PCWize Vol 4, Issue 03 - Desperate pleadings January 16, 2000 ______________________________________________________________________ I'd like to ask for your help not only on my behalf, but also on behalf of all the e-zine/newsletter publishers out there. Please, please, please, if you are going to move or inactivate your e-mail address, please take the time to unsubscribe from the e-zines/newsletters that you have subscribed to using that e-mail address. It's very frustrating to have to deal with a numerous bounces (messages from your mail server saying the e-mail couldn't reach its intended recipient) every week, or even every day for some publishers. Bounce tracking consumes a great deal of time to try and determine if the bounce was caused by Internet congestion, or if the recipient's e-mail address truly is defunct. It's also very difficult to determine how many subscribers you actually have, and this affects the amount of money, or in the case of PCWize, the quality of the free products that I give away in the contests. We (the publishers) spend quite a bit of time to bring you the best, and we do it all for free. It only takes a few minutes of your time, and it saves us hours of wasted time. Thank you. ------ I received an e-mail from a reader, who disagreed with my terminology in the last issue informational piece for IDE. I had referred to the two IDE busses as either 0 and 1 or 1 and 2. While this isn't inaccurate, he felt that I should have used the more proper terms primary and secondary. While I agree that these are the more "proper" terms, my intention was to explain what you would be seeing while looking at your motherboard. You can also thank this reader for convincing me to remove the definitions I provide at the beginning of the Security Issues section. He is correct that it is very redundant (for the majority of you), and wastes space. You'll notice now that there is a link to the PCWize web site where you can read the definitions if needed. Thanks Raymond. ______________________________________________________________________ TOC 1. Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff 2. Software Review 3. Cool Sites 4. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's 5. That's the news! 6. Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends If the columns in the below articles appear misaligned, it's because you are using a non-fixed width font. If you would like to see them nice and straight, change your e-mail font to Courier New. ______________________________________________________________________ ** A word from our sponsors ** ------ http://www.freecreditanalyzer.com - Get your credit situation analyzed online without affecting your credit report. ------ Want to see your advertisement here? For more information, go here: ______________________________________________________________________ 1. Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff ------ Click here to vote for PCWize as one of the best newsletters in the "E-zines Top Ten Poll"! It's just a click, no need to fill anything out. ------ Come visit the PCWize forum and live chat. You may discuss anything computer related and it's a good place to get help with any computer questions you may have. ______________________________________________________________________ 2. Software Review ------ !! Recipient of the PCWize Superior Software Award!! Go here to see who else has won: Name: X-Setup v5.5.1 by Xteq Genre: Tweaking Utilities Platform: PC Win95/98/00/NT Type/Cost: Freeware Size: 2.94MB Homepage: Download: Those of you have been with me for a while, you know I'm a big tweak fan. I love utilities and programs that allow me to customize until my heart is content. I didn't realize how uncontent my heart was until I tried out X-Setup. This is the tweak utility to end all tweak utilities. X-Setup allows to you modify over 400 different settings. TweakUI, Tweaki, and TweakAll don't even compare. The application interface is the familiar Explorer type, and very insightful information is provided on every tweakable option. For those less computer savvy, the author even wrote wizards to walk you through it. Three other things about this utility also made me smile. The first was that you can actually view the scripting code for each tweak if you want to know exactly how it will be done. The second is the built in recording utility that will allow you to capture your tweaks and export them to a .reg file for easy modifications of other computers. And finally, it supports plugins. That means that the software is highly extensible. For example, you discover a new tweak and want to add it to the X-Setup utility. No problem, easy as pie. ohh, ohh, see ya later, I'm gettin' that tweakin' urge again. ______________________________________________________________________ 3. Cool Sites ------ MSN Zone I once reviewed The Zone many moons ago, but I've since rediscovered it and thought it deserved another look. I don't play many games (this e-zine wouldn't get written if I did), but I do enjoy quick card games. The MSN Zone isn't new, but it is a blast. Once registered (free of course), you can play all sorts of games against/with other people who also have no lives! :^) The Zone isn't just card games, you can also play checkers, chess, backgammon, trivia etc., and some on-line capable retail games like Rainbow Six, Quake II, Mech Warrior III, Age of Empires etc. The interesting thing about the Zone is that you can just get in and play a friendly game, or for you bloodthirsty, king-of-the-hill types, go for ladder and tournament play. The graphics are very well done, gameplay is intuitive, and it's an all around fun experience. ______________________________________________________________________ 4. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's ------ A friend of mine reminded me of a trick that works much better than my renaming trick in issue #30 (3.49 on the new numbering scheme.) A much easier way to have the ability to rename file extensions under Windows is to change the default setting for "Hiding file extensions for known file types." You can do this by opening any folder, clicking View, Folder Options, View Tab, and unchecking the box for "Hiding file extensions for known file types." Ahhh, my life is much simpler now. If only I'd had an English version of Win98 before sending the old trick. ______________________________________________________________________ 5. That's the news! ------ Some people just have too much time on their hands, and could use a good butt-kicking as well. Here's a story about an 18 year old hacker who claims to have stolen a database containing 300,000 credit card accounts from CDuniverse.com. To make matters worse, this person then tried to blackmail CDuniverse, threatening to make available the credit card information to whoever wanted it via a public web site if CDuniverse didn't pay him $100,000. Apparently they didn't pay, and apparently he posted the credit card information. See the rest of the story: ______________________________________________________________________ 6. Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends ------ Please visit http://www.pcwize.com/tech/computer/secdef.shtml if you would like to know the definitions for hoaxes, viruses, worms and urban legends. ------ I'd like to thank everybody for now sending their possible hoax letters to me first instead of forwarding them to "everyone they know". I've come across many hoaxes, and some that were true. Here is a copy of the most prevalent hoax to hit my inbox (it would be much more interesting if the writer was able to spell. ) "About a week or so ago, a mother took her eager 3 year old son to Burger King for lunch. After they ate their lunch the mother said that the son could go and play on the playground for awhile since he ate all his lunch. She watched as the boy played in the tunnels, slide and in the ball-pit. The boy played for about 10 minutes when he started to whimper slightly. The mother asked the boy what had happened and he mearly replied, "Hurt mommy." The mother assumed that the little boy had banged his elbow or something while playing. They left to return home. A half and hour after they were home, the mother noticed some big red welts on the little boys arms and legs. Not being able to figure out what they were, the mother started to look at them closer. Could be red ant bites . . . she did not know. An hour later, the little boy died. Come to find out, when returning to Burger King to see if there were red ants in the play area, in case the little boy had an allergic reaction. Burger King employees and herself discovered that there was a family of baby rattlesnakes living underneath the balls in the ball-pit area. She has since found out that this happens more frequently than not. The snakes will crawl into the ball pit because it is dark and warm in there. She knows for a fact that another death has occurred because of this in South Carolina. Please use caution when letting any children play in an outside play area of a fast food resturant, this could happen anywhere. Burger Kings are now building their play area's inside the buildings for more safe environment." You can go here for more information: ______________________________________________________________________ Well, that's it for this issue! Have a good week and I'll see you in seven days. Leif Gregory Copyright © 1997-00 by Leif Gregory. All rights reserved. You may share this copy of the PCWize newsletter with others as long as it is reprinted in it's entirety to include the copyright notice and subscription directions. If you've received this edition of the PCWize newsletter from a friend or colleague and wish to start receiving your own copy, then click the below link and send the generated e-mail message. I have made every attempt to ensure that all information contained in this newsletter is accurate to the best of my ability. Due to the myriad of possible configurations in the PC platform, information and software discussed here may not always work with your particular configuration. That being said, Leif Gregory and the PCWize newsletter can not be held liable for any damages you may incur either directly or indirectly from the use of anything contained in this newsletter. PCWize does not endorse any of the products or services provided by advertisers in this newsletter. As with anything in life, please check the credibility of the advertiser as well as to use common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. PCWize Editor PCWize Homepage Unsubscribe