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LangaList 2001-05-17 Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 1) It's No Joke!Just listen to what reader C Dutrow found on some old hard drives:
Fortunately for Warner Brothers, Mr Dutrow is honest. As he came by the drives through totally legitimate means, he could do almost anything he wanted with the information thereon: Sell it to scandal sheets or to other movie studios, post it on the web... almost anything! (A dishonest person could do far worse.) I suggested that he contact Warner Brothers and offer to sell the drive back to them not for extortion, but so the movie studio could recover the data and do what they should have done in the first place: completely erase the drives. Even if WB itself didn't care about the accounting data, the people whose salaries and Social security Numbers were listed surely would! Whenever a hard drive changes hands for any reason--- sale, pass-along, sending it in for service to a repair shop--- there's absolutely nothing to prevent someone else from gaining access to whatever was on it, even if you've deleted the files or reformatted the disk! Your business plans, E-mail, tax records, passwords, and any private or confidential information may all be up for grabs. That's because deleting a file or reformatting a disk normally doesn't really erase much of anything: Almost all original file contents are still there on the hard drive, essentially intact. Data-recovery is, in fact, child's play and can be done with any number of free and low-cost tools. Or, as in the case above, with no tools whatsoever! It's ironic that even persons and organizations that exercise good security practices during the normal life of a system or hard drive may not pay enough attention to security during repair operations or at the end of a system's life. That's the topic of the current "LangaLetter" column at InformationWeek's ListeningPost: http://www.informationweek.com/837/langa.htm There, and in the associated discussion area, you'll see exactly what the problems are (and how some people have run afoul of them!) and exactly what you can do to ensure that your private information STAYS private, even when your hard drive changes hands or is in the shop. Click on over and join the discussion! http://www.informationweek.com/837/langa.htm Click to
email this item to a friend 2) The "Download Mage" ShuffleSometimes it happens--- and it happened Monday: I posted an item about a piece of freeware just as the freeware was in transition to shareware. The link I posted went dead, and many readers thought it was some kind of bait-and-switch to foist shareware on them in place of freeware. The free version of "Download Mage" is still out there on some popular download sites, but the author clearly is moving to shareware--- try before you buy. At $12 or so, it's not expensive, and you may still feel it's worthwhile--- albeit no longer free. Reader Adi Furni was the first of *many* readers (thanks to all!) who suggested this alternative:
The program's author is Chinese, and when you go to his site, you may be prompted to allow your browser to install a Chinese-language plugin module. But it's not necessary to do so: just click "No" when asked. The site won't look right, but unless you read Chinese, installing the plugin won't make it any clearer. <g> The software itself is in English (actually, parts are multilingual), and it may be downloaded directly from here: http://www.yanew.com/dlexpert098.exe Click to
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 3) You An Alexa User? Read This!Reader Camilla Barlow was first to pass along this notice (thanks!) of a settlement of a class-action suite against Alexa. If you're a past or present user of Alexa--- a kind of add-in tool bar that's supposed to make your surfing easier--- you might want to check out the following links. The Plaintiffs allege "... that Alexa Internet and its parent corporation, Amazon.com, violated the privacy rights of users of Alexa's Web Browsing Software (prior to the current version 5.0) by collecting certain personal information without their knowledge or consent, and in so doing, violated certain federal statutes, as well as state common law and statutory protections of privacy and consumer rights. Alexa Internet and Amazon.com deny that they have violated users' rights or otherwise done anything wrongful." On the other hand, they've agreed to a cash settlement that may be in the range of $40 per user. "The proposed settlement will be considered for approval by the Court on July 27, 2001. To learn more about the settlement, including how and when to submit a claim, how to opt out of the Class affected by the settlement, and how to comment upon or object to the settlement, either go to http://www.alexa.com/settlement or call toll free to 1-800-333-4002 to obtain additional information." You also can view the current court documents at http://WWW.WAWD.USCOURTS.GOV Click to
email this item to a friend 4) Easy RenamersIn "Rename Many Files At Once" ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-05-10.htm#4 ) I mentioned a tool ( http://www.1-4a.com/rename/ ) that eases large renaming jobs, such as when you have a directory full of digital cam photos or mp3s and want to mass-rename them. Reader Chet Kolar suggests another freeware renamer called (eponymously enough) "The Rename:" http://www.herve-thouzard.com/therename.phtml What's more, that site is part of an entire web ring devoted to renaming and similar tools. Cool! (Thanks, Chet!) Click to
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 5) "Bios Savior"In "BIOS Recovery?" ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-05-10.htm#9 ) we discussed ways of backing up and restoring the user-selectable settings in a system's BIOS. In passing, we mentioned that this is different from "flashing" a BIOS, which is electrically reprogramming the chip at a very low level. Flashing carries its own risks--- not huge, but not negligible, either--- because a fried BIOS renders your system completely inert and unbootable. Reader John L. Brown found a way to make flashing safer:
Thanks for the tip, John! Click to
email this item to a friend 6) Want $10,000 To Spend This Season?The Recommend-It site gives away up 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.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182 Or, win a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... and more. (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm Either way, thank you, and good luck! Click to
email this item to a friend 7) Easy WinMag Article-FinderAs a way to save you time, I've pulled together an easy-to-use clickable list of the new locations of former WinMag columns and features that readers most-frequently ask about. Now, instead of having to edit old URLs or hunt through the new TechWeb site search tools, you can instantly click to articles such as the multi-part explorations of "Resource Leaks," "Save Your Butt With DOS," "Secure Your PC Online," "DMA," "Boot Disks," "10 Ways To Make Win98 and WinME Run Better," and many, many others. For now, you can find the public version of the list at http://www.freetune.com/most_popular_pages.htm This page will probably move in a while, so it'd be best to "Save As" a local copy on your own system. If high demand makes the site slow, please just try again a little later. (I released this list to the Plus! edition subscribers a couple weeks ago; and their version of the list is permanently available on the private Plus! edition site at http://www.langalist.com/Plus/extras/winmagresources.asp ; that site usually does not experience load-induced slowdowns.) Click to
email this item to a friend 8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming and Coming...Over 1,200 of your
fellow readers have "Loaded the code." Please click over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm
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please see http://www.langa.com/link.txt
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Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At Coldridge/Coleridge
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the above is an advertisement )-------------- 9) WinME Performance TipsIt's a bit of a stretch to put the words "performance" and "WinME" in the same breath, unless to disassociate the two. <g> But MS is trying to help people saddled with that sluggish OS via a page that reader Bob Wilson discovered for us:
Thanks, Bob. It's not just newbies that have trouble with WinME. IMHO, it's just not a very well-done OS. Still, every bit helps, and the page cited above may help alleviate some of the worst slowdowns. Want more WinME tips? See: http://content.techweb.com/winmag/windows/features/merunbetter/default.htm Click to
email this item to a friend 10) Just For GrinsMichael D Noonan sends along this interesting item from http://bbspot.com/News/2000/4/MS_Buys_Evil.html
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try for your product, service, web site See http://www.langa.com/ratecard.htm <a href="http://www.langa.com/ratecard.htm">AOL Users: Click here!</a> --------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 11) How Do You "Burn-In" A New System; MyVitalAgent; Easy IE RepairsToday's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: free ways to "Burn-In" a new system; info on MyVitalAgent; and a super-easy way to repair Internet Explorer. A full year's worth of extended content Plus! editions--- almost 100 in all--- costs just $10. That's only about a dime an issue! Plus! Edition info: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm Click to
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