ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2002
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Welcome to the 170th 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.shtml
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.shtml
OK... Let's try one of those special issues that I mentioned last week. I would like to know about your first computer. What kind was it? Why did you get it? How much was it? What did you do with it? How long did you keep it for? What was the first truly useful computer you had? Send me your stories to editor@pcin.net and I will include them in an upcoming issue.
Jokester serious about taking on Microsoft
Ken Belanger's Pocket PC may be a gag, but his lawsuit against Microsoft is not.
On Tuesday, the entrepreneur sued Microsoft in small claims court in San Francisco, claiming he created a Pocket PC 17 years ago, and therefore has rights to the name the company has given its handheld computer.
Belanger's product is not a computer at all but a decidedly low-tech joke gift poking fun at tech industry hype. People who shell out $9.95 for the device receive a box slightly bigger than a deck of cards that contains a poker chip and a set of instructions telling them how to use the chip to make important business and other decisions by flipping it like a coin.For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5101509,00.html
Judge Rejects Microsoft's Class-Action Settlement Offer
A federal judge today rejected Microsoft Corp.'s billion-dollar plan to settle more than 100 class-action antitrust lawsuits filed against the company.
U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Motz refused to endorse the settlement proposal, which would have concluded a bevy of lawsuits stemming from allegations that Microsoft used its monopoly power to overcharge consumers for its software products.For more info:
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173596.html
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5101599,00.html
Number of Viruses, Flaws Rocket Skyward
The number of viruses and other types of attacks making rounds on the Internet, and the number of security vulnerabilities discovered in software, climbed dramatically in 2001, according to newly issued statistics by the Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (CERT/CC).
CERT's statistics, issued Friday, indicated that the number of incidents rocketed from 21,756 reported in 2000 to 52,658 reported in 2001. For comparison's sake, CERT said there were 9,859 reports in 1999, 3,734 in 1998 and six in 1988. To be clear, an incident may involve one site or thousands and may take place over a long period of time.For more info:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article/0,,10_953241,00.html
Lindows pleads for technical dismissal
Lindows.com, a software startup sued by Microsoft last month for alleged trademark infringement, is hoping to have the case thrown out of court on a technicality, its chief executive said Friday.
Lindows.com is developing a version of the Linux operating system that can run applications written for Microsoft's Windows operating system, as well as for Linux.
Microsoft, in a lawsuit filed in December with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, asked for an injunction that would prevent Lindows.com from releasing a product that uses the Lindows name. The Redmond, Washington, software maker argued that the yet-to-be-released operating system, to be called LindowsOS, would create confusion for consumers in the marketplace.For more info:
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/01/14/020114hnlindows.xml
Here are the responses from the last poll:
Do you subscribe to any computer magazines or newspapers?
Yes: 61.97%
No: 38.03%Total Votes: 71
Visit http://pcin.net/polls/ to participate in the new poll this week:
Do you use your computer more at work or at home?
Visit the PCIN FreeHelp Forum to post your questions or answer others. Each week I highlight a question, and where to go to get the answer.
Question
Subscriber Kay Hill emailed me this:
I received a Panasonic Ipalm digital camera for Christmas and learned very quickly that I need some type of storage for the pictures. I'd like to keep it under $150 and as simple and easy to operate as possible (the camera is enough to deal with right now!) Do you, or any of your subscribers have a recommendation?
Send your recommendations to editor@pcin.net and I will post them all in next week's PCIN.
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
WE Compute Magazine's Cheap Tricks of the Week
http://pcin.net/help/articles/cheaptricks.shtml
(The entire collection is in Microsoft Word format and currently has 100 tips and tricks. You can download the file from here)Windows Registry Tips and Tweaks
http://pcin.net/help/articles/registry.shtml
(The entire collection is in Microsoft Word format and currently has 85 registry tips. You can download the file from here)
Cheap Trick of the Week
Playing postman
If you have Outlook 2000, you can uncover and play a cute little hidden game,
Open Outlook, type Ren Hoek (capitals are not necessary) in the Find a Contact bar at the top and press Enter. If you get a message saying no such contact can be found, click OK and continue.
Under the Tools menu, select Macro and then, in the submenu, select Macros. In the Macro Name box, type OL2KROCKS (lowercase is okay) and click the Create button.
When the About Microsoft Outlook window appears, hold down the Ctrl, Alt and Shift keys while clicking OK.
You'll be treated to a game in which you move a mailbox up and down with the Arrow keys to catch envelopes as they fly across the screen bearing developer credits.Get your own copy of "The Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks: 2001" by visiting http://www.pcin.net/lbbct/
How to Please Your I.T. Department
A coworker and subscriber Marg Pinard sent me this:
Play Arcade Games
Visit http://www.flasharcade.com/ to play some fun arcade games made with Flash or Shockwave. Bubble Trouble is a lot of fun 8-)
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.
Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2002, PC Improvements and 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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