Issue 224 - January 29, 2003

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2003
==== 2047 Subscribers in 56 Countries ====

Welcome to the 224th 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. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!

You can reach me at editor@pcin.net with any suggestions or comments.

Recommend PCIN at http://PCIN.net/recommend.php

Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.php

CONTENTS

OPENING THOUGHTS

I'm sure many of you heard about the "Slammer" worm on the weekend. It still amazes me that this sort of thing can happen. The worm spread through computers that had version of MS SQL Server installed. But the thing is, Microsoft issued a patch 6 months ago to fix this particular problem, yet the worm was still able to bring down a big chunk of the Internet. All of this could have been avoided if the Systems people at the companies would have applied the patches when they were released. I know some people don't like to install new patches right away just in case there are problems with them, but 6 months is plenty of time to see if there are any new bugs. The problem was so universal that I couldn't use my bank card while shopping at IKEA on Saturday! Our connection at work was affected for 2 days, but my connection at home was fine.

Graham editor@pcin.net and Chris chris@pcin.net

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The NEWS

Working towards the 'Six Million Dollar Man'

"In the popular 1970s television series, actor Lee Majors played Col. Steve Austin, an astronaut and NASA test pilot horribly injured in a plane crash.
He survived and was fitted with $6 million worth of bionic parts - an arm, an eye and both legs - which give him super-human strength and speed. Austin's love interest, Jaime Sommers, has suffered a sky-diving accident and been similarly refitted with two new legs, an arm and a bionic ear.
Thirty years after The Six Million Dollar Man made its television debut, researchers are still struggling to design body parts that are faster and stronger than their biological originals."

For more info:
http://www.thestar.ca/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1035777085984&call_pageid=971794782442

Microsoft wins Linux award

"Microsoft was a surprise winner in the open source awards announced at LinuxWorld last week.
The company's Services for Unix 3.0 won the award for best system integration software in the Open Source Product Excellence Awards.
Easy to miss among the 10 product category awards announced on the last day of the show, Services for Unix 3.0 supports Red Hat Linux 7.0 as well as the Sun Solaris, IBM AIX and Hewlett Packard HP-UX Unix flavours."

For more info:
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1138313

Teen's Web Browser Wows Top Geeks

"A 16-year-old Irish student has startled the Internet world by creating a new Web browser that may -- or may not -- be able to goose browsing times by 600 percent.
But the speed claims for the browser -- which comes with 120 search engines, all the major media players, a DVD player, and an HTML and WAP editor built in -- have drawn criticism because no one has yet been able to clock it."

For more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57393,00.html

Master Key Copying Revealed

"A security researcher has revealed a little-known vulnerability in many locks that lets a person create a copy of the master key for an entire building by starting with any key from that building.
The researcher, Matt Blaze of AT&T Labs-Research, found the vulnerability by applying his area of expertise -#151; the security flaws that allow hackers to break into computer networks - to the real-world locks and keys that have been used for more than a century in office buildings, college campuses and some residential complexes."

For more info:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/23/business/23LOCK.html

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POLL of the WEEK

Last Week's Poll

How often do you download MP3s or similar music?

Constantly Poll results 8.97 % (13)
Daily Poll results 0.69 % (1)
Every couple of days Poll results 5.52 % (8)
Once a week Poll results 4.83 % (7)
Only when I feel like it Poll results 23.45 % (34)
Almost never Poll results 16.55 % (24)
Never Poll results 40.00 % (58)
Total votes: 145

This Week's Poll

Where do you get your MP3s or similar music?

Web sites
Newsgroups
File sharing software
Friends
Paid services
I don't download music

You can also vote online at http://PCIN.net/polls/

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PCIN.net FREEHELP FORUM

Visit the PCIN.net FreeHelp Forum at http://PCIN.net/help/forum/ to post your questions or answer others.

Question

When I go to setting to try to make everything smaller, I change the pixels and click apply. It then goes to a window asking me to restart the computer. It will not let me click OK.

Response

Reinstall the video card drivers. Use the installation disc or download the latest revision of the drivers from the video card manufacturer (video adapter or graphic adapter)

To post a response, visit the General Hardware Help forum at http://PCIN.net/help/forum/index.php?board=4 and click on the "I cannot increase pixels" topic.

Visit http://PCIN.net/help/forum/ to 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:

Paragon Hard Disk Manager 5.5 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/paragonhdm55.php

Object Desktop Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/objectdesktop.php

LG GCE-8400B 40x 12x 40x CD-RW Hardware Review
http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/lggce8400b.php

Some Useful Registry Tips
http://PCIN.net/help/articles/registry_tips.php

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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Powers of 10

"View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons."
Check it out at http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/

Windows & .NET Magazine Network

I subscribed to very few good industry magazines, but one that I always read is Windows & .NET Magazine (formerly Windows NT Magazine). It has great articles that cover many of the Microsoft server products, as well as handy tips that will help you in your daily use of Windows NT/2000/XP. You can visit the main site at http://www.winnetmag.com/
Here are a few articles that I have recently found useful:
http://www.exchangeadmin.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=23772
http://www.winnetmag.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=25653
http://www.winnetmag.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=25339

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DISCLAIMER and OTHER STUFF

PCIN is brought to you by Graham Wing. The opinions expressed are those of the Editor, Graham Wing and the Assistant Editor, Chris Empey. Graham Wing and Chris Empey 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.
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  3. To subscribe another address or unsubscribe, please visit http://PCIN.net/ and follow the appropriate links.
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  5. There are only 2 ways to get on the subscriber list. You have either been subscribed by filling out a subscription form on any of the pages on my site, or you have requested FreeHelp from me in the past.
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Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Chris Empey can be reached at chris@pcin.net

Copyright 1998-2002, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.

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