science + technology

Q I am trying to send pictures from my Windows XP desktop PC to my son's Verizon Wireless cell phone. Any text messages that I send make it, but none of the pictures do, even though he subscribes to picture messaging. Can you help me make this work?

CHUCK FRADELLA, MONTICELLO, MINN.

A Send an e-mail, with the photo attached, to your son's phone number @vzwpix.com. For example, if your son's phone number were 000-000-0000, you'd send the e-mail to 0000000000@vzwpix.com. To send photos to non-Verizon phones, see the e-mail list at tinyurl.com/dh4ugu.

Q I'm having printing problems using a Compaq A1000 printer and a PC with Windows XP Professional.

If I save a Web page as text, it prints just fine. But when I try to print directly from the "printer friendly" version of a Web page, I get a bunch of garbage. For example, I wanted to print instructions from tinyurl.com/ksmedu, but in the resulting printed page only one word was recognizable, "Symantec." I've used four different Web browsers, and all produce the same results. What's the problem?

DALE SCHUNKE, TUCSON, ARIZ.

A Because you're printing Chinese language characters directly from a Web page, you could be encountering a glitch in the Norton antivirus software, which is made by Symantec. The company says it's working to resolve a problem related to recognizing Chinese language characters. See tinyurl.com/3egfrfo.

Why does your text file print correctly? My guess is that when you cut and paste the Web page material into a text file on your PC, you've bypassed the Symantec software and avoided the problem.

But, just in case it's a printer-related problem, try upgrading your printer's software drivers at tinyurl.com/4ybatod.

Q When I noticed that my computer seemed to be running slower, I found a way to speed it up by limiting the number of images that would be downloaded in my e-mail from Windows Live Mail. Now I have "X"s where the images used to be, and find it more exasperating than the slower speeds I had before. Unfortunately, I don't know how to change it back; what should I do?

FRANK MALLALIEU, TUCSON, ARIZ.

A Here's how to change the settings in Windows Live Mail so that images will download in your e-mails all the time, or just when you want to see them. See tinyurl.com/5s5m5cj and click the heading called "to automatically download all images." Alternatively, you can elect to see images in just the e-mail you're viewing. Click the heading called "to view blocked images in an e-mail message."

E-mail tech questions to steve.j.alexander @gmail.com, or write to Tech Q&A, 425 Portland Av., Minneapolis, MN 55488. Include name, city and telephone number.