ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 1999
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Welcome to the 74th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists of news, tips, thoughts, and contests. There is something for everyone, and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for you. I am willing to discuss any computer topic. Email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net with any suggestions. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!
Recommend PCIN to others and be entered in a monthly draw (March draw is for StarOffice 5.1) at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
Lisa is doing great. She has been wired shut for 2 weeks
today, and gets the wires cut on Friday. She can't wait to
be able to open her mouth and eat with
like a normal person rather than through a straw or syringe.
Yesterday went up to 18 degrees Celsius and it will get that
high today. This is one of the reasons why I got myself a
laptop. When you work with computers
you are cooped up all day. Now with the laptop, I can move
around.
Enjoy the day wherever you are.
:'-( Crying :-| Duh FTTT From Time To Time BCNU Be Seein' You
Get the WWW. Smileys & Acronyms book for the PCIN special
price of $7.00 Cdn (around $5.00 US). You can only get this
price by visiting
http://www.pcin.net/help/books/reviewed/smileys.shtml
More Intellectual Property Issues
Apparently there is a bill trying to be passed in the US that would allow companies to copyright data in a database. For instance, this would all Major
League Baseball to copyright the statistic that Hank Aaron hit 755 home runs. I certainly don't envy lawmakers in any country. With the new technology that
is here now, it has totally changed the rules. This law does seem like it goes too far though.For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2445004,00.html
More Free PCs
First it was Ford, then Delta Airlines, and now an actual technology company. Intel has announced that all of its employees will get a free PC and Internet
access. From what I can tell, this is the first one that is totally free though. Both Ford and Delta had a small monthly fee (around $5 a month) but Intel
will spend about $2000 for each employee.For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2457011,00.html
VeriSign to buy Network Solutions
"Security software maker VeriSign today said it agreed to acquire Net name registrar Network Solutions in an all-stock deal worth about $21 billion.
With the acquisition, VeriSign said it will be able to offer its customers a more complete set of e-commerce products and services by combining its
security software with Network Solutions' (NSI) giant database of domain names and basic e-commerce and Web development services."
Ever since other companies were allowed to register domain names, it seems like Network Solutions has been focusing more on big business. This is just
another step in that direction.For more info:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1565564.html?tag=st.ne.ron.lthd.1005-200-1565564
There was no contest last week.
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 most of them, but
there are things that I have never tried or experienced so
I don't have an answer. I post those questions here and see
if any of the readers have any
suggestions. I will include all reasonable suggestions with
credit to you.
These are NOT my own questions and they are NOT my answers.
I will NOT check the validity of these comments. That is up
to you. If you do try one of these
tips, please let me know how the suggestions worked out. Did
they work or not? Please send in your results to freehelp@pcin.net
Previous Question 1
The PC will automatically enter the CMOS setup upon bootup
and will keep re-entering after I leave the setup no matter
how I try to exit it.
Answers to Question 1
John Hills said, "This normally occurs when the CMOS
cannot remember the correct settings i.e. for hard drive etc.
Very often this is caused by a battery
failure and could be resolved by replacing the battery.
It has to be said though, that normally the date and time
would reset to 1980 or something as this
too is remembered by the CMOS. (Some times there is enough
static to keep this going even if the battery has gone). If
that is not the problem you may need
to re flash you BIOS as it may be corrupted. Certainly,
they is some information that it is unable to remember or
is receiving contradictory hardware
settings."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Silvan said, "Many computers will automatically attempt
to enter your BIOS when there is a problem detected, probably
a wrong setting in your BIOS. Correct
it and your problem will be over."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken Berry said, "Check your motherboard CMOS jumper.
Make sure the jumper is set on 1 & 2 (normal mode). Usually
this is a three-pin set with 1 & 2 being
normal and 3 & 4 being "clear CMOS". If "Clear
CMOS" is jumpered you would enter into the BIOS setup
every time since the settings are not being retained.
If this isn't the problem you look into replacing the battery
on your motherboard-Good luck!"
Previous Question 2
I'd like to learn a little about DOS. Where are some good
sites to learn about it?
Answers to Question 2
Paul Doty sent me a list of links. I also included my own
and put them together on a page at http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/doslinks.shtml
Sorry, but
the list is just too long to include here.
New Questions
Q1) I have a Pentium 32.OMB RAM computer and I can't get any
sound from the outputs in the back of it. When I plug my speakers
into the CD-ROM drive I can listen to a music CD but I get
no sound from the back.
Q2) I would like to copy a big file or some files in a directory
(from hard drive) which is bigger than 3 floppy disks into
some floppy disks.
The problem is that Windows and DOS do not copy continuously
into the next disk but again from beginning of the files,
so you never get the whole file. How
to I copy big files to a floppy disk?
If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
I think I may have discussed this a while ago, but here
goes again. What do you think of copy software or downloading
MP3s? Do you own most of your software? If yes, why do you
feel you need to? If no, why not? Some people say they won't
pay for software they say they know is buggy? Some people
say it costs too much. Others just don't care. What do you
think?
Don't worry, I'm not going to turn anyone in. In fact, when
I post the contest entries to the web site, I won't even include
names. I'm just curious to find out what most of you think.
I will randomly choose 5 people who will win a copy of one
of the following programs:
Super Text Search
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/stsearch.shtml
FontLook
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/fontlook.shtml
Directory Print
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/dirprint.shtml
Directory Compare
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/dircomp.shtml
TweakDUN
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/tweakdun.shtml
When you send in your contest entry, let me know which program you'd prefer.
Also, don't forget to recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml and be eligible at the end of March to win a copy of StarOffice 5.1
Cheap Trick of the Week
**Windows in DOS**
If you ever work in the DOS window accessed from the MS-DOS Prompt of Windows 95 or 98, you probably occasionally wish you could quickly display a
directory in Windows' folder style without exiting DOS altogether.
It's easy. In the DOS window, at the prompt type start . (the word start followed by a space and a period) and hit Enter or Return. A folder will open over
the DOS window, showing icons for the current directory.
To get a folder display of the parent of the current directory, use start .. (start followed by a space and two periods). Now you're getting the best of
both worlds: DOS's command structure and Windows's graphics.
But, wait, you can go further in mixing the two realms.
While in the DOS window, you can also run a Windows application. At the prompt enter start pathname in which pathname is the name of the application,
including its directories and extension. For example, start \windows\sol.exe might be the command you use to launch a game of Solitaire.
You can even open a Windows document with start filename in which filename includes the path and file extension.
Remember to use DOS's truncated filename style without spaces. To open a letter named "Send money.doc" in the My Documents folder, your command in DOS
would be start \mydocu~1\sendmo~1.doc.You can get the Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks yourself for only $9.95 Cdn (about $7.00 US)
http://www.pcin.net/help/books/reviewed/cheaptricks.shtml
(Please mention that you heard about it from PCIN)
Another Way to Tweak Windows
There are a lot of different programs that will tweak all sorts of things in Windows. One problem they all have is that they partly contribute to the
problem because they install things into the registry themselves. One way to tweak your system without having to install a whole program is to use Visual
Basic Script (VBS). These are small text files that Windows recognizes and you can do all sorts of things with your computer and the registry with them.
They can do anything that programs like Xteq or any other tweaking utility can do. I downloaded 41 the other day that lets me do things like repair
associations, change permissions, enable/disable certain things, etc. You just double click on the file and it is done. I don't know how to write them
myself, but here are some links to a couple of sites that have several VBS available:
Doug Knox's Tweaks and Tips
http://www.dougknox.com/
Serenity Macros Home Page
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/serenitymacros/
Both sites also have a lot of other good tips and links. I highly recommend you check them out.
Windows Resources and Memory
A lot of people wonder what the difference between RAM (memory) and Resources are. They don't understand why when they upgrade to more memory, they are
still low on resources. This has to do with the Windows allocates the memory, and there is an excellent article at
http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/Khephra/articles.htm that helps explain this. There are also several other articles that will help you with Windows.
PCIN 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 for the results obtained from trying the tips in this newsletter.
Graham Wing can be reached at mailto:editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2000, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All
rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced in hole,
or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter
is presented as is.