Inside this edition:

— a quote worth repeating —

"The names don't win games.
You have to go out there and perform."  —Author: Derek Jeter

«  Information Making the Headlines  »

P laystation 3 has a release date, but - Can you afford it? ...
Sony has announced there will be two versions of the PS3, that will launch in North America on Nov. 17, a $500 version with a 20 gigabyte hard drive and another with a 60 gigabyte drive for $600. Also new, is the PS3's new controller which adds motion sensors to detect six degrees of movement. According to market research firm NPD Group, overall video game sales dropped 5 percent to $7 billion in the United States last year - much of it blamed on consumers' desire to hold out for the PS3. Continue reading.

S IRIUS Satellite Radio announces The Catholic Channel ... perhaps as an antidote to Howard Stern, who knows, the lifestyle radio channel will air nationally seven days aweek, 24 hours a day and will feature contemporary talk, music programming and live daily masses from St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Launching this fall exclusively on SIRIUS, The Catholic Channel will feature a modern format with an open dialogue focused on Catholicism, especially as it is lived in today's world. Listeners will be encouraged to call in to talk about the issues that are on their mind and in the news.
Related Sirius News:
There are SIRIUS e-newsletters - to keep you on top of the variety of SIRIUS original and exclusive programming.
Sports Weekly | Music Weekly | and others.

V erizon Offers GPS For Cell Phone Users ... Verizon Wireless is joining Sprint and Nextel in offering a GPS navigation service for its cell phones. The service, called VZ Navigator, is similar to Sprint's Garmin and TeleNav offerings. Unlike Sprint, Verizon offers the option of purchasing it on a per day basis as well as a monthly subscription. The monthly fee is $10, the daily fee is $3.

VZ Navigator uses software called AtlasBook, developed by Networks in Motion, which uses Navteq maps. The application is delivered via an applet on Verizon's "Get it Now" service packages. Mapping data is downloaded to your phone, and users must pay a download charge on top of the service fee. Navigation is suspended for incoming and outgoing calls. The service triangulates the phone's position from cell towers, loads the relevant Navteq maps and connects to the GPS satellites to give you specific coordinates. For now, it only works with the
Motorola V325 phone. Also see it's features and reviews.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System ...
It's a worldwide radio-navigation system of 24 satellites and their ground stations on earth. The satellites are used as reference points for locations on earth. By measuring the distance from three satellites, GPS devices can triangulate a position anywhere on earth.

Y ahoo Introduces New Technology Channel ... Yahoo has added a new section aimed at helping consumers cope with the onslaught of new technology that's reshaping modern life. The section, called "Yahoo Tech," will include 19 different categories devoted to an array of products, including laptop computers, cell phones, digital cameras and high-definition television. The goal of Yahoo Tech is trying to present the information in a down-to-earth way, so readers won't need a doctorate in electrical engineering to understand what kind of technology best fits their needs. The section will also feature product recommendations from Consumer Reports as well as PC World and PC Magazine.
Check out Yahoo Tech or visit Yahoo.com.

N otebook Computer Battery Recall ... Hewlett-Packard Co. is recalling about 15,700 HP and Compaq notebook computer batteries worldwide for a burn and fire hazard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced on April 20. The agency said consumers with an "L3" coded battery should stop using it immediately and contact HP to determine if the battery is being recalled and for a free replacement battery if it is included in the recall. Consumers can get additional information by calling HP at 888-202-4320, or visiting the HP Battery Replacement Program Web site here.

Afraid of Losing your Memory? ... When upgrading computers, one of the fears people have is losing their data. Sometimes when upgrading, people have to replace an entire memory module to achieve the increase in RAM they'd like. There's a misunderstanding that when you take out the memory, all your files will go with it. Fortunately, this is not the case. Files are permanently stored on the hard drive while the memory is only a temporary storage location.
Computer memory is referred to as DRAM.
This stands for dynamic random access memory, which means when the computer power is turned off, all the information in the "temporary" memory is lost.
So, what is Ram used for?
Well, it helps speed up the processes of the computer. It serves as a temporary storage and retrieval point for data so that it doesn't have to be written and read from the hard drive every time an application needs data. So, basically RAM temporarily stores data used very often so it doesn't have to be searched for everytime it's needed. This also explains why there is a major slow down when your computer runs out of RAM. When there's no more RAM space, the computer must use an area of the hard drive (referred to as the cache) to serve as RAM, which "majorly" slows things down. Read more on how memory works.

Google Launches a Calendar Service ... Google, the top online search engine, has unveiled a calendar service that allows users to store appointments online, receive reminders about them and share those plans with others. The service, which began April 13, is available at Google Calendar. Over the past four years, Google has become more of an all-purpose Web site by adding e-mail, news, photo sharing, instant messaging, shopping and mapping services and also a finance section. Learn more and see an overview here of the Google Calendar Service.

If they want to count unemployment statistics ... why aren't they counting all of them? ... case in point ...
In the week ending March 4, the Labor Department said that initial applications for U.S. state unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose by 8,000 to 303,000. The number of people collecting unemployment benefits rose by 29,000 to 2.50 million.
- End of report -
Translation: initial claims represent job losses, while continuing claims show how difficult it is for displaced workers to find new jobs. However, they fail to mention the number of claims that have expired. The number of people whose unemployment benefits have run out, "aren't counted" anymore in ANY Labor Department statistics, but ... aren't they still looking for jobs.

    J-O-K-E  of  the  M-O-N-T-H

Bob goes into a cafe and takes a seat near the window.
He asks the waitress, "What's the special of the day?"

"Chili," she says, "but the gentleman next to you got the last bowl."

Not wanting anything else on the menu, Bob says he'll just have coffee, and the waitress goes to fetch it. As he waits, Bob notices the man next to him is finishing a full lunch, but his bowl of chili remains uneaten.

"Excuse me sir", inquires Bob, "Are you going to eat your chili?"

"No, help yourself," replies the man.

Bob picks up a spoon and eagerly begins devouring the chili, but stops half way through, upon discovering the body of a dead mouse in the bottom of the bowl.

Sickened, he pukes the chili he's just eaten back into the bowl.

The man sitting next to him leans over and says,
"Yeah, that's as far as I got, too."

Find the best sites on the web.
Browse the Internet using our
web site directory.
Quick access to over 1000 links.
All categorized to save you time.
Surf the Internet on the
* Highway of Links * www.route53.com

« Computer Tips: »

Controlling  your Junk e-Mail
Outlook Express has an easy Block Sender feature that allows you to block a specific sender based on the sender's e-mail address. To block a sender, just select the offending message and click Block Sender on the Message menu. Outlook Express will then ask if you wish to delete all messages from that sender that are in the current folder. Any new message you receive from that sender will be immediately moved to the Deleted Items folder.

Better Yet, Use Message Rules
Blocking a sender is easy, but not always effective when a spammer changes his address. While Block Sender is easy and fast to use, it does have drawbacks. It downloads the complete message, rather than deleting it directly on the server. It blocks only by e-mail address, but spammers seldom use the same address more than once anyway. For a greater level of control you need to filter mail using message rules. Read the article "Controlling Junk Mail in OE"
by Tom Koch. He has a very good explanation of using message rules.

Related Links:
Message Rules by DavidGuess
My message rules don't work?
More Tips Inside OE

Outlook Express Help:
How to Set Up Outlook Express
How to use Outlook Express
Support for Outlook Express 6.0

OE is Changing its Name:
The name of Outlook Express will be renamed Windows Mail when Windows Vista is released. This is a newer and simplier name, and it "finally" resolves confusion with the Microsoft program - Outlook.

Windows Vista is put on Hold:
Microsoft's brand new operating system, Vista will not appear in new PC's until January 2007, at the earliest. Microsoft's decision to make quality a priority in its efforts to improve security in the new system is the reason for the delay. Windows Vista is Microsoft's first major update for an operating system since Windows XP was released in late 2001.

Icons Have Randomly Changed
There is a hidden icon cache file in your windows directory, ShellIconCache, which contains a copy of all the default desktop icons. It sometimes gets corrupted. If it does, your icons will go all black or you may notice that certain icons no longer represent their correct file types. For example, MP3 icons may look like Notepad icons, Microsoft Word documents may look like Excel spreadsheets, etc. To clear the icons cache make sure you can view hidden files and then open your Windows directory in Explorer and delete the file called "ShellIconCache". When you restart Windows the icon cache file will be automatically recreated. Also see the Microsoft article KB 132668

It is possible that your icons were changed due to some changes you have made to things like the themes. In such a case, to fix this problem:

Right click on the desktop
Select Properties
Select the Effects tab
then click the default icon button and then Apply.
More help here.

Time for a Quiz:

Which former players
represent the silhouette on the
official logos of the
NBA and MLB?

- click here for answer -

The silhouette on the
NBA logo is Jerry West.
The silhouette on the
Major League Baseball logo is
Harmon Killebrew.

(to hide the answer, click it again)

Show Me What You Got ...
Oftentimes you need to know just what is inside that computer of yours. One look at your PC System Information will show such things as:
the OS name and version,
Mfg. and model numbers,
Processor and bios versions,
Physical and Virtual Memory and much more.
To see the summary of your
PC System Information:
Click Start | Run | type: msinfo32

this just in:

New Booklet Offers
Free Pillow Talk ...
The FREE 60-page handbook includes information about how and why we sleep and offers tips on how to get enough sleep, such as adhering to a sleep schedule, relaxing before going to bed, and how to adjust to jet lag and night-time shift work schedules. The free booklet also explains common sleep myths, tips for avoiding dangerous drowsy driving and information on sleep disorders, such as insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome and narcolepsy. Here's where you can find a free download of Your Guide to Healthy Sleep.

Copyright © 1999-2006 Route53OnlineNetwork. All Rights Reserved.

Subscribe    |    Contact Me    |    Unsubscribe