Nightlife 18 July 2008

The passing of the world's oldest blogger last week shows you're never too old to get on the net.

Olive Riley started a blog at the beginning of last year with the help of her friend at the age of 106.

A blog is an online diary. It’s short for a web log and they have been around since the beginning of the web, in recent years we’ve seen the rise of programs like Wordpress and Blogger that have made it easier.

You can setup your own blog using these tools. Blogger is one the easier tools while Wordpress allows more flexibility if you decide to go further with it.

If you are looking at advice for seniors wanting to start with computers, the Australian Senior's Computer Club Association lists the computer clubs near you.

New Internet naming system

ICANN, the Internet Corporation on Assigned Names and Numbers, has proposed a new system for setting up top names, known as Top Level Domains (TLDs).

This means it will be possible to add different domains to the existing .com or .com.au domain name. For instance Telstra or the ABC would be able to use a .telstra or .abc name

None of this is going to happen soon as the system won't be introduced to early next year and each application will take some time to be approved.

Listener's questions

We covered some interesting questions from listeners, these included reading documents into your computer, changing your screen size and using Windows software on an Apple Mac.

Windows on a Mac

Robert asked about running his share trading software on an Apple Mac. He's been told by the supplier of the program it doesn't have a Mac version.

There are two options to running Windows software on a Mac; dual booting or virtualisation.

Virtualisation software creates a mini machine within a machine. Parallels is probably the best of the Mac software for running Windows.

The problem with Virtualisation is it takes up a lot of memory and can have compatibility problems.

Dual boot systems, using Apple's Bootcamp, gives you the choice of Windows or Mac when starting your system. Macs perform very well with these systems.

Either way, you need a licensed copy of Windows XP if you are taking either course.

Our view is that it's best to run the software on the platform it's designed for. So if a program is designed for Windows XP, then it should be run on XP.

In Robert's case this is a problem as many programs designed for XP or earlier struggle with Vista's more stringent security.

Our recommendation is to give the program a go on a vista system. If you buy a system running Vista Business or Ultimate, you are entitled to downgrade to XP and Robert should discuss this when buying the system.

Changing screen resolution

Rita's found her screen is too big and wanted to know how to change the size.

This is the screen resolution and can be fixed by right clicking the background of the desktop, clicking Properties and the Settings tab.

In the settings tab, move the Screen Resolution slider to the right to make the screen "bigger".

If you find the screen goes strange or blank, don't panic. If you wait a few seconds the screen will go back to the previous settings.

Upcoming spots

The next Nightlife spot is scheduled for 10pm on August 22. We hope you can join us then. If you'd like to be kept up to date with our ABC schedules and other computer issues then please subscribe to our newsletter.