What You Need to Know about All Things PC
Volume 4 Number 5Click 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, March 8, 2001 - Vol. 4 No. 5 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Table of Contents ** 01. Letter from the Publisher ** 02. Norton Utilities 2001 (System Information): Part 1 (by Lee Hudspeth) ** 03. How to Defend Yourself from Bad Things in Your Email (by T.J. Lee) ** 04. A Sound Investment - Cool Edit Plug-ins (by Al Gordon) ** 05. What Does the Napster Decision Have To Do with Me? (by T.J. Lee) ** 06. Featured Book - "The Unbelievable Bubble Book" by John Cassidy ** 07. Featured Product - SoundsGood MP3 Audioplayer (reviewed by Al Gordon) ** 08. Featured Web Site - Hotsheet ** 09. Featured Office Tip - PowerPoint's Special Settings (by PRIME Consulting Group, Inc.) ** 10. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and interesting stuff ** 11. We Get Mail ** 01. Letter from the Publisher Thanks to all you readers who wrote in with contacts for CD replicators. Believe us, we'll be keeping all those referrals on file. Speaking of our ebook, "The Book That Should Have Come with Your Computer" (the PDF version of the printed tome "The Unofficial Guide to PCs"), we are very, very happy to announce what we've finally received our first pressing of CDs and that the book will begin shipping on Monday the 12th. Many thanks to all of you who have remained patient with our production delays. For the rest, you have until midnight Sunday to get the early-bird price of $19.95. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?ebook Last issue Jim mentioned that there was a version of UCMore out for Netscape Navigator users. And there was, honest! But shortly after our issue came out UCMore discovered some problems with this version and pulled it from their Web site. Read the "We Get Mail" section in this issue to see UCmore's response to our question "What's up with that?" In this issue you get audiophile tools galore from Al "Stereophonic" Gordon. Lee checks in with the first in a series on the individual components that make up the useful Norton Utilities and Jim has some advice on how to avoid the current crop of computer virus/Trojan/worm files that are going around. Ah-choo! Dan is back from shooting a video on Optical Illusions with one of the top creators of Optical Illusions in the field. You'll hear more on this shortly. Finally, many of you have commented on our "diverse" featured book choices in recent issues. While between the four of us we read a lot of computer books we don't always read one worthy of recommendation every other week. So rather than simply scan Amazon looking for books we think might be useful we feature the books (computer or not) on our current reading lists. The feedback we've been getting is encouraging us to continue in this direction. As always, reader support is what keeps TNPC free, so PLEASE help us and pass a copy of TNPC on to co-workers and friends (no spam please!) and remember to always say "I saw it in TNPC!" http://www.TheNakedPC.com/refer/ So now you know. +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ **OUT Of INK AGAIN? DON'T PAY RETAIL! SAVE 40-70%** Did you know You can refill your own ink cartridges? BIG Savings! We provide JetPak Pre-paid Mailers and Easy Refill kits! Satisfaction IS Guaranteed! Unsurpassed Customer service. BizRate.com Customer Certified 4.5 Stars! FREE Printer Utilities! We now offer High Quality Remanufactured TONER Cartridges! Save Now! MaxPatch Ink Supplies Has What You Need! * MaxPatch Ink Supplies * http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?sponsor1 +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 02. Norton Utilities 2001 (System Information): Part 1 (by Lee Hudspeth) I have been using Norton Utilities ("NU") for 13 years, going back to the DOS-based Advanced Edition version 4.5. (Remember Peter Norton Computing, Inc.?) Actually, I think I owned earlier versions of the toolkit but I don't have the diskettes to prove it, I only have the venerable version 4.5 floppies gathering dust in a storage bin. In this and a series of future articles I'll be covering each of the latest version of NU's components in depth. Keep in mind that NU 2001 version 5.0 runs on Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, and NT 4. Today I'm covering the System Information component. Before I get started, first a nod to my colleague Al Gordon, who put it so well in his TNPC #3.19 article on Norton SystemWorks and Windows 2000. I'm paraphrasing his advice here, "The trick during installation is to choose the Custom option so Norton installs everything (assuming you have the disk space), then reject all the options to run things automatically; all the tools are there for you to use when you need them but they're not running when you don't." System Information lives under the Norton Utilities Integrator's "System Maintenance" category. It is also available from the Norton Utilities program group. System Information offers a dialog with nine tabs: System, Display, Printer, Memory, Drive, Input, Multimedia, Network, and Internet. Each tab provides a window into both common and hidden (or deeply buried from casual view) properties of your system components. The trick is that you can double-click on just about any item displayed in these tabs and get more information. This is information that you may rarely use, but it's there nonetheless. For example, the Memory tab lists all items currently in memory (you can choose to include or exclude library files). When you double-click any item (or right- click, Details) you see a secondary window full of more information: total non-shared memory used, total allocated memory, total module size, threads, memory blocks, and identification. These properties can be expanded further by clicking on the "+" items in the tree. System Information offers you a wide range of reports to choose from. "Current Tab" prints information about the current tab only. "Typical" prints a generic report covering all the tabs. "Technical Support" prints Typical plus information relevant to your PC's startup behavior. "Custom" lets you pick and choose what elements to include on a report. Naturally, you can choose to route to a printer or a file. Two warnings: it can take a while to produce a report, especially an all-inclusive one, and they're big. The "Technical Support" report on one of my PCs is 212 pages long. Lastly, System Information offers benchmarking for the System and Drive tabs. I find this component useful because it's very thorough and has a friendly, uncluttered user interface that also allows you to quickly drill down to see the nitty gritty. I use it to examine and benchmark a new PC. I also like the Memory tab's view of how much memory a particular piece of software has snagged, and the reports are extremely thorough. Figure it this way, NU has a retail price of $50 and includes 18 components (of which System Information is one), so this component is costing you a whopping $2.78. Since I like and use at least 10 of those 18 components, and since (as you'll see in future articles) the other eight have compelling virtues that may well interest you even though I don't use them, overall I recommend NU 2001. If you have a favorite NU story or tip, or have found freeware or shareware products you like better, drop me a line. Amazon.com has Norton Utilities 2001 for $27.99 after the manufacturer's mail-in rebate of $15; the rebate applies only if you are a previous owner of a stand-alone copy of NU. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?lee1 You can reach Lee Hudspeth at: mailto:leehudspeth@TheNakedPC.com ** 03. How to Defend Yourself from Bad Things in Your Email (by T.J. Lee) To paraphrase the Dormouse, just "use your head." Sigh... class, let's go over all this once again. If you get an email attachment that you were not expecting, cannot confirm with the sender, and especially one that looks like a tempting cookie jar just begging to be clicked on, please delete it and get on with your work. Sheesh, no sooner do we break down and mention the "My b*by pic!!!" Trojan/worm on our Newsworthy page than everyone is all a-twitter about the "Naked W*fe" virus. I hate mentioning them at all because that is, after all, what malware/virus writers want. Recognition. And before you start writing me about the differences between a virus, a Trojan, and a worm, yes, I'm using the terms loosely but the average user thinks of all these entities under the generic term "virus" so let's just stick with that for the moment. Both "My b*by pic!!!" and "Naked W*fe" replicate by using Outlook, so you could chuck Outlook and use any of a number of alternative email clients that are not susceptible or targeted by "viruses" of these types. But that only deals with the replication factor. Outlook has some incredibly dumb functionality that lets an executable generate emails to everyone in the Outlook address book. So, if you trigger one of these virus programs on your computer you're going to send email bombs to everyone you know. This is all old news after the Melissa virus showed all the malware writers how to do it. It goes something like this. Someone gets an email with a provocatively named file attachment. They think, "Gee, I wonder what will happen if I double-click on this?" and they touch off the virus. The only creative bit on the part of the virus writer is coming up with a gimmick to get people to run a file on their computer that they really know nothing about. The good news is that everyone should know better by now. The bad news is that apparently everyone doesn't know better by now. The worse news is that the downside used to be crashing the email server but these new examples trash your local computer files, and therefore your computer as well, after sending themselves off to everyone you have listed in Outlook. Of the two, "My b*by pic!!!" actually does show you a joke graphic (albeit in very questionable taste). In fact, there are reports of users actually thinking it is soooo funny that they forward it on to their buddies to share the humor. Therefore, this virus is not totally dependent on Outlook for spreading itself. Once your computer is infected it starts corrupting your files. "Naked W*fe" on the other hand appears to be starting Shockwave Flash and stalls with a "loading" message while it queues up its replication email messages and then starts deleting files in your Windows and System folders. Here's what you do to protect yourself from this type of drek: Don't double-click on an executable file unless you mean to run a program on your computer and you are confident that said program isn't going to trash your computer and make you unpopular with everyone in your address book. It's that simple. This includes joke files, risqué graphics, files that are scripts, executable files that are disguised to look like text files, and the like. We've all seen amusing graphics but face it, they're not all that amusing. If they're that good they should be up on a Web site were you can go look at it with a browser, not something you have to get via email and run on your local system. And just because you get the file in question from some buddy in Accounting who is always passing around the latest joke file doesn't mean it's not a virus. Your buddy may not know his computer is sending out email bombs or he may be silly enough to unwittingly pass around an infected file. Be skeptical. Be doubly aware of emails you receive with ambiguous subject lines and a "you've just got to see this" feel to them. To help keep your computer safe, run your virus software and delete files you were not expecting (and don't need). You can reach T.J. Lee at: mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ PHOTON MICRO-LIGHTS! Our Photon Micro-Lights continue to be a best seller beyond our wildest expectations! Reader comments pour in: "I bought 3 [and] am now ordering 4 more and the Accessory Kit to give away as gifts" "Liked the first 2, and decided to get 6 more" "Very bright - they're GREAT!" Micro-Lights are the BRIGHTEST flashlights for their size in the WORLD. Reliable, incredibly bright light for any situation. These LED marvels produce light in your choice of Red, Orange, or Yellow; superbrights: Green, Turquoise, Blue, or White. Shipping is FREE in the USA! http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?sponsor2 +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 04. A Sound Investment - Cool Edit Plug-ins (by Al Gordon) When Syntrillium Software released the latest incarnation of its workhorse sound editor, CoolEdit 2000 (TNPC #3.02) I was pleased by its much needed updates, such as MP3 support, and was intrigued by its provision for future add-on modules to enhance its capabilities further. In the ensuing months, Syntrillium has rolled out a line up of modules, and it is time for another look. Cool Edit 2000 itself was upgraded to v1.1, which did some bug fixing and added one or two new features, the main one being real-time previewing of effects you add to your sound files before they are applied. Since audio processing is system- resource intensive, this is a definite time saver. The upgrade is free to registered CE2K users, as are a DirectX Plug-In and Tremolo Plug-In. The former lets DirectX sound effects work with the program; the latter is a sample effect. The key items on the plug-in list are Pro EQ, Audio Cleanup, and Studio; an equalizer, a noise removal utility, and a multi-track studio editor respectively. Pro-EQ is a no-brainer addition. It allows 10, 20, or 30 band editing to make the finickiest audiophile happy. In keeping with CE2K practice, the equalizer has more than a dozen presets and users can create their own. Particularly with MP3 encoding, the sound quality of a recording can deteriorate and the equalizer can boost lacking bass and so on. Audio Cleanup is an effective solution for analog sound files. It takes the "clicks" and "pops" out of LPs (for those of you old enough to remember them) and the hiss out of tapes. Take your cassettes, connect your player to your PC sound card and record digitally with CE2K, then run Audio Cleanup and get cleaner tunes. There also is a clipped audio feature for fixing recordings when you had the gain up too high. Studio provides four-channel mixing capabilities. It isn't going to allow you to start up your own record label (Syntrillium's $400 Cool Edit Pro does that), but it would let you massage a demo tape for your garage band. More important, it lets you assemble a sophisticated soundtrack for presentations or videos. Voiceover on one track, background music on another, sound effects on a third, whatever on the fourth... timed, transitioned, and volume controlled to your satisfaction. The Tweakin' Toys and Phat Pack plug-ins are packages of sound effects, which like all such efforts are somewhat a matter of taste. But they do a good job of providing things such as concert hall reverb or synthetic stereo from mono sources. The downside of the plug-ins is cost: $49 each. That makes buying all five a $250 investment, made all the pricier by the fact that CE2K itself is only $69. There is a $98 CoolEdit plus Studio plug-in package. Syntrillium should think about some twofer, threefer, etc. offers. Check out Cool Edit and its plug-ins here: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?al3 You can reach Al Gordon at: mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ STOP TELEMARKETERS COLD! As seen in the pages of The Naked PC newsletter, now you can get the Ultimate Anti-Telemarketer Device! Don't let your dinner get cold while you try to stop some telemarketer's sales pitch long enough to say NO! Just press the button on the Easy Hang Up by Phonex Corporation and let this marvelous device tell the telemarketer that your phone number does not accept sales calls and put them on notice to remove your phone number from their call list. This small device plugs into your phone and when you get a sales call just press the button and hang up! It's that simple. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?sponsor3 +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 05. What Does the Napster Decision Have To Do with Me? (by T.J. Lee) A quick comment on the whole Napster hoopla. Napster is a service that allows users to connect to each other for the purpose of sharing files. Specifically, MP3 files. This has allowed hundreds of thousands of users, if not millions, to "share" music files. You buy a CD, rip the tracks onto your hard disk, and someone else downloads them. As you might imagine the music industry has taken a dim view of what it sees as a blatant rip-off of their copyrights (and a reduction in their profits). Napster is nearly at the end of their legal ropes and the music industry is closing in for the kill, hoping to shut Napster down. A court has ruled that Napster has to police the files that go through its service and stop the copyright infringement that may be going on. So how does this affect the average computer user who doesn't care beans for downloading music on the Web? Putting aside the practical and philosophical arguments about who is ripping off whom, the gut buster of this case is one where the service is being held responsible for the content that goes across its hardware. See the connection yet? When you email someone you send him or her text (your message) and you may or may not attach a file to your message. Is your text original? Have you compromised a copyright in your message? What about that file attachment? Is it your file or are you sending a file that violates a copyright? Looks like your ISP stands a good chance of becoming the responsible party under any Napster ruling to see that you are not breaking a third party's copyright. This won't happen overnight. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act specifically exempts ISPs from any liability resulting in failing to oversee copyright infringements due to files passing through their servers. But the final solution to Napster could be the first step to going after your local ISP. Consider that Napster generates a lot of traffic. It's likely that "sharing" services will avoid the fate of Napster by going offshore. Then who can the music industry go after? If they decide they have to go to the end user then the only way to get to them is through the ISP. Ah, stay tuned. You can reach T.J. Lee at: mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com ** 06. Featured Book - "The Unbelievable Bubble Book" by John Cassidy It's time to have some fun again. The Unbelievable Bubble Book takes you on an entertaining journey through the science of creating bubbles. But not just your average bubbles, we're talking bubbles up to 8 feet long and several feet in diameter! We started in the back yard and made a five foot bubble. It's floating along contracting and expanding, reflecting the sun, higher and higher till it's over the house. Next thing we hear are some of the neighbors who see this "thing" coming over our house. We all run to the front and the bubble is still doing its "dance" in the front yard before moving down the street and disappearing over a different house. Before we were done all of the kids and many of the parents in the neighborhood were in our yard. It was great fun. The book itself tells you how to mix the proper solution for creating the large bubbles. You also get a special "wand" designed for the task of making the bubbles. Following the directions and using the wand it took about 10 tries to make the bubble described above. There is a certain knack to releasing the bubble. I can't tell you how fun this is. Get a copy for yourself, read it, then play with the bubbles. It's fascinating stuff and you'll be glad you did. Then get a copy to share with someone else. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?fbook ** 07. Featured Product - SoundsGood MP3 Audioplayer (reviewed by Al Gordon) We like good ideas. We like good products. We like good opportunities for clever word plays. So we obviously we love Good Technology's SoundsGood MP3 Audioplayer for the Handspring Visor. The unit uses Handspring's proprietary "Springboard" module format that allows it to be simply slid in and out of a recessed slot on the back of Visor handhelds. Want to have your tunes and your personal information together in one item? Snap in the SoundsGood Springboard and you have a PDA and MP3 player linked as one unit without any added size in the Visor's footprint. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?al1 This gives Visors an edge over Palm's own handhelds, which have yet to adopt a plug-in type expansion technology. (Palm uses add- on cradle-type units for such functions). At $270, the SoundsGood player is priced competitively with other 64 MB MP3 players and other music Springboards. It comes with adequate earbud headphones and the usual array of software for ripping audio tracks from your CDs, converting to MP3, and transferring to the player. Also, Music Match Jukebox, my favorite PC music player software, natively supports SoundsGood. The wrinkle that sets it apart, though, is the $40 "EnergyClip" for the player. It is one of those simple but elegant ideas; it's small case with a belt clip that holds the player module and an AA battery, thereby allowing you to use the MP3 player even when it isn't attached to a Visor. You can go jogging with the player and not have to lug the entire PDA also. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?al2 You'd think everyone would do that for relevant Springboards. But the folks at Good were the first to have that, ahem, good idea. You can reach Al Gordon at: mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com ** 08. Featured Web Site - Hotsheet We love it when we find a single site that we can bookmark that has a lot of functionality. It helps us cut down on the total number of sites we have to deal with so major kudos to TNPCer Miles A. for telling us about Hotsheet. Hotsheet is just such a site. Need news? What kind... general headlines, news links, sports, tech news? Can you remember the URLs for the top search sites? What about the meta-search sites? Top white page sites? Want to know what's on television right now, in your local area? On broadcast, satellite, or cable? Top financial sites, entertainment, portals, phone directories, shopping sites, sites for Webmasters, shareware sites, hardware support, you name it and this amazing page has it listed. It sounds impossible but Hotsheet actually makes all this work in an organized and usable format. You'll be able to cut way back on the number of sites you bookmark if you go to Hotsheet. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?fsite ** 09. Featured Office Tip - PowerPoint's Special Settings (by PRIME Consulting Group, Inc.) (This article covers PowerPoint 2000 and 97.) We recommend a series of adjustments to PowerPoint upon first installing or using it. Most of PowerPoint's Tools, Options settings will be familiar to someone who has used another Office application, and we cover the optimal Office-wide Options settings extensively in our book "Office 97 Annoyances." http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?offannoy But there are some PowerPoint settings that aren't in its siblings' Options dialogs. On the General tab, you can set a threshold at which sound files are linked instead of embedded into a presentation; this helps reduce a presentation file's size. We recommend you set "Link sounds with file size greater than" to 300 KB (the default is 100), but adjust to suit your needs. Warning: it is very annoying to install your presentation on the boss's PC, get part way into the slide show, then realize your awesome sound effects are all links to files that aren't on that PC. Another variation from standard Office Options settings is the Edit tab's "Maximum number of undos" control. In Excel 2000 and 97 you get a paltry maximum of 16 undos. In Word 2000 and 97 the undo stack is limited only by system resources and document size (FWIW, we once clocked Word at up to 2,400 undo actions). In PowerPoint 2000 and 97 you can set it yourself; the range is from 3 to 150, with a default of 20. Why is this user-selectable in PowerPoint and not the other Office applications? Our best guess is that the PowerPoint development team was trying to let users save resources in a pinch. Since presentations are often graphic intensive, tracking undo levels can eat up precious system resources if you're working in a constrained environment, say on a laptop (although with modern laptops this is less of a concern than back in the Office 97 days). We recommend you crank this control to its maximum. Another interesting PowerPoint option is setting the default file type for all your presentations (Word has a similar option, Excel does not). On the Save tab, you can select the following formats from the "Save PowerPoint files as" list box: "PowerPoint Presentation", "PowerPoint 97-2000 & 95 Presentation", "PowerPoint 95 Presentation", "PowerPoint 4.0 Presentation", and "Web Page". These choices are helpful if you are collaborating on a presentation with someone outside your firm who's stuck with an older version, or if your firm is upgrading over time (instead of overnight) from Office 97 to 2000. Note: If you have a Microsoft Office consulting project, development idea, macro quandary, or are just plain stuck trying to get something--easy or hard--done with Microsoft Office, WE CAN HELP YOU! This is what we do for a living: handle Office projects of all shapes and sizes. You can reach our software consultants by email 24x7 at: mailto:code@PRIMEConsulting.com or you can call us in the U.S. at 310-318-5212 (someone's usually on hand Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific time, or leave us a voice mail anytime). +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ WANT TO GET YOUR WORD OUT? Classified ads in The Naked PC can be yours for ridiculously low prices. Get your message out to over 64,000 TNPC subscribers. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/tnpcadvertising.html?v4i5 +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ ** 10. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and interesting stuff *-* If you use Juno, the free email service, you MUST read this article by Fred Langa about the changes in Juno's terms of service contract. In another example of going from "free" to "fee" Juno is trying to come up with ways to make a buck and what they've come up with can leave you holding the bag. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?news1 *-* Has Office XP been rushed to judgment, er, manufacturing? Within days of the "preview" program for the next version of Microsoft Office the gold code has been released to manufacturing. We can only hope that Microsoft's internal testing is working better than it has in the past. But market forces (read Microsoft's need to turn a quick buck) have caused MS to speed up the process to get Office XP out the door. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?news2 *-* Hotmail users are also finding out that the shift from "free" to "fee" is underway. Microsoft is divulging Hotmail subscribers' e-mail addresses, cities, and states to a InfoSpace's Internet White Pages directory that combines the information with telephone numbers and home addresses. This makes the Hotmail account susceptible to spammers. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?news3 *-* This story had us checking the date to see if it was an April Fools gag, but apparently it's on the level. In a very weird turn of events strict Internet copyright laws, which have just gone into effect throughout Australia, make it illegal to forward an e-mail memo without the author's permission. We're not sure how this will work out or be enforced. Maybe some of our readers "down under" can keep us posted. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?news4 Get more Newsworthy bits on the TNPC Web site: http://www.thenakedpc.com/newsworthy/ Have you come across something newsworthy? Drop us a line: mailto:hottips@TheNakedPC.com ** 11. We Get Mail - UCMore for Netscape Jumps the Gun Last issue (TNPC #4.04), Jim announced with a certain amount of glee that there was finally a version of UCMore for Netscape Navigator. Seems Jim glee'd too soon. Shortly after Jim's article came out UCMore pulled the Netscape Navigator version. We contacted the folks at UCMore and this is what they had to say: Dear TNPC, We regret to say that we underestimated the "border conditions" that arose with the use of UCmore in the Netscape Navigator environment. This is primarily a result of the fact that the Netscape browser does not integrate seamlessly into the Windows environment. We were aware of this situation and tested many configurations, however the initial responses indicated that Netscape users work with more configurations than we anticipated. Since we are sensitive to the quality of our software we decided to hold off on the release of the Netscape version until we have addressed all these issues. It's important to us that every version of UCmore work as smoothly and effortlessly as the Explorer version. We are sorry for any inconvenience or confusion we've caused your readers. Regards, Pnina Shertzer Director of Marketing UCmore We also apologize to our readers who use Navigator. Be sure to stop by the Letters to the Editor page for more: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/letters/index.html **PLEASE SUPPORT TNPC BY VISITING OUR ADVERTISERS** +++----------------------- classifieds -----------------------+++ BUY OUR LATEST BOOK! "T.J. Lee and Lee Hudspeth's Absolute Beginner's Guide to PC Upgrades" has garnered five-star reviews across the board. Here's what folks are saying. "If you only have time to read one book on PCs, read this." "The authors... have managed to crack that difficult problem of writing in a style that makes a potentially complex subject seem easy." "Lots of sidebars and an excellent glossary and index to fall back on." http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?class1 +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ pcReminder is FREE! NEVER FORGET AGAIN! Let FREE pcReminder send you a reminder via email. 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ZoneAlarm Pro is compatible with Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?class4 +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ Digilot.com: Pure Digital Entertainment Music CDs and a great selection of DVD Movies!!! We price our products fairly and honestly and provide quick delivery, as we keep most items in stock in our warehouse. We believe that an informed customer is a happy customer, so we've built some of the best technology out there to make shopping with us fast, convenient, affordable and fun! http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?class5 +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ 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. 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 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/annoyanceboard/ 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) 2001, PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. and Dan Butler. All Rights Reserved. The Naked PC is a trademark of PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. ISSN: 1522-4422 TNPC Hot Tips:
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