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Issue 180 - March 27, 2002
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2002
==== 2311 Subscribers in 56 Countries ====
Welcome to the 180th 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. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will
come back for more!
You can reach me at editor@pcin.net
with any suggestions or comments.
Recommend PCIN at http://PCIN.net/recommend.php
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.shtml
CONTENTS
OPENING
THOUGHTS
The weather can be so screwy around here. A few weeks ago we
were having Spring weather in Winter. We had a day here where
it was around 20° C or 70° F. Yesterday we received 10-15
cm of snow with temperatures approaching -10° C or 14°
F. And now the snow is gone already! Hopefully that was the last
bit of snow we will get.
Lisa will be happy with the results of last week's poll. 51%
of the people who voted in the poll think that we'll have a girl.
It was a slim margin of victory, but she'll take it :-)
Over the last several weeks Chris and I have completed 3 new
software reviews and 1 hardware review. We still have several
other reviews that we are working on. Make sure that you check
out the PCIN.net Update section below. Any new pages
or updates to pages will be listed there.
Graham editor@pcin.net
and Chris chris@pcin.net
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The NEWS
Antitrust Probe of eBay Closed, No Action Taken
"U.S. antitrust authorities have closed an investigation
without taking any action into eBay Inc.'s conduct toward online
auction sites that list eBay's content, the company said on
Monday.
The probe by the Justice Department's antitrust division examined
eBay's licensing program and a now-settled lawsuit eBay had
filed against Massachusetts Bidder's Edge, an auction aggregator
that agreed to stop posting eBay content on its site. Aggregators
are search-driven sites that help users keep up-to-date on several
auction destinations simultaneously."
For more info:
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=739019
Spammers lose in small-claims court
"Free-speech group Peacefire.org has won a legal round
in its fight against unsolicited e-mail, invoking Washington
state's anti-spam law.
The King County District Court in Bellevue, Wash., on Monday
granted Peacefire $1,000 in damages in each of three complaints
filed by Peacefire Webmaster Bennett Haselton. The small-claims
suit alleged that Red Moss Media, Paulann Allison and Richard
Schueler sent unsolicited commercial messages to Haselton that
bore deceptive information such as a forged return e-mail address
or misleading subject line."
For more info:
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-868332.html
Hackers find new way to bilk eBay users
"Someone other than Gloria Geary had access to the Washington
artist's eBay account last week.
Using Geary's user ID, the person set up an auction for an Intel
Pentium computer chip. Not only that, but the person changed
Geary's password so she could no longer access her own account--or
cancel the bogus auction.
Geary, who discovered the auction Friday, was able to convince
eBay to pull down the auction over the weekend, but not before
suffering through a stressful day of worrying about how the
auction would affect her legitimate listings.
'I felt totally violated. I was shaking,' Geary said. 'It's
appalling the ease at which they totally took over my account.'"
For more info:
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-868278.html
MS sued over patents by former exec
"Network Commerce, an Internet commerce tools and services
company headed by a former Microsoft executive, said Monday
it is suing the software giant for allegedly violating a patent
on conducting electronic commerce.
Seattle-based Network Commerce said the patent covers a method
for online shopping that uses separate servers and a piece of
software to coordinate downloading of software, music and video
over the Internet."
For more info:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-868499.html
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/03/25/020325hnnetcommerce.xml
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POLL of
the WEEK
Here are the responses from the last poll:
What sex will Lisa and Graham's baby be?
It's
a Boy! 48.78 % (20)
It's a Girl! 51.22 % (21)
Total votes: 41
Visit http://pcin.net/polls/
to participate in the new poll this week:
Which auction site do your prefer?
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FREEHELP
FORUM
Visit the new and improved PCIN FreeHelp Forum at http://www.pcin.net/cgi-bin/bb/YaBB.cgi
to post your questions or answer others.
Question
Recently installed Win XP upgrade. Now, for some reason, when
I boot up with everything displayed on screen, i then try to
connect to my ISP and have no success. Most of the time, I can't
get the start to open Everything seems to be locked. Then if
I do a ctl, alt, delete, and I can get it to work. Right after
I installed XP, it worked fine - now this problem.
Answer
Do you use Dial-up? If so, does the modem pick up the line
and dial? What was the previous Operating System before Windows
XP?
If you have a suggestion, visit the General Discussion forum
at http://www.pcin.net/cgi-bin/bb/YaBB.cgi?board=general
and click on the "Win XP - After boot up, can't connect to
ISP" subject.
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PCIN.net
UPDATE
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
Annotis Mail 1.1 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/annotismail.shtml
Avocent SwitchView KVM Switch Hardware Review
http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/switchview.shtml
Connectix Virtual PC 4.2 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/virtualpc4.shtml
PurgeIE 4.04 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/purgeie4.shtml
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THE TIPS
and OTHER STUFF
Searching Multiple Knowledgebases
Subscriber Steve Henthorn sent this in:
I would like to recommend a site which I read about in a recent
issue of another zine:
FreeAnswers @ http://www.freeanswers.com
- taps the knowledgebase of different vendors.
With this site you can choose your operating system and vendor
as well as determine in advance how many results you want posted
to your screen (up to 50). Questions are asked in natural language
and results are quick and ranked in order of relevance. This
is a lot quicker than having to motor to the vendor's site and
trying to type in a question that will match their specific
language (wording).
Thanks for a great zine. Keep up the great work!
Steve Henthorn, Pub., Ed.-in-Chief
SPHERE Publishing House (no spam here)
Web page: http://users.mis.net/~sphere/index.html
CC online: http://users.mis.net/~sphere/cc.html
The Webby Awards
Subscriber Pat Clary sent me a link to the 2001 Webby Award
web site. The web site describes the Webby Awards as:
"From online galleries and up-to-the-second news sources,
to interplanetary exploration and cyber-communities, The Webby
Awards nominees exemplify the kinds of sites that Internet users
visit daily for information and entertainment."
You can find out who was nominated at http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/nominees.html
and you can see the winners at http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/winner_list.html
Other Google Options
Last week I mentioned a program that let you start a Google
search without having to open IE first. Well, Google has several
utilities of their own that let you "enjoy the power of
Google Search":
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DISCLAIMER
and OTHER STUFF
PCIN is brought to you by Graham Wing. The opinions expressed
are those of the Editor, Graham Wing and the Assistant Editor,
Chris Empey. Graham Wing and Chris Empey 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.php
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
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Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Chris Empey can be reached at chris@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2002, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long
as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.
Support PCIN by visiting http://www.pcin.net/donate.shtml
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