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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2001-04-30

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

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

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1) Message In A Bottle

In a recent issue, we talked about email unreliability: The blunt truth is that email is far less reliable than most people realize. In some cases, you might get better delivery results by stuffing your message in a bottle and tossing it in the nearest river.

Anyone who sends any important email from any location via normal ISPs--- and that includes virtually everyone who sends email from home or from a laptop while traveling or from smaller offices that may rely exclusively on ISP-based email--- is at risk because of the way many ISPs treat email.

Problems happen regularly and affect millions of users every month. No mail system is immune. Even highly-reliable ISP email systems with 99.9% uptime, for example, still will experience about 9 hours outage per year... more than a full business day's worth.

After our original item on unreliable email ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-03-22.htm#3 ), many readers wrote in with amazing stories of poor email performance involving blocked email; email that was delayed (by up to a month!) in the ISPs servers; ISPs quietly changing their terms of service and *discarding* some of their customers' emails without notice or explanation; and more.

And these weren't little cheeseball operations: Some of the worst offenders were giant national and international ISPs. In fact, they may be ISPs you use!

I gathered the most instructive of the readers letters--- including how they coped with these problems--- and added some information I dug up on my own and turned it into the seed of an online discussion so we all can pool our knowledge and share our experiences.

The column and discussion will appear today at InformationWeek.Com. Long-time readers may recall I used to write a column for InformationWeek.Com called the "LangaLetter." With the demise of WinMag.Com, the good folks at InformationWeek asked if I could now provide the same type and frequency of columns for them as I used to provide for WinMag. I was happy to agree. If you used to enjoy my WinMag "Explorer" columns, I think you'll like the new InformationWeek.Com "LangaLetter" column.

IW is opening a whole new section of their site (the section will be called the "Listening Post") on Monday April 30th; my column on email unreliability is slated to be there. You can read the column and then share your experiences, thoughts, and opinions with other readers just as we used to do at WinMag.Com. The discussion isn't a real-time chat, but a "threaded message" system so you can join in any any time!

As of this writing, the URL for the Listening Post is scheduled to be http://www.informationweek.com/LP/listeningpost.html , and it should be open by the time you get this newsletter. (If it's not, please just try again a little later, or visit the home page at http://www.informationweek.com/ to see if the URL is different.)

And if you're interested in the old columns I did for InformationWeek, they're still available at http://www.informationweek.com/langaletter/archives.htm . Note that when those columns were written, WinMag.Com was still going strong; so the InformationWeek "LangaLetters" were more issue-oriented than pragmatic--- but still interesting, I hope! <g>.

In any case, whether to explore the new "Listening Post" venue in general or to join in the ongoing week-long discussion of email woes at http://www.informationweek.com/LP/listeningpost.html  . See you there, starting Monday April 30th!

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2) Heads Up! Langa.Com Site Move In Progress

As previously announced, the main Langa.Com site is being moved to faster servers at a different location. The content isn't changing, but it's being served up--- much faster--- from a different numeric Internet address.

Langa.Com is now at http://www.langa.com . Most of you won't need to know that, because the Internet's DNS (Domain Name Servers) handle the "mapping" of a site's name (such as "Langa.Com") to its numeric address. Normally, you just enter the name, and a local DNS--- probably hosted by your ISP--- looks up the current numeric address, and sends you to the correct site. When the numeric address changes, the server makes an internal adjustment and sends you to the new location, automatically.

But "web accelerator" software sometimes uses either its own "DNS cache" or a "Hosts" file on your local PC to hard-wire a site name to a specific, static, and nonchanging numeric address. (More info? http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-04-03.htm#5 )

For example, Langa.Com used to be at http://www.langa.com . That site is still there, for now, but the content is going out of date, and the whole thing soon will be eliminated. People whose accelerator software is still sending them to that old address will start getting DNS errors--- "site not found" for example--- when the old site goes away. Many of those people will assume the problem is with the site, but the real culprit is software that defeats the Internet's dynamic addressing.

If you're using any kind of web-caching software, or if you have trouble reaching Langa.Com, please make sure your browser is pointing at the correct location: http://www.langa.com .

Once you're there, you'll see that Langa.Com is fine--- in fact, running better than ever!  8-)

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3) CPU Slow Down?

Writing from Pakistan, Usama Najam asks:

Dear Fred, I am a regular reader of your great news letter. It is the best on the net. I have a very serious problem with my computer. I bought a Pentium machine 233 mhz. With a ram of 32 Mb. I bought it 3 years back. Last year my computer started showing 200mhz with a slight change in speed. It further decreased to 150 mhz with a considerable decrease in speed. I contacted my system vendor. They could not understand the problem. I was helpless as the guarantee period was up. Isn't it an unusual problem?

Well, it depends. <g> For example, a system's real (hardware) speed is usually set by clock crystals; that speed should never change more than a tiny percentage.

However, some systems allow the user to change some hardware speeds via "clock multiplier" settings, sometime in the BIOS and more frequently via hardware jumpers or switches on the motherboard. Jumpers and switches don't spontaneously change themselves--- although they could be changed accidentally by someone poking around carelessly inside the case. BIOS settings can and do sometimes change due to deliberate or accidental user actions, bad software crashes, and vagaries such as static discharge, heat, or (believe it or not) cosmic rays.

But you don't have to guess about hardware speed: There's plenty of freeware available that will read your system's actual speed--- as reported by hardware--- and let you see exactly what's going on. The de facto standard for measuring CPU clock speed is WCPUID, available from http://www.h-oda.com/ . A very similar program called CPUz is at http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.htm . Either one will show you, with good precision, just how fast your CPU's clock rate really is.

If the clock rate really has decreased, your first step is probably to check to see if something been changed either inside the case or in the BIOS. Your owner's manual--- or the web site of the original vendor--- should be able to tell you what the correct settings are. If nothing's changed, and your system really is running way below spec, then something very weird--- and probably very bad--- is going on.

But note that other testing software measures *apparent* speed; this can give very different answers from measurements of real (hardware) speed, and is more designed to let you compare delivered, final performance between systems with different CPUs, clock speeds, and even operating systems. Because these tests are usually based on performing some defined set of tasks and seeing how long it takes, things like how many other programs are running at the same time, whether your system is "clean" and defragged, etc., all affect the final results.

If this latter kind of test reveals a slowdown, it's not necessarily serious: Just take it as a sign that your system needs some software cleanup work.

But if the two CPU-measuring tools mentioned earlier show a for-real and unexplainable slowdown at the CPU level, my guess is you're on your way to imminent system death. Hope you have good backups!

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4) WinMag's Content Returns!

Roma Nowak, a former WinMag staffer who still works at CMP (in a new capacity) sent out a note containing some very welcome news:

The new Winmag search option is now live and accessible through the Winmag homepage. ( http://content.techweb.com/winmag// )

There were a lot of tweaks that had to be made and it's not perfect - although it does work better than our old search engine!... What I am getting at It doesn't always look pretty but it functions - the content is there and is readable.

Thanks, Roma! It took a *lot* of reformatting to get this to work; it's an impressive effort.

I tried a search for "Cool Tools/None Like It Hot," an article on CPU cooling that went live just before the WinMag site shutdown, and thus was never available via the Google cache ( see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-04-05.htm#4 ). In a second or two, there it was: http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2001/06.htm .

So, if you've been missing access to previously-published Winmag content, have at it!

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5) Three Excellent Freeware Utilities

Rhonda Wright found some great, free downloads for us all:

Dear Fred - I was lucky enough to find out about LangaList almost as soon as I got my first computer in 1996. Great stuff! Answers I have never found anywhere else!... I would like to tell you about three programs I have found to be very helpful. The first is PowerDefrag Lite, available as freeware at http://www.powerdefrag.com .

This program enhances the Windows 9X Disk Defragmenter by rebooting your computer and running the defragmenter at a point during reboot when nothing but Windows itself has kicked in -- instantly solving all problems with interference from antivirus programs, screen savers, and such. Plus, defragmentation goes very quickly in that mode -- I can defrag the small, obsolete computer I have at work during a coffee break, even though the processor is very slow.

The second is TrayKiller, available as freeware for Windows 95/98/NT/2000 at http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~reichler/TrayKiller/index.html .

This program shuts down or restarts all running programs (or any you select) so that you can install programs or do maintenance chores "clean" with one click. It takes a little tinkering to get it to do just what you want, but it's very well documented and extremely useful.

The third is Eraser, available for free (see a pattern here?) at http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser .

This program completely removes sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it, not just "deleting" it. You can chose among several methods of erasure, and the very complete documentation provides excellent guidance.

Thanks, Rhonda!

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6) Last Day To Enter April's FREE Drawing

Later today (April 30th) I'll choose another monthly winner of a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... 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!

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!

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7) Quick Helper

Reader Joseph Bock writes:

Fred,  I found a great help site, that has an extensive MSKB links section & also general helps that are informative and well laid out...thought you may like it. It has "clickable" graphics that simulate you clicking on your desktop...looks like it would be a valuable resource for newbies (if they even subscribe to your newsletter). It doesn't have the greatest site layout, be forewarned...

http://www.chasms.com  - Main site

http://www.chasms.com/mskb/mskb.htm  - MSKB listings

Thanks for all the great work!

Thank *you,* Joe. No, that site won't win graphics awards--- it's a "labor of love" site put up some someone just trying to be helpful. Sometimes, those are the very best kinds of sites. 8-)

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8) New "Reader Site Roulette"

As soon as the Langa.Com.site move is complete, I'll resume adding new "code loader" reader sites (see http://www.langa.com/code.htm ) to the huge database there.

But there's already a new and better way to access the sites previously entered into the database. It's via this link: http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm

Every time you click, that link swiftly selects a different reader reader site from among all those previously submitted. The guts of the random-link picker are entirely different from the method we used before--- faster, and better, too. <g>

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Need Answers about
Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000?

Check out computer-related books personally recommended
by Fred Langa and available at Amazon.Com's deepest discounts!

http://www.langa.com/books.htm

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9) What  A Find!

Hi Fred! While searching for something else entirely, I stumbled on this Microsoft page. You can search any DLL files from many MS programs and know which version came with which application. Thought it might be useful to your readers!

http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/dllinfo.asp

--- Bruno Guillemette

Excellent! Microsoft's Resource Kits have long had a CD-based tool ("FileInfo") that can tell you what file goes with which app, but this free, online, searchable database is even slicker for quickly tracking down DLLs. Thanks for the pointer!

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10) Just For Grins

Mike Champion sends along these "Ten best things to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk:"

10."They told me at the blood bank this might happen."
9."This is just a 15 minute power nap like they raved about in that time management course you sent me to."
8. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the white out. You probably got here just in time."
7. "I wasn't sleeping, I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm."
6. "I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."
5. "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work- related stress. Do you discriminate against people who practice Yoga?"
4. "Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem."
3. "The coffee machine is broken."
2. "Someone must have put decaf in the wrong pot."
1. " ... in God's name, Amen."

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Text ad OR banner ad!

Have it your way, and have it seen
well over a million times a month!

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

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11) How To Work Around The Content Supervisor Password, Clean Up files for WinMe and Win2K, and a Free Spyware Blocker

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items in this Standard edition, plus about 30% more content including detailed instructions on how to work around the "Content Supervisor" password; an update on the Clean Up files for WinMe and Win2K; and a pointer to a free spyware blocker.

The Plus! Edition always contains more than the standard edition--- and it arrives earlier, too. And all for just about 10 cents per issue, or just $10 for a full year. Info/Order: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

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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)

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.

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Administrivia:

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 service of Langa Consulting LLC and is Copyright © 1997-2005Langa Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. LangaList: ISSN 1533-1156

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