European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 2, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday april 2 2007 stars and stripes q Page 13 your Money put the video in video ipod q i just bought my wife a new 30gigabyte video hard drive lights usually is caused by the windows ipod for her birthday we have converted All of her operating system performing All kinds of hard drive cd using itunes and she loves it we have some old maintenance including writing system restore videos of our kids playing in the High school March files monitoring disk de fragmenting and maintain ing band and we would love to Load them on the ipod ing a so called Swap file which is used to work As a also i have converted the videotapes to dds using a virtual hard drive if your systems memory becomes ask Jim so convert pxm402u hooked up to my Dell dimension 4700 running inter video wind cd creator do you have any suggestions on software to use to convert these dds to use on the ipod Bob Emberger a youve got a lot of company or e the phenomenon is producing Large numbers of people who would like to Load and play their homemade videos in the popular machines for macintosh owners this is a no brainer just use the movie and Ivd programs built into the Mac of 10 operating system but its not that simple in the windows world the latest version of that inter video soft Jim Coates Ware you used to make those dds includes a tool that will output to ipod and just about any other video editing and burning software does the same thing the trick is to use the output feature in the software to create a file on your hard drive in the format known As mpeg4 just about All of the windows video software includes mp4 output but sometimes finding the Way to make it work can be daunting another Way to do this is to acquire specially software such As video a ipod converter which is free although a donation is requested from video a holdings inc Check out let me add that the smoothest Way for windows users to work their video ipod is apples Quick time pro for windows software available for at As an upgrade to the quicklime movie viewer q i have a Gateway computer and every time i Power my system up the hard drive is blinking As if it is going crazy is there any Way i can see just what the hard drive is doing i have windows up Clyde l Downs or a dont fret yet or d bewildering behaviour of overloaded another possibility is that a program you have installed such As one of the desk tops from Google Yahoo and Microsoft is indexing the Content of the drive so these flashing lights often can be ignored but because this is bothering you it will contribute to your peace of mind if you can find out what s going on to make that drive Flash repeatedly lets Start with the most dire Case theres always a Chance that some kind of malware virus Trojan worm has taken Over part of your computer and is causing it to do something such As fire off Large numbers of emails or perhaps Send copies of the virus itself scan your hard drive using whatever antivirus software came with your computer another step is to Check for adware and spyware that antivirus programs might Overlook Check out spy Bot search and destroy at which is free even As the Sites creators urge folks to donate something to keep them going you also can get a pretty Good picture about whats happening or not happening using the task manager that appears when windows users Type the control Alt and delete keys simultaneously then Click task manager in the display that summons open the Tab called processes Click on the View option in the menu bar at the top of the display and choose select columns tool that brings up a list of Check boxes that will let you create mealtime reports of hard drive input and output Check the ones with in the name and watch the numbers change As the hard drive flashes to see what process is responsible got a question on personal technology Send a note to Jim Coates at com questions can be an swered Only through this column fridays Market summary indexes 52 High Low name last net chg Ltd chg chg 52wk chg Dow Jones industrials Dow Jones transportation Dow Jones utilities nose composite amex Index Nash a composite 500 Midcap Russell 2000  nose most Active of name Yokoo last chg Psi log Motorola Genf Jec forum sole trn Pfizer pm cup Exxon by timeworn Kraft 466409 378343 335719 320285 302880 284173 278806 235653 230034 228563 amex Active m m name Voi 00 last j37 Nash a chg Spur 1156090 ishr2k Riya 520114 up engy 210732 Crystal Fig 176225 Prusha Rqn 126502 spend 118041 Djina diam Semi her Sutil up mails 97427 91251 71870 57452 most Active of More name Yokoo last chg Nash loot Andreon Sun Micro Intel a Mai Microsoft of mind Dell inc if Cisco Oleveia 1103304 825057 762155 573292 528975 436208 383289 361368 358535 296378 1253 key defense stocks  Armor holdings 19 67 33 computer sciences general general Harris corp Allied l3 Lockheed North Raythelon Rockwell Seq corp Texas instruments text Ron 11 United key Mutual funds name Nav Ltd chg ret Fidelity invest Fidelity invest Fidelity spartan Putnam funds a Erlna Amer Century inv Fidelity invest Fidelity invest Fidelity invest aim investments a const Frnk a Sec Para aim investments a Charta Fidelity advisor Fidelity advisor t Putnam funds a Globe qty Fidelity advisor Putnam funds a gig a Exchange rates military rates japanese yen april South korean won april euro costs april Dollar buys april British Pound april commercial rates Bahrain British Canada China Denmark Egypt Hong Kong Hungary Israel Japan Kuwait Norway Philippines Poland saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey new military Exchange rates Are those available to customers at military Bank ing facilities in the country of issuance for Japan South Korea Germany the Netherlands and the United kingdom for no local currency Exchange rates purchasing British pounds in Germa Check with your local military Bank ing facility commercial rates Are inter Bank rates provided for reference when buying currency All figures Are foreign currencies to one Dollar except for the British Pound which is represented in dollars Pound and the euro which is precious metals new York merc close Gold interest rates prime discount Federal funds Market rate 3month 30year sources the associated press Bank of America dining out with a Side dish of fraud credit Industry goes after eateries by Robin Sidel the Wall Street journal the credit card Industry is cracking Down on tens of thou Sands of restaurants for not adequately protecting diners cred i card data from thieves in recent months visa Usa Mastercard inc and Finan Cial institutions that process elec tronic payments have levied fines sent warn ing letters and held seminars to pressure restau rants into being More careful about protecting the information there Are tens of thousands of restaurants that Arent complying with Industry Secu Rity rules says Robert Carr chief executive of heart land payment sys tems a Prince ton company that processes card transactions for Small merchants about half of heartlands clients Are restau rants All companies that accept Plas tic must follow a Complex set of Security rules put in place by visa Mastercard american express co and Morgan Stanley discover unit since january 2005 restau rants represented about 40 per cent of incidents in which intruders gained unauthorized Access to credit card information Accord ing to data tracked by visa that is the largest percentage of Inci dents among merchant groups meanwhile chicag based am  which conducts Security audits for merchants says that 62 percent of the Security breaches it has seen Over the past 18 months came from the restaurant Industry the incidents involve myriad Security break Downs including poorly protected wireless net works that Crimi nals can tap into from a Laptop from the parking lot and systems that allow employees to steal card information not All Inci dents resulted in successful frauds visa Doest disclose How much fraud can be traced to restaurants most merchants dont disclose incidents unless there is a big Chance that a major fraud will occur or has already been spotted Joseph Sanscrainte a new York lawyer says one of his restaurant clients was fined More than an unusually Large Fine for what he described As a Small business for storing card data in violation of the rules the heat is certainly being turned Sanscrainte said ends and sensibility Money tip of the Day Call in divorce experts by Marshall Loeb Market watch new York going through a divorce is an emotionally exhausting experience adding in sult to injury attorney fees associated with the process can run into the thousands of dollars to combat such costs some people Are increasingly turning to mediators instead of lawyers to help them Settle the divorce a mediator is a third party who helps a divorcing couple come to an acceptable agree ment about the terms of the divorce this person assists the couple in the negotiation pro Cess but does not actually make the decisions if you do choose a mediator you should consider consulting a financial adviser As Well says Katherine e Stoner attorney mediator and author of divorce without court a guide to Media Tion and collaborative but do it Early in the process so that you will know what is sues May come up and what Steps to take to avoid them in addition to the first meeting you should also consult the advises before agreeing to any property settlements Stoner offers the following guidelines when working with a financial adviser during a medi ated divorce aim for prevention of prob lems instead of waiting for your advisers advice request it in and Vance a Good adviser will offer multiple options and will Illus trate How they work with exam Ples ask questions if you dont understand something now is not the time to hold Back get your adviser to explain anything that seems confusing get a second opinion if youre not comfortable with the advice youre getting its Wise to ask for a second or even third opinion