Issue 396 - May 17, 2006
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2006
==== 1613 Subscribers in 51 Countries ====
Welcome to the 396th 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
A few weeks ago I changed my blogging platform from b2evolution to WordPress.
One of my biggest complaint about b2evolution was that the version I was using
didn't handle comment spam very well. Apparently this is being addressed in
future versions, but I couldn't wait any longer. Wordpress has a built-in antispam
feature called Akismet Spam.
So far it has caught 35, 994 comment spams. Pretty good!
As I'm sitting here putting the newsletter together, my wife is in the family
room with her feet waving in the air doing pilates.
She loves it, but it looks weird to me. Lisa gave up chocolate a couple of
months ago, and I've decided to do the same to support her in it. It's amazing
the number of things that have chocolate in it. If you try to avoid it all
together, then you'll end up giving up lots more food than you were expecting.
I guess that's a good thing for me.
This coming Monday is the Victoria
Day holiday in Canada. I'll have a long weekend. Other than a wedding
on Saturday that I'm involved with, I've nothing else to do. Hopefully the
weather is nice and I can get out in the garden.
Graham editor@pcin.net and
Chris chris@pcin.net
The NEWS
Worried sick on the Web
Patients surfing obsessively for answers can fall prey to `cyberchondria’ — health
anxiety made worse by a deluge of information
When 37-year-old Toronto comedian Gerry Dee had a series of headaches, he
decided to consult his family doctor. Some blood tests were ordered, and
Dee didn’t think much about it until he returned home on a Friday to
discover a voicemail from the doctor’s office, asking him to call back “as
soon as possible.”By the time he got the message the office had closed
for the weekend, so Dee had two days on his hands to wonder and worry and
surf the Internet.
Read the Toronto Star
article...
Leave a comment...
The Evils that Lurk in Idle Web Surf
While summer is almost upon us, there’s never a worry over good or
bad weather when it comes to clients heading out for some Web surfing. And
what better place than the office to check out some sites?
But for IT managers acting as life guards on the corporate beach, enforcing
network health and safety rules can get dicey.
The experience of IT pros and the results of a new survey show that most
clients aren’t getting the message about security and the Web. Or perhaps,
they just don’t care.
Read the eWeek article...
Leave a comment...
Putting the Wire Back Into Networking
Back in the Stone Age of home networking, anyone who wanted to play on
a computer not hooked directly into an Internet connection had to snake phone
lines or Ethernet wires across floors and up staircases.
People talked about a promising idea: using the electrical wiring already
in the house to move data from room to room. One early application, the X10
system for controlling lights and appliances, didn’t always work well.
The technology was certainly not ready to be used to bring Web pages to computers
anywhere in the house.
Read the New York
Times article...
Leave a comment...
No Space for MySpace?
The campaign to crowd out predators from MySpace.com is gathering steam
in Washington. House of Representatives lawmakers proposed a bill on May
9 that would block access to social networks and Internet chat rooms in most
federally funded schools and libraries.
Social networks such as MySpace (NWS) and Facebook let users to create an
online profile, often including photos and blogs, for sharing and making
friends. Phenomenally popular, these sites have attracted criticism for making
it easier for predators to contact teens and children.
Read the BusinessWeek
article...
Leave a comment...
PCIN.net UPDATE
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
Update PCIN.net home page with "Top 10 Most Popular..." features
http://PCIN.net/
Microsoft Digital Image Suite Plus Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/msdimagesuiteplus.php
Omega One Software Battery Pack Pro 2.1 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/bpp2.php
Makayama Interactive DVD to Pocket PC 3.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/dvd2ppc3.php
Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/elements40.php
THE TIPS and OTHER
STUFF
PDFill PDF Tools - FREE!
I read about this on RedFlagDeals.com:
For a limited time, PDFill.com has PDF Tools available for FREE download.
This program will let you merge, split, reorder, encrypt, decrypt, rotate,
crop, reformat, add header, footer, watermark, convert images to PDF, PDF
to images, and more!
The program sounds interesting. The only catch is that the tools come with
the PDFill PDF Editor trial. I’ve downloaded an installed it and the
tools seem quite useful if you work with PDFs a lot. I haven’t tried
the Editor software though.
Check out RedFlagDeals.com...
Read more about the PDFill
PDF Tools...
Leave a comment...
Get new Windows XP desktop themes for free
This is from the latest TechRepublic
Windows XP Tips newsletter:
Need a change of scenery? No need to pay Microsoft when you want a new
desktop theme–now you can escape to virtual versions of Egypt, Québec
and New Zealand for free. Windows XP columnist Greg Shultz leads the tour.
I’m not really into themes, but I have previously downloaded the New
Zealand Bliss theme. I like the colours. TechRepublic links to several other
freely available themese from Microsoft. Check
it out!
Leave a comment...
Microsoft Patch Reliablity Ratings
You may be familiar with Woody Leonard. He is a well-known computer book
author and Microsoft antagonist. He writes a column for the fabulous Windows
Secrets newsletter.
In the latest issue of the newsletter, he referred to the Microsoft
Patch Reliablity Ratings that he runs on his web site. His site explains
it this way:
I have a rating system that lets individual Microsoft consumers know
when it’s safe to install patches. I call it the Microsoft Patch
Defense Condition Level, or MS-DEFCON for short. It’s modeled after
the US armed forces DEFCON system.
There are lots of patches listed with a description of what some of the
problems have been. If you are responsible for more than a couple of computers,
or if you are just interested on what is really going on when you patch your
system, then you should check
out the site.
Leave a comment...
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:
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 1998-2006, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.
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