Issue 231 - March 19, 2003

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2003
==== 2150 Subscribers in 60 Countries ====

Welcome to the 231st 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.

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Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.php

CONTENTS

The NEWS

Who Cares About the Fastest Internet Ever?

Those who caught the announcement last week that researchers at Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) had broken an Internet land-speed record might be forgiven for expressing a collective shrug. The SLAC'ers announced they had sent 6.7 billion bytes of data at a rate of 1 billon bits, or 1 gigabit, per second over 10,000 kilometers between Sunnyvale, California, and their collaborators at the NIKHEF institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with help from Caltech.
There were a lot of big numbers -- 6,800 miles between labs, US$1 million in donated equipment -- but a billion bits per second? New Macintosh PowerBooks already ship with Gigabit Ethernet connections. Indeed, the speed in question sounds far from earth-shattering. Why should onlookers feel awe?
The secret is, the breakthrough is not about speed. It is about solving tricky networking problems. Communicating smarter, not faster, was the goal. During those 58 seconds -- the time it took to transmit all 6.7 billion bytes -- the researchers made history.

For more info:
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20986.html

Netherlands No Hacker Haven

The Netherlands is no Napster nation.
Contrary to implications in recent media reports, Dutch lawyers say their small European country shouldn't be held up as the poster child for file-sharing and copyright violation.
A court case against file-sharing service Kazaa helped stir up the confusion. Dutch royalties agency Buma/Stemra sought an injunction against Kazaa to stop it from distributing a file-sharing utility and allowing copyrighted material to be swapped on its network. But the judges in the case said Kazaa could not be responsible for the illegal actions of others. Buma/Stemra has appealed the decision to the Dutch Supreme Court.
But in the meantime the rumor has spread that the Netherlands is a shelter for file-sharing companies. Lawyers on both sides of the Dutch Kazaa case say that's just not true.

For more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58007,00.html

China opens web to the West

Western businesses are now able to buy a piece of real estate in Chinese cyberspace, opening up a potentially massive new e-commerce market.
As from Sunday, businesses outside China can register .cn domain names for the first time ever.
By allowing foreign business to buy up a Chinese domain name, Beijing has removed one of the barriers to Western companies trading.
It will allow big e-tailers like Amazon to establish a local presence in a lucrative market.

For more info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2856629.stm

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POLL of the WEEK

Last Week's Poll

Where do you get your news from?

Web sites 25.71 % (27)
TV 33.33 % (35)
Newspaper 21.90 % (23)
Radio 17.14 % (18)
Other 1.90 % (2)
Total votes: 105

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PCIN.net FREEHELP FORUM

Visit the PCIN.net FreeHelp Forum at http://PCIN.net/help/forum/ to post your questions or answer others.

Question

I've just upgraded to Netscape 7, and while some new things will take getting used to and others need to be beaten into submission, it's not bad.
However, the scroll bar on the browser page is too skinny for me to hit accurately, and I can find no way to widen it. Any ideas?

Response

No reponses yet.

To post a response, visit the General Software Help forum at http://PCIN.net/help/forum/index.php?board=3 and click on the "Netscape 7" topic.

Visit http://PCIN.net/help/forum/ to 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:

Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical Hardware Review
http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/lcfo.php

Some Useful Registry Tips - Now 171 Tips!
http://PCIN.net/help/articles/registry_tips.php

Paragon Hard Disk Manager 5.5 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/paragonhdm55.php

Object Desktop Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/objectdesktop.php

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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

More Keyboard Tips

Last week I shared the CTRL+F6 keyboard shortcut that cycles through open documents in many different programs. A couple of long-time subscribers emailed me their tips:
Shawn Bremner
CTRL+TAB also toggles through Excel, which is easier than CTRL+F6. I just wish it worked in Word.
Chris Weatley
Try ALT + ENTER when over the item or icon, file or document.
Much quicker and CTRL + P prints in all microsoft programs!
If its OFFICE and it has a spell checker F7 starts it (from Dos Word v4 to Word XP)

FrontX Alternative

Last week I mentioned an update to the FrontX Computer Port Expansion system. Subscriber Chris emailed me about an alternative:
"You mentioned Front X. I have something that beats it and is much cheaper ($8.99 biege and $10.00 black) it has 2 x USB2.0 Version Connect Ports; Sound Card Connect Ports; Volume Control Switch; Game Control Port; IEEE 1394 Connect Port.
http://store.yahoo.com/directron/sf601b.html"

PDF995 Update

"Last April I (Chris Empey) reviewed the PDF995 suite which enables you to create PDF docuements without the need for expensive software. One feature not included in the version I reviewed was the ability to set security on the document to prevent changing, copying or printing the PDF. They now have a new add-on to the suite (an addition to Signature995) that allows that functionality. You can download PDF995 from http://pdf995.com/, pdfEdit995 from http://pdfedit995.com/ and Signature995 from http://Signature995.com/. Look for the the Standard Encryption Module 1.02 download for security support."

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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.

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Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Chris Empey can be reached at chris@pcin.net

Copyright 1998-2003, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.

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