Leo’s Answers #75 – April 27, 2007

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

Hello!

*** Contents

• This Week's New Articles on Ask Leo!
• A Word from our Sponsor
• Popular Articles from the Archives
• Thoughts and Comments
• Newsletter Administration

*** This Week's New Articles on Ask Leo!

What do the "Report and Delete" or "This is Spam" buttons do?

When you have junk/spam in Hotmail, & you click "Report & Delete", does Hotmail really report it?

Yes and no.

The intent behind that button is to reduce the amount of junk mail you might get in the future. However I'm guessing that it's not doing what you think it is.

The question is who's doing the reporting, and who's getting the report?

Continue reading: "What do the "Report and Delete" or "This is Spam" buttons do?"
http://ask-leo.com/what_do_the_report_and_delete_or_this_is_spam_buttons_do.html

* * *

Can my ISP monitor my internet usage?

Can employees at a local telephone ISP read my e-mails and monitor my web surfing and tell others about what they read/see?

Yes they can.

The real question is would they? Probably not.

And if it's of real concern to you, what might you do? I do have some ideas.

Continue reading: "Can my ISP monitor my internet usage?"
http://ask-leo.com/can_my_isp_monitor_my_internet_usage.html

* * *

How do I find out what program is using all my CPU?

My machine is slower than molasses in the winter time, and I suspect that one or more programs are simply using up all available CPU time. How do I tell which ones they might be so that I can turn them off, or whatever?

Yep, that sounds slow.

Actually it happens to me from time to time as well. A program will decide it has something very very important to do, and decides to use your computer and all of its processing power to do it.

The good news is it's easy to find out which program that might be.

Continue reading: "How do I find out what program is using all my CPU?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_find_out_what_program_is_using_all_my_cpu.html

* * *

What is Error 8000FFFF when I try to install a Windows Vista Update?

I recently got a new machine with Windows Vista pre-installed. Naturally one of the first things it does is connect to Windows Update and install a bunch of updates released since the Vista DVD was created. But one of them fails with error 8000FFFF. Why? And what do I do?

So I'll come clean: this is me asking myself the question. I recently got a new laptop with Windows Vista pre-installed, and have started down the Vista path.

Naturally I was disappointed to start out by getting that error.

And my disappointment around that error continues.

Continue reading: "What is Error 8000FFFF when I try to install a Windows Vista Update?"
http://ask-leo.com/what_is_error_8000ffff_when_i_try_to_install_a_windows_vista_update.html

* * *

Google's Web History might surprise you

Is it a feature? Or an invasion of privacy?

Continue reading: "Google's Web History might surprise you"
http://ask-leo.com/googles_web_history_might_surprise_you.html

*** A Word from our Sponsor

Forget Vista! Speed Up Your Vista System!
Is your PC getting slow? Run our free Optimize scan to find out how to
fine-tune your Internet and System settings. Identify registry cobwebs
and get rid of hard drive clutter. Over time, everyday use of your PC
will slow down performance. Optimize is an exciting software program
that automatically diagnoses your PC and gives you a custom report
detailing every issue hurting your PC's performance: Scan Now!
http://pcpitstop.com/tinylink.asp?id=244302

Advertisement. Ask Leo about advertising here.

*** Popular Articles from the Archives

Spam rears its ugly head in many, many ways. Bounce messages for mails you never sent is just another annoying symptom of spam.

I keep getting bounce emails for addresses on my domain that don't exist. How can I stop this?

Lately I have been receiving returned emails that were originally sent by a randomly generated email address in my domain. These accounts don't exist, but when the mail is returned we get the returned email. How can I stop this?

The painfully short answer is that you probably can't. Though there are some ideas to at least make it a little less painful.

For what it's worth, you're not alone. You are so not alone.

Read more... I keep getting bounce emails for addresses on my domain that don't exist. How can I stop this?
http://ask-leo.com/i_keep_getting_bounce_emails_for_addresses_on_my_domain_that_dont_exist_how_can_i_stop_this.html

*** Thoughts and Comments

In case you missed it above, I've carefully dipped my toes into the Vista waters. My new laptop (a Dell Latitude D620 Notebook ) arrived last week with Windows Vista Business Edition pre-installed.

So far it's been pretty cool. The security pop-ups that everyone's complaining about don't seem that annoying to me, though I can see how they might be to others. I've run into a couple of programs that simply don't work, or don't have Vista updates available yet, and I've had to shell out for a new copy of my aging anti-virus package.

But my email's there. Thunderbird and Firefox work just fine on Vista.

Overall I'm relatively pleased, but I'm not done yet. I haven't yet stumbled into any Vista features that would make me say "oh, you gotta have this". And I'm sure there are more surprises in store for me as I continue my migration. I do plan a full report on Ask Leo! in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

'till next time...

* * *

The Latest:
Forwarded Funnies:	"Little Johnny on 'Tragedy'"
Taming Email:	"Email is never urgent. Really."
Leo's MovableType Tips:	"Leaving Breadcrumbs in Movable Type"

*** Newsletter Administration

Do you have a question? A comment, perhaps? Newsletter subscribers can visit http://ask-leo.com/askleosubscriber.html to submit your comments and questions. That page is only mentioned here, so I'll know it's from someone who's taken the time to read this far!

I'll be honest: I'll try to respond, but I get a lot of questions every day - I just can't answer everyone. Rest assured, though, that even if you don't hear from me directly, I read every email I get.

Leo's Answers Newsletter is a weekly publication of Ask Leo! and Leo A. Notenboom. It's also available as an RSS feed at this URL: http://ask-leo.com/newsletter.xml?UD=nl. Archives of previous newsletter issues can be found on the Ask Leo! web site, http://ask-leo.com/newsletter.html.

You're quite welcome to forward this email in its entirety, but you should probably delete your unsubscribe link below, so your friends don't unsubscribe you by accident. You may forward individual articles from this newsletter only if you include all and only the text of that article as found in this newsletter, including any links therein. You may not copy full articles from the Ask Leo! website - more on that in my section on copyright: http://ask-leo.com/terms.html#copyright.

I'd sure appreciate it if regular readers got a subscription of their own. You can sign up at http://newsletter.ask-leo.com.

Interested in advertising on Ask Leo! or in this newsletter? Advertising details here.

Newsletter contents Copyright © 2007, Leo A. Notenboom & Puget Sound Software, LLC.