Links for Sunday May 20th, 2001

Here are the links from the show on May 27, 2001
							The week in review:
							http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2765370,00.html?chkpt=zdnn_rt_latest
							Why the Web's credibility should worry you (and me):
							http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2765242,00.html
							The world isn't flat--but your next monitor might be:
							http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2765244,00.html?chkpt=zdhpnews02
							Dear AOL users:
							http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2764462,00.html?chkpt=zdhpnews02
							Your keyboard patterns hold some secrets:
							http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2765326,00.html?chkpt=zdnn_rt_latest
							It's AOL's turn--Aimster hit with second suit:
							http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2765330,00.html?chkpt=zdhpnews01

Q : What's the difference between the various stereo modes?
A : It's important to understand the difference between Stereo and Joint Stereo. 'Joint Stereo' modes take advantage of the similarities between the L+R channels. This allows more bits to be used in other areas and in many case this can give an overall gain in encoding quality. Almost all encoders use   joint stereo when encoding at 128 kbits.
Joint stereo has 2 submodes called IS and MS. 'Joint Stereo IS' destroys phase information and shouldn't be used for high-quality encoding. Joint Stereo MS' means Middle/Side and is OK for use in most encoding.
However, for some audio, Joint Stereo MS may create a 'flanging' or 'swishing' effect. In these cases it's better to use 'Stereo mode'. This mode creates 2 independent channels for both left and right. When stereo mode is used, you should also use a higher bitrate (160 or 192 kbits) - Stereo mode will allocate about half of this bitrate for each channel.

    In summary, for most audio, Joint Stereo MS at 128 or 160 kbits should be fine. If your audio is especially 'wide' and creates flange you should use 'Stereo' mode. You can change these modes in the Radium codec control panel.
From   Bak@Cha

It will do a complete inventory of a computer, to include all installed software, memory, memory slots, processor the shoe shebang. It is a very quick download and takes about ten seconds to install.

Recommended by stuart taube in Sarasota Former co-host of "its geek to me" which used to broadcast out of Tampa/st. pete on 570 WHNZ

At first glance, The Hunger Site might look like one of those sick Internet jokes that you see. Something along the lines of sending email to fictitious ill children. But this isn't the case -- The Hunger Site is for real. Every time you click the "Donate Free Food" button, the site sponsors donate money to supply one cup of food to a hungry person. This is for real -- the hungry victims really do get the food. As you might imagine, many people would click the button hundreds of times a day to help supply more food. Please avoid this temptation -- each person (URL) is allowed only one click per day. More clicks don't count. Click here to access The Hunger Site.

If you're really wanting that new Momma-Slam 2001 video card but are not sure how it would work with your current system, you can go to Microsoft's Web page at the link below and see a list of the types of hardware that are compatible with Windows. That way, you won't shell out $200 on a new Momma-Slam only to find it won't work!
Click here to access Microsoft's Web site.
http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp

System Restore is a nice utility to have available, and is included only with Windows Me. One thing you may want to note: System Restore does NOT make restore points when installing new hardware device drivers! This may seem like an error, but actually the utility was designed this way so if the device driver you install fails, you can restore back to where you were without having to worry about restoring the bad device driver. If you really want to remove the Device Driver specifically without System Restore, then use the Install/Uninstall option in the Control Panel or use the software's own uninstaller.

Clean Boot is a feature in Windows Me that allows you to identify and rectify elements in your Windows startup that are causing your system to slow down or crash. Clean Boot allows you to selectively choose or eliminate functions in Windows so that you can isolate the troubling element. To do a Clean Boot, Go to the Start menu and select Run. Now type MSCONFIG and click OK. The MSConfig screen will come up with all kinds of options. In the General tab, choose Selective Startup. On the same screen, click each one of the checked boxes to clear them, click the Startup tab, and select the Statemgr check box. Click OK and allow your computer to reboot when prompted. Go back into MSCONFIG using the same method as above. Make sure that all of the formerly unchecked boxes are still unchecked. (Sometimes, third-party products will automatically refill this value. If that happens, you'll need to contact the vendor.) Now, one at a time, check a box, then reboot. When your system slows down again after a reboot, you'll know where the problem is. To undo your clean boot procedure, in the MSConfig General tab, select Normal Boot and you're back to your regular system.