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THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
What's that hard drive doing?
Dear TechnoFiles:
I have a Dell Dimension
desktop with DSL serv
ice. It sounds like my
hard drive is running all
the time, even when I’m
not working on the com
puter. Do I have a virus or
an evil spirit living in it?
Is there any way to tell
what my computer is
doing when I’m not
around? Possessed
Dear Possessed:
There are a number of rea
sons why your computer is
acting like it’s possessed
when you’re not at the key
board. Reasons range from
an automatic process con
trolled by Windows, such as
adjusting the size of your vir
tual memory, to a malicious
spyware program uploading
your data to who-knows
where. Fortunately, there is a
relatively painless way to
find out what is running
when, and who might be
talking to your computer
over the Internet when
you’re not around.
If you’re using Windows
XR you can begin your
search by clicking Start then
Run. Type in “cmd” (without
quotes) and click OK. Then,
at the command prompt,
type in “netstat -no” (again
without quotes). You’ll get a
list of all active network con
nections, along with any
process identifier (PID) of
any programs that are run
ning on your computer.
Network connections you are
not familiar with may indi
cate your system is being
accessed without your con
sent. This can usually be
taken care of with your anti
virus or anti-spyware pro-
LETTERS
From page 4A
Zell is a traitor
Editor:
Larry Walker’s review of Zell Miller’s new
book entitled “A Deficit of Decency” is excel
lent. As a Yankee bom in Boston and a
Kennedy Democrat who has lived in the
South too long, there is very little that I like
about Zig Zag Zell. To me, he is a traitor to
the Democratic Party who has sold his soul
to the Republicans, who usually only care
about our very rich. Zell has forgotten about
FDR, Harry Truman, LBJ and John F.
Kennedy, and the social safety net for our
less fortunate.
Zell has become a religious wacko and
zealot who has left behind those of us in the
Democrat party. Make no mistake about it,
Zell Miller is a Democrat in name only. He
loves GWB and the war in Iraq, huge finan
cial deficits, foreign trade imbalances and
high unemployment, and tax breaks for our
Senate takes steps to help lower gas prices
By SEN. JOHNNY ISAKSON
HHJ Guest columnist
As Georgia citizens and
small businesses continue to
struggle with skyrocketing
prices at the gas pump and in
their monthly utility bills,
the U.S. Senate is taking
steps to help with the recent
passage of an Energy Bill
that will reduce our nation’s
dependence on foreign oil.
The United States imports
roughly 59.5 percent of our
nation’s oil from nations
such as Canada, Venezuela
and Saudi Arabia. With
recent unrest in some of the
regions that produce oil and
as other global superpowers
take steps to comer the glob
al market on supply, it has
never been clearer that we
must reduce our dependence
on foreign oil if we want to
have a stable and dependable
access to affordable energy.
America’s prosperity and
national security are at
stake.
The Senate has now passed
an Energy Bill that takes a
multi-faceted approach to
reduce foreign oil depend
ence. It includes increased
conservation of energy,
increased use of renewable
and other energy sources and
increased exploration for
domestic energy sources. As
a result, we should see the
demand for foreign con
sumption decrease as
America consumes less,
increases the use of alterna
tive energy sources and
Jason and Tina Ashford
TechnoFiles
technofiles2oo3@yahoo.com
grams (we’ll discuss that
later).
Next, press
< Ctrl > + < Alt > + < Del >
then click Task Manager.
Choose the Processes tab. If
you do not see the PID col
umn, click on View then
Select Columns. Then check
PID and you’ll see what pro
grams are running on your
computer.
Most of these programs
will no doubt look unfamiliar
to you. Of these, most will
probably be legitimate tasks
being performed by
Windows. To learn more
about these tasks, use the
Win Tasks Process Library at
www.liutilities.com/prod
ucts/wintaskspro/processli-
brary/. Another way to find
out exactly what a program
is and what it’s doing, try
typing its PID in at
Google.com.
If you find some programs
running that are not a part
of Windows and you know
that you’re not using them,
you can usually eradicate
them by making sure you are
using the latest definitions
for your anti-virus software.
richest.
The only thing that I like about Zell is
that he likes and admires two of my favorite
American icons and heroes, Bill and Hillary
Clinton! And that he believes that Hillary
will be our next president!
Frank W. Gadbois
Warner Robins
Kudos for the HHJ
Editor:
Congratulations on the recently accorded
honors given to The Houston Home Journal
by the Georgia Press Association. You and
your staff are to be commended for your
efforts to produce a quality newspaper for
all of Houston County.
Jim Worrall
Perry
increases domestic produc
tion opportunities.
The bill also contains effi
ciency measures to conserve
30 percent more energy.
Efficiency is a cornerstone of
any good energy policy
because common sense says
that if we want to lower ener
gy prices, we must lower
demand as well. Part of low
ering demand is conserving
energy. To do that, this legis
lation has created new effi
ciency standards that we
estimate will help us cut the
growth in energy demand
between 10 percent and 40
percent in the next few
years. The legislation also
modernizes and expands the
nation’s electricity grid, and
it encourages the design and
deployment of advanced
nuclear technologies, clean
coal technologies and hydro
gen technologies aimed at
moving America away from
its dependence on foreign oil.
These savings on their own
are considerable. However,
when you combine them
with the increased produc
tion of energies from wind,
solar, geothermal, nuclear,
clean coal, biomass and natu
ral gas as well as with the
ethanol and hydrogen fuel
savings provisions contained
in the bill, the anticipated
cuts in our dependence on
foreign oil sources are signif
icant.
American can no longer
afford to rely predominantly
on foreign energy sources.
The Senate Energy Bill
If you have spyware and
adware problems, there are
specific programs available
that seek out and destroy
these menaces. My favorite
such program is Spy Sweeper,
which is available at (you
guessed it) www.spysweep
er.com. Spy Sweeper is free to
try, and will remove all traces
of spy and ad ware without
you having to pay a dime.
Finally, you might want to
consider obtaining some util
ities software suites that
optimizes Windows for you.
These suites include pro
grams that tweak Windows
to obtain optimum perform
ance, one of which helps you
set a permanent value for
virtual memory, which will
decrease the “disk thrash
ing” you might be hearing
when your computer’s idle.
Others will remove some of
the unnecessary processes
Windows runs (and there are
quite a few!) A few titles to
look into include Advanced
System Optimizer from
Sys Tweak, Norton
System Works 2005 from
Symantec, and System
Mechanic 5 from 1010
ensures that we will continue
to reduce our consumption of
foreign oil. I congratulate my
Republican and Democrat
colleagues for their commit
ment to crafting a bipartisan
bill that makes a real differ
ence in America’s energy
landscape.
Isakson represents Georgia
in the United States Senate.
Mark A. Stevens
President /CEO
New Southern Bank & NSB Holdings, Inc,
INTRODUCING
Our Warner Robins
Community
Board of Directors
It just makes good sense to bank with the people you know and trust
people like you who are invested in the success of our community.
New Southern Bank represents community banking at its finest.
Come see us.
464 S. Houston Lake Road • Warner Robins
478/953-6828 fdk
OP-ED
Technologies. - Tina
Dear TechnoFiles:
I want to burn come
music CDs but all I have
are MP3s. How do I make
them play in my regular
CD Player? I know
Windows Media Player 10
says it will burn CDs but
I’m not sure if that’s the
best program for burn
ing. I’d also like to make
sure they are all the same
volume if that’s possible.
Your thoughts? - Tim C
Dear Tim:
In the days of old, which in
the computer business
means a few years ago or
less, burning CDs was a labo
rious process. First you had
to get the music files, which
were usually MP3s. Then
you had to have a program to
convert them into files that
can be read by a regular CD
Contact Martha Holder 892-4024
or Kay Watson 892-4027 in
the Hawkinsville office
for details.
Interest compounded quarterly. A withdrawal of interest will reduce earnings. The
minimum deposit to open an account and obtain the APY is SIO,OOO. Penalty
imposed for early withdrawals. Rate is subject to change. Limited time offer. Not
available for IRA’s. Other restrictions may apply.
planters
Ej fl t’CL t Hawkinsville, GA 31036
811 9 m member f.d.i.c.
mm
I
Ray Durham
City Executive
NSB Warner Robins
player (MP3 player which
can read the files natively
were unknown then). Then
you had to have a program to
normalize the volumes of all
the files and finally a sepa
rate program. Well no longer.
Now there are several pro
grams that do everything so
that the hardest thing to is
decide on the music.
I like Windows Media
Player 10 for several reasons,
not the least of which
because it’s free. I like free.
Just click normalize under
options, create your music
library by having it search
your computer for all music
files and right click on the
files to add then to your burn
list. Remember that you will
only be able to add about 80
minutes to a normal CD,
unlike an MP3 disk, which
can hold far greater amounts
F:\JI
p iH
Thomas J. McMichael
Chairman, NSB Warner Robins
Retired Banker, HoCo Bd of Comm.
B
EH
Roy McNeal
Real Estate Developer
if * ran |
Ink.
Pat Bartness
President /CEO
Museum of Aviation
W I*^ll
HE
Dr. Don Spillers
Local Orthodontist
N^4^them
The bank you always, wanted
www.newsouthernliavik.com
—
SATURDAY, JULY 9, 2005 ♦
of music thanks to the
greater compression of the
MP3 format. Once you’ve
selected your 18 songs or so,
the choose “bum” on the top
menu, and Windows Media
Player will normalize the vol
umes of all the songs to make
then all the same, and bum
your CD. Several other pro
grams are available that do
the same thing, like Nero
and Creative Media, but I
like free better, as long as it
works. - Jason
Jason and Tina Ashford
teach information technology
at Macon State College. Send
your computer-related ques
tions to
technofi.les2oo3@yahoo.com.
Jason and Tina are unable to
provide personal responses to
questions, but will try to
answer all questions possible
in their weekly column.
k • i
William A. Fickling, 111
President
Mulberry 9t. Investment Co.
NealLTalton
Dairy Farmer
Real Estate Developer
5A
Wk /'4wßl s
Glynn Greenway
Greenway
Insurance Agency
Larry Thomson
HoCo Bd of Comm. &
other public service positions