ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 100th 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. The September prize will be a copy of Caldera OpenLinux, and Corel Linux OS (original CDs from each company, not copies). Recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
Well, I made it... I'm 100. Well, PCIN is 100 issues old anyway (I'm only 25). That means I've been doing this for almost 2 years. When I first started this I thought it would be a good way to get my name out locally, but it has obviously expanded. Thank you all for being subscribers. I hope you've enjoyed it. Just remember that I am open to virtually any topic of conversation regarding computers. Continue to send in your opinions, news-bits, tips, etc to me at mailto:editor@pcin.net
Thanks to everyone who sent in their thoughts on digital cameras. Results are summarized below and on the PCIN web site.
Lastly, congratulations to Connie for recommending PCIN in August. She recommended PCIN several times, and so had a good chance and ended up winning a copy of Microsoft Word 2000. Don't forget to recommend PCIN in September and win a copy of Caldera OpenLinux, and Corel Linux OS (original CDs from each company, not copies). You can recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
MP3.com to pay $25,000 per CD
"U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff today issued a ruling that MP3.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: MPPP) willfully infringed Universal Music Group's copyrighted works in connection with the company's My.MP3.com service, which was designed to enable consumers to listen online to the CDs they purchase. The court also set the statutory damages amount that Universal could potentially recover from the case at $25,000 per CD. MP3.com said it intends to appeal the ruling."
For more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,38613,00.html
http://pr.mp3.com/pr/169.html
AOL/Time Warner Merger Problems
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is giving AOL and Time Warner a lot of hassles regarding their proposed merger. There is concern regarding cable TV service. "FTC officials are worried that in markets where Time Warner operates cable systems, consumers could be forced to accept exclusively AOL-Time Warner-controlled content in order to get high-speed Internet access." The European Commission has also expressed concern.
For more info:
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ic/xml/00/09/04/000904ictwaolftc.xml?0905tupm
Encryption Algorithm in Public Domain
"RSA® Security Inc. (NASDAQ: RSAS) today announced it has released the RSA public key encryption algorithm into the public domain, allowing anyone to create products that incorporate their own implementation of the algorithm. This means that RSA Security has waived its rights to enforce the patent for any development activities that include the RSA algorithm occurring after September 6, 2000."
For more info:
http://www.rsasecurity.com/news/pr/000906-1.html
http://www.zdnet.com/eweek/stories/general/0,11011,2624678,00.html
In the end there were 38 people who sent in their thoughts on digital cameras, with about half of them mentioning a specific digital camera. Not surprisingly most of the cameras mentioned were "big names" like Sony, Kodak, Ricoh, etc. Out of the people who didn't have a camera, the biggest concerns were price and quality. I did find this a little surprising. With the marketing machines of the big companies working overtime, they obviously haven't been able to resolve these concerns.
You can see all of the results at http://www.pcin.net/contests/20000906.shtml
If you have answers to any of the questions that were asked by other subscribers, then feel free to email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net
I usually have a contest the first of every month where I ask some question and you all send in your comments. Well, I will just use this as the contest and this week I will randomly choose someone to win a prize. I will announce the winner and the prize next 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 questions or results to mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
Previous Questions
Q 99-01)
I have a 586 Cyrix chip computer. It was upgraded from a 386. My problem is that I have a 2 gig hard drive but my computer only shows 500MB. Due to the old architecture of my computer was partitioned into five Drive Letters A B C D and E. D was the logical drive and the cd-rom occupied the E drive. I was downloading some info from the net and my system got screwed up. I had to format my C drive I did not do anything to my D Drive. I installed my cd-rom that's when the problem started for the logical drive with i.5 gigs of my memory was lost. What steps do I have to take in order to regain this memory?
A 99-01)
Roger Michaud said, "There is 2 ways to work around this problem.
#1 Get a Disk Extender card, See spec at http://www.genitech.com.au/SpecSheets/DISKEXT.HTM and at http://www.firmware.com/
#2 Check if your CMOS (BIOS) setup as hard drive detector if so copy the info (Cylinders, Heads, Sectors and etc) to the basic CMOS setup page. Then go to the Hard Drive Manufacturer web pages and downloaded the disk manager they have.
I have used #2 on 5 computers with no problems (2 years) so far but I've read that disk managers are not as stable as the card."Leeor Geva said, "Most probably it's your BIOS configuration, it may think you have a 500MB HD. ...Although from my experience, if your BIOS isn't set for the correct HD info, it won't boot successfully... give that a try, and remember to write down what the old BIOS settings were before you save the new settings. ...Also from reading your question again I see that you may have not formatted your 2GIG HD completely, meaning, D is still there but as a bad partition. You may need to FDISK rather than format c: to get D: back, and then make special partitions for your old motherboard to recognize. ...I would also recommend getting a new computer :-)"
Q 99-02)
When I go to turn my computer on (Compaq Presario 1245) after it is resting, I often get a scary note that says You have a stack overflow problem, and then it goes on with other gobbledygook.
A 99-02)
Leeor Geva said, "Compaq recalled a certain Presario with reports of memory leaks and such errors, might want to check with them on which model. Otherwise, or for the meantime, I would recommend to just turn the monitor off rather than play with the Sleep function. You may also need to adjust settings in your DESKTOP Properties (found in Control Panel or by right clicking on the desktop) under the Screen Saver Tab, click the "Power" button. Choose "Never" for all power saving features."
New Questions
Q 100-01)
I have a "Rockwell soft 56k Data Fax Speakerphone PCI" modem. Basically I am suffering auto disconnect all the time. My server advises no problems on their end, but for a month now I can't even get the home page from my server loaded before I'm cut off. The dial up sequence seems ok if a little slow and after some attempts I get the message "Could not detect modem. It may be turned off in use or not installed properly".
(PII-233, 32MB RAM, Win98, IE 4 or 5)Q 100-02)
I recently tried to compress my hard drive, and it stopped about half way with a msg. "not enough memory to complete". Now it won't boot up at all. I tried using my backup off my zip drive, but it says "not enough memory to complete". So, I thought I should format my hard drive in order to free some space to load my backup. Unfortunately, DOS doesn't respond to all commands. When format c is typed in it says "access denied". Do you have any suggestions?
If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
Cheap Trick of the Week
**Putting commands in context**
With a bit of fiddling of the Registry, you can make an official looking message pop up on a computer screen as a user starts or logs onto Windows.
To get into the Registry, hit Start and Run, type regedit and click on OK.
(For detailed instructions and precautions about editing the Registry, go to http://www.WE-Compute.com/registry.html.)
In the Registry Editor, navigate through the following keys: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\WinLogon. Right-click on WinLogon and select New and String Value. Rename the string value that appears in the right-hand panel LegalNoticeCaption and then double-click on it. In the Edit String box that pops up, enter a short title for the logon message you want to create and click on OK.
Right-click again on WinLogon and make another new string value, named LegalNoticeText this time. Double-click on this string value and in the Edit String box enter the full message, as you want it to appear. Click on OK. Close up the Registry Editor and reboot the computer.
You should see the message.
Since we're in a pranksterish mood, we recommend you perform this trick on a computer someone else uses. Give a friend an authoritative-looking notice from Microsoft, saying that due to his poor computing skills, he is henceforth banned from using Windows!
MS Word Format Painter
Subscriber Chris Empey sent me this:
"Most people highlight text and then change the font, size, and formatting multiple times to achieve a consistent look through the document. TO save time, once you have one section formatted the way you want, you can use Format Painter in Word and Excel (the little paintbrush icon beside the cut and paste icons on the Formatting toolbar) to copy the formatting of one section to another. Format the text the way you want it. Click on the Format Painter icon, and then highlight the text that you would like formatted the same way. Holy Formatting Batman! The other section of text is now formatted the same way."
Repair IE5/5.5 Installations
One of the "heralded" features of Microsoft Office 2000 and Windows 2000 was the fact that you can "repair" installations. If certain files get over-written or corrupted, you can run the repair utility and ideally everything will be all better. This feature is also built into IE5 and IE5.5. Seeing as IE crashing causes so many headaches in Windows, it may be worthwhile checking out http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q194/1/77.asp before reformatting.
Little-Known MS Office Utilities
When most people think of Microsoft Office, they think of the main programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access). There are several other programs though that can be very useful.
PhotoEditor - Although not very fancy, it can do many things for you.
Equation Editor - This allows you to quickly access the symbols that are often use in complicated mathematical equations (sum, root, less than, etc.) You can build your equation, and then cut and past into an Office document.
Clip Gallery - This is the same program that runs in Word when you go to insert a picture. You can also run this program independently to browse the included clipart.
OrgChart - This program lets you quickly design an organization without having to worry about getting your boxes and lines to line up. You could also use this for flowcharts.
MSQuery - Allows you to query databases and spreadsheets outside of the programs themselves.
Most of these programs can be found in your c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared folder.
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
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