Why doesn't my latest posting appear at the top of the blog?

There are situations where the latest postings do not appear at the top of the blog.  This happens when you start a blog posting, interrupt yourself to do something else, then complete another posting.  When you subsequently finish the first posting and click on [PUBLISH POST], the posting time is the time at which the posts were started.

The order in which posts appear in the blog is normally sorted by posting date and time order.  It is possible to modify the posting date and time by clicking on the [Post Options] lable when you are creating or editing a blog, and put in the posting time.  When you then publish the post, this will put the posting in the previous place.  By putting a  Post date and time in the future and then pressing [PUBLISH POST], you can specify when the post will show up on the blog.

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How to get devices to run when the installation CDs are not available?

The information here is relevant for Microsoft Windows PCs.  It may not be relevant to non-PCs or non Windows systems.

Many devices require installation of relevant software drivers before they function.  The drivers of a  large number of devices are already included in the Windows directory of the machine, and are installed when the device is plugged in.  If that is the case, it generally means the device has been certified for the operating system.  If not, especially if the device is too new or too old,  the next place to look at would be the Microsoft.com site, or on the installation disk that came with the device or with the computer.

If the driver is not available on either of these, it is possible to download the appropriate driver from the website of the device manufacturer or the component manufacturer.  The drivers may usually, but not always, be accessed by going to the Download or Support section of the site, and putting in whatever information is available about the device model or part number and searching the site.

When a new device is attached to a computer, Windows checks to see if it already has certified drivers for it, and if so, happily installs it.  If it does not, or if you prefer, it gives you the option of giving hints as to where else the driver might be.  The various places include any relevant CD or particular media you want it to look at, or the Microsoft update site.  If a suitable driver is found in any of these places, they may be installed.  Otherwise you may have to search the manufacturer's site manually.

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Why use Group mailing list instead of individual email addresses?

The email mailing lists in Google Groups and Yahoo!Groups have very useful features. If the email lists are set up so that only messages from members are sent to those in the list, then spammers will not be able to spam the list. Such a protection is generally not available in a personal mailing list.

Let us think about this. If your email address is put on the web, or anyone gets it some other way, it is collected and sold to spammers who use it to send you all kinds of messages which you may or may not want. On the other hand, if the message is sent through the mailing list, as long as the message headers on the email do not include individual email messages, then spammers will not be able to send to the members unless they "spoof" a member's email address.

Another advantage of using a central list instead of a list of email addresses, is that some email systems, e.g. hotmail only permit a limited number of addresses in the To: and Cc: list, so if the list is too long, replies to ALL in the list means that some of the people will not get the replies.
The email mailing list counts as a single email address and does not have this problem.

With a centralized list, it is easy to maintain a list with additions of new and deletions of defunct addresses.

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What is the true Warranty Expiration Date of a product?

It was a common assumption of mine that the warranty period for a product started the day you bought it. I found out the hard way that that is a very poor assumption. It appears that it is based on the manufacture or ship date from the factory, not the delivery or purchase date to the user.

Cases in point:

1) I received some laptops with 3 year warrantie; when I called in for service, the first thing they did was check that it was within warranty. Well, I had received them in Aug or Sep 2006, and the first thing I was told was that the 90 day software warranty had already expired before I received the laptops, and the 3 year warranties would expire less than 2.5 years from the date of receipt.

2) I bought an external hard drive from the local electronics store on Aug 21, 2008, and within 2 months, it needed to be returned because of failure. Going to the web site to get an RMA, I was told that warranty expired on Jan , 2013, which is less than 4.5 years from the day I purchased it, when it was advertised with a 5 year warranty. While the process of getting a RMA is straightforward, trying to correct the warranty date is not so easy. In order to correct it, I registered the drive, providing the purchase date. However, the warranty information did not change. On calling technical support/customer support on the phone I was told that since they had no way of telling when the drive was sold, they used the ship date + 3 months as the expiry date of the device, and the way to make sure I got the full warranty was to send in a copy of the receipt so the records could be corrected. Remember when you go to a store and buy a unit that has been opened and returned at a discount, and they tell you the original manufacturer's warranty still holds? Think again: if it is a returned unit, it has originally sat on the shelves for a while, and then the consumer has bought it, tried to use it, was not satisfied and returned it, and it sat on the shelves some more. So your 5 year warranty product may actually have less than 4 years left on it, unless you set the record straight right away.

Given how small the receipts are, and when printed on thermal paper how quickly they vanish, if you need warranty service down the road, trying to make a copy of the original receipt at that time will certainly not help prove that the warranty should actually be longer.

Given all this, what should be done? It appears that the best thing is to check the warranty date of these long warranty date purchases right away on the manufacturers website, and send in a copy of the receipt to make sure that you get the warranty you think you paid for.

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What are similarities and differences between Yahoo!Groups and Google Groups?

The best way of comparing similarities and differences will be obtained by inividuals who contribute to this discussion.

The email list in both have very useful features. If the email lists are set up so that only messages from members are sent to those in the list, then spammers will not be able to spam the list.

Let us think about this. If your email address is put on the web, or anyone gets it some other way, it is collected and sold to spammers who use it to send you all kinds of messages which you may or may not want. On the other hand, if the message is sent through the mailing list, as long as the message headers on the email do not include individual email messages, then spammers will not be able to send to the members unless they "spoof" a member's email address.

Another advantage of using a central list instead of a list of email addresses, is that some email systems, e.g. hotmail only permit a limited number of addresses in the To: and Cc: list, so if the list is too long, replies to ALL in the list means that some of the people will not get the replies.

In addition, when there is a centralized list, it is easy to maintain a list with additions of new and deletions of defunct addresses.

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What is a Google Group?

"A Google Group is a user-owned group created using the Google Groups service. Google Groups not only allows you to manage and archive your mailing list, but also provides a method for true communication and collaboration with group members. Unlike other free mailing list services, Google Groups offers generous storage limits, customizable pages, and unique management options. As always, Google Groups displays only relevant text ads (never banners or pop-up ads)" ... from Google Groups Help pages

"Google Groups is a free service from Google where groups of people have discussions about common interests. Internet users can find discussion groups related to their interests and participate in threaded conversations, either through the Google Groups web interface, or by e-mail. They can also start new groups. Google Groups also includes an archive of Usenet newsgroup postings dating back to 1981 and supports reading and posting to Usenet groups.Users can also set up mailing list archives for e-mail lists that are hosted elsewhere." ... from Wikipedia

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What is a Yahoo!Group?

"A Yahoo! Group is any group — your family, friends you see every summer, business associates, your book group, etc. — that uses Yahoo! Groups to privately share info, images, ideas and more — on the web. It’s free, secure and spam-protected." ... from Yahoo!Groups help page

"Yahoo! Groups operate as both electronic mailing lists and Internet forums. Group messages can be posted and read by e-mail or on the Group homepage, like a web forum. Members can choose whether to receive individual e-mails or daily digest e-mails, or to read the posts at the web site. Some Groups are simply announcement lists, to which only the Group moderators can post, while others are discussion lists.

As well as providing e-mail relaying and archiving facilities for the many lists it hosts, the Yahoo! Groups service provides additional functions on the web site, such as voting and calendar systems and file uploading. The basic mailing list functionality is available to any e-mail address, but a Yahoo! ID is required for access to other features.

Yahoo! Groups competitor is Google Groups." --- from Wikepedia

So what does all this mean?

A Yahoo!Group is a combination of an email list and a website for posting messages, articles, photos, calendars, and other information.

A Yahoo!Group has one and only one owner at any one time, and usually is the creator of the Group. If the owner decides that he or she no longer wants to be the owner, he or she has to find someone else to become the owner, or delete the group, or just stop responding to queries. The owner is the one who has ultimate say on what the group does, and who can do what to it, subject to the Terms and Conditions of Yahoo!Group.

The Yahoo!Group has 1 or more moderators. Moderators serve at the pleasure of the group owner, and the owner decides what privileges a moderator should get. Note that the owner is also a moderator. There are also members and anonymous visitors.

We generally think of the owner, moderators, members and visitors as individuals or people. Actually in the definitions above, the owner, moderators and visitors mean individual email addresses. So the same person with multiple addresses is considered different people for the Yahoo!Group.

When a group is first started, the Group owner defines the purpose and sets up policy subject to the Terms of Services of Yahoo!Groups. In order to do that, the Group owner has to provide an email address, and get a Yahoo!ID. The Yahoo!ID is like an login to Yahoo for using Yahoo Services.