ItsGeekToMe.co

Q: Is there a way that my daughter (who has a brand new Apple laptop) can continue to open the PPS, Word, W Media player things we used to share before her Windows laptop expired? 

– Claudette M.
Fort Walton Beach, Fla

A: Sure, Claudette.  There is a version of MS Office available that runs native under the MAC OS.  Its files are fully-compatible with the Windows version of Office, so your daughter will be able to open all her old files, and will be able to continue to share files from Office applications with family and friends.  Visit apple.com/maxosx/compatibility/ for more information.

Q: When I click on My Computer then Recovery D, to see what is on a disc, I get a pop up titled Recovery Partition-Windows Internet Explorer, the window states “to help protect your security, Internet Explorer has restricted this web page from running scripts or Activex controls that could access your computer.  Click here for options.  After clicking, there is a line that says Allow Blocked Content.  I clicked on it and get a security window.  I click yes nothing changes.  Interestingly enough I am not on the internet.  I have simply plugged a CD into the drive and clicked to view it.  The rest of the pop up states “protected by PC Angel” and gives the following warning ” Recovery Partition warning this are of your hard disc(or partition) contains files used for your system recovery.  Do not delete or alter these files. Any change to this partition could prevent any recovery later.”

– Hank B.
Bluewater Bay, Fla

A: The above represents less than half of what Hank wrote to me.  Readers, please try and keep your letters as short as possible, as the newspaper only allows me around 500 words for the column.  What you’re seeing, Hank, is the normal behavior of a protected recovery partition.  This is something many computer manufacturers provide so that if your system becomes corrupt, you can restore it to its original factory settings.  The restoration process is fully automated, and kicks off usually by your pressing one of the “F” keys during boot-up.  There is no reason that you would need to browse, or otherwise look at the files, and in fact, doing so can actually break the automated recovery process, making it unavailable when you need it.  That’s why the vendor prevents you from accessing them. 

Hey fellow Geeks and Geekettes, it’s almost Christmas light time again!  In celebration of Jesus’ birth, the “Geek Lights on the Corner” light show is coming back, and this year it’s bigger and better than ever.  I, your humble Geek, have been hard at work for months, building new displays and programming light sequences.  I’ve added 64 new control channels, and almost 8,000 new lights to bring the total to over 20,000 lights – each and every one computer controlled and synched to music.  Whether you saw last year’s show or not, you’re in for a treat.  The free shows start on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and run through New Year’s.  Watch this space for more information, and directions.