PCWize Vol 4, Issue 08 - A penny for your thoughts February 20, 2000 ______________________________________________________________________ I haven't been paying attention! It seems some of you have actually been using the PCWize forum to ask computer related questions, and thankfully some of you readers have been providing answers. Thanks for picking up my dropped ball. Now that I know some of you actually use it, I'll endeavor to check it more frequently. Speaking of which, I have created a new forum to discuss issues in various sections of the newsletters. For example, see this week's That's the News section and come join me in the forum for a discussion. ------ If you haven't visited the PCWize web site lately, you're missing some great stuff. I've added to the Windows Tips and tricks section, and on the front page I've added a real-time display for some of the hot technology news items that are happening right now. ------ My daughter Ashley-- a two year old --is learning more and more words every day. In some cases, her pronunciation needs a little work. Such as is the case with the word fork, which, when said by her, sounds not surprisingly much like another word. Parental tip of the week! We've discovered a very interesting cure for any pouting episodes that Ashley has. My wife decided that when Ashley crossed her little arms and stuck out her bottom lip, that a pouting theme song was in order. Don't ask me why, but she did. Now when the pout comes on, the theme song bursts from my wife's lips, and Ashley screams "Sai" (short version of the Japanese word urusai which means annoying or tiresome and is often used when children are obnoxiously loud.) Don't ask me why, but it works! ______________________________________________________________________ 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 7. PCWize Contests and winner announcement 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 ** ------ Tired of slow connections? Modem Booster keeps your connection at TOP speed and accelerates your Internet surfing. Tweak your modem speed to the MAX with this Internet connection optimizer. Modem Booster accelerates your Web browsing by 10-50% on the average and up to 300% on the extreme. "This utility will speed up your online access." PC Magazine's First Looks. For more info go to http://www.inklineglobal.net ------ 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 ------ Name: FlashGet (JetCar) v0.76 by AmazeSoft Genre: Download managers Platform: PC Win95/98/NT Type/Cost: ADWare / Free (ad sponsored) Size: 887KB Homepage: Download: I've tried most of the download managers out there, and FlashGet has railroaded GetRight and GoZilla! right off my desktop. FlashGet allows the simultaneous download of a file in up to eight chunks. How does this help? Glad you asked. When you make a connection to a machine, it takes a certain path through many different machines to get you there. This is a dynamic process that constantly changes depending on current Internet usage. When FlashGet works on downloading a file in chunks, it is opening multiple paths to the other machine, and by doing so, overcomes the inherent limitations and bandwidth bottlenecks in certain paths. In other words, let's say you order a pizza, and to get to your house the driver takes a road that is congested with rush hour traffic. It could take forever to get your pizza (maybe never if the driver gets the munchies while waiting.) Now, let's say the pizza place breaks up your pizza into four chunks, and each of those chunks takes a different path to your house with a different driver. You'll still have to wait for the driver stuck in traffic, but the other three pieces will get there pronto. Let's take this extremely horrible analogy further and say that the other three drivers go back and get even smaller chunks of the last piece from the driver stuck in traffic, and they bring those to your house. This keeps happening until the entire pizza arrives at your door. This is what FlashGet does. If only they could have slapped some sense into the driver stuck in traffic and had him follow one of them! Boy am I glad that analogy is over with! FlashGet has also got some great features for organizing your downloads and adding comments to those really cryptic filenames. If English isn't your primary language, then they've got that one covered too. Download FlashGet in any one of fifteen languages! ______________________________________________________________________ 3. Cool Sites ------ Linky and Dinky's Amazing Mental Powers Your modem might be sending more than computer related data! I've discovered that mine sends alpha waves from my mind. If you don't believe me then check out this site! They can really read your mind! I'm going right now to get some tin foil and coat hangers to make a alpha wave deflection array helmet. :^) ------ Worst Case Scenarios Ok, you're just rammed your way past a car blocking the road on your way to the hospital with your friend whose parachute didn't open and is bleeding profusely from a leg wound inflicted by a knife used to fend off the shark attack after you landed in the water. To make matters worse, your friend forgot to spit out his gum when you hit the water, and because you couldn't dislodge it, an impromptu tracheotomy (is there any other kind?) was necessary. Wait! Did I mention that there was a quicksand pit directly in front of the car?!? What to do, what to do? The Worst Case Scenarios web site will tell you, and if things like this happen to you all the time, then paying a measly $11.96 USD for their 176 page handbook (vinyl coated no less) is money well spent! *Note: If things like this do really happen to you, then please let me know where you are at all times so I can run the other way! :^) ______________________________________________________________________ 4. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's ------ If any of you downloaded the SETI@Home screensaver mentioned in issue 4.06, here's a tip to speed up the analyzing process. At the expense of seeing the mondo cool graphics for the screensaver, you can decrease the time it takes to analyze each downloaded data block *immensely* by selecting "Go to blank screen" in the screen saver settings. To do this, right-click on an open area of your desktop, select properties, choose the Screen Saver tab, and while the SETIHome screen saver is selected click the "Settings" button. I went from roughly 60 hours to analyze a block down to 8.5 hours. That's a *huge* difference, so if you just wanna crunch data and aren't worried about not seeing the graphs, then this tip is for you. ______________________________________________________________________ 5. That's the news! ------ Hackers with a new cause; they're turning their "talents" to shutting down child pornography sites. Got something to say about this? Share your thoughts at: ------ I'm pretty bad at math, and if it wasn't for my wife managing the money, I'd be writing PCWize on a 80286 in DOS or something. :-) Surprisingly enough however, the following news item was written to where even I could understand it, and let me tell you, it was very interesting. Take a look at how one man made over 300 million dollars (on the conservative side) in one day! ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ------ Four of your fellow PCWize readers received e-mail from someone purporting to be a Microsoft support representative. The e-mail contained a brief message stating that the attached file was an upgrade to the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. Below is the actual text contained in the message. Notice the bad grammar and apparently old date of August 8, 1998 in the filename. "As user of Microsoft Internet Explorer Microsoft Corporation provide you an upgrade for your Microsoft Internet Explorer. Please run Ie080898.exe to install the upgrade. This file will fix some serious bugs in your Internet Explorer. For more information please visit Microsoft Internet Explorer Home Page at: http://www.microsoft.com/ie/" The message appears to come from "IEsupport@microsoft.com", which doesn't mean anything, as e-mail FROM and REPLY-TO addresses can be faked easily. Thankfully, those of you who sent in this tip to me have kept their virus data files up-to-date, and were warned that the attachment contained malicious code. Microsoft-- not to mention almost any reputable software developer -- will *not* send you an unsolicited software update. If you get any of these supposed upgrades from anyone in the future, please do not run the attachment. ______________________________________________________________________ 7. PCWize Contests and Winner Announcement ------ Each week PCWize holds a random drawing contest and gives away free stuff (usually software) to its subscribers. We will continue to do this as long as there are advertisers who are willing to provide the prizes. If you are such an individual/company, then please contact me at editor@pcwize.com so that we can work a deal. ------ This week's sponsor is inKline Global Inc., and they have developed some great applications to make your daily life much easier. Please visit their web site to get the lowdown on all the great products they have, and to help keep the PCWize newsletter FREE! ------ The winner of this weeks random drawing contest is: Jim Hansen ______________________________________________________________________ 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