The PC Improvement News
Issue 1-30
May 05, 1999
ISSN 1488-3163
Published electronically by PC Improvements (c) 1999
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Welcome to the 30th 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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THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
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"You are here to enrich the world and you impoverish
yourself if you
forget that errand."
-
Woodrow Wilson
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
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THE NEWS
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Zero Footprint PC
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It seems like one of the industry buzzwords right now is the
"footprint"
of a particular device. This is referring to the amount of
space that a
device takes up and it is particularly important for desktop
PCs because
most people want as much room as they can on their desk. Well,
One of the
solutions is the "Zero-Footprint-PC" by Cybernet.
The PC ranges from a
Pentium 166MMX to a Pentium 233MMX and can come with up to
128 MB or RAM
and a 6.4 GB hard drive. All of it is enclosed in the keyboard
case. All
of the external devices then plug into the back of the keyboard.
This
raises the height of the keyboard up a little, but it is hardly
noticeable. The floppy drive is accessible from the side.
You have to see
a picture of it to understand it. It is a neat idea. I don't
know how much
it has caught on, but if they could make it a little faster
it would be a
welcome addition to the PC market.
For more info:
http://www.cybernetman.com/kpspec.htm
Violet Lasers
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A man in Japan has developed a laser that uses violet light.
Violet light
uses a shorter wavelength and so is not as wide as a red laser.
This can
help in the CD and DVD industry where their limitations are
set by the
width of the laser. The smaller the laser, the more detail
it can read
which means the more you could squeeze onto a CD or DVD. It
will still be
a year or two before it gets going.
Royal Family sent Child Porn
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In an attempt to raise awareness of the problem of child pornography,
the
Morkhaven Group sent child pornography that they found on
the web to
European Royal Families and other politicians. Maybe it is
just me, but
even if the intentions were good, stuff like that shouldn't
be sent to
other people. I guess the Morkhaven Group was trying to prove
a point, but
it just doesn't seem right to me.
For more info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_318000/318660.stm
FBI worries about Y2K troubles
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The FBI worries that with the coming of the "new"
millenium, there will be
a lot of troubles caused by cults who feel that the end of
the world is
here or other such beliefs. "The FBI is keeping close
watch on right-wing
hate groups, religious extremists and new age cults."
The Email Trail
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As many of you know, the creator of the Melissa virus was
found partly as
a result of tracing emails back to him. The same thing can
happen to
anyone. Email messages contain headers that show where the
message came
from and where it is going. When messages are forwarded, the
original
header information is retained to some degree. Well, a company
called Zero
Knowledge Systems has a way that ISPs can provide their customers
with
more anonymity on the Internet. They have started a service
called Freedom
Network which will encrypt email and send it along an untraceable
path.
Although I question whether any path is untraceable, this
is still a good
idea.
For more info:
http://www.zeroknowledge.com/
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/19327.html
Cyber Trial of the Century
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For information on the Microsoft vs DOJ trial, visit:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/special/msdojtrial.html
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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
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Switching Windows in Word 97
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When I work on documents, I frequently have more than 1 document
open at a
time. This means I have to go up to the Window menu option
and switch
between them. Well, here is a tip that will save you all of
that. You can
add buttons to the toolbar that will go to the next or previous
document.
Here's how:
-Select Tools-Customize and choose the commands tab.
-In the Categories section, choose All Commands and then in
the Commands
section scroll down until you see the NextWindow option. You
can drag that
to whichever toolbar you want it to be part of. Do the same
thing for the
PrevWindow option. Drag that to where you want it.
The command will probably appear as text only so with the
Tools-Customize
box still open, right click on the buttons you just placed
and choose
Default Style. This will make it an icon, but there won't
be an icon
showing since there is no default icon available. Right click
on the blank
icon and choose Change Button Image. Now you can switch between
documents
with the click of a button.
Windows Folder Warning Message
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I had a visitor email me about a month ago asking a question
that I just
found the answer to now. The problem was that if you view
the Windows
folder or the Windows/System folder as a web page, you will
get an error
message that tells you it is risky to modify the contents
of those folders
and in order to view the contents you have to press a link
to show all of
the files. Well, the May 1999 issue of PC World magazine has
the answer. I
emailed him back (I hope he remembered me) and I figured I'd
share the tip
with you. I won't write it out again since PC World did such
a good job.
You can find it at:
http://www.pcworld.com/current_issue/article/0,1212,10180,00.html
Alphabetizing the Start Menu
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I have had several people email me with questions on how to
get your menus
to be listed in alphabetical order. The problem arises because
on Windows
95 with IE4 Windows Update or Windows 98 you can drag and
drop menu items.
The menus are set by default to be alphabetical but as soon
as one is
moved, then they can all be moved. When you install a new
program and the
program group is added, it will sit at the bottom. The hard
way to fix
this is to go to http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/registry.shtml
and read
about the section in the registry that controls the menu.
Well, Kenneth Chen emailed me with the same problem and I
gave him the
same answer. That wasn't good enough for him. He said it was
too much
trouble to go into the registry every time he wanted to fix
the menus.
Kenneth is an operator in #mpeg3 "and a guy came in and
I just randomly
asked someone to code something that would remove that string
from the
registry, and he went ahead and coded it for me." As
it says on the
program, Leeor Geva programed it. The download is only about
20k so if you
have a problem with your menus, give it a try. You can download
it at
http://www.pcin.net/help/download/setalpha.exe
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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 editor@pcin.net
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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.
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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.