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Issue 154 - September 26, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2001
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Welcome to the 154th 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
It has been unusually cold this week so far. It is supposed
to warm up again, but I guess it is inevitable that it will
get cold sooner or later.
I will be attending a Windows XP preview event on October
16 in Toronto. It will be interesting to see what sort of
propaganda Microsoft tries to spread. The last Microsoft I
went to was very good, so hopefully this one will be as well.
Return to the top
The NEWS
Bin Laden usurps Britney in online searches
"Osama bin Laden has displaced Pamela Anderson Lee
in cyberspace and people looking for information about the
American flag outnumbered those curious about Britney Spears.
For the first time in the short history of the Internet,
popular search engines report that "sex" dropped
off their lists of top 10 search terms in the days following
the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. "Popular
search terms last week turned almost exclusively to disaster-related
information," said David Emanuel, spokesman for the
popular search engine AltaVista, which tracks top search
terms.
Almost all perennial favorites like Pamela Anderson Lee,
Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys were knocked off the
list."
For more info:
http://usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001/09/20/search-terms.htm
China Quietly Unblocks U.S. Sites
"Chinese Internet censors quietly unblocked several
major U.S. media websites this week in a surprise move that
one Chinese expert said may have been prompted by a demand
for news about the U.S. terrorist attacks.
The change grants China's Web-using public access to the
previously unviewable sites of The Washington Post, Los
Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Boston Globe,
which were blocked as recently as Sunday. It was unclear
exactly what day the unblocking occurred.
Among those still blocked are the sites of CNN, Voice of
America, Time magazine and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
as well as a slew of Western human rights groups including
Amnesty International."
For more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47017,00.html
E911 Wouldn't Help at WTC
"Shortly after last week's terrorist attacks in New
York, a man trapped where a courtyard previously existed
between the twin World Trade Center towers was rescued after
he called for help on his mobile phone.
To locate more victims in the WTC, Lucent Technologies and
Verizon Wireless used directional antennas to pinpoint the
location of cell phones in the crumbled buildings.
This activity coincides with a federal mandate that carriers
begin implementing technology that allows emergency dispatchers
to locate cell phone callers by Oct. 1."
For more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,46850,00.html
Microsoft Opens Door to Passport
"Microsoft Corp. put out a call for the creation of
a 'federated' authentication system Thursday, saying it
plans to open its Passport authentication system to interoperate
with enterprises, network and other service operators to
deliver universal single sign-in spanning multiple organizations
and services.
In layman's terms, the move is designed to spur the development
of a system whereby Internet users create a single, secure
online identity to represent them across the Internet --
from signing in to corporate networks to shopping at an
e-commerce site. While Microsoft is offering to open up
its own service to arch-rivals -- like AOL Time Warner Inc.,
which is hard at work on its own 'Magic Carpet' authentication
system -- and other companies, the major motivating factor
appears to be advancing its own HailStorm and .NET initiatives."
For more info:
http://www.internetnews.com/asp-news/article/0,,3411_888641,00.html
http://www.microsoft.com/MSCorp/presspass/Press/2001/Sep01/09-20PassportFederationPR.asp
Return to the top
POLL of the WEEK
Here are the responses from the last poll:
Do you worry about companies using cookies or other registration
information (demographics) to track your "surfing"
habits?
Yes: 60.00%
No: 38.33%
Never thought of it before: 1.67%
Total Votes: 60
Visit http://pcin.net/polls/
to participate in the new poll this week:
Do you use any voice recognition software?
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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
sis motherboard with onboard sound. sis 7018 driver. Sound
goes distorted and I have to reinstall driver. Seems to
work ok for a while then goes again.
Answer
Check on the internet for an updated driver or patch.
Any other comments or suggestions? Visit http://www.pcin.net/cgi-bin/forum/index.cgi
and check out the Hardware Forum to post your comments, 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:
Some Useful Registry Tips (Now 51 Tips!)
http://pcin.net/help/articles/registry.shtml
Support PCIN
http://pcin.net/donate.shtml
Return to the top
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Some Essential Sites
I'm sure that many of you subscribe to Fred Langa's newsletter,
LangaList. Fred has been in the industry for years and currently
writes a column for InformationWeek magazine. One of his
recent columns was title "The Best PC Help, Reference,
And Test Sites". There are links to over 80 sites.
I don't generally like to copy content from other newsletters,
but this is a very good list. Check out his top site at
http://informationweek.com/story/IWK20010916S0021
Home Networking
Fred had a lot of good sites (mentioned above), but there
was nothing about home networking. Now that so many people
have more than one computer at home, they are learning how
to connect them. Check out the sites below:
Home Computer Networking and Internet Connection Sharing
Help
http://www.homenethelp.com/
Practically Networked Home
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/
World of Windows Networking
http://www.wown.com/
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.
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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
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FreeHelp from me in the past.
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email me at editor@pcin.net
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- 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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