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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2001-05-03

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!

Contents:

1) Email Horror Stories--- And Solutions!
2) Spell Check Almost *Anything!*
3) Link Wins... And Woes
4) A "Must Have" Free Tool For Advanced Users
5) MS Office ShortCut Bar Problem
6) A New Month; A New Chance
7) More On IE6's "Blank Page" Problem
8) Reader Sites
9) Serious IIS Vulnerability
10) Just For Grins
11) Free Tools To End DLL Hell;
Three More Free "Content Advisor Password" Workarounds

For even more content, downloads and special services,
check out the LangaList Plus! Edition: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm

 

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1) Email Horror Stories--- And Solutions!

After some minor opening-day glitchlets, the InformationWeek.Com "Listening Post" is off to a strong start and readers are starting to add good info to the current discussion there ("Message In A Bottle") on common email problems.

For example, reader "Daniel" suggests:

Hi Fred. I read in your column: "First, test your ISP's E-mail service from time to time in a controlled way. "

An alternative to test your email is to send a blank email to
echo@tu-berlin.de
the mail bounces and brings useful information.

Others, not recently tested:

TO: test@alphanet.ch
TO: Test@TWP.net
TO: echo@wireworm.com
TO: internet@dummies.com
TO: ftpmail@irz.inf.tu-dresden.de
TO: ftpmail@informatik.uni-oldenburg.de

For the last 2 addresses, use
SUBJ: ping

An interesting use if you have more than one email address is to send the email with them in the from field with a comma to see how fast each are.

Nice! The address at "tu-berlin.de" is a special email responder at the Technical University of Berlin in Germany; it bounces your mail back to you with the full headers in the body of the returned message. That way, you can see *exactly* how your email client and ISP or mail system is "packaging" your ooutbound email. Handy!

But the ListeningPost has more, too, including a side discussion of the benefits of having more than one ISP or email source.

For example, in my case, I make my living via email, so it's absolutely essential that I have the reliable, uninterrupted email access. To do this, I have three ISP-based accounts, three free web-mail accounts, and my own POP3/SMTP services on 4 separate web sites I run. This way, when my cable modem goes down, I can switch to ISDN. If that's out, I'll use dial-up 56K. If everything's out in my home office (no cable, no phone...), I'll use my battery-powered laptop from a phone that is working. On the other end of the connection, if any of my web sites' mail is down, I can redirect the mail to or through a site that's working; etc etc.

When email is a "mission critical app" for you, it makes good sense NOT to have all your bits in one bucket. 8-)

The "Message In A Bottle" article is at http://www.informationweek.com/835/langa.htm and discussion area itself is at http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa

Please click on over, and join in!

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2) Spell Check Almost *Anything!*

Ever wished you could more easily spell check IM or chatroom notes, or posts in threaded messaging areas? Ever wished NotePad had a spell check? Well, reader Leo Feret found this clever way  to use your Clipboard to spell check almost any text you can highlight and copy, regardless of the application that produced it:

Fred, if you like the Microsoft Word spell checker and its ability to integrate into later versions of Outlook Express, you will enjoy the free Spell scripts from http://www.pcnineoneone.com/tweaks/scripts8.html . It's great to be able to spell check your words in a messaging application such as AOL Instant Messenger, an editor of your choice such as Note Tab Light, or a browser such as Internet Explorer 5.5 when you are making a forum update. I've tested all of these with success using Windows Script 5.6 beta 2, but only 5.1 or higher is required and available from http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/ .

For those without Microsoft Word or another editor with a spell checker, the free but unsupported Cetus Cwordpad editor can be used to copy - spell check - paste from a given application. It's available from http://www.cetussoft.com/cwordpad.htm .

Thanks again for a great newsletter - it always makes my day when it arrives in my mailbox.

Very nice script, Leo. Thanks for the pointer!

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3) Link Wins... And Woes

I've been updating all my links to past WinMag articles with their new Techweb locations. Would you like to do the same with WinMag URLs on your hard drive or in your Favorites/Bookmarks lists?

The fix is easy: Simply replace every instance of "http://www.winmag.com" with "http://content.techweb.com/winmag/". In most cases, that gets you where you want to go.

For example the feature article "10 Ways To Make Windows ME Run Better" used to be at the now-dead URL of http://www.winmag.com/features/merunbetter/default.htm . But edit the URL as indicated above, and presto--- you'll find the article is alive and well at http://content.techweb.com/winmag/windows/features/merunbetter/default.htm  Easy as pie!

Similarly, after the recent site move of Langa.Com, I was able to change links on the web site appropriately, but I can't alter issues of past Standard Edition newsletters you've already gotten, or bookmarked. The largest number of Standard Edition "not found" messages is likely to come from newsletter issues that USED to be in http://www.langalist.com . All Standard edition back issues are now at http://www.langa.com, so if you just change the "langalist" to "langa," the URL will work fine.

For example the "Secret Speed Tip" for Internet Explorer was referenced in a recent issue at the now-defunct URL of  http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-03-20.htm#5 . But change the "langalist" to "langa" and you've got the new location: http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-03-20.htm#5 . Simple!

Again, I mention this only so you can fix broken URLs you have stored locally: I'm fixing all the links that I can get to on my sites, so if you access info from there, it should work fine.

External links not at Langa.Com or in the old WinMag site are another matter: Some sites I mention simply aren't up to handling the demand from thousands and thousands of LangaList readers all trying to grab a file at the same time. 8-)

I try to prevent these problems by staggering the release of the newsletters: The Plus! editions, for example, mail before the Standard Edition, so Plus subscribers have anywhere from a 4-12+ hour head start on downloads. This helps avoid congestion at the download site (and also is a benefit of being a Plus! subscriber).

But even that wasn't enough recently, and the "CRedit" editor file, as well as the CPU speed-measurement tools I recently mentioned, became unavailable. The CRedit site went completely dark--- it's just gone--- and the speed-tool sites are at least temporarily blocked from further download. There's nothing I can do about this kind of problem; just be patient, and try the site again later.

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4) A "Must Have" Free Tool For Advanced Users

Reader George Davis sent along a succinct note:

Hi Fred: Fabulous free file association (Explorer right-click context menu) manager http://www.xs4all.nl/~wstudios/Associate/WAssociate.html
A must have power tool.

It looks good indeed, and power-users will probably eat it up. Here's what the site says:

WAssociate is FreeWare... intended to edit the associations between file name extensions and the file types stored in the Windows registry....WAssociate is a shortcut for clicking View - Options - File types in Explorer, or taking the same walk using registry editors like RegEdit... WAssociate is about being in control when double or right clicking an icon, in Explorer or any Windows Common File dialog. Quickly editing context menus, associated commands and changing icons and descriptions. Control freaks have easy access to the Windows registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, and more...

Thanks George!

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5) MS Office ShortCut Bar Problem

We recently discussed "Those Pesky 'FFF...' Files"--- the *&@$&% little zero-byte files that start with the letters "fff" and seem to multiply like digital vermin on your hard drive (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-04-23.htm#9 ). Well, reader Kevan Judah found that the MS Office ShortCut bar causes a similar--- but different--- problem:

I've recently had problems using the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar that were solved using CleanAll.bat [ http://www.langa.com/clean9x.htm ] and I wanted to share my results with you.

Whenever I tried to open a shortcut using the Shortcut Bar, I'd get the wrong application. I scanned the Knowledge Base at Microsoft and found the problem. Seems that Office Shortcut Bar creates .tmp files in the Shortcut Bar folder every time it initiates. Microsoft said to close the program and delete these files if Shortcut Bar couldn't find the right application. Eureka! A solution that actually worked!

Imagine my surprise, however, when I found that I had over 900 of these 10KB .tmp files on my machine! I wrote an extra line into the now famous "LangaList CleanAll.bat" and now I'm deleting them during my weekly cleaning. CleanAll.bat shifts to DOS mode so the Shortcut Bar is already off. I thought using it on Shortcut Bar .tmp files was a natural.

I have Office installed in the default location so here's the line I added

del C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Shortcut Bar\*.tmp

Since I deleted all those extra files I've also noticed better overall performance. I guess sifting through 900 .tmp files for a shortcut was a little too much for Shortcut Bar. <g> Thanks again for the best computer advice on the Internet.

Thank you, Kevan.

You may have better results using the 8.3-type DOS names in the delete line

del C:\Progra~1\Micros~1\Office\Shortc~1\*.tmp

The specifics may vary depending on where you've installed things. For example, if you have another "Microsoft" folder before the one for Office, the Office folder might have the DOS name of "Micros~2." But once you have the exact DOS name and path correct, you can also add the line to your Autoexec.Bat file to have the tmp files cleaned out at every restart...

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6) A New Month; A New Chance

It's a new month, and right now your chances are the best they'll ever be!

To have a shot at winning a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item
at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys, and
more--- 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 mini-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(really!), 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) More On IE6's "Blank Page" Problem

A few issues back, we discussed a problem in IE6 than can result in the displaying of blank pages. ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-04-26.htm#4 )

In that item, we incorrectly identified the cuplrit as a bad copy of "mslang.dll" as the culprit that needs to be replaced with a good copy. But the correct name for the file is MLANG.DLL. Many thanks to the several readers who caught the error!

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8) Reader Sites

Don't worry! They're almost here. <g> I'm cleaning up the last details resulting from the site move of Langa.Com, and when that's done, I'll be able to resume bringing you NEW readers sites.

But meanwhile, there are over 1,000 readers sites you can still review and explore available at http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm  or via the "reader site roulette" at
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm where every click brings you to a new site. Check it out!

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9) Serious IIS Vulnerability

I'll be brief because most readers won't be affected by this--- but those who *are* affected need to know about it right away:

Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server all share a potentially very serious problem in the way "Internet Print Jobs" are accepted; the upshot is that an unchecked buffer in the software could allow a malicious hacker to run any code they want on the server.

If you're using the affected software, see http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-023.asp

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10) Just For Grins

David L. Bickley sends along a plan to improve the English language:

A NEW ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5 year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the"k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away. By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru!

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11) Free Tools To End DLL Hell; More Free "Content Advisor Password" Workarounds

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: Three additional reader-suggested ways to work around bad or forgotten  "Content Advisor" passwords in IE; and a way to help avoid "DLL Hell" using FREE tools and either Access97 or Access2000.

Plus! Edition info: 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

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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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