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Issue 336 - March 23, 2005

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2005
==== 2038 Subscribers in 59 Countries ====

Welcome to the 336th 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

Chris is on vacation this week. In fact, today is his birthday!

Lisa had a nice dinner out together on Monday for our 8th anniversary (no, I didn't get her any pottery). We went to Kelsey's in St. Catharines. Lisa had gone back over some of the things she's saved, and put together a little note for me that had some quotes from previous letters I've written her. I used to be pretty cheesy!

Happy Easter!

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

The NEWS

Technology Becomes Baseball's Big Hitter

"Major League Baseball faces the kind of channel conflict a lot of businesses would love to have.
More than 800,000 fans are willing to buy subscriptions to watch MLB games online. That business is worth more than $100 million to MLB. But if MLB takes those fans away from the broadcasters that pay it hundreds of millions of dollars for the right to carry the games, it's out of business."

For more info:
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1397,1777501,00.asp

Terry Schiavo case fuels blogging storm

"In cyberspace, where anybody who cares to listen can hear you scream, the question of whether Terri Schiavo should live or die has spawned an endless shouting match
People who are passionate about maintaining Schiavo's life support have set up dozens of Internet sites, and the authors of Web logs dedicated to law, religion, ethics and politics are dissecting every aspect the case."

For more info:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7277674/

Hey, Don't Toss Those Fishy Chips

"Consumer electronics could be a whole lot cheaper if chip manufacturers stopped throwing out all their defective chips, according to a researcher at the University of Southern California.
Chip manufacturing is currently very wasteful. Between 20 percent and 50 percent of a manufacturer's total production is tossed or recycled because the chips contain minor imperfections. Defects in just one of the millions of tiny gates on a processor can doom the entire chip.
But USC professor Melvin Breuer believes the imperfections are often too small for humans to even notice, especially when the chips are to be used in video and sound applications."

For more info:
http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,66928,00.html

Report: Viruses, Phishing Not Going Away Soon

"The worst of the Internet experience appears to be an unsolvable conundrum for the time being. Unsolicited e-mail, many laden with viruses, seems to be a fact of life these days. According to industry experts, the situation likely will get worse before it gets better.
Reports from major security and computer firms show that guarding against the abuse of the public characteristics of the Web, namely e-mail, is a costly distraction for businesses and individual users."

For more info:
http://tinyurl.com/56ycf

Return to the top Recommend PCIN Poll of the Week

POLL of the WEEK

Last Week's Poll

Have you ever watched a full-length movie on your computer?

Yes Polling Results 44 % (45)
No Polling Results 56 % (57)
Total votes: 102

This Week's Poll

Have you ever tried to install or run Linux at home?

Yes
No
What's Linux?
You can also vote online at http://PCIN.net/polls/
Return to the top Recommend PCIN Poll of the Week

PCIN.net UPDATE

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

VMware Inc. VMware Workstation 4.5 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/vmware45.php

PCIN.net Update Blog
http://PCIN.net/update/

Sunbelt Software iHateSpam 4.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/ihatespam4.php

Micro Solutions RoadStor Hardware Review
http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/roadstor.php

Album Creator by FirmTools Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/albumcreator.php

Return to the top Recommend PCIN Poll of the Week

THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

TimeandDate.com

We've mentioned this before, but subscriber and co-worker Louise passed it along again. In particular, she thought the calendar section was interesting. You can pull up yearly calendars for any country, show local holidays, show moon phases, or not show anything.
Check it out at http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/

OrganizedHome.com

"Clean house Cut clutter Get organized Simplify life at home!"
Check it out at http://organizedhome.com/

How much is that?

Subscriber and good friend Alex sent this:
"I'm not sure if this is of any interest, but I ran into it and thought it may be a fun site to include in your PCIN newsletter. It allows you to enter a year and an amount of money and tells you how much money that would be worth by today's standards. It also allows you to compare two arbitrary years."
http://eh.net/hmit/ppowerusd/
From the site:
" Comparing the purchasing power of money in the United States (or colonies) from 1665 to 2003."

Return to the top Recommend PCIN Poll of the Week

PCIN.net AFFILIATED SITES

Both of us have other sites other than PCIN.net. These are all sites that we are actively involved in (they aren't client sites). Don't forget to check them out from time to time for updates:

Return to the top Recommend PCIN Poll of the Week

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.

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Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Chris Empey can be reached at chris@pcin.net

Copyright 1998-2005, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.

This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.

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