Search

This article reviews several computer software designed for searching data files. DtSearch Desktop With Spider is easy to use, even with its wealth of tools. Installation, indexing and search all went off without a hitch. Knownsoft Turbo Searcher tool indexes only by drive, including network drives. It can search for images, videos, music files and other content categories, but default options are limited. Users can manually add other formats to its index. Stata Labs Bloomba Professional is an e-mail tool which imports Outlook data seamlessly. It works as an Outlook replacement. It automatically saves a user's last 20 searches and lets him scroll through their results with a single click. The Professional version syncs with Palm personal digital assistants. Blinkx's keyword function works surprisingly well. Searches are fast and simple, but not especially accurate. Blinkx could make a useful research tool. The program can also perform an old-fashioned keyword search of files in the same locations. With XI Search from XI Technologies, users can search by file name and size or by file extension. Other options let users specify the maximum file size for content indexing, which applies to e-mail attachments as well.

Evaluates several printers. Lexmark's Prin Trio X75; Brother's MFC-4220c; Canon's MultiPass MP730. INSETS: MULTIFUNCITONS AT THE JUNCTION: AS GOOD AS STAND-ALONE DEVICES?;LEXMARK X5150;AS GOOD AS STAND-ALONES?.

Features several personal computer accessories. Mobile connect camera from Veo; Belkin's penlight; Kensington's StudioMouse; Monsoon Audio's ribbon speakers.

Reviews several computer add-ons and accessories to give as gifts. Evaluation of monitors, computer hubs, computer programs and others; Features; Costs of the products, which include the Samsung SyncMaster 171MP monitor, Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical Keyboard and Mouse, and the E-Pen.

Offers advice about building or fixing a Web page. Choosing a host for the Web site; Tips for maintaining a domain; How to adapt JavaScripts to a Web site; Suggestion that using the tips provided, one may successfully maintain a Web site for an indeterminate amount of time. INSETS: A Host of Hosts;Road Map to a Site Upgrade;Your Web Toolbox.

Provides information on a number of computer-related items which may be considered as gifts during the winter holiday season in 2000. Information on the Canon BJC-55 portable printer and other products; Details concerning each item's level of technical complexity.

The article evaluates Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, including the Nuvi 360 from Garmin, the Drive GPS 250 from Pharos and the Blackbird PMD-B00 from Alpine Electronics.

This article discusses preventive-maintenance tips for PC internal and external devices. Few users are as diligent as they should be about backing up system, applications, and data. No backup strategy is 100 percent effective, and most take more time to set up and use than users are willing to spend on them. The very least one can do is to create an image of the hard drive when everything works. That way, when trouble strikes, users merely restore the pristine image, which usually takes less than 45 minutes. Symantec Norton Ghost 9 and Acronis True Image 8 restore Windows XP, Microsoft Office, and an assortment of other applications and utilities in half the time it would take to reinstall Windows, let alone the hours required to reinstall all programs, reload data files manually, and reconfigure system settings to the way one prefers them. The downside: Norton Ghost costs $70 retail, and True Image lists for $50. While saving the image to a second hard drive is far more convenient than placing it on a DVD, it is also more expensive. Incompatibilities between DVD drives and imaging software are common. To make data easier to restore, keep data files on a partition other than the one that holds Windows and applications.

The article provides tips on digital videography. The Service Pack 2 of Windows XP includes the free Movie Maker 2.1 application. The Movie Tasks pane of the program provides a step-by-step process of creating a video. The Premiere Elements of Adobe, a more full-features editing program, offers special effects, titling, and the ability to burn a DVD right from the software, among other features. To move a video from a camcorder to a hard drive, connect the personal computer and camcorder with a FireWire cable, turn the camcorder on, and open the video editing software. The program should recognize the camera automatically. In most video editing programs, the Capture command opens a window containing VCR-like controls for playing, stopping, fast-forwarding, and rewinding. A way to edit a movie is to put the clips into a software's timeline in a preferred order. The timeline shows a movie in frame-by-frame sequence. Once all the clips are displayed on the timeline, select each clip in turn and set the in and out points. Every video editing program allows incorporation of text overlays, titles and credits to a movie. Pictures may be imported from a digital still camera and all them to a movie. INSET: Cinematography 101.

This article evaluates several digital electronic gadgets for automobiles. Most global positioning system devices for cars store their maps on an internal hard drive such as the 5 gigabyte drive in Garmin's StreetPilot 2620 or the 10 gigabyte drive in Thales Navigation's Magellan RoadMate 700. The StreetPilot contains maps and points of interest for all of North America. The RoadMate 700 holds data for the 48 contiguous U.S. states and most Canadian cities. One can obtain a broader view of the road ahead using the 6.5-inch touch screen liquid crystal display that pops out of Pioneer's AVIC-N1 automatically. The device combines a digital video disc-based navigation system with digital video and audio playback and satellite radio. Several MP3 players for cars hold MP3 files on regular desktop or notebook hard drives. Alpine's HDA-5460 in-dash MP3 player contains a removable 16 megabyte hard drive. Another candidate, the PhatNoise Digital Car Audio System, stores recordings on an external hard-drive cartridge that shuttles from the PhatBox player in the trunk of a car to a cradle. The cradle connects the cartridge to the personal computer via a Universal Serial Bus 2.0. One can organize a music collection with the PhatNoise software, and then transfer the recordings to the cartridge.

Offers tips on wireless computer networking. Benefits of wireless networking; Information on the several wireless networking hardware standard developed by the IEEE; Guidelines in buying gadget and equipment for wireless networking; Information on various computer settings needed to complete a wireless setup.

Focuses on suggestions given by the author regarding healthy maintenance of personal computers (PC). Reasons given by the author for limiting the use of 16-bit applications in computer systems; Measures suggested for automation of PC maintenance; Benefits of installing the backup utility feature in PC. INSET: Keep Taps on System Changes With FileWatch.

Provides tips and information in making Windows printing easier. Selection of available from icon and use the controls in setting start to send jobs to printers; Designation of printing time for individual documents in the print queue; Selection of the appropriate icon from the print dialogue box.

Offers tips on how to tailor the computer's Control Panel in any version of Microsoft Windows operating system. Customization options; How to remove icons; How to remove specific tabbed panels from certain Control Panel dialog boxes using Windows' System Policy Editor; How to create one's own Control Panel; How to share a drive or folder on a network with a few people and hide it from everyone else. INSET: Find It Visually With Visual Control Panel.

Offers advice on how to maximize the screen space on a computer monitor during use. Way to switch the resolution of the screen to the highest setting; How to change the appearance of toolbars and tabs; Tips on customizing toolbars within computer programs.

Provides advice on how to turn off the sound on the Microsoft Windows computer operating system automatically. Advice to turn down the volume on speakers; Use of software with a sound-muting utility to prevent sound; Ways to un-mute a computer; Control for sound which can be used through the keyboard.

Provides advice on Microsoft's Windows operating system. How use of the right mouse button can provide quick access to options and save time; File management; How to remap keyboards; Other tips.

Discusses Web sites designed specifically for Internet users with broadband Internet service. Features of the Web sites; Sites which offer news and entertainment, films, art and animation; Media player programs needed to view features on the sites; Advertising on the sites.

Evaluates eight reference CD-ROMs. The CD-ROMs being the 1997 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Complete Bible and Reference Guide, Eyewitness Virtual Reality Cat, Microsoft Encarta 97 World Atlas, Microsoft Cinemania 97, Mindscape Home Office Assistant, and Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition; Includes price and contact point. INSETS: Clean uninstalls (CD-ROM tip);Slipped discs 1 (CD-ROM tip).

The article offers step-by-step instructions that will help protect computer hardware, software, and data from computer viruses. It outlines examples of computer security software, techniques that can be used to protect your data, and how to use the Windows Security Center.

Provides a hands-on evaluation of Adobe Systems' popular designs and desktop publishing programs combined into one Creative Suite (CS). Photoshop CS; GoLive CS; Illustrator CS; InDesign CS.

Reports on the upgrades to Microsoft's Office application software Office FrontPage 2003 and Office Visio 2003 Standard. Advantages offered by Office FrontPage to new users; Applications and compatibility of FrontPage with other systems; Complex jobs in which Visio is used.

Focuses on the Portable Document Format (PDF) software. Functions included in the PDF software; Features of PDF software ; Benefits for computer users from the PDF software.

Discusses how to create a start-up floppy disk for Windows 2000 and XP computer operating systems. Answers to questions about how to add programs to the Send To menu folder, how to close all programs with one click using BK-Soft's Kill Win application, how to restore a deleted .dbx Outlook Express file that was previously archived, and how to transfer Microsoft Outlook settings to a new personal computer.

Discusses how to silence a computer system. How to keep the fans and hard drives quiet; Suggestion for changing the location of one's computer; Answers to questions on the topics of FAT32 conversion to NTFS file system, changing resolution on a LCD monitor, combination cards that provide USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 ports on a single expansion card and use just a single PCI slot.

Gives advice on how use computers. How to create a compact disc (CD) which contains information to re-boot a computer in case of emergencies; Creation of a rescue CD on the computer's setup menu; Need of a CD-R or CD-RW drive and software for adapting the CD, as well as a Microsoft Windows startup disc; Question of how to move an Outlook Express installation to a different computer. INSET: TIME-STAMP YOUR NOTES.

Offers step by step instructions on how to set up a computer network. How to choose the best network; Way to install the network adapter; How to hook up the network and get it running. INSETS: HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST NETWORK FOR YOU;INSTALL THE NETWORK ADAPTER;HOOK UP YOUR NETWORK AND GET IT RUNNING.

Reviews a Web site that offers free card games to users of Yahoo. Description of the card games offered on the site.

The article offers step-by-step instructions for creating a shortcut to paste plain text into Word document.

The article offers information on global positioning system (GPS) devices including the 7100 incar GPS hardware from the company Navigon, the Ask Mobile cell phone service from the company Ask.com, and the Streets & Trips software program from Microsoft Corp. Navigon's 7100 offers text-to-speech conversion of street names. It also provides traffic updates and lists hotels, restaurants, and other travel spots. Ask.com's Ask Mobile offers driving instructions over cell phone. Also mentioned are the difficulties associated with Microsoft's Streets & Trips software program, which include carrying GPS receiver and laptops while travelling.

The article evaluates the Go 720 global positioning system (GPS) from TomTom.

The article reviews several search engines, including www.hakia.com from Hakia, www.vlingo.com from VLingo and www.tafiti.com from Microsoft.

The article evaluates the RoundTable video camera from Microsoft Corp.

The article evaluates the Intellinav 3 GPS navigation device from Netropa.

The article evaluates two global positioning system devices including Nuvi 680 from Garmin and DigiWalker C520 from Mio.

The article evaluates the Guide + Play GPS 500 navigator and portable media player from Harman/Kardon.

The article evaluates the VAIO Micro PC VGN-UX390N notebook computer from Sony.

The article presents information mobile-phone navigation services. These services require a handset with Global Positioning System (GPS), either built into the chip set or through an external GPS transceiver that links to the telephone via Bluetooth or some other method. The primary difference between navigation services on mobile phones and dedicated GPS devices designed for use in automobiles is that phones must pull maps and other data from servers over the carrier's network, while GPS devices store this information locally on a drive or a flash memory card. Many mobile phones use what is called assisted GPS, which combines cell-signal triangulation and GPS to establish location when the user first turn them on, thereby speeding startup.

The article reviews the computer software Flash C53 Professional from Adobe Systems Inc.

The article reviews the computer software Dreamweaver CS3 from Adobe Systems Inc.

The article evaluates the FlipStart E-1001s computer from FlipStart Labs and the 000 Model 02 computer from OQO.

The article reviews the web-design software Expression Web from Microsoft.

The article evaluates the CrossoverGPS, a global position system device from Magellan.

The article reviews the Windows Live Search web service from Microsoft.

The article evaluates the Drive GPS 140 navigation device form Pharos.

The article evaluates two ultramobile personal computers including R2H from Asus and Q1B from Samsung.

The article reviews the 2007 version of the electronic mail program Microsoft Outlook from Microsoft Corp.

The article evaluates two global positioning system (GPS) devices including the DigiWalker H610 from Mio Technology and NAV200 from Delphi.

The article evaluates two computer software from DeLorme and Microsoft and offers information on features, functions and costs.