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Issue 103 - September 27, 2000
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 103rd 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
I've been thinking more about the redesign of my web site.
I was going to make a little flashier, more images, etc, but
then I decided not to. I like the speed that the site loads
in, and I generally like the navigation. If you visit the
main page at http://www.pcin.net/
you will see what the new colour scheme will be. I will be
making changes a little at a time. Feel free to send me any
suggestions.
The end of the month is coming soon, so 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
Supreme Court Declines Microsoft Case
"Today, the US Supreme Court announced that it has
declined to hear Microsoft's appeal, sending the software
giant's antitrust case directly to the Appellate Court.
In a decision that Microsoft is celebrating, the Supreme
Court said that the antitrust case is not directly tied
to the US economy and therefore doesn't need to be fast-tracked
as the Department of Justice (DOJ) requested. Only Justice
Stephen Breyer disagreed with the action, stating that Microsoft's
antitrust case 'significantly affects an important sector
of the economy.' With Breyer's dissention, the Court voted
eight to one not to hear the case."
For more info:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,18859,00.html
http://news.excite.com/news/r/000926/13/net-microsoft-leadall-dc
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/
AOL Instant Messenger to work with ICQ?
"America Online today downplayed a little-known loophole
that lets people who use its ICQ instant messaging product
connect to their accounts through AOL Instant Messenger,
calling the option a "test."
AOL owns both AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and ICQ, but it
has kept the services distinct and blocked attempts by rivals
to connect to its networks. AOL has said it is interested
in eventually tearing down those walls, but it denied the
test is a first step toward lowering the barriers between
its own services before it opens the network to outsiders."
This is something I've never understood. Why are these programs
separate? It only makes sense they eventually be combined
in one.
For more info:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2871202.html?tag=pt.xdrive.techdispatch..ne2871202
Sharing Domain Names
From the September 11, 2000 issue of InformationWeek Magazine,
FrontEnd section:
"What do you do if your company's name is virtually
identical to another's and you both want the same web address?
How about sharing the URL? Sounds crazy, but that's exactly
what some businesses are doing.
For example, Alteon, a biotech company in Ramsey, NJ, and
Alteon WebSystems, an Internet hardware and software vendor
in San Jose, CA, now share www.alteon.com. The URL offers two images that
link users to each of their sites - and a line that notes
there's "no formal business relationship" between
them.
Businesses often sue or pay gobs of money for domain names.
But during a recent trademark infringement suit by Alteon
against Alteon WebSystems, the companies decided to share.
Alteon president and CEO Kenneth Moch says both companies
figured sharing was better than spending more for lawyers."
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 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)
A 102-01)
Skeeter said, "A question was asked recently about
a Rockwell modem acting up and I wrote that I'd had the
same problem and it turned out mine was fried. Well, my
troubles started out the same as the one described. Sometimes
a reformat would work (new disks), even though the box
said the disks were formatted, and other times no. I would
get messages that it couldn't read the disk or that no
disk was in it. Then it would work like it should. $15
for a new drive cured the problem, at least for now."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger Michaud said, "There's only one solution that
I know and is to get a new floppy drive. You're a: drive
is toasted. I had to change all floppy drives on 3 computers
giving me the same problem. The best solution is to get
the new 120MB floppy drive which will do double service.
It'll R & W to a 1.44MB disk and boot too plus R &
W on 120MB disk which will be a great help with Win 98."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "Floppy drives are not made with
rocket science accuracy and therefore a disk formatted
on one machine very often will not work on another. To
test this suggestion, format a floppy in yours and then
copy some stuff on it and take it to the other computer
to try. Then do the same thing but in reverse. If this
is not the case but you can write to the disk but cannot
read then either the head is dirty or demised. There are
floppy cleaners in the appropriate shops."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Byron said, "Trying to read a Mac formatted disk
in a PC will give this message. What about going ahead
and formatting a disk (a blank, or one you don't need
the data from)? Does it read now? Since you have a P-133
I'm assuming the drive is at least 5 years old. It may
be time for replacing. You should be able to pick up a
new drive very cheap and it is a fairly easy process to
change it."
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.
A 102-02)
John Hills said, "A wild guess but you may have
"Separator page" selected on your printer icon,
Properties, General."
New Questions
Q 103-01)
I am having problems with my system resources getting
low during the day. I think is has something to do with
my DSL line. Specifically IE5. I start at 74% and can
get as low as 40%. How can I stop the leak?
Q 103-02)
When I turn on the computer before anything happens it
says boot: couldn't find ntldr please insert another disk.
This has never happened before. I can do anything except
wait but it doesn't work. All I really can do is go on
setup.
(P100, 1GB HD, 16MB RAM, Windows 95, IE5.5)
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
**Command performance**
If you're an old-time computer user who still messes around
in DOS, you may be frustrated that you can't access Windows
95 and 98's shortcuts when you're working in this venerable
operating system.
But you can! The trick is in the wording.
The command is the word start followed by the path to the
file with the .lnk extension added to it.
Suppose you have a shortcut on the Windows desktop named
Nonsense. The command will be start c:\windows\desktop\nonsense.lnk
to launch it Windows.
If the filename includes spaces, as in Shortcut to Nonsense.exe,
you have to wrap quotation marks around the whole pathname,
as in start "c:\windows\desktop\shortcut to nonsense.exe.lnk".
Screen Capture Program
I'm not just mentioning this because it was in the latest
PC Magazine. This truly is a great program. If you have
been looking for a screen capture program, then go to ftp://ftp.techsmith.com/pub/products/snagit/snagit.exe
and download SnagIt, by TechSmith. You get a 45-day trial,
but it appears as if the trial never stops working. This
will give you plenty of time to try it out and I'm sure
that when you find out how useful it is, you'll gladly pay
the $39.95. We use this at work, and it if fabulous.
IE 5.5 Advanced Security Privacy Beta
Subscriber Tony Lowell sent me this:
"I've just tested the Internet Explorer 5.5 Advanced
Security Privacy Beta. The one that warns you about COOKIES
coming in from other WWW sites that you don't think you
are connected to. I'm on the spare box with no security.
It works very well. All I did was start IE5.5 ASP and went
to my ISP http://www.sprint.ca/
homepage. Well I received 4 warnings about COOKIES attempting
to be loaded on my machine. I believe they came from the
advertising. Remember this box is empty. I shall call SPRINT
and ask them what's going on."
Windows ME Comment
I recently asked if anyone had any experience with Windows
ME yet. Robert Nelson sent this in:
"So far, So Good. Easiest install of any Windows OS
I've had (Win95, Win98, Win98SE). ICS and Home Networking
where a breeze, compared to trying to do ICS in Win98SE
or Home Networking in either Win98 and/or SE. Now if the
restore feature actually works, you will see a MSL instead
of a ABM."
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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