fr 11 ap 08

1939  Darts was banned in Glasgow pubs as too dangerous

By default (that means if you don't change it) Outlook Express saves copies of the emails you've sent in the Sent Items folder (you can turn keeping copies on and off by going Tools/Options.../Send then click the Save copy etc box and then OK).  Very useful to keep copies but in time the Sent folder gets pretty big slowing everything down, do you really need copies of emails you sent three years ago?  Delete some old emails and it should make things a little brisker.

+ Click on Sent Items to see the folder contents (if you can't see the Sent Items folder go View/Layout ... then check the Folder List box and click on OK).

+ You can now see the emails in the Sent Folder listed on the right, click on Sent at the top of the list and the emails will be sorted into date order. 

+ If the little triangle to the right of Sent is pointing up the emails are sorted in the order sent, if the little triangle is pointing down click on Sent again so the triangle points up.

+ Press Home (top[ish] right[ish] on the keyboard) and the selected email highlight moves to the top of the list which is the oldest email in the folder.

+ Press Delete (right[ish] on the keyboard) and the selected email moves to the Deleted Items folder.

+ You could keeping on pressing Delete but your pinkie would get sore so try this.  Whilst holding down the Shift key on the left press the Arrow Down key on the right, now two emails are highlighted.  Still hold ing down the Shift key press the Page Down key and all but one of the visible emails are highlighted, keeping pressing the Page Down and soon months or even years of emails are selected.

None of this helps if the emails stay in your Deleted Items folder so go Tools/Options/Maintenance and make sure that the Empty messages from etc box is checked.

Discuss or get help here.

th 6 mr 08

1902  An army order gave British soldiers the right to wear spectacles on or off duty

Street wisdom is that you don't upgrade your pc to Vista (Microsoft's new(ish) operating system) because it costs a fortune stand alone and may not like the hardware on your XP machine.  What you do is wait until you feel the need for a new box or a slinky laptop and then buy one with Vista installed.  Fair enough, but we've recently seen two new, cheaper Vista laptops seriously underperforming because of not enough RAM and Norton Internet Security.

So don't install Norton (it's not really free), install freebie AVG anti-virus software, check that your new computer has at least 2 Gig of RAM and remember that the Office suite (Word, Excel, etc) doesn't come with Vista unless the retailer is doing a special.

mo 4 fe 08

1953  Sweet rationing ended in the UK

Whilst holding down the Windows key (usually second from left bottom row) press and release the D key.  Do it again.  The key combination minimizes or restores all open windows, so a quick way to see the desktop.

we 2 ja 07

1946  King Zog of Albania deposed

Urban myths ... don’t you love ‘em?  Old ladies with hairy hands and carving knives, people eating deep fried rodents unknowingly in the pictures and what you can’t catch from sucking a bus ticket!  We’ve heard from at least three people that when you get a new computer you have to smash up the old one with a sledgehammer to stop Russian gangsters stealing your house.  Well, no.  Smashing up the monitor could be quite dangerous as it might implode, so probably best not to.  What you need to do, in the event that Russian gangsters happen to be passing, is erase or destroy the hard disc.  Smashing up the box is very unlikely to erase the hard disc.  Even if you know what you’re looking at berating the hard disc itself with a large instrument may not destroy the data, and anyway why destroy a perfectly good piece of kit when you can erase the hard disc with software.

You may be able erase the disk by a low level format from the BIOS.  Whether this is available and how you do it will vary from PC to PC.  Perhaps ask a clever nephew?  Alternatively visit www.killdisk.com, download their freebie Hard Drive Eraser, erase the hard disk and give the PC to your clever nephew.  Finally you could visit www.killdisk.com, buy their pro eraser with military grade security, erase the hard disk and give the PC to a Russian gangster.

mo 3 de 07

1901  King Camp Gillette patented the safety razor

The Brewer claims he gave up on computers when Ali told him To stop the computer you press the start button ...  These days we'd be hard pressed without the Windows key, the one that usually nestles second from left on the bottom row of the keyboard.  But what if your keyboard doesn't have a Windows key?  Or the key cap is missing or you can't find the bloody thing on a strange laptop?  There is a work round, whilst holding down the control key (far left bottom row) press and release the escape key (far left top row), up pops the Start window on the screen!

There is a limitation, you can't do clever stuff like whilst holding down the Windows key press and release M minimising all open windows or whilst holding down the Windows key press and release R.

we 7 no 07

1872  The Marie Celeste set sail from New York bound for Genoa

Here's a bit of good clean fun.  Whilst holding down the Windows key press and release R.  This will pop up the Run window.  (The Windows key is usually second left bottom row and marked with the Windows logo, and sometimes with Start.  Another way to pop up the Run window is to click on Start [bottom left of the screen] and then Run.)  Type osk into the Run window text box and then click OK.

fr 2 no 07

1954  Hancock's Half Hour was first broadcast

 Despite the link inviting you to download Firefox, and we do have it loaded on the main machine here, we find ourselves bemused by how the tabs work.  Maybe Fish will help out?  Now to wash the stairs ... and by the way we had over 4,000 visitors last month, don't know how many were bank managers.

th 1 no 07

1956  Premium Bonds first went on sale

If you like visiting us but but don't want to change your home page you can add us to your browser tabs.  If your browser is Internet Explorer (the one bundled in with Windows) and version 7 you can do it now.  Just click on the arrow down to the right of the little house up on the right there.  Now click on "Add or Change Home Page ...", then  on "Add this webpage ... " and finally click "Yes".

Now when you open Internet Explorer one of the open tabs will be Near The Coast.  If only one tab is open and it isn't NTC then check this: go Start/Control Panel/Internet Options/Tabs Settings and make sure "Open only first home page ..." is NOT ticked.

Tomorrow Firefox but right now the kitchen floor needs a good seeing to ...

If when you turn your mouse upside down there's a Soho red glow you have an optical mouse.  If you haven't then you probably have a mechanical mouse and periodically have to engage in the cat with a wet paw shimmy to keep it working.  The shimmy shakes the fluff inside the mouse about a bit so the rollers move when the ball does.  Here’s how to remove the fluff.

Shut down your PC or you will find the mouse has done something catastrophic whilst you were cleaning it.

Turn your mouse upside down.  There’s a hole about half an inch in diameter with a small rubbery ball coyly hiding in it.  Surrounding the hole is a flat disc with the hole in it.  On the disc are arrows showing which way you rotate the disc to remove it.  Rotate the disc, hopefully there will be a ridge or something you can get hold with your thumbnail.   Rotate the disc until it stops, usually about an eighth of a rotation.

Turn the mouse the right way up over your other hand.  What should happen is the disc and ball fall in to your open palm.  What will happen is the ball, which is carpet coloured, falls on the floor and rolls under the largest piece of furniture.  Retrieve the ball and give it a superficial brush, a dirty ball is not the problem.

Turn the mouse upside down again and peer into the hole vacated by the ball.  As long as a worried looking family of black beetles hasn’t taken up residence you should see two horizontal rollers at right angles and a vertical disc diagonally opposite.  The disc is spring loaded and keeps the ball in contact with the rollers.  The rollers sense the mouse’s horizontal and vertical movement.  Peer more closely at the rollers.  Around the middle is a grey band.  This is the problem.  The band is a belt of solidified fluff between the ball and roller, and the ball is now turning the fluff not the roller.  Get a small screwdriver or similar and scrape at the grey band along the axis of a roller until it disintegrates.  Do both rollers and then blow or brush out the fluff.  Reassemble, there are “tongues” on the underside of the disc that have to be aligned with slots in the mouse.  Smile smugly.

None of this applies if you have an optical mouse.  To avoid balls and rollers an optical mouse detects movement by looking at the surface it’s moving over.  For this reason it will work better on a textured surface than a very plain mouse mat.

A fine comment on human nature that the optical mouse was developed because we can't be bothered to clean our mice:)