mentioned about the reminder email is that it
suddenly struck me that the reminder might be more effective
in general if sent within a couple of hours prior to the PalTalk
session.

I know for sure it would be more effective for me so I was
wondering what other people thought about it. As it is now,
if I had a busy day I usually forget about any reminder that
came in the early part of the day.

---pete---

[rVidia]

Here's my workaround :D

1) Open Notepad
2) Paste the following into Notepad:
@ECHO OFF
COLOR 2F
ECHO.
ECHO Today is Paltalk day!
ECHO.
ECHO To open Paltalk,
PAUSE
START "C:\Program Files\Paltalk Messenger\paltalk.exe"
Note: the location of paltalk.exe may differ. Also, I make the background green because it's very noticeable. If you don't mind the standard black background, you can omit the line "COLOR 2F"

3) Go to File > Save As...
4) Name the file "reminder.bat" WITH quotes!
5) Navigate to the location to store reminder.bat in.
6) Click the "Save" button.

There's the reminder. Now to schedule it:

1) Open your Start menu and find Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks
2) Double-click "Add Scheduled Task"
3) In the new window, click Next > Browse.
4) Navigate to the location of reminder.bat.
5) Click the "Open" button.
6) Name the task (for example, Paltalk Reminder) and select "Weekly"
7) Click Next.
8) Change the Start time to the time you want reminder.bat to open, make sure it is set to every 1 week, and select "Wednesday"
9) Click Next.
10) Enter your password.
11) Click Next.
12) Click Finish.

And there you have it! A home-made reminder ;) Yet another use for a simple batch file.

If the issue is having more than one reminder, simply make reminder1.bat and reminder2.bat with the same code, just different file names. Then create two schedule tasks but set different times for 1 and 2 to open, 1 in the morning/afternoon and 2 at night.