Dennis Faas

A CD / DVD recorder is a compact disc drive that can be used to produce discs readable in other CD / DVD-ROM drives. A DVD recorder similarly produces DVD discs playable in stand-alone video players or DVD-ROM drives. They are generally used for ... small-scale archival or data exchange, being slower and more materially expensive than the moulding process used to mass-manufacture pressed discs. The recorder encodes (or burns) data onto a recordable CD-R, DVD-R or DVD+R disc (called a blank) by selectively heating parts of an organic dye layer in the disc with a laser in its write head. This ... (view more)

Synopsis: What would you do if your computer crashed and you suddenly lost all of your personal music files, movie files, picture files, email data, or documents? Don't take that chance -- ensure that your most critical files are backed up with ... Avantrix Backup Plus: DVD (and CD) Edition, today! With Avantrix Backup Plus, you can backup to CD and DVD media without the need for pre formatting or packet writing software. Avantrix Backup Plus supports CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM and Dual Layer DVD media. Avantrix Backup Plus DVD [and CD] Edition: Screenshots Click to view: ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jim B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have Windows XP and Nero Express CD burning program. I have burned many audio CDs using .WAV, and .MP3 source sound files. The one thing that can't understand, however, is why the track titles never ... get burned onto my audio CD. They always show up as 'Track 1' and 'Track 2', instead of the actual song title. Can you recommend a good burning program that will burn titles also? " My response: Just to recap: the type of CD you are referring to is a standard audio CD -- the kind that you can play in virtually any CD player. In ... (view more)

The Moving Picture Experts Group ( MPEG ) is a working group of ISO/IEC charged with the development of video and audio encoding standards. Since its first meeting in 1988, MPEG has grown to include approximately 350 members from various industries ... and universities. MPEG's official designation is ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29 WG11. MPEG (pronounced EM-peg) has standardized the following compression formats and ancillary standards: MPEG-1: Initial video and audio compression standard. Later used as the standard for Video CD, and includes the popular Layer 3 (MP3) audio compression format. MPEG-2: ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Al D. writes: " Dear Dennis, A little while back, I wrote to you about a problem I had not being able to view my thumbnail pictures when browsing my video files. Normally the thumbnail view provides a still photo for each file, so ... that I can preview and identify the proper video. At any rate: I have hundreds of video clips on my computer (mostly in .mpeg video format). Shortly after I installed Nero Vision Express 3 (a CD / DVD burning software program), I lost the ability to preview my thumbnails. Now when I use the thumbnail view, I get a standard Windows Media ... (view more)

Synopsis: What do you get when you mix a cute and fuzzy Hamster, a plastic ball, and a whacky obstacle course? Answser: Hamster Ball -- the 3D puzzle game, of course! Take control of Hammy and his plastic ball of death and go a-rollin' through the ... craziest maze of courses you've ever seen! But be careful, because the clock is ticking and everything is out to stop you! Download Hamster Ball now and see why it was voted the Downloadable Game of the Year by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences! Hamster Ball Gold: Screenshots Click to view: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3. Hamster Ball Gold: ... (view more)

Malware Malware , or "malicious software" is a generic term used to describe various types of malevolent programs. Below are some of the most common forms of malware. Virus Viruses have used many sorts of hosts. When computer viruses first ... originated, common targets were executable files that are part of application programs and the boot sectors of floppy disks. More recently, most viruses have embedded themselves in e-mail as Email attachments, depending on a curious user opening the viral attachment. In the case of executable files, the infection routine of the virus arranges that ... (view more)

Synopsis: Got a bunch of pictures that need to be converted into another graphic format? AutoImager is a full-featured batch image converter and editor software application. AutoImage is very user friendly because it's completely 'interface-driven' ... -- simply pick the files you wish to convert or process, choose the options for the conversion or processing task, and you're ready to begin! All operations can be performed in batch mode for an entire list of selected images, and multiple filters can be applied to a single image in one batch conversion! This makes AutoImager a unique and a very ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joe B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been desperately trying to clean my computer of a nasty Malware / Spyware infection for the last 5 days. A characteristic of something that is going on is that while I'm typing along in a window, ... the window is suddenly de-activated and I have to mouse back to the window to activate it and continue typing. It's most irritating! I believe I have resolved the majority of the Spyware infection, however there are 4 files that keep reappearing even after I delete them. I can't seem to find instructions on the web, either. I'm not sure what ... (view more)

A Service Pack (more commonly known as "SP") is a software program that corrects known bugs, problems, or adds new features (and/or both). Companies that produce large applications such as Microsoft and their Windows NT-based operating systems ... typically release a service pack when the number of individual patches to the application becomes too large. Service Packs are easier to install than groups of patches, especially with multiple computers that need to be updated over a network. Windows NT 4.0 currently has 6 Service Packs. Windows 2000 currently has 4 Service Packs. Windows XP ... (view more)