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Issue 115 - December 20, 2000
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 115th 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.
I was able to get Play, Inc. to donate a Snappy! 4.0 to the
newsletter. If you recall, I did a review of it some time
ago ( you can see it at http://www.pcin.net/help/software/snappy.shtml
). It is a piece of hardware that will let you use your parallel
port to input video into your computer. You can get screen
captures of TV shows, videos, etc. It is valued at over $100.
Recommend PCIN in December and you will have a chance to win
this. Each unique person that you recommend PCIN to will get
you one entry into the draw. The more you recommend PCIN the
more chance you have to win. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
Lisa and I just bought our first house. It is an older
house, and we get all of what's inside (some old stuff). Lisa
definitely wants to redecorate (you'll see what I mean). If
you're interested, you can see some pictures at http://gawing.com/house
This is the last chance I will have before Christmas, so
here goes... Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a safe and
Merry Christmas. If you get any good "toys" let
me know and I'll mention them in the newsletter. The next
couple of issues of PCIN will be a little shorter. I imagine
most people will be a little busy.
Lastly, don't forget to recommend PCIN in the month of December
and have a change to win a Snappy! 4.0. Recommend PCIN now
at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
The NEWS
Yahoo!, NFL, and Gambling
"Yahoo Inc. has reportedly agreed to move advertisements
for gambling-related sites off its football-focused Web
pages following a complaint by the National Football League
(NFL).
An Associated Press report today observed that Yahoo immediately
tackled the problem after NFL officials noted that ads for
online casinos and betting tips were inappropriately placed
on sports pages. Yahoo has a lucrative agreement with the
league to Webcast radio play-by-plays as part of a deal
signed in October, a time when the ads in question were
not yet up."
For more info:
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/159457.html
Mortgage.com Sold for $1.8 Million
Even with all of the Dot Com failures, people are still
willing to pay big bucks for the rights to domain names.
The latest one was the purchase of Mortgage.com by a Dutch
banking group ABN AMRO. Mortgage.com was actually a company
that was traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange. They had announced
at the end of October that they were closing their doors
and is selling of its assets. ABN AMRO Bank also purchased
the rights to the domain name Hipoteca.com, the Spanish
word for mortgage.
For more info:
http://miami.internet.com/news/article/1,2974,9501_537761,00.html
Napster vs. Nazis
"German media giant Bertelsmann has said it will co-operate
with the country's Constitutional Protection Office to eliminate
neo-Nazi songs from Napster - but it's not sure what it
can really do to help.
Yesterday, the CPO, an organisation set up to enforce German's
strict anti-racism and anti-Nazi laws, warned that Napster's
software makes it very easy for extreme right wing rock
bands to publish their music. Nazi symbols and rhetoric
are illegal in Germany."
For more info:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/15598.html
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 114-01)
A 114-01)
John Hills said, "??"
Q 114-02)
A 114-02)
John Hills said, "??"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony Lowell said, "As far as the 2 Questions go
they were the easiest to answer ever. Just have the
author put the questions in under the titles."
New Questions
There won't be any questions for the next couple of weeks.
Hopefully we'll all be busy with our families and friends
and we won't be at our computers to have any problems.
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Cheap Trick of the Week
**Switch hitter**
When you've got several tasks running or several folders
open in Windows 95, 98 or Me, you can switch among them
without resorting to your mouse to click on the taskbar.
Instead hold down the Alt key and hit the Tab key. A box
appears showing an icon for each open program.
Keep holding down Alt and tap the Tab key to move the selector
rightward from program to program. Or hold down the Shift
key with Alt and hit Tab to move left.
More Windows ME Comments
Subscriber John Hills wrote in to comment on subscriber
John Tounoussidis' comments about Windows ME. John T thought
Windows ME was great and was running very well. John H.
commented, "And these are my sentiments too.
It is a major leap forward and the restore feature is worth
the money alone."
Steve Black had commented that you don't get a CD-ROM with
OEM computers. John H. also commented on that; "The
OEM version does come on CD. It is the suppliers saving
money who cause that problem, not Microsoft unusually."
What Loads at Startup?
I saw this link in one Neat Net Tricks Issue 92. It is
a site that has a lot of information about what loads at
startup. There is an extensive list of programs that may
install itself to run when your computer loads Windows.
It colour codes them so you know what can safely be removed,
what is necessary, and which ones you should delete with
caution. Check it out http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/
Use the Correct Monitor Driver
Subscriber Don Horvath was telling me about a problem he
was having recently. He'd try and play a game (NHL 2001
I think) and it would crash on him. He has a very good system
that has been very reliable. He did all sorts of troubleshooting,
and finally discovered that the problem was with his monitor
driver. He was using a default driver (usually Standard
VGA 800x600) and as soon as he installed the right driver
for his monitor, the game worked fine.
If you find yourself having similar problems, check to see
what monitor is listed in the Device Manager. The monitor
drivers don't really make the monitor work any better, it
just lets Windows know what resolution it supports and at
what frequencies.
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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