Issue 154 - September 26, 2001

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2001
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Welcome to the 154th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists mainly of news and tips. There is something for everyone, and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for you.

You can reach me at editor@pcin.net with any suggestions or comments. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!

Recommend PCIN at http://PCIN.net/recommend.shtml
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.shtml

CONTENTS

OPENING THOUGHTS

It has been unusually cold this week so far. It is supposed to warm up again, but I guess it is inevitable that it will get cold sooner or later.

I will be attending a Windows XP preview event on October 16 in Toronto. It will be interesting to see what sort of propaganda Microsoft tries to spread. The last Microsoft I went to was very good, so hopefully this one will be as well.

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The NEWS

Bin Laden usurps Britney in online searches

"Osama bin Laden has displaced Pamela Anderson Lee in cyberspace and people looking for information about the American flag outnumbered those curious about Britney Spears. For the first time in the short history of the Internet, popular search engines report that "sex" dropped off their lists of top 10 search terms in the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. "Popular search terms last week turned almost exclusively to disaster-related information," said David Emanuel, spokesman for the popular search engine AltaVista, which tracks top search terms.
Almost all perennial favorites like Pamela Anderson Lee, Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys were knocked off the list."

For more info:
http://usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001/09/20/search-terms.htm

China Quietly Unblocks U.S. Sites

"Chinese Internet censors quietly unblocked several major U.S. media websites this week in a surprise move that one Chinese expert said may have been prompted by a demand for news about the U.S. terrorist attacks.
The change grants China's Web-using public access to the previously unviewable sites of The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Boston Globe, which were blocked as recently as Sunday. It was unclear exactly what day the unblocking occurred.
Among those still blocked are the sites of CNN, Voice of America, Time magazine and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as well as a slew of Western human rights groups including Amnesty International."

For more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47017,00.html

E911 Wouldn't Help at WTC

"Shortly after last week's terrorist attacks in New York, a man trapped where a courtyard previously existed between the twin World Trade Center towers was rescued after he called for help on his mobile phone.
To locate more victims in the WTC, Lucent Technologies and Verizon Wireless used directional antennas to pinpoint the location of cell phones in the crumbled buildings.
This activity coincides with a federal mandate that carriers begin implementing technology that allows emergency dispatchers to locate cell phone callers by Oct. 1."

For more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,46850,00.html

Microsoft Opens Door to Passport

"Microsoft Corp. put out a call for the creation of a 'federated' authentication system Thursday, saying it plans to open its Passport authentication system to interoperate with enterprises, network and other service operators to deliver universal single sign-in spanning multiple organizations and services.
In layman's terms, the move is designed to spur the development of a system whereby Internet users create a single, secure online identity to represent them across the Internet -- from signing in to corporate networks to shopping at an e-commerce site. While Microsoft is offering to open up its own service to arch-rivals -- like AOL Time Warner Inc., which is hard at work on its own 'Magic Carpet' authentication system -- and other companies, the major motivating factor appears to be advancing its own HailStorm and .NET initiatives."

For more info:
http://www.internetnews.com/asp-news/article/0,,3411_888641,00.html
http://www.microsoft.com/MSCorp/presspass/Press/2001/Sep01/09-20PassportFederationPR.asp

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POLL of the WEEK

Here are the responses from the last poll:

Do you worry about companies using cookies or other registration information (demographics) to track your "surfing" habits?

Yes: 60.00%
No: 38.33%
Never thought of it before: 1.67%

Total Votes: 60

Visit http://pcin.net/polls/ to participate in the new poll this week:

Do you use any voice recognition software?

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FREEHELP FORUM

Visit the PCIN FreeHelp Forum to post your questions or answer others. Each week I highlight a question, and where to go to get the answer.

Question

sis motherboard with onboard sound. sis 7018 driver. Sound goes distorted and I have to reinstall driver. Seems to work ok for a while then goes again.

Answer

Check on the internet for an updated driver or patch.

Any other comments or suggestions? Visit http://www.pcin.net/cgi-bin/forum/index.cgi and check out the Hardware Forum to post your comments, or to post a question of your own.

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PCIN.net UPDATE

Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:

Some Useful Registry Tips (Now 51 Tips!)
http://pcin.net/help/articles/registry.shtml

Support PCIN
http://pcin.net/donate.shtml

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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Some Essential Sites

I'm sure that many of you subscribe to Fred Langa's newsletter, LangaList. Fred has been in the industry for years and currently writes a column for InformationWeek magazine. One of his recent columns was title "The Best PC Help, Reference, And Test Sites". There are links to over 80 sites. I don't generally like to copy content from other newsletters, but this is a very good list. Check out his top site at http://informationweek.com/story/IWK20010916S0021

Home Networking

Fred had a lot of good sites (mentioned above), but there was nothing about home networking. Now that so many people have more than one computer at home, they are learning how to connect them. Check out the sites below:

Home Computer Networking and Internet Connection Sharing Help
http://www.homenethelp.com/

Practically Networked Home
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/

World of Windows Networking
http://www.wown.com/

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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.

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Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net

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