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
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 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
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.
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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.

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