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Changing text size is not good enough. Usually, changing text size will cause it to overflow the space allocated by the designer, possibly overflowing into other text. Further, adjusting text size (regardless of how it is done) will not affect text that is within an image nor will it appropriately adjust an image or field within the window. What is really needed is something like IE’s zoom feature that will (usually) adjust the whole page content including text but also allowing text size to be separately adjustable. There is always some idiot, like the Adobe site designer that I referenced above, who will defeat all attempts to make the page acceptable. I can find no way to make any adjustments to the Adobe text or frame size. Like much of what Adobe does, there is only one way and that is their way and they won’t be swayed by reality.

I wouldn’t say it is only for people who are visually impaired. There is nothing wrong with my eyesight and I find frequent use for it. Well, perhaps not ‘frequent’ but occasional. I have a large, high resolution monitor (24″ set at its native resolution of 1920 x 1200) and it is common to find web sites where the site designer must have designed everything to fit on a 14″ monitor with no provision to allow the image to be expanded with the ‘zoom’ facility and not even a facility to allow the browser to alter text size. Here is a good example from Adobe. https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/index.cfm?store=OLS-EDU#store=OLS-EDU&view=ols_cat&loc=en_us&catID=SPECIALS

I don’t know how they expect to sell anything if this is the best they can do. The page occupies approximately half my monitor width and the text is uncomfortable to read at my normal working distance. This is not an unusual problem when working with a monitor such as mine. Even some “Gadgets” are very difficult to see. Usually an application allows one to adjust the zoom magnification factor and/or text size. Even most web sites allow such adjustments and my normal browser is set to 150% by default negating the need to do anything in most cases. Some designers are idiots and insist everything must be untouchable such as the Adobe site. In these cases, the Magnifier is very valuable.

I have used a site for about a couple years called MyHeritage.com and found it to be very good. It is free for ‘families’ up to 250 (I think) people and quite reasonable after that. Most people (including myself) use the site for building and maintaining a family tree but it works equally well as a family site that can be used to keep in touch and to share photos etc. (there is some limit on the photo space that is free). They also provide a free service that utilizes face recognition software to tag family members in group photos and thus help identify them. An interesting byproduct of this service is a fun feature that will match your face to that of famous people to find the famous person you most resemble. There is a calendar service for the family and it can be used to organize family events etc. Any family access is by invitation only so privacy is good.

For those interested in also building a ‘family tree’, they offer a good (and free) stand alone software package called Family Tree Builder. A family tree can be built up on your PC and uploaded (published) to your family site. The ‘family tree’ function and ‘family communication’ function are not mutually exclusive.

The invited family members receive regular notices of significant events like birthdays and anniversaries and there is a facility to send greetings or gifts. While privacy is maintained, the site attempts to ‘match’ branches of your family tree to branches of all other members and, when a match is found, the respective owners are informed and given an opportunity to contact each other through the site without revealing any private data about each person. There are currently over 50 million members and the entire operation can operate in 34 languages.

I suggest you try creating a “Playlist” that specifies the order of play rather than trying to change the order by changing the file (or song)name. I believe most MP3 players will display and play by playlist.

Dr Who;

You must be really beating up on your system to require that much cooling.

My front plastic case is similar to yours (at least the bottom half) and I intend to install a fan or two in the space between the plastic front and the metal grill. I might even cut out the grill work as you did but I have no space inside the main case to mount fans as you did. I might be able to mount drive coolers on the two drives in there but that will be phase 2.

I am unwilling to start anything until after I do our taxes. I Canada, the tax man comes at the end of April and I need my system working until I have submitted our returns and received confirmation.

I have a name badge around somewhere from a previous place of employment and below my name it gives my job title as “Procrastination Specialist”. I need to dig it out again.

If your up for something alittle more ambitious, a change in case might cure your heating ills, and then some.
This is a decent case and it’s very similar to your own, especially the side intake funnel for the CPU and a 120 mm fan in front of the HDD cage. Except this has alot more room to play around in and is still only a midrange…

HEC 6XR8 Black 0.8mm Thickness SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Its a good looking case and, if I were about to do a build, I would be looking for something like it. At least it doesn’t seem to be lit up with garish flashing lights. My current case from Acer, when the system is put in Sleep or Hibernate, looks like a snow removal vehicle going down the highway with a blue flashing beacon. I’ve had a piece of black electrical tape over it since ‘Day Two’.

Dr Who;

I have looked at several drive coolers such as the one you show but they all fail to direct air from front of case toward the back.

I had hoped to find a cooler that would occupy one drive bay and pull air through the cage and cool the drive above as well as below the device while enhancing case air flow from front to back.

Clint;
There is certainly a grill at the front of the disk bay (front of case) that allows air into the case. This ‘grill’ is covered with the decorative front panel on the case that stands out about 25mm creating an air channel up the front of the case. Air is allowed into the this area through vents on the bottom of the case (bottom of decorative front). This decorative front is removable and, if I cannot find a device that will fit into an empty drive bay, I will attempt to mount a couple of small fans in this space to blow air in through the grill. This space is only about 25mm (1″) deep by something less than the width of the case. Approximately 120mm x 150mm x 25mm. I doubt there is room to mount a fan that is 25mm or thicker and that is the thickness of most fans. I can get a couple of 40mm x 40mm x 10mm fans that should mount and do the job and be relatively silent. http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/016/sy124010l_detail.html

I don’t quite know how I should mount such fans other than to screw them down with metal screws. I am thinking of using a daub of silicon at each corner instead. Hopefully that would hold them while providing some vibration dampening. It would also eliminate the need to drill into the case with the attendant risks of metal fragments getting where they shouldn’t.

Here are some pictures appropriately labelled to indicate various components. I have never posted a picture in this forum so I hope this works.

The time to consider abandoning Windows is when there is an alternative that one can drive down the road and fill up with standard software.

Two key concepts are at play here. One must be able to drive the machine without any significant problems or training. Sorta like being able to get into any typical automobile and drive it successfully. Sure it will be different and it might be bigger or better or faster or smoother than the rest of the autos out there but all the important stuff will be obvious and any half way capable driver can operate it without any problems.

The second important concept is that one must be able to drive it into any filling station and get all the important supplies.

In the early days of the automobile, the above two concepts were not common. Even today, an 18 wheeler might be beyond the capabilities of a typical driver but the normal passanger car can be driven any typical driver and there is no problem getting supplies. That’s because the user interface is relatively standard and all cars use the same supplies.

When a few enterprising companies start producing an OS that will run any Windows (or at least ‘standard’) software and accept any driver that conforms to the ‘standard’ we will have some alternatives to Windows. Some may be bigger or better or faster or smoother but any capable operator can run any of them and they all can run the same software.

We don’t have to know how the internals of a computer work any more than we have to know how the engine or transmission of a car works. There will always be some who want to know, just as there are some who want to know about the internals of an car so they can try to super charge it. Most of us however are satisfied to buy a suitable car and use it as designed.

I bought a $99 Brother MFC-495CW and it does all of print,fax, scan and copy both locally and over my wireless net. I don’t think Win 7 is at fault. With Win 7 drivers from the manufacturer, I would expect all functions to work. With anything less, you might lose some functionality but the major functions will probably work with genetic drivers. Both the discrete printer and Scanner that the Brother replaced had dated from back in ’98 and they had both lost some functionality due to the genetic drivers I had to use in both Vista and Win 7.

Solid devices otherwise and, if I had not been faced with yet another $84 for a set of ink cartridges, I might have kept them.

I will try a new cable. The cable on the new WD drive is a new one and I can try the cable that had been in use in the Hitachi drive. The problem is that it is a cable that has a 90 degree connector and WD says they are inappropriate for their drives. That’s the reason I bought a new “straight in” SATA cable when I installed the new WD drive. I have no idea why WD doesn’t like the 90 degree cables but I either have to buy another “straight in” cable or try out the 90 degree one I have. At least I know the existing 90 degree cable works and I suppose it won’t hurt to try it for a few days.

Yes. Prerequisites for Win 7 Upgrade versions are XP, Vista or Win 7.
edit
If you have any trouble with upgrade qualification which can happen if you wipe the disk or have a new disk then have a read of Paul Thurrott’s tips on how to fix this up. It’s probably a good read anyhow. It may make the whole Win7 upgrade process much easier.

Thanks.
Very interesting article which I will keep handy.

I had Roxio Creator 2009 and liked it. They have 2010 out now and I upgraded. I don’t know if it is the best but it meets my needs nicely as a casual editor of videos and DVDs.

Try this in regedit. As suggested By Clint above.

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet001Services W32TimeTimeProvidersNtpClient
2. Select SpecialPollInterval
3. Change decimal value from 604800 (7 days) to some other value in seconds. EX: 86400 (1 day)

Thanks very much to you and Clint. I missed this little gem on my first read through the referenced thread.

BTW, it is easy to change the time server to something closer to home (and hopefully yielding a more accurate time set) by Googling for “Time Server” and finding an appropriate one. Many require permission to use but there are many that do not. The local university will frequently have one. I use the server at the National Research Council in Ottawa. ( time.nrc.ca )

See How to configure an authoritative time server in Windows XP[/url], Should be the same for Windows 7.

Joe

If I remember correctly, XP allowed one to set the interval between time synchronizations. Win 7 synchronizes on some schedule that is long enough that my clock can be out by nearly a minute. I don’t know what the sync interval is but I would like to shorten it.