Issue 104 - October 04, 2000

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 104th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists of 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 topic. Email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net with any suggestions. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!

Recommend PCIN to others and be entered in a monthly draw. The October prize will be a copy of the book "HTML Goodies" by Joe Burns. Recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

OPENING THOUGHTS

I've been playing around with more possible designs for the PCIN.net site and would appreciate hearing from you regarding the design I used for http://www.pcin.net/index2.shtml It uses a small JavaScript to put dropdown menus at the top of the page. Comments on colour, load time, and just general thoughts would be good.

A new month is here so there is a new question/discussion/contest. See the section below and send in your comments.

Congratulations to Julian Chriss who recommended PCIN in the month OS September. The prize of a copy of Caldera OpenLinux, and Corel Linux OS (original CDs from each company, not copies) are on their way. If you recommend PCIN in the month of October, you could win a copy of "HTML Goodies" by Joe Burns. You can recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

The NEWS

Microsoft Bails Out Corel

If you haven't heard by now, Microsoft has purchased $135 million worth of Corel stock. This has brought all sorts of speculation about Microsoft trying to appear as the good guy in their antitrust trial (giving money to the poor), about Microsoft taking over Corel, and comparisons to the money that Microsoft invested in Apple to help them a year or two ago.
All of this only happened because the old CEO, Michael Cowpland, is gone. He hated Bill Gates. I'm sure not coincidentally, right around the same time that Corel got this money, they also named the interim CEO, Derek Burney, as the permanent CEO.

For more info:
http://www.wininformant.com/display.asp?ID=2936
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/13714.html
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-2923567.html?tag=st.ne.ron.lthd.ni

New Top-Level Domains

I guess overall I'm in favour of some new top-level domains, but if the ones that have been proposed to ICANN are any indication, they will probably just create more confusion. Several of the new TLDs are related, so right away there will be issues with who should use which domain.
Some of the TLDs are:
ads, .books, .sex, .kids, .sucks, .wap, .xxx, .biz, .inc, .firm, .ebiz, .gay, .ecom, .dir, .web, .dubai, .game, .news, .shop, .law, .mobile, .museum, .nom, .pro, .tel and .union.

For more info:
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2000/1003icannlist.html?nf
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,38950,00.html
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/278/business/Domain_additions_to
_dot_Web_landscape+.shtml

Chinese Enact ISP Rules

"China published sweeping new regulations on Internet companies on Monday that limit foreign investment, require strict surveillance against "subversive" content and threaten to close down any unlicensed firms.
The regulations ban any content that is "subversive," that supports cults, that "harms the reputation" of China or that hurts reunification efforts with Taiwan, to name just some."

For more info:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/001002/07/net-china-internet-dc
http://news.excite.com/news/r/001003/07/net-china-dc

Pig-Friendly Porn Filter

From the September 25 issue of InformationWeek Magazine (FrontEnd, pg 17)
"What is Pornsweeper, and why should workers care? It's new software from Content Technologies designed to scan E-mail and attachments to ferret out sexually explicit images.
The software does its job by reading the proportion of skin tones to other colors in an image and stopping messages that exceed the limit set by each business, the company says. Once blocked, offending message can be deleted, or an auto-response can be sent to the intended recipient, the sender, or appropriate administrators.
But what will Pornsweeper do when it comes across the image of a pink pig? The products data sheet says Pornsweeper 'should be able to differentiate between the skin color of pigs as opposed to humans - unless, of course the pig has very humanlike skin color.'"

For more info:
http://www.mimesweeper.com/products/psw/default.asp

NEW MONTHLY CONTEST

Subscriber Bob Bigalow thought this would be a good idea for discussion amongst our group:
What sites do you use to find the lowest prices online? Where do you go to get the best deals on products on the Internet? Do you know of good coupon sites?

Send in your tips and secret sites to mailto:editor@pcin.net I will make a random drawing out of all of the participants and the winner will receive a copy of Adobe ActiveShare, PrintMaster Gold, and the Serif Collection CD-ROM (contains several different graphics programs).

I NEED HELP

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 most of them, but there are things that I have never tried or experienced so I don't have an answer. I 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. If you do try one of these tips, please let me know how the suggestions worked out. Did they work or not? Please send in your questions or results to mailto:freehelp@pcin.net

Previous Questions

Q 103-01)

I am having problems with my system resources getting low during the day. I think is has something to do with my DSL line. Specifically IE5. I start at 74% and can get as low as 40%. How can I stop the leak?

A 103-01)

John Hills said, "I think I would press Ctrl-Alt-Del when you first turn it on in the morning and make a list of the items running. Do the same later in the day when resources are low and compare the list. It is likely that you will find one or more additions to the list and you should be able to determine which programs they are by the name and\or path. If you can identify the program/s uninstall them and see what happens. If the problem is resolved, reinstall them and see if they are more reliable with a fresh install. However, if apart from these figures the PC is running properly, then I wouldn't worry unnecessarily until you get to no resources left."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leeor Geva said, "If you don't play games (and I'm not talking about solitaire) I'd recommend you install Windows 2000. NT handles resources like a charm... Well, to a "windows" user :)"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony Lowell said, "Not knowing your particular requirements for Internet Explorer, regardless of release, I suggest you look in IE TOOLS, INTERNET OPTIONS. Go through each of the options and the sub-levels. Evaluate your specific needs. Pay special attention to page synchronization in the GENERAL and the ADVANCED categories. If you use some of the options IE5 will continually try to update EVERY page that you have visited during the day, as you select them. The more pages you visit as the day progresses the more pages IE will have to synchronize, and hence the more system resources it will require. Do not forget that these include the LNKs that you may not be aware of. Banners, advertisements, etc. This also applies to the OFFLINE synchronization when you first start IE. Notice the DELETE history, temp files etc., they are there for a purpose. One warning. If you are downloading software don't delete the temp files until you are finished installing the software. Otherwise, turn off anything you do not absolutely need for your particular requirements. Depending on your mouse setup, you can always right click on any entry if you need the 'What's this?' for further clarification to help you make your decisions."

Q 103-02)

When I turn on the computer before anything happens it says boot: couldn't find ntldr please insert another disk. This has never happened before. I can do anything except wait but it doesn't work. All I really can do is go on setup.
(P100, 1GB HD, 16MB RAM, Windows 95, IE5.5)

A 103-02)

John Hills said, "System restore should sort it but I cannot remember if the fix below is available on 95. At the DOS prompt on boot up, type "scanreg /restore" (not the quotes) and choose a date from the list that the PC was working properly. If this fails to restore, try other dates until you do find one that works. Reboot. The file you mention is the windows biggy boot up one so if the above is not available in 95 you will have to reinstall windows preferably from the dos prompt."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony Lowell said, "You're running WIN/95 with OE5.5. Obviously you have downloaded some software. Somewhere along the line you asked for the WIN/NT version of something or other hence the request for the NT loader. Try running Windows in safe mode and step by step each instruction to see where the request is coming from. Alternatively use the FIND files containing function to find it. Remember to turn on the show hidden files. Backup what you have. Once you find it, as it could be anywhere, use the appropriate program to edit the file e.g. MSCONFIG, REGEDIT, DOS editor etc. Be very careful with system tools."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joe Atkinson said, "Ntldr is a windows NT file required when booting the system. If you are networked to an NT server, fine and dandy, get the system administrator to give you a copy of ntldr on a floppy, and tell you how to load it.
If you are not networked to any NT systems, then something you loaded recently has altered your autoexec.bat or config.sys. If this is the case, boot from a floppy and use edit to REM out any ref's to ntldr in either of these files."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simon said, "You usually get this message in NT with a corrupt boot file try booting to dos then run sys c: This may cure a corrupt file otherwise it may need a reinstall."

New Questions

Q 104-01)

When I go to start my computer in the morning after it has been resting (Compaq Presario 1245 notebook) is the following: it says "WIN, terminating thread due to stack overflow problem. A VxD, possibly recently, has consumed too much space. Increase setting of MinSPin SYSTEM.INI or remove recently installed VxDs. There are 5 SPs allocated." Then it tells me to press any key to restart windows. I recently upgraded AOL. What should I do?

Q 104-02)

I would like to have my Internet Explorer windows open at full screen size but every time I click on a link or a window port it opens to a partial window. I am sure this can be corrected but I don't know how.
(NOTE: This question was submitted before, but the person would like a few more suggestions.)

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

THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Cheap Trick of the Week

**Win every time**
FreeCell is one of the card games you get with Windows. Even if you don't know how to play it, you can win in a jiffy with this trick.
During the game, hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys and press the F10 function key. You'll be asked if you want to Abort, Retry or Ignore. Select Abort and instantly all the cards will be placed down and you'll be declared king of FreeCell.
If you happen to choose Retry, you'll immediately lose.
Or, if you're a real beast for punishment, here's another way to lose: Launch the game and press the F3 function key (or choose Select Game from the Game menu). You'll be asked which game you want to play. Type in -1 or -2 and you'll be given a card layout that hides all the aces at the back, making it impossible to win.

Read Receipts in MS Outlook

I first learned about his in a TechRepublic tip a couple of weeks ago:
"Some people just have to know when their messages are read, and others hate the idea that their system is notifying people when they've read messages. This tip will please the second group and disappoint the first.
Here's a way that you can use to determine when messages have been sent with read receipts requested. Follow these steps:
Select View | Current View | Customize Current View.
In the View Summary dialog box, click Automatic Formatting.
Click Add to create a new format and name it something like Receipts.
Click Font and make the font somehow distinctive-change the font, the style, or the size.
Click OK and click Condition.
On the Advanced tab, select Field | All Mail Fields | Receipt Requested.
Choose Equals from the Condition drop-down list, and choose Yes from the Value drop-down list.
Click Add To List and click OK to exit all dialog boxes.
Now all messages that come to you with a receipt requested should appear in your Inbox in the specified format - warning you that a read receipt has been requested for it."

Burning CDs

If you are only using the Microsoft site for updates and patches, then you may be missing out on some very useful tips. The have many newsletters that contain interesting bits. There are several sections of their site called Tech Enthusiast that also give tips on how to do certain things. If you visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techenthusiast/features/cdr.asp you can get on overview on how to burn CDs. The article also provides links to various Knowledge Base articles that are specific to CD burning.

Windows ME Comment

I recently asked if anyone had any experience with Windows ME yet. Leeor Geva sent this in:
"And about Windows ME, yes I had experience, and I'll stick to Windows 2000"

DISCLAIMER and OTHER STUFF

PCIN 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 for the results obtained from trying the tips in this newsletter.

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Copyright 1998-2000, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced in hole, or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.

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