Issue 140 - June 13, 2001

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001
==== 1883 Subscribers in 53 Countries ====

Subscribe/Unsubscribe/View Archives at http://www.pcin.net/

Welcome to the 140th 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

We're finally getting some nice weather here. Today the temperature was very hot, and it was beautifully sunny. We've been trying to live without an air conditioner, but with this sort of weather (it is terribly humid), I think we're going to have to break down and get one.

The script for the Bulletin Board/Forum system is working fine. 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.
As I comment below in the I Need Help section, the FreeHelp Forum will become the main place where questions are asked and answered.

Congratulations to Debbie who won the copy of Microsoft Office 2000 Standard for recommending PCIN to her friends and for having them become subscribers.

Lastly, 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

The NEWS

Teen writes song about love of instant messaging

"Thirteen-year-old singer Brittney Cleary wanted to debut with a song most kids her age could relate to. So she picked a tune about love, right? Wrong.
Her song is called 'I.M. Me,' a reference to instant messaging, the online technology that allows computer users to carry on typewritten, private conversations in real time. Cleary, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, says she and her buddies talk online about 'everything.'
After her dad, Mike, and a few others wrote the song, Cleary says she feared people would think it was 'corny.' Its lyrics include references to common terms that kids and others often type during online chats -- from BRB ('be right back') and G2G ('got to go') to LOL ('lots of laughs' or 'laughing out loud').
But already released on the Internet -- and slated to hit music stores sometime in the next six weeks -- the song has won mostly rave reviews from youngsters who've downloaded it."

For more info:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/06/13/i.m.me.ap/index.html

Justices Say Warrant Is Required in High-Tech Searches of Homes

"In an important declaration of the constitutional limits on new privacy- threatening technology, the Supreme Court ruled today that the use by the police of a thermal imaging device to detect patterns of heat coming from a private home is a search that requires a warrant.
The court said further that the warrant requirement would apply not only to the relatively crude device at issue but also to any "more sophisticated systems" in use or in development that let the police gain knowledge that in the past would have been impossible without a physical entry into the home."

For more info:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/12/national/12SEAR.html
(Registration is required, but free)

Chip group is gloomy; AMD isn't

"When will the semiconductor slump end? Depends on whom you ask.
The chip industry's leading trade group, the Semiconductor Industry Association, predicted Wednesday that global chip sales will fall 14 percent this year, the second-worst decline in the industry's history.
But Advanced Micro Devices, a Sunnyvale maker of the microprocessors that run personal computers, said Wednesday that it expects a 'modest' rise in revenue this year, fueled in part by a revival in PC sales in the later part of the year with the release of Microsoft's Windows XP. PCs are one of the biggest consumers of chips."

For more info:
http://siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/chips060701.htm

PCIN POLL of the WEEK

32 people responded to last week's poll:

Will you use Office XP?

No, the version I have is fine: 31.25%
No, it doesn't interest me: 25.00%
Probably, but I'm in no rush: 18.75%
I'll wait and see: 9.38%
No, it's too expensive: 9.38%
Yes, there are new features I need: 3.12%
Yes, I always want to have the latest: 3.12%

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

How much are you willing to pay for an MP3 music subscription service per month?

MOBILE COMPUTING NEWS and NOTES

Do any of you remember Iridium? They're the satellite phone company that went bankrupt last year. They're back in business, with the U.S. Navy as one of their new big clients. They also offer a new service: Internet connection. So, now you can sit on a mountain in Mongolia or a snowdrift in Greenland and email at the speed of 10 kilobytes per second. It's not fast, but it beats the pony express...

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 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?

Answer to Both

** said, "There are programs (like 'magic folders') which will let you hide drives, folders or just individual files. And magic folders at least also has the capacity to hold several 'accounts' so that several people may use the program, all hiding their own files from each other."

New Questions

Q 140-01

I have two icons on my desktop, which have changed to a small size. The rest are still the normal size. Can anyone tell me why?

NOTE: within a week or two, the FREEHELP FORUM on the web site will replace this section. You can visit it at http://pcin.net/cgi-bin/forum/index.cgi You can post questions there and answer the questions of others.

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

**Transfer audio CD info**
If you use the audio CD player that comes with Windows and you've typed the titles of CDs, artists and song names into the program, then you'll eventually need this tip.
Suppose you replace your computer or upgrade to a new hard drive - you'll have to enter the information for your CD collection all over again, won't you?
Not if you know about a little file called cdplayer.ini.
Cdplayer.ini is a file in your Windows directory that records all the data for the Windows' CD player. Simply copy this small file to a floppy disk and, after you've set up your new PC or hard drive, copy it into the new system's Windows folder. The CD player on the new system will be able to read all the title and track info.
You can also open this file with Notepad to edit the track listings directly without inserting the CD, if you like.

Get your own copy of "The Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks: 2001" by visiting http://www.pcin.net/lbbct/

A Couple of Interesting Sites

Both of these sties were mentioned in the June 4, 2001, pg 78 issue of eWeek magazine:
Check out http://octanecreative.com/ducttape/fashion.html and you'll see some interesting fashions made of Duct tape. (Does it hurt to take off the clothes?)
http://clearfour.com/condiment/condiment.html is the Condiment Packet Museum. The site has a lot of pictures of ketchup, mustard, etc. (Why any one would spend the time making the site, or looking at the site, remains unanswered).

A Free Data Eraser Tool

Probably the question that is asked of me the most is, "How do I permanently delete a file?" This is not an easy question to answer. Asking this question at Google.com brings up 108,000 sites.
Basically, when you delete a file, you aren't really deleting it. You are just deleting the reference to it in the table of contents of the hard drive (the File Allocation Table). There are many utilities out there that are able to scan the hard drive and retrieve files that still exist, but that don't show in directory listing. And people want to know how to prevent this from happening.
Well, this utility was mentioned recently in one of the Lockergnome newsletters. If you visit http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/ you can download Eraser, "an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns."
The site has great links to explanations of how a file is deleted, as well as a link to a page that compares various file erasers.

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.

  1. If any of the links are too long to fit on one line, you may have to cut and paste.
  2. You can only win one contest every 30 days.
  3. To subscribe another address or unsubscribe, please visit http://www.pcin.net/ and follow the appropriate links.
  4. Recommend PCIN to others at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml and be entered in a monthly draw.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.