The PC Improvement News

Issue 1-52
October 06, 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 52nd 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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This week marks a year of The PC Improvement News. Pretty exciting! I
started it a year ago when I was an exhibitor in a local small business
show. I wanted a way to get some info about my booth visitors. I still have
several local subscribers, but since I starting soliciting subscribers on
the Internet, that has been the big source for subscribers.

I'd like to thank all of you for being subscribers, and I hope you like the
newsletter. Hopefully you have all learned something at one point or
another. Since I have provided this service to you, I hope you will all
visit http://www.pcin.net/survey.shtml

I apologize if it seems like I am focusing a lot on Y2K things. It's not
that I am worried or obsessed with it. It is just that most of the
mainstream media is, so that is a lot of the news I get. I just pass it on
to you.

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THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
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One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only
interests.
          - John Stuart Mill

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
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Toronto Tops in Software Piracy
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The September 20, 1999 issue of Computer Reseller News Canada reports that
"Microsoft Canada of Mississauga, Ont., said its US-based parent company has
taken action against 19 Toronto-area resellers suspected of illegally
distributor unlicensed software on computers sold to customers.  The
software developer said 18 represents the largest number of companies ever
caught in a single piracy sweep campaign in a North American city. Before
taking action against the 18 companies, private investigators visited
resellers suspected of hard-disk loading, or installation of software for
which a company has no license, onto a computer's hard disk before it is
sold to a customer. Although this kind of has to do with the contest, I
thought I should mention it here. I had someone email me


Write Your Local Government Representative
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I received an email this week from Mark Milks. He was greatly concerned
about something that he heard that the US Congress was going to do. He had
heard that they were considering charging an "alternative postage fee" on
email.  I've heard this sort of thing many times, and it isn't unique to the
US. There was a rumour in Canada within the last 6 months that our
Parliament was going to do that. Sometimes it is hard to know whom to
believe. I suspect most of them are rumours, but you never know. I bring
this up because Mark sent me a URL for writing US Representatives. Whether
this is a hoax or not, it wouldn't be a bad idea to write your government
representatives, no matter where you are. Whether you are for it or not, you
can let them know how you feel about government intervention in the
Internet. Thanks for suggesting this Mark.

In the US:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
In Canada:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/36/senmemb/house/MemberList.asp?Lang=E


Another Y2K "Don't Go There" Report
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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a site that the British government had set
up that warned against going to certain countries because of Y2K problems.
Well, the US government also has a site.  You can visit it at
http://www.y2ktransport.dot.gov/fly2k/


You Can Bet on Anything
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Costa Rica-based NASA Sportsbook an online betting operation at
http://www.nasasports.com is taking bets on some strange Y2K occurrences.
They have 7 things you can bet on like whether or not the world will come to
an end (1,000,000 to 1 odds). How are you supposed to collect your winnings
if you are right?

For more info:
http://www.latimes.com/HOME/BUSINESS/CUTTING/t000089104.html
http://www.nasasports.com/y2kmain.htm


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CONTEST RESULTS
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I had 38 entries to this week's contest. Thank you to every one who entered.
I went into Microsoft Excel, entered "=RAND()*37" (without the quotes) in
the first cell (generates a random number from 0 to 37 for a total of 38
possibilities) and recalculated the sheet 2 more times.  23, 33, and 11 were
the winning numbers, so that means that 24, 34, and 12 are the winners.
Congratulations to Bill R., Malcolm Moore, and SMSudman who won their choice
of DU Meter, Window Washer, or TweakDUN.

All of the contest entries (both current and previous) can be seen at:
http://www.pcimprovements.com/pcinews/contests The page is quite long, but there are some very interesting responses. Most people felt there wouldn't be a problem in the US, but that some of the "smaller" countries would have problems. There was a surprising number of people who thought that it was all hype and just a way for computer people
to make more money. Check it out.
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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. These are NOT my own questions
and they are NOT my answers. I will NOT check the validity of these
comments. That is up to you.

Previous Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q1) I bought a Canon BJC-4400 printer in May. In the last couple of weeks,
it has started printing in a very w i d e typeface - not the spacing, but
each letter itself is very wide. I have checked the Properties in the
Printers folder, uninstalled it and re-installed, and it still does the same
thing. I know it has to be something simple (which is what is keeping me
from calling Tech Support - I don't want to look like an idiot!) Any ideas
on what I can do?
A1) John Hills said, "Make sure you have not selected a very wide typeface
in your word processor - if not go into control panel and double click on
printers icon - select properties and then select print test page. If that
prints OK then you have a word processor problem. While you are there ensure
you have the correct printer driver installed.
OR
Boot up in DOS and at the DOS prompt type DIR enter, to get a list of files
and then press the Print Screen or Prn Scr key. If the test comes out fine
then the printer is not at fault. If it is still wide then delve into your
manual and find the keys on the printer to press to cause the printer to
reset itself. Normally, you press these keys down and then turn the printer
on to reset. Give that a try and if that doesn't work then call the
Samaritans or your supplier."

Q2) I can't find my Briefcase after converting from 95 to 98. Before I
converted I deleted my HD, as there was a lot of rubbish on it.
A2) John Hills said, "You are the first person I have met that has found a
use for briefcase. You must be a very interesting person to meet. To get
Briefcase back again go into Control Panel (In my computer) and double click
ADD\REMOVE - Choose accessories and tick brief case. If it is already
ticked, untick it and come out of that section and back into desktop - You
may have to reboot. Then go back into add\remove - accessories and then tick
it. This will now be visible on your desktop when its finished buzzing away
and allowing you the opportunity of sticking some more cases into your
brief."
A2) Bill R. said, "This one is simple to repair, go to start, settings,
control panel. Next click on add new hardware and windows pops up you have 3
options, click windows setup and you will see a tabbed panel. Look at this
you will see some grey checks which means a whole program did not load
choose add these plop in windows98 and your briefcase will suddenly
reappear. You will most likely have to reboot as windows likes to make you
reboot all the time."
A2) Rich Barnhart said, "1.Go into the Control Panel. 2. Click on Add Remove
Programs. 3. Click on Windows Setup Tab. 4. Click on Accessories and check
Briefcase. Click OK. Have you Windows 98 CD handy. Give that a try."

New Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q1) While my computer is connected to the LAN, Microsoft Word very often
works extremely slowly. I uninstalled and installed again Microsoft Office
97, ran the Service Pack and updated NAV and the problem is still the same.
Some other computers in the LAN have the same problem.

Q2) My computer has 64MB of SDRAM. We installed an additional 32MB recently,
and it worked fine. It is in slot #2 on my motherboard. I have a total of 3
slots. Up until yesterday, I have had 96MB of working SDRAM. Yesterday, we
added a CD-RW. We installed it on the 2nd IDE controller slot of the
motherboard. It is "master" on its IDE ribbon cable with nothing else on the
cable. When we came back in and restarted the computer, the SDRAM is back to
64MB. We did not touch the SDRAM, and went back to make sure we had not
loosened any of it up. It is all seated fine. Any ideas?

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
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There is no contest this week. Please take the time to visit
http://www.pcin.net/survey.shtml and fill out the survey. It
will help me make a better newsletter and make it more enjoyable for you.

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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
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Cheap Trick of the Week
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**Monstrous egg**
Internet Explorer 5 contains one really lame Easter egg showing off the
developers' names. But we're not going to show you that piece of egotistical
drivel. Because there's a much better Easter egg hidden in IE5. To find it,
launch IE5 and click on the Tools menu and Internet Options. Under the
General tab, click on Languages and then on Add. In the User Defined field,
type ie-ee and click on OK. Now highlight the new entry that reads "User
Define [ie-ee]" and click on the Move Up button to move it to the top of the
list. Click OK twice more to close up the window. Back in Internet Explorer,
click on the Search icon (a globe) on the toolbar. This adds a search panel
on the left side of the browser window. Click on Customize in its upper
right corner. Cute animation, huh? It's cuter if you consider that it may
not be Godzilla getting bonked by IE in this graphic, but Mozilla, the
mascot of Microsoft's rival, Netscape.

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


Useful Windows Tools
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Subscriber Chris Wheatley sent this in:

I've been asked for this nugget quite a lot recently and it may help you
after installing that dodgy CD from a "free" ISP. (This is HOT right now in
the Uk due to British telecoms monopoly and their high local call rates -
there are NO free calls in the UK! We pay dearly and hate free advertising.)
I call it the "How the golly gosh do I get rid of that "provided by Cheapo
ISP" message on the IE5 banner?"
Run REGEDIT then FILE, EXPORT and save the whole registry in case you screw
up. Double-clicking the REG file you just created will restore the file in
the event of a brown trouser situation.
Then edit the existing registry; choose branches from the root in this
order....
-HKey local machine
-Software
-Microsoft
-Internet Explorer
-Main
In the right-hand pane there will be a key called Window Title.
Look for the annoying message here. It's between quotes. Edit the area in
between the " " to read what ever you want. The default is Internet
Explorer. You can leave it at that or add/delete anything you want. And that
truth will appear every time you run IE5 on the 'lil window colour banner.


Does Your Browser Give Out Your Email Address?
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Many months ago I included a link to a site that will tell you if your
browser sends out your email address. You see, when you visit a site that
links you to an FTP site either directly or via an image link, you need to
log onto that FTP server. It is usually done automatically through your
browser. It tries to log you on anonymously. Your username is most likely
anonymous and your password is usually some variation of your browser name
like IEUser@ or something like that.  The problem is that some people have
either on purpose or by accident changed the setting on their computer that
stores the anonymous login password to give and it is set at your real email
address. You can visit http://helie.com/BrowserCheck/ and see if you have
this problem or not.

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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.
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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 author is
notified and the newsletter is presented as is.

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