Leo’s Answers #5 – December 16, 2005

Leo's Answers
A Weekly Newsletter From
Ask Leo!
Leo Notenboom

Hello!

Life's a little busy 'round the Notenboom household these days. Part of it's the normal hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but we've got an extra "stressor" at play as well.

My wife owns and operates a retail collectible doll shop in nearby Bellevue, Washington: Dolls and Friends (http://dollsandfriends.com). We've had it for just over 11 years, and December is traditionally her busiest month. It's a small shop, but as you can see she does have an internet storefront as well. Naturally, that'd be my area of expertise. However my responsibilities go beyond tech - I'm also bookkeeper, payroll manager, post office delivery man, handy man, and "lifter of heavy things", among many other roles. This week I was also "stringer of Christmas lights".

And yes, on occasion, I've even sold dolls. Now there's something I never predicted back in high school.

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On behalf of myself, my wife, the Corgis and the cats, I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas, a happy holiday season, and all the best in the coming year. (There will not be a newsletter next week, but I do plan to publish one between Christmas and New Years.)

*** Contents

• New Articles of Note on Ask Leo!
• Popular Articles from the Ask Leo! Archives.
• Interesting Sites and Useful Resources.
• Newsletter Administration Department

Instructions for unsubscribing are at the end of every newsletter.

*** New Articles of Note on Ask Leo!

Are automatic updates a good thing?

What are your thoughts on automatic updates? Not Windows updates but automatic updates for my spyware and antivirus programs. I have many anti-spyware and McAfee internet security suite and I have automatic updates turned on on all. Could this lead to problems by leaving my computer open to the net?

This one's easy: I love automatic updates.

Let me explain why, and some of the things to look for to make sure that your automatic updates are safe, and doing what you think.

Continue reading: "Are automatic updates a good thing?"
http://ask-leo.com/are_automatic_updates_a_good_thing.html

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How do I find the Windows CD Key from the CD?

How do you find the CD Key of the Windows CD you have? I have a Windows XP Pro SP2 installation disk but I don't know the CD Key. Can you locate it on the CD? I do not have this installed on any other computers so I can't search the registry for it either.

There's a lot of confusion about CD, or more properly "Product Keys", those long strings of numbers and letters you need to type in when you install Microsoft Windows.

One source of confusion is where the CD Key comes from.

One hint: it's not on the CD.

Continue reading: "How do I find the Windows CD Key from the CD?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_find_the_windows_cd_key_from_the_cd.html

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What's a 'Stack Overflow'?

What is a 'stack overflow'? I keep getting stack overflow warnings after installing new 2006 version of Norton Internet Security. I had no such problems before. Should I go back to my 2005 problem-free version of Norton?

I've now received a couple of reports of stack overflow problems after people have upgraded to Norton Internet Security 2006. Here's what I know so far.

Continue reading: "What's a 'Stack Overflow'?"
http://ask-leo.com/whats_a_stack_overflow.html

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Podsafe Music, and the Internet Economy

The podcast has new theme music - I explain why, and how.

Continue reading: "Podsafe Music, and the Internet Economy"
http://ask-leo.com/podsafe_music_and_the_internet_economy.html

* * *

How do I read a message that flies by too quickly on my screen?

When my system boots up, there are error messages that scroll by too fast to read. I have used the pause key, but I'm never "lucky" enough to pause on the error screen. How do I stop the scrolling and go forward 1 page at a time so I can read the message?

It is frustrating, isn't it? And to add insult to injury, there are even times where there just isn't a way to pause or page the messages that are scrolling by.

So what to do?

I did stumble upon one trick that's pretty cool ... but it requires a little hardware, that you might already have.

Continue reading: "How do I read a message that flies by too quickly on my screen?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_read_a_message_that_flies_by_too_quickly_on_my_screen.html

* * *

What's so special about "32"?

Why is the number 32 used so often in the naming of computer folders and files? For example System32, Twain32, Regedt32, and so on?

I had to chuckle when I read this question. It's a perfect example of how things computer folks take for granted are just so much black magic to "real" people.

32's special, because it comes after 16, and before 64. Which of course is just more black magic, I'm sure.

So we'll start at the beginning. In the beginning was the bit, and it all goes downhill from there.

Continue reading: "What's so special about "32"?"
http://ask-leo.com/whats_so_special_about_32.html

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*** Popular Articles from the Ask Leo! Archives

The first in a series of articles on changing your Hotmail password - one of the most popular articles on Ask Leo!

How do I change my MSN Hotmail password?

I get this question so often about Hotmail that it's clear that the process is not obvious enough or documented well enough by MSN.

Allow me....

Continue reading...
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_change_my_msn_hotmail_password.html

*** Interesting Sites and Useful Resources

MSN-Problems.com - http://www.msn-problems.com

I get a lot of questions from people having problems with MSN Messenger. A lot of questions. MSN-Problems.com turns out to be a very helpful resource with recommendations for each of the various MSN Messenger versions and error codes that people are experiencing. There's also a very active forum with even more advice from folks very knowledgeable and on-top of current Messenger issues.

Forwarded Funnies - http://forwardedfunnies.com

OK, I'll admit it -- Forwarded Funnies is me, and this is "BSP" (Blatant Self Promotion). Like most of you, I imagine, I get a lot of forwarded humor in my inbox. Several years ago I started collecting those that I found entertaining, and began putting them up on a web site. About a year ago I created Forwarded Funnies as a repository for all that humor, and have been posting a new item from my backlog roughly every day. Naturally there's an RSS feed, and there's now even email notification when new items are added. Like the humor you see on the internet, there's a wide, wide variety, rated by content: G, PG, R or X.

*** Newsletter Administration Department

Do you have a question? A comment, perhaps? Newsletter subscribers can drop me a line at leo <at> ask-leo.com. (I only give that email address to newsletter subscribers, so I'll know it's from one of my loyal readers.) If you like, you can make sure you get past any spam filters by simply posting your question or comment using the Ask Leo! Question Form.

I'll be honest: I'll try to respond, but I get a lot of questions every day - in fact you'd be surprised at how many. I simply cannot answer absolutely every one. Rest assured, though, that even if you don't hear from me directly, I read every email I get.

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Till next week!

Leo Notenboom