The PC Improvement News
Issue 1-40
July 14, 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 40th 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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I guess hardly anybody noticed the contest at the bottom of last week's
newsletter. I only had 2 people respond, so that makes choosing the winners
easy as there were 2 prizes. Jerry and Chris win a copy of ActiveEarth by
Logos Research Systems, Inc.

This is the first week of sending out the newsletter myself. If there are
any unusual formatting errors, please let me know. Be specific so I can try
to fix any problems.


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THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
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"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
          - Oscar Wilde

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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Fast Internet Access
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Chris Empey of Forced Beat Productions at http://www.forcedbeat.com/ told
me, "I am commenting on my fast Internet access for you... I have been with
Cogeco Wave (not @Home) since last July and have had only three problems
with it. The first was because of old cable running to my house, but once it
was fixed, I ran for about 3 months. At that time a repeater went out and a
call to tech support had it fixed in less than an hour (a technician was
sent out.) Finally, playing around with IPCONFIG I released my Ethernet
card, and it took nearly an hour to find the DHCP server after. As for the
speed, I have seen downloads of over 190K/sec (IE5 in just 4 minutes!)
Information from decent sites, even at the slowest times is always at least
twice as fast as I ever had on dial-up. Of course, speed is limited by the
other end of the line as well. Never getting a busy signal (or having people
trying to call be get a busy signal) has been wonderful. I hear reports that
the @Home network is much faster than the wave, but it seems to be riddled
with problems for now, so I will wait until things are sorted out."

If you have experience with a fast Internet connection from home, I'd still
be happy to include your comments in upcoming newsletters. Email me at
editor@pcin.net


Funeral Service over the Net
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A company in the central Dutch city of Utrecht has offered to broadcast its
funeral services over the Internet. The services are still kept as a private
affair as only family and friends with the proper code can log onto the
site. The broadcast is aimed at those who can not attend for reasons of
distance or age.

For more info:
http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,70012-110673-784970-0,00.html


The Internet is a Tormentor
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"June issue of the Southern Medical Journal featured two case studies of
patients at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Medicine in
Tampa who felt so threatened by the Internet that it became the main
tormentor in their paranoid delusions." The study showed that patients who
already suffered from paranoid delusional psychosis would be scared of the
Internet.

For more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/20591.html


Email on Horseback
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A disgruntled former Intel employee has resorted to delivering his email to
Intel employees on horseback. Ken Hamidi was barred by a court order from
sending email to Intel employees. His emails are very critical of Intel's
policies and practices. His lawyers are appealing the order, but figure that
if he delivers them in person, then it doesn't break the order. I don't know
why he delivered it on horseback. Just to get attention I guess.

For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2289054,00.html


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I NEED HELP
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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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q1) Is there any way you can get better help from tech support from your
computer company? I have been tying to get help for the past three months
from XXXXXXXX. The only voice I have heard is that of a recording, for three
months.
A1) Ken Aspinwall said, "Does he try to get through only during business
hours? Try after hours, many of the large companies have evening and weekend
support personnel. My friend is able to get to talk a real person (tech
support) on Saturdays. The best solution is to be your own guru. Windows
Magazine had a couple of fine articles at
http://www.winmag.com/library/1998/0401/cover099.htm#ram
http://www.winmag.com/library/1999/0401/cov0050.htm
And some my best help has come from News Group readers. http://www.deja.com/ is the
first place I look for solutions for computer problems."

Q2) Can't open files from folders in PowerPoint -- Get message: I/O error 6.
I found that PowerPoint wasn't recognizing the proper path to open them.
After deleting some orphans in the registry (with a utility program), I can
now at least open files if I type in their name.
A2) No answer given.


New Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
None

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


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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
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Connecting 2 Computers with DCC
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I have had several people email me for help with Direct Cable Connection
(DCC) a program that comes with Windows that allows you to connect 2
computers. I have just finished corresponding with Ronnie and he shared his
successes with me as well as a URL to a helpful site. He was trying to use
DCC to connect 2 computers and access the Internet.
"I just wanted to let you know that it is definitely possible to connect two
computers with DCC and surf the Internet with both computers. I just did it
by following the directions onhttp://www.helmig.com/j_helmig/dccdun.htm and
using a program called WinRoute Lite. There are many other programs that do
the same thing.
I don't think you can do it without one of the programs like WinRoute. There
are plenty of others that do the same thing, like Wingate, Winproxy and
others. I think there is a list of them at winfiles.com. I believe they are
called proxy programs. I choose WinRoute Lite because it is supposed to be
the easiest to setup. I have been looking at devices that let you connect
two computers by wireless means, but they were well over a hundred dollars.
All this cost me was ten dollars for the cable.
You are most welcome to share my success on DCC and two computers. I think
if anybody follows the instructions on the http://www.helmig.com site that
they can have this success too."


A Cool Desktop Wallpaper
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John Hills suggested, "The following link allows you to choose a picture
from a weather satellite in the area of your choice. I live in UK and so I
select Europe Weather Satellite and then I save the weather satellite
picture as wallpaper. The picture is not only interesting and useful as you
can see bad weather looming, but comes out as quite an attractive desktop.
The satellite updates at least 3 times, maybe four times a day. It will not
be everyone's cup of tea but it beats the Simpson's or Win98 logo.

The link can be found at:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/satpic/wsindex0.htm


Make Your Own Keyboard Shortcuts
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Contrary to what many people believe, the mouse isn't always the fastest way
to access things on your computer. Sometimes keyboard shortcuts are better.
Every so often I share shortcuts to open up Windows 9x options. You can make
your shortcuts. Right click on a program or file Shortcut on your computer
and choose properties. There is a section called Shortcut Key and if you
click in there and press a key, the shortcut will be made. For instance, you
can right-click on a shortcut to Outlook Express and in the Shortcut Key
box, press an 'e' and you will see Ctrl + Alt + E appear. The Ctrl and Alt
are defaults. When you click okay, the next time you press Ctrl + Alt + E,
Outlook Express will open.


Shred Your Tracks Part II
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Last week I told you about a program by WebRoot Software at
http://www.webroot.com/ that will get rid of all of the tracks left by
your browser and other programs. Well, the good people at WebRoot have
generously donated 10 copies of their program to give away as prizes. I'll
be giving them out over the next month or so.


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CONTEST RESULTS
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The web is full of good sites that help you with your computer problems.
Last week I asked you to me the URL for the site that has helped you the
most with your computer (other than mine) and how it has helped you. The
best 2 sites and explanations won a copy of ActiveEarth.

Jerry said, "The site I have used and consider the best HELP site is:
allexperts.com The best thing about it is they email back very quickly,
usually within hours. I have had no situation too difficult for them to
answer. Try it, I'm sure you'll be very satisfied."

Chris said, "The site that has helped me the most with my computer is the
Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://search.support.microsoft.com/kb/c.asp
Because most of the software I use is from Microsoft, at home and at work,
this is always a great place for information when something doesn't work.
Even if it is hardware related, there is a good change it has been noted in
the KB, often with a workaround for the problem."

Congratulations to you both.


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NEW CONTEST
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Let's do the same thing as last week. I want you to send me the URL of the
site that has helped you the most with an explanation why and the best 2
responses will win a copy of WindowWasher. Email me at
editor@pcin.net with your suggestions.


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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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