E-Mail Preview Problems Can Be a Pane
Q: Increasing numbers of commercial e-mail messages automatically trigger my Internet browser even though I want to trash the message without reading more than the header. To select the unwanted message to then trash it, I must select that message header. In so doing, the browser is launched. Is there a way to configure my applications so that such unwanted e-mail messages cannot automatically trigger the browser? I use Eudora 5.0 as my e-mail application and the current version of Netscape as my browser.
A: We think you’re describing an issue related to what’s known as the preview pane used in most e-mail software. It gives you a quick peek at the message without having to double-click and fully open it. You can turn off the preview pane, which is a pretty smart thing to do, because lots of nasty new viruses can be triggered if they show up in the preview pane.
This procedure can vary depending on the version of Eudora that people are using, but you--and most other Eudora users--can turn off the preview pane by going to the Tools menu, hitting the Options menu and then clicking on the Viewing Mail option to the left. Uncheck the Preview Pane option, and it will disappear.
Q: I have a Gateway computer with both CD-ROM and CD-RW installed. The program used to burn CDs is Adaptec Easy CD Creator Version 4.02. The problem is with audio CDs. I selected 15 tracks from three different CDs and put them in the order I wanted. I burned the CD, and it was successful. But the computer rearranged the tracks. How do I make sure that the CD comes out with the tracks in the order I want them?
A: The friendly geeks at Q&A; pronounce themselves baffled. We checked with Adaptec tech support, and they couldn’t figure out what was going on either. There are so many, many things that can go wrong when trying to burn a CD, but what you’re describing usually isn’t a problem. Anybody with any suggestions is encouraged to enlighten us all.
Q: How often should I turn off my PC and monitor? I’ve heard varying answers from people over the years. Every night. Every weekend. Never. Turn off the monitor but not the computer. I do not run any scheduled tasks or let the computer slip into sleep mode. I run a screen saver.
A: Your computer’s key components, such as the hard disk drive and the monitor, are usually rated in terms of hours of use before failure, so any time they don’t have juice running through them should extend their effective life before you can expect a failure. (Older monitors used to suffer from “burn in” which is why screen savers were invented, but screen savers are mostly just for fun these days.)
Power surges and such can reduce the life of components; likewise, the expansion and contraction of components caused by heating and cooling when the power is turned on and off can also reduce the life of your stuff.
In addition, the Windows operating system suffers from this lovely problem called a memory leak. If you leave it on long enough--that is, if you can get it to stay on without crashing--eventually the system will think it’s out of memory and you’ll have to reboot. About a year ago, Microsoft announced its researchers had discovered a problem that cropped up only when Windows had been running for about a month. The gag in the geek community: How did they get it to run that long?
For all those reasons, we generally turn off our box every evening. That gives us a clean start during the day and is a reasonably good compromise in terms of wear and tear on components.
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Dave Wilson is The Times’ personal technology columnist. Submit questions to Tech Q&A; at techtimes@latimes.com.
