How To Subscribe and Unsubscribe is at the end of this note. Mailing List Trouble? See http://www.langa.com/help.htm
Questions about the advertisers? See the end of this note. Please also see legal notices at the end of this note. LangaList: ISSN 1533-1156

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000 !)

An easier-to read formatted HTML version of this newsletter is available on line at
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-07-12.htm

The LangaList
Standard Edition

2001-07-12

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!

1) SPAM Feedback

OK, I admit that "Spam Feedback" sounds like a digestive malfunction, but you know that's not what I mean: I'm referring to the many (and often excellent!) reader posts about "Has Spam Won?" at http://www.informationweek.com/845/langa.htm .

Here's just a sampling:

I use SpamKiller to corral spam. It works well, catching a lot of spam and killing it. When the red X appears in the task bar, I check what it has killed and if it made a mistake, I forward it back to me after setting it up as a friend. Also if some spam sneaks through, I can go into SpamKiller and make a filter to kill it. There are also ways to report spam to the necessary places to get it stopped closer to the root. All in all a handy program. --- David

Recipe for Do-It-Yourself Spam Blocking: Set your mail filters to direct ALL mail to Trash (own address in To field, "e" in body, etc.) Then create "prior" filters to direct specific mailers to the Inbox or to custom folders for each mail source or type of source. Periodically, check Trash to identify acceptable mail and add their source addresses to the "prior" filters, and then delete or empty the Trash. After a while, very few "good" mail will end up in Trash, and you will rarely have to check and delete it. Keeps ALL spam from your Inbox and other valid folders, guaranteed. --- Brian Hall

Filtering spam doesn't stop it. We must attack spam at its source. I have tried to organize anti-spammers, but most of them seem quite pleased with their own abilities to trace back faked headers and relayed mail and wouldn't condescend to something so mundane as an organized, thoughtful, permanent campaign to take back the Internet via legal means. I have found it far more effective to do an "Al Capone" on spammers. If you recall, Al Capone was arrested not for racketeering, but for tax evasion. I hit them from the side. Most spammers are conducting business illegally; I report their phone numbers to the phone company (personal phone used as a business line), P.O. boxes to the local postmaster (especially for spammers selling porn), and in one case, I reported a spammer who claimed, in a Forbes article, to make over $200,000 in a quarter to his state department of revenue. When they give an 800 number, I call it once and leave a long, detailed message about the common-law illegality of spam. Sure, I get threats, but that means I'm making a difference. --- Don H

Why ever many - maybe even most - ISP's allow unlimited email sending from basic home-user accounts is hard to fathom. How many home users really have 28 million friends? Yet spammers send out their junk by the millions through these basic ISP accounts. The technology exists for spam to be ALMOST TOTALLY eliminated by service providers implementing rate limiters and other techniques on the SENDER SIDE - rather than the far less efficient and far more expensive (for all but the spammer) recipient end. I've seen a good site which is promoting industry standards for the PREVENTION (rather than merely dealing with dung after the horse has bolted through the unlocked stable gate) of spam. It is at http://bestprac.org   I wish that the standards proposed by Bestprac.org were more widely known, and more widely implemented. --- Spamphobic

That range of answers--- from how to protect your mail box, to the broader issues of stopping spam altogether--- is representative of the excellent reading you'll find at the InformationWeek.Com site. Check out the column at http://www.informationweek.com/845/langa.htm and then join in the discussion at http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa . See you there!

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

2) FrontPage 2002

We'll be discussing Microsoft's various "XP" products--- the new operating system, and the separate XP Office suite (which doesn't require the XP OS to run, and whose individual pieces go by the name "2002")--- in the coming weeks. But I thought we'd start with FrontPage 2002 for a very specific reason: This newsletter (in all editions) is produced in FP 2002.

FrontPage has always been kind of an odd duck, combining some extremely powerful features (such as its excellent site management tools) with some extremely frustrating limitations (such as a tendency to produce bloated HTML code). FP 2002 continues the "mixed bag" tradition.

Some things I really, really like about the new version: The interface is better, with easier navigation and improved appearance. Specifically; the use of tabs to access multiple open pages is alone worth the price of admission to me. But there's more: For example, "Publishing" pages to a web site (FrontPage's automated form of FTP file loading and synchronizing) is faster than before, and the FP client is smarter about remembering web site logins and passwords if you want it to.

But there are things I dislike about the new version: For example, the URL tool has become bloated and slow. (FP can make URLs on the fly, with no delay, of course, but if you want to adjust a URL's properties--- to make a URL open in a target window, for example--- you normally use the URL tool.) The problem is that with a large or complex web, there's a noticeable and very annoying delay lasting several seconds *each time* you activate the dialog: You click the URL tool, and FrontPage starts re-scanning the page and web you're on to build a list of clickable link options. In a typical LangaList newsletter issue with 50-100 links, some of which I need to manually adjust after creation, this adds up to frustrating *minutes* of total extra delay while I build an issue. I end up defeating this "intelligent" dialog by placing the pages I'm working on in a temporary, otherwise-empty directory in an empty web; or using a manual search/replace to adjust the tags: It's silly to have to do this.

There are lesser issues, too; annoyances like the way the print function treats text as if it were a graphic, splitting lines of text so the top half of a line's letters will appear at the bottom of one printed sheet, with the bottom half of the same letters at the top of the next sheet. It's stupid. The previous version of FrontPage would treat text correctly, the way a word processor would, and not split letters across a page break.

When I installed FP2002, it was with no assurance that I'd stick with it. But I find the pros do outweigh the cons, and I am using it as my main tool now. So, to me, it's proven worthwhile overall. But I also have to say that I've never been more ambivalent about any version of FrontPage. The good parts are super--- but the bad parts are a real pain.

Have you tried Windows XP or any of the Office XP/2002 components? Drop me a line and let me know what you think! Send mail to XP@langa.com

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

3) Free FP2002 Tips

As part of their promotional blitz for FP2002, Microsoft sent out "tip kits" to reviewers. If you're using FP2002--- or are thinking about it--- you might want to check out the tips they sent me: The tips can either help get more from your copy of the software, or to get a flavor for some of the things it can do.

My copy of the tips includes:

1. Fine Tuning Gallery Layouts
2. Display a Banner Ad from the bCentral Banner Ad Network 
3. Use Page Tabs to Navigate 
4. Filtering Reports 
5. How to View The Results of a Survey 
6. Using Inline Frames in FrontPage 
7. Track All of Your Publishing Activities  
8. Customizing Themes in FrontPage 
9. Customize Photo Gallery Text with Hyperlinks

I've posted the tips in two places:

LangaList Standard Edition subscribers can use this free public site: http://www.freetune.com/fp2002/frontpage_2002_tips.htm . Please note that access may be slow at times due to the volume of users.

LangaList Plus! subscribers can use this private (and--- because there are fewer people accessing the site--- faster) location:
http://www.langalist.com/plus/fp2002/frontpage_2002_tips.asp

These nine tips--- plus the one from Item #2, above (isolate your working pages to speed URL creation), you now have an even 10 free tips. 8-)

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

4) More Gems From The Knowledgebase

As Microsoft Knowledgebase grows, so does its value--- and its difficulty of use.

We've covered many items (both specific and general) from the Knowledgebase in the past (see
http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=knowledgebase&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 ), including my all-time favorite Knowledgebase tip (see
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-03-15.htm#3 )

But readers keep finding more gems such as this handy overview of the Knowledgebase: It's great if you're either just getting started with it, or if you've gotten rusty in its more arcane functions:

It's "Subject Q141778 - OFF How to Find Technical Information About Office Products" from http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q141/7/78.ASP

You have the full article via the link above, so I won't reproduce it here. But suffice it to say that if you have questions about using The Knowledge Base, The Office Program Help files, The Office Assistant, The Answer Wizard, Sample files and/or The "Getting Results with Microsoft Office..." manual, you'll probably find help there. 8-)

I wish I knew whom to thank for sending this link, but the email came through mangled by an email error; the original sender's name was lost.

Whoever you are: Thanks!

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

5) Speaking Of Microsoft.Com...

... and in light of last issue's discussion on problems in losing large Outlook mail folders, reader John Hall suggests this:

Hi Fred. I just got done reading your recent Langalist and I might have a solution to you Large Outlook Folders problem. I know this doesn't solve the problem of corruption, but it does help you to never get to the 2GB limit. Best of all its free. Its a backup utility from Microsoft and its located at http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/Pfbackup.aspx

Enjoy the newsletter all the time!

Thanks, John!

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

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
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

7) ZoneAlarm's Mysterious Blinking "Q"

Several readers using the new versions of ZoneAlarm have written to ask what it means when the minimized ZA icon in the system tray starts showing a small flashing white-on-blue Q in its lower right corner. (Some say it's a lower case "A," but it sure looks like a Q to me....)

Whatever it is, I wondered about it, too, the first time I saw it, but a search of the ZA help files could find nothing.

But after watching for a while, it became clear that the Q appears when ZA has blocked something and when you've turned off the popup alert boxes. The Q might stand for "Quiet" (as in a quiet alert, with no popup); or it might be a mnemonic reminder to get you to QuickLaunch the ZA control panel to see what the alert was. Or maybe it *is* an "A," for "alert." 8-)

In any case, when you click on the tray icon to launch the ZA control panel, you'll see the alert that triggered the "Q/A" and can take appropriate action, if need be. For example, "phone home" activities trigger the "Q/A" alert, and all these need to be checked out. (It's usually just something annoying and trivial like a DoubleClick ad, but it *could* be something far more serious---like a Trojan app--- so it's worth checking.)

Closing the control panel removes the Q--- or A or whatever it is--- from the tray icon.

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

8) 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 )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site From Among All Listed
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm

The history of Port Glasgow
http://raintown.50megs.com/

Veterans Resources Network
http://www.veteransdownload.net/

Housing Authority Officers Association (Canada)
http://www.haoa.org/Links/Links.htm

ElusiveFish (band)
http://elusivefish.2itb.com/favorite_links.html

Richard Kimmel (personal page)
http://home.att.net/~kimmelrl/

Free Win9x Tips, Tricks, Etc
http://cwdixon.home.texas.net/support/win98_support/index.htm

Arky and Shirley (Saratoga)
http://members.aol.com/sharky2626/index.html

Pennsylvania State Federation
http://www.pastatenarfe.org/

Streets Of Seattle ("Dark Angel" Fans)
http://pages.prodigy.net/jennem/

Natasha Bishop Artist Management
http://www.wildnat.com/

Software Corner
http://www.thesoftwarecorner.com/

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

9) "Foistware Nasties"

Foistware is a new term for software that surreptitiously adds hidden components to your system--- foisting them on you, on the sly. The term is used to differentiate the kind of sneak-installation done by commercial apps from classic Trojan horse apps, which are usually hacker/cracker products.

Reader John Alvey was the first I'd heard use that term in this note about some "foistware nasties:"

Fred, In the light of your recent discussions of both spyware and Ad-Aware, I want to tell you about my horrific experiences. There are two new nasties around (which some are calling foistware) called Webhancer and NewDotNet. Not only do they put nasty spyware on your PC if you try to remove it by simply deleting it, your winsock will get trashed and you won’t be able to get to the Internet at all. Ad-Aware claims it safely removes these programs but I can assure you that the latest version might safely remove Webhancer but it does not safely remove NewDotNet.

Indeed, when I used As-Aware to remove NewDotNet, I was unable to reconnect to the Internet and even reinstalling Windows did not get me back (I ended up having to uninstall and reinstall Windows). If you do find either on your system, you should uninstall Webhancer using the standard Add/Remove Software feature in Control Panel.. NewDotNet claims the same method will work but others have had problems and alternative methods are offered in the resources below.

NewDotNet seems to come with Earthlink,, @Home, Juno, Webshots and NetZero; Webhancer comes with AudioGalaxy and Bearshare (both post-Napster P2P programs).

Resources:
Webhancer - http://www.cexx.org/webhancer.htm ; http://webhancer.com/support/index.asp?s=32&p=install

NewDotNet - http://www.cexx.org/newnet.htm ; http://www.new.net/help_faq.tp#p4

Thanks, John!

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

10) Just For Grins

I wouldn't have guessed it, but the flood of email after last issue's "How To Sing The Blues" humor item proves that many, many LangaList readers are also Blues music fans--- including Ron Taylor, who sends this along from New Zealand:

SCREEN OF DEATH BLUES
(With apologies to W.C.Handy)

Well I done boot up this morning
And got that hard drive crash
Well I done boot up this morning
My bytes are turned to mash
Well I did the ole reset –
Went for the reboot
But my CMOS gone down
Ain’t life a crazy hoot, hoot, hoot

Chorus:
I got the screen of death blues
It’s telling me to read the bad, bad news
Screen of death blues
Reboot -- no I refuse!

My monitor needs degaussing
My keyboards full of coke
My hard drive has gone floppy
And that man ain't no joke- no no

Chorus:

My file system is addled
My sectors all gone bad
My mouse has got the wobbles
No wonder I’m so sad

Chorus:

....

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

11) New Plus! Subscriber Site Open;
News re: New Archives Update;
A Temp File Cleaner For Win2K/NT

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: Information on accessing the brand-new Plus! subscriber site; preliminary information on the new updated archives that will be made available to Plus! subscribers next week (there's still time to sign up)--- the archives are in a compact, compressed file that contains a copy of every LangaList ever published, so you can download it and have *everything* handy and on your own hard drive; and a free CMD/Batch file for Windows 2000/NT that does a lot of what Clean*.Bat does for Windows 9x...

Plus! Edition info: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

Click to email this item to a friend
  http://www.langa.com/sendit2.htm

return to top of page

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.

return to top of page

Administrivia:

UNSUBSCRIBE: From the same email account you used to sign up with), send an email to
unsubscribe-langalist@lyris.dundee.net

SUBSCRIBE (it's free!): Create and send a new email to
subscribe-langalist@lyris.dundee.net

CHANGE ADDRESS? LIST TROUBLE? HAVE QUESTIONS? OTHER PROBLEM? NEED HELP? See http://www.langa.com/help.htm

This is a 100% OPT-IN newsletter: See http://www.langa.com/info.htm

About the advertisers: http://www.langa.com/privacy.htm#ads

Disclaimer: http://www.langa.com/legal.htm  In brief: 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 your choosing to use of any information presented here.

This newsletter is a free service of Langa Consulting LLC and is Copyright © 1997-2005 Fred Langa/ Langa Consulting LLC. All worldwide rights reserved. LangaList: ISSN 1533-1156

return to top of page