PCWize Vol 4, Issue 15 - Ugly man scares women and children! April 9, 2000 ______________________________________________________________________ You could win $10,000 and a Sony DVD player just by recommending PCWize to a friend! ------ The "Fun with Mailto" article went over extremely well. Too well in fact! I had made-up an example mailto for requesting a picture of my gruesome mug (it really was only an example), but after the 24th request, I had to set up an autoresponder to handle the e-mail. I hope I didn't scare anyone too badly, and no, I will not pay for any psychological counseling because you looked at my picture. :-) ------ I think I might do a few more of those first respondent type prize giveaways. In just the first few hours, I received over 150 responses. The winners were notified that same day, so if you didn't get a winner confirmation message... maybe next time. Stay tuned though. That was a good deal of fun for me. Don't forget, you can also win just by submitting something that I can use in the newsletter. You don't even have to write a narrative. Just give me the URL to a web site, software, or technology news item. This week's winner did just that! ______________________________________________________________________ TOC 1. HackTech 2. Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff 3. Software Review 4. Cool Sites 5. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's 6. That's the news! 7. Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends 8. 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 ** ------ Stay Connected! to AOL, CompuServe, NetO and more! This trusty utility prevents your ISP from disconnecting you. "It's a super product that most, not only AOL, surfers would love to have if they knew it existed" says one user. Free Download at http://www.inklineglobal.net ------ 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. HackTech by The NMI ------ For all you readers that like to poke fun at the biggest (non)monopoly around, check out . This is a hilarious outtake on both Micro$oft and the Monopoly board game, you'll love it!! I must have spent a half hour looking at all the cards and pieces and whatnot - great laughs for all :) ______________________________________________________________________ 2. 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. ______________________________________________________________________ 3. Software Review ------ *** Winner of the PCWize Superior Software Award *** Name: PowerPro v2.5 by Bruce Switzer Genre: Desktop Enhancement Platform: Win 9x/00/NT Type/Cost: Shareware / USD $22 Size: 1.35MB Homepage: Download: PowerPro is just downright scary! It's going to take me days to run through all of the available options for this badboy. There are just so many that it is almost overwhelming; something I *never* thought I'd hear myself say! So what exactly is PowerPro? Maybe it would be easier to ask what isn't PowerPro. If you boil it down to the most basic idea, it's a program that lets you define multitudes of toolbars and what happens when you left, middle, or right-click on a toolbar item. When I say "define what happens", I'm not exaggerating. This isn't your run-of-the-mill drop a shortcut onto a toolbar program. You can define some great stuff like roll windows up to the caption bar, change your wallpaper, restart Windows etc... Fortunately (unfortunately??) they didn't stop there. You also get a virtual desktop manager (with nine desktops), message reminders, skinnable toolbars, a clipboard snippets manager, timers (26 of them), scripting, agggghhhhh... Just download it and give it a shot. It would take me hours to write about all the things it can do. Control freaks like me will snap this baby up in a heartbeat-- especially at $22! ______________________________________________________________________ 4. Cool Sites ------ Hardware Book Back when PCWize was called VBOK, I used to be a mirror site for the Hardware Book. This massive undertaking was started by a guy named Joakim Ögren, and he did a wonderful job. Unfortunately, a few years back he disappeared into the void and no-one has heard from him since. His project was too good to let go, so a group of volunteers got together to kept it alive. Today, you'll find hundreds of connector diagrams for just about any computer device out there. Additionally, there are cable diagrams for building such things as Null-modem and loopbacks. They are always looking for new submissions, so if you know the full details on a connector or cable that is not in the index, send it in! ______________________________________________________________________ 5. Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's ------ One of my favorite weapons in Duke Nukem 3D was the shrink-ray. There was something very satisfying about chasing down midgitized bad guys and giving them a good stomping. Now, let's turn that shrink-ray on your icons for more space to play. Open the display properties by right-clicking on a blank area of your desktop and selecting 'Properties'. Next select the 'Appearance' tab and in the 'Item' drop down box, select 'Icon'. Most likely it's currently set to 32. Change this number to 16 and hit 'Apply'. You should now see micro versions of your icons on the desktop and in folders (provided you weren't already viewing them in anything other than Large Icons.) By now, you've probably noticed that the text looks pretty jumbled up. To fix this, we need to change the Icon Spacing for both horizontal and Vertical. In the 'Item' drop down box, select 'Icon Spacing (Horizontal)' and enter a value of about 40. Do the same for 'Icon Spacing (Vertical)'. The readability of your icon text (filenames and foldernames) depends on whether you usually take advantage of Windows long filename support. It's just a matter of tweaking the Icon Spacing until it looks right for you. Further, you can also change the text attributes like font, color, boldness, italics, and size by selecting 'Icon' in the 'Item' drop down box, and then changing the font attributes in the boxes below it. ______________________________________________________________________ 6. That's the news! ------ In the never ending vicious little circle of trust, a would be snooper takes a step back. ------ Anyone ever told you that you needed to get a life? Well, thanks to Electronic Arts you can. Oh, wait! They said a "real life"! ______________________________________________________________________ 7. 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. ------ Nick Pharo sent along the below warning to me for verification. I had previously heard of a similar item, but it was only true for those companies who owned a PBX (Private Branch Exchange). I was pretty sure that this was a hoax, but decided to contact Ms. Christine Warrander anyway. She sent the below response: This information did not originate with the Australian Institute of Police Management. We now know that this is not a threat to Australian mobile phones. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. So there you have it... Straight from the horses mouth. You can disregard this message as a hoax. I just received this - it isn't april first - so be cautious if you have a mobile Subject: MOBILE PHONE WARNING FROM THE POLICE The following message has been received from the Police & authenticated through the Police Education Resources Branch. Is now forwarded for your information: Please be aware of the following: If you get a phone call on your mobile from a cellnet or vodafone engineer,telling you that they are doing a check on your phone and that you have to press #90 or 90# END THE CALL IMMEDIATELY. There is a fraud company on the go who have devised a device that once you have pressed #90 / 90# they can access your SIM card and make calls from it at your expense. Tell as many people as you know that have mobiles. Ms Christine Warrander Education Resources Officer Australian Institute of Police Management Collins Beach Road Manly NSW 2095 email: cwarrander@aipm.gov.au mailto:cwarrander@aipm.gov.au> Ph: (61 2) 9934 4823 Fax: (61 2) 9934 4811 ______________________________________________________________________ 8. 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: Nick Pharo ______________________________________________________________________ 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