The PC Improvement News
Issue 1-5
November 04, 1998
ISSN 1488-3163
Published electronically by PC Improvements (c) 1999
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Welcome to the fifth edition of the PC Improvement News. In this newsletter I try to have a couple of tips to make you computing life easier as well as highlights of the previous weeks PC Industry News. As always, I am more than willing to discuss any PC related topics in this newsletter. Just email me at editor@pcin.net with your suggestions. Also, if there is any strange formatting in the newsletter you receive please use the same email address to let me know so I can fix any incompatibilities. With your help and suggestions, it will get better.
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THE NEWS
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Windows NT renamed Windows 2000
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On October 27, Microsoft announced that the greatly anticipated
Windows NT 5.0 would be renamed Windows 2000. Microsoft had previously
stated that Windows 98 would be the last operating system built
on the old architecture, and that future operating systems would
be based on the NT architecture. Microsoft said, in announcing
Windows 2000, that the new name will be more straightforward for
the consumer.
To read more about this, visit
http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9810/29/win2000.idg/
http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9811/03/ntploy.idg/index.html
Take our kids to work day!
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Today, November 4, is Take Our Kids to Work day across Canada.
One of my sisters, Andrea, thought that my father's workplace
was too boring, so she decided to spend the day with me. I've
shown her many of the different things that I do, and answered
a lot of her questions. Not that she will remember any of it,
but I guess I'm not as boring as spending the day with an accountant.
To read about this excellent program, visit the following sites:
http://www.npiec.on.ca/~choices/take_our_kids.html
http://www.tlp.on.ca/kidswork/index.html
What's happening with Microsoft?
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Every week, I will provide several links to articles about the
Microsoft case with the DOJ. I will provide no editorial comments,
other than this. I think that Microsoft should give every company
a chance to compete, but I don't think that they should be under
such intense scrutiny as they are right now. People complain about
the Starr report costing so much money. Well, this DOJ case won't
be cheap for either side, and I don't really think that anything
will come from this. A waste of time!
Links:
Gates says Microsoft didn't squeeze Apple
http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9811032msdoj
Tale of the tape: Gates bobs, weaves
http://www.msnbc.com/news/210890.asp
Cyber Trial of the Century
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/special/msdojtrial.html
**Check this site out often as it is updated daily as new case
information becomes available**
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THE TIPS
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How hard are passwords to crack?
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Within the next week, there will be a new article on our site
about passwords. I recently read a fascinating article about the
statistical possibility of cracking certain passwords. Never have
your user name and password be the same thing (username=graham,
password=graham). Never have your password be derived from your
user name (username=johndoe, password=jdoe or johnd). Try to make
passwords that incorporate lower and upper case letters, as well
as numbers and symbols. Something like nine3&% (nine is Sept,
3 is 3, and &% is 75, or 09 3 1975, my birthday).
Stay tuned for the article. It is very interesting.
Sort your email messages into different folders
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For the longest time I would get 20 messages in my email in-box
everyday. I had heard many times about filtering your messages,
but I always thought it would be too hard to do it. Well, that
just isn't the case.
All of the newer email programs have an option to filter your email. This is to say that if your subject header, the From header, the To header, or any other specification exists in a given message, it will be put in a certain folder. In Outlook Express, the filtering tool is under the tools menu, and called the inbox assistant. I have 19 different filters set up to sort the newsletters from the genealogy messages from the subscription requests for this newsletter. Look into doing this yourself. It will make reading your email much quicker and tidier.
Well, that's all for this week. Remember that if there is anything that you want to learn about, let me know and I will try to accommodate you.
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The PC Improvement News is brought to you by PC Improvements. The Opinions expressed are those of the editor, Graham Wing.
Editor: Graham Wing editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.
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