THE ADVISOR - November 1999
Originally published 11/23/99

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IN THIS ISSUE
*Al's November ADVICE - Backup, Backup, Backup!
*Windows Tip - Drag & Drop Clarity Windows 9X
*November AntiVirus Special
*Y2K - coming our way!
*Computing News and Announcements - 733 mHz!
*Jim's Technical Tips - Oil Change for your PC
*Lisa's Links for November + Internet tips

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*Al's November ADVICE - Backup, Backup, Backup!
Backup, Backup, Backup. There seems to have been a
Disk Anomaly and Crash Rash recently. Every disk will die.
The question is when and how well we are prepared to
recover from it. Are you prepared? You need to be.
The complexity of the Windows operating system makes
disk reconstruction a cumbersome task.
In the old days, we could backup to tape
and then restore and we were done.
We now need to reinstall Windows and all other programs
running on the system. You might say
"That’s easy, but what about the data?" 
Each program seems to want to store data in different locations.
You need to know what specific directory or
folder in which your data is stored.
I suggest that your reconstruct your data organization
into one centralized location like C:\MYDATA.
You can then backup the data location and know
with confidence that all your data is protected.
Wherever your data is stored, you need to back
it up as routinely as possible. When your disk crashes,
your restoration will get you back to the point at which
your data was last backed up. Hard disks have
gotten so reasonably priced that it now makes
sense to install a second disk just to backup your
primary disk entirely.
We will be glad to explore these ideas with you further.


* Windows Tip - Drag & Drop Clarity Windows 9X
When does it copy and when does it move?
When dragging and dropping files and/or folders in Windows,
you may get results you do not expect.
Windows assumes that if you left click drag
and drop a file or folder from one device to
another then you want to copy it.
However, if you left click drag and drop a
file or folder from one location to another on
the same drive, Windows assumes you want to move it.
This can be confusing. If you drag and drop using
the right mouse button instead of the left,
then Windows will prompt you with a dialog
box from which you can select your desired action.
So, drag and drop with the right button
and you can better control what happens to your files.


* November AntiVirus Special
Panda AntiVirus Platinum for Windows 95/98 single
station license for $15 each while supplies last.
This premier live anti-virus protection is second to none.
Currently, Panda detects over 45,000 known viruses
and can be automated daily on demand or on schedule.
Single station license sells regularly for $59.
We have a limited number of OEM licenses
available that we can offer to you.
Hurry, while supplies last only! 
panda@advicecomputer.com



* Y2K is coming our way
As of this writing, there are 44 days remaining until 1/1/2000.
Are you ready? Is your computer ready?
Are your programs ready?
You should already know whether or not you
are prepared. If your computer is not Y2K compliant,
then after January 1 it will think that it’s 1980.
As a quick fix you could force your computer
to ask for the correct date every time your boot up.
To do so, edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and place
the word DATE on the very first line.
Save and exit the file.
This will prompt you to enter the correct date each
time your turn on your computer.
If it’s already correct then just press enter.
If it’s not, you can change it there.
I also suggest that you begin forcing all date
input fields for the year to four digits.
We assume that 99 means 1999 and the
computer lets us do so. Non-compliant programs
will make no such assumption and will
input a 00 date year as the year 0000!
That will be 2000 years early and very undesirable.
Call to schedule a Y2K compliance check now if you haven’t already.


* Computing News and Announcements
Intel has introduced processors up to 733 mHz clock speeds.
However, the fastest yet available in the distribution
channel is 650 mHz Pentium III which operates on
the 133 mHz bus. Faster processors are reportedly
released by Intel ( www.intel.com/PentiumIII/index.html)
but, they are not yet available in distribution.

Western Digital took the responsible action and
recalled several models of their drives last month.
The affected drives were those manufactured between
August 17 and September 24 1999.
www.wdc.com/fitness/drive-alert.html
ADVICE Computer sold none of the affected drive
models and continues to proudly offer drive products
from this high integrity manufacturer of quality components.


* Jim’s Technical Tips - An Oil Change for Your PC
Just as changing the oil and tires on your car are
maintenance tasks that help it to run smooth and strong,
both home and office computers need routine
maintenance to continue performing the complex
tasks we impose on them. Scandisk is a function
you can easily perform that will help free your
computer from lockups and freezes.
Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scandisk.
Automatically fix errors will remedy any problems
found and help ensure the health of your disk drive.
Running the ScanDisk utility once a week
is a good recommendation for disk health maintenance.


* Lisa's Links and Tips
Great links for the month of November

www.alltheweb.com
A Norwegian company has built what many believe to
be the Web's largest search engine. They claim to have
indexed about 25 percent of the Web.
You might think that one-fourth doesn't
seem like much but, with 800 million pages out
there on the Web... 200 million isn't bad.
The next largest search engine only has 16 percent indexed.
AllTheWeb sure gets the job done.
And without all the advertisements.
What a concept!

www.video.ufl.edu/~leo/lincoln2.html
This site contains a transcript of President Lincoln's 1864
Thanksgiving Proclamation. It makes for thoughtful reading at this time of year.

http://food.epicurious.com/e_eating/e04_thanks98/rodgers/turkeyintro.html
A comprehensive site containing information about
Turkeys and preparing them.
Probably more information than you'll ever need. Gobble gobble!

*Internet Tip *
Have you ever had difficulty printing information from a Web site?
There can be many reasons for this problem.
The key to printing off the web is the copy/paste function.
Using the clipboard that comes with Windows,
highlight the desired information on a site,
click on the 'edit' menu at the top left of your browser.
Then choose 'copy.' Next step is to open your word processor
(i.e. Microsoft Word, WordPerfect),
open a new page and choose 'edit' and then 'paste.'
The information will be pasted onto the open page.
You can then format the text and print it out. Neat tip.