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Do you use the "Home Keys" when typing? Do you even know which ones the "Home Keys" are? F and J are slightly ridged on my keyboard, but as it's an MS Natural keyboard it's split into two and angled at a natural degree to fit the way my hands rest on the keyboard - lets me type faster and doesn't hurt my hands after an hour or two of typing. I touchtype anyway, so I don't really find a need for the home keys - useful occasionally though just for...

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How do u spell ur last name backwards without puttin da vowels or doulbe consenents(like ck or sh)! W! (it's Woods) Please, PLEASE try and spell correctly, there's no need (or excuse) for poor written English on the Internet. I mean, 'doulbe'? I know you can get away with it most of the time, but it does look really crap. 'Consonants', not 'consenents'. 'ur'? No need for abbreviations, this ain't SMS land. Ok, so it might sound...

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Can the use of port USB hubs cause a thumb drive to heat up and burn out? No, solid state pendrives are designed to be written and rewritten hundreds of thousands of times. Unless you have a faulty unit, they shouldn't suffer heat damage at all. In fact, having a powered USB hub (plugged into the mains as well as the USB socket on the PC) will help things in general, as it takes more of the strain of powering the device from the computer's own USB power...

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What is the most random, pointless fact you know? Goslings look at the shadow of birds flying above them to determine whether they're friendly or not, but it's not foolproof: if the shadow is flying right, it appears like a larger goose to them, but if it's flying left, it appears to them as a hawk's shadow (and they react accordingly). That's not the most random, pointless fact I know, but it's the most...

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Why is it so expensive to get your computer fixed compared to other things? Today more than ever, it's all about the knowledge economy... There'll always be a minority of people who have the skills required to tackle more complex PC problems. The ratio of skilled technicians compared to your average, occasional-usage-bought-the-pc-to-email-and-word-process people (who neither know nor care how their computer's innards work) is always going to be huge, so...

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If the same side of the moon is always facing us, wouldn't a meteor have to be coming from the direction of the earth in order to leave a crater for us to see? I wouldn't be surprised if NASA or the ESA eventually launches repositionable earth orbit sats which could be flown out to further distances - perhaps even behind the moon, relaying imagery via a relay system of other satellites - so footage from behind the moon could be obtained. If not this decade, in the next... I can't be the first person to have thought of something like this,...

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Why is it better to boil water starting with cold water instead of hot? In the UK, it's been mandatory to use lead-free solder for a number of years now (possibly even a decade) and we have these RoHS guidelines published by the Government (and codified in law) which specify maximum amounts of lead in pretty much everything, not just plumbing. The only reason I know of for taking your water from the cold tap instead of the hot water tap is that in many...

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Why do planes fly to the other side of the earth E/W or W/E, instead of N/S or S/N? Isn't cold air better for engines? Shouldn't they always fly the shortest distance? From what I can remember from talking to my driving instructor (who was also a qualified pilot), warmer air is less dense than cold air so planes achieve less lift - hence why colder air is desirable. So yes, I'm sure high-altitude flight does use less fuel. Flying upwards to go sideways would be just stupid, if you flattened the globe out and then plotted the flightpaths for a trip to...

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Should air marshals be armed with tazers instead of guns? I think Air Marshals should be armed with less lethal forms of weaponry (tazers can kill if used too many times, but they're certainly less likely to kill with a single shot than a handgun is). Even a well-trained firearm user can miss their target, and it's all the more dangerous if they're in a tight situation. As I've never heard of a tazer shot causing explosive...

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How many hours a day do you spend on your computer? Is it affecting your eyes? I've noticed that if I spend a long time at the computer, particularly in the winter months, my right hand goes cold (and then a bit numb) much faster than if I'm doing something more 'active' like typing or gaming. I have an MS natural keyboard though (one of the original ones, pushing 8 years old now!) so I've largely managed to escape the carpal tunnel problem......

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Can anyone direct me to an emulator software that lets you run both WinXP and WinXP x64 on the same computer at the same time? The whole point of Windows XP x64 is that it'll only run on 64-bit CPUs. You can run different XP, 2000 and Server 2003, for example, in virtual machines using software like VMWare (vmware.com), but if you have a 32-bit CPU you can't run XP x64 on it. Period.

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Is life filled with contradictions, or isn't it? Absolutely. Not.

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Why does answerbag.com use default HTTP response headers generated by PHP? Why not? They have nothing to hide, and perhaps they might even want to show off that a site like this can be run on a selection of the versatile LAMP suite of tools (namely PHP and MySQL). If it ain't broke, don't fix it springs to mind...

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I'd like to find a free online desktop publishing program if there is such a thing, anyone? If you're looking for an actually online service which runs out of a browser, then check out Writely (www.writely.com , now owned by Google) - it's more of a word processor but it's still fairly powerful. Alternatively, try AjaxWrite (from the mind of the person behind Linspire Linux and the original MP3.com, Michael Robertson) - it only works in Firefox but it is pretty...

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What is WAP? To follow up from BuckyF's excellent answer, WAP is also sometimes described as one of the services provisioned as part of the '2G' suite of technologies. GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is sometimes described as '2.5G' (or part of the '2.5G' standard), which instead of only supporting custom-designed WML pages, allows anybody with a phone which supports...

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Iv been on the pill for 4 weeks now. i take the pil every day but at differnt times each day. me and my boyfriend always use the pull out method and im gettin some pregnancy signs. could i be pregnant even though im on the pill? I believe so, yes - no method of contraception is ever 100% successful at preventing conception. Get a pregnancy testing kit if you're not sure, or go see your Doctor! Best of luck.

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Is it possible to have two iTunes libraries on the same computer? I asked my all-knowing-Mac-user friend about this, and he replied, 'I was just thinking about this myself the other day... It's not possible in Windows, but it may well be possible in Mac OS provided that each user has their own user account on the computer - I've never tried it though as the only person who uses my PowerBook.' Hope this comes in useful...

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What is the full form of internet I wrote a huge post but Answerbag didn't have me logged in - which has really pissed me off as I lost the entire post. Typical, the one time I don't copy and paste before hitting Submit. The word Internet stands for Interconnected Network, which pretty much describes how the Internet works today - individual service providers agreeing to connect together to provide worldwide...

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What is 'dual layering' on a DVD and how does it work ? A Dual Layer DVD is, quite literally, a DVD which is comprised of two data layers - therefore to read all the content from a DL (Dual Layer) DVD, otherwise known as a DVD-9 (single side, double layer), you need a drive which can alter the density at which the laser operates. This is so that the laser can read the topmost layer, with a weaker beam, and then focus the laserlight down to a much...

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Would if be worthwhile learning PHP or would ASP.NET be more useful to a web designer? In terms of price, you can set up and run a PHP/MySQL-based server, all running on Apache httpd, MUCH more cheaply than you can with ASP (which is usually hosted on a Microsoft box - license required - running IIS, with .Net - so immediately off the bat, you're running at a potential financial loss (unless you choose to use one of the Apache ASP.Net interpreters, which are good, but not quite...

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Whenever I try to download something it stops quarter or half way through. The max download I can get is 35mb if I am lucky! It was working fine few months ago. I checked for viruses, spyware, and tried many ways to solve this problem but had no luck? What ISP are you on? If you're on AOL, I do know that some users (well, a fair few) experience problems when downloading files larger than 30mb or so...

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Is it true that terrible things will happen if you turn off your PC without shutting down Windows? When you shut down via the computer's shutdown menu, it explicitly tells it to finish what it's doing with any and all of the (unfortunately many) important system files, it allows all programs to exit gracefully as opposed to just disappearing into the ether - some programs don't save their state or configurations until they've finished exiting and unloading from memory, so you could lose many...

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Has anyone ever seen a white blinking eye at the top of the computer screen? It comes randomly and stays there about 10 seconds, and you can't click on it? Any chance you could take a screenshot, save it in Paint or whatever and stick it somewhere like imageshack (and chuck the URL to the picture our way as an answer on this question :) so we can all take a look?

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What is the difference between JSP and JavaScript? Just to clarify on silverdarkness' answer, JSP pages are JavaServer Pages, which are a hybrid-mixture of regular HTML and unprocessed Java codelets - the server does the actual processing of the Java code before farming the finished version of the page out to the end-users. In this manner, JSP is similar to ColdFusion, PHP and ASP (and to a lesser extent, mainly due to its age, CGI/Perl,...

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Vanilla or chocolate? Oh vanilla, always. Chocolate's nice on the side, but I can easily eat ten times as much vanilla ice cream as I can choclate, it's less sickly. ;) You just can't beat Cornish dairy ice cream!

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Is the "Answer a Question" scroll box truly random? I believe it may well be, as the box seems to employ Ajax to source its contents - it would almost be too much hassle to code an algorithm to pick questions in a particular order, as opposed to just using any server-side language's built-in 'random' function to truly randomly pick questions from the database (I expect that the code just takes all of the question entries' ID numbers in the...

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Is "Weird Al" Yankovic related to polka king Frankie Yankovic? Now this, I like. :D

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My computer doesn't autoplay CDs. How can I fix this? Follow the link to the Annoyances.org TweakUI page: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/tweakui On this site there's links to both the Windows XP and Windows 2000/Me/98 version of TweakUI. Install it following the instructions (it's really easy and only takes a few seconds), and then once TweakUI is installed go into it (in the older version of TweakUI which I use, you go to it via...

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If I buy a DVD player with an HDMI connection and hook it to the HDMI connection on my HDTV, will I get an HD picture? In short: nope. You need an HD source in order to receive and display an HD output. Sure, the signal path will be HD all the way, and the DVD player may output a progressively-scanned picture, but it'll still only be your regular DVD-quality picture. Regular DVDs are only big enough to store SD (Standard Definition) content - the average bitrate for the main movie on a DVD is two or...

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When you get feedback from putting a mic too close to a speaker, what exactly is happening? Where does that high-pitched sound come from? In addition to the original answer, I believe that as low frequencies have a longer wavelength than higher frequencies, the microphone's distance from the speaker (i.e. very short) will mean that it only picks up the higher frequencies (an entire wavelength of a low frequency will go past the microphone before completing an entire cycle, so it won't be as audible as a higher freq....

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How is possible when watching a sporting event on TV and listening to it on radio that the radio announcer can call the event sooner than when that same event is shown simultaneously on TV? There's not always a ten second delay... On 'live' shows such as Big Brother, the entire show is delayed about three minutes, so that the production team can cut the audio feed proactively so that they don't broadcast anything libellous. In the UK, TV networks broadcast preeeetty much live (as opposed to as-live), the BBC I know for sure broadcasts with minimal delay...

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What is the difference between analog and digital cordless phones using the same frequency? The other answer is not quite correct - the signal in itself will be a waveform regardless of whether it's digital or analogue, but if it's an analogue signal the waveform will contain the actual sound waveform being relayed (so if you listened in you'd hear what was being said). With a digital system, if you listened in to the waveform all you'd hear is 'noise' -...

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In relationship to a cell phone, what does WLAN mean? WLAN stands for Wireless LAN, or WiFi as it'll probably be. I have WiFi on my XDA2i (also known as the Dopod 699 / i-Mate PDA2 / Qtek 2020i)... and it does what it says on the tin: lets me connect to wifi networks on the move. It kills the battery life, but it's always useful (especially when you find an open Access Point which you don't have to pay to access ;)

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Is it safe to use a cell phone near a gas pump? In the UK, it's illegal to use a mobile on a garage forecourt, as it was decided that due to the danger of microwave radiation triggering a spark in the petrol fumes it was too dangerous to allow. For the record, the only known explosion of petroleum fumes whilst a mobile was in use on a forecourt happened quite a few years ago, and it's now thought that it was actually caused by a...

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Whenever I turn on my back massager, it interferes with the TV reception on almost all channels. Anything I can do to eliminate the problem? Sounds like you're like me, and you suffer from electromagnetic interference. Some steps to try: if the massager is plugged into the same wall socket or the same extension as the TV, try and find a different socket. If the aerial cable(s) are close to the massager, move them away. If the cable quality isn't very good (i.e. the insulating plastic sheath has been ripped or torn,...

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What are the advantages of a 2.4ghz cordless phone over a 900mhz cordless phone? Whilst you can scale up the amount of handsets you run off the one base station (example: DECT digital home phone systems), there is one potential disadvantage: RF interference from other high-frequency systems, particularly wireless A/V senders and WiFi devices. If any of these devices output a signal on a frequency which is too close to one another, this interference can be picked up on any...

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How does a calculator work? Calculators these days function based around logic chips - these use Boolean logic rules to take the inputs and work them out (I would assume using a form of binary coded decimal, as of course all computers and computational devices work on binary as a basis). Wikipedia is always a good place to start for answering these kind of questions; in this case it has a comprehensive article (read it...

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My husband would like to hook his computer up to the television so that he can play his BF2. What equipment would we need to purchase so that he could hook it up to a 19 inch television? To output a PC monitor signal to your TV, the easiest way is to use your graphics card's inbuilt TV-Out facilities. Many graphics cards offer at the very least S-Video out, meaning you can take the S-Video feed from your graphics card and feed it directly into your TV, provided it has the compatible input. You can also get various adapter extensions and cables if your TV only has SCART...

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How can I read and edit a DLL file? A DLL is not meant to be read per se; DLL stands for Dynamic Link Library, and contains collections of functions, shared code and resources (small bitmap images, for example, are stored for all programs to access in Windows' shell32.dll, resident in the OS system directory). Many DLLs also contain predefined methods of communicating and interfacing with the Operating System, which makes it...

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Is there a limit to the number of webpages and email addresses that the Internet can host? The only real limit is the amount of individual Internet Protocol (IP) addresses available to the public domain to be assigned to unique 'nodes' (users, computers, public-facing mainframes, whatever) - hence the recent introduction of IPv6 (IP version 6, with 128bits of addressable size as opposed to IPv4's 32bits) - I quote this passage, lifted from the Wikipedia IPv6 entry: ...

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How can I access my boyfriend's Hotmail and Yahoo passwords without him knowing? Ah, social engineering... If you feel you have (metaphoric) balls, you can try pretending to be somebody from Hotmail or Yahoo, and say you've had problems with your systems and consequently you need to verify he is who he says he is (this usually requires some kind of planning as you'd need to set up an official-looking email address, compose the letter properly and use all the...

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Why don't chatrooms have filters for profanity/offensive language used in voice chat? You'd have to have an incredibly powerful back-end system, running programs of incredible complexity to be able to pick up, recognise and interactively filter out bad language - you'd have to have software that could not only listen to speech and tell where the words were, but actively distinguish individual words, even having to do what we humans do sometimes, which is to get the...

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While the abbreviated form of megabytes is "megs", what are the abbreviated forms for terabytes, petabytes, etc.? Whilst I don't think it's very common usage (yet, though give it 5 years as storage and network speeds increase, as they're bound to do), I just call terabytes teras, and petabytes petas, and exabytes... exas... I find that sticking to the logical progression works most of the time :) [edit = 21st of March, 2006] I'd like to point out for the record that a megabyte...

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Will having just one computer in a room make it noticeably hotter? It depends on a number of factors; the size of the room, what's in the room, how well-insulated the room is, whether it faces the sun in the morning/daytime/evening, and as importantly, how powerful the computer is and how many peripherals you have! For example, your bog standard computer will be a pretty regular machine with mid-spec components, probably one hard drive, and an average...

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I can't play some games like Yahoo Poker or Pool. It will let me get so far then a box with an "x" appears. I checked my security and lowered my firewall but still can't play. Any other ideas? This sounds to me like you don't have Java installed - most of the games such as the ones you describe use Java as a runtime platform, it means they can function in any environment, be it browser or operating system, as long as Java is installed to interpret and run them. However, due to licensing and copyright issues, Microsoft no longer ships Java as standard with its OS. To get Java,...

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Are DVD-R discs compatible with DVD+R writers? How about DVD+R discs with DVD-R writers? DVD writers are generally compatible with most variants of the DVD format, including DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD RWs of both types. DVD-RAM is generally incompatible, as it uses a caddy system to hold the discs - so it won't physically fit into the drive. RAM is expensive too, and not as advantageous as the other formats, so we'll leave that for now. When buying a DVD burner, it will say...

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On a home network, how do packets get to the correct computer if they all share the same external IP? NB: I edited this post after publishing the original, to answer Hungry Guy's comment question. Click Read More to see it. A home network is most probably connected together, and provided with shared Internet access by, a router. The router contains a DHCP server, which metes out _private_ internal IP addresses on a defined subnet to all connected devices. The router also contains a...

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What is the difference between a router, an access point, a gateway, and a bridge? NB: I've subsequently edited this post to respond to Angry Guy's response question. Click View Entire Answer to read it (scroll down to the bottom). A router allows multiple devices to access one point of connection (such as an ADSL connection if the router's an ADSL router with a built-in ADSL modem, an uplink to the Internet if being used on a network, or another computer...

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Does the speed at which you burn a CD or DVD affect the quality of the file you are writing? Is it better to burn discs slowly? The burn speed does affect the quality of a disc to a certain extent - I've always just gone gung ho and burnt at full speed, as I trust the abillity of the Burn-Proof / various buffer underrun protection features on DVD and CD burners nowadays. However, it is still wise to burn at a lower-than-maximum speed if your primary aim is data integrity - this ensures that the write laser has that...

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I'm trying to start WordPad, but I get the error: "The procedure SHRegGetValueW could not be located in the dynamic link library SHLWAPI.dll." What could be wrong? The problem you are describing sounds like the well-documented Corrupt Explorer.exe problem that can often occur when you encounter a problem with (or cancel the installation of) XP Service Pack 2. I'm assuming that you're running XP, though this error can similarly occur with Windows 2000 SP3 -> SP4 upgrade, and so on. Microsoft's Knowledge Base has a sizeable article on...

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What's the best search engine? An interesting question... Not sure what the original was, as the editing process sometimes removes part of the original gist of the question... Anyways, here we go: I think Google is still the best, due to its overall speed, accuracy and pretty much unique method of sorting pages. That said, its methods have become a little less accurate due to the (rather annoying) process of TrackBack...

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How do you make a letter or number in superscript in MS Word? Unabashedly stolen from the Word Help... "Select the text you want to format as superscript or subscript. On the Format menu, click Font, and then click the Font tab. Select the Superscript or Subscript check box." That should do it nicely. Alternatively, if you're a geek like me who uses shortcut keys all the time (I think we're politely called "Power...

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What does Tivoli software do? Because I quite liked this paragraph, here it is, snipped from http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/43/43499.html : Control freaks take note. IBM subsidiary Tivoli Software provides a variety of products for managing computer networks (including servers, storage systems, desktops, and mainframes). The company's software includes applications that enable network administrators to control users,...

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Why does Yahoo cause my browser to "crash" almost every time I go there, but I never have problems on any other web sites? It could possibly be the quite EXTRAORDINARY amount of Javascript and context-relevant CSS scripting that the site uses for functionality and formatting, and your browser just can't handle it, or it might be perhaps that your browser installation has become a mite dodgy... I can't analyse the exact nature of the problem because you provided no other details about your PC (operating...

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My ISP assigns my home network a dynamic IP. How then does every computer on my home network have its own IP as well? Your home network is most probably run via a central router, which may also contain a modem (if it's any kind of DSL connection, and you have your Internet line plugged into your router directly) then the router will contain a modem. Just about all routers nowadays designed for home usage have a DHCP server inside them - DHCP standing for "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol",...

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How many computers are on the internet (order of magnitude)? Nobody knows quite how many there are, though there has to be more than just a few million. The problem with more and more computers connecting to the Internet is that as more devices (cable modems, ADSL router etc) require a permanent, fixed IP address (basically a unique "address" for each computer, so that one computer on the internet can route its communications to another PC...

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Is there any way I can find out who owns a specific domain? Alternatively, if you're after an answer for a domain which doesn't fall inside of the usual .com or .org TLDs, you can search for the WHOIS results for just about any domain name using the Whois Tool at www.samspade.org . Load the page, go to the second text input box down in the list, type the domain name (without the www.) into the box, make sure it says "Magic" in the...

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How can I play Mpeg files in Linux? For Linux systems, _THE_ indispensable media playing tool has to be VideoLAN - www.videolan.org is its homepage. It's a great player, will run on Windows (thanks to an XWindows port), Linux, just about everything. AND it has its own filters and codecs for many, many formats, so you don't have to worry about incompatibilites. You can also add extra functionality by adding modules. ...

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How do I get to the DOS prompt and then back into Windows from DOS? To bring up a DOS prompt from inside Windows 98, go to the Start menu, then go to the Run box, and type (no quotes), "command" or "command.com" if just "command" doesn't work. This'll bring up a box, with DOS running through a Windows interpreter (note that the only way to poperly use realmode DOS is by going to the Startup Menu by hitting F8 during boot,...

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Is there a way to dual-boot an IBM system to have both Windows and Macintosh on the same hard drive? Sorry, but as far as I know, there's absolutely no way you can install Mac OS onto an IBM-compatible Windows machine. You can install Windows on a Mac (using VirtualPC), but the hardware architecture of a Mac prohibits the Mac OS software from being compatible with a PC's common components. That's why Macs cost so much - it's a captive audience.

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Even though I use Netscape, I still get pop-ups from Internet Explorer (5). How can I stop this? This sounds like you have a form of spyware/malware installed on your system from browsing a site that tries to install the malicious applet onto your system... To cleanse any untoward software from your PC, I'd recommend running Lavasoft's Adaware (from www.lavasoft.de ) - this'll pick up any programes that shouldn't be there (along with stuff like tracking cookies, etc),...

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Are there any differences between installing Linux on a laptop as opposed to a desktop? You _may_ have more trouble installing Linux on a laptop as opposed to a desktop, as the components in a laptop are by tradition a little more custom / specialist as opposed to the fairly generic components in a desktop PC... For instance, if your laptop has a special "portable" version of a model of graphics card, perhaps a low power version with a special powersaving chip at its...

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Why do people create computer viruses? Some do it for kicks, to prove themselves on the scene against other virus writers, some do it for malicious ends (such as using infected machines as part of a larger botnet, to perhaps extort money out of companies such as bookmaking companies, by blackmailing them for money on the brink of large betting events such as the British Grand National or threatening to bombard their webserver with...

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I'm on an always-on DSL connection. What are the basic things I need to do to secure my machine from intruders without buying any software? There are several ways to secure a computer that's always on the Internet. First method: a firewall, either software (like Zone Alarm or Black Ice) can prove to be ONE PART of an effective security setup - but a hardware firewall can prove to be more effective, and more secure. Many broadband routers (mainly cable modem routers) contain built-in firewalls - check the specification if...

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How can I set which programs start automatically when I boot up my computer? You can drag a shortcut to any file, folder or programme that you wish into the Startup folder, and Windows will run it on startup. Some programmes designed to run in the tasktray may also include a means to make the programme automatically load or run in its own configuration settings.

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Is it illegal to use file-sharing services such as WinMX or Kazaa? As mentioned, it depends where you live in the world - for instance, in Canada recently (earlier in 2004) a judge ruled that file-sharing isn't illegal, however in the U.S. the might of the record companies and movie industries can often persuade courts to follow cases to the prosecution stage (you have to remember, with the movie and music industries, it's the monetary might that...

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What other search engines use technology similar in effectiveness to that used by Google? This is a difficult question to respond to, because Google has really changed the way that big search engines operate, by revolutionising the way their backend servers process and filter data... They use hundreds of relatively cheap, clustered servers, running a flavour of Linux, to perform the vast calculations and operations needed to serve the data for Google's millions of users. This...

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Do other search companies offer a program similar to Google's Adsense program? The only real competitor to Google in terms of advertising is the Overture search engine, which provides out-sourced Search facilities to many content portals, the popular "home pages" (think Excite, Yahoo! as examples of this type of home page)... The main difference with Overture is that it also offers pay-per-performance advertising in the form of higher ranking in search results,...

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How do you get ranked higher in Google's search? There's several ways of doing this, with varied success... The commonest method is to get many people to link to your site with the words in the link text as the keywords that you'd like to be associated with. This is how the George W. Bush Administration's web site was associated with "Dismal Failure" when you type that into Google and hit I Feel Lucky. The same...

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Can I copy a DVD movie that is more than 4.7 GB onto a single DVD? If so, how? You can indeed copy DVDs larger than the standard single-side, single-layer format onto a 4.7gb disc... There are various programmes around that will let you do this, some are free and the majority ask you for some money. However, in my opinion one of the best (and free!) programmes available to do this is DVDShrink. There's an EXCELLENT guide on how to use the programme at the...

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How does one connect to a newsgroup? Newsgroups are also known as message or bulletin boards, and use the NNTP protocol. You (usually) access newsgroups via your email client, and you send the messages to the newsgroup server and receive messages back accordingly depending on which newsgroups you're subscribed to. Each mail client has its own way of connecting and transceiving data with newsgroups, I suggest you hit F1 and...

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What are the advantages/disadvantages of installing beta service packs? Disadvantages: 1) No guaranteed technical support from Microsoft should you require it, installation is as-is. 2) Sometimes beta-quality drivers or Windows components can be installed, which may cause problems later. Not always, just sometimes. 3) Aforementioned beta quality products can cause immediate conflicts with hardware and software. Advantages: 1) You can gauge how your...

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How can I convert audio on enhanced and multimedia CDs to mp3 format? You can rip Enhanced CDs using any standard CD ripper - an excellent FREE one that I use called CDex (http://cdexos.sourceforge.net) will display a list of all the tracks on the disc, and what type of track they are - audio or data. The Enhanced content appears after all of the audio tracks, as a final Data track. To rip an Enhanced CD, all you have to do is just select all of the Audio...

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In my new computer, can I use my old hdd as a slave and retain its contents (programs, Win 98 operating system)? You can indeed change hard drives around and use a former master drive as a slave drive - depending on whether the jumper pins on your existing master are set up with Cable Select, or forced Master position, the procedure differs slightly... Here's how to do it: Take out your hard drive from the PC (makes it easier to move jumpers). Get a pair of tweezers, this is the easiest way (least...

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How can I create a new user account in Windows 2000 if I am logged in as a guest? Unfortunately, this just isn't possible as far as I know - it would otherwise render the whole system of User Privileges redundant if a Guest user had Admin privileges. The only other way to do it is to assign higher privileges to the Guest account, but that's also a no-brainer. The only way I can think of doing it would involve a hack to get a programme running with Debug user...

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I'm trying to connect to a web server, but my browser keeps getting the error "Interrupted communication." What could be wrong? This sounds like you have an unstable Internet connection... There's many problems that can cause this, but the most common causes are dialing long distance to reach your ISP, having an old (or perhaps a connectivity issue if the line is a distance from your telephone exchange) - to see if your internet connection is dropping out every so often, try pinging a web site continuously to make...

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Does defragging in one user account partition defrag all partitions? Running a hard drive defragment will physically change the cluster order on the hard drive - this is one and the same for all users, however you need adequate User Permissions to run defragment in the first place - but yes, if you defrag the drive under the Admin account, it'll still be defragmented when you log on with another account.

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What software can I use to mix songs together? If you're more into the DJ mixing aspect, then there's a few which you'll definitely want to know about... Possibly the most prominent piece of PC DJing software is Traktor, made by Native Instruments (and it's also the foundation programme for the Final Scratch software, so it can't be that bad)... I don't really like it though, it's too cluttered for my...

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What are the basic hardware components in a PC? Which should I pay attention to when purchasing a new computer for general home use? I'll split this answer up into several parts: core components and suggested (additional) components for a computer suited to general usage, and a third category for possible upgrade choices. THE Core component of any and every computer: * Motherboard (to host all of the peripherals, other components and CPU). There are two types of motherboard you can buy, I recommend buying a CPU...

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In Microsoft Outlook, can I change the subject line of received emails so I can more easily find them later? As far as I know, there's no simple way of doing this inside Outlook itself - however, you can use a third party application such as POPFile to modify the subject lines of received emails (POPFile also doubles as an extremely effective Bayesian spam filtering programme after a little bit of interactive training to tell it what kind of email is generally spam... and it's very...

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When I start my computer, the fan is running, but the screen is dark. The monitor works fine on another computer. What could be wrong? Something's not very well with your computer. To start with, does your computer emit any bleeps when you start it up? One bleep denotes that the PC is generally running OK. A series of bleeps, or a long bleep, shows that the PC's not very well. However, because every motherboard manufacturer uses different bleep patterns to describe the various problems that can occur, there's no...

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Using Win XP, I'm trying to make an IRQ change, but in Device Manager - Resources, the change setting is not high-lighted. I can't seem to change IRQs through the BIOS either. Any suggestions? This answer's going to be a short one I'm afraid, purely because there's no way of doing it inside Windows. All Windows OSes from Windows 98 assign IRQs automatically, and you cannot change the setting inside Windows like you could in 98 (one of the few good features I thought at the time... and still do). The only way to change the IRQ of a device is to physically move it...

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How can I take audio music from a TV or radio and burn a CD of it? The audio will (eventually) come into your PC via the Line In socket on your PC's sound card. It's up to you really what software you can use to capture the audio to save to .wav file to burn to CD (I recommend something like Cool Edit Pro 2 or a nifty piece of audio editing software called Goldwave which I've been using since... forever!). Now we've got the simple part out...

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My computer with Windows 2000 Professional takes long time to boot into Windows. How can I speed up this process? The only things that I can suggest here are the standard things to start with... If you've installed lots and lots of programmes since you installed Windows, then uninstall all of the programmes that you don't use any more. Optimise your hard drive usage by a) running a full defragment and scandisk of your drive to optimise cluster arrangement, this should speed up seek and scan times...

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Can I hook up an external hard drive using the USB port? If so, how? The standard XBox Operating System doesn't include support for extra USB devices other than the ones that use the XBox-exclusive customised USB protocols. It only holds driver information for the peripherals... and that's about it. However, because they are standard USB ports (and you can use your XBox controller on your PC as a joystick with the right third-party opensource drivers),...

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What free software can I use to play MP3s on Windows? You can also use Winamp, available from www.winamp.com - I prefer Winamp 2.9 to the latest incarnations such as Winamp 5, if you can find an installer for Winamp 2.9 floating about on the Internet (hint: try Google :) then I strongly suggest you try that. Failing my old favourite, classic Winamp 2, many people (including audiophiles) enjoy the features of foobar2000 - available from...

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Can you upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows XP Home Edition? Indeed you can, although I would consider it more the other way round, I think 2000 is still better than XP ;) However, it's a (fairly) painless procedure... You pop the Windows XP CD into your machine and, provided it has boot from cd enabled in the system BIOS, the machine will pretty much install XP as an upgrade on its own. If you choose to upgrade the installation to XP, rather than...

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I have a CD-ROM drive and a CD-RW drive. How can I get sound from both drives to my sound card? Windows ME and above support digital audio extraction from Audio CDs via your cd drives - I don't have any of those fiddly cables plugged from my CD player direct to my sound card any more, all the data is sent through the standard ATAPI cable (the ribbon cable) right into the PC, and converted to sound there. To enable this feature (if it isn't already enabled on your machine),...

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In Outlook Express 6, I'm not receiving the attachments on my incoming emails. I tried to uncheck the "Do not allow unsafe attachments" setting, but it's grayed out. What can I do? This is a feature MS has forcefully implemented in Outlook Express since its Service Pack (read: Bugfix Pack) 1 incarnation. The Microsoft Knowledge Base has some information about this "feature" at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q329570 - this should solve all of your problems.

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I'm running Win 98 and Outlook Express 5. I have a certain email in my Inbox and when I click on it, it locks my computer up! How do I get rid of that email? Norton Antivirus doesn't seem to help. I'm assuming from this that you have the Preview window open in Outlook Express, as it's there by default on a new installation. To hide the Preview window inside Outlook Express, go to View -> Layout... , then at the bottom of the new window that opens, uncheck the Show Preview Pane option. Hit OK to save your options, then you can click on the email without Outlook Express...

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When I use Internet chat rooms such as Eyeball and Yahoo, I chat happily away in "Private Messages" and tend to forget about security. Are these texts safe, or are they archived anywhere? Nothing goes unobserved in these digital days... I suspect that Yahoo! archives chat messages typed in the public forum, though I'm not sure about personal messages - there could be a law about privacy in America that I'm not familiar with. However, for things like emails, companies tend to archive the past few month's worth - ISPs are obliged to do things like this in case...

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Outlook XP automatically removes what it deems to be unneeded carriage returns and line feeds, and it substantially changes the format of my documents. How can I turn that off? To permanently turn this off, go to Tools, then Options, then on the Preferences tab hit the Email Options button. Uncheck the tickbox next to "Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages", and OK out all of the boxes to save the setting - boom. Problem solved.

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Is it possible to copy protect DVDs? If so, how? It is indeed, though the legality of this depends on which country you're in. Anyways, the (weak!) CSS Content Scrambling System copy protection system that's used on DVDs, was famously cracked by a then-15 year old Norwegian boy Jon Johansen - and a couple of years down the line, the lawsuit brought against him by the movie companies was successfully defended by Johansen (and...

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When I burn a music CD, I only see track numbers as the files on the CD. Can I burn the song titles to the CD in place of the track numbers? If you burn an Audio CD using a programme like Nero Burning ROM, even if you enable CD-Text and put track titles and artist names for each of the tracks, Windows will always report CD Track 1, Track 2, Track 3... etc. To display the tracknames, you either need a piece of CD player software that supports reading CD-Text from the disc (there's freeware CD player software available from the...

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Third-party programs keep installing themselves on my browser, and I haven't opted to download them whatsoever. They all come in the format of a plugin to IE. I can remove them, but they keep coming back. How can I stop them? This sounds like spyware's infected IE. Head off to www.lavasoft.de and download AdAware Personal Edition, then run a full scan - ignore the cookies as 99% of them are totally harmless ones, and to be honest you have to be a total paranoid to be bothered by cookies (even the tracking variety). What's most important are things like dialers, browser extensions, things like that - do a...

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In Win XP, I always get a 'New Hardware' prompt for my HP 5550 printer when I start the PC, even though the driver is installed and the printer works great. What can I do to stop those messages? I would suggest that you click Next, follow the boxes through, and see what Windows XP wants you to install... Perhaps if you just let Windows do its installation of whatever device it wants to install, then it'll shut up after it's done it... Windows is strange like this sometimes. :)

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Which processor (Intel/AMD) is the best for working with high-end graphics? The Intel vs. AMD argument is pretty moot these days, with both chips providing exception performance. The Intel chipsets are more expensive, as they've always been, but are slightly better for working with multimedia (high-end video editing and compositing, etc). In terms of value for money, you'd be better off going with an AMD chipset - the key thing to look for is a good graphics...

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Why are you IN a movie, but ON TV? DOSJockey is very correct... It's entirely down to context: you could paraphrase, and say that you're in a television programme (on tv!), it's all down to the way that you want to formulate your sentences. I think in part it also stems from the definition of a TV 'viewer' - there were many names bandied around when television was first invented, including...

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Are there any words in the English language that end in the letter V? Sneaking into general usage is the slang word "chav", which also means "kev" (another slang), which in turn means "townie" (YET more slang)... Basically a chav is somebody who dresses in sportswear, wears a Burberry cap at all times, even in doors, hangs around inappropriate places all day, drives a souped up Vauxhall Nova, and is generally a prat....

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What is the legal drinking age in England? Does this apply to all UK territories, such as the Grand Cayman Islands? All British territories, even if unlinked to the mainland, are still governed by British Laws and services (it's an odd sight to see a Royal Mail postbox several thousand miles away from Britain). As such, the legal drinking age for most alcohol is 18, but there are some antiquated loopholes - you can drink a port or sherry with a meal in a pub from the age of 16, at the...

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What exactly is meant by the "United Kingdom"? The term "United Kingdom" is an old, old term that represents the united countries that share a monarchy - this comes from the medieval times, when the King (or Queen) was indeed the head of state. Things started to change (for the better?) when the Houses of Parliament were created, then over time gained more power, eventually coming to a point where the Prime Minister replaced the...

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What is the Amiga Corporation and what type of computer do they produce? Amiga designed and produced, unsurprisingly, the Amiga personal computer. Running AmigaOS, it was a moderate hit in the UK in the late 80s/early 90s, as several companies went head-to-head competing for sales and market dominance. Sadly, the Amiga as a platform died out (it had some cracking games for it - remember Paperboy? With the offroad level? Damn hard) - but AmigaOS lives on to this very...

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How was the mouse invented? The concept of a mouse, as my Dad once told me, was developed by a designer working at Xerox Labs way back in the day, as an easier means of controlling the computer rather than button bashing. Apparently, he submitted his radical new design to his bosses, who turned down the idea, saying it would never fly. Now, the way Xerox worked at the time, if any developers or designers came up with...

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Is Forrest Gump the founder of Apple? No. And for the record, in the film Forrest Gump, he isn't the founder either - he's just a shareholder after his business partner (in the shrimping partnership) tells him to invest in the Apple startup. The founders - and runners to this day - of Apple Computers are Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

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What types of printers are there, and what are their advantages and disadvantages? When it comes to printers, there's only 4 common variations of printer around nowadays: dot matrix, inkjet, laserjet and plotters. Dot matrix printers have been around since time itself began (or at least that's how it feels!), and they involve small pins in the printer head that physically stamp the ink onto the page. Checkout tills have them, ATM machines have them - they're...

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My Toshiba Equium 7100s desktop powers up but does not display anything or show the boot up process. What should I check? This to me sounds like one of three problems: your graphics card chip has developed a fault, or the screen (either screen physically or the connection between the screen and the motherboard) has developed a fault. Either way, there's no easy fix to solve this problem - if it's not even showing the text that is displayed during the POST and boot process, then I would recommend you...

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What's the best way to clean a computer monitor's screen? The best way to clean a monitor is with proper anti-static glass cleaner, but it does cost a fair bit compared to some of the homebrew solutions that I prefer to use :) I've found that using a weak alcohol on a lint-free cloth can achieve just about the same results as that expensive glass cleaner. Get some aftershave on a piece of tissue paper (not too much though... unless you think...

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I have heard about putting a monitor in "sleep mode" to save electricity. What is that, and how do I do it? Sleep mode is suspend mode under another name, and it's activated inside the Power Profiles applet in the Control Panel. It's just a mode which lets the monitor turn off its main circuitry, save for the idle power circuit. When you press a key on the keyboard, or move the mouse, the monitor snaps out of suspend mode within a couple of seconds and you can continue to use it. As well...

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What should I look for in CD ripping software? Which types will allow better quality? Nearly all CD ripping software is based on the same undercarriage if you will, in that the software reads the disc contents digitally (via the ASPI layer preferably) and extracts the bits as data, so you get your audio into the computer system without having to convert to analogue and then back to digital again (a big no-no, you lose quality). If you don't have ASPI, it's...

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My computer just started making a loud humming noise. Could this be a serious problem? This is most probably the fan in the powersupply vibrating and making the case vibrate with it. If it goes away after a few minutes after you turn your PC on, I'll bet money that that's what the problem is. If it's persistent, then check everything's screwed in properly and fastened tightly. Case and/or component vibration is the cause of most odd PC humming noise. Of...

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Can I get access to another computer using PC Anywhere with a cable modem? It depends which computer the cable modem is on, but yes you can use PCAnywhere with just about any connection (though the faster the better). If you're running a computer in a remote location on a cable modem and PCAnywhere, make sure you have a hardware firewall (many routers have built-in firewalls now which are superior to the (in my opinion) naff software firewalls)... Failing that,...

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Every time I restart my computer, my cookies are deleted and my browser history is cleared. I'm not aware of any third-party programs having an effect on my browser. How can I stop this? You might have your Cookie settings in Internet Explorer set up as such that it isn't set to remember cookies that sites create on your PC. Close all but one of your Internet Explorer windows (to minimise the chances of your new changes being overwritten in the registry). After that, go to the Tools menu in your last remaining IE window, then Internet Options. Go to Privacy, then click...

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Why does my 56k modem connect at only 26kbps when my neighbors can connect at 46kbps on identical computers? If you're living in the UK, there could be a chance that your line has a DACs unit on (this digitally splits the line to provide 2 lines over one phsical wire... though this is ok for voice calls it wrecks the speed of modems, as there's not as much physical bandwidth for the connection). However, I think you're living in the US (from the spelling of neighbours :) so...

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Where are most computers and computer parts made? Wherever's the cheapest! Many companies manufacture in Taiwan, China, Japan, the Asian states (where labour is cheap and plentiful due to the relative value of the local currency and much slacker labour laws, for one thing) - plus countries like Japan are really trailblazing when it comes to developing new technology. That said, my 3dfx Voodoo 5 card was manufactured in New Mexico, so...

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What should I consider when choosing between JSP, ASP or servlet technologies? The key things here are portability, ease of implementation, and availability of coders (unless you're willing to learn the language and code yourself). I personally prefer PHP over any of the other languages listed above, because it's open source, doesn't have ties to any other company, and is supported across the spectrum by a huge amount of developers and fellow coders. JSP...

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Can you record music CDs using a DVD re/writer? In short: yes they can. My DVD burner (an Optorite DD0201) can actually support writing HD-Burn CDRs as well (a method of burning up to 1.4gb onto a standard CDR, via an adapted burn method)... But yes, it would be incredibly foolish by a manufacturer to ignore the backwards-compatibility issues for people buying DVD burners (I replaced my CD burner with my DVD burner, so I could put the older...

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How can I disable the document history on the Start Menu? An essential tool which I always install on every new machine I set up is the Microsoft coders' creation TweakUI. One of the few pieces of software from Microsoft that I think is entirely quality, and ironically one of the pieces of software that they don't officially support. :) With TweakUI, you can disable and enable many hidden features, and literally tweak Windows to how you...

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Can I use two screens at once, connected to the same computer? How? You don't necessarily need a dual-head graphics card, although it's quite handy in terms of space-saving sometimes, you can quite easily just use an existing AGP card in your machine, and fit a second PCI graphics card into your machine (if you don't have one lying about, buy a cheap PCI 3dfx Voodoo 3 from eBay for pennies and install it, Windows 2000 and above have native...

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Where can I learn about video cards for games and upcoming video card standards? Some good places to start are the hardware review sites... Good sites include: http://www.xbitlabs.com http://www.tomshardware.com The (infamous) http://www.hardocp.com http://www.sharkyextreme.com http://www.computers.com (yet another C|Net venture) http://www.hardware-one.com http://www.atruereview.com That's a good few to get started... None of those sites are dedicated...

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Are LCD monitors good for games? I heard that they were blurry and didn't update as quickly. The other answers to this question are very valid, and another thing to bear in mind though is that many LCD monitors (at present) aren't _quite_ as crisp in terms of sharpness as even budget standard CRT monitors - but the standards are improving, as mentioned before, and in terms of portability alone, AND the much more conservative deskspace usage, having an LCD screen far outweighs (for...

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I bought a controller that says the cord 'contains lead, which causes cancer and reproductive problems due to prolonged exposure.' Is this just another over-exaggerated warning? Most definitely - unless the controller itself is made from the stuff, having a cord which contains lead won't really harm you at all (so long as you don't come into prolonged skin contact with it). Oh, and so long as you aren't ingesting lead filings from it either. This sounds like a catch-all disclaimer clause from whichever company manufactured the controller to me :)

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Is SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio considered DirectX 8.1-compatible? SoundMAX onboard chips are fairly recent, they're used in Dells for certain (I suspect you might have a Dell yourself possibly?). They are DirectX 8.1 compatible, as dX8.1 is installed on the Dell PCs at my college, and we use them daily for audio and MIDI work with no problems - and DirectX 9 compatible too I would imagine. Virtually any soundcard that supports the recent WDM driver...

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How do I identify a USB port on the outside of my computer? Perhaps the easiest way to identify a USB port is to try and fit a USB plug into it. :) As USB ports are unique in their design, 'if it won't fit then it don't fit' as such. Failing that, sometimes you may see the USB logo above or near the socket itself, which will identify its purpose. There are different logos for USB & Firewire (aka IEEE1394), and all the other...

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Is Microsoft Office 2003 better than Office XP? Office 2003 vs. Office 2002... It's one of those situations where you have to consider: is it worth upgrading? For the most part, no. Microsoft have made some major changes to the design of Outlook, incorporating new threaded message displays, underlying changes to the way it handles your tasks and mail together... More intelligent spam filtering... All very clever stuff. There's a...

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Is it possible to use two TVs when playing multiplayer instead of using a split screen. If so, how? As the Playstation only has one graphics chip, and although it has multiple methods of outputting a video signal in terms of connectors you can get to use either via SCART or RCA or S-Video etc etc etc... At the end of the day it's only got one proper output path. There's no second graphics output available, as it only renders for one screen. So, in short, no. Sorry about that. ...

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Is zero considered an even or odd number, or neither? Surely zero is only a representative figure for the absence of an amount, just like black and white are not colours in themselves, merely an absence of colour... In which case, zero is neither even nor odd, as it doesn't exist. Something to think about.

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I want to hook several PlayStations together locally so I can play with my friends without being connected to the Internet. How can I do this? This is possible, and you use the iLink feature that all PS2s have (iLink = Firewire, or IEEE1394, under a different name). You can hook together many, many PS2s, provided a) the game supports iLink and b) you have enough connecting equipment! The best way to connect more than 2 PS2s together is via a Firewire hub, which you can buy from any decent PC store, or the Internet, though as...

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Is there a way to get a PlayStation USB device to work on a desktop computer USB port? For example, can you get the the Logitech USB PS2 force feedback wheel to work on a PC? I'm not the most authorative source on PS matters (I hate the console =D but hey there we go) I do know that you can get console peripherals to function on PCs... Provided you have the right drivers. A great example of this are the opensource third-party XBox controller drivers that you can download from sourceforge, which let you plug in the USB XBox controller and then use it just like a...

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Would paintball guns be good toys for pre-teen and teen age kids? In my opinion _no_ guns make good toys for preteen and teenage kids. When I was growing up, my mum emphasised the importance of not thinking of guns as just something to play with - that's stuck with me to this day, I have a great respect for guns and don't really like them that much all said - it's a good attitude to have in my opinion. I'd say that the most I'd...

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How can I set up a home network so all my computers can share my cable modem Internet connection? If you're wanting to save a bit of money, a wireless network is unnecessary (though very handy, especially if you're using laptops). The most cost-effective (and physically fast) way to do it is a traditional wired network with cat-5 network cable, a few (very!) cheap 100mbit network network interface cards ("nics") and a router. The router is key, as it acts as a proxy...

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How can I record internet radio programs directly to my laptop's hard drive so that I can listen to them later? If you're more savvy with the workings of web streaming (or feel that you can learn what you need to know about how web streams are embedded in webpages, and how to get the links to streaming resources if you don't know already) then I suggest a (theoretical) solution: you give Streambox VCR Suite a go - especially for RealMedia streams. This lets you save the stream by downloading it...

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