The Ask Leo! Newsletter
*** Featured
How do I burn an audio CD?
Audio CDs confuse many people and Windows - trying to be helpful, of course - doesn't help.
The fact is that an audio CD is a very different beast from a data CD. Windows may try to make an audio CD "look like" a data CD by listing its contents as one .cda file per track, but in reality, it's just fooling you.
Those "files" aren't really there.
Many people think that if they could just convert their .mp3 or other audio files into that .cda file format, they can just write them to the disc and they'd have an audio CD disc that would play in any player.
It just doesn't work that way.
Continue reading: How do I burn an audio
CD?
http://ask-leo.com/C5918
* * *
*** Answercast
Answercast #61 - Hard drive errors, Outlook Express safety, ex-friend hacks, failed downloads and more...
Do you need to keep some ex-friends out of your email or to find a list of recipients? Do you have crash reports and device errors? Wonder if it is safe to keep Outlook Express any longer? All that and more in this Answercast from Ask Leo!
Continue reading:
Answercast #61 - Hard drive errors, Outlook Express safety, ex-friend hacks,
failed downloads and more...
http://ask-leo.com/C5911
How do I get IE8 to remember my email password?
Instead of your browser, what I suggest that you use is a program like LastPass to remember your passwords for you.
Continue reading: How do
I get IE8 to remember my email password?
http://ask-leo.com/C5912
How do I display the full list of recipients in my Sent
email?
Exactly how you go about displaying recipients depends dramatically on
what specific email service you happen to be using.
Continue reading:
How do I display the full list of recipients in my sent email?
http://ask-leo.com/C5913
Why do I get an I/O device error when I try to create a system
image?
The error message is literally telling you exactly what's wrong: there was an
input/output error on the device.
Continue reading:
Why do I get an I/O device error when I try to create a system image?
http://ask-leo.com/C5914
Does having my video card on the motherboard mean I can never
upgrade?
The neat thing about this is that you're one step away from a dual-monitor
system without really even trying.
Continue reading:
Does having my video card on the motherboard mean I can never
upgrade?
http://ask-leo.com/C5915
I found what appears to be a crash report for MsMpEngine. What
should I do?
There probably isn't any kind of a lasting problem. As long as Microsoft
Security Essentials is running and running properly, I think you're fine.
Continue reading:
I found what appears to be a crash report for MsMpEngine. What should I
do?
http://ask-leo.com/C5916
My ex-friends tell me they can read my email, that it'll go to them.
Is that possible? What do I do?
If friends (especially ex-friends) are looking at your email and they have
access to your account, I would seriously consider that you treat this has a
hacked email account.
Continue reading:
My ex-friends tell me they can read my email, that it'll go to them. Is that
possible? What do I do?
http://ask-leo.com/C5917
Why can't I download PDFs in IE9, but I can in
Chrome?
To help diagnose the problem, try a two-step approach. Separate downloading the
file from opening the file with Adobe Reader and watch for error
messages.
Continue reading: Why
can't I download PDFs in IE9, but I can in Chrome?
http://ask-leo.com/C5919
Is it safe to keep Outlook Express?
I personally consider Outlook Express a ticking time bomb. As you accumulate
more and more email, the risk of encountering a problem goes up - but there is
one way to protect yourself.
Continue reading: Is it safe to keep
Outlook Express?
http://ask-leo.com/C5920
Why is the Maxthon browser always setting itself as the default
browser, and how do I stop it?
There may not be a way to turn that off. If you're not using Maxthon as your
primary browser, I'm not sure there's a reason to have it on there at all.
Continue reading:
Why is the Maxthon browser always setting itself as the default browser, and
how do I stop it?
http://ask-leo.com/C5921
Why is my email being immediately deleted as it arrives in
Thunderbird?
In situations like this, my bet is almost always on the anti-malware tools you
have installed... They're attempting to integrate just a little too tightly
into the email process.
Continue reading:
Why is my email being immediately deleted as it arrives in
Thunderbird?
http://ask-leo.com/C5922
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*** Last Issue's Articles
- Ask Leo! #397 - Why your machine's slowing down, disabling https, localhost, sharing your password and more...
- How do I properly secure a mobile broadband hotspot?
- Can my mobile phone calls be listened to?
- Why does a file grow dramatically after I add only a small amount?
- Why does only half of my email scroll?
- Should I partition my external drive?
- How do I disable https?
- Can I create a true factory fresh image without even the initial customizations?
- Who is it safe to give my passwords to?
- What is the IP address 127.0.0.1 and why is it called localhost?
- How do I set up an email address once and never again have to tell all my contacts of a new one?
- Answercast #60 - Listening to cell phones, file sizes, partitioning external drives, giving out passwords and more...
- Why is my machine slowing down?
*** Word o' the Week
A sector is a fixed-size "chunk" of information as stored on magnetic or other media such as hard disks, optical discs and even flash-based memory.
Information on a hard disk is divided into: 
- platters - the entire surface of one side of one or more of the metal disks in the drive. Each disk is coated with magnetic material used to hold individual bits of digital information. (Entire image to right represents one platter).
- tracks - one circle of information on the magnetic media. A platter may contain many concentric tracks of information. (The red ring labeled "A".)
- sectors - one group of information within a track. Sectors on magnetic disks typically represent the way that the information is stored. A track would be comprised of several sectors with essentially "empty" space in-between them. (The portion of the ring labeled "C".)
A sector most commonly contains 4096 bits, or 512 bytes. (Newer hard drives may use 32,768 bit, aka 4096 byte, sectors, but for compatibility with older interfaces and operating systems may also expose a simulation of 512 byte sectors.)
Sectors are accessed as single units at the hardware level. This means that when reading the entire sector is read regardless of how much of its contents are required. Similarly when writing it's the entire sector that's written, regardless of how much information in it is to be changed.
(Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Word o' the Week features a computer term or acronym taken from the Ask Leo! Glossary. If there's a word you're not sure of and would like to see defined, click here to let me know.
*** Thoughts and Comments
It's election season in the U.S., and that means that there's a lot of information and misinformation flying around on the internet via email and social media sites.
Regardless of your leanings and affiliations if you must share please take a moment and make sure what you're about to forward or post is at least accurate.
There's a lot of garbage out there.
Not only does spreading blatantly wrong information hurt everyone, it makes you look bad - often really, really bad.
It's a sad reality, but those items that rise our ire, that tug at our heartstrings or simply sound flat out horrifying are often completely false. And if not totally bogus, they're often so slanted and obfuscated that they might as well be.
There are plenty of authoritative sites to double check that what you've just received is, or is not bogus. Snopes is my favorite for urban legends, and often covers political items as well, but there are many, many others.
Help make the internet a better place: think twice, and check twice, before forwarding or sharing.
'till next time...
Leo A. Notenboom
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