Tips for using the new forum

[scott]

Hi Ralph, sorry for the delay. And also sorry, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. :-) If you still need help please elaborate.
Thanks,
Scott

[Michael]

Hi Scott,
There's something a little screwy about the board. Fletcher posted a message at 9:48 p.m. and I saw when he was on so this is true but when I clicked on his name it said the last time he was on was 8:54 p.m.

[ken_behrendt]

Michael...

I think the problem might be that a lot of posters here do not have their correct GMT time set on their Profile pages. Apparently, the posts appear on the threads in the order established by the GMT times for individual posters. So, it's actually possible for a person who posts after you to have his post appear before yours does! This is a problem that could be solved if all incoming posts where given the time stamp of when they were actually received rather than the one the poster erroneously assigned to them.

ken

[scott]

Fletcher posted a message at 9:48 p.m. and I saw when he was on so this is true but when I clicked on his name it said the last time he was on was 8:54 p.m.

It says he logged in at 8:54, but it also says his last online duration was 1 hour and 24 minutes. Makes sense to me.

On a related note, why are you spying on Fletcher? :-)

I think the problem might be that a lot of posters here do not have their correct GMT time set on their Profile pages. Apparently, the posts appear on the threads in the order established by the GMT times for individual posters. So, it's actually possible for a person who posts after you to have his post appear before yours does!

This is *definitely* not the case. All times are stored in the database as unix timestamps. This is a 32bit integer value containing the number of seconds since the unix epoch event which is January 1st 1970 00:00:00 GMT. This value is global in nature and will be the same wherever you are in the world. These timestamps are then displayed in GMT format for non-logged in users or in the time zone format selected in the profile for logged in users.

This is a problem that could be solved if all incoming posts where given the time stamp of when they were actually received rather than the one the poster erroneously assigned to them.

This is exactly the way the system works which is why it is not a problem at all.

-Scott

[Michael]

It doesn't actually say time first logged on Scott it says last visit, so you can see why I didn't understand.

As for your second question the two aren't related and the only thing I can tell you is Fletcher is one of our highly trained ninja spies on a secret covert mission to .....................
I think your a little guilty of conspiricy yourself.

Seriously though, just playing with some of the features of the board. I noticed there was a delay sometimes when I saw a name of someone logged in and when messages come up. :)

[Fletcher]

Michael .. you've blabbed & blown my cover ! Well at least I can keep a secret, it's the people I tell you can't trust :)

[ken_behrendt]

Scott wrote:

This value is global in nature and will be the same wherever you are in the world. These timestamps are then displayed in GMT format for non-logged in users or in the time zone format selected in the profile for logged in users.

Thanks for clearing this up for us. I think I was confused because I think I can remember seeing someone else's post appear prior to mine in a thread by several hours even though their post had not been there just as I was starting to write my own post which certainly did not require hours. Maybe they just submitted their post a few minutes before mine, but the incorrect GMT they entered in their profile only made it seem like it was posted hours earlier.


ken

[rlortie]

Help! need a computer guru to assist in the following problems.

When I open a received e-mail attached photo my computer is doing so with "Paint" it makes the picture so huge that only 1/4 of it can be seen without scrolling up-down and right left.

I prefer opening such attachments with "MS Picture and fax viewer" Or "MS picture It 2000" Where and how do I go about changing the default settings back to another application besides "Paint"

Second related problem is: when I send an attached picture some but not all the recipients is receiving it in a .dat file which is un-open able. Example; I sent "me" a picture in .jpg and he received a file called winmail.dat.

Same thing happened when I attempted to send a .bmp "paint" picture to Steve. He was the first to write back asking what a .dat file was. I did not know and after a computer search found over 200 usages related to 'Documents and settings' and my Norton antivirus application.

Is there any one out there that can help me on this.

Thanks in advance!

Ralph

[scott]

Hi Ralph, you are using MS Outlook as your email client. (Also known as MS Lookout :-) The winmail.dat file is what people who don't use Outlook will see when you send them and email.

http://www.gpc.edu/~jbenson/resource/winmail.htm
http://www.pchell.com/support/winmaildat.shtml

As for the applications that Outlook uses to open email attachments, I don't know if those are configured in Outlook itself or if Outlook just uses the system defaults. If it uses the system default, you can try associating the file extension with an application in Windows by following the instructions in this post: http://www.besslerwheel.com/forum/viewt ... 2958#22958
In particular:

Now find the file in Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) wherever you saved it on your hard drive. Left click the file once to select it, then hold the shift key and right click the file. In the popup menu select "Open With..." then click "Choose Program..." Eventually a list of programs will appear, find the application you want to use in the list and click the "always use this program" option, then click OK.

I don't use Outlook so I can't help much more than that.
-Scott

[ME]

Ralph, I mailed you a reply almost the same as Scott gave... does it help?

I have Hotmail:
* Online I there was the dat file
* in Outlook Express there was no attachement

* I just added the account to the 'Normal' Outlook, Now I have two jpegs
- I thought Hotmail only worked with express -

[rlortie]

Thanks Scott and Me,

Yes I recently switched from Outlook Express to Office Outlook. The reason was so that I could install a translator program that was not compatable with Outlook Express. I can not type a letter in English and send it in French Spanish or German.

Due to a short term memory, I will print out your above instructions and see if I can muddle my way through it.

Me, I managed to get one of the two pictures reduced in size but it still is coming up as a jpg file in paint.

Bear with me and I will get both pictures to you even if i have to reactivate Outlook Express to do it.

Ralph

[ME]

repeat: Now I have two jpegs (2048x1536)

They look very nice (see Priv.Msg)
I can easily reduce them in size..
State the prefered image dimensions and filetype, and I'll send them back to you.

[rlortie]

Me,

did they open in paint or some other program? were they four time the size of your monitor? Like to know so that I can figure out why all my pictures end up in Paint. Darn thing will let you do a "save as" but will not let you choose the application you wish to open it in.

As for sizing and returning:
In case I ever decide to post to the forum, If you could size them with the allowable pixel count that the forum will accept would be great. Also any file type that is excepted here will be just fine.

I am about ready to delete "Paint" from my computer, it seems to think it should run everything. Hmmm! I wonder if I could export it to my F: drive that would kill it on C:files and settings, but I could still access it.

Ralph

[ME]

did they open in paint or some other program? were they four time the size of your monitor?

I use PaintShop Pro, and no problems with opening those files.
When I doubleclick the image will open in the ImageViewer of Windows, this sucks too but will do for a fast quickview (I use it too quickly look at some stored MT drawings)

The Image size is 2048 pixels wide and 1536 pixel high.
If you see the image about 4 times the monitor size, I guess you have a monitor with a resolution of 640 by 480. Maybe it is possible to make your resolution bigger

(If you want to know, my monitor resolution is 1280x1024. I like bigger pictures so I can do more accurate calculations on them)

If you could size them with the allowable pixel count that the forum will accept would be great

I have send you smaller versions (640x480) by E-mail.. Jpeg will do just fine

Like to know so that I can figure out why all my pictures end up in Paint. Darn thing will let you do a "save as" but will not let you choose the application you wish to open it in.

There are several methods to open a file in the right program.

1. Open Program, >Menu>File>Open, select the damn file

2. Open Program, Drag the file from the explorer window into the program.

3. In case both are maximized (full screen), And you did forget that the "button with two rectangles" at the right top of a window is meant to make that window some smaller, then you can do this:
Right-click the file, select Copy (or press Ctrl-C), Go to the program and Paste it in there (or Press Ctrl-V), or Select >Menu>Edit>Paste

4. Right-click the file, Select "Open with..", "select program", Select the program from the list, And you could hit the "Always open with.." checkbox.

5. I don't think you have your system set for showing hidden directories, but you could also place a shortcut in the "Send to" directory (I use this one)

6.
As in many programs (not Paint) you can set the "file associations".. Maybe you can look it up in the helpfile of the program you use.
If not in the help, look in the menu under "Preference", or "Options".
This allows the program to associate itself with this filetype. (like nr. 4)

7. You can dive into the registry to manually set all the file associations, but I can not recommend this.

8. There is Always another way.

I am about ready to delete "Paint" from my computer, it seems to think it should run everything. Hmmm! I wonder if I could export it to my F: drive that would kill it on C:files and settings, but I could still access it.

Yup Paint sucks (But don't mind me, I also think Photoshop sucks; although nice for ripping PDF files and using some effects)

If you export (read 'copy' or 'move') your files to another drive your will still have the same Paint problem. Doing so will only get your more angry. Because you would have done it, if you were more familiar with the Operating System.
Therefore I also do not recommend deleting the Paint program.

hope this helps

Marchello

[SeaWasp]

Ralph.. You may have a firewall issue which is blocking the transmission of possibly "unsafe" files! If you have Nortons, (which I don't), there may be an outbound and or inbound email protection which is hindering the transmission of those files. You may have to check your Norton application to verify this.

I had a similar situation happen to me with Zonealarm and their "Mailsafe" option.

Spiros.