The PC Improvement News
Issue 1-27
April 14, 1999

ISSN 1488-3163
Published electronically by PC Improvements (c) 1999
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Welcome to the 27th 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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HELLO! The next few newsletters will be a little longer than normal. I
asked you all to take 5 minutes of your time to tell me why you like your
browser. I will be sharing those today. Next week and the week after I
will have a special section about what the Internet is like around the
world. I currently have reports from Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa,
Pakistan, Singapore, Argentina, Italy, and New Zealand. I'm still waiting
for response from people from India, Ireland, Norway, Vietnam, Israel, and
Sweden. Some of the reports are very interesting. If you live in a country
that isn't mentioned above, please send me a paragraph or two on what the
Internet is like in your country.


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THE NEWS
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Money from your Cell Phone
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As reported in the May 4, 1999 issue of PC Magazine, "Smart cards with
tiny embedded processors for holding digital cash haven't met with success
in the US, but they're popular in Europe, where developers are now testing
out another twist on the concept. Barclaycard, mobile phone company
Cellnet, and Visa are conducting a trial of mobile electronic cash
machines that let residents of Leeds, England, download e-cash over
Cellnet's GSM network to their Barclaycards. After the card is inserted
into a specially designed Motorola StarTAC mobile phone, the phone asks
the user to enter an amount up to 50 British Pounds and a PIN number for
security. The e-cash is then deposited onto the Barclaycard and debited
from the user's bank account."

I couldn't tell from this article if the Barclaycard is a bankcard or a
Visa.


Windows 98 Second Edition
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Would you pay more for the bug fixes to Windows 98? Microsoft is counting
on it. Although it hasn't been confirmed, Microsoft has changed its beta
testing of the fixes, and they are now included in a new setup. The new
Windows 98 is also known as Windows 98 Step Up. It will include bug fixes
as well as have IE5 built into instead of IE4. Microsoft has said all
along that the next service pack for Windows would be free.

For more info:
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,34736,00.html?st.ne.fd.gif.d
Thanks to Tom 'Radar' Parr from http://www.tomparr.com/ for first bringing
this to my attention.


Bill Gates reaches $100 billion
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In an unrelated story (but is it really?), Bill Gates wealth reached the
$100 billion mark last week. As a result of owning so many stocks in a few
companies, and the rise of the stock market, he broke through the barrier.
At the rate his wealth is growing, he will be a trillionaire in 5 years!
Supposedly his current wealth exceeds the economic output of all but the
18 wealthiest nations and if his wealth continues to snowball, his fortune
will overtake Britain's gross national product in 2005. Maybe he wants to
reach that mark sooner, and that is why he will charge for Windows 98 SE.

For more info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/your_money/newsid_314000/314426.stm


Cyber Trial of the Century
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This week, Bill Gates confirmed that Microsoft is still involved with the
DOJ to come to a settlement agreement.

For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/special/msdojtrial.html


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WHY I LIKE MY WEB BROWSER
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Below are the responses from last week's question about web browsers. Read
them and see whom you agree with. Any general comments can be directed to
editor@pcin.net and any questions about an individual comment
can be directed to the commentator.

Pat Gerkin says, "I prefer Netscape
Navigator (Communicator). My very first experience with computers was when
I signed up for my first computer class at the local community college.
They were then and still are using Netscape as their main browser,
although they do have Explorer also. When I bought my computer it came
installed with Explorer, and I used that to download my Netscape program.
I happen to prefer Netscape's Bookmarks and Mail services over Explorer's."

Silvan Kuipers of the Netherlands gave a few
reasons why in the beginning he liked Navigator more than Explorer. He
then went on to say, "Then, once you get used to a certain browser, you
stick to it. Even though I am more or less pro-Microsoft." Good point
Silvan. I think a lot of people that use Navigator use it because it used
to be a lot better, and now that Explorer has caught up, they still use
Navigator out of habit.

Even though Pete Kizer wasn't interested in
"debating the relative merits of one application over another" he still
went on to share that "I got started using Netscape because it was bundled
with the computer I bought; and, now it is the one we all have at work.
Besides, I see no reason to buy absolutely everything Microsoft produces."

Jumpin' Johnathon gave the lengthiest
comment. He started off by stating "To answer your question about the "big
browser" debate, I would need several days to compile together such things
as 'graph charts', demographics, marketing, etc. But since neither of us
have that time or energy to expedite such things, I'll attempt to answer
the question by more generic means." To summarize, he ended with "If
someone were to ask me, well, I'm one of those that thinks Bill Gate's
can't release anything unless it still has a few bug's in it. So, in not
wanting to give support to Microsoft, (of course I have to in many
respects), I've chosen to go with 'Netscape', & would probably not switch
over to 'I.E.' no matter what it could or could not do. Yep, I'm in that
bottom group there, that thinks he knows everything, & can't be told any
different. (Honestly, isn't it refreshing)!"

Paul Berard (you can print my e-mail address. I can't
hide forever) shared, "I started using Netscape, because my sons were
ragging on Microsoft so much. I don't have that much experience with
explorer, but why bother, Netscape 4.5 does everything for me. I like the
way the bookmarks are set up, and being able to open new pages without
closing others. Explorer might do the same things, but I am so used to
Netscape that it would be uncomfortable to change for no good reason.

Roger says, "I like Netscape 4.5. One of the features I like best is the 3
pane mail window, and that you don't need to use another program for your
e-mail unlike Internet explorer.

M W Bare says, "I use Netscape as my browser. My old
crippled PC came with IE 4.70. The computers at work have the 5.0
version. I didn't care much for the newer version. My Internet service
came with Netscape, so I thought I would give it a try. I've used it for
over a year and like it very much. The only problem I have is when I go on
a web cruise on Pow Wow, it doesn't get along with IE. (it won't follow
very well) To tell you the truth, I haven't used it (IE) for so long, I'm
not sure why I like Netscape better!"

Mark Milks says, "I currently use IE5. I like it because it is simple to
use. Or as complicated as you want it. It has the bells and whistles at
your disposal. The key is "at your disposal". Netscape seems cluttered and
bulky to me. Too much stuff going on at once. For me the deal is: How much
do you need/use? I used to use AOL e-mail service, but since I've changed
my ISP, I now have gotten used to Outlook Express. I often think about
Microsoft (Goliath of the Industry, Big Brother of Computing, etc.}, but
they do make quality products."

Tom "Radar" Parr who works for an Internet
company and is online all day says, "I use Internet Explorer 4.1. I work
at an Internet company and almost everyone else uses Netscape. I HATE
Netscape for several reasons, but mostly because it is not as user
friendly as IE. Don't get me wrong, I don't LIKE Microsoft, but they are
better than the rest. Here is what I like about IE: *Password protected
sites you have the ability to save the password so you don't have to enter
it each visit. *Printing - We have web forms that we print and Netscape
always gives me trouble with the grays in the backgrounds. *Searching: The
3 paned search feature is great.


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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
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An Interesting E-Zine
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Ann, one of my subscribers whom I have mentioned before, recently emailed
me about her 2 newsletters. One of them I found particularly interesting
that I thought I would share with you. The newsletter is called
HeadScraps(TM) the Newsletter/TempHome of HumorFromTheEdge(TM). It is a
digest type publication with a humor base suitable for families. There is
Humor, Tips, Poetry, Contributions, Original Writing, Links, etc. There
are also weekly columns:
StressDoc answers your stress-related questions on Wednesday
Joseph Walker, nationally syndicated columnist appears on Friday
Published Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Subscribe Instructions:
Send e-mail to:
HeadScraps-subscribe@onelist.com Archives on OneList Site


A Cool Easter Egg
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After I gave you the link to the Easter Egg site last week, I thought I'd
share a cool one with you. Open a new Word document. Type the word Blue
in the default type available. Highlight the word and click on the Format
menu and the Font command. In the dialogue box that appears, select Bold
as the font style and Blue as the colour, and then click OK. With the
cursor right after the "e" in "Blue" hit the spacebar. Then go to the help
menu and About Microsoft Word. Hold down the CTRL and Shift keys and click
on the Word logo. Right before your eyes a pinball game appears. You use
the Z and M keys to control the flippers. Just hit Esc to exit.


Keep a Journal
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I just learned this myself. Open Windows Notepad and type .LOG on the
first line. Below, type whatever notes you want to record. Save the file
under a name of your choice and close the file. When you next open it,
you'll find the time and date below your notes. Each time you open the
file and then close it, you can have the date and time show up. One
problem is that if you just open up your file to look at it, it will
prompt you to save the changes when you close it. Even though you didn't
make any changes, it is asking you to do that because a new time stamp
wants to be created. If you haven't changed anything, then just click no
when it asks you to save the changes. This works in Windows 3.1 and
Windows 9x. I don't know about Windows NT.


Netscape "about" tricks
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If you use Netscape, then you have probably heard that if you type
"About:" in the address bar with a word after it, you can have some funny
things come up. If you type in about:mozilla you will get a quote. Try
these: global, cache, memory-cache, image-cache, document, plugins,
license, and logo.


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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.

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