PC Memoirs

I found an interesting article about free alternatives to Microsoft Office, written by a fellow blogger. The blog is called Windows Tips Tricks Tweaks and Hacks (not online any more) and the writer mentions 6 programs that can substitute MS Office.

They are:

• Google Docs
• Zoho
• OpenOffice
• ThinkFree
• StarOffice
• Ajax Write

I stumbled upon his blog when I was making my regular entrecard visits.

When you start up your PC, the antivirus definitions are out of date even though you updated them recently. When you try to update again, you are told there are no new updates or you should reinstall the program.

I have had this problem several times it was always caused by the wrong time and date. The system clock was misconfigured and displayed something like year 2011. This confused the antivirus program and it acted as if the definitions were few years old, even though I updated them the previous day.

To fix this problem, simply set the clock again. Double click on the time displayed in the lower right corner and you’ll see the Date and Time Properties. Set the correct date and the year, and then the time (read this off another clock) and click OK.

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If you are looking for a quick way to resize your large photos and keep the same quality, try my solution using Microsoft Office Picture Manager. This software usually comes bundled with Microsoft Office. I hope you have it, because it’s a good program for basic photo and picture modifications.

Once you download the picture from a Web site or from your digital camera, find it on your hard drive (open containing folder) and check the resolution. To do this, click once on the file and the dimensions will be shown in the sidebar on the left side (in Windows XP). For example, 400×600 or 600×800 pixels is considered medium size. 1000 pixels and more in height or width is considered large.

If you want to make the photo smaller, right click on the picture and select Open With, and then click on Microsoft Office Picture Manager in the side menu. If it’s not there, click on Choose Program and then Browse. Navigate to the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 11 and select OIS (this is a short name for the Picture Manager).

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As promised, here is a second set of movies which are somehow related to computing. This time I tried to remember movies about virtual reality.

Again, I listed only movies that I have seen.

1. The Matrix (Trilogy) (1999-2003) – One of the best Sci Fi movies ever made. Nothing else to say.

2. The Lawnmower Man (1992) – Stars Pierce Brosnan as doctor who uses virtual reality technology to increase a mentally challenged man’s intelligence. But things go wrong… It uses elements from Stephen King’s book of the same name.

3. Tron (1982) – Groundbreaking back in 1982. New special effects techniques had to be invented for the movie to work. Jeff Bridges stars in this Disney movie.

4. The Thirteenth Floor (1999) – Lesser known movie but an interesting one.

5. eXistenZ (1999) – Interesting movie about a game designer who plugs into her own game to test it and is attacked by assassins. With Jude Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

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Today I don’t feel like writing about viruses, spyware or error messages. I thought I’d take a break and rather try to list top 10 movies about computers or hacking.

Note: I realize there are also foreign movies about hacking, but I listed only English speaking movies that I have seen.

Here are my choices:

1. Sneakers (1992) – Old but very entertaining movie with Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley and Dan Aykroyd.

2. Live Free or Die Hard (2007) – Great Die Hard movie with cyber terrorists and lots of action. Bruce Willis rules!

3. War Games (1983) – This movie is dated by today’s technology standards but it was one of the first movies to show what kind of damage hacking can cause. It almost started a nuclear war.

4. Untraceable (2008) – Features a sick criminal displaying a victim on an Internet Web site who is trapped and will die if the visitor count increases. Diane Lane stars as FBI computer expert trying to trace the criminal.

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