The PC Improvement News

Issue 1-49
September 15, 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 49th 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.

There are only 2 ways to get on the subscriber list. You have either been
subscribed by filling out a subscription form on any of the pages on my
site, or you have requested FreeHelp from me in the past.

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 just keep collecting more prizes.  This past week, I received 3 copies of
Data Smog (I reviewed it last week) from HarperSanFrancisco, and 5 copies of
DU Meter, a program from Hagel Technologies that shows you clearly how much
you have downloaded and how long it took. There is a review for this at the
bottom of the newsletter. I've got a few other things planned for prizes as
well. I know not all of these prizes appeal to everyone, but I'm trying to
get enough variety so that at one point or another everyone will want to
enter the contests.


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THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let
go."
          - William Feather

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

To subscribe to the FREE "Aspire to Something Higher" Thought-Of-The-Day
list, send a blank email to HappyQuotes-subscribe@listbot.com


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THE NEWS
----------------------------------------------------------------
Scam of the week
----------------------------------------------------------------
Loyal subscriber John Hills passed this on to me.

>From the Desk of:
Dr. SIMONS IKE B.Sc (UNN), MNIN; MCIA
DIRECT TELEPHONE NO234 90 400848
FACSIMILE NO: 234-1-7595386
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
TRANSFER OF US$18.5 MILLION INTO A PERSONAL/COMPANY'S OFFSHORE ACCOUNT
Through the courtesy of business opportunity, I take liberty anchored on
strong desire to solicit your assistance on this mutual beneficiary and
risk-free transaction with you, which I hope you will give your urgent
attention.
We are members of the Contracts Review Committee (CRC), a panel set up by
the new democratically elected government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
to review all contracts executed by foreign contractors. We have Eighteen
Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$18.5M) which we
have identified as misappropriated and inflated funds from grossly
over-invoiced contracts.
We are seeking your assistance to remit this amount into your account or any
other nominated account you can provide for us. Your commission will be 25%
of the total sum. My colleagues and I will take 70% and the remaining 5% for
settling local and foreign expenses as well as taxation.
Please notify us urgently, your acceptance of our proposal. Kindly
acknowledge the receipt of this letter by sending to us a copy of this
letter by fax and reach us on the telephone number as above. I shall inform
you of the modalities for a formal application to secure the necessary
approvals for the immediate release of this funds into your account.
Thanks for your anticipated co-operation.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. SIMONS IKE
NOTE : PLEASE DO NOT GET BACK TO ME THROUGH THIS
EMAIL ADDRESS AS I WILL DISABLE IT IMMEDIATELY AFTER
SENDING THIS MESSAGE TO YOU . USE THE ABOVE
PHONE/ FAX NUMBERS TO REACH ME AND ALSO INCLUDE
YOUR OWN TEL/FAX NUMBERS AND
A MORE PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS THANKS.

Why would the government of Nigeria be resorting to junk email to solicit
help? Why would this person be using an email address that was Yahoo! based?
Seems pretty fishy to me.


MS Case Close to Ending
----------------------------------------------------------------
Last Friday the DOJ and Microsoft were ordered to give their final written
versions of the facts of the case. The filings could approach 1,000 pages
for each side. Microsoft is trying to show that the success of the
AOL/Netscape merger and the phenomenal success of the Red Hat public
offering means that there is plenty of competition in the industry.

For more info:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/990913-000001.html
http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,91548-144992-10161
65-0,00.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/990913-000002.html


September 9, 1999 Not a Problem
----------------------------------------------------------------
It was thought that the 9999 date would cause a problem in some older
systems, but I never read one report about any problems. 9999 was a way that
programs long ago would signify a bad date. It hasn't been used for a long,
long time, so it wasn't too surprising that everything was fine.


Sun Gets StarOffice
----------------------------------------------------------------
StarOffice is an alternative to the major office suites. Star Division, a
German company, originally programmed it. Sun bought Star Division earlier
in September so they also acquired the StarOffice program. It comes in
versions for both Linux and Windows. It is free for personal use and has
been downloaded 250,000 times in its first week.

For more info visit:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2334192,00.html?chkpt=hpqs014

To download visit:
http://www.sun.com/dot-com/staroffice.html


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CONTEST RESULTS
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I had 13 different people enter this week's contest. I think that is the
best yet. Of course that is only 2.8%, but it is better than before. The
contest was to give a tip to a new computer user. Congratulations to Kay and
Charles. Although all of the tips were useful, I particularly agreed with
theirs. They each win a copy of CD-Quick Cache.

Here are the winning suggestions:
Kay Hill said, "The best piece of advice I could give a new computer user
would be to realize that there's not a lot of things you can do to make it
"crash". Don't be afraid to experiment and try new things, sites, etc.
Nearly any "error" can be undone and those "fatal errors", although
menacing-looking, are not so bad (usually!). Enjoy your new toy!"
Charles Breeding said, "Never let the person who is supposed to be helping
you used the keyboard or whenever they may be showing you. Always insist on
doing it yourself while they give you the instructions. Also it is
beneficial to repeat the process at least two or three times."

Here are the other suggestions:
Ryan Willis said, "I have helped numerous people with their computer systems
in the past and the one piece of advice that I have always given is "just
play with the computer and have fun." You'd be surprised how many people
love that advice because it takes away some of the hesitation that hinders
their performance!"
Bill said, "This is a very simple thing now, First thing to do is make a
backup of your system (This is the first thing I do with any system. Anyone
can do it this is One thing that Bill did incorporate in Windows that works
without any problems). Most makers do not readily install a backup. This way
if you accidentally delete a file that is needed you can restore it from the
backup. Also read the book that comes with whatever operating system you are
using, (i.e. Windows, Netscape or so on). One other very good point (do not
just download something on someone else's word) It is good to have a little
knowledge of what a prog does and where it gets stored, a lot of these progs
are dos based and many users do not know how and where to get rid of them.
This is very important as them little windows that popup all the time saying
this prog has performed and illegal operation and will be shut down. Another
extremely important thing is get a good virus utility program (Norton, or
Symantec,) these are both very good and cost a little more than most but as
with the case of viruses around can be a great lifesaver. These are little
mistakes I have made and learned very fast."
Kathleen Kee Reagle said, "Please be sure virus checker is turned off when
installing a program. It is always a good idea to close out of everything
prior to an install."
Judy said, "As far as the computer itself, learning how it works and why, I
haven't learned all the IN's and outs believe me there are things I learn
all the time. I read don't get me wrong I enjoy reading, but with this
computer hands on is something that works for me. I find myself now creating
Stationary a lot I find that creating new stationary makes the person I am
sending it to think. I learned that on www.lockergnome.com, which is another
newsletter Graham but I don't want you to feel bad, Chris is the one that
runs that, however he isn't as personal as you are, and that is why I like
yours better."
John Hills said, "The best advice I can think of is that when purchasing a
machine, carefully think out exactly what you want your computer to do. And
when you know exactly what you want your computer to do then buy a
specification that will manage your requirements comfortably. There is for
e.g. no point in buying one with 32 Meg of 3D graphics, Pentium III CPU, 25
gig hard drive, and 256meg ram if you only want the PC to run for e.g.
Microsoft Office. Second bit of advice would be that a PC can be addictive,
particularly with games and the Internet. Make sure you set ample time aside
for your family."
Alex Tanaka said, "I always tell new computer users to read the manual
first. If they don't get what the manual says, I tell them to get a "How to"
, "Master" or the "The complete idiot's guide" book for what ever they may
want to use. From experience "The complete idiot's Guide" works better than
the manual and people actually say 'thank you' after they read it."
Mark Milks said, "Tips for a new computer user are a dime a dozen. Click
here; download this program; upgrade this. etc. I really think it comes down
to two words. Patience and fun. If you practice the first; you will have the
second. Nobody becomes an overnight computer wizard. It takes time to make
mistakes and learn the answer. You must take the time to learn why your
computer is making you crazy. In this age of instant fixes, we all what it
fixed now. You must take the time to learn. Understanding this from the
start is very important. And above all; remember this is FUN!"
Jon Monteleone said, "When in doubt use the "Windows Help" program that is
installed on every windows 95/98 computer. Now I know your gonna says that's
pretty lame, but hear me out on this one. At least 100 times or more, I have
been stuck on something and have used the "Windows Help" with great success.
I feel that the "Help" section is the most underused software installed on
computers today. And even when the Windows Help didn't work for me I simply
went to the On-line Windows Help at: www.Microsoft.com, and was 99.999%
successful in solving my problems."
John Tounoussidis said, "The first thing I tell to new computer users is to
stay away from Microsoft."
Ken Berry said, "The best thing I can say is buy well known and established,
hardware and software. Those companies generally have very good support
systems and better than average compatible products. OR  Always keep your
software and drivers updated, and learn the value of Windows 98's System
File Checker when things start getting buggy. OR Master windows 3.1 and
MSDOS, then (the following year) Windows 95. Go through all the versions and
updates. If you're still sane, go with Windows 98. And as your playing that
latest version of Half-Life and the glee is practically dripping of your
face, look over at your child, who is just as happy playing with a rubber
ball."
Randy Dunaway said, "My best advice to new users is back up your data
religiously. As a Computer repair shop owner, it is very disheartening when
a customers brings in a system that the hard drive has crashed and they had
their whole business or fiances or whatever on there and have no backup.
They can't believe they lost everything, and after I have proved it to them,
they have to start figuring out what they lost and how to get it back. They
do learn their lesson, for the most part. Even if it is as simple as backing
up data files to floppy, it is worth the aggravation and time spent trying
to get even halfway back to where they were before the disaster."


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I NEED HELP
----------------------------------------------------------------
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) Many times when I receive mail (jokes, etc.) it has been forwarded
dozens of times and all those people who have received it are listed. Takes
forever to get to the message! Now, if I want to forward the message on to
yet another group of people but don't want to show all the previous people
who've received it, how do I delete those names?
I received several answers for this question but they were all basically the
same. I have included them all because they were worded a little
differently. Maybe one will make more sense to you than another.
A1) John Hills said, "Simply copy and paste the message part into a new mail
message and then add the addresses that you wish."
A1) Lonnie Whelan said, "In Eudora, the easiest way to 'clean-up' a message
is to click to forward the message. The text can then be edited, just as in
any word-processor. I suspect many other e-mail programs would allow the
same."
A1) VJ said, "TRY THIS! 1) Firstly compose a new message 2) Just cut and
paste the original message onto your new message 3) Attach whatever
addresses you want and send! Clever right!"
A1) Greg Vinson said, "I would suggest that the user just click and drag,
then delete the extra information. They should position the cursor at the
very beginning of the information, and to the left of (or above) the first
word. Then hold and drag the cursor to the right and down the page slowly to
the line above the pertinent information, "being careful not to let that
information be highlighted at all." Then hit the delete key. That's about as
simple as I can put it, I hope it helps."
A1) Herb Christian said, "I'm sure the question about email with previous
recipients names showing up when forwarding has been answered, but.. just in
case not. What I usually do, is copy what I want to send, and paste in it
new mail. It seems to work for me."

Q2) I have a solution to the Y2K problem. Ha ha. Set your clock and calendar
BACK 1 or 2 years. Will that work? What will happen to your "stuff" that is
dated after the date you set it back to?
A2) Silvan Kuipers said, "It will work, but do you really need to change the
date? If you don't change the date, it will (in the worst case) jump to a
date long ago. But you indicate that it doesn't matter to you, so, you can
change your date, but you don't need to. Your computer will still work. The
hardware isn't the biggest problem. The software IS. If you use software
that relies on dates, then you may have a problem. For instance, software
that computes your salary based on your age (and your age is based on the
current date!). Otherwise you can do with your date whatever you like."
A2) John Hills said, "Nothing much will happen but when you reply to emails
or letters you will find your replies will be two years earlier than
correspondence you are replying too. Not a great deal going for this idea.
But I suppose a two-year discrepancy to your replies will be better than a
20-year discrepancy which may happen after Y2K has passed. I don't think
your suggestion will rock the computer world."


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

Q1) I have installed the new Windows 98 2nd edition on 3 new computers now
and they come with Outlook Express 5.0. On all 3 machines, Outlook Express
will not let me Import the Mail Messages from Windows Messaging, which is
the e-mail server the clients are using on their network. I have done that
with 2 other machines with Outlook and had no problems with the import
function. First error message: "cannot import from MAPI client". Did some
research and found in Microsoft Support that you have to disable the default
MAPI client in the settings. Did that, and now when I try to import, it just
locks up Outlook Express! No other suggestions have appeared in the support
home page from Microsoft. Any ideas? Is it an OE5.0 flaw or incompatibility
with Windows Messaging? Is there something else I am supposed to be doing
and not see it?

Q2) Have a question about cookies...are they in chronological order? In
other words, when I first started using my computer a year or so ago, are
the first sites I went to shown as the first cookies, and conversely, are
the more recent sites at the end of the list? I need to delete a bunch of
them, but can't necessarily tell by looking at them what they relate to. For
instance, a contest for a spa vacation might show up in cookies as "Flycast"
or something like that. I don't want to delete the ones I need/want, but
just get rid of a lot of "trash", i.e., sites I never use any more. Is there
a program that will read the cookies and tell me where they are from?

Remember, if you have an answer to these questions or have a question of
your own, please email me at freehelp@pcin.net


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NEW CONTEST
----------------------------------------------------------------
This is something that they have been doing on the sports radio station in
Toronto, the Fan 590 (I have mentioned them before). This doesn't really
have to do with computers, but I thought it would be interesting. What would
your dream golf foursome be? You are one, but what other 3 people would be
interesting to golf with. They don't have to be golfers at all (and
hopefully they won't be). The idea is to come up with 3 people who would be
an interesting combination. For instance, I thought it would be neat to be
with Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Pierce Brosnan and hear them argue about
who was the better James Bond. Get the idea? You can have fun with this by
trying to come up with some crazy combinations (Hitler, Mussolini, Napoleon?
or Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison?)

The 2 people who send me the best, funniest or most interesting foursome
(remember you and 3 others), will win their choice of:
-Data Smog book
-DU meter
-TweakDUN
-Window Washer
-ZD Education Quick Skill CD teaching Microsoft Office 97
-IE 5 on CD (so you don't need to download it)

Email you contest entries to editor@pcin.net


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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
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Receive Microsoft KnowledgeBase Article by Email
----------------------------------------------------------------
I think everyone who uses Microsoft Windows knows that Microsoft has online
support and many articles in their KnowledgeBase.  One of the problems I
have found is that their KnowledgeBase is hard to search through.  You
rarely find what you're looking for.  One good way to look for articles
about a specific topic is to send e-mail to Microsoft.  They have an
autoresponder set up, where you can e-mail them and receive a listing of the
KnowledgeBase categories.  From there you can select a category, receive
another e-mail with a listing of articles, and keep working from there.
Since the information will arrive in your inbox, it will be in text format,
and you will be able to download it quicker.  You should also be able to
save the time you spent using their search function from their web site.

Send an e-mail to mshelp@microsoft.com with a subject of index


We Compute Magazine Cheap Trick of the Week
----------------------------------------------------------------
**Serve yourself**
Windows 95 or 98 users can check what servers they're connected to when they
're online. While connected to the Internet, click on the Start button,
Programs and MS-DOS Prompt. MS-DOS will open in a separate window with the
Windows directory showing. Just type netstat at the prompt and hit Enter.
After a few seconds a list will pop up with the servers you are connected to
and the state of the connection.

Buy the Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks for only $9.95 Cdn
http://www.pcimprovements.com/help/books/cheaptricks.shtml


How Long Does It Take to Download a Program?
----------------------------------------------------------------
Some people use their download speed as a sort of status symbol. I can
download at 3.5kb/s! Yeah, well using my cable modem I can download at
80kb/s! Of course, dial-up and high-speed access are incomparible, but most
people still like to know how fast they are downloading and how long it
takes. DU Meter by Hagel Technologies is the program for you. It includes a
stopwatch, a graphical chart to show how your transfer speeds change during
the course of a download, and even alarms that can ring to signify so much
has been downloaded, or if your download is stalled. This is a very small
program that barely uses any system resources. Even if there is no technical
purpose for you owning it, at only $15 US, it is still fun to have.

You can visit the DU Meter site at:
http://www.hageltech.com/dumeter/
Read my online review at:
http://www.pcimprovements.com/help/software/dumeter.shtml


A Tip from a Subscriber
----------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Stambolsky suggested this.
"I've got a CD-ROM speed tip for you: Because most of us just use the CD-ROM
to load software and programs and not actually read or study things off
them, then we can use a little trick to really speed it up. Right-click "My
Computer" and go to "Properties" then to the "Performance" tab and then
click the "File System" button. You should see 3 tabs, one of which being
the CD-ROM. Click that and drop the "Supplemental cache size" to almost
zero. What this does is drops the cache from reading the CD and instead uses
the power to read CD's faster as well as copy data from them at quite a bit
higher speeds. This is also a trick used to help users when their computer
has trouble shutting down time and time again. That is because sometimes the
CD-ROM cache has trouble clearing out before it shuts down, hence it takes
the machine too long complete the cleaning process and it either hangs or
sits there for ridiculous periods of time.
Dunno if you already know this or if you've already posted this in your
newsletter, but I hope it helps. :)"

This kind of goes against the concept of using a program like CD-Quick Cache
to increase your cache size, but I have heard that some people find that
with certain CD-ROM drives, no cache is actually faster.


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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 editor@pcin.net
----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

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