Media Watch

I can't wait for October!: Ames Haunted Forest

Microsoft's operating systems allow people to send you pop-up network messages, exploiting a little known network administrator's tool called Windows Messenger Service (which is not related to MSN's instant messaging) -- if you are exposed to the Internet directly. If you're behind a firewall or on a local subnet, such as in the case of the gateway/router, you're probably safe from these annoying little popups. CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability) writes: Sites that have a firewall that blocks the Windows networking ports (135, 137-139, and 445) are already protected from this spam. This particular spam engine starts with a connection to port 135 rather than the NetBIOS ports (137-139 and 445) and then connects to a port above 1024 but future spam engines could use the NetBIOS ports as well. The Messenger service generally should not be disabled or shut down because different programs use it to pass messages to a user. System managers also use it to wa

Judy writes: "Having problems ghost with a Dell GX270s desktop PC. I have downloaded the most current drivers for the nic card and I created a new ghost boot disk with those drives. I boot up the PC with the boot disk and it finds the NIC card and then it says loading ..... and the screen never comes up were it will say Ghost ... Click 'OK'. Do you have any recommendations that would solve this problem?" Our own Jeff Hansen, Clear Channel IT Dept., weighs in: Sounds like the machine cannot find ghost.exe and pretty much stops at that point. Reasons would be numerous. Check to make sure your network layer is really ready to go. Using tcp/ip? Does the machine have an IP address? If not, why? DHCP issues? Static address entered improperly? How about the network share you are trying to get logged into. Is it mapped and ready to go? Are permissions set properly on the share? Maybe you don't have rights. Etc Etc Etc

JJJCSHELLEY writes: IS THERE ANYWAY TO STOP THE POPUP ADS ON MY COMPUTER. THESE ARE THE ONES THAT JUST POP UP AT ANY TIME AND THEY MOSTLEY ARE ADVERTISING SERVICES TO STOP JUST WHAT THEY DID. Hello JJJCSHELLEY, Ouch!  Please stop yelling at me! Popup Cop and Popup Stopper work pretty good to nearly eliminate popups.  I use Popup Cop and have been happy with it. Danny

Marian Boury writes: I bought a Gateway computer 1 1/2 years ago when the XP was first out. At that time I also bought an Epson Perfection 1250 scanner. Every time I want to copy something, I get an error message that the scanner is not connected. At first I thought it was my kitten that had been laying on the cords, but I have fixed it so he can't do that and I still get the error message. After I pull out the cord and reconnect it, it works fine (unless I have many, many pages to copy). Also, I have to copy using the color button or the pages are reduced to less than 1/4 the size of the page and I can't find anywhere in the book to change it so it is full sized. Help, Please! Hi Marian, My sense (from the reviews I've read) is that you've got yourself an inexpensive and buggy scanner. I recommend: Download the latest drivers for the scanner. Uninstall the old ones before installing new. Make sure you're current with Windows

Iowa State Patrol Chief Col. Robert Garrison joined us for the June 28 show.  He says research shows there will be 25% fewer traffic deaths after the new law takes effect.  For a 170-pound male, a blood alcohol concentration of .08 can be attained with four to five drinks in the first hour.  You can burn off about a drink an hour.  There is a book and a web site that can help you reduce your risk of being arrested for drunk driving. This site also features a chart that can help you estimate your Blood Alcohol Concentration.  ( Chart )

Apples says it's going to release ITunes for Windows by the end of the year.  I've been saying for months that I would not pay $1 per song from Apple's ITunes.  Why?  1) You don't get a disk; 2) it's a propriety format; 3) there isn't the selection I want.  with WinMX, I can get the songs I want and I'm not out $1 a pop.  I have thousands of songs that I wouldn't have if I'd bought them online.  Face it RIAA, they aren't worth thousands of dollars. I would have bee happy to pay a flat monthly fee (something like $5/month) to continue using Napster, so that the artists could get something out of the deal.  My tastes are mostly 70s and 80s music, and let's face it, there have been no big dollars for anyone in the older music genres.  But I guarantee that the minute people can get whatever they want, you'll see a lot more of the older music being sold and subsequently more licensing dollars being charged. What does an