OK, gang, I need your help.......

[poltr1]

I've realized that I can't do everything alone. And as smart as I am, I certainly don't know it all. I need to get advise and/or expertise in the following areas:

• Giving pills to a cat. One of my cats -- Oreo, the 17-year-old black-and-white one -- has a heart condition. Our vet has given him some pills. But when we give it to him, he spits it out. Our next step is to grind up the pill using a mortar and pestle, slip it in his moist cat food, and keep the other cats away while he eats.
  
• Setting up Windows 98 SE to send and/or receive faxes. I'd like to be able to do this from home instead of running over to the local Kinko's for faxing.
  
• Memory management in Windows 98 SE. I have 256 Mb of memory in my system, and it appears that it's no longer enough. I sometimes hit 0% availability, which causes all sorts of snafus. (I can probably put one more chip in, if 100-MHz SD-RAM (I think) memory is still available.) Is there a program, similar to NT/2000's Task Manager to show me what background programs are taking what percentage of memory? I've tried to trace memory leaks, but I haven't found any.
  
• Advice on wireless routers. A low priority on my wish list is a wireless router (802.11g) and card for my laptop. I'm in a condo where I share walls with neighbors. Can signals seep through these walls? Will simple encryption be enough to prevent any of my neighbors from hacking in?
  

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Setting up Windows for faxes: It can be done. But you're better off using third-party software for it, as Microsoft's applications-in-OS are second-rate. WinFax is the best-known package, and the one I use, but I suspect strongly that there are perfectly reasonable shareware packages if you'd rather go that route.

Memory management: Again, third-party software. The package I have installed on the Win9x machines I own is called MemTurbo, but there are some reasonable number of them about. While it doesn't allow for examination of all running processes, it's very good at freeing physical RAM.

Two more things on RAM: (1) Did you know that in Win9x, every time you switch applications via Alt-Tab, it costs you a touch (I forget how much) of RAM into a permanent resource allocation? You're better off switching apps with your mouse at the taskbar for that reason. (Maybe not for your wrist's sake, nor for speed, though.) And (2) yes, PC100 (and PC133, which I have found to be totally compatible in most cases) is still available. It's expensive, though, as it's no longer the primary sort on the market.

Good luck!

[poltr1]

Thanks for the advice. I'll check them out.

On the CD that came with my modem, there was a fax and voice-mail package called SuperVoice. I just installed it last night. I won't get a chance to test it for another few days.

My computer shop still has 100-MHz SD-RAM chips (128 Mb) for $50. Since I bought the system from them, they'd know if that's what I bought before.