PCIN Issue 138 - Watch Where You Use That Wingding

Issue 138 - May 30, 2001

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001
==== 1856 Subscribers in 52 Countries ====

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):
What Operating System do you use?
Take part in the poll at http://pcin.net/polls/

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.
British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that the study was commissioned by printer vendor Lexmark International Inc., which hired psychologist Aric Sigman to analyze e-mail users' choice of fonts. Sigman found that font choice conveys its own message, serving as a form of 'social coding' that can help classify users."

For more info:
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20010529S0014

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.
But the FTC said it will not take any action against the online bookseller because one of the software programs in question -- the comparison shopping service zBubbles -- is no longer operational and Alexa has changed its stated privacy policy."

For more info:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/05/30/ftc.amazon.ap/index.html

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.
Under the agreement, RealNetworks' Media Management Software will be distributed with two new Intel PC desktop boards, the D815EEA2 and D815EFV. The RealNetworks software includes the company's popular RealPlayer and RealJukebox media players. The Intel boards will ship with upcoming Pentium III and Celeron desktop PC processors, according to RealNetworks officials."

For more info:
http://iwsun4.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/05/30/010530hnreal.xml

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
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/download/products/windows/win98key/w98_kbd.txt"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anat said, "Click on "File" and you will see "Open Page" on the left side of the drop down menu and "Ctrl+O" on the right which is shortcut for the command, and you can find many more on other options "Edit", "View" and so on."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jean Walsh said, "If you don't find the database you are looking for, it would be well worth creating one. Meanwhile, here's a web page I found re the character map, shortcut keys (PC) and key caps (Mac) and using symbols and keyboard shortcuts for both PC and Mac.
http://www.aarp.org/comptech/learning/howto/howto040.html
The trick of using Alt+164 for the letter ñ made my Spanish-speaking friend very happy because he is now able to write to his mother and refer to 'years' instead of 'anuses'. (The only difference between the two words being the tilde over the n.)"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike D said, "Go here for shortcuts direct from MS:
http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/win98/Reskit/Part7/wrkappg.asp"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** said, "Well www.microsoft.com would be the logical place (being the creators of these shortcuts). But the only real way would be to troll hints and guides for newbies / the interested on the 'net. Try a search for 'keyboard shortcuts'."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dennis Dorais said, "Some time ago, I was searching for keyboard shortcuts and found this item on the Microsoft TechNet site about keyboard shortcuts. It might be what your reader is looking for. Here's the link: http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/win98/Reskit/Part7/wrkappg.asp"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vincent Hannon said, "I think this page has most keyboard info with a little digging'. There is a lot of useful info on the Accessibility pages on Microsoft site:
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/keyboard/keyboardsearch.asp"

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."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "Assuming you have ticked the permission boxes in the Programs menu for the programs you want to access the Internet and unticked those you don't, I would try unticking ZA itself in the Programs Menu. ZA connects to its home server when you start it up and maybe, your arrangements with IE and Oracle are causing ZA to hunt for its home server it cannot find. Why it needs to do this gives weight to one argument that Zone Alarm is itself a spy on your PC. I hope it's not as I use it."

New 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?

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)
http://pcin.net/help/articles/registry.shtml

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/

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**
Want to hide drives with sensitive material on them from prying eyes? You can prevent any or all disk drives from being displayed in My Computer and Explorer.
It takes some Registry tweaks, which can be tricky. Check instructions at www.WE-Compute.com/registry.html if you are new to Registry editing.
In the Registry navigate to HKEY__USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Right-click on Explorer and choose New and DWORD value. In the pane on the right, rename the new value NoDrives and double-click on it to open the Edit DWORD Value box. Click the Decimal option to select it, instead of the Hexadecimal option.
Now for the complicated part. To hide a drive or drives, a number that corresponds to the drive(s) must be entered. Enter the value listed below for the drive. If multiple drives are to be hidden, add the numbers for those drives together. For example, hiding drives D and E requires a value of 24, because you are adding the value for D (8) to the value for E (16), which equals 24.

A: 1
B: 2
C: 4
D: 8
E: 16
F: 32
G: 64
H: 128
I: 256
J: 512
K: 1024
L: 2048
M: 4096
N: 8192
O: 16384
P: 32768
Q: 65536
R: 131072
S: 262144
T: 524288
U: 1048576
V: 2097152
W: 4194304
X: 8388608
Y: 16777216
Z: 33554432
All: 67108863

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.
The boot disk, usually the C drive, tends to show up in Explorer even if you hide it in My Computer.
To bring back hidden disks, just change the value of NoDrives to 0 or delete the value altogether.

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
Scot publishes a very lengthy, but still excellent newsletter. I highly recommend you subscribe while you are there.

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

This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.