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Issue 339 - April 13, 2005

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2005
==== 2048 Subscribers in 60 Countries ====

Welcome to the 339th 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.php

CONTENTS

Opening Thoughts

If you've visited the PCIN.net Update blog lately, you'd have seen that we switched from using Blogger to using b2evolution. This is hosted on our server and so won't be prone to any of the problems that have been plaguing Blogger. It also allows us to categorize the posts. Be sure to check it out and leave comments for some of the posts. We will still be using some of the content from the blog in our newsletter. But not everything from the blog will be in the newsletter, and not everything from the newsletter will be on the blog. For the time being, we encourage you to read both :-)

Chris and I visited Brick City today. It's a new attraction here in Niagara Falls. It's better than what it replaced, but it is still quite price at $7.99.

Graham editor@pcin.net and Chris chris@pcin.net

The NEWS

Some schools go high-tech to make up for lost field trips

"Jacy Borlik and her sixth-grade classmates watched as a curator for the Indiana State Museum showed how a 30,000-year-old dinosaur bone is excavated and then catalogued.
'It was cool,' Jacy said.
But the students never left their school 15 miles southwest of South Bend and the curator never left the museum in Indianapolis. They were connected from North Liberty Elementary School by interactive videoconferencing, which educators say is becoming more common as firsthand learning experiences like field trips are cut from tight school budgets."

For more info:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-04-11-high-tech-field-trips_x.htm

The new telephony

"Before business trips, Suneet Tuli used to leave behind a long list of numbers where he could be reached and told important clients to ring him on his cell phone. The routine was cumbersome and cost him about $800 a month in phone bills.
Now, he has local numbers for New York, London and Mexico City despite no permanent presence in any of those cities. The lines automatically forward to another number that seamlessly transfers to a cell phone with the best rates for wherever he happens to be.
Because Tuli's calls are routed mainly over the Internet instead of the traditional voice network, he can make changes to the elaborate setup simply by visiting a Web site. And he's cut his phone bill by about 80 percent."

For more info:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/04/13/new.telephony.ap/index.html

Hakuna matata - we don't care about spam

"People may not like spam, but they are increasingly learning to live with it. A new report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project suggests users do not hate spam as much as they did a year ago and that their reaction to it is softening."

For more info:
http://tinyurl.com/3mycp

Sony Says Open to Avoiding DVD Format War

"Sony Corp said on Wednesday it was open to discussions to create a single standard for the next generation of DVD discs, a move which could head off the looming threat of a major format war among the world's biggest technology companies.
'From the point of view to provide the best service to the consumer one format is better than two. We're open to discussions,' Yukinori Kawauchi, general manager in charge of the next DVD format at Sony's Video Group, said in an interview.
But he added that specific proposals had yet to be tabled."

For more info:
http://tinyurl.com/5n2xy

Return to the top Recommend PCIN Poll of the Week

POLL of the WEEK

Last Week's Poll

How many blogs do you subscribe to?

1-5 12 % (8)
6-10 2 % (1)
11-15 3 % (2)
16-20 0 % (0)
>20 0 % (0)
I don't subscribe to any blogs 83 % (54)
Total votes: 65

This Week's Poll

Who does maintenance on your computer (hardware or software)?

I do it myself
A friend or family member does it for free
A friend or family member does it for a fee
I take it into a store and pay someone to do it
I don't do any maintenance on the computer
You can also vote online at http://PCIN.net/polls/
Return to the top Recommend PCIN Poll of the Week

PCIN.net UPDATE

Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:

VMware Inc. VMware Workstation 4.5 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/vmware45.php

PCIN.net Update Blog
http://PCIN.net/update/

Sunbelt Software iHateSpam 4.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/ihatespam4.php

Micro Solutions RoadStor Hardware Review
http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/roadstor.php

Album Creator by FirmTools Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/albumcreator.php

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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

YETISPORTS - Another Game

We have previously mentioned the games at http://www.yetisports.org. They release their 8th game last week with one more scheduled to come. I played YetiSports Jungle Swing once but haven't really gotten too far into it.

Google Sightseeing

"Why bother seeing the world for real?"
I first saw this mentioned on Ed Bott's blog. The sight is very neat. Using the Google Keyhole data, the blogger is showing interesting shots of earth (army testing grounds, odd colours, etc.). Check it out at http://www.shreddies.org/gmaps/

Header/Footer Codes

This was recently mentioned in the Unofficial Microsoft Office Stuff blog.
Microsoft has a knowledgebase article that explains extra codes you can put in headers/footers of Excel.
XL2000: Inserting and Formatting Text in Headers and Footers
Excel already lets you choose basic things such as date/time, page number, document name, etc. These codes will let you apply the same formatting using code.

Return to the top Recommend PCIN Poll of the Week

PCIN.net AFFILIATED SITES

Both of us have other sites other than PCIN.net. These are all sites that we are actively involved in (they aren't client sites). Don't forget to check them out from time to time for updates:

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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 1998-2005, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.

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