Issue 134 - May 02, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001
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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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Copyright 1998-2000, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All
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