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Issue 131 - April 11, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001
==== 1609 Subscribers in 51 Countries ====
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Welcome to the 131st 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 April and win a copy of PrintMaster Platinum
and Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. Recommend PCIN now
at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
We're finally getting some nice weather around here. Buying
a house in the winter wasn't the smartest thing to do. There
is so much that you want to do, but it's too cold to do anything.
Lisa and I have been busy this week trying to do some things
out in the yard, finally :-)
You will notice a new section below between the I NEED HELP
and THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF sections. It is the PCIN.net
UPDATE section. Each week I will mention the pages that I've
updated on the site (new articles, new reviews, new features,
etc.)
Recommend PCIN in April and win a copy of PrintMaster Platinum
and Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. Recommend PCIN now
at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
The NEWS
Napster Closer To Drawing Up Label Alliance
"Germany's Bertelsmann said Wednesday talks to convince
music industry giants to work with Internet song-swapping
service Napster are going well, and an industry source said
they could be concluded soon.
'We are still trying to persuade all labels to work with
Napster and give them a license, and the talks are going
pretty well,' said Frank Sarfeld, spokesman for Bertelsmann's
e-commerce group.
An industry source said the media giant's chances of convincing
Sony Music Entertainment and Vivendi Universal's Universal
Music Group to offer a license to Napster via their subscription
joint venture, dubbed Duet, looked strong."
For more info:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5574465.html
Good News Out of Amazon - Finally
"Shares of Amazon.com surged more than 30 percent
Monday after the e-retailing giant said its losses for the
first quarter would be narrower than Wall Street's forecasts.
The disclosure of Amazon's preliminary first-quarter results
is the first meaningful good news to come out of Seattle-based
company in months and is certain to silence some of Amazon's
most strident critics."
For more info:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,23588,00.html
Is the levy on CD-R/Ws fair, or does it punish innocent
users?
From the March 23, 2001 ComputerWorld Canada magazine:
65% Most CD-R/Ws are used for illegal purpose,
so the levy is fair.
23% There are legitimate for CD-R/Ws, but there's
no other way to fight copyright infringement -
and it's important to protect artists.
7% Since Napster will no longer be a free service,
the levy means record companies will be compensated
more than once for any copyright infringement. They
will also be taking money from innocent users.
5% The levy is completely unfair. It punishes the
innocent as well as the guilty.
MOBILE COMPUTING NEWS and NOTES
It's time for a wake-up call. Take a look at these concept
phones that are coming down the pipe. It will open your eyes
to what the future holds. Visit http://www.3g-generation.com/all.htm
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 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
Previous Questions
Q 130-01
Lately I have been getting this noise over my speakers
that sound like a car motor running. Along with that,
when I move my mouse across the pad, it makes a noise
like severe static. Any suggestions? I don't think the
noise is coming from a fan; however, I could be wrong.
A 130-01
Kenneth Aspinwall said, "Do you have a microphone
attached to your computer? If so you may be getting feedback,
open your audio mixer, usually present on the system tray,
and under microphone (may show as mic) click the mute
button."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "You could try uninstalling the
sound card and then take it out. Stick it in another PCI
slot. If the sound chip is welded to the mainboard, disable
in the BIOS, take the mouse out and boot up without a
mouse, incurring a warning message. Then, enable sound
card in the BIOS and boot up, again without a mouse. If
the sound card is working OK, then shut down and stick
mouse back in and reboot. Ensure you have the latest drivers
for the sound card\chip. If using a VIA chipset, get the
latest drivers for your mainboard."
Q 130-02
I have Windows ME and am running a DSL modem. For some
reason, Windows ME will not shut down when prompted unless
the modem is unplugged from the USB port. Is there any
way to go in and reconfigure so that I can stop this problem?
A 130-02
John Hills said, "The biggest single cause of shutdown
problems is drivers. Make sure you have the correct and
latest USB driver for your mainboard particularly if running
a VIA chipset
You may find this useful http://www.aumha.org/a/shutdown.htm"
New Questions
Q 131-01
Sometimes, not always, when I click on the start button
the menu will pop up as it should but then go back down
right away. I sometimes, not always, have to click on
the start button 2 to 3 times in order for it to stay
open. When I click down it pops up. When I release the
button, it goes down (the menu) Other times it works well
the first time. The same problem happens sometimes, not
always, with some drop down menus.
(PIII 700, 64MB RAM, 15GB HD, Windows ME, IE5.5)
Q 131-02
One certain web page (and the only one) I try to access
freezes up on me at the same place every time (with 5
items remaining). No others will do this, just this one.
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 (29 Tips)
http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/registry.shtml
Lockergnome Tip of the Day
http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/lgtod.shtml
Nerdy Books Microsoft Office Tip of the Day
http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/nbtod.shtml
How To Maximize a Program When it Starts
(Software suggestion)
http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/maximizescreen.shtml
Adding the Control Panel to the Start menu
http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/cpmenu.shtml
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
The Pause/Break Key
Both subscribers John Hills and wanted to mention a little
more about the Pause/Break key (last week's Cheap Trick).
John said that the Pause/Break key "is useful for pausing
the PC in boot up so you can read the BIOS info before it
disappears. However, there does appear to be a learned skill
on pressing it at the right time. Press again to continue.
In dos, the key was used for pausing during the execution
of a batch file i.e. Autoexec.bat"
Herman Steeman said, "I wanted to tell some more about
the pause key. It's something from the old DOS century and
is not very useful anymore. When you are running a DOS program
you can force the program to pause and if you hit the spacebar
or any other key the program will resume. This can be handy
sometime when your (for example) developing al program and
want to look (behind) the program to see wat the results
are, or simple when you want to stop for later resume.
Lately I discovered that it can be handy when you're busy
configuring your computer. Before windows starts you see
the configuration of your computer, the IRQ setting from
your PNP devices, the available RAM and sort of things.
Mostly there's no time to read this except when pressing
the pause button the right time."
Windows ME and Epson Printers
Subscriber John Hills send me this:
"I anyone buys an Epson USB printer it will not run
in Windows ME without a new Epson USB driver available from
Epson website. Unfortunately, Epson do not mention this
when in their instruction manual."
New Top Level Domains
There has been a lot of "buzz" about the 7 new
top-level domains (TLD) that ICANN approved. Now there is
even more "buzz" about the 20 new TLDs that New.net
Inc is trying to implement. The problem is, DNS servers
don't recognize these 20 new extensions. If you visit the
New.net site, you can install a small control that will
"activate" these new TLDs. You don't even need
to restart your computer, just close all instances of your
browser and when you start it again you will have access
to these new TLDs.
For more info:
http://www.new.net/
http://www.itworldcanada.com/search/DisplayArticle.cfm?
V=CW,MAIN,713F4150-1E05-11D5-AA8000A0CC574E58
Visit http://www.lisagold.family/
to see if your browser supports these TLDs.
Once your browser recognizes the 20 TLDs, visit http://www.mary.med/
and see what the nice screen you get when you try to visit
a domain that doesn't exist.
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 mailto:editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2000, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All
rights reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part,
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