Monday, June 16, 2003
PC World - June 2003
GE makes a $13 Audio
Hub that I think I may need to buy. I often listen to KBON,
Cajun music, in my office. When the phone rings I want to be able to mute the
audio instantly. This external device seems to do that, among other things.
[p. 74] (Unfortunately the Jasco Products web site doesn't seem to be working correctly, so I can't order it at this time.)
The Zero Blaster looks like an amazing
toy. It makes smoke bubbles and only costs $20.[Ad, p. 82]
There is a great sidebar article that lists Ten
Ways to Stop Disasters Before They Start. It lists things like backing up
your data, monitoring your computer's temperatures, and getting a UPS. This
is a good checklist.[p. 91]
Review/cleanup your startup applications using Start > Run > msconfig
and follow the instructions in the article Background
App Sneak Attack. [p. 92]
Fact: Recording TV in DVD quality requires about 2.4 GB per hour. At VHS quality
it takes about 500MB per hour. [p. 110]
Sony's DRU-500AX DVD writes to
both DVD-RW and DVD+RW formats.
Good article on the Google Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/),
a userful add-on to simplify searching:
- Make the Google Toolbar smaller: Google > Toolbar Options > (clear
all Search Buttons) > Experimental Features > Combined Search Button
> OK > (clear all Search Buttons) > OK [p. 122] - Click a search word icon to highlight the next occurrence of the search
word. [p. 122] - Use "iac site:www.miami.edu" to see if Google has indexed the
www.miami.edu site and found iac on any pages. [p.123] - Remeber that you can search for images and news directly from the Google
Toolbar.
The Way Back Machine (www.archive.org)
keeps records of Web pages from the past. [p. 126]
Hawking Technologies (www.hawkingtech.com)
makes a number of products to extend the range of a wireless network. I might
want to add an omni-directional antenna to my home network so I can get a stronger
signal in my office area. [ad, p. 146]
DirectX controls Windows multimedia functions. DirectX 9 is the latest version.
To see what version you have, Start > Run > (type) dxdiag > OK >
System (tab) > System Information.
BAxBEx FolderBox
is a free add-on to windows Explorer. It allows you to have two folder panes
within the Explorer window. Once installed, use View > Exploror Bar >
FolderBox. Since I copy files between folders a lot, this could be very useful.
