ISSN 1488-3163
Published electronically by PC Improvements (c) 1999
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit
http://www.pcin.net/
Note 1: If any of the links are too long, please cut and
paste.
Note 2: You can only win one contest every 30 days.
Welcome to the 22nd edition of the PC Improvement News. In
this newsletter,
I have a couple of tips to make your computing life easier
as well as
highlights of the past weeks PC Industry News. I am more than
willing to
discuss any PC related topics in this newsletter. Just email
me at
editor@pcin.net with
your suggestions. I would also appreciate it
if you let me know if there is any strange formatting in the
newsletter so
that I can fix them.
Give me two or three issues, and I know that you will get
something great
out of this!
----------------------------------------------------------------
SOME OPENING THOUGHTS
----------------------------------------------------------------
None
----------------------------------------------------------------
THE NEWS
----------------------------------------------------------------
Customer Service Innovations cont...
----------------------------------------------------------------
According to subscriber Pat Gerkin
http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/g/e/r/Patricia-A-Gerkin/.
Dell
Computers also uses the "traffic" reports on their
support lines. She
agrees with my comments and added that it "gives you
time to calm down a
little and get your thoughts and information together for
when they do
finally get to you." I also discovered that Bell Canada
is doing it, too.
Hopefully every company will catch on. Thanks for the contribution
Pat.
Have a Y2K baby
----------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sure most of you have heard this, but if you want to have
a baby on
January 1, 2000, the baby should be conceived on April 9 of
this year.
That is what all of the experts say. Who knows if it is true,
but my wife
thinks it would be fun to try :-)
Techies are mostly guys
----------------------------------------------------------------
According to a study done by IQ, visitors to tech web sites
are
overwhelmingly male. Males outnumber females by more than
2 to 1. I don't
know what this means, but I thought I would check out the
stats for this
newsletter. When people subscribe (depending on what method
they choose),
they are asked to fill out some demographic information for
me. Well, out
of 132 people who filled this out, 26 are female and 106 are
male. That is
about 4 to 1! I don't know what any of this means, but I thought
I'd share
it anyway.
For more info visit:
http://www.adweek.com/interactive/iqnews06.asp
MLM... Is that what the Internet is all about?
----------------------------------------------------------------
I've heard so many people say that the only way to make money
on the
Internet is to take part in some MLM (multi-level marketing)
scheme. I
have no comment on this, but I do know that the Internet sure
has its fair
share of sites devoted to this sort of thing.
Well, Amway (the world's most successful MLM scheme according
to Salon
21st) has announced that in September they will open up an
online store
called Quixtar.com (why that name?). Amway has always had
individual
distributors sell products, but this site won't do this. There
will be
some kind of membership, but it will be interesting to see
how it all
works out.
For more info visit:
http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/log/1999/03/01log.html
(It's halfway down the page)
What's up with Microsoft?
----------------------------------------------------------------
For the next month or so I will only have this one link (for
new
subscribers). The trial is on a recess, so not much will be
happening.
Cyber Trial of the Century
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/special/msdojtrial.html
----------------------------------------------------------------
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
----------------------------------------------------------------
Getting out of frames
----------------------------------------------------------------
One of the things I hate the most about web pages is when
there are
frames. I don't build them unless I have to, and even then
I try to find
another way to do it. I find it especially frustrating when
I want to read
a large article and I want as much of it on the screen as
possible. With
IE 4.x, you can download the Power Toys, which include an
option on the
right-click menu to "Open Frame in New Window."
(I'm sure there is some
utility for Netscape, but I don't know one. If you know one
let me know,
and I'll include your tip in the next newsletter). Another
way to get out
of a frame (in almost all of the browsers) is to drag the
link to the
address bar and the link will open in a new window. Very handy.
Close all windows.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Let's say that you use Microsoft Office and you want to look
at the actor
files that are there. You would navigate to c:\program files\microsoft
office\office\actors. Depending on how you have your computer
set up, you
could have the following directories all open at the same
time:
My Computer
c:\
c:\program files\
c:\program files\microsoft office\
c:\program files\microsoft office\office\
c:\program files\microsoft office\office\actors
That's 6 folders. When you are done looking, instead of closing
each one
individually, try holding down the shift key while you click
on the X to
close the actors folder. You will close everything back to
and including
My Computer. It closes everything in the direct path. If you
still want to
look at the actors but want to close everything else, then
do it on the
office folder. I just found this out the other day and I can't
believe I
never knew you could do that.
Call 688-CKTB
----------------------------------------------------------------
That is the phone number to the local radio station. I'm sure
almost all
of the radio stations around have a phone number like that.
A lot of
companies use the same sort of thing. What does your phone
number spell?
It would take too long to try to come up with all of the combinations
yourself, so it would be best if you visited http://www.phonespell.org/
and put in your number there. It will give you possible combinations.
How
about the person with the best phone number (in my opinion,
make sure they
are clean) wins the 2 games Lunatik and World League Soccer
'98. Send me
your word phone number at editor@pcin.net
and the winner
will be announced next Wednesday, March 17, 1999.
More Articles Coming...
----------------------------------------------------------------
Last week I explained that I am in the process of writing
a short article
about what files should be backed up before you reinstall.
Thanks to Roger
Thompson for his encouragement and suggestions. I also wanted
to let you
all know that I am also working on why it is important to
shut down the
computer properly, the importance of having a policy for company
email
use, and an article describing where device drivers are hidden
and the
best way to reinstall them.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, send in your comments, tips and news and you too can
be included in
The PC Improvement News with a reference to your name and
web site.
Send email to pcinews@pcimprovements.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
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. Also,
feel free to send any comments about the newsletters and the
topics covered.
This newsletter is sent to those who subscribed only. We don't
believe in
SPAM, so if you have somehow gotten this and you don't want
it, please see
the subscribe/unsubscribe options at the start of the newsletter.
The PC Improvement News is brought to you by PC Improvements.
The opinions
expressed are those of the editor, Graham Wing. PC Improvements
and Graham
Wing accept no responsibility (either good or bad) for the
results obtained
from trying the tips in this newsletter.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Editor: Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1999, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All rights
reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as
long as the
editor is notified.