Number 260 - January 2005

UPDATE
Protect and Serve    As usual this month we run the gamut of computer subject matter as the section titles suggest. The Beginner articles in this issue deal with protecting your computer against the spyware dangers of the Internet as well as simply being careful about maintenance of equipment and what you allow to be put on your hard drive. Pop Them Pop-Ups    The protection theme continues treating some not so much direct dangers as annoyances or nuisances. Two items in the Communications section deal with how to handle those annoying Pop-Ups. One reviews a Pop-Up stopper, Free Surfer, and a brief note deals with Windows Messenger service. Then Vinny La Bash reviews Google's new e-mail service, Gmail, as an alternative to Internet Explorer. Boot Up    In the System Notes & Tips section Dick Maybach gives us a brief reminder of what the Basic Input Output System (The BIOS) does on our computer. With recent releases of Windows we tend to forget some of the basic stuff that ran our computers in the past. (In the olden days this basic "start up" procedure was called a bootstrap program as in lifting oneself by ones bootstraps"!) In this brief article Mr. Maybach reminds us about what this fundamental and useful bit of software does.	WORD PopUp Useful?    In the Word Processing section describes a feature of Microsoft WORD 2003 XP. Used properly they can be quite useful but if you are not used to them, their sudden appearance in the midst of your text document may be disconcerting. Accessed through Tools/Auto Correct they can be activated by clicking on Smart Tags under Auto Correct. Don't Delay. Act Today!    In Do It Now in the General Interest section Elizabeth Wright urges us to get things down on paper, disk, tape, whatever--even if no interest is shown by other friends or family members. Act while you can still remember where all the bodies are hidden! She is talking about genealogy, of course, but her remarks apply to other areas as well. LCD's Not So Hot!    In the Hardware section, Roger Carlyle compares CRT and LCD monitors with respect to several key evaluation criteria. This article is especially timely if you are considering upgrading your system. LCD monitors have made great technological strides in the last few years and are much lighter (if you have to move your system around a lot) and they put out much less heat. But CRT's are still somewhat better in a couple of areas that may be critical to you. Check it out!
Number 260 - January 2005