Issue 138 - May 30, 2001ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001 Subscribe/Unsubscribe/View Archives at http://www.pcin.net/ Welcome to the 138th 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 in May and have the most referrals subscribe and you could win a copy of Microsoft Office 2000 Standard. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml OPENING THOUGHTS I've added a polls section to the PCIN site. These will be
quick questions that I will mention in each week's issue,
and the results will be in the following week's issue. You
can always see the latest poll at http://pcin.net/polls/ and once we get past
the first few weeks, there will be previous polls available.
This week's question (more of a test run then anything): This is your last chance to recommend PCIN in May. You're going to love the Recommend PCIN prize this month. I am giving away a copy of Microsoft Office 2000 Standard. You need to visit http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml and recommend PCIN to others. At the end of the month, the person who had the most people subscribe in May will win the software. This is a little different than normal. It is usually a random draw of anyone who recommended PCIN. No we need some action. These must be new subscribers to be eligible. The NEWS Watch Where You Use That Wingding "Better think twice before you hit the send button on
your next e-mail. Your choice of font can reveal aspects of
your personality you might prefer to keep to yourself, according
to a new study. For more info: FTC: Amazon practices 'deceptive' but won't act "Bookseller Amazon and its Alexa Internet subsidiary
probably deceived consumers when their Internet software secretly
passed on personal information to the company, the Federal
Trade Commission said. For more info: Intel partners with RealNetworks "Amidst the turmoil surrounding its deflated stock value,
RealNetworks on Wednesday announced that it has struck a deal
with Intel to provide technology for two of the chip maker's
PC boards, according to RealNetworks officials. For more info: MOBILE COMPUTING NEWS and NOTES You know how it's pretty hard to type an email on a wireless phone? It's easier than I thought. I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out, but my phone has "T9 Text Input". I had heard that it would finish words for you, but I didn't know how to use it. Well, it works like a charm! You almost don't even need to look at what you're doing. I typed out "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" in "no time" with barely looking or having to go back and make corrections. I wish I had known this a long time ago. Brought to you by Shawn Bremner and The Wireless Web ezine. Sign up by sending a blank email to mailto:wirelessweb-subscribe@topica.com I NEED HELP I offer a free help service via email. If you have questions, you can email me and I will try my best to answer them. I can answer most of them myself, 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 137-01 I know some really great tips about navigating with the keyboard rather than the mouse (like holding Ctrl to highlight multiple objects, holding Shift to "Rubber band" items, pressing F2 to rename files etc). Is there a help file somewhere or a website that lists all of these little tricks that the keyboard can do (Alt/Tab to name another one)? A 137-01 Kenneth Aspinwall said, "Microsoft has a very comprehensive
article on this for Win 98 at Q 137-02 I have been using Zone Alarm free version for quite some time without a problem. Lately I up-graded to the latest version #2.6.88 and it has given me a problem ever since. When I launch IE it by default connects to my head office via Oracle Developer Server. Since I have had this new version it take's upwards of 15 minutes or more to connect. I can disable Zone Alarm and it connects OK.I can then re-load ZA and I can log on & off all day with no problem till the next morning. I can use Sygate Personal firewall and it will not cause this problem. My PC is a Pentium II, Windows 98,2nd edition. I wonder if any one can help with this situation? A 137-02 ** said, "Excellent detective work. Since you _know_
the culprit is ZA you can contact ZoneLabs ( http://www.zonelabs.com/support.htm
) to alert them (I'm sure you're not the only person to have
this prob). You could also check for later versions, otherwise
i would suggest he quickest solution would be to re-install
an older version." New Questions Q 138-01 I get a stack overflow error message whenever I try printing
off the Q 138-02 Occasionally I receive email messages where the attachments are just computer gibberish (symbols, letters, numbers, garbage). I don't know why this occurs, but is there any way to stop this from happening, or what do I do so I can open them properly? If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net PCIN.net UPDATE Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site: Some Useful Registry Tips (now 33 tips) PC Industry News (updated regularly) PCIN Poll of the Week I'm working to set up a message/bulletin board script. If you have any suggestions, email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF Cheap Trick of the Week **Hidden drives** A: 1 These drives will still appear in File Manager, the file-managing
utility left over from pre-Windows 95 days. So if you are
hiding drives, deleting Winfile.exe may be a good idea, as
well. Most users, though, are scarcely aware File Manager
still exists. The hidden drives are also still accessible
via a command prompt, as in DOS. Get your own copy of "The Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks: 2001" by visiting http://www.pcin.net/lbbct/ More Books Online If you visit http://www.visibooks.com/books.html you'll find 4 PDF versions of books by VisiBooks. These are all books that can be ordered in hardcopy from Amazon.com, but they made the PDF versions of the books available for free. As I said, there are only 4 books, but they plan on releasing more in the future. Zone Alarm Problems A subscriber asked a question last week and a couple of people
tried to help, but the problem is with Zone Alarm. Scot Finnie
(former WinMag.com columnist) wrote about some of the problems
and provided links in his latest newsletter. Check it out
at http://www.scotfinnie.com/newsletter/05.htm#zaupd DISCLAIMER and OTHER STUFFPCIN 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.
Graham Wing can be reached at mailto:editor@pcin.net Copyright 1998-2001, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented as is. |