Issue 134 - May 02, 2001

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001
==== 1793 Subscribers in 52 Countries ====

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Welcome to the 134th 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 in May and have the most referrals subscribe and you could win a copy of Microsoft Office 2000 Standard. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

OPENING THOUGHTS

I've had a few people suggest I set up some kind of message/bulletin board script so that messages can be posted. I think it's about time I did this. If you have any scripts that you'd recommend, please email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net

Now that the weather is getting nicer (April showers bring May flowers), I thought I would mention again the possibility of some kind of Summer BBQ. If you live close enough that you'd be interested in attending, then please email me. This isn't going to be anything fancy. Just a chance for some people to meet.

Are there any PCIN subscribers in either Rumania or Hungry?

Congratulations to Barb who recommend PCIN in April. She won a copy of PrintMaster Platinum and Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia.

You're going to love the Recommend PCIN prize this month. I am giving away a copy of Microsoft Office 2000 Standard. You need to visit http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml and recommend PCIN to others. At the end of the month, the person who had the most people subscribe in May will win the software. This is a little different than normal. It is usually a random draw of anyone who recommended PCIN. No we need some action. These must be new subscribers to be eligible.

The NEWS

It's (Cyber) War: China vs. U.S.

"The first shots in a planned week-long cyberwar between Chinese and American hackers were fired early Monday, with Chinese hackers claiming credit for defacing a dozen U.S. websites.
The attacked sites include the MCI Center in Washington, several Air Force sites and websites operated by the departments of Energy, Labor, and Health and Human Services."

For more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,43437,00.html
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/165102.html
http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSTechNews0104/30_cyberwar-sun.html

Party like it's 999,999,999

"Remember the millennium? Forget it. Why celebrate 1,000 when you can celebrate a billion, asks BBC News Online technology correspondent Mark War.
Humans don't have much reason to celebrate reaching the age of 31 years, nine months, nine days and a few hours. But Unix does. It's about to celebrate its one billionth second.
Unix is a computer operating system, like Windows, but one which, unlike Windows, is more celebrated than cursed.
And, if you are a keen net user, is probably one that you come into contact with far more often than you realise."

For more info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/dot_life/
newsid_1300000/1300744.stm

(Really) Flying High

"More than a half million unique visitors went to nasa.gov last week from their offices and work stations for news about -- and live pictures and audio of -- the NASA launch of the space shuttle, Endeavor. And now that the shuttle is in orbit, the site will probably prove every bit as compelling.
Though at first the effect of watching the round-the-clock space-cam video may seem reminiscent of sitting in front of your TV and watching the video from the hidden camera in the lobby of your apartment building, the NASA streaming video also sends back stunning real-time pics of space travel that may lead you to recall old set designs for Flash Gordon movies and The Wizard of Oz."

For more info:
http://www.adweek.com/adweek/headlines/advertising_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=854316

Microsoft support customers get viral bonus

"Microsoft representatives acknowledged Wednesday that the company may have infected up to 26 of its top support customers with a tenacious virus that spread to a key server late last week.
Known as FunLove, the virus was first discovered in November 1999 and is known for its ability to infect Windows NT servers--in addition to computers running Windows 95, Window 98 and Windows Millennium Edition-by posing as a system program. The virus also spreads automatically throughout a network via any hard drives shared with the infected system.
Though managers at the company did not yet know how the virus got in, they did figure out where the infection started.
'We have standard corporate policy that every server that has (a) business function needs to have antivirus software installed,' said Kurt Powers, product manager for the Gold and Premier support sites at Microsoft. 'There was one in a chain that did not.'"

For more info:
http://www.shortnews.com/shownews.cfm?id=5881&u_id=3806
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-5728963.html

MOBILE COMPUTING NEWS and NOTES

THE WIRELESS WEB / M-COMMERCE LIFE CYCLE
It is no surprise that the "hype stage" surrounding the wireless web would reach its peak and fall when the "realism stage" set in during 2000/2001.  With that predictability out of the way, the "true growth stage" begins.  This was a known life cycle, and the true acceptance and usability of "m-commerce" will match the original hype after 2004. On a graph you would see a sharp rise, then a sharp drop, followed by a gradual rise over the space of a few years.

Brought to you by Shawn Bremner and The Wireless Web ezine. Sign up by sending a blank email to mailto:wirelessweb-subscribe@topica.com

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

Previous Questions

Q 133-01

What about personal firewalls? Is ZoneAlarm better than Norton? Any advice or links to web sites with info would be appreciated.

A 133-01

Murray McCallum said, "A debate has risen over the issue of ZoneAlarm being spyware. Well if it is or not, I have installed, "Tiny Personal Firewall Engine 2.0.13". Go to http://www.tinysoftware.com/pwall.php to learn more."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hans Schmidt said, "Visit http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm It does a great job of testing and explaining personal firewalls. My vote: ZoneAlarm Pro."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob said, "What the software is capable of is less important than having something that you can set up and maintain. Personally, I've been using ZoneAlarm I also have a dialup connection so I'm not a prime target. ZDNet reviewed some Personal Firewalls not long ago, you may want to check that out."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judy said, "Zone Alarm is the best one out there for free.  It works and you can't beat the price.  I personally bought the Zone Alarm Pro."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Toney Lowell said, "These products serve different purposes. Read Steve Gibson's rather long winded but informative explanations at www.grc.com. Also try his free OPTOUT replacement LEAKTEST.
If you are running one of the major ISP's as your INTERNET entry point you'll be surprised at what personal info is being pumped out. I use IE5.5 'ABOUT BLANK'. I NEVER use an ISP provider's home page. It is none of their business what WEB page I go to. Have a look at Siemens Webwasher if you don't like the pop ups and banner advertisements. NORTON is fine for after the fact downloading problems and cleaning viruses.
Quick update for your last PCIN. Look in the HELP section of www.grc.com for their new LEAKTEST. They claim Norton firewall is useless. Norton only checks for 84 "KNOWN" program names. Like NAPSTER changing Beatles to Beetles bypasses Norton security. Steve Gibson still recommends ZA2 over Norton for firewall protection."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** said, "I assume you know what they do so i just say there's also Mcafee, black ice, jammer and tonnes more.  But i don't know if these protect against specialised attacks, like nukes in IQC / IRC, BackOrifice and the like, in these cases you can find equally specialised programs to protect against this. As for web pages there are too many to list here so i suggest doing a web search (web ferret is great, from www.zdnet.com)."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carl Beck said, "Check https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 .  Steve has reviewed most of the Software Firewalls and will give details why he thinks one is better then the next.  From here you can also check how secure your system is with SHIELDS UP.
I have uses Black Ice, very good, and Zone Alarm which for individual use is free and is VERY GOOD."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "I certainly would recommend Zone Alarm against Norton and use it myself and generally I get pinged three or four times in 15 minutes by other companies.  Zone Alarm of course prevents these companies from gaining access to my PC and allows me to trace back who it is by going to Zone's website.
However, I understand that the very best one to have is called Black Ice and this apparently gives you the email address of the company that is pinging you so that you can send them a torrent of verbal abuse. I will be one user that will be giving Black Ice a look, providing money is not involved. Zone Alarm is free for private users. You can pay a small price for Zone Alarm Pro which has additional features, possibly features that Black Ice has."

Q 133-02

I have to change the company name on 2000 PCs with Office 97 due to rebranding. Do you know of a utility that will allow me to change the company name, as Office 97 does not respond to registry changes?  I believe the name is written back and encoded on installation.

A 133-02

Rob said, "Not much experience in this but a possibility is to change it on one PC then use an image of that drive and copy it to the rest of the network. Something should be on http://download.com/ for this."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** said, "Why bother? Anyway, do a search for a file on the computer containing your registration name (my guess is it will be in the registry).  It will be the same for every computer so you can write a small program (even in visual basic) to change the file it is in.  Or if in the registry write a .reg file, back your registry and import the new .reg."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "I thought all you had to do was go to Tools, Options, Users and alter."

New Questions

Q 134-01

I'm often asked how to record old albums, radio programs, and other multimedia-type questions. I have no interest in these sorts of things, so I don't even know where to refer people. Please email your favourite help sites for multimedia issues.

Q 134-02

My hyperlinks in Outlook Express don't work. I receive a message with links, and I can't click on them.
(Intel C333, Win95)

If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net

PCIN.net UPDATE

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

Just the Tips, Man for Word 2000 Book Review
http://pcin.net/help/articles/nbtod.shtml

Change Your Graphics Card and Drivers
http://pcin.net/help/articles/changegraphics.shtml

Some Useful Registry Tips
http://pcin.net/help/articles/registry.shtml

I'm working to set up a message/bulletin board script. If you have any suggestions, email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net

THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Cheap Trick of the Week

**Broken arrows**
Do those crooked little arrows on your shortcut icons bug you?
You can banish them by changing your Windows 95, 98 or Me Registry. (As always, be careful editing the Registry. Check www.WE-Compute.com/registry.html for instructions and precautions.)
In the Registry Editor, go to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key and look for the folder called "piffile". Click on it and, in the panel on the right, right-click on the value "IsShortcut". Select Rename and give it any new name you want. (We like WasShortcut, so we can remember where it's located.)
Still under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, find the folder called "lnkfile" (that's a lower-case L at the beginning of the name). Perform the same operation on its "IsShortcut" value.
Close the Registry Editor and restart the computer and... no more little arrows.
If you miss them and want them back, just rename the values back to IsShortcut.

Get your own copy of "The Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks: 2001" by visiting http://www.pcin.net/lbbct/

Automatically adjusting column width

I'm quite particular in the way I view things on my computer. I always view my folders with Details view, and I can't stand it when I can't read an entire file name and I need to resize the columns myself. Up until recently, I resized the Name, Size, Type, and Date columns on my own.
Well, when you're using the Details view, press and hold the CTRL key and press the + (plus) sign. This will resize all of the columns to a "best fit" size.

Nerdy Books Just the tips, man for Microsoft Word 2000

If you haven't noticed yet, I am a big keyboard shortcut fan. I use them in as many programs as I can. A mouse is nice, but there is nothing quicker than a quick keystroke to bring up a new window, to change formatting, etc.
If you know what I mean, then you should check out the Just the tips, man for Microsoft Word 2000 book by Nerdy Books. It is filled with over 500 tips and shortcuts for Word 2000.
It is the size of a desktop flip calendar, but is (as the title says) just the tips.
I've prepared a full review at http://www.pcin.net/help/books/reviewed/nbword2000.shtml and you can view samples of their tips by visiting the Nerdy Books Tip of the Day page set up at http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/nbtod.shtml

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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