Hello everyone,

I’m still visiting the home of my parents and today I would like to tell you about two of the many tech issues that seem to come up every day when the word gets out that you “understand” computers.

I received this email from my sister yesterday:

Randy…It’s wonderful to have a computer expert in the family! So, here’s the question…I can’t open any of the pictures mom and dad forward to me. Surely they get them or they wouldn’t be sending them on to me. We both have Comcast as our internet provider, but whenever the emails have pictures as part of the story, all I get are boxes with little x’s in each corner and when I click on them nothing happens. What gives??

Thanks, Lanie

My reply to my sister:

Hi Lanie,

It has nothing to do with either you or Comcast. Mom and Dad still use Outlook Express and when they send pictures they need to do the following:

“Because images can increase the size of your emails, many email programs allow you to select whether or not images should be sent with your email at all! In Outlook Express, as you compose a message, you’ll find an option labeled Send Pictures with Message on the Format menu. Make sure that’s selected to include any pictures with your outgoing messages. Other email programs may have similar or related options”.

Mom and Dad usually just forward the email and don’t select the above option. You can’t see any pictures because there are none (just the blank spaces where they used to be!). I’ll tell them about this.

See you soon,
Randy

My sister also asked me to recommend a good but inexpensive computer that she could buy as a Christmas gift for her son. I recommended the Toshiba L455-S5975 ($300.00) found here (http://tinyurl.com/ye6vyyc).

Professor Randy says: There’s never a dull moment in the life of a geek!! I don’t mind because I love to help people out with their questions/problems. Please email me if you would like me to help you out with any question that you might have.