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Newsletter from Fred
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Wow, what *great* posts in the
discussion area attached to the WinMag Explorer column on "Resource Leaks,
Part Two." (See http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/12.htm
) In one, the author of RAMpage (one
of the memory utilities I tested) wrote in Hi, I wrote RAMpage. I
spotted the increased traffic at my site and couldn't resist having a look at
what was going on. Fred's bang on the money... The best way to keep your system
up and running is to work on tweaking Windows settings like cache and swap
file.... As Fred suggests, an occasional boot in the pants to the Windows kernel
does seem to help. I agree completely that the best way to do this is with a
shortcut to a minimalist program that does a quick "grab and
release..." So what about that batch file
shortcut I mentioned? I was going to present that in Part Three, but what the
heck: Download and install
RAMpage. Navigate to the install
directory (typically C:\Program Files\RAMpage V1.4) and in the right-hand pane
of Explorer, right click on any empty part of the pane; select New/Text
Document. Notepad will open. Type this: RAMpage.exe M=20 D=Y O (By the way, that last
"O" is the letter O, not the numeral zero.) Save the file as
Rampage.txt, and exit Notepad. Rename the file you just created to Rampage.bat . Now right click
Rampage.bat, select Create Shortcut; Windows will create a shortcut in the right
hand pane. Drag the shortcut to your task bar or desktop. If you wish, right
click the shortcut to change the properties such as "close on exit" or
to change the shortcut's icon. Now, when you want to, just
click the shortcut icon: RAMpage will run once (that's the "O"
parameter), open up a 20Mb hole in RAM ("M=20"), and defragment what's
left ("D=Y"). This, and much, much more (including
results from independent reader tests of memory managers and
"AntiCrash") all appear in the discussion area. The Part two column
and related discussion are at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/12.htm
Click on over! Click to
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I relayed to you a positive reader
report about SurfinShield, an anti-Trojan "sandbox" app, a few issues
ago. Then, a number of other readers reported problems and concerns. (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-06-01.htm#2
and http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-06-05.htm#2
) This week, Dave Kroll (the
Director of Finjan) sent this to me: 1) Regarding the ShieldsUp
postings about SurfinGuard (Aborted Install Bug): There was a bug in SurfinGuard
that was fixed immediately once we were notified of it. What was found was a
piece of old code from our corporate product that once had a useful purpose and
unfortunately a portion of it still remained in SurfinGuard -- see more details
below. (SurfinGuard is a free standalone version of our corporate product,
without central-management and policy-setting features). This bug only had the
potential to occur when a user aborted an install and then had the technical
savvy to find a hidden process... -- there was only one person that brought this
directly to our attention. (This bug was absolutely not intentional by Finjan
R&D (nor acceptable). We issued a new build of SurfinGuard within days. If
you'd feel EXTRA safe ;-), you can download the current version of SurfinGuard
from our Website which has been posted since May 28 (build 192b):
www.finjan.com/surfinguard Here was one ShieldsUp post
that seemed to be pretty rational about the situation:
http://grc.com/x/talk.exe?cmd=article&group=shieldsup&item=37210&utag= Also, please read the
official description below from our product manager, Nir Ganani. -------------------------
Aborted Install bug --
5/25/00 SurfinGuard is based on the
code base of our corporate product, SurfinShield Corporate. What has been
discovered is in fact the remnants of an old but at one time useful
"aborted install cleanup" process within a version of our SurfinShield
Corporate product. There is no purpose for this in the SurfinGuard product. In order to cleanup the
system after an aborted installation, an install script used a special file
FAUTOREC.EXE developed by Finjan to make sure that no DLL was changed (injected)
if the installation was NOT complete for some reason. Historically, this
FAUTOREC.EXE was created in a temporary folder, just for itself. Since this auto-recovery
EXE is not required after its done it’s job, it created a batch file which
would delete FAUTOREC.EXE and the temporary folder created for it. Over time, an old
programmer must have decided to put the FAUTOREC.EXE in the Windows - System
folder. Now, since the batch file is (too) smart, it detects in what folder the
file was actually saved to and does its thing, meaning: 1) Delete FAUTOREC.EXE Luckily (but unfortunately
- we should have indeed caught this), the programmer forgot that deleting the
folder requires the user to type Y to an "Are you sure?" question and
therefore no damage is done unless someone actually clicks the 'Yes' button. ------------------------------------------------------
2) Regarding the Mark LaDue
articles from 1997 Mark LaDue's review of
Finjan Software SurfinShield for Unix, published on the Web in early 1997, was
an evaluation of an outdated and unsupported version of one of our very early
Java-security products (Finjan was founded just months prior). In fact, that
Unix product was discontinued and never sold to corporations. Finjan since
focused its efforts on Windows and a completely new code base. So today's
SurfinShield Corporate enterprise desktop product, although sharing a similar
name, isn't related to that Unix product. Those articles are very much ancient
history. Most of the issues raised by Mark were disclosed by Finjan in the
product release notes. Had Mark contacted us prior to the publication of his
article, many of the erroneous statements may not have been made. Unfortunately,
Finjan folks at the time tried to discuss the issues after the fact to repair
the situation with Mark, but obviously offended him and he got quite emotional
about it and went on the offensive, writing inflammatory commentaries. So sadly,
that relationship looks like it may never be repaired -- unless Mark is open to
talking again. Three plus years later, Finjan Software is very different company
and one that I'm very proud to work for. We are VERY committed to
listening to feedback and strive very hard to offer the best products, customer
and technical support possible. Hope this helped.--- dk (Thanks to LangaList reader Tom
Barker for triggering this exchange!) Click to
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It was just a passing mention, but I
got a flood of email in regard to the item in the last issue that said Microsoft
was probably going to remove the ability to "boot to DOS" from the
next version of Windows9x (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-06-05.htm#3
). That version is now in late beta, and may ship as soon as next month. There are far too many emails to
reproduce here, but the gist of many was "You can remove DOS from my
machine when you pry my boot disk from my cold, dead fingers." 8-) It seems a *lot* of people still use
DOS apps--- and I don't just mean ancient, 15-year old programs. For example, a
number of excellent, very current utilities (Drive Image and some versions of
Partition Magic come to mind) "drop to DOS" to do their heavy lifting. Well: Relax. First of all, no one
can force you to upgrade to the new version of Windows. And everything that
works on your system today will still work on your system after the new OS comes
out. There's no rush, and no need to leap headlong into an upgrade frenzy.
Instead, take your time: Once you've learned the highs and lows of the new OS,
you can make an informed decision. And if you decide an older version of Windows
better suits you, so be it. It will be a long time before, say, Win98 is truly
obsolete. Second, to help you make that
informed decision about the new OS, the LangaList will have plenty of coverage
of the new Windows as the ship date gets closer. Plus, you can tap into a pile
of excellent early coverage that's already appeared on the WinMag site,
especially in various issues of Scot Finnie's Win Insider (see http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/insider/2000/21.htm
) Third, your older DOS boot disks
will still work just fine on the new OS. When you need DOS, just boot from, say,
a Win98 boot floppy. DOS runs just fine from a floppy, and once booted, you can
still access your hard drive files. So, for those times when you absolutely have
to boot to DOS, you'll still be able to. (It might be smart to make a pile of
boot floppies now, while you can, and salt them away for future use <g>.) Stay tuned for more info-- and if
you're a DOS fanatic, or wannabee, see the next item. Click to
email this item to a friend Even in this era of slick graphical
interfaces, some knowledge of DOS can still be useful. The last issue contained
info on how to learn about DOS apps you may be unfamiliar with (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-06-05.htm#3
) . I've also written about various DOS
tricks tips, and tools many times before: See http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=dos&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 If your PC is of reasonably recent
vintage, you almost surely have a pile of DOS apps lurking in your
\windows\command directory, although you may never have explored them. In older
systems, you may also have a \dos directory. Either or both areas might be worth
spelunking. The " /?" trick I told you
about last issue gets you skeletal information on DOS commands. But how can you
learn the full details? Reader Sam Stamport suggests the "Easy DOS Command
Index:" http://www.easydos.com/dosindex.html A number of readers (Brian Elder was
the first) also wrote in to suggest: On the subject of DOS help
commands: Another thing you could do is find a friend that still has a true DOS
[system] and copy the files help.com, help.hlp, and qbasic.exe to a boot disk,
regular disk, or hard drive. That way you always have command line help with
examples and switches available in an index listing just by typing help at a
prompt. Hope this helps some of your readers.---Brian Elder Indeed, the old DOS help system was
pretty good: You could either just type "Help" at the command prompt
for generic DOS help, as Brian suggests, or you could type Help [command] to get
help on a specific DOS action. For example, if you wanted a full explanation on
how to use, say, the ATTRIB command, you'd type Help Attrib Easy, eh? It's true---some parts of
DOS weren't as geeky as you might think. <g> So if you know someone (friend, user
group member, etc.) who retained his or her complete DOS setup from the old
days, the files that Brian mentions above will give you the DOS Help system. Thanks to Sam, Brian, and all who
wrote in! Click to
email this item to a friend The Recommend-It site
gives away up to $10,000 as an incentive to use their service to recommend
newsletters like this one! If you think the
LangaList is a worthwhile read, just use the following link to recommend the
LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful
information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win $10,000 or
other prizes from the folks at "Recommend-It:" http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#1 Or, win a copy of
"Poor Richard's E-Mail Publishing: Creating Newsletters, Bulletins,
Discussion Groups and Other Powerful Communications Tools." This book has
been described as "An excellent, straightforward manual on email
publishing, banner ads, driving traffic and especially ethics." (Full
details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 Either way, thank you,
and good luck! Click to
email this item to a friend Microsoft has released a patch that
eliminates two "security vulnerabilities" in IE 5.01; a patch for the
same vulnerabilities in IE 4.0/4.01 is in the works. The vulnerabilities involve how IE
handles digital certificates. They're not high-probability security
issues, but theoretically could allow an evil web site to masquerade as a
trusted web site when it was in fact, not. The IE 5.01 patch is big--- almost
2MB: According to Microsoft, "The
patch requires IE 5.01 to install; a version that supports IE 4.01 Service Pack
2 will be released shortly. Customers who install this patch on versions other
than these may receive a message reading "This update does not need to be
installed on this system". This message is incorrect." FAQ: Click to
email this item to a friend I'm hip-deep in processing a whole
new batch of "Code Loader" sites; the new links will soon appear. Meanwhile, I invite you to enjoy the
existing crop of hundreds of reader sites--- some professional, some very
personal: And: Do you have a home page or
website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm,
and maybe you can join the hundreds and hundreds of LangaList readers who have
"Loaded the Code!" Click to
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In last issue's "Just For
Grins" piece, I mentioned the trouble I had trying to learn Hungarian---
but I inadvertently ignited a minor flame war among language mavens. I misspoke when I said that
Hungarian was related only to a language spoken by natives of Western Siberia
(the general geographic region, not the area represented by today's specific
political boundaries): It would have been more precise to say that some
linguists believe that what is now the Hungarian language originated in Western
Siberia along the Ob River, and that migrating tribes carried the proto-language
to central Europe (what is now Hungary) and separately to Finland. (Whew. Got
that? There'll be a quiz shortly...<g>) Another group argues that Hungarian,
Finnish, and (believe it or not) Korean are related; they say the proto-language
actually originated in the Far East, and was carried west by horse-mounted
invaders to the Ob river region, and then split with one group heading towards
Finland and the other towards Hungary. I'm no linguist and I didn't mean to
spark a flame war. But at least no one argued with my assertion that Hungarian
is a difficult language to learn. 8-) One of the most interesting emails I
got on the subject was from LangaList reader Daniel Khaykis, who is a native of
the region where Hungarian may have originated: Having grown up in that
particular area (to be precise, Udmurt Republic of Russian Federation) I can
provide you with couple of further absolutely useless details ;) Hungarian belongs to a
family of Finno-Ugrian language family, for which I actually found a rather good
FAQ at: http://www.helsinki.fi/~jolaakso/fufaq.html#nyky
and also the following pages Said little area, Udmurtia,
is actually not Siberia, although it's reasonably close; it's part of near-Ural
region of Russia, a bit to the west of Ural mountains. Mostly famous for being
(a) birthplace of composer P.I. Tchaikovsky; (b) The capital of Izhevsk (my
birthplace) is a rather big defense industry center; where AK-47 was designed
and built. [ I have actually met Mr. Kalashnikov once - he is an honorary
citizen of the city and lived there almost all his life. ]; (c) One of the (or
may be simply THE) highest rates in Russia in both suicide,
encephalitis-carrying ticks and alcoholism, the last being quite an
accomplishment considering general drinking level in Russia ;) Udmurts comprise about 1/3
of the area's population, with Tatars and ethnic Russians being other thirds,
plus a very minor (may be <2-3%?) of other ethnicities. Most Udmurts out in
the villages speak their native language, although many of the city kids of my
generation ('75) either weren't fluent or didn't know it at all. Most
non-Udmurts know from zilch to couple of simple phrases. (the latter was my case
when I lived there ;) The language - and people -
are sometimes referred to as Votyak in the web pages I found, but in the
Udmurtia itself the word has derogatory and insulting connotation. -Cheers,
Daniel Thanks, Daniel, and to all who wrote
in! (And linguists: You can put down your flamethrowers now.<g>) Click to
email this item to a friend Since language seems to be a hot
button (see above item), here are a couple of language-related reader jibes
posted by last week's Grins section: Many readers dusted off and sent in
this old one: Q: What do you call a
person who speaks three languages? Q: What do you call a
person who speaks two languages? Q: What do you call a
person who speaks one language? But it's not just Americans (I'm
relieved to say). Writing from Vojvodina, Yugoslavia, LangaList reader Dejan
Milosavljevic offers this: A Swiss guy visiting
Sydney, Australia, pulls up at a bus stop where two locals are waiting. "Entschuldigung,
koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" he asks. The two Aussies just stare
at him. "Excusez-moi, parlez
vous Francais?" he tries. The two continue to stare. "Parlare
Italiano?" No response. "Hablan ustedes
Espanol?" Still nothing. The Swiss guy drives off,
extremely disgusted. The first Aussie turns to the second and says,
"Y'know, maybe we should learn a foreign language." "Why?" says the
other. "That guy knew four languages, and it didn't do him any good." Click to
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