The PC Improvement News
Issue 1-12
December 23, 1998

ISSN 1488-3163
Published electronically by PC Improvements (c) 1999
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://www.pcin.net/

NOTE: If any of the links are too long to fit on one line, they will end up on 2 lines so the link won't be accurate. If that happens, please cut and paste. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Welcome to the 12th edition of the PC Improvement News. In this newsletter I try to have a couple of tips to make your computing life easier as well as highlights of the past 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.

***Welcome to all of the new subscribers. I just want to let everyone know, old and new subscribers, that this weeks issue won't be the regular format. Because of the Christmas holidays, I don't have a lot of time, but I didn't want to miss a week. Next week will be similar. The January 6th issue will be the regular format.***

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THE NEWS
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December 25, 1998 is Christmas Day
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It has been reported that December 25 is Christmas day. I'll find out for sure and get back to you next week...

How low can you go? Part II
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Last week I talked about an upstart company E-Machines who was selling a $500 US computer. I just wanted to let you all know that here in Toronto you've been able to get a computer for under $700 CDN for many months now. At a basic conversion rate of 1.5, that means you could buy a computer for $467 US!! When I see ads for computer parts in the US, I'm glad that I live here, if not only for the reason that computers and parts are cheaper. If anyone from any other countries would like to share with me what the costs of things are in their country; that would be great. Email me at editor@pcin.net at let me know.

More about Betas Part IV
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I've installed the Office 2000 beta and it works better than I expected. One of the features which I like the best, is the ability to use different languages without buying a new version. I'm not sure how they did it, but I guess Microsoft is using the same software engine for all of the language versions of office, and then you install "language packs" which let you input using that particular language (I have the German, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese). What a great idea. I speak Mandarin Chinese fluently (I am not of Chinese ancestry whatsoever, even though my last name is Wing. My family came from Belgium way back) but I can't write it well at all. Although I haven't tried the language packs, I'm hoping it will help me.
The other thing that is worth mentioning this week is the IE5 beta that installed itself at the same time. The new Outlook Express is great. When you reply to someone, the small envelope icon that sits beside every message changes to have a purple arrow on it to let you know that you replied to that person. This might already be available in some other programs, I dont know, but it sure is a welcome addition to OE. The other thing is IE5 now suggests information for you when you are filling out forms. It is basically AutoComplete that is available with all the 4.x browsers gone a little further. It used to be that when you entered a URL, if it was one that you had visited before, the browsers would complete it for you. Now it does that in the forms boxes. When I go to input my name, it shows my name. Its very handy and saves me a lot of time. I was going to buy a 3rd party utility to help me with things I type out often, but this just might work fine. It also saves passwords for you. If you type in an email address and then a password, you will be asked if you want the password automatically put in next time. The only problem I can see with this is if you use the same login name in several places but have different passwords. I haven't figured out yet if IE is smart enough to tell that it is a different site. There is an option to turn of this feature though.
Thats it for now. Ive really enjoyed working with everything. For those of you who have been to my site recently, the new buttons on the main page were created using PhotoDraw 2000, the newest Microsoft program. I'll share more each week about some of the news features of all of these programs.

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AND NOW BECAUSE OF CHRISTMAS AND WANTING TO BE WITH MY FAMILY, HERE IS A LIST OF ARTICLES THAT WOULD BE WORTH READING THIS WEEK SOMETIME WHILE YOU ARE RECOVERING FROM TURKEY OVERDOSE
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DoJ Witness Demonstrates MS Browser Removal
http://www.cnnfn.com/digitaljam/newsbytes/123061.html
Microsoft: 27 dismissals and counting
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_rc_display/0,3443,2177070,00.html
Judge Gives Microsoft a Break
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/daily/0,2960,17022-101981217,00.html
Revolutionary New Chip Runs on Light
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/digital/daily/more/0,2845,0,00.html
Computer giant detects a new, dangerous virus
http://newsworld.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/1998/12/22/virus981222
Dell Will Bundle AOL Software
http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,9136,00.html

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THE TIPS
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NONE
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Last week I said that I would share with you a problem I've found in the Temporary Internet Files directory, but I think I will postpone it for 2 weeks. I dont have the time to right the article, and hopefully you don't have the time to read it (youll be with your families in stead).

 

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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