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LangaList 2001-01-04 For even more
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 1) Happy New Year!Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the Solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, with respect to the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all, and a successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2001, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other great cultures, and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee. Oh, the heck with it! Please let me simply wish you peace, health and happiness for the new year. <g> Click to
email this item to a friend 2) Time To Change Search Engines?The world of online searching has undergone enormous upheaval in the last year or so; if you haven't updated your search techniques, you're probably missing a lot. And what better time to change your search behavior than the start of a new year? You may recall my mentioning several issues ago that I've changed the way I search. For example, I used to be a huge fan of Altavista's search because its Boolean capabilities were (at one time) unmatched. Then Altavista sort of drove itself into the weeds when it--- along with many other search engines--- tried to become an all-purpose "web portal" instead of just being a great search engine. AltaVista became harder and slower to use; and newer, more focused search engines left it in the dust. I moved on to the "FAST Search" at http://www.alltheweb.com/; it's a hugely comprehensive listing of sites (almost 600 million URLs!) coupled with a lightning-fast engine and a minimalist, uncluttered front end. More recently, I've also found myself using http://www.NorthernLight.Com because of the excellent job it does in rank-ordering its results. However, it's starting to show some clutter in the way it presents results. I tried Google (http://www.google.com) when it first appeared, and initially came away underwhelmed: It's a search engine that determines relevancy (in part) by the number of other sites that link to a given page; recursively also factoring in the relevancy of the sites providing the links. The assumption is that the more good sites that link to a given page, the better that page must be. The obvious problem with this approach is that a stellar but largely unknown web site may fare poorly in the Google ratings, while a lower-quality but better-known site will rise to the top. Still, while the top-ranked results in a Google search may not always be the very best sites on a topic, they're almost always at least very good sites. Plus, the Google approach tends to be self-correcting over time" Cream really does rise to the top. I now find myself using Google more and more for my initial searches, and falling back to Alltheweb or NorthernLight for finer or alternate searches. But Google is good enough that it often gets the job done with the very first search, thus eliminating the need for secondary searches. But my preferences and search-needs may or may not match yours, so I asked for YOUR input, and, man, did I get answers: In the current "Explorer" column on the WinMag.Com site, I'll present what some of your fellow readers have to say about their favorite search tools, along with easy one-click access to the various engines and tools so you can test drive them for yourself. They're all well worth a click--- and you just might find a search engine that fits your needs far better than what you're now using! Check out the column; it should be posted (by the time you read this) under the "Explorer" heading on http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/ . If you arrive early, you'll see the previous column "What Do You Do With Old AOL CDs?" In that case, just try again a little later. If you want to try a direct link, once the column is posted, it should be at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/27.htm . (If you arrive early, the link won't work.) In any case, don't carry old searching habits into the New Year! Join in the discussion! Click to
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 3) More Mystery FilesBrent Tremblay found some files on his system that didn't seem familiar:
PRS files can be any of several things used or produced by WordPerfect, Harvard Graphics and DBase; RAR is a compression format (analogous to "Zip"). There are sites that let you look up just about any file extension type, and we've listed such sites in the past. But some of the URLs we gave previously have changed, so here's a quick update of sites can help you track down ANY mysterious file types: http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/filetypes.html http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/ Click to
email this item to a friend 4) More Wishes For 2001In the current "Monitor" column at Byte.Com ( http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20001221S0002 ) I list my five wishes for the new year, and back look at two very different predictions--- from George Orwell and Arthur C. Clarke) of what the world was supposed to be like around now. The column is drawing some interesting reader responses, including mail from Romania, which until about 10 years ago was a totalitarian state that came close to embodying the worst aspects of Orwellian society! Please check out the column at http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20001221S0002 and then check out the replies--- and post your own!--- by clicking over to http://www.byte.com/nntp/monitor , or by using your newsreader to navigate to news.cmpnet.com, and from there to cmpnet.byte.monitor). Join in! Click to
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 5) Your OS PicksLast month, I asked for your input about this newsletter--- its content, length, frequency and such--- and thousands of you responded. (Thank you!) I'll be presenting various tidbits of data from the survey over the next few issues so you can get a sense of who your fellow readers are, and where you fit within the mix. The first questions in the survey asked about what general topics you wanted to see covered here. Because this was the first such survey, the categories were very broad; but nonetheless interesting. The first two questions asked what operating system you most wanted to see covered in the LangaList, and what your second choice was. Your first choice was--- overwhelmingly--- Windows 98, taking fully 68% of the vote. Win2K and WinME were tied for second at 12% and 11%, respectively. WinNT and Win95 rounded out most of the rest of the voting with 3% and 6%. Other OSes got a statistically insignificant smattering of votes. It's a safe assumption that these levels of interest roughly approximate the distribution of OSes currently in use by the LangaList readers. Your second choices were different, and I take this as an indication of what OS types you're thinking about for the future: Here, Win2k (32%) and WinME (28%) take the lead, followed by Win98 (20%), Win95 (9%), and WinNT (8%). Interestingly, non-Windows OSes (Linux, Mac, BeOS...) fare better in this "second choice" category, garnering 3% of the total vote. This kind of information will help me keep the newsletter content on target and relevant to your needs. Again: Many thanks! Click to
email this item to a friend 6) "Plus" UpdateThe LangaList Plus! edition is about 2 weeks away from launch, and all the pieces are coming together nicely. For example, in order to provide the special services that will be offered to the Plus! subscribers, I've secured a new domain ("LangaList.Com") and web site; and have set up the three additional mailing lists for the new newsletter versions--- HTML, text, and digest. It's a *lot* of extra infrastructure--- and work! <g> Plus! subscribers will receive additional information about the new site and its uses, as well as information on managing their new subscriptions, very soon. (Want more info on the Plus! edition? See http://www.langa.com/plus.htm ) If you plan to stick with the free version of the newsletter (the "Standard Edition" you're now reading), you'll be pleased to note that its future looks very bright: The total subscriber base for the free edition just crossed through the 150,000 mark! If you can do your part--- by clicking on ad links to see what my sponsors have to offer--- I should be able to continue to offer the free newsletter for the foreseeable future. Your clicks really do matter! Either way, whether you're here as a Standard or Plus! reader, I'm glad you're here! Click to
email this item to a friend 7) Another "Missing Manual"I recently told you about the book, Windows Me: The Missing Manual (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-12-18.htm#4 ) That book is part of a whole "Missing Manual" series, and the newest addition is "Windows 2000 Pro: The Missing Manual," by Sharon Crawford. Here's the blurb:
It's a 450-page tome that lists for $19.95. You can get the book at your local library of bookstore, or order via this link (and get 20% of the cover price): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596000103/langacom I've added this book to the list of about 30 other books--- all good reading and excellent references--- over at http://www.langa.com/books.htm . Check 'em out! Click to
email this item to a friend 8) Lissa Got Her Gift Certificate. Want One?Reader Lissa just got her no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys, and more. She got it by using the "Recommend" link at http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 . If you use that link to recommend
the LangaList to a friend, your friend may find a new source of useful
information, I may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win a gift
certificate, just as Lissa did. (Full details are available via that link.) The
more times you make a recommendation, the greater your chances are of winning! Either way, thank you, and good luck! Click to
email this item to a friend 9) Another Way To Get At Windows UpdateIn a recent issue, we covered some workarounds to try if you're unable to access Microsoft's "Windows Update" site: Some people get erroneous error messages stating that "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." Or "Windows Update was disabled by your System Administrator." (See http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-12-21.htm#2 ) Reader Kenneth Harris found a simpler fix than the one listed in the Microsoft Knowledgebase:
Thanks, Ken! Click to
email this item to a friend 10) More Reader Sites!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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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 11) Quick Reader TipEver have a "Duh!" moment? I sure have. For example, I was surprised a few months ago when I was told that if you enter any word in the IE address bar and then hit Ctrl-Enter, IE will automatically prepend the "http://www." and append the ".com" for you. Note that this is different from the search function, where you enter any word and hit enter. Rather than searching for sites, this Ctrl-Enter trick is simply a way to rapidly complete URLs. I never knew that. Duh! This week, Diana Hudson offers another little time-saver:
Thanks, Diana. I never knew that, either. Duh! Click to
email this item to a friend 12) Just For GrinsBefore this issue gets too long, I better present this item from reader Win Gray; it points out that when it comes to verbiage, less often is more:
Click to
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- See you next issue! Best, Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I) An easier-to read formatted HTML version is available in the "Current Issue" section of http://www.langa.com. (The HTML version of each issue normally is available by 9AM EST [UT-5] of the issue date.) All past LangaList issues are also available at the Langa.Com site. Why are you getting this newsletter? This is a 100% OPT-IN newsletter: There are only three ways to get on the list--- signup via direct email request from you, or signup via the WinMag newsletter page or signup via BrowserTune's email-notification service. If you're getting this newsletter; your name came to me through one of those signup channels. At signup, you also received a confirmation email from my list software---no one is signed up secretly or against their will. SUBSCRIBE (it's free!): Create and send a new email address it to subscribe-langalist@lyris.dundee.net For even more content, downloads and special services, check out the LangaList Plus! Edition: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm UNSUBSCRIBE: From the same address you used to sign up with (it's shown on the first line in the body of each email issue you receive), create and send a new email address to unsubscribe-langalist@lyris.dundee.net . CHANGE ADDRESS? LIST TROUBLE? HAVE QUESTIONS? NEED HELP? See http://www.langa.com/help.htm 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. This newsletter is a free service of Langa Consulting LLC and is Copyright © 1997-2005Langa Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. LangaList: ISSN 1533-1156 |
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