The PC Improvement News
Issue 59
November 24, 1999
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 1999
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.
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 59th edition of the PC Improvement News. In
this newsletter,
I combine news, tips, thoughts, and contests. There is something
for
everyone, and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there
will be something
for you. I am willing to discuss any computer topics in this
newsletter.
Email me at editor@pcin.net
with your suggestions.
If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come
back for more!
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SOME OPENING THOUGHTS
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Many people used the topic of Software602 to rant about how
no one can
compete with Microsoft. Some of the comments were quite interesting.
Not all
of them were contest entries, but even some of the entries
were interesting
reading. Check them out below.
** I need some advice. It seems as if the short form for this
newsletter is
PCIN. I didn't come up with it, as I always used to write
out the whole
title (The PC Improvement News). Many of my subscribers abbreviated
it, and
I liked it so now it is in the subject line. I was all set
to go and
register PCIN.com so I could set up a domain for it, but it
was taken. My
question is this. is PCIN.net a good name? Do you look down
on sites that
aren't .com's? This isn't a contest, just a question. If you
don't like
PCIN.net, then send in your suggestions (keep them centered
on my company
and newsletter name). Send in comments/suggestions/criticisms
to
editor@pcin.net
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THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
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It is never too late to be what you might have been.
- George
Eliot
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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Go Network Must Stop - Part II
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I don't know how many of you went to check out the ABC, ESPN,
GO, or Disney
sites, but for several days, they had this pathetic Go Network
text graphic
on their site. If you visit there today, you will see that
the old logo is
back. Well, they appealed the court decision, and until there
is a final
decision, they can continue to use the logo.
For more info:
http://www.cnnfn.com/news/technology/newsbytes/139519.html
http://www.go.com/
http://www.goto.com/
Watch What You Forward
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My wife got an email from a friend last week about a little
girl who was
missing. The mother had sent out an email hoping that the
word would spread
and they would find the girl. At first I thought it was just
a hoax, but it
seemed sincere enough. Then later the next day, I came across
a news item
about the story. The girl had gone missing in October and
was found the very
same night. People were getting this email all over the country
and calling
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Since
the child was
found, there wasn't a record of her missing in their database.
I don't know
if it is the mother's fault for sending out the mail so quickly,
or if it is
the fault of all the people who forward the message that the
story is still
around a month after the girl was found.
For more info:
http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500058262-500096003-50037448
3-0,00.html
Y2K Trips Undersold
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A lot of travel agencies thought it would be cool to plan
trips that would
span the New Year. They thought every one want to be in the
middle of the
ocean when the clock strikes 12. Well, apparently, that isn't
the case. As
of a couple of weeks ago, only 2 out of 14 of Carnival Cruses
ships were
fully booked. Part of the problem is that tickets can be up
to 30% more
expensive than normal.
For more info:
http://www.detnews.com/1999/nation/9911/14/11140092.htm
DoJ May Block Win2000
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With Windows 2000 set to be released in February, the buzz
going around is
that the Justice Department will ask Judge Jackson to temporary
stop
Microsoft from releasing Windows 2000 until the case is settled.
For more info:
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/msftdoj/TWB19991110S0025
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CONTEST RESULTS
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Well, many of you thought that the 602Pro PC Suite was a good
program, and
might be useful, but that there was no way that Software602
could compete
with Microsoft. I guess this is probably true, but it is too
bad, because it
really is an excellent program, and is fully compatible with
Office.
This was a week of the Thompsons. 3 of the contest entrants
had a last name
of Thompson (Alec, Dave, Roger). The winners ended up being
John Hills and
Alec Thompson. They each win a copy of 602Pro PC Suite so
they can try it
out themselves. Once again I'd like to thank Software602 for
donating the
prizes.
For those who are still interested, you can check out the
602Pro PC Suite
home page at http://www.602pro.com/index.html
and my full review of the
suite at http://www.pcin.net/help/software/602propcsuite.shtml
As usual, all contest entries are available on my web site
at
http://www.pcin.net/contests/19991124.shtml As I said, some
of the rants were very interesting. 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 Question 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My PC started acting weird, and now it will not even boot
up. I have been
running it normally and haven't made any recent upgrades or
changes. When I
turn it on, the screen is blank, and the computer doesn't
even go through
the POST or test memory. The only thing that happens is it
gives a series of
beeps: one long beep, 8 short beeps and 2 more short beeps.
Can you help?
Answers to Question 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Ference said, "If the series of beeps is the same
after multiple
attempts to power up the PC, that is meaningful POST information
and is can
probably be deciphered via a link on the web page of the motherboard
manufacturer to the BIOS manufacturer."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andy said, "Getting a beep code and not being able to
boot the computer
usually indicate a hardware malfunction or failure. Different
motherboards
with their BIOS's chirp different beep codes when there's
a problem. You
must know what motherboard and BIOS you have in order to decipher
the code.
I've included a link that you can visit to start searching
for the solution
to the code http://www.techadvice.com/tech/B/BeepCode.htm
You might want to
try doing a search on http://www.altavista.com
and just input "beep codes"
you'll be surprised with what you'll find. I hope that helps."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken Berry said, "I had the same exact thing happen. Assuming
you have an AGP
graphics card you need to reseat the card. It's come loose
somehow. That
particular set of beeps means the computer is not "seeing"
your graphics
adapter. Same deal if it's a PCI adapter. Sometimes with an
AGP card you
have to push really hard to fully seat it. Either that or
your graphics card
is fried."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "Sounds like a graphics card issue.
Open up the lid and
make sure the card is seated in its slot firmly. While you
are there, do the
same thing with the memory and CPU. If this doesn't work trying
swapping
slots with the graphics card and then try the swapping the
memory around. If
none of that works I would first try another graphics card."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leeor Geva said, "1. Check the connection of your monitor
and to the
computer, 2. The monitor may be bad, 3. This usually means
the Mother Board
is fried, and I saw it happen to 2 eMachines, 3. How old is
your computer?
3, 4 or maybe even 5 or more? You might need to change the
little round flat
battery on the motherboard. But first check that the wiring
is all in place,
the IDE cable is hooked up tightly to your Master Hard Drive
or you may have
had a virus (such as a spin off of CIH) which knocked your
system out. There
is some thought, but you might want to have it checked out
physically at
this point by a professional!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill R. said, "Seeing your p/c just beeps on start up
says it is not
recognizing a piece of hardware. The first thing I would do
is check the
hard drive. I can't tell how old/new the system is but I had
a similar
problem with the first p/c I bought, and had it checked out
to find the h/d
bit the dust. If no one minds a suggestion it is a good idea
to have 2 h/d
on a system use the second as a backup. Prices have came way
down just
recently so it might be a good investment."
Previous Question 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is it possible to dualboot Windows 95 and Windows 98?
Answers to Question 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Ference said, "More Microsoft self flagellation.
Easily done if dual
hard disks are installed and Changes are made via FDISK. On
a single hard
disk, assuming no BOOT.INI or third party program which would
direct the
user to choose an OS, and that both Operating Systems are
in separate
folders, the most recently installed would boot always. Exiting
to a dos
shell and changing directories to the other OS would enable
it to be
launched from its executable."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "This probably explains it better than
I could
http://www.wugnet.com/articles/multiboot/mboot.html
"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leeor Geva said, "This is something you do when you get
really bored, but I
remember an article from Graham about this long ago, where
a Linux
application ran a few OSes at the same time. But here is something
I stepped
on: http://wugnet.com/articles/multiboot/mboot.html
Have fun."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill R. said, "As for question 2 there is no way possible
to dual boot both
win 95 and 98 at the same time. They are designed to overwrite
files to
update your system to the newer version .As I suggested in
question 1 if you
wish to have both systems on your p/c you would need to have
2 HDs and boot
to the system you wish to use. That is the only way I have
found to run both
OSes on one machine but you will always get the message updating
your
system."
New Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) I have a ZIP drive as a back up medium. This takes care
of the physical
requirement but managing backups is still a nuisance and the
only way I can
be sure I'm doing it is to back up everything each time. I've
heard of
software that manages backups, tracking what needs to be saved
and managing
restores, but the one I investigated is pretty expensive.
Does anyone have a
good way to deal with this or know of a cheap/free application
that will
make it easier?
2) Does anyone know of an email client or an add-in for any
of the usual
email suspects (we use Eudora and MS Outlook) that will selectively
apply a
process like zipping attachments depending on the characteristics
of the
mail, e.g. The size of the attachments or the who it's going
to? I would
like to automate the process.
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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NO NEW CONTEST
----------------------------------------------------------------
No new contest, but please send in your opinions about a new
domain for the
newsletter as mentioned in the "Opening Thoughts"
section. Send comments to
editor@pcin.net
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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
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Cheap Trick of the Week
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**The Name Game**
Here's a Registry trick we keep getting asked to repeat:
When you buy a new computer, you'll often find Windows 95
or 98 is installed
as registered to the name of the store or to something generic,
like
"Customer" or "XXXX". How do you change
that to your name, without
reinstalling Windows?
You can do this by editing your system's Registry. (If you
are unfamiliar
with editing the Registry, look for instructions and precautions
at
http://www.WE-Compute.com
Hit the Start button, type regedit and click on OK to open
the Registry
Editor. Make your way through the keys to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version.
When you
click on CurrentVersion, you should see RegisteredOwner in
the right pane.
Double-click on its icon and in the Edit String window, type
the name you
want to appear as the registered owner. Hit OK and close up
the Registry.
You can also change the company name by editing the string
for
RegisteredOrganization.
Buy the Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks for only $9.95 Cdn
(about $7.00 US)
http://www.pcimprovements.com/help/books/cheaptricks.shtml
What Does that Gibberish Mean?
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Sometimes you have files and you don't know what they are.
You view them
with notepad and there are all sorts of crazy characters on
the screen. What
does it mean? Quite frankly I don't know, but I do know that
sometimes these
files are actually supposed to have another extension. One
that your
computer will recognize. Keep this in mind when you are looking
at the
files. The first couple of characters can indicate which type
of file it is:
Characters File Type
BM
BMP
GIF
GIF
JFIF
JPG
MZ
EXE
PK
ZIP
To check this out, find a bitmap file on your computer. Hold
the sift key
when you right-click on it. This will bring up an "Open
With." option.
Choose it. You can then choose which program you want to view
the file
with. Choose NotePad, but make sure that the "Always
use this program"
checkbox is UNCHECKED. This is so the next time you want to
open a BMP file,
it will use the original program, and not NotePad (note: You
may not even
have the option to check a box, if you don't, then everything
is fine). The
first two characters in all the mess will be BM.
This trick can be especially helpful if you run scandisk and
it recovers
some info into file0001 (or whatever it is). You can use notepad
to view
them and sometimes can find out what type of file it should
be (I did just
that on the weekend). When you know what type of file it is,
you can then
just rename it with the proper extension.
The Public 8-Ball
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Have you ever owned an 8-Ball? You know, one of those things
you can shake
and it will answer a question. Well, if you don't own one
now, you can use
it on the web. The person who set this up has used a Lego
Mindstorm kit to
make a device that can shake the ball when asked. This device
connects to
the computer that is running Linux. You ask the question,
the program tells
the robot to shake the ball, and a camera shows the result.
It is very neat.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work in IE, only Netscape.
Check it out:
http://8ball.federated.com/
Watch out for HTML SPAM
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I was always under the impression that the only way for a
junk emailer to
know if an email address is good is if the person actually
tries to reply to
unsubscribe (all of the experts tell you not to do that).
Well, as HTML
messages get more popular, they can find out in another way.
They can use
graphics on the page to know that someone has looked at it
and their email
address. When they make the page, they name one of the graphics
to be some
script that will put the email address in the code of the
image link. When
the picture loads, the source server (where the picture is
being loaded
from) will know that graham@pcimprovements.com
is a good email address.
The moral of the story is, it may be a good idea to read HTML
junk mail
offline, if you are going to read it at all.
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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. You can also send in your
comments and
suggestions.
This newsletter is sent to those who subscribed only. 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.