Oh no! More boring computer problems! Oh no!

Also, File Juicer will juice into HTML and text. (xp)

FileJuicer is a super duper utility that has saved my beans more than once.

Dan - you could try downloading a bare bones text editor like Haxial's Text Edit, which should show you the characters in any text file:

http://www.haxial.com/products/textedit/

email me the file, I'll hex edit that mother fucker up if you want.

I really don't think there's anything to edit. That Haxial program just shows gibberish as well.

RIP standard operating procedures and workflow suggestions...

Probably the victim of an ASCII mode FTP xfer.

just say no to non binary ftp kids.

I am also more than happy to try to decode the file if you want to send it to me.

xp: Waht about when you are xferring files from yr EBCDIC VAX?????

there was no FTP. The file just one day went corrupt. The original is still sitting on the computer on which it was made. I see the icon, then sometimes when I click on it, it disappears. The copies I made of it are all gibberish.

OK, this file is seriously corrupt. I tried everything I had on it with zero luck. Sorry, Dan.

thanks in any case, it was worth a shot.

Maybe snag a free copy of TextWrangler and try opening the file with it?

OK. So when I'm leaving the house or going to sleep I close all programs and shut down my PC, as is decent behaviour. This I do by the time honoured start > turn off computer > Shut Down commands, plus waiting until the whole thing has clearly ceased activity before leaving. Yet about 50% of the time (at the moment) I come back in some hours later and it isn't in fact switched off at all. Is this a familiar thing with people, and if so what do you do about it? Pretty sure it's not my housemate dicking around on it, no

I, uh, never shut down.

Often mine struggles to shutdown a particularly process, and unless I shut that process down manually it won't shut down the system.

The other thing it could be is accidentally choosing restart instead of shutdown, I've done this sometimes.

Just sounds like Windows being Windows, honestly.

So, everything about my Apple OS X silver fancy pants MacBook Pro was cool until my cat came and sat on it (he likes the warmth and heat of it) and his paws seemed to hit a keycommand that fucked up my computer and reversed all the colors. Help! Help!

apple-option-control-8

B-but cats are colorblind!

Am now attempting to envision exact sequence of motions...

thanks libcrypt!

So uh any streaming experts on here?

Trying to stream video (from mlb.com, as it happens) through IE in WinXP; the site uses Windows Media Player. My problem is probably not unusual: buffering pauses, apparent (near-)dropouts etc. Monitoring the Network tab of the Task Manager...

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b356/olem/strrream.jpg

I notice two things. (1) A fetching sawtooth pattern, yielding almost ok video, but with intermittent buffering. (2) Periods with way low transmission rate, when obv it's like a poor slideshow with sound.

Now, the problem could be several places:

(A) At my end; ie my internet connection and/or domestic wireless network transmission. My take: Pretty unlikely; trying other Internet activity, eg to refresh another page in the browser, yields instant results. (Note e.g. the non-sawtooth segment just to the right of "Byte per intervall" -- that's me bringing up ILX.)

(B) With ISP. My take: As above, for same reason.

(C) With the service provider, ie mlb.com in this case. My take: Not entirely unlikely per se, but I've experienced similar things from several other sources, usually (but not exclusively) using WMP. (Flash players, for instance, seem to do this close to never.)

(D) With WMP. These patterns suggest to me that it is the streaming application itself that is causing this, trying to hog no more bandwidth than necessary for OK streaming, and missing slightly (except for the near-dropout periods, when it misses mightily), making stuff close to unwatchable. Am I just paranoid, or could some "bandwidth management algorithm" for "optimizing my streaming experience" be responsible for this?

Hewp!

I would go with option C as most likely, the cause being more people trying to stream video than the server can reasonably handle.

hellos. two problems, in order of urgency... if anyone can help, i will be so hugely grateful. advice definitely needed.

1) my shitty cheap 2+ years old acer laptop is running interminably slow. if i have itunes running, it sucks up huge amounts of the CPU, and i basically struggle to run word and firefox at the same time. a quick perusal of the internet suggests the registry might be the problem, and the askanerd website suggested a program that will, for $28, scan and repair any registry issues caused by installing tonnes of programs/mp3s over the last few years. is this snake oil? will it kill my laptop?

2) my expensive lovely laptop is currently mothballed, as it won't connect to the broadband internet at my new flat anymore. at my old house, it had no problems. moving to this new flat, and a different BT homehub than it was used to, it would regularly disconnect, and not be able to reconnect. phoning BT and getting their helpers to remotely rejig some of the settings on the laptop/hub would help, temporarily, but often, a week later, the same issue would come up again, necessitating another hour long call to BT. Until, a month ago, it did it again, and abfter 90 minutes the BT guy said it was my laptop at fault, not their software/homehub. but it *recognises the homehub, it just refuses to make the connection somehow. i could send it back to the PC World it came from for a check-up, but i am not sure what to say the problem is...

anyway, too very dull and probably complicated/stupidly-easy problems, but any advice would be great, esp. to the first one, as i am desperate enough to buy software off the internet to solve this problem.

and goddamn i wish i had enough money to get a new laptop

and finally, on my shitty laptop, itunes regularly sucks down 80-90% of my cpu, is this normal???

Sounds like snake oil.

I'd back-up my data and reinstall Windows, or revert to an older version of iTunes if it's the new one causing the problems.

Or download Ccleaner for free to clear your registry - http://www.ccleaner.com/

Or maybe uninstall iTunes and use http://lifehacker.com/5200534/install-itunes-without-the-extra-bloat

much obliged james, will explore those options now...

As for the good laptop, try cleaning out the remembered networks for the wireless adapter. Open the wireless network device through the network control panel then I think it is in the advanced tab. At the bottom is a list of stored networks. Clear that out and try connecting again.

dump the bt home hub

thanks for the advice ed, though iy didn't seem to help. and i think you're right, DG, though it isn't an option at the moment.

the left and right arrow keys on my mac have inexplicably stopped working. i didn't spill anything on them. up and down are fine. ideas anyone?

is it a laptop?

yes

Do you have a USB keyboard you could try?

hmm, no! and a day on and the keys still don't work

slight whirring noise in my MacBook.

not loud, not clicking. but consistent, annoying when the room is quiet. goes away only sometimes.

fan? backing everything up now but i'm concerned.

still whirring... :/

ok granted it's very subtle. like if there's a little room noise u would be hard pressed to hear it. but i just had a hard drive crash in may and can't really take another one. will prolly go to GeniusBar.

my macbook whirrs constantly, more so when hot

how old is yours, surm? mine is a 2007 model iirc

Casuistry (no longer with us on ILX) had a Mac that whirred very loudly. I think he said it was the power source, but not sure.

My laptop (2005 Dell Inspiron) will not stay off. I power it off and a few hours later it comes on again. Weird!

Whirring is usually fan for power supply and thus intended and harmless, though I've had it go crazy on at least three computers (which were all Dell desktop PCs and not laptop Macs, though). The last one went enough haywire to stall startup of the machine whilst revving up to what seemed like jet-engine sound levels, and I had to restart the box repeatedly until the BIOS or whatever kicked in before the fan did (53 times on the highest count, no kidding).

While whirring may be annoying, I guess the thing to pay notice to regarding the health of the machine is if there's any change to how it behaves over time.

Outlook Express seems to be freezing and I can't get to task manager when it's running to get a look at it - I end up resetting each time.
So I thought it was probably time to do an online virus scan. However, every single website I try after searching Google - Panda, House Call, AVG, Kaspersky etc - none of their sites will load ("Cannot find server" in both Firefox and IE) - as if my net connection was down - but all other sites work fine.

I'm getting the scans through other sites and running a Spybot S&D, but wondered if this was likely to be deliberate, caused by a virus? I haven't come across this before.

Maybe try http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/ if the others are blocked

Don't think Outlook Express is being developed anymore. Maybe try using Windows Live Mail instead - http://download.live.com/wlmail

> none of their sites will load ("Cannot find server" in both Firefox and IE)

check your hosts file - malware sometimes rewrites it to stop people accessing anti-virus sites

(or try downloading them on a working pc)

Yeah sorry, my post was a bit garbled - I'd never heard of a virus preventing you accessing anti-virus sites. Ummm... how do I check the hosts file/ get around this? I don't have another pc I can use.