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and Unsubscribe is at the end of this note. Mailing List Trouble? See http://www.langa.com/help.txt Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000 !) An easier-to
read formatted HTML version of this newsletter is available on line at The LangaList 2000-08-28 A Free Email
Newsletter from Fred
Langa
1) "We Interrupt This Broadcast..."If this were TV or radio, I'd begin by saying "We interrupt this broadcast.…" You see, I was in the middle of bringing you a series on how to "Save Your Butt With DOS." That is, how to use DOS to perform various low-level diagnostic, maintenance and repair tasks on your Windows system. Part One of the series --- http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/15.htm --- set the context and gave the essential ground-zero information; it also contained a plethora of DOS-related links to get you started. Part Two --- http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/16.htm --- detailed how to create a custom boot or "emergency" disk; a better boot disk than the one that may have come with your copy of Windows, or that you can make via the Control Panel "Add/Remove Software" applet. Part Three --- http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/17.htm --- helped you stock your DOS toolkit with interesting, worthy--- and mostly free!--- DOS tools. The fourth installment was intended to be all about batch files, and in preparation, I'd cobbled together a little demonstration file that cleaned up parts of your hard drive that sometimes don't get thoroughly cleaned by other utilities, such as Windows' "Disk Cleanup" Wizard. I was going to use that very simple file as a guinea pig to show how any batch file can be optimized and modified; or how you can create your own batch files to automate all kinds of low-level tasks outside of Windows. We'll still do that in a future column, but, in TV/radio fashion, "we interrupt this series" because of the extraordinary response to that innocent-seeming cleanup batch file that I've discussed in recent issues (see http://www.langa.com/current.htm#1 ) Many readers reported that the cleanup file recovered hundreds of megabytes of disk space that they couldn't otherwise recover; and a few readers reported truly staggering gains of up to 12 gigabytes of space! Even some expert readers who were using every trick they knew to keep their drives clean---including using automated, commercial cleanup applications such as the $40 "Window Washer"--- found my little free file saved them tens to hundreds of megabytes that otherwise had been wasted. That suggested to me that hard drive cleanup is a worthy subject in its own right, and that many people might benefit from a discussion of the best ways to scrub your hard drive clean of junk files--- for free! So that's what my current "Explorer" column at WinMag.Com is about: free, easy ways you can recover wasted space on your C: drive or Windows 98 partition. (You can generalize the principles to any other drive, partition or OS.) I can almost guarantee you'll gain anywhere from tens to hundreds of megs. And although you probably won't gain the full 12GB that one astonished reader got--- I think you'll be happy with the results. Along the way, I'll show you two BRAND NEW, improved versions of Cleanup.Bat--- and a very slick little Registry patch that can add Cleanup.Bat to your Recycled Bin menu, so your cleanup tools will be in one place. When you're done, you'll probably have gained enough space on your hard drive to be the equivalent of what constituted an entire new hard drive just a few years ago--- but unlike those physical drives, you've gained all that space on your current drive, and for free! The new article will be available today (2000-08-28, midday [UT-4]) click on over to http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/18.htm ! (Alternate access to the column: http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/default.htm Note that if you arrive before the column is posted, you'll only see previous columns listed.) Click to
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Believe it or not, the original
seeds for an idea that's just now appearing in mainstream operating systems was
planted way back in 1878 when a 24-year old entrepreneur wanted to take
photographs of a planned vacation to Santo Domingo! It's taken 120 years, but
new versions of the MacOS and the soon-to-be-released Windows Millennium Edition
finally deliver on that technological dream. My new "Monitor" column at
Byte.Com traces the convoluted development of that early dream to its full
flower in today's mainstream OSes. Along the way, we'll touch on some
interesting technologies ranging from the "charge-coupled devices" at
the heart of today's digital cameras to multimedia standards (including MP3, and
the new MP4 video standard). For example, did you know that MP4
offers compression that can store movies in about 15% of the space that standard
DVDs require? It's sounds unbelievable, but it's possible to fit a 90 minute
movie on a standard CD-ROM as an MP4 file. No DVD disk or player required! Indeed, the current crop of hardware
and software means that fields that were once technically-daunting have been
totally democratized, and anyone can now be a photographer, videographer, or
film producer. The only limit is that of innate skill. Perhaps the best example of how much
can be done, with sufficient skill, on ordinary PCs is "405--- The
Movie" ( http://www.405themovie.com/
), an astonishing bit of spare-time, desktop-PC filmmaking that has been
downloaded over 300,000 times, and has gotten rave reviews (even from Roger
Ebert). There are 62 shots in the 3-minute film; 42 of them are enhanced with
digital visual effects, and 19 of the shots are entirely digital, using no live
action footage. The film is a milestone desktop-PC achievement in that its
quality rivals that of work output by studios like Industrial Light and Magic
just a handful of years ago, and yet "405" was produced entirely on
off-the-shelf PCs. Come get the rest of the story at http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20000822S0001;
or click to the Monitor home page at http://www.byte.com/index/monitor
. Each Monitor column has an
associated discussion area, and this month's is in two parts: First, and
as always, please share your thoughts on the column itself by clicking to http://www.byte.com/nntp/monitor
or by using your newsreader to news.cmpnet.com, and from there to
cmpnet.byte.monitor. But second, please share your
(legal) files--- music, video, still image, animation, etc. Use the discussion
area at http://www.byte.com/nntp/monitor
(or news.cmpnet.com ) to tell us about your digital creations, and where we can
download them. It's a chance to shine a spotlight on your own work. Join in! Click to
email this item to a friend Many readers have been stymied by
unfamiliar file types... gid, syd, and so on. How can you tell what they are, or
what apps created them? The specialized search engine at http://kresch.com/exts/ext.htm
contains information on over 1,500 file types. In seconds, you can (for example)
discover that "gid" files are "Generated InDex" files
created by WinHelp; or that "syd" files are backups created by
Sysedit.Exe. There's even a BBS where you can ask questions about files not
covered in the database. It's definitely worth a bookmark! Click to
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I wrote about a "Summer Bugfest"
several issues ago ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-08-14.htm
); we discussed a pile of bugs--- and patches--- for Microsoft, Netscape, and
Adobe products. That piece spawned a streaming-audio
interview at http://www.byte.com/audio
; Jerry Pournelle, Daniel Dern, Paul Schindler and I kick around what's in the
Summer Bugfest, what it means, what the risks are, and what you can do about it.
If you'd like to hear the voices behind the words you read, check it out! Click to
email this item to a friend Reader Edward W. Laine writes: I just downloaded Zonelog
Analyser (beta) from this site http://www.mcs-online.co.uk/zonelog
. This is a pretty neat add-on to ZoneAlarm. It interprets the zalog.txt and
allows you to trace the sources of possible attacks on your computer system. Thanks, Ed. It is indeed a nifty
add-on, and it's free (at least for now, while it's in beta). The software will
even help you do a "whois" lookup of suspicious IPs--- although I
think the "Trace" program at http://www.pc-help.org/trace.htm is
better for that purpose. With ZoneAlarm, the log Analyser,
and the Trace program, you're *armed* against intruders--- and all for free! Click to
email this item to a friend On Aug 31, I'll choose another
monthly winner of 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." To have a shot at winning, 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 a book! (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 The more times you make a
recommendation, the greater your chances are of winning! Or, if you'd like to try to win
$10,000(!), try this link (full details also available here): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#1 Either way, thank you, and good
luck! Click to
email this item to a friend Every once in a while, serendipity
strikes and a pair of reader emails arrive in quick succession where one mail
answers the question posed by another, even though neither writer knows of the
other. It happened recently when Millard
Cohen wrote to ask: Just about all
software installations and many system modifications require that all
applications be closed. I know this is done via the Close Program box but
wondered if there is a batch file that will close all programs (with the
exception of Explorer and Systray). This would eliminate having to (repeatedly)
CTRL-ALT-DEL, Click for each program since I can't do a Select All. Shortly thereafter, this letter
arrived from reader George McLellan: I Dl'd your batch file and
used "Enditall" to close everything except Explorer and Sytray. I then
executed your Cleanup program. After execution, I checked my Temp folder --it
was clean as a whistle.... --Thanks. I'd never heard of "EndItAll,"
so I went looking and found it on the PC Mag site at http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,0011NB,.html It's a nice--- and free--- way to
shut down just what you want, even among background apps. Thanks, Millard and George--- and
serendipity! Click to
email this item to a friend 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!" (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and
are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please
see http://www.langa.com/link.txt
) Speaking of which: Here's another
eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal: Click to
email this item to a friend --- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) --- Fred's
Reference Shelf--- And Up To 20% Discounts! Check out
computer-related books http://www.langa.com/books.htm --------------(
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Reader David Miller pointed out this
interesting item from http://www.privacy.net/truste.asp
: An unfair trade practices
complaint has been filed with the Federal Trade Commission against the TRUSTe
privacy seal program and America Online. The complaint stems from
the claims made by both TRUSTe and AOL that the "AOL.COM" web site is
covered by the program. After several privacy complaints were filed against AOL
the fact came out that only a small portion of the AOL site is actually covered.
The seal only covers "www.aol.com" but not the main member's area. When consumers visit the
public AOL site they are presented with the TRUSTe seal but if they actually
decide to join AOL (and provide their personal information) they are transferred
to the member's portion of AOL.COM which is not covered at all. Member’s
personal information, such as screen name and credit card information, is then
released to telemarketers.... "This type of loophole
is clearly meant to deceive the public," according to Russ Smith, Director
of Consumer.net.... ...AOL sits on the TRUSTe Board of
Directors and is listed as a "Premiere Corporate Sponsor" on the
TRUSTe web site. For the full article, please use the
above link. Click to
email this item to a friend Reader Ryan Martinsen sends along
this list of alternate mottos for the States comprising the United States. It
may be a little cryptic for readers outside the US, but even so, you'll get the
idea. 8-) Click to
email this item to a friend --- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) --- GREAT
exposure at GREAT prices! (Advertising
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