Q&A
Forget your user name at your peril
By Tamara E. Holmes
USA Today Assistant Tech Editor
Q. I forgot my user name and password for a job Web site and I've had some responses to my resume that I can't access if I can't log on. The site claims that it can't help me unless I know my user name. Is there anything I can do?
A. There probably isn't anything you can do, other than re-register with a new user name and password. Of course that won't help you access the responses to your resume. For privacy reasons, a lot of Web sites do not store user name and password information with other data that users may have provided when they registered. As a result, even if you can give them your full name and address, they might not be able to tell you your user name and password. The next time you register, write down your user name if nothing more. If you know your user name but forget your password, a lot of Web sites can help you out by e-mailing the password to the e-mail address you specified when you registered with them.
Q. What is a "graceful exit" from a computer program?
A. If you're able to close out of a program the right way — either by clicking on the X in the top right-hand corner of the screen or selecting Exit from the file menu — you've exited that program gracefully. If, however, a program closes by crashing, or you have to close it from the Windows Task Manager or reboot the computer, you'll likely agree that your exit left something to be desired.
Q. Sometimes when I'm online, I click on hyperlinks only to get the following message: "The requested URL was not found on this server." How do I get to the site from there?
A. Web pages are a lot like people in that sometimes they move and leave no forwarding address. When that happens, or if a Web page is taken down completely, you'll get the message, "The requested URL was not found on this server." If you get this message, the best thing you can do is use a search engine to see if it's updated with a new location for the site.
Q. Can I catch a computer virus by uploading a file?
A. Uploading a file is the act of sending it to another computer user, or posting it to an Internet newsgroup, forum or library where other PC users can download it. Since you're not receiving any data into your computer when you upload a file, you cannot get a virus that way.
Tamara Holmes answers questions daily at USA Today's Tech section.
