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Issue 83 - May 10, 2000
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 83rd 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
(May draw is for Mijenix's PowerDesk Utilities 4 Pro) at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
You know, it always amazes me how few people actually give
me their names when they ask for help. A person will trust
me to give them correct information regarding their computers,
but they don't trust me to know their name? I get no names,
I get crazy user names, I get "Dear Abbey" names
(Need PC Help in Texas), etc. All I want is a name. I don't
use the names for anything but replying to the emails. I just
want to be able to know that I'm talking to Fred or Wilma
or whoever. It is nice to know I'm communicating with a real
person, and not an autoresponder or something else.
I'm still playing around with my home network. It is so great!
I've had my laptop for almost 4 months now and have been using
a switch box and my zip drive to transfer files back and forth.
Now I can directly access files from either computer, as well
as access the Internet from either file. It's great. The program
I'm using as a proxy server to get on the Internet is 602
LAN Suite Lite. By next Wednesday I will definitely have a
full review for you all to read. It is a great little program.
Thank you to everyone who wished me well with my new job.
It is great. There is a little bit of everything involved
(Internet, Intranet, programming, hardware, networking, tutoring,
etc). I really enjoy it.
Lastly, don't forget to recommend PCIN during the month of
May, as you will be eligible for a copy of PowerDesk Utilities
4 Pro.
SMILEYS and ACRONYMS of the WEEK
>:o) Rudolph
:-{) Moustache
IAC In Any Case
TAFT That's A Frightening Thought
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
1-Terabyte CD?
From the May 23, 2000 PC Magazine (page 85):
"DVD-ROM may face a tough competitor when 140GB FMD-ROM
(Fluorescent Multi-layer Disk) drives arrive at the end
of the year. That's enough storage for about 20 hours of
compressed HDTV. DVD currently supports up to 18GB.
Developed by Constellation 3D, FMD technology may eventually
support up to 100 layers of data on a single disk. (CDs
have one layer; DVDs have two.) FMD uses clear disks with
fluorescent material in each layer that enables the drive
to read multiple layers at once. The drives will work with
standard CDs and DVDs as well. The company plans to take
FMD technology mobile with a credit card-size device that
stores 4.7GB, and it predicts that an FMD disk will eventually
store a terabyte of data."
For more info:
http://www.constellation3d.com
She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not
So, did you survive the ILoveYou virus? This was a very
interesting virus/Trojan horse because it was just a .VBS
file that is just a Visual Basic script. When a VB script
is run, it can do almost anything. Visual Basic is a Microsoft
programming language so there are all sorts of things that
are built right into the language to modify Windows and
the computer settings. The ILoveYou bug erases certain files,
replaces them with files of a different name and sends itself
to others. Since the bug hit, there are many copycats out
there now as well. It looks like the script originated in
the Philippines. A suspect of questioned, but then released.
For more info:
http://toronto.globaltv.com/ca/technology/stories/technology-20000506-154855.html
http://www.antivirus.com/pc-cillin/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=VBS_LOVELETTER
TV Domains
Back when the original domains came out, they had a purpose.
COM was for commercial companies, NET was for Internet related
companies, and ORG was for non-profit organizations. Along
with those, each country was given a 2-character code (CA-Canada,
US-United States, PK-Pakistan). Well, there are a few countries
that are trying to make money off of their fortunate code.
The country Tuvalu has the TV code, and the Federated States
of Micronesia have the FM code. Both countries are trying
to profit from these assigned top-level domains, but ICANN,
the group in charge of these domains is not happy and is
looking into the matter.
For more info:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/05/08/tuvalu.domain.idg/index.html
Metallica vs Napster
Every time I heard about this story, it was always about
the users "stealing" the music. Napster is a service
that lets users swap MP3s. This is basically a copyright
violation and Metallica is suing Napster. Then I read an
article that mentioned that Metallica had hired an outside
consulting firm to monitor the Napster service to see which
user names were downloading Metallica songs. This consulting
firm didn't have permission to gather this information.
Napster didn't give them access to the server. They just
"snooped" around. There even some rumblings that
users will sue Metallica for invasion of privacy.
For more info:
http://www.napster.com/metallica-notice.html
http://www.metallica.com/news/2000/napsterfacts.html
MONTHLY CONTEST RESULTS
Thanks to everyone who sent in their opinions on 24-7 Internet
access from anywhere. As usual, the opinions covered the whole
spectrum, some thinking it was totally unnecessary, and some
figuring that it would definitely happen. Out of the 23 entrants,
Michael Yeomans was randomly chosen and wins a copy of PowerDesk
Utilities 4 Pro.
As usual, all of the entries can be found at http://www.pcin.net/contests/20000510.shtml
Until the next contest, don't forget to recommend PCIN during
the month of May, as you too can win a copy of PowerDesk Utilities
4 Pro.
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
I have lost most of my icons (shortcuts?) that bring up my
reports, etc that I had on my desktop. This happened after
I changed my password, but I don't think that caused it. Haw
can I retrieve my former desktop set-up?
Answers to Question 1
Rob said, "If you're using the same user name then I'm
not sure what happened. Was there any kind of system crash
while you were changing the password? On Win these icons are
stored in the 'Desktop' folder, there's probably more than
one. Use FIND to search the whole drive. Look in the folders
and if any of them have your icons, if not then they're gone.
All I can offer is to recreate your desktop by making new
shortcuts."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "I think you lost your icons because
when u changed your password you may have become a "New
User" and therefore initiated a personal desktop layout
for that user. From that point it is probably easier to find
your reports using explorer, and then right click them and
choose "create a shortcut". Drag shortcut on to
your desktop from explorer. (or right click on your desktop
and select "New" and then "create shortcut"
then browse to your reports.)"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leeor Geva said, "Yes, it did happen because you changed
your password :) Somewhere in your computer is the old desktop
that you used to use, only your computer now thinks you are
someone else, so it gave you a brand-spanking-new one. You
would usually find your 'other' desktops at C:\WINDOWS\USERS\Marsha,
Leeor, Bobby or best is to do a Find by going to the START
button, clicking on SEARCH and choosing "For Files or
Folders" there you can search your computer for the missing
file, once you find it, copy it over to your new desktop,
or make a shortcut to that folder on your current desktop.
Good luck."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken Berry said, "Changing your password is probably what
caused it. User profiles are stored in a .PWL file for each
user. There can be to users with the same login, but with
different passwords. In effect you reset the desktop for a
new user. Do a "find files" for *.PWL and you'll
see the log in names for everyone on your computer and you
can delete the newest file (the on e created when you changed
your password). If there is only one instance with your login
name then you'll have to recreate all the shortcuts."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve Black said, "It may be that Windows is thinking
you are a different user. One way to find out is that did
your background change or did you lose and facilities you
had before you changed your Password? Did you change your
user name (This can include a space accidentally inserted!)
as well? What I would try is to log on again using your old
password and try and re-input your old user name. It may come
back with your previous desktop and if it does, then I would
very carefully change you password and keep the old user name."
Previous Question 2
When I'm reading mail, if there's an address on it, I can't
click on the address to get to the site etc. Before, it worked
perfectly. I'd just click on the address, and I'd either go
directly to message, or to the website. Not now. Now I have
to do it manually. When I click on an address, I get a 'Program
Not Found' box with 3-4 various messages. How can I solve
the problem?
Answers to Question 2
John Hills said, "This may be a file association problem.
I think you need to open explorer, select "View - Folder
Options - File types". Page down to nearly the end of
the list and have a peek at which program is selected for
opening URL's. Most probably it is not Internet Explorer.
You may find it a bit fiddly having to edit these settings
but hopefully another PCIN member will come up with something
easier."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leeor Geva said, "Would be nice to see those errors,
but basically your Internet browser either got uninstalled
somehow, or the link to it changed somehow. I don't know what
e-mail program you are using, or what browser you are using,
but it's basically your settings in your Email Program. Go
to the menus look around for preferences or options, and see
what it is configured to do when you click on a URL link,
you basically want it to point to your web browser. You can
get your web browser's location information (which you may
need to fix in the email program's options) by right clicking
on the shortcut to your browser, if it's on your desktop,
and choosing properties, the info is in the Target field."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken Berry "It sounds like your problem is with extension
associations. In explorer, go to view - Folder Options - File
Types and check to make sure Internet shortcut opens with
RUNDLL32. HTML & MHTML documents with IEXPLORER (if that's
your browser). Hope that helps. If not try reinstalling your
browser."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony Lowell said, "Go to MY COMPUTER, CONTROL PANEL,
INTERNET PROPERTIES, ADVANCED then scroll down to UNDERLINE
LINKS and pick which ever option you want. I use ALWAYS. If
you RESET all which you may have done when you changed your
password I believe this option gets reset to the default of
don't underline."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve Black said, "It sounds like something has been
deleted. Have you deleted anything just before and if so,
is it still in the recycle bin? If it is put everything back
and see if that fixes it? If it doesn't then can you tell
us what the messages say in full and what type of email package
you are using. (If you know someone who is hot on PC's then
you can get them to re-install the e-mail program without
losing data, but be very careful - I can't tell you how until
I know what type of e-mail package you are running.)"
New Questions
Q1) I am looking for advice regarding lost files from a LS
120 floppy disc, the files in question are all my digital
camera pictures in the last two years, I have managed to retrieve
most of them using Norton UnErase but they have all come back
as .TXT files so I still cannot view them even after trying
'open with' procedure.
Q2) For reasons I do not know, my system icon in the control
panel has disappeared completely. The file is still in the
system folder, but it won't show in the control panel, nor
does anything happen at all when I try to run it.
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
**Power surfing**
Here's something even many longtime Web surfers don't know:
You can download pages simultaneously in multiple browser
windows. It can be much faster than downloading one page
after another in the same window.
So, if you have several sites you want to visit quickly,
enter the URL (Web site address) for the first one and start
your browser looking for it, then open a new browser window
(probably by clicking on New or New Window in the File menu)
and start it looking for the second site, and so on. Then,
when all the pages are downloaded you can jump from one
to another quickly by switching windows.
Or suppose you find a Web page that has many links you want
to check out. You could wait for a page to download and
jump back to the original site, download another page and
jump back, ad nauseam. But it's much faster to right-click
on a link, select "Open in New Window" (this is
found in both Netscape and Internet Explorer) and then,
as soon as the page starts to download in a separate window,
go back to the first window, right-click to open the next
link in a new window, and so on, until all the links you
want to check are downloading at the same time.
And here's one more secret of power browsing: You can even
download simultaneously with different browsers. So you
can access a site that works well with Internet Explorer
at the same time as you download a Netscape-friendly page.
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)
More Web Page Keyboard Tricks
Ruth of Computer Ease Consulting sent me this:
"Instead of fiddling around with the mouse and scroll
button (for those of us without the "Intellimouse")
or using the Down Arrow or Page Down button, just hold the
Spacebar down. Simple, huh? And of course, hit Shift
+ Spacebar and up you go. Little keyboard shortcuts like
that are very popular with my clients because a lot of them
have arthritis and fiddling with that bloody mouse pointer
is a pain in the... well, you get the message."
Recycling vs Deleting
I am a recycler. The city I live in has excellent recycling
facilities and there is very little that actually ends up
in the garbage. When it comes to files though, most of the
time I can't be bothered to recycle. Most of the time if
I know that I want to delete something, why should I move
it to the Recycle Bin and then erase it again from there.
When you are sure that you want to erase a file, hold the
Shift key down while you press the Delete key. This will
permanently delete the file rather than moving it to the
Recycle Bin.
Minesweeper Cheat
I saw this on winfiles.com:
In the game minesweeper that comes with Windows, there is
a way to stop the clock. First click somewhere to start
the clock. Then hold down the left and right mouse buttons
and you should see a 3x3 square imprint on the board. Next
hit the ESC key while holding down both mouse buttons, and
the timer is stopped!
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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