| Sorry Mac & Linux users - this page
is mainly for Windows users! (But do check out “Copying Software &
Licences”!) As Christians using
computers, not only do we need to know how to get the best out of the things, we also need
to use them ethically. Hopefully these pages will be of assistance! No particular order to
the stuff, so skim through & pick out those bits you didn't know ;-)
If you feel guilty (or just little,
anyway) about spending money computing equipment, then visit After Hours Computing, the UK's first and only non-profit making
computer company.
Ctrl+S -
Saving Your Stuff!
Copying Software & Licences, Useful
Software (Free!), FAQ's
If you enjoy retyping pages of work and repeating alterations
and improvements, then read no further, but if you have a natural aversion to endlessly
repeating work which the computer has “lost”, or which has vanished because the
PC crashed before you could save your work, then this little tip may prove helpful. When
you start a fresh document, a fresh piece of work, then press the Ctrl and “S”
keys together. In almost all Windows programs this will bring up a dialogue box the first
time you press them. Select a name for your document. Make sure that it is the right type
of file (in Microsoft Word, if the last document was saved as plain text, it may try to
save your carefully formatted letter of complaint to the Prime Minister as plain text
also!) and make sure it is going to be saved where you can find it. If, like most people
who use Windows 95/98, you use My Documents to store your work, make sure that you create
a folder inside that for your own work If yours is the family PC, and then create folders
for different topics - a schoolchild might have C:\My Documents\Jack, with subfolders
called \Maths, \English, \Games, etc. This way, you can always find your work. If you let
the computer choose for you, you may find that your work is scattered all over the place!
Having done this, work away remembering to press Ctrl+S at regular intervals. Remember
that if the computer crashes whilst you are working, you will have to redo everything up
to the last save. Do not rely on AutoSave - it is seldom reliable, and, it seems, never
when your work is really important!
If you use Microsoft Outlook Express, you will find that it saves your
email in a very weird place (something like "C:\Windows \Application Data \ Microsoft\
{BAED5FA0-97E5-11D3-AD5D-006008816FF4}\ username", which is not very helpful if you
want to backup your email. It is, however, simple to change this. Firstly create a folder
called "Email" (as a subfolder in C:\My Documents, or wherever you like). In
Outlook Express, click on Tools|Options|Maintenance (the location may be slightly
different, depending on which version of Express you’re using) and select Store
Folder. Navigate to your Email folder, select it and click OK. Next time you use Outlook
Express, all of your email will be moved to the new folder, and will be easy to find when
you do a backup. You do perform backups, don’t you?!
There are lots of useful websites which
can help you get the most out of your PC, but personally I strongly recommend Lockergnome
in particular (Many more useful links are on Internet Stuff,
Page 3):
- Lockergnome: http://www.lockergnome.com - Probably the best site
of its kind - visit the site and bookmark it! Better still subscribe to their newsletters:
Read any good computing books recently? Want to read useful tips & how to get the most
out of Microsoft Office & Windows? Click on the logo to see the tip for today &
read Nerdy Books!
Copyright Nerdy Books, 2001
Copying Software & Licences
Top, Useful Software (Free!), FAQ's
There appears to be a lot of confusion about installing
multiple copies of programs, lending CDs to friends for them to install software, and
general software usage. Few people bother to read the licences that software writers
provide (and that’s only partly out of disinterest/ boredom, since licences have
often been written at variance to local laws!), but in general there are the following
types of licence:
 |
Full licence. Generally speaking
if you have one physical CD (or collection of floppy disks), you are entitled to install
one copy onto one PC (or to a desktop & a notebook PC, provided that you & your
family have exclusive use of the software & that only one copy will be used at any one
time). If you wish to lend it to a friend, your legal (and Christian) obligation would be
to uninstall it (remove it) from your PC first, then to lend or give the CD to them.
Software in this category must be treated like a book - only one person can read a book at
any one time. You may purchase additional licences and may then treat each of those
licences as though you had extra CDs. |
|
Luton Churches Directory is a
non-denominational, non-sectarian listing of all churches and Christian organisations in
Luton and Dunstable, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. |
| |
Shareware. This is not free! When
you try out a shareware program, the author is relying on your honesty to evaluate the
program. If you like it and continue to use it, you have an ethical (and Christian)
obligation to pay for it. If you do not like it, or find that you seldom use it, you are
expected to uninstall it from your PC. Most shareware has an evaluation period of 30 days,
after which it should be uninstalled. You are encouraged to give friends the full
shareware package (that is how shareware is distributed), but they are responsible for
evaluating, buying or otherwise. |
|
Luton Churches Directory is a
non-denominational, non-sectarian listing of all churches and Christian organisations in
Luton and Dunstable, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. |
| |
Demo’s (Demonstration
Software). This is usually limited in some way (e.g. games may only have one or two
levels) and although designed to give a taster of the full program, there is no obligation
to buy or remove it from your PC, and you could, if you so wish, continue to use it as
long as you wish. Demo’s may be passed around to friends and freely copied on to
other PCs. |
|
Luton Churches Directory is a
non-denominational, non-sectarian listing of all churches and Christian organisations in
Luton and Dunstable, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. |
| |
“Free” Software off
magazine covers. This is not really free since it is covered by the cost of the magazine.
If someone else wants a copy, they must buy the magazine - the software may not be freely
distributed. Apart from the minimal cost, such software must in all other ways be treated
as full software. |
|
Luton Churches Directory is a
non-denominational, non-sectarian listing of all churches and Christian organisations in
Luton and Dunstable, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. |
| |
Postcardware, careware, free
software. A small amount of software really is free (although some writers request a
postcard, or a donation to charity, which as Christians we will naturally honour) and may
be freely distributed. |
|
Open Source software. Perhaps the
most suitable for use in a church or by Christians in general. This is free to use &
to distribute - in fact you are even encouraged to examine the underlying program code
& to adjust it yourself if you wish, with the sole proviso that you make such changes
available to everyone else also. This software is also untainted by big business
practices. Visit websites like http://freely.jedimoose.org,
http://www.linuxiso.org, http://www.justlinux.com/, http://www.mozilla.org/, http://www.openoffice.org/ and learn about either
changing over from Windows entirely, or if that seems too daunting, at least using
programs like Firefox instead of Internet Explorer (more secure) and OpenOffice instead MS
Office (saving your church around £300+ per PC). Your Bible software should, ideally, be
free also - try e-Sword from www.e-sword.net, which
must be the most comprehensive free Bible software ever! |
If in doubt, select Help|About in the program you are
running. It should say: “Registered to...[your name]” - if it doesn’t,
please make it legal!
Useful Software (Free - but email your thanks to
the author!)
Top, Copying
Software & Licences, FAQ's
 For
the intrepid internet traveller, there are several very useful programs to aid one’s
journey. The first is an excellent picture viewer, IrfanView. You will
find this indispensable utility at http://www.irfanview.com
and it not only allows you to view dozens of different types of picture, but allows you to
edit, rotate, crop, add fancy effects to your pictures and much more. No PC should be
without this!
 Zip programs are vital if you are going to
download software, drivers etc. from the Internet. Zip, along with gzip, tar, lzh, arj and
others, is a way to compress a number of files into a single one, so that they occupy less
space and will cost less to send over the Internet. Zipfiles save you money! Most zip
management programs, however, cost money, like WinZip which is on so many magazine covers,
but why pay (or use shareware long after you are supposed to have uninstalled it?) when
you can use free software like PowerArchiver from http://ipsoft.cjb.net/ (or http://www.davecentral.com/12004.html)?
Alternately check out the ZDNet Archives at http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/hotfiles/free50.html,
which feature several free zip managers. Simply download this to manage all your zipfiles
and to store stuff that you seldom use, in such a way that it takes up less of your
precious hard drive space.
 Strange as it
may seem, PC clocks are notoriously unreliable (a £5 watch keeps better time!), so
download TClock from http://homepage1.nifty.com/kazubon/
and whenever you surf, this little utility will periodically check the time and correct
the time. When you’ve downloaded and run this utility, you need to set the NTP Time
Server to “ntp.cs.strath.ac.uk” (provided you are in the UK! If you are
not, then check in the Help for a list of time servers) and then your PC clock will be
synchronised whenever you are online. Oh yes, if you like, you can customise, not only the
clock in the System Tray, but even your Start Menu and Start button! If you get a weird
error message, it’s because the page is in Japanese, but ignore the error, and
you’ll still be able to see where you must click (you just will not see the pretty
Japanese script, but unless you can read the language, it will be no great loss!)
 This software site is run by a Christian in Australia for the benefit of
the Christian community - well worth the visit! Click on the picture to visit.
You may also enjoy visiting his other site which lists thousands (?!) of Christian sites
around the world - simply click here  to visit.
Please note that PC/IT
information on this site may be freely quoted and reproduced (provided you quote this site
as your source). It may not be distributed by commercial email or for business purposes
without contacting webmaster@lutonchurches.org.uk
and obtaining the appropriate permission |
