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Please note: Older issues may contain information that is now out of date. How To Subscribe
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LangaList 2000-12-21 A Free Email
Newsletter from Fred Langa Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
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Signal mirrors (heliographs) for
hikers and boaters--- clock faces--- microwave fireworks--- paint palettes
for kids--- entry-level astronomical diffraction gratings---clay
"pigeon" substitutes--- model rocket fins--- the list keeps growing
and growing. Got a novel use for old CDs? Looking
for something to do with them besides tossing 'em in the trash? Check out the suggestions at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/26.htm,
and then click on "Join the discussion" to add your own! Click to
email this item to a friend Reader Don Zimmermann wrote: Dear Fred: Your newsletter
is terrific and a constant source of useful information. I hope you can suggest
an answer to this particular Windows 98 quirk that has me baffled. ...If you click on the
Tools Menu on the Internet Explorer browser, there is an option called Windows
Update... an excellent way to keep my Windows 98 system in good running order.
[But when] I went on the Internet and clicked it, immediately a new window was
created, filling the entire screen. It has the flying Windows logo on the left
side, followed by the following words "Thank you for your interest in
Windows Update. Your organization has decided to provide software updates
internally rather than through Windows Update. To download updates for your
Windows computer, please see your network administrator." My computer is not part of
a network and, therefore, there is no "network administrator"; it is
my own personal desktop system, a Gateway Pentium II 400. My ISP is NetZero. I
called tech support at Gateway; they had no idea how to get past this. I then
called tech support at NetZero; they had never heard this problem before... Sometimes the error message is a
more curt: "Windows Update was disabled by your System Administrator."
But no matter how it's worded, it's baffling when it happens to you and there is
no such network prohibition in place. If you get such a message
incorrectly, you can find an explanation and a fix at Click to
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Here are a couple reader questions
that you may have run into yourself--- or maybe one day will: Dear Fred, Do you know a
way to print the setup of my computer? Print screen does not work, it prints
garbage or just one line. --- Wiel Klerken Right click on "My
Computer," and select Properties. Then click the Device Manager tab and
then click the Print button. You'll then get a dialog with several choices. If
you select the "All devices..." option, be sure you have plenty of
paper on hand: the print out can go on for quite a while! My computer will
spontaneously reboot....usually in the middle of something I am working
on....there is no commonality as to what application I am doing....it is as if
the damn (sorry) thing has a mind of its own and decides to shut down and
restart. I lose all my data and...well...become highly upset. errrr....the thing
has no problem shutting down....though it doesn't like to restart from the start
menu...(go to shut-down...hit restart...the thing shuts down....but wont
restart...I have to turn it off and manually restart it)...dont know if there is
any connection....I downloaded the shutdown fix.....but it hasn't helped... any
suggestions? ---Mitch Kanefsky Spontaneous reboots are usually
either *severe*software errors, or (more likely, nowadays) hardware problems---
overheating, shorting, loose connections, etc. I'd open the case and clean/reset
everything, if I were you, and make sure all cooling fans are spinning and
unobstructed. And, if that doesn't help, there are
tons more suggestions on a step-by-step hard and software troubleshooting here: Click to
email this item to a friend I've been getting some great reader
mail like this: I got this weeks email
announcing the release of LangaList Plus... I just wanted to send a short note
to say 'about bloody' time. Your newsletter has always been an informative
welcome arrival and a pleasure to read. I have often wondered how you manage to
do it, when only supported by a relatively small number of adverts. I have
subscribed, will continue to do so and look forward to more of the great writing
style and content that we have come to look forward to. --- Colin Thanks, Colin--- and everyone else
who wrote and subscribed. <g> This free version--- the
"Standard Edition" you're now reading--- will go on unchanged,
as before. (And if you like the free version, please do click the ad links---
your clicks are what allows me to be able to offer it for free!) But the Plus!
version can differ in length, format and frequency because it can break away
from the constraints that an ad-based publication must deal with. You might also guess from the
vernacular in the above note that Colin's not from the US. <g> And in
fact, the LangaList Plus is set up so people can sign up from almost anywhere on
the planet. It's especially easy from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil,
Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa,
South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and (of course) the
US. In fact, I've tried to make it as
fast and painless as possible for any interested reader, anywhere, to enjoy the
extra content, faster delivery, and other benefits of the Plus! edition. Check it out at http://www.langa.com/plus.htm
! And there's still time for Plus!
gift subscriptions: http://www.langa.com/plus_gift.htm Click to
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Although they were
penned only a year apart, in 1949 and 1950, two visions for the then-distant
future--- though both grossly wrong--- couldn't have been more different: First,
there was Orwell’s1949 opus, Nineteen Eighty Four. Anyone older than 25
or so was probably old enough and aware enough in the actual year 1984 to note
how different the world was from Orwell's dark and depressing vision.
Fortunately, for the most part, that vision largely did not come to pass. Just a year later
in 1950, Arthur C. Clarke published "The Sentinel," which would be
reworked and combined with other short stories over the next 18 years eventually
to emerge in more-familiar form as 2001: A Space Odyssey. The movie’s
completely non-Orwellian ending features a resilient and
technologically-empowered humanity facing a future that’s as full of
possibilities as the newborn that fills the screen in the closing seconds of the
film. Now, it's almost
2001 for real, and (alas!) most of Clarke's vision also hasn't come to pass. It
would be wonderful to write this column and express wishes for 2001 that might
include things like a "Desktop HAL," or Priceline-level lowball
tickets on the Pan Am Orbital Shuttle; or good places to get Christmas
Bushbabies… But that's not how it's worked out. Although it’s
surely not the future envisioned by Clarke and Kubrick, next year's tech scene
could still be pretty good, if some wishes come true. I've collected my top-five
(mostly serious <g>) tech wishes in my year-end Monitor column at
Byte.Com; the column will go live over the Holidays at http://www.byte.com/index/monitor
. (If you arrive early, you'll see the previous column--- e-Lections and i-Voting---
at the top of the page.) Please come check
out my five tech wishes for the New Year. And then please share yours in the
Byte Newsgroups either 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. Join in! Click to
email this item to a friend On Dec 31, I'll choose another
monthly winner of a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at
Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys, and more. 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 $30 shopping spree! (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! http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#1 Either way, thank you, and good
luck!Text Click to
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In discussing the new "bannerware"
or "adware" version of Opera (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-12-14.htm#1)
I mentioned it uses the Cydoor ad-banner service. Jon S. von Tetzchner, who works at
Opera, saw that item and wrote to clarify what's going on between Opera and
Cydoor: Dear Fred, I just saw your
article on Opera 5. Thank you for your kind remarks on the program. We do our
best to satisfy the needs of our users. There are a couple of
things that are wrong in the article, though. There is no Cydoor code in Opera.
We wrote all the code our selves. This allows us to make sure that privacy is
ensured and keep the speed high, which obviously is of great importance to us.
For total information about what Opera does and does not do and full technical
information about our implementation of ads in Opera, please see http://www.operasoftware.com/privacy/#opera5
This even includes specification of the protocols Opera uses to connect to
Cydoor servers. Thanks, Jon. That's actually a
relief: Some Opera users have used packet-sniffers to see what's being
exchanged, and have found that the Opera programmers seem to have done a good
job in enabling access to Cydoor's ad servers without creating security holes
for Opera users. For more info, see also: http://www.opera.com/opera5/ads.html Click to
email this item to a friend Reader Bruce Davis did some digging
into the Beonex browser ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-12-07.htm#3
) and developed an interesting opinion: Just thought you should
know. Beonex communicator is nothing more than a Beonex "branded"
release of one of the Mozilla nightly snapshots available from mozilla.org. You
can actually download (as I did) Mozilla 0.6 completed 6 December 2000. This is
truly Netscape 6 without all the AOL add ons. This release is also much more
stable than the one from Beonex. You can download Mozilla 0.6 here http://www.mozilla.org/releases/
There are pre-compiled versions for Win32, MacOS, Linux and OpenVMS, with other
versions promised. Thanks, Bruce! 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 ) View A Randomly-Chosen
Reader Site From Among the hundreds Listed Manually Browse All
Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At Ice Skating Finoola Harkin (jazz) "Atomic Weasel" Bill Dube Nascar Die Cast Barbara's Pages Rico (FLA) In-Home Computer Training
and Repair Webmaster Services Click to
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Many readers have suggested
additional free AV tools: The section of your 12-14
newsletter ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-12-14.htm#9
)about free Anti-Virus programs reminded me of one I've used for a while but
haven't seen mentioned here. An excellent add-on program that works in
conjunction with standard AV programs is MailCleaner (from http://www.mailcleaner.com/
). It's sole purpose is to scan incoming email and doesn't interfere with
Norton, McAfee etal. I use it along with Inoculate PE and TheCleaner (shareware
trojan scanner from http://www.moosoft.com/
). I've found that NO AV program is perfect so getting a second, or even a
third, opinion is a good practice ) Great newsletter!!!--- Kevin Mefford Why don't you give eSafe
Desktop a mention in your newsletter. This is also a free highly recommended
Pro-Active anti-virus tool. You can get more info from http://www.ealaddin.com/esafe
. ---Debbie Cohen-Abravanel Hello. I continue to like
your newsletter and am looking forward to the Plus edition. Thanks for all the
work you put into it. Here is another free antivirus tool which has been around
a long time. I use it myself and I think it is quicker than the others, and it
is updated regularly. It is F-Prot. The latest version is fp-308b.zip at ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/virus/
[Note: You'll need to grab the definitions, too. Look for fp-def.zip in
the same directory.] It is a true DOS program. This has it's own pros and cons.
On the one hand, it is not a Windows app so it does not have the GUI people have
come to expect, but since it is a true DOS app it can be run from floppy boot
disks. --- Tony Baechler hey fred.. just to say i
love your newsletter..i just got 2000-12-14 and i noticed some AV apps..the one
i use (As a backup) is at http://www.housecall.antivirus.com
it's free and web-based (in case of a nasty bit of code that attacks your AV
program first) .its found more than my norton has and it cleans automatically
too.--- Dallas Barnett Thanks to all who wrote in! Click to
email this item to a friend Happy Holidays to you all! I'll be
taking a short break, but will be back after New Year's Day. Here's hoping your 2001 is a great
one! Click to
email this item to a friend Reader Gordon Berkley sends along
another couple of Beatle song lyrics, re-written for the geek set: Write in C ("Let it
Be") When I find my code in tons
of trouble, As the deadline fast
approaches, Write in C, Write in C, I used to write a lot of
FORTRAN, If you've just spent nearly
30 hours, Write in C, Write in C, Write in C. Something Something in the way it
fails, I don't want to leave it
now Somewhere in the memory I
know, I don't want to leave it
now You're asking me can this
code go? Something in the
initializing code? Click to
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See you next issue! Best, Please recommend
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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. This newsletter is a free
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