ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 102nd 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 September prize will be a copy of Caldera OpenLinux, and Corel Linux OS (original CDs from each company, not copies). Recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
There isn't much to share with you this week. The Olympics seems to have captured the attention of most of the mainstream media, but very few people I know are actually interested. Maybe if the IOC let more sites show broadcasts or scores it would be more interesting.
Don't forget to recommend PCIN in September and win a copy of Caldera OpenLinux, and Corel Linux OS (original CDs from each company, not copies). You can recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
Encyclopedia of Terror
"If there was any doubt about Osama bin Laden's role as a mastermind of global terrorism, it's been erased by a 1,000 page manual obtained by U.S. intelligence agencies.
The manual, called The Encyclopedia, contains information in Arabic on how to recruit followers, shoot weapons, conduct assassinations, and assemble bombs similar to those that destroyed two U.S. embassies in East Africa two years ago."
I know this is no laughing matter, but when I first heard this story, I couldn't help but think of those "Learn ____ in 24 Hours" or the "Master ____" book.For more info:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/091800/binladen_manual.sml
Barnes & Noble Buys Fatbrain
A while back Barnes & Noble bought Books.com. Now, they are going to pay $64 million for FatBrain.com, another web site that sells books. FatBrain specializes in professional and technical books.
It seems that this sort of thing will continue. As more and more companies fail (see below), there will definitely be a consolidation among these companies.For more info:
http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155182.html
http://www1.fatbrain.com/pressreleases/earnings_b.asp
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ir/press/index.asp?userid=2ILAGMCC1L
Dot-Com Failures
"The site that existed to sound the death knell of dot-com companies--and perhaps kick a little dirt over them as well--went out of business today. 'Three months and $2.6 million later, dotcomfailures.com is closed,' read a message on the site, whose logo is 'Kick 'em while they're down.'"
For more info:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-2768023.html?tag=pt.xdrive.techdispatch..ne2768023
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 101-01)
I am looking for free voice to text converter programs that 'listens' as you speak into microphone and converts it into typed text. Are there any out there?
A 101-01)
John Patmore said, "Kurzweil VoicePad is available free or at low cost. Avoid it. When I trained mine for an hour, and tried it out live, it started in GREEK, and there was no solution to that. IBM's voice to text software has been on various PC mags free CDs. It is OK, nothing more. Just remember, you have to read what is typed REALLY accurately, as errors are wrong words correctly spelled."
Q 101-02)
I use only Netscape - how do I forward a web page forwarding only the URL location underlined so that the recipient can download upon receipt of email. Up until now, I being right clicking on the article and clicking on Send Page - which in the case of a long article can mean time at my end and recipients.
A 101-02)
Byron said, "I use Netscape also and this same issue bothered me. One thing you can do is go to the Netsite bar in Navigator where the URL of the page you are on is displayed. Highlight the URL, copy it then go to your mail program and paste it. This will only send the URL, not the entire page."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel Najimian said, "Regardless of which Internet browser you use, you should still be able to cut-and-paste the URL link and pass it on to the recipient as you would any other portion of text. Move your mouse cursor to the beginning of the underlined (usually blue) link, making sure that the cursor is still an "I-beam" and not the "hand," hold the left mouse button down and highlight the link the same way that you would any text in a word processor. Copy the link, open a new e-mail window, paste the link in the new window, and send it to the recipient."
New Questions
Q 102-01)
I am having a problem with my A drive. When I put a disk in and try to run it, I get a message that says the disk is not formatted. It does this with every disk I have tried and I ran the same disk on a computer at work and it run fine.
(P133, 40MB RAM, 1.42GB HD, Windows 98)Q 102-02)
I recently have noticed that when I print something the printer continues to print a sheet that read: Microsoft (r) windows 98 - document - printed by - date and time. This function seems to loop and continue printing the same thing over and over unless I go in and pause printing so I can delete every queue to make it stop.
If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
Cheap Trick of the Week
**The cure for wandering hands**
This is especially a problem in Windows 98: You click on the Start Menu, maybe the Programs menu, then an application group and then another cascading menu with the specific program you want and then, before you've had a chance to pick the item you want, you let your mouse hand wander a little and the next thing you know a completely different submenu has popped open and the wrong item selected. Arrgh! Sometimes Windows is just too accommodating in grabbing menus your cursor meanders near.
But you can tame this tendency.
Open the Registry Editor. (If you don't know how, you can find simple instructions - and important precautions - at www.WE-Compute.com/registry.html.)
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and click on Desktop to show its values in the right pane. Look for a string named MenuShowDelay. If it's not there, you can create it by right-clicking on Desktop and selecting New and String Value. Double-click on MenuShowDelay to open the Edit String dialogue box and change the value to 65534 before clicking on OK.
Close up the Registry and restart the computer.
Now when you click on a menu, it stays open, even if you accidentally wander near another one.
Actually what you have done is changed how long it takes before a menu is activated without being clicked on - you've made it take over a minute (65,534 milliseconds), which is much longer than you are likely to idle in any one place.
A downside to this is that none of the menus you do want will open automatically now either. You have to click on each one.
But for those of us with wandering hands, the trade-off is worth it.
Saving Files in NotePad
Depending on how you have Windows set up on your computer, you may not see the file extensions when you are browsing a directory. When you are in a program like NotePad, when you go to save the file, the txt extension is put on the end automatically. For instance, if you were working on a web page in NotePad and wanted to save it as index.htm, the file would actually be saved as index.htm.txt If you have been having this problem, you can put quotes around the file name and it will be saved fine. In this example you would have to type "index.htm" and the txt extension wouldn't be put at the end.
Low-Level Formatting a Hard Drive
One of the answers to a question last week suggested that the problematic hard drive be low-level formatted. This is a confusing topic. A true low-level format isn't a good idea because it could render your hard drive unusable. Quantum hard drives just ignore a true low-level format routine. Some people consider a low-level format to be an "unconditional" format where each and every sector on the hard drive is tested and cleared. This sort of formatting is OK.
You can visit http://www.pcguide.com/ref/fdd/mediaFormatting-c.html for a brief overview of the different types of formatting.
Registry Cleaner
Subscriber James Dalton suggests that subscribers visit http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/index.html and download the RegCleaner program. "Here's a fix that works." It cleans out orphan entries in the registry. While you are there, take a look at some of the other utilities and read is Optimize Windows 98 tips.
Windows ME Comment
Last weeks I asked if anyone had any experience with Windows ME yet. John Hills sent this in:
"I have been using ME for about two weeks now and on balance I am glad to have it. Main obvious advantages are:
System files are auto checked and repaired.
A restore feature that will reset your registry to a date when everything was OK. (You can also create your own checkpoint in time and use this each time you need to)
Major advances on the multimedia front, for digicams, webcams etc.
Cleaner and fresher appearance.
Using a specially created file, windows now loads in seconds.
Easier self-sorting networking for those with two or more PC's tied together.
Option to remove a program from the shortcut icon.
What has gone:
You cannot make a boot disk from within windows as the add system files is no longer an option. You would have to resort to a boot up in Dos routine to do this in future.
No DOS box for MSPROMPT.
Not so many drivers as windows SE had in my opinion but then again I haven't counted.
That's about it for my use."
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.
Graham Wing can be reached at mailto:editor@pcin.net
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