The PC Improvement News

Issue 1-45
August 18, 1999

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 to fit on one line, you may have to
cut and paste.
Note 2: You can only win one contest every 30 days.

Welcome to the 45th 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!

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SOME OPENING THOUGHTS
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I'm back from my 9-day vacation up in Central Ontario. I was at a cottage in
the village of Buckhorn, Ontario. I relaxed; I swam; I fished a bit. It was
great. I survived without my computer and now life continues on as normal.

I'd like to thank Chris Empey of Forced Beat Productions at
http://www.forcedbeat.com/ for sending out the newsletter last week. By
mistake, he sent out the newsletter twice. There is no need to unsubscribe
thinking you have duplicate email address on the list.

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THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
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"The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so

little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything

but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and

multiply the grief he proposes to remove."

          - Samuel Johnson

Thought courtesy of http://www.HappyPublishing.com/

To subscribe to the FREE "Aspire to Something Higher" Thought-Of The Day,

send a blank email to HappyQuotes-subscribe@listbot.com


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THE NEWS
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Are You A Software Pirate
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In a recent online poll at the ZD Net Sm@rt Reseller site, they asked a
question about software piracy.

29% of respondents said, "Heck, I'm one of them."
40% of respondents said piracy "Doesn't impact my business."
31% of respondents said piracy "Hurt(s) my margins."

I'm a little surprised at these numbers. I'm sure more than 29% of the
respondents are pirating software. I definitely don't understand how [piracy
hurts their margins, unless they are software programmers.

Let me know what you think of piracy. Is it okay for consumers to copy
programs? Do the software makers charge too much? Is there any hope for
programmers to catch pirates? Email me at editor@pcin.net


The Worlds Largest Internet Business
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In the March 10 issue of the PC Improvement News, I mentioned that MLM
company Amway was going to start a site called Quixtar to sell its products.
Well, I got a piece of junk mail today (in an envelope with no return
address and no explanation letter inside) announcing "A True Income
Opportunity. QUIXTAR. is a completely new company.A TRUE INCOME
OPPORETUNITY.what is projected to be the largest E-Commerce enabled
Wholesale Buying Club in the WORLD." No mention was made of Amway. The
brochure itself was very poorly done, and was obviously a photocopy.

The Quixtar site will be at:
http://www.quixtar.com/


BIOS Ads
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As the saying goes, there are only 2 things certain in life, death and
taxes. Well, I think there is a 3rd thing that is certain, and that is
watching the black boot-up screen on your computer. No matter what, when you
turn on the computer, you have to see the BIOS manufacturers name, the BIOS
version, the BIOS s/n, how much memory you have, etc. Well, Phoenix
Technologies, Ltd., a major BIOS manufacturer is contemplating putting ads
on that start up screen. This has upset many computer users who say it is
just a way for them to make more money. There is a digital petition you can
sign if you want to express your opinion.

Visit the Phoenix site at:
http://www.phoenix.com/

Sign the petition at:
http://www.fps3d.com/petition/


Backup to VideoTape
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A company called Danmere at http://www.danmere.com/ has come out with a
device called Backer 32 that will allow you to backup data to a VHS tape. I
have no idea how the technology works, but a 4 hour tape will back up about
2GB of data. Seeing as videotapes can be purchased for only a couple of
bucks, that is a pretty cheap way of storing data.

Visit the Danmere site at:
http://www.danmere.com/
(It is not a very useful web site)


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I NEED HELP
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As many of you know, I offer a free help service via email. If you have a
question, you can email me and I will try my best to answer them. I can
answer about half of them. Those are things that I do regularly or have
experience with. There are other things that I have never tired or
experienced so I don't have an answer. I hope to post those questions here
and see if any of the readers have any suggestions. I will include all
reasonable suggestions with credit to you. I will not check the validity of
these comments. That is up to you.

Previous Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q1) I have been unable to figure out how to change the default font for
WordPro. Any suggestions?
A1) My experience is with SmartSuite 97 i.e. WordPro 97. Ok, I think you
have to change the Default smartmaster that opens each time you create a
blank document. This is found in Lotus>smasters>wordpro directory. The file
is Default.mwp. Set up the document for font and size you want. Save the
smartmaster. When you create a blank document from now on it will be in the
format you have chosen.

Q2) I am having trouble printing out e-mail messages while using Microsoft
Outlook Express. I am using a Gateway GP6-400. My OS is Windows 98 and my
printer is a HP DeskJet 820CE. When I receive an email it shows up on the
monitor like any normal letter. When I try to print it on paper, the first
line will print normally. The second line will only contain a single word.
The third line will print normally. Then the fourth line will print a single
word. This pattern continues for the entire length of the document. How can
I fix this problem so the document will print correctly?
A2) The best thing to do first would be to check everything like when you
give the command to print what response do you get on the screen. Check the
printer cartridge etc. If after this you find the problem still persists the
ideal solution would be to re-install the printer driver disks. This would
be the same procedure as you have done already. I had this problem once and
its usually a good idea even though it sounds a little daft to make sure the
sticky tape that you get on new cartridges is not there and its always a
good idea to do a test page. All I did was re-install the printer driver
disks and it was fine after that. All I can say is that if the problem still
persists then there could be a million to one chance that your driver disks
are faulty. I'm sure HP will only be too happy to send you replacement
driver disks.


New Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q1) I have an Acer Aspire Model#2771 and @home cable modem. @Home puts it's
files in 2 folders named @home and @home network. I cannot open any file in
either folder; it will crash the opening program, winfile, explorer, or my
computer. By accident I found a small file manager utility called FMedit95
that will open these files.
I made a folder named @text and put a few text files in it with the same
results. I renamed the folders Athome and Athome Network and they work OK
except when I try to open a program called @home Assistant, then it will
crash. I e-mailed Acer with the problem and they said you couldn't have a
folder or program that starts with the @ sign. Since @home has millions of
customers I find this hard to believe.
Any explanation on this will be greatly appreciated.

Q2) Been having a continuing problem with Rnaapp.exe locking up. It usually
happens as other programs or operations kick it out of memory and is
intermittent. Have tried Uninstall \ Reinstall Dun 1.3, IE5, and Windows
95(Over existing). Have looked for and tried patches for the various
programs and hardware on the computer. Any Ideas?

Q3) I have a spare 56K modem lying around. Is it possible to install it with
my present 56K so I can get the two modems to work together for more speed?
I am US Military in Germany, ISDN, and cable modems are not really an option
where I am at. One is a PCI and the other ISA. A friend thinks I'll need two
phone lines to do this. Any thoughts?


If you have any answers to these questions, please email me at
freehelp@pcin.net


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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
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Browse your Hard Drive from the Start Menu
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PC Magazine has a free utility available every issue and the utility that is
mentioned in the September 1, 1999 issue is one of the best. It gives you a
way to view the contents of your whole hard drive from the start menu. It
makes something called a Folder Pointer that shows you the full contents of
all drivers, folders, and sub-folders. This makes it a lot quicker to access
that one file you need. The ZIP file that it comes in is only 160k, so it
doesn't take that long to download. You can find the utility, called Folder
Pointers at http://www.pcmag.com/utilities/ and while you're there, take a
look at some of the past utilities. You may find them just as useful.


Looking for Drivers
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According to John Hills:
If you join (which is free) there are a wealth of hardware drivers to be
had. http://www.driverguide.com/join.htm

This is very true. I have been a member since March of this year and I have
been very impressed with their selection. They have an extensive listing of
manufacturers and where to go to get the most up-to-date drivers. The whole
site is very well done and easy to use. Check it out.


Registry Problems
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Another suggestion by John Hills (I wish others were as willing to submit
suggestions and tips as he is!):
From time to time we load a new program on to our PC and from that moment,
the PC malfunctions. We then uninstall it only to find it either hasn't
removed the problem or it has created yet another.

A good thing to try is this. Press the F8 key as your PC boots up which
produces a menu and select "Command prompt only."

At the C:\> type "Scanreg /?" (Ignore all quotes - only there to segregate
that which needs to be typed).

This will produce a list of options available with scanreg. They are:

/? - Brings up options \backup - allows you to backup the existing registry
\restore - allows you to select a previous registry backup from a list of
four
\fix - allows you to theoretically fix a damaged registry - if you believe
that.
\comment - self-explanatory when you try it.

To sort the problem outlined at the top of this note, type "scanreg
\restore". Choose the nearest date to the current date that the PC was
performing well and the registry will be replaced as it was before you
loaded on the crap program.

Can't guarantee this will always work but so far, has got me out of all
sorts of problems.


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CONTEST WINNERS
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Congratulations go out to Shawn Bremner, Tom Parr, Mark Milks, Stephen Grey,
and Dirk Dupon

Each has one their choice of Window Washer by Webroot Software or TweakDUN
by Patterson Designs. I knew that Window Washer was available, but I emailed
Joseph Burke at Patterson Design and he gave me permission to give away 6
copies of TweakDUN.

Here are some of the winning entries and some other suggestions.
- Internet scavenger hunt. Have people search the web for particular
pictures or files. The first one to e-mail them back to you wins.
- Have a "what if" contest. I.E.: WHAT IF your computer started doing this.?
How would you fix it?
- Find it on my web page. Hide something on your web page and have people
search for it. If nothing else, it would increase the traffic to your page!
- The worst problems and the most bad luck with computers?
- Nominate your recommendation for the award of: most ill conceived or least
useful application OR worst timed hardware or software product release OR
most specialized (i.e. of real interest but only to a very small group)
product
- Who can tell us the most erroneous forecast (i.e. someone made the
forecast and we can now see that it was way off the mark) of what computers
would be doing by the end of the century?
- If you could only give one piece of advice to a new user of MS Office what
would it be?
- You can ask your subscribers to send in a many names of their
friends/family/relatives if possible to subscribe to your ezine. Then you
can give the price to the one that has sent you most subscribers
- Favorite online multi-player game
- Coolest Wallpaper or background, make categories, like self-taken pics, or
themes.
- Best idea for home based business
- How about a contest for the most interesting and another for the most
humorous programming, computer customer support, etc., incident?
- How about the oldest professional programmer reading this newsletter?
- The youngest professional programmer?


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NEW CONTEST
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I loved the idea of an online scavenger hunt. It can be used in so many
ways. We'll try one this week. It will work like this. You need to send me
the URL of a web site that contains the item I am looking for. The first
person to do this will win their choice of one of the following:
ZD QuickSkill Learn Microsoft Word 97 tutorial CD (very good info on it)
MSIE5 complete on CD (avoid downloading it)
Caldera OpenLinux 2.2 (one of the nicest Linux distributions I have used)
Window Washer
TweakDUN

Here is the list of things to find:
1) Information on the Epson 900 Color printer
2) The name of a program that will increase your CD-ROM cache
3) A site that will make free banners for you online (appears instantly, not
sent to you by email)
4) What is packet reading and writing for a CDR or CDRW
5) A site that has the option to send email greeting cards with a summer
theme

When you find all of these things, email me your name, email address and
answers only at editor@pcin.net and DO NOT email me which prize
you would like or your address. If you have won, I will contact you
requesting this information.


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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
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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.
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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.

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