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Leo Laporte A technology journalist, author and broadcast personality. His specialties lie in computers, the Web, video games, digital music and consumer electronics. |
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Amber MacArthur An experienced Web content and usability strategist, Amber is also a tech journalist who specializes in Internet, software, and gadget trends and tips. |
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Disabling NumLock
Chris, Hamilton, ON
Q: The num lock Keys Control the Mouse Cursor when Computer Is Booted Into Windows. He Can Turn It off, but Only for Current Session, They Come Back on Once He Boots Back in. He Thinks It Is Called Mouse-Keys.
Sean’s note: If all it’s doing is moving your cursor thoughout documents, it may be the pesky old NUMLOCK. The numeric keypad found to the right of the regular QWERTY portion of the keyboard can cause problems if you have it in the wrong mode, because the cursor commands can have unpredictable results from application to application. Thankfully, there’s a way to make sure your computer always boots up with the NUMLOCK turned on. What you’ll want to do is reboot your machine and enter the BIOS setup (check your screen for the proper key to hit; it’s often F2 or DEL but different BIOSes have different keys). Once you’re in SETUP, look under the Advanced tab for the NUMLOCK option; again, depending on the BIOS maker, it may be in different location, but search around and you’ll find it). Change the option to NUMLOCK ON, save your changes and reboot. The problem should be fixed up.If you’ve actually got MouseKeys on, go to Control Panel/Accessibility Options/Mouse/ and uncheck the “use mousekeys” option. If it’s already unchecked but it’s still working as mousekeys, you may have to hack the registry by going to Start>Run>regedit and finding the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\MouseKeys. Check the “Flags” option. When MouseKeys is on it’s 63, when it’s off it’s 62. If you can’t change it from the control panel you can simply right-click the value while you’re in the registry, and adjust it manually. If it still doesn’t change anything, back up the key to a file, then delete the entire key. If you want, you can restore the key later by clicking on the file you saved.
Video Chat
Terry, Montreal, QC
Q: Hi, At my place of work we have chosen to not permit the use of MSN Messenger due to security concerns. I do have a need for impromptu video confernces however as I have remote employees. A potential solution is a MSN Messenger type product that uses the same port as the htpp: protocol. Does such a product exist? thanks
The problem is that you want to do video chat, but your company is blocking inbound ports. You can solve this problem by using a program that does “NAT Traversal” - these programs are designed to go around firewalls. Skype is one good choice. Skype Video Chat works in almost all situations.
Mass MP3 Tagging
Chad, Gwynne, AB
Q: I converted all my music from AAC to MP3 for my other mp3 player. In that process, I lost all my artist information. Is there a program that will search and find the artist information for an MP3? I can do this conversion on both Mac OS and Windows XP, as I have just ordered a new iMac at the date of question submission.
I recommend The Godfather. Free from http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/. It uses freedb, allmusic.org, and Amazon to update your MP3 tags. It can even add album art.
