The PC Improvement News
Issue 1-34
June 02, 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, please cut and paste.
Note 2: You can only win one contest every 30 days.

Welcome to the 34th 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 at
editor@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.

Give me two or three issues, and I know that you will get something great
out of this!


----------------------------------------------------------------
SOME OPENING THOUGHTS
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry this is late. I spent the day yesterday digging up some stumps in
the back yard. I worked for about 4 hours, and have half dozen blisters to
show for it. I fell asleep at 6:30 p.m. and slept for 12 hours. It was
great. The only problem is that I have a lot to do today.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was starting to play with Linux.
Well, this past week I tried out my new USR external v90 modem and after a
little bit of tweaking, I managed to get on the Internet using Linux. It
appears to be faster than through Windows. Not a lot, but enough to notice.

Last week I asked what is the most essential peripheral on your computer?
Well, only 2 people answered. I'm assuming that means no one likes their
computers.

Anyway, Jumpin' Johnathon said that his essential thing was his 19"
monitor. "I don't think I could get by without my 'NEC MultiSync XE21'
Monitor. I do a lot of graphic and video work on my computer, and being
able to work on a large screen really helps me, especially when I'm adding
touch-ups to a scanned print, or creating a spectacular customized effect."

Charlie said he like his Jaz drive. "The most important peripheral to me &
my computer is my 1GB JAZ drive. I can use it to take stuff, and take home
from work."

I have a 17" monitor now and I know what Johnathon is talking about. For
long time readers, you also know that I have a Zip drive (bought it after
my hard drive crashed and I had no back up). It is great having something
to put those large files on.

If you would like to share what you like most about your computer, please
email me at editor@pcin.net and I'll include the
comments in upcoming newsletters.


----------------------------------------------------------------
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Goals are stars to steer by, not sticks to beat yourself with."
          - Barbara Smith

Thought courtesy of http://www.HappyPublishing.com/

To subscribe to the FREE "Aspire to Something Higher" Thought-Of The Day,
send a blank email to HappyQuotes-subscribe@listbot.com


----------------------------------------------------------------
THE NEWS
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sony Dog
----------------------------------------------------------------
I reported a couple of weeks ago about the new robot dog that Sony had
made. It has hundreds of joints and supposedly can move and react very
much like a real dog. Guess what. At a price of about $2000 the dogs sold
out in 20 minutes! I guess a lot of people want a dog, but not the mess.

For more info:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990601/03/net-japan-robot


Voting
----------------------------------------------------------------
Today is Election Day in Ontario. We have until 8:00 p.m. to vote for our
local Member of Parliament. The leader of the party with the most elected
member then becomes our Premier (Governor-type person). Since it is
important to vote, I thought I'd send you to a site where you can all vote.

I love baseball. The Blue Jays aren't very good this year, but it is still
great watching the games on TV, at the SkyDome, or listening to them on
the radio. The All-Star game is going to be in Boston this year, and you
can vote for your favourite players from the Major League Baseball web
site.

Visit http://allstarvote.majorleaguebaseball.com/ and vote for Shawn
Green and Carlos Delgado.


FBI Site Hacked
----------------------------------------------------------------
First it was the White House site. Then it was a site naming UK spies. Now
the FBI site is getting hacked into.

The FBI had served warrants for several members of the Global Hell hacker
group and not long after that the site was hacked and unreachable.

For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2266648,00.html?chkpt=hpqs014


Remember When...
----------------------------------------------------------------
ZD Net recently ran a story about the top 10 web sites of 1996. It was
interesting to see which sites are still popular. There were a couple of
sites I had never heard of before.

See for your self at
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_3437.html


Cyber Trial of the Century
----------------------------------------------------------------
America Online Inc. Chairman Steve Case Friday conceded his company has
convinced computer makers to feature the AOL service directly on the
desktop of most PCs sold. Microsoft lawyers have long used that fact to
suggest Microsoft doesn't have the monopoly control over the PC desktop
that AOL and the government claim it has.

For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2263387,00.html

For information on the Microsoft vs DOJ trial, visit:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/special/msdojtrial.html


----------------------------------------------------------------
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No one had an answer for either of last weeks questions. I will leave them
open again this week. Here they are again:

Q1) I have an old Apple II Plus for which, years ago, I wrote some
educational software containing cartoon type graphics. I would like to
convert these graphics for use on a PC. Originally, I used a Koala Pad to
draw them freehand in a PIC format. This took several hours for each one.
Hence, I don't want to have to redo them. Do you have any suggestions as
to how I might accomplish this conversion? Please include any specifics as
to equipment I might need.

Q2) I've had several people email me lately asking for help with WebCams.
I do not have one, so I do not really know anything about them. Does
anyone know of any good sites that explain how to set one up that I could
share with this person?


New Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are also 2 new questions:
Q3) What is the least expensive modem that is still good quality?

Q4) I want to power my computer (only mainboard and floppy or hard drive)
from car batteries... I wonder if it can be done with some voltage
regulators (7805, 7812). I will use this for on-board computer for
calculating speed, distance, time of travel of my car ,etc...

If you have any answers to these questions, please email me at
freehelp@pcin.net


----------------------------------------------------------------
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
----------------------------------------------------------------
Scrolling in Word
----------------------------------------------------------------
I had a fellow email me saying that he used to be able to move the scroll
bar in Word 97 and see what was scrolling by. Now he couldn't. He said he
knew it was a registry trick, but didn't know where to find it. Well, I
found it.

Usually when you move the slider in Microsoft Word, you can not see what
is scrolling by. The page kind of freezes in place and then reappears when
you stop scrolling. There is a registry trick to change this so you can
see things as they scroll by.

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Word\Options and
right-click in the right pane. Make a new string called LiveScrolling and
give it a value of 1.


Get a Folder/Directory Listing Part II
----------------------------------------------------------------
Last week I told you how to get a directory listing. Well, No Nonsense
Software has a program called PrintFolder that when installed gives you a
right-click menu option to print out a folder listing. I haven't tried it
yet, but it looks great. Best of all it is free.

Check it out at:
http://www.no-nonsense-software.com/freeware/


Set up User Profiles
----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you have a lot of people using the same computer? Do you want to be
able to have it set up differently for different people? Well, don't
forget that you can set up multiple profiles in Windows. This will
specifically set up the Desktop differently. To do this, go into the
Passwords applet of the Control Panel and on the User Profiles tab, choose
User Can Customize. You can then customize the settings. In newer versions
of Windows, there is also a User applet of the Control Panel that can set
up the same sort of thing.


What time is it where you are?
----------------------------------------------------------------
With the help of the Internet, it is quite possible that you will be
communicating with people around the world. Problems can arise when you
forget that in Taiwan it is the middle of the night when it is only noon
here. You could wait another 8 hours before you hear from anyone. That is
where ActiveEarth comes in. ActiveEarth is a program that shows you what
time it is in 12 major cities around the world. It gives you essential
data on date and time as well as giving you a great screen shot of the
globe that is lit up where it is daytime and darkened where it is
nighttime. At the very least it is a neat program. But it could also be a
great help to those who do international business. You can download a
trial copy and if you like it, you can pay the $29.95 registration charge.

For more info:
http://www.activeearth.com/


----------------------------------------------------------------
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 pcinews@pcimprovements.com
----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

PC Improvement News Home Page

PC Improvement News Archives