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Issue 102 - September 20, 2000
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 102nd 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
OPENING THOUGHTS
There isn't much to share with you this week. The Olympics
seems to have captured the attention of most of the mainstream
media, but very few people I know are actually interested.
Maybe if the IOC let more sites show broadcasts or scores
it would be more interesting.
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
The NEWS
Encyclopedia of Terror
"If there was any doubt about Osama bin Laden's role
as a mastermind of global terrorism, it's been erased by
a 1,000 page manual obtained by U.S. intelligence agencies.
The manual, called The Encyclopedia, contains information
in Arabic on how to recruit followers, shoot weapons, conduct
assassinations, and assemble bombs similar to those that
destroyed two U.S. embassies in East Africa two years ago."
I know this is no laughing matter, but when I first heard
this story, I couldn't help but think of those "Learn
____ in 24 Hours" or the "Master ____" book.
For more info:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/091800/binladen_manual.sml
Barnes & Noble Buys Fatbrain
A while back Barnes & Noble bought Books.com. Now,
they are going to pay $64 million for FatBrain.com, another
web site that sells books. FatBrain specializes in professional
and technical books.
It seems that this sort of thing will continue. As more
and more companies fail (see below), there will definitely
be a consolidation among these companies.
For more info:
http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155182.html
http://www1.fatbrain.com/pressreleases/earnings_b.asp
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ir/press/index.asp?userid=2ILAGMCC1L
Dot-Com Failures
"The site that existed to sound the death knell of
dot-com companies--and perhaps kick a little dirt over them
as well--went out of business today. 'Three months and $2.6
million later, dotcomfailures.com is closed,' read a message
on the site, whose logo is 'Kick 'em while they're down.'"
For more info:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-2768023.html?tag=pt.xdrive.techdispatch..ne2768023
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 Questions
Q 101-01)
I am looking for free voice to text converter programs
that 'listens' as you speak into microphone and converts
it into typed text. Are there any out there?
A 101-01)
John Patmore said, "Kurzweil VoicePad is available
free or at low cost. Avoid it. When I trained mine for
an hour, and tried it out live, it started in GREEK, and
there was no solution to that. IBM's voice to text software
has been on various PC mags free CDs. It is OK, nothing
more. Just remember, you have to read what is typed REALLY
accurately, as errors are wrong words correctly spelled."
Q 101-02)
I use only Netscape - how do I forward a web page forwarding
only the URL location underlined so that the recipient
can download upon receipt of email. Up until now, I being
right clicking on the article and clicking on Send Page
- which in the case of a long article can mean time at
my end and recipients.
A 101-02)
Byron said, "I use Netscape also and this same issue
bothered me. One thing you can do is go to the Netsite
bar in Navigator where the URL of the page you are on
is displayed. Highlight the URL, copy it then go to your
mail program and paste it. This will only send the URL,
not the entire page."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel Najimian said, "Regardless of which Internet
browser you use, you should still be able to cut-and-paste
the URL link and pass it on to the recipient as you would
any other portion of text. Move your mouse cursor to the
beginning of the underlined (usually blue) link, making
sure that the cursor is still an "I-beam" and
not the "hand," hold the left mouse button down
and highlight the link the same way that you would any
text in a word processor. Copy the link, open a new e-mail
window, paste the link in the new window, and send it
to the recipient."
New Questions
Q 102-01)
I am having a problem with my A drive. When I put a
disk in and try to run it, I get a message that says the
disk is not formatted. It does this with every disk I
have tried and I ran the same disk on a computer at work
and it run fine.
(P133, 40MB RAM, 1.42GB HD, Windows 98)
Q 102-02)
I recently have noticed that when I print something the
printer continues to print a sheet that read: Microsoft
(r) windows 98 - document - printed by - date and time.
This function seems to loop and continue printing the
same thing over and over unless I go in and pause printing
so I can delete every queue to make it stop.
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
**The cure for wandering hands**
This is especially a problem in Windows 98: You click on
the Start Menu, maybe the Programs menu, then an application
group and then another cascading menu with the specific
program you want and then, before you've had a chance to
pick the item you want, you let your mouse hand wander a
little and the next thing you know a completely different
submenu has popped open and the wrong item selected. Arrgh!
Sometimes Windows is just too accommodating in grabbing
menus your cursor meanders near.
But you can tame this tendency.
Open the Registry Editor. (If you don't know how, you can
find simple instructions - and important precautions - at
www.WE-Compute.com/registry.html.)
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and
click on Desktop to show its values in the right pane. Look
for a string named MenuShowDelay. If it's not there, you
can create it by right-clicking on Desktop and selecting
New and String Value. Double-click on MenuShowDelay to open
the Edit String dialogue box and change the value to 65534
before clicking on OK.
Close up the Registry and restart the computer.
Now when you click on a menu, it stays open, even if you
accidentally wander near another one.
Actually what you have done is changed how long it takes
before a menu is activated without being clicked on - you've
made it take over a minute (65,534 milliseconds), which
is much longer than you are likely to idle in any one place.
A downside to this is that none of the menus you do want
will open automatically now either. You have to click on
each one.
But for those of us with wandering hands, the trade-off
is worth it.
Saving Files in NotePad
Depending on how you have Windows set up on your computer,
you may not see the file extensions when you are browsing
a directory. When you are in a program like NotePad, when
you go to save the file, the txt extension is put on the
end automatically. For instance, if you were working on
a web page in NotePad and wanted to save it as index.htm,
the file would actually be saved as index.htm.txt If you
have been having this problem, you can put quotes around
the file name and it will be saved fine. In this example
you would have to type "index.htm" and the txt
extension wouldn't be put at the end.
Low-Level Formatting a Hard Drive
One of the answers to a question last week suggested that
the problematic hard drive be low-level formatted. This
is a confusing topic. A true low-level format isn't a good
idea because it could render your hard drive unusable. Quantum
hard drives just ignore a true low-level format routine.
Some people consider a low-level format to be an "unconditional"
format where each and every sector on the hard drive is
tested and cleared. This sort of formatting is OK.
You can visit http://www.pcguide.com/ref/fdd/mediaFormatting-c.html
for a brief overview of the different types of formatting.
Registry Cleaner
Subscriber James Dalton suggests that subscribers visit
http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/index.html
and download the RegCleaner program. "Here's a fix
that works." It cleans out orphan entries in the registry.
While you are there, take a look at some of the other utilities
and read is Optimize Windows 98 tips.
Windows ME Comment
Last weeks I asked if anyone had any experience with Windows
ME yet. John Hills sent this in:
"I have been using ME for about two weeks now and on
balance I am glad to have it. Main obvious advantages are:
System files are auto checked and repaired.
A restore feature that will reset your registry to a date
when everything was OK. (You can also create your own checkpoint
in time and use this each time you need to)
Major advances on the multimedia front, for digicams, webcams
etc.
Cleaner and fresher appearance.
Using a specially created file, windows now loads in seconds.
Easier self-sorting networking for those with two or more
PC's tied together.
Option to remove a program from the shortcut icon.
What has gone:
You cannot make a boot disk from within windows as the add
system files is no longer an option. You would have to resort
to a boot up in Dos routine to do this in future.
No DOS box for MSPROMPT.
Not so many drivers as windows SE had in my opinion but
then again I haven't counted.
That's about it for my use."
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.
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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
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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
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