Ask DACS
January 2011

Moderated by Drew Kwashnak and reported by Richard Corzo

Ask DACS is a Question and Answer session before the main presentation at the monthly General Meeting. We solicit questions from the floor and then answers from other audience members. The role of moderator is to try to guide the discussion to a likely solution to the problem.

To start the session Drew showed off his new Cr-48 Chrome Notebook running a beta version of Chrome OS. It's a plain black color with no visible company logos. All the applications run in the Google Chrome web browser. Then Drew proceeded to take other questions from the audience.

Q. I used TurboTax for the first time last year and will be using it again this year. How do I import last year's data?

A. A member answered that TurboTax will ask you if you want to import last year's data and normally will be able to find it. It will initially assume you have the same employer and address information. It will keep track of whether you got a refund or paid the IRS last year and factor that in. Another member recommended TurboTax and mentioned that it came up with almost the same amount as her accountant. Someone else mentioned that the IRS is offering a free online tax service for those with simple taxes. Some tax laws are still being finalized so you may not want to file until later in February.

Q. Microsoft has a service called Windows Live Sync that is being replaced by something called Windows Live Mesh, part of the Windows Live Essentials 2011 package. Both have the ability to sync a folder across multiple machines. However, when I try to install the package on my work machine it fails. An Internet search of the problem suggested that I might need to temporarily disable the Windows firewall, but I can't do that at work.

A. It was suggested to talk to someone in your IT department to find out if there is a reason why it can't be installed in your company environment. A follow-on discussion talked about storing documents on the SkyDrive which is part of Microsoft's Windows Live services.

Q. Does DACS have a Mac group?

A. Yes, the Mac SIG meets on the first Thursday of the month.

Q. Why does Microsoft offer their cloud storage Windows Live SkyDrive for free?

A. They need to compete with Google Docs and keep everyone in the Microsoft Office camp. The SkyDrive will integrate with Office 2010.

Q. How safe is storing things in the cloud?

A. The main risk is the possibility that the cloud service you choose may eventually go away. The risk of only storing your data on a hard drive at home is the risk of fire, flood, theft, etc. Further discussion ensued about Google versus Microsoft and whom you might trust your data with.

Q. Is anybody using a cell phone with the new Windows Phone 7 OS on it?

A. One user said he had one of the new phones and liked it, particularly its new user interface. He and another audience member shared differing experiences with the previous Windows Mobile 6.5. The other attendee complained about lockups requiring removal of the battery to unfreeze the phone. The user with the Windows Phone 7 phone said he did not have problems with the previous Windows Mobile. A follow-on question asked about the price of data plans for Windows Phone 7. He said they were comparable to other smartphone plans, but didn't know exactly because he got a company discount.

Q. I use Mozilla Thunderbird for my Google and Yahoo! e-mail accounts. It recognizes the folders I have set up for Gmail, but not for the Yahoo! account. How can I get it to recognize the Yahoo! mail folders?

A. Gmail is an example of an IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) mail service, while Yahoo! uses folders in its Webmail interface but for downloading to an e-mail client only offers the older POP3 (Post Office Protocol). IMAP stores the e-mail in folders on the mail server and allows e-mail clients to mirror that folder structure. A POP account can only download mail into an Inbox folder. In order to view the mail in other Yahoo! folders using your desktop client, you could forward those e-mails to the Inbox.

Q. What registry cleaner is recommended?

A. More than one member recommended against using a registry cleaner. If you feel your system is being slowed by the running of unwanted processes, consider reinstalling Windows and carefully reinstalling only those applications you really need. Short of doing that, take a look at the list of installed programs in Programs and Features (in Windows Vista and 7) or Add/Remove Programs (in Windows XP) and after doing some research on what you see there, remove any unwanted programs.

Q. Related to keeping systems clean, another attendee raised the issue of LSOs (Local Shared Objects), also called Flash cookies, being stored on your system.

A. These are used by Adobe Flash applications similar to how browser cookies are used. There is a good article in Wikipedia including how the use Adobe's Global Settings Manager to prevent more LSOs from being stored.

Questions for the upcoming meeting can be emailed to askdacs@dacs.org.

Disclaimer: Ask DACS questions come from members by email or from the audience attending the general meeting. Answers are suggestions offered by meeting attendees and represent a consensus of those responding. DACS offers no warrantee as to the correctness of the answers and anyone following these suggestions or answers does so at their own risk. In other words, we could be totally wrong!

 


Click Here


DacsGear!
Mugs and more, visit CafePress to order

 

 
 
© Danbury Area Computer Society, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Web Site Terms & Conditions of Use