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Issue 117 - January 03, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2000
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Welcome to the 117th 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 to others and be entered in a monthly draw.
Recommend PCIN in January and win a copy of the book "The
Unauthorized Guide to Windows ME" by Paul McFedries.
The more you recommend PCIN the more chance you have to win.
Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
I hope you all had a nice New Year's Eve. Lisa and I didn't
do much, but it was what we had planned on. We stayed up and
watched the specials on Fox, CityTV (a Toronto Station), and
a local station showing the Niagara Falls festivities.
The new Niagara Falls desktop wallpaper are done now so look
in the Tips and Other Stuff section below for the link.
This issue is pretty well back to the regular content and
length. It is still a little bit short, but will be back to
normal by next week.
Lastly, don't forget to recommend PCIN in the month of January
and have a chance to win a copy of the book "The Unauthorized
Guide to Windows ME" by Paul McFedries. Recommend PCIN
now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
The NEWS
Super Bowl DotCom Kiss of Death?
"The Super Bowl 2001 will not see the dotcom ad orgy
of last year - mainly because many of the outfits that splashed
out on the event have become dotcom dodos in the interim.
Just three dotcoms have so far coughed up the necessary
$2.5 million for one of the 30-second spots on CBS in this
month's football fest - E-Trade, jobs sites Monster.com
(going for its Super Bowl ad hat-trick this year) and Hotjobs.com.
E-Trade is going all out - it is sponsoring the Super Bowl
XXXV half-time show for the second consecutive year, while
all 66,321 audience bottoms in the stadium will be resting
on cushions emblazoned with the financial site's logo.
Other dotcoms have not been so lucky - of the 17 technology
or Internet companies that bought ad space for Super Bowl
XXXIV, seven have gone out of business. These include Pets.com
and Computers.com."
For more info:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/15763.html
India enlists teen hackers as cyber cops
"Teen-age computer hackers will play cyber policemen
to help an Indian panel tackle Internet crimes, a top software
industry official said on Wednesday.
The National Cyber Cop Committee set up by the industry
will be advised by a group of 19 hackers, all between 14
and 19 years of age, based in metro cities, Dewang Mehta,
president of the National Association of Software and Service
Companies, told a news conference."
For more info:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/computing/01/03/india.crime.reut/index.html
NEW MONTHLY CONTEST/QUESTION
So, what "toys" did you get for Christmas? Did
you get any new games, peripherals, gadgets, etc.? Did you
get a digital camera, a Playstation 2, a DVD player? Let me
know. If you got any technology items at all, email me and
I will share them with the other readers. Let me know why
you wanted it (for fun or was there a real purpose), and if
you know, where it came from (an online purchase or local
retailer).
Don't worry if you think your gift sounds "boring"
or if you think others won't want to hear about it. You'd
be surprised how "boring" gifts to one person can
be exciting and new to others.
I will randomly choose one of the entrants to win a copy
of PowerQuest's Second Chance 2.0 and PowerQuest's Lost and
Found. Email your entries to mailto:contest@pcin.net
I will send out a short reminder on Saturday.
I NEED HELP
I offer a free help service via email. If you have a question,
you can email me and I will try my best to answer them. I
can answer about most of them, 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
New Questions
Q 117-01)
I was exploring Windows. I punched up search, searched
all files and documents, and 133 files popped up some,
dating back to 1993 94 95 97 99. Is this normal to have
these dates on a new pc?
(Win98, 64MB RAM, 14GB HD, IE5)
Q 117-02)
I'm dual booting NT 4 and Corel Linux, using the Corel
Linux Boot menu thing. I've not really found any use for
Linux so I want to get rid of it. Obviously I would like
remove Linux without having to reinstall NT.
If you have an answer to these questions or have a question
of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Changing Directories in DOS
When you view a directory listing in DOS, the first lines
will be . and then ..
The . represents the current directory, and the .. represents
the parent folder. If you were to type "CD ."
then you would remain in the folder you were in. If you
were to type "CD .." you would move "up"
a folder You can continue this on though. If you are currently
working in the D:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\PhotoEd
folder, you can type:
CD . to stay in your folder
CD .. to move to the Microsoft Shared folder
CD ... to move to the Common Files folder
CD .... to move to the Program Files folder
CD ..... to move to the d:\ root folder
There are lots of ways to move around while working in DOS,
and this is just another tool to use.
Books on Sale
There are sales on books all the time, but I just received
a postal mailing from ComputerBookstore.com with their specials
for January 2001. The Sybex "Mastering" series,
the IDG "Bible" series, Microsoft Press "Programming"
series, and more are all 41% off the list price. You can
check it out at http://www.computerbookstore.com/
FYI: I have several of the "Bible" books and they
are great.
More Desktop Wallpaper
I finally got around to getting the winter pictures of
Niagara Falls ready. You can view them now at http://www.gawing.com/falls_winter/
The previous Autumn pictures are still available at http://www.gawing.com/falls_autumn/
and you can always get to either of these pages by visiting
http://www.gawing.com/falls/
Keep in mind that these are being hosted on my home computer
through my cable Internet connection. If you find it particularly
slow one day, try again later.
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.
Graham Wing can be reached at mailto:editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2000, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All
rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced in hole,
or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter
is presented as is.
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