What You Need to Know about All Things PC
Volume 2 Number 12Click here to return to the back issues page.Click here to return to the main newsletter page.
The Naked PC - http://www.TheNakedPC.com What You Need to Know about All Things PC Publisher: Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee Editor in Chief: Dan Butler Contributing Editor: Al Gordon This issue is for Thursday, June 10, 1999 - Vol. 2 No. 12 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sender: owner-thenakedpc Precedence: bulk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Table of Contents ** 01. Letter from the Publisher ** 02. Personal Productivity Manifesto (by Lee Hudspeth) ** 03. Free Software Tips (by Dan Butler) ** 04. TNPC Primer - Coping with Cookies (by T.J. Lee) ** 05. Featured Book - "Poor Richard's E-Mail Publishing" (by Chris Pirillo and Peter Kent) ** 06. Featured Product Recommendation - the HotFax Message Center 3.0. ** 07. Featured FAQ - How Can My Installer Find Word 2000's User Templates and Startup folder? (by Mike Craven) ** 08. Featured Web Site - CD-ROM & Audio Help Links ** 09. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and interesting stuff ** 10. We Get Mail - Comments and Tips from TNPC Readers ** 01. Letter from the Publisher Just a short time after TNPC #2.11 hit the stands, our new book "The Unofficial Guide to PCs" rocketed to Amazon.com's Sales Rank position 476 out of more than 2,000,000 titles -- yes, that's two million. Not too shabby for a book that won't actually ship for about another 10 days, eh? Thanks to those of you who clicked and purchased! You won't be disappointed. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789717972/tnpcnewsletter As a way of saying thanks for your support and for providing you, our subscribers, with special services and additional TNPC value, we're starting a biweekly drawing for a chance to win a free book from the Macmillan Computer Publishing catalog. We'll randomly select a TNPC subscriber once every issue, notify her/him by email, and if they reply within 72 hours, the lucky subscriber wins a FREE book from the following list: * Easy PCs: See It Done Do It Yourself (Nat Gertler, Rick Winter) * PC Cheat Sheet (Shelley O'Hara, Galen A. Grimes) * Peter Coffee Teaches PCs (Peter Coffee) * Sams Teach Yourself PCs in 10 Minutes (Shelley O'Hara) * Sams Teach Yourself PCs in 24 Hours (Greg M. Perry) * The Complete Idiot's Guide to PCs (Joe Kraynak) * Using and Upgrading PCs (Joe Kraynak, Jim Boyce, Winn L. Rosch) In the case of someone who is selected but doesn't respond within 72 hours (for whatever reason), that name will go back into the pool for the next drawing, we'll do another random drawing, and continue the process until a winner responds within 72 hours. So keep your eye on your Inbox because we've already sent out the winner notice to one of you! In this issue we start with a discussion of personal (human and computer) productivity, then ease right on into the perennial favorite: free software. Follow that course with a liberal dose of cookie tips and tricks, and for dessert a cornucopia of features: "Poor Richard's E-Mail Publishing", HotFax Message Center, Office 2000 add-in installer secrets FAQ, CD-ROM/audio help links, and more. Sorry about the omission of the URL in last issue's Newsworthy bit about Cringley's article on Microsoft and Y2K compliance. You'll find it at: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit19990513.html As always, reader support is what keeps TNPC free, so please pass a copy of TNPC on to co-workers and friends (no spam please!) and always say "I saw it in TNPC!" +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ PRIME for Word 2000 and PRIME for Excel 2000 Be the first on your block with your very own add-ins for the new Microsoft Word and Excel 2000! PRIME utilities include too many cool features to list them all here, so consider just this one... PRIME WorkBar provides a one-click listing of your favorite working documents right on your menu bar in both Word and Excel. This one utility is worth the price of the whole package. Get these productivity enhancing add-ons today! Each set comes with a lifetime money-back guarantee. Check them out for yourself. PRIME for Word 2000: http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/software/p2000wd.html?v2i12 PRIME for Excel 2000: http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/software/p2000xl.html?v2i12 +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 02. Personal Productivity Manifesto (by Lee Hudspeth) I've recently been beleaguered by so many tasks -- personal and professional -- of varying priorities that I was beginning to feel that the tasks were winning the war. I needed a way to get reorganized and reprioritized. The tactics I'm using, although not entirely painless, are working for me so I'd like to codify and share them with you. My guidelines are: a. Zero Paper b. If It Has No Historical or Legal Significance, Avoid It or Round-file It c. Drive the Communication Bus d. Make Time for Yourself I'll take them one at a time... a. Zero Paper Although I've always been well organized -- even a compulsive (some might say) note-taker, list-maker, and filer -- I had not been fully optimizing these, ahem, impulses. About half of my tasks were represented by Outlook Task records, the other half by pieces of paper. The limitations of paper tasks are significant: 1. you can't co-mingle paper tasks with your electronic tasks; 2. you can't produce a list of paper tasks ranked by priority; 3. you can't assign other properties to paper tasks for additional sorting, sub-sorting, categorization, and monitoring; 4. you can't auto-create another data record (say, an email) from a paper task; 5. you can't do full-text searching on paper tasks; and 6. you can't make backups of paper tasks. I'll grant that you can hack your way to marginally achieve some of the above electronic features with paper tasks. You can shuffle them using various paper-sorting techniques, color-code them, tag them with PostIts, photocopy them, and so on, but you'll never come close to the efficiency and speed of electronic task organization. So the first line item of my personal productivity manifesto gets rid of all paper. Okay, as a practical matter I'll only be able to asymptotically approach zero pieces of paper. No big deal. Simply TRYING to keep the amount of paper on and in my desk to zero gives me more control over my tasks instead of vice versa. I had two main paper stacks: "Critical Today" and "Response Pending/Other." Getting rid of the existing paper wasn't too difficult, but it was time- consuming. I transcribed "timeless" paper data into Outlook Notes records or Word documents, e.g., a list of article ideas for my column in TNPC. I transcribed time-constrained paper data into Outlook Task records, e.g., a biweekly reminder to review my accomplishments on my 1999 goals. In a subsequent article I'll cover the details of how I use Outlook to manage tasks. Note: storing paper in a filing cabinet for archival falls into a separate category, covered next. b. If It Has No Historical or Legal Significance, Avoid It or Round-file It You can apply this axiom to paper files, electronic files, email archives, expense receipts, even knick-knacks piling up to the rafters in your living room. There's an underlying assumption here: don't let things accumulate while debating their significance, instead develop your own rules about how to quickly filter the fire hose of stuff flowing through your life, and apply them mercilessly. I get two productivity gains from this guideline. First and foremost, I spend no time on things that aren't important to me. In the case of paper files (and I do keep paper files in the classic legal filing cabinet fashion), I avoid wasting my or my employees' time on the sink hole of collating, cataloging, and storing valueless stuff. Second, the less space wasted by junk -- space in a metal filing cabinet or on a spinning hard disk surface -- the more space I have available to fill with neat things that DO interest me. You have to use your own judgment about what's significant. For me, I recently waded through old client files and actually kept most of them. Although aged, they provide a historical record of our firm's accomplishments. Again, use your judgment (and when considering the retention of financial records, always consult your tax planner and/or attorney). c. Drive the Communication Bus I'm not comfortable checking incoming email more than a few -- two or three -- times a day. Well, to be honest, about two years ago I couldn't have said that. Back then I'd check email first thing every morning and then spend hours wrestling with the demons that popped up there, and go on to compulsively check email every hour or so, afraid that I'd miss something. Then I read Steve Maguire's "Debugging the Development Process" (Microsoft Press) and was inspired by his suggestion to flip email on its ear. He suggests that if you have email set to flow in unencumbered, turn that off right now and instead check email manually and only after you've gotten some concrete work accomplished. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1556156502/tnpcnewsletter/ My all-time favorite Outlook email feature is the ability to Send only (and thereby not retrieve any waiting incoming email). (Most other email clients have this ability, too.) I use it all the time: I finish a task or project, send it off via email to its recipient, and can't be tempted to "just take a peek" at my Inbox because I know there's no new mail there. You can apply this "drive the bus" guideline to email, phone calls waiting to be returned, and the like. During an average work day you should let email and phone calls wait until you're available. You won't miss anything, trust me. And if someone really needs to communicate with you, they can escalate from an email to a phone call or a phone call to a page. (There are some professions where you'll be limited as to how far you can take this deferral tactic. Say you're running a demand-driven business like an office supply store, you have to answer the phone during business hours, always.) d. Make Time for Yourself You've probably heard this one before in a variety of self-help forums, but it's well worth considering again. Give yourself time each week for exercise (staying reasonably fit), goofing off (physical and mental relaxation), and personal growth (education, hobbies, learning new skills). I won't bore you with what appeals to me across these dimensions, but I've now got a renewed zeal for giving myself some quality personal time. Another book that has helped crystallize my thinking about productivity is Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" (Fireside). I consider it an excellent resource. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671708635/tnpcnewsletter/ There's not enough space here to talk about the exceptions -- obvious and not so obvious -- to these guidelines, although that might make for good discussion in a future article. I'll continue the general discussion of PCs and personal productivity in subsequent articles. Meantime, if you've got your own personal productivity guidelines and tips, I'd like to hear from you. You can reach Lee Hudspeth at: mailto:leehudspeth@TheNakedPC.com +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ WANT TO GET YOUR WORD OUT? Classified ads in The Naked PC can be yours for the ridiculously low price of $30 per issue. Get your message out to over 25,000 TNPC subscribers. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/tnpcadvertising.html?v2i12 +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ ** 03. Free Software Tips (by Dan Butler) There are a number of Hot Tips on the best free software you can find through Beyond.com. This is commercial-ware that would normally cost you a pretty penny but have rebate offers that render your net cost to ZERO! That's free, baby! Yeah! (Sorry, thought I was Austin Powers there for a moment.) For example, those of you who missed out on the free rebate offer on Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia last time around won't want to miss out this time: http://www.beyond.com/AF23174/PKIN669642/prod.htm This is the world's #1 best-selling encyclopedia for the fifth straight year and has been revised with 35,000 articles, 5,000 of which are new, along with links to the Internet. TurboZIP Express V1.01 for Win95/98/NT is available for free. http://www.beyond.com/AF23174/PKSN101930/prod.htm TurboZIP Express is a powerful and intuitive, easy to use solution for handling ZIP and CABinet files. And you sure can't beat the price. The rebates on both of these products expire at the end of June. It's been pointed out to us here at TNPC that Beyond.com's rebate offers often do not extend to orders originating outside of the U.S. or Canada. Be aware and always check carefully about the rebate requirements and expiration dates before you order any software. Because these software bargains come and go on short notice, we've started putting links to the ones we recommend at the bottom of the TNPC home page. Be sure to check there during the week between TNPC issues for our latest finds. http://www.TheNakedPC.com You can reach Dan Butler at: mailto:danbutler@TheNakedPC.com ** 04. TNPC Primer - Coping with Cookies (by T.J. Lee) TNPCer Dave pointed out to me that way back in TNPC #2.09 I said, "Next issue I'll sweep up the cookie crumbs and point you at the freeware utilities that let you instantly hide all your cookies with the click of a mouse." Dave then took me to task because I failed to do so. Dave caught me dead to rights, but like the kid whose dog ate his homework I have an excuse (no, I didn't get this excuse from last issue's Featured Web site, but I was tempted). The problem is that I was all set to spout off about my favorite solution for dealing with cookies, a program called Anonymous Cookie by Luckman Interactive. Only one problem, when I went to check to see if I had the latest version of this free program, I found that Luckman Interactive has disappeared. Gone, poof, no forwarding address, end of report. While the program is still floating around various freeware download sites I was not sure I wanted to recommend a program whose creator has pulled a cyber-Houdini. I really like Anonymous Cookie because it lets you accept cookies then disable every single cookie on your machine with two mouse clicks. You can then enable them again just as easily. I like the flexibility and control this gives me over cookies and I can decide if I want to make cookies available to a site at any time. If you want to try the free Anonymous Cookie knowing full well it is an orphaned piece of software, last time I checked you can still find a copy at: http://filedudes.nsiweb.com/win95/cookies/setpacb2.html I've started looking for a replacement for Anonymous Cookie for my own system but so far I can't find a clear winner. At least not one that has the features of Anonymous Cookie and is free to boot. One freeware contender is Cookie Cruncher from Rendering Better Avenues. This application lets you view and remove cookies in IE and Navigator. http://www.rbaworld.com/Programs/CookieCruncher/index.shtml Another is Cookie Pal from Kookaburra Software. This one is shareware and costs $15 to register after the 30-day evaluation. Cookie Pal is feature-rich, letting you configure it to accept cookies from some sites while rejecting them from others. It also lets you view and delete cookies in both IE and Navigator. http://www.kburra.com/cpal.html Dealing not only with cookies, interMute professes to block annoying banner ads as well. It's a $20 shareware package with a 14-day free trial version. The program looks very promising although their Web site lacks solid feature information. http://www.intermute.com/overview.htm For now I'm still running Anonymous Cookie. If you have a favorite Cookie manager drop me a line and let me know why you like it. I'll pass your comments along in future issues. You can reach T.J. Lee at: mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com ** 05. Featured Book - "Poor Richard's E-Mail Publishing" (by Chris Pirillo and Peter Kent) Subtitled "Creating Newsletters, Bulletins, Discussion Groups and Other Powerful Communications Tools"... Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome fame along with Poor Richard himself, Peter Kent, have put together a great book showing you how e-mail is used to disseminate information in electronic newsletters (just like TNPC), discussion groups, and news bulletins. If you've ever thought of creating a mailing list or just want to know more about what goes into creating an online newsletter, this is the book for you. Ah, you might even find a chapter about TNPC in this really outstanding tome. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966103254/tnpcnewsletter ** 06. Featured Product Recommendation - the HotFax Message Center 3.0. If you need a full-featured fax, voice mail, pager solution for your computer then head over to Beyond.com and pick up the HotFax Message Center 3.0. Free after rebate. Fax, fax forwarding, fax OCR, broadcast faxing, caller ID, voice mail, fax on demand, pager notification of faxes and emails, Internet voice e-mail, voice mail boxes, and more. If you need to equip a small office or just automate some of your communications this is worth a look. Be aware that some of the voice features require a voice capable modem. http://www.beyond.com/AF23174/PKIN329414/prod.htm ** 07. Featured FAQ - How Can My Installer Find Word 2000's User Templates and Startup folder? (by Mike Craven) This is a technical FAQ of special interest to anyone trying to automate the installation of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint templates/add-ins in Office 2000. Your installer has to be able to determine where Office applications are looking for key folders and the answer lies with the Registry. This FAQ shows you what Registry keys and values to check as well as what you should do if the returned path does not exist on the local machine. http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/faqs/faq6400.html ** 08. Featured Web Site - CD-ROM & Audio Help Links Got a problem with your sound card? Your CD-ROM giving you fits? For a one-stop spot to find the answers you're looking for, you can't beat this site. From hardware specifications to drivers to tips and tricks you'll find a collection of links that cover everything you might need to know about CD-ROM drives and sound cards. http://mptbbs.simplenet.com/ctech4.htm ** 09. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and interesting stuff *-* Bugnet seems to have just discovered that spreadsheets only track precision to 15 digits and is warning everyone. Hello? Enter numbers in any spreadsheet product longer than 16 digits and you're not going to get precise results. We wrote all about this in "The Underground Guide to Microsoft Excel" and again in "Excel 97 Annoyances." This is old news... sheesh. http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/annoyances/excelannoy.html *-* If you're wondering what goodies will be in the soon-to-be- released Windows 98 Second Edition here's where you can find the fix/feature list: http://microsoft.com/windows98/highlights/win98sefs.asp *-* Microsoft has released a patch that fixes two serious security flaws in IE4 and IE5. This patch fixes a flaw in IE5 that lets Web sites you bookmark include a custom icon next to the bookmark entry (FAVICON.ICO). A nefariously constructed ICO file could execute malicious code on a user's computer. The second flaw involves an ActiveX control distributed with IE4 and IE5 even though it is not used by either program. http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/ms99-018.asp *-* 30 to 40 percent of books are returned to publishers unsold, according to industry data. That's not because the books were not wanted but because of the difficulty inherent in the forecast and distribution methods of the publishing industry. Borders will use print-on-demand technology to compete with inventory-sensitive Internet sellers by putting this new technology right in their retail stores. http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/19971.html ** 10. We Get Mail - Comments and Tips from TNPC Readers In the last issue of TNPC (#2.11) I wrote about my trials and tribulations in making bookmarks/favorites work properly with multiple browser windows, all while using custom pull-down menus from Explorer's Links toolbar. Many of you have suggested alternate favorite and bookmark managing solutions and I intend to explore some of these third party solutions in future issues, but TNPCer Sanjay Sheth had the best work-a-round for what I'm running into in IE5. To recap, I have custom folders on my IE5 Links toolbar which gives me the equivalent of multiple mini-Favorites menus. When I run multiple browser windows and select a favorite from one of my pull-down menus the page that is called up always appears in the first browser window. This is really annoying as you might imagine and while several TNPCers say this glitch does not affect them many report the exact same problem with IE5. Sanjay has a simple workaround. Pull down the custom folder/menu but instead of clicking on the favorite, just drag it from the menu to the browser display area. You can do this in each browser window you have open and get the called pages to display in the correct window. Yea Sanjay! **PLEASE SUPPORT TNPC BY VISITING OUR ADVERTISERS** +++----------------------- classifieds -----------------------+++ IMAGINE! SEX DRIVE AND PERFORMANCE LIKE WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG! Natural, Proven, Safe. Guaranteed! FREE Harvard MD Reports. NOT MLM! Real Doctors. 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You can too! http://www.higherresponse.com/track/t.cgi/8076 +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ AMALGAMATED BINARIES Custom Programming - Web Site Development & Enhancement Services Proud Home of "Software that Promises Nothing... and Delivers!" AMALGAMATED BINARIES, St. Louis, Missouri, Makers of Tiny Elvis http://www.ambin.com or E-Mail us at info@ambin.com +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ DISCLAIMER Personal computers are individual machines with performance that can vary with components, software, and operator ability. The Naked PC is not responsible for the manner in which the information presented is used or interpreted. Also, although we work hard to provide you with accurate Internet links in The Naked PC, we are not responsible for Internet links herein that represent sites owned and operated by third parties. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy, performance, or availability of any such third-party sites. Grass stains may not wash out. Do not leave on your car dash with the windows rolled up on a hot day. REDISTRIBUTION POLICY We encourage you to forward this newsletter to your friends, associates, and colleagues for their review and enjoyment. However, please do so only by sending it in full, thereby keeping the copyright and subscription information intact. We do request that, once they've reviewed an issue or two, they subscribe independently rather than continue to receive issues from you. This helps TNPC grow and prosper, thereby funding its continued publication. Also, if you wish to post this newsletter to a newsgroup or electronic discussion group, you may do so if you preserve the copyright and subscription information. Thanks. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe, surf on over to: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/subscribe.html To make comments or suggestions, surf on over to: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/tnpfeedback.html or send email directly to: mailto:tnpc@TheNakedPC.com Get back issues form our Mailbot by sending email to: mailto:Mailbot@TheNakedPC.com WEB BULLETIN BOARD Check out our 24x7 Web bulletin board. If you've got a technical question about PC issues, or suggestions of your own, this is the place to hang out: http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/cgi-local/annoy.pl ADVERTISING To advertise in TNPC go to: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/tnpcadvertising.html Mail services provided by Blue Horizon Enterprises, one of the very few "Mom and Pop" operations left on the Web: http://www.bhorizon.com Copyright (c) 1999, PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. and Dan Butler. All Rights Reserved. The Naked PC is a trademark of PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. ISSN: 1522-4422 RMH: 586 TNPC Hot Tips:
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