PC NEWS DIGEST: December 26, 2000 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:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!No reviews of 2000. No New Year's wish lists or resolutions. We won't even tell you not to drink and drive. (You're smarter than that.) Just a heartfelt wish for a healthy and happy 2001. Happy New Year! You can return our wish by taking a moment to answer this week's poll (Q: Which version of Windows do you use?) at the end of this section. We'll share the results with you next week and use them to improve our PC News Digest website over the coming weeks. Last week's results are in Section 2.0 on browsers.
Our apologies to those of you who tried unsuccessfully to download Computer Associates FREE InoculateIT anti-virus software. Your response and their website revisions made the download slow to impossible last week. It's freely available now. Go for it. And our thanks to those of you who've checked out our sponsors (list below). When you use our links to visit eBay, Amazon.com, Dell, or StoreRunner, you get the best possible price and we get support for the PC News Digest. Your clicks keep us FREE! Thanks! Computer Associates InoculateIT 0.0 Skyscrapers 'R' Us: A Website And A Book 0.0 SKYSCRAPERS 'R' US: A WEBSITE AND A BOOKArmchair traveling is always appealing, but especially when the windchill makes it feel like 20 below. Grrr. This week we took a virtual tour of the world's tallest buildings courtesy of Nalyd's Skyscraper Page (Skyscraper.com). If towering structures (mostly man-made but natural too), photography, and city skylines are on your short list of turn-ons, you'll want to pay a visit to Skyscraper.com. Nalyd has information and photos from all over the world, including a dramatic nighttime photo of Niagara Falls that we used to make this week's puzzle. A unique feature of the site is its searchable database of the world's tallest buildings. Search results are displayed as scale drawings of the buildings, annotated with statistics about height, towers, stories, etc. Another attraction is the Skyscraper Forum, with five active message boards ranging from "Projects and Construction" to "City Issues." Skyscraper addicts will want to visit the hyperlinked sites, many of which are strong on photos. But those who like to get more hands-on about their towering addiction will forgo the keyboard for the storyboard. Hot off the presses (August 2000) is Eric Howeler and Jeannie Meejin Yoon's little book (65 pages), 1001 Skyscrapers, from the Princeton Architectural Press. 1001 Skyscrapers provides a brief history and pertinent facts for 25 of the world's best known skyscrapers, but that's for the scholarly. The rest of us will get off playing architect. The 25 best have been scaled to the same size and sliced into three pieces that you can recombine to make 15,625 new buildings of your own design. You can recreate the Empire State Building, or design the Chrysler World Tower or the Hancock Building of Fashion. Pick up your copy of 1001 Skyscrapers at your favorite bookseller, or buy it online here for $11.96 (20% off the cover price). Nalyd's Skyscraper Page 1001 Skyscrapers 1.0 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. 2.0 ANOTHER LOOK AT BROWSERS, OUR POLL, A BOOKSeveral readers shared their experiences with the alternative browser, Opera 5.01. Everyone liked its speed and ability to be customized. A few missed Internet Explorer's (IE's) auto-completion feature, which makes it easier to fill out repetitive forms. (Opera's stored Personal Information helps, but not as much as IE's auto-completion.) One reader pointed out the importance of identifying Opera to websites as either Mozilla (Netscape) or IE. (Do this by selecting Preferences from the top menu, then Connections and Browser Identifications.) The subterfuge is necessary because web designers write pages for the two major browsers, but not for Opera or others. So much for world wide web standards! Our readers' consensus: Opera is a generally acceptable alternative, and preferable when it comes to speed. Before Opera, none of our readers used an alternative browser, according to last week's poll (Which browser do you use?). Half said they used Microsoft, and half Netscape. Among all PC users, Microsoft garners a 60% share and Netscape 35%. Apparently, PC News Digest readers are more willing than most to install a browser which doesn't come built into Windows. (Pat yourself on the back. And again for taking part in the poll.) Incidentally if you're looking for a lean, mean browsing machine, but want to stay with a major brand, there is an alternative. Last week we mentioned Beonex, a privately branded copy of Netscape's Mozilla core browser. Since then we've unearthed Mozilla.org, run by Netscape itself, which provides the latest beta releases of the core browser. Unlike Beonex, which is older and buggy, Mozilla.org's browser is the latest version and should fly straight from day one. Finally, for readers who said they have Netscape, but it's too complex to use, there's help in Patrick Clancy and Rebecca Nelson's book (with CD), Netscape Communicator Essentials. Part of Que's popular series of basic, hands-on tutorials, it covers bookmarking, creating web pages, electronic mail, and searching for information. It gets you started quickly, but competently. Netscape Communicator Essentials is available from local bookstores, or you can click on the link below to buy it from Amazon.com for $20. Opera Software Beonex Mozilla.org Netscape Communicator Essentials 3.0 SAFELY BOOT UP WITH A FLOPPY IN THE DRIVEMost PCs try to boot first from the floppy, then from the hard drive. That's a feature, not a fault. In case of hard drive failure, a rescue disk in the floppy drive provides a way to start the PC, perform diagnostics, and make repairs. But what if you leave a disk in the floppy drive that isn't bootable? Every user knows the answer. The PC halts after reading the floppy and issues an error message that may or may not be intelligible, depending on the operating system. That's where DumbBoot comes in. It lets you keep your sanity without disabling the floppy seek-on- boot feature. DumbBoot rewrites the floppy disk boot sector so your PC ignores it during startup. Now you can leave your backup disk, a game, or your word processing storage in the diskette drive (A or B), and it won't make your PC act like it swallowed a bone. DumbBoot was written by Carl M. Morris in 1993 (some problems never go away), and may be downloaded from our website for FREE. Copy the tiny (812 byte) file to the Windows directory, so it will be in the system path. To use it, put a floppy in the drive, then go to Start/Run and execute DUMBBOOT A: (change A to B if the floppy is the B-drive). Close the DOS window when you're finished. DUMBBOOT.COM 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+ 4.0 TOSHIBA PENTIUM II/266 MHZ NOTEBOOK -- $895Didn't get one for the holidays? You can still get a Toshiba Tecra 550CDT notebook for yourself. This small (11.8 X 9.1 X 1.9 in), sleek, factory- refurbished laptop has Windows 98 Second Edition installed with an original license (installation media are included). The notebook has a Pentium II/266 mHz CPU, 512 kB pipelined Level 2 cache, and 64 Mb of RAM expandable to 144. There's a 4 gB hard drive, a 20X CD-ROM and an external 1.44 mB floppy disk drive. The motherboard uses PCI architecture, includes a Yamaha OPL3 sound system driving built-in stereo speakers, and supports Two Type-II or one Type-III PCMCIA slots. A built-in S3 Virge video card with 4 Mb synchronous graphics RAM drives the 12.1 inch active matrix TFT display at resolutions up to 1024 x 768 (16 million colors). This Internet-ready notebook includes a v.90 56 kbs data/fax/voice modem with DSVD that has v.34 and v.80 support for video conferencing. USB, serial, printer, PS/2 and external monitor ports are provided. The price for the 7-lb Tecra 550CDT laptop is $895, plus shipping, and tax where applicable. PayPal, M/C, Visa. Limited time offer. Hurry! Just a few left. U.S. orders only please. The warranty is 90 days on the notebook and on the Lithium-Ion battery, which is guaranteed to hold a charge for 30 minutes. Call 1-212-567-3705 mailto:specials@servenet.com 5.0 WEBSHOP 107: 10 WAYS TO WRECK A WEBPAGEWeb designers probably don't set out to make really awful sites. But for the few who do, we've assembled a few hints to help them escalate the explosion of annoying, hard-to-use webpages. ANIMATED TEXT AND GRAPHICS. The physiology of the human eye includes specific detectors for motion. No wonder blinking or scrolling text and animated graphics attract maximal attention. Use these techniques whenever possible to create meaningless visual noise. For best effect, orchestrate with pop-up alerts and mouse-over windows. BACKGROUND MUSIC. "To each his own," applies particularly to music. Want to really annoy the fiftyish visitor to a webpage about investment capital? Metallica! And be sure to make it loud and beyond the visitor's control. REQUIRE PLUG-INS. Want to make sure no one gets past first base? Use Macromedia Flash for the opening page with no text escape and no option to download the plug-in. Really spacey, dude! HUMONGOUS IMAGES, NO CAPTIONS. Don't know how to wreck the homepage with Flash? Create a larger than full-screen graphic with no caption or text alternative. Search engines, which can't read images, will ignore you. So will most visitors, who won't wait more than 30 seconds for a page to load. NO TITLE, NO META TAGS. No point in confusing search engines with information. Just omit the page title and the descriptive and content coding for search engines. Your page will be indexed, if at all, by the first words on the page. Like: Home, About, Email, Search, Site Map. Every lost kid writing home for directions will find you. SKIP THE SPELLCHECK, ELUDE THE EDITOR. The message is the medium. Right? You've got Flash, graphics, and scroll. Who needs professional copy? With all that perfume, who needs clothes? SKIP THE BROWSERCHECK, THE CODE CHECK. Your pages work in your browser. What more can a designer want? Code-checking is boring. Besides, nobody uses that other browser, older browsers, AOL, or text-only browsers. Design for the majority. Tell the others where to get the right browser. NIX THE NAVIGATION. Don't clutter your pages with buttons and hyperlinks. So what if your visitor lands on a page in the middle of your site and can't figure out who you are or where your homepage is. Who needs interlopers anyway? MAX THE RESOLUTION. You work with a screen set for 1024 x 768 pixels at 32 bits. Everyone should. Why worry about others whose monitors can't support more than 640 x 480 at 256 colors? They're not the target audience. Let'em fight with the scroll bars. Better yet, give 'em locked frames so they can't scroll. Can't scroll? Scram! AD BANNERS GALORE. Clothes make the man and ads make the website. Bet you can make the Guinness Book of Records for the largest number of tasteless ads per page view. Who cares that they get in the way of selling your product, servicing your client, or spreading your message? If it's good enough for the back end of a bus, surely it's good enough for you. 6.0 NEED HELP SELLING IT ON EBAY? LOOK HERE!The WebShop at SERVENET.COM builds websites for commercial, professional, and non-profit clients.. But did you know we can build one for you to sell your car, your house, or your mink on the web and on eBay? The WebShop at SERVENET.COM for websites that work! Check out the site we built to sell a Man Ray chess set. Man Ray Chess Set For Sale And here's the site we created to sell a frozen yogurt machine. It was on the web and on eBay. Taylor Freezemaster 339 Frozen Yogurt Machine The WebShop at SERVENET.COM Call 1-212-567-3705 mailto:info@servenet.com 7.0 STILL USING AN ORGANIZER? YOU'RE NOT ALONE!They said TV would kill the movies. It didn't. They also said PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants like the Palm Pilot) would make organizers obsolete. Wrong again. Organizers abound. But manufacturer's support for organizers has always been fair at best. Not to worry. IMSL Software offers general information, independent product reviews, and PC link software for Casio and Sharp organizers. Their XLink/Win software provides data backup and exchange for most organizers, many serial cables, and any PC running Windows, or Windows emulators for Mac and Unix systems.
P.S. Readers with a Casio organizer should also check out The Casio Digital Diary Website. This is an "everything you always wanted to know" site with links to expert help, manuals, cables, reviews, software, and more. IMSL Software Casio Digital Diary Website 8.0 YOUR CLICKS KEEP US FREE: VISIT OUR SPONSORSAmazon.com -- A lot more than books and music! Dell Computer -- Let Dell build a PC for you. eBay -- Auctioning everything imaginable! StoreRunner -- Shop your favorite stores. 9.0 WEBSITES FOR WORDSMITHS AND WHACKERSUsually we try to avoid cliches, which the Merriam Webster online dictionary defines as "a trite phrase or expression." But sometimes we just like to get down and dirty. That's when it's fun to wallow in the ClicheSite.com, letting the phrases evoke the sights and sounds of downtown merchants, childhood neighbors, and college roommates. The ClicheSite.com is a searchable catalog of cliches, sayings, phrases and figures of speech. Its search engine is adequate, but primitive (keyword "late" returned cliches including "plate" and "slate"). No matter. Browsing by category (twenty ranging from aging to weather) or alphabetical index is more fun anyway. If you find a hole in the coverage -- we couldn't find "the whole enchilada" or "the whole ball of wax" --don't be bashful about submitting an entry. We did. If you think cliches are "dumber than a bag of hammers," you'll probably find BuzzWhack more to your liking. This tongue-in-cheek site pokes serious fun at the bureaucratic minions who can "use more than three buzzwords in a single sentence while keeping a straight face." BuzzWhack has a BuzzWord Compliant Dictionary ("24/7," "touchpoints," and "seamlessly" are in its top ten), a weekly email BuzzWhacker newsletter, and a BuzzWord of the day, also emailed. Here, too, you can make a contribution if your pet BuzzWord is 404. What's next in words? We're hoping for reverse cliche and buzzword dictionaries. What's a colorful alternative to "that's all folks," which reeks of rabbit? Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary ClicheSite.com BuzzWhack 10.0 HUMOR: 10 SIGNS YOU BOUGHT A BAD COMPUTER• The lower corner of the monitor says "Etch-a- sketch." Adapted from a list published by ComputerPranks.com 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+ 11.0 CONTROLLING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP ENVIRONMENTThe best way to customize your references and desktop settings is to create a User Profile. (Click on Start, point to Settings, click on Control Panel, double-click Passwords, and then click the User Profiles tab.) Having a Profile restores your individual settings when you log on to Windows with your User Name and Password. [Editor's Note. This rest of this article is for users familiar with the Windows Registry Editor.] Instead of Profiles for each user, you may prefer to establish one desktop environment for all and prevent other users from changing it. The Windows Registry contains keys that permit an advanced user to enable or disable certain features. The screensaver, display resolution, display appearance (fonts, colors), and desktop wallpaper can all be controlled from: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Policies\System For example, to hide the Screen Saver tab under Control Panel/Display and prevent users from changing it, edit/create the value "NoDispScrSavPage" (DWORD value) and set the value to 1. Similarly, NoDispSettingsPage controls the Settings tab for screen resolution and number of colors; NoDispAppearancePage the Appearance tab; and NoDispBackgroundPage the Background tab for wallpaper. As always, don't change a Registry value unless you know its meaning, and before making any changes, back up the Registry. Read "Backing Up the Windows Registry" from the ZDNet Help and How To department if you need help on this score. And to really explore the Registry, read Chapter 31 of the Windows 98 Resource Kit. Backing Up The Windows Registry Chapter 31: The Windows Registry 12.0 JIGSAW PUZZLE: NIAGARA FALLS FROM CANADAThis week's puzzle (40 rotated pieces) is a spectacular nighttime view of Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. It's based on a photo copyrighted by Liang-Wu Cai on 7/24/1998. We used Tibo Software's Jigs@w Puzzle program to make the puzzle, which downloads in 45 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. Puzzles from earlier editions of the PC News Digest can be downloaded from our Puzzle Archive. A list of past puzzles and their download links can also be obtained by sending an email to library@pcnewsdigest.com with the subject "send file puzzles" (no quotes). Niagara Falls Puzzle Jigs@w Puzzle PC News Digest Puzzle Archive  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 12/19/2000 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 |
XLink/Win installs and configures quickly. This well-written and useful program earns our Best Choice Award for software that professionally, but unpretentiously integrates your computer and organizer. Organizer data (address book, schedules, to-do lists, etc.) can be edited on your PC for return to the organizer, or for export to word processing or database applications. XLink/Win even links to existing databases in common formats such as Access, dBase, FoxPro, Paradox, Btrieve, ODBC, etc. The program is shareware: FREE to evaluate; $23 to buy.