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The PC Improvement News
Issue 1-49
September 15, 1999
ISSN 1488-3163
Published electronically by PC Improvements (c) 1999
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://www.pcin.net/
Note 1: If any of the links are too long to fit on one line,
you may have to
cut and paste.
Note 2: You can only win one contest every 30 days.
Welcome to the 49th edition of the PC Improvement News. In
this newsletter,
I have a couple of tips to make your computing life easier
as well as
highlights of the past weeks PC Industry News. I am more
than willing to
discuss any PC related topics in this newsletter. Just email
me ateditor@pcin.net with
your suggestions. I would also appreciate it
if you let me know if there is any strange formatting in
the newsletter so
that I can fix them.
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.
Give me two or three issues, and I know that you will get
something great
out of this!
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SOME OPENING THOUGHTS
----------------------------------------------------------------
I just keep collecting more prizes. This past week,
I received 3 copies of
Data Smog (I reviewed it last week) from HarperSanFrancisco,
and 5 copies of
DU Meter, a program from Hagel Technologies that shows you
clearly how much
you have downloaded and how long it took. There is a review
for this at the
bottom of the newsletter. I've got a few other things planned
for prizes as
well. I know not all of these prizes appeal to everyone,
but I'm trying to
get enough variety so that at one point or another everyone
will want to
enter the contests.
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THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on
after others have let
go."
-
William Feather
Thought courtesy of http://www.HappyPublishing.com/
To subscribe to the FREE "Aspire to Something Higher"
Thought-Of-The-Day
list, send a blank email to HappyQuotes-subscribe@listbot.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
THE NEWS
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Scam of the week
----------------------------------------------------------------
Loyal subscriber John Hills passed this on to me.
>From the Desk of:
Dr. SIMONS IKE B.Sc (UNN), MNIN; MCIA
DIRECT TELEPHONE NO234 90 400848
FACSIMILE NO: 234-1-7595386
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
TRANSFER OF US$18.5 MILLION INTO A PERSONAL/COMPANY'S OFFSHORE
ACCOUNT
Through the courtesy of business opportunity, I take liberty
anchored on
strong desire to solicit your assistance on this mutual beneficiary
and
risk-free transaction with you, which I hope you will give
your urgent
attention.
We are members of the Contracts Review Committee (CRC), a
panel set up by
the new democratically elected government of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria
to review all contracts executed by foreign contractors.
We have Eighteen
Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$18.5M)
which we
have identified as misappropriated and inflated funds from
grossly
over-invoiced contracts.
We are seeking your assistance to remit this amount into
your account or any
other nominated account you can provide for us. Your commission
will be 25%
of the total sum. My colleagues and I will take 70% and the
remaining 5% for
settling local and foreign expenses as well as taxation.
Please notify us urgently, your acceptance of our proposal.
Kindly
acknowledge the receipt of this letter by sending to us a
copy of this
letter by fax and reach us on the telephone number as above.
I shall inform
you of the modalities for a formal application to secure
the necessary
approvals for the immediate release of this funds into your
account.
Thanks for your anticipated co-operation.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. SIMONS IKE
NOTE : PLEASE DO NOT GET BACK TO ME THROUGH THIS
EMAIL ADDRESS AS I WILL DISABLE IT IMMEDIATELY AFTER
SENDING THIS MESSAGE TO YOU . USE THE ABOVE
PHONE/ FAX NUMBERS TO REACH ME AND ALSO INCLUDE
YOUR OWN TEL/FAX NUMBERS AND
A MORE PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS THANKS.
Why would the government of Nigeria be resorting to junk
email to solicit
help? Why would this person be using an email address that
was Yahoo! based?
Seems pretty fishy to me.
MS Case Close to Ending
----------------------------------------------------------------
Last Friday the DOJ and Microsoft were ordered to give their
final written
versions of the facts of the case. The filings could approach
1,000 pages
for each side. Microsoft is trying to show that the success
of the
AOL/Netscape merger and the phenomenal success of the Red
Hat public
offering means that there is plenty of competition in the
industry.
For more info:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/990913-000001.html
http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,91548-144992-1016165-0,00.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/990913-000002.html
September 9, 1999 Not a Problem
----------------------------------------------------------------
It was thought that the 9999 date would cause a problem in
some older
systems, but I never read one report about any problems.
9999 was a way that
programs long ago would signify a bad date. It hasn't been
used for a long,
long time, so it wasn't too surprising that everything was
fine.
Sun Gets StarOffice
----------------------------------------------------------------
StarOffice is an alternative to the major office suites.
Star Division, a
German company, originally programmed it. Sun bought Star
Division earlier
in September so they also acquired the StarOffice program.
It comes in versions for both Linux and Windows. It is free
for personal
use and has
been downloaded 250,000 times in its first week.
For more
info visit:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2334192,00.html?chkpt=hpqs014
To download visit:
http://www.sun.com/dot-com/staroffice.html
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CONTEST RESULTS
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I had 13 different people enter this week's contest. I think
that is the
best yet. Of course that is only 2.8%, but it is better than
before. The
contest was to give a tip to a new computer user. Congratulations
to Kay and
Charles. Although all of the tips were useful, I particularly
agreed with
theirs. They each win a copy of CD-Quick Cache.
Here are the winning suggestions:
Kay Hill said, "The best piece of advice I could give
a new computer user
would be to realize that there's not a lot of things you
can do to make it"crash". Don't
be afraid to experiment and try new things, sites, etc.
Nearly any "error" can be undone and those "fatal
errors", although
menacing-looking, are not so bad (usually!). Enjoy your
new toy!"
Charles Breeding said, "Never let the person who is supposed
to be helping
you used the keyboard or whenever they may be showing you.
Always insist on
doing it yourself while they give you the instructions.
Also it is
beneficial to repeat the process at least two or three
times."
Here are the other suggestions:
Ryan Willis said, "I have helped numerous people with
their computer systems
in the past and the one piece of advice that I have always
given is "just
play with the computer and have fun." You'd be surprised
how many people
love that advice because it takes away some of the hesitation
that hinders
their performance!"
Bill said, "This is a very simple thing now, First thing
to do is make a
backup of your system (This is the first thing I do with
any system. Anyone
can do it this is One thing that Bill did incorporate in
Windows that works
without any problems). Most makers do not readily install
a backup. This way
if you accidentally delete a file that is needed you can
restore it from the
backup. Also read the book that comes with whatever operating
system you are
using, (i.e. Windows, Netscape or so on). One other very
good point (do not
just download something on someone else's word) It is good
to have a little
knowledge of what a prog does and where it gets stored,
a lot of these progs
are dos based and many users do not know how and where
to get rid of them.
This is very important as them little windows that popup
all the time saying
this prog has performed and illegal operation and will
be shut down. Another
extremely important thing is get a good virus utility program
(Norton, or
Symantec,) these are both very good and cost a little more
than most but as
with the case of viruses around can be a great lifesaver.
These are little
mistakes I have made and learned very fast."
Kathleen Kee Reagle said, "Please be sure virus checker
is turned off when
installing a program. It is always a good idea to close
out of everything
prior to an install."
Judy said, "As far as the computer itself, learning how
it works and why, I
haven't learned all the IN's and outs believe me there
are things I learn
all the time. I read don't get me wrong I enjoy reading,
but with this
computer hands on is something that works for me. I find
myself now creating
Stationary a lot I find that creating new stationary makes
the person I am
sending it to think. I learned that on www.lockergnome.com,
which is another
newsletter Graham but I don't want you to feel bad, Chris
is the one that
runs that, however he isn't as personal as you are, and
that is why I like
yours better."
John Hills said, "The best advice I can think of is
that when purchasing a
machine, carefully think out exactly what you want your
computer to do. And
when you know exactly what you want your computer to do
then buy a
specification that will manage your requirements comfortably.
There is for
e.g. no point in buying one with 32 Meg of 3D graphics,
Pentium III CPU, 25
gig hard drive, and 256meg ram if you only want the PC
to run for e.g.
Microsoft Office. Second bit of advice would be that a
PC can be addictive,
particularly with games and the Internet. Make sure you
set ample time aside
for your family."
Alex Tanaka said, "I always tell new computer users
to read the manual
first. If they don't get what the manual says, I tell them
to get a "How to", "Master" or the "The complete idiot's guide" book
for what ever they may
want to use. From experience "The complete idiot's Guide" works
better than
the manual and people actually say 'thank you' after they
read it."
Mark Milks said, "Tips for a new computer user are a
dime a dozen. Click
here; download this program; upgrade this. etc. I really
think it comes down
to two words. Patience and fun. If you practice the first;
you will have the
second. Nobody becomes an overnight computer wizard. It takes
time to make
mistakes and learn the answer. You must take the time to
learn why your
computer is making you crazy. In this age of instant fixes,
we all what it
fixed now. You must take the time to learn. Understanding
this from the
start is very important. And above all; remember this is
FUN!"
A subscriber said, "When in doubt use the "Windows
Help" program that is
installed on every windows 95/98 computer. Now I know your
gonna says that's
pretty lame, but hear me out on this one. At least 100 times
or more, I have
been stuck on something and have used the "Windows Help" with
great success.
I feel that the "Help" section is the most underused
software installed on
computers today. And even when the Windows Help didn't
work for me I simply
went to the On-line Windows Help at: www.Microsoft.com,
and was 99.999%
successful in solving my problems."
John Tounoussidis said, "The first thing I tell to new
computer users is to
stay away from Microsoft."
Ken Berry said, "The best thing I can say is buy well
known and established,
hardware and software. Those companies generally have very
good support
systems and better than average compatible products. OR Always
keep your
software and drivers updated, and learn the value of Windows
98's System
File Checker when things start getting buggy. OR Master windows
3.1 and
MSDOS, then (the following year) Windows 95. Go through all
the versions and
updates. If you're still sane, go with Windows 98. And as
your playing that
latest version of Half-Life and the glee is practically dripping
of your
face, look over at your child, who is just as happy playing
with a rubber
ball."
Randy Dunaway said, "My best advice to new users is
back up your data
religiously. As a Computer repair shop owner, it is very
disheartening when
a customers brings in a system that the hard drive has crashed
and they had
their whole business or fiances or whatever on there and
have no backup.
They can't believe they lost everything, and after I have
proved it to them,
they have to start figuring out what they lost and how to
get it back. They
do learn their lesson, for the most part. Even if it is as
simple as backing
up data files to floppy, it is worth the aggravation and
time spent trying
to get even halfway back to where they were before the disaster."
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I NEED HELP
----------------------------------------------------------------
As many of you know, 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 half of them. Those are things that I do regularly
or have
experience with. There are other things that I have never
tired or
experienced so I don't have an answer. I hope to post those
questions here
and see if any of the readers have any suggestions. I will
include all
reasonable suggestions with credit to you. I will not check
the validity of
these comments. That is up to you.
Previous Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q1) Many times when I receive mail (jokes, etc.) it has been
forwarded
dozens of times and all those people who have received it
are listed. Takes
forever to get to the message! Now, if I want to forward
the message on to
yet another group of people but don't want to show all the
previous people
who've received it, how do I delete those names?
I received
several answers for this question but they were all basically
the
same. I have included them all because they were worded a
little
differently. Maybe one will make more sense to you than another.
A1) John Hills said, "Simply copy and paste the message
part into a new mail
message and then add the addresses that you wish."
A1) Lonnie Whelan said, "In Eudora, the easiest way
to 'clean-up' a message
is to click to forward the message. The text can then be
edited, just as in
any word-processor. I suspect many other e-mail programs
would allow the
same."
A1) VJ said, "TRY THIS! 1) Firstly compose a new message
2) Just cut and
paste the original message onto your new message 3) Attach
whatever
addresses you want and send! Clever right!"
A1) Greg Vinson said, "I would suggest that the user
just click and drag,
then delete the extra information. They should position the
cursor at the
very beginning of the information, and to the left of (or
above) the first
word. Then hold and drag the cursor to the right and down
the page slowly to
the line above the pertinent information, "being careful
not to let that
information be highlighted at all." Then hit the delete
key. That's about as
simple as I can put it, I hope it helps."
A1) Herb Christian said, "I'm sure the question about
email with previous
recipients names showing up when forwarding has been answered,
but.. just in
case not. What I usually do, is copy what I want to send,
and paste in it
new mail. It seems to work for me."
Q2) I have a solution to the Y2K problem. Ha ha. Set your
clock and calendar
BACK 1 or 2 years. Will that work? What will happen to your
"stuff" that is
dated after the date you set it back to?
A2) Silvan Kuipers said, "It will work, but do you really
need to change the
date? If you don't change the date, it will (in the worst
case) jump to a
date long ago. But you indicate that it doesn't matter to
you, so, you can
change your date, but you don't need to. Your computer will
still work. The
hardware isn't the biggest problem. The software IS. If you
use software
that relies on dates, then you may have a problem. For instance,
software
that computes your salary based on your age (and your age
is based on the
current date!). Otherwise you can do with your date whatever
you like."
A2) John Hills said, "Nothing much will happen but when
you reply to emails
or letters you will find your replies will be two years earlier
than
correspondence you are replying too. Not a great deal going
for this idea.
But I suppose a two-year discrepancy to your replies will
be better than a
20-year discrepancy which may happen after Y2K has passed.
I don't think
your suggestion will rock the computer world."
New Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you have any answers to these questions, please email me
atfreehelp@pcin.net
Q1) I have installed the new Windows 98 2nd edition on 3
new computers now
and they come with Outlook Express 5.0. On all 3 machines,
Outlook Express
will not let me Import the Mail Messages from Windows Messaging,
which is
the e-mail server the clients are using on their network.
I have done that
with 2 other machines with Outlook and had no problems with
the import
function. First error message: "cannot import from MAPI
client". Did some
research and found in Microsoft Support that you have to
disable the default
MAPI client in the settings. Did that, and now when I try
to import, it just
locks up Outlook Express! No other suggestions have appeared
in the support
home page from Microsoft. Any ideas? Is it an OE5.0 flaw
or incompatibility
with Windows Messaging? Is there something else I am supposed
to be doing
and not see it?
Q2) Have a question about cookies...are they in chronological
order? In
other words, when I first started using my computer a year
or so ago, are
the first sites I went to shown as the first cookies, and
conversely, are
the more recent sites at the end of the list? I need to delete
a bunch of
them, but can't necessarily tell by looking at them what
they relate to. For
instance, a contest for a spa vacation might show up in cookies
as "Flycast"or something like that. I don't want
to delete the ones I need/want, but
just get rid of a lot of "trash", i.e., sites I
never use any more. Is there
a program that will read the cookies and tell me where they
are from?
Remember, if you have an answer to these questions or have
a question of
your own, please email me at freehelp@pcin.net
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NEW CONTEST
----------------------------------------------------------------
This is something that they have been doing on the sports
radio station in
Toronto, the Fan 590 (I have mentioned them before). This
doesn't really
have to do with computers, but I thought it would be interesting.
What would
your dream golf foursome be? You are one, but what other
3 people would be
interesting to golf with. They don't have to be golfers at
all (and
hopefully they won't be). The idea is to come up with 3 people
who would be
an interesting combination. For instance, I thought it would
be neat to be
with Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Pierce Brosnan and hear
them argue about
who was the better James Bond. Get the idea? You can have
fun with this by
trying to come up with some crazy combinations (Hitler, Mussolini,
Napoleon?
or Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison?)
The 2 people who send me the best, funniest or most interesting
foursome
(remember you and 3 others), will win their choice of:
-Data Smog book
-DU meter
-TweakDUN
-Window Washer
-ZD Education Quick Skill CD teaching Microsoft Office 97
-IE 5 on CD (so you don't need to download it)
Email you contest
entries to editor@pcin.net
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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
----------------------------------------------------------------
Receive Microsoft KnowledgeBase Article by Email
----------------------------------------------------------------
I think everyone who uses Microsoft Windows knows that Microsoft
has online
support and many articles in their KnowledgeBase. One
of the problems I
have found is that their KnowledgeBase is hard to search
through. You
rarely find what you're looking for. One good way to
look for articles
about a specific topic is to send e-mail to Microsoft. They
have an
autoresponder set up, where you can e-mail them and receive
a listing of the
KnowledgeBase categories. From there you can select
a category, receive
another e-mail with a listing of articles, and keep working
from there.
Since the information will arrive in your inbox, it will
be in text format,
and you will be able to download it quicker. You should
also be able to
save the time you spent using their search function from
their web site.
Send an e-mail to mshelp@microsoft.com with
a subject of index
We Compute Magazine Cheap Trick of the Week
----------------------------------------------------------------
**Serve yourself**
Windows 95 or 98 users can check what servers they're connected
to when they
're online. While connected to the Internet, click on the
Start button,
Programs and MS-DOS Prompt. MS-DOS will open in a separate
window with the
Windows directory showing. Just type netstat at the prompt
and hit Enter.
After a few seconds a list will pop up with the servers
you are connected to
and the state of the connection.
Buy the Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks for
only $9.95 Cdn
http://www.pcimprovements.com/help/books/cheaptricks.shtml
How Long Does It Take to Download a Program?
----------------------------------------------------------------
Some people use their download speed as a sort of status
symbol. I can
download at 3.5kb/s! Yeah, well using my cable modem I can
download at
80kb/s! Of course, dial-up and high-speed access are incomparible,
but most
people still like to know how fast they are downloading and
how long it
takes. DU Meter by Hagel Technologies is the program for
you. It includes a
stopwatch, a graphical chart to show how your transfer speeds
change during
the course of a download, and even alarms that can ring to
signify so much
has been downloaded, or if your download is stalled. This
is a very small
program that barely uses any system resources. Even if there
is no technical
purpose for you owning it, at only $15 US, it is still fun
to have.
You can visit the DU Meter site at:
http://www.hageltech.com/dumeter/
Read my online review at:
http://www.pcimprovements.com/help/software/dumeter.shtml
A Tip from a Subscriber
----------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Stambolsky suggested this.
"I've got a CD-ROM speed tip for you: Because most of
us just use the CD-ROM
to load software and programs and not actually read or study
things off
them, then we can use a little trick to really speed it up.
Right-click "My
Computer" and go to "Properties" then to the
"Performance" tab and then
click the "File System" button. You should see
3 tabs, one of which being
the CD-ROM. Click that and drop the "Supplemental cache
size" to almost
zero. What this does is drops the cache from reading the
CD and instead uses
the power to read CD's faster as well as copy data from them
at quite a bit
higher speeds. This is also a trick used to help users when
their computer
has trouble shutting down time and time again. That is because
sometimes the
CD-ROM cache has trouble clearing out before it shuts down,
hence it takes
the machine too long complete the cleaning process and it
either hangs or
sits there for ridiculous periods of time.
Dunno if you already know this or if you've already posted
this in your
newsletter, but I hope it helps. :)"
This kind of goes
against the concept of using a program like CD-Quick Cache
to increase your cache size, but I have heard that some people
find that
with certain CD-ROM drives, no cache is actually faster.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, send in your comments, tips and news and you
too can be included in
The PC Improvement News with a reference to your name and
web site.
Send email to editor@pcin.net
----------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that's all for this week. Remember that if there is
anything that you
want to learn about, let me know and I will try to accommodate
you. Also,
feel free to send any comments about the newsletters and
the topics covered.
This newsletter is sent to those who subscribed only. We
don't believe in
SPAM, so if you have somehow gotten this and you don't want
it, please see
the subscribe/unsubscribe options at the start of the newsletter.
The PC Improvement News 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 (either good or bad) for the
results obtained
from trying the tips in this newsletter.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Editor: Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1999, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All rights reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the editor is notified.
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