| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| 1029usr078198 |
Posted - August 18 2010 : 06:29:16
Listen now. or Download the archive.
Question: My desktop icons are missing, but I can open my desktop folder and see them. What's wrong?
Answer: Great question. I can think of a couple of possibilities here. Some people are like me. I put everything on my desktop. Others like for their desktops to be empty or very nearly so. Because of this, Windows has a switch that turns off the desktop icons. Right-click the desktop, point to "arrange icons by". Check to be sure that "show desktop icons" is checked. In your case, this is probably going to be the answer because you said you can open the folder and see the icons. Another possibility is a corrupted profile folder. Your Documents and Settings (Users in Vista and Windows 7) folder has all or most all your stuff. It calls that your profile. If Windows notices that your profile is broken in some way, it can log you on using a temporary profile, which will be based on the default profile. That default profile won't have much in it so it will look like your icons are missing.
Cool Site: VirusTotal: Have you ever wondered whether or not a file is a virus? Or, have you ever wondered if a website might infect your computer with a virus? Well, this week's site will help you detect these threats. Virustotal.com is a web service that gives you the opportunity to upload a suspect file or submit a web address. Files sent are scanned with several up-to-date antivirus engines to quickly detect whether or not a file is infected. Now, you shouldn't use the site to just check that your antivirus is OK because the detections may vary between what you have and what they use. Besides, it's possible that an infection you have allows it to hide from your antivirus, which would otherwise detect it. No solution is 100% effective in finding all viruses and malware. It's too much of a moving target. But VirusTotal comes close because its virus signatures for all engines are updated in real time, so as soon as new signatures become available, they get used. The site cautions that, while results from multiple antivirus engines are far more reliable than those from a single engine, this is no absolute guarantee that a file is completely harmless. If in doubt I suggest scanning the file again tomorrow. The site allows you to send files by email for scanning, as well as using the website. Firefox users can get their browser add-on that scans every file you download and also checks URLs. The site has a community section, which is a forum for users of the service, and a search box that you can use if you can't find the file itself.
Cool Gadget: Sharpie Liquid Pencil: Well, it's back-to-school time. Wow! Where did the summer go? This week's gadget is just the thing for folks who like the erasability of pencils, and the permanence of pens. Sharpie is making a new "liquid pencil". Do you remember erasable pens? I loved them. This is similar but the reverse. Sharpie's pencil uses a liquid graphite and you can erase it if necessary, but you need to erase quickly. After three days, the liquid graphite dries and can no longer be erased. While not technically available until September, you can find them on Office Depot's website, where for $4.99 you can get two pencils and 6 erasers.
It's All "Geek" To Me: Netiquette: This week's term is Netiquette. Sounds like etiquette, doesn't it? Great, you get it. Netiquette, simply put, is Internet Etiquette. All social interactions have rules that define what "acceptable behavior" means. For instance, writing emails in all caps is bad netiquette because it's the equivalent of shouting. The main areas where good netiquette is hugely important are email, online chat, newsgroups: in other words, the areas where people interact with one another most directly. You want to make a good first impression, and not inadvertently doing things that annoy or frustrate others is part of that and that is the big thing that netiquette refers to, how not to annoy others on the Internet.
Links
VirusTotal:
http://www.virustotal.com
Sharpie Liquid Pencil at Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/09/sharpie-liquid-pencil-writes-and-erases-like-a-pencil-dries-lik/
Sharpie Liquid Pencil on GearLog:
http://www.gearlog.com/2010/08/pen_or_pencil_sharpie_says_bot.php
Sharpie Liquid Pencil at Office Depot:
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/730116/Sharpie-Liquid-Pencil-05-mm-Opaque/
Netiquette on TechTerms:
http://www.techterms.com/definition/netiquette |
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