Technology Tips

 

This is a list of various problems & fixes I have come across that I hope will be useful.
 You will also find some handy programming tips.
Be advised these do not come with warrantee protection and are mostly common sense.
 

Erratic Mouse

Coffee in Keyboard

Virus/Anti-Virus

Latest Computer Virus Information

Hard Disk Woes1
Clean it

Hard Disk Woes2
Power Saver

Email Address Protection
from web SPAM SPIDERS

Javascript Drop Down Menu Selection

CSS Cascading Menu Bar

Fast URL Links using a Form

CSS Scrolling table cells Color Picker

Quartz Halogen lamp [fuse]

Modem Speed Dial
 

More to come
 

Erratic Mouse

Problem: The movement of your mouse on the screen is erratic & you find it hard to position it where you want.
(Note: I have a Logitech mouse but the instructions below should be appropriate for just about all mice. NB: Be extremely careful when cleaning a mouse that has a center scroll wheel. they're delicate.)
Cause:     The inside of the mouse is filthy! (Normally)
Solution:  CLEAN THE MOUSE!
  • Method:   Get some rubbing alcohol, a clean cloth and a number of cotton swabs (Q-tips).
    (It is probably a good idea to do this when the computer is turned off, just in case.)
  •  Turn the mouse upside down & you should see the trackball and a cover that holds it in place which can be turned to release the trackball. Turn the cover thingie (normally counter-clockwise) to release the trackball. Put the holder and trackball to one side for now.
  •  Open the rubbing alcohol and dip one end of a swab into it. Get rid of any excess liquid, you want the swab damp not dripping. With the swab wipe the entire inside of the place where the trackball was. Use more than one swab if required.
  •  When it's clean, look inside & you should see a  number of small wheels. They're what is used to move the trackball. Check EACH of them to make sure they are free of dust & lint. If you see a black line/ridge on a wheel that is usually dirt. If they are not clean the grunge off [I use a fingernail, carefully!] , wipe with alcohol and spin them to ensure they rotate properly. If they don't you have some other problem and you should see a REAL technician.

  •  Be very careful when doing the above with a scroll-mouse. The connections inside are delicate.

  •  Now take the clean cloth and dampen it with the alcohol. Put the trackball in the wet spot and rub it to remove any accumulated grunge. You should see it getting cleaner, hopefully.
  •  Let the mouse & trackball dry for a minute or 2 to let the alcohol dissipate, then insert the trackball into the mouse, put the holding thingie back in place and turn it to lock the ball in place.
  •  If the mouse is STILL erratic there's one more thing to try. Carefully remove the screws that are usually on the bottom of the mouse and separate the two sides. You may find a ton of accumulated grunge inside the mouse body. Gently blow it out & verify, while you have it apart, that there's not any junk left on the various rollers. Put the mouse back together & replace the screws.

    NOW - The mouse should work a LOT BETTER. If it doesn't, at least it's clean for the technician to look at.

Color Picker
Color Picker

Click a color and it's hexadecimal value will be shown below.
 
To get the code for the above table and the JS to run it click on "Highlight All".
Then copy/paste it to your page.
You will also need the color map gif. Copy it to wherever you put your images.
Instructions/code courtesy of Javascript Source
    


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Javascript Drop Down Menu URL Selection


Click on "Highlight All" to copy/past code to your application.


Javascript Menu Dropdown selection
This is a slightly different, more efficient method. All links open in a new window.

Check World Weather

 

Click on "Highlight All" to copy/past code to your application.
Change form name/urls to your needs. First option field should be the name of the menu with no url.


 

Replace Image links with fast form links that everyone can use!

In the table below replace "link" with the URL you want others to go to. This may be your homepage, a friend's page, or a famous website you want people to visit. It doesn't matter!
The button text can be as simple as "Click here" or as descriptive as "Press Now to go to mysite.com". You can do this by changing "text" with any word or phrase you wish to type that you think will invite others to click on the button.
It's your choice, experiment with it! The buttons below are for example only.


To get the code click on "Highlight All" below to select the whole table.
Then copy/paste it to the application you want to add the code to.
Change the value 'link' to the url you want.
    


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CSS Cascading menu bar

Home Web Calendar Third Button As Many more buttons as you need

Use this feature to include menu buttons anywhere on your site. The CSS code can be placed in a common CSS file in your root directory and then linked to each page where it is used with the code line:
 < link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../mystyle.css" >
which is inserted before the </head> tag. Linking in common css code makes your individual web pages smaller.
To get the code click on "Highlight All" below to select all data
The code for the buttons follows the stylesheet in the Highlight All area.
Then copy/paste it to the application you want to add the code to. Modify at will!
    


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The code below will create a scrolling cell in a table CSS Style for inserting a scrollbar in a cell/table 

The stylesheet goes either in the HEAD section of your page or in a CSS library. The height of the scroll area is adjustable.

< style type="text/css" > #scrollDiv{ height:200px; overflow:auto; } < /style >

The code snippet below will insert a scrolling cell in a table using the css function:

 < td > < div id="scrollDiv"> a bunch of text......< /div > < /td > 

scrollbars will appear as needed. Every modern browser will get it right. Earlier Mozilla/Netscape creates the scroll cell but it must be scrolled manually using the slider bar. Adjust height as desired.

NB: Remove the extra spaces in the above examples before/after the < > characters that were added for display purposes.

 

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Coffee in the Keyboard:

REMEMBER:
This is only after you have decided to replace the keyboard anyway.

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Virus/Anti-Virus

Here are some things to do and NOT to do. 
The "DO NOT" list should come first because it hurt the most:
  1. If you are running any type of virus software in your system, Never, but NEVER go into the BIOS setup and enable the BIOS virus checking on startup feature that are on most chips.  The result, as I found out, was that EACH virus checker (bios&installed) thought the other was a "virus" & almost brought the system to a standstill   until I turned off that !@#$% BIOS virus checker.
  2. Repeated AGAIN altho you've probably seen it before:
    a) Diskettes from anywhere other than YOUR SYSTEM should be scanned before you run any program on them.
    b) Files downloaded from the Web should also be scanned, regardless of file type.
    c) **NEW** Apparently it is possible to receive virus infected files "attached" to email which means if you run the attached EXE or ZIP file, you're system is toast (maybe).
    I guess a good rule of thumb would be only run an attached exe if you know well the person that sent it to you. I'd be quite suspicious of an EXE attached to a spam. You can always save the attachment as a file and then scan it before running it and even then(????).
    BTW: Most good anti-virus software scans e-mail automatically as part of the package.
The DO list is quite short:
  1. If you don't have an anti-virus program, GET ONE!!
    I am currently using Norton and recommend it for being an efficient, well-mannered anti-virus system. Be prepared for frequent alerts that 'Virus updates are required and should you do it now?'.  You could say 'No', but that would be just like shooting yourself in the foot. 
  2. a) When you install your A/V software make a system boot disk AND a recovery disk for the A/V software.
    NOTE: If and when you choose to make your backup/recovery diskette(s) make certain you have at least a couple of boxes of diskette(s). With more virus' out there Recovery disk sets only get bigger.
    b) Although it's a bit of a chore, maybe, do the same thing EVERY TIME you receive an update to your A/V software. There will come a time when you'll be happy you did. (may it be a loong time away, preferably never)
    I generally try to do it at least once a month. I know it 'should' be done for each update but it does eat away time from doing stuff like this.
  3. Re-read the DON'T list, -:)

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Modem Speed Dial

[a bit obsolete now but still works]

Win95 & Win98 provide a way to quicken the pace at which your dial-up connection calls go through.
Click on Start/Settings/Control Panel, double-click the Modem icon, highlight your modem's entry in the box at the top of the window.
Next click Properties/Advanced. In the Extra Settings box type S11=50. To save the new setting, click on OK.
NOTE: If  your Extra Settings box already contains data put this setting at the end of the data and precede it with a space. (Worked for me.)
The above makes the modem act as a speed dialer and seems to make the whole connection process a lot faster. I have not tried playing with adjusting S11 to a value other than 50.
On testing with a slow computer (75mhz) that was trying to use Bell's Internet Call Answer system unsuccessfully, I found this addition actually allowed the user to answer the phone while on the net.  Not easily, as there are still MANY bugs in the Bell application but it's a step in the right direction.
Credit to: Practical Windows magazine #45 July/99, P.61. An EXCELLENT magazine for DOS/Windows 95/98 users. (SADLY - This magazine has stopped publishing due to the economic climate!)

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Hard Disk Woes 1
Keep It Clean !

Ever see the message "Error Writing to drive C:\", or on startup "Hard Disk Failure" ??
Well - I have & it scared the pants off of me with visions of data loss & mega-repair bills! As it turned out - I WAS LUCKY, YOU MAY NOT BE.
Being a 'normal computer user' I clean the outside of my computer & the vents now now and then but that's as far as it went. When I saw the above error messages I did the usual checks, testing for virus', boot from DOS startup & look at the HD to see if any obvious problems, none of which were helpful. So I called the computer doctor & disconnected the system to take to the hospital. Then noticed that ALL vents on back of system covered with dust. Vacuumed that & removed cover to check inside. WELL ! Every possible orifice that could admit air to the computer's power supply, HD's, etc. were totally clogged with dust. Vacuumed entire inside of system & powered up again with cover off to let system fan blow away any missed dust. Lo & behold: The computer works again!!  I lost a few sectors of the HD but thankfully no data. WHEW!!

How to avoid the above:
  1. Keep the computer in a 'clean room' with  no chance of dust getting to it. (ya - right!)
  2. Install it on the top of your desk or somewhere at  least 3-4 feet above the floor.
  3. Install it in some kind of cabinet (ventilated with filters).
In any case about every 3-6 months (Depending on how dusty your work area is) you should disconnect everything from the system, remove the cover and vacuum everything.
NOTE:
Cleaning the computer with a standard vacuum cleaner can be risky as there is a chance of that culprit "STATIC!", which can screw up the system faster than dust. Make sure ALL connections to the computer peripherals are removed and the vacuum is grounded.
Either that or - don't take a chance & let a technician do it properly - BUT DO IT !!
A Word on Removing and Re-Connecting Peripherals:
If you are NOT a computer techie and most of us aren't, then, BEFORE DISCONNECTING ANYTHING from the back of your computer make a small diagram of the back of the computer noting where all the various connection plugs are located. (You can usually find an example of the plug layout in the manual you got with the computer - You DID keep it didn't you?) Next mark the name of each cable plugged into the back of the computer on the diagram along with the particular plug/slot/hole that it is currently connected to. This can save a lot of time and a lot less @#$%^ when you are attempting to re-connect all those various cables that must have gone somewhere on the computer but you'll be dammed if you can see just which one goes where. Trust me on dis one, I been dere.

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Hard Disk Woes 2
Power Saver

My hard disk/system was complaining! On system boot it would constantly tell me there were problems with shutdown and insist on running the automatic Scandisk and (usually) physical scan of the drives. After verifying that problem #1 was not the culprit I was at a loss to determine what/where the problem originated. After determining it was not a virus (as far as I know) and running various disk utilities I then by ACCIDENT one day decided to disable the power saver system for my monitor because I was trying to run some software and wanted it to be always on.
On looking at it's parameters I noted that there was a second option I had never paid attention to and that was to SHUT DOWN the disk drives after a certain period of inactivity. I immediately reset this parameter to SHUTDOWN=NEVER and all of a sudden my disk problems went away! I am currently hoping that the above was the ONLY reason for these problems but as they have not re-occurred, whew! If you have the same type of problem this may help you, or may not.....all systems being different.
Above tip related to Windows 98

Email Address Protection

There IS a way to protect your email address from being 'harvested' by web SPAM SPIDERS!

You put your email address on your website so people can contact you or your clients and you/they wind up getting TONS of spam or 'junk emails'.

Your standard email address link probably looks similar to this:
                    <a href="mailto:emailme@mydomain.com">Email me for Information</a>

A SPAM SPIDER trolls the net looking for words like 'mailto' and '@' and adds them to it's list of potential victims.

Fix this with a simple section of Javascript that disguises the things the spider looks for.
Just 'Highlight All' and copy/paste to your application.

When you use this change the parameters!
showlink - to the text you want to be displayed on the page
subject - subject of the email. Spaces MUST be shown as in the example or subject will not display
showname - to your email name
site - to your domain name.

The above Javascript can be embedded in the text of a sentence or put into a table. You can set the FONT display of the text to be shown by highlighting the JS applet and selecting the font/size you want. It must be duplicated for each time you want to disguise an email address. There may be a way to make it 'common code' in a javascript library by making it a 'function' but I haven't figgered it out yet 
(Please let me know how2 if you know how2 at email address below).
*  Note that the '@' character is disguised as "&#64" which is it's HTML equivalent and further disguises the address.

GOOD LUCK & HELP OBLITERATE THE SPAM!

Quartz-Halogen Lamp Problem:

 You own a lamp similar to the one on the left and the bulb seems to have burnt out. You buy another one and it doesn't work either dammit. Don't throw the lamp out!
First: unplug the lamp!, remove the screws holding the bottom of the lamp in place and check the transformer and the area around it. Chances are you will find a fuse holder with a burnt out fuse.

 [ Please note - a fuse will probably not be mentioned in the literature you received when you purchased the lamp ] 

I determined the fuse was a 5.0 Amp Slow-Blow which I purchased at a Radio Shack location. Any electronic supply store will have them. My lamp is rated for max 50W.

Works fine now. I now have a spare bulb and fuse since the original bulb had not burned out, just the fuse. I wonder how many lamps have been thrown out though  -:)

Let me know if you like these Tips: [email link made with tip from above]

More tips to follow as the need arises!

Some Tip(s) courtesy of Bravenet    [A new window will open if you select Bravenet]

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