The Top Twenty - Comments Page 1

Hi, What happened to your Internet Tourbus Newsletter?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Nothing... we just celebrated our 12th birthday. You can sign up at TOURBUS.COM

Hi Bob,
I am looking for a photo flatbed scanner, can you tell me wich brand is good and what to look for in a photo flatbed scanner. I would like to scan photos as well as documents.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Logitech is a good brand, but I've had noname scanners that worked fine.

While doing an upgrade re-install of Windows Anytime Upgrade, my computer is stuck at the Activate Windows screen. After calling on the phone and getting the new activation numbers, I tried to enter them, but the window/page is larger that my screen and I can not get down to where I need to be in order to enter the numbers. Is there some way to change my screen resolution so as to make the window/page smaller? I have a Dell Laptop and the Tech. wants to charge me $129 for a one time fix. The fix Dell will provide is to reset my computer to factory stats.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Pressing the TAB key will get you to the hidden input fields. But maybe installing an external monitor would be easier.

Does anyone have experience or links that show comparison/ ratings of Presto, Celery -
services that would help older ones receive email/photos?
They say it's easy to use.
Thanks.

My daughter has a wireless laptop with Windows Vista. She currently has Firefox as her browser, but would like to reactivate IE. How do I go about doing that without messing up her wireless connection?

EDITOR'S NOTE: It should make no difference which browser she uses. She can even use both at the same time. Nothing needs to be done to "activate" a browser... just click the icon for the browser of your choice and go.

A friend of mine tells me that he has a Pansat Digital Broadcasting Receiver(3500SD). Apparently you simply hook it up to a satellite dish and your TV, and bingo, you have access to thousands of channels free of charge. Now that sounds good to me, but almost too good to be true. Your thoughts Bob?

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Pansat unit is a "Free to Air" satellite receiver that can receive UNENCRYPTED satellite transmissions. Using these satellite receivers, one can receive certain TV signals without a subscription. I'm not sure of the legalities involved. But the caveat is this: Most of the satellite channels you'd be interested in getting ARE encrypted. It's the box you rent from the satellite provider that does the UNencryption and allows you to view those channels.

I think we have all been coned into thinking vista is better.
Because they promoted it on a lie, the lie that the vista search is better than ever, because when I tred it to find things that I would have easily been found by WXP I realised it is a big con in fact the search is about 10 times worse! that is being generous.

My question is what search software can I use with
Vista that works as good as the WXP search? I know a lot of people have been conned in to Believing the lie and therefore given vista good reviews. But I would like your comments.

hey bob... just found u. way cool web, watch for ur snickers and coffee later. doc

Most of the time I am able to receive pictures and or music, but sometimes instead of a picture,
there is a red x in the top lefthand corner of what should be a picture. A friend of mine tells me that jpg has something to do with that. I thought that jpg was the size of a picture. Can you advise me about this? Thanks!

EDITOR'S NOTE: JPG is just the name of an image format. For help with the Red X problem, see http://askbobrankin.com/red_x_appears_instead_of_image.html

what cause the problem if the ball in the mouse is dirty

EDITOR'S NOTE: The mouse picks up dirt from the surface where it is used. Just open the bottom of the mouse and clean it out with your fingers or tweezers.