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Please note: Older issues may contain information that is now out of date. How To Subscribe
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 2000-11-09 A Free Email
Newsletter from Fred
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I have to admit that, in general, I
tend to dislike fully automated update services that try to keep you up-to-date
with all patches, bug-fixes and updates for your particular mix of soft- and
hardware because: So, I usually trigger my updates
manually. I do not, for example, use Microsoft's automated "Critical Update
Notification" service. But in discussing that service, plus
the three sites I do frequent, plus BigFix and the Dell FileWatch service (in
this week's "Explorer" column at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/23.htm
), I asked readers for their experiences--- good and bad--- with other update
services. Some interesting answers have
emerged, and here's a sample: Fred- Try this. You have to
load an active x control, but it's harmless (I think). Pretty good update tool
for "Brand name software". http://www.updates.com/
--- Richard Stastny Fred, CNET Catchup ( http://catchup.cnet.com/
)is another useful update service. I've found it to be very comprehensive.
Basically you install a small program that scours your hard drive, and tells you
which updates are available. Con The updates are probably limited to what's
available on CNET. Thanks for the great newsletter - it's probably the only
newsletter that I consistently read! --- Ravindra Maharaj Hi, Fred: Two software
update sites I'd like to recommend are ZDNet's My Updates ( http://updates.zdnet.com
) and CNet's Catchup ( http://catchup.cnet.com/
), both free. I have been using these sites, as well as the Windows Update site,
for several years and am quite satified with their service. Catchup has been
around for a number of years as an independent site and was recently picked up
by CNet. As an independent site, Catchup's software database was in large part
user driven. I think both are now oriented toward tracking their respective
software download sites, but they both also track major commercial packages,
including Microsoft updates and patches. They both work in much the same way.
You first download a small client. When the client is invoked (from a web page),
a database is downloaded to your system, the client scans your system for
updates, and a report is sent back to the server which generates a result web
page. Catchup also generates an inventory web page, and My Updates remembers
your last scan. --Tom Mighill Fred: Great newsletter,
I've been reading Windows Magazine since 1995. I use the free update service at http://pcsupport.com
, which also has some nice free help and a pay for help service. Although I
don't get alerted by email, the free update service, when launched, will search
my computer for any software and drivers on my system and inform me if there are
updates. I keep most of the drivers for my company on my PC and the update even
alerts me to updates for these drivers. It also informs me of updates for both
OS's on my dual boot machine. The update list is stored locally as an HTML with
links to the updates, so I can return to the list when I boot the other OS and
load the new drivers. All and all its the best update service I've come across.
--- Matt Casey For the rest, click over to http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/23.htm,
check out the column, then click the "Join Discussion" link. See you
there! Click to
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In item #1, above, listed four
reasons why I dislike auto-updates. These readers have run across a couple more.
For example, auto-updates are often slow: Thanks, Fred, for the
notice on the VM Bug, the patch for which I am now downloading (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-11-02.htm#2
). This is relevant to the issue in the latest newsletter, whether auto-updates
really work. Note I go to the official Windows Update site weekly, including
this morning, and got no notice of the VM bug! When will MS wake up? --- Shelomo
ben-Avraham The auto-update site lags behind the
manual-download site because, for the former, the patches have to be
packed into a "wizard" format that takes extra time,
programming, and testing. Manual updates consist of only the base patch itself,
and so can be made available sooner. And that's why the LangaList often
provides notice of important manual patches BEFORE the Update site does; if
they're important, they're worth grabbing right away, before they're released to
the general masses via the Update site. It's just another way the LangaList
tries to keep you ahead of the curve. <g> The next item is not a
"critical update," but highlights a potential problem with some update
sites. For example, when you go to the Windows Update site, it's currently
"recommending" that you install something called "Internet
Explorer Error Reporting" which lets you "contribute to the
development of Internet Explorer browser technology. With Error Reporting
installed, when an application fault occurs you will now see a new dialog box
that gives you the opportunity to report the problem to Microsoft. If an update
or workaround is available for the error you have reported, you are directed to
the appropriate Web site to download the update or view instructions for the
workaround. " In other words, by adding this app
to your system, you become an unpaid member of Microsoft Quality Assurance
department. (Netscape browsers have something similar; in Netscape 6, it's
installed by default.) This type of software runs in the background and inserts
itself into the error-handling process; hardly a recipe for improved stability,
as this reader found out: Hi, Fred. In case you
haven't discovered it, one of the latest options in Win 98 auto-update is a
little add-in for IE that calls home when IE crashes with a report! It has an
option to (try to) restart IE. I've installed it and it just did it each time
[a] CNN link froze IE up. I was able to get back to what I was browsing with
multiple windows, using the history. --- Ed Light It's one thing to agree to report
crashes as part of testing a beta prototype; it's quite another to be asked to
run monitoring software on your PC for shipping software. I
avoid all kinds of software like this on my "production" PC--- the one
I use for daily work--- and I recommend you do likewise. And that's another reason why I
prefer manual updates: What Microsoft (or Netscape, or...) wants on your system
may not be what's best for you. By updating manually, *you're* in control. Click to
email this item to a friend Long-time readers know I tend to
disregard claims of standards-compliance from both Microsoft and Netscape about
their browsers. The only way to be sure of what's going on is to ignore the
verbiage and test the darn things yourself. (That's where the original idea of
BrowserTune came from, by the way.) Both vendors have been guilty of
chest-thumping and overstatement; and for a long time, various versions of their
browsers would leapfrog one another. When Netscape skidded off into the weeds a
couple years ago, and then was gobbled up by AOL, Microsoft took the lead in
standard-compliance. Although it's very unfashionable to say so, it's true: Of
the shipping major browsers, IE5.x supports more W3C standards than any other
browser. So, we all anxiously awaited
Netscape 6, the almost-three-years-late browser that finally would vault
Netscape back into prominence as the "most standards-compliant"
browser. For example, the Netscape browser
download site says this: Netscape is fulfilling its
promise to deliver a new browser that is small in size, leads the industry in
standards compliance and can run across a wide variety of platforms from
traditional PC desktops to new computing devices. This new groundbreaking
browser is Netscape 6.... Standards support.... Best standards support.... the
best standards support of any browser engine available.... You get the idea. Reader Jake VanNoy found an
interesting article by respected book author David Flanagan at http://www.oreilly.com/news/flanagan_1100.html
(Thanks, Jake!) The article opens as follows: Netscape Navigator 6.0 to
Fail Standards Compliance Netscape is rushing to
release version 6.0 of its Navigator browser despite the fact that there are
serious problems with its compliance to open standards. I'm writing to express
my dismay at the number of standards-compliance bugs that remain in the
Navigator 6.0 code base, and at the end of this article I'm requesting that
like-minded developers register their comments and sign their names in protest. Of course, no browser--- no
software, in fact--- is perfect; it's all a compromise. Any browser that's top
dog today may be dog food tomorrow. That's business. But I, for one, get really annoyed
when any software company promises far more than it delivers, especially when
delivery is three years late. I urge you NOT to buy into anyone's
chest-thumping. Ideally, you should make up your own mind by actually testing
the software for yourself, and seeing what fits your needs best. Whatever is
that "best fit" software is the right choice for you, no matter what
any pundit--- including me!--- says. <g> By the way: BrowserTune 2000's
"Full Test" lets you put IE5.5 and Netscape 6 through their paces for
things like Cascading Style Sheets and Dynamic HTML, to help you draw your own
conclusions. (see http://www.browsertune.com/bt2kfast/
) Click to
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Reader Nur Asikin had a nightmare
problem with a virus: Fred, I have just cleaned a
hard disk (Seagate, 2.1G), full with variants of the macro virus (6 variants,
infecting more than 100 files), using NAV. The process appeared uneventful, I
even installed a new program after that. However, the next day, the disk was no
longer recognized on boot up. Fdisk returned "no fixed disk". I also
heard clicking sound from the disk on boot up. Any explanation for that mishap?
And how to cure it? (My colleagues have files in there, and they are quite mad,
understandably). Nur didn't specify which virus, but
one good general principal when you encounter any virus/worm/trojan problem is
to visit any of the better antivirus sites to see what kind of damage to expect,
and what you can do about it (besides just removing the offending virus/worm/trojan
with the AV software). Sometimes, you'll find special repair tools or tutorials
on the AV site than can go beyond what the AV software itself can do. If that's no help, then--- if you
made backups--- your simplest thing would be to restore just the needed files,
avoiding anything that was infected. Or if you purchased your AV tools as
part of a suite of tools, you might try the DOS-level disk repair tools. If not, then you have a major, major
problem. If you made an emergency boot floppy such as I suggested in the
"Save Your Butt" series ( http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/16.htm
), you can boot to the floppy and run FDISK /MBR to restore a working master boot
record. That *may* gain you access to the disk. If you have no backups and no
emergency floppies you may be out of luck, unless you send the hard drive to a
data-recovery shop. They're very expensive. And although I know I may be beating
a dead horse, this is one of the reasons why it's essential to make backups:
Problems like this happen every day. Having a good backup (see http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/20.htm
) is the only way to be 100% safe from even nightmare problems like this. Click to
email this item to a friend Keith Ord found that WindowsME's
automatic system-file restore process made it very hard to remove a worm from
his system: Hi Fred: A couple of
days ago I found that I was infected with the k*k w*rm script virus. Norton 2000
cleared it from my system, but upon running the scan again after a reboot it
found 8 entries of the virus again. These were situated in
C/_RESTORE/ARCHIVE/FS26. None of the Norton options would get rid of them, i.e.
quarantine or deleting. I even deleted the whole _RESTORE file in DOS as a last
resort, but once the machine was rebooted, all the _RESTORE files were restored,
complete with the 8 virus references!!! As a last resort I ran set-up on Win ME
and overlaid the system. This seemed to return the _RESTORE file back to its
original configuration without any virus references. Could I have removed the
virus references some other way? That was good thinking, Keith. Once
the supposedly-safe Restore files have gone bad, a less-perceptive user could
end up stuck in an endless loop of self-reinfection as the bad files get copied
back on top of the cleaned files. It looks like the AV people have some work to
do, and maybe Microsoft, too! The Restore files either should be 100% safe, or
be capable of being cleaned. Click to
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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
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"An excellent, straightforward manual on email publishing, banner ads,
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this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 Either way, thank you,
and good luck! Click to
email this item to a friend Peter Kaulback was the first of
several reader to dig deeper on the issue of the zero-byte ff*.tmp files that
crop up in many \WINDOWS directories (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-11-06.htm#6
): Hello Fred, I was
experiencing crashes from a combination of Mdm.exe, which creates the fff files,
and RPCSS, which is installed with VB and handles internet connections for DCOM.
Removing both of these programs and their registry entries as well as your BAT
file is the only way to deal with them. More articles can be found here to
clarify them http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q221/4/38.asp Thanks,
Peter--- and all who wrote in! Click to
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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
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email this item to a friend Gordon Berkley of Sun Microsystems
in Israel sends this along: Fred, Hi! Love your list,
yada yada and all that stuff -) Keeping up with the musical [computer] humor
(see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-10-16.htm#11
), this dropped into my Inbox today... Unix Man (Nowhere Man) He's a real UNIX Man Knows the blocksize from
du(1) UNIX Man, please listen(2) He's as wise as he can be UNIX Man, don't worry He's a real UNIX Man Click to
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