How come other computers can do £’s and mine can’t? All I get is #

It must be really annoying if your computer doesn’t do £ signs and you live in the UK. And it’s also frustrating when the @ symbol is in the wrong place.

If you’re having this problem it’s because the language settings on your computer are set to ‘English-US’ rather than ‘English-UK’. This is easily fixed.

There must be a lot of you out there because, from our web statistics, I can see that over 80% of our visitors come from the UK, but less than 10% of our visitors have ‘English-UK’ configured as the preferred language!

Here’s how to change the language setting.
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OK, so you need to be able to create and read Microsoft Word, Excel or Power Point files. Why? Because in the real world that’s what nearly everyone else can do - and it’s handy if other people can read and print out that book you wrote and sent on disk! Equally handy if you can read what they sent you, and useful if you want to transport files between home and work or school.

Problem is how to do this without shelling out even more cash for Microsoft Office? In fact how can you do it for free?
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Have you noticed that your computer seems to be slowing down as time goes on?

There can be a number of reasons for this, one of them being failure to keep on top of some basic housekeeping. If the terms ‘Disk Cleanup’ and ‘Defrag’ (defragment) don’t mean anything to you then the following should help you to speed things up on a Windows operating system.

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Eyes not what they used to be? Hate to admit it, but neither are mine - and I’m forever losing my glasses.

Well, over the past few years most web designers have put an awful lot of work into making their web sites easier to read. Trouble is, I find that most people don’t know how to take advantage of this fact.

How many of you know how to make everything on your computer easier to read? Maybe your hands aren’t as steady as they used to be and using the mouse is a pain, that can be sorted out quite easily too.

If you, or somebody you know, might benefit then read on…

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Feel safe because you’re using the Windows firewall? Don’t - it’s not very good. Firewall? What’s a firewall? Using the anti-virus program that came with your computer? Are you sure it’s up to date, and have you got anti-spyware software?

This posting tells you how to keep your data as secure as possible when connected to the Internet. And how you can do it for free! Oh! - and it’s easy.
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Well, it’s that time of year when many of us turn our thoughts to the old bank balance.
So, in this post I thought I’d point out one web site and one bit of free software that might help you to get things under control.
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Both of the two sites that I’m going to recommend here have been around the net for some time now, and neither actually produce any original content of their own. Even though they’re nothing to do with the Quantocks they’re so good I’ve had them buried away at the bottom of the links page of Quantock Online since 2000.
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For my first post I really can’t do better than to introduce you to
TED.com . And by way of introduction I can’t do better than quote from their web site.

[TED] aims to provide a platform for the world’s smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries and most-inspiring teachers, so that millions of people can gain a better understanding of the biggest issues faced by the world, and a desire to help create a better future. Core to this goal is a belief that there is no greater force for changing the world than a powerful idea.

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