Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Paul H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a Kodak DX3600 camera equipped with a 'docking' unit. I upgraded the camera software (from version 1.2 to latest revision), but can no longer transfer pictures from my camera to the computer ... (I am using Windows 2000, by the way). To resolve this dilemma, I sought a local computer 'expert' to contemplate my problem, but he could not produce a solution. I have done everything that Kodak has suggested over at their web site with no luck. I am one of several people in my area who has the same problem with their Kodak software. Are you ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bill 'Mr Full Service' writes: " Dear Dennis, Great newsletter! I've enjoyed it for a couple years now. I have a question for you about bookmark managers, or similar software. Do you know of any program that can search MS Word ... documents on your computer for web links (URLs)? Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated! " My response: If you own Windows XP, you can search for text in documents by using an advanced option in the Search dialogue menu. To do so, click Start -> Search -> Files / Folders -> Documents -> use Advanced search options - ... (view more)

I can't imaging what my life would be like if I didn't know how to program in PERL. Side note: PERL stands for Practical Extraction and Reporting Language, and is a robust programming language frequently used for creating programs that run on web ... servers. (Source: wmo.ch ) Perl's elaborate support for regular expression matching and substitution has made it the language of choice for tasks involving string manipulation. The language's highly flexible syntax and concise regular expression operators, make densely written PERL code indecipherable to the uninitiated. The syntax is, however, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Kathy O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am getting ready to build a new computer and plan to put Windows XP Home Edition with XP Service Pack 1, although I have already ordered the XP Service Pack 2 CD from Microsoft. As it stands now, ... I will be running both computers from my LinkSys router; however, I was told by a friend that I would need to turn off Windows XP's firewall from the Control Panel after I install Service Pack 2. Is this true? And also, is it necessary to apply XP Service Pack 2 since my router acts like a firewall? If so, should I disable the Windows Firewall ... (view more)

Recall -- A few days ago, Infopackets Reader Ted B. asked if there was a way to connect 2 wireless PCs [one using Win98, the other WinXP] together without using a router as a Wireless Access Pointer (WAP). He wrote: " ... An elderly lady recently ... came into the shop and needed help with wireless networking (802.11) between her older Hewlett Packard computer (running Windows 98SE) and her XP notebook. Unfortunately, we could not get the connections working. She had opted for a wireless network because she did not want to run a long cord from her bedroom to her living room to connect the ... (view more)

I'm stoked. For the last 3 months, I've been nibbling away at a special web script (project) that reformats all the previous Infopackets newsletters into a simple, clean layout. Why all the excitement? There are a lot of great things to come now ... that this daunting task is nearing completion. With article layout standardized, I can now move forward with: a) splitting articles into separate pages: it is important to split the articles so that potential web visitors can locate our web site through search engines (such as Google). As it stands now, 95% of all traffic to our web site is from our ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Dirk J. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm a bit confused about the outcome of scans performed by 'Registry Mechanic' and 'RegSeeker'. RegSeeker always finds more than 50 'problems' even if Registry Mechanic has done it's job and ... corrected the 'problems' it found. Does this mean that a program like RegSeeker is more thorough than Registry Mechanic -- or does it just work in a different way? It reminds me of identical differences in the outcome of spy scans by Spybot and AdAware. Thank you for being a such a beacon in the IT jungle. " My response: I get asked similar ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joe J. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently received an email forwarded from a friend via a Yahoo email Group, which states that Yahoo is using 'web beacons' to track Yahoo Group members Internet activity. The email I received ... follows: ' For your information: Yahoo is now using something called 'Web Beacons' to track Yahoo Group users around the net to see where you visit and what you're doing -- similar to Internet cookie files. Take a look at their updated privacy statement . About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you will see a link that says web ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Ted B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm stumped! An elderly lady recently came into the shop and needed help with wireless networking (802.11) between her older Hewlett Packard computer (running Windows 98SE) and her XP notebook. ... Unfortunately, we could not get the connections working. She had opted for a wireless network because she did not want to run a long cord from her bedroom to her living room to connect the two computers. The representative at the Motorola help-desk told me (several times) that we had to buy a router as a source point before the two computers could ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Don K. writes: " Dear Dennis, My computer has 1000 megabytes of primary system memory (RAM). I recently partitioned (split) one of my hard drives into a separate drive letter (Drive Z, for example) and set it as a dedicated unit ... handle all my virtual (secondary) memory. After it was all said and done, a friend of mine commented that having 1 gigabyte of RAM in my machine is plenty of primary memory, and I've wasted my time trying to optimize my system by setting up a separate drive letter for virtual memory. Do you agree with my friend's comments? " My response: ... (view more)