Issue 159 - October 31, 2001

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2001
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Welcome to the 159th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists mainly of news and tips. There is something for everyone, and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for you.

You can reach me at editor@pcin.net with any suggestions or comments. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!

Recommend PCIN at http://PCIN.net/recommend.shtml
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.shtml

CONTENTS

OPENING THOUGHTS

I'm sitting here preparing PCIN and answering the door. My brother, and his wife and 2 kids are here visiting for a week, and Lisa went out "Trick-or-Treat"ing with them. We haven't had many kids yet, but there is still lots of time. This is our first Halloween in our new house (and neighbourhood) so we have no idea what to expect.

I haven't received a "Cheap Trick" for almost a month now, so I presume that the tips have been discontinue. I have no idea if the company that provided them is still in business or not. I think they owe me some affiliate earnings, but I doubt I'll get anything from them.

Lastly, speaking of affiliates, I received my first "check" yesterday for being an affiliate. I've been an Amazon.com affiliate for 2+ years and I finally receive a gift certificate for $17.60. At this rate, I don't think I'm going to be getting rich off of them any time soon (but then again, they can't even break even on their own, so how could anyone else get rich off of them?).

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The NEWS

High court allows suit involving tough spam law

"The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case Monday involving Washington state's tough law against deceptive junk e-mail, or spam.
The decision clears the way for trial to begin in King County Superior Court in Seattle in a lawsuit against Jason Heckel over millions of pieces of unsolicited e-mail sent by Heckel and his company, Natural Instincts."

For more info:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001/10/30/scotus-spam-case.htm

Amazon, NBC to join forces

"Seattle-based Amazon.com is set to announce a partnership with NBC that would promote its online-retail site on network and cable television, an NBC spokesman confirmed.
Under the agreement, certain TV programs would direct viewers to the site Amazon.com/NBC to view and purchase relevant products, the spokesman said."

For more info:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134360238_amazon31.html

Identity theft more than doubling

"The number of identity thefts reported by banks and other financial institutions is on the upsurge again in 2001 after more than doubling last year, according to a new report released on Monday.
In its latest review, the agency also highlighted the addition last year of 'computer intrusion' as a category of suspicious activity for banks to monitor and report on. The term is defined as gaining access to banks' computer systems to steal funds or data, or to try to damage the systems."

For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2819435,00.html


Symbol: $20M Pepsi deal on tap

"Symbol Technologies has won a $20 million contract to provide handheld CRM solutions to The Pepsi Bottling Group.
Pepsi's route accounting personnel will use ruggedized PocketPCs to improve delivery and service operations to retail customers. The handheld solution will be deployed in Q2 of 2002.
Pepsi Bottling did not disclose specific plans for Symbol's handheld systems, but sources say the PocketPCs will be configured to communicate with the bottling firm's back-end CRM systems."

For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/sp/stories/news/0,4538,2819319,00.html

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POLL of the WEEK

Here are the responses from the last poll:

Are you concerned that Microsoft Product Activation infringes on your privacy?

Yes: 73.91%
No: 16.30%
I don't understand it enough to say: 9.78%

Total Votes: 92

Visit http://pcin.net/polls/ to participate in the new poll this week:

How often do you change your desktop wallpaper and/or desktop theme?

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FREEHELP FORUM

Visit the PCIN FreeHelp Forum to post your questions or answer others. Each week I highlight a question, and where to go to get the answer.

Question

Is it possible to network two computers in the same house, one on cable and the other on a phone line?

Answer

What exactly are you talking about? I assume that you are talking about cable internet and dial-up (phone line) internet. Well if you want to network your two computer then the modem or internet connection will not play a role. All you need to 2 network cards and a network cable.

Do you know the answer or have a suggestion? Visit http://www.pcin.net/cgi-bin/forum/index.cgi and check out the Software Forum. Post your answer or post a question of your own.

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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Product Reviews Coming

A while ago I received copies of some PowerQuest software to review. Friend and subscriber Chris Empey volunteered to review. It has taken a while, but it is coming. He explained it as follows:
" I was recently given the task of reviewing Drive Image 4.0 by Powerquest. Going through frequent rebuilds on my system this seemed like the ideal utility for me. Installation went very smooth, and operation was pretty much straight forward. After sorting out a few glitches, I was able to create a usable image of my system, and then restore it. Stay tuned for the full review of this time saving utility next week."
And I've been looking at the add-on for the free 602Pro PC Suite. The Microsoft Office alternative is free, but the "Plus" add-on adds some more functionality and costs $30. I will have a review of it within the next week or so as well.

GAWing.com

I've mentioned this a few times, and I'll try not to bring it up again for awhile, but I host a web site on my home computer. I just updated it this week with some brand new pictures of the Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada area. There are now almost 80 pictures that can be used as desktop wallpaper. You can check them out at http://www.gawing.com/wallpaper/
I also have a "FunStuff" section where I've posted some things that people have sent me. You can check that out at http://www.gawing.com/fun/

Are Computers Male or Female?

Speaking of FunStuff, this was just sent to me recently (by a woman):

A language instructor was explaining to her class that in French, nouns unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine.
"House," in French, is feminine; "la maison."
"Pencil," in French, is masculine; "le crayon."

One puzzled student asked, "What gender is computer?"
The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in her French dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two groups appropriately enough, by gender and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be a masculine or feminine noun.
Both groups were required to give four reasons for their recommendation.

The men's group decided that computers should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer"), because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("le computer"), because:
1. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on
2. They have a lot of data but they are still clueless
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The Women Won

Computer Stupidities

And finally, one last FunStuff item. Visit http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ to read about some very funny support incidences. The site itself introduces the incidences with this:

"The following is a large collection of stories and anecdotes about clueless computer users. It's a baffling phenomenon that in today's society an individual, who might in other circumstances be considered smart and wise, can sit down in front of a computer screen and instantly lose every last shred of common sense he ever possessed. Complicate this phenomenon with a case of "computerphobia," and you end up with tech support personnel having phone conversations that are funny in retrospect but seem like perfectly valid motives for wild machine gun shooting sprees at the time."

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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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Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net

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