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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
November 19, 2006
Q.
I have been told that if I create an email
contact with a name like "aaablank"
it will be listed first in my address book,
and stop viruses from emailing themselves to
everyone in my address book. Does this
really work?
A.
NO!!! This is just another one of those
things that seems to go around the internet
every few years. The reasoning goes that
because the email address in invalid that
the virus will crash and stop trying.
Wrong!!!
This
trick also claims to be able to send you a
notice that the email could not be sent
because the address is invalid. There is no
way any well written virus would do this.
Their main objective is to remain invisible
and propagate.
Most
every address book already has invalid
addresses in it. When a virus tried to send
itself to all the names in your address
book, it could care less if the address is
valid or not. It just tries to send it.
Since it will use a spoofed email address to
send it anyway, any return notice about it
not being able to be sent will go to the
spoofed address, not to you.
Your best
defense is to use a good anti-virus program
that is kept up to date, and forget about this so
called trick that has absolutely no chance
of working.
Q.
I need a fast and easy way to lock my
computer when I leave it. Is there one?
A.
Yes, there is a very easy way. Simply hold
down the Windows key and press the "L"
key. That will perform the same thing that
Clicking on Start, Logging Off, then switching user
does. Of course, to have this actually lock
the computer, you will have to assign a
password to your normal logon. if there
isn't already one.
The
Windows key is the one between the CTRL and
ALT on the lower, left side of the keyboard.
There is also one on the lower right side of
the key pad just to the left of the CTRL
key.
To see
more of these Keyboard short keys, click on
"Shortcut Keys" under the Topics heading on
the left of this screen, then choose
"Windows Keyboard Shortcuts".
Q.
What is the print spooler and what does it
do?
A.
Of all the various functions a computer and
its peripherals can do, printing is probably
the slowest. This is especially true if you
are using a ink or bubble jet printer. If
you had to wait to use the computer while a
document printed, you could be waiting quite
a while. To allow the printer to proceed at
its own pace, while not tying up the
computer, something called the print spooler
is used.
A spooler
is a just another name for buffer, defined
as a place in memory or on a hard drive used
to temporarily hold or store data.
When you
click on print, the document is sent to the
print spooler, usually on the hard drive,
and stored there. This transfer is relative
fast from the computer memory to the hard
drive. Then the printer can retrieve the
data from this spooler and print it at its
own rate.
Because
the documents are in a buffer where they can
be accessed by the printer without any user
input, the user is free to perform other
operations on the computer while the
printing takes place in the background.
Print
spooling also allows you to print a document
while a previous one is still printing. The
print spooler just queues them up so the
printer can print them as it becomes
available.
The term
"Spool" is supposedly an acronym for
"Simultaneous Peripheral Operations
On-Line", but is more likely to have come
from its similarity to a sewing machine
thread spool, which a person puts thread on,
and a machine pulls off at its convenience.
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