From: newsletter-bounces@thepcgurus.com on behalf of Kevin-PC Gurus
[microdome@seidata.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 11:01 PM
To: jpdurbin@jpdurbin.net
Cc: PC Gurus Newsletter
Subject: GuruNews, Volume 8 Number 13, 4-3-08
Attachments: ATT00004.txt
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Vol. 8, No. 13
4-3-08
1 Temporary Internet Files
2 Can you make more cache?
3 Apple sues NYC, online info, HD-DVD, avoid big box stores
4 Custom cursors, Hazard Shield note
5 Email safety
Every Web page you visit is downloaded completely to your hard drive first. This process is what is referred to as the web cache (in this case pronounced “cash”) or Temporary Internet Files.
By the way, off topic completely, any reference to computers that involves memory, like Level 1 or Level 2 Cache, is pronounced “cash”, not “ca-sha”. That pronunciation is French and refers to a seal on a letter, and it is actually spelled “cachet”. Or it could be “cachê”, which means a certain attitude or zest for life. Just a pet peeve I wanted to get out of the way :)
Anyway, this allows previously visited web pages to load faster because a lot of the graphics files already exist locally. This is an old practice that hasn’t changed much over the years, although it’s implemented a little differently now.
Modern operating systems limit the size of the cache so it doesn’t eat up the hard drive, and it’s easy to clean out using Disk Cleanup or Internet Options. The same goes for the Temp folder, which contains files you’ve previewed locally, files you’ve uncompressed or files needed for programs you’ve installed from compressed installer files.
This has an unforeseen consequence however. If you listen to streaming audio or watch videos at sites like YouTube it means those songs or videos are on your hard drive.
YouTube doesn’t have an option to save a file but if you run across something you’d like to save, you already have it. The trick is finding it.
First you need to determine what type of file it is. For video files just right click on the clip while it’s playing. If you get a short menu that mentions Flash information then it’s played with the Adobe Flash plug-in. If you get a longer menu with a Properties option at the bottom click that and you should see the entire URL of the file, including the three-character extension. In the case of video it will likely be .mpg, .avi or .mov. Windows Media Player will open the first two, Apple Quicktime the third.
Audio is almost always .mp3, but you can right click on the link for the stream to check. On rare occasions it might be .wav.
Once you know the target, you’ll need to find it. After you’ve played the stream you want to save click on Tools and Internet Options in the text menu at the top of Internet Explorer. If you use IE7 and don’t have that menu click the Alt key to toggle it on.
In IE7 on the General tab click the Settings button in the Browsing history section, then View files. In IE6 the Settings button is in the Temporary Internet files section. On both you can click the category titles at the top of the lists to sort by that value.
The Last Modified or Last Accessed fields will sort by date and time. Click the title again to switch between oldest and newest sort order. The Type Category will sort by type, obviously, and list all like types together. This category presents a problem however. Some streams don’t maintain the type extension and will be listed simply as File.
The file name itself is often nonsense, along the lines if 1b911d6b894888z1a1339kkls56. This isn’t much of a problem if you sort by Last Accessed. Just glance at the time when you start playing the file and you know the date and time to look for.
Size wise audio files are typically a few thousand KB. Video files can vary wildly in size though, depending on length. A short clip may be a few thousand KB, a full episode of something may be several hundred thousand.
Once you find what you’re looking for, right click on it and choose copy. Close out of everything except IE, minimize that and open the folder you want to use to store the file. I suggest making a new folder on the C: drive called Test, to make sure you have what you think before moving it to a permanent location. Once you get the folder open click Edit and Paste. The file will drop into that folder.
Right click on the file and choose Rename, and then give it a name that makes sense, along with the proper extension. Then try to play it. If it plays you’re good to go, if not you may have grabbed the wrong thing.
If you don’t have a player for .mov files get Quicktime from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/. Choose the free one with or without iTunes. For Flash files (.flv) you can get a free codec for WiMP from http://www.k-litecodecpack.com/. Get the basic codec pack, it’s free and has everything you need.
Once you’ve done this a few times you’ll get the hang of it.
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
Apple Inc whips out the lawyers yet again, this time going after the Big Apple for trademark infringement:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2008/04/apple_vs_apple
Pew Research polls Internet users on what information they post online. Most surprisingly feel comfortable with it. Prepare for the rude awakening:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/663/digital-footprints
HD-DVD is not dead; it’s just gone on to useless novelty:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/betamaxhd.html?cpg=70H
When having electronics installed in your car, you might want to go to a professional:
Matthew Dattilo
thepcgurus@gmail.com
www.mattstodayinhistory.com
Download of the Week
Don't like the cursors that
ship with Windows? Then create some of your own. It's a lot easier to do than
you might think, with this free program. It will let you create and then use
static cursors or animated cursors. You can edit your existing cursors, or
create new ones from scratch. Especially useful is that you can also take any
image, import it into the program, and the program then creates a cursor from
it (like the UL Cardinal).
The program includes all the
tools you'll need, and has several useful tutorials to help you get started. It
even has links to an online cursor library where you can download free icons or
complete icon sets that you can use as is, or else edit. It's free here: http://www.rw-designer.com/cursor-maker .
*SPECIAL NOTE: Three weeks ago we featured Hazard Shield as
an additional tool to add to your spyware/malware protection arsenal. The "RealTime" monitoring feature
has created some problems for a few of our readers and has annoyed me a bit,
too. I will continue to use it, but I'd
recommend that you folks uninstall it until the geeks at Orbitech improve that
feature. If the "uninstall"
feature doesn't work for you, you can get a stand-alone uninstaller (thanks
Mary) from the creators here: http://www.orbitech.org/files/unin.zip
Art Maley
Email Question of the Week
Q: I came accross this information.
Will this help me protect my email.
Do you need to add or take awaything from this information?
Thanks,
”Subject: FORWARDING MAIL TIPS
LET US ALL SEND CLEAN EMAIL
HOW TO FORWARD E-MAIL APPROPRIATELY
IMPORTANT!!!
A computer expert received the following directly from a
system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that
ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails. Please read the short
letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures..
Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of u s do; 50% DO NOT.
Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?
Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the
people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses &
names.
As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and
builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus,
and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that has
come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and
sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the
site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that
inconvenience over a nickel!
How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:
(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that
appear in the body of the message (at the top ). That's right, DELETE them.
Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you
know how to do. It only takes a second You MUST click the 'Forward' button
first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and
headers of the message. If you don't click on 'Forward' first ,you won't be
able to edit the message at all.
(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To:
or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses. Always use the BCC : (blind
carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the
people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see
your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will
appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy.
When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say 'Undisclosed
Recipients' in the 'TO:'field of the people who receive it. (I click on
CC
and Bcc appears!)
(3)Remove any 'FW :' in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you
wish or even fix spelling.
(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading.
Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page
with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish
someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see
what you sent.
(5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position
and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15
people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and
can collect thousands of names and email addresses.
A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a
professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email
addresses contained therein.
If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to
the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal
letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition.
(Actually, if you think about it, who's supposed to send the petition in to
whatever cause it supports? And don't believe the ones that say that the
email is being traced, it just ain't so!)
(6) One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say that something like,
Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your
screen.' Or, sometimes they'll just tease you by saying something really
cute will happen IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me, I'm still seeing some
of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I don't let the bad luck
ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could be why I haven't won the
lottery??)
(7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the
other ones floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them.
Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for Years! Just
about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked
out at Snopes. Just go to http://www.snopes.com/
Its really easy to find out if it's real or not.
If it's not, please don't
pass it on.
So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.
Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my
address off first, please). This is something that SHOULD be forwarded.”
A: Whoever sent that should get a medal.
As the sender said, this is one
of the few messages that you should actually forward to multiple friends.
I would save that email and
send it to anyone who sends you a message in
the future that lists hundreds of email addresses or contains nested
attached email messages, which usually are just hoaxes that have been around
for years or jokes you've seen a thousand times already.
Tell the sender that I say
KUDOS!
Kevin Mefford
Contact
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