Issue 160 - November 07, 2001

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2001
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Welcome to the 160th 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

Today was my first day back at work after being off for 5 days. No, I didn't do much. Yes, I'm lazy :-) Actually, my dad helped me put in a new sink and vanity in our bathroom on Saturday. Lisa and I have been in our house for 10 months now. We've done a lot, but there is still so much more to do!

My mother Marsha, and Lisa, are starting a little business together. Of course I'm the one who is stuck with doing all of the techy stuff. I'm in the process of building a web site for them at http://www.SmockedDreams.com/ It is still very basic, but has a few pictures of the smocked dresses that they can both make. They're going to be in some craft shows, so I've got to get the site finished soon.

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The NEWS

Pornography Takes Over Financial Site for Children

"Visitors to a financial Web site for children this week were in for a shock: the math-and-money game they expected to find had been replaced by a pornography site.
The money game, which is still accessible at Moneyopolis.com, was produced by Ernst & Young, the auditing and consulting company. An Ernst & Young spokesman, Kenneth Kerrigan, said the company had learned this week that pornographic images had been posted at an alternate Web address for the site, Moneyopolis.org, which has been under new ownership since this summer."

For more info:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/26/technology/26NET.html

eBay Struggles to Meet Ambitious Charity Goals

"The Internet auction company eBay Inc EBAY.O is more than just a popular marketplace for trading collectibles and big ticket items. It is a favorite on Wall Street for consistently beating The rosiest sales and earnings forecasts in even the toughest times.
Yet when the company reported another quarter of surprisingly strong results last week, it noted that it was well behind on one much-publicized financial goal.
EBay said its Auction for America, an ambitious charity auction launched in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, had raised $5 million in its first month.
EBay's auction lets sellers put up goods they would normally sell for their own gain and donate all the money they raise to the relief effort. People can also go to the eBay site to make cash donations.
The $5 million raised to date means the company is on track to bring in a total of $15 million, a healthy sum, but just a small fraction of the $100 million it pledged to raise before the auction officially ends December 25."

For more info:
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=316960

Pope to preach the virtues of the Web

"The leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II, may not fiddle around with computers much himself, but he certainly seems to be warming to the Internet. On Tuesday, the Vatican announced that the pope has decided the theme of next year’s World Communications Day will be 'Internet: A New Forum for Proclaiming the Gospel.' Meanwhile, the pope is said to be on the verge of proclaiming a sixth-century Spanish priest as the patron saint of cyberspace."

For more info:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/653706.asp

Dumping @Home

My local cable company, Cogeco cable, has been providing @Home Internet service for the past couple of years. This past week, I received the following via email:

"URGENT! IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED RE: YOUR SERVICE

In light of the financial challenges facing Excite@Home, Cogeco Cable is proactively taking the final steps to ensure the long term reliability and stability of the network and related internet Services, including E-mail provided to our customers. As such, Cogeco Cable is relocating residential E-mail service accounts that end with the domain name "@home.com" to a new Cogeco E-mail address. This process requires your co-operation and prompt attention so that you can automatically continue receiving your E-mails, content and personal web space. The following actions should only take 15-30 minutes of your time."

I haven't heard anything about the surround cable companies (Shaw, Rogers) or any US companies, but if Excite@Home is going under, then these other companies will take similar steps. I appreciate the fact that my provider is doing this ahead of time. Of course, I never use my @Home email account, so I don't care what they change it to. I presume that everyone who uses their @Home address is pretty anxious about losing their email.

For more info:
http://conversion.cogeco.ca/

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POLL of the WEEK

Here are the responses from the last poll:

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

Almost Never: 40.96%
Never: 24.10%
Weekly: 14.46%
Monthly: 8.43%
Every-other day: 6.02%
Daily: 6.02%

Total Votes: 83

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

Now that Napster is virtually gone, do you still download MP3s?

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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

Running Windows 98. Just installed IE 6.X. I've written various batch files for various functions. However, since updating IE, now my batch files produce a popup program that won't exit until hitting Control+C. The files perform the requested functions well enough, but I'm always left with that pesky pop-up program window that I have to exit.

It seems regardless of the properties of the batch files or their shortcuts (run maximized, close on exit, etc.) I end up with that pop-up program. So far I've been unable to figure it out. Any ideas?

Answer

No answers yet.

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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PCIN.net UPDATE

Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:

Neat Net Tricks Syndicated Tip of the Week
http://PCIN.net/help/tods/nnttow.shtml

Some Useful Registry Tips (Now 57 Tips!)
http://www.pcin.net/polls/2001/

Support PCIN
http://pcin.net/donate.shtml

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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Deee's Computer and Internet Reference Guide

I came across this site recently. It is a very plain collection of links. There are All About Computers, All About Networking, Miscellaneous, Operating Systems, and All About The Internet categories. Each category is divided into sub-categories, and each sub-category has many links. Plain, but very useful. Check it out at http://users.erols.com/foxdm/computer.htm

Microsoft Passport Options

Many people have a Microsoft Passport, even if they just have a Hotmail account. Every Hotmail email account automatically has a Microsoft Passport account. I wasn't sure if I had any address information stored with my Passport, so I visited the Passport.com web site to see. It turns out I didn't, but I noticed that I was allowing them to share information about me when I don't want them to. I have a Microsoft Passport strictly because I have to. I have no need for any site to see any information about me other than the fact that I have a Passport, and therefore can login.

Well, if you visit http://www.passport.com/ and login with your passport information, you will find that there are 3 options for sharing information:

  1. Share my e-mail address
  2. Share my first and last names
  3. Share my other registration information

On all 3 of my passports, the first and third options were checked. It's not a big deal since I only login to Microsoft sites with my passport, but I see no reason to share that information, so I turned it off. You may want to consider that as well.

Note: If you want to change the email address that you have your passport set up under, you would do it from the same page.

The Internet Public Library - Online Newspapers

This is from the November 9, 2001 issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine:
"Want to know how the Saudis see the intifada? Or get Pakistani opinions of American foreign policy? Or find out whether Iran will help support Afghan refugees? This virtual reading room, with links to hundreds of the world's newspapers, lets you browse by region, country, or title to read overseas views on global events. If that knowledge can lead to greater understanding, all news is good news."

Check it out at http://ipl.org/reading/news/

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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

Copyright 1998-2001, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All rights reserved.

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