What You Need to Know about All Things PC
Volume 4 Number 22Click 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, November 1, 2001 - Vol. 4 No. 22 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Table of Contents ** 01. Letter from the Publisher ** 02. Recycling PC Components and Paraphernalia: Part 3 (by Lee Hudspeth) ** 03. Practical Computer Security (Continued) (by Dan Butler) ** 04. Anybody But Microsoft? (by T.J. Lee) ** 05. Pocket-Sized Software: Part 3 (by Al Gordon) ** 06. Featured Product - Windows XP Utilities (by Al Gordon) ** 07. Featured Web Site - allUSB ** 08. Featured Drawing - Holiday Season Kickoff ** 09. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and interesting stuff ** 01. Letter from the Publisher By the time you read this, in the U.S. anyway, the Halloween holiday will have come and gone. We had fun this year, and hope you and your families did, too. To start November 2001 out right, this issue covers a variety of topics. In his ongoing "getting green" series, Lee discusses the ins and outs of donating a PC. Dan's article on practical PC security debunks the "unopened email" myth and offers advice for handling--sooner rather than later--a variety of PC security concerns. Jim ponders the historical full circle that just might engulf Microsoft as it haughtily jacks up the "onerous" factor in its products and appears to be turning planned obsolescence into a cash-cow art form. Al concludes his extensive series on productivity-enhancing software for Pocket PCs. Oh, and we've a new advertiser down in the classifieds... check out the Stowaway Keyboard for PDA users from Targus! Al reports a footnote to his piece about Windows XP product activation; when tracking down his missing review copy of XP, Al learned that it had been shipped but presumably pilfered. So he asked Microsoft, "Does this mean that you can shut down the stolen product?" Answer from the PR department, "We don't know." Speaking of Microsoft and Windows operating systems, we've found a resource we'd like to share with you, one that helps you get the most from your Windows system. If you're looking for ways to secure, optimize, and manage your Windows-based computers, check out the Windows Guide Network. This site provides a huge range of tricks, tweaks, and tools so you can take complete control of the powerful hidden features of the Windows operating system. http://www.winguides.com/?nkpc1 CONGRATULATIONS to Wayne T. and Sandra F., winners of our The Naked PC "Halloween Monster Mash" drawing. They have each won a free copy of our "The Naked PC Volumes 1-3 Back Issues" CD. Be sure to check out this issue's Holiday Season Kickoff drawing, it's a snap to enter! Reader support is what keeps The Naked PC free. To this end you can help us by passing a copy on to co-workers and friends (no spam please). We even make it easy to refer people to The Naked PC... check out our Refer page: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/refer/ +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ "LEARN HOW YOU CAN GET CONTROL OF YOUR PAYCHECK..." Do you sometimes have more month than money? Ever wonder how to dig out of the hole of debt? Maybe someone you know is struggling. In today's uncertain times with tens of thousands being laid off, this is one step you can take now to make your future more certain. This proven multimedia course will show you everything you need. http://www.TheNakedPCStore.com/planb/get_out_of_debt.html +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 02. Recycling PC Components and Paraphernalia: Part 3 (by Lee Hudspeth) If you don't want to keep a recyclable PC, and you would prefer to donate it rather than sell it, you can make the donation to a family member, friend, colleague, next-door neighbor, or a charitable organization (select from these different donee types in whatever order of preference works for you). For some insight into the recycle/donation market, here is a summary of comments from Ken Goldstein, Ph.D., Founder and State Coordinator, Hawaii Computers for Kids Program ("CFK"). http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?lee1 Ken started CFK in 1992 as a grass roots organization, and he now uses the services of thousands of local volunteers. In 1996 CFK became a "signature project" of the Rotary Club of Metropolitan Honolulu; through the Rotary network, Ken can reach 1.2 million Rotary members around the world. When an end-user donates a computer, he or she gets a formal donation receipt that is qualified for federal and state tax write-offs. For PCs less than two years old--if the donor is a corporation--a federal law allows the entire original cost of the machine as a write-off (the corporation gets the free use of that machine for two years, and still gets a full tax write-off). The donation process works like this: donated PCs are rounded up by Helping Hands Hawaii (HHH), and are then distributed to one or more of 16 local high schools. Students at these schools have been trained to diagnose, repair/upgrade, and load new operating systems on these donated machines. Then CFK locates schools that need these ready-to-use computers. This has proven to be Ken's most daunting task, as the Hawaii Dept. of Education does not currently have a system for easily finding needy end-users. Nonetheless, CFK has managed to move more than 10,000 computers from donors to schools to date. The entire transcript of his comments are on my supplemental page. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?lee2 "Share the Technology," a nonprofit corporation, offers caveats for folks preparing to donate a PC. This is a MUST READ if you're considering donating a PC. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?lee3 TechSoup.org maintains a "Recycled and Refurbished Hardware" page that lists online (and traditional) national and local hardware manufacturers and resellers that provide used hardware to non- profit organizations. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?lee4 AnotheR BytE, Inc. (nonprofit) maintains a Non-Profit Computer Recycling Useful Links page. It's extensive and you'll find it to be very helpful; check it out: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?lee5 My next article in this series will cover scrapping PCs. Note: for those of you interested in recycling your PC media as I reported in Part 1 of this series, I recently received GreenDisk's Certificate of Destruction for the CDs, floppies, and tapes I shipped them on October 3rd (they certified the destruction on October 10th). David Beschen, President, GreenDisk Services, wrote me to explain that "unless it is a corporate contracted client we generally process these [end-user media recycling] packages as fill work." Sounds good to me. I once again strongly recommend that you consider GreenDisk's end-user media recycling process for any old media you have on hand. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?lee6 You can reach Lee Hudspeth at: mailto:LeeHudspeth@TheNakedPC.com ** 03. Practical Computer Security (Continued) (by Dan Butler) With the recent acts of Congress here in the U.S. giving our law enforcement more power to eavesdrop and observe (in the hope of identifying terrorists), the topic of security is high on many people's radar. It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with the new powers. And whatever your position on personal privacy rights are, it is smart to make yourself aware of the actual state of events. One comment that I hear frequently is that "they" (agents of the U.S. government and local law enforcement) are going to be reading people's "unopened email." Well, guess what? There is no such thing as unopened email. If you are sending unencrypted email over the Internet it is readable by any system operator on any system through which email passes. In addition, it is readable by anyone who puts a "packet sniffer" on your connection. In today's world of cable modems, this possibility is very plausible. "I run a firewall," you say. Great--it may keep the bad guys out of your machine but it doesn't prevent a packet sniffer from reading your email or watching where you surf. Once the data passes your firewall it's on the net bound for its final destination. The truth of the matter is there isn't much you can do about it. Fortunately, there is only a slim chance of it happening because no one is really interested in doing this. Going back to "unopened email." I suggest you use "postcard mentality" before sending email. Think of your email as being sent on a postcard. Many people along the way can read the contents of your message, but in reality most don't bother. It is the same with email. If you wouldn't send the information on a postcard you shouldn't send it through email without encrypting the message first. If you need to encrypt, get PGP and use it. If the person you are sending email to doesn't have PGP, use the self-decrypting archive as described in an earlier article in this series. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?dan4 "What about those devices that monitor every keystroke?" If the government is sneaking into your house and installing these then you have bigger problems than "unopened email!" Similar programs are not that hard to find. For instance, the detective program you see in our classified ads comes with a tool to secretly monitor Internet use. While not on the same level as what the FBI might use, it is the same general idea. What can you do? If you have files on your system you don't want others to ever be able to access, don't keep the file on your system. It is not as simple as it sounds. Think about temporary files and other remnants that may be left behind. Now remember PGP, Norton Utilities (WipeInfo), and others have programs that will really erase a hard drive, making undeleting files much more difficult. Note I didn't say impossible! But it is *very* expensive to even attempt to recover a disk that has been erased with these sort of utilities. Here's one of Lee's recent articles covering Norton's WipeInfo in detail: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?dan3 To keep your sensitive files off your main hard drive, consider using an Iomega Zip Disk. It's big enough to hold most files and you can work directly off the Zip disk. With a USB or parallel port model the drive is portable. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?dan1 Another good option is rewriteable CD-ROMs. Just make sure you have a working drive on each computer you use. You can always use PGP to encrypt your data if you are worried about people snooping. I could talk about any of these topics at length. The important thing is to keep yourself informed. We will help you toward that end. We will also help you learn to use some simple tools with your system now. Don't wait until you "have to have them now." You will only get frustrated. I've put a list of the other articles and examples from this series here: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?dan2 You can reach Dan Butler at: mailto:danbutler@TheNakedPC.com +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ "Computer Tips Compendium" We've collected over 460 computer tips and have packaged them as an electronic book in PDF format. That means that the text of each and every tip is fully text searchable... you'll find the tip you need, when you need it. We've pulled together the BEST TIPS, tricks, and techniques that you're likely to ever find all onto a single CD. You also get free access to the restricted Tips Section of The Naked PC Web site! Tips on where to find the information you need on the Internet, shortcuts to settings, fixes and workarounds to problems, general computer tips, tips for specific software, over 460 tips to help people like you use your computer even more productively. A GREAT stocking stuffer! http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?comptips +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 04. Anybody But Microsoft? (by T.J. Lee) Picking on Microsoft is eerily like the old days when everyone picked on IBM, all the while using IBM hardware and software. I remember when Microsoft was the good guy, putting the tools in the hands of the users and enabling us to break free of the guys in the white lab coats who worked in the refrigerated glass house. But the times change and Microsoft has gone from being the Rebel Alliance directly to Evil Empire in a very short period of time bypassing the whole Repubic and Jedi Knight stage completely. And the strain on the end user is starting to show. The result is a real movement towards an "anything but Microsoft" strategy. The IS guys are tired of email bombs and viruses that use Outlook as their transport vehicle. Microsoft Word practically supported the macro virus world single-handedly ever since the first Concept virus got loose, with some help from Microsoft Excel. As mentioned in a previous issue of The Naked PC (#4.20), a bug was found in Excel 2002/2000 that would allow macros to bypass what little security there is in Excel and run without warning the user. Microsoft has issued another in a long list of patches to fix this Excel bug and promises to really start getting serious about security issues. At best you'd have to say that security in Microsoft Office end user products is a bit thin, especially where Outlook is concerned. But it goes deeper than that. After the recent Code Red and Nimda virus hoopla the Gartner Group has issued an advisory that companies immediately explore alternatives to Microsoft's IIS Web server software. This is a big deal because a lot of IS people and CIOs will have to start justifying why they're sticking with IIS when firms like Gartner start waving red flags. On one hand there's the security issue, and I think everyone agrees that security is something we're all taking more seriously these days. Computer viruses (like Melissa and that ilk) have been hugely annoying due to their voracious replication appetite or because they can leave a backdoor open that someone could come along and exploit, but they're fairly benign when it comes to actual destructive payloads. I think that will change for the worse given all that's going on in the world and we'll start seeing some really destructive things turned loose on the computing public. Then there is Microsoft's continued drive to dominate the market and reinforce its revenue streams. Their trouble with the Justice Department seems to have evaporated faster than a politician's promise so they don't seem to be worried about their monopoly status any more. And as we've mentioned in previous issues, Microsoft is dropping technical support for older versions of Windows on a strict timetable. Windows 95, Windows NT 3.5, and Windows 3.x versions are "unsupported" as of December 31, 2001. Windows 98/98SE and Windows NT 4.x are dropped as of June 30, 2003, or a scant 18 months later. Microsoft can talk about saving on support costs but the bottom line is the bottom line. They want to force people to upgrade to the current version of Windows thereby pocketing the upgrade fees. And they can be sure there's a new current version of Windows whenever the cash flow projection demands feeding. To show you the zeal that Microsoft is displaying in making what it deems as obsolete software lay down and die, Redmond had planned to expire NT 4.0-based Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) credentials on December 31st of this year (even though this product would be supported by Microsoft until June 2003). They stopped giving NT 4.0-based certification exams back in February. The MCSE is not an easy credential to obtain and most computer techs spend no small amount of time and money in becoming certified. Microsoft can, at its whim, expire a particular MCSE rating, thereby forcing those who need to be credentialed to have to move on and become certified in whatever program Microsoft wants people to use. Not what people or companies want to use, but what Microsoft wants them to use. Fortunately, there was such a hue and cry that Redmond relented and is now following a more rational approach and allowing someone to become a MCSE in a given product and retain that certification indefinitely. What's pushing Microsoft to come up with all this is that there is a growing trend for companies to dig in with a version of Windows that meets their needs and not upgrade every time Redmond trots out a new version. By dropping support, Microsoft creates forced obsolescence, which is Microsoft's answer to those who don't upgrade. In effect they're saying that a company had better get with the program or be stuck with unsupported software. Look for this trend to bleed over into end user software products like Office too at some point. What's does unsupported mean? Clearly you won't be able to call Microsoft and get tech support in real time. But what about the thousands of documents in the Microsoft online Knowledge Base? I've not seen any official Microsoft announcements but I know I'm going to start saving all my old TechNet CDs because I won't be surprised if on December 31st the Knowledge Base is purged of all articles on unsupported versions of Windows. Is it time to really start thinking about getting off the Microsoft bandwagon? A number of columnists are saying that alternatives like Linux deserve a good look. The coming version 6 of Star Office (currently in beta) has been getting a lot of good press lately and it's really hard to argue with the "free" price tag. Personally I'm not sure. Although I'm very wary of Windows XP and its Passport component, I think highly of Windows 2000. Perhaps more worrisome than Passport is the "product activation" scheme that is a part of Windows XP. According to Microsoft the purpose is simply copy protection. They want $100 (for Home edition) or $200 (for the Pro edition) for *every* computer you install Windows on--full stop, end of report, and by golly activation is supposed to accomplish this. That may be and I'm sure Redmond won't be unhappy with the increased cash flow that copy protection of this nature provides (although the lessons of history regarding users and copy protection seem to be lost to Redmond). But it's my opinion that copy protection is only a smoke screen for the true purpose of activation, which again is forced obsolescence. Once Redmond decides to make everyone upgrade to the next version of Windows I think they'll stop issuing activation codes and just tell you to upgrade should you need to re-activate a machine that you've upgraded or changed the hardware on. What keeps most everyone with Microsoft products is the fact that we know how to use their software and who wants to start learning everything over again? This is what I call "training inertia" and companies have a real problem dealing with this because people resist change. If everyone on staff is going to dig in their heels and resist training it becomes a very expensive proposition. But if Microsoft makes using their products onerous enough there's more incentive to overcome this inertia. Next issue I'll continue the discussion of training inertia and how it keeps companies from jumping ship away from Microsoft products. You can reach T.J. Lee at: mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ Christmas! Don't WAIT until the last minute! The BRIGHTEST flashlights for their size in the WORLD make great Christmas presents! Great for giving to friends, family, employees... give the gift of light that fits in any purse or pocket, a Micro-Light is small enough to clip to your key chain. With a Micro-Light you will never be caught in the dark! Shine a Red, a White, and a Blue light! 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I have given glowing recommendations on the Palm OS platform to San Francisco-based OmniSky Corp (see TNPC #4.08). http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?al1 But for Pocket PCs, I liked New Jersey-based GoAmerica, Inc. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?al2 OmniSky styles itself as a content provider like AOL or Excite@home, and makes use of Palm "web clipping" (essentially simplified Web pages) applets. It is a nice solution for Palm devices, which don't support multitasking. But on Pocket PCs, which do multitask, OmniSky's integration itself into the handheld is too obtrusive for my taste. GoAmerica goes in an entirely different direction. For them, the wireless service is the thing. It doesn't offer separate email accounts; you connect to your regular ISP's POP and SMTP servers. The bundled software, Go.Web/Go.Mail, is a streamlined package that operates separately from Pocket PC's browser and email. If you want to simply treat the GoAmerica service as an ordinary Pocket PC modem and use only Internet Explorer and Inbox, you can do it. You never need to touch the GoAmerica software; the wireless modem will show up as a "Modem Connection" in Pocket PC's Control Panel and Internet-enabled applications. So if, for example, your business has a private Web page that requires full Pocket Internet Explorer support, you can work with that directly. GoAmerica's software is specifically aimed at helping users get around the bandwidth limitations of wireless--CDPD supports no more than 14.4 kbps connection speeds. The browser, Go.Web, has a "preferences" menu that allows you to explicitly make tradeoffs in page quality vs. load speed--largely by controlling the graphics quality. Another important option allows you to have the Web page reoriented to the handheld's page width (PDA screens are portrait while Web pages are usually in landscape). Generally, you want to stick with the default which is to reorient, but some page layouts are incomprehensible that way. Internet Explorer doesn't offer either option. The Go.Mail applet downloads an abbreviated header for your incoming mail: sender's name, date, time, size, and subject. If that doesn't give you enough of a clue, tap on an item and it automatically downloads the first few lines of a message--how many lines is an option that the user can set. Using the Pocket PC's tap-and-hold procedure to select a message in Go.Mail generates a menu of key options, to reply or forward, get the full text, or delete it. While both applets work somewhat differently from the Pocket PC's native ones, the learning curve isn't very steep. You quickly find yourself appreciating the ease of use when trying to juggle a handheld while on the road. And speaking of convenience, GoAmerica has made an important advance on that front with the introduction this year of its new Mobile Office service. I tested the Small Business Edition (there's also an Enterprise version.) Mobile Office includes various unified fax/voice/email mailbox plans. But in my view, the heart of the package is its Document Manager service. When you establish an account, you log into a Web site on your PC and upload documents to the site that you want to be able to distribute. Then, when you are in the field with only your PDA, you use Go.Web to access a simplified Document Manager Web page and, by clicking check boxes on the appropriate documents and then filing out a simple form, you can fax or email the documents to desired recipients. So you get out of a meeting where you promised to send Ms. Smith the Jones report, and use your handheld to send her the Jones report without having to wait until you get back to the office (or possibly forget). Also, you can really show off and use your PDA during the meeting, "Let me get you that report right now." The service also includes the capability to read wireless email attachments that normally are not transmitted to handhelds, and there is a Web-based form letter mechanism to compose and deliver formatted business letters. Document Manager adds $9.95 to your monthly bill. It is a smart way to leverage your handheld, which otherwise would have neither the bandwidth nor the storage capability for sending out a batch of business documents. OmniSky does not offer such a service itself, but it does partner with MyDocsOnline.com. MyDocsOnline's "Premium" service provides most of the same range of services as Document Manager. The two services have different pricing models, and users will need to compute which one works best for them. Given the current limitations of wireless data networks, document management and forwarding is a very smart way to leverage the value of your handheld. You can reach Al Gordon at: mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com ** 06. Featured Product - Windows XP Utilities (by Al Gordon) There's something strikingly different about utilities for Windows XP: they exist. TNPCers will recall that our coverage of utilities for Windows 2000 dragged on for about nine months from the time Win2K was unveiled, as various software producers were slow to roll out product. That was then, this is now. Windows 2000 was a business- oriented product, largely preferred by IT administrators who dislike having to support add-ons. XP is aimed at the consumer market. Plus, since XP is derived from Windows 2000's NT code, the task of updating the utility software was not especially onerous. Because of the volume of products, in fact, space only permits a quick briefing on what's available. For links and more details, I will post a supplemental page here: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?fprod And as we get more experienced--er, eXPerienced--we will report on tricks and tips. As you know, Microsoft has stirred up controversy on XP because of the extent to which it has included features in the OS, particularly in the multimedia and graphics realm, that previously were the turf of third-party vendors. On the other hand, this also has led to the creation of a new utility product category: if you can't fight them, join 'em. InterVideo, makers of the popular WinDVD player software, has unveiled "X-Packs" for XP's Windows Media Player, allowing you to play DVDs with the player, and to encode ("rip") your CDs in mp3 in addition to the Windows Media format provided by Microsoft. It's $10 for the .mp3 encoder, $15 for DVD, and--the obvious best buy--$20 for both. In a similar vein, WinZip has responded to XP's compress archive capabilities by adding more convenience features in WinZip 8.1, now in public beta. You now can get to your archives from a system tray applet, and the WinZip right-click context menu in Explorer offers more choices, including access to your most recent zips. Traditionally upgrades are free to registered WinZip users. Free always is a nice touch, in fact. Dantz has released Retrospect 5.6, the XP compatible version of the backup software, and Ahead Software has done the same with version 5.5.1 of its Nero CD burner. Of course, even better is not to have to update your software at all; Funduc Software says existing versions of its utilities such as Search and Replace, Registry Toolkit, Shortcut Doctor, Application Mover, and Directory Toolkit already are XP-capable. Ray Geide, a missionary in Russia as well as a programmer (he is one of the few developers I know who sends out Bible citations as unlock codes), has added WinRescue XP to his Superwin lineup. In light of the rollback features in XP, he also has added convenience touches: the setup routine now automatically prompts you to schedule daily backups and to create floppy boot disks to run a rescue if you can't get into Windows. RegVac, Superwin's Registry cleaner, already is XP-compatible. Symantec, the utilities powerhouse, has the expected "2002" editions of Norton System Works (including Norton Anti-Virus) and Norton Internet Security. Norton has changed cosmetics to match XP's look and also adopted XP's automatic (if the user so chooses) downloading of updates. This actually is more sensible for Norton than XP. I mean, are you going to say "no" to downloading up-to-date virus definitions? Among the key functional changes: NAV 2002 better integrates with Office XP and the email scanner checks outgoing mail as well as incoming. Internet Security has abandoned last year's three-flavor approach that was criticized in this space (one for our side!) and gone back to a single package of firewall and privacy protections. PowerQuest has released Partition Magic 7.0, with relatively minor updates--mainly support for XP and the latest monster-sized hard drives. There is a long-needed partition undelete capability. However, the really big news is Drive Image 5.0, which unveils the capability for the first time to set up an imaging job from inside Windows. PowerQuest calls it "QuickImage" and includes scheduling features to make imaging a potential backup strategy. One curiosity: Roxio is represented by proxy in the XP utility rush. Symantec includes the GoBack 3.0 rollback software in its SystemWorks "Professional" bundle and Microsoft licensed Roxio's Easy CD Creator technology to incorporate in Windows Media Player. But Roxio's own ECDC 5.0 Platinum software won't run in XP, and the XP-compatible update hasn't been released yet. Go figure. You can reach Al Gordon at: mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com ** 07. Featured Web Site - allUSB Hankering for something, anything USB? If you need USB information or a product reference, an excellent place to go is the allUSB site. This site includes a news library, a very extensive product index, a company index (also very extensive), and plenty of technical articles, including a USB Printer Sharing Tutorial, a USB cable guide, an FAQ section, and a technical support forum entitled "Ask USBMan." (Yes, really.) About their extensive product index... you can start with a complete top-to-bottom listing that's in order by category by company (all entries are live links). You can focus in on a category by selecting it from the drop-down list control, and you then see a listing sorted by company with all the products allUSB is aware of for each company, along with price, power, and description information. allUSB's individual product pages include the product name, description, manufacturer, price, a photo (typically), and links for the product's home page, the manufacturer's home page, and (if available) the manufacturer's USB page. Plus listings of all other products in allUSB's database that are in the same category. Plus listings of all other USB products in allUSB's database for that manufacturer. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?fsite ** 08. Featured Drawing - Holiday Season Kickoff Welcome to the Holiday Season Kickoff drawing! Family and friends take on a special meaning this year. Let The Naked PC be the first to wish every one of our readers a Happy Holiday season. If you've never entered a The Naked PC drawing here's how it works. You go to a Web page on our site, answer one survey question (something like "What will keep you from upgrading to Windows XP?"), and enter your email address. To encourage readers to participate in the survey, we have a drawing from the email addresses of those who participate in each survey and we give away something really cool. This time we're giving away two of the Photon II Micro-Lights that we sell in The Naked PC Store. Now, obviously we already have your email address or you wouldn't be reading this, but this drawing for prizes will only include those folks who answer this issue's question (entering a prior drawing doesn't count for this one). We'll only use the email addresses we collect for the purpose of notifying who won the prizes, nothing else. On November 7th we'll pick two entered names at random and give each winner a Micro- Light in the color of their choice. How easy is that? http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?fdrawing ** 09. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and interesting stuff *-* AT&T Wireless Broadband is no more, leaving 47,000 customers stranded and costing the company close to $1 billion. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?news1 *-* AMD and Intel have reduced prices on their high-end microprocessors. Intel's reductions are the sharpest; the list price of a 2 GHz Pentium 4 chip is now $401 (down 29% from $562), and the list prices of the Pentium 4 1.9 GHz and 1.8 GHz models have been reduced 27% and 12% respectively. AMD's price cuts are not as aggressive, but both manufacturers are responding to an excess supply of microprocessors in the channel, and surely hoping to boost flagging PC sales. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?news2 *-* If you're scratching your head, wondering about the differences between Windows XP Home and Professional editions, there's a good comparison article on the Windows SuperSite. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/422/tr.cgi?news3 Get more Newsworthy bits on The Naked PC Web site: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/newsworthy/ Have you come across something newsworthy? Drop us a line: mailto:hottips@TheNakedPC.com **PLEASE SUPPORT THE NAKED PC BY VISITING OUR ADVERTISERS** +++----------------------- classifieds -----------------------+++ >> How do you turn your PDA into a laptop? Easy - get a Stowaway keyboard. With over $70 in FREE bonuses you can't afford not to. You have 48 hours remaining to take advantage of this offer. 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