Voice of experience
Letters to the Editor
Ted Gibbons | Wednesday, July 29 2009Voice of experience
As a 90-yera-old-plus reader, I can’t resist supporting John Wightman’s letter from June. My first computer was a Commodore 64, and I’m now on to a Toshiba Satellite running Windows XP.
I’ve used my computers for information, communication with a large number of offspring, medical research and mental exercises. As a trustee of a rest home, I’ve introduced computers, plus a tutor, to residents, some of whom have learnt enough to keep in touch with far-flung family.
I get a sly delight in sorting out computer problems for mates who are twenty years younger. I’m inclined to believe those who see computers as a tool to stave off Alzheimer’s and dementia. I’ve been reading your journal for yonks – used to understand most of it, now about 10% – but I’m still subscribing.
Graham Milne, Takaka
PC PhoneHome not what it seems?
PC PhoneHome (PCPH) is supposed to send “stealth” messages whenever your computer is online, so, if it’s stolen, Brigadoon Software can help police retrieve it.
I bought PCPH in February. The “stealth” message was not as advertised. The instructions show how a sample email gives IP information. In mine, this IP was “0.0.0.0” and the service was “LOCAL SERVICE”, not changing when I was on an out-of-town network.
Support requests received no reply from Brigadoon for two months. In May I wrote to Brigadoon’s Tim Albright. Scathingly, he said I should read their installation notes more carefully. His attached copy supported my understanding and contradicted him, and subsequently he contradicted himself. Brigadoon technical support ignored my request to show they could determine the network used when my computer was out-of-town, and I have heard nothing further since 14 May 2009. This rings SCAM alarm bells, so I have complained to the US Federal Trade Commission. Google “PC PhoneHome” for disquieting reports.
Peter Dodwell, Wellington
Depression will kill progress
In your article “The Next Twenty Years” in the June issue, you may not be taking into account one important factor. That is, a prolonged world economic depression would mean that tech sales would fall, and companies would cut back on R&D staff, because they weren’t generating the money to pay them. It is sad, but I believe the advent of new technology is not going to meet your expectations.
Stephen Conn, Nelson
Dual boot solution
I loaded Windows 7 off the June ’09 DVD to a blank partition to allow for dual booting with Windows XP. However, I was unable to get the computer to boot between the Windows 7 and an earlier version of Windows. Your Press F1 forum was brilliant and the solution was to plug in a PS2 keyboard and mouse, go to BIOS and enable the USB keyboard and mouse. This may be done by the vendor when buying a new computer, but, if not, it’s an option if there is a problem with dual booting.
Mike Sexton, via email
Connected
This is a belated thanks to Zack Stern, for his “Connect two or more PCs anywhere, anytime” article in the May issue.
I had been tearing my hair out trying to resolve a networking problem between my desktop and laptop – five minutes after reading Zack’s article the problem was solved and I was sharing files with ease. Many thanks for an article even an old non-geek like me can understand!
Ian Pears, Waikanae
Sorting thumbnails
I have been having difficulty on my Windows XP machine with image thumbnails. Thumbnails loaded slowly and sometimes were not related to the actual image – very frustrating. Initially, I thought this was down to the fact that I had so many images in each folder, but I have since found two tips I would like to share.
Firstly, problem thumbnails are quite common and are caused by corrupted thumbs.db files. The thumbnail image can be refreshed by right-clicking on the thumbnail and selecting Refresh Thumbnail – but this is still tiresome as you must refresh each individual image.
Instead, I have found that if I turn off the caching of thumbnails in the folder, the thumbnails are all ok again, and, more importantly, they load up and display a lot quicker. This option is available under Explore•Tools•Folder Options•View – check Do not cache thumbnails and it’s done!
Ian Phillips, Orewa
Ian wins a copy of Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 for letter of the month.
Speed bump
I live in Remuera, Auckland and am a customer of WorldxChange [Xnet]. I helped my next door neighbour get broadband set up at his place with Telecom, and I noticed that he got a download speed over 7Mbits/s, which I don’t. I get somewhere in the region of 1.9 to 3.6Mbits/s depending on the time of day.
I recently checked my router and found that it was connecting at 7.6MBits/s, so I called the Xnet help desk to ask what was up.
Apparently, as I have the River package, which is, as they put it, FLS down/128kbps up, and not the Flood package which is FLS Down/FLS up, I don’t get the full speed. The help desk technician advised me that as I was only on the River plan, the FLS down was not as fast as the FLS down of the Flood plan.
I’ve read the Xnet online page carefully (tinyurl.com/438rwe) and there is no reference in any small print, or any asterisks highlighting differences between the two plans anywhere.
I suggested that that this page was deceptive. I was advised that it wasn’t as it was common knowledge.
Frankly, to any lay person reading the page it clearly suggests that the only difference between the River and Flood packages is the upload speed. That’s why I took the River package, I don’t need a fast upload speed as I very rarely send anything.
Bill Ramsay, Auckland
WorldxChange Technical Response Centre Manager, Cameron Nicholson replies:
Dear Mr Ramsay,
Point taken, I will push for more visibility of this limitation and clarification of line speed as it is not just the synch speed seen in your modem.
Looking at Telecom’s website they even state, on plans that have an upload speed limit of 128Kkbps, the download speed will be limited to a maximum of 4Mbits/s. This is the case for any internet service provider offering these types of plans (tinyurl.com/maap9e).
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