Our Report Card

sure you can, you just don't want to. I'll get there someday...

I was gonna ask if someone had come up with a magical way to bounce your own e-mail. So, tell me about this Mailwasher. Please!

Mailwasher is supposed to be one of the best spam killers out there and it's freeware to boot. I used it for a while before I moved to SpamKiller. I like this one too, but it makes my mouse act like it's working in slo-mo. Mailwasher does a good job but you need to be patient until all the filters get set up. Once that's done, it works great. My current system also lets you bounce email, but for the most part, the sender is fictional! Most of the spammers don't put a return addy on their spam. I don't bother with the bouncing any more.

Oh, Id like it better too, but there are some things in life worth reaching to the top shelf for. For me, this is one. For you, its quilts..finished, by someone else. hee hee. Diana

KERBLAAANG!!!!!

Kate's head gets waaaaaay to big and explodes!

Fank yooo!

I bottom post coz I'm a computer illiterate, and top posting is not automatic with Netscape. I don't mind either way, meself. I wish I could set it up to trim off all the bits I'm not answering automatically. I suppose that would require a telepathic computer...

I do try, honest! trouble is that sometimes I hit the wrong key and sometimes it puts back the trimmed bits! My puter needs an overhaul, but it won't happen this week! We have a new hard drive to put in it, and then it will become a dual boot machine. Windoze 98 for the boy and his games, and 200 for 'real' use...

The head exploded yesterday... Only the ears are left!

Can I ask how much free space you have left on the hard drive? This behavior happens when there's no space left for the computer to swap out bits of the program you use between the hard drive and the memory. It's like stuffing a tall vase with rocks thru a narrow opening. The rocks are your programs, the vase your hard drive. What happens when you need that first big rock down at the bottom? It takes a long time to fish around thru that small opening, and since the other rocks are in the way, narrowing the opening even more, you may have to cut the rock into smaller chunks to get it out. When your computer cuts your program into such small chunks that it can't handle one operation (attaching a file to an email, for example )without having to swap out the original intention of using email, then you can see how it will get confused. To make it shorter, can you try taking some programs off the computer to give yourself some more room?

Elena, queen of alternative explanati> >

Good thing since they hold up the glasses.

Also, Windows will often act like it's low on memory if there are too many files in the temp folder.

At a DOS prompt enter "SET" (without quotes, of course :) ) and in the results of that look for a line that starts with "TEMP=". That will tell you where your temp files are. (On Windows 9x it defaults to C:\Windows\Temp, but others may vary.)

Go to that folder and delete everything older than the date and time you last rebooted or turned on your computer. If you've been using that directory for your own "temporary" storage purposes, shame on you! Move those files somewhere else.

Personally, I have a line in my autoexec.bat that cleans my temp folder out entirely. Some software installations that require a reboot will occasionally have some files there that need to survive a reboot, so I have to remember to disable that line before installing software, so it's not an option for everyone.

Back when I did tech support, I sometimes found people with tens of megabytes in hundreds of files in their temp folders, often dating back several years. Deleting them often did a world of good.

JA

Alas, snipping leaves me in a quandary as often as not. I don't know what's happening with my server, but now I miss not only the original post, but many responses. I know, because I can see the responses to those responses. One thread yesterday must have had 10 posts, and I still don't know what the thread was about.

Sounds like you need to do what DH needs to do, back-up everything then do a complete re-install of Windoze. Apparently it needs it every six months to keep it vaguely stable!

And it hasn't had one in over two years! Mostly it's ok, but just now and again it has a fit!

Why would you need to reinstall every 6 months? Just curious. Bought my new computer with XP Pro installed 14 months ago. It's still going strong.

Because it's a badly written pain in the neck lump of bloatware?n WEe are talking 98 here...

I know, and I sympathize. But I reserve the right to self pity now and again. (If I made T-shirts with messages, I'd wear one that says "Born to be a Martyr." It ain't my fault. It runs in the family.)