Issue 139 - June 06, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001
==== 1872 Subscribers in 53 Countries ====
Subscribe/Unsubscribe/View Archives at http://www.pcin.net/
Welcome to the 139th 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 June and win one of two copies of the Software602
Print Pack, software that lets you email any thing you can
print, and that will also create PDFs. Recommend PCIN now
at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
I think I've found a script that works quite well for my
Bulletin Board/Forum system. You can find it at http://pcin.net/cgi-bin/forum/index.cgi
If you want to post a question, you will need to register
(this is just to prevent anonymous users from posting). Also,
the script uses a cookie, but there is no information collected
permanently. Since the forum is a script and the pages are
created dynamically, the cookie allows the script to recognize
you when you are still in the same session.
Please take a few minutes to check it out and send me your
feedback to mailto:editor@pcin.net Once I get all of the
kinks worked out, I intend on using the forum to post and
answer questions, rather than through email or through the
newsletter.
PCIN was recommended to 93 different people last month. I'm
in the process of determining how many of these people subscribed,
and the person who recommended PCIN and had the most people
subscribe will win a copy of Microsoft Office 2000 Standard.
I'll announce the winner next week.
But until then, you can recommend PCIN in June. If you recommend
PCIN in June, you could win one of two copies of the Software602
Print Pack, software that lets you email any thing you can
print, and that will also create PDFs. Recommend PCIN now
at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
(Note: I'll have a review of Print Pack ready for next week's
PCIN.)
The NEWS
Insurer Considers Microsoft NT High-Risk
"Microsoft's server software is easy to install, loaded
with features and fairly reliable. It may also be more costly
to insure against hack attacks. J.S. Wurzler Underwriting
Managers, one of the first companies to offer hacker insurance,
has begun charging its clients 5 percent to 15 percent more
if they use Microsoft's Windows NT software in their Internet
operations. Although several larger insurers said they won't
increase their NT-related premiums, Wurzler's announcement
indicates growing frustration with the ongoing discoveries
of vulnerabilities in Microsoft's products."
For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2766045,00.html
Hackers amass new zombie army
"The nation's government-funded computer security
watchdog issued a warning Friday that computer intruders
have taken control of hundreds of computers connected to
the Internet. The attackers are in a position to launch
a serious attack, according to the CERT Coordination Center,
which said that the situation 'poses a significant threat
to Internet sites and the Internet infrastructure.'"
Also, Steve Gibson of GRC.com has written a very interesting
article about how these 'zombies' work. He has had hackers
trying to block his site and he was able to find out how
they did it. But, this has angered a lot of hackers, and
at the time of this writing, his site was unavailable. If
you can get through, his article on DDoS (Distributed Denial
of Service attacks) is fantastic.
For more info:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/460824.asp
http://www.grc.com/
Country operators defect from ICANN support org
"The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) suffered a public defection at its meeting in Stockholm,
Sweden, on Friday when operators of Internet domain names
for individual countries voted to withdraw from the ICANN
Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO).
ICANN is the nonprofit group that oversees basic technical
matters related to the Internet, including the system for
managing and allocating domain names."
For more info:
http://iwsun4.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/06/04/010604hnicant.xml
PCIN POLL of the WEEK
65 people responded to last week's poll:
What Operating System do you use?
Windows 98: 55.38%
Windows ME: 23.08%
Windows 2000: 9.23%
Windows 95: 4.62%
Other: 3.08%
Linux: 3.08%
Windows NT: 1.54%
Windows 3.x: 0.00%
DOS: 0.00%
Visit http://pcin.net/polls/
to participate in the new poll this week:
Will you use Office XP?
MOBILE COMPUTING NEWS and NOTES
I'm sure many of you are familiar with Voice over IP (VoIP).
If not, briefly, it's a way for you to use your PC or home
phone to call someone else over the Internet instead of
phone lines. FYI, Cisco and other firms do provide services
by which you can use VoIP on your mobile phone, which is
basically free. If any of you know of good VoIP companies
(wired or not, free or not) please let me know! mailto:shawn@happypublishing.com I
will post the results next week.
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 138-01
I get a stack overflow error message whenever I try printing
off the Internet with the IE5 browser. I can't find any
information on what stack overflow is. What is it?
A 138-01
Daniel Najimian said, "Essentially, a stack overflow
occurs when there is insufficient space in memory either
set aside or available to handle the calls that are made
to the computer hardware. As the article points out, there
is sometimes a "stacks=" statement in the config.sys
file. In some cases, the statement must be added manually
(using a text editor). There is a helpful article on stack
overflows at the following URL: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q145/7/99.asp"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** said, "A stack may perform several functions,
but is used to hold data, such as data to process or a
'to do list'. A stack overflow occurs when you try to
put more info into the stack than can fit (hence the name),
rather like trying to fit that last lollie into those
cups which you can buy and fill up yourself from the far
too tempting range they have of sweets. A search on www.yahoo.com
for stack overflow will provide you enough information
to keep you busy for a while yet. But what does all this
mean to you? That probably either your printer drivers
or Internet Explorer need to be re-installed."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brandon Gotch said, "A Stack overflow is a internal
problem with the program having to do with memory (to
get into more detail gets really confusing). The best
solution I can suggest is to ScanDisk and Defrag your
system and if that doesn't work try re-installing IE."
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?
A 138-02
** said, "There could be several possibilities,
the file may be corrupted (garbled) in between being sent
and you receiving it. You may not have the right program
to view the file, or a different version to the other
persons, or your associations are off and the wrong program
is trying to open the file. To check for any of the last
three cases see if all the files have the same ending
after the '.' near the end of their name. The files may
also be encrypted, in which case the person sending the
file will have to tell you how to unencrypt it. I would
ask the other person to tell you _exactly_ what program(s),
and what versions, they are using on the file, and make
sure yours match exactly."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brandon Gotch said, "This occurs because the attachments
are not coming in the right format ... Example if you
look attempt to look at a .gif in a text editor (like
Notepad for example) it will display only really weird
symbols. The only way to correct this problem is to make
sure that your email reader is set to look at files in
HTML format (which is standard for Outlook). Otherwise
the file is getting "confused" at the server
level (There's no way to correct that)."
New Questions
Q 139-01
Last time there was a tip about how to hide (some) drives.
Is there a way to hide some directories?
Q 139-02
To hide Drives or Folders are no problem but the problem
starts if I open programs like Word, in Word I get access
to all hidden Drives and Folders. How can I protect my
hidden Drives and Folders in programs like Word?
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:
FreeHelp Forum
http://pcin.net/cgi-bin/forum/index.cgi
PC Industry News (updated regularly)
-currently only 6 headlines, but this will grow
http://pcin.net/news.shtml
PCIN Poll of the Week
http://pcin.net/polls/
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Cheap Trick of the Week
**Dial M for Moving**
If you're working in a folder Window and need to move
it around but don't want to have to reach for your mouse,
hold down Alt and press the spacebar.
This produces the System Menu, at which point you type m
for Move. Then use your keyboard's Arrow keys to transport
the selected window anywhere on the screen you wish.
Get your own copy of "The Little Black Book of Cheap
Tricks: 2001" by visiting http://www.pcin.net/lbbct/
Microsoft Mobile Browser Emulator
Microsoft has software available that emulates a mobile
phone web browser. You can save a URL and then view it on
the "phone" and see what a web site would look
like through a cell phone. I thought PCIN.net would look
awful, but it didn't look too bad. Check it out or any other
of your favourite sites. You can download the software at
http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/phones/mme/mmemulator.asp
Music Subscription Service
eMusic.com and Rolling Stone magazine are offering a free
30-day trial of their subscription service. You get 100
free downloads from their collection of "170,000 songs,
14,000 albums, 8,000 artists, 750 labels." Most of
the newer stuff is from artists I've never heard of (a lot
of independent labels), but I'm a big fan of old jazz, swing,
big band music, and there were quite a few Billie Holiday
and Louis Armstrong songs. It appears that the songs are
all encoded at 128kbs.
If you don't cancel in the 30 days, you're charged a 3-month
fee, or a yearly fee (whichever you have specified when
signing up). But if you cancel within 30 days, you aren't
charged anything. And although I haven't cancelled my trial
yet, it certainly appears to be very easy to do.
You can learn more about this by visiting http://www.emusic.com/subscription/rsd/pitch.html
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.
- Support PCIN by visiting http://www.pcin.net/donate.shtml
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.
|