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Issue 151 - September 05, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2001
==== 2258 Subscribers in 58 Countries ====
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Welcome to the 151st issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists mainly
of news and tips. There is something for everyone, and if this is your first
issue, I'm sure there will be something for you.
You can reach me at editor@pcin.net
with any suggestions or comments. If you give me two or three
issues, I know that you will come back for more!
Recommend PCIN at http://PCIN.net/recommend.shtml
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.shtml
CONTENTS
OPENING THOUGHTS
I can't believe that Summer is over! I know, we still have a couple of weeks
left, but with school back in session, it sure seems like it is over. As many
of you know, I work in Niagara Falls in the heart of all of the tourist industry.
Last Friday the area was packed. This week it has been empty. You can't take
vacation when the kids are at school.
Friend and Subscriber, Shawn Bremner, used to provide the information for the
MOBILE COMPUTING NEWS and NOTES section. He is busy pursuing other avenues and
so will no longer be providing that content.
Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes (it was Monday). I'm 26 now and
officially in my second quarter of a century!
Return to the top
The NEWS
HP To Merge With Compaq For US$25 Billion
"Hewlett-Packard said late last night that it was acquiring Compaq Computer
(news/quote) for $25 billion in stock in a bold move to grow as the computer
industry struggles with shrinking sales.
The merger, if completed, would produce a company with total revenue only
slightly less than that of I.B.M. (news/quote), the largest computer company.
But both Hewlett-Packard and Compaq have recently seen revenue slide and profit
plunge because of a industry slowdown, and both have announced job cuts."
This is huge news. These 2 companies were both major players in all aspects
of the PC industry. But what is even more amazing (in my mind, anyway), is
that the combined company still won't match IBM's revenue. No wonder they
are called Big Blue.
For more info:
Wall St. Finds Fault With Computer Merger
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/05/technology/05PLAC.html
HP To Merge With Compaq For US$25 Billion
http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article/0,2198,3531_877361,00.html
Hewlett and Compaq Fall as Investors Question Deal
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/technology/04CND-DEAL.html
HP, Compaq target enterprise, services markets in $25 billion acquisition
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/09/04/010904hnhp.xml
EU will investigate HP-Compaq merger
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/09/04/010904hneuhp.xml
HP, Compaq face challenges
http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/09/04/deals/hp_compaq/
Hewlett-Packard to Acquire Compaq in $25 Billion Deal
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/technology/04DEAL.html
HP To Buy Compaq For $25 Billion
http://www.interactiveweek.com/article/0,3658,s%253D1825%2526a%253D13817,00.asp
The Trust Factor
From the September 25, 2001 issue of PC Magazine, pg 25:
"Canadians have taken to online banking, while many Americans remain
hesitant thanks to privacy concerns."
| |
Canada |
US |
| Have done banking online |
61% |
29% |
| Have made purchase online |
68% |
77% |
| Have confidence that the banking industry can ensure online privacy |
69% |
49% |
U.N. Body Urges Stronger Rules on Cybersquatters
"The United Nations' intellectual property agency WIPO proposed broader
rules Monday to protect high-profile figures and international organizations
from misuse of their names on the Internet.
The agency said a year-long study had shown that protection from "cybersquatters"
who register Web sites under names to which they have no genuine claim was
also needed for countries, some geographical names, ethnic groups and pharmaceutical
substances."
For more info:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-tech-internet.html
Did FBI Ignore Code Red Warning?
"The Code Red threat seems to have finally halted its malicious crawl,
but the security company that discovered the vulnerability that Code Red exploits
says the swift-moving Internet worm might have been immobilized much sooner
if not for federal agencies' caution about publicizing security threats.
The worm hit more than 700,000 computers in July and August 2001, depositing
a Trojan horse program on infected machines, which then simultaneously attacked
a specific Internet Protocol address (initially, the White House Web site).
The volume of messages slowed Internet traffic in general.
Now, details about an earlier Code Red-like worm that hit systems back in
February 2001 are raising questions about the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
handling of computer virus outbreaks.
For more info:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,60543,00.asp
Return to the top
POLL of the WEEK
Here are the responses from the last poll:
Which browser to you use?
IE5.5: 41.44%
IE6: 18.02%
IE5: 14.41%
Opera (all versions): 9.91%
NS4.7: 9.01%
NS6: 4.50%
Other: 0.90%
NS4: 0.90%
IE4: 0.90%
NS3: 0.00%
NS2: 0.00%
IE3: 0.00%
IE2: 0.00%
Total Votes: 111
Visit http://pcin.net/polls/
to participate in the new poll this week:
Your office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.) is made by which company?
Return to the top
FREEHELP FORUM
Visit the PCIN FreeHelp Forum to post your questions or answer
others. Each week I highlight a question, and where to go
to get the answer.
Question
In trying to convert from FAT 16 to FAT 32 I get a message saying I have
a bad file cluster and therefore cannot convert to FAT 32.
How can I remove bad file clusters to permit conversion to FAT 32?
Answer
No Answers Yet!
Visit http://www.pcin.net/cgi-bin/forum/index.cgi
and check out the Hardware Forum to post your suggestion, or to post a question
of your own.
Return to the top
PCIN.net UPDATE
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
Highlight Vertically in Microsoft Word 2000
http://PCIN.net/help/articles/highlightvertically.shtml
Some Useful Registry Tips (now 49 tips)
http://PCIN.net/help/articles/registry.shtml
Archive of PCIN Polls
http://PCIN.net/polls/2001/
Support PCIN
http://PCIN.net/donate.shtml
Return to the top
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Cheap Trick of the Week
**Periodic navigation **
This is a little trick to navigate among Windows folders that old-time users
of DOS, the precursor to Windows, may recognize.
Suppose you're trying to find a document to open in a program like Word and
you have to look in a folder higher than the one that's showing in the Open
dialogue box. You can click on the little yellow folder with the arrow pointing
up near the top of the box, or you can try typing two periods (..) as the
File name and pressing Enter. You'll find that you've moved up one folder.
Type in three periods (...) and you move up two folders - always one fewer
steps than the number of periods.
But that's not all. This also works in desktop folders if you have them set
up to display like Web pages. To go to the parent folder of the one you have
open, for example, type two periods in the Address line and press Enter.
Get your own copy of "The Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks: 2001"
by visiting http://www.pcin.net/lbbct/
Highlight Vertically in Microsoft Word 2000
A couple of weeks ago I shared a tip about highlighting vertically in Microsoft
Word 2000. If you missed it, or didn't understand the tip, I have created
a web page on the PCIN.net site that explains this in more details and has
a couple of screenshots. You can check it out at http://pcin.net/help/articles/highlightvertically.shtml.
Internet Explorer 6.0
Last week I shared my initial
thoughts one IE 6 and some of its new features. Well, I've played with
it some more and one of the cooler (but probably unnecessary features) is
the Image
Toolbar. When you hover over an image, a small toolbar appears which makes
it easy to save, print, or email and image that you've found on the web.
Also, Subscriber Tony Lowell sent me his thoughts on IE6:
"As you know I've been running IE6.0 BETA and OE6.0 BETA since February.
I too have found no serious problems and assume it is now generally available.
Time for me to upgrade again. Here are some of my observations. They are not
actual facts and are for WIN98 and DOS 6.2.
Cookies. Cookies with hidden, system, archive or read-only attributes still
need to be deleted using DOS. DIR c:\windows\cookies /a to find them. Use
the ATTRIB and ERASE to get rid of them. INDEX.DAT is a shared file and can
only be deleted outside of Windows using DOS not the MSDOS prompt. The 'allow
cookies by address' is helpful for those archaic sites that require cookies
and you visit regularly Rather than changing your cookie security option for
ALL sites you can select the sites that you trust. In the event you go to
a page not in the list, that pages cookie will be rejected. In the prior release
it was all or nothing. If you forgot to put the cookie blocker back on, you
might receive some nasties when you went to another site. This was compounded
if you had multiple sites open or if you used synchronize or auto refresh.
The global setting affects all sites even those refreshed behind the scenes.
Temp files. Not all temporary files are deleted. Starting with IE5.0 the TEMP
file was no longer used but is supported for prior releases (old WEB sites).
WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1 replaced it. Only the base files are deleted not the sub-directories
nor the respective files e.g. the WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\any extension. You need
to use DOS. MS uses these extensions for downloads but never cleans them up.
I don't know why but desktop preferences are also in here for WINDOWS EXPLORER
which IS NOT Internet Explorer. Windows resets the desktop to the default
settings including changing the IE CONNECTIONS setting to go to MSN OE6. Receive
can be set NOT to delete your mail from the ISP server. This is handy if you
bounce between machines as I do. No more sending yourself E-mail because the
mail you want is on the other box. Great for laptops when you're out of town.
No more oh dear I opened that mail at the office, home etc. Just receive it
again. WARNING!! Using this option overrides the option delete the message
on exit. DELETE will delete the mail from the INBOX folder put it in the DELETE
folder and leave it there. You must go to the DELETE folder and delete the
message. This will clear it from your machine and the ISP. Remember this for
niceties like viruses and worms."
It's National Find Day!
"It's National Find Day! In celebration, we are offering Enfish®
Find absolutely FREE, for one day only - TODAY, September 5, 2001! Don't miss
this special opportunity to get this $69.95 value absolutely FREE. Remember,
this special offer is available TODAY ONLY."
I've never used the program, but Enfish.com is offering their software for
free. If you're interesting, visit http://www.enfish.com/products/findfree.asp
Return to the top
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 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 editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2001, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All
rights reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part,
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as is.
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