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1029usr078198
Forum Admin
USA
333 Posts |
 Posted - January 27 2011 : 02:28:36
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Listen now. or Download the archive.
Question: Philip asks, "When I open a Word Document as an email attachment, it's all gibberish. What's wrong?"
Answer: Great question, Philip. There are two possibilities here. Either the attachment is corrupted, or the wrong program is trying to open the file. Assuming that Microsoft Word is the right program to open the file, you can test both problems at once by saving the attachment to your desktop first. Then open Word and go to File Open and try to open the file you saved. If it looks the same, the attachment is corrupted and you may have to have the sender email it again. If it looks OK, then the wrong program is opening the file, most likely WordPad. WordPad comes with Windows and can open many Word files, but it only does well with the simplest documents. How you fix that is not difficult, but varies based on which version of Windows you have. Check the show notes for links to instructions for different versions of Windows. Microsoft even has a fix-it for that particular problem.
Cool Site: MarineTraffic.com: Have you ever considered taking a cruise? Or do you know someone who is going on a cruise? This week's site is marine traffic.com. See, most larger ships have GPS trackers onboard, and this site puts that information on a map for you. So if you wanted to know where, say, the Disney Magic is right now, you can find it. Not only that, but if it's in motion, you can find out how fast it's going and in what direction. You can see its track as it has traveled from port to port, and you can access a gallery of pictures of the ship. The thing is, it's not limited to passenger ships. You can find information about most ocean-going vessels including cargo vessels, tankers, tugs, yachts, and more. If you have an Android smartphone you can get an app to get real-time information right on your phone.
Cool Gadget: EasyFeet: This week's gadget I found while watching something I recorded a while back. It is not electronic in any way, but it’s definitely a gadget. It's called Easy Feet. It's a brush for cleaning your feet. It's made of plastic and shaped like a shoe. It has suction cups on the bottom and you use these to stick the brush to any smooth area of the bathtub. You then put a little lotion soap or shower gel, or something on the part that cleans the top of your foot. Then, one at a time, you slide each foot into the device. You scrub it back and forth and the brush bristles clean and massage your feet. It's got a pumice stone at the heel to help smooth your heels while you clean. All in all, a pretty cool thing because feet are kind of hard to clean. It runs about $15 for two (buy one, get one free). The website has videos that illustrate the Easy Feet in use.
It's All "Geek" To Me: Operating System: For our term this week, we look at Operating System. Computer software falls into two broad categories: Application Software - hence the word of the year, "app", and System Software. The Operating System is the most basic part of that. It manages all of your computer's hardware. It displays windows on the screen and the mouse pointer, runs applications programs and manages how you work with them. It makes all your devices available like the keyboard, mouse, monitor, hard drives, everything. Windows is an Operating System. Mac has its own Operating System. This term is sometimes abbreviated OS.
Links
Tech Tip Friday's Show Notes RSS Feed:
http://www.daconsult.com/downloads/rss.xml
How to change or select which program starts when you double-click a file in Windows XP at Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307859 (Note that this link should start the Fix-It)
Change or set file associations for Windows 7 or Vista:
http://www.winvistaclub.com/t19.html
How to Change File Associations on a Macintosh:
http://www.fileinfo.com/help/mac-change-program.html
Marine Traffic:
http://www.marinetraffic.com/
EasyFeet:
https://www.buyeasyfeet.com/
Operating System at TechTerms:
http://www.techterms.com/definition/operatingsystem
InfoWorld’s "Evolution of Hard Drives" Slide Show:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/storage/the-evolution-hard-drives-886?source=IFWNLE_nlt_daily_2011-01-08 |
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