Issue 116 - December 27, 2000

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 116th 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. I was able to get Play, Inc. to donate a Snappy! 4.0 to the newsletter. If you recall, I did a review of it some time ago ( you can see it at http://www.pcin.net/help/software/snappy.shtml ). It is a piece of hardware that will let you use your parallel port to input video into your computer. You can get screen captures of TV shows, videos, etc. It is valued at over $100. Recommend PCIN in December and you will have a chance to win this. Each unique person that you recommend PCIN to will get you one entry into the draw. The more you recommend PCIN the more chance you have to win. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

OPENING THOUGHTS

So, did you all have a nice Christmas? Lisa and I didn't do too much. We figured the house would be enough of a gift. Just in case you missed them, you can see pictures of the house at http://www.gawing.com/house

I will have some new Niagara Falls desktop wallpaper available next week, so look out for that.

Lastly, you've only got a few days left to recommend PCIN in the month of December and have a change to win a Snappy! 4.0. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

The NEWS

NetZero to Charge for Net Access?

"For the first time, NetZero Inc. -- the self-proclaimed 'Defenders of the Free World' -- plans to charge patrons of its Internet access service but only those users that exceed a threshold of 40 hours online in a single calendar month.
In an effort to reign in costs associated with what it calls 'professional users,' NetZero Inc. Thursday introduced a new service plan dubbed 'NetZero Professional.'
The company said the new policy will affect a small percentage of its user base, noting that in November 2000 only about 12 percent of NetZero members who used its free Internet access service surpassed the 40 hour mark. However, the company said that 12 percent of users accounted for more than 50 percent of its telecommunications costs in November."

For more info:
http://www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_542741,00.html

Confidence in Computer Security

From the December 15, 2000 issue of ComputerWorld Canada newspaper, pg 39
After the latest attack on Microsoft, ha your confidence level in vendors been shaken?
57% Giving personal information online may not be 100% secure, but nothing is and doing things online is convenient.
24% I'm not reluctant to shop online and give vendors personal information about myself now
19% Microsoft can't seem to secure its networks any better than it can its software, but I think other vendors are more careful.

Network Associates in Trouble

Network Associates, the company behind McAfee VirusScan, has warned investors that they will lose up to $140 million in the 4th quarter alone. They have a lot of unsold inventory, and sales have been slumping. They have also lost their top 3 executives as part of some reshuffling.
In a statement, Network Associates said: "The company further believes that the lower fourth quarter demand is not related to the general competitiveness of its products but is due to concerns about the state of the economy from the customer base."

For more info:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/15703.html

I NEED HELP

... will continue next week ...

This is the last week that there won't be any questions. If you have any questions you'd like to ask other subscribers about computers, email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net

THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Create a file input list with DIR

This tip came from a recent TechRepublic newsletter:
Situations might arise now and then in which you need to extract a list of files from a directory and use that list in a batch file. For example, maybe you need to search a specific set of files for keywords or copy those files. Maybe you have a custom application that takes file input from a command line. Perhaps you just need to extract a list of files to include in some documentation. Whatever the case, you can use the DIR command to generate the file list.
By default, DIR lists additional information other than just the file or directory names. To obtain a file list from a directory, you need to strip out that additional information, exclude directories, sort the list, and redirect it to a file. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? It's actually very easy.
To exclude directories, use the /A-D switch. The /A switch normally directs DIR to include files with the specified attribute, but using /A-D directs DIR to exclude directories instead. To sort the list, use /ON, which directs DIR to sort the list based on filename. Then, use the /B switch to strip out everything except the filenames. Finally, use the redirect symbol (>) to redirect to a text file. Here's the command:
DIR /A-D /ON /B > FILELIST.TXT

Avery Wizard

There are a lot of utilities out there that will print labels for you, but you might as well go to the "experts" for the best. Avery, the makers of all shapes and sizes of labels, has a software program called the Avery Wizard. It runs with the last 4 version of Word and can be run on its own or from within Word. I use it quite regularly.
If you go to http://www.averywizard.com/ you can register and then download the files. The best thing to do though is to visit their FTP site and download the software from there. I've saved you the trouble. You can download the programs directly (the file name indicates which version of Word it is for):
ftp://ftp.avery.com/Wizard/English/Word00/wiz00e.exe
ftp://ftp.avery.com/Wizard/English/Word97/WIZ97E.EXE
ftp://ftp.avery.com/Wizard/English/Word7.0/WIZ70E.EXE
ftp://ftp.avery.com/Wizard/English/Word6.0/WIZ60E.EXE

Using Correct Drivers cont...

Last week I mentioned subscriber Don Horvath's advice to use the proper monitor drivers with your computer. John Hills emailed me wanting to let everyone know that if you use the wrong drivers for your monitor, you could damage the monitor. This leads to a general, sometimes not obvious enough, tip...
Only use drivers that are made for your hardware. A driver is software that tells Windows the features of the hardware and how it runs. If you use the wrong drivers, the hardware could be damaged as Windows tries to get the hardware to do that it isn't meant to do.
There are very rare occasions where the correct drivers are not so correct, but they are almost always updated right away as the manufacturer corrects the problems.

DISCLAIMER and OTHER STUFF

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.

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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.

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