Tips are added on this list from time to time.
Click into any dark blue writing in this index.
Notes about this tip page.

1. Send any file to any program.
2. Remove password option on boot up.
3. Undo, Cut, Copy and Paste.
4. Missing pages on duplex printing.
5. The Stationary Moving Text.
6. Stopping a virus in your computer.
7. Some free tools for your web site.
8. Taking files with you on a floppy disk.
9. "Open Office" , "Star Office" and "Word" spelling errors.
10. LILO and dual boot to Linux.
11. Using characters not seen on your keyboard, like the "Euro dollar" sign.
12. Putting your system back in order after installing another browser.
13. Some E-mail notes.
14. Printing to a text file.
15. The PDA Technology.
16. Help is just a E-mail away.
17. The Windows Clean Registry Program.
18. Do you have enough RAM in your computer?.
19. Avoid virus attachments from Email attachments.
20. Check your computer monitor convergence and linearity.
21. SEVEN REASONS WHY HTML E-MAILS ARE EVIL.
22. PNG pictures are free.
23. CDROM re-writable drives.
24. Check out those floppies.
25. Getting into Linux.

• Some miscellaneous tips.

• Motoring, Electronics, Miscellaneous Tips.

Click to the top.

When you click on to a file that your computer has never opened before you would of seen the "Open With" box,  see Image 1  (for this example I made a text file and called it "a.bcd" and clicked on to it.)

The first time you try this option you should always un-tick the "Always use this program to open this file", otherwise if you choose the wrong program to open the file, It can be harder to undo that set up. Then if the program opens it up all right, I go back and reopen it with the box ticked.

While this is a good method to open a file, there is a better alternative, not necessary a replacement option but this works better than opening a program then "going to hunt for the file". You just use the mouse right click button, then use "Send  To"  see Image 2  this can display a list of programs to open up your file.

So what then if your program is not on the list ? No worry, keep on reading and you will see how easy it is to put that program on the "Send To" list.

 Using Image 3 
1. Right click the "Start" button
2. Click on to "Explore".
3. Open the "Send To" folder normally   "C:\windows\SendTo" or   "C:\windows\ShellNew\SendTo"
4 Right click inside the folder on the white space below were the files are listed and select "New". Or 5 Another way Click from the "start" button, in the "Search programs and files" enter "shell:sendto", then click on to that folder.

In this example we are going to "Create Shortcut" to "Notepad", you might ask "why do that?" you click on a small text file and Notepad will open it up. Well! I find this handy to open a *.HTML file with Notepad or another program type file that can be changed with a text editor.

Then. Select the "Shortcut".
When Image 4 first appears, the " Command line:" is empty.
Browse for the program you are making the shortcut for. In this case it is notepad.exe, Then your image will look like my Image 4 Then click on to Next > button
If you are happy with the name click "Finish".

Image 5 on the left is a example of a number of options a file can be sent to for example a picture can be sent to a number of image displaying programs you can see on the list.

See, I told you it was easy, by making all the short cuts you need, you can send any file to any suitable program of that file type, quick and easy.

Windows XP => Documents and Settings => (your name) => SendTo
For Windows 7 => user => (your name) => AppData => Roaming => Microsoft => Windows => Sendto

Or better still from Windows 7 go to the start button (see image 3 #1 arrow) and in the “search programs and files” type in shell:sendto then press the “enter” button on the keyboard and Bingo! A much faster way of getting to the Sendto folder

There is a third option to open a file with any program, is to take a file icon and drag it with a mouse and drop it into a program icon, the trouble I find with that is you have to have icons all over your desktop, as if we have enough rubbish on our desktop as it is. Whenever I install a program on the computer and it leaves a icon on the desktop, the first thing I do is delete it, it is just so nice to have a icons filling up your desktop that has a purpose.

Click to the top.

2. Remove password on boot up.

This may take a while at first to work out how to remove password, then next time you need it you have forgotten how you do it.
1. Go to Start => Settings (or My Computer) => Control panel => Network.
2. In "Primary Network Login" box Replace "Client for Microsoft Network" to "Windows Logon"
3 You might need your windows CDROM as you close everything up.
This applies to not only stand alone computer, but also some that are networked.

Click to the top.

3. Undo, Cut, Copy and Paste.

This will work for Windows IBM PC as well as iMac´s and Linux.
For text editing and graphic´s editing as well.

Press control "Ctrl" and Z simultaneously to
Press control "Ctrl" and X simultaneously to
Press control "Ctrl" and C simultaneously to
Press control "Ctrl" and V simultaneously to

Undo
Cut
Copy
Paste

"Ctrl" + "Z"
"Ctrl" + "X"
"Ctrl" + "C"
"Ctrl" + "V"

But you may notice if you have a iMac it does not have a control key.
They use a "command" key instead, using the lo-go seen on the right in red.

Click to the top.

4.Missing pages on duplex printing.

Duplex printing is great, it saves paper, by printing on both sides of the page. On my duplex printer the first side of the printed page almost comes out of the printer, then it goes back in and prints on the other side.

You dont have to learn how to print off most of the pages, say from pages 10 to 40 the printer program sets it up that way, or at least go from 1-60. You just have to change the 1 to 10, and change to 60 to 40.

But if you want to print page 40 on the back of page 33 you put a comma after the 33.

This tip should save you getting eye whiplash, if only web site designers knew their HTML code better, I am sure you have been to a web site and started to read the text only to have the text move on you while you are reading the page as pictures from the web site continue to download. There is a very simple cure for this problem and would give your visitors a better impression that the web site was made by a web site professional.

The following code will cause eye whiplash, and/or text movement, as pictures download;

<img src="group.png" alt="This is the whole group">

While the following code will not cause any text movement;

<img src="group.png" alt="This is the whole group" height="150" width="250">

Note: In this tip example, the "alt" attribute is not needed and can be ignored.

So simple don't you think, so why don't more web sites use it? Is there a web masters height, width phobia? Some people seem to think they can not get the width, height properties from the picture, and if they choose the wrong height, width properties the picture will get distorted, loosing some picture quality in the process, this may be true but please "give us all a break" it is so simple to get the width, height properties off any picture used on the Internet.
You just right click the picture file name or Icon, and using "Send to" send your picture to any one of the programs to display Internet web sites like, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, and maybe others I have not tested and listed below.

Internet Explorer You right click on the picture, then choose "Properties",
Netscape Will give you the picture dimensions at the top line of the browser. But you can still right click on the picture and choose "View Info".
Opera You right click the picture and choose "Image properties",

With something so easy, why are we getting so much eye whiplash at web sites, and don't you find all this text movement a little annoying?

6. Kill off your computer Virus.

To disable VB Script to stop virus, select
Start => Settings => Control Panel=> Add/Remove Programs => Windows Setup => Accessories => Details,
then un-tick the "Windows Scripting Host".

This brute force method does not work with Windows 95 where Add/remove programs does not give you the option of removing Windows Scripting Host - in any case doing so will prevent you accessing some web sites. More sane is to change Microsoft's security settings from their unsafe defaults:

In Outlook Express (or Outlook, though the route is different) select
Tools => Options => Security and in the Security Zones section select the Restricted Zones settings for E-mail.

While you are there, select
Tools => Options => Send and set message sending format to plain text - unless you really want HTML. This will stop you sending any KAK type viruses as scripting type viruses cannot be transmitted in plain text. A good reason for not using HTML.

AND I HATE PLAIN BLACK WRITING ON WHITE BACKGROUND HTML E-MAILS, A VERY COMMON PRACTICE USED, WERE PLAIN NON-HTML E-MAILS WILL DO JUST AS GOOD. If you are going to send HTML E-mails add some color into them. I found these boring HTML E-mails are most often not in HTML format until I reply to the sender.

A lot of people complain about connection time to download E-mail, did you know?

A standard short E-mail sent in plain text format might only be 2.8k in file size,
While the same E-mail (black text on white) sent in HTML format would be 7.5k,

THAT´S ABOUT TWO AND A HALF TIMES BIGGER.

Now open Internet Explorer and select
Tools => Internet Options => Security. Select the Restricted Sites pane and click on Custom Level. Scroll down towards the bottom and you will see under Scripting 'Active Scripting' which you will see is enabled. Change that to Disable. Apply the settings and all is done.

These changes recognize that you should never ever expect to have Active X scripting in E-mail messages and set the options accordingly. Do them now, and check them from time to time in case an upgrade of Windows or IE has set them back.

Also recommended is to go to Windows Explorer, select
View => options and ensure the 'Hide MS-DOS extensions...' option is NOT selected. Then when you receive a IloveYou.txt.vbs attachment you will see it is a .vbs one or whatever. Then select Filetypes, scroll down to VBScript File, and edit this so it opens in Notepad and not Windows Scripting Host. Note that you should never ever expect to receive a .VBS attachment in normal E-mail.

For more details go to http://www.woodyswatch.com/wowmm/archives.asp. and download Woody's Office Watch for Mere Mortals issue 1.05, a basic guide to protecting your system.

If everyone did this it would kill these types of viruses dead.

Some free Anti-virus programs.

Trial.

HELPFUL FOOTNOTE ON FALSE SECURITY.

It appears that while some anti-virus programs claim to check E-mail attachments as they are down-loaded from Internet with your Internet provider, They may not know there is a virus in that attachment until you try and open that attachment.
Therefore if you do not have a anti-virus program, and you receive mail from someone that has a anti-virus "checked all attachments as OK", signature on that E-mail, there could still be a virus in that attachment.

7. Some free tools for your web site.

There are number of free tools you can use to get a good basic web site like this one, lurking in your computer, and sometimes you do not need to spend all your hard earned money at your local software shop to get your web site looking good.

Convert from BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG to any other format.
Use Star Office 5.2

Convert BMP to GIF.
Use Front page Express.
(Comes with Internet Explorer 4 and 5)

Convert BMP to JPG.
Use Netscape Composer.
(comes with Netscape 4.?)

Convert GIF or JPG to BMP.
Use Internet Explorer.

Making Pictures
MS Paint is very basic, but you can do some useful things with it, if you try, do not forget to convert the BMP to GIF or JPG when you have finished. Then there is Star Office 5.2.

Spell Checker
Use Netscape Messenger.
or Star Office 5.2
(Internet Explorer uses a spell checker from some other program, you may have installed)

"Print Screen" key
And don't forget the "Print Screen" key on your IBM PC keyboard. With this key anything you see on your monitor screen, you can press "Print Screen" (copy) then go to your graphics program and paste into it, edit the picture down to size how you like it, and save it.

8. Taking files with you on floppies.

There are at least three problems when you save files and move to another computer, (1)Viruses, (2) Text files might not work, (3) Bad sectors on your old floppy disk.
(1) Viruses will not be covered in this tip.
(2) Text files are a worry, It might be all right if everybody had the same word processor, but they don't and so starts the problem. Maybe the best format to save would be the old and trusted "DOS Text" format, and just when you think you are winning, you loose all your "rich text formatting" out of your page.
(3) But I put this tip together to cover the last one "Bad sectors" on old floppy disk. The picture in the tip above "Some free tools for your web site" shows the program to check your floppy before you put your valuable file on it before you take it away.
First click onto your "My Computer" icon, Highlight the "¾ floppy" icon then click File and Properties in the drop down menu, then click onto the Tools tab. Now you should see the same picture as in the tip above. Now click onto " Check Now..." in the Error-checking status part of the window, click Thorough, un-tick Automatically fix errors, then click Start. This test should only take a couple of minutes, but can be worth it, as when you get to the other computer you should know that your disk can be read.
A couple of tips, The reason why the Automatically fix errors was un-ticked, is because if there are any files on bad sectors then the program can tell you, and you can replace those files (if they are still available) otherwise the program might fix up the file wrong.
Secondly, if the disk is making a bit of a noise, it has probably found bad sectors, you will see the number of bad sectors when the test gets to the end. I think the best place for a disk with bad sectors is in the rubbish tin.

9. "Open Office" , "Star Office" and "Word" spelling errors.

If you use "Open office" , "Star office 5.2" or Microsoft "Word" here is a great tip someone once told me.

When you are writing something if you misspell a word the program will put a red zigzag line under the misspelt word (or what looks like a resistor in a electrical circuit diagram), instead of pressing the "F7" key all the time to run the spell checker, just left click over the word to put the cursor on the word spelt wrong then right click your mouse and a drop down menu will give you a list of words to choose from to correct the misspelt word in your document.

10. LILO and dual to Linux.

It is sad but true that you often have to reinstall Windows 95, 98, , from time to time. If you have a computer that dual boots to Linux using LILO, the reinstallation of Windows will destroy the ability for your computer to reboot to Linux just after you have finished reinstalling Windows, as Windows resets the "MBR" Master Boot Record, so it will boot to just one operating system.

If you are aware of this problem, then all your frustration can be focused with just Windows and not spread over into Linux. First make sure you always have a floppy disc that will boot direct to Linux at computer boot up time. After you have wasted all your spare time reinstalling Windows, getting the Linux system back to normal will become a breeze, with less effort needed, no words need to be spoken to your computer as you do with Windows operating system. Just put your floppy that boots to Linux in the floppy drive, reset your computer and let the computer reboot to Linux. Then log on as the "root user". What happens next may very from Linux version to Linux Version, But in the SUSE version go Click on to the program called KLILO.

Looking at the picture above you will see the computer will default to a "SUSE" boot up. When you are happy with the options click onClick to the "Install" button.

From the KDE desktop, click on Click to the big K => System => KLILO.

Note, do not worry if the "Boot delay" is too long, here it is 8 Seconds, when the boot up stops at the boot LILO option you can speed up the boot into default mode by pressing the "Enter" key

LILO stands for LInux LOader.

11. Using characters not seen on your keyboard.

Have you ever wanted to use special characters or symbols in your text but could not find them anywhere on your keyboard and not sure how to put it in? Let say you would like a question mark upside down, ¿ (it beats me why anybody would like to use a upside down question mark, but that is beside the point) anyway first press down the "Alt" key on the keyboard, then with another finger type 0191 on the numerical key pad on the very right side of your keyboard, then take you finger off the "Alt" key, and bingo you have or should have a question upside down, (now press the "left arrow" and then press "Delete" key, as I said it is useless as far as I see.) but you can use more useful ones like.

Before this will work you need the "Num Lock" light on your PC keyboard going. To turn it on or off press the "Num Lock" key.

12. Putting your system back in order after installing another browser.

Let´s say you have Internet Explorer and you install Netscape or some other browser, Then latter on you are at a web site and you wish to send them a E-mail, instead of Outlook Express opening, Netscape opens, So how do you fix it up.
Very simple, from Outlook Express, Tools => Options... => General (tab)
Go down the page to all most the bottom, and look for "This application is the default Mail handler."
Click on to "Make Default" => Apply => OK.

13. E-mail notes.

E-mail is great,
But, It has it´s problems, mostly user one´s.

Number One.
The first mistake I made after getting a E-mail address, was to send someone a large file, (but I had a small excuse, someone sent me a very LARGE file first). Not everyone has high speed Internet connection, and not everyone likes spending all day (or part of the day) down loading a LARGE E-mails or files, that they may find useless, One such large file I received a few months ago would be best described as rubbish, I sent back a similar file (joke) and similar file size, and got roasted by the other person, funny how I am always wrong and everybody else is right. Sometimes Internet users might have to share a phone line with others in the same household, at the moment I have my own phone line, if anybody else would like to use the phone while I am checking my E-mail or down loading a large file, well all I can say is sorry I will be off soon,
Some years ago I had a large file that I wished to share with a E-mail friend in USA, I sent him a E-mail telling him what the file was all about and how large the file size was, he replied he did not wish to have the file, and also he did not wish to have his E-mail box choked with large files, and then have some of his more important E-mail retuned to sender after his E-mail box became full. To put it short, I was over the moon with his reply, it saved me money in Internet connection time sending a large file, and saved me having someone getting angry.
This clearly shows how courtesy pays. In conclusion, I use a 200K file size as the limit before I stop and ask someone if they would like a large file, before I send it to them.

Number Two.
Web site addresses (URL) and E-mail. Sometimes Internet users use the "Send Link by E-mail.", while I do not wish to knock this feature as much as the large size E-mail as in the text above, if I got one dollar for every rotten link someone sent me, and gave away five dollars for every good link I receive, I would be rich (I think?). Getting a E-mail with just a Internet web site address and nothing else tells one nothing about the web site (another good idea, gone bad). I prefer to use the "Send Page by E-mail" while this is different, it shows again, not all ideas are good, sometimes someone getting one of my pages for one reason or another can not read it, but when they can, they can see what the web site is all about and decide wether to take the plunge and visit the web site for themself.

Number Three.
Spam mail. It beats me why anybody sends junk E-mail. Some time ago I saved up a months supply of junk E-mail I received, then posted it back saying "Please remove me from your mailing list" at the request of most junk E-mail, most of it came back to me undelivered. Would you send someone your credit card number when most of them do not have a good E-mail address, here today and gone tomorrow. For this reason, never support junk E-mail and never reply to junk E-mail, just delete it and forget about it, as it is better to delete just one today, than return it asking them to delete your E-mail address from their database than too receive and delete half a dozen or more E-mails some months later, as this confirms that your E-mail address they have is active, then they pass your E-mail address onto having it burnt to a CDROM to sell. "So how does one who sends Junk mail get your E-mail address" you might ask, In my case asking and giving help on Internet Newsgroup, if you make a posting on the newsgroup always make sure you never have your E-mail address in there so Internet robots can pick it out and send you junk E-mail.

Number Four.
HTML E-mails, If you have read tip number 6 "Stopping a virus on your computer ..." you will read that HTML E-mails are more prone to carry a virus, and if I hate anything more is getting a boring HTML in just plain black and white. So what is the point when you can send a identical E-mail as plain E-mail? you can not normally tell it is in HTML format until you reply to sender. So the choice is simple change to plain Email or add a bit of default color. Both setting can be changed in Outlook Express by going to,
Tools => Option => Send, then swap between HTML and plain.
Tools => Option => Compose, then set the color in HTML format.

14. Printing to text file.

Printing from some programs to a file can be very useful sometimes, so instead of printing to a printer, fax, or whatever, you can save everything to a text file.
To set up click onto the "My Computer" Icon = > then "Printers" = > "Add Printer " = > "Next >" = > "Local Printer" = > "Next >"
In the Manufactures List select "Generic"
Then in the Printer box there should only be one "Generic / text only" = > "Next >" = > "Next >"  = >
In available ports select "File: Creates a file to disk" then click "Next >"
Change the name if you like then click "Next >"  = > "Next >" =  > "Finish >".

15. Personal Digital Assistants.

With technology always on the move you have make sure your head does not get stuck in the sand, Those PDA (like a pocket personnel computer) do not have a keyboard but you write on a touch screen with a kind of non-writing pen like a short stick. Someone told me it takes a month to learn I find this hard to believe if you tried it out each day it should take a fraction of the time. The upper case letter are very much how you would expect it, just a few changes, for example A does not have a horizontal line, F does not have the bottom horizontal line, h is used in place of H, K looks close without the vertical line, Q looks like it has been inverted, T does not have the right hand side of the horizontal line, (or L 180 degrees rotated) Y looks more like a 4 (with the vertical lines parallel) and as for the numbers only one change (as you might expect with the Y) 4 looks like a raised L. Not too sure why they did not leave the 4 alone and have a different Y.

So there you are, learn the code and save up while the prices drop, then the day you buy it you be right up to speed and the next day something better will come out making your new purchase obsolete. Never mind if you don´t do it, nothing will happen.

16. Help is just a E-mail away.

Email groups are very good, Some private ones can sometimes leave a lot to be desired, You can get all types of very strange comments and at the same time their help is not so good, they seem to spend most of their time saying things that will leave you amazed most of which come from members who never started the group in the first place, which honestly says something about the group, I found the Yahoo groups excellent you can have your problem solved in a flash, their rules set at day one and if you make a mistake the group moderator will sometimes remind you to get back into line. And their members second to none when it comes to politeness.

Click here to choose the subject that you have a interest in or write down "http://groups.yahoo.com/" so you can go there later.

17. The RegClean program.

RegClean is a interesting program, At first I never used it much, then I used to use it often, now I found that it is good to use just after you have installed or un-installed a program, as this is the most likely time it will find errors in the Windows Registry. You can use a program called "EasyCleaner" That can do more than RegClean.

18. Do you have enough RAM in your computer?

My first 486 second hand computer with Windows 95 only had 4 Meg of RAM in it (I think now the person who sold me the computer might of removed some RAM after he installed Windows, how sad, never mind) So after a few weeks I upgraded to 8 Meg, it was not until about a year later I went to 16 Meg, from that day on, the computer went from the "Great Microsoft blue screen" several every day, to just a few each week, then I went to 24, and 32 Meg. While I had 16 Meg of RAM in my 486 computer I installed a program called "TClockEx" that came from a magazine CDROM. This program can configure your Windows 85, 98 desk top clock from showing just the plain hours and minutes, to almost anyway you like. Right now as I write this, when I look at it, I see "Sun, 13 Jan, 2002 08:53:59"

But the best feature I use more often is the "Microprocessor busy", and the "Memory usage" bar graphs. Now I have a pentium 686 with 320 Meg of RAM. Some times my computer appears to lock up, so a quick look at the bar graph shows the microprocessor is flat out or 100% busy. As for the "Memory usage" bar graph, I have lost interest in looking at that ever since I went to 320 Meg of RAM, as the last amount of RAM I had was 120 Meg (128 Meg, 8 Meg used by video stage) While I had less than 320 Meg, often the "Memory usage" bar graph used to go up to 100%, now it just sits floating around the half way mark.

So the conclusion I have come to with Windows 95, 98 it might not need a program called TClockEx, But one thing for sure, it really needs at least 150 Meg of RAM in it. As for the noticeable difference, going to a web site runs like a rocket, and even using the computer, it is less frustrating, also the hard drive does not seem so noisy.

19. Avoid virus from large Email attachments

These large Email attachments are been sent with more regularity today and beginning to think more and more of them might carry a virus, given by stupid subject names of the attachment, at the end of 2001 I got a virus without opening a attachment, so now using a better technique to solving this problem.

I have been using Outlook Express message rules and "Do not download it from the server" and set it to 30K", but I might chop that size down, 30K is too big for standard Email, I can tell if there is mail up there bigger than 30K as after I download the mail, I click "send & receive" again, the progress meter runs along again but this time no more mail gets added to the Inbox.

Then use the home pages of ones ISP (Internet Service provider) or http://www.mail2web.com/ to see what mail has not been down loaded, and delete all the mail with large attachments that look suspicious or strange.

If I need to download a Email from a trusted friend, I disable "Do not download it from the server" download any mail, then enable my "Do not download it from the server" again and wait until next time.

Below is a list of some extensions of the attachments to be suspicious of,

This idea has worked very well, it has already saved down-loading a virus attachment onto my computer brought to my attention by another Email group member, when a virus is detected my anti-virus program brings up a non-graphical message, it puts the file away in a virus vault, and normal I have to reboot my computer as the computer plays up a little bit.

20. Check your computer monitor convergence.

From the main page or the link below you can test your computer monitor convergence and linearity, You can either go back and click onto the top right side of menu or click on below "Check your computer monitor convergence" and you can also check the linearity. The Horizontal & Vertical lines are made up of Magenta & White lines, red & blue lines to make magenta, Also Red Green and blue lines to make white lines.
The Horizontal & Vertical lines should look the same color just that they might look faded on a old monitor (like mine).

As for the yellow diagonal lines (red & green). If you compare the diagonal lines with a straight edge, and the lines are bent (like my monitor) then this will tell you that the linearity is out. I would not of known the linearity was out if I had not made the test page up.

Click here to check your computer monitor convergence.

22. PNG Pictures are free compared to GIF.

Sometime ago I heard that the makers of the GIF picture format were asking for money, I think there needs to be something´s you pay for and something´s that needs to be free. Like ZIP, UNZIP programs needs to be free, so we can get the same information over internet in a shorter time, This frees up the space for others to use (like junk mail, give us a break). In the middle of April 2002 I changed all my GIF pictures to the new and free PNG picture format.

Anyway the PNG picture format is free, click on the link below to get some picture format conversion tools.

A section of GIF to PNG conversion tools at "http://burnallgifs.org" web site.

23. Re-writabe CDROM drives.

The first question you might ask is what are the three figures, like on a computer sales sheet for write-able drive might be 24x10x32.
The highest number is the read speed of a CDROM, in this example x32.
The next highest is the write speed to a write once CDROM, e.g. x24.
The lowest number is the write speed to a re-write-able CDROM, e.g. x10.

Some manufactures claim you can re-write to a re-write-able CDROM 1000 times, from what I have read maybe that figure is closer to 100 times.
The CD-R ROM disk has a photosensitive dye, when a strong laser light strikes the dye, the dye changes color "burnt", hence the saying "will burn a CD".
The rewrite-able part of the CD-RW ROM disk is made of polycrystalline alloy e.g. Ag-In-Sb-Te, (Sliver-Indium-Antimony-Tellurium) normally this is reflective, but when a laser hits it to high temperature normally between 500° and 700° the alloy liquefies and loses its reflectivity to simulate a pit, heating that spot again at lower temperature around 200° makes it revert back to a reflective state again.

The depth of the pit of a standard CDROM is ¼ of the wavelength of the laser light so when the light hits "land" and gets reflected the direct and reflected light added together will double in amplitude, but when the laser light gets reflected from the bottom of the pit, the light would of travelled an extra ½ of the wavelength adding the direct and reflected light together will cancel out, giving a zero.

You would think that you could only write the same file to a CD-R just the once and no more, but in fact you rewrite updated file with the same filename to the CD-R over again, I assume that it destroys the odd directory and write the updated file and directory to a new place left on the CD.

24. Checking out those floppies.

Have you ever saved a file to a floppy disk and got to another computer and found the computer can not read it, because of bad sectors?
There is a simple fix for this problem, well not a fix, but more like avoiding a problem, do a "scan disk" just like the one you do to the hard drive before you defrag it.
Go to "My computer" => right click on the floppy for "Properties" => "Tool" (tab) => "Thorough" (option)
If you are using a good / new floppy the whole test should go through with little noise, however if the floppy drive gets to make a real louder noise than normal, it is the safe bet the test has found bad sectors maybe be a good place for these bad sectors is the rubbish tin.

Miscellaneous Tips.

Motoring.

Tip #1
There is no need to leave your "Head lights" on when you park your car, As you walk away from it, have a look back at it, I have lost count the number of times I have looked back and seen either the head lights on or the tail lights going.

Tip #2
When I start to drive off along the road, I got into the habit of looking at the speedometer, When I drive at night this will tell me if the car head lights are turned on.

Tip #3
Keep a spare car key in your wallet, I have saved braking in to my car many times. It saves more than it cost for that extra key.

Tip #4
Why flash your headlights "on" to the cars coming towards you to warn them there is a police car around? this only promotes motorist to travel at higher speed, causing death on the road, sometimes I think most motorist needs to get a brain.

Electronics Tips.

If you spray cleaning fluid on your computer or television screen and use a rag to clean and wipe off, It is common that some liquid may run down the screen and into the customer adjustment controls below the screen causing the controls to rust, and require servicing at a later date, and from a electronic servicing hint these parts might not be available, if this is a common part needing replacement and the set is getting on in age.

Therefore it is better to spray the cleaning rag then clean and wipe over the screen, normal glass cleaner should clean it good.