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
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
You can also vote online at http://PCIN.net/polls/
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
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.
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:
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.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author
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