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Issue 79 - April 12, 2000
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
==== 895 Subscribers in 43 Countries ====
Subscribe/Unsubscribe/View Archives at http://www.pcin.net/
Welcome to the 79th 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
(April draw is for Mijenix's PowerDesk) at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
I received 40 entries for last weeks contest. I assume that
had more to do with the strong feelings people have about
the Microsoft trial, than with the prize that was offered
(Microsoft Picture It! 99). The responses were very interesting.
They are summarized below.
I did some "house-cleaning" of the subscriber list.
There was only 1 duplicate email address, so if you happen
to be receiving 2 copies of PCIN, then you have 2 different
email addresses subscribed. For those interested, here are
some stats:
Countries (US not included)
48 - United Kingdom (almost doubling my own country Canada)
25 - Canada
15 - Australia
8 - Netherlands
8 - New Zealand
Other Domains
105 - AOL
94 - Hotmail
11 - NetZero
I found this to be quite a boring week in news. Nothing really
caught my attention. I only had 1 thing ready this morning
that I wanted to include, and that is the first item about
the sneakers. The others I gathered this morning.
SMILEYS and ACRONYMS of the WEEK
:-)X Wearing Bow-Tie
O-| Cyclops
JIC Just In Case
PTB Powers That Be
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
The NEWS
Expressive Footwear
At the Intel Computing Continuum Conference, "Joe
Paradiso, from MIT's Media Lab, unveiled a sneaker with
a wireless connection. More than a dozen sensors in the
show can detect input like shock, tilt and pressure, create
music perfectly synchronized to the wearer's movement and
may one day recharge cell phones or personal digital assistants."
I don't see how the music portion of this is useful, but
it would be great if they could harness our energy when
we walk to be able to charge batteries.
For more info:
http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/shoes.html
The New Navigator
I haven't downloaded and tried it myself yet, but I've
been hearing mixed reviews about the new Netscape Navigator.
One of the big complaints has been its interface. I guess
it is very plain and looks kind of like Windows 3.1 right
now. On the other hand, it is supposed to be smaller and
faster than Navigator 4.
For more info:
http://www.mozilla.org/
http://www.cnet.com/internet/0-3779-7-1581673.html?tag=st.cn.1.prl.3779-7-1581673
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,2523924,00.html
Risky Business
Visa and MasterCard recently passed guidelines "that
tag certain businesses as risky. Those riskier businesses
face tougher conditions and limits on the amount of credit
they can use. In particular, they face sizable fines - from
$25,000 to $100,000 per month - if their total number of
repudiated (bad, rejected) customer purchases exceeds the
new limits"
This will help stop scammers using false credit card numbers
to get into sites, but it will hurt legitimate businesses
who are just starting out.
For more info:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/393442.asp
CONTEST RESULTS
Last week's question/contest was asking what you thought
of the Microsoft trial. The 40 responses covered the whole
range of emotions. Some were very long (approaching 1 full
printed page), others were short and too the point. Here are
some of the comments:
-Leave them alone
-People are just jealous of their success
-They were helpful, but now they need to step back
-Quit focusing on Bill Gates, there are thousands of people
behind him
-Most people hate Microsoft only because it's trendy to do
so
Just in case any of you care, my opinion is that Microsoft
hasn't done anything that any other company hasn't done or
tried to do. This doesn't make it right, but it doesn't seem
fair that they are being attacked this way. As for not allowing
others into the marketplace, well, if you make a better product,
people will by it. Adobe is thriving because they make great
products, and Microsoft hasn't been able to beat them. Finally,
the debate on whether or not Microsoft has hurt the consumer
(and all of those lawsuits that have come of it), I disagree.
I have a brain of my own and can make my own decisions. I
have chosen to use Microsoft products. I was never forced
to use them. I don't use PhotoDraw (MS) for images though;
I use PhotoShop (Adobe). I don't use Vizact or Word or FrontPage
(MS) for web page creation, I use DreamWeaver (Macromedia).
My point is, there are literally tens of thousands of products
out there, and as a consumer, I still have a choice. How did
this hurt me?
Anyway, congratulations to Michael Bare who won a copy of
Microsoft Picture It! 99.
You can see all of the comments at http://www.pcin.net/contests/20000412.shtml
The next contest will be the first week of May, but until
then, don't forget to recommend PCIN to others and be entered
in a monthly draw (April draw is for Mijenix's PowerDesk)
at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
I NEED HELP
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 Question 1
On startup I am presented with an "Enter Network Password"
dialog box, but I don't have a network? What is this and how
do I get rid of it?
Answers to Question 1
John Hills said, "Think you need to change from Client
for Networks to either nothing or Microsoft Family Login which
is found under the Network Icon in Control Panel."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pat Hachey said, "As long as the PC is not connected
to a network you should go to your network properties in the
control panel. Remove "Client for Microsoft Networks".
The next thing you need to do is to delete your .PWL files.
These should be located in C:\Windows (or just go to Start
- Find - Files or Folders and type in *.PWL. These are your
password lists that Windows saves. After you have removed
the .PWL files, reboot your computer. When it boots
back up, it should prompt for a Windows password. At
this point, remove the entry from the password box and click
ok. This will tell Windows to use no password, and shouldn't
bug you again."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simon Duffy said, "You can either just keep pressing
escape or else install a utility called TweakUI which is on
the win98 se disk. Put in a password on startup that you will
remember then in TweakUI which will be in the control panel
go to network and input the password and apply. When you boot
into windows it will just go past the log in on it's own now."
Previous Question 2
When I boot up, the screen is ok (in the center). The 'Starting
Windows 98' screen comes up and is ok but when the Windows
desktop comes up the whole thing moves over to the left in
one fast move. Windows say's there are no conflicts and I
have tried to reinstall the graphics card's driver. What's
up with this?
Answers to Question 2
John Hills said, "I don't think there is anything wrong
with this at all other than you need to use your monitor controls
to align the picture up correctly. Make sure first that
you have a monitor specified rather than a default monitor
specified in Display Properties, Settings, Advanced, Monitor
and while there ensure your adaptor is set to optimal and
not default."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joe Crowe said, "When Windows finishes booting and you
are presented with the desktop adjust your monitor settings.
There should be controls on the front of your monitor to move
the screen UP or DOWN or RIGHT or LEFT. There should also
be controls for widening the screen < > or shrinking
the screen > <. Using these controls will allow you
to center the screens contents. Once you have adjusted the
screen, the settings should stay. After making these adjustments
the "Starting Windows 98" screen may not be centered
but that is normal, its the desktop that is important. If
this doesn't work you may have a faulty graphics driver or
the drivers may not be compatible with Windows 98. Go to the
graphics card manufacturer's site to see if there are updated
drivers for your graphics card. You can also try the graphics
driver that comes with Windows 98 for your graphics card if
it is listed. The drivers that come with Windows are generic
drivers and will not perform as well as drivers from the card's
manufacturer. Good luck."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob said, "Often reinstalling, or installing a new video
card just makes the CRT spray the electrons a little differently
(or something like that). In any case you should have some
adjustments on the monitor (front bottom or back around the
side somewhere) adjust the screen accordingly. Or the graphics
card may have installed software for you to make these adjustments
- right-click on the desktop, select properties, and check
one of the tabs."
New Questions
Q1) I have a computer that won't control the keypad, it needs
the driver fixed, but all I can find is to do a reload of
win98 which will put it back to original which I don't want
to do. Any ideas?
Q2) On boot-up, the computer stops and the message is 'hard
disk controller failure.' Occasionally, it will boot, but
will not load Windows 3.11. Scandisk says it is all
okay, but when a surface scan is tried, the first few blocks
are highlighted, but then the program stops, while the hard
drive powers up and down. I wish to give the computer to a
local school, but do not wish to put them to any unnecessary
expense. Hope you can advise.
If you have an answer to these questions or have a question
of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Cheap Trick of the Week
**Compressing the Programs menu**
Do you have so many programs that they don't all fit on
the Programs menu off the Start Menu - so you have to scroll
from the bottom of the Programs menu to find items near
the end (in Windows 98) or the menu cascades right across
your screen (in Windows 95 or in Win98 adjusted in an earlier
Cheap Trick to get rid of scrolling)?
It's a simple matter to compress this menu to make it easier
to work with. All you have to do is group programs together.
For instance, put all your Microsoft applications (and who
doesn't have a lot of these?) under one listing, like "Microsoft
apps", with submenus flying out for the individual
programs. Or you could group your programs according to
function, putting all your layout, drawing and image-editing
programs under "Graphic design apps".
It's easy to do.
Right-click on the Start button and choose Explore. The
active folder should be Start Menu. If not, look for it
in the Windows directory and open it. In it, select the
Programs folder, and the contents of that folder will appear
on the right side of the Explorer window.
Now, from the File menu, select New to create a new folder
under the Programs folder. Type a name for the new folder
(like Microsoft apps), and drag the shortcut icons for related
programs (Microsoft Word, Excel, FrontPage, Outlook, etc.,)
from elsewhere in the Programs folder into this Close Explorer
and on the Programs menu now you'll have a single folder
with a fly-out menu for the related programs. Do this for
various groupings of programs until you have your Programs
menu down to manageable size.
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)
Use Multiple Partitions Continued...
Last week I mentioned that if you have a large hard drive,
there are many reasons why you would want to use multiple
partitions. Subscriber John Hills added, "Another important
and I think relevant point is that data retrieval is faster
as only the selected partition is searched using only the
FAT for that drive."
Gizmos MegaPak update review
A while ago I reviewed Gizmos98 by Play, Inc. Well, since
then they have patched the program and added a few new things.
Nothing much else has changed. I was told that they repackaged
the product because the "98" made it appear old.
If you already have Gizmos98, then there is no need to get
Gizmos Mega-Pak, but if you don't have it, you should consider
it if you enjoy themes and other such things on your computer.
For around $50 you get all sorts of high-quality themes,
screensavers, clocks, calculators, and more.
You can read the short review of Gizmos Mega-Pak at:
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/gizmosmp.shtml
You can read the more thorough review of Gimzos98 at:
http://www.pcin.net/help/software/gizmos98.shtml
Add Memory to Sound Card
Subscriber Roger Thompson sent me the following link and
suggest I check it out:
http://members.tripod.com/SIMMConn/
"Have you ever thought about adding more DRAM to your
Sound Blaster AWE64 and enjoy the big and realistic SoundFont?
Now take a look at our NEW and more affordable solution-SIMMConn.
It will provide you the same function at half of the price
and more memory!
SIMMConn is an adapter which connects a 72pin SIMM (Single
In-line Memory Module) to a Sound Blaster AWE64 family sound
card for Sound Bank memory upgrade. It is attached to the
DRAM upgrade connector on the sound card with a SIMM installed
on itself."
As Roger said, "Seems like a neat idea." Neither
of us have tried it, but with the price being only $19,
it might be worth a shot.
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.
- If any of the links are too long to fit on one line,
you may have to cut and paste.
- You can only win one contest every 30 days.
- To subscribe another address or unsubscribe, please visit
http://www.pcin.net/ and follow the appropriate
links.
- Recommend PCIN to others at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
and be entered in a monthly draw.
- There are only 2 ways to get on the subscriber list.
You have either been subscribed by filling out a subscription
form on any of the pages on my site, or you have requested
FreeHelp from me in the past.
- If you have a web site or run your own newsletter, please
email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net
and I will add it to the subscriber web pages that I have
on my site.
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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