The PC Improvement News
Issue 67 - January 19, 2000
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 1999
==== 730 Subscribers in 42 Countries ====
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, unsubscribe, or view previous issues 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 67th 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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In my contest reminder I said that I had some good prizes.
Well, it ended up
that it was a shipping mistake. I received 11 Snappy's, a
device that lets
you input video into your computer. It is made by Play,
the same people who
did Gizmos 98. It ends up I was only supposed to be
sent 1 for review. They
are running low right now (it was just released), but I was
told that they
would send me another one later to give away. I'll let you
know when I get
it.
If you have a web site or run your own newsletter, please
email me at
editor@pcin.net and I will add it
to the subscriber web pages that I have on
my site.
Please visit the recommend page at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
and
take the time to recommend PCIN to others. I will have a random
draw at the
end of every month for a prize for anyone who recommended
PCIN. The January
draw will be for ZipMagic 2000.
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THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
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Go out on a limb - that's where the fruit is.
- Will
Rogers
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 aspire-request@happypublishing.com
with
SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
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THE NEWS
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Secret Chip to be Unveiled
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One of the biggest secrets in the computer world lately has
been what is
Linus Torvalds is up to. He is the creator of Linux, and with
all of the
places he could have worked, he chose a company called Transmeta.
All we
knew about it was that Torvalds, Paul Allen (of Microsoft
fame) and
billionaire George Soros were involved.
Well, it has come out now that Transmeta has been developing
a low-cost CPU
chip that is smaller and uses less power than Intel and AMD
chips. They are
"smart" chips that will adapt to the user's needs.
IBM has contracted to
manufacture the chip. Every one still seems to be denying
this is what they
are doing, but that is what the strong rumours are saying.
Supposedly later
today they will officially announce what is going on.
Not to hype this too much, but if this works, this could really
redefine the
way we use chips in our computers.
For more info:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/358517.asp
http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?bfromind=978&eeid=1390760&ee
type=article&render=y&ck=&userid=166836626&userpw=.&uh=166836626,2,
http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?bfromind=978&eeid=1388246&ee
type=article&render=y&ck=&userid=166836626&userpw=.&uh=166836626,2,
Chief Software Architect
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I'm sure you've all heard about this by now, but Bill Gates
has stepped down
as CEO of Microsoft so he can focus more on new technologies.
He is still
Chairman, but he won't have to worry about day-to-day business.
Some people
think this has to do with the Justice department case, but
I like to think
that it is because he wants to play. If you had the choice
between worrying
about finances, market position, etc or inventing things,
wouldn't you
rather invent?
For more info:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201-1522666-0.html?dtn.head
http://www.usatoday.com/money/bcovfri.htm
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2000/jan/13/011400423.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/356529.asp?cp1=1
http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2000/01/13/gates_ten/index.html?CP=SAL&DN=110
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/ball011400.htm
In a newspaper in Canada, the National Post, they had a couple
of pictures
of Bill Gates when he was younger. They are a hoot to look
at:
1978 - http://www.pcin.net/archive/2000/images/bgates_1978.jpg
1978 - http://www.pcin.net/archive/2000/images/bgates_1984.jpg
Most Data Loss Due to Human Error
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A studying conducted by Computer Associates says that most
data loss in
companies is from accidental deletions. Viruses get all sorts
of media
attention for the damage they can do, but they were the in
last place on the
survey. The statistics are as follow:
88% - Data loss due to accidental deletion
6.7% - Data loss due to intentional deletion
3% - Data loss due to computer viruses
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CONTEST RESULTS
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Thanks to all of the people who recommended PCIN. Shawn, John
H, Alec, John
T, Nick, and Monica all won prizes. As I stated above, I will
have a draw at
the end of each month so keep recommending PCIN to your friends.
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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. 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 results to freehelp@pcin.net
Previous Question 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bought a new hard disk. The OS didn't get the right size of
the hard disk.
It is 13G hard, but it comes out as 8G hard. What is the problem?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There were many very good answers, too many to put here, so
I made a new
page for the articles section of the web site that lists all
of the
suggestions. You can see it at http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/8gb.shtml
Thanks to John, Silvan, Simon, Aleksandar, Dave, Paul, Dan,
Roger, Carlos
and Lonnie for taking the time to send in their suggestions.
Previous Question 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My HP ScanJet 3300c (USB) is listed 11-times as 'unknown other
device' with
a yellow? And no drivers, and 1 time as 'Imaging Device' with
driver
installed, in my Window's System Properties Device Manager.
I installed my
scanner on Dec.1st of 1999 and had no problems so far. Should
I remove all
11 occurrences?
~~~~~
John Hills said, "My advice is to delete all entries
including the good one
and remove the USB cable. Also uninstall all HP software from
Add\Remove.
Reboot into windows and re insert the USB cable. Install when
prompted."
~~~~~
Simon Duffy said, "Yes, start in same mode, holding ctrl
down and remove any
unwanted devices, conflicts."
~~~~~
Dan Ference said, "Remove the 11 yellow "unidentified"
devices. Leave the 1
Imaging Device installed. Reboot properly. Confirm the absence
of any
additional yellow 'unidentifieds'."
New Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q1) After booting up my computer the add new hardware wizard
came up on my
screen. I didn't add any new hardware so I just canceled through
it. I got
to my desktop and noticed that I was no longer connected to
our network. The
server's drive was no longer coming up and I had no Internet
connection. So
I went to windows help and went through some of their tips
for reconnecting
and when I went to reboot the computer the screen was blank
on the monitor.
So now I can't do anything.
Q2) I have an old 486 100Mhz, 4 Meg RAM, computer sitting
in my closet. I
know it is basically obsolete, but it is fully functional,
except I don't
have a hard drive installed right now. Is there anything useful/interesting
use for this computer? Specifically, could I use it by connecting
it to my
new computer in some fashion? I'm not afraid of "tinkering"
with the
machine, I'm just curious if there is some option other than
throwing the
box away or selling it for $10.
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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I've been reading a lot about how the Internet is just one
big Shopping
Channel. There is a lack of good educational or health sites
that are
actually doing some good. Do you agree with this? Is
the Internet just like
TV... mostly for entertainment? Or is it more than that? Send
me in ways
that the Internet is useful other than games, keeping in touch,
sending
pictures and buying stuff. Give me a meaningful explanation
as to why the
world is better now that so many of us have access to the
Internet. If you
can't, then tell me why it is fine that it is just for leisure.
Both sides
of the argument are welcome. Email me at contest@pcin.net and you may win
a
copy of PrintMaster. I have 2 to give away.
I will remind you on Saturday again about this contest
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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
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Cheap Trick of the Week
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**You really send me**
The Send To command, which you get by right-clicking a Windows
icon and
selecting Send To from the context menu that appears, is so
handy. You can
quickly shoot a file off to your floppy drive, Zip drive or
a few other
destinations that appear by default on the Send To submenu.
It's even handier if you add your own destinations to the
Send To submenu,
so you can send files anywhere you like. You can send them
to another drive,
to another folder on the hard drive, to the Desktop or even
to an
application to open them.
Here's how to set this up:
Open Windows Explorer. See that Send To folder within the
Windows folder?
Remember where it is.
Now find in Explorer the icon and name for the new destination
you want to
add to the Send To menu - whether it be a drive, a folder
or a program
ending in ".exe". In the right-pane of Explorer,
right-click on the icon and
choose Create Shortcut. You can rename the newly created shortcut
to however
you want it to appear on the Send To submenu.
Now drag this shortcut into the Send To folder you had noted
earlier in the
left pane of Explorer.
Now, whenever you right-click on a file anywhere in Windows,
you'll have the
option of firing it off to that new destination.
You can get the Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks yourself
for only $9.95
Cdn (about $7.00 US)
http://www.pcin.net/help/books/reviewed/cheaptricks.shtml
Good Oneliners
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Shawn Bremner of Happy Publishing provides me with a Thought-of-the-Week.
They usually make you stop and think for a second. But sometimes
you just
want to read a funny one or a pointless one. Maybe you are
looking for a
comeback to say to someone. Well, if so, then visit
http://www.oneliners-and-proverbs.com/
Some Good Utilities
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I just finished doing reviews for 4 programs written by programmer
Glenn
Alcott. They are excellent little programs that fill the void
left by some
programs that Windows doesn't have or that aren't complete.
They are all
excellent and only about $20 each. Depending on your need,
you may find one
of them very useful. Glenn says that Directory Printer is
most popular, but
I found Super Text Search most useful.
Directory Printer
This little utility will let you print a directory listing.
I know there are
ways to do this, but this makes it so easy. Using an Explorer-type
interface, you just choose the folder, you can filter out
files, and choose
many print options.
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/dirprint.shtml
FontLook
A great utility that lets you view all of the fonts on your
system in many
sizes, in bold or italic, and you can print out any number
of samples. You
could print out a sample of each one on a couple of pages
and keep it as a
reference in stead of looking through them all when you are
using Word (or
whatever other program you use).
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/fontlook.shtml
Directory Compare
A lot of us have duplicate files all over the place. Sometimes
when we
organize our hard drives, we copy instead of move so we end
up with an extra
copy of a file. This will show you in a 2-pane interface the
contents of 2
folders and if there are files that are the same name, it
highlights them
and its properties.
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/dircomp.shtml
Super Text Search
This program lets you search through any file on your hard
drive looking for
certain text. Not only does it tell you which file has the
text in it, but
also how many times it is in that file and where in that file
it is located.
You can use Windows Find... to get the first bit of information,
but you can
't get the last bit. This is what makes it so useful.
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/stsearch.shtml
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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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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.