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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
POLL of the WEEK
Last Week's Poll
How often do you download MP3s or similar music?
| Constantly |
 |
8.97 % (13) |
| Daily |
|
0.69 % (1) |
| Every couple of days |
|
5.52 % (8) |
| Once a week |
|
4.83 % (7) |
| Only when I feel like it |
|
23.45 % (34) |
| Almost never |
|
16.55 % (24) |
| Never |
|
40.00 % (58) |
| Total votes: 145 |
This Week's Poll
You can also vote online at http://PCIN.net/polls/
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.
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
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
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.
- If any of the links are too long to fit on one line, you may have to cut
and paste.
- You can only win one contest every 30 days.
- To subscribe another address or unsubscribe, please visit http://PCIN.net/
and follow the appropriate links.
- Recommend PCIN to others at http://PCIN.net/recommend.php
and be entered in a monthly draw.
- 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.
- If you have a web site or run your own newsletter, please email me at
editor@pcin.net and I will add it to
the subscriber web pages that I have on my site.
- Support PCIN by visiting http://PCIN.net/donate.php
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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.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author
is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.
Support PCIN by visiting http://PCIN.net/donate.php
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