PCWize Vol 4, Issue 28 - Redefining old July 9, 2000 ______________________________________________________________________ You could win $10,000 and a Sony DVD player just by recommending PCWize to a friend! ------ Simpler than simplicity itself! That's my description of the Linux Mandrake 7.1 installation routine. Notice I said "installation routine"! I didn't say that Mandrake magically made Linux easy to use. They did however make the installation as painless as possible. In just eight simple steps, and 15 minutes later, I was up and running with the latest distro from Mandrake, which recognized almost all of my hardware. There was still a little tweaking to do with my modem-- especially since it's a Lucent Technologies Winmodem, but I've got it to at least see and use it. Now I've just got to figure out how to stay connected to my ISP! The very simple, no-brainer installer will also automagically resize your partitions to make room for Linux. No need for you to puzzle it out, and you won't lose any data-- baring something unfortunate like a power outage! ------ I met up with some fellow geeks this last weekend for some serious network protocol discussion, physical and logical network topology, and uhmmm, errr. Ok, ok, so we got together and just played a bunch of games over a peer-to-peer network. It was a blast, and I received a healthy dose of getting my rear-end fragged all over every map we played. I suppose if I played games more often that I might be able to hold my own, but then again, PCWize wouldn't get written! At any rate, I hooked up with a geek after my own heart. Meet Alan. Say "Hi!" Alan. Hrrmph. At any rate, Alan walks through the door, in one hand was a full tower case, and in the other, was a silver suitcase about the same size as a briefcase, but twice as thick. The first thing I noticed about the full tower was the Plexiglass side-panel giving a very beautiful unobstructed view of all the internal goodness of a hardcore rig. Next was the oddly shaped handle attached to the top, which although looked very snazzy, also looked vaguely like a heavy-duty towel bar. The third thing I noticed was that the briefcase wasn't your ordinary briefcase. A quick flip of the latches, a small slide out panel about the size of a matchbox, and cables were unfurled to a very snappy looking briefcase computer. No, I'm not talking about a computer in a briefcase, but a briefcase that *is* a computer. Why did Alan build it? My guess is the same reason TheNMI and I build the ubergeeky things we do; Not because we need it, but because we can. You will be seeing pictures of these two rigs in the very near future, so stay tuned! Alan! Yes you! I know you're out there in readerland. You better fess up some digital pics! ------ Well, my birthday was a few days back, and I am now officially halfway to being 56 years old! Did you notice that every few years we tack on about five years to our definition of being old? I remember when I turned 20, I thought 28 was old. Now that I'm 28, I'm thinking how stupid it is to define old in the short term. This time I'm going for the gusto! My new definition of old is 1,368 years old. That ought to last me a while! My wife plucked a grey hair out of my head the other day, and said "Look! A grey hair!". I pointed at my wife and said "Look! The woman who put them there!" I think I almost got grounded or something. :^) ______________________________________________________________________ Table Of Contents - HackTech by TheNMI - Voting Booth and Other PCWize Stuff - Software Review - Cool Sites - Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's - That's the news! - Security Issues, Hoaxes, Viruses and Other Urban Legends - 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 as written, please change your e-mail font to Courier New. ______________________________________________________________________ ** A word from our sponsors ** ------ http://www.creditcardanalyzer.com - find out how much your credit cards are costing you and see how much money you could save by transferring the balance to a lower interest card ------ Want to see your advertisement here? For more information, go here: ______________________________________________________________________ HackTech by The NMI Play on, Play on! If you remember a few issues ago, I was referring to my collection of ancient and not-so-ancient game console machines. To other people, it seems I have too many. To me, it seems I don't have them all yet. That problem appears to be solved, at least as long as my budget holds out anyway: I was recently driving a little outside of my normal territory, and what did I wandering eyes fall upon? A store that sells Classic Games! It may seem like a pointless hobby to some, but of course for me, I was like a child who's just seen his first big Toy Store department - It seems the goodies went on for days! Of course, the gritty reality of it was that some of the things hadn't seen the touch of a dust broom in a decade (or more) and there were pieces of game systems that should have been repaired long ago. But hey, that's my quest, isn't it? I know the Holy Grail of decrepit video games is waiting beneath a dusty stack of unused Pacman cartridges and Apple Lisa Diskettes, or under the pile of "Computes Gazette" Magazines with yellow, well used dog-eared pages... I don't know what this Holy Grail looks like, but like King Arthur, I shall pursue it to the ends of the earth! Or at least until my budget holds out - Do you think "The Knights of the PONG table" sounds a little grandiose? Anyway, in my quest, on-line as well, I have found some really great resources. One of my favorites is called "The Vintage Gaming Network" Here you can find all sorts of resources for playing those old favorites, even if you don't have that machine anymore. It covers a plethora of emulators-- software which make your computer (for a short time) think it IS a classic system --like an Atari 2600, a Coleco, or a Commodore system. It even covers emulators for more than a few of the old stand-up machines, which I, for one, dropped THOUSANDS of quarters into, in my outdoor-shunning, glassy-eyed video game-addicted adolescence... I AM better now, really! Can I please have my controller back now? Pleeaase? The NMI Send your recovery secrets and digital obsessions to: TheNMI@PCWize.com ______________________________________________________________________ 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 can discuss anything computer related and it's a good place to get help with any computer questions you may have. ______________________________________________________________________ Software Review ------ Name: Webshots Desktop Genre: Wallpaper and screensavers Platform: PC Win9x/NT/00; MAC Type/Cost: Freeware Size: 1.13MB Homepage: Download: Some people just can't get enough wallpaper. Some people have programs installed that rotates their wallpaper every so often. Some people should have better things to do with their time. Here's a program that'll take care of all that mundane stuff so you do have time for other things. Webshots is an on-line repository of pictures you can grab for use on your desktop, but now they've got a cool little program that'll grab new images from their site and change your wallpaper out for you. You select the category-- and there are many, tell it when to change the wallpaper-- as low as every 15 minutes to as high as never (might as well not download this software if that's the case! ), and it does the rest! ------ Name: Fentun Genre: E-mail attachment utilities Platform: PC Win9x/NT/00; Linux Type/Cost: Freeware Size: 219KB Homepage: Download: If you use Netscape for e-mail which doesn't understand MS/TNEF (Microsoft's Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF)) encoded attachments, then this useful little program will save your skin and your sanity if you get lots of these types of attachments from your friends using Microsoft MUAs (Mail User Agents). ______________________________________________________________________ Cool Sites ------ The Smoking Gun Are you one of those people who buys the gossip papers in the supermarket checkout lines? If so, then you'll love The Smoking Gun! This site archives real court documents concerning famous people. To give you an idea, take a look at Puff Daddy's latest and greatest. ------ Final Meal Requests If you're nosey *and* morbid, take a look at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for the statistics of inmate's last meal requests. It doesn't stop there though, as you can also check their rap sheet as well. ______________________________________________________________________ Tips, Tricks, Do's and Don't Do's ------ Every once in a while-- maybe every six months or so, you should open the case to your computer and use compressed air to clean out all of the dust bunnies. Beware though, make sure you turn off and unplug the computer first. And a big beware!!! Some places and people will say you can use a vacuum cleaner to suck out the dust. Ignore them! Vacuum cleaners are notorious for building up static charges which can fry sensitive components. When cleaning, pay particular attention to the fans, and especially to the one in your power supply. Without proper airflow, your rig could overheat and damage some of the very sensitive circuitry inside. ______________________________________________________________________ That's the news! ------ Normally, cheaters are disqualified. Why doesn't this seem to apply here? What do you think? Is this cheating or just plain-old fashioned entrepreneurship? Take it to the forum at: ------ The Microsoft dissenters with the clout to put a hurtin' on Microsoft's profits aren't only in the U.S. China is looking to a "new" OS to run their country on. ------ Getting fragged because you're a high pinger is an ugly fact of life in the on-line gaming world... Or is it? ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ------ There are a couple of hoaxes making the rounds this month. One is about Marilyn Manson killing puppies at his concerts , and the other concerns Social Security numbers being used to identify minorities with the fifth digit being odd and Both of these are false. The second link for the Social Security cards has some neat info on what information *is* actually encoded in the numbers. ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ------ The winner of this week's random drawing contest is: Fredrik Oslande ______________________________________________________________________ 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