Q–A while ago, you reviewed the Handspring Visor handheld computer that competes with the Palm III and Palm V and gave it rave reviews. Since then, I haven’t seen anything mentioned and I’ve seen a lot of ads and reviews for Palms.
Have you changed your mind about the Handspring Visor…is it not as good a deal as it first sounded, etc.? Would I be better off with a Palm?
Lornetta Hooks @gower.k12.il.us
A–The Handspring Visor continues to be less expensive and just as good or better than the hugely popular Palm III and V line of handheld, handwriting-recognizing computers. Sadly, you’re hearing less about this fine productivity powerhouse because the company apparently can’t turn them out fast enough.
The Visor looks much like Palm IIIs, with a palm-sized liquid crystal screen and a stylus to use the easily learned Graffiti handwriting recognition method. It outdoes current Palms by offering connections to PCs or Macs by way of easy universal serial bus ports, and it ships with PC and Mac compatibility in the same box.
About the only advice I could offer is that if you can find a Handspring, don’t stand on your head; buy it, Ms. H.
Q–Where are cookies stored so I can delete them and, ideally, get a warning when I have entered a site that will create a cookie?
Pat Dyer, Evanston
A–Dark suspicion is the natural human response to learning that when one visits many Web sites, those Web sites create files known as cookies that are stored on one’s hard drive. Cookies are created for later use when you revisit the cookie-writing Web site.
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This is an undeniable assault on one’s privacy, because the purpose of cookies is to collect specific information about a computer user that can be read by the creators of the Web site every time the visitor drops by after the first cookie-creating visit.
Cookie files typically hold passwords so one doesn’t have to sign on again and again during multiple visits. They also can hold preferences dictating what is displayed on the screen when targeted visitors drop by. The cookies also can hold all kinds of private information about a visitor if that visitor has filled out questionnaires giving personal data in the past.
Most Internet users (myself definitely included) don’t fret much over cookies, because the information they contain is pretty innocuous stuff and because they really do make using the Net quite a bit more rewarding than it would be without them.
To investigate what’s in cookies and to zap them if you want, click on the Start button in Windows and select the Find Files/Folders option. Type in the word cookies in the box that comes up and you will get a display of all the cookie files on your machine, each of which can be opened and read with a single click.
To order your Windows Internet Explorer to reject cookies, you can click on Tools in the Browser and select the tab marked Security that comes up next.
Q–Two and one-half years ago, I bought what I thought and hoped would be my last computer. It had all the speed and capacity I thought I would ever need: a Pentium II with 3.8 gig hard drive? However, the Gateway computer came with Windows 95 with a partitioned hard drive. The C drive has now achieved all but total capacity, but I have plenty of room on the D drive.
Almost without fail, several times a day I am advised I have no disk space and must empty my cache and temporary files. This can be quite a drag when you know you have plenty of room on the other drive. I called Gateway and was advised not to use the compression command available on Windows 95. Can you tell me why, and how can I move things from the C to D drives to free up space?
Any ideas on how to solve my problem, short of buying a new computer?
Bob DePaul @ix.netcom.com
A–The Gateway techie apparently talked too fast to let it sink in. You can restore your machine from a bloated C drive and an empty D drive into a machine with a usable C drive only using Windows utilities for compression. To get the command, you need to click the Start button, then Accessories and then System Tools. You will find a choice called Compression Agent that will walk you through the process of rebuilding your hard drive into a single C unit.
Q–My Aptiva IBM with Windows 98 has performed well until recently when (probably due to my fiddling) my computer shuts off and restarts when I dial up my Internet provider. If I then Shut Down from my Start button, I get a message “You can safely shut down your computer.” I then must manually shut off my computer, whereas in the past it automatically closed itself down. When I then restart my computer I can usually, but not always, make contact with my provider and get on the Net.
Sounds crazy, but there it is; not a lethal problem, but it sure slows me down.
Dr. Ed Wilt @mc.net
A–The great thing about those Windows 98 Aptivas from IBM is that they come with a recovery CD-ROM that allows you to do something no human doctor can do, Doc: Administer a brain transplant.
The recovery disc can perform either one of two operations; it can simply restore the operating system, leaving everything else intact, or it can restore your computer to the exact state it was in when you took it out of the box.
I hope just using the lesser treatment will produce the cure. This restoration will rewrite the software for your Internet dialer among other modules and, ideally, set it the way it was before things went wrong.
If not, you can go for the full brain transplant. But keep in mind that the full restoration will require you to back up all your data files and then reinstall any software you have loaded since buying the machine.
Q–You recently reviewed software used to write novels and screenplays. Unfortunately, I lost the column. Could you please tell me the name of the product?
By the way, I enjoy your columns immensely, even though I’m not much of computer geek.
Tom Clark @milmour.com
A–Ouch! I’m a geek in one breath and in the next I hold the secret to writing the Great American Novel. I plead guilty as charged, Mr. C., particularly to the geek count. I’m not too sure that I have the answer to writing novels with software, but wannabe writers everywhere are going to love DramaticaPro 4.0 from Screenplay Systems Inc. of Burbank, Calif. (screenplay.com).
The software carries a nosebleed high $400 sticker price, but using it is an amazing experience, as it leads an author through the mechanics of character creating, plot writing, story development, scene setting, dialog writing and the rest of the writer’s toolkit.
The coaching is done in the form of asking a user questions. The questions become more fine-tuned until the final product emerges as a solid first draft ready for final polishing the old-fashioned way.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or snail mail at the baiduhai, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60611. If you think you’ve got a better answer to any of these questions, add your point of view at chicagotribune.com/go/askjim.