Thank you, St. Lou: http://www.thescreensavers.com +--+--+--+--+--+--+--What's Up Today--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ HOW WE'LL FINE TUNE THE SHOW There will be some changes to the show. Here's what to expect in the near future. http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993468 THE SET IS STARTING TO COME TOGETHER The crew works over the weekend and starts to assemble the set http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993469 JOIN OUR PRODUCTION MEETING On Feb. 6, we'll have a meeting to discuss improvements to The Screen Savers web site. In the chat room from 8pm to 9pm EST. http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993470 MAXING OUT YOUR STORAGE Patrick jams as many hard drives as he can into his beater PC. Read about the results. http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993471 SAVE MONEY ON REFURBISHED EQUIPMENT You can save some money by buying refurbished hardware, but pay special attention to the details. http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993472 TEST YOUR GEEK SPEAK KNOWLEDGE Take the Supergeek Challenge. Free stuff can be yours. http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993473 I LEFT MY HEART IN ST. LOUIS http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993474 ALL THE LINKS FROM TODAY'S SHOW http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993475 HELP & HOW-TO ZONE Go to TechTV's library for tips and trick for Windows, Linux, Macintosh and more. http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993476 ***************************Advertisement*************************** Memory PC - Memory prices have fallen substantially, and Outpost.com is passing that savings on to you! With FREE DELIVERY. OVERNIGHT. http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993477 ******************************************************************* +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ SHOW NOTES for Monday, February 5, 2001 (repeat of January 23, 2001)... * Upgrading an ooooold PC Jim from Framingham, Massachusetts has an old Compaq PC with a 75 MHz AMD processor in it. He'd like to add a CD and a sound card to it so his 5 year old can play games on it. Is he wasting his time and money upgrading this old box? If it already had a sound card and CD-ROM drive, we'd say try to upgrade the processor with a faster Pentium or K6 processor. But given that you also need a CD and sound, by the time you get all the things you need to get this computer in shape to even play simple games for your 5-year old, you're probably well on the way to buying a newer machine. We'd total up the price of the parts you want to buy. If you're over $200, we'd pick up something like an entry-level eMachine system instead. They've got a $399 system (hey, I own one!) with a 600 MHz Celeron and 32 MB of RAM. We'd prefer more memory, but this is a good start. Here's the link: http://www.e4me.com/ * Can a VCD autoplay on my cousin's computer? Jason from Santa Maria, California wants to put movies of his little brother on VCD (Video CD) so he can send 'em to his family back east. He'd like to author the CD so that it automatically runs when they insert it into their computer's CD drive. Leo says autorun.inf is the file that contains the information that tells a CD to automatically launch an application. He suggests you copy this file from another CD that autoplays. Then modify the file so it launches a VCD playback application. Then burn it onto your created CD. If you're lucky your authoring software will give you the option to make your CD autorun. Here's a quick list of what you'll need to make VCD: 1) VCD Authoring software 2) Utility that converts your AVI video files such as AVI2MPG v1.2 http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,000ZLZ,.html 3) Program that supports VCD burning (such as Adaptec's Easy CD Creator) 4) Program to play the VCD to burn on the new CD Let us know how it works out! * Wireless Networking Michael from Pocatello, Idaho has a whole house full of desktop PCs, notebooks and servers. He thinks it's time to move to a wireless networking setup. Would we recommend the Linksys WAP11? It'd probably be spiffy, Michael, since it's an 802.11b system, our favorite wireless networking spec. The Linksys is one of the only base stations we've seen that costs even less than Apple's AirPort, which you could also use. We haven't tested it yet, but we've had great luck with Linksys stuff in the past. http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=157&grid=19 Now if somebody would just come up with a sub-$100 PCI 802.11b card for PCs! Right now, you'll spend close to $150 for each desktop, though you can do PC Cards for the notebooks for $120 or so. Of course, those cards were $200 to $400 just a year or so ago! * Copying a hard drive Greg from Papillon, Nebraska has a hard drive that's beginning to show bad sectors. That's not good... He's ready to move his data to a new drive. Can he do it? No problem! Chances are you can attach it as the 'slave' to right on the same cable as your C: drive. I'd use FDISK to set up at least two partitions on the new drive. Put the data on the higher partition, then turn the lower partition into your new C: drive. You could manually cut and paste all that data from your c: drive onto the new drive. Or you could use what we use, and create a hard drive image with one of these programs: PowerQuest DriveCopy: http://www.powerquest.com/drivecopy/index.html Norton Ghost by Symantec: http://www.symantec.com/ghost/ * He needs a new sound card... Nathan from Avalon, California has been serenading the neighborhood with his new high powered spearker system. But he's looking for a better sound card to feed 'em his favorite noise. Should he go with a Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live or a TurtleBeach Santa Cruz? Well, most folks can't hear a difference, but, just for fun, I'd say go for the TurtleBeach sound card... especially if you can track down one of their Fiji cards. Or you can be more scientific and check out the sound card testing done at this site. Most of the cards are high end pro-audio cards, but there are lots of affordable cards there to: http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/compare/index.htm * Windows Install CD Mark from York, Pennsylvania wants to take the 13 floppies from his Windows 95 upgrade box and install 'em on a CD so he won't have to deal with hauling those floppies in and out of the drive. He's building a new system for a buddy. He's tried burning 'em all one by one onto a CD-R with limited success. You could try puttering around to see if there's a network install switch that would support this. Frankly, OS licensing issues aside, Mark, I think it's time to upgrade to CD version of the OS. And a full version, since you're still installing DOS and 3.11 first. (Doesn't the 95 upgrade just ask you for a 3.11 disk as proof if you install from floppy?) Since you're in York, check out the Trenton Computer Fair. I'll bet you can pick up a used 98 or 95 CD super cheap. And you'll never have to fight with floppies again! * FTP Settings Joseph from Dallas, Texas has some trouble with an FTP server at work. Clients can start a download, but their connections keep getting reset. Joseph asked what PASV should be set to. PASV is a FTP setting that allows clients to initiate the data connection to the FTP server. It should be set to 'yes.' (Not that either one of us are FTP or firewall experts...) Some clients don't support PASV transfers, so the users might think the connection has started, even though they won't be able to download data. Leo says you either have to make it a control FTP server, along with PASV. Or they might need to try a different client. Example? As far as we know, the Windows FTP.exe doesn't support PASV. Here's a link with some more info: http://advice.networkice.com/Advice/Services/FTP/PASV/default.htm Don't forget to send us your Ws! http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=111113856&i=295601&d=929512 Patrick +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ ***************************Advertisement*************************** Can't remember where that great Web site was? Now you don't have to! Access your favorite sites from any computer, anywhere. Click here! http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=117655167&i=298153&d=993486 ******************************************************************* That's all for today-- keep visiting our site, and keep watching The Screen Savers-- it's good for you! You are subscribed to this newsletter with the following email address: cts-newsletters-html@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx If you would like to unsubscribe at any time, please reply to this message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line. 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