PC NEWS DIGEST: January 16, 2001 PC computing, hardware, software, searching, news, books, websites, web design, humor. The PC News Digest is published by SERVENET.COM http://www.servenet.com PLEASE NOTE: WAY TO GO GIANTS!We're not big on sports. But it's hard not to get excited when the local team -- the New York Giants -- comes up with a 41-0 victory to take the NFC championship and a berth in the Super Bowl. We join the hoopla with a colorful puzzle of quarterback Kerry Collins, who passed for 381 yards and five touchdowns. And we review an up- and-coming website that will please fans of commercial, college, and even high school sports. ISSN NUMBER. Our newsletter fans will be pleased to note that we joined the "big leagues" last week with the acquisition of our own ISSN number: 1533- 2497. "The ISSN is the standardized international code which allows the identification of any serial publication independently of its country of publication, of its language or alphabet, of its frequency, medium, etc." LAST WEEK'S POLL. More exciting than our ISSN, but not as exciting as Kerry Collin's stats, are the results of last week's poll. HOW DO YOU CONNECT TO THE INTERNET?
Over half of PC News Digest readers connected via broadband services (LAN, cable modem, DSL), compared to only 11% nationally, as reported by Statistical Research, Inc. (SRI) in their Fall 2000 survey. SRI doesn't break down telephone connections according to speed, but we'd bet the percentage using high-speed (56.6 kbs) modems doesn't approach the 92% reported by our readers. When it comes to broadband, PC News Digest readers are way ahead of the curve! NEW POLL FIXED FOR AOL USERS. Of course, our results are only as good as our sample. Thanks to Ira F. we found a big hole in our method. America Online (AOL) users, who make up 25% of our readers, were unwittingly "disenfranchised" by the AOL mail system. (No chad jokes, please!) This week's poll -- What is your favorite search engine? -- corrects the error at the expense of cluttering the poll's appearance with HTML markup. (These comments apply to AOL users who read the newsletter in email form, not here on the web.)
The selections in the poll derive from the latest Media Metrix ranking of search engine popularity, as reported by Danny Sullivan in Search Engine Watch. If your choice is OTHER, please let us know by email which engine you use. FLASH! We don't have Super Bowl tickets to give away, but the 50th responder to this week's poll will get a registered copy of the Jigs@w Puzzle software we use to make the weekly puzzle. ISSN International Centre Statistical Research, Inc. Media Metrix Search Engine Popularity 0.0 Make, Play, Email Realistic Jigs@w Puzzles 0.0 MAKE, PLAY, EMAIL REALISTIC JIGS@W PUZZLES
THE PERFECT GIFT! Jigs@w Puzzle is the perfect gift for your jigsaw puzzle whiz. This carefully- crafted shareware program creates puzzles that can be played on almost any PC. All it needs is a 486 or better processor, 8 mB of RAM, and Windows 95 or later. Jigs@w Puzzle Entry ($9.95) makes and plays puzzles based on your images. Jigs@w Puzzle Edition ($14.95) includes 20 puzzles on themes like fine dining, masters of art, animal wildlife, and colors of Japan. Both are FREE to try. JUST LIKE THE REAL THING. The puzzles can be emailed to friends or relatives and played without additional software. They look three-dimensional and can be made in any number of pieces (depending only on screen size). The user interface is colorful and easy to use; solving a puzzle feels just like the real thing. Kudos to Tibo Software for a well-written program that's easy to use and fun to play! P.S. The fiftieth reader to vote in this week's PC News Digest poll will get a FREE registered copy of Jigs@w Puzzle Entry. KerryCollins Puzzle Jigs@w Puzzle 1.0 JIGSAW PUZZLE: QUARTERBACK KERRY COLLINSThis week's puzzle of 36 rotated pieces shows Giants quarterback Kerry Collins in an Associated Press photo from CNN Sports Illustrated. Collins passed for five touchdowns leading the Giants to a 41-0 route of the Vikings, the NFC championship, and the chance to compete in the 2001 Super Bowl. We used Tibo Software's Jigs@w Puzzle program to make the puzzle, which downloads in 44 seconds at 56.6 kb and plays in 15-20 minutes on Windows 95 or later PCs. TIP. To rotate a puzzle piece 90 degrees: select, then right-click it. P.S. You can download puzzles from earlier editions of the PC News Digest from our Puzzle Archive. You can also get a list of past puzzles with download links by sending an email to library@pcnewsdigest.com with the subject "send file puzzles" (no quotes). KerryCollins Puzzle CNN Sports Illustrated Jigs@w Puzzle PC News Digest Puzzle Archive  HEAVY SMOKER? WANT TO QUIT? HERE'S HOW!No cost, no gimmicks, no drugs. Just a proven behavioral method that helps the heavy smoker quit and not want to smoke again. Written by an ex- smoker and based on sound psychophysiological principles, this tutorial is a WannaLearn.com Selected Instructional Site. How to Stop Smoking  2.0 WEBSHOP 108: ONLINE SCHOOL FOR WEB BUILDERSThere are plenty of good books on web design -- use the link below to see what's hot at Amazon.com -- and plenty of trade school, college, and evening courses available for those with time and money. But what if you want to learn web design for FREE in your spare time? HTML WRITERS GUILD. We used to send budding web designers to The HTML Writers Guild to use the resource links and enroll in the fee-paid courses. That's still a good suggestion. W3SCHOOLS.COM. But now there's a better way to get started. W3Schools.com, developed by Refsnes Data, a Norwegian software and consulting company, offers a FREE online school with a rich curriculum. Courses cover everything from HTML and its variants, to WAP, JavaScript, Flash, and SQL databases. W3Schools' courses cover technical topics in a clear, uncluttered way. Especially helpful are the interactive examples that make it easy to see on your monitor the result of the practice code you write. Experienced programmers will bookmark the excellent reference lists that define, explain, and illustrate code language elements. W3Schools.com will amaze you with its depth of information, and entertain you with its typically European tongue-in-cheek approach. Go learn! Search Amazon.com for Web+Learn+Design The HTML Writers Guild W3Schools.com 3.0 WEBSITES: FRESH STARTS AND TUNEUPSLooking for a new website or a tuneup of your old site? Go with a winner, the WebShop at SERVENET.COM. AUTO EQUIPMENT. Want to see a sample of our work? Check out the automotive service equipment site just getting under way for NMG, Inc.  REAL ESTATE. Or browse around the real estate appraisal site that's half way to completion for P J McJorma, Inc.  TUNEUP. Want to see a site whose engine got tuned up in the WebShop? Take a look at the Classical Musical Lovers Exchange. (It's a dating sevice for people who enjoy classical music.)  Don't let the Internet explosion pass you by. Get a website that works from the WebShop at SERVENET.COM! NMG, Inc. P J McJorma Inc. Classical Music Lovers Exchange http://servenet.com/go/to.cgi?l=17cmle The WebShop at SERVENET.COM http://www.servenet.com/webshop  4.0 SHUTTING DOWN WINDOWS JUST GOT EASIER!Windows has a Start button, but not a Stop button. You can fix that by putting an icon on your Windows Desktop that substitutes for the sequence Start/Shut Down/Shut Down/OK. It can be activated by a keyboard shortcut, in case your mouse is frozen. MAKE A SHORTCUT. Right click on the Desktop (not on an icon). When the context menu pops up, select New, then Shortcut. Copy the following string, without the quotes, into the Command Line field: "rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 1" Press Next, give the shortcut a name, e.g., Shutdown, and press Finish. DRESS IT UP. An icon will appear on your Desktop sporting the Microsoft Windows flag. Right click on it and select Properties. Add a shortcut key - - we recommend CTRL+ALT+END -- and change the icon, if you wish. (You can download a suitable Exit icon below.) Before using the new shortcut to shut down Windows, close all applications, as usual. If you don't, the shortcut may end your Windows session, but unsaved documents will be lost. P.S. This method of shutting down Windows uses no resources other than the space of an icon on your Desktop. If you're willing to trade a small amount of resources for a shutdown method that closes open applications, try Active Shutdown, a PC News Digest Best Choice in our 12/5/2000 edition. Exit.ico Active ShutDown THE PC CLINIC AT INSTALLATIONS PLUS+PC PROBLEMS? Help is just a mouse-click away! PC News Digest subscribers get priority treatment at the FREE personal computer clinic at Installations Plus+. The FREE PC Clinic at Installations Plus+ 5.0 RIVALS.COM: SPORTS FOR FANATICSEveryone's a sports fan at Super Bowl time. Expect heavy traffic in Tampa, site of the bowl game, and on CNN Sports Illustrated, where America -- and the world -- gets its sports coverage. CNN SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. Of course, there's nothing wrong with the CNN sports site. It's got the latest news, commentators, free email with cool domain names (you@cyber-wizard.com), and even a golf guide to help you locate a course or touch up your game with multimedia instruction. And there's always the celebrated swimsuit issue. Slick! Also slick are CNN's worthy competitors, ESPN.com, from Disney/ABC and SportsLine.com, from CBS. RIVALS.COM. If CNN Sports Illustrated is a magazine, Rivals.com is a collection of newspaper sports sections. In fact, Rivals, which draws content from Fox's FOXSPORTS.COM, consists of a network of over 600 similar websites devoted to different aspects of sports, with each site independently published and edited. Rivals covers professional, collegiate and high school sports -- with an emphasis on recruiting -- and specialty sports from archery, boxing, and cheerleading to track & field, wakeboarding and waterskiing. There's a fantasy game site, and sites for outdoor sports (hunting, fishing), motor sports, golf, and soccer. PASSIONATE COVERAGE. Most of the Rivals websites include active message board forums, chat rooms, videos of interviews, practice games, and coaches' shows, game schedules, and player databases. The coverage and emphasis vary from site to site, but the passion for sports is evident everywhere. Need a sports fix? Check out Rivals.com. CNN Sports Illustrated Disney/ABC's ESP.com CBS' SportsLine.com FOXSPORTS.COM Rivals.com 6.0 YOUR CLICKS KEEP US FREE: VISIT OUR SPONSORSAMERICA ONLINE -- Up to 700 hours FREE! AMAZON.COM -- A lot more than books and music! DELL COMPUTER -- Let Dell build a PC for you. EBAY -- Auctioning everything imaginable! MCAFEE -- PC system protection. MEMTURBO -- For that just booted feeling! STORERUNNER -- Shop your favorite stores. 7.0 QUICK TRICK: DUST OFF EXTENDS DRIVE LIFEMost of us don't use our CD, ZIP, and floppy (removable) drives very often. That's not a problem for the motors, which are typically exercised during startup and shutdown. It is a problem for the magnetic and optical heads that read the removable media. All PCs draw unfiltered room air through the chassis to cool the motherboard and drives. The air enters at the front, passing over the heads, depositing dust and dirt. A quick blast of clean, compressed air -- you can buy it in an aerosol can at the stationery store -- will keep the heads clean and keep you from seeing "Drive not ready" and "Can't read from drive" error messages. Remember: A blast in time saves whine! 8.0 BOOK: TROUBLESHOOTING MICROSOFT WINDOWSYou may find this just a tad ironic. Microsoft Press just published a book -- Troubleshooting Microsoft Windows -- that capitalizes on the problems created by Microsoft Windows. FROM MAJOR TO MUNDANE. Author Stephen W. Sagman covers Windows 95/98/ME problems from the major to the mundane with wit, clean writing, and excellent screen-capture illustrations. Sagmans organizes his material by problems, guiding the reader to solutions by a branching question and answer method. Sagman's fixes and advice will ring true with experienced users; beginners and intermediates stand to benefit most. Everyone will find something of value in the chapter of things to do to stay out of trouble. TROUBLESHOOTING WEBSITE. This book is one of a series from Microsoft Press troubleshooting popular Microsoft products (Access, Excel, Outlook, Windows 2000). It's supported by a website which posts glitches and fixes unearthed after the book's publication. Troubleshooting Microsoft Windows is available from Microsoft Press online, at local retailers, and here from Amazon.com at $15.99 (you save 20%). Troubleshooting Microsoft Windows: Book Troubleshooting Website 9.0 WANT TO TALK? WE'VE GOT A FORUM FOR YOU!As a public service, SERVENET.COM hosts and moderates four online forums. You are welcome to participate in any or all of them. * The PC FORUM for help with computer problems. * The REAL ESTATE FORUM for buyers, sellers. * The OYSTER BAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY FORUM. * The SHOP-TALK FORUM for things automotive. 10.0 SYNCHRONX: FREE DIRECTORY SYNCHRONIZERToday, over 80% of American households have at least one PC. Many have two or more linked by a Windows peer-to-peer network. Networks make it easy to share files. However, they don't update the PC in the kitchen when a file is created or changed on the PC in the den. No synchronicity! FAST, EFFICIENT AND FREE! SynchronX is a FREEware application from the Click Team, a French development group that produces games and clever utilities. SynchronX is the latter -- a fast, easy to use program that checks two selected directories, then makes them identical by copying any modified files from one directory to the other. That's it. You can set filters to include subdirectories, and exclude files by name or type. You can also remove files just for the current synchronization. You won't need it, but a short, clear Help file is provided. SynchronX is supported by an advertising ticker that you can turn off. (Considerate, n'est cest pas?) Go Click! SynchronX 11.0 HUMOR: KIDS SAY THE DARNEDEST THINGSExamples collected by grade school teachers: * The future of "I give" is "I take." MORE LIKE THIS at Teens Alive 12.0 FASTDNS: POWER TOY FOR FASTER BROWSINGRaise your hand if you're a speed freak. Okay hands down. That was just about everyone. FastDNS from Alchemy Development is a power toy for speed freaks. It speeds access to websites, email servers, anything that has an Internet address. HERE'S HOW IT WORKS. Let's say you read the Washington Post online on a regular basis. Each time you read it, you instruct your browser to fetch www.washingtonpost.com. It in turn consults FASTDNS USES HOSTS FILE TO SPEED ACCESS. FastDNS short-circuits the process by providing a local IP lookup in the form of a text file stored on the hard drive in the Windows directory. The file is called Hosts (no extension) and is a standard part of Windows. You tell FastDNS the URLs of sites you visit frequently, it resolves them into IP addresses, and stores both in the Hosts file. Your browser, by default, consults the local Hosts file before consulting a remote DNS. When it finds an IP, it skips the DNS lookup and you get faster browsing! This works for Intranet as well as Internet URLs. P.S. FastDNS is not compatible with the (deprecated) use of the Hosts file to block ads. FastDNS THE LOOK-UP CENTER AT INSTALLATIONS PLUS+SCOURING THE WEB for basic information? Find what you need in one place for FREE! The Look-Up Center has telephone numbers by name, by address and reverse. Weather, stock quotes, dictionaries, quotations, package tracking, calories, currency conversion, maps, metric conversions, books, music, and more. The FREE Look-Up Center at Installations Plus+ 13.0 SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE/SUGGEST/ETC.PAST ISSUES.09/19/2000 09/26/2000 10/03/2000 10/10/2000 10/17/2000 10/24/2000 10/31/2000 11/07/2000 11/14/2000 11/21/2000 11/28/2000 12/05/2000 12/12/2000 12/19/20 00 12/26/2000 01/09/2001 SUGGESTIONS. Your thoughts about our newsletter and our website are always welcome. Tell us. We're listening! RECOMMEND US. Tell a friend about our website and newsletter. LINK TO US. Written by Louis J. Bruno Edited by Judith Reinfeld ICQ:101670502 AIM:LouisBruno |
This week's electronic jigsaw puzzle is based on an Associated Press photo of Giants quarterback Kerry Collins. Download and play it, and you'll see why the program we used to make it -- Jigs@w Puzzle from Tibo Software -- earned our Best Choice Award.