Issue 117 - January 03, 2001

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2000
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Welcome to the 117th 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. Recommend PCIN in January and win a copy of the book "The Unauthorized Guide to Windows ME" by Paul McFedries. The more you recommend PCIN the more chance you have to win. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

OPENING THOUGHTS

I hope you all had a nice New Year's Eve. Lisa and I didn't do much, but it was what we had planned on. We stayed up and watched the specials on Fox, CityTV (a Toronto Station), and a local station showing the Niagara Falls festivities.

The new Niagara Falls desktop wallpaper are done now so look in the Tips and Other Stuff section below for the link.

This issue is pretty well back to the regular content and length. It is still a little bit short, but will be back to normal by next week.

Lastly, don't forget to recommend PCIN in the month of January and have a chance to win a copy of the book "The Unauthorized Guide to Windows ME" by Paul McFedries. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

The NEWS

Super Bowl DotCom Kiss of Death?

"The Super Bowl 2001 will not see the dotcom ad orgy of last year - mainly because many of the outfits that splashed out on the event have become dotcom dodos in the interim.
Just three dotcoms have so far coughed up the necessary $2.5 million for one of the 30-second spots on CBS in this month's football fest - E-Trade, jobs sites Monster.com (going for its Super Bowl ad hat-trick this year) and Hotjobs.com. E-Trade is going all out - it is sponsoring the Super Bowl XXXV half-time show for the second consecutive year, while all 66,321 audience bottoms in the stadium will be resting on cushions emblazoned with the financial site's logo.
Other dotcoms have not been so lucky - of the 17 technology or Internet companies that bought ad space for Super Bowl XXXIV, seven have gone out of business. These include Pets.com and Computers.com."

For more info:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/15763.html

India enlists teen hackers as cyber cops

"Teen-age computer hackers will play cyber policemen to help an Indian panel tackle Internet crimes, a top software industry official said on Wednesday.
The National Cyber Cop Committee set up by the industry will be advised by a group of 19 hackers, all between 14 and 19 years of age, based in metro cities, Dewang Mehta, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, told a news conference."

For more info:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/computing/01/03/india.crime.reut/index.html

NEW MONTHLY CONTEST/QUESTION

So, what "toys" did you get for Christmas? Did you get any new games, peripherals, gadgets, etc.? Did you get a digital camera, a Playstation 2, a DVD player? Let me know. If you got any technology items at all, email me and I will share them with the other readers. Let me know why you wanted it (for fun or was there a real purpose), and if you know, where it came from (an online purchase or local retailer).
Don't worry if you think your gift sounds "boring" or if you think others won't want to hear about it. You'd be surprised how "boring" gifts to one person can be exciting and new to others.

I will randomly choose one of the entrants to win a copy of PowerQuest's Second Chance 2.0 and PowerQuest's Lost and Found. Email your entries to mailto:contest@pcin.net

I will send out a short reminder on Saturday.

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

New Questions

Q 117-01)

I was exploring Windows. I punched up search, searched all files and documents, and 133 files popped up some, dating back to 1993 94 95 97 99. Is this normal to have these dates on a new pc?
(Win98, 64MB RAM, 14GB HD, IE5)

Q 117-02)

I'm dual booting NT 4 and Corel Linux, using the Corel Linux Boot menu thing. I've not really found any use for Linux so I want to get rid of it. Obviously I would like remove Linux without having to reinstall NT.

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

Changing Directories in DOS

When you view a directory listing in DOS, the first lines will be . and then ..
The . represents the current directory, and the .. represents the parent folder. If you were to type "CD ." then you would remain in the folder you were in. If you were to type "CD .." you would move "up" a folder You can continue this on though. If you are currently working in the D:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\PhotoEd folder, you can type:
CD . to stay in your folder
CD .. to move to the Microsoft Shared folder
CD ... to move to the Common Files folder
CD .... to move to the Program Files folder
CD ..... to move to the d:\ root folder
There are lots of ways to move around while working in DOS, and this is just another tool to use.

Books on Sale

There are sales on books all the time, but I just received a postal mailing from ComputerBookstore.com with their specials for January 2001. The Sybex "Mastering" series, the IDG "Bible" series, Microsoft Press "Programming" series, and more are all 41% off the list price. You can check it out at http://www.computerbookstore.com/
FYI: I have several of the "Bible" books and they are great.

More Desktop Wallpaper

I finally got around to getting the winter pictures of Niagara Falls ready. You can view them now at http://www.gawing.com/falls_winter/ The previous Autumn pictures are still available at http://www.gawing.com/falls_autumn/ and you can always get to either of these pages by visiting http://www.gawing.com/falls/
Keep in mind that these are being hosted on my home computer through my cable Internet connection. If you find it particularly slow one day, try again later.

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.

  1. If any of the links are too long to fit on one line, you may have to cut and paste.
  2. You can only win one contest every 30 days.
  3. To subscribe another address or unsubscribe, please visit http://www.pcin.net/ and follow the appropriate links.
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Graham Wing can be reached at mailto:editor@pcin.net
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.