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The LangaList

2000-09-14
2000-Sep-14

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

1) Four---Count 'Em---Four Batch Files
2) An "Ad-Buster?"
3) A Better DLL Viewer?
4) Restoring DOS Mode to WinME

5)
$10,000 For Your Trouble?

6) Kmeleon--- Another Small, Fast Browser

7)
So Many Sites, So Little Time <g>

8) Security Like Swiss Cheese...
9) Just For Grins
More!

1) Four---Count 'Em---Four Batch Files

You now have a choice of four free batch files, any one of which can scrub your hard drive clean of many junk files, freeing up (typically) anywhere from tens to thousands of megabytes of otherwise-wasted disk space. You can pick any one or all of the files (they're all free); they're listed below in roughly-increasing order of "cleaning power."

If you're new to the LangaList--- and many readers are (loads of new readers have been signing up lately!)--- you should know that these free files are part of a series of articles on system maintenance running on the WinMag.Com site. Those articles and the LangaList itself provide full documentation for the batch files, so you can us them safely and effectively. In fact, each batch file has its own info, as you'll see on the separate links below: Be sure to read all the info provided!

The four Free cleanup files are:

1) Cleanup.Bat For Batch File Novices: http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat_novice.htm
(Basic hard drive cleanup in a simpler, easy to edit and modify file)

2) Cleanup.Bat For Batch File Experts: http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat_expert.htm
(Basic hard drive cleanup in a more powerful, flexible [but harder to understand and edit] version)

3) New! WipeTIF.Bat Completely Erase All Temp Internet Files:
http://www.langa.com/wipetif_bat.htm
(More thorough cleanup: Compact your Cookies Index, and completely erase Everything in your "Temporary Internet Files" area!)

4) New! Maximum Cleaning!! CleanALL.Bat, The Most Powerful Cleanup File We Have! http://www.langa.com/cleanall_bat.htm
(Combines the power of Cleanup.Bat AND WipeTIF.Bat for truly awesome cleaning! Scrubs your Temp and Tmp areas, erases all Temporary Internet Files, and compacts your Cookies Index!)

Check ' em out!

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2) An "Ad-Buster?"

Several readers have written to tell me about Proxomitron ( http://proxomitron.tripod.com ), a "universal web filter."

"A. Pappajohn" was the first to write in, and here's what he said:

[It's] software that acts as a proxy server between your connection and your browser, and filters pages and messages for code you want to remove or replace. I use it to create blocking filters for banner ads, and fix pages I frequent that don't display to my liking.

Thanks, Pappajohn!

Proxomitron seems to work, but I have to sound a note of caution: The Proxomitron home web page loads with an error (at least on my system), and to me it's always a little alarming when a software company can't get their own home page right.

Plus, I'm not sure exactly what kind of a company this is: The software is free, but you're "encouraged to register it" by buying a CD or tape of the vendor's favorite band and sending a picture of yourself holding the tape or cd!

It's just weird enough to make me want to stay away, but you may feel differently, and so--- now you have the link!

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3) A Better DLL Viewer?

We've covered several DLL viewers in recent issues--- utilities that let you see which DLLs go with what applications. This can be a big help in figuring out what's safe to delete, and "what goes with what."

Reader Peter Byer has another suggestion:

A slightly more complex, but good tech tool for viewing dll's and their connections is PRCView from http://www.softseek.com/Programming/Process_Viewers/Review_20337_index.html .It displays all running processes (great if you suspect a trojan or virus - nothing can hide from it). By clicking on the 'modules' icon, then highlighting a module (a dll, for example) a second window changes to display the applications which share the module.dll or have loaded it. Any view can be printed to text file, and there's an option to kill a process, or debug it.

And it's freeware! Thanks, Peter!

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4) Restoring DOS Mode to WinME

Today--- the 14th--- is the day Windows Millennium Edition will become available at retail--- and as I've said in past issues, I think it's wrong for most users due to its many built-in limitations.

One of the most significant limitations is that Microsoft has made it difficult to get at pure, vanilla DOS. It's not that WinME doesn't use DOS--- it does, just as every other member of the Win9x family does.

Indeed, WinME is just a minor update of Win98SE that's friendlier for newbies because it's harder to get at the "guts" of the system, where newbies can get themselves into trouble.

But even though WinME is just arriving at retail now, many copies already have been shipped on new PCs--- and the hackers have been poking at it for some time.

For example, the link at http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/ will show you how you can restore access to real-mode DOS in WinME by patching some low-levels files in the OS. Many, many LangaList readers sent me that link (thanks!), and many sites are featuring it.

But few point out the downside of the patch: If you hack the OS at a low level, you'll make yourself ineligible for tech support for the OS itself--- and probably for any software, as well. All the support tech has to ask is "did you apply a real mode patch" and if you did, he or she can probably legitimately deny you any tech support you'd otherwise be eligible for because the OS itself has been modified.

So, patch away if you want to--- but be aware of the possible consequences.

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5) $10,000 For Your Trouble?

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. You just may win $10,000(!), your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber (full details also available via this link):

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!

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6) Kmeleon--- Another Small, Fast Browser

We've discussed many browser alternatives (alternatives to the Big Two--- IE and Netscape--- that is) many times in the past, but here's a browser that slipped beneath my radar:

This is in regards to small fast browsers: There is a new browser, k-meleon, available from http://www.kmeleon.org . It is still in beta but is available for download. The download is only 2.85MB. The browser looks a lot like IE and even imports your IE bookmarks but it is extremely fast. At the present time it does not support Java and you may have to copy and paste your plug-ins DLL to get them to work but for anyone looking for a small fast browser I would certainly recommend it.---Charles Edwards

Thanks, Charles!

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7) So Many Sites, So Little Time <g>

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!"

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

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potential customers and clients!

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See http://www.langa.com/ratecard.htm

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8) Security Like Swiss Cheese...

Reader John Collins writes:

On one of my many travels as a webmaster code-hunter, I stumbled upon this fantastically scary site:

http://lists.nat.bg/~joro/

It is the home of Georgi Guninski, a Bulgarian computer consultant, JavaScripter, and program-bug-hunter. I just thought that with so many of these exploits so widely available to webmasters and the public, it may be a good idea for some the readers to take a look at what can be against them, and take some of Georgi's advice to protect themselves. Keep up the good work!

Thanks, John. Georgi was first to spot many holes in various browsers, and he's good about it, reporting them to the browser makers rather than trying to use the holes for nefarious purposes: Microsoft has explicitly thanked Georgi for helping to identify various security holes.

But as you can see from his site, holes do remain. And if new ones crop up, odds are good you'll see some of them first on the above link!

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9) Just For Grins

As a writer, I'm all too aware of how easy it is for errors to creep into text; and how sentences that seem to make perfect sense may actually be utter *non*sense.

But that's not enough for me to stop taking perverse pleasure in these really, really bad headlines sent in by reader Howard H. Hasting, Jr.:

March Planned For Next August

Blind Bishop Appointed To See

Lingerie Shipment Hijacked--Thief Gives Police The Slip

L.A. Voters Approve Urban Renewal By Landslide

Patient At Death's Door--Doctors Pull Him Through

Latin Course To Be Canceled--No Interest Among Students, Et Al.

Diaper Market Bottoms Out

Croupiers On Strike--Management "No Big Deal"

Stadium Air Conditioning Fails--Fans Protest

Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped

Henshaw Offers Rare Opportunity to Goose Hunters

Women's Movement Called More Broad-Based

Antique Stripper to Display Wares at Store

Prostitutes Appeal to Pope

Teacher Strikes Idle Kids

Lawyers Give Poor Free Legal Advice

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

Fund Set Up for Beating Victim's Kin

Killer Sentenced to Die for Second Time in 10 Years

Cancer Society Honors Marlboro Man

Nicaragua Sets Goal to Wipe Out Literacy

Autos Killing 110 a Day--Let's Resolve to Do Better

20-Year Friendship Ends at Altar

War Dims Hope For Peace

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last A While

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures

Half of U.S. High Schools Require Some Study for Graduation

Blind Woman Gets New Kidney from Dad She Hasn't Seen in Years

 

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See you next issue!

 

Best,

Fred

(fred@langa.com)

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I)

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About the advertisers:  Langa Consulting LLC will never knowingly accept advertising for a fraudulent product, company or service. However, Langa Consulting LLC makes no implied or explicit warranty, recommendation or endorsement of or for the products, companies or services mentioned in the ads.

Disclaimer: (Please see full disclaimer here: http://www.langa.com/legal.htm.) Abbreviated version: The tips and other information given in the newsletter are researched and are believed to be accurate, but we cannot and do not guarantee that all the information here will work on all systems, for all users, all the time. All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. Neither Langa Consulting LLC, nor its employees nor contributors are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from application of any information presented here.

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