The PC Improvement News
Issue 1-21
March 03, 1999
ISSN 1488-3163
Published electronically by PC Improvements (c) 1999
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit
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Welcome to the 21st 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!
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SOME OPENING THOUGHTS
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None
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THE NEWS
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Customer Service Innovations
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I called Symantec (makers of Norton AntiVirus and Norton Utilities)
last
week. I purchased NAV 4.0 Deluxe a while ago, and since it
is the deluxe
version, I was promised a free upgrade to NAV 5.0. I didn't
know where to
look, so I called the 800 number that I found on their web
site. They had
the neatest thing. When I was on hold, I still had to listen
to music, but
in between songs, they had something called Symantec Radio.
They had a DJ
who would give you a "traffic" report. He would
say the name of each help
line, and then report how long the longest person had been
on hold for.
For instance, the line relevant to me was, "The Norton
AntiVirus line has
3 people on hold with the longest person waiting for 2 minutes."
I thought
that was just great. It gave me a general idea of how long
I still had to
wait. I hope other companies catch on.
In an unrelated story, I had some problems with some Customs
charges from
my Office 2000 beta testing software. The software was free,
but I was
still charged a tax. I emailed the beta team a couple of times
and I
actually had the director of the Office 2000 beta program
call me. I have
heard a lot of people complain about poor customer service
from Microsoft,
but I was impressed that they called me to talk to me about
my problem in
person.
Intel cuts Pentium II prices
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Intel announced that it will lower the cost of most of their
Pentium II
chips by 15% - 20%. They want to be able to compete with AMD
who for the
first time ever, led Intel in market share in January. This
type of
competition is good news for all of use who are still using
Pentiums. I
have a Pentium 120 and want to upgrade. Now I might be able
to justify it.
For more info visit:
http://www.news.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,25,33059,00.html
More companies losing money!
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Priceline.com, the discount airline fare company announced
that it has
lost $90 million dollars since it started (over a year and
a half!).
How long can all of this last?
For more info visit:
http://www.news.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,25,32917,00.html
Can politicians SPAM? Part II
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Last week I reported about a New Jersey politician using SPAM
to reach
people. Now, the Virginia Governor has gone in the other direction.
he
wants to pass a law that would outlaw unsolicited mass e-mailings
if sent
with a doctored header, the top portion of a message that
contains the
cryptic-looking routing information. This is a great step
forward, and I
support him.
For more info visit:
http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/tnw/today/cs/cs01mo_1.htm
HP to split
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Hewlett-Packard has announced that it will divide its company
into 2
separate companies. One will be its testing and measurement
equipment
business (its original line of work) and the other will be
its PC, server
and printer hardware business. I used to work for a major
medical supply
company and we sold HP defibrillators. I always thought that
HP was a
massive company. Its size made me trust its product uality
and service.
I just hope that HP can maintain that trust after it splits.
For more info visit:
http://www.thestandard.net/articles/article_print/0,1454,3688,00.html
What's up 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:
Should Bill Gates resign?
http://www.news.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,25,32572,00.html
Before the Long Recess, an Official Eruption
http://www.businessweek.com/microsoft/updates/up90226b.htm
Cyber Trial of the Century
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/special/msdojtrial.html
**Check this site out often as it is updated daily as new
case information
becomes available**
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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
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Cool Graphic Web sites.
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I'm sure many of you are working on a web site of your own.
You probably
look for some free graphics all over the web. There are a
lot of them,
but 2 of the most useful sites that I have found are CoolText
at
http://www.cooltext.com/
and ZyGraphics at http://zy.freedback.com.
CoolText is a totally free site where you can make logos and
buttons. You
can choose from a dozen or so different templates, and then
you can choose
the font style size, and colour. ZyGraphics is promoted as
a pay site,
but they have a couple of free services that you can try out.
My younger
sisters Spice Girls web site
http://www.pcimprovements.com/ajw/index.html
has 3D rotating logos made
at ZyGraphics.
If you are building a web page, you have to check these two sites out.
More on the Send To tip
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A couple of weeks ago I shared a tip that said you could add
any short cut
to any program to the Send To folder of the Windows folder.
Well, if you
download the Windows 95 power toys from the Microsoft web
site, you can
install some extra Send To options that you can't install
yourself. The
most useful of which is Send To Any Folder. This lets you
move or copy
anything to any other folder. Saves you having to cut and
paste.
Looking for interesting web sites?
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I recently received an email from Rob. Rob runs a newsletter
called Rob's
wURLd Best of the Web. I checked it out and felt I should
tell you about
it. It is a neat way to find information or unique sites on
the web that
you just didn't know existed. He can find almost anything
you want. He
finds entire theme sites sometimes such as holidays or on
subjects such as
the Y2K bug. Past issues are archived and you can subscribe
at
http://robswurld.listbot.com/
At the very least, check out the archives to see what he has to offer.
New Articles Coming...
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I just thought I would update you on a couple of things I
am working on.
With the number of viruses that are out there and the inexpensive
hardware
that is sold (which might be of lesser quality), it is ever
more important
to back up your data. I have had a lot of people email me
saying that they
reformatted their hard drive to reinstall something. They
might have
thought that they backed up all of their essential data, but
they probably
didn't. I am in the process of writing a short article about
what files
should be backed up before you reinstall.
Contest coming...
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I am also in the process of coming up with a contest and corresponding
prizes. Hopefully in the coming issues I will have more details.
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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
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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
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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. PC Improvements
and Graham
Wing accept no responsibility (either good or bad) for the
results obtained
from trying the tips in this newsletter.
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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.