Douglas Godbey

Fri
23
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Being Phished? What to do!

Do you think you've been a victim of a phishing scam? First of all, don't call or write us here at Infopackets! Unfortunately, we can't do anything for you, other than tell others to be careful! But here are some things you can do that will help ... ... Phishing is done through email and it is a big problem. In the past year alone, I have received thousands of emails that included huge lottery winnings from just about everyone in Europe, folks that were dying from cancer, car and plane crashes, and, of all things, tooth decay, part time job offers, and all sorts of "official" messages from ... (view more)

Thu
22
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Wiping A Hard Drive Before Dinner

Last Saturday, one of my friends called me up at 8:00 AM and asked,. "I have 12 PC's that have been donated to me for use in my non-profit. They have all sorts of software that I need to get rid of before installing an OS on them. Can you help me?" ... After pondering his request, I said, "Sure! I have just the tool for that job!" Before I could say "Bob's your uncle!" I had 12 PCs, with keyboards, mice, monitors, and speaker sets on my living room floor! What a mess! As my "friend" drove away, laughing gleefully, I resolved to charge him a very high fee the next time he asked for help. Since it ... (view more)

Mon
11
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

Take Microsoft With A Grain of Salt

Over the past year, we have been hearing a lot about Vista from Microsoft. So what is the real truth? I cannot answer that question and I'm not going to try. I will, however, give you some figures that might blow some of Microsoft's 'fog' away. The ... World Wide Web Consortium (also known as W3C) is an organization that tries to establish and control the Web by setting standards for such things as the HTML language (used to create the web pages). They are, perhaps, the only source of information available that is based on gathered data about the usage of the web. Sometimes the numbers point out ... (view more)

Wed
23
May
Dennis Faas's picture

Converting VHS Tapes to DVD

Several times this past year, we have had readers write in asking if it could be possible to convert VHS tapes to DVD. I don't want you to get your hopes up too high, because what I'm going to tell you will not work for Copyrighted Videos. Most of ... those are protected with a copy protection scheme called MicroVision and cannot be re-recorded to DVD or even another VHS tape. If you want a DVD of those videos you will just have to go to your favorite DVD/Tape Movie store and buy it. But if you want to make a DVD of Uncle Henry's birthday party or the vacation to beat all vacations, read on. ... (view more)

Fri
18
May
Dennis Faas's picture

Computer Basics, Part 2: The Hard Drive

The hard drive is a highly sensitive and complicated device that most of us tend to take for granted. Just what it is and -- how it works -- is the subject of this second article on computer hardware [read part 1 here]. If you were to remove the ... sealed cover on the drive, what you would see is a number of platters attached to a fairly thick shaft that contains a type of motor known as a servo motor. The servo motor has the characteristic of being easily controlled and stable when considering the speed of rotation. The platters are spun by the motor at a rate of speed designated by the ... (view more)

Thu
10
May
Dennis Faas's picture

Computer Basics, Part 1

I suppose it's time to roll up my sleeves and try to 'expose' the inner workings of the scary little box that's humming away on your desk. It's called a Personal Computer, no matter who designed and/or built it. It may have a name associated with it ... such as Macintosh (or Mac), Dell, IBM, Gateway, or any of a myriad of names depending where you live and what you decided to buy. No matter what name is associated, all desktop Personal Computers (or PCs) have a few basic components that are common. Laptop systems have the same array of components but they are usually not accessible like in a ... (view more)

Fri
20
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

Super Computing: Then and Now

There has been a lot of talk (and print) devoted to what is termed 'Super Computing'. The evolving of a PC from a slow running (but reliable) platform into a system that runs circles around the old PC-1. Anyone remember those? IBM was responsible ... for unleashing the original PC on the unsuspecting business world back in the late '70s, early '80s. PC-1 was the very first PC and by today's standards, it is slow! 10 MHz processor speeds, a maximum of 64 KB memory, no hard drive, and a pair of 5.25, 360 KB diskette drives with a monochrome screen. It ran PC-DOS and a fairly wide array of ... (view more)

Wed
18
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

A Few Thoughts: Microsoft and Windows Vista

Since last November and even before that, Microsoft has been aggressively hyping the features and virtues of Vista. We've all seen it talked about in the printed media, on television, and on web sites, including Infopackets. Is Vista the latest and ... greatest Windows operating system ever produced? The jury is still out on that. Even I, the local Linux 'geek', look upon Vista and can see where there are seeds of potential greatness, but only the potential. It's just too soon to say for sure if will attain greatness. Why So Much Memory? On the technical side, the reasons for the expanded ... (view more)

Thu
29
Mar
Dennis Faas's picture

Got a Tech Question? Help Us Help You: Q&A Guidelines

Over my many years as an IT professional, I have worn many 'hats'. Programmer/Developer, Operator, Administrator, and Quality Assurance, to name a few. I have also spent a great deal of time working a Help Desk, which can be a tough task to handle. ... Now days, I spend my day trying to help you, the Infopackets readers, with problems through the contact page. However, one of the things that slow us down in helping you solve those niggling quirks and kinks is the lack of information. I often find I am asking questions that shouldn't be necessary, because I don't receive enough information about ... (view more)

Fri
16
Mar
Dennis Faas's picture

Vista Hype: Fact or Fiction?

Being fair minded while discussing Microsoft is difficult for me considering all the illegal activities their management has engaged in, and have been convicted for, in both U.S. and International Courts over the years. But, I do try hard to be as ... open-minded as I possibly can when talking about their software. With that in mind, I wanted to talk to you about Vista and all the hype that has been blowing around in the wind. It is confusing, conflicting, and in some cases, just too hard to believe! Let me begin. On one hand, you hear Microsoft touting the virtues of Vista as the Best OS since ... (view more)

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