VALUE HAS A VALUE IF ITS VALUE IS VALUED

MAGIC #1Nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON".This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable. ..At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE "CON" FOLDER

MAGIC #2This is something pretty cool and neat...and unbelievable. ..At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!Try it out yourself...Open Microsoft Word and type=rand (200, 99)and then press ENTER

MAGIC #3 For those of you using Windows, do the following:1. Open an empty notepad file2. Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)3. Save it as whatever you want.4. Close it, and re-open it.is it just a really weird bug?You can try the same thing above with another sentence "this app can break

#10) BBC News
As much as American News gives us the most drama and the most compelling imagery, it is not the most objective point of view. Of the many different international news choices available today, the British Broadcasting Corporation has earned the title of the most objective and the most expansive journalism of international reporting. If you want to see more than one point of view of the War in Iraq, the Avian Flu epidemic, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Real Space Race, then the BBC is your news site.

Visit the BBC here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

#9) Lifehacker
"Computers make us more productive. Yeah, right. Lifehacker recommends the downloads, web sites and shortcuts that actually save time. Don't live to geek; geek to live!"

Yes, webbies... Lifehacker is an online community dedicated to 21st Century thinking people. Here is where you get digital knowledge and life knowledge, all in one place!

Visit Lifehacker here:
http://www.lifehacker.com

#8) Merriam Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus

At M-W, you can figure out what that strange word online really means. You can look up thesaurus synonyms to devise a better job application letter. Students and writers can even download toolbars and other to help improve the professionalism of your writing.

In this digital age, your ability to communicate with written English is paramount. And M-W.com is the perfect resource to improve your English now.

Visit Merriam-Webster here: http://www.m-w.com/

#7) Online Conversion of Any Measurement

Can't figure out how many ounces is 750 mL? How many meters is a 40-yard dash? How tall is someone who is 192cm?

Get your online converting done here: http://www.onlineconversion.com

#6) How Stuff Works.

This web site is glorious! See how breast implants are made. Learn how a hurricane really forms. See how a Mazda rotary engine functions, and how bulletproof armor deflects bullets. I wish I had teachers that were as clear and vivid as this web site!

Visit the site here:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/

#5) Homefair: Resources for Moving, Career, and Raising Your Family.

Are you thinking about renting or buying your next house? Should you move to Nevada or Ontario? Is your daughter's university town a safe city to live in? How much should you be earning for your current level of education and experience?

Homefair.com answers all of these questions and more. A very useful combination of research tables, statistical trends, and international surveys to help you plan your next big step in life.

Visit the site here: http://www.homefair.com

#4) Epinions: Consumer Reviews by Regular People.

Epinions.com is wonderful. This is the smartest and easiest way to do your shopping homework on your next digital camera, your next plasma TV, your next MP3 player, your next dog food purchase, your next car and your next washing machine investment.

Real people making real comments on real purchases. This is a truly valuable resource for the smart consumer.

Visit the site here: http://www.epinions.com/


#3) PCwebopedia

PCwebopedia is a must for anyone who wants to understand the computer world. This online glossary of computer terms is also a fantastic encylopedia for beginners.

At PCwebopedia, you'll learn what DDR and SDRAM are, what RAID stands for, and how TCP/IP beams messages around the world.

Even more importantly: you can now shop for computer goods and get a patient explanation for what all the hardware terms mean! This is a truly useful resource for every computer user.

Visit PCwebopedia here: http://www.pcwebopedia.com

#2) Google News

Although Google News is not arranged by community recommendations nor by editorial suggestion, it does plug you into over 4500 news sources.

Amazing breadth and depth of choice here, folks. Search by celebrity name, current event, topic, or by region... you're bound to find nearly all the news you'll ever want here.

Visit Google News here: http://news.google.com/



#1) StumbleUpon

So why is Stumbleupon the most useful web site on the Internet? Wouldn't Google be more useful?

Well folks, as good as Google is, it is a keyword search tool. Stumbleupon is so much more human and intimate than that. Stumbleupon is the collective recommendations of thousands of hours of searching by web users who share your interests.

Call it a "recommendation engine". Stumblers add to this engine by providing their personal recommendations on what sites are worth your time. Thousands of people who share your interests and hobbies will point you to the sites that they personally recommend. And guaranteed, you will like many of these recommendations.

The Internet just got smaller in a good way, folks. Stumbling is so much more satisfying than Googling.

Try "stumbling" for yourself. You won't be disappointed: http://www.stumbleupon.com/

Few very strange ,little known facts about our planet



In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.



* About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.



*A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.



*Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.



*Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park , USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.



*Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.



*Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.



*The Ancient Egyptians worshipped a sky goddess called Nut.



*The world's windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antartica.



*In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA.



*American Roy Sullivan has been struck by lighting a record seven times.



*The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 litres of water in its trunk.



*The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name 'Methuselah' . It is about 4600 years old. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California. It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk. The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus. It can grow 10 meters a year.



*The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.



* The USA uses 29% of the world's petrol and 33% of the world's electricy.



*The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.



*Tibet is the highest country in the world. Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters.



*Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland. They are estimated to be about 400 million years old.



*Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180 km out to sea.



*The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade. The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.



*There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea. The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.



* The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.

Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy," it says. "Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications."

You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Mcft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?


1 Hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.

For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:

Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.

Often if a device has a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the Internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.

To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.



2 Bad Ram

Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.

But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.



3 BIOS settings

Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.

Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer's display.

Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.).



4 Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to

Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to

Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.



5 Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors

Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.

These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to

Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display-Settings

Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.

If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to

Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager

Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics

Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card's manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.



6 Viruses

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to

Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs

Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.

A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer.

An excellent antivirus programme is McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates ( www.nai.com). Another is Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec ( www.symantec.com).



7 Printers

The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.

Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer's performance.

If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer's default settings and you may be able to carry on.



8 Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.

Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don't do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.org

Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message "Starting Windows" press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.

Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn't work.

Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.



9 Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heatsinks are available from www.computernerd.com or www.coolit.com

CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.



10 Power supply problems

With all the new construction going on around the country the steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.

If this has become a nuisance for you then consider buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.

It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.

All of These Facts Were Proven to be True by Investigations:

If the current trend continues, by the year 2215 midgets will outnumber "normal-sized" people.

The Australian aborigine language has over 30 words for "dust."

Anyone convicted of animal cruelty in Sedalia, Missouri, is sentenced to a month's confinement in the county animal shelter.

Fewer divorces occur in families in which the children wake their parents before 6 a.m. on Saturdays.

A bad case of laryngitis forced Abraham Lincoln to lip-sync the Gettysburg Address. The speech was actually delivered by an aide hidden beneath the stage.

As the sheer volume of Internet traffic has increased, the friction of the electrons passing around the planet has increased the overall global temperature by .07 degrees.

An early draft of the Declaration of Independence included a line by Benjamin Franklin inviting King George to "kisse our collective arse."

Nearly three percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.

Johnny Plessey batted .331 for the Cleveland Spiders in 1891, even though he spent the entire season batting with a rolled-up, lacquered copy of a newspaper.

Replying more than 100 times to the same piece of spam e-mail will overwhelm the sender's system and interfere with their ability to send any more spam.

Approximately one-sixth of your life is spent on Wednesdays.

King Henry VIII slept with a enormous axe.

Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.


Among items left behind at Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan were 27 issues of Mad Magazine. Al Qaeda members have admitted that bin Laden is reportedly an avid reader.

Although very difficult, it's possible to start a fire by rapidly rubbing together two Cool Ranch Doritos.

The French language has seventeen different words for "surrender."

If a cricket were the size of Mount Rushmore, it could jump to the moon.

The flush toilet was invented in Flushing, NY.

During his famous "Blue Period," Pablo Picasso invented the substance that eventually became known as Play-Doh.

Nobody born in Kentucky has ever been elected to Congress.