http://www.answerbag.com/profile/1685 New Answerbag answers from Christopher Woods Tue, 29 May 2012 08:02:21 -0700 Tue, 29 May 2012 08:02:21 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/1111527 Do you use the "Home Keys" when typing? Do you even know which ones the "Home Keys" are?<br /><br />F and J are slightly ridged on my keyboard, but as it&#039;s an MS Natural keyboard it&#039;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&#039;t hurt my hands after an hour or two of typing. I touchtype anyway, so I... Sat, 21 Jul 2007 13:40:15 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/1111527 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/838559 How do u spell ur last name backwards without puttin da vowels or doulbe consenents(like ck or sh)!<br /><br />W! (it&#039;s Woods) Please, PLEASE try and spell correctly, there&#039;s no need (or excuse) for poor written English on the Internet. I mean, &#039;doulbe&#039;? I know you can get away with it most of the time, but it does look really crap. &#039;Consonants&#039;, not... Mon, 07 May 2007 20:57:29 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/838559 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/838539 Can the use of port USB hubs cause a thumb drive to heat up and burn out?<br /><br />No, solid state pendrives are designed to be written and rewritten hundreds of thousands of times. Unless you have a faulty unit, they shouldn&#039;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... Mon, 07 May 2007 20:48:22 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/838539 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/820197 What is the most random, pointless fact you know?<br /><br />Goslings look at the shadow of birds flying above them to determine whether they&#039;re friendly or not, but it&#039;s not foolproof: if the shadow is flying right, it appears like a larger goose to them, but if it&#039;s flying left, it appears to them as a hawk&#039;s shadow (and they react... Thu, 03 May 2007 04:06:26 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/820197 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/820190 Why is it so expensive to get your computer fixed compared to other things?<br /><br />Today more than ever, it&#039;s all about the knowledge economy... There&#039;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... Thu, 03 May 2007 04:00:05 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/820190 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/815974 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?<br /><br />I wouldn&#039;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... Wed, 02 May 2007 01:49:25 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/815974 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/815967 Why is it better to boil water starting with cold water instead of hot?<br /><br />In the UK, it&#039;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... Wed, 02 May 2007 01:46:10 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/815967 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/815959 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?<br /><br />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&#039;m sure high-altitude flight does use less fuel. Flying upwards to go sideways... Wed, 02 May 2007 01:39:53 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/815959 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/815955 Should air marshals be armed with tazers instead of guns?<br /><br />I think Air Marshals should be armed with less lethal forms of weaponry (tazers can kill if used too many times, but they&#039;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&#039;s all the more dangerous if... Wed, 02 May 2007 01:35:30 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/815955 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/815949 How many hours a day do you spend on your computer? Is it affecting your eyes?<br /><br />I&#039;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&#039;m doing something more &#039;active&#039; like typing or gaming. I have an MS natural keyboard though (one of the original... Wed, 02 May 2007 01:25:39 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/815949 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/371071 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?<br /><br />The whole point of Windows XP x64 is that it&#039;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&#039;t run XP x64 on it. Period. Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:13:29 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/371071 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/94415 Is life filled with contradictions, or isn't it?<br /><br />Absolutely. Not. Sun, 17 Sep 2006 08:26:50 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/94415 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/90307 Why does answerbag.com use default HTTP response headers generated by PHP?<br /><br />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&#039;t broke, don&#039;t fix it springs to mind... Wed, 06 Sep 2006 08:09:40 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/90307 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/88481 I'd like to find a free online desktop publishing program if there is such a thing, anyone?<br /><br />If you&#039;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&#039;s more of a word processor but it&#039;s still fairly powerful. Alternatively, try AjaxWrite (from the mind of the person behind Linspire... Thu, 31 Aug 2006 03:20:55 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/88481 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/88245 What is WAP?<br /><br />To follow up from BuckyF&#039;s excellent answer, WAP is also sometimes described as one of the services provisioned as part of the &#039;2G&#039; suite of technologies. GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is sometimes described as &#039;2.5G&#039; (or part of the &#039;2.5G&#039; standard),... Wed, 30 Aug 2006 09:24:32 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/88245 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/88242 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?<br /><br />I believe so, yes - no method of contraception is ever 100% successful at preventing conception. Get a pregnancy testing kit if you&#039;re not sure, or go see your Doctor! Best of luck. Wed, 30 Aug 2006 09:15:00 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/88242 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/86978 Is it possible to have two iTunes libraries on the same computer?<br /><br />I asked my all-knowing-Mac-user friend about this, and he replied, &#039;I was just thinking about this myself the other day... It&#039;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&#039;ve never tried it... Sat, 26 Aug 2006 08:20:35 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/86978 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/85949 What is the full form of internet<br /><br />I wrote a huge post but Answerbag didn&#039;t have me logged in - which has really pissed me off as I lost the entire post. Typical, the one time I don&#039;t copy and paste before hitting Submit. The word Internet stands for Interconnected Network, which pretty much describes how the... Wed, 23 Aug 2006 05:37:44 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/85949 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/81851 What is 'dual layering' on a DVD and how does it work ?<br /><br />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... Sat, 12 Aug 2006 05:39:07 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/81851 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/81850 Would if be worthwhile learning PHP or would ASP.NET be more useful to a web designer?<br /><br />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... Sat, 12 Aug 2006 05:25:57 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/81850 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/81244 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?<br /><br />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... Thu, 10 Aug 2006 09:37:21 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/81244 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80728 Is it true that terrible things will happen if you turn off your PC without shutting down Windows?<br /><br />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... Wed, 09 Aug 2006 06:31:01 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80728 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80726 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?<br /><br />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? Wed, 09 Aug 2006 06:20:30 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80726 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80725 What is the difference between JSP and JavaScript?<br /><br />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... Wed, 09 Aug 2006 06:19:22 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80725 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80041 Vanilla or chocolate?<br /><br />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! Mon, 07 Aug 2006 20:09:37 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80041 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80040 Is the "Answer a Question" scroll box truly random?<br /><br />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... Mon, 07 Aug 2006 20:08:41 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80040 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80036 Is "Weird Al" Yankovic related to polka king Frankie Yankovic?<br /><br />Now this, I like. :D Mon, 07 Aug 2006 19:59:59 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/80036 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/58470 My computer doesn't autoplay CDs. How can I fix this?<br /><br />Follow the link to the Annoyances.org TweakUI page: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/tweakui On this site there&#039;s links to both the Windows XP and Windows 2000/Me/98 version of TweakUI. Install it following the instructions (it&#039;s really easy and only takes a few seconds), and then... Tue, 09 May 2006 09:54:12 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/58470 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48100 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?<br /><br />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&#039;ll still only be your regular DVD-quality picture. Regular DVDs are only big enough to... Thu, 16 Mar 2006 20:18:28 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48100 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48094 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?<br /><br />In addition to the original answer, I believe that as low frequencies have a longer wavelength than higher frequencies, the microphone&#039;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... Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:56:50 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48094 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48092 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?<br /><br />There&#039;s not always a ten second delay... On &#039;live&#039; 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&#039;t broadcast anything libellous. In the UK, TV networks broadcast... Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:42:48 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48092 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48089 What is the difference between analog and digital cordless phones using the same frequency?<br /><br />The other answer is not quite correct - the signal in itself will be a waveform regardless of whether it&#039;s digital or analogue, but if it&#039;s an analogue signal the waveform will contain the actual sound waveform being relayed (so if you listened in you&#039;d hear what was being said).... Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:25:18 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48089 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48085 In relationship to a cell phone, what does WLAN mean?<br /><br />WLAN stands for Wireless LAN, or WiFi as it&#039;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&#039;s always useful... Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:04:00 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48085 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48084 Is it safe to use a cell phone near a gas pump?<br /><br />In the UK, it&#039;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... Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:59:12 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48084 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48082 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?<br /><br />Sounds like you&#039;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... Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:47:05 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48082 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48081 What are the advantages of a 2.4ghz cordless phone over a 900mhz cordless phone?<br /><br />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... Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:41:02 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48081 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48079 How does a calculator work?<br /><br />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... Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:35:44 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/48079 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/39455 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?<br /><br />To output a PC monitor signal to your TV, the easiest way is to use your graphics card&#039;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... Wed, 04 Jan 2006 10:37:39 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/39455 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/28616 How can I read and edit a DLL file?<br /><br />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&#039; shell32.dll, resident in the OS system directory). Many DLLs also... Mon, 29 Aug 2005 03:10:05 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/28616 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/28615 Is there a limit to the number of webpages and email addresses that the Internet can host?<br /><br />The only real limit is the amount of individual Internet Protocol (IP) addresses available to the public domain to be assigned to unique &#039;nodes&#039; (users, computers, public-facing mainframes, whatever) - hence the recent introduction of IPv6 (IP version 6, with 128bits of addressable size... Mon, 29 Aug 2005 02:56:42 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/28615 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/28614 How can I access my boyfriend's Hotmail and Yahoo passwords without him knowing?<br /><br />Ah, social engineering... If you feel you have (metaphoric) balls, you can try pretending to be somebody from Hotmail or Yahoo, and say you&#039;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&#039;d... Mon, 29 Aug 2005 02:42:58 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/28614 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/28613 Why don't chatrooms have filters for profanity/offensive language used in voice chat?<br /><br />You&#039;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&#039;d have to have software that could not only listen to speech and tell where the words were, but actively... Mon, 29 Aug 2005 02:27:35 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/28613 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/28612 While the abbreviated form of megabytes is "megs", what are the abbreviated forms for terabytes, petabytes, etc.?<br /><br />Whilst I don&#039;t think it&#039;s very common usage (yet, though give it 5 years as storage and network speeds increase, as they&#039;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... Mon, 29 Aug 2005 02:21:18 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/28612 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/23316 Will having just one computer in a room make it noticeably hotter?<br /><br />It depends on a number of factors; the size of the room, what&#039;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... Mon, 13 Jun 2005 21:17:48 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/23316 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/22217 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?<br /><br />This sounds to me like you don&#039;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... Sun, 29 May 2005 08:14:53 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/22217 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10370 Are DVD-R discs compatible with DVD+R writers? How about DVD+R discs with DVD-R writers?<br /><br />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&#039;t physically fit into the drive. RAM is expensive too, and not as... Sun, 07 Nov 2004 00:38:28 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10370 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10369 On a home network, how do packets get to the correct computer if they all share the same external IP?<br /><br />NB: I edited this post after publishing the original, to answer Hungry Guy&#039;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... Sun, 07 Nov 2004 00:28:37 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10369 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10368 What is the difference between a router, an access point, a gateway, and a bridge?<br /><br />NB: I&#039;ve subsequently edited this post to respond to Angry Guy&#039;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&#039;s an ADSL router with... Sun, 07 Nov 2004 00:19:10 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10368 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10367 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?<br /><br />The burn speed does affect the quality of a disc to a certain extent - I&#039;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... Sun, 07 Nov 2004 00:05:24 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10367 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10366 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?<br /><br />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&#039;m assuming that you&#039;re running XP, though this error can similarly occur with Windows... Sun, 07 Nov 2004 00:01:28 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10366 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10364 What's the best search engine?<br /><br />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... Sat, 06 Nov 2004 23:50:14 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10364 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10362 How do you make a letter or number in superscript in MS Word?<br /><br />Unabashedly stolen from the Word Help... &quot;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.&quot; That should do it nicely. Alternatively, if you&#039;re a... Sat, 06 Nov 2004 23:37:16 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/10362 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/9005 What does Tivoli software do?<br /><br />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... Sun, 19 Sep 2004 05:56:33 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/9005 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/9004 Why does Yahoo cause my browser to "crash" almost every time I go there, but I never have problems on any other web sites?<br /><br />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&#039;t handle it, or it might be perhaps that your browser installation has become a mite dodgy... I can&#039;t... Sun, 19 Sep 2004 05:52:15 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/9004 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/8965 My ISP assigns my home network a dynamic IP. How then does every computer on my home network have its own IP as well?<br /><br />Your home network is most probably run via a central router, which may also contain a modem (if it&#039;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... Sat, 18 Sep 2004 11:56:39 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/8965 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/8801 How many computers are on the internet (order of magnitude)?<br /><br />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 &quot;address&quot;... Tue, 14 Sep 2004 05:01:47 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/8801 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/8800 Is there any way I can find out who owns a specific domain?<br /><br />Alternatively, if you&#039;re after an answer for a domain which doesn&#039;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,... Tue, 14 Sep 2004 04:47:16 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/8800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6688 How can I play Mpeg files in Linux?<br /><br />For Linux systems, _THE_ indispensable media playing tool has to be VideoLAN - www.videolan.org is its homepage. It&#039;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... Tue, 06 Jul 2004 08:21:35 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6688 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6642 How do I get to the DOS prompt and then back into Windows from DOS?<br /><br />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), &quot;command&quot; or &quot;command.com&quot; if just &quot;command&quot; doesn&#039;t work. This&#039;ll bring up a box, with DOS running through a Windows interpreter (note that... Sun, 04 Jul 2004 16:11:18 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6642 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6641 Is there a way to dual-boot an IBM system to have both Windows and Macintosh on the same hard drive?<br /><br />Sorry, but as far as I know, there&#039;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&#039;s common... Sun, 04 Jul 2004 16:04:05 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6641 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6640 Even though I use Netscape, I still get pop-ups from Internet Explorer (5). How can I stop this?<br /><br />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&#039;d recommend running Lavasoft&#039;s Adaware (from www.lavasoft.de ) - this&#039;ll... Sun, 04 Jul 2004 16:02:12 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6640 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6639 Are there any differences between installing Linux on a laptop as opposed to a desktop?<br /><br />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 &quot;portable&quot; version... Sun, 04 Jul 2004 15:58:01 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6639 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6638 Why do people create computer viruses?<br /><br />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... Sun, 04 Jul 2004 15:53:56 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6638 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6016 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?<br /><br />There are several ways to secure a computer that&#039;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... Sat, 12 Jun 2004 19:32:42 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6016 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6015 How can I set which programs start automatically when I boot up my computer?<br /><br />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. Sat, 12 Jun 2004 19:16:43 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6015 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6014 Is it illegal to use file-sharing services such as WinMX or Kazaa?<br /><br />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&#039;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... Sat, 12 Jun 2004 19:14:16 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6014 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5485 What other search engines use technology similar in effectiveness to that used by Google?<br /><br />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... Mon, 24 May 2004 13:59:59 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5485 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5484 Do other search companies offer a program similar to Google's Adsense program?<br /><br />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 &quot;home pages&quot; (think Excite, Yahoo! as examples of this type of home page)... The main difference with Overture is... Mon, 24 May 2004 13:54:21 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5484 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5483 How do you get ranked higher in Google's search?<br /><br />There&#039;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&#039;d like to be associated with. This is how the George W. Bush Administration&#039;s web site was associated... Mon, 24 May 2004 13:47:06 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5483 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5425 Can I copy a DVD movie that is more than 4.7 GB onto a single DVD? If so, how?<br /><br />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... Fri, 21 May 2004 14:08:39 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5425 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5312 How does one connect to a newsgroup?<br /><br />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&#039;re subscribed to. Each mail... Mon, 17 May 2004 17:53:33 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5312 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5311 What are the advantages/disadvantages of installing beta service packs?<br /><br />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... Mon, 17 May 2004 17:38:05 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5311 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5310 How can I convert audio on enhanced and multimedia CDs to mp3 format?<br /><br />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,... Mon, 17 May 2004 17:33:42 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5310 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4825 In my new computer, can I use my old hdd as a slave and retain its contents (programs, Win 98 operating system)?<br /><br />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&#039;s how to do it: Take out your hard drive... Tue, 27 Apr 2004 15:01:35 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4825 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4688 How can I create a new user account in Windows 2000 if I am logged in as a guest?<br /><br />Unfortunately, this just isn&#039;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&#039;s also a no-brainer. ... Sun, 25 Apr 2004 15:21:39 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4688 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4619 I'm trying to connect to a web server, but my browser keeps getting the error "Interrupted communication." What could be wrong?<br /><br />This sounds like you have an unstable Internet connection... There&#039;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... Thu, 22 Apr 2004 09:56:41 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4619 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4571 Does defragging in one user account partition defrag all partitions?<br /><br />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&#039;ll still be... Wed, 21 Apr 2004 08:38:00 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4571 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4570 What software can I use to mix songs together?<br /><br />If you&#039;re more into the DJ mixing aspect, then there&#039;s a few which you&#039;ll definitely want to know about... Possibly the most prominent piece of PC DJing software is Traktor, made by Native Instruments (and it&#039;s also the foundation programme for the Final Scratch software,... Wed, 21 Apr 2004 08:36:26 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4570 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4401 What are the basic hardware components in a PC? Which should I pay attention to when purchasing a new computer for general home use?<br /><br />I&#039;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,... Fri, 16 Apr 2004 11:05:52 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4401 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4316 In Microsoft Outlook, can I change the subject line of received emails so I can more easily find them later?<br /><br />As far as I know, there&#039;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... Tue, 13 Apr 2004 14:24:50 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4316 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4315 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?<br /><br />Something&#039;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&#039;s not very well. However, because every motherboard... Tue, 13 Apr 2004 14:08:09 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4315 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4314 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?<br /><br />This answer&#039;s going to be a short one I&#039;m afraid, purely because there&#039;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... Tue, 13 Apr 2004 14:00:22 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4314 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4313 How can I take audio music from a TV or radio and burn a CD of it?<br /><br />The audio will (eventually) come into your PC via the Line In socket on your PC&#039;s sound card. It&#039;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... Tue, 13 Apr 2004 13:57:02 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4313 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4312 My computer with Windows 2000 Professional takes long time to boot into Windows. How can I speed up this process?<br /><br />The only things that I can suggest here are the standard things to start with... If you&#039;ve installed lots and lots of programmes since you installed Windows, then uninstall all of the programmes that you don&#039;t use any more. Optimise your hard drive usage by a) running a full defragment... Tue, 13 Apr 2004 13:28:47 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4312 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4301 Can I hook up an external hard drive using the USB port? If so, how?<br /><br />The standard XBox Operating System doesn&#039;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&#039;s about it. However, because they are standard USB ports (and you... Tue, 13 Apr 2004 08:51:40 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4301 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4272 What free software can I use to play MP3s on Windows?<br /><br />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... Mon, 12 Apr 2004 11:57:51 -0700 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4272 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3920 Can you upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows XP Home Edition?<br /><br />Indeed you can, although I would consider it more the other way round, I think 2000 is still better than XP ;) However, it&#039;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... Thu, 01 Apr 2004 13:44:42 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3920 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3918 I have a CD-ROM drive and a CD-RW drive. How can I get sound from both drives to my sound card?<br /><br />Windows ME and above support digital audio extraction from Audio CDs via your cd drives - I don&#039;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... Thu, 01 Apr 2004 13:27:38 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3918 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3848 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?<br /><br />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 &quot;feature&quot; at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q329570 - this should solve all... Wed, 31 Mar 2004 11:58:40 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3848 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3845 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.<br /><br />I&#039;m assuming from this that you have the Preview window open in Outlook Express, as it&#039;s there by default on a new installation. To hide the Preview window inside Outlook Express, go to View -&gt; Layout... , then at the bottom of the new window that opens, uncheck the Show Preview... Wed, 31 Mar 2004 10:39:18 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3845 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3837 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?<br /><br />Nothing goes unobserved in these digital days... I suspect that Yahoo! archives chat messages typed in the public forum, though I&#039;m not sure about personal messages - there could be a law about privacy in America that I&#039;m not familiar with. However, for things like emails, companies... Wed, 31 Mar 2004 07:37:23 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3837 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3789 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?<br /><br />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 &quot;Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages&quot;, and OK out all of the boxes to save the setting - boom. Problem solved. Tue, 30 Mar 2004 11:03:18 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3789 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3781 Is it possible to copy protect DVDs? If so, how?<br /><br />It is indeed, though the legality of this depends on which country you&#039;re in. Anyways, the (weak!) CSS Content Scrambling System copy protection system that&#039;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,... Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:52:59 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3781 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3778 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?<br /><br />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... Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:11:04 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3778 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3777 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?<br /><br />This sounds like spyware&#039;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... Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:08:03 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3777 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3776 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?<br /><br />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&#039;ll shut up after it&#039;s done it... Windows is strange like this sometimes. :) Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:03:31 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3776 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3599 Which processor (Intel/AMD) is the best for working with high-end graphics?<br /><br />The Intel vs. AMD argument is pretty moot these days, with both chips providing exception performance. The Intel chipsets are more expensive, as they&#039;ve always been, but are slightly better for working with multimedia (high-end video editing and compositing, etc). In terms of value for... Fri, 26 Mar 2004 08:34:49 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3599 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3428 Why are you IN a movie, but ON TV?<br /><br />DOSJockey is very correct... It&#039;s entirely down to context: you could paraphrase, and say that you&#039;re in a television programme (on tv!), it&#039;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... Wed, 17 Mar 2004 11:09:34 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3428 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3427 Are there any words in the English language that end in the letter V?<br /><br />Sneaking into general usage is the slang word &quot;chav&quot;, which also means &quot;kev&quot; (another slang), which in turn means &quot;townie&quot; (YET more slang)... Basically a chav is somebody who dresses in sportswear, wears a Burberry cap at all times, even in doors, hangs around... Wed, 17 Mar 2004 11:00:58 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3427 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3426 What is the legal drinking age in England? Does this apply to all UK territories, such as the Grand Cayman Islands?<br /><br />All British territories, even if unlinked to the mainland, are still governed by British Laws and services (it&#039;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... Wed, 17 Mar 2004 10:52:51 -0800 http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/3426