The PC Improvement News
Issue 1-2
October 14, 1998
ISSN 1488-3163
Published electronically by PC Improvements (c) 1999
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Welcome to the second edition of the PC Improvement News. In this newsletter I will try to have a couple of tips to make you computing life easier as well as highlights of the previous weeks PC Industry News. As this newsletter is just starting out, I am more than willing to discuss any PC related topics in this newsletter Just email me at editor@pcin.net with your suggestions. Also, if there is any strange formatting in the newsletter you receive please use the same email address to let me know so I can fix any incompatibilities Bear with me, it will get better.
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THE NEWS
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Who should control what we see on the Internet?
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Controversial restrictions on sexually explicit Web sites will
be included in a sprawling government-spending bill that Congress
is scheduled to approve tomorrow. The US government originally
tried to restrict the amount of sexually explicit material seen
on web sites with the Communications Decency Act. It was announced
unconstitutional by a judge and so the government has been busy
trying to make another law. This new law, CDA2 will severely limit
the online publication of material deemed "harmful to minors."
There are severe punishments ranging from six-month prison term and US$50,000-per-day fine for webmasters who do not undertake "good faith" efforts, such as credit-card verification, to prevent minors from browsing sexually explicit material.
There is still the question of enforcement, and who is to say that a particular picture or story is harmful to minors. It will be interesting to see how all of this works out.
Apple just won't give up!
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Apple computer has announced that in its fourth fiscal quarter
it would return a profit of $106 million, or 68 cents a share,
on sales of $1.6 billion. That is an incredible number seeing
that in less than a year ago (in December), Apple stocks hit a
low of $12. They had losses of $160 million and it really didn't
look good.
I can't see how they can survive. I know they have a lot of good products and there still is a lot of publishers that use Mac products, but when almost everyone else uses a PC, it seems like a hopeless cause. Oh well, if they can keep up this trend, who knows where they'll end up!
What's happening with Microsoft?
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Every week, I will provide several links to articles about the
Microsoft case with the DOJ. I will provide no editorial comments,
other than this. I think that Microsoft should give every company
a chance to compete, but I don't think that they should be under
such intense scrutiny as they are right now. People complain about
the Starr report costing so much money. Well, this DOJ case won't
be cheap for either side, and I don't really think that anything
will come from this. A waste of time!
Links:
Judge denies MS delay request
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,4436,2149515,00.html
DOJ Hints at Harsher Remedies for Microsoft
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_display/0,3440,360222,00.html
Bork pulls no punches with Microsoft over DOJ antitrust charges
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,4436,2140741,00.html
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THE TIPS
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Change your desktop wallpaper quickly
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I find it a bit of a pain to have to go into the display applet
of the control panel to change the desktop wallpaper. There is
another easy way to do it.
You've probably noticed that you can right click open a picture when you are on the internet and there will be a menu option which allows you to make that picture your wallpaper. Well, you can do the same thing with a picture on your hard drive. Just open that picture in your browser, and then right click on it. You will have the same option to use that picture as wallpaper.
You can also open up a bmp file in MS Paint and under the file menu, there is an option to use that file as your wallpaper.
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.
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The PC Improvement News is brought to you by PC Improvements.
The Opinions expressed are those of the editor, Graham Wing.
Editor: Graham Wing editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998, 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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