Occasionally, I will use this section to post hints and tips:

1. Fax machines hold a memory image of everything that has been faxed. Recently I experienced a major power outage lasting more than 45 minutes. When the power came back, my fax machine decided to take on a mind of it's own and randomly chose a fax from memory to resend. Digging out my manual, I found a section to "clear out fax memory" which I'm now going to do on a regular basis.

2. Before calling a software technician, take a look at the CD and see if it is a DVD or CD -- then check to see if you have a combo DVD/CD ROM drive or just a CD readable/writable drive.

3. I can view my web-page statistics to see what phrase(s) people Google, Yahoo, etc. to find me. Recently a "wannabe lookie Lou" entered the search engine phrase "what fee do i charge ink jet printed page" -- this is exactly how it was typed. I'm not sure why I came up for the search because I don't advertise the use of ink jets. At any rate, why would any professional use an ink jet printer in this day and age? Yeah, you can buy one dirt cheap, but lasers use toner which yields me approximately 11,000 pages, while my ink jet uses ink where I can print maybe 300 pages -- do the math and it costs more than half as much to operate the ink jet.

4. Digital recorders are not all the same. When they originally became available, the price made them pretty much out-of-reach for most people. However, the prices have dropped drastically. As with anything else though, there is quite a price difference in "knock-offs" and name-brand models. Some people are finding that what they thought was a bargain, turns out being nothing more than a pain in their rear, because once recorded, files can't be downloaded. Know what you want to do with the recorder before you buy--and make sure you will be able to do it with the particular recorder you are looking at buying. My own recommendation is Olympus. Even among Olympus models, there is the low-end and the high-end. I use the DS-3000 model.

5. Telemarketers have begun sending text messages to cell phones because of the National Do Not Call Registry. Apparently, text messages do not fall under the Do Not Call Registry. I don't know about all carriers, but with Verizon you can create an online account and go into the Text Messaging section and Text Blocking where you have the option to "block all messages sent from an e-mail" and "block all messages sent from the web." These spam telemarketer text messages are being broadcast from websites. This block does not affect text messages you send or receive from cell phones -- although I'm not sure how it treats Blackberry phones.

6. Computer viruses used to be just an annoyance. Today they are written to steal identities and destroy computers. If you suddenly get popups on your screen advising that your computer is at risk and you have viruses, DON'T, I repeat DON'T try to cancel out of the popup and DON'T simply turn your computer off hoping it will be gone when you turn it back on. DON'T buy the popup software promising to clean your computer. Instead, Alt-Ctrl-Del, go into your taskbar and close down the virus from there. This will not eliminate the virus and the program will still be on your computer. Unless you really know what you are doing, pay a computer geek to completely remove the virus and all associated files, .exe and .dlls.

7. Do I really have to say anything? --