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Issue 160 - November 07, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2001
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Welcome to the 160th 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
Today was my first day back at work after being off for 5
days. No, I didn't do much. Yes, I'm lazy :-) Actually, my
dad helped me put in a new sink and vanity in our bathroom
on Saturday. Lisa and I have been in our house for 10 months
now. We've done a lot, but there is still so much more to
do!
My mother Marsha, and Lisa, are starting a little business
together. Of course I'm the one who is stuck with doing all
of the techy stuff. I'm in the process of building a web site
for them at http://www.SmockedDreams.com/ It is still very basic, but has
a few pictures of the smocked dresses that they can both make.
They're going to be in some craft shows, so I've got to get
the site finished soon.
Return to the top
The NEWS
Pornography Takes Over Financial Site for Children
"Visitors to a financial Web site for children this week
were in for a shock: the math-and-money game they expected
to find had been replaced by a pornography site.
The money game, which is still accessible at Moneyopolis.com,
was produced by Ernst & Young, the auditing and consulting
company. An Ernst & Young spokesman, Kenneth Kerrigan,
said the company had learned this week that pornographic
images had been posted at an alternate Web address for the
site, Moneyopolis.org, which has been under new ownership
since this summer."
For more info:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/26/technology/26NET.html
eBay Struggles to Meet Ambitious Charity Goals
"The Internet auction company eBay Inc EBAY.O is more than
just a popular marketplace for trading collectibles and
big ticket items. It is a favorite on Wall Street for consistently
beating The rosiest sales and earnings forecasts in even
the toughest times.
Yet when the company reported another quarter of surprisingly
strong results last week, it noted that it was well behind
on one much-publicized financial goal.
EBay said its Auction for America, an ambitious charity
auction launched in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, had
raised $5 million in its first month.
EBay's auction lets sellers put up goods they would normally
sell for their own gain and donate all the money they raise
to the relief effort. People can also go to the eBay site
to make cash donations.
The $5 million raised to date means the company is on track
to bring in a total of $15 million, a healthy sum, but just
a small fraction of the $100 million it pledged to raise
before the auction officially ends December 25."
For more info:
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=316960
Pope to preach the virtues of the Web
"The leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul
II, may not fiddle around with computers much himself, but
he certainly seems to be warming to the Internet. On Tuesday,
the Vatican announced that the pope has decided the theme
of next year’s World Communications Day will be 'Internet:
A New Forum for Proclaiming the Gospel.' Meanwhile, the
pope is said to be on the verge of proclaiming a sixth-century
Spanish priest as the patron saint of cyberspace."
For more info:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/653706.asp
Dumping @Home
My local cable company, Cogeco cable, has been providing
@Home Internet service for the past couple of years. This
past week, I received the following via email:
"URGENT! IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED RE: YOUR SERVICE
In light of the financial challenges facing Excite@Home,
Cogeco Cable is proactively taking the final steps to ensure
the long term reliability and stability of the network and
related internet Services, including E-mail provided to
our customers. As such, Cogeco Cable is relocating residential
E-mail service accounts that end with the domain name "@home.com"
to a new Cogeco E-mail address. This process requires your
co-operation and prompt attention so that you can automatically
continue receiving your E-mails, content and personal web
space. The following actions should only take 15-30 minutes
of your time."
I haven't heard anything about the surround cable companies
(Shaw, Rogers) or any US companies, but if Excite@Home is
going under, then these other companies will take similar
steps. I appreciate the fact that my provider is doing this
ahead of time. Of course, I never use my @Home email account,
so I don't care what they change it to. I presume that everyone
who uses their @Home address is pretty anxious about losing
their email.
For more info:
http://conversion.cogeco.ca/
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POLL of the WEEK
Here are the responses from the last poll:
How often do you change your desktop wallpaper and/or desktop
theme?
Almost Never: 40.96%
Never: 24.10%
Weekly: 14.46%
Monthly: 8.43%
Every-other day: 6.02%
Daily: 6.02%
Total Votes: 83
Visit http://pcin.net/polls/
to participate in the new poll this week:
Now that Napster is virtually gone, do you still download
MP3s?
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
Running Windows 98. Just installed IE 6.X. I've written
various batch files for various functions. However, since
updating IE, now my batch files produce a popup program
that won't exit until hitting Control+C. The files perform
the requested functions well enough, but I'm always left
with that pesky pop-up program window that I have to exit.
It seems regardless of the properties of the batch files
or their shortcuts (run maximized, close on exit, etc.)
I end up with that pop-up program. So far I've been unable
to figure it out. Any ideas?
Answer
No answers yet.
Do you know the answer or have a suggestion? Visit http://www.pcin.net/cgi-bin/forum/index.cgi
and check out the Software Forum. Post your answer or post
a question of your own.
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PCIN.net UPDATE
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
Neat Net Tricks Syndicated Tip of the Week
http://PCIN.net/help/tods/nnttow.shtml
Some Useful Registry Tips (Now 57 Tips!)
http://www.pcin.net/polls/2001/
Support PCIN
http://pcin.net/donate.shtml
Return to the top
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Deee's Computer and Internet Reference Guide
I came across this site recently. It is a very plain collection
of links. There are All About Computers, All About Networking,
Miscellaneous, Operating Systems, and All About The Internet
categories. Each category is divided into sub-categories,
and each sub-category has many links. Plain, but very useful.
Check it out at http://users.erols.com/foxdm/computer.htm
Microsoft Passport Options
Many people have a Microsoft Passport, even if they just
have a Hotmail account. Every Hotmail email account automatically
has a Microsoft Passport account. I wasn't sure if I had
any address information stored with my Passport, so I visited
the Passport.com web site to see. It turns out I didn't,
but I noticed that I was allowing them to share information
about me when I don't want them to. I have a Microsoft Passport
strictly because I have to. I have no need for any site
to see any information about me other than the fact that
I have a Passport, and therefore can login.
Well, if you visit http://www.passport.com/ and login with your passport information,
you will find that there are 3 options for sharing information:
- Share my e-mail address
- Share my first and last names
- Share my other registration information
On all 3 of my passports, the first and third options were
checked. It's not a big deal since I only login to Microsoft
sites with my passport, but I see no reason to share that
information, so I turned it off. You may want to consider
that as well.
Note: If you want to change the email address that you
have your passport set up under, you would do it from the
same page.
The Internet Public Library - Online Newspapers
This is from the November 9, 2001 issue of Entertainment
Weekly magazine:
"Want to know how the Saudis see the intifada? Or
get Pakistani opinions of American foreign policy? Or find
out whether Iran will help support Afghan refugees? This
virtual reading room, with links to hundreds of the world's
newspapers, lets you browse by region, country, or title
to read overseas views on global events. If that knowledge
can lead to greater understanding, all news is good news."
Check it out at http://ipl.org/reading/news/
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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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- Support PCIN by visiting http://www.pcin.net/donate.shtml
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Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2001, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All
rights reserved.
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